Summary of Chapter 1
Chapter 1 introduces the topic that will be taught throughout the subject. First, chapter 1 explains the components that comprises a information system which includes people, procedures, software, hardware, data and the Internet and their respective role in the information system. I also learned how to differentiate between the functionality and the types of system software and application software. Types of computers are also introduced which includes supercomputers, mainframe computers, midrange computers and personal computers. Personal computers are further categorized into 5 types. The basic categories of equipment for a personal computer includes system unit, input and output, secondary storage and communications. Data is described as raw, unprocessed facts that can be processed into information and store in different file types. The file types include Document, Worksheet, Database and Presentation. With the help of the Internet, connectivity in the world is sustained through networks. The chapter also mention the topics that related to their corresponding IT Career such as Webmaster, Software Engineer, Computer Support Specialist, Computer Technician, Technical Writer, Network Administrator.
Summary of Chapter 2
This chapter introduces the origin of the Internet and the Web, their differences and their impact in the world beginning from the 19s until now. The chapter explains the process of accessing the internet through browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome and how the web resources are assigned an address which is known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) accompanied with a Top-Level Doman (TLD). To set up a website, Hypertext Markup Language is required to do so. Some markup language such as Cascading Style Sheets, CSS is used to set up interactive websites. Web Utilities which includes Plug-Ins, Filters, File Transfer Utilities and Internet Security Suites aims to improve user experience in the Internet. From the communication side, e-mails system, short message service, social network application have fundamentally changed the limits of communication. Blogs, webcasts, podcasts, and Wiki pages are ways to spread information through web pages or video broadcasting. With the advanced technology, merchants use utilize the Internet to do their business. Online business I s also known as E-commerce. Payments of these business can be made with credit cards or digital cash securely. Cloud computing and Internet of Things are also introduced to prove that technology has advance to a point that these basic physical storage and automated application will be a part of future life.
Summary of Chapter 3
This chapter further discuss about the basic application software. Application software enable user to do task. Graphic User Interface is first explained as it is necessary to establish communication between the user and application software. There are three types of application software, General Purpose Applications, Specialized Applications and Mobile Apps. Word processor programs such the Microsoft Word, Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel, Presentation graphics program such as Microsoft PowerPoint and database management system such as Microsoft Access are considered as general purpose application. Specialized application are application that solely focused on accomplishing specific task. Graphic programs and web authoring program are an example of specialized application as graphic programs’ sole purpose is to design graphic arts and web authoring programs’ sole purpose is to set up and design websites. Mobile apps are application made to run on mobile devices and can be downloaded in App Store. Besides coming in individually, software suites are designed to bundle together separate application programs into one group to be sold. Suites can categorized into Office suites, Cloud suites, Specialized suites and Utility suites.
Summary of Chapter 4
This chapter further discuss about the system software. System software such as the Operating System(OS) is solely responsible to communicate with the user, application software and computer. There are 3 types of OS, Embedded operating systems, Stand-alone operating systems, Network operating systems. Embedded operating systems such as Android, iOS are have an easier design compared to other OS as it mainly for wireless communication. Example of Stand-alone operating systems include the most popular Windows which runs on any desktop or laptop, MacOS which is specifically for Apple-made computers, Linux and many more. It is possible to run multiple operating systems in a single physical machine, for example a desktop computer. The process is called virtualization. Specialized programs enable the computer to use utilities such as Troubleshooting programs to recognize and rectify errors to improve the user’s experience when using the computer. Window Operating System use utilities such as File History, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to ensure your data in the hard drive is backed up, non-essential files are deleted and optimize disk space to maximize the performance the computer.
Summary of Chapter 5
Chapter 5
This chapter introduces the components that makes up a computer. The class has been divided into several groups to discuss on the content of chapter. In short, we have learned the components that build up a personal computer and their function in the computer.
