Basic Computing

Steven GillisAlbert L. Scott Public Library

Free use of these files is allowed, copy or modify to your heart’s content. License through Creative Commons

The Computer

• What is it?– A device for processing tiny bits of data very

fast. All it does is count, but it can count so fast that it seems smart.

– The term also refers to all the chunks that allow us to interact with the computations.

– These parts include real objects like the monitor and “virtual” things like programs

Parts we can see

• The Monitor– This is where the computer displays

information, it connects through cables to the computer’s main body. Probably the first thing we see. Looks like a TV, usually has it’s own on/off switch

– It connects to a video port, this is usually on the back side of the computer. There may be more than one, more on this later

The Video Port

The Video Port has 15 pins that match the cable coming out of the monitor

Newer Computers

• These may have an S-video port– You probably won’t need to worry about this– The S-video port allows the computer to

connect to media hardware such as DVD players, televisions and projectors.

The Keyboard

• Connects to the computer, usually around the back.– Round connector, Usually purple, 6 Pins

• How we talk to the computer

The Mouse

• A mobile switch that lets you move a pointer around the screen, using clicks to select things, move them around, even activate programs.

• Usually one click selects where you point• Usually two, fast clicks activate a program• Usually clicking the right-side button brings up

options• Giving it cheese doesn’t make it work better

Connecting the Mouse

• Mouse may be a rolling ball or a bright light (usually red)

• Connects to the computer, usually around the back, with a 6 pin connector just like the one on the keyboard. Mouse connector is usually colored Cyan

The Case

• Holds all the guts of the computer including the power supply– Usually what actually dies in a storm!

• Can be many shapes and sizes– If you plan on doing any maintenance…

• SIZE MATTERS! Cases can be cramped– If there is a vent hole… don’t block it!

• Contains a flat “board” called the “motherboard” that has soldered in parts

The Motherboard

Yours may look different

• Some things will be the same• Power connections• Ports –Places where all the fiddlee-bits

plug into the case.• Slots –Places where parts can be added,

some are optional some are required• Processor Socket –Where the tiny brain of

the computer sits on a throne of gold!

The Brain

• The Processor– Does the math– Gets hot –Venting slots on your case, fans,

and radiator-fins keep it from burning up! Often buzzing sounds are something touching the moving parts of these fans.

– Is usually described in arcane numbers with Giga, Mega, or some other gobbledygook

– Faster is better, but the data has to GET there

RAM/The BUSNo it’s not a Keanu Reeves Movie…

• The calculations that need to get to the brain first sit in the RAM

• Random Access Memory is where things line up to get to the brain. It has a speed too. There are different types. Faster is better. More is better

• To get into/out of RAM it has to get on the BUS

RAM

• Lives on the motherboard• Sit in slots near the processor• COMES IN DIFFERENT TYPES

– RAM will need to match in most cases

Ram slots have “locks” To hold chips in place

Ram Chips of various types

The Bus

• The fastest computer processor has to wait on the Bus speed and the RAM speed

• If your processor goes a million oogy-doogies a second, and your RAM is accessed at 200 oogy-doogies, and your Bus speed is only 100 oogy-doogies, then most of your data is going in and out of your processor at 100 oogy-doogies a second, and your computer is bored…

The Memory

• Unlike our brains the computer has a separate memory for long term storage

• Basically it’s like us writing something down that we can’t keep in our minds

• When the computer shuts down, or loses power all memory in RAM goes poof!

• Long term storage requires drives

Drive types

• Hard Drive– Spinning magnets– Very reliable long term storage– Usually given a “Letter+:” as a name– Default prime hard drive is “C:”

• Floppy Drive– Isn’t floppy now, very small storage– New PCs may not even have one

Drive types

• Disc/Disk Drives– DVD or CD drives– CD works in DVD, DVD won’t work in CD– Some CD/DVD drives can WRITE to a disk– Others can only READ a disk you put in

• When starting a computer you may need to remove discs or floppy disks

• The computer checks these first so that you can use a BOOT DISC –More later on this

The Power Supply

• If the processor is the brain, this is the heart. Electricity is the blood supply

• The power cord plugs into the back of the computer. The Power Supply takes your house current and adapts it so it can be used, and sends it where it is needed.

• This box has a fan and a LOT of wires. It is pretty cheap/easy to replace!

The Heart

Your supply may look different, but it will have a fan and wires similar to these, plus the 3-prong electrical cable plug-in

Slots

• These hold optional components• Your video and sound may be on

“Expansion Cards” in these “Slots”• There are different kinds of slots, some

are faster than others. Most slots will only be compatible with the same type of card

• More slots, and different types of slots are good.

