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Copyright, ii
Preface, iii
Part 1. Becoming Skilled at Information Technology, 1
Chapter 1. Terms of Endearment: Defining Information Technology, 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
Review Questions, 24
Chapter 2. What the Digerati Know: Exploring the Human–Computer Interface, 27
Learning about Technology, 29
Consistent Interfaces, 32
Anatomy of an Interface, 34
Standard GUI Functionality, 37
“Clicking Around”, 42
“Blazing Away”, 44
Watching Others, 45
Principle: Form Follows Function, 46
Searching Text Using Find, 48
Editing Text Using Substitution, 52
Technology: Take It Personally, 57
Summary, 58
Review Questions, 59
Chapter 3. Making the Connection: The Basics of Networking, 62
Comparing Communication Types, 64
The Medium of the Message, 66
The World Wide Web, 78
The Internet and the Web, 80
File Structure, 82
Summary, 86
Review Questions, 86
Chapter 4. Marking Up with HTML: A Hypertext Markup Language Primer, 90
Marking Up with HTML, 92
Structuring Documents, 93
Marking Links with Anchor Tags, 99
Including Pictures with Image Tags, 102
Handling Color, 104
Handling Lists, 106
Handling Tables, 109
HTML Wrap-Up, 114
Summary, 114
Review Questions, 115
Chapter 5. Searching for Truth: Locating Information on the WWW, 118
Searching in All the Right Places, 120
How Is Information Organized?, 123
Searching the Web for Information, 129
Web Information: Truth or Fiction?, 139
The Burmese Mountain Dog Page, 141
Summary, 143
Review Questions, 143
Chapter 6. Searching for Guinea Pig B: Case Study in Online Research, 146
Getting Started with Online Research, 148
Primary Sources, 153
Chronfile and Everything I Know, 159
Resolving Questions, 161
Secondary Sources, 163
Exploring Side Questions, 166
Case Study Wrap-Up, 167
The Process, 168
Summary, 170
Review Questions, 171
Interview: Vinton G. Cerf, 174
Part 2. Algorithms and Digitizing Information, 177
Chapter 7. To Err Is Human: An Introduction to Debugging, 179
Precision: The High Standards of IT, 181
Exactly How Accurate Is “Precise?”, 181
Debugging: What’s the Problem?, 182
A Dialog About Debugging, 185
Debugging Recap, 188
Butterflies and Bugs: A Case Study, 188
No Printer Output: A Classic Scenario, 198
Summary, 200
Review Questions, 201
Chapter 8. Bits and the “Why” of Bytes: Representing Information Digitally, 204
Digitizing Discrete Information, 206
Fundamental Information Representation, 208
Hex Explained, 213
Digitizing Text, 214
The Oxford English Dictionary, 218
Summary, 222
Review Questions, 223
Chapter 9. Following Instructions: Principles of Computer Operation, 226
Instruction Execution Engines, 228
Anatomy of a Computer, 230
The Fetch/Execute Cycle, 230
The Program Counter: The PC’s PC, 235
Instruction Interpretation, 236
Cycling the Fetch/Execute Cycle, 239
Software, 242
Integrated Circuits, 247
How Semiconductor Technology Works, 250
Combining the Ideas, 252
Summary, 254
Review Questions, 254
Chapter 10. What’s the Plan?: Algorithmic Thinking, 258
Algorithm: A Familiar Idea, 260
An Algorithm: Alphabetize CDs, 264
Analyzing Alphabetize CDs Algorithm, 268
Abstraction in Algorithmic Thinking, 271
Summary, 274
Review Questions, 275
Chapter 11. Light, Sound, Magic: Representing Multimedia Digitally, 278
Digitizing Color, 280
Computing on Representations, 287
Digitizing Sound, 290
Digital Images and Video, 293
Optical Character Recognition, 296
Virtual Reality: Fooling the Senses, 298
Bits Are It, 300
Summary, 301
Review Questions, 302
Interview: Ray Kurzweil, 305
Part 3. Data and Information, 309
Chapter 12. Computers in Polite Society: Social Implications of IT, 311
Improving the Effectiveness of Email, 313
Expect the Unexpected, 317
Creating Good Passwords, 320
Viruses and Worms, 324
Protecting Intellectual Property, 331
Ensuring the Reliability of Software, 336
Summary, 338
Review Questions, 339
