ITF+ Module 2 Flashcards

IT Concepts and Terminology

• Notational Systems:
  • Binary
  • Hexadecimal
  • Decimal
  • Data representation (ASCII, Unicode)
• Data Types:
  • Char
  • Strings
  • Numbers (Integers, Floats)
  • Boolean
• Value of Data and Information:
  • Data and information as assets.
  • Importance of investing in security.
  • Relationship of data to creating information.
  • Intellectual property (Trademarks, Copyright, Patents).
  • Digital products.
  • Data-driven business decisions (Data capture and collection, Data correlation, Meaningful reporting).
• Units of Measure:
  • Storage unit (Bit, Byte, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB)
  • Throughput unit (bps, Kbps, Mbps, Gbps, Tbps)
  • Processing speed (MHz, GHz)

Infrastructure

(No specific details mentioned in the provided text)

Applications and Software

• Application management.
• Software:
  • Productivity Software (Word processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Web browser, Visual diagramming)
  • Collaboration Software (Email client, Conferencing, Instant messaging, Online workspace, Document sharing)
  • Business Software (Database, Project management, Business-specific applications, Accounting)
• Application Concepts:
  • Licensing (Single use, Group use/site license, Concurrent license, Open source vs. proprietary, Subscription vs. one-time purchase, Product keys and serial numbers)
  • Software installation best practices (Reading instructions, Reading agreements, Advanced options)
  • Application architecture and delivery models.
  • Single-platform vs. Cross-platform software.

Software Development

• Programming Language Categories:
  • Interpreted (Scripting, Markup languages)
  • Compiled languages
  • Query languages
  • Assembly language
• Programming Organizational Techniques:
  • Pseudocode
  • Flow charts
  • Sequence
• Logic Components:
  • Branching
  • Looping
• Programming Concepts:
  • Identifiers (Variables, Constants)
  • Containers (Arrays, Vectors)
  • Functions
  • Objects (Properties, Attributes, Methods)

Database Fundamentals

• Database Concepts:
  • Usage of database (Create, Import/input, Query, Reports)
  • Flat file vs. database (Multiple concurrent users, Scalability, Speed, Variety of data)
  • Records
  • Storage (Data persistence)
• Database Structures:
  • Structured vs. semi-structured vs. non-structured
  • Relational databases (Schema, Tables, Rows/records, Fields/columns, Primary key, Foreign key, Constraints)
  • Non-relational databases (Key/value databases, Document databases)
• Database Interfacing Methods:
  • Relational methods (Data manipulation [Select, Insert, Delete, Update], Data definition [Create, Alter, Drop, Permissions])
  • Database access methods (Direct/manual access, Programmatic access, User interface/utility access, Query/report builders)
  • Export/import (Database dump, Backup)

Security

(No specific details mentioned in the provided text)

Using Data Types and Units

• Notational Systems

  • A notational system is used to represent different quantities or characters in computing.

  • Decimal Notation:

    • Base 10 system using digits 0-9.
    • Place value determines the value of each digit (e.g., 12 = 110 + 21).

  • Binary Notation:

    • Base 2 system using digits 0 and 1.
    • Used by computers because the two values can represent the off/on states of transistors.
    • Example: 51 in decimal is 110011 in binary.
    • 51 = (132) + (116) + (08) + (04) + (12) + (11)

  • Hexadecimal Notation:

    • Base 16 system using digits 0-9 and letters A-F (A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15).
    • More efficient for expressing large numbers.
    • Example: 1234 in decimal is 4D2 in hexadecimal.
    • 1234 = (4256) + (1316) + (2*1)

• Units of Measure

  • Bits and Bytes:

    • Bit: The basic unit of computer data, representing 0 or 1.
    • Byte: 8 bits.
    • Multiples:
      • KiloByte (KB): 10^3 bytes (1000 bytes).
      • MegaByte (MB): 10^6 bytes (1,000,000 bytes).
      • GigaByte (GB): 10^9 bytes (1,000,000,000 bytes).
      • TeraByte (TB): 10^{12} bytes (1,000,000,000,000 bytes).
      • PetaByte (PB): 10^{15} bytes (1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes).

  • Binary Multiples:

    • KibiByte (KiB): 2^{10} bytes (1024 bytes).
    • MebiByte (MiB): 2^{20} bytes (1,048,576 bytes).
    • GibiByte (GiB): 2^{30} bytes (1,073,741,824 bytes).

  • Note: Windows uses binary measurements, while storage capacity is typically quoted in decimal.

  • Throughput Units:

    • Measured in bits per second (bps).
    • Kbps: 1000 bits per second.
    • Mbps: 1,000,000 bits per second.
    • Gbps: 1,000,000,000 bits per second.
    • Tbps: 1,000,000,000,000 bits per second.
    • Transfer rates can be expressed as Bytes per second (Bps).

  • Processing Speed Units:

    • Measured in Hertz (Hz), representing cycles per second.
    • Megahertz (MHz): 1,000,000 cycles per second.
    • Gigahertz (GHz): 1,000,000,000 cycles per second.

• Data Types

  • Determine what sort of operations can be performed on data.
    • Integers: Whole numbers (e.g., 5, 21, 65536). Consume 1 to 8 bytes.
    • Floating-point numbers: Decimal fractions (e.g., 4.1, 26.4, 5.62). Consume 4 to 8 bytes.
    • Boolean values: TRUE or FALSE (1 or 0). Consume a single bit.
    • Characters (char): Single textual character (e.g., a, D, 7, $, @, #). Consume one byte.
    • Strings: Collection of text characters (e.g., XYZ, Hello world). Length is defined when the data type is defined.

• Data Representation

  • ASCII:
    • American Standard Code for Information Interchange
    • Each character represented by a seven-bit binary number (128 values).
  • Unicode:
    • Handles character data and expresses it across platforms in a uniform way.
    • Character encoding standards include UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32.
    • UTF-8 is used by many websites.

• Value of Data

  • Computer data is an asset and must be protected.

  • Investing in Security:

    • Security controls prevent, deter, detect, and/or recover from unauthorized data access or modification.
    • Return on Security Investment (ROSI) justifies security investments by assessing the cost and likelihood of data loss.
    • Data exfiltration: When an attacker removes data from your network without authorization.
    • Data breach: Occurs whenever your network exposes private data publicly.

  • Security Controls:

    • Backup: Maintain copies of data for easy access when needed.
    • Access control: Control access to stored data using permissions and data encryption to protect from competitors.
    • Permissions: Grant specific access rights to users and groups on data files, e.g., allow users to read a file but not to copy or print it.
    • Data encryption: Encode the data sc that only someone with the correct key can read it.
    • Firewalls: Control network application accessibility.
    • High availability: Ensure data availability through fault tolerance technologies.

• Intellectual Property (IP)

  • Copyright: Automatic legal protection for certain types of work, granting control over publication, distribution, or sale. No need to apply for it.
    • Copyright applies to original content, layout, format, and appearance.
    • Copyright lasts for a number of years after the owner's death, after this time, the work becomes public domain and may be used freely
    • Copyright does not apply to an idea until it's manifested.
  • Trademarks: Protect a company's name and/or logo. Indicated by ™ (ordinary) or ® (registered) symbols. A trademark must be distinctive within the industry.
  • Patents: Legal protection for an invention, provided it is original, useful, and distinctive. Must be applied for and registered.

• Digital Products

  • Sold or distributed as binary computer data (e.g., software, ebooks, music). Low manufacturing/distribution costs but easy to copy.
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems enforce