Home and Personal Computing Lesson 2
Personal and Home
Computing Lesson 2
Though we accept that which is
presented to us visually and with an equal inability to fathom the workings of
the presentation, credibility should be given to those computer programmers who
are tirelessly responsible for our media.
That I can view a display on a
52” TV screen whilst you look at the same picture on a 3” screen on a bus is
simply incredible and, as is now our nature, our impatience level for
acceptance had changed tremendously – we no longer want to use the scroll
buttons to gain access but expect to see everything we want in its entirety –
unfortunately and thankfully, we have not achieved this yet.
The way computers work is
different to mobile devices. Open browser pages on computers, need to be closed
before exiting. The browser itself then needs to be closed and ultimately, the
computer needs to be switched off.
If we consider a library where
everybody comes along, selects a book, goes to a table, sits down and reads a
book half-way through then leaves the library, the scene would be one of chaos
and the librarian would spend hours replacing the books ready for the next day.
This is a computer AND, the
reason why we cannot simply pull the plug to switch it off.
As the computer shuts down
correctly, most of the ‘books’ are closed properly and returned to their
shelves, most of them.
With mobile devices, processors
are not designed in the same way. In a manner of speaking, the chaos we
demonstrated in the library is how things are left on a smart phone. The next
day, we add to the confusion but order does not need to be restored. We dispose
of it, the books! And, simply start again – next day, new books - and endless
supply.
Inefficient it may seem but
truthfully, extremely efficient as the books are infinite.
Of course this is only an
analogy and the open books are essentially left hanging in mid-air, in the
background. If we want to use them again, they are sat there waiting for us, if
we disposed of them, we get new ones and they are so easy to dispose of - we
simply access the open ‘books’ and swipe our touch screen sideways and they
disappear, no more processing as they have gone, out of the window.
I mentioned touch screens above
and we really don’t need to know how they work but there are different types
and electronic methods. Given that our bodies, through mass present resistance
electrically to different objects and magnetic fields (to simplify things), if
we create a sandwich layer of different electrical conditions then, add in
various resistances to alter the ‘magnetic field,’ we see a reaction to our
action – that is all that is going on, an electrical sandwich that we are
varying by touch, pressure and movement.
To give an insight at this early
stage into further differences between computers and mobile devices and keeping
things quite simple, software is what we use in programs on computers and as
mentioned earlier, this software can be entered by various means but more and
more by simply choosing a site on the Internet, selecting the software or
program, downloading and installing it – a very simple process which we will
embrace a little later. On mobile devices this would be quite slow and most
of these programs are so large digitally that our phones and tablets would soon
become saturated and, over-loaded.
In their wisdom, engineers
designed ‘skinny’ little programs that our phones and tablets use but store
very little information from as they are readily available in their ‘skinny’
formats at the touch of a screen or two.
These programs are called
Applications or, Apps. for short. Apps. are not designed for computers at
present and don’t need to be – it’s similar to petrol (gas) and diesel, both
cars work and get to where they are going
- just different fuel and, petrol doesn’t work in a diesel engine anymore
than diesel works in a petrol engine.
So, what exactly is a Browser?
Again, there is lots of history and no doubt you will still hear Netscape and
Internet Explorer mentioned especially the latter. Again, the history is not
important but suffice it to say there are lots of browsers.
As the name suggests, once we
connect our device to the Internet, we can access or surf the www, World Wide
Web. The medium or interface we do this with is called a browser.
There are some marked differences
between mobile and computer browsers but, they all have the same purpose and
the providers, constantly update these interfaces with new security updates to
protect the consumers who use them. Similarly, hackers constantly try and
devise methods to ‘crack’ the security - not always for malicious purposes but
sometimes simply for technological challenges.
As with computer manufacturers,
Microsoft supplies its own default Browser by way of Internet Explorer (who won
the early battle with Netscape). Apple’s offering is Safari and Google, the
popular Search Engine giant offers Google Chrome a ‘skinnier’ browser designed
for speed (with security).
Note: If terms appear that we have not dealt with, there
is an assumption that you will at least have heard the terminology but, we will
deal with these issues in future lessons.
