The Digital Research Initiative
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Computer Concepts

"I hate computers."
There are a million books about computers available at the bookstores. Their vocabulary can be confusing, and if you listen you can almost hear them going out of date, since the computer industry changes so rapidly.

If you can answer this list of questions, you should be able to read any computer magazine and most of the books, ask intelligent questions about computers, and make your friends think you are a real computer geek.... You won't even need one of those plastic pen protectors in your pocket!

This list started out as a dialogue when Bob and Deb met and tried to figure out whether they knew the same answers. Y'all may recognize our Yankee accents in some of the questions. To make the questions sound easy, sometimes we have tried to disguise our voices and sound like Mr. Rogers. After you answer some of the questions, we will give you our answers. Or maybe we won't if yours are so much better that we get embarassed.

  1. What is a Computer? And what is computer software?

  2. What is a Software Application?

  3. What is Computer Hardware?

  4. What's an operating system in a computer ? What's Windows 95? Does it have any relation to a Macintosh?

  5. What is UNIX? Do we need to know UNIX?

  6. What is the difference between a Macintosh and a DOS computer?

  7. Can a Mac read PC disks?

  8. What's a disk format?

  9. What is a Modem? Where does the word come from?

  10. My friend has a computer with a Pentium chip. What is a chip? Also what's a microprocessor?

  11. What is the main brain of computer?

  12. What is a CPU? (HINT: -- there are two correct answers, so give both)

  13. What do RAM, ROM and one of the CPU definitions have in common?

  14. What's the advantage of a CD-ROM Drive?

  15. What do ROM and CD-ROM have in common?

  16. What is a Disk Drive?

  17. What are "bits"? I've seen the measures "8 bit," "16 bit" and "32 bit" in ads and articles about computer chips and video display cards. What's that all about? What is the difference?

  18. A computers magazine is named"Bits and bytes." What are bytes? What are kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes?

  19. What are megabytes?

  20. We measure driving speed in miles per hour. How is a computer's speed of operation measured? What units do we use?

  21. What do you mean by computer memory ? Susan recently bought a Power Macintosh with 16 megabytes of RAM and 500 megabytes of hard disk space? What's RAM and what's hard disk space?

  22. How much RAM should my computer have?

  23. I tried to check my Email and the computer said "insufficient memory." Does that mean my disk is full? Or does it mean that the hard disk is full? Otherwise, what *does* it mean? And what can I do about it?

  24. What is an upgrade?

  25. John is typing a letter on his computer. While writing the first paragraph, he accidentally kicks out the power plug and the computer goes blank? Where *IS* that paragraph right now?

  26. What is "the Desktop"?

  27. What are "the Finder" and "the System"? What is "Windows"?

  28. What is a Mouse?

  29. What is a mother board?

  30. What's a Sound Board?

  31. I know you can see a computer screen on a Monitor? What should I look for in a monitor?

  32. What is a "server"?

  33. What's a network?

  34. What is "text only"? Is it like ASCII? OK, what's ASCII?

  35. Shall we have any need for ASCII?

  36. What are Pine and PICO?

  37. When was the first computer invented? Who is credited with having conceived the first digital computer?


This site made by
eric
This site was created especially for students of the UNC School of Journalism's
JOMC 050 Class, and anyone else who may be interested.
For more information, please contactdaikat@email.unc.edu