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Information Technology – The Beginning – White Papers
When people hear the words “Information Technology,” the first things that come to mind are computers and the Internet. It may also bring up words like “network,” “intranet,” “server,” “firewall,” “security,” as well as more arcane expressions such as “router,” “T-1,” “Ethernet,” or the mysterious and exotic-sounding “VoIP” (pronounced “voyp”).
In fact, information technology is all of these things, and more. It’s hardly new, however. Information technology is as old as the brain itself, if you think of the brain as an information processor. As far as I.T. being a science, even that goes back as far as the earliest attempts to communicate and store information.
And that is essentially what information technology is: the communication and storage of information, along with the ability to process and make use of the information stored. In this chapter, we’ll begin with a brief history of I.T., what it comprises today, and the different major types of I.T. systems available today.
A Short History of Information Technology
As human societies have grown in size and complexity, so has the need to collect, store and transmit information. While it could be argued that brains represent a form of “bio-information technology,” Greek word “Tektra” – from which we get the word “technology” – really refers to scientific or mechanical knowledge, particularly that which involves the use of tools. Therefore, we’ll begin our journey with humans first attempts to record and transmit knowledge through mechanical means.
The Neolithic Period and the Bronze Age
We might not have thought of it as “information technology” several thousand years ago when we as a species were painting animals on cave walls. But in fact that may be exactly what it was.
Using a combination of tools that included manganese “crayons” and clay that was colored with various pigments, early humans left these images on the walls of a cave near Lascaux, France and on cliffs in the Algerian Sahara.
These have been dated as being approximately 18,000 and 8,000 years old respectively. Unfortunately, there is no way to be certain exactly what message was being communicated (a problem our own descendants 15,000 years from now may very well encounter from what we leave behind!)
Since the images depict animals that were commonly hunted at the time, and given the importance of game animals to a hunting-gathering culture, it’s possible that such images were attempts to present information about such game, or part of a rite designed to ensure a successful hunt.
The invention of writing systems – including pictograms such as hieroglyphics, alphabetic writing and “syllabic” systems – seems to have taken place almost at the same time as the development of agriculture. Agriculture introduced such formerly unknown concepts as land ownership, advanced trade and the accumulation of wealth, which in turn led to more complex societal structures.
As you might expect, this necessitated more detailed and efficient record-keeping. Alphabetic writing has a substantial advantage over pictograms (hieroglyphs), because a relatively limited number of symbols (letters) can be used over and over in infinite combination to communicate nearly anything. (As you will see later, modern I.T. uses only two of these symbols!)
Preserving and storing such information posed certain challenges; information either had to be inscribed on stone or clay tablets (which were heavy) or animal skins, wax tablets or papyrus (which weren’t durable). More: Whitepaper
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Posted in Computers · April 1st, 2010 · Comments (0)
IT Hardware & Software Issues – Database Monitoring
I question the validity of the IT paraphernalia warranty because the warranty period is at most valid up to a year or two. After that, whatever problem that happens to your computer is at your own risk. More often than not, the problems only emerge after the warranty period is over and when we try to consult technical support we are told to extend the warranty period so that we can enjoy the technical support service.
So where do we seek free computer help when we do not know how to troubleshoot computer related problems? First of all, turn to the computer vendor’s website and search for troubleshooting tips. They are kind enough to provide you with an archive of very possible computer related problems, so you can try searching for your problem there.
If you cannot find a solution there, then try posting your problem in the computer vendor’s forum. Sometimes, some IT junkies are kind enough to give us some tips to troubleshoot that problem. If you do want to post up a question, make sure you include a detailed description of your problem. Statements like, “I can’t seem to turn on the computer,” will leave many people clueless because there are so many reasons why that could happen. Among those reasons is that the power switch is not yet turned on.
If you still fail to solve your problem, you can now burrow deeper into the abyss of the net world. To get free computer help online, you can try searching some more online forums and post up your problem. The more forums you post your questions upon, the higher the chance you are able to address that specific problem.
However, sometimes a certain problem is certainly out of our league and we require professional help. So if you embrace frugality you can turn to your relatives who’s an IT expert for help but doing so would just annoy them. If possible wait for festive occasions or invite them over for dinner and then ask for their help after finishing the dinner. Bear in mind to have all the software that comes bundled along with your computer ready so that he or she can make the necessary solutions.
Just to reiterate, I question the validity of the IT paraphernalia warranty because the warranty period is at most valid up to a year or two. More often than not, the problems only emerge after the warranty period is over and when we try to consult technical support we are told to extend the warranty period so that we can enjoy the technical support service. More about IT data and virtualization: Application Virtualization
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Tags: information technology
Posted in Databases · February 24th, 2010 · Comments (0)