A+ Hardware/Software – 1/26/2009

Today we forged ahead with chapters 2 and 3, Chapter 2 covered upgrading and basically just dealing with our computer components.  Along with this were several handouts you would do well to know the content of (hint hint).

Chapter 3 dealt with laptop computers, and we discussed various aspects of them as well.  Make sure you know the differences between active and passive matrix displays and also the differences between Type I, Type II, and Type III PCMCIA slots.

Homework:

• Chapter 2 Review Questions
• Chapter 3 Review Questions

Pro/Server – 1/21/2009

Today we had one big day — we covered chapters 3 – 6, which covered a wide range of topics: chapter 3 covered disk management, chapter 4 covered Device Manager, chapter 5 was spent on updating the Windows user experience (aka BUNNY), and finally chapter 6 was over printing inside of Windows.

Homework:

• Chapter Three: Review Questions
• Chapter Four: Review Questions
• Chapter Five: Review Questions
• Chapter Six: Review Questions

Troubleshooting Applications – 1/20/2009

Today we looked at Chapter 3, which was about troubleshooting the OS — namely, Windows XP.  In addition to going over things inside XP, we also looked at how to do similar things inside Windows 7.

Homework:

• Chapter 3: Review Questions

Information Processing/Word Core – 1/20/2009

Today’s class focused on Chapter 2, which is all about the Internet.  We talked about what a web site is, and explored some web sites.  We talked about what spyware/adware/malware is and some ways to help yourself stay away from it.

Homework:

• Chapter 2: Review Questions

Windows 7 is Windows 7, right?

Those of you who’ve had to sit through one of my operating system lectures have had to endure my lecture over Windows from a “historical point of view”.  Basically, I go over each individual version of Windows and briefly discuss what feature that version brought to the table, and why it’s even important.  It’s not on any certification exam per se, but I think it’s good to know just to appreciate what each new version of Windows does.

Just to summarize:

Windows 1.0
Windows 2.0
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.1/3.11/3.11 for Workgroups
Windows 95 (4.0)
Windows 98 (4.1)
Windows Me (4.9)

and Windows NT…

Windows NT 3.11
Windows NT 3.5
Windows NT 3.51
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000 (NT 5.0)
Windows XP (NT 5.1)
Windows Vista (NT 6.0)

So, as most of you probably know, I’ve been playing around with the recently released beta of Windows 7, and today I noticed something interesting in the command prompt window:

 

 I mean, I realize that Windows 7 is NOT a completely rewritten operating system, and is based on Vista, but … I mean, to call it Windows 7 and it actually be 6.1?  Isn’t that just weird?

Maybe since this is still a beta product, it has enough of the original Vista codebase to be called a point upgrade (6.1) instead of a full on new version.  Keep your eyes peeled for Beta 2 (and any subsequent betas) and the final version, to see if Windows 7 is actually Windows 6.1.

Pro/Server – 1/14/2009

Today we started our journey into XP Professional.  We accomplished chapters one and two today, covering special types of installation.  Make sure you know about the differences between winnt.exe and winnt32.exe and their respective switches.

Homework

• Chapter 2: Scenarios 1 & 2

Troubleshooting Apps – 1/13/2009

Today was an interesting class for us.  We talked almost purely about the theoritcal: the basic structure of help desk units and how to deal with help desk “customers”.  We drilled through some scenarios that hopefully gave us a good example of what we might be doing out in the field when coming across users who need our assistance.

Homework:

• Chapter Two: Scenario 2-1, 2-2.

Information Processing / Word Core – 1/13/2009

Today our class covered what exactly a computer is and how it works.  We talked about a wide range of topics.  One of them has to do with the bit and the byte.  We learned that a bit is a 1 or a 0, and those are the only two numbers that a computer truly knows.  Everything that a computer does is based on doing mathmatical computations on those 1s and 0s.  We also learned that a “box” of bits is a byte — and that they come in boxes of 8.  Approximately 1000 bytes = 1 kilobyte.  Approximately 1000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte.  Approximately 1000 megabytes = 1 gigabyte.  Approximately 1000 gigabyte = 1 terabyte.  Approximately 1000 terabytes = 1 petabyte.  Approximately 1000 petabytes = 1 exabyte.  I could go on and on, but I don’t know any higher than that. 

We also talked about the differences between input and output devices.  This was a concept many of you seemed to know really well, and that’s definitely a good thing.  It makes sense, really — input devices help us put things into our computers, wheras output devices help us experience data outside our computers.

One of the last things we discussed had to do with Standby and Hibernate.  Both of them allow us to save electricity and to bring our computers back to a usable state quickly, but there is a slight difference.  Standby brings our computers back to life very quickly, since the computer’s RAM is still kept powered on.  Standby is ideal for desktop comptuers and for notebook computers which aren’t going to be left alone for long periods of time (the small amount of power keeping the RAM “alive” is enough to kill a laptop battery over the course of the day).  Hibernation on the other hand, writes all of the stuff that’s in our RAM to our hard disks.  Then, the entire computer gets shut off.  This is good for notebook comptuers that aren’t going to be used again in the near future (as in an hour or so), but it does take slightly longer to bring back the computer from hibernation than it does Standby.  Still, both are a lot faster than booting your computer from a full shutdown.

We’re going to have a great quarter, and I’m excited to have you guys in class.  I’ll see you next week!!!

Homework:

• pg 40: Multiple Choice/True False

A+ Hardware/Software – 1/12/2009

Today, in our first-ever A+ class, we completely disassembled and reassembled five (count ‘em, five!) computers.  Everyone did a great job with this, and hopefully we all feel just a little bit more comfortable delving into the “guts” of these magic boxes we call computers.

In addition, I lectured over chapter 1, which basically was a tour of the inside of our computer.  Chapter 1 is HUGE, so it’s the only thing we covered today.  In two weeks, when we reconvene, we’ll have a quiz over Chapter 1, so make sure you read and really study your notes.  Not all that is covered in the chapter was covered by me in my “blah-blah-blah”, so make sure you have a good grasp of the information there.

Homework:

• No homework this week
• Study for the Chapter One Quiz!
• No class next week: it’s MLK Day!

Welcome!!!

If you’re reading this, you’re probably enrolled in one of my classes at Draughons Junior College.  Thanks for looking up this blog and reading!

The main purpose of this site is to keep you guys, my students, up to date with what we cover each week in class.  In addition, I promise to post some relevant outside-information that would coincide with what we’re talking about in class.  Also, this is the ONLY place you’ll ever see extra credit assigned, so do yourselves a favor right now and add this site to your favorites and check it often!

We’re going to have an awesome quarter.