Sunday, February 15, 2009

PETUA

Menghilangkan gatal getah keladi
Sebelum menyiang keladi pastikan tangan tidak basah. Lumurkan beberapa keping asam keping (asam gelugur) pada tangan. Insyaallah tangan tidak gatal lagi. Seperkara lagi semasa menyiang keladi iaitu semasa menanggalkan kulit nipis dibahagian luarnya, janganlah batang keladi direndam dengan air. Setelah siap kesemuanya, barulah dibasuh bersih dan masukkan bersama beberapa keping asam gelugur jika masih terdapat kegatalan.

Penawar Resdung
Petua yang paling mudah dan berkesan ialah dengan mengamalkan menyedut air ke dalam hidung (seperti sebelum kita ber wuduk).Kemudian picit sebelah hidung dan hembuskan sekuat hati. Buatlah berulang-ulang kali sehingga selesai kedua-duanya. Selepas itu basuhlah muka dengan bersih. Lakukan ini setiap kali setelah sampai ke satu-satu destinasi, baik ke pejabat,bersantai, beriadah atau pulang ke rumah malah ke mana saja. Kesannya sungguh menakjubkan.

Mengatasi semut masuk dalam telinga
Kadang-kadang ada antara anak anda atau anak-anak jiran yang telinganya dimasuki oleh serangga seperti semut yang sukar untuk dikeluarkan. Biasanya keadaan ini berlaku apabila bangun dari tidur ataupun suka bermain disemak-semak, khususnya pada anak lelaki. Mengeluarkan semut tersebut memang satu perkara yang paling menyulitkan sekali, semakin dicungkil untuk dikeluarkan semakin dalam masuknya dan makin menyakitkan. Sebenarnya ada satu cara yang paling baik untuk dilakukan biasanya dilakukan oleh kebanyakan orang tua-tua. Apa yang perlu anda lakukan ialah dengan mengambil kapur sirih sebaik-baiknya yang lembut yang telah banyak terendam dengan air. Sapukanlah kapur sirih tadi pada sekeliling telinga anak anda bahagian luar telinganya sahaja. Biarkan seketika pasti semutnya akan keluar dengan sendirinya. Inilah dia petua orang tua-tua.
DOA AKHIR TAHUN


Segala puji hanya bagi Allah, Tuhan yang memelihara dan mentadbir sekalian alam. Selawat dan salam ke atas junjungan kami Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. serta ahli keluarga baginda dan para sahabatnya.

Ya Allah, sesungguhnya pada tahun ini aku telah melakukan laranganmu tetapi aku masih belum bertaubat sedangkan Engkau tidak reda dan melupai perkara itu. Engkau telah menangguhkan azabMu yang telah ditetapkan kepadaku. Engkau telah memerintahkan supaya aku bertaubat dari kesalahan itu. Sesungguhnya pada hari ini aku memohon keampunan dariMu, ampunilah aku dan apa yang telah aku lakukan pada tahun ini yang Engkau redai dan Engkau janjikan pahala maka aku memohonnya daripada Engkau. Ya Allah, Ya Karim, Ya Zaljalali Wal Ikram.

Selawat dan salam ke atas junjungan kami Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. serta ahli keluarga baginda dan para sahabatnya. Segala puji hanya bagi Allah, Tuhan yang memelihara dan mentadbir sekalian alam…Amin…



Sesiapa yang membaca doa ini maka akan berkata syaitan, ‘Kesusahan bagiku dan sia-sialah pekerjaanku menggoda anak Adam pada tahun ini dan Allah akan membinasakan aku pada saat itu juga. Dengan membaca doa ini Allah akan mengampunkan dosanya setahun.’








DOA AWAL TAHUN (HIJRAH)


Segala puji bagi Allah, Tuhan yang memelihara dan mentadbir sekalian alam. Selawat dan salam ke atas junjungan kami Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. serta ahli keluarga baginda dan para sahabatnya.

Ya Allah, Engkaulah yang kekal abadi untuk selama-lamanya. Demi kelebihanMu yang Maha Agong dan kemurahanMu yang melimpah, sesungguhnya pada tahun ini aku memohon kepadaMu perlindungan daripada syaitan yang direjam, dari sekalian kuncunya, tenteranya dan penolongnya. Aku juga memohon perlindungan daripada nafsu amarah yang sentiasa mendorong ke arah kejahatan dan melalaikan dengan perkara yang tidak berfaedah daripada mendekatkan diriku kepadaMu.

Selawat serta salam ke atas junjungan kami Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. serta ahli keluarga baginda dan para sahabatnya. Segala puji hanya bagi Allah, Tuhan yang memelihara dan mentadbir sekalian alam…Amin…



Sesiapa yang membaca doa ini maka akan berkata syaitan,’Telah amanlah anak Adam daripada godaanku pada tahun ini kerana Allah telah mewakilkan dua malaikat untuk memeliharanya dari fitnah syaitan.’
STILL THOUGHTS

1. The sunlight is bright, our parents’ love is great, a gentlemen’s forbearance is strong, and a person who lacks moral cultivation is arrogant.

