Test your knowledge

Hello everyone today I would like to take the time out to reinforce a few things we have been talking about over the past weeks. My method of this will be to provide a small self-assessment quiz to test how much you remember and if you can find the answers in my past posts.

Ready?

1. What is a network
   
2. What is the largest board inside a computer
   
3. What is RAM
   
4. What does "WWW" stand for
   
5. True or False an Inject printer uses a laser to produce images onto a drum then a piece of paper
   

Well I will let you guys wrestle with those questions J

Talk to you soon with a new post on the boot process of a windows computer.

 

Printers

Hello everyone and again as always welcome to my little space on the world wide web. My URL or web address is www.computertalkfornormalfoks.blogspot.com for those of you who would like to refer others to my site. Today we are going to talk about two common types of printers. Laser printers and Ink jet printers. Laser printers like injet printers are able to take write images and text to paper. Laser printers achieve this in a six step process. 1. Cleaning – excess toner is cleaned from a rotating drum 2. Conditioning – An electrical charge is placed on the drum. 3. Writing – A laser beam puts a lower charge on the drum where toner will stick to. 4. Developing – A cylinder puts toner onto the surface of the drum. The toner will stick to the cylinder because of a magnet inside the cylinder. 5. Transferring – Another electrical charge will take the toner off the drum onto the paper. 6. Fusing – Heat applied to the paper to permanently fuse text or images. As you can see Laser printers use a pretty lengthy process to produce text and images on paper. Inkjet printers on the other hand work by dispersing ink through a printer head that moves across the paper. If you are shopping for a new printer and really need high quality printing go with a laser printer. You may pay a little more, but Laser printers use toner which lasts longer than ink cartridges. Inkjet is good for the average user who may use their printer maybe 1-4 times a week printing documents and some lower quality pictures. Inkjet printers are very affordable and simple to maintain and operate.

Well that is it for this post….Hope you enjoyed J

Please remember to comment with any questions you may have.

Introduction to Networking

Welcome everyone to my blog. Today we will discuss the basic concept of what a network is as it applies to computers. A computer network is when one or more computers are connected virtually or physically together sharing common resources. Networks can be located in a room or span an entire city or in the case of the internet it can be global. The resources to be shared would be on a server and computers wanting to access these resources are called clients.

So what is the purpose of networks?

Networks can be constructed for communication such as email, instant messaging VoIP (phone calls) chat rooms.

Hardware can be shared among many computers via networks. When computers are interconnected resources can be shared.

Lastly software can be shared and used over a network.

To recap a network can be as small as two computers and as large as two million computers.

This is a basic introduction to what networks are and what they can do for us. In future posts I will go into more depth about networking, so until next time take care J

What is a web address?

Welcome everyone to my blog. Today we will discuss what a web address is and how it applies to everyday internet access. A web address or Internet address both terms used interchangeably is a unique address that allows you to locate a resource. For example the web address http://www.aol.com consists of http www AOL com. HTTP stands for something call Hyper Text Protocol which means that the page is accessible through web, but in most cases this is added automatically by your browser (i.e. Internet explorer, firefox). WWW is an acronym which stands for the World Wide Web. In conjunction with the HTTP portion of the address this means that the page is on the web. AOL is the name of the page or document that we are trying to access. Lastly the .com portion is what you call the domain. Every web page on the web is registered with either an .org .com .gov, etc. WWW.AOL.COM has a domain of .com or we can say AOL is registered as a .com address. Sometimes you will see a slash after a web address: www.aol.com/page1 this adds a new element to the previous address. The "/page" means that you are still on AOL.com, but you are just in a different section of www.aol.com the slash is a way to direct you to different sections of the current web page.

Well everyone take care for now and as always please comment or email me with any questions.

How CPU/Processor speed is measured

Good morning everyone and welcome to my blog. Today we will talk a little more in depth about how processor speed is measured. Before we begin let us review what the processor does.

The processor lives on the motherboard which is the backbone of the computer. The process or is responsible for carrying out instructions and executing them. Whenever we use the computer we are interfacing with the CPU by the way of our operating system. Anything that is done on the computer always makes some sort of contact with the CPU.

