Companies of the Cutting Edge

AMAZON

            Online shoppers can find practically any product they desire on Amazon.com. Billing itself as the “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” it offers books, movies, electronics, clothing, toys, and many other items.

            Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1995 knowing that book lovers would gravitate toward a web site offering the convenience of browsing through millions of book titles in one sitting. He fulfilled orders for customers in every U.S. state and 45 additional countries during the first 30 days of business. All shipped from his Seattle-area garage.

Photo Editing and Photo Management Software

photo editing software

         Instead of professional photos editing software, many home and small business users work with easier-to-use personal photo editing software, which is available both as packaged software and as web applications. Personal photo editing software allows users to edit digital photos by removing red-eye, erasing blemishes, restoring aged photos, adding special effects, enhancing image quality, or creating electronic photo albums.

Pointing Devices

         The mouse is the most widely used pointing devices today. Some users, however, work with other pointing devices. These include the trackball, touchpad, pointing stick, touch screen, touch-sensitive pads, stylus, pen, signature capture pad, and graphic tablet. But in this article I just want to explain you about Trackball, Touchpad, and Pointing stick.

Trackball

Trackball

         A Trackball is a stationary pointing device with a ball on its top or side. The ball in most trackballs is about the size of a Ping-Pong ball.

         To move the pointer using a trackball, you rotate the ball with your thumb, fingers, or the palm of your hand. I addition to the ball, a trackball usually has one or more buttons that work just like mouse buttons.

         A trackball requires frequent cleaning because it picks up oils from fingers and dust from the environment. For users who have limited desk space, however, a trackball is a good alternative to a mouse because the device is stationary.

System Software

            System Software consists of the programs that control or maintain the operations of the computer and  its devices. System software serves as the interface between the user, the application  software, and the computer’s hardware. Two types of system  software are the operating system and utility programs.

Window 7

         An Operating System is a set of programs that coordinates all the activities among computer hardware devices. It provides a means for users to communicate with the computer and other software. Many of today’s computers use Microsoft’s Windows or Mac OS, Apple’s Operating system.

         When a user starts a computer, portions of the operating system are copied into memory from the computer’s hard disk. These parts of the operating system remain in memory while the computer is on.

         A Utility Program allows a users to perform maintenance-type tasks usually related to managing a computer, its devices, or its programs. For example, you can use a utility program to transfer digital photos to an optical disc. Most operating system include several utility programs for managing disk drivers, printers, and other devices and media. You also can buy utility programs that allow you to perform additional computer management functions.

HTML and XHTML

        HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a special formatting language that programmers use to format document for display on the Web. You view a Web page written with HTML in a Web browser such as Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Opera, or Google Chrome. Similarly, XHTML (extensible HTML) is a markup language that enables Web sites to be displayed more easily on microbrowsers in smart phones and other mobile devices, as well as on desktop and notebook computers.

Wi-Fi

      Computers and devices that have the appropriate wireless capability can communicate via radio waves with other computers or devices using  Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), which identifies any network based on the 802.11 standards. Developed by IEEE,  802.11  is a series of  network standards that specifies how two wireless devices communicate over the air with each other. A designation of 802.11 a/b/g on a computer or device indicate it supports all three standards. The newest standard, 802.11n, uses multiple transmitters and receivers, known as MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output), to reach speeds from 2 to 10 times faster than 802.11g.

Mobile Computers and Mobile Devices

A mobile computer is a personal computer you can carry from  place to place. Similarly, a mobile device is a computing device small enough to hold in your hand.. the most popular type of mobile computer is the notebook computer. The following sections discuss the notebook computer and widely used mobile devices.

 Notebook Computers

notebook

         A notebook computer, also called a laptop computer, is a portable, personal computer designed to fit on your lap. Notebook computers are thin and lightweight, yet they can be as powerful as the average desktop computers usually are more expensive then desktop computers with equal capabilities.

On a typical notebook computer, the keyboard is on top of the system unit, and the monitor attaches to the system unit with hinges. These computers weigh on average from 2.5 to more 10 pounds (depending on configuration), which allows users to transport the computers can operate on batteries or a power supply or both.

UNIX and Linux

UNIX

         UNIX (pronounced YOU-nix) is a multitasking operating system developed in the early 1970s by scientists at Bell Laboratories. Bell Labs (a subsidiary of AT&T) was prohibited from actively promoting UNIX in the commercial marketplace because of federal regulations. Bell Labs instead licensed UNIX for a low fee to numerous college and universities, where UNIX obtained a wide following. UNIX was implemented on many different types of computers. After deregulation of telephone companies in the 1980s, UNIX was licensed to many hardware and software companies.