FIRST ARTICLE
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Title Of The ArticleComputer Data Storage Through the Ages-From Punch Card to Blu-Ray
Author
Paul Lily
Date Published
3 February 2009
Link Website
Title My Comment
Types of Data Storage in the Personal Computer
Date of Comment
9 November 2011
Day of Comment
Wednesday
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The Types of Data Storage in
The Personal Computer
Even before the first computer was conceptualized, data was already being stored on hard copy medium and use with a machine. As early as 1801, the punch card was used as a control device for mechanical looms. One and half centurieslater, IBM joined punch cards to computers, encoding binary information as patterns of small rectangular holes.
Although it may seem surprising, a computer printout is another type of hard copy medium. Pictures and barcodes are modern examples of data storage that can later be retrived using optical technology. Although it consumes physical space and requires proper care, non-acidic paper printouts can hold information for centuries. If long-term storage is not of prime concern, magnetic medium can retain tremendous amounts of data and consumes less space than a single piece of paper. tic
The magnetic technology used for computer data storage is the same technology used in the various forms of magnetic tape in audio and video cassettes. One of the first computer storage devices was the magnetic tape drive. Magnetic tape is a sequential data storage medium. To read data, a tape drive must wind through a spool of tape to the exact location of the desired information. To write, the tape drive encodes data sequentially on the tape. Because tape drives cannot randomly access or write data like disk drives, and are thus much slower, they have been replaced as the primary storage device with the hard drive.
The hard drive is composed of thin layers of rigid magnetic platters stacked on top of one another like records in a jukebox, and the heads that read and write data to the spinning platters resemble the arm of a record player. Floppy disks are another common magnetic storage medium. They offer relatively small storage capacity when compared to hard drives, but unlike hard drives, are portable. Floppy disk are constructed of a flexible disk covered by a thin layer of iron oxide that stores data in the form of magnetic dots. A plastic casing disk, and non-flexible for the 31/2 - inch disk.
Magnetic storage media, for all its advantages, has a shelf life of twenty years only. Data can be stored on electronic media, such as memory chips. Every modern personal computer ultilizes electronic circuits to hold data and instructions. These devices are categorized as RAM (random access memory) or ROM (read-only memory), and are compact, reliable, and efficient. RAM is volatile, and is primarily used for the temporary storage of programs that are running. ROM is nonvolatile, and usually holds the basic instruction sets a computer needs to operate. Electronic medium is susceptible to static electricity damage and has a limited life expectancy, but in the modern personal computer, electronic hardware usually becomes obsolete before it fails. Optical storage media, on the other hand, can last indefinitely.
Optical storage is an incresingly popular method of storing data. Optical disk drives use lasers to read and write to their medium. When writing to an optical disk, a laser creates pits on its surface to represent data. Areas not burned into pits by the laser are called lands. The laser reads back the data on the optical disk by scanning for pits and lands. There are three primary optical disk media available for storage: CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory), WORM (write once read many), and RW (rewritable) optical disks. The CD-ROM is, by far, the most popular form of optical disk storage, but CD-ROMs can only be read from. At the factory, lasers are used to create a master CD-ROM, and a mould is made from the master to create copies. WORM drivers are used almost exclusively for archival storage where it is important that the data, such as financial record, cannot be changed or erased after it is written. Rewritable optical disks are typically used for data backup and archiving massive amounts of data, such as image databases.
Although there are many manufacturers of the data storage devices used in the modern personal computer, each fits into one of four technological classes accroding to the material and methods it uses to record information. hard copy medium existed before the invention of the computer, and magnetic medium is predominantly used today. Electronic medium is used by every computer system, and is used to store. Finally, optical storage ultilizes lasers to read and write information to a disk that can last indefinitely. Each type of medium is suitable for certain functions that computer users require. Although they use different technologies, they share equal importance in the modern personal computer system.
SECOND ARTICLE
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Virtual Reality
SECOND ARTICLE
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Title Of The Article
First Virtual Reality Technology To Let You See, Hear, Smell, Taste & Touch
Author
Science Daily
Date Published
4 March 2009
Link Website
Title My Comment
Virtual Reality
Date of Comment
10 November 2011
Day of Comment
Thursday
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Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) is considered one of the most exciting technologies today, constantly envolving and improving. According to Eric Drexler, a well know pioneer in this field, VR is "a combination of computer and interface devices (goggles, gloves, etc.) that present a user with the illusion of being in a threedimensional world of computer generated objects". The term 'virtual reality' is not finite in its meaning, but generally includes desktop VR, immersion VR (where the goggles and gloves are used), and projection VR.
The virtual reality technology is not yet perfect and still too expensive for the common man. The use of high-end VR is mainly restricted to larger companies, and to special areas such as medical surgery and pilot training. Home users are limited to desktop virtual relaity programs, which lets them navigate in three dimensional worlds, but seldom gives the feeling of actually being there. The entertainment industry has yet to embrace the technology in full scale, but in his book Virtual Reality, Howard Rheingold states: "Used today in architecture, engineering and design, tomorrow in mass-market entertainment, surrogate travel, and virtual surgery, by the next century VR will have transformed our lives."
