The Website

Mr. Case gave us a website today that tells about all the parts of the computer that is attached inside the CPU case. I'm going to read it further at home and take notes on it. I have a feeling that I don't have enough information in my blogs. The website address is: www.kids-online.net/learn/c_n_l.html.

My Dad said that apples make you think faster and remember things for a longer time. Maybe I need to eat more apples. I wonder how long it would take before I can finally remember everything Mr. Case said. It'll probably take so many apples. Anyway, I need to check out the website again so that I can start making notes on some things.

CD-ROM and Hard Drive

The CD-ROM is a storage device, not an input/output deivce. It has pits in it that helps it save information in it. There is a laser inside the CD player which would bounce off the shiny surface of the CD. If there is a pit, it would be read as 1. If there is no pit, it would be read as 0. So, in the end it's still binary. There are 3 layers in the CD: a shiny layer, a platic layer, and some metal inside. Devices such as CD's and DVD's are called optical media or optical storage. There are about 700 mb in a CD and 4.7 to 8 gb in a DVD. If you scratch a CD, it would defuse the light. To fill in the scratch, rub toothpaste or wax across it.

Unlike the CD, a hard drive isn't an optical device. It is a magnetical media. A magnet has North or South, and this could be read as on or off, just like in binary. 8 magnets in a hard drive is 1 bit. Hard drive is a metallic platter that has millions of magnets in it. Another magnet can damage your hard drive.

*Thermal compound is like a glue and it can prevent the CPU from turning too hot along with the fan. If the CPU becomes too hot, your computer would shut down.

*There's a battery in the motherboard makes the BIOS work. If you pull it out, and place it back on, all the settings in the BIOS would reset.

More about parts of the Computer

Today, we learned about the modem, sound card and video card.

A modem stands for modulate and demodulator. It is a device that allows a computer to transfer data through a cable or through a telephone line. Information that is transferred through is in the form of an analogue waves, while the one that is stored in the computer is digital. The modem converts this from one form to another. There are two types of modems. One that can be attached externally, and another that comes in an expansion board. You can attach the external one through a port, and the one that comes in an expansion board, you can attach on a vacant expansion slot which comes with the motherboard.

A sound card is what makes the computers to output sound (speakers), input sound (microphone), and control sound stored in a disc. It's also an expansion card, so you can attach them through one of the vacant expansion slots on the motherboard. Most sound cards are automatically built in when you buy your computer.

A video card is what enables the computer to show visual graphics. It is also an expansion card that you have to plug into your motherboard. You don't really need an expensive video card if you only use your computer for e-mail or homework.

A PCI express stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect is one of those slots on the motherboard. It just started appearing in around 2004, beside the normal slots. It was made to replace PCI bus.

Unfortunately, that's all I remember in today's class. I had to do some research as well, and most of the stuff came from either wikipedia.org or wisegeek.com. Next time, I'm bringing something to write with so that I don't forget. Mr. Case said anything that he said is 'testable'. It would be really convinient if I could record everything he says in a tape recorder or video camera. However, I don't have those things, and even if I do, my Dad won't let me bring it to school. Sadly to say, I have to go by old fashioned 'handwriting'. Not to worry though. I'm pretty fast in writing.

I actually took notes once- when we had the lesson about binary- but then some people were just asking me for the notes.

What We Did Today

Well, we actually didn't do much this class today. The first ten minutes of class, we were asked to do All The Right Type, and for the rest of the time, Mr. Case talked about the motherboard, BIOS, and RAM.

Basically, the motherboard is the most important component of the computer. It's where everything is connected, including the CPU. (I remember once calling the motherboard a mothership. Hehehehe.)

RAM stands up for random access memory, and it's different from the hard drive in a way that it doesn't store information. It only remembers when the computer is on, but when it is turned off and turned on again, it looses everything. Generally, the disk drive is where you store your files, but RAM is only there when open the files up. For example, the hard drive is in a way like a bookshelf, and the RAM is the desk. A disk drive can story 1 GB of information.

