Operating Systems in Computers

Operating Systems in computers and laptop

An operating system, or OS, is a common computer piece in the world today. An OS is an intricate set of software programs that helps organize information within a computer’s hardware. It can store information and retrieve it from memory systems or the hard drive. It can also direct applications and programs within the computer or from portable sources. In essence, an operating system communicates between the hardware and the programs as an organizational tool. For example, when you click on a program file to retrieve stored information, it is the operating system that communicates the command to the hardware, which pulls up the desired information. This means the only way that programs and hardware can interact is through the operating system, which determines the set of procedures and regulations they must follow to maintain order in the computer system.
There are many common operating systems used in the world today. They are used in many electronic devices, including computers, phones, videogames, tablets, portable music devices and websites. The Macintosh company is currently known for producing several operating systems, including Mac OS and Mac OS X (there are several versions of the Mac OS X, including the Lion and the Snow Leopard). The search engine Google recently developed the Google Chrome operating system, thought it was created from the foundations of an older system know as Linux kernel, one of the first that applied to many different devices. Linux, in turn, was derived from UNIX, the original (and largest) group of operating systems, which included a successful subgroup known as BSD. Microsoft Windows is another popular operating system with many versions (Windows 95, Windows 7, etc.).

There are also many different types of operating systems. Some are more commonly used than others, but all have benefits. Some, base their functions on timelines and real-time events. These programs are found in scheduled updates, reservation programs and other time-related tasks; they are known as real-time operating systems. A distributed operating system, on the other hand, links many computers together to create a cohesive network of information and rules; power and electricity-governing computers are a typical example.

Multi-user and single-user operating systems either allow multiple access to computer information (multi) or only allow the access of one persona at a time (single). Home computers typically allow only one user access at a time to the system on that computer. An embedded operating system are typically found on devices other than computers – usually phones and other small devices – and have much more strict, regulated, efficient operating styles than others. Without the invention of the operating system, computers would not have nearly the amount of power, diversity and applicability they do today.

For more info: Click here

Computer and Internet

The Role of Computers and the Internet in Modern Life

Computers and the internet have changed the world of education in innumerable ways. This means the teacher must also change. Most students now have access to countless sources of information from all over the world. They can also talk to experts in multitudes of professions. Many students now learn to type before they learn to write in cursive. Despite these facts not all the changes have been positive. Students are now exposed to outside predators who may try to take advantage of them. In addition they may be exposed to obscene materials. Schools have installed filters, but they sometimes are unable to prevent all inappropriate material from being viewed. Many teachers complain that the internet allows plagiarism and all out cheating with access to pre-made term and research papers (where do you think this paper came from). Many critics of the educational system also point out that often students only like to use computers to access information. They don’t like to use computers for their many other uses like complicated math problems or construction of spreadsheets. Unfortunately, this seems to be true computers need to be used across the curriculum not just for research projects.

Yet another benefit having computers and internet access in the classroom is the ability of students to be able to talk to experts in their respective fields. Children doing a project on insects can to talk to scientists who work with insects every day. They may be lucky enough to talk to an astronaut or maybe an author whose books they have been reading. Children can also participate in interactive chat rooms with other students or international pen pals. With this said it’s important that teachers take the proper precautions.

Everyone knows that the internet poses many dangers especially for unsupervised children. When children are using chat rooms, care needs to be taken to ensure the children safety. Any student using a chat room needs to have a screen name(www.ptft.merit.edu). Teachers have to make sure they go over certain rules before they allow any student use the internet. Students must be taught to never give personal information over the internet this includes their name, location, or telephone number. It can be quite a liability to have internet access in the classroom; teachers must be sure they protect themselves. 

Another worry is that students may access inappropriate material. In 2001, almost all public schools with internet access (96 percent) used various technologies or procedures to control student internet access to inappropriate material on the internet ( www.nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/internet/8.asp ). These technologies usually work, but I have learned the hard way that they are not perfect. That is why it is important to monitor students whenever they do use the computer.

Cyber cheating as well is a new problem that teachers now have to deal with as a consequence of the computer revolution. Plagiarism has been a problem since kids started going to school, but the internet opened up a new world of cheating. Take this example from a past Phi Delta Kappan article. Steve Gardiner an English teacher in Billings, Montana was home one night correcting a stack of Macbeth essays. He had sworn he just graded the paper this paper and had given it an A. He remembered writing on it. Was he mistaken, he looked back at his stack of papers? There it was the same exact paper word for word. Mr. Gardiner couldn’t believe it; did they think he was stupid? They had copied each other work and they were in the same class. So he had thought. The next day when he confronted the two he found out that both had down loaded the essay off the internet. It was just dumb luck that they had both picked the same essay ( Gardiner, 2001, p. 172) This example shows just how easy it for students to cheat. Web sites like www.schoolsucks.com do not make a teacher’s job very easy. Sites like these offer papers on any type of subject a student would ever need to write on. They can really make a teachers job tough. This is why teachers did to be vigilant in catching cheaters. There are obvious things to look for though. High school students and defiantly younger students almost never write perfect papers. If it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Another way to check students work is through the internet exercise we conducted in our CS 101 lab. You visit an internet search engine type in a certain passage from a paper and see if anything comes up. If you do find something that matches exactly you more than likely have a student who is plagiarizing. 
School districts across the country must get better at implementing the current technology. Most of the computers in schools are set up in just one room commonly called a computer lab. This makes them completely inaccessible to be used in everyday learning especially at the elementary level. A major weakness of the education system is that computers are not used enough. Students need to work on them more. Any future job that a student could end up in will

equire that they use some type of computer. In addition school districts need to do a better job in training teachers to use technology. Statistics released by the Department of Education in April of 2000 found that less than 35 percent of teachers felt they were “well prepared” or “very well prepared” to use technology effectively (www.nea.org/technology/ ). Schools need to realize that they need to spend more money on training teachers in technology than on the actual technology. A school can have all the newest up to date technology, but if no one knows how to use it, it’s useless.

The kids often know more about computers than the teachers do.

In conclusion, one has to believe that computers and the internet have benefited education. Unfortunately, they have also brought many problems upon the schools. The schools are catching up and are implementing programs to combat these problems. They have a long way to go though. Despite that fact the teacher can go a long way in preventing most of these problems. All it takes is a teacher who is properly trained and can keep a watchful on their students. If these standards can be reached, the new technology can allow students to accomplish achievements once only dreamed of.

For more information this site: more info



Computer and Technology

Computer and Technology

As we move into the twenty-first century, it is clear to see that we have become more and more dependent on computers and information technology. This technology now reaches into almost every area of our lives and it is easy to predict that this phenomenon is only going to grow. My personal belief is that this presents a variety of dangers.

 

It is highly likely that in the future there will be comparatively few aspects of our lives that will not be influenced by computer technology. The probability is that it will control more and more forms of communication, transforming fields such as education and business when video-conferencing platforms become more stable. It might even affect romance with more people forming relationships online.

 

While there may be benefits to this technological revolution, there are also a number of potential dangers. Perhaps the most serious of these would be  that if people rely on computers too much for communication, they could in fact begin to communicate less well. For example, if every member of a family had their own computer screen and smart phone, they might speak less and less often to one another and simply look at a screen. This would be serious because our ability to communicate is an essential part of our humanity.

 

My conclusion is that the growth of computer technology is inevitable, but that this may not be entirely positive. Just one area in which it is possible to foresee dangers is communication, and if we are going to ensure that computers do not become a negative influence, we need to think carefully how we use them.

For more info: Click here

Android OS in Mobile Technology

Android (Operating System) - Revolution in Mobile Technology

Abstract

Android's mobile operating system is based on the Linux kernel and it is a software stack for mobile devices. This operating system is one of the world's best-selling Smartphone platform.
Android involves many developers writing applications that helps in extended the functionality of the devices. There are currently over 1,50,000 applications available for Android. Android Market is the online application store run by Google, though applications can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write in the Java language.
The unveiling of the Android distribution on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 80 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. Most of the Android code is released by Google under the Apache License.
The Android open-source software stack consists of Java applications running on a Java-based, object-oriented application framework on top of Java core libraries . Libraries written in C include SQLite relational database management system, Web Kit layout engine, SGL graphics engine, SSL. The Android operating system, including the Linux kernel, consists of roughly 12million lines of code including 3million lines of XML, 2.8million lines of C, 2.1million lines of Java, and 1.75million lines of C++.
Android logo Ascender Corporation designed the Android logo with the Droid font family.

Version history

After original release, many updates of androids have been seen. These updates focus on fixing bugs as well as adding new features. Each new version is developed under a code name based on a dessert item.
The most recent released versions of Android are:

• 2.0/2.1 (Eclair), which introduced HTML5 and Exchange ActiveSync 2.5 support
• 2.2 (Froyo), which introduced speed improvements with JIT optimization , Wi-Fi and Adobe Flash support
• 2.3 (Gingerbread), which introduced the soft keyboard and copy/paste features, and added support for Near Field Communication
• 3.0 (Honeycomb), which supports larger screen devices and introduces many new user interface features, and supports multicore processors and hardware acceleration for graphics.

The upcoming version of Android is:

• Ice Cream Sandwich, a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb into a "cohesive whole," with a possible release in mid-2011.

Hardware Running Android

The main supported platform for Android is the ARM (Advanced Risc Machines) architecture. ARM is one of the most licensed and thus widespread processor cores in the world. It is used especially in portable devices due to low power consumption and reasonable performance. Now a days cell phones, note books and tablets, including the Dell Streak, Samsung Galaxy Tab, TV and other devices can use the functionality of Android . HTC Dream was the first phone to run android, released on 22 October 2008.

Features

Current features and specifications:

• Bluetooth, edge, 3G , Wi Fi support.
• Camera GPS, accelerometer support.
• GSM telephony support.
• Integrated browser based on the open source web kit engine
• Media support for common audio video, still image formats.

