Midterm 2 - Topics to Emphasize
Review all the notes and assigned readings, but the following topics are most important.
As voted on in class, there will be one short answer question repeated verbatim from the first midterm.
The Internet
What are E-Mail, FTP, Telnet, newsgroups, and the WWWW?
What does a service provider do?
How should one behave on the Internet?
What is a browser? What is HTML? What is a URL?
Communications Networks
How slow are telephone lines relative to fiber optics?
What is modem? Why might you need one?
What does communications software do?
Spreadsheets
What do cells in a spreadsheet do and how do they work?
Why might there be errors in spreadsheet calculations?
What are variables in programs?
Operating Systems
What is multiprogramming? How does it work?
What other things does an operating system do?
What happens when you turn a computer on?
Why is computer system security important? How it is implemented?
What is a GUI?
Why is Microsoft so very powerful?
What is DOS or MS-DOS?
What are directories and why are they useful?
What is a file name extension?
Computer Programming
Why is it complicated to build computer software?
What is an algorithm?
What is sorting?
Can you describe one or more algorithms for sorting?
Programming Languages
Why are they useful?
What is machine language?
What is assembly language?
What does a compiler do?
Why can't one write programs in English?
What are some common programming languages?
What is the Millenium bug? What will cause it?