There are also numerous ‘third
party’ suppliers of browsers and without a doubt, one of the most popular of
these is, Mozilla Firefox.
All browser suppliers cater for
computers and mobile devices, the latter being available by downloading the App
to your mobile device although they invariably come with a default browser
installed – the choice is yours.
Summary: all computer devices
can cope with all the browsers available despite manufacturer preferences or
default supply – in fact, many browsers can be installed and working at the
same time on devices and there are good reasons to activate these situations at
times. On my Macbook, I use Firefox constantly and open Safari (Apple’s browser)
at my discretion to open more webmail (later lesson), sites, which saves me
opening and closing email accounts as I swap or access others.
Incidentally, although different
browsers work on all computer devices, different software has to be downloaded
for different operating systems eg, Firefox for Internet Explorer is a
different program than Firefox for Apple – this rule applies across the board,
the formats are largely NOT interchangeable.
Default - the
base-case scenario; that, with which we start or the basic process or situation
before change or alteration.
Progressing to more interesting
topics, let us take a look at email. Everybody knows that emails are a way of
communicating by writing – from a keyboard (or touchscreen keyboard) on a
computer device.
All service providers supply
their customers with a number of email addresses for personal (and business)
use within their subscription, usually ten,
Alternatively, free email
addresses are available through other providers like Google, googlemail or
gmail OR,`Microsoft, Hotmail. These are known as http server mail providers but
this is an irrelevant fact at this juncture of our lessons.
An individual can have
innumerable email addresses. Yes, I hear, “Why?” but there are also numerous
reasons – I will illustrate a few of them:
For reasons not delved into
here, I have email accounts in two countries, Canada and the UK. Canada, (my
wife is Canadian) supplies cable TV; with this come some email addresses.
BT, my Broadband supplier in the
UK, supplies me with a number of email addresses. Before having a website,
these were two of the individual server methods of communication.
Now we have a website, the
website host also supplies us with additional email addresses, which we use as follows: terry@shoobridgefunerals.co.uk
and info@shoobridgefunerals.co.uk
If I have to make a purchase on
the Internet for any purpose, I HAVE to supply my personal details. If they
know who I am, I might as well supply the email address that also identifies me
as there is no point covertly avoiding it. In other cases of communication like
Ebay or Gumtree where my identity is unknown until the point of purchase, I
would be silly to supply my personal details so I invent a pseudonym, bigwolf@btinternet.com for example. My personal details cannot be investigated or researched online (on the Internet) by this email address so a level of
security has been established to protect my identity and personal information..
On mobile devices, the way I
access my emails on the Internet can be the same as on a computer but can also
be different. If there are differences there are easier access methods and
harder ways. Prudence dictates that I take the easiest route and often, a
popular Gmail account is accessible easily on all your devices, on-the-go or at
home/statically.
Of course, how these messages
are transmitted is, to most consumers, a mystery and we will skirt on the
outside to gain sufficient knowledge to further our understanding rather than
to become experts.
No matter your knowledge, data
is transmitted through radio waves and also through cables which can be encased in plastic protection or by fibre optics. Travelling through the ionosphere, these waves are transmitted from one point to another in straight livnes and travel at the speed of sound and we receive them as with a radio station which enables us to listen to music over the 'air.'
Electricity by
this method, for indeed, that is what a radio wave contains or is powered by,
when generated is formed in the shape of a sine wave configuration or, as an
analogue form.
In order to control the data massively, we have developed a way
to make the wave shape, square. This gives us infinite methods of attaching
data to the carrier and we send this information down the wire or over the air as it were, in
packets or groups of information. This is a quick explanation of digital data
exchange, someone sends it; we, receive it.
To have a degree of control, as
in society, we need discipline or chaos will reign.
In everything we undertake
to do with the Internet, there are internationally agreed rules and regulations,
simply put we are now subjected to, protocols.
Transmitting data of different
descriptions requires different protocols, rules. Mail, is sent by Post Offices
around the world. It follows that sending emails would therefore attract a Post
Office Protocol or POP.
Similarly, speech attracts its
own protocol when spoken over the Internet, Voice Over the Internet Protocol
or, VOIP.
