Chapter 1 Terms of Endearment: Defining Information Technology
Why Know Just the Right Word in Information Technology?
A Few Basic Terms about Hardware
A Few Basic Terms about Software
A Few Basic Terms about Ideas
Analytical Thinking
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 2 What the Digerati Know: Exploring the Human-Computer Interface
Learning about Technology
Basic Metaphors of Software
Standard GUI Functionality
Learning through Feedback
Learning More Advanced GUI Features
A Basic IT Principle: Process Follows Function
Searching Text Using Find
Editing Text Using Substitution
Thinking about Information Technology Abstractly
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 3 Making the Connection: The Basics of Networking
How Have Networked Computers Changed Our Lives?
Communication Types: Some Comparisons
How Networking Takes Place, or The Medium of the Message
The World Wide Web
The Internet and the Web
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 4 Marking Up with HTML: A Hypertext Markup Language Primer
Marking Up a Web Page with HTML
Structuring Documents
Marking Links with Anchor Tags
Including Pictures with Image Tags
Handling Color in HTML
Handling Lists in HTML
Handling Tables in HTML
HTML Wrap-Up
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 5 Searching for Truth: Locating Information on the WWW
Searching in All the Right Places
How Is Web Page Information Organized?
How Is Web Site Information Organized?
Searching the Web for Information: Search Engines
Web Page Information: Truth or Fiction?
Case Study: The Burmese Mountain Dog Page
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 6 Searching for Guinea Pig B: A Case Study in Online Research
Getting Started on Online Research: R. Buckminster Fuller Case Study
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Case Study Wrap-Up: Recording the Research Path
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 7 To Err is Human: Introduction to Debugging
Precision: What Exactly Do You Mean?
Debugging: What's the Problem?
Debugging a VCR: A Five-Step Strategy
HTML Butterflies and Bugs: A Case Study in Web Page Debugging
The Printer Is Not Printing: A Classic Scenario in IT System Debugging
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 8 Bits and the "Why" of Bytes: Representing Information Digitally
Digitizing
Presence and Absence (PandA) of a Phenomenon
The Hex System Explained
How Text Is Digitized: Using the PandA Representation
The Oxford English Dictionary: A Case Study in Digitization
Summary
Exercises
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Chapter 9 Following Instructions: Principles of Computer Operation
Computers: Instruction Execution Engines
Performing Computer Instructions - The Fetch/Execute Cycle
Anatomy of a Computer
Integrated Circuits
How Semiconductor Technology Works
Combining the Ideas
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 10 What's the Plan? : Algorithmic Thinking
Algorithm: A Familiar Idea
The Anatomy of an Algorithm: Alphabetizing CDs
Looking to the Future
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 11 Sound, Light, and Magic: Representing Multimedia Digitally
Digitizing Color
Digitizing Photographs
Digitizing Sound
Digitizing a Still Web Picture or Video
Digital Representation of Virtual Reality
Bits Are It: The Bias-Free Universal Medium Principle
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 12 Using Computers in Polite Society
Improving Email Effectiveness
Creating Good Passwords
Reducing the Risk from Viruses and Worms
Protecting Intellectual Property: Copyright
Ensuring the Reliability of Software
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 13 Tuples and Tables: Principles of Databases
"You Can Look It Up": An Informal Concept of a Table
Database Tables
Operations on Tables
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 14 A Table with a View: Database Queries
Basic Rules in Designing a Database
The Database Schema
Queries: Creating Views
A Query Language: SQL
Entity Relationships: ER without Trauma
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 15 HAI! Adventure: A Case Study in Database Design
Strategy for Building a Database
Build the HAI! Adventure Database: A Case Study in Database Design
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 16 eCommerce and Interactive Networking
The Six Big Challenges of eCommerce
The Challenge of Variation
The Challenge of the Structure of the Setting
The Challenge of Separate Events
The Challenge of Everything at Once
The Challenge of Interoperability
The Challenge of Uncertainty
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 17 Privacy and Security: When and How to Protect Information
Whose Information Is It?
Keeping Information Private
The Cookie Monster: Possible Abuses of Web Security
Encryption and Decryption
Summary
Exercises
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Chapter 18 Foundations of Programming: Concepts Expressed in JavaScript
Overview: Programming and Its Key Concepts
Names, Values, and Variables
A Declaration Statement and Its Structure
Three Basic Data Types in JavaScript
The Assignment Statement and Its Structure
An Expression and Its Structure
A Conditional Statement and Its Structure
The Espresso Program: Using the Key Concepts of Programming
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 19 The Bean Counter: A JavaScript Program
Preliminaries: Run the Computational Part of the Bean Counter Program
Plan the Graphical User Interface
Create the Graphical User Interface
Event-Based Programming in JavaScript
Critiquing the Bean Counter Application
Recap of the Bean Counter Application
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 20 Thinking Big: Abstraction and Functions
Abstraction: Features and Advantages
Creating a JavaScript Function: convertC2F( )
Using Functions within an HTML Document
JavaScript Rules for Functions
Creating the Memory Bank Web Page
Modifying the Memory Bank Web Page
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 21 Once Is Not Enough: Iteration Principles
Iteration: Play It Again, Sam
JavaScript Rules for the for-Loop
The Fundamental Principle of Iteration
Indexing
Arrays
The Busy Animation: Using Iteration, Indexing, and Arrays
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 22 Algorithmic Problem Solving: The Smooth Motion Case Study
Smooth Motion: A Case Study in Problem Solving
Planning the Smooth Motion Application
Building the Graphical User Interface, a Structural Web Page
Animating the Grid
Building Controls
Sensing the Keys: Mouse Motions
Detecting the Staircase
Overall Design
Final Touches
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 23 Computers Can Do Almost Everything, Nothing: Limits to Computation
Can Computers Think?
Acting Intelligently? - A Chess-Playing Computer
Acting Creatively? - A Program to Create Fine Art
Computers and the Universality Principle
Summary
Exercises
Chapter 24 Commencement: A Fluency Summary
Two Big Ideas of Information Technology
Benefits of Fluency
Lifelong Learning in Information Technology
Fluency: Your License to Drive
Exercises
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