Computer Confluence: Exploring Tomorrow's Technology - Softcover

Beekman, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201339455 ISBN 13: 9780201339451

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1998

Synopsis

The standard version of Computer Confluence combines three information sources—an illustrated book, a multimedia CD-ROM, and an up-to-the-minute Companion Website—to explore the promises and challenges of information technology, its effect on businesses, people, society, and the future. Topics include Computer Security and Risks, Inside the Internet and Web, and Calculation, Visualization and Simulation. For professionals in the information technology field.

About this title

From the Back Cover

• Explanations: Computer Confluence explains what a computer is and what it can (and can't) do; it explains the basics of information technology, from multimedia PCs to the Internet, clearly and concisely.
• Applications: Computer Confluence clearly illustrates how computers and networks can be used as practical tools to access, create, and share information at school, work, and home.
• Implications Computer Confluence puts computers in a human context, illustrating how information technology affects our lives, our world, and our future.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

CONFLUENCE—1. a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point (a happy confluence of weather and scenery);
2a: the flowing together of two or more streams; b: the place of meeting of two streams;
c: the combined stream formed by conjunction
—Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Electronic Edition

When powerful forces come together, change is inevitable. As we enter the 21st century, we're standing at the confluence of three powerful technological forces: computers, telecommunications, and electronic entertainment. The computer's digital technology is showing up in everything from telephones to televisions, and the lines that separate these machines are eroding. This digital convergence is rapidly-and radically-altering the world's economic landscape. Start-up companies and industries are emerging to ride the waves of change, while older organizations reorganize, regroup, and redefine themselves to keep from being washed away.

Smaller computers, faster processors, smarter software, larger networks, new communication media-in the world of information technology, it seems like change is the only constant. In less than a human lifetime, this technological cascade has transformed virtually every facet of our society-and the transformation is just beginning. As old technologies merge and new technologies emerge, far-fetched predictions routinely come true. This headlong rush into the high-tech fixture poses a formidable challenge for all of us: How can we extract the knowledge we need from the deluge of information? What must we understand about information technology to successfully navigate the waters of change that carry us into the fixture? Computer Confluence: Exploring Tomorrow's Technology is designed to aid travelers on their journey into that future.

What Is Computer Confluence?

Computer Confluence is more than a textbook; it's the confluence of three powerful information sources: an illustrated textbook, a multimedia CD-ROM, and a dynamic World Wide Web site. This integrated learning package takes advantage of the unique strengths of three media types:

• Computer Confluence, the book. In spite of the talk about a paperless future, a book's user interface still has many advantages: You can read it under a tree or on the subway, you can bend the corners and scribble in the margins, you can study the words and pictures for hours without suffering from eyestrain or backache. A well-written text can serve as a learning tool, a reference work, a study guide, and even a source of motivation and inspiration. A textbook is no substitute for a good teacher, but a good textbook can almost always make a good teacher better. This book, which started out as Computer Currents in 1994, has served as an information-age guidebook for hundreds of thousands of students through its first three editions.
• Computer Confluence, the CD-ROM. A CD-ROM may not be as warm and friendly as a good book, but it can deliver video, audio, animation, and other dynamic media that can't be printed on paper. A well-designed CD-ROM can encourage exploration through interactivity. The Computer Confluence CD-ROM supplements and reinforces the material in the book with state-of-the-art 3-D animation, audio, and video. Unlike many textbook CD-ROMs, this one was designed from the ground up to supplement and expand on the material in the book. The CDROM has a wealth of materials, including interactive explorations, video clips, practice quizzes with printable results, that make it easy to monitor student progress. Students find that it's easy and fun to explore the CD-ROM using its innovative 3-D user interface and its streamlined hypertext interface. The CD-ROM runs on almost all modern Windows and Macintosh machines, so students can use it on their own computers—even computers that aren't the same kind as they use in school labs. It runs without installing any files on the local hard disk, requiring only QuickTime for animations, so it can be used even in the most tightly controlled public labs.
• Computer Confluence, the Web site (www.prenhall.com/beekman). The information in computer books and CD-ROMs has a short shelf life. The Internet makes it possible to publish up-to-the-minute information and link that information to other sources around the world. The Internet can also serve as a communication conduit for on-line discussion and research. An extensive collection of timely, media-rich Web pages keeps the information in Computer Confluence current. The pages include multimedia tidbits, and links to the most important computer and information technology sites, all organized by chapter and topic. The Web site also includes discussion areas where students, instructors, and authors can meet online. Students can also to take practice quizzes and submit answers to on-line exercises.
  
