BASIC COMPUTING SKILLS

SMT 04204 AND SMT 04205

Sharifa A. Dayar

sharipherd@gmail.com
Dar es salaam Maritime Institute (DMI)

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What we will study
Computer Basics
◦ Hardware
◦ Software
Windows basics
Microsoft Word

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In this Lecture, we will
Definewhat a computer is.
What are the components of a computer.
How do these components work.

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What Is A Computer?

A computer is an electronic device, operating

under the control of instructions (software) stored
in its own memory unit, that can accept data
(input), manipulate data (processing unit), and
produce information (output). Generally, the term
is used to describe a collection of devices that
function together as a system.

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 Devices that comprise a computer system

Monitor
Speaker
(output)
(output) System unit
(processor, memory…)

Printer
(output)

Storage devices
(CD-RW, Floppy,
Hard disk, zip,…)
Mouse
(input)
Scanner Keyboard
(input) (input)

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What Does A Computer Do?
Computers can perform four general operations, which
comprise the so called information processing cycle.

 Input
 Process
 Output
 Storage

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 Data and Information

 All computer processing requires data, which is a collection of raw

facts, figures and symbols, such as numbers, words, images, video and
sound, given to the computer during the input phase.
 Computers manipulate data to create information. Information is data
that is organized, meaningful, and useful.
 During the output Phase, the information that has been created is put
into some form, such as a printed report.
 The information can also be put in computer storage for future use.

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 Why Is A Computer So Powerful?

The ability to perform the information processing

cycle with amazing speed.
Reliability (low failure rate).
Accuracy.
Ability to store huge amounts of data and
information.
Ability to communicate with other computers.

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 How Does a Computer Know what
to do?

It must be given a detailed list of instructions,

called a computer program or software, that
tells it exactly what to do.
Before processing a specific job, the computer
program corresponding to that job must be stored
in memory.
Once the program is stored in memory the
computer can start the operation by executing the
program instructions one after the other.

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 What Are The Primary Components Of A
Computer ?
 Input devices.
 Central Processing Unit
(containing the control
unit and the
arithmetic/logic unit).
 Memory.
 Output devices.
 Storage devices.

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Input Devices
Keyboard.
Mouse and others like……….

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 The Keyboard
The most commonly used input device is the
keyboard on which data is entered by manually
keying in or typing certain keys.

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 The Mouse
Is a pointing device which is used to control the
movement of a mouse pointer on the computer
screen to make selections from the screen. A
typical mouse has one or two buttons. The bottom
of the mouse is flat and contains a mechanism that
detects movement of the mouse.

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The Central processing Unit
The central processing unit (CPU) contains
electronic circuits that cause processing to occur.
The CPU interprets instructions to the computer,
performs the logical and arithmetic processing
operations, and causes the input and output
operations to occur. It is considered the “brain” of
the computer.

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Memory
Memory also called Random Access Memory or
RAM (temporary memory) is the main memory
of the computer. It consists of electronic
components that store data including numbers,
letters of the alphabet, graphics and sound. Any
information stored in RAM is lost when the
computer is turned off.

Read Only Memory or ROM is memory that is

etched on a chip that has start-up directions for
your computer. It is permanent memory.

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Amount Of RAM In Computers
The amount of memory in computers is typically
measured in kilobytes or megabytes. One kilobyte
(K or KB) equals approximately 1,000 memory
locations and one megabyte (M or MB) equals
approximately one million locations A memory
location, or byte, usually stores one character.
Therefore, a computer with 8 MB of memory can
store approximately 8 million characters. One
megabyte can hold approximately 500 pages of
text information.

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Output Devices
Output devices make the information resulting
from the processing available for use. The two
output devices more commonly used are the
printer and the computer screen.

The printer produces a hard copy of your output,

and the computer screen produces a soft copy of
your output.

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 Storage Devices
Auxiliary storage devices are used to store data
when they are not being used in memory. The
most common types of auxiliary storage used on
personal computers are floppy disks, hard disks
and CD-ROM drives.

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 Floppy Disks
A floppy disk is a portable, inexpensive storage
medium that consists of a thin, circular, flexible
plastic disk with a magnetic coating enclosed in a
square-shaped plastic shell.

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 Structure Of Floppy Disks

Initially Floppy disks were 8-inches wide, they

then shrank to 5.25 inches, and today the most
widely used floppy disks are 3.5 inches wide and
can typically store 1.44 megabytes of data.
A floppy disk is a magnetic disk, which means
that it used magnetic patterns to store data.
Data in floppy disks can be read from and written
to.
Formatting is the process of preparing a disk for
reading and writing.

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 Hard Disks

 Another form of auxiliary storage is a hard disk. A hard

disk consists of one or more rigid metal plates (platters)
coated with a metal oxide material that allows data to be
magnetically recorded on the surface of the platters.
 The hard disk platters spin at a high rate of speed, typically
5400 to 7200 revolutions per minute (RPM).
 Storage capacities of hard disks for personal computers
range from 10 GB to 120 GB (one billion bytes are called
a gigabyte).

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 Compact Discs

A compact disk (CD), also called an optical disc, is a flat

round, portable storage medium that is usually 4.75 inch in
diameter.
 A CD-ROM (read only memory), is a compact disc that
used the same laser technology as audio CDs for recording
music. In addition it can contain other types of data such
as text, graphics, and video.
 The capacity of a CD-ROM is 650 MB of data.

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End of the Lesson

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Computer Software
What is software?
What are the two kinds of software?
What is programming?
What are viruses and how do you
deal with them?

