Unit 2 Task 4

Task 4 (M1)

Develop a table that can be included in your web pages that compares the features and functions of Windows XP and Mac OS in the following areas;

Functions

• machine and peripheral management
• security
• file management
• device drivers

Features

• ability to customize or
• support for connectivity of portable media or
• security or
• stability and reliability or
• ease of management or
• associated utilities 

Wed 14th May 2014

	WINDOWS XP	MAC OS
MACHINE/PERIPHERAL MANAGEMENT	The entire machine, including all of the components, is controlled by the operating system as well as peripherals like keyboards, mouse and printers. For example, Windows controls the monitor by altering the resolution to be suitable.	The controlling of a Mac OS is quite similar to that of the Windows operating system. However any peripheral devices must be bought separately specifically for the Mac. Mac OS can control the keyboard, for example, by changing the input language.
SECURITY	Operating systems need to make sure that everything works properly and that there is no unauthorised access that can harm your data. Windows has security functions like user accounts with password protection, but also has firewall which can be easily bypassed by going to safe mode.	Mac OS has security features like blocking the ports that are potential security issues. It also uses security features that check if the downloaded content is safe or not. In email programs attachments are not opened automatically so they can’t harm the user’s computer without his knowledge.
FILE MANAGE	File management is required in an operating system to perform different tasks, such as organising, creating and deleting files. On a Windows operating system there is a program called explorer.exe designed to handle the file management.	The program for file management that Mac OS use is called Finder. It is pretty similar to explorer.exe: it has an appropriate icon for every file type as well as other handy features such as
DEVICE DRIVERS	Drivers are programs that tell the operating system what and how to do certain functions. For example when you buy a new graphics card, to make it work properly with all of its power and efficiency you need to install drivers provided with the card.	Same as Windows device drivers, the drivers are programs that control the devices. In the Mac OS every driver required to run the computer is included in the system. However when you want to install a new printer, you have to install a new version of driver for the Mac OS.

	WINDOWS XP	MAC OS
ABILITY TO CUSTOMISE	With Windows XP you have the option to fully customise your computer with ease because they have been designed to be easily accessible and other machines and peripherals can easily be connected to the computer.	The Mac OS can be customised but it is a lot harder to do so as it is more difficult to access these customisable features. Other programs, devices and additional peripheral will have to all be bought and installed manually.

Unit 2 Task 3

Task 3 (P3)

Produce notes explaining the purpose of different software utilities.

The presentation should contain screen shots or images and has to cover:

• security virus protection and/or firewalls
• clean up tools for removal of cookies and/or internet history and/or defragmentation
• drive formatting

Wednesday 7th May 2014

Security Virus Protection + Firewalls = Virus protection software is used to prevent any unwanted viruses from infecting your computer as well as worms and Trojan horses. Anti-virus software can also remove any viruses that have already infected your computer. Some of the different types of virus protection software come with additional safety features, such as anti-spyware (software that can gather data through the internet connection of a computer without the owner’s knowledge or permission) and anti-malware (software designed to damage or disrupt a system, such as a Trojan horse). Firewalls prevent unauthorised access to a private network and are typically used to prevent people from accessing private networks like Intranets. A firewall will also prevent certain data and information from leaving the private network.

Clean-Up Tools for Cookies, Internet History and Defragmentation = Clean up tools for cookies are designed to eliminate any connections your computer has to frequented sites. Cookies are small files that keep track of your account information (e.g. login usernames and passwords) and the types of things you search for (if you've ever wondered why adverts on websites will often advertise the exact thing you’re looking for, it’s because of cookies). Clean up tools for your internet history are designed to ensure that every trace of any previously visited websites has been removed. You can choose to either delete individual websites or wipe the entire memory clean. This is often used when you’re buying a present for a family member on the family computer or is sometimes required when resetting your computer. Defragmentation is used to increase the performance and life span of your hard drive by keeping all files and software in check. A hard drive can become fragmented over time which could lead to several files being duplicated, so the defragmentation process will control duplication, but cleaning up your computer before defragmentation is recommended as it will greatly reduce defragmentation time.

Drive Formatting = The purpose of formatting a drive is to create and organise an indexing system in your computer, which allows for easy location of files. A table of contents should also be created as this will keep a record of where all of the data is on the drive. It is this drive-formatting that can become fragmented, so defragmentation will be an eventual necessity.

Unit 2 Task 2

 Task 2 (P2)

Produce additional pages to explain the purpose of operating systems. 

