Vocabulary practice section 1

1. Decide if the sentences are true or false.

1. Besides CDs and DVDs, there are other types of optical storage; e.g. Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

2. CDs are 120 mm in diameter and 12 mm thick. DVDs are 122 mm in diameter and 12.5 mm thick.

3. DVDs have more tracks, and the pits used to store data are smaller; they have a greater storage capacity than CDs.

4. DVDs can be played on CD players, so there's no need to invest in new hardware.

5. Blu-ray may soon become the dominant optical storage technology, although Toshiba, Microsoft and the DVD Forum are supporting HD-DVD technology instead.

2. Look back into the Key Information Section and find:

1. the CD and DVD formats that can be rewritten many times

2. the CD and DVD formats that can be written to by the user only once

3. the CD and DVD formats that can be read by a computer but not written to

4. the type of cards used in digital cameras

5. a type of drive that plugs into a USB port and lets you share photos and music with friends

6. the memory without moving parts; it is erasable, non-volatile and used in small devices

7. the expression that means to 'initialize a disk and prepare it to receive data'

3. Complete this product description with the words from the text in the box.

Portable DVD players let you watch movies or TV, play games and listen to music, wherever you are. They usually run on batteries, have a widescreen (rectangular 16:9 format) LCD and support multi-format playback, allowing you access to many file formats including DVD video, JPEG pictures, MP3 music, etc. They have two built-in stereo speakers, or headphones if you don't want to disturb other people.

The Panasonic DVD-LS91 is a top-of-the-range ……., which provides pure entertainment wherever you go. It has a big 9 inch built-in ……. LCD, so you can really enjoy movies. The built-in stereo speakers allow you to listen along, or if you want to listen alone, just plug in a pair of ……. This portable machine provides ……. , so you can play DVD Audio/Video, CD-R/RW, DVD-RAM, DivX and MP3 files. Its compact design features a built-in rechargeable 6 hour battery pack.

The DVD-LS91 allows 6 hours of playback, and provides a perfect way to entertain yourself and your kids during long trips.

4. Fill in the missing letters to make a term related to optical storage. Complete these extracts from

an ICT textbook using these terms. You may have to use the plural form.			dual l…….
optical d……. laser b…...	backward-с……. double-s…….	multi-f……. Blu-r…….

1. Portable DVD players usually support ……. playback; this means the user can watch a wider variety of different file types (DivX, MP4, etc.).

2. ……. differ from magnetic ones, in terms of both internal structure and storage capacity.

3. CDs and DVDs are read using a red …...... In ..….. discs it is blue-violet, hence the name.

4. Unlike a CD, a DVD can be ……. and ……., giving it a capacity of up to 17GB.

5. DVD drives are ……. , meaning that they can play older technologies such as CD-ROMs.

5. Which device or format would be most suitable for storing these things and why?

• the operating system and the programs on the home computer

• an electronic encyclopedia

• a movie in digital format, hold several movies in different languages

• the music tracks by your favourite artist

• all the files generated by a company in one day

• the photos taken with a digital camera

READING PRACTICE SECTION

Thanks for the memory A mathematical trick may allow people to scatter their computer files across the world's hard disks

If you have lots of unused storage space on your hard disk, then why not share it with others on the internet? The benefit could be distributed storage for your own files, making them available any time via the web, even if you are nowhere near your computer—indeed, even if your computer is switched off. That desideratum* is what a Zurich-based firm called Caleido is aiming to provide, with a free online storage service known as Wuala that was recently introduced to the public.

Though the idea underlying is simple, Wuala requires some nifty* technology to make its distributed system work reliably. In particular, its developers, Dominik Grolimund and Luzius Meisser, have used a clever mathematical trick to compensate for the fact that the participating computers will come and go from the internet in an unpredictable way.

The challenge is how to minimise the number of copies of the same file that have to be distributed. Copying costs participants both storage space and bandwidth. Yet there have to be enough copies to ensure that there is at least one available most of the time. If, for example, each computer is online 25% of the time, then a quick calculation shows that you would have to copy each file to 100 different computers to ensure that 999,999 times out of a million there is at least one copy available when a user looks.

But copying every file a hundred times is hugely inefficient. Instead, Mr Grolimund and Mr Meisser plan to break each file into chunks, which can be scattered liberally around the hard disks

of participating computers, and then to use a mathematical trick to reconstruct the original file from those chunks. This trick, known as Reed-Solomon error correction, is employed routinely to interpret the data on DVDs, but it has not been used before in the volatile world of private computers on the internet. The first step is to convert the file (which is, regardless of what it represents, simply a long string of ones and

zeros) into a mathematical function called a polynomial. This is done by splitting it into 100 fragments, which are smaller binary numbers. It is these numbers that are used to define the polynomial.

