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User:Geology2209blended

GLOSSARY of GEOLOGIC TERMS for Geology 2209

(Please consider also adding new terms to the generic learning project Glossary of Geology Terms started by copying this page.)

Geology - the study of the earth. Physical Geology includes processes that affect the earth's internal and external structure, composition and other natural functions. Historical Geology is the study of the evolution of life on earth - especially the past life forms that are preserved as fossils. (J.Wittstrom)

Mafic - ocean crust contianing magnesium and iron. (Y. Tanoli)

Subduction Zone - place where two tectonics plates meet and one plate move under the other. (Y.Tanoli)

Asthenosphere - the layer of the mantle that lies directly below the lithosphere. (A.Senos)

Spreading Ridge - an elevated region where new crust material is being formed and where older crust moves away from the ridge. (B.Qaderi)

Harry Hess - In the 1960s Hess developed the theory that the seafloor is spreading. This theory was based on the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, proving that the upwelling of magma breaking through the mantle is pushing the seafloor from the ridge crest.(J.Howley)

Volcanic Island Arcs - When either a oceanic crust subducts under another oceanic crust (oceanic arc) or a continental crust subducts under another continental crust (continental arc). (Q.Janmohamed)

Lithosphere - located above the asthenosphere the lithosphere consists of the outer layer of earth’s crust and upper mantle. The lithosphere also contains the Moho boundary. (H.Redoble)

Curie Point - The temperature a substance reaches when magnetism is lost. (J.Mellum)

Hardness - A property of a mineral. Its tolerance or resistance to scratching or abrasion. This is measured by the Moh's scale. (Christine Simoneau)

Carbonate - minerals that contain the carbonate anion ((CO3)2-), some of the most common include argonite, calcite and magnesite. (A. Senos)

Halide - a binary compound constructed of two parts, one halogen atom and one element or radical that has a electronegative value less than the halogen. (Q.Janmohamed)

Hot Spot- A stationary mantel plume which will form a series of Volcanoes or Sea Mountains as the earths crust moves overtop of it. (M.Laery)

Lustre- the refelctive quality of light on the freshly broken surface of a mineral. main divisions of lustre being metallic and non-metallic. (M. MacFadzen)

Native Element - occurs in nature and is not part of a compound. Examples are gold and silver. (J. Mellum)

Fracture - when a mineral breaks and does not cleave the mineral fractures. Fractures can be irregular, curved, jagged or splintery. Quartz actually has a conchoidal fracture which is dish shaped. (H. Redoble)

Paleomagnetism - Refers to the study of the magnetic properties of rocks and minerals. This demonstrates to us that both the strength and direction of Earths magnetic field is not constant. Each rock and mineral tells its own story at a particular moment in time. (A. Atwal)

Continental volcanic arch - mountain ranges produced by ingeouse activity due to the subduction of the ocean's lithosphere.

Cleavage - When a mineral is broken cleavage is shown by the pattern in which the mineral breaks in; along crystallographic planes. If it does not follow these planes then it is considered to fracture. (T. Bakic)

Magnetometer - One of the weapons WW2 left us with, it is used for measuring a magnetic fields magnitude and direction. (T. Bakic)

Pegmatite - A very coarse grained igneous rock like granite, commonly associated with large masses of plutonic rock. (M. MacFadzen)

Evaporite - Sedimentary rocks made up of minerals that are deposited from the precipitation of evaporated seawater. (M. MacFadzen)

Erosion - The transportation of material by amobile agent i.e water, wind or ice.(C Simoneau)

Magma - A body of molten rock found at depth this includes dissolved gases and crystals. (C Simoneau)

Aphanitic – refers to the texture of igneous rocks when you can’t distinguish individual minerals unless you use a microscope then it is said to have an aphanitic texture. (H. Redoble)

Basalt - a dark colored and fine grained extrusive igneous rock, it is the most widespread igneous rock (A. Senos)

Extrusive - the Term for igneous rocks that are formed when magma solidifies at the crust surface (J. Howley)

Exfoliation - occurs when a rock is exposed to continuous weathering. Slabs and pieces of the outer layer of the rock will fall off or flak away (J. Howley)

Plutons - A body of igneous rock formed beneath the surface of the earth by consolidation of magma. (S.Katarey)

Fissile – refers to a property of a rock when splitting occurs effortlessly into slim layers along closely spaced, parallel surfaces. An example would be bedding planes in shale. (H. Redoble)

Sulfides-They are a group of minerials that are very important to the economy and are from igneous orgin. Some characteristics of sulfides are that most are metallic, they have a high density, and often leave black or dark colored streaks when rubbed against a harder surface. some examples of sulfides are most ores, and important metals such as copper, silver, and lead. (T.Purcell)

Phaneritic-Is a igneous rock which is classified as having a coarse texture. This rock is considered intrusive, meaning that it solitifies far below the surface allowing it to cool very slow forming large, visible crystals. (T.Purcell)

Graded Bed-They are a mixture of gravel, sand, mud that has been carried by moving water (stream, rivers) and deposited in layers. They show a range of particle sizes usually layered larger (coarse) to samller (fine). (T.Purcell)

Ripple marks-Small waves of sand formed on the surface by the presents of moving water or air. (Mark Leary)

Glassy Texture- A term used to describe the appearance of some igneous rocks that contain no crystals. (Mark Leary)

Sulfates - is a salt of sulfuric acid. The mineral Gypsum is in the form of hydrated calcium sulfate. (B.Qaderi)

Crystallization - the formation of crystals or assumption of crystalline structure from a liquid or gas. (B.Qaderi)

Dissolution - a form of chemical weathering, the process by which a solid, liquid, or gas is distributed homogeneously in a solid, gas or especially a liquid. (B.Qaderi)

Diagenesis - Any physical, chemical or biological change that occurs after a sediment has been deposited and lithified. (Q.Janmohamed)

Pangea - One large "super continent" that existed before continental drift. Pangea existed roughly 250 million years ago. (A. Straathof)

Mohs Scale - Used to determine a minerals scratch resistance by using another harder mineral to test it upon. Moh's Scale is a test to determine the hardness factor of a mineral. (A. Straathof)

Intrusive - Igneous rock that forms and cools underneath the earth from molten magma. (A. Straathof)

Oxidation - A form of chemical weathering, any mineral exposed to air may undergo this type of chemical weathering. (A. Straathof)

Back Arc Basin- an isolated marine basin that is formed behind a subduction zone. Associated with island acrs. (G. Kendall)

Specific Gravity- is the ratio of a substance's weight to the weight of an equal volume of water. It is expressed without units. (G. Kendall)

Geothermal Gradient- the change in the temperature as depth increases the further you go into the Earth's crust. (G.Kendall)

Lava - Liquid molten rock that has reached the Earth's surface through a volcano. (T. Stachiw)

Regolith - The layer of loose rock resting on bedrock, made from fragments of rocks and minerals. (T. Stachiw)

Oxides - A Compund of an element and Oxygen. Water is a oxide. (T. Stachiw)

Hydrolysis - the process of breaking down compound by adding water. (Y.Tanoli)

Viscosity - is based on how thick a fluid is and therefore its resistence to flow. Water is less viscous than honey. (J.Mellum)

Andesite - A medium-dark colored igneous rock that crystallizes at intermediate temperatures. It contains 53-63 percent silica. Due to this it has a moderate viscosity. (A. Atwal)

Lithification - The process by which sediments slowly turn into rock form. This is done so by the processes of compaction and cementation. Lithification is a broad term, including any process which turns sediments into sedimentary rock. (A. Atwal)

Syncline - a characteristic of folding rocks due to compression, syncline refers to the downward facing fold. (H.Redoble)

Elastic Deformation: Instantly recovering and retaining shape when force is applied( Deformation)(C. Simoneau)

Principal of Crosscutting relationships:States that any geologic feature is younger then the geologic feature it cuts across, for example, a river channel must be younger then the plain it crosses. (C. Simoneau)

