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| Introduction to Information Technology: Your Digital World | |
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| the Practical User: How Becoming Computer Savvy Benefits You | |
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| Information Technology & Your Life: The Future Now | |
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| Two Parts of IT: Computers & Communications | |
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| Education: The Promise of More Interactive & Individualized Learning | |
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| Practical Action Box: How to Be a Good Online Student | |
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| Health: High Tech for Wellness | |
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| Money: Toward the Cashless Society | |
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| Leisure: Infotech in Entertainment & the Arts | |
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| Government & Electronic Democracy: Participating in the Civic Realm | |
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| Jobs & Careers | |
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| Information Technology is Allpervasive: Cellphones, Email, the Internet, & the E-World | |
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| The Phone Grows Up | |
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| "You've Got Mail!" Email's Mass Impact | |
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| Practical Action Box: Managing Your Email | |
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| The Internet, the World Wide Web, & the "Plumbing of Cyberspace" | |
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| College Students & the E-World | |
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| the "All-Purpose Machine": The Varieties of Computers | |
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| All Computers, Great & Small: The Categories of Machines | |
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| Supercomputers | |
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| Mainframe Computers | |
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| Workstations | |
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| Microcomputers | |
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| Microcontrollers | |
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| Servers | |
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| Understanding Your Computer | |
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| How Computers Work: Three Key Concepts | |
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| Pretending to Customize a Desktop Computer: Basic Knowledge of How a Computer Works | |
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| Input Hardware: Keyboard & Mouse | |
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| Processing & Memory Hardware: Inside the System Cabinet | |
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| Storage Hardware: Hard Drive & CD/DVD Drive | |
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| Output Hardware: Video & Sound Cards, Monitor, Speakers, & Printer | |
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| Communications Hardware: Modem | |
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| Software | |
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| Where Is Information Technology Headed? | |
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| Computers: Miniaturization, Speed, & Affordability | |
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| Communications: Connectivity, Interactivity, & Multimedia | |
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| When Computers & Communications Combine: Convergence, Portability, Personalization, Collaboration, & Cloud Computing | |
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| "E" Also Stands for Ethics | |
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| Experience Box: Better Organization & Time Management: Dealing with the Information Deluge in College-& in Life | |
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| the Internet & the World Wide Web: Exploring Cyberspace | |
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| Connecting to the Internet: Narrowband, Broadband, & Access Providers | |
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| Narrowband (Dial-Up Modem): Low Speed but Inexpensive | |
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| High-Speed Phone Lines: More Expensive but Available in Most Cities | |
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| Problem for Telephone Internet Connections: The Last Mile | |
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| Cable Modem: Close Competitor to DSL | |
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| Satellite Wireless Connections | |
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| Other Wireless Connections: Wi-Fi, 3G, & 4G | |
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| Internet Access Providers (ISPs): Three Kinds | |
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| How Does the Internet Work? | |
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| Internet Connections: POPs, IXPs, Backbone, & Internet2 | |
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| Internet Communications: Protocols, Packets, & Addresses | |
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| Who Runs the Internet? | |
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| The World Wide Web | |
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| The Face of the Web: Browsers, Websites, & Web Pages | |
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| How the Browser Finds Things: URLs 66 | |
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| The Nuts & Bolts of the Web: HTML & Hyperlinks | |
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| Using Your Browser to Get around the Web | |
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| Web Portals: Starting Points for Finding Information | |
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| Search Services & Search Engines & How They Work | |
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| Four Web Search Tools: Individual Search Engines, Subject Directories, Metasearch Engines, & Specialized Search Engines | |
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| Smart Searching: Three General Strategies | |
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| Practical Action Box: Evaluating & Sourcing Information Found on the Web | |
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| Multimedia Search Tools: Image, Audio, & Video Searching | |
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| Practical Action Box: Serious Web Search Techniques | |
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| Desktop Search: Tools for Searching Your Computer's Hard Disk | |
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| Tagging: Saving Links for Easier Retrieval Later | |
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| Email & Other Ways of Communicating over the Net | |
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| Two Ways to Send & Receive Email | |
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| How to Use Email | |
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| Sorting Your Email | |
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| Attachments | |
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| Instant Messaging | |
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| FTP-for Copying All the Free Files You Want | |
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| Newsgroups-for Online Typed Discussions on Specific Topics | |
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| Listservs: Email-Based Discussion Groups | |
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| Netiquette: Appropriate Online Behavior | |
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| The Online Gold Mine: Telephony, Multimedia, Webcasting, Blogs, E-Commerce, & Social Networking | |
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| Telephony: The Internet Telephone & Videophone | |
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| Multimedia on the Web | |
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| The Web Automatically Comes to You: Webcasting, Blogging, & Podcasting | |
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| E-Commerce: B2B Commerce, Online Finance, Auctions, & Job Hunting | |
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| Web 2.0: Social Networking, Media Sharing, Social-Network Aggregation, & Microblogging | |
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| Practical Action Box: Social Networking: Worth the Convenience? | |
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| The Intrusive Internet: Snooping, Spamming, Spoofing, Phishing, Pharming, Cookies, & Spyware | |
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| Snooping on Your Email: Your Messages Are Open to Anyone | |
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| Spam: Electronic Junk Mail | |
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| Spoofing, Phishing, & Pharming: Phony Email Senders & Websites | |