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Learning outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you should be

able to:
Define the function of software in a
computer system
Distinguish between an operating system
and an application system
List different types of operating systems
and application software
Define what are programming languages
Identify and avoid computer viruses

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What is a Computer Software

 Computer Software is a detailed list of instructions that

tells a computer exactly what to do.

A computer system is generally composed of hardware

and software.
 Hardware make up the physical components. Software
make up the set of instructions for the computer.
Without software, the computer will not be able to
perform the tasks that you would like it to do.

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What are the tow types of software?
There are two sets of instructions that a
computer must follow:
1. Operating system: These are General
instructions Systems software such as
DOS, Windows, Unix, and Mac OS
2. Application software These are Specific
instructions such as those used for word
processing, spreadsheets, or library
management

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Operating system
An organized collection of system programs
which serve as the interface between the user
or application and the computer.
It manages the hardware resources:
◦ CPU management to facilitate sharing
execution time of processes
◦ Memory management to allocate memory
resources dynamically
◦ Input/Output (I/O) management to handle
reading and writing devices

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Types of Operating Systems
DiskOperating System (DOS)
Microsoft Windows

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 Disk Operating Systems (DOS)

Disk Operating System (DOS) is a generic

term describing any operating system that is
loaded from disk devices when the system is
started or rebooted.
It is not a user friendly OS since users need to
memorize commands and issue it by typing
line by line. This is known as command line
interface. Very few end users use DOS
nowadays.
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DOS

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Microsoft Windows
A graphical user interface (GUI) that allows
multitasking or the ability to run several programs
at the same time.
Windows 3.x runs on DOS
Windows 95 / Windows NT no longer runs on DOS
About 75% of the world’s PCs use the Windows
operating system. The present versions in use are
Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and
Windows XP.

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Windows G.U.I.

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Other operating systems

IBM OS/2
Macintosh OS
Unix
Linux

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Application Software
Application Software consists of specific programs
(instructions) that tell a computer how to produce a certain
information. Some of the more commonly used packages
are:

 Word processing
 Electronic spreadsheet
 Database
 Presentation graphics

During our course we will use word processing software

(Microsoft Word) and Electronic spreadsheet (Microsoft
Excel).

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 Word Processing

 Word Processing software is used to create and print

documents. A key advantage of word processing software
is that users easily can make changes in documents.
Example MS Word.

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 Electronic Spreadsheets

 Electronic spreadsheet software allows the user to add,

subtract, and perform user-defined calculations on rows
and columns of numbers. These numbers can be changed
and the spreadsheet quickly recalculates the new results.
Example MS Excel

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 Database Software

 Allows the user to enter, retrieve, and update data in an

organized and efficient manner, with flexible inquiry and
reporting capabilities. Example MS Access

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 Presentation Graphics

 Presentation graphic software allows the user to create

documents called slides to be used in making the
presentations. Using special projection devices, the slides
display as they appear on the computer screen. Example
MS PowerPoint

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How are programs written?
Programming languages are used to write
computer programs. Some of these are:
Low level languages--Assembler
High level languages
◦ Cobol
◦ Fortran
◦ C++
Programming languages for the Internet
◦ Perl
◦ Java

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 What is a computer virus?
 Generally a computer virus is defined as a program
or a code that gains access without the users’
knowledge and/or perform actions not intended by
the user, often damaging data and sometimes the
whole system in the process.
 Viruses are activated once unknowing users run,
open, view or copy the file containing it. The action
that will trigger the virus to deliver its “payload”
depends on the type of virus that infected the file.
 Some security experts define viruses separately from
worms, and Trojan horses.

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 Characteristics of a virus*
Virus’ common characteristics:
1. A virus is a self-replicating program whose main
purpose is to propagate itself to as many places as
possible.
2. A virus propagates itself by modifying another
program to include itself.
3. A virus can only propagate itself by an act of a user of
the system in which it exists. (opening/viewing files
unknowing that it is infected and/or
copying/transferring files from one system to another
through diskettes, file transfer, e-mail, Internet and
other means…)
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What is a worm?
Worm is defined as a program propagating
itself in a network of computers exploiting bugs
and vulnerabilities of operating systems and
application software or through guessing /
breaking / stealing passwords to gain access
to other machines in the network.
Worms slow or shut down computer systems
and networks due to its continuous and
uncontrolled replication that consumes system
resources which are needed to run “legitimate”
tasks and operations.

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What is a worm? Continues
The worm’s capability to replicate
itself without any action from the users
differentiates it from a virus that needs
users action in order to replicate.

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 What is a Trojan horse?

A Trojan horse masks it self as a useful or

entertaining program but contains hidden functions
that while running may destroy files or create a
“back door” that will allow an intruder to access
the system. The intruder can exploit the privileges
of the legitimate user e.g. view, copy, or delete
files, steal passwords, reconfigure the system or
use it to attack another system.
Trojan horses unlike viruses do not spread by itself
but can be as destructive.

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How do you protect yourself from viruses,
worms and Trojan horses?
Do not run any program or open any file from untrusted
sources
Always scan using antivirus programs all floppy
diskettes and even CD-ROMs before using.
Install a virus shield to automatically check diskettes
and CDs
Always get an updated version of a virus scan and
cleaner.
Always check you hard drive for possible infection.
 Use diskettes only after they have been cleaned

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What are other ways of ensuring security
of the system and data?

Regularly back-up your system and your data

You may use CD-R, CD-RW, diskettes, or
another hard disk for backing up your data
and your system.
Use firewalls, encryption and other security
measures to protect data.

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End of the lesson

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