CS 105P

Review for Final Exam

What is the format of the exam?

There will be a variety of questions: mostly short answer, but also fill-in-the-blank, true/false, multiple choice. The questions will test your understanding of the concepts.

What will the exam cover?

Most of the questions will be on material discussed in class. Much of what was discussed in class is also covered in the book. There may be a few questions on content in Capron that wasn't covered in class. (For instance, during chapter discussions when a point was clearly covered in the book and I didn't have anything to add I would simply say that a particular section in the book was important or interesting.)

What is the best way to prepare for the exam?

Make sure you understand the questions and statements in this study-guide. All of the questions on the exam will be taken from the concepts mentioned in this study-guide. Note, questions won't necessarily be taken directly from this study-guide. Rather, the concepts required to answer the questions here will be the same concepts required to answer the questions on the exam.

Hardware and Software

Networking and Internet

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Miscellaneous

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If the file is sent as ASCII the file transfer program will compare ASCII tables between the two machines and convert characters that are different.

(ASCII is a standard for representing character data with binary codes. 99% of the codes are the same between machines. When you are transferring a file from one machine to another and the codes aren't the same it's easy to convert the 1% of characters that aren't represented in the same way. The problem is you have to tell the file transfer program that you are sending ASCII data. When sending binary data between machines you definitely don't want the file transfer program to be doing an ASCII conversions.)