The presentation should contain screen shots or images and has to cover:

• machine and peripheral management
• security
• file management
• device drivers         

Friday 2nd May 2014

The purpose of an operating system: An operating system has two key purposes: to manage hardware and software resources such as the processor and the memory and to ensure that there is a way for applications to deal with the hardware. Every computer must have an operating system to run even the most basic of programs. Some of the other functions handled by the operating system are machine and peripheral management, security, file managements and device drivers.

Machine and Peripheral Management: One of the many functions of an operating system is to handle all of the peripherals of a computer. Operating systems perform the basic tasks such as recognising data sent from the keyboard and then sending output to the monitor, keeping track of files and data on the disk and controlling other peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers.

Security: The operating system is also in charge of ensuring the security of the machine. It does this in several ways, such as ensuring that different computer programs running at the same time do no interfere with each other. The operating system also makes sure that there is no outside user or any other unauthorised people access your computer system.

File Management: The operating system is also very important for file management as it contains several features for this task, including the feature to copy and to rename different files. This is possible through a feature of the operating system called the command processor.

Device Drivers: A device driver operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer. For example, if you have a peripheral such as a printer and the computer is not compatible with the printer, the computer will not be able to detect the printer. If the printer can't detect the printer then you will have to update the driver.

Unit 2 Task 1

Task 1(P1)

Develop a series of illustrated blogger entries which explain each item listed below and what is each of their functions.
In addition, you must identify communication between components

You must cover the following components:

Internal system unit components:

• processors
• motherboard
• BIOS
• power supply
• fan and heat sink or cooling
• hard drive configuration and controllers SATA or IDE or EIDE
• ports USB and/or parallel and/or serial
• internal memory RAM, ROM and cache
• specialized cards network and/or graphic cards

Peripherals:

• Printer
• Scanner
• Twisted pair cabling

Backing Storage:

• Pen drive
• Hard drive

Wednesday 23rd April 2014

Processor: The function of the computer processor is to receive data and instructions. After the instructions are carried out it also receives output data. A processor receives this information from different computer applications, which will in turn perform operations depending on the order in which the instructions are received. This data is then sent to the various parts of a computer, including the monitor, hard-drives and RAM.

Motherboard: The motherboard is the main circuit board that everything is connected to. The motherboard’s purpose is to transport data and instructions from and to the processor to activate different functions in the computer.

BIOS: The BIOS (basic input/output system) offers a small library of limited input/output functions that manage computer. The BIOS controls the computer start up.

Power Supply: The power supply will provide all of the voltage required to run your computer. It can take alternating current and transform it into direct current that is more suitable for your computer.

Fan and Heat Sink: A heat sink is designed to lower the temperature of the computer and dissipate the heat into the surrounding air. A fan is an additional cooling device used to ensure the computer doesn't overheat by blowing cool air on the key components.

SATA, IDE and EIDE Hard-Drive Configuration: SATA drive doesn't have master settings or slave settings but they can be configured to be compatible for older operating systems and software by being set to appear as IDE drives. IDE/PATA drives can be connected to the same cable, with one set with master settings and one set with slave settings. EIDE provides faster access to the hard-drive and support for other drives. It is also possible to access drives larger than 528 megabytes by using EIDE.

USB, Serial and Parallel Ports: USB ports are used for the man accessories of a computer, including a keyboard, mouse, game controllers, lights and memory sticks to save and transport work easily. A serial port allows the computer to share data with a different device through a single stream. Parallel ports are used to connect several peripherals to the computer, including printers and scanners. In modern computers parallel ports are less common as USB ports are used instead.

RAM: Random Access Memory, or RAM, refers to the memory of the computer that is stored in a chip inside the computer. This chip is wiped clean whenever the computer is restarted.

Graphics Card: A graphics card allows for the fast transfer of information and can allow more graphic information to be used. Pre-built computers will come with graphic cards already installed, but if you are an avid computer gamer then a larger graphics card will be required to cope with all of the specific details.

Printer: Printers are used to produce documents and photographs. Printers are typically connected to a computer which will send the information necessary to reproduce the data on the computer.

Scanner: A scanner works as an inverted printer in that you can use the scanner to capture an image such as a document, magazine article, newspaper article or section of a book for computer editing.

Twisted Pair Cabling: This is a type of cable where two independently insulated cable are interwoven to reduce electromagnetic induction. This is typically used by older telephone networks but can be found in most other networks at some point too. Twisted pair cabling is the cheapest type of Local-Area Network (LAN) compared to Coaxial cables and Fiber-Optic cables.

