| The complete guide to computers |
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-=1=--=0=--=1=--=0=--=1=--=0=--=1=--=0=--=1=--=0=--=1=--=0=--=1=-- Table of Contents: 1. Introduction Welcome, again, to another tutorial by aCId_rAIn. I decided to make another tutorial COMPLETLEY easy for all users of computers. This guide will help anyone understand how a computer works and what it does, and especially why it does it.Enjoy... 2. Computer History The computer has not been around for a long time, maybe 15 to 25 years
ago that the home user may have been able to get a desktop computer for
themselves.The first computers were made for military purposes, and the
internet was established then. At that time colleges started using computers
for references and information services. Now, technology has been enhanced
with computers so much that anyone can go out and buy a computer for not
a bad price and use it to their own advantage. Computers have and will
always be a great part of our life. The computer consists of a few parts inside of itself and a few outside. These are referred to as INTERNAL and EXTERNAL parts. The "PARTS" are referred to as HARDWARE. HARDWARE parts are parts of the computer that enable the computer as a whole to communicate with something. HARDWARE parts include: Mouse Mouse- Let's you input information by clicking on the RIGHT side for properties of that object and LEFT side for a confirmation. Speakers- Allow you to hear the sound that is coming from an object or maybe music. Video Card- Allows the monitor to show video (graphics) Sound Card- Allows the Speakers to work by sending signals to the computer interpretted by the sound card. Printer- Allows you to print information on documents etc. Floopy A:/ Drive- Also known as a SECONDARY STORAGE item, saves small bits of information on a portable flat disk. Webcam- Allows you to take pictures and view video by hooking up to the computer. Harddrive- Also known as the FIRST HAND STORAGE is the main means of saving things on the computer. A simple way to figure out if a hardware part is external or internal is to ask yourself, "Is this outside or inside the computer?" If you answered YES, then it is internal, if NO then it is external. Now, These harware parts take in raw data that you have inputted in the computer, and turn it into information.(in other words, it takes in crap and turns it into something you can read and understand.) This is done by using the MAIN part of the computer called the processor. A couple known processors by the company INTEL are: Intel Celeron The chips are known very well today as home-office chips or chips that only home or office people use. All the information is processed by the chip. The chip also does mathematical equations. Simple Addition Subtraction Division and Multiplication. There are three steps in precessing raw data 1. Input Inputting may be by typing or saying something into the microphone Programs- Are bunched up commands to a computer that when performed,
do certain tasks. 1. Application Software Whats the difference? Application Software are programs that make the systems harware work to make the tasks that it makes commands for, and outputs information. System Software are programs that make the system work as a whole. Also, the Application Software is installed by using the System Software. System Software is the exact same as Windows Operating System NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, 2000. In other words, if Microsoft Word is installed on Windows 98 the Microsoft Word would be the Application Software, and the Windows 98 would be the System Software. The way that a computer shows you inputted and outputted information is called the GUI (Graphical User Interface). This includes the toolbars and menus for programs. In certain programs you are allowed to save things. Documents that are typed, pictures, or pictures of friends or programs. You ask how does things "SAVE" onto my computer. Well, as explained earlier you have a Primary Storage and a Secondary Storage. Primary is your harddrive, and secondary is your Floopy Drive or a blank CD that you have burned. But deeper, how does it save? When you save to a floppy disk a small pin reads the information on the computers hard drive and puts it onto the floppy by actually using a magnet to embed the information onto the other magnetic round circle inside the floppy. Inside the floopy there are parts of the disk called sectors. In the sectors, the data is stored on. The sectors are basic small squares that are numbered when data is stored. When the data needs to be read, the small pin reads the data. Then the data is sent to the memory, also known as RAM (Read Available Memory). Once sent to the RAM it is stored so it reads from the computer and not from the disk. Then the processor processes the data stored in the RAM, and according to the commands or what the type of data is being processed, the hardware parts come in to do their part. Taking in the data and perforaming commands to make the hardware do specific tasks.Then the hardware ouputs the data if requested to do so. The saving on a hard drive is exactly the same as a floopy disk except the hardrive is usually bigger containing more than one round disk. So now, since you know how the processing works lets move onto the next section. 4. Understanding Computer Languages In understanding computer languages, you have to know that programs are made by people that are skilled in knowing the Operating System that the program is designed to be used on, or simple programs can be made by ONLY using the processor which has nothing to do with the operating system. Different program languages can be leanred. Some may be simple, others may be hard. I will list some programming languages and what they are used for. 1. Assembly- Operating Systems, such as Windows 98 are programmed in Assembler. This pretty much makes it the "Big Daddy" of all other languages, simply because the next listings of programming languages USE the assembly programming language to either use the processor or the OS (Operating System). Assembler is the basic programming language, and is actually most widely used. 2. Pascal- used for making programs that use the processor or the Operating System. 3. Visual Basic (VB)- used for making programs that use the processor or the Operating System. 4.C- used for making programs that use the processor or the Operating System. 5. C++- used for making programs that use the processor or the Operating System. 6.Visual C++- used for making programs that use the processor or the Operating System. Now, Programs can all be designed by these, but in order to make programs that use the operating systems which are numbered 2 , 3, 4, 5, and 6 you MUST know assembly also. So if you are going to be a programmer, then you MUST learn Assembly and one other language of your desire. Would you like to see an example of a program in Pascal? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROGRAM BLA (INPUT, OUTPUT); VAR BEGIN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This program as said earlier is made by uising the Pascal programming langauge. It does NOT use the OS to run. It simply uses the processor to do its math. Broken down, I will number these parts and explain what they do.