BIOS is the part of the computer that reminds it what it's supposed to do. When you power up your computer, it tells each part of the computer what it is and what its role is. Without the BIOS, the computer would only be plastic and metal with electricity going through it because it doesn't know what to do.

In the past decade, people were easily ripped off when they buy a computer, because only a year or two after that, their computer would be outdated already. The computer gets improved really quickly.

That's all I remember right now. I'd try and search up these three things to get into more details, because they might be on the test or something.

Tests and Projects

Man! Tomorrow I have a French quiz and a Geography test. I also have four of the apples due tommorrow for art. I can't remember having this much homework at third week of school ever. I guess this just comes along with being in Grade 9.

Anyway, I'm liking gym a bit more than I thought I would this year. I think it's because we got over fitness week pretty fast. We are now doing soccer. Mrs. O'Neill is teaching us techniques on how to control the ball, and everything. I can't say I'm pretty good at it, but I'm doing well in my opinion.

I just can't wait till we start volleyball. It's the only sport I actually do really well in. You see, in Grade 7 in my other school, all my friends signed up for the volleyball team. They were dragging me along the sign-up room, so I had no choice but to sign up as well. I thought I would get cut the first time, but I didn't. I made it until the very last cut. Still, I wanted to quit because the practices were so early in the morning. I guess, I didn't have to. Still, during those times when we were practicing, I learned a lot of great techniques, and how to improve my aiming and strength.

Well, that's all I really want to say for now. I don't know what else to talk about... or complain about for that matter.

More About Computers

Computers: devices that you can put info in, process the info, and give info
-started when the abacus was invented 10 000 years ago.

How computers work: electronic device that has input and output
input: keyboards, scanner, mouse, etc.
output: monitor, printer, speakers, etc.
CD's are storage devices
CPU is processor

Computers process electrical signals. There are 2 states of electricity which are only on and off. It can only understand these. Computers see on as 1 and off as 0, and this system is called binary. Binary is something that makes computers do much more. Everything is in binary, because it doesn't understand anything else.

The binary system can do so much more than it seems. If you use 6 digits of 0's or 1's, it actually has 63 different outcomes. A 0 or a 1 is called a bit. 8 bits are called bytes. 1000 bytes are called kilobytes, 1000 kilobytes are called megabytes, 1000 megabytes are called gigabytes, and 1000 gigabytes are called terabytes.

Rounding bytes to 1000 is necessary, because there are actually 1024 bytes to get a kilobyte (and so on). The reason for this is because there is no exact 1000 in the place values of the binary numbers.

* digit means fingers

Today, Today, Today....

I went on the computers today to work on the All The Right Type, and I found that I don't have my previous records in it. Mr. Case told us that they had to change the whole thing again because of all the problems we have been having. That means I have to start all over again.

Anyway, Mr. Case did a presentation about the monitor of the computer. There are two types of screens: LCD, and CRT.

LCD- Liquid Crystal Display
CRT- Cathode Ray Tube

Then they measure screens, they don't measure horizontally or vertically. They measure diagonally. So if it's a 32 inch screen, the screen measures 32 inches diagonally.

LCD screen has liquid crystal trapped between two glasses. This liquid crystal is very sensitive so that it can show the images it's supposed to. However, if the glasses are pressed, the image becomes wiggly for a little while in that area. LCD's show more vibrant colours, but are more expensive. They can't refresh too quickly as well so they're not good for games.

CRT screens are a lot cheaper to buy, they are more abundant and they refresh faster. They are good for computer games. People also measure the distance diagonally in CRT including the border part that keeps the screen in. So the amount of space viewed is less than LCD, which is measured without the border.

Well, that's all I remember. Before I could write things down, we were asked to go up the front to watch the rest of the presentations. If I remember anything else, I'd definitely jot them down somewhere.