History

Lectures

  1. What does the term broadband mean? Broadband refers to the ability to transmit and receive data at "high" speeds. A analog voice modem is definitely not a broadband modem. A cable modem is. An ADSL modem is. Compaq is selling a computer today that is broadband-ready. It ships with an ADSL modem. An analog modem plugs into the serial port of a computer. Because a broadband modem carries data at a much higher speed it plugs into an expansion slot. What kind? PCI.
  2. What is the last mile problem?
  3. Why is there a "speed limit" for data traveling over phone lines? Phone lines have been built and optimized for voice communication. They can't easily handle more bandwidth or data than what is required to transmit a voice call.
  4. (L)What is a T1?
  5. What is bandwidth?
  6. Difference between World Wide Web and the Internet?
  7. What is a firewall? Barrier to keep the company secrets in and the bad guys and gals out. Machine that sits between private company network (Intranet) and public network. Not only filters information, but also may keep an audit log so there is a record of who sent/received what information.
  8. A lot of money is spent on Personal Computers primarily because they have the potential to make people more productive. Give 3 examples of how personal computers can make an individual more productive. For example, have you ever typed a paper with a manual typewriter and bottle of white-out? A word processor is much more efficient because you can edit your document before printing. Email makes communication more efficient. Handles multiple media types (text and attachments). You can generally send and receive email from multiple locations. (If you have a CCTR account you can check email from any lab on campus.)
  9. Give a few reasons why PC's are so common today in the work-place.
    1. Communication. email, groupware, office automation tools.
    2. Increase productivity. (it not only allows new types of communication it makes it easier to use old forms. ie letter writing) Specialized tool applications (ie design engineer can create specifications that can go straight to manufacturing)
    3. At the same time machines are getting more powerful, they are getting less expensive.
    4. Integration of machines. Internet. Most word-processing programs allow you to fax a document from your machine.
    5. Custom application. You can hire programmers to create an application designed to solve a specific problem.
  10. What is groupware? Software that allows people to work together and share information.
  11. (L)How did PC's enter most companies?
  12. (L)Example question: T/F Most companies added PC's in an organized and deliberate way. (F)
  13. (L)Give an example of a decision support system. Airline reservation. Truck (UPS, Yellow Freight, Fed Ex) routing, retail POS terminals.
  14. (L)Why are management information systems and executive support system hard to implement? (Environment changes quickly, historical data may not be valid today, complex interrelationships hard to get correct in inner model, hard to quantify certain types of information)
  15. Explain how a spreadsheet can be used as a decision support tool?
  16. (L)What is an ERP system? Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Vendors include S.A.P and PeopleSoft. An ERP system is,
    1. A software system consisting of many different modules
    2. Used to automate the different common functions of a business: inventory control, purchasing/receiving, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, human resource, etc.
    3. Modules are integrated to work together
    4. Contains much of the logic that is common across industry but if flexible enough to be programmed to meet the special needs of specific companies.
    5. Usually less expensive to purchase and customize an ERP system than to create a system "from scratch" in-house.
  17. (L)When security or integrity of a computer system is compromised it is usually results from a problem with the hardware, the software, or the people using the system?
  18. (L)Name two reasons for backing up your data. 1. Accidental loss of data. 2. Malicious damage.
  19. What is encryption?
  20. Understand how bandwidth affects download times. For example, you are working at a high school in a lab with 10 computers connected to the Internet with a 50Kbps line. There is a student on each machine. You ask them to download a file of size 1 megabyte from the Internet. How long will it take the class to download the file. Answer, the line has a speed of 50,000 bits per second. Assuming each student shares equally, 50,000 / 10 is 5,000 bits per second per student. The file is 1,000,000 bytes or 8,000,000 bits. 8,000,000 / 5,000 bps is 1600 seconds or about 26 minutes.
  21. Why does adding more memory increase the spead of your computer? More data (programs, documents, etc) fits in memory so less time is spent moving data between disk and memory.
  22. What is dot pitch? Measure of the quality of the picture. What is a good dot pitch? .28 inch or less.
  23. What is USB? Universal Serial Bus. New way of connecting peripherals to your personal computer. Easier, faster. No more IRQ's or DIP switches.
  24. (fundamentals only)What is a video card? What does it do? A video card performs some of the processing required to render complex graphical images on the monitor. The CUP might tell the video card to draw a box. The video card translates the requests from the CPU to a form the monitor can understand. A video card has memory. AGP video cards becoming standard now. Technical details: new port separate from PCI bus. PCI bus runs at 33Mhz, half CPU/RAM bus speed. AGP is a separate port that runs at full CPU bus speed--66Mhz. Means less traffic on PCI bus.
  25. What is Moore's law? Transistor and chip performance doubles only every 18 months. What does this mean for consumers buying computers? In 18 months it’s likely you will find twice the machine for the same price or the same machine for half the price.
  26. Name some programming languages. Why do we have programming languages? Why not just describe the task in English? English is ambiguous. Programming languages have syntax and semantics that is unambiguous. Why so many programming languages? Different types of problems. Fortran is used for scientific problems, COBOL for business, Visual Basic for user interface programs, etc.
  27. How is right clicking related to objects?
  28. (L)What are the different job titles related to the programming process? (System Analyst, System designer, Programmer, Tester) What are the duties and responsibilities of each category?
  29. What is the difference between system analysis and design? System analysis comes first. It is the process of understanding the existing system. System design is the process of conceptualizing a new system that improves upon the existing system.
  30. (L)What is prototyping?
  31. (L)What is outsourcing? May be used selectively when an organization lacks expertise in a specific area.
  32. (L)What is a legacy system? What is a proprietary system?

Speech Recognition

Portable Computers

Personal Computers

Artificial Intelligence

Lab

  1. How do you create and use an amortization table?

    2. Example question: Larry and Sam decide to share the cost of a boat. The boat cost $4000. Sam doesn’t have $2,000 so Larry agrees to loan Sam $2,000 at 7% interest for 2 years. After one year Larry is transferred to another state and they have to sell the boat. Luckily they were able to sell the boat for what they paid, $4,000. The problem is Larry thinks Sam is owed $2,000 minus the twelve remaining monthly payments. Sam thinks he is owed the total of the payments he has already made since they sold the boat for what they paid for it.

    What were the monthly payments? PMT(0.07/12,24,2000) = $89.55

    Which one (if either) is right? Neither Larry nor Sam is correct. Larry is asking Sam to pay interest on money he isn’t borrowing. At the end of the fist year Sam owes only the balance due on the loan. Sam doesn’t deserve all the money he paid toward the boat because some of the money was going toward interest. Sam should get back only the portion of his payment going toward principle.

    Explain the most equitable solution. Here is an amortization table that clearly shows the equitable solution:

  2. (H)What is the difference between relative and absolute references in a spreadsheet?