(5)VAR (8)BEGIN 1. For Pascal program is the FIRST WORD IN EVERY PROGRAM to let the OS know that its a program. 2. Represents the NAME OF THE PROGRAM. 3. LETS THE OS KNOW THAT INPUTTED AND OUTPUTTED INFORMATION WILL BE USED BY THE PROGRAM. 4. Is the COMMENT STATEMENT. The write of the program can MAKE A COMMENT about the program he/she made. 5. Represents the VARIABLES that are used. Since they cannot be claimed as a certain number in this program they are VARIABLES. VARIABLES are words or letters that be anything in a program. In this case the variable is what you type in as a number. The varibales name is NUM, for the number you type in. 6. Represents the varibales used in the program. Again, they can be anything. 7. Tells the OS that the variables will be used as INTEGERS.(Positive Numbers) 8. Represents the START of a program 9. Is a command to write or show something on the screen. 10. Represents whats written or shown on the screen. 11. A command that reads what the person puts as their answer to the command to enter a number. 12. TOTAL := NUM + 5. Total is a variable which means it can be anything.
It has to be described as a varible since noone will know what number
you choose for the program. NUM + 5 will take the NUM variable, which is the number you input, and add 5 to it. 13. Will print on the screen, the total. 14. Represents the END of a program. So what does this program do? Hopefully you know by now what it does. But just in case you dont, this program takes a number that you enter and adds 5 to it, then displays the total. In other words, It will ask "enter a number" and lets say you hit 3 as a number. The program will add 5 to the number you put in, no matter what. Then, it does the math by adding 5 to the number you enter which was 3. Then it made a command to display the total once the math was figured up. So the total will be 8, once figured up. Now even though this wont exactly make you a programmer, thats how you program. 5. Operating Systems (OS's) and How They Work Operating Systems (OS's) is one big program that lets you use all the other programs, download things, listen to music, etc. EXAMPLE: The start button, control panel, taskbar, clock and icons in the taskbar are ALL one BIG program known as Windows. It could be a different version, maybe NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, or maybe 2000. They all have these things.The Operating Systems use little programs such as displaying the clock or showing the start button, or making you go to control panel when you click it, inside one BIG program. So basically Windows 98 is a BUNCH OF PROGRAMS operating under one BIG program. The big program is all the programs listed under it. In depth, the people that made Windows 98 didnt make seperate programs and sell them to you, they gave you one disk with all the programs on it. They put alot of programs together and turned it into one BIG program. Examples of Operating Systems are: 1. Microsoft Windows 3.1 -Designed for Windows Computers 8. OS 1 -Designed for Macintosh (MAC) computers Operating Systems (such as Windows) are all programmed in Assembly to this day. (December 6, 2001; 2:08 P.M.) All operating systems have a base program called DOS (Direct Operating System) that do all the commands for the operating system. You probably have heard or have been in the DOS program before. This small program performs all the commands that the operating system works off of. Even though Macintosh is different from Microsoft. They still have a DOS, but it isnt named "DOS". In Microsoft Windows DOS is the actual name that it goes by, not just the Abbreviation. THIS IS THE NAME . AGAIN, Macintosh users also have a DOS (Direct Operating System) but it IS NOT NAMED DOS like Windows is. 6. Using The Internet The WWW (World Wide Web) or also known as the Internet is consisted of millions of computers hooked up together on ONE BIG system. Here is where we Play Games, Chat, Email, Instant Message Chat, Talk, etc. You can get your internet service from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as AOL, Prodigy, MSN, or Bellsouth. You will give them a username and a password and you will have access to the internet, also. Briefly, though, an ISP is someone who gives you access to the internet, so remember this for the future. But how does this work? How do we get to do all of this chat, email and all this other stuff? Lets first say that the language of the internet (or the most widely use one, that is) is called TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). In TCP/IP the language identifies two computers as either a SERVER or a CLIENT. A server is a computer that either is sending information at one time
or a computer that always sends information. IT SERVES, and it serves
the CLIENT. A CLIENT computer is a computer that sends informaion to the
server in order to get a response of some sort or to get a certain service
like instandt messaging. EXAMPLE: Lets say you have AOL INSTANT MESSENGER.