Normal Fault - Vertical fault where one rock is displaced up and the other down, usually at a 60 degree angle. (B.Qaderi)

Permineralization :The preservation of organic hard partsby mineral-bearing groundwater infiltrating porous matter after the burial. The common preserving minerals are silica, clacite and iron oxides. (C Simoneau)

Unconformity – a break in the continuity of the rock record resulting from a cease of deposition and erosion. (H.Redoble)

Coprolite – fossilized excrement, this petrified dung can be analyzed to discover eating patterns of prehistoric animals. (H.Redoble)

Horst and Graben - elongate fault blocks of the Earth's crust that have been raised and lowered. They are relative to their surrounding areas as a direct effect of faulting. (G.Kendall)

Carbonization- process by which solid residues with increasing content of the element carbon are formed from organic material usually by pyrolysis in an inert atmosphere. (G.Kendall)

Petrification- process of fossilization, where dissolved minerals (silica) replace the organic matter in organisms. (M. MacFadzen)

Relative Dating - the sequence in which artifacts or events are arranged without the use of calender or time. (B.Qaderi)

Orogeny - are the geological processes that lead to mountain building. (J.Mellum)

Strata - the layers found in sedimentary rocks. (Y. Tanoli)

Extinction - the disappearence of species in all or some part of geographic area.(Y. Tanoli)

Index Fossil - a fossil that can be used to identify different geological time periods (A. Senos)

Debris Slide - an extremely fast form of mass movement consisting of mainly soil, along with trees, rocks etc. that roll through a narrow channel down a steep slope (A. Senos)

Slump - the collapse of a block of earth material along a curved surface (B.Qaderi)

Permafrost - A permanently frozen layer of soil or subsoil or even bedrock which occurs to variable depths below the earths surface in arctic and subarctic regions. It underlies approximately one fifth of the earths land area. ( C. Simoneau)

Rock Avalanche - the most rapid type of mass movement where very large rocks fall so fast they seem to flow like water taking out everything in its path (J. Howley)

Solifluction - slow moving, water saturated soil, mud or other earth material that moves down hill. This process is typical of earth movement in permafrost areas where there is a continuously frozen layer beneath the surface all year long. (Wittstrom)

Angle of repose - the maximum angle of a stable slope. (J. Mellum)

Trigger – an immediate cause that initiates an occurrence such as a sonic boom that triggers an avalanche. (H. Redoble)

Creep - A slow, continuous process that occurs in response to stress below the elastc limit. (M. MacFadzen)

Cutbank - An almost vertical cliff produced by erosion of the banks by a stream. (M. MacFadzen)

Headwater - The Source of a river. (M. MacFadzen)

Drainage Baisin - All area drained by a river system.(S.D.Katarey)

Divide - The line or zone of higher ground between two adjacent streams or drainage basins.Ex: the Great Divide that seperates Alberta and Canada.(S.D. Katarey)

Debris Flow- Debris flows occur when rain water begins to wash material from a slope or when water sheets off of a freshly burned stretch of land. Debris flows can contain anything from trees, cars, people, or buildings. (G.Kendall)

Base Level-the lowest level to which running water can erode the land. (G.Kendall)

Bed Load- the sand, gravel, boulders, or other debris transported by rolling or sliding along the bottom of a stream by a high velocity stream. (G.Kendall)

Dendritic drainage pattern – has a tree like branching pattern. The dendric drainage pattern forms where the under lying ground is uniform. (H. Redoble)

Alluvial Fan - An alluvial deposit with a semi - conical, downstream broadening shape formed where the topographic gradient reduces and the transporting capacity is diminished as the width of the flow increases, such as along mountain fronts, fault scarps, valley sides and glacier margins. (C. Simoneau)

Alluvium - Any stream-deposited sedimentary material. (B.Qaderi)

Delta - formed when a stream enters an ocean or lake and the sediment it is carrying is deposited at the mouth because the current slows rapidly (J. Howley)

Meander - an "S" like bend in a river or stream. (J. Howley)

Point Bar - the depositional area located on the inside bend of a meandering stream, are cresent shaped and formed by a river depositing its load as the velocity decreases along the inside bend. (A. Senos)

Braided Stream - a stream that divides and joins back up continuously around sediments that are too big to be moved by low energy stream. (A. Senos)

Dissolution - removal of bedrock through chemical weathering. (B.Qaderi)

Oxbow Lake - A lake distinctive for its curved shape as a result of being cut of from a wide meander. (J. Mellum)

Trellised Drainage Pattern - A rectangular pattern with nearly parallel tributary streams. The drainage pattern is due to the alternating bands of hard and soft strata as well as geological folding. (J. Mellum)

DRAINAGE BASIN - An area that drains precipitation (rain or melting snow) in to streams and rivers that are than carried into lakes and oceans (M. Leary)

STREAM LOAD - rock fragments and sediments that are carried within the flow of a river or stream (M. Leary) Snow Avalanche- A mass of snow, ice and possibly other material caused when a large slab of snow breaks free from the layers beneath (M.Leary)

title: User:Geology2209blended


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User:Smokizzy

Main Userpage: w:en:User:Smokizzy

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Smokizzy


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User talk:Smokizzy

Main Talkpage: w:en:User talk:Smokizzy

title: User talk:Smokizzy


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Statistics/OpenStat/Research projects/Copyright and the legal status of statistical material

There are a number of questions to be clarified: I will here occasionally summarize the answers from the ongoing discussions at commons:Commons_talk:Licensing and w:de:Wikipedia:Urheberrechtsfragen.
 * Which source data is common and can be used in a meta-datasets?

 * Statistical (and any other) data by itself is not copyrightable at all, so you may use it as you wish. What can be copyrighted is the specific way of organizing and displaying them (i.e. a concrete graph made from that data etc.). You also need to be careful regarding a sui generis protection of databases (see e.g. Database rights) – if the data is compiled into a „database“, you cannot extract substantial parts from it without a permission of the database creator. IANAL. --Mormegil 15:41, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

 * I stress I am not a lawyer and you are asking quite difficult questions (since this matter is quite foggy, IMHO). I should also remind that this protection is mainly a matter of EU, I believe database protection is not applied in the US (but I might be mistaken).
 * To the point: No, the fact whether the information is in a special file format (Excel etc.) is not relevant. The respective direction defines a database as “a collection of independent works, data or other materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by electronic or other means” and covers even non-electronic databases. The important definitory criterion is whether there has been “qualitatively and/or quantitatively [a] substantial investment in either the obtaining, verification or presentation of the contents”.
 * I repeat: the individual numbers are definitely not copyrightable. You are allowed to normally use the data from database in any way you want as long as you do not extract substantial parts of the database or “perform acts which conflict with normal exploitation of the database or unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the maker of the database”. Simply said, it is a question of measure; the protection is meant to prevent copying (almost) the whole database, not using the data in it.
 * Sui generis means that this is a new specific type of protection, not just an application of copyright. The protection is not limited by the definition of copyrightable work etc.
 * I am afraid I can’t provide more help; the best thing would be a consulation with a lawyer. I believe you might also try to ask at de:Wikipedia:Urheberrechtsfragen. (In that case, I would ask you to report any potential results, as it might help other users.)
 * --Mormegil 16:58, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


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Statistics/OpenStat/Research projects/Documentation and evaluation standards of open statistical material

=Quality standards of open statistical meta-datasets=

Tranparency of the source
Every number has to be linked to its source. This can be accomplished by a abbreviation key like in literature references.

Cross Check
Every item of the metadataset has to be compared with its sources by different participants.

Creative Commons Compliance
We have to be sure that the data packaged into the meta-dataset is free of copyrights. The typical case of such data are numbers published by national state deprtements.

Evaluation / Commenting
Ideally we have to aquire additional knowledge about the production of the data used. Survey methods as well as a comment on the reliableness of the data. There can be a database containing relevant institutions and there used methods of getting data.


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Statistics/OpenStat/Research projects/Formatting rules and function for importing into R

What is the most easyiest and consintent way defining timedependet datasets and importing into R?

