TU100 Day School 1

Sarah Horrigan, Associate Lecturer, Region 05

Today’s agenda• Overview of session• The evolution of computers• Binary • HTML• Evaluating sources - PROMPT

Aim to leave today knowing…• A little more about Parts 2 and 3 of Block• What are the main stages of evolution for computers• Moore’s Law and exponential growth• The basics of binary and counting in binary• Where to start with HTML• How to evaluate a web resource

Block 1

• Introduces the concepts of data and information e.g. Data storage

• Internet, HTML and RSS• Wireless networks• Basic programming using sense

Activity

What was your first computer?What is your current computer?What are the main differences?

Moore’s Law

“Transistors on a chipwill double every yearfor the next 10 years”

Gordon Moore, 1965

Exponential growth?

“Growth in which each value is a fixedmultiple of the previous value”

Activity

• Take a piece of paper…• Fold it in half…• … then fold it again• How many times can you fold it?

Writing it down…

Hint: x-n = 1/(xn)

xn = x multiplied by itself n times

Writing really big / small numbers

5 trillion?

= 5,000,000,000,000= 5 x 1012

0.000000005?= 5 x 10-9

The bouncing ball method…

0.000000005

The bouncing ball method…

0.000000005

The bouncing ball method…

0.0000000051 4 5 6 7 8 92 3

The bouncing ball method…

0.000000005

= 5 x 10-9

Binary

There are 10 kinds of people in this world…

Those who understand binary… and those who don’t

Binary numbers are the form in which information is held in a computer

Binary to decimal

• 11 0001• 101• 1 1001• 2

64 32 16 8 2 1

Web addresses / URLs• The anatomy of an Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• Schemedefines how the browser should form its requests to access the resource. For web pages the scheme ‘http’ represents the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP or for secure transfers HTTPS).

• Hostis the name of the server computer that holds the web page.

• Pathis the name of the pathway to the file on the serve - typically this file will reside inside a ‘nest’ of directories (folders).

Heading

The first paragraph is often an introduction.

Subsequent paragraphs can form part of the body.

Lists are useful ways of highlighting key points:

• point 1

• point 2

Using bold can also highlight key terms

Presentation

Relevance

Objectivity

Method

Provenance

Timeliness

Presentation(is the information clearly communicated?)Look at language, layout, structure, etc.

Relevance(does the information match the needs of the searcher?)Look at the introduction or overview – what is it mainly about?

Objectivity(Is the author´s position of interest made clear?)Look for an introduction or overview – do the writers state their position on the issue?Is the language emotive?Are there hidden, vested interests?

Method (research reports only)(Is it clear how the data was collected?)Were the methods appropriate? Do you trust it?

ProvenanceIs it clear where the information has come from?Can you identify the authors or organisations? How was it published?

Timeliness(Is it clear when the information was produced?)Does the date of the information meet your requirements? Is it obsolete?

Any Questions?