ICT Notes 6th Sem

Website Design

A website is a collection of web 'pages' that provide a mixtures of content:

·         Text

·         Images

·         Animations

·         Video

·         Audio

·         Hyperlinks (to jump to other content)

Websites are a fantastic way to communicate with people since websites can be accessed by literally millions of people.

However in some ways websites are not as good as printed documents for reaching people. For example, to view websites:

·         You need a computer (expensive)

·         You need an Internet connection (not always available, and it can be expensive)

·         You need some training to know how to use a computer

Multimedia Design

'Multimedia' refers to documents / software applications that contain a mixture of:

·    text

·    images

·    animations

·    video

·    audio

Creating Music

In the same way it is now very easy to

create printed documents using IT, it has also become easier to create and edit music with the help of computers.

To produce a musical score (sheets of written notes), you no longer need to write every note down by hand.

Interactive Communication

Communication does not need to be one-way as it is in many of the above examples. When people create images, documents, music, etc. they are communicating their message, but they are not listening to the responses that other may have.

With the rise of the Internet, and especially with the recent 'Web 2.0' websites, such as wikis, blogs and social networking sites, communication has now become very interactive.

Address Book

Most people need to keep track of lots of telephone numbers, postal addresses, e-mail address, etc.

We can use a computer (don't forget your phone is a computer too!) to help keep this data organised in an address database.

A typical computerised address book might store:

·         Name

·         Address

·         Phone number (home)

·         Phone number (mobile)

·         Phone number (work)

·         E-mail address

·         Birthday

·         Photograph

Most address book applications have features

that help you organise the records so that you can quickly access the ones you want:

·         Place your entries into groups (e.g. 'Family', Friends', 'Work', etc.)

·         Search (by name, groups, address, etc.)

·         Synchronisation with other devices (computer, phone, PDA, etc.)

Club & Society Records

Clubs / societies need to keep track of their members. A membership database allows the club / society to easily contact members, check that they have paid any fees, etc.

A typical computerised membership database might store:

·         Membership number

·         Name

·         Address

·         Phone number

·         Fees to charge

·         Have fees been paid (Y/N)

If a letter needs to be sent to every member of the club / society, the names and addresses of the members can be taken from the membership database and automatically placed onto a letter. This is called a mail-merge.

Surveys

Many groups / organisations undertake surveys to try to discover what people like / want / think.

Surveys can be performed using paper questionnaires, and then the results entered into the computer by:

·         Typing data in

·         Scanning the paper forms, using OMR technology

Alternatively, results can be entered into the computer directly, using an on-screen form (e.g. if using a tablet PC)

The survey results are best stored on a computer so that they can easily be analysed. Survey results on a computer allow:

·         Data to be quickly and easily queried (filtered)

·         Charts to be easily created

·         Summary reports to be created

Scientific experiments

Many experiments can be set-up and left to run with a data-logging system measuring things like the temperature of a liquid, etc.

Weather stations

Often these are placed in very remote areas to collect data about rainfall, temperature, wind-speed, wind-direction, etc. Data needs to be gathered all day, every day. This data can then be used by weather forecasters to help predict the weather over the coming days.

Environmental monitoring

Scientists are very concerned about the effect that humans are having on the environment. Computer-based data-logging is often used to help gather evidence of these effects: the level of water in a dam, the speed of water flowing down a river, the amount of pollution in the air, etc.

Electronic Fund Transfer (ETF)

EFT is a system that allows money transfer instructions to be sent directly to a bank’s computer system. Upon receiving one of these instructions, the computer system automatically transfers the specified amount from one account to another.

Transfer instructions can come from other banks or from businesses.

A very common use of EFT is when a large business pays its employees‟ salaries. On pay day, the business tells the bank to move money from the business account to the employees‟ bank accounts...

Using Cash Machines (ATMs)

ATMs can be used to for a range of banking services...

·         Withdrawing cash

·         Depositing money

·         Checking the balance of accounts

·         Transferring money between accounts

·         Paying bills

A customer identifies him/herself and their bank account by using a bank card. The card is inserted into the ATM where it is read by a magnetic strip reader or a smart card reader. The customer also types a secret PIN into the ATM's numeric keypad to confirm that they are the real owner of the card

ATMs can be used by customers of other banks as the ATM can use EFT...