2. Say good words, have good thoughts, and do good deeds.

3. To forgive others is to be good to oneself.

4. Success is bringing into full play one’s good points; failure is the accumulation to one’s weak points

5. Do not underestimate yourself, because everyone has boundless potential.

6. Palm facing down is to help people, palm facing up is to ask for help; helping brings happiness while begging brings pain.

7. The more you do, the more you gain’ the less you do. The more you lose.

8. Be willing to do, be happy to bear.

9. Always bear in mind the following virtues: understanding, forgiving, gratitude, contentment, and treasuring one’s blessing.

10. To do whatever should be done is wisdom; to do whatever should not be done is ignorance.

11. If one has a bad temper and foul mouth, then no matter how good one’s heart is, one is still not considered a good person.

12. Only when knowledge is truly contemplated and reflected upon can it become your own wisdom.

13. Love is not asking from others, but is giving of oneself.

14. Our greatest enemy is not others but more likely ourselves.

15. Let us compete on who is more loving, not on who is more feared.

16. Loitering away each day turns us into consumers of life. Only by working enthusiastically can we become creators of life.

17. Be mindful, Don’t worry or fret.
Shortbread Cookies


INGREDIENTS
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour



DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in vanilla; add flour and mix well.
Put through cookie press and form cookies onto baking sheets. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Monday, January 26, 2009

IT History

A History of Information Technology and Systems

Four basic periodsCharacterized by a principal technology used to solve the input, processing, output and communication problems of the time:

1. Premechanical,
2. Mechanical,
3. Electromechanical, and
4. Electronic


A. The Premechanical Age: 3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.


1. Writing and Alphabets--communication.

1. First humans communicated only through speaking and picture drawings.
2. 3000 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today southern Iraq) devised cuniform
3. Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbols
4. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.


2. Paper and Pens--input technologies.

1. Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks in wet clay.
2. About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians write on the papyrus plant
3. around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on which modern-day papermaking is based.


3. Books and Libraries: Permanent Storage Devices.

1. Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest "books"
2. The Egyptians kept scrolls
3. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.


4. The First Numbering Systems.

1. Egyptian system:
§ The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the number 1,000 as a lotus blossom.
2. The first numbering systems similar to those in use today were invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who created a nine-digit numbering system.
3. Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.


5. The First Calculators: The Abacus.

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B. The Mechanical Age: 1450 - 1840

1. The First Information Explosion.
1. Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany)
-Invented the movable metal-type printing process in 1450.
2. The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers.


2. The first general purpose "computers"
1. Actually people who held the job title "computer: one who works with numbers."


3. Slide Rules, the Pascaline and Leibniz's Machine.
1. Slide Rule.

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  • Early 1600s, William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide rule

-Early example of an analog computer.

  • The Pascaline. Invented by Blaise Pascal (1623-62).

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The Pascaline (front)

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(rear view)

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Diagram of interior

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-One of the first mechanical computing machines, around 1642.

  • Leibniz's Machine.

-Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), German mathematician and philosopher.

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The Reckoner (reconstruction)

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Babbage's Engines

Charles Babbage (1792-1871), eccentric English mathematician

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The Difference Engine.

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-Working model created in 1822.
-The "method of differences".


The Analytical Engine.

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Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom.

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  • Designed during the 1830s
  • Parts remarkably similar to modern-day computers.


-The "store"
-The "mill"
-Punch cards.

  • Punch card idea picked up by Babbage from Joseph Marie Jacquard's (1752-1834) loom.


-Introduced in 1801.
-Binary logic
-Fixed program that would operate in real time.

  • Augusta Ada Byron (1815-52).

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  • The first programmer


C. The Electromechanical Age: 1840 - 1940.


The discovery of ways to harness electricity was the key advance made during this period. Knowledge and information could now be converted into electrical impulses.

  1. The Beginnings of Telecommunication.


1. Voltaic Battery.
-Late 18th century.


2. Telegraph.
-Early 1800s.


3. Morse Code.
-Developed in1835 by Samuel Morse


4. Dots and dashes.
-Telephone and Radio.

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  • Alexander Graham Bell.
  • 1876

2. Followed by the discovery that electrical waves travel through space and can produce an effect far from the point at which they originated.


3 .These two events led to the invention of the radio
-Guglielmo Marconi
-1894


2. Electromechanical Computing


1.Herman Hollerith and IBM.Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) in 1880.


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Census Machine.

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Early punch cards.

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Punch card workers.

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  • By 1890
  • The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
  • Its first logo

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Mark 1.

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Paper tape stored data and program instructions.