Mind Map:
https://coggle.it/diagram/YXjCe9ACK4A7KkB0/t/chapter-5-image
Summary of Chapter 6
Chapter 6
This chapter introduce the input and output of a computer. The definition of an input is any instruction or data entered by a user that is used by the computer. The inputs can be inserted through many devices. Inputs can be made using keyboard entry, pointing devices such as the mouse and touch pads, touch screens, scanning devices, card readers, image capturing devices and many more. Output are defined as processed data or information that is displayed or returned by the computer. Output are displayed through monitors,digital whiteboards, ultra high definition television and digital projectors. These output are considered as soft copy. Outputs that are considered as hard copy are in the form of physical object such as information on a paper. Hard copy outputs can be made by printers. Outputs can be also be in a form of audio. Devices such as headsets and telephones can output audio. As technology advances, the construction of drones and robots are made possible. Besides these, with the usage of computer increasing, computer users must have a correct sitting posture when using the computer to avoid eyestrain, back and neck pain and repetitive strain injuries.
Summary of Chapter 7
This chapter touches on the different computer storage in a more detailed manner. Primary storage and secondary storage are introduced. The main difference between the two storage is the primary storage is a temporary storage such as the Random Access Memory, RAM while secondary storage are permanent storage such as the hard disk. The Hard Disk can be further categorize into internal and external hard disks. Solid-State Storage is another type of secondary storage but faster than hard disks. Examples are flash memory cards and USB drives are also secondary storage. Optical Discs are also a type of portable storage that uses reflected light to display the content within it. Optical Discs also comes in different types such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray where the typical storage capacity of each type increases in ascending order. Besides physical storage, cloud storage is introduce to us as an alternative to store data online in the Internet. Cloud storage service companies include Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, Apple and the biggest competitor Amazon. Lastly, Mass storage devices are required to hold massive amounts of data within in an organization and is managed with Storage Area Network, SAN. SAN is an architecture that links remote computer storage devices to store data in remote location effectively and securely.
Summary of Chapter 8
This chapter explain further on the communication on computers. Computer communication is defined as process of sharing data, programs and information between two or more computers. The communication computer runs with the support of communication systems to transmit data between location through communication channels. Communication channels can be categorized into two types which is physical connection using wires and cables and wireless connections through radio waves. Connection devices such as Modem enable to conversion of digital signal to analog and vice versa. Data transmission is affected bandwidth of the communication channel which is the measure of the capacity of the communication channel. A network is defined as a collection of communication system that connect with each other to exchange information and resources. A network architecture depends on the network topology and network strategy. Network Topology manages the physical arrangement o the network while network strategy manages how information is shared. Besides those, network security such as Firewall, Intrusion detection system to ensure to the network are secure. A virtual private network is an option to create a secure private network connection for communication in an organization.
Summary of Chapter 9
Summary of Chapter 10
This chapter further explains the information system. An information system is defined as a collection of people, procedure, software, hardware and data. All of them work together to produce the necessary information needed to run an organization properly as an information system support the flow of information within the structure of an organization. Information flow may differ to management level as the higher the management level, the more information they need to access for the planning of the future for the organization. To support the information needs of different management levels, multiple computer-based information systems are used to gather the crucial information required. For example, Executive support system provides internal data from Decision support system and Management system to top level managers. Lastly, it is proven that an information system is essential in keeping up with nowadays industry competition.
Summary of Chapter 11
This chapter explains more about databases. Data is defined as facts about people, place, things and events. Data organization is broken down into character, field, record, table and database. A primary key is the column or columns that contain values to unique identify each row in a table. Data can be process in two ways, batch processing which data is collected over a period of time and the processing of data happen at once and real-time processing where the data is immediately processed during the transaction of data. Database are defined as a collection of integrated data such as files which logically related to each other. Database management system programs such as MySQL are responsible to retrieve and manage data within a database. Within database management, a database management system engine is needed. It also contains a data definition subsystem, data manipulation subsystem, application generation subsystem and data administration subsystem. Databases also comes with different types, individual, company, distributed and commercial. Since database is used strategically in the business world for the future of an organization, security must be concerned as databases are a valuable assets of an organization.
