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How Bytes and
Bits Work
by Marshall Brain
About.com's Microsoft Software
Easter eggs -- snippets of playful code that developers bury within their software. When you find and trigger that code, you often get a for-fun surprise that's sometimes functional, but other times totally unrelated to the main function of the software.
Some basic logical concepts and programming concepts underlie the operations (not the use) of computers. If you understand these concepts by which computers "decide" what to do next, you will expect neither less nor more than they can do.
For starters, computers are sequential. They do things
one step at a time in order unless they're told to do otherwise, whether
conditionally, repetitively, or inferentially. For example:
conditional
expressions ("if-then-else")
"if <this> [is true] then do <that>"
"if <this> [is not true] then do <something else>"
repetition
("do loops" and "for-next loops")
"do <this> n times"
"do <this> until <that> becomes true"
simple inferences
"if <this> then <that>"
"<this>, therefore <that>"
Computers can't think, or at least I don't think they can think. They can do what I describe above endlessly and quickly, as in trillions of steps per second. Are these humanly impossible feats of calculation and memory the same as thinking?
We will be able to use our powerful sense of touch as an alternative mechanism to send and receive information in computer interfaces.
What's On Tap?
Why, Haptics
by Michael Stroud
Wired News, August 21, 2001
Someday soon, drivers will be alerted by a little tap on
their shoulder when another car is riding on their blind spot.
The car, which springs out of research from Purdue University and other U.S.
research institutions, is an early application for haptics -– the science of
integrating the sense of touch into human/computer interactions. And it promises
to greatly expand the reach of computers into everyday life.
planning to learn
Software was made by boys for boys. Look at their language: killfile, abort this program, .exe stands for executable. Hits.
The Internet was made by academics for academics to share files. The recording industry calls it thievery when you and I do with Napster. Shouts of "copyright infringement" are heard throughout the land.
That leaves out most of the folks now using software and the Internet. They are neither boys nor academics. Not only that, they are different from each other.
WebAble - "the authoritative Web site for disability-related internet resources"
Bobby - analyzes web pages for their accessibility
Computer code
Computer programming
History of the user interface and the API
The GUI - graphical user interface
Cobol
programmers, face it: Your favorite code is outdated and losing support
by James R. Borck
Info World, January 2001
U.S. News and World Report recently published a list
of the top colleges and universities in the United States. Among them were the
likes of MIT and Cal Tech. We polled the top 10 institutions on the list and
found that in the classroom Cobol is mentioned only anecdotally in context of
the history of programming, but not a single school currently offers coursework
in Cobol. Not one.
I won't deny that Cobol courses exist, but the fact is that most schools are no
longer placing an emphasis on Cobol. Given the vast amounts of data and systems
currently running Cobol, I willingly admit that this is likely to pose
difficulties for code maintenance and other issues further down the road.
Finding it hard to keep current with all the updates available for the software on your computer? Try Ziff-Davis's My Updates or C|Net's CatchUp: software updates, how-tos & tips, security fixes.
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