Chapter 1 Intro to Computers

Computers are everywhere: at work, at school, and used at home. Whiles some computers sit on top of a desk or on the floor, mobile computers and mobile devices are small enough to carry. Mobile devices, such as cellphones, often are classified as computers. For example, instead of getting on my computer to check grades it is more convenient to load them on my phone and check them. I work at Steak N' Shake and I use a computer there to ring in orders, and pay for orders. Without the computers it would be extremely difficult to add up the prices and taxes for the order and give people the correct change. I use the Internet to communicate with people, shop, bank, download music, and share photos. The mobile computers and devices I use are notebook computers, smartphones, media players, and digital cameras. I also use a lot of game consoles such as Nintendo Wii, PlayStation, and a Gameboy Advance. A graph on page 29 shows how many households do not use the Internet or related technologies. 30% of households have never used a computer to create a document and 20 % of people have never sent or received an email. This statistic surprises me because that is a large number who have a lack of experience with technology. I checked out an article that was listed under chapter 1 titled "6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook." The one I found most interesting was that you should not reveal birth date and place. The article said one should not do that because if you provide the year and where you were born, you've just given identity thieves a key to stealing your financial life.  study done by Carnegie Mellon showed that a date and place of birth could be used to predict most, and sometimes all, of the numbers in your Social Security number.