Summary of Chapter 12
This chapter introduces the systems analysis and design. A information system examined and improved by following a six phase problem solving procedure:
- Preliminary Investigation - identify the problem, alternatives and making reports
- System Analysis - gather information from the current system for the analyzing purposes and making reports for the requirement of a new system
- System Design - defining alternative, choosing a suitable system and making a system design report
- System Development - Acquire the necessary software and hardware to test run the new system
- System Implementation - Convert the old system to the new one and train expertise to handle the system
- System maintenance - Run a periodic system audit and evaluation to ensure the system run at the intended performance
Other than the system life cycle, prototyping and rapid application development is also an option to develop a new system.
Summary of Chapter 13
This chapter explains about programming languages. Program is defined as a set of problem-solving procedures that the computer follows to perform a certain task while programming is the process of creating those sets of procedures. In software developing, there are six steps to follow:
- Program specification - Identify is the objectives, desired output, input data, processing procedures and documentation of the program specifications
- Program design - Plan the outline of the program using pseudo codes and flowcharts
- Program code - Use a suitable programming language to do the coding
- Program test - Test the code to find and rectify error
- Program documentation - Write a detailed description about the program
6) Program maintenance - Maintain the performance of the program
Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools assist in software development process by automating certain procedures such as program designing. The programming language type focused in this chapter is object-oriented programming language, which is a programming language that focuses on relationships between objects and less focused on procedures. Programming languages have gone through 5 generations of upgrades. The progression is made to make programming more accessible and understandable to more people.
Summary of Industry Talk 1
The talk is given by Mr. Nazri HJ Edham, the Head Product Design of Telekom Malaysia regrading how the TM company have contribute to Malaysia in supporting Industrial Revolution 4.0, as known as IR 4.0. TM has been serving Malaysia since 1946 and have assets throughout of the country. It set up data center, Implementing cloud technology and Internet of Things in their service to promote the use of IR 4.0 technology. As technology advances, market forces are driving digital transformation in businesses across all all verticals for the digitization of their services. Successful digital transformation requires a strong digital infrastructure foundation and it is gain through digital backbone, digital insight and digital engagement. With the digitization of services, execution of performance is increased with mobile and connected work force. Management of logistic performance and efficiency is improved with smart fleet, real time tracking while also increasing production volume increase, speeding up sales transaction and efficient management on the overall manufacturing procedure. The talk also touched on Smart Services for Smart Cities. Enhancement of existing services and many more is needed to achieve the construction of Smart Cities. TM has a structured customer service to manage hundred and thousands of customer service and continuously improving their data centers to show that IR 4.0 is very beneficial to one’s business if they spend the time and resources to do so. The presenter also urges the audience to play their respective roles in enabling IR 4.0 as the benefits will be applied to everyone.
Summary of Industry Talk 2
The talk is given by Ms. Sarah Khadijah Taylor, the Strategic and Project Manager Digital Forensics Department from Cybersecurity Malaysia regrading the effort made by Malaysia in order to support Industrial Revolution 4.0. Throughout the talk, the presenter express about IR 4.0 mainly focuses on infusion of automation into manufacturing section for rapid evolution. To achieve this feat, advanced digitization, advanced technologies and efficient resource utilization are required to support IR 4.0 and drive competitiveness across the world. Industry Revolution 4.0 Transformation Drivers are also discussed on. In short, due to the rise of advanced technology from countries like China and India, Malaysia is also required to keep up their footsteps by driving tech into industry and utilize technology such as big data, Internet of Things devices and cloud computing. Expertise are needed and regulation are required to meet the demand of the constant change in customer behavior. Technologies digitization of production can be enabled with Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, additive manufacturing, high base cybersecurity and many more. While Malaysia is in the leading quadrant in the readiness of IR 4.0, we need to more future planning such as increase the quality of labor and reducing labor cost and fostering technology-based model for production. Regrading the challenges Malaysia will face, it includes the lack of awareness of importance of IR 4.0, innovation, digital readiness, cybersecurity and skill enhancement. To solve these issues, governance need to further coordinate programs in support IR 4.0. Funding are needed to train expertise while ecosystem support is needed to push the community in implementing IR 4.0 technology in business. Cybersecurity Malaysia has committed to train people and creating knowledgeable workers with certification and job-attachment program, and awareness program. They also set up labs to invent and test new technologies. They also handle digital forensics as a service of data analysis such as the analysis of suspect documents and extraction of crucial info for investigation. Lastly, the presenter also reminded to market yourself strategically with the use of social media, professionally written resumes, and contribution in the completion of projects.
