3.4 Databases

An alternative to searching by simple text matching is to look inside a database specifically structured for genealogical searching. Probably the largest such database is freely available on the Internet. It has been constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often abbreviated LDS and known as the Mormons) and is available through their FamilySearch website. Links from the home page of the FamilySearch website explain the purpose and background to the Church's interest in
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8.2 RFID applications

As we pointed out in Section 7, the driving force for RFID development is coming from major retailers who want to track goods as they travel through the supply chain. Their purpose is to reduce the manual checking necessary, thereby cutting down on labour costs and reducing hu
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6.8 Drawbacks of living in a smart home

One of the issues I thought about was privacy. How would the elderly or infirm feel about being monitored in their own homes? How would teenage children at home feel about being under the constant eye of their parents?

I also thought about security. Would it be possible for a hacker to break into my smart home network – possibly to disable intruder alarms and open doors to allow themselves entry? A malicious hacker might also alter control settings to cause havoc – turning devices o
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3.4 Protocols and standards

You have already met the idea of protocols in Section 1 – rules to govern how information is sent, transmitted and received. Protocols can be explained using an analogy with the way people talk to each other. When we talk we don't simply string words together in a random fashion: we have a set of rules (grammar) that determines the order of words and the way sentences are constructed. Understand didn't have other us difficult if it would be quite rules each these for to we. We hope t
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Introduction

This unit is from our archive and it is an adapted extract from Networked living: exploring information and communication technologies (T175) which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area.

This unit looks at communication systems where devices are th
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7.1 Introduction

Earlier on I indicated that in order for a processor to perform a defined function it needs to be supplied with a list of instructions called a program. In this section I shall explore this idea a little further.

Software can be split into two categories, application software and operating systems. Application software is the name given to programs which enable a computer to perform specific tasks. The program that processes the image in the digital camera is one example; a word
Author(s): The Open University

Learning outcomes

After studying this unit you will:

• know what all the terms highlighted in bold in the text mean;

• know the fundamental hardware components that make up a computer’s hardware and the role of each of these components;

• know the difference between an operating system and an application program, and what each is used for in a computer;

• be able to describe some examples of computers and state the effect that the use of computer technology
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6.3 Authentication of information

When I watch TV news, listen to the radio or buy a newspaper I never think to question whether I really am watching ITV, listening to Radio Five Live or getting the Guardian. In each of these cases it is theoretically possible that they are not who they say they are, but the practicalities of performing the masquerade are so complicated that the possibility can be discarded.

With emails and websites it is a very different matter. Indeed, in recent months I have received several e
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Learning outcomes

This is what you should have achieved when you have completed your study of this unit:

• have a general knowledge of the different types of storage media for digital data;

• understand the basic concepts of electrical voltage and resistance, and the parameters used to specify batteries;

• have an overview of the historical development of ICT in video recording, newsgathering and new dissemination;

• compare the merits of different media as s
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3.1 Learning styles

Not everyone learns in the same way. We have all had different experiences of learning – whether these were at school, college or elsewhere. To find out a bit more about what kind of learner you are, try this Learning Styles Questionnaire [accessed 3 October 2006]. Once you have submitted your answers you will see a feedback page which allows you to draw some conclusions.

Now read the document below about learning styles. If you want to, this would be a good opportunity to practise m
Author(s): The Open University

1.4 Extra help

If you are new to studying or haven't done this kind of thing for a long time, you may want more practice at reading and note taking than is provided here. There are additional materials that have been developed for use by any student and you may find these helpful. They are not specific to technology, so some of the examples they use might seem unfamiliar to you. They have been intentionally developed to suit students of any subject area. Click on the link below to view materials on taking n
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Acknowledgements

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

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6.5 More about actors

In the hotel example, you saw two actors in the use case diagram shown in Figure 3 (reproduced below). Why is the actor Guest associated with the use case for making a reservation but not associated with the use cases for checking in and out? The answer comes from an understanding of what happens when someone, a guest, arrives at a hotel. Hotels are service oriented. That is to say, they offer certain services to their guests with the intention of earning money for the business. A hote
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7.2.2 E-auction

This model describes sites which electronically simulate the bidding process in a conventional physical auction. Such sites can range in sophistication from those which present a simple catalogue of items to those which offer multimedia presentations. Most sites which are described by this business model are concerned with selling items to individual consumers. However, there are an increasing number of sites which provide facilities for businesses to auction products to other businesses.

5.6 Design

Designing a distributed system can also be a problem, for example the fact that computers in a distributed system are joined by communication media which can stretch over thousands of miles provides an added dimension to the design process in that response time can be a problem. Another, equally serious problem is that of reliability, for example the fact that a hardware malfunction can bring down a poorly-designed distributed system.

As an example of one design problem that a distribut
Author(s): The Open University

3.2 FTP

The acronym FTP stands for the File Transfer Protocol. It provides the facility whereby files can be downloaded into a computer from another computer in the internet. Although there are a number of utilities for file transfer most users now employ browsers for this via FTP links.

There are a number of utilities which enable you to load anything from clip art to the latest updates for operating systems. Many of these utilities are very primitive: they use a simple command line int
Author(s): The Open University

2.8 Search engines

The web contains a huge amount of material. Finding specific information is a huge problem; even in the early days of the internet this was a problem which threatened to slow the growth of the net. Fortunately a partial solution to this problem emerged: the search engine. This is a program which accesses a huge database of information about the World Wide Web; it contains individual words in web documents and the location of the documents containing the words. When the user of a search
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1.6.4 Supporting data management strategies

Most of the development we've covered so far in this unit has focused on meeting specific user requirements – that is, ensuring the right data are constrained correctly and made available to the right user processes. However, other questions must also be addressed in order to support a data management strategy: How frequently should data be backed-up? What auditing mechanisms are required? Which users will be permitted to perform which functions? Which database tools and user processes wil
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4.1.1 Maps

Many people are fascinated by maps, and most find them useful, though not in all situations. A lone driver, without a map-reading navigator, will find it difficult to use a map. New in-car navigation systems are designed to help such a driver, or one who is without map-reading skills but is able to follow directions.

The remainder of this subsection uses maps to introduce some important terms and concepts. It also examines a navigation system, used both in cars and in hand-held devices,
Author(s): The Open University