Playing the Slots

• Some connections are direct to the motherboard, BUT if the same connection is on a SLOT, it is probably superior

• Often the case with a Video Card• Often the case with a Sound Card• Connect to the expansion card in

preference to the one on the motherboard

More Slots

• Other commonly slotted items– Modems: Let the computer use the phone– Ethernet: Let the computer connect to other

computers through cables. Looks like a fat phone jack

– Wireless cards: Let the computer use radio frequencies to communicate at short ranges

– Game cards: Let you plug in speakers and joysticks

Ports

• Some slots give you ports (like the Ethernet card)

• Just like a ship’s port, ports let something “dock” with your computer

• An important new port is the USB port.• Universal Serial Bus provides both power

and communications, can be split, and connect multiple devices on one port

USB ports

• USB comes in various speeds the plugs look like this

The cables either look the same on bothends or like this:

USB is great

• Allows the computer to connect to many different items– Cameras– Portable media players– External drives/storage– Game controllers– Printers etc.

USB 2/Firewire

• Faster USB types that allow faster transfer, often used for external hard drives or fast connection media

• USB2 will work on a normal USB port, but will not function at full speed

• Firewire is different and only works on a firewire port

The Hard and the Soft

• Everything we have talked about is HARDWARE

• Nuts and Bolts, if it is a real object then it is hardware

• Hardware connects through wires, cables, and metal-inlayed fiberglass to the processor and power supply

• Software tells hardware what to do

The Boss

• Bruce Springsteen aside, when it comes to the Boss in the computer it is the Operating System

• The Operating system we are using today is Windows XP. It is one of the most common systems

• The Operating system tells the hardware HOW to do things

The Workers

• Application Programs (Often just called “Programs” actually do something other than management– Word Processors (let you make documents)– Photo viewing/editing (let you see/edit

pictures)– Browsers (let you see internet content)– Lots of jobs, lots of software!

Exploring the computer

• In the Windows XP environment the computer displays things for you in pictures. Icons, little pictures, represent programs and storage locations. The mouse lets you move around.

• This type of display is called a GUI (Pronounced Gooey) or Graphic User Interface. It opens many “Windows”

Open/close a Window

• In the Windows Gooey almost all windows will have three controls on the upper right corner:

The leftmost (the flat line) is MINIMIZE: It sends the window to theTASKBAR (Usually the bottom half-inch of the screen)The middle icon opens the window all the way or MAXIMIZES itThe X icon shuts the window completely (Save first or you may lose data!)When working with files you usually save with FILE-> SAVE AS

I don’t see it!

• If you need to close a window you may NOT see the X– In fact the kind of window you want to close

the fastest often don’t have these on purpose!You can use the keys on the keyboard

Alt+F4 closes a programCtrl+F4 closes a window within a set of documents (Like 2-3 Word documents open at once, Ctrl+F4 would close the one on top, while Alt+F4 would close them all)

Minimized? Or GONE?

• If you don’t see a minimized label of your document on the bottom half-inch of your screen your taskbar may be too small to see. Click on the line where the frame meets the visible portion of the screen

• An UP/DOWN arrow should appear as you hold down the left mouse button

• Drag up until you see the taskbar

Taskbar maintenance

• Remember how I said that right mouse clicks can often bring up options?

• With the taskbar, it is a good idea to “Lock” it. You can right click on the taskbar then select the “lock the taskbar” option. Once you select this with a left click the taskbar won’t move anymore, so you won’t lose sight of it

Min/Max… in Between

• When a document is already maximized the place where the maximize icon sits is replaced by the restore icon

The restore icon sets the window to a medium size. You can select the corners of the window and dragthem in and out to change the size to what you want.

Before the Window

• The default screen you see on startup is called the DESKTOP

Taskbar

Icons

More Mouse Musings

• You can also single click and hold on a selected icon

• You can drag it to another place on the desktop. Our computers have this function disabled.

• Normally I’d have you create a new folder by right clicking, but our right mouse clicks are disabled for security reasons

Drag and drop

• Once you move a file to a “New Folder” icon (It like a folder too! See:

• release the left mouse button and the file disappears!

• Don’t worry you just moved it from the desktop to a folder

• Folders help you organize files, just like in the real world. You can group things together

Opening a Folder• Open a folder just like a file• Move the mouse pointer over the folder

icon then double click

• A new window opens displaying the content of the folder

More Things you can’t do here

• The right-click on the mouse has lots of options, these include Copy or Cut

• Copy makes a copy of the file, then you can PASTE it to another folder, or even in the same place. Windows will rename the file to (Copy) so that it doesn’t overwrite your files

• BE CAREFUL WITH CUT! Cut, like move, takes the file away from the old location. Unlike move, if you fail to PASTE the file then accidentally copy or cut another item, the file may be lost

Storage

• The Drives on your computer are treated a lot like folders. All folders occupy space on some sort of drive. Usually the hard drive “C:”

• Think of a drive as a folder for folders or files, but one with a real, physical presence

• Drives can be fixed or removable

Removable Media

• Fixed drives are easy to access but a removable media drive needs a disc/disk or flash memory stick to be useable

• Some Removable Media can only READ from a disc (Often true of CD/DVD drives)

• Others can read or WRITE to media. When a DVD or CD is used it is often called BURNING, because the laser burns the information onto the disc permanently

Flash! Save the Earth!