As technological changes alter
our lives, old protocols have to be updated to match our practices so POP was
followed by POP2 and POP2 was followed by POP3.
Sometimes these changes are
rapid so we might not actually see much of POP2 for example but, it still
existed and was superseded.
SMTP is also an email protocol
for receiving emails – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and IMAP – Internet Message
Access Protocol also has a place in the scheme of things. I mention this not to
confuse you but to give you an understanding later on how we deal with our
emails relative to these protocols, not technically but practically.
For the present, we will accept
that emails are sent and received – magically.
Using our service providers and
after setting up the email addresses of our (limited) choice, we are ready to
compose, send and receive answers to our emails but where are they?
Simply put, they are with our
service provider – always, as in, they may be elsewhere too but they always
originate with the server, our Internet Service Provider, ISP.
Because our ISP is effectively
located on the www, web, our email becomes webmail and wherever we are in the
world, if there is Internet access, we can access our emails, respond to them
and send our replies even if we have to make a payment in order to do this. If
we delete the email from the server for any reason such as storage space, it is
gone forever (mostly).
There are other methods of
accessing and receiving emails (we are not dealing with mobile devices as such
but Internet access is always available for the purpose as described above).
If you have grasped the concept from
above that I could have numerous email accounts, all accessible on the Internet
as webmail and that I would need either numerous browser windows open or,
numerous browsers open, you can see that this would get a little, ‘messy?’
Imagine at the end of your drive
having eight mail boxes, one from each of your email accounts? Wouldn’t it be
simpler to accumulate all of your mail in one location, place or mailbox?
Numerous programs exist to
accomplish just that but again, they have some disadvantages too. Sometimes,
deleting an email in a central mailbox does not delete it from the server, ISP.
If you access the emails in the central mailbox and delete some, they may still
exist on the server’s webmail facility. This of course can be useful but
switching to webmail for example in a new location shows that all the work you
did deleting the emails in your central mailbox is somewhat lost as they still
exist on the server so now, they have to be deleted again – more work.
Up until Windows XP (Expert)
operating system became unsupported by Microsoft recently, Outlook Express was
a central mailbox application. Outlook, which is different and a Microsoft (MS)
program for scheduling, making appointments, a calendar and reminder program as
well as a central email client, remains popular though the default provision is
Windows Mail.
Windows Live Mail is different
and replaces Outlook Express admirably but suffers the webmail deletion
experience mentioned above.
Simply, if you can get used to
and live with your webmail application, you will greatly increase your
flexibility and improve your personal efficiency over all your devices.
It is
notable that, an IMAP set-up in a central mailbox scenario will, or has the
capability to, delete emails at the ISP source, POP3 does not.
Unfortunately,
we still haven’t switched a computer on?
Before
we take a car on the road, the correct procedure is to learn about the car
physically followed by the rules of driving or the Highway Code. We do not have
to study mechanics - I agree but those with an understanding of engineering are
likely to embrace their car conditions far longer than those that inadvertently
abuse the systems – we will get there.
Before
I forget, I would like to say that, as with browsers certain programs or
software are available across formats e.g. Microsoft Office but they still have
to be formatted differently and not all components are necessarily supported.
Because of the enormous popularity of MS Office which typically includes a word
processor program, spread-sheets, scheduling, databases, website construction,
presentations and even desktop publishing, the creators, Microsoft (Windows
OS), have developed the same program to fit Apple’s offering in Mac OSX but
some of the office set, viz Microsoft Publisher has been passed over in favour
of Apple’s, ‘Pages’ program which is their latest DTP, Desk Top Publisher.
Open
source (third party, free, programs) are available in direct competition to MS
Office and Libra and Open Office are two examples but nothing rivals MS in this
field.
This
naturally means that there is a greater ease worldwide when communicating but
any word processor program is NOT the same as an email program though
constructing an email in MS Word can be copied into a regular email program or,
sent from MS Word itself (conditions apply).
Earlier
we looked at Routers. We used to look at Modems. When we transmit speech over
the airwaves, as with radio, it is not as simple as we might imagine. In basic
terms, the frequency of speech is not practical to transmit so we attach it to
a carrier wave.