If a customer of Bank A uses her debit card to withdraw cash from an ATM belonging to Bank B:

1.     Bank B gives her the cash

2.     Bank B now is owed money by Bank A

3.     Bank B sends an EFT instruction to Bank A asking for money to be transferred from the customer‟s account to Bank B.

4.     Bank B has now been paid back

Electronic Payments for Goods (EFTPOS)

Banks allow goods to be paid for electronically, using a system called Electronic Fund Transfer at Point-of-Sale (EFTPOS).

Internet Banking

It is now very common for bank customers to access their bank account from home using on-line banking services.

Customers use a computer and connect to the bank‟s secure (encrypted) website where they login (usually with a username and a password)

Customers can use the on-line banking system to...

·         Check the balance of bank accounts

·         Pay bills

·         Transfer money between accounts (using EFT)

·         Apply for loans, or other services

Compared to traveling to your actual bank, Internet banking has a few advantages...

·         More convenient - can be used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

·         Saves time and money since you don't have to travel anywhere to use it

·         Data can be downloaded and analysed (e.g. in a spreadsheet) which can help with planning budgets

But there are some disadvantages too...

·         Requires you to have a computer and Internet access to use it

·         Some people prefer to speak to a person (personal service)

·         If your account is hacked, or your username / password is stolen (e.g. if your computer has malware) money could be stolen from your account

Telephone Banking

This is similar to Internet banking, but does not require a computer, only a normal telephone.

The system works by you calling the bank's telephone banking number then...

·         You enter your account number (using the phone's number keys)

·         You enter your PIN / secret code

·         You then hear various options: ("Press 1 to find your balance, Press 2 to transfer money...")

·         You pick an option (using the phone's number keys)

·         And so on...

Customers can use the telephone banking system to...

·         Check the balance of bank accounts

·         Pay bills

·         Transfer money between accounts (using EFT)

·         Speak to a bank representative to get financial advice

The advantages of telephone banking are similar to Internet banking, but there are some extra

things...

·         You don't need a computer

·         You can speak to an actual person

The disadvantage compared to Internet banking...

·    The system can be difficult to use (working through all of those menus)

Processing Cheques (Cheque 'Clearing')

Banks have to deal with thousands of hand-written, paper cheques every day.

When a cheque arrives at a bank, the information on the cheque has to be entered into the bank’s computer system so that the correct funds can be transferred between the correct accounts. Entering this data quickly and accurately is a time-consuming and difficult task.

To help speed things up, a special system of printing is used on cheques that can be read by a reader connected to the computer system. At the bottom of every cheque, printed in a special font using magnetic ink, is the bank account number and cheque number:

Each cheque is passed through an  MICR reader that can read these special numbers. (A small reader is shown here, but in large banks the MICR readers are much bigger and can thousands hundreds of cheques.

The hand-written part of the cheque (the payee and the value of payment) can be entered into the computer system by either using a human to read the writing and typing the data in, or by using  OCR.

What is a 'Payroll'?

The 'payroll' of a business is the system used to calculate the salary (how much they are paid for their work) of each employee.

The inputs to a payroll system are:

·         Employee code (used to lookup the employee's other details, e.g. name, bank account, etc.)

·         Hours worked

·         Rate of pay (e.g. $25 per hour)

The processing involves the following calculation:

Pay = Hours Worked X Rate of Pay

The outputs from a payroll system are:

·         A printed payslip (given to the employee to show how his/her pay was calculated)

·         A cheque, or an EFT payment directly into the employee's bank account

How is a Payroll Processed?

The payroll is usually processed once a week or once a month (depending upon how often the business pays its employees).

This means that  batch-processing is ideal for payroll processing:

· Working hours data is collected into a batch

· The data can be processed in one go at the end of the

week/month

·         The same calculations will be performed on all the data

·         No user input is required during the processing

·         The processing can be done during quiet times when the computer system is not being used for other things (e.g. at night)