When you type in your user name and password, YOU become the CLIENT, because
you are requesting for AOL's Messaging Service. The computer (server)
at their side will say "OK, we are getting the request for service
from a user of AOL INSTANT MESSENGER, lets check the username and password,
and if it matches the ones we have in our computers we will allow them
to use us to talk, chat, etc." Basically, what you are doing when
you connect to AOL, MSN, ICQ, YAHOO, and all these other chat programs
is, connecting to another computer which is allowing you to get the service
of that program. Now, The way that it knows is by identifying your HOST NAME or IP ADDRESS, or by checking the computer name that you typed in when you installed the operating system. An advanced look at the IP addres and the host name, has been copied from another one of my tutorials. This will go into depth on how IP addresses are made and host names as well.
HOST NAMES 123-fgh-ppp.internet.com there are many variations of these adresses. For each different address you see there is a new ISP assigned to that computer. look at the difference. abc-123.internet.com these are differnet host names as you can see, and, by identifying the last couple words you will be able to tell that these are two computers on two different ISPs. Now, here are two host names on the same ISP but a different located server. 123-fgh-ppp.internet.com You can resolve these host names if you want to the IP address (Internet
Protocol) 201.123.101.123 Most times you can tell if a computer is running on a cable connection because of the IP address's numbers. On faster connections, usually the first two numbers are low. here's a cable connection IP. 24.18.18.10 on dialup connections IP's are higher, like this: 208.148.255.255 notice the 208 is higher than the 24 which is the cable connection. REMEMBER THOUGH, NOT ALL IP ADDRESSES WILL BE LIKE THIS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This goes into depth on how a computer is identified by a server. I have access to the internet and i am an admin for a chat room...my friend does too but he uses a different ISP.When i log in at my friends house it wont give me admin priveledges? How come? The reason for this is probably because of the change or difference in the host names, since different ISP's have different host names and IP Addresses, you may not get the priveledges. But why not? On some systems, admins use certain host names or certain IP addresses to log into their computers and get their priveledges. This is a security feature for the internet hacking. Since you will never have the same address as they will, you wont be able to get the priveledges. The point is that when you log in from a different ISP, your host name isnt the same. The server that gives you the proveldges has probably stored your host name or IP Address that you use on your computer, and also has the same security feature enabled so no one else with a different IP or ISP can get your admin priveledges. (This is assuming that you dont have a password to log in to get your priveledges, and is identified by a host name or IP address) You can see an example of this by downloading the chat program mIRC from: Go to the mIRC page and download it. When a user comes into mIRC and gets an @ by their name, its because someone has given that user those priveledges and it has stored their host name or IP address on its memory, and when they log back on to the internet (assuming they have cable, which means their IP and host name will usually be the same) it will check the host name or IP address and tell whether to give them admin priveledges or not. The internet has a few more functions such as email for one. Email works by the addresses assigned to your email account such as when you get mail, you log into the server with your password and username and if the server has mail on it then it will tell you from who and let you download the message to your system so you can view it. How do I get mail? That's how email works. 7. Conclusion Thanks for reading my tutorial on the complete guide to computers. Im
glad you took the time to read it, and i hope you now understand how computers
work. There will be a second version of this tutorial out if i get enough
emails from people asking more questions. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email : acid_rain@phreaker.net
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Email : acid_rain@phreaker.net ICQ Messenger : 64923834 MSN Messenger : JasonNewsted_35@hotmail.com AOL Instant Messenger: aCId69rAIn69 Home Page : http://acid-rain1.tripod.com |