Data structures as the MAMEU example can be imported e.g. with the following R-script (click edit to conserve formating):


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File:Sushant Seduced by the dark side.pdf

Used with the WikiU Film School Lesson on how to format a movie script


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The concept of irreducible complexity

Welcome to the Wikiversity learning project for exploration of the concept of irreducible complexity in living organisms.

Introduction
The idea of Irreducible complexity was made famous by Michael Behe. In his book, Darwin's Black Box, Behe described the multiple molecular components that are involved in biological processes such as translation. Within biology, "translation" is the term used to refer to the process by which cells convert genetic information into specific sequences of amino acids in proteins (see Figure 1). This process of translating a sequence of nucleotides in RNA into a corresponding sequence of amino acids in a newly produced protein is fundamental to all known living organisms on Earth and it involves the coordinated activity of many pre-existing specialized proteins. We must wonder, how did this biological process for producing new proteins arise? It seems paradoxical to say that new proteins are made by a complex process that uses many pre-existing proteins. Behe concluded that such "systems of horrendous irreducible complexity" force us to realize that, "life was designed by an intelligence".

This learning project explores in detail the specific example of the cellular process of translation as a test case for the concept of irreducible complexity.

Directed Panspermia
During the 1960s Francis Crick became concerned with the origins of the genetic code and the many cellular components involved in protein synthesis. In 1966 Crick took the place of Leslie Orgel at a meeting where Orgel was to talk about the origin of life. Crick speculated about possible stages by which an initially simple code with a few amino acid types might have evolved into the more complex code used by existing organisms.

At that time, all known cellular enzymes were known to be proteins and ribozymes had not yet been found. Many molecular biologists were worried about how to account for the origin of a protein synthesis system as complex as what exists in organisms currently living on Earth. How could a protein synthesis system that itself involves many protein enzymes arise spontaneously? In the early 1970s Crick and Orgel speculated about the possibility that maybe the production of life from collections of non-living molecules was a very rare event in the universe, but once it had developed it could then be spread by intelligent life forms using space travel technology, a process they called “Directed Panspermia”.

In a retrospective article, Crick and Orgel noted that they had been overly pessimistic about the chances of life evolving on Earth when they had assumed that some kind of self-replicating protein system was the molecular origin of life. Now it is easier to imagine an RNA World and the origin of life in the form of some self-replicating polymer besides protein.

Replication before translation
Even more fundamental to life than translation is replication of an organism's genetic molecule. All known existing cells use DNA as their genetic molecule, but some viruses use RNA as their genetic molecule. Cells and viruses must replicate their genetic molecules in order to pass their genetic information and identity on to additional cells or viruses. RNA is the one known type of biological polymer that functions efficiently as either a genetic molecule or as an enzyme. Might the first forms of life on Earth have had RNA before they had either DNA or translation?

If early organisms existed in an "RNA World", then ribozymes might have been responsible for producing early proteins. If so, this would remove the apparent paradox of pre-existing proteins seeming to be needed in order for a protein-producing translation system to arise.

Wolf and Koonin have recently addressed the idea that translation might be an irreducibly complex biological process. Wolf and Koonin described a series of steps by which a complex multi-protein translation system might have evolved from an earlier RNA-based protein synthesis system. Behe claimed that there are many complex multi-protein systems that could never have evolved by spontaneous steps of molecular evolution. Wolf and Koonin suggest that, "the translation system might appear to be the epitome of irreducible complexity because, although some elaborations of this machinery could be readily explainable by incremental evolution, the emergence of the basic principle of translation is not. Indeed, we are unaware of translation being possible without the involvement of ribosomes, the complete sets of tRNA and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRS), and (at least, for translation to occur at a reasonable rate and accuracy) several translation factors. In other words, staggering complexity is inherent even in the minimally functional translation system."

Figure 1 (above) is intended to illustrate the complexity of eukaryotic protein synthesis. Modern protein biosynthesis requires pre-existing proteins that replicate and repair DNA, regulate the transcription of genes and the production and processing of RNA molecules. Proteins are used to coordinate the synthesis and availability of nucleotide and amino acid building blocks of DNA, RNA and protein as well as all the energy required for their assembly. The modern ribosome contains dozens of proteins in addition to the ribosomal RNA molecules. As shown in figure 1, in addition to messenger RNA and ribosomal RNA, protein synthesis involves the participation of transfer RNA molecules as the carriers of amino acids that embody the genetic code. Additional proteins, aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, are used to couple the amino acids to the transfer RNAs. Additional proteins and types of RNA molecules are required for the production of functional ribosomal RNA from ribosomal RNA gene transcripts, the splicing of intron-containing transcripts, maturation of the ribozymes that catalyze splicing and there are other RNAs that regulate the degradation of messenger RNAs. In addition, all existing life forms on Earth have lipid bilayer membranes and many proteins that function as integral components of those membranes. nuclear pore proteins control the movements of RNA and proteins into and out of the cell nucleus as well as the generation of most cellular energy and the transport of food and waste molecules across the cell surface membrane. The apparent complexity of cells and the biosynthesis of proteins can be greatly simplified by making a single assumption: that there was once a "RNA World" in which proteins were much less important than in existing organisms. This assumption is consistent with the fact that ribozymes exist and the many different types of RNA molecules that are still retained as elements of the protein biosynthetic system (orange colored components in Figure 1).

It might be useful to review this article: Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme.

Wolf and Koonin model
The Wolf and Koonin model for molecular evolution of a first translation system includes a dozen steps.

Help make video clips corresponding to the figures in the Wolf and Koonin article: video workshop.

Step 0 - ribozymes
The model assumes that ribozymes existed within some type of RNA World before there was ever a translation system. In addition, Wolf and Koonin assume that there was a process in existence that allowed ribozymes to evolve under selective pressures. In particular, the model gives emphasis to the evolution of new enzymatic activities.

Step 1 - amino acid activators of ribozymes
The concept of an RNA World does not mean RNA-only. Amino acids are among the small molecules that have been found to form spontaneously. It should have been possible for amino acid binding sites to exist on early ribozymes. In some cases, the binding of amino acids to ribozymes should have resulted in activation of ribozyme activity, leading to to positive selection for ribozymes with structures allowing better of amino acids.

title: The concept of irreducible complexity


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User talk:Robin Lee

Hello Robin Lee, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. When leaving comments for others to read, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone keep track of who is writing messages. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To help you get started:
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If you're already excited about editing, our sandbox is the perfect place for all test edits. Also, don't forget to experiment with the links to your left. Be bold, and see you around Wikiversity! --JWSchmidt 04:26, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Robin Lee


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User talk:Lott17

Hello Lott17, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. When leaving comments for others to read, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone keep track of who is writing messages. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To help you get started:
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If you're already excited about editing, our sandbox is the perfect place for all test edits. Also, don't forget to experiment with the links to your left. Be bold, and see you around Wikiversity! --JWSchmidt 04:44, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Lott17


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Wikiversity:FAQ

Read below to explore some questions and answers about Wikiversity.

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 * Fairly mature example links to explore, to give the new user a feeling for what to expect. See Featured,  Main Page,  Browse, ...
 * How to download and use this material. See Special: Export, web page downloaders, ...
 * Whether and how to take a set of materials in a radically different direction.
 * How these materials are currently being protected from vandalism. See Support staff

Learning Projects
Many Wikiversity pages are devoted to interactive learning activities taking place online. The Learning Projects page is a good place to recruit learners for your project and/or to discover an active learning opportunity for yourself.

Who can teach?

 * Everyone with the motivation to help others learn, no credentials required. Wikiversity is about people learning how to learn and teach — we value expertise and experience, but we also value learning through experience.

 * You will find all kinds of teachers here:   retired professional academics,  active ones,  folks from the industry and the self-taught fellows with no formal qualifications at all. Ask course leaders for their backgrounds, or not.

