Clayton State University

Assignments
ITFN 1101 - Foundations of Information Technology
Spring 2010

HANDWRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS AS INDICATED BELOW.  NO LATE WORK IS ACCEPTED.  REFER TO THE CALENDAR FOR DUE DATES!!!!

Assignment One (1A, B)
Answer the following questions.  Feel free to use the text, but put answers into your own words!

1. What is meant by the term digital revolution?
2. What is meant by the term convergence?
3. Define computer in terms of its three main functions.
4. What is the difference between storage and memory?
5. What is application software?
6. What is operating software?
7. What is a server?
8. What is a super-computer?
9. What makes a .exe file different from other files?
10. What is meant by the term garbage-in-garbage out (GIGO)?

Assignment Two (2A, 7A,C&E, 9 B&C, )

1. Define the term peripheral device.
2. Define the term form factor.
3. List at least three considerations when purchasing a computer.
4. What is a computer platform?  What are the three personal computer platforms?
5. What is the Web?  What is the internet?
6. Describe how HTML works.  Do some research and show how, in an HTML document, you'd markup your name to be a bold and italicized.
7. What is HTTP? 
8. Why do we say that HTTP is a stateless protocol?  How is that statelessness overcome?
9. What is the difference between a browser and a search engine?
10. List at least three ways to create HTML documents (I'm not looking for products here).
11. List the four most common e-commerce business models.
12. List three disadvantages and three advantages of e-commerce.
13. Describe two ways in which cookies work to facilitate shopping carts.
14. What is phishing?  What is pharming?
15. What is outsourcing?  What is offshoring?
16. List and briefly describe the five stages in the life cycle of a hardware product.

Assignment Three (9D, 8 A, B, & C)

1. What are ethics?  Name at least three ethical decisions that computer professionals are regularly faced with.
2. What is a code of ethics?
3. What is whistle-blowing?  Name at least three things should you think about before blowing the whistle.
4. Describe what is meant by "sampling".  How do sample rates impact the quality of the digital sound?
5. What is MIDI Music?
6. What is a Bitmap Graphic?
7. What is a Vector Graphic?
8. Name four differences between Bitmap and Vector (not including the answers to 6&7).
9. Describe in sufficient detail what is meant by "24-bit color palette".
10. What is pixel interpolation?
11. What is image resolution?  Why are bitmaps said to be resolution dependant?
12. Briefly describe the two types of compression techniques.

Assignment Four (1C,D,E & 2B)

1. Why is the storage of digital data based on the binary number system?
2. What is the difference between character data and numeric data?  Should numbers ever be stored as character data?  In what cases?
3. Explain how extended ASCII provides representation for 256 characters.
4. How many bits are in a byte? 
5. Describe the process of creating a computer program.
6. Describe the roles of the ALU, the control unit and registers of a microprocessor.
7. Give at least three tips for creating a secure password.
8. What is FSB?
9. Briefly describe what is meant by the terms serial processing and parallel processing.
10. What is ROM?  What is the function of the ROM BIOS?

Assignment Five (2C,D & 3)

1. What is the difference between a storage device and a storage medium?
2. List the three most popular storage mediums and briefly describe how each one works.
3. List the three most popular types of printers and briefly describe how each one works.
4. Explain what utility software is and give one example.
5. What is the purpose of spreadsheet software?  Briefly describe how it works.
6. What is the purpose of database software?  Briefly describe how it works.
7. What is the purpose of graphics software?  Briefly describe how it works. 
8. What is the difference between a copyright and a software license.
9. Describe the different types of files that software programs contain. 
10. List and briefly describe at least three types of computer viruses. 

Assignment Six (4)

1. Make a list of five file names that are valid under the file naming conventions for your o/s.  Also create a list of five file names that are not valid and explain why.
2. What is a path?  Write out the path to a file you commonly access and describe the parts of the path.
3. Describe the difference between a logical storage model and a physical storage model.
4. Describe the difference between a sector and a cluster.
5. Make sure that you can describe what happens in the MFT or FAT when a file is stored or deleted.  The answer is not that is goes in your trash or mydocuments folder!
6. Describe the characteristics of viruses, Trojan horses, worms, bots, mass-mailing fors, Denial of Service Attacks, and blended threats. 
7. Explain how antivirus software works and how it is able to catch new viruses that are crated after the software is installed on your computer.
8. List and describe three backup methods.  Briefly discuss the pros and cons of each.

Assignment Seven (5) - Answer these to help you study, but you do not need to submit to me.

1. Give at least three benefits of computer networks.
2. Name at least four ways to classify a network.
3. What is a PAN?  a LAN?  a WAN?
4. Discuss the differences between a Client/Server network and a Peer-to-Peer network.
5. What does physical topology mean?  What is a star topology?  A bus?  A tree?
6. Define the term bandwidth.
7. What is a communications protocol?
8. Explain how data is transmitted across a network using packets.
9. Discuss the pros and cons of a wired network.
10. Discuss the pros and cons of a wireless network.

Assignment Eight (10)

1. What is an information system?
2. List and describe the three type of problems
3. Describe a TPS, an MIS, and a DSS.  Include with your answer how they are different.
4. What is an expert system.  Write a simple expert system with at least three levels.
5. List the activities that take place during the planning phase.
6. Name the three ways that organizations can respond to Porter's Five Forces.
7. List the activities that take place during the analysis phase.
8. Using the symbols shown on p. 572, construct a simple DFD.
9. List the activities that occur during the design phase.
10. Describe what the "level of automation" means.
11. List and briefly describe software alternatives.
12. List the activities that occur during the implementation phase.
13. List and describe the three types of testing.
14. List and describe the four types of conversions.
15. List the activities that happen during the maintenance phase.

Assignment Nine (11 & 12)

1. Describe the procedural, object oriented, and event-driven paradigms.
2. Create and express (using psuedocode or flowchart) an algorithm that asks the user for his name, year of birth, and then returns a message that reads, "Welcome to ITFN 1101, [name].  You are [age] years old.
3. List and briefly describe the three control mechanisms used in programming.
4. Describe classes and inheritance in the context of programming.
5. What is polymorphism?
6. Describe the parts of a table.
7. What is cardinality?  Why is it important in database design?
8. What is a primary key?  A foreign key?  How do we create relationships in relational databases?
9. Create a simple E-R Diagram for a law office.  There are attorneys, paralegals, and clients.  An attorney has many clients, and a client may have one or many attorneys.  A paralegal works for one and only one attorney, but an attorney may have more than one paralegal.  There is no relationship between paralegal and clients.
10. How would you design this database? 

EXTRA CREDIT - SPRING 2010 - DUE 4/12
Write a problem statement for creating a program designed to allow students to register for classes.  Then, create a flow chart that shows the algorithm for the solution.  Your solution should include the necessary control structures to create a complete application.  Your handwritten work should be submitted at the beginning of class on Monday, 4/12 for credit.  NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.  If you are going to be absent on the due date, you may slide your work under my office door BEFORE class.