One of the characteristics of a polynomial is that a few numbers can nail* it down precisely. If a simple polynomial is plotted out on a graph it forms a line. A straight line (the simplest type of polynomial) is defined by any two points on its length. A parabola can be defined by three points. The polynomials that Wuala generates can be defined by 100 points—though, because the polynomials used are not simple ones, these points are complex mathematical constructs, rather than straightforward numbers.

All you have to do now, therefore, is select a suitable number of points from along the polynomial (these need not be the original ones) and convert their values into the appropriate mathematical constructs. Scatter these around the host computers and, when someone wants to look at the file, he need recover only 100 of them to have enough data to reconstruct the file from scratch. To have 100 points available 999,999 times out of a million it turns out that you need to scatter a total of 600 of them around. That is an amount of data equivalent to six versions of the original file, rather than the 100 that would be needed to achieve the same level of reliability if whole files were being stored. Moreover, the system needs the computers linked to it to be available for only 17% of the time, rather than 25%, for this to apply.

Online storage is a growing market, especially for backing up data, where reliability is a big concern. Most commercial online-storage services use centralised servers. Although these are generally reliable, they do sometimes fail. And when they do, the results are embarrassing—as Amazon, an online shopping company, learnt on two occasions this year when the servers for its commercial data-storage system went down for several hours at a time.

Though some people may feel squeamish* about scattering their data over hundreds of other computers (even though it will be encrypted), or storing unknown file fragments on their own, Mr Grolimund is adamant* that Caleido has learnt from other “peer-to-peer” file-sharing systems, and that Wuala is built to handle concerns about the illegal distribution of copyrighted or “inappropriate” content. If he is right, Wuala may prove that, for online data storage, it is as good to give as it is to receive.

Notes.

*Desideratum-things you need or want

*Nifty-well-designed, effective, easy to use

*Nail down-definitely decide, arrange or complete something

*Squeamish-easily shocked or upset by something unpleasant

*Adamant-determined not to change your belief or decision about something

1. Answer the questions on the article

What do these numbers from the article refer to? 25 100 999,999 17 600 What do these names from the article refer to? Caleido WualaDominik Grolimund Amazon Luzius Meisser Zurich Reed Solomon What type of storage does the article talk about? What possible problems does the author talk about?

• What benefits do the developers offer?

• What clever trick to avoid copying each file many times did the creators of Wuala invent?

• What are the differences between Wuala and most of the other on-line storage services?

• What is a polynomial?

• What might people using this service be worried about? How might they feel and why?

• Do you think there would be a market for such a service? What might that market be like?

• Would you agree to use Wuala? If yes, on what conditions?

• Do you know any storage opportunities similar to the one described in the article? Do you use them? Why/why not?

2. Read the comments to the article. Which comments do you agree with? Why? What is your opinion on the article and on the service it talks about? What would you write to comment it?

Readers’ comments.

1. Storage as a Service ! Well, sounds promising. Is that safe enough? 2. Our company has also come up with some clever tricks that could greatly improve the lives of our customers. They have all failed due the understandable security paranoia - not least within IT departments, that can be exceedingly technophobic.

3. The model assumes that there is enough spare space available on hard disks, which I believe is not the case. Thanks to broadband connection and now HD content, many home computers are at their max capacity. That's the reason we go and buy external 300 Gig drives, right?

4. I can see some useful applications of this, but definitely not a complete shift from today’s method. The issue for me is speed, the wait from pulling files from the net all the time would drive me crazy. No thanks, disk is cheap; I’d rather just get a couple of disks and backup my own stuff.

5. Although it sounds unsecured when it splits our files in to small encrypted pieces into someone else’s computer, we don’t have that amount of secret personal files, right? Speed is still my main consideration. It would be great if I can upload quickly and my friend can download at the same speed. Hanging on line for four hours one day is a little forcing.

3. Find in the article all the words related to computers and IT. Try to explain their meaning with your own words (if necessary use a dictionary to help you).Use them to make your own sentences.

