If you are a beginner, welcome to the computing world! In this text you will find useful information in a didactic way, so you will can soon understand the characteristics associated with the computing world.
If you are a veteran enthusiast or already working with computing, this text could be used as a reference for preparation of lesson for introductory computing courses.
The purpose of this text is to give an overview, through a mental map of the Information Technology area, complemented with links, organized according to the structure of the mind map (keywords). This text will be updated with new links through the suggestions in the comments or when I find interesting links to provide.
Even if you do not want to delve into the issues shown in this text, you need to at least understand the importance of information technology in our daily lives. Currently computation is used in various areas of knowledge, for example:
- in medicine, aiding in the diagnoses
- the purchase and sale of products (diving, free market)
- communication between people, or between sectors of business (e-mail and messenger)
- in hiring, either by disclosure of vacancies at twitter or also to analyze the profile of the candidate on social networks (facebook)
The list above are just a few examples, but there are several other uses of the computer and they all serve to make our life easier in some sense. We are currently fenced and very dependent on technology: in school, at work, at home. So, to have a more effective action in this generation of technology you can’t stay out. We must overcome fear and begin to walk step by step to acquire the technical mastery necessary. But the defy that I propose to you is to try to see technology as a toy, or something that you like to appreciate. The technology is not to be boring. She comes to complement our relationship, she comes to help us and learning technology should be gradually and fun, why not!
So, whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, I hope that you enjoy and have fun with the computer world!
The central idea is that, in general, computing is divided into 3 sections: Software, Hardware and PEOPLE. Software are computer programs. The hardware are the physical parts that you can pick up with your hands, They’re the electronics. Finally, as you can see, I put people in uppercase. I did this to make it clear that it is the most important among the three components. If the other two were eliminated, people would find a way to recreate new components and new programs according to your need. Also to have technical skill is not enough if we do not know how to deal with people. The biggest problems in institutions are in people. If a program or machine crashes, we can easily replace or fix the machine. But even with the computer programs running adequately, people in their sectors may create unnecessary bureaucracy, can harm the institution, if they don’t want to solve problems efficiently. Another harmful behavior is the professional that instead of solving the problem, he plays the blame to another. Finally, we must understand that besides the characteristics of the area, the professional who deals with technology follow a set of principles that will help you deal with adversity and dynamism of the labor market. Some of these principles are:
- Initiative
- objectivity
- technical field. It is important, but it alone does not bring satisfactory results
- have the notion that in an institution the people should comes first
- You should see the changes as an opportunity, in most cases it should be welcomed
- question and ask many questions to find the real cause of a problem, never limit yourself to the first “why”, because the solution is almost never the answer to this first question
- Finally, I suggest that you try to optimize the activities, the processes that you are involved into, making them simple, invent new ways of doing the same thing in order to simplify them.
After this introduction, showing the personal qualities essential to enter the digital world with the right foot, this are the principal keywords to discover the computing world:
- PEOPLE
- Software
- Hardware
- History
- Classification
- PC characteristics
- Data representation
From now you will have a section of links, organized according to the areas shown on keywords above, complemented with the curiosity item:
History
- Computing
- George Dyson - about the beginning of digital era
- George Dyson at the birth of the computer - TED Talk
- A brief hystory of Internet by Walt Howe
Classification
Hardware
- How PC works
- How microprocessors works
- How Hard Disks works
- How RAM works
- How BIOS works
- How the Nehalem Microprocessor Microarchitecture Works
- How does the Internet work?