 * If your students like the course, good, they will probably continue working with you. If not, they may wander away, or raise objections. You can only maintain yourself in the role of instructor through meritorious contributions, positive feedback from the community and especially from those who participate in your online courses. Everything at Wikiversity is subject to peer review.

If I teach, will I get paid, or can I charge my students?

 * No, no fees are collected or paid for participation in Wikiversity. Everything is voluntary. Wikiversity is free to all.
 * You can freely charge your students on your own. Wikiversity content can freely be used commercially.
 * However, if you create Wikiversity content with the intention of then being paid for teaching it, or for participation in Wikiversity, this may create a conflict of interest, which, by the Terms of Use, must be disclosed.
 * Wikiversity has participating professors at brick-and-mortar universities who are paid for teaching (by the university, indirectly by students and others) and who use Wikiversity for this purpose. It must be transparent.

How can I become involved?

 * By visiting the Community Bulletin Board. There is a link in the sidebar under the Wikiversity logo. Here you'll learn what tasks need to be done, what groups can be joined. [ You are vigorously encouraged to join]. It's free; as a member you identify your contributions and get a set of personal pages where you can engage in discussions.

 * Here's how to start a new page, some editing tips and the Edit Interface. And a whole page about adding content.

 * You don't need "sign" your submissions to content pages — that's recorded automatically and shown on the History of the page. But you are definitely encouraged to sign your contributions to the Discussion page and any Talk page. Do this with four tildes (~). Here's more about signatures.

 * Wikipedia's guidance on contributing generally apply to Wikiversity as well. If you don't want your writing to be edited or redistributed by others, do not submit it.

 * Be sure to visit the Colloquium for general discussions. For real-time chat with other Wikiversity users, check out our Chat page.

 * Go ahead and make what you see better.

Can I have my own User Page?

 * Absolutely. A clickable tab for it will appear at the top of every Wikiversity page. Use your personal page any way you like. Introduce yourself, add pictures. Best of all, add Wikiversity page links and other links you frequently visit. Your page will greatly help in your own navigation and help others connect with you. You'll also get a separate Talk page where others can post messages for you. [ Create your free membership here.]

Is there an Index? How can I find "stuff" I might be interested in?

 * There are several ways. Try Browse. If you want to see every page see: All Pages. Use the popup to limit the selection by type of page. Or use the Search field in the Sidebar on every Wikiversity page to enter your search criteria. Or start at the Wikiversity Main Page and drill down through the various faculties, departments and schools to material of interest. Or jump to the Examples page.

Who pays for Wikiversity?

 * People like you do, by donations. Here's how you can make a donation (entirely voluntary). Notice there's no advertising on Wikiversity. We're non-commercial, entirely run by volunteers, operating costs covered by donations from people like you and by grants from various institutions.

What if someone wrecks a perfectly good course?

 * If you see a page which appears (at least in your eyes) to have been degraded from an earlier version, then enter into the editing process.

 * It's good practice to enter into dialogue with the editor who made the changes you feel are unfortunate. Propose a compromise. Discuss your feelings in the Discussion area of the page. Don't be afraid to be bold. Integrate what you liked about the older version into the current version. Use the History tab at the top of the page to compare any two versions of a page and see what changed.

 * There's also the option of "forking" a course into two equivalent and equal versions covering the same subject but in different styles. Nothing at Wikiversity is "definitive".

How can change be monitored?

 * Change happens. On wikis, it happens all the time. Right now, pages are being created and improved, and edits are being published. Take a look at the recent changes log and see for yourself!

 * Since our launch on August 15th, 2006, we've created  content pages. For other statistics, see Statistics. Right now, the project is being actively built by people like you; as you read this, it is very likely someone will be editing or previewing changes to one or more pages on this site.

Where and how are Wikiversity policies formulated?

 * As a project in the early stages of development, Wikiversity is undergoing a huge amount of discussion relating to policies, technical issues, and establishing an initial content infrastructure and general layout. The main forum for discussions is the Colloquium — take a look there and feel free to drop a reply to anything which interests you. You might want to, for example, take a look at or contribute to our various policies.

What are the long range goals of Wikiversity?

 * Wikiversity was started in the summer of 2006, so we're still articulating them. However, here are a few relevant pages—What Wikiversity Is, What Wikiversity Is Not, Scope and Wikiversity community. Add your thoughts to these pages' discussion pages, or edit the pages themselves. Best yet, add your comments and recommendations to Colloquium. And here's how a Wikibooks project gave birth to Wikiversity—History of Wikiversity.

What's 'Wiki' all about?

 * The word is Hawaiian for "fast", and in this context refers both to the software underpinning Wikiversity and to the editing and contribution conventions that have evolved around wiki software. Learn a lot more at this Wikipedia link. And some more here.

What languages are supported?

 * Currently 11 separate Wikiversity projects—see www.wikiversity.org. Yet not separated languages you can find at beta Wikiversity.

What are the admissions requirements?

 * Wikiversity is open to all who are interested in learning or contributing what they know. A willingness to work with others, however, is required (see Collaborative learning).

From the learning point of view, what is different from Wikipedia to Wikiversity?

 * Wikipedia has a narrow mission: the creation of encyclopedia articles. Wikiversity has a broader mandate to explore how to use wiki technology to promote learning.

More questions

 * Ok, I don't really get it. What’s the point of Wikiversity?
 * Wikiversity is a wiki where participants collaborate to learn things while creating a variety of web pages, learning aids, support systems and networks of people with similar goals.

 * Web pages and learning aids about what?
 * Whatever people are interested in....the participants learn while they participate...."learn by doing" is the general approach. Much of the "doing" is organized around "learning projects". One such project is currently prototyping a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system to allow conferencing, seminars, distributed jamming and other distributed voice communications activities.

 * What is the end product it's trying to make?
 * Our sister projects make encyclopedia articles and textbooks, at Wikiversity we work to make a fun and productive learning environment that supports the learning goals of our participants. Learning comes first at Wikiversity.

 * I guess, we'll see....?
 * Wikiversity is an experiment in how to use wiki technology to support online learning. As Jimmy Wales said at Wikimania 2006: "We should run small experiments, tests, see what works, what doesn't, and be prepared to be flexible and change, and not be too locked into stone about how things should work"

 * Where are the courses?
 * Wikiversity develops and hosts many types of modular "learning resources", which may be structured as part of a course or as a stand-alone activity. The philosophy of "Learn by doing", however, means that Wikiversity has unconventional "courses" called "learning projects", fun activities that attract participants. Wikiversity community members learn while they participate in learning projects - we are a learning community.

 * Who are the teachers at Wikiversity?
 * Wikiversity is not a conventional university; Wikiversity is a wiki. Wikiversity has participants, people who edit the web pages of Wikiversity. Anyone who edits Wikiversity and adds educational content to the website is functioning as a teacher. There may be some who know more about a subject than others - what we're about here at Wikiversity is helping each other learn more. We can all help someone learn something.

 * How can I help?
 * Start by browsing our content. Find a topic of study that is of interest to you such as Topic: Computer Programming and start participating. You can create a new webpage for a topic that is of interest to you and start typing!  Alternatively you can solve some math or physics problem by hand or sketch an engineering design or painting idea and then scan it for upload (please set the copyright status correct) as a jpeg, gif or png file.  Then this image can be linked to from within wiki web pages or linked to from IRC chat rooms. Wikiversity is exploring the use of multimedia resources (example) and distributed conference calls for connecting participants with common interests.  Most of this is current capability.  Some is still evolving.  Feel free to join and help us improve our capabilities or use what we already have.

 * What is the difference between Wikiversity, Wikibooks, and even Wikipedia?
 * Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. Wikibooks provides free textbooks. Wikiversity is for other types of learning resources besides textbooks and encyclopedia articles. Wikiversity supports online learning communities, groups of people who are trying to learn about particular topics. Wikiversity is a place where these learning groups can assemble and discover how best to learn things online. Wikiversity is also the first WikiMedia project that is open to hosting and fostering research.