How fast a particular CPU can do this is measured by how fast it’s clock signal is. The clock signal keeps the time of how your cpu and other components work in yoru computer. The signal goes form a low to high state within a certain amount of time. Think of the clock signal as a metronome. The amount of instructions a processor can can perform during the clock signal is the speed of your processor .

This is a very basic explanation of how processors are measured. Other factors such as whether or not it runs in sync with clock and multipliers come into place, but for now just know that a processor’s speed is determined on how many instructions can be executed by a clock signal. Well take care for now and as always please feel free to comment or email me with any questions you may have.

ROM (Read only memory)

Welcome to my blog everyone. Today we will be discussing what ROM is as it pertains to your computer. Read only memory is exactly what it is for the most part. Rom Memory cannot be altered or changed, so we can say that it is not volatile memory. This means when power is not applied the contents are still stored. The function of ROM is to store information about the hardware of your computer and gives your computer instructions on how to actually start, otherwise known as booting. ROM exists in most electrical appliances and serves different purposes depending on the particular device. Well this is basically what ROM is, so I hope to see you again for my next posting where we will actually talk about what happens when your computer starts up.
Take care for now and please feel free to comment or email me.

Computer Terms

Welcome to my blog everyone. Today I would like to go over a few computer terms for everyone to look over. Every now and then I will take a break from regular computer and explain some terms that we will work with in future postings.

Hard Drive – A hard drive is a device designed to store data permanently. Storage capacity is usually measured in Gigabytes (Gb).

RAM – Ram is designed to hold data as well, but we call this type of storage volatile. This means when the computer turns off data is erased. Ram is only a temporary storage space to allow the computer to multitask-like how a big table would help you get things done. The more you have the better off you are.

Bit – The smallest measure of storage a computer can have.

Byte – 1000 Bits

MB – Equal to a 1000000 bytes

GB – Equal to a 1000000000 bytes

Optical Drive – Optical drives refer to CD, DVD, Bluray. This means that a laser is used to burn information on a blank disk.

Motherboard – The largest board in the computer which allows every device to connect to one another. It is the backbone of the computer

CPU – Central processing Unit – The brains of the computer. It’s job is send and receive instructions from devices and programs.

Thanks for visiting :) Remember please remember to ask questions or send emails with any questions you may have.

A Basic Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web

Welcome again to my blog everyone. Today we will talk about the internet and the world wide web. Most people use these two terms interchangeably, but these two terms are quite different in meaning. Let’s talk about what the internet really is.
The internet was created in the 60’s for military use to share intelligence some years after that it was conceived into a way civilians could share thoughts and ideas with one another. Below I have simplied what the internet is and what the world wide web is. Enjoy!!!
Internet – The internet is a combination of computers and servers which are interconnected with one another which spans across the entire world. So in short think of the internet as the hardware.
World Wide Web – The world wide web is what is used on the internet to access documents containing videos, text, pictures, music, etc.
Pretty simple huh?
Recap: Internet = hardware(computers, servers, networks) World Wide Web =a series of documents that can contain videos, pictures, music, etc.
With that said we do need to introduce another term which is a web browser. A web browser is what is used to access the world wide web which contains documents, pictures, videos ,etc. Common examples of web browsers would be Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer.
Until next time everyone!!!!

Basic programs everyone should have

Welcome once again to my blog everyone. I would like to talk to you today about what I feel to be very essential programs that everyone should have installed on their computer. We will break these programs into categories. Let’s begin 
Please note these recommendations are for a computer running most versions of Windows.
Preventative
Under this heading we will put a good antivirus program such as AVG free. The reason you want to have a good antivirus program is because of what a virus can actually do to a computer. Computer viruses are designed to compromise the security of your PC and track your browsing habits.
Word processing
Whether we are typing a letter, creating a resume for a job, creating a spreadsheet or checking email you will need a program suite to handle these tasks. My recommendation is openoffice.org. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and better yet it is FREE and it works just as well.
Instant Messaging
So for the user who likes to stay in touch with friends and family we can now instantly message other users who happen to be online at the same time we are. Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and ICQ are just a small few. Taken separately we would need a separate client(email program) to handle all of these messaging protocols. Pidgin is a universal chat program where you can have all of these IM programs combined into only one program.
Protocols – In computer terms this simply means a certain way of doing something.
CD/DVD Burning
Lastly you need a way to burn pictures, videos, and data to a disk. My favorite program to perform these tasks is NERO it offers a very user friendly interface and it does a very good job.

