Computer Underground Railroad Ent.

Lesson One
Intro To Computers

  Computer Parts

Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the rectangular part of the computer, where the machine does its ‘thinking’ - Power On/Power Off.  

Floppy Disk:  A flat (round or square) disk that allows information to be carried from one computer to another.

Floppy Disk Drive:  The little ‘doorways’ on the CPU where you slide in your floppy disks and transfer information to CPU onto the monitor screen.

Monitor:  Looks and works just like a television set.  It shows what’s going on inside the soul of the computer, the CPU. It produces 262-line pictures that change 60 times every second.

Keyboard:  Combination typewriter and calculator with directional and shorthand keys included.  It is the primary tool for data entry (entering data/information into a computer) today.

Mouse:  Pointing device that allows you to move the computer’s attention quickly from one point to another.  

Cables and Cords: Connecting pieces that provide power and connect equipment to the CPU (i.e. monitor, printer, and speakers.)

Printer:  Prints pages - Get a laser printer or color bubble jet.

Speakers & Microphone:  Allows you to record or hear what’s going. This is especially helpful while surfing on the Internet.   A necessity for modern computing.

Digital Camera and Scanner:  A camera designed to take pictures and place those pictures on your computer screen.  For still pictures that offer ease of use, the Sony Mavica Digital Camera is as they say on TV ‘da bomb.’  It takes pictures and places them directly on a floppy disk that you can easily place within whatever you’re working on.  (Yes, 3 ½” floppy disks are the new film) For best picture quality, Kodak is the one.  For video, you can even get a small camera that mounts on top of your computer.  All images can be put on the web for the world to see.

Hardware, Software
Ports and Memory

Hardware - Physical parts of a computer. If a piece of equipment is hard, the monitor, CPU, keyboard, mouse, printer floppy disks, printers, it’s hardware.

Software - If it’s soft, like the electronic, digital or laser instruction transmitted in power-on, power-off format, it’s software. i.e. Programs (Word, Lotus 123,).  

Computer Ports - Located in the back of the computer, ports are where all aspects of the computer are plugged into the main brain, central processing unit. Think of a ship coming into port.

MEMORY

Computer memory - the ability of the computer to recall correct keystrokes broken down to bits and bytes. Memory is measured in bytes.  A byte is one keystroke.  Every time you press a key on the keyboard, the part that looks like a typewriter, you create one series of power on power off signals (bits) in the computer.  The system is much like Morse Code’s dots and dashes, only with computers it’s on and off.  A bit is 1/8th of a keystroke, one power-on - power-off signal. 

Memory comes in two forms; ROM that is read only memory and RAM which is random access memory.  Your thoughts will be taking up memory, programs, which are thought systems in the computer, take up memory and information that you get off the Internet takes up memory.  So the higher the number the better off you are.  

ASCII - (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) the language that resembles Morse Code for the computer.  Power on/power off combinations.

Hard Disk - Inside the computer is a part called the hard disk.  Think of it like a pie that has the computer’s memory.

Bit - One of eight units of information that makes up a letter, number, etc.  For example, take the number 8 in digital format.  It has seven segments (bits) that display the letter or number, plus one invisible bit called the controller bit, which tells the others what to do.  

Byte:  Eight bits, eight sequence combinations of power on-power off signals, equals one byte.  A byte is a keystroke (letter-number-space between words).

Kilobyte - 1,000 keystrokes (thousand)

Megabyte - 1,000,000 keystrokes (million)

Gigabyte - 1,000,000,000 keystrokes (billion)

Terabyte - 1,000,000,000,000 keystrokes (trillion)

Internet - International information party line using computers and/or TV.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator.  A web site address that takes you to the location of the web page you are looking for.  i.e. http://www.foodstop.com or http://www.audart.com..  The http://www. represents that the site is on the World Wide Web. This is followed by the specific address on the web.  

DRIVES

Different machines have different set ups, but generally speaking:

A Drive – 3 ½” Floppy Disk

C Drive – Hard Disk

D Drive – CD Rom – Read Only Memory,

B, E or F Drive – Read only or Writable CD - Recording CD

To find out how your machine is set up click on START, PROGRAMS, WINDOWS EXPLORER.  In the frame on the left hand side is a list of the drives, what type of drive and the folders on each one that is active.

Click here for Pt 2 of Lsn 1

Practice Material

Organizational Material

HOW TO COMPUTE
CLASS NOTES AND MATERIAL BY:  

J. Nayer Hardin, Founder
Computer Underground Railroad Enterprises (C.U.R.E.)

C.U.R.E. Website:  http://www.compurest.com
E-mail:  [email protected]

 The cost of using this material is that
the knowledge be passed onto at least two other people.

 Published 1994-Present

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED