|
|
|
|
Umesh Asaigoli, graduated as Mechanical Engineer from Karnataka Regional Engineering College
(KREC), Surathkal. Worked for different software companies including PCS at
Mumbai, LTITL at Mumbai and Syntel at USA. Currently working as Sr. Application Specialist for Greenbrier &
Russel, USA.
You can get free advice from Mr. Umesh Asaigoli by clicking here => UmeshAsaigoli@kulal.com
|
|
Artifacts of Software World
Before getting into computer buzz-words, it is worth to spend sometime to know the process of making ice cream in automated way to ease the process and deliver the quality at right time. Let me assume that you are going to ice cream parlor. You took a long journey with crowded bus from a remote place to reach
your destination. After all your busy work under hot sun, it is not a bad idea to visit
an ice cream parlor. Inside the parlor it took a great deal to get a seat for you. Without even looking at the menu, you have ordered the ice cream of your favorite. Don't you curse at waiter if he delivers the item after one hour? . I am sure that if one gets to know the process of making ice cream, he/she will tip the waiter with few bucks more.
Let us look at the various things involved in the process of making ice cream.
1.Raw material like milk, sugar etc.
2.Utensils
3.Recipe
4.Procedure
5.Person for the preparation
6.Person to take order and deliver the item.
The figure shows bird view of the process. It is so laborious and time consuming to prepare the ice cream manually for each order and deliver it. There comes idea of automating the whole process. How nice it will be if I get an ice cream of my choice by just pressing a button? It will be still nice if there are options to choose (like what kind of fruit combinations and what level of sugar content you want) for the ice cream. Ice cream parlor owner certainly will derive good business at the cost of small investment on the automation effort. Customers are also happy with faster service with their own choices.
The automation process requires utensils/machine (hardware), recipe/procedure (software) built into a system. The raw materials (data) are required to pass into the system to get the desired product. There comes role of software in the real world.
Software:
Software is a universal term for the various kinds of programs used to operate
computers and related devices. Software can be thought of as the variable part of a computer and hardware the invariable part. Software is often divided into
application software (programs that do work users are directly interested in) and system software (which includes
operating system and any program that supports application software). The term
middleware is sometimes used to describe programming that mediates between application and system software or between two different kinds of application software (for example, sending a remote work request from an application in a computer that has one kind of operating system to an application in a computer with a different operating system).
Software is often packaged on CD-ROMs and diskettes. Today, much purchased software, shareware (usually intended for sale after a trial period), and freeware (free software but with copyright restrictions) is downloaded over the
Internet.
Hardware:
The term hardware describes the physical aspects of computers and related devices. Hardware is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications, and other information technology devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish the "box" and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the program you put in it to make it do things. The program came to be known as the software.
Hardware implies permanence and invariability. Software or programming can easily be varied. You can put an entirely new program in the hardware and make it create an entirely new experience for the user. You can, however, change the modular configurations that most computers come with by adding new adapters or card that extend the computer's capabilities.
Like software, hardware is a collective term. Hardware includes not only the computer proper but also the cables, connectors, power supply units, and peripheral devices such as the keyboard, mouse, audio speakers, and printers.
Hardware is sometimes used as a term collectively describing the physical aspects of telephony and telecommunications network infrastructure.
Program:
In computing, a program is a specific set of ordered operations for a computer to perform. In the modern computer that John von Neumann outlined in 1945, the program contains a one-at-a-time sequence of instructions that the computer follows. Typically, the program is put into a storage area accessible to the computer. The computer gets one instruction and performs it and then gets the next instruction. The storage area or memory can also contain the data that the instruction operates on. (Note that a program is also a special kind of "data" that tells how to operate on "application or user data.")
Programs can be characterized as interactive or batch in terms of what drives them and how continuously they run. An interactive program receives data from an interactive user (or possibly from another program that simulates an interactive user). A batch program runs and does its work, and then stops. A command interpreter or a Web browser is an example of an interactive program. A program that computes and prints out a company payroll is an example of a batch program. Print jobs are also batch programs.
When you create a program, you write it using some kind of computer language. Your language statements are the source program. You then "compile" the source program (with a special program called a language compiler) and the result is called an object program (not to be confused with object-oriented programming). There are several synonyms for object program, including object module and compiled program. The object program contains the string of 0s and 1s called machine language that the logic processor works with.
The machine language of the computer is constructed by the language compiler with an understanding of the computer's logic architecture, including
the set of possible computer instructions and the length (number of bits) in an instruction.
Computer:
A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digital data) and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different programs may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started by an administrator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming.
Most histories of the modern computer begin with the "Analytical Engine" envisioned by Charles Babbage following the mathematical ideas of George Boole, the mathematician who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today's digital computer. Babbage's assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ideas of program loops and subroutines and is sometimes considered the first programmer. Apart from mechanical calculators, the first really useable computers began with the vacuum tube, accelerated with the invention of the transistor, which then became imbedded in large numbers in integrated circuits, ultimately making possible the relatively low-cost personal computer.