Summary of Industry Talk 3
The talk is given by Dr. Qusay Al Maatouk regrading Amazon Web Service cloud computer. AWS is a secure cloud platform that offers global cloud-based products. Cloud computing is defined as on-demand delivery of computer power, database, storage and other IT resources through the Internet with pay-as-you -go pricing, which means you pay only have you use. Cloud computing changes the way of thinking of customers, by making them think and use their infrastructure as software instead of hardware. The disadvantages that infrastructure as hardware brings such as requiring space, manpower, physical security and capital expenditure and capacity provisioning by guessing maximum peaks. With cloud computing, you are able to more flexible with your resource and change model more quickly and cost efficient. Cloud service also provides several cloud service models, Infrastructure as a service (IAAS), platform as a service and software as a service (PAAS) and their control over IT resource decrease accordingly. To move traditional IT setup to the cloud, AWS has developed components that is closely related to it corresponding physical component to promote cloud computing. A showcase of using AWS services through the AWS Management Console. The advantages of using cloud computing is further explained. For example, data center investment can be made based on forecasts made by AWS, massive economies of scale, eliminate the the need for guessing capacity, saving money on running and maintaining data centers and go global within minutes. Web service is a software that makes itself available available across the Internet for the request and the response of application interface programming (API) interaction. When choosing services for a business, business goals and technology requirement must be considered as the services include compute services, security services, storage services, database services, networking and content delivery services, management and governance services and cost management services. AWS also assist businesses with AWS pricing calculator to estimate monthly cost when using cloud architecture in the business and with support plans ranging from basic to enterprise support. Thus, AWS has make a huge contribution in promoting cloud technology throughout the world for a more advanced future.
Summary of Industry Talk 4
The talk is given by Dr.Ruzimi bin Mohamed, the founder of OZEL SDN.BHD. regrading the current trends of Augmented Reality, AR in the industry. Industrial Revolution 4.0’s purpose is to digitalize manufacturing procedures and production and also relate industries and value creation processes. AR is a part of the 9 Digital Industrial Technology that we must be developing. In World Economics Forum 2015, it is anticipated that by 2025, 80% of the people will have Internet presence. This fact further indicates the importance of developing technology to achieve this prediction. As for the future of AR, it is expected to have a massive revenue in multiple industries but mainly the video games industry, healthcare sectors and engineering industries.
As AR have many use cases such in education to utilize 3D holograms for different teaching techniques, in marketing for visual furnishing, in outdoor and indoor navigation for automatically guiding people with direction and many more uses cases, it is certain that AR will make a big impact in the future. Thus, we must have develop the skills, expertise and awareness to make people realize the countless benefit that AR will bring. The talk also give advice about the things we must consider before choosing a career such as study data science to grasp the newest information about the world, keep in touch with job market to gain insights of jobs that are in-demand and many more.
Summary of Industry Talk 5
The talk is given by a Systems Engineer, Mr Goh Bih Der from COMMSCOPE. regrading the emerging technology on network infrastructure. The talk starts off by describing how the pandemic have affect our lives and what technology it made us to focus on developing. For example, cloud and mobile computing are on the rise, the acceleration of digital transformation, the development in analytic and Artificial Intelligence and many more. Billions of IoT devices are developed to assist in solving problems such the pandemic Covid-19 with higher asset utilization and lower energy and utility cost. The talk continues with the components that make a network infrastructure as all devices required a network to enable communication between devices. With the increasing use of Internet, global value pf Wi-Fi is estimated to be around 3.3 trillion to 4.9 trillion dollar. Wi-Fi 6is also touched on in this talk and the benefit it brings in networking is also massive. The benefits include bigger network capacity, maintaining battery life, outdoor reliability, peak throughput and many more. With the trend of driving enterprise network traffic, the development of Smart Campus is ongoing to rapid improve Wi-Fi speed and implementation of IoT devices and cloud application. The talk also give the explanation of network structure in a Smart Campus and the improvements made to the traditional approach to on-premises LAN/WLAN network management with unified network management. As wired devices evolve into wireless devices and further advanced into Internet of Things devices has proven that globally is very committed in developing technology for the improving in every sector that is important for human quality of life improvements. Internet of Things (IoT) is being introduced more detailed in the talk as the benefits and challenges of IoT are mentioned. IoT will bring cost reduction and improvements in business opportunities and customer experiences while also bring challenges in connectivity, security and compatibility. IoT in Smart Campus is also mentioned as its implementation will improve safety measure in case of disaster, supervision and quality of life.