    3. Example question: If the formula =A$1+$B1 is copied from cell C3 to D4 what will the new value of the formula be? =B$1+$B2, because a $ in front of a row or column reference holds that row or column reference steady as the formula is copied. Most of the time you will want to keep both the row and column portion of a reference steady. In that case you would add a $ in front of both references. For example: =$B$1.

  3. What is the difference between a formula and a function? A function is a predefined formula. For example SUM(), PMT(), IF(). A formula is an equation you define. It may contain a function. For example B1+B2, B1+SUM(A1:A5).
  4. (H)Assume the contents of a cell is: =sum(A1/A2). What can you say about the contents of this cell? (It's not as efficient as it can be. The contents should be: =A1/A2
  5. What are some of the different number formats you can use in a spreadsheet? Percent, currency, scientific notation.
  6. What is the Clipboard? When you cut or copy text or an object it is placed into the clipboard. Once in the clipboard it can be pasted to another location. The clipboard can hold at most one item.
  7. What is OLE? And how is it used? Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is a technology that allows you to link or embed objects between applications. For example, if you link a section of a spreadsheet in a word processing document any updated made in the source spreadsheet documents are automatically seen in the word processing document. If you embed an object changes in the source aren't seen in the destination. You can link other types of objects such as images, videos, sounds, etc.
  8. What are the different drawing concepts we discussed and give an example of each? Selecting and resizing objects. Some options are not available until you select the objects. Difference between paint program and drawing program.
  9. What is the difference between a paint program and a drawing program?
  10. What is a pixel? A pixel represents the smallest piece of the screen that can be controlled individually. Each one can be set to a different color and intensity (brightness).
  11. What does it mean that a projector can only display a screen image that is 640x480? 1024x768 has much better resolution.
  12. Name 3 types of character styles on your computer.
  13. How is formatting different from editing? (Formatting is usually associated with changing the style of a document. Editing is usually changing the contents of a document.)
  14. What is word wrap? Why is word wrap useful?
  15. What are margins? Blank space around the sides of your document.
  16. Why might you want to use a paragraph format to center a title rather than leading spaces to center the title? If the title or margins change it will still be centered.
  17. What is a font or Typeface? Name 3 fonts that are available on your computer.
  18. Describe the two classes of fonts: serif and sans serif. A serif is a small line used to finish off the stroke of a letter. For example, the letter M when displayed with Times Roman font has a serif at each corner. 'sans' means without.
  19. What is the difference between footnotes and footers? Footnotes appear once. Footers appear at the bottom of each page.
  20. What might you want to put in a footer? Page number, date, author, company name, security reference such as confidential, etc
  21. What are proportional fonts? Each character takes up the amount of space that is needed. For example, 'i' takes up less horizontal space than 'M'.
  22. What are non-proportional or monospaced fonts? Fonts with characters that are the same width.
  23. How is character size measured? By "points". Each point is about 1/72 inch. So a 36 point font has characters about 1/2 inch tall.
  24. What is a paragraph format command? Many commands apply to a paragraph. A paragraph is a group of words with a hard return at the end. A hard return is inserted whey you press the return or enter key. These commands most logically apply to paragraphs. For example, you probably wouldn't want to single space some lines in a paragraph, but double space others.
  25. What is the difference between a character formatting command and a paragraph formatting command.
  26. What are the different types of tabs? Right, Left, Centered. What is a default tab?
  27. What does WYSIWYG stand for?
  28. Database concepts. What is the difference between a Database, Table, record, field, and character? What the the objects in a database and what are they used for? Table, Form, Report, and Query. Why is there a separate data view and design view?
  29. Vocabulary and concepts from Database handout

 

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The image above shows a portion of a document with nonprinting characters displayed. Notice the mistakes in the document above:

  1. Spaces are used to indent the first line of the paragraph rather than Format/paragraph first-line indent.

  2. There is a blank paragraph between paragraphs. The format/paragraph "space before" option should be used to add space between paragraphs.

  3. There are two spaces after the period in the second line.

Here is the same data with the correct formatting:

wppar2.gif (1885 bytes)