Operating System

Operating System

 An Operating System (OS) is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an essential component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function.

Types of operating systems

• Real Time-A real-time operating system is a multitasking operating system that aims at executing  real-time applications. Real-time operating systems often use specialized scheduling algorithms so that they can achieve a deterministic nature of behavior. The main objective of real-time operating systems is their quick and predictable response to events. They have an event-driven or time-sharing design and often aspects of both. An event-driven system switches between tasks based on their priorities or external events while time-sharing operating systems switch tasks based on clock interrupts.
• Single-user, single task - As the name implies, this operating system is designed to manage the computer so that one user can effectively do one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computers is a good example of a modern single-user, single-task operating system.
• Single-user, multi-tasking - This is the type of operating system most people use on their desktop and laptop computers today. Microsoft's Windows and Apple's MacOS platforms are both examples of operating systems that will let a single user have several programs in operation at the same time. For example, it's entirely possible for a Windows user to be writing a note in a word processor while downloading a file from the Internet while printing the text of an e-mail message.
• Multi-user - A multi-user operating system allows many different users to take advantage of the computer's resources simultaneously. The operating system must make sure that the requirements of the various users are balanced, and that each of the programs they are using has sufficient and separate resources so that a problem with one user doesn't affect the entire community of users. Unix, VMS and mainframe operating systems, such as MVS, are examples of multi-user operating systems.

 

 

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What is Programming

A vocabulary and set of grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific tasks. The term programming language usually refers tohigh-level languages, such as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, andPascal. Each language has a unique set of keywords (words that it understands) and a special syntax for organizing program instructions.

High-level programming languages, while simple compared to human languages, are more complex than the languages the computer actually understands, called machine languages. Each different type of CPU has its own unique machine language.

Lying between machine languages and high-level languages are languages called assembly languages. Assembly languages are similar to machine languages, but they are much easier to program in because they allow aprogrammer to substitute names for numbers. Machine languages consist of numbers only.

Hierarchy Of Programming Language.......................

Lying above high-level languages are languages called fourth-generation languages (usually abbreviated 4GL). 4GLs are far removed from machine languages and represent the class of computer languages closest to human languages.

Regardless of what language you use, you eventually need to convert your program into machine language so that the computer can understand it. There are two ways to do this:

compile the program

• interpret the program

See compile and interpreter for more information about these two methods.

The question of which language is best is one that consumes a lot of time and energy among computer professionals. Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, FORTRAN is a particularly good language for processing numerical data, but it does not lend itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for writing well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C programming language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features, but it is complex and difficult to learn.

The choice of which language to use depends on the type of computer the program is to run on, what sort of program it is, and the expertise of the programmer.

Evaluating the Impact of Information Technology

Evaluating the Impact of Information Technology:

Determining the impact of information technology (“IT”) on nonprofits’ organizational structure and outcomes

has become a crucial task for nonprofits and grantmakers. With the speed of communications and the pace of business constantly on the increase, nonprofits and grantmakers need to know how technology is affecting them and their grantees—what they need, what they could be doing better, whether their IT systems are helping or hindering them in achieving their missions. But certain knowledge of the impact of technology on an organization or a program is like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: its value is obvious, and it looks easy to find, but the path toward it is hazy and ephemeral.

For instance, Innovation Network recently worked with a large national foundation that created an area on its website with free content for other grantmakers. The content is outstanding—practical guides and suggestionsthat will undoubtedly help to positively shape the thoughts and actions of the grantmaking community. During the website planning effort, the foundation staff wrestled with a common web-design trade-off: the value of capturing information about the people who were visiting the site, versus the value of an easily accessible site without barriers for potential users. In the end, the foundation erred on the side of access, and allowed anyone to download information without requiring registration. After the first year of the site’s operation, 12,000 users had downloaded information from the site, and the foundation asked Innovation Network to help assess the impact of disseminating this information to the field. Traditional, in-person social services generally have wellestablished intake procedures, so that they have some idea who their clients are and what services they received. Given that there was no traditional intake process, no record of services provided, and no way to identify the 12,000 users, we had no way to find out what resources they had used or which web pages they had viewed—much less what difference the information or service had made to them. The rainbow disappeared,leaving no trail to the wealth of information.

Improvements in information technology can have dramatic effects on both the internal and external operations of a non profit organization. Internally, improved IT systems can enhance and strengthen organizational infrastructure and capacity by increasing the efficiency of client intake; service coordination; information sharing between departments, staff, board, and volunteers; financial record keeping and systems; fundraising efforts (particularly donor record keeping); and tracking of an organization’s production and impact.Externally, information technology solutions can fundamentally transform non profit service delivery. One of the most successful and innovative examples of such a transformation is the Technology Initiative Grants program of Legal Services Corporation (“LSC”). This program is an effort to promote full access and high-quality legal representation through the use of information technology: LSC grantees around the country create information kiosks through which underserved people can reach high-quality legal help immediately, inexpensively, and conveniently. This is a profound shift in the way that lower-income people can gain access to legal assistance.It’s easy to feel that internal organizational improvements and the success of new service delivery mechanisms are tied to new networks or faster computers or more muscular databases, but actually measuring the impact of the technology is a challenge.

Measurement of the impact of an IT investment is problematic for a number of reasons:

• There usually isn’t any baseline against which to assess new improvements.

• The process of planning for IT upgrades or installation—discussing how things are done, what the

   bottlenecks are within an organization—can, in and of itself, free up sticking points and improve

   efficiency, even without the implementation of new IT systems.

• New technology can be so intimidating for staff that an organization actually becomes less efficient in the

  first few months following a technology upgrade—so an evaluation done too soon might result in a “false

   negative”, reflecting inefficiencies that would be resolved with time.

• Sometimes new technologies aren’t used at all (for example, when adequate training isn’t available or

   when organizational culture presents barriers), ossifying an anti-technology mindset and causing longterm

   reductions in efficiency and impact.Correctly attributing improvements to proximate causes can be

   a challenge: at what point does the technology stop having an impact, and other factors (that may be out

   of the hands of the service provider) come into play?

           Faced with such challenges, many nonprofits find the evaluation of technology an intimidating task. How can nonprofits effectively evaluate the impact of technology on their work? Innovation Network’s information technology evaluation efforts over the past five years have provided some key lessons for improving the use and measuring the impact of information technology within nonprofit organizations.

  For more information: http://informationtechnology0.webs.com/ 

IT(Information Technology)

1.Web definitions:     the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to       retrieve and store and transmit information. 2.Stands for "Information Technology," and is pronounced "I.T." It refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies. Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers, networks, and other technical areas of their businesses. IT jobs include computer programming, network administration, computer engineering, Web development, technical support, and many other related occupations. Since we live in the "information age," information technology has become a part of our everyday lives. That means the term "IT," already highly overused, is here to stay.