Summary of Industry Talk 6
The talk is given by Mr Nicholas Yong who is an Executive Industry Solution Manager for Asia Pacific Region of HUAWEI regrading 5G and Wi-Fi 6. 5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology systems and aims for faster network speed, close to those delivered via fiber-optic cable. 5G is expected to bring benefits such as transforming industries, low latency, more reliable and flexible. 5G is required to support the implementation of other advanced technology such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, entertainment in vehicles and many more. 5G application are also made to enhance mobile broadband, support massive machine type communication, and enable ultra-reliable and low-latency communication. 5G also opens up new opportunities for new industry such as next generation smart tourism. Tourist will be able to live stream their travel experience with high resolution, enhancing tourist guide app experience, using AR, VR on their travels and many more. All of these are possible with 5G for the user experience. Wi-Fi 6 is made to outperform previous generations in terms max transfer rate, bandwidth, download and cloud backup speed, area of coverage, power consumption rate of devices using the network and many more. It also enable Multi-screen IPTV, HD video teaching, Cloud VR interaction and E-sports acceleration. 5G technologies such as Smart Antenna expand the coverage of SNR by 20% while SmartRadio enables ultra low latency and lossless roaming. Wi-Fi 6 and 5G will make an significant improvement in the technology side of all sector and further support the progression of Industry Revolution 4.0.
Summary of Industry Talk 7
The talk is given by Mr Isma Redha regrading data analytic. The talk mainly teaches the process of using Microsoft BI to present data in a way for clients to have an easier time to understand the data. The process is called data visualization. Data visualization can be done by finding a story suitable for the data. A story can make the data stand out and provide specific insight to anyone viewing the data. A data set must identified what type they are before visualization. Besides the type, the data relationship must be determined. Data can be related through nominal comparison, time series, correlation, ranking and many more. Charts such as bar chart, line chart, bubble chart and many more can be used to illustrate data for that is easier to study but if used incorrectly deliver the opposite effect. The talk further discuss about Microsoft Power BI which is a platform made up of a collection of software services working together to process data into visually realistic, logical insight for the use of business intelligence. When design a dashboard for representing data, it improve to remove duplicates, sort data correctly and limit the color usage for data presenting as it would distract anyone viewing the data. The presenter also mentions that it is more preferable to make the data representation simple to read as making it too fancy will end up confusing anyone looking at the data.
Reflection of The Course
Regrading my goal for the Technology and Information System course, I initially plan on doing well in terms of academic performance only. As I progress through the course, I also find myself gaining a lot of knowledge regrading the technology side of things. To further improve myself to adapt well in nowadays industry, I do think I have to keep up with the trend of the society. I find myself in need of studying more to further my knowledge in cloud technology and cloud architecture while polishing my skills in using technology to its highest performance. Being cooperative is also an crucial aspect in the industry as some work fields require the unity of the team. Thus, I must use my chance when doing group assignments and project to improve my team-working skills. In terms of knowledge gain, I get to learn more in depth about the component of a computer and the applications that is used commonly by everyone. Industry talks also give me some insight about the trend of the current world and important skills that we should be focusing on improving. I also learned how to work in a team when completing assignments and the project as it challenged me to cooperate with different type of people. About my lecturer for this course, Mr Hairudin Bin Abdul Majid, I do find him hard to approach the first time I meet him. As I progress through the course, I do find him actually very supportive of his students. He tends to try his best to reply the student’s question when they ask him personally. He often interact with students to ensure they understand the topic he is currently teaching. I respect him as a good lecturer and I hope I could meet his expectations.