Well everyone those are the bare essentials as far as programs are concerned. There are many many programs out there and in some of my upcoming posts we will focus on specific ones that either you or I find interesting.
Thanks for stopping by 

How does a computer recognize hardware? Drivers!!!

Hello everyone and welcome once again to my blog where each day we try to learn a little bit more about our computers in a fun and easy way. Today we are discussing how hardware gets recognized by our computer and our operating system(windows, mac, linux, etc). In order for a piece of hardware such as a printer, keyboard, camera, etc to be recognized as a device your operating system requires a small file which first indentifies the hard ware and tells your computer how to interact with it.
Lets go through an example of say how a printer get installed to your PC. Before we move on when I say something gets installed think of it as a device becoming physically and virtually connected to your PC. A cable would be a physical connection and a driver would be a virtual connection or a connection that you cannot see, but let us continue with a printer install with the help of drivers.

The driver sofware would first get installed to the computer, but way of cd, disk, etc. The hardware would then be physically connected to the computer. The printer would pass instructions to the driver software and in turn the driver software would talk to your OS(windows, linux, you get the idea now :)) and the OS would interface with you.

That is a very basic breakdown of how drivers work, but if you have any questions or would like a further in depth explanation please feel free to post a comment or email me :) I like emails :).

Until next time

My computer is sick - Viruses

Welcome again to my blog everyone . Today we will talk what a computer viruse is and what how they affect your computer. Computer viruses and malware unfortunately are created for the sole purpose of controlling or disabling your computer, however thanks to software tailored to combat these threats we can enjoy our computers.
First lets talk about what exactly is a computer virus. A computer virus is basically a computer program which is able to create copies of it own self and infect other computers. These viruses can be transported through medium such as blank cd’s, dvd’s, floppy disks, etc. In addition viruses can be sent via email or be planted on a group of computers sharing common resources which is known as a server.
Types of Viruses
Worm – A worm is a self replicating program which sends out copies of it’s code over a computer network. In some instances it does not require human intervention to spread itself. Worms are the least harmful of computer viruses.
Trojan horses – Like the roman Trojan horse this computer program disguises itself as a program with good intent, but in actuality it opens a backdoor into your computer system. It may not sound that bad, but if someone has a backdoor into your computer system you no longer have a secure system
Spyware – A program that is installed on a computer and is used to collect information about your internet browsing habits, but can be very malicious in that it can also collect personal information.
Adware – By far in my opinion the most annoying type of virus. This type of computer program automatically loads advertisements on your computer and plays them over and over again. Adware usually incorporates spyware to send advertisements to your computer .
Thanks for stopping by Please if you have any comments or questions please feel free to post a comment or send me an email at kenthomas0823@yahoo.com.

How does the inside of my computer stay cool?

Welcome back everybody :) Today we will talk about how the computer keeps itself cool. This piggy backs off of my earlier posts of what is inside my computer. With all of these components working together the PC has to stay cool thus it needs to operate within a safe temperature. When we talk about the temperature of the PC generally we refer to the CPU temp. Remember the CPU is the brains of the computer, so it does the majority of the work of the PC. Safe operating temperature ranges between 40c - 55c. This would be considered a safe operating range. The CPU in modern computers keeps it's cool with a heatsink, fan, or both. The CPU would sit first on the motherboard and the heatsink and/or fan would sit on top. When the CPU is working it generates heat which is then dissipated through the heat sink and if a fan is present is blown away from the CPU. The pictures to my right shows a heat sink which is the metal portion with the fins and a fan sitting on top.
Further cooling is actually done by the case fan and power supply which we will talk about in future postings.

Please feel free to email me or post a comment

Talk to you soon....

Ken

Computer monitors: LCD vs CRT

The computer world is filled with a bunch of acronyms and today I will introduce you to two of them in respect to computer display technology. The CRT monitor or cathode ray tube is used to describe the how a display is drawn on a screen. This acronym applies to older television sets and older computer monitors. The picture above more a less a physical depiction of what CRT monitors looks like. In very basic terms the way this monitor works is a vacuum tube that has an electron gun which fires theses electrons unto a florescent screen.

