Desktop Publishing

1. Describe how word processing and desktop publishing software have revolutionized writing and publishing.

We all know that the computer was designed originally to work with numbers, but it has evolved into an important tool for text processing.

The main steps involved in word-processing are entering text, editing text, formatting, proofreading, and saving the document, and then printing the document. The great thing about using word-processing software that most users take for granted is that the writer  can use commands to edit what’s on the screen. The user can control the typefaces justification, spacing, margins, headers, footers, and other visual aspects of a given document. To make life easier, most programs offer automated footnoting, hyphenation, and other otherwise cumbersome processes. There is also usually an option of bulleting, numbering, and outlining which can be a tremendously useful organizational tool. Proofreading is simplified by spelling and grammar checkers, which in collaboration with online tesauruses, dictionaries, and other references act as helpful tools in editing - although some of the work still must be left to humans.

Word processors are increasing in power, and they are incorporating many features that used to be found only in desktop-publishing software. Desktop publishers have revolutionized the publishing process by allowing people to produce professional-quality documents such as books, magazines, and other publications, at a reasonable cost, they have created source documents for input for page-layout programs with the help of word processors and grapics programs. Desktop-publishing technology is used by amateur and professional publishers everywhere to produce pretty much all text-and-graphics documents, from picture books to flyers to reference books.

 2. Discuss the potential impact of desktop publishing and web publishing on the concept of freedom of the press.

As desktop-publishing has become successful nearly overnight, that could be foreshadowing potential changes in other ways in which we communicate as new technology emerges. In enabling any person to publish, as I am right now, their information, there is a risk of spreading things that others might not want spread. Potential publishers can easily reach mass audiences thanks to computer networks and the World Wide Web, bypassing the issues presented by printing and distributing hard documents. As new technologies such as handwriting and speechrecognition improve typing may no longer be a crucial part of the writing process, and the artificial intelligence included in wordprocessing softwares may act as a coach as well as a tool for users and writers. As you can see, it’s even in YOUR hands now, just check out http://www.tudogs.com for free downloadable software.

3. Speculate about future developement in word processing and digital processing.

Portfolio 1: Rome Reborn. Area of Impact: Education.

Portfolio Proposal Candidate Name: Kyra Gould Title of Piece: Rome Reborn: What are the effects of virtual reality on education?   Area of Impact: Education News Item: “Ancient Rome brought back to life”BBC News 12 June 2007http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6743991.stm Does the topic relate to ITGS? Yes Is the area of impact one that has not been addressed in a previous portfolio piece? Yes Does the article raise one or more social or ethical issues related to an IT system? Yes Is the problem clear? Yes Can you think of two viable solutions? Yes Do you have access to a range of resources on this topic? Yes Approved: ________________________________              Date: ___________

History of Computers

The history of computers is a topic that covers millenia, dating back to the 30,000-20,000 BCE, when humans carved tally marks into bones. A bone was discovered from around the year 8500 BCE with prime numbers carved into it. The next major milestone was around 1900 or 1800 BCE, with the creation of the first place-value number system. The real first computer was invented between 1000 and 500 BCE: the abacus. Though it was simply a line-and-pebble system, the abacus was the first real calculating mechanism.

More later! Thanks for reading

http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm

http://www.maxmon.com/history.htm

Types of Computers

There are many types of computers out there, all available for different purposes. Mac and PC are the two main computer producers, each has many models of each kind of computer.

Microcomputers are computers with microprocessor chips as their CPUs. Often called Personal Computers (PCs), they are used for word processing, emailing, music, photo and video editing, database management, and thousands of other uses. The two major kinds of PCs are desktops and laptops.

Desktop computers include a case that holds the computer’s insides (the motherboard, drives, cards, etc.), a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. Desktop computers are generally – as it sounds – set up at a desk or workspace permanently, and plugged into a wall outlet for power.

Laptop computers are portable notebooks small and light enough to be carried around. They have a built-in screen, keyboard, and mouse-device (sometimes a touchpad, sometimes otherwise), they generally fold to close. Laptops use a battery but also have a power charger cord that plugs into a wall.

Next we have workstations, which are very powerful microcomputers used for applications that require more power than regular PCs. Workstations are used generally for one person, but they can also be used as server computers - supplying files to client computers over a network. These high-end workstations are able to process much more than average microcomputers.

Another kind of computer is a PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant. It is a handheld microcomputer with a touch-sensitive LCD screen. They often can communicate with desktop computers or with each other (by cable connection, IR beam, or radio waves). They are generally used as personal planners, as calendars, to do lists, address books, etc. There are also palmtop or handheld PCs which are small microcomputers, similar to a mini laptop with a small keyboard and screen.

 This is an example of a PDA.

Aside from microcomputers, there are mainframes, supercomputers, and minicomputers.  

