Computer Information Systems

Computer Information Systems Summary

Once upon a time, way back when in the caveman era, caveman used drawings on walls to keep track of information and to communicate with each other in the clan of one's life-span. Over time, man have improved and evolved in the way of keeping track of information and communicating with one another. Today, one finds himself more in an automated world than he did 25 years ago. When planning to purchase a computer, one must take in consideration all possibilities, options, and accessories that one could receive along with the computer. In this summary, we are going to examine some of the input, output, and storage devices along with speeds of a computer. You did a good job of getting the reader's attention and giving the reader a "road map" to your paper.

Data Input Devices

When personal computers first came out, the only input device that was available was the keyboard and mouse. Today, there are more input devices to choose from than the basic keyboard and mouse combination. I would have combined these two sentences into a more complex single sentence. These devices are Voice-recognition or microphone, optical data readers, touch screens, magnetic ink character recognition (MICR), digital computer cameras, terminals, and scanners. In this section, this writer will identify what is the best method of data input to use in what situation and why.

For printed questionnaires and telephone surveys, one would use the optical character recognition (OCR) reader device along with special software that would convert handwritten or typed documents into digital data. A bank uses a MICR device to read the information off a check quickly. Merchant's uses a bar-code scanner to read the bar-codes on retail tags of merchandise more quickly and accurately then a cashier can type in the amount by hand. For long documents, one may want to use a printer and scanner combination so one can scan the document as is without wasting time in trying to duplicate the document by free-hand method via keyboard and mouse. First, not sure why this word is here? is best to examine the situation and buy the best input device to accommodate the situation as we have seen in the above situations.

Data Output Devices

The most common types of output devices are monitors which can come in the form of either Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - a bulky tube or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) - a Flat Screen; printers; and internal storage devices. We have more options to choose from which we can add to our existing system. These additions are external storage devices, plotters, software programs, other computer systems, and multi-functional printers that can print, scan, fax, and make copies in black and white or color. In this section we are going to explore some of these output options with situations and why.

Hand-held computers, like the Palm Pilot, have a mini LCD screen along with internal storage memory that can be used by itself or can be hooked up by a connection cradle to a desk top computer to transfer information from the handheld to the desktop computer. Color photographs can be outputted to many places: (1) printed out from a good quality, color laser printer, (2) saved in the windows program under a pre-named file, or (3) saved on an internal or external device. One method is not any more important than the other; the outcome will depend on what one plans to do with the photographs. An interesting note, I found that more people are going back to the black and white photos instead of color. I recommend storing a resume in an external storage device, so one can have easy access to the data and one will not have to worry about losing

that information if something happens to his computer. Depending on the importance of the memorandum, one should save the document in file folder on the computer with a back-up on an external-storage device and send the document off through the e-mail system to the other party. Statistical and company annual reports should be done on a main frame with a back-up storage device because companies are required to keep documentation for period of time and may need excess to this information when called upon to do so. Again a person will need to examine the applications of one's output to purchase the necessary equipment to accommodate these situations.

Types of Storage Devices

Computers used to have limited options for secondary storage, also called a primary storage, which were the 7.25" floppy disk, the 3.5" floppy diskette and, of course, the hard drive. Now, we have a wide range of secondary storage devices for storing data onto. When a person combines a secondary storage device with a hard drive then he will have increased the data-storage abilities tremendously. Besides hard drive and RAM, a person will also have other means of storage devices available to him. Secondary storage devices such as magnetic tapes and disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and DVDs are used to store data for easy retrieval at a later date. In this section we are going to examine what storage devices can be used for what situations and why.

The hard drive is a computer's primary storage device which gives direct access to stored data and reducing access times compared to other storage devices. Does one know that hard drives now come in the form of either external or internal storage devices instead of just internal? A hard drive's primary usage is to store operating system programs like windows XP, other program setups, system files, and hardware setups. A floppy disk is small and compact and easy to carry around without any worries about scratching the surface up like one would with a compact disk (CD). Floppy are good storage devices as long the data stored is short like for instance, a resume, short school's essay, or daily diary. Even though RAM is a storage device (chip), this writer's recommendation is to use this device temporary because RAM is considered volatile and is subject to lose all potent information when disrupted by some kind of power surge. There are three kinds of compact disks (CD) types: (1) a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) which