Architecture

Architecture Diagram Android architecture has four layers:

1. Application Layer :

Android is one of skillful and modifiable OS because of its many applications.Top 25 applications in the list below

• Goggle voice
• Advanced task killer
• Drop box
• Evernote
• Droid Analytics
• Documents to go
• Amazon kindle
• Places directory
• Tripit
• Seesmic
• FCC Speedtest
• Astro File Manager
• Got To Do
• Gist
• TED Mobile
• Pandora
• Shazam
• Dial Zero
• Google Goggles
• Google Skymap
• Tricodor
• Fxcamera
• Photoshop Mobile
• Bump
• Barcode Scanner

These applications are written in Java Language.

2.Application Framework Layer:

Android applications are written in the Java programming language. By the help of SDK tools Android's code is compiled with data and resource file. An archive file has .apk extension. All the code in a single .apk file is considered to be one application. By the help of this file, Android devices use to install the application.
Android provides the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications due to open source platform. These are the services which are provided by it like device hardware, access location information, run background services, set alarms, add notifications to the status bar, and much more.
Developers have full access to the same framework APIs used by the core applications. The application architecture is designed to simplify the reuse of components; any application can publish its capabilities and any other application may then make use of those capabilities .This same mechanism allows components to be replaced by the user.
Underlying all applications is a set of services and systems, including:

• Set ofViewsthat can be used to build an application, including lists, grids, text boxes, buttons, and web browser
• Access data from other applications (such as Contacts), or to share their own data by the help of content providers.
• AResource Manager, providing access to non-code resources such as localized strings, graphics, and layout files
• To display custom alerts in the status bar by the help of a notification manager.
• Lifecycle of applications can be maintained by an activity manager.

3.Libraries:

Android system uses a set of C/C++ libraries which helps in functioning of its various components.. Android application framework exposes its functionalities for its users.
Some of the core libraries are listed below:

• System C library - a BSD-derived implementation of the standard C system library , tuned for embedded Linux-based devices
• Media Libraries - many audio and video formats are supported by these libraries. These libraries support image formats like MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, and PNG.
• Surface Manager - manages access to the display subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D graphic layers from multiple applications
• LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view
• SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
• 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software.
• FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering

SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications.

4.Linux Kernel Layer :

The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.
It contains the drivers for flash memory, camera, keypad, Audio, WiFi drivers , networking, file system access and inter process communication.
Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model.

Software Development Kit

The Android software development kit (SDK) includes a set of development tools viz. a debugger, libraries, a handset emulator documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Android developer website helps in downloading SDK. Currently supported development platforms include computers running Linux (any modern desktop Linux distribution), Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later, Windows XP or later. Instead of using Eclipse (official IDE) developers may use any text editor to edit Java and XML to create, build and debug Android applications.
The SDK also supports older versions of the Android platform in case developers wish to target their applications at older devices.
Android applications are packaged in .apk format and stored under /data/application folder on the Android OS. APK package contains .dex files ,resource files, etc.

List of those features that android phones do better than the iPhone

• Browsing
• Desktop
• Connectivity
• PC Connection
• Multi-notification
• Endless personalization
• Market
• Goggle integration
• Open source
• Open to carriers

Current Distribution

The following pie chart and table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Android Market within a 14-day period ending on the data collection date noted below.

Platform	API Level	Distribution
Android 1.5	3	3.9%
Android 1.6	4	6.3%
Android 2.1	7	31.4%
Android 2.2	8	57.6%
Android 2.3	9	0.8%

Data collected during two weeks ending on February 2, 2011.


 For more info: Click here

 

Mobile Technology

Mobile Phones - a great invention?

             Mobile phone is a good technology which is not lacking from our lives. This report will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile phones.

Today, mobile phone has become popular to everybody since it is very convenient. The most advantage of having a mobile phone is you can communicate to your family and your friends no matter what where you are. For instance, you can contact easily to your friends by calling or sending messages everywhere without electricity. It is maybe the main reason why almost all people today choose to own a mobile phone. From the customer’s point of view, it is obvious that mobile phones assist you in business a lot, such as, make schedule of working, surf the internet, and keep in touch with their companies. Moreover, you can relax with mobile phone’s applications, for example, play games, listen to music, or chat with your friends.

On the other hand, there are also disadvantages. Using a lot mobile phone can harm your brain, particularly teenager and children who are under 16 years old. If you use mobile phones too much, you will get bad effects like dizzy, blood-brain barrier, or ears problems. In addition, when you use mobile phones while you are driving, you will get an accident. It is essential not good for you and others. Moreover, “radiations emitted from the phone are dead harmful for the eardrum”, has proved by many scientist.

Owning a mobile phone in your hand is you can solve many issues and hold most of information around the world. Even though is not good for your health and you have to protect yourself from bad effects of mobile phones if you choose to have one.

For more info: Click here