Finished Project

Finally! We did our presentation today. We went third, and I actually think that we did very well. Even Kamini and Tori think that we all did quite well. I'm so happy that I got it over with! Now, another project is completed, and I don't have to work on it anymore!

Yesterday got me out of my nerves pretty well. When I was about to send the completed presentation to Tori and Kamini, I found that it wasn't saved. So the whole thing that we did in class was lost! I had to do most of the stuff again at home. But good thing we made it in time, with time to spare and practice.

Well, now that I finished my project, I can also work on the All The Right Type.

Putting Assignment to rest

Yay! We're finally done our Powerpoint presentation. Now all we have to do is practice our lines so that we don't mess up. I hope we won't bore people out of their guts. We're going to try to make it as interesting as we can so that we can get a good mark out of this.

More About Project

I forgot to create another post yesterday. Not much happened since the last time I did though. Kamini, Tori and I just planned on how our computer presentation is going to go. We agreed that we're going to do it using Powerpoint, just like most of the other students.

We already started creating the slides yesterday. We divided up the topics among ourselves so that we would have an equal amount of work on the weekends. I finished my share early this morning, and now, the only thing I have to work on is how to explain the facts.

I also have to work on other things like my Science Poster presentation, and my english news article. I have tests on Geography and French next week as well, so I have to work on those too. I'm pretty sure I'll get most of my work done this weekend. Hopefully, nothing would go wrong.

History of the Microprocessor

More notes:

-the idea of creating the microprocessor emerged from the era of World War 1

-communicating devices such as the telegraph partly caused the idea of how to create the computer (like how it should be all wired up together)

-most of the microprocessor was developed during the 1960's

-microprocessor was formerly called mini or microcomputers which was first introduced in November 1971

-first microprocessor was made to power a calculator (this was when Intel agreed to manufacture chips for a Japanese calculator company)

-computer actually means: machine created to carry out boring mathematical operations

-modern microprocessor uses an advanced memory to reduce the amount of its transistors, unlike the first developed microprocessor

other websites:

www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/...?ca=dgr-Inxwo/MicroHistory
www.intel.com/education/mpworks/intro.htm
www.mediamante.rai.it/mmold/english/bibliote/intervis/h/hoff.htm

Computer Assignment

Well today, there's really nothing new to do. We were just asked by Mr. Case to continue our research for the computer assignment that we got yesterday. I hope my group would get further this time. Everybody thinks researching about CPU is the easiest thing ever, but there are a lot of information that I don't find necessary (but maybe it is) or the level of vocabulary in the website is a little bit higher for me.

I already took notes yesterday, so I'm not sure what to do today. Maybe I'd do more research with easier vocabulary so some things would be a bit more clearer.

Notes for Computer Assignment 1

The Microprocessor:

-heart of any normal computer

-in charge of processing date

-Pentium, K6, PowerPC, and Spark are some of the different types of microprocessors

-also known as CPU

-a 'complete computation engine' made on a single chip ( a chip is a small thin piece of material called silicon which transistors are engraved)

-first microprocessor was Intel 4004 which wasn't powerful, but was only able to add or subtract in 4 bits at a time

-Intel 4004 powered first portable calculator

-microprocessor doesn't really understand what it's doing; it only does what it is instructed to do according to the program

-over the years microprocessors have improved in speed

-old microprocessors work like this:
-Program stored in hard disk drive is transported to RAM memory
-CPU loads program information from RAM memory
-Data in CPU is processed
-What happens after depends on program. CPU can continue loading, executing instructions
or do something with data

-modern computers can transfrer data from hard disk drive to RAM memory without using CPU, therefore the process is faster (this is called Direct Memory Access)

Computer Assignment

Today we received our first assignment in Computer Business class. Actually, for me it was my first assignment for the whole year. It's all about hardware. First, we picked out our group of two or three people, then we were asked by Mr. Case if we wanted a hard or easy topic. My group chose a hard one, and now we are assigned to research about the CPU.