Modern computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored program laid out by John von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by the computer one instruction at a time, an operation is performed, and the computer then reads in the next instruction, and so on. Recently, computers and programs have been devised to allow multiple programs (and computers) to work on the same problem at the same time in parallel. With the advent of the Internet and higher bandwidth data transmission, programs and data that are part of the same overall project can be distributed over a network and embody the Sun Microsystems slogan: "The network is the computer."
Application:
1) In information technology, an application is the use of a technology, system, or product.
2) The term application is a shorter form of application program. An application program is a program designed to perform a specific function directly for the user or, in some cases, for another application program. Examples of applications include word processors, database programs, Web browsers, development tools, drawing, paint, image editing programs, and communication programs. Applications use the services of the computer's operating system and other supporting applications. The formal requests and means of communicating with other programs that an application program uses called the application program interface (API).
System:
A system is a collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose. The word sometime describes the organization or plan itself (and is similar in meaning to method, as in "I have my own little system") and sometimes describes the parts in the system (as in "computer system").
A computer system consists of hardware components that have been carefully chosen so that they work well together and software components or programs that run in the computer. The main software component is itself an operating system that manages and provides services to other programs that can be run in the computer. A filing system is a group of files organized with a plan (for example, alphabetical by customer). All of nature and the universe can be said to be a system. We've coined a word, ecosystem, for the systems on Earth that affect life systems. The term can be very useful because so many things can be described as systems. It can also be very un-useful when a more specific term is needed.
Middleware:
In the computer industry, middleware is a general term for any programming that serves to "glue together" or mediate between two separate and usually already existing programs. A common application of middleware is to allow programs written for access to a particular
database to access other databases.
Messaging is a common service provided by middleware programs so that different applications can communicate. The systematic tying together of disparate applications is known as enterprise application integration (Enterprise application Integration).
Database:
A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. The most prevalent type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. A distributed database is one that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network. An object-oriented-programming database is one that is congruent with the data defined in object classes and subclasses.
Databases contain aggregations of data records or files, such as sales transactions, product catalogs and inventories, and customer profiles. Typically, a database manager provides users the capabilities of controlling read/write access, specifying report generation, and analyzing usage. Databases and database managers are prevalent in large mainframe systems, but are also present in smaller distributed workstation and mid-range systems such as the AS/400 and on personal computers. Structured Query Language is a standard language for making interactive queries from and updating a database such as IBM's DB2, Microsoft's Access, and database products from Oracle, Sybase, and Computer Associates.
Internet:
The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers). It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster.
Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication networks. Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Two recent adaptations of Internet technology, the intranet (A private network that is contained within an enterprise) and the extranet (a private network that uses the Internet protocol and the public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business's information or operations), also make use of the TCP/IP protocol.
For many Internet users, electronic mail (e-mail) has practically replaced the Postal Service for short written transactions. Electronic mail is the most widely used application on the Net. You can also carry on live "conversations" with other computer users, using Internet Relay Chat (IRC). More recently, Internet Telephony hardware and software allows real-time voice conversations.
The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated "WWW" or called "the Web"). Its outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of instant cross-referencing. In most Web sites, certain words or phrases appear in text of a different color than the rest; often this text is also underlined. When you select one of these words or phrases, you will be transferred to the site or page that is relevant to this word or phrase. Sometimes there are buttons, images, or portions of images that are "clickable." If you move the pointer over a spot on a Web site and the pointer changes into a hand, this indicates that you can click and be transferred to another site.
Using the Web, you have access to millions of pages of information. Web browsing (see surf) is done with a Web browser, the most popular of which are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The appearance of a particular Web site may vary slightly depending on the browser you use. Also, later versions of a particular browser are able to render more "bells and whistles" such as animation, virtual reality, sound, and music files, than earlier versions.
Network:
In information technology, a network is a series of points or node interconnected by communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain sub-networks. The most common topology or general configurations of networks include the bus, star, and token ring topologies. Networks can also be characterized in terms of spatial distance as local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (metropolitan area network), and wide area networks (wide area network).
A given network can also be characterized by the type of data transmission technology in use on it (for example, a TCP/IP System Network Architecture network); by whether it carries voice, data, or both kinds of signals; by who can use the network (public or private); by the usual nature of its connections (dial-up or switched, dedicated or non-switched, or virtual connections); and by the types of physical links (for example, optical fiber, coaxial cable, and Unshielded Twisted Pair). Large telephone networks and networks using their infrastructure (such as the Internet) have sharing and exchange arrangements with other companies so that larger networks are created.
Bottom sip:
World is big enough with those buzz-words. It is your verdict to choose something right for you from it. Please do not hesitate to write to me for more details about how to get into and what to take in the software world. Good luck!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