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  • Howard Aiken, a Ph.D. student at Harvard University
  • Built the Mark I
    -Completed January 1942
    -8 feet tall, 51 feet long, 2 feet thick, weighed 5 tons, used about 750,000 parts


D. The Electronic Age: 1940 - Present.


1. First Tries.
-Early 1940s
-Electronic vacuum tubes.


2. Eckert and Mauchly.
-The First High-Speed, General-Purpose Computer Using Vacuum Tubes:Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)The ENIAC team (Feb 14, 1946). Left to right: J. Presper Eckert, Jr.; John Grist Brainerd; Sam Feltman; Herman H. Goldstine; John W. Mauchly; Harold Pender; Major General G. L. Barnes; Colonel Paul N. Gillon.

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Rear view (note vacuum tubes).

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1. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)


1. 1946.
2. Used vacuum tubes (not mechanical devices) to do its calculations.
-Hence, first electronic computer.
3. Developers John Mauchly, a physicist, and J. Prosper Eckert, an electrical engineer
-The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
4. Funded by the U.S. Army.
5. But it could not store its programs (its set of instructions)


The First Stored-Program Computer(s)

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The Manchester University Mark I (prototype).

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1. Early 1940s, Mauchly and Eckert began to design the EDVAC - the Electronic Discreet Variable Computer.


2. John von Neumann's influential report in June 1945:
- "The Report on the EDVAC"


3. British scientists used this report and outpaced the Americans.
1. Max Newman headed up the effort at Manchester University
- Where the Manchester Mark I went into operation in June 1948--becoming the first stored-program computer.
2. Maurice Wilkes, a British scientist at Cambridge University, completed the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) in 1949--two years before EDVAC was finished.
- Thus, EDSAC became the first stored-program computer in general use (i.e., not a prototype).


The First General-Purpose Computer for Commercial Use: Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC).

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UNIVAC publicity photo.

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1. Late 1940s, Eckert and Mauchly began the development of a computer called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)
1. Remington Rand.
2. First UNIVAC delivered to Census Bureau in 1951.
2. But, a machine called LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) went into action a few months before UNIVAC and became the world's first commercial computer.
3. The Four Generations of Digital Computing.


The First Generation (1951-1958)

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  1. Vacuum tubes as their main logic elements.
  2. Punch cards to input and externally store data.
  3. Rotating magnetic drums for internal storage of data and programs

1. Programs written in
1. Machine language
2. Assembly language
-Requires a compiler.


The Second Generation (1959-1963)

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1. Vacuum tubes replaced by transistors as main logic element.
1. AT&T's Bell Laboratories, in the 1940s
2. Crystalline mineral materials called semiconductors could be used in the design of a device called a transistor
2. Magnetic tape and disks began to replace punched cards as external storage devices.
3. Magnetic cores (very small donut-shaped magnets that could be polarized in one of two directions to represent data) strung on wire within the computer became the primary internal storage technology.
1. High-level programming languages
-E.g., FORTRAN and COBOL


1. The Third Generation (1964-1979).

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  1. Individual transistors were replaced by integrated circuits.
  2. Magnetic tape and disks completely replace punch cards as external storage devices.
  3. Magnetic core internal memories began to give way to a new form, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) memory, which, like integrated circuits, used silicon-backed chips.
    - Operating systems
    - Advanced programming languages like BASIC developed.
    -Which is where Bill Gates and Microsoft got their start in 1975.


2. The Fourth Generation (1979- Present).

  1. Large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs and VLSICs)
  2. Microprocessors that contained memory, logic, and control circuits (an entire CPU = Central Processing Unit) on a single chip.

- Which allowed for home-use personal computers or PCs, like the Apple (II and Mac) and IBM PC.
- Apple II released to public in 1977, by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs.
-Initially sold for $1,195 (without a monitor); had 16k RAM.
- First Apple Mac released in 1984.
- IBM PC introduced in 1981.
-Debuts with MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System)
- Fourth generation language software products
- E.g., Visicalc, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, Microsoft Word, and many others.
- Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for PCs arrive in early 1980s

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MS Windows debuts in 1983, but is quite a clunker.
-Windows wouldn't take off until version 3 was released in 1990

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Apple's GUI (on the first Mac) debuts in 1984.


Bibliography

  1. Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol Guercio Traver, Jane P. Laudon, Information Technology and Systems, Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1996.
  2. Stan Augarten, BIT By BIT: An Illustrated History of Computers (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984).
  3. R. Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software, translated by J. Howlett (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984).
  4. Telephone History Web Site. http://www.cybercomm.net/~chuck/phones.html, accessed 1998.
  5. Microsoft Museum. http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/museum/home.asp, accessed 1998.


Originally developed as a lecture for MAR 203 Concepts in New Media, a course at the University of Arizona, summer 1997, by Jeremy G. Butler. Copyrights of these images are held by their original creators.