Mr. Case gave us a website to start our research on. It's 'www.howstuffworks.com'. I usually see that website when I do research on other projects, so it wasn't really surprising that he had given it to us. The website's search engine wasn't working though, so we had to search by he tabs. Unfortunately, when my group members and I tried to look up CPU or 'How Central Processing Unit works', we couldn't find it. Tori asked Mr. Case what we should search for, and then he told us that if we search up 'microprocessor' it would work just as fine.

We didn't get very far, since most of the information was quite hard to absorb when first read, so I'm planning to research at home and see if I can find other stuff or if the search engine of the website works in my computer.

Blogger

This site is really interesting. I wonder why I have never been here before it was introduced in class.

Anyway, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out the options for my blog. For example, there's the time that I don't know how to adjust. If there's supposed to be a button where we can do it, then it's not appearing on my computer right now. I don't want people thinking that I wake up in the middle of the night or something, just to make another post. Oh well. I guess, I'd just have to ask my teacher.

I didn't do much today. I just tired to finish much of my homework, so that tomorrow I won't have a lot of it to do. There's also the usual weekend things like watching TV or doing house chores, or just doing whatever pleases my times.

The teacher said that we have to update our blogs at least every other day. I guess I would never really run out of things to say, especially now that I'm in Grade 9. I mean, everybody thinks I'm really quiet, and that I hardly complain. True, but now that I have to work on this blog almost every single day, the only thing I can really think of writing is complaining about things.

School Today

I was a little relieved to know that it was Friday this morning. However, when I got to school, it felt like Monday all over again. I had the most homework yet so far this week.

To start off, I have to finish working on at least four shapes for my art class. It's due on Monday, and I have two more to go. Gym was a little bit more of a downer to know that we are already starting fitness next week. French class was okay. It was like every other normal day.

In computer class we learned about e-mails. I already know how to use it properly. The only new thing I learned in this class was the fact that the 'B' in BCC stands up for 'blind'. It was a really cool information. I was just wondering one thing. In Yahoo!, I'm allowed to put more than one address in the 'To' section. If this is the case, why would I need the CC section for, when I'm already able to send the e-mail to the ones in the 'To' box? Oh well, I guess I'll find out.

Mr. Case also told us last class that everybody has to work on All The Right Type once again. Last year, my computer class had to do that. We were even given a log to make sure that we do it. It's really not fair for me, because last year, I was the only one who finished the log. At least I think I was the only one; but now, I have to do it all over again.

English class was pretty cool. I love English. It's my favourite subject. There's really not much to tell about it. Last class was Geography. I came prepared to school with my ruler and protractor for that course, except that I forgot to take them out of the locker. Luckily, the teacher said we didn't need them right then.

When I got out of the school, I had some time catching up with my friends that I don't share any class with while I was waiting for my sister to come out of Vanier. Their schedules were really messed up. I feel quite sorry for them, since I got everything that I wanted. Yeah, I'm pretty contented with my courses and how the first week of school went.

What I Think

This is my first official post. As of today, I learned how to create a ‘blogging’ site using ‘blogger.com’. It’s really interesting; because this is the first time I’ve ever tried creating a site. I think I’m going to have good time doing this in this class.

The first business computer class I had, I thought I would regret it, but now, I think I changed my mind. If what we learn every single class would be something like this, I think I’d have a lot of fun this year. However, ‘fun’ is still too much to expect, since I’m already in Grade 9.

Anyway, I’m planning to change some stuff in my site at home, because I rushed everything at this time to catch up with the other guys. My computer wouldn’t log me in for about ten minutes.

I don’t know what else to talk about right now. So far, my day had been plainly smooth until it got up to math class. Nobody in the class would talk, so the whole period was quiet. It was also the largest class I have so far. It had thirty-seven students in it. I could tell that Mr. Priebe-Nizar was feeling a little awkward about having all of us there, and not a single one of us had any questions or would say anything to him.