Comparing and Contrasting File Types

Adobe PDF File icon

There are many different file types that do the same task differently. For example, PDF and DOCX files both create a text document, but PDF files are not editable, smaller and display as an image rather than a text document. On the other hand, DOCX files create an editable text document that is generally larger than a PDF of the same size, and, because DOCX files are displayed as text documents, can be edited by anyone with access to the file. The files sizes of these documents varies, and there is not much consistency in whether one file format is smaller or larger than the other. The more content there is in the document, the more likely it is that the DOCX file will be larger. This is because the type of content in a document, such as images and tables, affects how much memory it will take to store the document.

PDF files are generally more useful if you are sending a CV to someone, as the image will not change depending on the operating system the other user is using. DOCX files are text documents, and so if you send them to someone else with a different operating system, how the file looks may change. This means it is better to send a document as PDF files, as it will not affect how the document looks in any way.

Microsoft Word DOCX File icon

Another two types of files that are similar but work differently are PNG and JPEG files. These are both types of images, but JPEG files are generally smaller and cannot contain any type of transparency within the image. In contrast, PNG files were made for the internet, and so are smaller. They can also contain transparency, which means that if you wanted the background of the image to be the same as the background of the website you were posting it on, you would make the background transparent and whatever was behind it would show through. I mainly use PNG files myself, as I don't mind about the larger file size and prefer to have the option to have transparency. I converted all the original images we were given in AS91073 from the JPEG files to PNG files, as this let me add transparency to my images and I could show things behind my image.

Appropriateness of Data

At school, it is important the data you use is appropriate for a school environment. For example, if you are making a game for Yr 9 students, it should be appropriate for this audience and not contain excessive violence. Data in your files should not be inappropriate, which means it should not contain images or documents which are racist or disrespectful to others. The school has also taken measures against this, with students not being allowed to keep .exe files in their H:\ drive.

This appropriateness of data is also relevant on internet forums or public domain. Remember that other users are people too, and the things you say should not cause offence or bully.

Data Privacy

Data privacy is necessary to keep your data safe. A big part of this is for the user to take responsibility themselves, by adding things such as a password. This is especially important for social networking sites, as they contain lots of personal information that users do not want others to be able to access. Using a password will keep people out, but it doesn't matter if you leave your user logged in. This is why you should not click on the "Remember Me" that many websites have available.

It is important to attempt to keep your data private, as you would not want to give away information such as you banking details! This is why banks use tools such as a a physical confirmation of identity such as a netguard card, as this means if someone else gains access to your online password, they will still not be able to access your account as you will have the grid with which to enter the correct numbers.

I never tick "Remember me" when logging in to anything, as I would not like anyone else to gain access to my accounts, such as Facebook.

Compressed Files

Compressed files are also known as ZIP files. They are used to reduce the amount of space a file takes to store, and to compress a folder and its contents into one “zipped” file. This allows the zipped file to be emailed/transferred as one file, rather than the user having to email all the individual files within the original folder. To access the zipped folder, all the receiving user needs to do is to open the zipped folder and the original folder, with all its files, will be inside.'

I have used this when doing my digital technology assessment, as we were required to make a program using visual basic express. Visual basic express stores the program as many separate files, so to email my program to Mr Wood I was required to compress the files that made up my program into one folder, which I could then email. This made it possible to send the program to Mr Wood in one email, rather than many. Note that any files, not only folders, can be compressed into zip files.

A zip file can also compress and conserve folders and folder structures. This is very useful when compressing files for websites, as it will conserve the folders and sub-folders, allowing images and files to still be easily found. If this structure was not conserved, InDesign would be unable to find images and therefore would be unable to display them.

Threats to Data

There are many threats to data, such as:

• Hackers
• Viruses
• Theft
• Natural disasters
• Computer failures

All of these pose varying amounts of threats to your data. For example, viruses may attempt to delete or steal your data. An easy way to stop this is to download an antivirus. Some good examples of free antivirus programs are Avigra Antivir, AVG and Spybot. An antivirus should also stop hackers from gaining access to your computer. Using different passwords for your computer and banking details will stop a hacker from gaining access to all of your data once they find out your one password.

Things that are very difficult to stop from harming your data are things like natural disasters and computer failures. A good way to not lose everything, though, is to have an offsite backup, which is in a different physical location from your computer that copies and stores versions of your data. This is useful because if you lose your data from your computer, you will still have another copy that you can then use.

File Management Procedures

File management is the organizing of files. This can be done by creating folders inside of your H:\ drive, and then organizing your files logically within them. Sub-folders can also be used to clarify where/what things are. We need file management because it is much easier to locate files within your computer if you have a logical naming structure and use folders to organize things. For example, I have organized all my visual basic files in the directory H:\2012\11DTA\VisualBasicExpress. This allows me to easily navigate to and find my files related to visual basic express.

I use camelCase as my naming convention for most projects. For example, I did this in my InDesign assessment, where all of my files are named with no spaces, and capitals at the start of each word. The exception is my images, which have spaces in between the dimensions and name of the file. We give files and folders meaningful names because it means we can structure our files and find things with ease. It would be much easier to find an image about a cat if it was in a folder called "CatPictures" rather than "Stuff".

In this image, you can see how I have named my folders according to the subjects I take this year. These help me easily find the files I want, as I can immediately see what subjects there are and from there navigate to the correct subject.

File structure is how the folders are organized in a particular directory. A good example of this is on the Baynet website. In this particular image, you can see how "Our Files" has a logical naming structure, and all folders are clearly named and organized.

On the Bayfield school computers, instead of using harddrive storage, network storage is used instead. This is because the network can be accessed on all computers that are connected, rather than using a harddrive which can only be accessed by one computer. This is very useful as it allows students to access their folders and files from any computer, as well as saving files to the network, and therefore all computers connected to the network. If we did not use a network, any files saved onto a computer would only be on that computer, and therefore anything we saved would not be on any other computer. This would restrict students to only using one computer to do their work, as it  would be the only computer with their work saved on it.

Application Software and Operating System Software Interaction

Sourced from en.wikipedia.org

When I saved my testing log for AS1.54, the application software, in this case Microsoft Word, was trying to communicate with the hardware. The operating system allowed the application software to "speak" to the hardware, and without the operating system the application software and the hardware would not be able to communicate at all, making all our applications on the computer useless. This is shown in the diagram to the right, which shows how the software and hardware in a computer interact. For example, the diagram shows that the application "talks" to the user and the operating system, but cannot directly communicate with the hardware.