 * Does Wikiversity have degree programs?
 * No. Wikiversity is not accredited, does not award credits towards completion of degree programs and does not award degrees, certificates or any other formal documentation of participant learning activities. In a wiki, your history of edits is a record of your participation in collaborative learning activities. See: What Wikiversity is not

General information, guides & help

 * Learning — an exploration of how learning takes place on Wikiversity
 * Getting answers to questions — all kinds
 * Help pages – help on editing, starting new articles, and many other topics.
 * Where to ask questions – a list of departments where volunteers answer questions, any question you can imagine, not necessarily related to the Wikiversity project.

 * Policies and guidelines for contributors
 * Introduction – very basic introduction to Wikiversity
 * Manual of Style
 * Guided tour
 * Research guidelines
 * Templates used to welcome new users
 * Glossary – a glossary of common Wikiversity terms.
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * Wikiversity online learning - Wikiversity Education Portal.
 * Editing tutorial - New to wiki webpage editing? Start here.
 * Tips

Overarching principles

 * Civility
 * Neutral point of view
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Scholarly ethics

The Wikiversity community

 * Colloquium - where the community gets together to discuss Wikiversity
 * Community Portal - a gateway to the community, to find out what's happening.
 * School and university projects - help for using Wikiversity in conventional courses.
 * Wikiversity community

Additional links

 * Contact information

Wikiversity is a facility for learning by doing

title: Wikiversity:FAQ


text:
Introduction to Computers/Databases

Course Navigation

Field
A field is a unit of data which consists of one or more characters or bytes. Examples of a field are name, street address & SIN.

This is important because a collection of fields makes up a record!!

Key Field
Also known as a 'key', 'keyword' or 'sort key', it is a field which is used to sort data. A field in a record that holds an unique data Mostly it has been used for employee numbers, student numbers, social insurance numbers, customer account numbers, or a combination of letters and numbers that are a meaningful code. It's chosen to exclusively identify a record so that it can be retrieved and processed with ease.

The primary characteristic of the key field is that it is unique. Key_field

Record
A record is a collection of related fields. Each record stores data about only one entry, one entity, which can be a person (name), place (address), a thing (SIN or telephone number), an occurrence (shopping preference, or a phenomenon.

This is important because related records make up a file!.

Table
A table is a file of related records, and it is located at the top of data hierarchy.

DBMS
A database management system (DBMS) is computer software designed for the purpose of managing databases. A DBMS is a complex set of software programs that controls the organization, storage, management, and retrieval of data in a database.Database_management_system

Benefits of DBMS

1)Improved strategic use of corporate data

2)Reduced complexity of the organization’s information systems environment

3)Reduced data redundancy and inconsistency

4)Enhanced data integrity

5)Application-data independence

6)Improved security

7)Reduced application development and maintenance costs

8)Improved flexibility of information systems

9)Increased access and availability of data and information

Database_management_system

Data Dictionary
Data dictionaries are also a repository. They define the type of data that go into each field. However they do not contain actual data from the database. It's a collection of descriptions of the data objects or items.

Utilities
These are also known as DBMS utilities; programs which allows you to manage the database, through "creating, editing, and deleting data, records, and files" This enables you to sort your data base by key fields making it easier to find relevant data.

Report Generator
A program that is used to create reports that will be created by using a database and then producing a printed product or an on-screen product

The format can be specified in advance. Non-exports can create attractive reports on short notice

Hierarchical
Database is where fields or records are organized in related groups. The parent records are at the top of the database and children are at the bottom. The structure of a hierarchal database can be visualized as a tree as all data-sets belong under a single heading.

One popular example of the hierarchical model for databases is the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.) Hierarchical Databases are extremely common due to their simplicity and efficiency. This efficiency stems from the fact that the hierarchical model uses 12 parameters as opposed to the bifactorial model which uses 16.

Network
Database similar to hierarchal database, but each child record can have more than one parent record. Therefore, a child record (AKA: a member) may reach through more than one parent!

Relational
A relational database is a database structure that relates or connects data in different files through the use of a key field, or common data element. In this arrangement there are no access paths down a hierarchy instead data elements are stored in different tables made up of rows and columns.The relational database is a common database structure and it is more flexible than the hierarchial/ network database

Object-Oriented
Databases that uses "objects," software written in small, reusable chunks, as elements within database files. An object consists of (1) data in any form and (2) instructions for the action to be taken on the data.

This is important because it can contain photo's, sound bites and video clips!! Woo Hoo!

Multidimensional
Multidimensional database technology has a multitude of data sources which it uses to analyze large amounts of data for the use of logistics and decision making. It is used primarily in sales and marketing, where specific data is chosen from a database and displayed on a cube. Only three values can be  displayed on the cube at one time.

Data Mining

Data mining is the activity of sifting through large amounts of data and sorting it into useful collections of data. This type of activity is usualy discipline related. Data_mining It's name comes from the similarities between looking for valuable business information and mining a mountain for valuable ore.

Fusion
Fusion is the second step in the process of data mining. This is where data is purchased from different sources (internal and external) and fused together.

Cleaning
Data cleaning is the next step after fusion the data that comes from different sources may be of poor quality and full of errors and inconsistencies, or irrelevant. The source data has to be cleaned to ensure that its free of errors

Data
This is the relevant information that is acquired such as name, e-mail address or specific purchases that can be input into a database of related information.

Companies will buy the data from the source the collects it, which allows them to create marketing targets.

Meta-Data
meta- data is extra data that relates to the data acquired for the databases such as country of residence or most frequently shopped store.It is data describing data. For example, a listing that describes what attributes are allowed to be in data sets is called "meta-information".Database_management_system

Metadata

Metadata is important for two reasons, it allows us to search for items related the the meta-data as well as to provide more information about a subject. Meta_data

Warehouse
A data warehouse is the main repository of an organization's historical data, its corporate memory. Data mining, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on the most important information in their data warehouses. Data mining tools predict future trends and behaviors, allowing businesses to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. The automated, prospective analyses offered by data mining move beyond the analyses of past events provided by retrospective tools typical of decision support systems. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. They scour databases for hidden patterns, finding predictive information that experts may miss because it lies outside their expectations. It contains the raw material for management's decision support system. The critical factor leading to the use of a data warehouse is that a data analyst can perform complex queries and analysis, such as data mining, on the information without slowing down the operational systems.

The most commonly used techniques in data mining are:

Artificial neural networks: Non-linear predictive models that learn through training and resemble biological neural networks in structure.

Decision trees: Tree-shaped structures that represent sets of decisions. These decisions generate rules for the classification of a dataset.

Genetic algorithms: Optimization techniques that use processes such as genetic combination, mutation, and natural selection in a design based on the concepts of evolution.

Nearest neighbor method: A technique that classifies each record in a dataset based on a combination of the classes of the k record(s) most similar to it in a historical dataset (where k ³ 1). Sometimes called the k-nearest neighbor technique.

Rule induction: The extraction of useful if-then rules from data based on statistical significance.

eCommerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic_commerce

E-Commerce became possible with the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). They were used in the 1970's. Ecommerce

B2B
Business-to-business, or “B2B”, is a term commonly used to describe electronic commerce transactions between businesses. It is a term that originated and is almost exclusively used in electronic commerce and usually takes the form of automated processes between trading partners.

B2B Transactions are more common than B2C transactions due to the reluctance of consumers to adopt electronic commerce technologies and businesses eagerness to move to electronic commerce Business-to-business_electronic_commerce

B2C
Commercial business supplying products or services directly to the consumer. This industry is growing as companies minimize their cost of operation while able to reach a wider group of customer at anytime. An example of B2C is Amazon.com.

avoid online shopping rush!
Some leading retail Web sites struggled to keep up with the rush of cybershoppers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest online shopping days.It took some consumers up to two minutes to process their transactions -- even if they had high-speed Internet connections. It usually only takes one to two seconds to process transactions on a normal day.The worst-performing sites on Black Friday were sometimes four times slower than normal, shoppers experiencing such slowdowns would likely give up and buy the product on another Web site.

