Part 1 Becoming Skilled at Computing
Chapter 1 Defining Information Technology
Terms of Endearment 3
Why Know Just the Right Word 5
Where's the Start Button? 6
Where Is the Computer? 11
How Soft Is Software? 15
The Words for Ideas 17
Analytical Thinking 19
Summary 23
Try It Solutions 24
Review Questions 24
Chapter 2 Exploring the Human-Computer Interface
What the Digerati Know 28
Learning about Technology 30
Two Concepts of Computing 35
Clicking Around 37
Blazing Away 38
Watching Others 39
Principle: Form Follows Function 41
Searching Text Using Find 43
Editing Text Using Substitution 47
Technology: Take It Personally 52
Summary 54
Try It Solutions 54
Review Questions 55
Chapter 3 The Basics of Networking
Making the Connection 58
Comparing Communication Types 60
The Medium of the Message 62
The Internet and the Web 77
The World Wide Web 74
Summary 81
Try It Solutions 81
Review Questions 82
Chapter 4 A Hypertext Markup Language Primer
Marking Up with HTML 85
Marking Up with XHTML 87
Lab Practice I 89
Structuring Documents 92
Lab Practice II 96
Marking Links with Anchor Tags 98
Including Pictures with Image Tags 101
Lists and Tables 106
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 111
Style from Files 115
HTML Wrap-Up 118
Summary 119
Try It Solutions 119
Review Questions 120
Chapter 5 Locating Information on the WWW
Searching for Truth 124
Searching in All the Right Places 126
How Is Information Organized? 128
Searching the Web for Information 135
Searching the World Wide Web 141
Web Information: Truth or Fiction? 147
The Burmese Mountain Dog Page 150
Summary 151
Try It Solutions 152
Review Questions 152
Chapter 6 A Case Study in Online Research
Searching for Guinea Pig B 156
Getting Started with Online Research 158
Learning About Fuller 163
Primary Sources 166
Chronfile and Everything I Know 170
Resolving Questions 174
Case Study Wrap-Up 180
Exploring Side Questions 178
Summary 185
Try It Solutions 185
Review Questions 185
interview Vinton G. Cerf 188
Part 2 Algorithms and Digitizing Information
Chapter 7 An Introduction to Debugging
To Err Is Human 195
of Computing 197
Exactly How Accurate Is Precise? 197
Debugging: What's the Problem? 198
A Dialog About Debugging 201
Precision: The High Standards Butterflies and Bugs: A Case Study 204
Debugging Recap 204
No Printer Output: A Classic Scenario 214
Ensuring the Reliability of Software 217
Summary 219
Try It Solutions 220
Review Questions 220
Chapter 8 Representing Information Digitally
Bits and the Why of Bytes 223
Digitizing Discrete Information 225
Fundamental Information Representation 227
Hex Explained 232
Digitizing Text 233
The Oxford English Dictionary 237
Summary 241
Try It Solutions 242
Review Questions 242
Chapter 9 Principles of Computer Operations
Following Instructions 246
Instruction Execution Engines 248
The Fetch/Execute Cycle 250
Anatomy of a Computer 250
The Program Counter: The PC's PC 255
Instruction Interpretation 256
Cycling the Fetch/Execute Cycle 260
Software 262
Integrated Circuits 267
How Semiconductor Technology Works 270
Combining the Ideas 273
Summary 274
Try It Solutions 275
Review Questions 275
Chapter 10 Algorithmic Thinking
What's the Plan? 279
Algorithm: A Familiar Idea 281
Analyzing Alphabetize CDs Algorithm 288
Abstraction in Algorithmic Thinking 292
Summary 296
Try It Solutions 296
Review Questions 296
Chapter 11 Representing Multimedia Digitally
Light, Sound, Magic 300
Digitizing Color 302
Computing on Representations 309
Digitizing Sound 312
Digital Images and Video 316
Optical Character Recognition 319
Virtual Reality: Fooling the Senses 321
Bits Are It 323
Summary 324
Try It Solutions 325
Review Questions 325
interview Ray Kurzweil 329
Part 3 Data and Information
Chapter 12 Social Implications of IT
Computers in Polite Society 335
Out on Good Behavior 337
Expect the Unexpected 340
Creating Good Passwords 343
Spam 347
Scams 350
Viruses and Worms 353
Protecting Intellectual Property 361
Plan of Action 366
Summary 369
Try It Solutions 369
Review Questions 370
Chapter 13 Privacy and Digital Security