*Think of electrons as a negatively charged particle.

LCD monitors displays a picture in very different manner. LCD monitors that you see are actually filed with liquid crystals hence the acronym LCD. These liquid crystal react to heat and will align themselves into a picture that the user sees.


Keep in mind that his is a very very basic way of how these two displays work, however if you would like to learn more please feel free to email me or post a comment and I will answer it as promptly as possible.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Whats inside my computer?

Today we will talk about some of the major components that reside inside of your computer and how they work with one another, so without any further delay lets talk about our first component.
Parts of the computer:

CPU, processor, microprocessor - Think of this as the brains of your computer. It is responsible for carrying out any and every instruction the computer may receive from the end user (that's you). A keypress, the opening of a program, printing a file, etc this is processed by the cpu and then passed along to whatever program you are using.

Memory(Hard Drives and Ram): -As you can see there are two types of basic memory on a computer. You have what you called "permanent storage" and "temporary storage" called primary and secondary respectively. Hard drives are used to store data from programs permanently, which means even when the PC is off your data is still intact. When ever you save a document, picture or music file this is saved to your hard drive. RAM on the other hand is what you would call temporary memory, because RAM merely acts a workspace while you are using programs on your computer. Think of ram as a table, it holds items or for our purposes data to be worked with in the very near future. The larger the table or the more RAM you have the better ability you have to mulitask. This memory is significantly faster than permanent store, however this type of memory is volatile, so when there is a lost of power the contents of this memory is erased. This type of memory is not meant to be permanent.

Optical drive(CD, DVD, and Blueray burners) - Optical drives include any type of devices that relies on light(lasers) to permanently save information to blank media. The aforementioned devices all use lasers to write information to blank cd's dvd's or blueray disks. The drive will spin a disk at a high speed while a laser follow optical path to write data.



Motherboard: This is by far the most important component that resides inside of your computer case. It is the largest component inside of your computer and is responsible for allowing all the components to work together. It provides paths via cables for data and power. This component is responsible for making sure that everything works together and that everything is compatible with each other.

Check back everyday, because we will be exploring each of these components in more detail. These are the most basic components of your computer. There are other parts of your computer such as networking cards, video cards, audio cards, etc. For more information please feel free to comment or email me at kenthomas0823@yahoo.com.

Thank you :)

Mobile computing: So what is the difference between a netbook and a laptop?

Welcome to my new posting today which will deal with the differences between laptops and the newly introduced term netbook. So let's begin!!!!

Laptops by definition are merely a mobile version of your desktop computer. It has a lcd, keyboard, and mouse which allows for input and output. In addition to these basic things they also have what we called optical drives. Optical drives are devices that use light to write information to blank media(ex. blank cd). Laptops also have a good amount of storage and have good processing power(fast) We can say that a laptop has a smaller form factor than a PC. The Toshiba Satellite is a good example of what a laptop is.

Netbooks are pretty much just a smaller version of a laptop. They come in an even smaller form factor than a laptop which makes it even more mobile, however this increased mobility does come at a price as far as features are concerned. Netbooks will not in most cases come with an optical drive and lcd and keyboard real estate will be down quite a bit. This devices are generally used primarily for browsing the internet.

If you have any questions are comments feel free to post a comment or email me at kenthomas0823@gmail.com.


Till next time :)

Welcome to my blog everybody!!!

Welcome to "Computer Talk for Non techie people" everybody. With your help it will be my pleasure to teach and educate you about the basics of computers, maintenance, and upgrading your personal computer. Hopefully you will gain a better understanding of your machine and learn how to get the most out of your computer. Please do not be shy, so any and all questions are welcomed here.

So let's turn our computers on and get started!!!!

A condensed history of the computer

Since the early 1970’s the personal computer has continued to have major success in the computer market. People were fascinated with computers and the need for PC’s (personal computers) grew.
The first personal computer was created by Steve Jobs and Steve Woznak in 1976. Shortly after this in 1977 commodore, Apple, and Radio Shack made these devices available off the shelf to the consumer market. Prior to this consumers had the option of buying computer kits which basically walked you through building your own PC with enclosed components.

*As a side note the exact time of the invention of the computer can be debated. According to patent issued in 1972 the PC was born in Texas by Jack Frassanito.

Please comment :*)