C2C
Consumer-to-consumer system, consumers sell goods or services directly to other consumers.

An example of C2C is Ebay. Ebay was created by Pierre Omidyar is 1995 on his home computer in his living room. It was created so that everyday people would be able to create their own online auction to sell personal items. One major attribute to Ebays succcess is the sites userfriendly interface and lack of complexity.

Two advantages of C2C are reduced costs most of the time, and a smaller but more profitable consumer base. [txt. pg 455]

Disadvantages of C2C is lack of security in safe purchases, lack of quality control and seller is not guaranteed of payment and should not accept payment such as cheques

Operational for lower management
Used by lower management for day to day operations.

Tactical for middle management
Report generated for the middle management. Their time frame and goal are usually larger scale and longer than the lower day to day activities. They are specific goals that are to be achieved in an annual or bi quarterly period.

Strategic for upper management
Top-level management are responsible for making strategic decisions. Reports are generated for upper management to make business wide decisions [Serene's Brain] They give the company a general direction to where the company is heading in a prolong period of time. I.E Ford's agenda might be, reduce cost of production and stay innovative toward environmentally friendly vehicles.

OIS
Office Information Systems Combines various technologies to reduce manual labor required in operating an efficient office environment. OIS technologies include fax, email, voicemail, word processing, etc.

The main objectives of office information systems are to facilitate communication and collaboration between the members of an organization and to facilitate them between organizations. Placing an organization's documents and messages in an electronic format—which can be classified, indexed, and stored for easy retrieval—enables individuals to access information on demand. One type of office information system, known as a workflow system, is used to route relevant documents automatically to all appropriate individuals for their contribution. Other types of office information systems handle digital messages in the form of electronic mail, facsimile, and voice mail.

Another category of office information systems allows different individuals to work simultaneously on a shared project by using networked computers. Known as groupware, such systems accomplish this by continually sending updated documents—such as business proposals, new designs, or progress reports—to each collaborator's computer. These individuals and their computers need not be located in the same office or even the same building. Groupware is usually deployed over an intranet, a private network that is closed to the general public, and is often accessed by using software originally developed for the Internet. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-218057/information-system

TPS
Transaction Processing Systems is when the computer system is used to collect, modify, store, and retrieve the transactions of an organization. The computer must pass the ACID test in order to be considered a TPS. A TPS is used to summarize data. Transaction_Processing_System

MIS
MIS stands for Management information Systems, sometimes referred to as Information Management and Systems. MIS is the process of covering the application of people, technologies, and procedures in order to solve business problems. Management_information_systems

They are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization (Therefore used by lower-level managers) Management_information_systems

DSS
A decision support system is a computer-based information system that helps to analyze data and presents it in a form that is understandable by managers or exectutives. In order for an organization to implement DSS technology, they must have already installed TPS and MIS first. DSS should be adaptable, flexible, interactive and be easy to use. The benefit of the DSS should exceed cost. In contrast, while TPS and MIS systems summarize data, a DSS analyzes data.Decision_support_system

This is commonly used by middle managers, but should support managers at all levels. There are many varieties of DSS - model driven, communication driven (Microsoft Net Meeting), Data-driven or data-riented, document-driven and knowledge driven.

ESS
An "easy-to-use" DSS that includes information from outside the company. Executive Support System (ESS) is a reporting tool that allows one to turn a report into a summarized document. This tool is mainly used by company managers.  The reports created give summaries for things such as billing, cost accounting, staffing, scheduling, and more.  This is commonly used by upper managers. The ESS is used for strategic decision making: analyzing data and "what if" scenarios.

Benefits of ESS

* difficult to cost-justify an ESS o much of an executive's work is unstructured o produces unmeasurable results o cannot predict the benefits they will bring * scholars have identified some of the potential benefits o reduces paper overload by allowing filtering of relevant information o provides timely information to integrated data o presents data in a "snap-shot" view, that is graphical summaries allowing the easy identification of anomolies and trends o provides an excellent overview of the organisation enabling managers to push decision making down and across the structure

(http://www.gardler.org/teaching/courses/MIS/DSS/ess.html)

Privacy
Is the ability to control the information flow in any respect, to either allow, or not, others to view, manipulate or remove private, personal, or confidential materials. Privacy

Name Migration
When you put your name and give it to a company then they sell it to other companies and then you start receiving a bunch of offers from many different places in the mail.

Resume Rustling
resume posted online looked by third party. This will only occur in open public sites that are not secured by a login ID.

Government Spying
These are steps taken by the government without the permission of individuals of personal data such as flight information to give the government higher security rank. Its become even more critical since the war on terrorism. for example, computer assisted passenger pre-screening program

Privacy Laws
Privacy laws are laws that protect individuals for people invading the personal information. It has to be done by weighting the benefits against the cost of reinforcing the laws an example of this is the "freedom of information act in 1970". Governments and many organizations collect personal information for many different purposes. Privacy laws limit how organizations may collect and use different information.

In Canada, the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in connection with commercial activities and personal information about employees of federal works, undertakings and businesses.Privacy_law

The right of privacy is restricted to individuals who are in a place that a person would reasonably expect to be private (e.g., home, hotel room, telephone booth). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_law)

Identity Theft
Identity Theft is a term for all crimes which involves illegal usage of another individual's identity. The most common form of identity theft is normally credit card fraud. The practice of stealing money or getting benefits while pretending to be a different person has been around since the beginning of time, but Identity Theft is a relatively new term to describe the illegal act. Identity_theft

Theft of personal information for fraudulent use. This is a growing concern as more and more data are digitalized.

There are four types of identity theft: 1. Financial Identity Theft 2. Criminal Identity Theft 3. Identity Cloning 4. Business/ Commercial Identity Theft

Identity_theft

Identity theft involves stealing, misrepresenting or hijacking the identity of another person or business and provides an effective means to commit other crimes

title: Introduction to Computers/Databases


text:
Introduction to Computers/Security

Course Navigation

Computer Security
Computer Security is the field which tries to keep computers safe and secure. Security means allowing things you do want, while stopping things you don't want from happening. Parts of this include authentication and validation (making sure you are who you claim to be), encryption (making sure data gets where you want to go, without others being able to observe it) and physical security.

Malware
Malware is any software specifically designed to damage a computer system without owner knowledge. The examples of malware are worms, viruses, Trojan horses and etc. Some normal computer users are unfamiliar with the term and never use it. Instead the term: "computer virus" is used. It describes all kinds of malware, though not all malware are viruses. It is short for "malicious software."

Trojan horse
A Trojan Horse is program that is packaged with a useful application, usually free, such as a screen or game saver, but carries a destructive virus, that creates problems for your computer without your knowledge. Once the program initiates, the camouflaged virus is released creating havoc and mayhem. example: FormatC. (347) This virus is named after the mythical Trojan horse that was left as a gift to the Trojan people from the Achaeans as a trick. By hiding in the horse, Achaean soldiers were able to invade the walled city of Troy. (see Trojan_War) A trojan horse is one of the biggest threats to computer security as they cannot be identified easily.

Virus
A "deviant" program stored on a computer floppy disk, hard drive, or CD, that can cause unexpected and often undesirable effects such as destroying or corrupting data. An example of a virus was the "Love Bug" which started in the Philippines in May 2000 and caused approximately $10 billion in damage.

Worm
A worm is a type of malicious software (malware) that copies itself repeatedly into a computers memory (RAM) using up all available RAM. It also can copy on to a disk drive so it can load into RAM again. It spreads through a network to infect the RAM on other connected computers.

A worm can infect your computer through email (the worm is disguised by pretending it came from somewhere it did not). When you open the email attachment the worm looks through your Windows Outlook and other address books choosing names at random. Using built-in software, the worm sends copies of itself to many names in the address books.

Will take over ram on a computer and will take over ram on others computers that the original computer is hooked up to.

Adware
Adware is used for advertising purposes. Although it is often legal and used by big companies such as Verizon and Panasonic, it can be used by illegitimate companies promoting pornography or gambling. Adware works by automatically downloading an advertisement to a computer that is accessing a specific website. In addition, Adware is often downloaded with software. This causes the advertisements to automatically pop up when the program is in use.