GRAMMAR PRACTICE SECTION

Passive. 1. Match the sentences with the explanations.

have something done	The transistor that completely changed the vacuum tubes was invented in 1948.
passive + infinitive	All the computers have just been checked for viruses.
passive + perfect infinitive	By 2100 quantum computers will have been built.
passive + continuous infinitive	The new program is currently being tested for bugs.
present simple passive	Sooner or later computers that can see will be invented.
past simple passive	Computers are believed to perform thousands of com­putations per second.
present continuous passive	Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak are known to have set up the Apple Company.
past continuous passive	If you want to use your PC for artwork or video, you can have a powerful graphics card added to it.
present perfect passive	Computers are said to be getting smaller and more powerful.
past perfect passive	Before the invention of computers various devices had been used to make calculations.
future simple passive	Various terminals are connected to this workstation.
future perfect passive	They ordered these devices to be repaired as soon as possible.
passive infinitive	When the computer crashed a new program was being installed on it.

2. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct passive form.

1. As computers count quickly, they widely (use) in busi­ness data processing.

2. Vacuum tubes to control and amplify electric signals (create) by Neumann.

3. This program (write) to help people in the use of the computer system.

4. All the current files (lose) when the system crashed and we had no backup copies.

5. A new brand of LCD screen cleaner currently (develop) by our company.

   The new version of this software (release) next July. We searched the database but your transaction (not/record). A lot of techniques (believe) to be used in the design of printers. These machines (not/service) for a year. If you need a lot of storage, you can a bigger hard disk (fit). When keyed the data (hold) in a small memory called buffer.

6. Information (put) into the computer for processing should be coded into ones and zeroes.

7. An impact printer (consider) to produce a char­acter by impacting a font against the paper.

8. Before the computer (switch) off yesterday, all the necessary files (copy) onto a laser disc.

9. At the moment the system (check) for any unnecessary file that make it work slower.

10. The power failure occurred while the antivirus (update) – so the update process (interrupt).

11. In the next century, computers (program) in natural languages like English or French.

12. The technician (expect) to be searching our database for any invalid data.

13. Many different storage technologies (invent) by men since ancient times.

SPEAKING/WRITING PRACTICE SECTION

1. Identify the storage devices in the pictures and tell about their main features.

1

2

3

4

5

2. Make a list of things that you must or mustn’t do to protect your data using the clues and pictures below. Add more recommendations to this list. Which of them do you personally follow?

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	10-90%

high temperatures dust special marker/pen water and humidity hold the disks around the edge stack disks on top of each other disks in a protective case into the disk drive very carefully

near magnets; damage the information stored on viruses before opening files you receive from the Web or via e-mail update your anti-virus program regularly since new viruses are created everyday back-ups (spare copies) of your data passwords and security devices to protect confidential information

3. Describe the principles of magnetic and optical storage technologies using the diagrams below.

4. Summarize the information you learned about different forms and types of storage.

5. Make a report on one of the following topics.

• Evolution of storage technologies.

• Use of online storage in different spheres of life (medicine, police, business, libraries, etc.).

• The most functional storage devices and technologies (everyday life and different spheres).

• Storage devices and technologies that have become obsolete and reasons for this.

• The future of storage technologies.

• An ideal imaginary storage medium.

FUN AND GAMES SECTION

Complete the crossword using terms related to data storage.

ACROSS

1. – a segment of a disk; a subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk or optical disc.

2. – (abbreviation) the basic system; a de facto standard defining a firmware interface; boot firmware, designed to be the first code run by a PC when powered on.

3. –one of the written signs that represent the numbers 0 to 9

4. – memory that won’t retain the stored information unless constantly supplied with electricity

5. – a system of signals that represent words or letters when they are sent by machine

6. – one of concentric circles into which the surface of a disk is divided

7. – small storage devices connected to a USB port of a computer that let you save and transfer data quickly and easily

8. Blue-……. - anoptical discstoragemedium forhigh-definition videoanddatastorage

9. – the part of a computer where information can be stored; the amount of space that can be used for storing information on a computer

10. – (abbr.) part of a computer acting as a temporary storage area for data to be used immediately

									1				30
				2												32
21		22							3		28
4					24		25
													5
					6													33
										27		7			31
8						9
			23										10
	11
												12
	13
												14
				15					26		29
16													17
				18
19											20

11. – the way data is kept; retaining data used for computing for some interval of time

12. – a thousand bytes

13. – a place in a computer where files or programs are organized

14. – a stiff disk inside a computer that is used for storing information

15. – a copy of a computer document, program etc, made in case the original is lost or damaged

16. – (abbr.) a way of connecting equipment to a computer using wires so that it can work together

17. ……. time – the time taken by a computer to find and use a piece of information in its memory

18. – used to talk about video, CD, tape etc when saying what type of equipment it can be played on

19. – a unit for measuring computer information, equal to eight bits

20. – information about something stored on computer so that it can be looked at in the future

DOWN

21. – (abbr.) a type of computer disc that can store a large amount of information