Mainframe computers are powerful enough to process up to several hundred users simultaneously. Users submit taks to the mainframe through terminals, which are devices with screens and keyboards but but cannot process data. Mainframes generally cost several hundred thousand dollars, and are used by large companies who need processing power and information storage in a central location. They are also used as server computers for very large networks.

Supercomputers are mainframe computer that have updated speed and processing power. They are used for extremely calculation-intensive tasks (such as aerodynamic flows, global weather patterns, etc.) and are typically several million dollars.

 This is a supercomputer, a Cray-2 from the 1980’s.

Minicomputers are cheaper, less powerful versions of mainframes. They generally cost $100,000. However, these multi-user computers have been mostly taken over by high-end multiple-user microcomputer workstations.

Digg.com

Digg.com is a compilation of blogs and articles on the internet, organized for ease of viewing. It is very similar to Technorati in that it takes blogs from all over the internet and organizes them in one place. Digg.com, however, asks its readers to rate the blogs and articles and based on how well they are rated, they move up on the list to what is shown for everyone to read. Digg.com has become a new phenomenon because it allows its members to create a personal profile page, and connect with friends on the site. Once connected with these friends, you can share your favorite news – Digg started as technological and science articles, but has moved to political, entertainment, social news, etc. You can also see what they are rating as good or bad, and see what they are “digging up” (looking at and bringing to the top of their lists of what is interesting to read). Just go to www.digg.com to start your page!

Technorati

Technorati is a search engine for blogs. It tracks them and through tags and links, it keeps them organized. Technorati has compiled 107.8 million blogs, and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media for the browsing pleasure of its readers. It offers a place for blog readers and searchers to find what they are looking for easily in one place. Technorati is basically a giant tag system, it tags blogs and simultaneously acquires tags from the blogs that it tags. Technorati has been described as a huge chat room,  where millions of people from all over the world can collaborate ideas through blogs that the site keeps organized. The site has become popular by acting as a directory for what’s popular today, as a quick way to see the newest stuff. You simply type in the topic of your choice, and the top blogs related to that topic are at your fingertips. How handy!

The site won the SXSW 2006 awards for Best Technical Achievement, and was nominated in 2006 for other awards – but was beat by sites like Flikr and Google.

Lately Technorati has become less popular, due to issues with its founder and former CEO, Dave Sifry, as well as criticism regarding the sites many technical issues – spam, messy experimental features, etc.

Personalized Start Pages

Student Council here at ACI is setting up a school email system, through Google. Now by going to  http://partnerpage.google.com/students.aci.k12.tr, I can log into my school email account (send all love notes to kyra.gould@aci.k12.tr) and I will also see my personalized start page. Through the start page the Student Council is setting up a calendar for all students here at ACI to see. They can post things like exam dates, assemblies, special events, etc., so that those are all accessible online. Soon students will have no excuse for forgetting… And what is cool about the start page is that you can add items to your individual page. Like weather, quotes of the day, driving directions, calculators, dictionaries, etc., are available for personalizing your page.

I am interested to see how useful having student email will be, if it is used for daily assignments and stuff for classes or if it is just an extra email account for students. We’ll see!

Tags & Tag Clouds

Tags, as I explained in my previous post (Social Bookmarking – Del.icio.us) are keywords or labels that are related to the given topic. They are used for identifying the topic for things like search engines or favorites lists. Many people contribute to the construction of a tag cloud, and the more common tags are shown in a larger font. This is called weighting tags. A tag cloud is a visual of the tags on a website, showing those more common in a larger font, and those less prominent or smaller details in a smaller font (see above image.) The larger words are usually more general, and the smaller words are more specific. Tag Clouds are becoming more popular, with the help of sites like Del.icio.us and Technorati, and Flikr which uses tags for pictures.

Social Bookmarking – Del.icio.us

So if you like a website, you can save it to your favorites, and every time you want to access it you can click on favorites and there it is – that is, if you are on the same computer. If you are using a different computer, however, you’ll be out of luck. So, I would like to suggest a program that we are learning about – called “Del.icio.us”. It is a lot like your favorites list, but because it is web-based you can access it from anywhere. You simply register for an account, install the buttons onto your internet browser, and start saving your favorite pages. To keep things organized (because we all know that I like things organized) you can tag each site, with labels or keywords like “news” or “gossip” or “email”, keywords that you would normally use to search for the given site. Then as your list of sites gets longer, you can click on your alphabetized tag list to narrow down your say, 130 sites, to more like 5. (Or however many you have tagged as whatever you’re looking for) This way you don’t have to scroll through each time. What’s also cool is that other people can see your list if you have tags in common, and then you wind up compiling a large list of sites that have things in common. This can be very useful if used to its full potential. Because of this ability to share sites – it is called Social Bookmarking.

Here’s a clear and understandable video tutorial on how and why to use Social Bookmarking: