Slide 1 Tomorrow’s Technology and You Chapter 4 Software © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Slide 2 Chapter 4 Objectives What can we learn from Linus Torvalds? What is involved in managing the software on our computers? How big is the problem of software piracy? What are the effects? possible solutions? How can we deal with problems of software performance & reliability? What is required for good ergonomics of software? © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Slide 3 What can we learn from Linus Torvalds? (pages ) When did he begin work on Linux? What PC OS was dominant at the time? What OS was he learning from? What made Linux so great? what is “Open Source Software”?“Open Source Software” What does it cost? Who updates it? why? Linux is ‘mutli-user’ – what does this mean? How widely is it used today? So what? © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Choice Linux vs Windows (XP vs 7) vs MacOS Consider system requirements – min and maxminmax Distribution software often ‘bundled’ with computer – so what? Can also buy at store or download – pros and cons? Web Apps – examples? – pros and cons? Upgrading what does SP1 mean? automatic? Why should I care? How can I change? Compatibility (p 126) Slide 4 Software Management (pages ) © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Slide 5 Document Sharing Don’t use.doc!! – why not? –What should I use instead? –How does this work? use N: drive, for file sharing home to school –Why not USB key ? Why not ? –How do I access from home?How do I access from home? add screen shot to thread in today’s forum for marks How can I share docs with others? –Bb? Google Docs? Pros/cons? –Other ideas?

Slide 6 In-Class Activity Group by Research Project teams, choose one member’s Bb account, and work together to: Ensure that N: drive contains a folder for this course Ensure it contains at least one file, with the extension visible Set up a view of your computer that shows: the contents of the N: drive (expanded) in the tree pane the contents of the folder for this course in the detail pane Copy/paste this screen shot into an MS Word document Ensure it is large enough to be read Below the image, type 2 reasons why use of your N: drive is a good idea Save the file on your N: drive using a format that does not require MS Word to read it Reply to the ‘In-class discussion - Week 4’ Thread put names of all participating team members in the header, and attach file

Slide 7 Software Piracy (pages 132,133, 135) How big is the problem? What are the effects? What protection is offered by Copyright laws? the DCMA? the DRM idea? What do you think is the answer? Forget it? DRM? Open source? © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Screen‘freezes’ (pages 124,125,) If only one app frozen, what do I do? What will I wish I had done? If whole system frozen – reboot - How? (2 ways) What else can I do to fix software problems? How do I ‘tune up’ existing system? New Device drivers? – p 120 Defragmentation – p 131 What is the ‘memory leak’ problem? task manager – how do I use performance info? Slide 8 Software – Making it work! © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Slide 9 Software Issues - Ergonomics (page ; ) GUI vs command line – which is better? Ergonomic tips Use virtual folders – what are they? Colour choices – which is easiest on the eyes? Set mouse controls – why? how? Other tips? Future interfaces? (p 134) What’s on the way? pros and cons? © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Slide 10 GPL General Public Licence Software copyright takes away your freedom to share and change it. GPL (Software ‘Copyleft’) guarantees your freedom to share and change software and charge for it if you wish but you must give the recipients the source code, and tell them that they have the same rights as you have. What is the effect of this ‘open source’ approach? © 2006 Prentice-Hall, Inc.