13. – the compactness of stored information; the storage capacity of a medium divided with a unit of length, area or volume

22. – a square piece of plastic you can store information on, which you can remove from and put into a computer

23. – (abbr.) the part of a computer where permanent instructions and information are stored

2. – (abb.) the smallest unit on which information is stored on a computer

24. – (abbr.) the study of processes and equipment for storing data and making it available

9. – a disk on which data is encoded as microscopic magnetized needles on its surface

25. – to remove information from a computer memory

3. – a round plate on which data can be encoded

26. – a part of a computer where you can connect another piece of equipment, such as a printer

27. – a piece of equipment in a computer that is used to get information from a disk or to store it

28. –one thousand million

29. – (acronym) a piece of equipment that produces a powerful narrow beam of light that can be used in recording and reading data

30. – disks that record data by burning microscopic holes in the surface of the disk with a laser

31. ……. memory – memory which uses integrated circuits to store information

32. – information on a computer that you store under a particular name

33. – the total amount of stored information that a storage device or medium can hold

HUMOR SECTION

What does each of the cartoons imply? Why is it funny, in your opinion? Explain its humour.

	OPERATING SYSTEMS & GUI

KEY INFORMATION SECTION 1

An operating system (OS or O/S) is an interface (connection) between hardware and user- it determines how the user interacts with the computer; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for applications that are run on the machine, handling the details of the operation of the hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details and makes it easier to write applications. The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way. The operating system is started automatically when a computer is switched on, it is the first thing loaded onto the computer - without the operating system, a computer is useless. It is then used to start up and control other programs.

Common contemporary operating systems include Microsoft Windows (designed by Microsoft and used on most PCs), Mac OS (created by Apple and used on Macintosh computers). Microsoft Windows has a significant majority of market share in the desktop and notebook computer markets, while servers generally run on Unix or Unix-like systems (found on mainframes and workstations in corporate installations, as it supports multi-users). From the very first, it was designed to be a multi-tasking system. Written in C language, Unix is the most commonly used system for advanced CAD programs.Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like multi-taskingcomputer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and other free licenses. Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers, although it is installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices and mobile phones to supercomputers.

System software helps to run the computer hardware and computer system. It includes operating systems, device drivers, diagnostic tools, servers, windowing systems, utilities, language translator, data communication programs, data management programs and more. The purpose of systems software is to insulate the applications programmer as much as possible from the details of the particular computer complex being used, especially memory and other hardware features, and such accessory devices as communications, printers, readers, displays, keyboards, etc.

Application software is any tool that functions and is operated by means of a computer, with the purpose of supporting or improving the software user's work. In other words, it is the subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform. This should be contrasted with system software (infrastructure) or middleware (computer services/ processes integrators), which is involved in integrating a computer's various capabilities, but typically does not directly apply them in the
	performance of tasks that benefit the user. In this context the term application refers to both the application software and its implementation. Utility software (also known as service program, service routine, tool, utility routine or system utilities) is computer software designed to help manage and tune the computer hardware, operating system or application software by

performing a single task or a small range of taskswhich improve a system's performance and help users take advantage of the computer's capabilities. Utility software has long been integrated into most major operating systems. Utilities are often desk accessories that can be called up while you're working in another application. They can also be system extensions which are activated when you turn on the computer, control devices which you adjust in the control panel, or even stand-alone programs that run when you need them.

Utilities are available for back-up, file search, virus protection, disaster recovery, and so on.

Accessibility program makes a PC easier for disabled users to use.

Anti-virus utilities scan for computer viruses.

Crashed dick rescuer utility is used to restore disks and corrupted files.

Disk checkers can scan the contents of a hard disk to find files or areas that are corrupted in some way, or were not correctly saved, and eliminate them for a more efficiently operating hard drive.

Disk cleaners can find files that unnecessary to computer operation, or take up considerable amounts of space. Disk cleaner helps the user to decide what to deletewhen their hard disk is full.

Disk compression utilities can transparently compress/uncompress the contents of a disk, increasing the capacity of the disk.

File managers provide a convenient method of performing routine data management tasks, such as deleting, renaming, cataloging, moving, copying, merging, generating and modifying data sets.

Launcher applications provide a convenient access point for application software.

Media player lets you watch DVDs, play music and listen to the radio on the Web. Network managers check the computer's network, log events and check data transfer. Registry cleaners clean and optimize the Windows registry by removing old registry keys that are no longer in use. System profilers provide detailed information about the

software installed and hardware attached to the computer.

Text and Hex Editors modify text or data of a file. These files could be data or an actual program.