Now and Then: Computer Reminiscence

The computer, otherwise known as a processor, is a simple description yet a device with complex functions, intricate codes, and immense capabilities. It is an electronic device designed to accept data, perform prescribed mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations. Yet little that we know that it was originally a job title, generally occupied by women, referring to recurring computations of mathematical equations. Due to its repetitive process, early inventors and mathematicians devised a way to lessen the effort in exerting such procedure. Early computers were primarily used for aiding mathematical calculations such as the Abacus, which uses the concept of positional notation. It uses a system of writing numbers in which the position of a digit affects its value. Actually, it doesn’t do the computing, but it assists people to keep track of the numbers as they calculate. However, as the need to do multifarious calculations arouse, John Napier discovered the technology of an algorithm, a step-by-step recursive computational procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps. Indeed, necessity is the mother of all inventions, as a prodigy child at 19, Blaise Pascal invented the gear-driven adding calculator, Pascaline. Evidently, these early calculators were the triggering point of the emergence of processing machines such as the Differential Analyzer by Charles Babbage, to handle simple calculus problems; electromechanical machines such as the Enigma used to encrypt and decrypt secret codes; gadgets to decode these messages such as the Colossus Mark I; and eventually the materialization of electronic digital computers such as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) intended to solve systems of linear equations. To note, as the first digital electronic computer, it pioneered the components of modern computing consisting of binary arithmetic, electronic switching elements, regenerative capacitor memory and the concept of organizing memory and computation separation. It was then that the Z3 computer by Konrad Zuse was invented that established the first freely programmable, working computer in the world based on a binary floating-point number and switching system, which is very similar to a modern computer comprising of separate units – a punch tape reader, a control unit, a floating-point arithmetic unit, and an input/output device. While these gadgets, machines, and devices were designed to comply with fixed commands that are not capable of editing programmed instructions, these are distinguishable to modern day computers that possess versatility and accuracy.

Even though Babbage’s Analytical Engine was still being conceptualized, Ada Lovelace prognosticated the computers’ capability of processing algorithms beyond mere mathematical computations and wrote the program codes. She was regarded as the world’s first programmer. These programs are translated to a machine language for a computer to understand, and upgraded to assembly language, and eventually high level languages. If software programming has advanced and upgraded, computer hardware has kept up with the pace too, as the quest for faster runtime and more storage data increases. Throughout history, computer hardware and software has defined the era it was built in. In early times, the computers were generally outsized occupying the whole room, while presently, computer sizes vary depending on its use. It encompasses mainframes, workstations, towers, desktops, laptops, hand held personal computers, personal digital assistants, and to top it all, supercomputers that are used for complex and unthinkable calculations involving quantum mechanical physics, weather forecasting, physical simulations, climate research, and molecular modeling.

Computers nowadays are customizable wherein users can opt for their desired specs accommodating their intended use, either for internet video streaming, or gaming experience. Popular processors are Intel i7 920 2.66GHz Quad Core, and 1 x AMD Athlon XP 2100+ / 1.73 GHz (266 MHz). For extreme hardcore gaming, video card performance is vital. Large leaps by ATI’s Radeon 5800 have quite easily taken the top spot for single-GPU performance. Not to be outdone is Nvidia’s dual GPU card, the GTX 295 – essentially 2 GTX GPUs running in SLI on a single card.

Computers are constantly evolving and upgrading rapidly. The supercomputers today may only be a normal computer tomorrow. However, it wouldn’t hurt if we indulge ourselves with these to enjoy the height of it. After all, enjoy present pleasures as not to injure the future ones.

Internet Advertising- The Modern Principle of Marketing

Advertising communicates a message to influence individuals to purchase products or avail services or support political candidates or ideas. The message includes the name of the product or service and how these could potentially benefit the consumers. Advertising often attempts to persuade potential customers to consume or purchase a particular brand of product or service.

The fact still remains that goods are being produced to earn some good money. Therefore, advertising focuses on the increase of sales of the marketer’s products.

Ways of Advertising

The following are the common ways through which ideas or products can be promoted to the people and the consumers:

• Television

TV commercial is generally considered as the most effective mass-market advertising format. Majority of TV commercials features a song known as a jingle that targets audiences can soon relate to the product.

• Radio

Radio advertisements are broadcasted to the air as radio waves from the transmitter to an antenna and to the receiving device. Airtime or the airing of the commercials is purchased from the station or network.

• Billboards

Advertisements are displayed in large structures located in public places where pedestrians and motorists pass. Most often, they are displaced in main roads with a large amount of passing motors and pedestrian traffic; although they can also be placed in locations where large amounts of viewers pass by such as: shopping malls, office buildings, stadiums, and mass transit vehicle stations.

• Internet

This form of advertising uses the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) for the purpose of delivering marketing to attract potential customers. Examples are: banner ads, search engine results pages, social network advertising, Rich Media Ads, online classifieds advertising, advertising networks and email marketing (including email scam).

Advertising is an industry that is almost as old as the society itself. As long as there is something to promote, there are countless ways to get one’s message broadcast to the public.

With the advancement of Internet, a new industry is created for online advertising. Because the Internet encompasses a large number of users in different communities and sub-communities, there are a number of ways to advertise online. Furthermore, online listings are easily accessible and searching for them can be a worthwhile time investment.

Advertising tools are part of the company’s campaign to bring a direct response to the target audiences. These tools can bring compelling impact and can be a vital part of the company’s branding solution.

Online advertising tools allow the advertiser or the marketer to easily monitor and analyze ad campaigns. These tools help the advertiser create ads, target the right audience, and measure and define the traffic.

There are known online advertising tools commonly used nowadays. The following are just two of the examples:

• Banner Advertising

Banner advertising is an online marketing tool which allows companies to buy an ad space from a website for their company’s banner. There are various types of banner advertising, which include pay per click advertising. This type of advertising has become a common way for companies to reach a vast audience that is unparalleled by any other medium.

A well-developed ad banner can be an excellent money maker for the company. This is an ideal way of attracting new customers, especially if the company is just starting out.

• Email Advertising

Email advertising is another common form of online marketing. It is cheap and could reach a vast audience. Email advertising has been used to maintain a relationship with existing customers or to attract potential customers.

This type of advertising is available at a fraction of what traditional methods of advertising cost. Even if compared to other online advertising tools such as banner advertising, email ad campaign is exceptionally cheap and is therefore, ideal for small and just starting out businesses.

There are two types of email advertising: bulk email advertising, which involves sending an email with an ad or message to a very large number of email users; and opt-in email advertising which is used for some people who were given the choice and opted to receive bulk emails through a mailing list and would be less likely to block as spam because the email user himself agrees to receive such emails.

All about the INTERNET

Few years back, the internet was not as commercialized as what it is now. The popularity of the internet was limited to certain sectors of the world and therefore, only few individuals could make use of the internet. It wasn’t even as complex as today’s internet. It was simple with a few browsing options. It was then envisioned by few individuals to be something wide-ranged and highly advanced. From their ideas regarding technology, they could combine all of these thus the birth of the World Wide Web. It was primarily used for communication of professionals who work on separate places. It has improved the tools used by these professionals, making it easy for them to accomplish certain tasks. It captivated the interests of many, on how this thing called the internet worked. It grew more popular and it was not just used by companies, it was already used by every other single individual in the world. Those who have a computer at home were allowed to access the internet and enjoy its features.

Communication is a very evident use of the internet. It can either be personal, business matters and networking. The internet is widely used by business to stay connected with their clients or any of their establishments to ensure the organization of their operations. Since the birth of the internet, it has become much easier for companies to establish their business since many individuals are using the internet. Indeed profits increase because of the internet. Others utilize the internet in buying things making it much convenient to consumers. Aside from business, many individuals use the internet to communicate with loved ones like friends and family. An individual need not to spend money and effort in sending mails or messages since all of these are features of the internet. Those that are separated by distance are still connected through the internet. We can also use the internet in searching for new friends and exchanging messages. Because of the internet, more people get to save money and energy. All they have to do is turn on the computer and access the internet for communication when they have concerns with a specific contact.

The internet is a wide source of information. It contains a lot of things just like those seen in printed materials. It is much easier to browse through files in the internet that is why many individuals opt to use the internet. It would take only a few seconds to open related files. It would help in maximizing the time spent to other important things. It would make research much efficient and less bulky. Search engine optimization plays a big role in searching contents in the internet. It will give users a ranking of related contents to the keywords being encoded by the user thus; allowing the user to get rid of unrelated contents and direct the user to related ones. Information from the internet includes recent events in the community through news updates. This will increase the awareness of the user about current events. It also contains information regarding certain procedures, details of a certain topic and anything a user wishes to know.

Aside from being informative and a much easier mode of communication, the internet has become a main source of entertainment for most individuals. Most of them spend numbers of hours in front of the computer. People get to enjoy different kinds of games in the internet, and it comes in a variety that is why it never seizes to please. Multimedia is another important feature of the internet it contains classic and modern songs, picture and videos. Whenever one decides to view movies or music videos it’s just within reach. People get to enjoy listening to all sorts of music in the internet and get to repeat it all over again as desired. Indeed, its fun to surf in the internet and relax.

The internet has heightened many concerns regarding privacy and security of its users. It poses a threat to the lives of many individuals since it has been easy for criminals to plan a certain crime. The internet had an impact on society either positively or negatively.

The Value of Internet

We are living in an era of scientific conquest. It is of absolute certainty that through the use of science, it enlarges human knowledge to a state of infinite learning information. One aspect that tremendously helped expounds our human capabilities is the use of the internet. We cannot deny the fact that nowadays, the use of computer and internet has become a daily trend to us all—that it is now part of our daily living routine. If such technology would have not been invented, without a doubt, we would still be experiencing inconvenience in a lot of things. And in many ways, our development in all aspects in this world of ours would have been slowed down.  

More than half of the people worldwide use computer and internet to share information, make new organizations, business propositions and more. That in every individual in this world may it be a student to journalist, consultants, and programmers and even to those corporate giants, they all harness the power of the internet. For sure it plays a significant role in our world today, and it is our responsibility to protect it. For just like our human body that is prone to sickness, our computers also have threats that could result to damage to all the program files, we have. And for this, we also have to find ways on how to secure and prevent encountering such a dilemma. These are several ways to uphold the safety of our computer:

The use of Antivirus and Anti Spyware

Whenever someone knocks at our doorstep and presents us with the goods they are promoting and persuade us to allow them to come into our home for a quick sampling. We obviously have to decide on whether or not to allow them to enter. What if the people in front of us are someone we knew, or if they are not, but looks like someone trustworthy enough. We would probably also permit them to enter provided that we keep an eye at them at all times. This is how Antivirus program works. They examine the contents of our files individually and investigate a specific pattern that matches the so called “virus” which is known to do harm in the system. If a file or more matches the signature of the “virus”, the Antivirus program then reacts by either removing/destroying the affected file or present us with several options in respond to this.

On the other hand, spyware is one of the software installed in our computers. It serves to intercept or control partially on the user’s interaction with the computer voluntarily. In other words, it works like a spy for it secretly monitors all our activities and can do changes in our computer without even letting us know of such activity. If this problem does occur, it will result to lessen internet connection speed, loss of internet programs and even personal program files. One way to combat this is to use Anti Spyware which prevents and tries to eliminate spyware from personal computers.

Not to entertain mails from sources unknown to us

Simple task but can do much damage if taken for granted. This is also one easy way of spreading the virus; we receive messages that often times can fool us with its content, resulting to being infected easily. We should never at all times trust mails from people we don’t know.

Ignore pop up messages telling you to install something

Yet again, this one also sound simple but many pop up messages has its way of convincing us to install it that most people end up installing a virus program. Just like not entertaining mails from unknown sources, both precautions are basic in preventing damage to occur in our computers.

Spread the news

 We have nothing to lose only to gain in doing this for in a way we also protect ourselves. If ever someone we know needs a better security in their computer just simply share with them the tips on how to avoid bumping into troubles regarding their computer. Let us give them a helping hand by preaching the gospel of good security. At some point, we might annoy them in doing so, but it is worth it for we know that we can save them from losing precious documents, memorable pictures and videos and much more.

Doing such ways, we will for sure benefit from this and no other. For Internet makes all the people ideas move to all corners around the globe and for that, we cannot allow having a halt to this.