Will VR cause people to lose their grip on the real world, or is it just a continuation of previous developments that took people imaginary places? People seem to have always escaped to 'imaginary worlds', to get away from the stress of real life and to relax. We have all experienced Greek theatre, read novels and been to the cinema, and imagined ourselves into fiction that we identify with. Our imagination creates a fiction world, which leads us away from real life for a moment of time. In our own utopia, we forget contemporary problems of reality. Even though the virtual reality technology creates a utopia for us to explore, it is in a lot of ways different from other developments we know so well today.
In previous development, such as theatre, novels, and cinema, we passively follow a linear storyline, with a start and an end. The author of it predetermines all the happenings in a particular story. We have no participation in the play, but identify with it and our imagination creates a generic feeling that we are a part of the story. In virtual reality however, we do participate actively in a non-linear story; we are a part of the plot. How the story evolves, depends on what we do, and when we do it. What we get to see of the story, depends on where in the virtual world we are. We are able to see, hear, and touch the elements in the story and interact with them . Human being are social creatures that like to communicate and because computers make networks, VR seems a natural candidate for a new communications medium. Just as the Internet has become our time's biggest communication network, virtual reality could have a great impact on how we share information. Imagine a meeting in a virtual reality room or playing soccer in a virtual soccer field with people from different parts of the world.
John Suler, who has a PhD in Psychology, of the Department of Psychology at Ryder University states, "People become addicted to the Internet, or act out pathologically in cyberspace, when they have dissociated it from their face to face life. Their cyberspace activity becomes a world into itself. They don't talk about it with the people in their face to face life. It becomes a walled-off substitute or escape from their life.
Before we know it, virtual reality might be as usual in contemporary life, as television has been for decades. We will be presented with a new way to escape from reality, which seems to be ten times as powerful as previous developments. We will open doors to fascinating mazes, that some of us may never come out of. Worlds that we don't even want to come out of because it appears better than the chaos we are surrounded with daily in the real world.
THIRD ARTICLE
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Training is an Important Thing In Human Resource Management
THIRD ARTICLE
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Title Of The Article
The Evolution of In-House Corporate Training
Author
Michael Teichberg
Date Published
None
Link Article
www.humanresourcesiq.com/training-learning/articles/the-evolution-of-in-house-corporate-training/Title My Comment
Training is an Important Thing In Human Resource Management
Date of Comment
11 November 2011
Day of Comment
Friday
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Training is an Important Thing In Human Resource Management
Employees must know what to do in their jobs in order to perform well. Some or most of what they need to know may have been learned in some form of education or training before they got the job. They might have a high school education, a college degree, a license, or experience in a similar job in the same or another organization. Or the job might require task that are quite new to them. In the letter case, training is obviously required. However, even with previous learning, a person will need to learn other duties as circumstances change in the industry. Also, new learning will probably be needed in order to move to a new job in the current organization or to move to a different organization. So, training will be necessary in almost every case.
Training is a planned effort to assist employees in learning job-related behaviours that will improve their performance. It is vital to the success of the organizations. This is evidenced by the fact that organization spend over 100 billion every year on formal training. The figure is much higher when all types of training are included. Rapidly changing technology requires that employees possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to cope with new processes and production techniques. Changes in management philosophy create a need for new approaches, skills, and knowledge.
An organization needs can be identified through three types of needs assessment which are organizational, task, and individual. Organizational assessment determines where in the organization the training needed. For task assessment is what to be trained. Lastly for individual assessment determines who needs to be trained based on actual versus desired skills.
Once the training needs of the organization have been assessed, training must be designed and develop. The first step in the training process is to get new employees off to a good start. This generally accomplished through orientation. Orientation is the formal process of familiarizing new employees with the organization, their job, and their work unit. Orientation procedures vary widely from organization to an organization. Generally, their purpose is to enable new employees to fit in so that they become productive members of the organization. A newcomer may need several hours, several weeks, or several months of work with other employees to become completely familiar with organization. In recent years, many organizations have realized that the socialization process begins in orientation and can make a significant differences to new employees.
Technical training programs are designed to provide employees with specialized skills and knowledge in the methods, processes, and techniques associated with their jobs or trade. With advances in training technology, many organizations are using computer-assisted instruction and interactive video training. One the job training is conducted while employees perform job-related tasks. This types of training is the most direct approach and offers employers the quickest return in terms of improved performance.
Management development programs are designed to improve the technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills of supervisors, managers, and executives. On the jobs training for managers might include rotating through a variety of position, regular coaching and monitoring by a supervisors, committe assignments to involve individuals in decision-making activities, and staff meetings to help managers become acquainted with the thinking of other managers and with activities outside their immediate area.
