Our guide to cleaning and maintaining your keyboard.

Computer Keyboards can get dirty very easily, to clean the surface of a keyboard is very straight forward.What you will need: lint free cloth, dry cloth or duster, suitable cleaning fluid (isopropyl alcohol), cotton buds, can of compressed air or vacuum cleaner, flat tip screwdriver (optional for thorough clean).

Shutdown your PC and remove the main plug, unplug the keyboard (remember where it was plugged in) and hold it upside down to release any debris from in-between the keys. This is where the patience comes in, make a note of the position of all the keys or you will have trouble putting them back correctly, alternatively just remove the letter keysA - Z from the keyboard (which is where the most of the dust/debris will be) and refer to fig. 2 as a reference to put them back. All the keys can be removed although the larger keys (space bar, enter key, shift keys, backspace, caps lock, etc) can be difficult to put back so you might avoid removing them. Remove the keys using the screwdriver, ease the screwdriver under the key and gently lift the key top off (see fig. 1). Note: don't forget to make a note of their position!!

When you have removed all the keys (except any keys you wish to avoid) use the compressed air (or vacuum cleaner) to remove any dust and debris from inside the keyboard.

Fig.1

Now is a good time to give the keys a proper clean, for best results clean each one individually (the patience thing again) with the cloth and cleaning fluid, when clean, wipe them over with the dry cloth. Before replacing the keys, take your lint free cloth and dampen it with your cleaning fluid (don't put the liquid directly on the

keyboard), give the surface of the keyboard a good wipe over ensuring to clean as much as possible any keys that you haven't removed. When the keyboard is nice and clean replace the keys

according to your notes or if you have just removed the letter keys use fig. 2 as a guide, to put the keys back on position the key in place and press gently but firmly until it clicks home. After replacing all the keys give the keyboard a quick wipe over with your dry cloth and you have a nice clean keyboard.

Fig. 2

4. Make an advertisement for a real or imaginary input computer device.

FUN AND GAMES SECTION

1. In each of the sets of words below, one term is the odd one out: different from the others. Find it and explain why it is different.

1. keyboard……..……..………modem………....…………..mouse……..………………trackball

2. function key……………….screen………………….….shift……..………………….space bar

3. click…………….…………drag…………………..…….point…………………………….type

2. Word association: missing links.

The sets of words below can be linked by one other word. What is the missing word? What other collocations with this word do you know?

3. Solve the clues and complete the puzzle with words

1. Scanners and cameras are … devices used to transfer images into a format that can be understood by computers.

2. A … lets you copy photos and printed documents into your PC.

3. It has become one of life's most familiar sounds – the beep of the supermarket till whenever a … is scanned.

4. If you need to scan 35mm … you should go for a dedicated 35mm film scanner which concentrates all its dots into a tiny area.

5. This scanner has a resolution of 600 … .

6. A … scanner is small enough to hold in your hand.

7. A … scanner is used to capture lines of text, barcodes and numbers.

8. Most digital cameras use flash … cards to store photos.

9. … scanners have a flat surface and take at least A4-sized documents.

10. To scan photographic negatives or slides you will need a …scanner.

			1		p
2					e
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	6				h
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			9		a
			10		l

HUMOR SECTION

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

		DATA PROCESSING

KEY INFORMATION SECTION 1

Computer data processing is any computering process that converts data into information or knowledge. Data-processing systems are often referred to as information systems to emphasize their practicality.

Computer data processing system

Data-processing systems typically manipulate raw data into information, and likewise information systems typically take raw data as input to produce information as output. In order to be processed by a computer, the data needs first to be converted into a machine readable format. Once data is in digital format, various procedures can be applied on the data to get useful information.

Five basic operationscharacteristic of all data process­ing systems are defined as follows.

• Inputting is the process of entering data, which are collected facts, into a data processing system.

  Storingis saving data or information so that they are available for initial or for additional processing. Processingrepresents performing arithmetic or log­ical operations on data in order to convert them into useful in­formation.

• Outputting is the process of producing useful infor­mation, such as a printed report or visual display.

• Controllingis directing the manner and sequence in which all of the above operations are performed.

Computer data processing systems have four main advantages:

• Accuracy.Once data have been entered correctly into the computer component of a data processing system, the need for further manipulation by humans is eliminated, and the possi­bility of error is reduced. Computers, when properly pro­grammed, are also unlikely to make computational errors.

• Ease of communications.Data, once entered, can be trans­mitted wherever needed by communications networks. These may be either earth or satellite-based systems.

• Capacity of storage.Computers are able to store vast amounts of information, to organize it, and to retrieve it in ways that are far beyond the capabilities of humans. The amount of data that can be stored on devices such as magnetic discs is con­stantly increasing. All the while, the cost per character of data stored is decreasing.

• Speed.The speed, at which computer data processing sys­tems can respond, adds to their value. The response required might be a fraction of a second.