Pen Drive: Pen drives are small devices that connect to the USB slot of a computer and are used for data transfer and storage. They can wear out and data transfer could be incomplete or data storage could become corrupted.

Hard Drive: The hard drive is the most important part of a computer, as it not only stores all of the information but it also contains all of the operating data and systems. Unlike RAM, the information that is stored in the hard drive will remain there even when the computer is off.

Communication: The entire computer is controlled through the Central Processing Unit (CPU), but communication in a computer is achieved through a system of ‘Buses’, which in turn is controlled by the north bridge (graphics, RAM and processor) and the south bridge (everything else). This ‘Bus’ system allows for data to be transported all around the computer. This system is also capable of linking several peripherals together through the same cable instead of a point-to-point system through individual cables.

Unit 30 Task 8

Task 8b

Describe and evaluate the impact that file format, compression techniques, image resolution and colour depth have on file size and image quality.

(D2) 18th March.

GIF Images

In this section I have chosen to adjust the colour depth of the image to show the effect that image resolution has on an image. The image in the top left is the original image of a fairly high resolution. The image in the top right has been changed to a higher resolution so that the multiple colours in the image seem to blend better, whereas the image in the bottom left has been changed to a lower resolution than the original image, so the multiple colours seem more divided and block-like. The image in the bottom right has been set at a very low resolution so the colours are basically completely individual blocks of a single colour. As the image resolution is lowered, the file size becomes smaller too due to the lower quality of the image.

JPEG Images

In this section I have changed the compression technique to show how it effects the quality of the image. The top left is the highest resolution, with the top right being second highest, bottom left being third and bottom right being fourth. As you can see, as the resolution is lowered, the images don't seem as smooth and have become more pixelated. In this set of images, as the compression technique is lowered, the file size becomes smaller as the image is of a much lower quality.

Unit 30 Task 7

Task 7a

Describe and evaluate the ongoing developments in these printing/output techniques:

1. Vinyl cutters and laser cutters for signage.
2. Inkjet & wide format printing for bitmap displays and posters.
3. Laser printers for leaflets and flyers.

Make sure you cover how this has affected the creation of graphics.

(D1) 13th March

Printers

Printers are developing all the time, with new features and abilities always being built in to help the consumer. Older printers were very basic with a lot of limitations, but now printers can have attachments such as scanners and there are several different types of printers capable of different things, such as laser printers and inkjet printers.

Inkjet printers are used for printing posters mainly, with the use of bitmaps because they are capable of printing to a very high quality. If you are printing any image that requires a very high quality or on a very large scale then an inkjet printer should be used.

Laser printers are used for printing flyers and leaflets, as these don't require to be printed in a very high quality and can be printed much more quickly. This is a better option for leaflets because you will have to print hundreds of leaflets and the laser printer is capable of doing this much quicker.

Cutters

Vinyl and laser cutters are used for signage and can create very large detailed images. They are typically used by businesses to put on buildings and vehicles. Using cutters makes the designs for a business much more personal as well as making the creation of the design cheaper.

Unit 30 Task 6

Task 6

Explain some of the legal pitfalls in using and editing graphics.Essentially, this is about copyright issues and gaining permission to use copyright products.You also need to cover 'TradeMark' and 'Intellectual property'.

(P6) 7th March

Legal Pitfalls

If someone has taken a picture or video, made a movie or a drawing, or designed a graphic on their computer, then they own the copyright to that picture. When a graphic has been copyrighted then there is very little you can actually do with this graphic without having to contact the original creator of the graphic. Using one graphic from a collection or a low-quality part of the graphic complies with 'fair-use'. Going against the 'fair-use' and copyright policies will be classed as 'plagiarism', which is when you make your own version of a famous graphic and then attempt to pass it off as your own or directly copy the image. However, if a graphic is released into the public or it is released under a license which allows modification, then these pitfalls don't come into play.

TradeMark

Trademarks are used to obtain exclusive right and property of a product or service. However, if the trademark is deemed as offensive or false-advertising then the owner of the trademark could have serious legal consequences to face. A trademark must be legally registered first, and after this is done, if the trademark is plagiarised in any way then the owner will be able to take legal action for trademark infringement. Typical trademarks include names, words, phrases, logos, symbols, graphic designs and images.

Intellectual Property

This is a legal concept in which exclusive rights are recognised. Intellectual property (IP) is the umbrella term for many types, such as patent, copyright, industrial design rights and trademarks. Under this law owners are granted exclusive rights to their property, which can be things such as music, literature, art, inventions, images or graphic designs.