Assignment: Thinking Critically

The Answers to Thinking Critically Are:

1. A mouse is more likely to be controlled by a device driver rather than the system BIOS.
2. A keyboard would be likely controlled by the system BIOS.
3. The best way to obtain an updated driver for my printer would be at my printer's manufacturer's website.
4. To find out how much RAM is installed on my computer I would click on "My Computer" then in "System Tasks" I would click on "view system information". The System Properties box will pop up and in the "general" tab I can view how much RAM is installed on my computer.
5. 16 bit Windows software is considered legacy software because it is no longer supported with Microsoft updates.
   

Assignment: Reading a Technical Ad for a Computer System

The answers to Real Problems/Real Solutions are:

1. The system bus in the ad is called FSB for front side bus.
2. I think P4 means Pentium 4
3. The four choices of frequencies for the processor are:2.66 Ghz, 2.93 Ghz, 3.06 Ghz and 3.2 Ghz.
4. The brand of the processor is an Intel
5. the RAM on the motherboard is 512 MB and it is $50 to double it.
6. A PCI express port is used for the video card
7. The terms to describe the hard drive in the system are 80GB, SATA ATA150, 8M buffer, 7200 RPM, ATA 100 UIDE HDD.
8. The terms I don't understand are Hyper Threading, 1.44 FDD and 10-100 network.
   

After one week....

Last week was hectic but fun. Some of my time was spent learning just to navigate with in Web College. And then understanding what was expected of me from each Professor. I didn't find it hard to get into studying or doing the assignments. In a way it was easier than when I was 18, I guess I have learned some self discipline after all, LOL. I am finding I do have a lot to learn about computer hardware. Maybe more than I first thought!