Disclaimer: This is a guide only and is not guaranteed to be complete.
hardware and software basics RAM, ROM, CPU: CU + ALU bootstrapping magnetic media: floppy disk, hard disk, random vs sequential access, formatting, fragmentation, virtual memory optical media process of manufacturing a computer chip bits, bytes, K, MB, GB ASCII files, directories word processing, WYSIWYG, templates, macros, desktop publishing operating systems: Windows 98, NT, MacOS, UNIX, Linux, timesharing, multiprocessing, parallel processing Programming languages: BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, C/C++, COBOL, Ada, LISP, Java compiler, assembler, high level vs low level languages Five ways to help keep data secure Five features of a good user interface/agents Spreadsheets: Visicalc (Bricklin, Frankston, Fylstra), Relative vs absolute cell addresses, What if...? analysis Databases: Fields and records, search (query), sort, report modem, LAN, WAN, email, upload/download, FTP, baud rate, Kbps, Mbps, Internet, web browser, URL, client-server model, intranet, extranet multimedia, hypertext History of Computer Science: Jacquard Loom, Babbage/Byron, A. Turing, Mauchly/ Eckert:ENIAC, UNIVAC, etc. Health risks associated with computers: RSIs, carpal tunnel, vision, radiation, etc. virus, worm, time-bomb, trojan horse, anti-viral software software piracy, copyrighted software, shareware, freeware I/O devices: CRT, LCD, OCR, laser printer, ink-jet printer, scanner Artificial Intelligence: different fields of research, Turing Test, Expert Systems. research project such as Eliza, Cyc, Deep Blue, etc. challenges in AI robots: dull, dirty, and dangerous applications, scalability, challenges to roboticists Emerging Technologies: encryption, nanotechnology, virtual reality, scientific visualization, digital watermarks PGP, public-key encryption Impacts of Computers on Society Organizations important to the field: ACM, IEEE, EFF, CPSR, CERT Computer ethics: security, safety, and privacy issues Law: The CDA (Communications Decency Act), CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act), Virginia Computer Crimes Act, and ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act), COPA (Child Online Protection Act) Review all assigned chapters in New Perspectives. Sample Questions Multiple choice: 1. What is a K? A. 256 B. about a 1000 C. about a million D. a breakfast cereal 2. A spreadsheet cell address, such as $F$1 is referred to as a/an: A. absolute address B. relative address C. formula bar D. rural route 3. Which of the following was a programming language developed for teaching programming in the 1970s: A. COBOL B. BASIC C. Ada D. Pascal 4. Use the sample database below for the next three questions: Restaurant Food City Average Meal Juan's Place Mexican Chantilly $10.95 The Olde Fox British Vienna $12.95 Casa Grande Mexican Vienna $11.50 The Green Dragon Chinese Fairfax $10.00 Chez Lucien French Fairfax $16.95 5. How many fields does each record have? A. 4 B. 5 C. 20 D. 24 6. How many record(s) would be retrieved if the database is given the query: LIST Food=Chinese OR Average Meal <= $12.00 A. 0 B. 1 C. 2 D. 3 7. If the database is sorted by City (primary sort key) and by Food (secondary sort key), what will be the new order of the records? A. Juan's Place, The Olde Fox, Casa Grande, The Green Dragon, Chez Lucien B. The Olde Fox, The Green Dragon, Chez Lucien, Juan's Place, Casa Grande C. Juan's Place, The Green Dragon, Chez Lucien, The Olde Fox, Casa Grande D. Casa Grande, Chez Lucien, The Green Dragon, The Olde Fox, Juan's Place 8. Given the following spreadsheet: A B C ____________________________ 1 30 100 2 20 200 3 30 Assume the formula in cell C1 is =A1+$B$1. What will be the value in cell C2 when the formula in C1 is filled down into C2? A. 130 B. 220 C. 230 D. 120 Be prepared to: 1) Give approximate dates for and list the contributions to computer science of: Alan Turing, Ada Byron, and Charles Babbage. What was ENIAC? 2) Design your "dream machine." If you could buy any PC, what hardware and software would you include. What size hard drive would you get? How fast would the processor be? What peripherals would it include? (Be specific.) 3) Describe the function of the operating system. What operations does it perform? Give examples. 4) Define the "user interface." List 5 features of a good user interface. What is the difference between a GUI and a CLI? 5) How have computers changed society? List 5 positive and 5 negative effects. How does society try to ameliorate the negative effects? 6) Be able to define the following terms: worm, virus, hacker, Trojan horse, time-bomb, anti-viral software, Denial of Service attack 7) Be able to list five way of keeping data secure. Give examples. 8) List 5 areas of research in the field of artificial intelligence. Explain what each of these are.