Monday, June 18, 2012

Computing anywhere, anytime !

A netbook is a lightweight computer which consists of a long battery life and is known as ideal for travelling. Netbooks have built in Wifi and are optimized for browsing the World Wide Web and Email.
Cloud computing is a general term for anything which involves delivering hosted services via the Internet. An elaborated definition would be a self - service environment for the creation of highly - scalable applications, with the immediate availability of compute power and granular levels of billing. Cloud computing is simply Internet-based computing, in which shared resources, software, and information are presented to computers as well as other devices on demand similar to an electricity grid. Traditionally, many people couldn't access the processing power of a supercomputer. With cloud computing, practically anyone could access into that sort of power.

Google Docs is a free web - based service presented by Google as well as allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real - time with other users.

Applications used by Google Docs vary from word processors, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, forms in addition to data storage services. While these applications aren't as comprehensive as the leading desktop counterparts, they have advantages over the traditional software. Applications aren't tied to specific computers and have no need to be downloaded and installed on a particular machine as any computer connected to the Internet can access Google Docs.

Cloud computing is highly recommended as with the assistance of the system each user who saves information on it, can access the same file/s from anywhere. Users don't need to worry about which version of a document is the most current as it will always be saved in the Google cloud.

Advantages of Google Docs include:
  • The applications provided aren't as complex as the leading desktop counterparts.
  • A user doesn't have to download and install software on a particular machine. Google Docs can be accessed by any computer connected to the internet.
  • Each user can access the same files saved to the cloud system from anywhere.
  • A user doesn't have to worry about the version of the document as it will be saved in the Google cloud.
  • Multiple users can access the same file from anywhere (known as online collaborations)
  • Google Docs preserves earlier versions of documents which means there is no reason to worry about irrevocably changing a file.
  • More page sizes: Google Docs has introduced two more page sizes.
  • Auto linking in documents: this feature automatically changes text into a link when it detects that a link has been entered.
  • Comes with 53 embedded languages - allows users to easily translate documents into several languages.
  • You can work from any computer with an internet connection, your files are always safe in the cloud, you can do collaborative work wirelessy.



Protocols

A protocol is an agreed method of completing an activity. Communication between computer systems rely upon agreed methods and these methods are known as communication protocols.

Overall, TCP/IP is a large collection of several communication protocols although both these protocols have their own definition shown below:

TCP is used for transmission of data from an application to the network in addition to is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets before they are sent and for assembling the packets when they arrive.
IP takes care of the communication with other computers as well as is responsible for the sending and receiving data packets over the Internet.

HTTP takes care of the communication between a web server and a web browser in addition to is used for sending requests from a web client also known as a browser to a web server, returning web content (web pages) from the server back to the client.

SMTP is simply used for the transmission of e-mails.

FTP takes care of the transmission of files between computers.

HTML represents Hypertext Markup Language, a standardized system used in order to tag text files either to achieve font, colour, graphic in addition to hyperlink effects on World Wide Web pages.

XML represents Extensible Markup Language, a metalanguage which allows users to define their own customized markup languages in order to portray documents on the World Wide Web.


    Tuesday, June 5, 2012

    Internet Addresses & Broadband Speedtest

    1) A URL represents a uniform resource locator (URL) and in the case of computing, defines the concept of a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource
    2) An IP address is the unique address assigned to each machine order for it to run smoothly and effectively. IP address' are related to URL as they are simply a complex version of an URL. URL's had initally been created in order to simplify for us humans, the way we remember websites.
    216.27.61.137 is an example of a IP address, instead of using this, we could simply remember the words of the website - http://www.blogspot.com It's easier to comprehend in addition to efficent for humans. IP stands for Internet protocol and these certain addresses are 32 - bit numbers, normally expressed as four "octets" in a "dotted decimal number"

    3) In the case of our school website, in order to access it you must type in the following: http://webserver.mcauley.nsw.edu.au:81/

    With the assistance of the link above, it is evident that there have been several symbols and words added to the URL. More importantly the two '//' indicate to the viewer that this website is a local file.

    4) In the case of Internet protocol, the term "octets" are the representation for an eight digit binary number. For instance - 216.27.61.137
    BROADBAND SPEEDTEST - CONNECTION SPEED
    Using the website I had calculated the connection speed from Sydney, Australia to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and the results are featured below.


    1) Upload speed is simply the rate in which the files you send from your computer online or via the internet. Download speed is the rate in which files are saved on your computer. upload and Download speed often intend to vary.

    2) The units used to measure the download speed is Megabytes Per Second or Mb/s.

    3) Different locations offer different download speeds due to the reason being that sometimes the data you are requesting or wishing for is stopped by an error occuring during the process. This concept is referred to as 'the bottleneck'. In order to receive your data, it would be obliged to resend until the data has been succesfully sent.