Adware usually exploit the cookie tracker to monitor what sites you're going to and record your browsing habit for marketing purposes.

Examples of Adware programs include Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy.

Spyware
Spyware is misleading software that is secretly installed on a computer through the web. Confidential information can be obtained by the installer such as passwords, keystrokes and email addresses.

Too much spyware can slow down the operation of a computer. Running anti-software programs have become very popular! (wikipedia, 2007)

Web Page can take over Router
According to PC World this is how a router takes over a web page: The victim would visit a malicious Web page that would use JavaScript code to trick the browser into making changes on the Web-based router configuration page. The JavaScript could tell the router to let the bad guys remotely administer the device, or it could force the router to download new firmware, again putting the router under the hacker's control. The attacker would be able to control his victim's Internet communications.

Viruses to Hit 1 Million in 2008
According to PC World, the total number of viruses are expected to reach one million by year's end. The reason for the increase in viruses is that as individuals improve security practices, malware writers are forced to create new types of viruses and exploits more regularly. Paul Ducklin, chief technology officer at Sophos said the decline in infections are due to better gateway filters, more relevant corporate policies and user education, and dilution from a rise in legitimate e-mail traffic.

Boot Sector Virus
This is a virus that replaces the boot instructions on the system software with its own. When the computer is booting, the virus sneaks into the main memory before the OS. This then allows the virus to infect other files. Any diskette used on this computer becomes infected. When this disk is moved to another computer, the contagion continues. [347]

Macro Virus
A virus which takes advantage of a task where miniature programs (a.k.a. macros) are rooted in regular data files (files made through emails, spreadsheets...) which are sent over computer networks. Example: a virus that hides in a power point presentation sent over email.

Logic Bomb
A logic bomb is when there is a piece of code that has been placed intentionally into a software system. When specific conditions are met (like a date or a certain combination of keys being pressed), this code will set off harmful activities within your computer. For example, a programmer may place a logic bomb in the software so that when he leaves the company he is working for, all the information on his computer will be destroyed. (don't try this at work) Logic_bomb

DOS
DOS stands for Denial Of Service.This happens when a webserver cannot handle all the request asked. It "can" happenen legitimately when lots of people go to that website, but usually it happens because many computers have been zombied by a logic bomb virus to go to a specific website at the same time.

Spam
Spam is flooding the internet with many copies of the same message. Most spam is derived from commercial advertising.

You can obtain spam filters that spare the hassle of junk mail, ads etc. Spam can also be called "bulk e-mail" or "junk e-mail". E-mail_spam

Phishing
Phishing (credential harvesting) is an illegal activity where someone attempts to acquire sensitive information such as user names, passwords and credit card information. Often, users are asked to enter these details onto a website which they are stolen from. The term Phishing originates from the internet argot leetspeak. Phishing Phishing often employs highly advanced imitation websites which steal digital information, however they often employ simpler messages like emails requesting bank information disguised as a desperate cry for financial help or a random donation from a wealthy individual.

The purpose of the fraudulent sender is to "phish" for, or entice people to share, their personal, financial, or password data. It's then used to commit crimes.

Damage by phishing
A survey has shown that phishing scams not only hurt consumers, but also the brands hijacked by the criminals to carry out their attacks. Phishing attacks are having a terrible effect on brands their reputation. In one survey 42 % claimed their trust in their brand would be damaged by a phishing attack, even though the scam had nothing to do with it.

Only 26% of people see it as the consumers responsibility to protect themselves, most others blame their internet service provider for not protecting them.

evil twin attack (wifi-phishing)
The next level of phishing, evil twin attack (wifi-phishing) is someone who has set up a spot near your home network - and then he/she logs onto your wireless network in order to steal your private or personal information as you send it to a secure website.

pharm
Software that's planted on a computer; redirects to impostor web page even though you type in the right URL. You can protect yourself against it by going to websites that contain https not http.

Webjack
To use fraudulent means, which allows the individual to assume the ownership of a Web site domain name belonging to another individual or groups of people. Hackers hijacking legitimate Web pages and redirecting users to their own website (usually pornography or gambling).

Hacker
The term "Hacker" originated in the 1960's, meaning simply a computer programmer. Recently, they have gotten a bad reputation, and are now commonly thought of as being malicious.

Hackers are individuals who want to learn the different program languages and computer systems. Hackers are also individuals who gain unauthorized access to computers and/or networks.

There are often two types of hackers: Black-hats or White-hats.

Hackers generally particpate in these activities to create challanges for themselves, and usually there is no financial gain.

Cracker
Crackers are hackers who break into computers and networks for corrupt purposes. They can do major damage. There are four different classes of crackers: Script kiddies, hacktivists, black-hat hackers and cyberterrorists.

Examples: Pirate software, steal people’s credit card info, obtain information private information, shut down hardware, alter/destroy data. [txt359]

Crackers differ from Hackers based on the intent and motive behind their actions, crackers seek financial or other monetary gains

Hacktivists
"Hacker Activists" are people with a politically or socially motivated purpose who break into a computer system. For example, someone, who after breaking in, leaves a political or social viewpoint/opinion on the homepage of a website to express a position or practice they oppose.

Armed with what may become one of the most important weapons in the struggle for human rights - computer code - the "hactivists" are trying to give activists electronic ways to circumvent government surveillance and information management.

Early in 2002, the Chinese government shut down accessibility to Google. It took 'Hactivists' less than one day to reopen it.

Cyberterrorism
Cyber-terrorism is the leveraging of a target's computers and information technology, particularly via the Internet, to cause physical, real-world harm or severe disruption of infrastructure. As the Internet continues to expand, and computer systems continue to be assigned more responsibility while becoming more and more complex and interdependent, sabotage or terrorism via cyberspace may become a more serious threat.Individuals or groups can use the anonymity afforded by cyberspace to threaten citizens, specific groups (i.e. with membership based on ethnicity or belief), communities and entire countries, without the inherent threat of capture, injury, or death to the attacker that being physically present would bring. It could be defined as the use of information technology by terrorist groups and individuals to further their agenda. This can include use of information technology to organize and execute attacks against networks, computer systems and telecommunications infrastructures, or for exchanging information or making threats electronically.

Cyberterrorism can have a serious large-scale influence on significant numbers of people. It can weaken countries' economy greatly, thereby stripping the it of its resources and making it more vulnerable to military attack. Cyberterror can also affect internet-based businesses. Like brick and mortar retailers and service providers, most websites that produce income (whether by advertising, monetary exchange for goods or paid services) could stand to lose money in the event of downtime created by cyber criminals.

Cyber-terrorism

Cyber Fraud
Cyber Fraud is a type of social engineering attack where the victim is led to believe to give a fraudster a sum of money. This could be in the form of creating a website that claims to be a social organization that accepts donations that would be given to the poor, while in fact the money would directly go to the fraudster's pocket (many cyber frauds are much more sophisticated than this).

Cybercrime Treaty Gains Momentum
The number of countries that will adopt the only international treaty concerning cybercrime is going to almost double this year. 22 countries have ratified the treaty, but they hope at least 40 will adopt the treaty by Feb. 2009. 43 countries have so far signed the convention, 21 have ratified it and 22 have put the treaty into force. The convention is supposed to help prosecute cybercrime and increase cooperation of law enforcement agencies. The slow pace of getting countries to implement the treaty is from legal and legislative complexities. (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144017-c,internetlegalissues/article.html)

Follow this link for a picture of "Cybercrime treaty gets green light" (news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/1651381.stm)

online gaming
The topic of online gaming legislation is really hot in United States and Canada. A french group is proposing an online gaming guidelines to monitor the process. This would be similar to the U.S. act of "unlawful internet gambling enforcement act of 2006". This U.S. law makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to transfer funds from U.S. customers to online gambling sites. It make it very difficult for Americans to deposit cash in online gambling accounts. We do not have a similar law in place in Canada. That is the reason for this French group to be proposing the guidelines.

internet rights forum
The internet is booming everywhere. In order to protect minors in getting in wrong sites we need to have an agreement. In the future,the internet rights forum has plans to create a website for the parents and teachers to explain in simple terms for a non-players what online games are about and what risks they can pose.

Online Banking Security Products
Security products using behavioral analysis monitor how the users are interacting with the system. This makes it unlikely for hackers to go through different accounts without being detected.

antivirus
Scans primary and secondary storage devices such as a hard drive, floppy drive,or main memory to try to find viruses, quarantine them and destroy them. Ensuring you have up to date antivirus software installed on your computer is a very important component of personal IT security.

It works in 2 ways: 1. It scans files to look for known viruses to compare to a virus dictionary. 2. It analyzes suspicious behavior of computer programs

firewall
A system (either software of hardware) that protects the computer from a intruders. - A hardware firewall is needed if you have more than one computer connected to the internet. If there is just one computer, a software firewall will do.

The firewall monitors all internet and other network activity, looking for suspicious data and preventing unauthorized access.[ txt 360 ], moreover, the firewall can be set at different trust levels to permit and deny certain applications/programs. (wikipedia, 2007)

Firewall itself is useless unless configured properly, it merely guards the doors, if you give him the proper list of invited guests, the firewall will allow entrance.

A firewall's function within a network is similar to firewalls with fire doors in building construction. In the former case, it is used to prevent network intrusion to the private network. In the latter case, it is intended to contain and delay structural fire from spreading to adjacent structures.

Without proper configuration, a firewall can often become worthless. Standard security practices dictate a "default-deny" firewall ruleset, in which the only network connections which are allowed are the ones that have been explicitly allowed. Unfortunately, such a configuration requires detailed understanding of the network applications and endpoints required for the organization's day-to-day operation. Many businesses lack such understanding, and therefore implement a "default-allow" ruleset, in which all traffic is allowed unless it has been specifically blocked. This configuration makes inadvertent network connections and system compromise much more likely.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(networking))

Encryption
Encryption is the process of turning readable data into a form of unreadable data in order to prevent access that is not authorized.

Able to use mathematical concepts to create coded messages that difficult or even virtually impossible to break. [ txt 353 ]

All encryptions can be broken given enough time. The number of combination and the level of encryption complexity is key to a good encryption.

Password
A password or watchword is a form of authentication used to guard or control a "resource" (usually used to protect electronic data). Despite the name, a password is usually an alphanumeric (letters and numbers) phrase entered to grant a user access to data that he/she is only permitted access (such as mobile phones, ATM's, computer operating systems, etc.). A password could be better described as a "passphrase". A password with numbers could be better described as a "passcode".

Passwords have been around since ancient Roman times. Guards or sentries protecting a location would challenge for a password. Access was only granted by those that knew the password.

A good password should be at least 7 characters, containing both letters and numbers, thus making the password more difficult to guess.

A good password is one that's hard to guess, yet easy to remember. No password is perfect, they can all be decrypted if given enough time. However, as the password encryption increase in size, the possible combination increases and makes it more difficult to break.

Biometrics
Biometrics is the science of measuring of human physical or behavioral characteristics. It is used to identify and compare some specific people’s characteristics such as voice, fingerprints, hand geometry, eye or facial characteristics. Biometric history indicates that the science did not originate at a single place. People all over the world were using the basics for mainly identifying individuals from each other. We'll explain about biometric history in brief over the next few paragraphs.

The history of biometrics dates back to a long time. Possibly the most primary known instance of biometrics in practice was a form of finger printing being used in China in the 14th century, as reported by explorer Joao de Barros.

Barros wrote that the Chinese merchants were stamping children's palm prints and footprints on paper with ink so as to differentiate the young children from one another. This is one of the most primitive known cases of biometrics in use and is still being used today.

Apart from its Chinese genesis, use of biometrics was also noted elsewhere in the world. Up until the late 1800s, identification largely relied upon "photographic memory". In the 1890s, an anthropologist and police desk clerk in Paris, Alphonse Bertillon, decided to fix the problem of identifying convicted criminals and turned biometrics into a distinct field of study.

Bertillon developed a technique of multiple body measurements which later got named after him - Bertillonage. His method was then used by police authorities throughout the world, until it quickly faded when it was discovered that some people shared the same measurements and based on the measurements alone, two people could get treated as one.

After the failure of Bertillonage, the police started using finger printing, which was developed by Richard Edward Henry of Scotland Yard, essentially reverting to the same methods used by the Chinese for years. (which still is going strong !)

Biometric history in the recent past (three decades) has seen drastic advancements and the technology has moved from a single method (fingerprinting) to more than ten prudent methods. Companies involved with new methods have grown into the hundreds and continue to improve their methods as the technology available to them also advances. Prices for the harware required continue to fall making systems more feasible for low and mid-level budgets and thus making this more adaptable in small businesses and even households.

As the industry grows however, so does the public concern over privacy issues. Laws and regulations continue to be drafted and standards are beginning to be developed. While no other biometric has yet reached the breadth of use of fingerprinting, some are beginning to be used in both legal and business areas. http://www.questbiometrics.com

The National Biometric Security Project (NBSP) Enterprise is an independent, nonprofit organization created to increase national security and personal identity protection by enhancing identity assurance through biometrics. To reflect its expanded biometric application services, the NBSP Enterprise recently re-established its Test, Research and Data Center under the new name Biometric Services International, LLC (BSI). Located in Morgantown, West Virginia, BSI is a wholly owned, non-profit subsidiary of NBSP and is the only laboratory, exclusively focused on biometrics, to achieve the coveted ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation for testing. http://www.nationalbiometric.org/

palm/finger print
palm/finger print scanning is a unique way to protect your privacy. You run your finger across a window or sensor to identify yourself. Microsoft offers finger print readers with its Windows XP.

iris/face
Iris/ face scans are very reliable identifiers. Each individual person has different eyes and face shape, making this type of scan very effective. These types of scans are used in high security situations such as immigration controls, federal buildings etc.

voice recognition
A systems that extract features from speech patterns in order to recognize someones voice which is then digitalized and stored.

DNA
A system which recognizes someones personal DNA through scientific analysis to differentiate or determine that person for security reasons. Since DNA is very individual, it's proven to be extremely secure.

line down
Also known as "Data Down" or loss of data Prevention - using various backup methods to ensure data is safe - disk redundancy - use of multiple hard drives to ensure data safety

Power Failure
A power failure, also known as power cut, power loss, or blackout, is the loss of the electricity supply to an area. Uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) are high end power generating or backup power systems which don't allow a break in power.

Pentium Bug
The Pentium bug has the potential to crash Pentium computers and could be used for sabotage. The bug is apparently coded as a single illegal instruction and not something that would be deliberately coded into a software program.

A bug in Intel's original Pentium floating point unit. The Bug was disclosed by Thomas Nicely. Affects Pentium's with a clock processor speed of at least 120 MHz is new enough not to have this bug. Pentium_bug

Source: http://www.news.com/2100-1001-205144.html

Software bugs
A software bug (or just "bug") is an error, flaw or mistake in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended (for example: producing an incorrect result). Most bugs are from mistakes made by people in the program's source code or it's design. Some are from compliers producing incorrect codes. Y2K bug is the most famous example of a software bug. Computer_bug

Another famous software bug was found in the world famous video game POKEMON, the Missing bug allowed the gamer to surf around an island and receive free items for doing so Computer_bug

The original bug was actually a moth that was caught between relays.

Bugs are a major concern as it opens up opportunities for intender to exploit those bugs. Bugs are countered with updates and patches released by the software company to address those issues. That's why it's important to keep your OS up to date. Serious bugs can cause programs to crash or freeze leading to a denial of service. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug)

The Excel Bug--- Changes numbers to a binary format.

heisenbug-is a computer bug that disapper of alter its characteristic when it is research

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title: Introduction to Computers/Security