In order to attach it, transmit and decipher the content, we
‘modulate’ and ‘demodulate’ the carrier wave to extract and play the
intelligible speech, song or oral offering.
A
Modem is exactly that - a modulator and de-modulator and, it still plays a large
part in our everyday life especially that of our computer ( plus our radio and
television).
Our
modern router is an all-in-one solution. It receives signals through a physical
cable or telephone line and stands ready to re-transmit those signals to
whatever device needs them – with permission.
Hard-wire:
a physical cable connection between two or more devices/peripherals such as a
printer, external hard drive, router, scanner, CD/DVD player or such.
We
dealt with Firewire and USB earlier and have disregarded LTPI and SCSI cables
and we can add VGA (Video Graphics Display – a monitor) cables to that list
since HDMI connections offer a superior alternative as with connections to TVs.
That leaves the Internet.
Connecting a telephone type signal cable to a
computer uses a different technology – Ethernet. Our home, all-in-one router is a
modem and physical distribution centre. Taking the input into our home from the
service provider and then connecting our router to it through what we term a
WAN (Wide Area Network) connection on the back of the router, we can easily observe
that there are four outputs which also utilise Ethernet cable connections.
By using these distribution points, we can
connect multiple users or computers, physically to the Internet and receive the
best signals available. The Ethernet cable suffers the least signal loss method
so also represents the quickest speed possible from that, which is available.
This
is all well and good but what if our computers are widely spaced in the same
building? We now have to run bulky cables from room-to-room or, floor-to-floor
– hardly practical so a solution, and an easy one at that, is to simply make
our router dual purpose.
By using the available Ethernet connectors where
possible, we can also add a radio transmitter to the router and supply other
devices with their own individual receivers.
How we
achieve this is not important as the receivers will be built into our devices
and hidden from eyesight.
By
transmitting radio signals around our house or building, we can now move about
with ease and stay connected through this radio system.
Add to
this system some security in order to keep the ‘network’ private by password
protecting the access to our personal router and we have accomplished all we
need to at present, we can even connect a ‘Smart TV,’ a smart phone, tablet or
computer to the system, the possibilities seem endless. Additionally, we can
connect by Ethernet or Radio a printer that all devices can share and access
from their individual locations within the network – utopia!
As
indicated, the possibilities seem
endless but we know there are no free lunches so what is the downfall of the system?
Two factors affect things in a large way, the amount of information we require and,
how quickly we require it.
The
sheer amount of data, despite its relatively small digital size, that we demand
is absolutely colossal. If I am downloading a video in one room of the house,
someone else is watching a Smart TV; someone else is computing, surfing the
Internet and printing the results and two children are playing online games,
the amount of information or data required is of mega proportions.
Our
solutions to these problems are always being further developed and as with POP,
POP2 and POP3, old technology is superseded by new versions constantly and in
this case we are talking about Bandwidth which is simply the size of the ‘tube’
we need individually for our required data supply.
Similarly,
data on-the-go for mobile devices as supplied by our cell service providers is
reflected in our ‘Media Package.’ This monthly free or subscribed to, amount of
data that we are allowed in order to access Apps, surf the Internet, access our
‘Cloud’ data such as music or photos is also being constantly improved but
progress takes time and terms like 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE reflect the progress of
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) transmissions and basically
represent the bandwidth available in certain countries or locations.
4G
will enable a mobile device to receive more data and the download speeds will
be quicker than 3G. LTE, Long Term Evolution represents the fastest/largest
system currently available.
Improving the current
set-up looks likely to be by using an optical fibre type cable to transmit the
data more at the frequencies of light rays rather than sound waves - light rays
as with laser, are far quicker, more efficient and subject to fewer outside
influences but, come at an enormous cost to the consumer so we have a way to go
yet.
Fascinating insights into the intricate workings of digital communication! The analogy with the library chaos vividly captures the complexity of managing data on computers. Exploring the evolution from browsers to email protocols, your explanation simplifies the intricate world of technology. Looking forward to more lessons on this digital journey!
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