Shhh, It's a Secret 373
Privacy: Whose Information Is It? 375
A Privacy Definition 377
Enjoying the Benefits of Privacy 378
Fair Information Practices 379
Comparing Privacy Across the Atlantic 380
The Cookie Monster 384
Encryption and Decryption 388
Public Key Cryptosystems 391
RSA Public Key Cryptosystem 392
Redundancy Is Very, Very, Very Good 398
Summary 401
Try It Solutions 402
Review Questions 403
Chapter 14 The Basics of Spreadsheets
Fill-in-the-Blank Computing 406
Arranging Information 408
Computing with Spreadsheets 412
Daily Spreadsheets 422
Importing Data 429
Summary 434
Try It Solutions 435
Review Questions 435
Chapter 15 Advanced Spreadsheets for Planning
What If Thinking Helps 440
Designing a Spreadsheet 442
Conditional Formatting 445
Conditional Formulas 449
Naming: Symbolic Reference 452
What If Analysis 455
Analyzing Data Using Filtering 461
Summary 465
Try It Solutions 466
Review Questions 466
Chapter 16 Introduction to Database Concepts
A Table with a View 470
and Databases 472
XML: A Language for Metadata Tags 474
Tables and Entities 481
Operations on Tables 485
Differences Between Tables Join Operation 493
Structure of a Database 496
Summary 507
Try It Solutions 508
Review Questions 508
Chapter 17 A Case Study in Database Organization
The iDiary Database 511
Thinking About a Personal Database 513
A Preliminary Exercise 514
The iDiary Database 524
Using the iDiary Daily 538
Summary 540
Try It Solutions 540
Review Questions 541
interview Alan Kay 543
Part 4 Problem Solving
Chapter 18 Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript
Get with the Program 549
Overview: Programming Concepts 551
Names, Values, and Variables 553
Names Have Changing Values 553
Names in a Program Are Called Variables 554
A Variable Declaration Statement 555
Three Basic Data Types of JavaScript 557
The Assignment Statement 560
An Expression and Its Syntax 563
A Conditional Statement 567
The Espresso Program 571
Summary 574
Try It Solutions 575
Review Questions 576
Chapter 19 A JavaScript Program
The Bean Counter 579
Preliminaries 581
Recap of the Bean Counter Background for the GUI 582
Creating the Graphical User Interface 586
Event-Based Programming 589
Critiquing the Bean Counter 594
Application 595
Summary 597
Try It Solutions 598
Review Questions 598
Chapter 20 Programming Functions
Thinking Big 601
Anatomy of a Function 603
Forms and Functions 606 Summary 629
Writing Functions, Using Functions 610
The Memory Bank Web Page 618
Improving the Memory Bank Web Page 622
Add Final Touches to Memory Bank 626
Try It Solutions 630
Review Questions 630
Chapter 21 Iteration Principles
Once Is Not Enough 633
Iteration: Play It Again, Sam 635
JavaScript Rules for for Loops 638
Experiments with Flipping Coins 642
Indexing 645
Arrays 646
The Busy Animation 648
Summary 653
Try It Solutions 654
Review Questions 655
Chapter 22 A Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving
The Smooth Motion Application 659
The Smooth Motion Application 661
Planning Smooth Motion 662
Build the Basic Web Page GUI 665
Animate the Grid 666
The Best Laid Plans . . . 671
Build Controls 673
Sense the Keys 674
Staircase Detection 677
Assemble Overall Design 679
Primp the Design 680
Summary 682
Try It Solutions 683
Review Questions 684
Chapter 23 Limits to Computation
Computers Can Do Almost {!Everything,!Nothing} 687
Can Computers Think? 689
Acting Intelligently? 691
Acting Creatively 696
The Universality Principle 699
More Work, Slower Speed 703
How Hard Can a Problem Be? 705
Summary 707
Try It Solutions 708
Review Questions 708
Chapter 24 A Fluency Summary
Click to Close 712
Two Big IT Ideas 714
Fluency: Less Is More 715
Lifelong IT Learning 717
Shifting for Yourself 720
Try It Solutions 720
Review Questions 720
interview Tim Berners-Lee 723
Appendix A XHTML Reference 725
Appendix B iDiary: Tags and Templates 730
Appendix C JavaScript Programming Rules 736
Appendix D Bean Counter Program 743
Appendix E Memory Bank Code 746
Appendix F Smooth Motion Program 752
Glossary 755
Answers to Selected Questions 769
Index 781
Credits 798