Chapter 13. Shhh, It’s a Secret: Privacy and Digital Security, 342
Privacy: Whose Information Is It?, 344
A Privacy Definition, 346
Fair Information Practices, 348
Comparing Privacy Across the Atlantic, 349
The Cookie Monster, 353
Encryption and Decryption, 356
Public Key Cryptosystems, 359
RSA Public Key Cryptosystem, 361
Redundancy Is Very, Very, Very Good, 367
Summary, 369
Review Questions, 370
Chapter 14. Fill-in-the-Blank Computing: The Basics of Spreadsheets, 374
Arranging Information, 376
Computing with Spreadsheets, 381
Functions, 389
Daily Spreadsheets, 393
Importing Data, 401
Summary, 406
Review Questions, 407
Chapter 15. “What If” Thinking Helps: Advanced Spreadsheets for Planning, 411
Designing a Spreadsheet, 413
Conditional Formatting, 416
Conditional Formulas, 420
Naming: Symbolic Reference, 423
“What If” Analysis, 425
Analyzing Data Using Filtering, 433
Summary, 437
Review Questions, 438
Chapter 16. A Table with a View: Introduction to Database Concepts, 442
Differences Between Tables and Databases, 444
XML: A Language for Metadata Tags, 445
Tables and Entities, 453
Operations on Tables, 458
Join Operation, 465
Structure of a Database, 468
Summary, 478
Review Questions, 479
Chapter 17. The iDiary Database: A Case Study in Database Organization, 482
Thinking About a Personal Database, 484
A Preliminary Exercise, 485
The iDiary Database, 495
Using the iDiary Daily, 508
Summary, 510
Review Questions, 511
Interview: Alan Kay, 514
Part 4. Problem Solving, 517
Chapter 18. Get with the Program: Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript, 519
Overview: Programming Concepts, 521
Names, Values, and Variables, 523
A Variable Declaration Statement, 525
Three Basic Data Types of JavaScript, 527
The Assignment Statement, 530
An Expression and Its Syntax, 533
A Conditional Statement, 537
The Espresso Program, 541
Summary, 543
Review Questions, 545
Chapter 19. The Bean Counter: A JavaScript Program, 549
Preliminaries, 551
Background for the GUI, 553
Create the Graphical User Interface, 557
Event-Based Programming, 560
Critiquing the Bean Counter, 565
Recap of the Bean Counter Application, 566
Summary, 567
Review Questions, 568
Chapter 20. Thinking Big: Programming Functions, 571
Anatomy of a Function, 573
Writing Functions, Using Functions, 580
The Memory Bank Web Page, 588
Improving the Memory Bank Web Page, 594
Add Final Touches to Memory Bank, 598
Summary, 601
Review Questions, 602
Chapter 21. Once Is Not Enough: Iteration Principles, 605
Iteration: Play It Again, Sam, 607
JavaScript Rules for for Loops, 610
Experiments with Flipping Coins, 614
Indexing, 617
Arrays, 618
The Busy Animation, 620
Summary, 625
Review Questions, 627
Chapter 22. The Smooth Motion: Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving, 630
The Smooth Motion Application, 632
Planning Smooth Motion, 633
Build the Basic Web Page GUI, 636
Animate the Grid, 637
The Best Laid Plans . . ., 642
Build Controls, 644
Sense the Keys, 645
Staircase Detection, 649
Assemble Overall Design, 650
Primp the Design, 652
Summary, 654
Review Questions, 655
Chapter 23. Computers Can Do Almost {□Everything,□Nothing}: Limits to Computation, 658
Can Computers Think?, 660
Acting Intelligently?, 662
Acting Creatively, 667
The Universality Principle, 669
More Work, Slower Speed, 673
How Hard Can a Problem Be?, 675
Summary, 677
Review Questions, 679
Chapter 24. Click to Close: A Fluency Summary, 682
Two Big IT Ideas, 684
Fluency: Less Is More, 685
Lifelong IT Learning, 687
Shifting for Yourself, 689
Review Questions, 690
Interview: Tim Berners-Lee, 692
Appendix A. HTML Reference, 694
Appendix B. iDiary: Tags and Templates, 699
Appendix C. JavaScript Programming Rules, 705
Appendix D. Bean Counter Program, 713
Appendix E. Memory Bank Code, 716
Appendix F. Smooth Motion Program, 721
Glossary, 724
Answers to Selected Questions, 737
Index, 749
Credits, 766

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