• Flash memory is the new, high storage, removable media

• People call them “Thumb drives” “Flash Drives” “Memory Sticks” or other arcane things

• They plug into the USB ports, while plugged in the are accessed just like your normal drives with a “Letter+:” name

Flash! It’s a Miracle!

• Flash memory can hold LOTS of data• It is stable and dependable• It fits in your pocket• Slower transfer than Hard Disk, but faster

than most other removable media• Thanks to USB’s Universal nature it works

on almost any system, although that system may not be able to read the files ON the drive, the drive will usually work

Security Alert!

• Since these are public computers we don’t want people moving or deleting files around so the Windows Explorer and My Computer functions are locked down

• Luckily the program that we use to browse the internet is based on the Windows Explorer that we use to access files

• Select the Microsoft Explorer Icon and open it with a double click

He Tasks Me…

• You may have lost sight of the power point or minimized it to get to the desktop and select the Explorer Icon (The big blue “e”)

• We can either have both windows open but smaller… or we can maximize both and switch between them on the task bar

• Just select the button with the Power Point Icon on it, or the Explorer Icon on it to switch which is open. That way you can have a bigger window

Explore the Web• The program we use to see internet content is

called a browser. Explorer is a common browser but there are many others

• The browser opens to a “Home Page” that starts your session

• The browser can be open in multiple windows at once, allowing you to switch between windows with the taskbar or mouse to see more content

• Some browsers let you open windows inside the window you have open, this is called a tab, or tabbed browsing. Others open a new window for you when you need it.

Yahoo!

• The libraries home page is Yahoo! Just like a house or apartment it has an address where it lives

• We call these addresses: Uniform Resource Locators or URLs for short

• The URL for Yahoo! is www.yahoo.com/• The address bar at the top of the browser

shows this preceded by http://

Protocol

• The http:// is the Web protocol: Hypertext Transfer Protocol… basically the language of the internet

• When you type in an address you can omit the http:// since the browser will automatically add it if it is missing

• Click on the address bar where www.yahoo.com is listed

Change of scenery

• The selected text will highlight dark blue to show it has been selected

• You can now type over the existing URL with another

• Get it highlighted then type in www.google.com

• This will take you to another search engine a lot like Yahoo! called Google

Different Keystrokes

• Lots of people have preferences for which search engine they use

• All of them have good sides and bad sides• Google is very popular but Yahoo! Has

more oversight of it’s content• Move down to the Google search bar

above the Google Search button

Email

• A very common use of the internet is web-based electronic mail

• Many services provide free email – Hotmail from Microsoft Networks– Yahoo! mail from Yahoo!– Gmail from Google– Lots more

• Lets set up a Yahoo! Mail account

MyMonkeyMail

• In the Google Search Bar type in Yahoo Mail then hit enter or click on the search button

• The first link that pops up will take you to Yahoo! Mail. Single click to open it.

• See how the address bar changes to show login.yahoo.com and some kooky letters?

• This is because we have gone to a different web site

.com/.org/.net/.gov etc.

• The part of the address before and including .com is the ROOT of the URL. The .com or .gov or .org is the type of site. Yahoo! Is a for-profit corporation, even though the email service is free so they use .com

• Other web sites may use .gov for government like www.irs.gov or .org for non-profit organizations like www.shelbycounty-al.orgour regional library

Yahooey!• On the Yahoo page, on the right side you will

see link in underlined bright blue that says “sign up” right under the “Don’t have a Yahoo!

ID?” message• Select this link by left clicking on it• See how the address bar changes to another

root URL? Now it is edit.yahoo.com We’re still in yahoo.com but on a different part of their site

• Also we have a GREEN ARROW BUTTON that allows us to go back to the previous screen. It’s right next to the address bar slightly above

Back and forth

• Click on the Green Arrow Button to go back to login.yahoo.com

• Now we can see another Green Arrow Button pointing to the right

• Go ahead and click on this to take us Forward to edit.yahoo.com again

• The Left Pointing arrow is called the “Back” button, while the Right Pointing arrow is the “Forward” button

Set up Email

• You can go ahead and set up an email here if you would like. It is free and reliable with unlimited storage

• If you can’t think of a yahoo login name to choose you can use mymonkeymail followed by a two digit number. IE 01/02

• Make sure you can remember your password or write it down

Let me know if you need help!

Sample

Accessing your Email

• Put mail.yahoo.com in your browser’s address bar

• This takes you to a login screen• Login with your username (MyMonkeyMailXX or

whatever you chose)• Don’t forget your password!• Your email address is your

username@yahoo.com example: MyMonkeyMail31@yahoo.com

Thank You!

• Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with

• Please let me know what sort of things you want out of the next class!

• A short evaluation form will help me improve for next time!

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