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| Cookies: Convenience or Hindrance? | |
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| Spyware-Adware, Browser & Search Hijackers, & Key Loggers: Intruders to Track Your Habits & Steal Your Data | |
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| Practical Action Box: Tips for Avoiding Spyware | |
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| Experience Box: Web Research, Term Papers, & Plagiarism | |
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| Software: Tools for Productivity & Creativity | |
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| System Software: The Power behind the Power | |
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| the Operating System: What It Does | |
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| Booting | |
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| CPU Management | |
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| File Management | |
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| Task Management | |
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| Security Management | |
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| Other System Software: Device Drivers & Utility Programs | |
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| Device Drivers: Running Peripheral Hardware | |
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| Practical Action Box: Utility Programs | |
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| Utilities: Service Programs | |
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| Common Features of the User Interface | |
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| The GUI: The Graphical User Interface | |
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| The Help Command | |
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| Common Operating Systems | |
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| Macintosh Operating System | |
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| Microsoft Windows | |
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| Network Operating Systems: OES, Windows Server, Unix, & Linux | |
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| Embedded Operating Systems for Handhelds | |
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| Application Software: Getting Started | |
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| Application Software: For Sale, For Free, or For Rent? | |
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| Tutorials & Documentation | |
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| A Few Facts about Files & the Usefulness of Importing & Exporting | |
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| Types of Application Software | |
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| Word Processing Software | |
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| Spreadsheet Programs | |
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| The Basics: How Spreadsheet Programs Work | |
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| Analytical Graphics: Creating Charts | |
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| Database Software | |
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| The Benefits of Database Software | |
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| The Basics: How Databases Work | |
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| Personal Information Managers (PIMs) | |
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| Specialty Application Software | |
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| Presentation Graphics Software | |
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| Financial Software | |
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| Desktop Publishing | |
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| Drawing & Painting Programs | |
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| Video/Audio Editing Software | |
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| Animation Software | |
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| Multimedia Authoring Software | |
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| Web Page Design/Authoring Software | |
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| Project Management Software | |
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| Practical Action Box: Help in Building Your Web Page | |
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| Integrated Software & Software Suites | |
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| Portable Document Format (PDF) | |
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| Computer-Aided Design (CAD) | |
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| Filenames & Extensions | |
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| Data Compression: Putting More Data in Less Space | |
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| Experience Box: Getting Help from Tech Support | |
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| Hardware: The CPU & Storage: How to Choose a Multimedia Computer System | |
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| Microchips, Miniaturization, & Mobility | |
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| From Vacuum Tubes to Transistors to Microchips | |
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| Miniaturization Miracles: Microchips & Microprocessors | |
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| Mobility | |
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| Choosing an Inexpensive Personal Computer: Understanding Computer Ads | |
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| The System Unit : The Basics | |
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| The Binary System: Using On/Off Electrical States to Represent Data & Instructions | |
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| Machine Language | |
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| The Computer Case: Bays, Buttons, & Boards | |
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| Power Supply | |
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| The Motherboard & the Microprocessor Chip | |
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| Practical Action Box: Power Issues: Problems with Electrical Power to Your Computer | |
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| Processing Speeds: From Megahertz to Picoseconds | |
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| More on the System Unit : What Supports the Processor? | |
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| Word Size | |
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| The Parts of the CPU | |
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| How Memory Works: RAM, ROM, CMOS, & Flash | |
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| How Cache Works | |
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| Other Methods of Speeding Up Processing | |
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| Ports & Cables | |
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| Expandability: Buses & Cards | |
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| Secondary Storage | |
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| Hard Disks | |
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| Optical Disks: CDs & DVDs | |
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| Smart Cards | |
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| Flash & Solid State Memory | |
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| Practical Action Box: Storing Your Stuff: How Long Will Digitized Data Last? | |
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| Online Secondary Storage | |
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| Practical Action Box: Starting Over with Your Hard Drive: Erasing, Reformatting, & Reloading | |
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| Future Developments in Processing & Storage | |
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| Future Developments in Processing | |
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| Future Developments in Secondary Storage | |
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| Experience Box: How to Buy a Laptop | |
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| Hardware: Input & Output: Taking Charge of Computing & Communications | |
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| Input & Output | |
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| Input Hardware | |
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| Keyboards | |
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| Pointing Devices | |
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| Scanning & Reading Devices | |
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| Audio-Input Devices | |
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| Webcams & Video-Input Cards | |
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| Digital Cameras | |
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| Speech-Recognition Systems | |
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| Sensors | |
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| Radio-Frequency Identification Tags | |
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| Human-Biology-Input Devices | |
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| Output Hardware | |
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| Traditional Softcopy Output: Display Screens | |
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| Traditional Hardcopy Output: Printers | |
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| Practical Action Box Buying a Printer | |
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| Mixed Output: Sound, Voice, & Video | |
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| Input & Output Technology & Quality of Life: Health & Ergonomics | |
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| Health Matters | |
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| Ergonomics: Design with People in Mind | |
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| the FUTURE of INPUT & OUTPUT | |
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| Toward More Input from Remote Locations | |
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| Toward More Source Data Automation | |
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| Toward More Realistic Output | |
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| Experience Box: Good Habits: Protecting Your Computer System, Your Data, & Your Health | |
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| Communications, Networks, & Safeguards: The Wired & Wireless World | |
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| From the Analog to the Digital Age | |
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| The Digital Basis of Computers: Electrical Signals as Discontinuous Bursts | |
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| The Analog Basis of Life: Electrical Signals as Continuous Waves | |
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| Purpose of the Modem: Converting Digital Signals to Analog Signals & Back | |
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| Converting Reality to Digital Form | |
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| Networks | |
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| The Benefits of Networks | |
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| A Few Disadvantages of Networks | |
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| Types of Networks: WANs, MANs, & Others | |
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| How Networks Are Structured: Client/Server & Peer to Peer | |
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| Intranets, Extranets, & VPNs | |
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| Components of a Network | |
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| Network Topologies | |
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| Ethernet | |
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| Wired Communications Media | |
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| Wired Communications Media: Wires & Cables | |
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| Wired Communications Media for Homes | |
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| Wireless Communications Media | |
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| The Electromagnetic Spectrum, the Radio-Frequency (RF) Spectrum, & Bandwidth | |
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| Practical Action: Telecommuting & Telework: The Nontraditional Workplace | |
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| Five Types of Wireless Communications Media | |
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| Long-Distance Wireless: One-Way Communication | |
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| Long-Distance Wireless: Two-Way Communication | |
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| Short-Range Wireless: Two-Way Communication | |
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| Cyberthreats, Hackers, & Safeguards | |
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| Cyberthreats | |
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| Practical Action Box: WikiLeaks & DDoS | |
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| Practical Action Box: Ways to Minimize Virus Attacks | |
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| Some Cybervillains: Hackers & Crackers | |
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| Online Safety | |
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| Practical Action Box: How to Deal with Passwords | |
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| Experience Box: Virtual Meetings: Linking Up Electronically | |
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| Personal Technology: The Future is you | |
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| Convergence, Portability, & Personalization | |
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| Convergence | |
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| Portability | |
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| Personalization | |
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| Popular Personal Technologies | |
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| Portable Media Players | |
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| How PMP/MP3 Players Work | |
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| The Societal Effects of PMPs | |
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| Using PMPs in College | |
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| High-Tech Radio: Satellite, High Definition & Internet | |
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| Satellite Radio | |
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| HD Radio | |
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| Internet Radio | |
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| Podcasting | |
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| Digital Cameras: Changing Photography | |
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| How Digital Cameras Work | |
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| The Societal Effects of Digital Cameras | |
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| Practical Action Box: Online Viewing & Sharing of Digital Photos | |
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| Digital Television | |
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| Three Kinds of Television: DTV, HDTV, SDTV | |
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| The Societal Effects of the New TV | |
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| E-Book Readers: The New Reading Machines | |
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| How an E-Book Reader Works | |
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| The Drawbacks of E-Book Readers | |
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| Tablet PCs | |
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| Smartphones: More Than Talk | |
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| How a Mobile Phone Works | |
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| The Societal Effects of Cellphones | |
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| Videogame Systems: The Ultimate Convergence Machine? | |
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| Experience Box: The "Always On" Generation | |
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| Databases are in Your Life: Digital Engines for Today's Economy | |
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| Managing Files: Basic Concepts | |
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| How Data Is Organized: The Data Storage | |
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| Hierarchy | |
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| The Key Field | |
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| Database Management Systems | |
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| The Benefits of Database Management Systems | |
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| Three Database Components | |
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| Practical Action Box: Accuracy & Completeness | |
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| The Database Administrator | |
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| Database Models | |
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| Hierarchical Database | |
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| Network Database | |
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| Relational Database | |
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| Object-Oriented Database | |
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| Multidimensional Database | |
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| Data Mining | |
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| The Process of Data Mining | |
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| Databases & the Digital Economy: E-Commerce & E-Business | |
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| E-Commerce: Online Buying & Selling | |
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| Information Systems in Organizations: Using Databases to Help Make Decisions | |
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| The Qualities of Good Information | |
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| Information Flows within an Organization | |
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| Computer-Based Information Systems | |
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| Office Information Systems | |
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| Transaction Processing Systems | |
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| Management Information Systems | |
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| Decision Support Systems | |
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| Executive Support Systems | |
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| Expert Systems | |
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| Artificial Intelligence | |
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| Expert Systems | |
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| Natural Language Processing | |
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| Intelligent Agents | |
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| Pattern Recognition | |
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| Fuzzy Logic | |
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| Virtual Reality & Simulation Devices | |
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| Robotics | |
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| Two Approaches to Artificial Intelligence: Weak versus Strong AI | |
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| Artificial Life, the Turing Test, & AI Ethics | |
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| DATABASES: Concerns about Privacy & Identity Theft | |
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| The Threat to Privacy | |
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| Identity Theft | |
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| Experience Box: Preventing Your Identity from Getting Stolen | |
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| The Challenges of the Digital Age: Society & Information Technology Today | |
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| Truth Issues: Manipulating Digital Data | |
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| Manipulation of Sound | |
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| Manipulation of Photos | |
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| Manipulation of Video & Television | |
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| Security Issues: Threats to Computers & Communications Systems | |
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| Errors & Accidents | |
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| Natural Hazards | |
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| Computer Crimes | |
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| Computer Criminals | |
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| Practical Action Box: Is the Boss Watching You? Trust in the Workplace | |
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| Security Safeguards: Protecting Computers & Communications | |
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| Deterrents to Computer Crime | |
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| Identification & Access | |
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| Encryption | |
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| Protection of Software & Data | |
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| Disaster-Recovery Plans | |
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| Quality-of-Life Issues: The Environment, Mental Health, Child Protection, & the Workplace | |
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| Environmental Problems | |
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| Mental-Health Problems | |
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| Protecting Children: Pornography, SexualPredators, & Online Bullies | |
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| Workplace Problems: Impediments to Productivity | |
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| Economic & Political Issues: Employment & the Haves/Have-Nots | |
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| Technology, the Job Killer? | |
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| Gap between Rich & Poor | |
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| Whom Does the Internet Serve? | |
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| In a World of Breakneck Change, Can You Still Thrive? | |
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| Experience Box: Student Use of Computers: Some Controversies | |
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| Building Systems & Applications: Software Development, Programming, & Languages | |
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| Systems Development and the Life Cycle of a Software Project | |
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| The Purpose of a System | |
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| Getting the Project Going: How It Starts, Who's Involved | |
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| The Six Phases of Systems Analysis & Design | |
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| The First Phase: Preliminary Investigation | |
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| The Second Phase: Systems Analysis | |
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| The Third Phase: Systems Design | |
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| The Fourth Phase: Systems Development | |
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| The Fifth Phase: Systems Implementation | |
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| The Sixth Phase: Systems Maintenance | |
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| Programming: Traditionally a Five-Step Procedure | |
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| The First Step: Clarify the Programming Needs | |
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| The Second Step: Design the Program | |
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| The Third Step: Code the Program | |
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| The Fourth Step: Test the Program | |
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| The Fifth Step: Document & Maintain the Program | |
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| Five Generations of Programming Languages | |
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| First Generation: Machine Language | |
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| Second Generation: Assembly Language | |
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| Third Generation: High-Level or Procedural Languages | |
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| Fourth Generation: Very-High-Level or Problem-Oriented Languages | |
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| Fifth Generation: Natural Languages | |
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| Programming Languages Used Today | |
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| FORTRAN: The language of mathematics and the first high-level language | |
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| COBOL: The language of business | |
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| BASIC: The easy language | |
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| Pascal: The simple language | |
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| C: For portability, operating systems, and scientific use | |
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| C++: Enhancement of C | |
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| LISP: For artificial intelligence programs | |
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| Object-Oriented & Visual Programming | |
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| Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) | |
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| Visual Programming: The Example of Visual BASIC | |
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| Markup & Scripting Languages | |
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| HTML: For creating 2-D web documents and links | |
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| VRML: For creating 3-D web pages | |
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| XML: For making the web work better | |
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| JavaScript: For dynamic web pages | |
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| Flash: Also for creating dynamic web pages | |
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| ActiveX: For creating interactive web pages | |
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| CGI (Common Gateway Interface) | |
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| Perl: For CGI scripts | |
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| PHP (Personal Home Page, or PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) | |
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| Experience Box: Critical Thinking Tools | |