  Students don't need to have access to CD-ROM drives and the World Wide Web to benefit from Computer Confluence; they can easily master the material in the book without using other media. But the additional material on the CD-ROM and the Web can make their learning experiences more interesting, exciting, and timely.

Computer Confluence presents computers and information technology on three levels:

• Explanations: Computer Confluence clearly explains what a computer is and what it can (and can't) do; it explains the basics of information technology, from multimedia PCs to the Internet, clearly and concisely.
• Applications: Computer Confluence illustrates how computers and networks can be used as practical tools to solve a wide variety of problems.
• Implications: Computer Confluence puts computers in a human context, illustrating how information technology affects our lives, our world, and our future.

Who Is Computer Confluence For?

Computer Confluence: Exploring Tomorrow's Technology is designed especially for the introductory computer class for both non-majors and majors. Computer Confluence is also appropriate for introductory computer science classes, discipline-specific computer courses offered through other departments, high school courses, and adult education courses. Computer Confluence can also serve as a self-study guide for anyone who's motivated to understand the changing technological landscape.

Most introductory computer courses are divided into lecture and lab sections. In some courses the labs cover desktop applications such as Microsoft Office; in other courses the labs cover Internet tools such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web; a few courses include programming with languages such as Visual BASIC, C, and Java. Since this book focuses on concepts rather than keystrokes, it can be used in courses that teach any combination of lab applications and tools.

How Is Computer Confluence Organized?

The book consists of 16 chapters organized into five broad sections:

1. Approaching Computers: Hardware and Software Fundamentals
2. Using Computers: Essential Applications
3. Exploring with Computers: Networks and Gateways
4. Mastering Computers: Issues, Algorithms, and Intelligence
5. Living with Computers: Information Age Implications

Part 1 provides the basics: a brief historical perspective, a nontechnical discussion of computer and Internet basics, and an overview of hardware and software options. These chapters quickly introduce key concepts that recur throughout the book, putting the student on solid ground for understanding future chapters. Part 2 covers the most important and widely used computer applications, including word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, graphics, multimedia tools, and databases. These applications, like those in Parts 3 and 4, are presented in terms of concepts and trends rather than keystrokes. Part 3 explores the world of networks, from simple interoffice LANs to the massive global infrastructure that's evolving from the Internet. Part 4 begins with a discussion of information technology risks and related ethical issues; it then explores the process and the problems of creating software, including the curious field of computer science known as artificial intelligence. Part 5 explores the far-reaching impact of computers on our work, our schools, our homes, our society, and our future.

Throughout the five parts, the book's focus gradually flows from the concrete to the controversial and from the present to the fixture. Individual chapters have a similarly expanding focus. After a brief introduction, each chapter flows from concrete concepts that provide grounding for beginners toward abstract, future-oriented questions and ideas.

Each chapter includes instructional aids to help students master the material quickly. Key terms are highlighted in boldface blue type for quick reference; secondary terms are italicized blue. Terms are defined in context, in a glossary at the end of the text, and in the CD-ROM's hypertext glossary. Each chapter opens with a summary of the key content that can be found in the chapter, on the Web site, and on the CD, and a list of objectives. Each chapter ends with a chapter summary; a list of key terms; collections of review questions, discussion questions, and projects; and an annotated list of sources and resources for students who want more information or intellectual stimulation.

Special Focus Boxes

Human Connection boxes at the beginning of all chapters feature stories of personalities who made an impact on the world of computing, and in some cases, people whose lives were transformed by computers and information technology.

How It Works boxes are designed to provide additional ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201339455
• ISBN 13: 9780201339451
• Binding: Paperback