James Bowes - Post 16 Computer Science

The challenge: A flow chart plan for the solution:  My Solution:

Machine Code Machine code is the language in which CPU’s work in at the lowest value. It is represented in binary, 1 or 0. Either on/off (relates to transistors in a CPU which direct electricity around). Machine code is made up of opcode or operand. Assembly Language This is a low level language that is related to the computer it is being programmed for. It is specific to the machine it is on (assembly language differs from different manufacturers). It Uses descriptive names for data stores, mnemonics for instructions and labels to allow selection. Each instruction is usually translated into one corresponding machine code instruction. Mneumonics The words that represent the instructions in Assembly language are called mneumonics. Opcode and Operand A machine code instruction consists of an opcode that tells the CPU what to do and an operand that is the number to do it with. Source Code The source code is the program that has been written by a huma...

Video: TechQuickie/LinusMediaGroup Features of Open Source Software: Usually free to use. Anyone can use/edit/modify software. Not necessarily built by a professional programmer. Not guaranteed to be supported into the future (updates and bug fixes). Usually no customer support. Features of Closed Source Software:  You have to have a license to use the software  It usually costs a fee to use.  Customer support is usually available to the user if they have a problem.  The software will be updated and improved overtime (usually).  Source code cannot be edited or changed by third parties. 

Computer security Anti-virus - Scans/analysing your system to check for virus’ on a regular basis, if it identifies a virus that it knows of (in its database) it will remove it from the system. Spyware protection - Scans user files, checks for damage caused by installed spyware to the system and analyses domain names that potentially contain spyware. They then remove or warn the user about issues.   Firewall - use to prevent specific network packets making it onto a network. These may be blocking people from accessing certain websites or from certain files from being downloaded/uploaded. Disk organisation Defragmenter - rearranges files stored on the hard drive so related files are stored together. This makes it easier for the CPU to find files easier to find and results in much faster performance. File transfer - software designed to transfer content from one device to another. Either done from one piece of hardware to another using physical cables or done usi...

Different types of software include: - Word Processors - Spreadsheet Software - Video Editing Software - Video Viewing Software - Photo Editing Software - File managers These pieces of software have different features that allow them to do what they do: Word Processor – text editing, font styles, paragraph styles, text wrapping, word count, spell check, mail merge, shape tool, tables, charts, headers and footers, page numbering. Web Browser - Address Bar (allows website to be entered to search the internet), tabs (allows multiple websites to be opened alongside each other), Dedicated search engine bar (allows terms to be entered into a search engine which will bring up related websites), bookmarks (allows website addresses to be saved so they can be loaded up later). Spreadsheet - allows mathematical calculations to be carried out between values in the tables, allows certain changes to be made based on stats, form graphs and charts based on numerical data, conditional ...

Simple Database The simplest kind of database is a flat file, consisting of information about a single entity. Entities An entity is a category of object, person, event or thing of interest about which data needs to be recorded. Eamples of entities would be: Customer, Product or Subscription (for a digital textbook service). Records In a  database , a  record  is a group of fields within a table that are belong to a specific entity. The different fields in a record for the digital textbook example could be: Customer ( custID , title, firstname, surname, email) Product ( productID , title, subject, level, price) Subscription ( subID , startDate, endDate) Primary Key Each entity needs an identifier which uniquely identifies a particular record. This is called a Primary Key.  Each Primary key is totally unique for every record. Composite Primary Key Sometimes multiple unique IDs are required to identify a ...