Information Technology Textbook PDF

Here is the markdown conversion of the document: # CHAPTER FORECAST In this chapter we begin by discussing how computing and the Internet affect your life. We then discuss smartphones, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other aspects of the electronic world (e-world). Next we describe how being...

Here is the markdown conversion of the document: # CHAPTER FORECAST In this chapter we begin by discussing how computing and the Internet affect your life. We then discuss smartphones, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other aspects of the electronic world (e-world). Next we describe how being smart about information technology can benefit you, and then we cover the varieties of computers. We then explain three key concepts behind how a computer works and what goes into a personal computer, both hardware and software. We conclude by describing three directions of computer development and three directions of communications development. All these concepts are discussed in greater detail in subsequent chapters. # UNIT 1A: The Mobile World, Information Technology, & Your Life "Mobile computing... will be the catalyst that brings society the most dramatic changes of the Information Revolution." So writes Michael Saylor, author of *The Mobile Wave*. The information revolution that began with writing on clay tablets, then continued through the invention of the printing press, radio and TV, and room-size and desktop computers, is now at a "tipping point," he asserts. Now mobile devices such as smartphones-cellphones with built-in applications, multimedia capability, and Internet access and tablet computers- wireless portable computers primarily operated by a touch screen-are changing nearly everything we do. Consider the example below, the first in a number of “mini-cases," business related and otherwise, that we present in this book: **TECH TALES** The Rise of Mobile Computing: The Getting-Smarter Smartphone While growing up, Nick Bilton noticed that as his father aged, his wallet expanded as he added new credit cards, membership cards, family photos, stamps, tickets, and other things-until it became so large that he would pull it out of his back pocket when he sat down, "dropping it on the table like a brick," Bilton says. However, for Bilton, a New York Times technology columnist, it's been the reverse experience: Each year his wallet has become slimmer. "Things that once belonged there have been [taken over] by my smartphone," he reports, to the point where "I realized I didn't need to carry a wallet anymore. My smartphone had replaced almost everything in it." Today Bilton's address books, calendars, maps, music players, and photos have all been absorbed into his smartphone. So have most identification cards-customer cards, gym membership ID, insurance cards, and so on- which now exist as photos carried in the phone. Movie tickets, coupons, and airline boarding passes also can be stored as replicas. The only two non-mobile phone items Bilton carries are his driver's license and a bank debit card (instead of cash). "But I'm confident," he says, "that those, too, will disappear someday" and become part of the smartphone. It would be simplistic, however, to predict that we'll be doing all our computing on just smartphones and tablets anytime soon. As one writer points out, "Heavier pro- ductivity tasks-like, you know, typing-are still much easier to pull off on standard laptops and desktops." Moreover, the uses of smartphones and other portable devices cannot be truly mastered without understanding their huge supporting infrastructure of computing and communications technologies-the subjects of the rest of this book. Even so, people ages 16 to 39, members of the "Millennial Generation," who generally spend eight hours a day or more looking at various screens on cellphones, on computers, on TVs-generally have a head start on computer technology. They are, as one anthropologist called them, "digital natives" or computer-technology natives, constantly busy with text messaging, email, and the Internet, the global "network of networks," and its most well-known feature, the multimedia World Wide Web-the "Web" or "web," with its massive collection of websites, or related collections of files. Indeed, among college students, 98% are Internet users and 92% are wireless (laptop or cellphone) users. While their parents continue to shop in retail stores (often using clipped-out paper coupons), Millennials are more likely than older shoppers (by 50% vs. 21%7) to check out brands on **social networks**-sites on the World Wide Web such as Facebook and Twitter that (as we'll describe) allow users to interact and develop communities around similar interests and use mobile devices to research products and compare prices. In addition, Millennials are 2½ times more likely than older generations to be early adopters of technology. This is a good thing, because we live in what Tom Peters, author of *In Search of Excellence*, calls discontinuous times, or "a brawl with no rules," where dealing with change is an ongoing challenge. Others speak of the “disruptive” effect of computers and their software that "is going to eat not just the technology industry but every industry systematically." What are the developments that have led to these turbulent times? The answer is **information technology**. **Information technology (IT)** is a general term that describes any technology that helps produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Of the top 30 innovations from 1969 to 2009, according to a panel of professionals at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, most were related to information technology. ( See Panel 1.1.) Among the first items on their list, for example, are (1) the Internet, broadband, and the World Wide Web; (2) PC and laptop computers; (3) mobile phones (cellphones); and (4) email. Indeed, the Internet, along with semiconductors (processors), is said to rank among the 15 greatest innovations in all history, as important as the invention of the number zero, money, printing, and participatory democracy. Unlike previous generations, you live in a world of **pervasive computing** or **ubiquitous** computing-computing is everywhere. The basis for this phenomenon is the Internet, the "Net" or "net," that sprawling global connection of smaller computer networks that enable data transmission at high speeds. Everything that presently exists on a personal computer, experts suggest, will move onto the Internet, giving us greater mobility and involving the Internet even more closely in our lives. Already, in fact, the United States has more devices connecting to the Internet than it has people-425 million smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and gaming consoles divided among the USA's 311.5 million residents. **Panel 1.1** Top Innovations in recent years The majority (23 of the 30) are in the field of information technology. | | | | :----------------------------------------------- | :-------------------------------------- | | 1. Internet, broadband, World Wide Web | 16. Media file compression | | 2. PC and laptop computers | 17. Microfinance | | 3. Mobile phones | 18. Photovoltaic solar energy | | 4. Email | 19. Large-scale wind turbines | | 5. DNA testing and sequencing | 20. Internet social networking | | 6. Magnetic resonance imaging | 21. Graphic user interface | | 7. Microprocessors | 22. Digital photography | | 8. Fiber optics | 23. RFID and applications | | 9. Office software | 24. Genetically modified plants | | 10. Laser/robotic surgery | 25. Biofuels | | 11. Open-source software | 26. Barcodes and scanners | | 12. Light-emitting diodes | 27. ATMs | | 13. Liquid crystal display | 28. Stents | | 14. GPS devices | 29. SRAM flash memory | | 15. E-commerce and auctions | 30. Antiretroviral treatment for AIDS | To be more than just a new invention, an event was defined as an innovation if it created more opportunities for growth and development and if it had problem-solving value Source: Adapted from "A World Transformed: What Are the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years?" Knowledge@Wharton, February 18, 2009, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2163 (accessed May 10, 2013).