Essay: Elements Of Modern Computing Architecture, Operating Systems, Networks, And Information Systems.

Modern Computing Architecture and the Contributions of John Louis von Neumann

There are ten (10) tasks, one for each week:  the tasks are detailed below.  There is a table to complete for each task.  Please fill in the information required.

The text discusses the elements of modern computing architecture however is largely silent on the individuals who played a role in its development.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE such individual.  The individual should have had a significant influence on the development of computers and/or components of modern computing architecture.

The text discusses the components and activities of operating systems however is largely silent on the individuals who played a role in their development.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE such individual.  The individual should have had a significant influence on the writing or development of operating systems.

The Internet didn’t just appear – it was an evolution from earlier networks. Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE of the networks that led to the development of the modern Internet.  

Ethernet is an example of a Layer Two (L2) data link protocol that is discussed in the text.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and uses of ONE other L2 protocol that is not discussed in the text (i.e. NOT Ethernet).

The text mentions the role of hackers in attacks on networked infrastructure.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE famous or well-known hacker.

Society is increasingly reliant on networks and network technologies but they are evolving at a rapid pace.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of a future networking technology or trend that will impact society.

The text mentions social business and the impact of the use of social networking platforms.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the history of the development of ONE such social media platform.

With the advent of mass data collection and storage has come data mining. Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example where data mining has been used successfully by a business.  You should not use any examples covered in the textbook.

One of the greatest success stories in application development in recent times has been the popularity of mobile apps.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the story of ONE successful mobile app developer.

While information systems and technology deliver many benefits to society, they can also result in (sometimes inadvertent) negative effects and outcomes.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of where the use of an information system or technology has led to negative consequences for humans.

Modern Computing Architecture and the Contributions of John Louis von Neumann

The text discusses the elements of modern computing architecture however is largely silent on the individuals who played a role in its development.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE such individual.  The individual should have had a significant influence on the development of computers and/or components of modern computing architecture.

The most notable contribution in the fields of modern computing came from John Louis von Neumann (1903-1957) who was a famous mathematician of his time. Considered to be a child prodigy by many, Neumann completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Pázmány Péter University in Budapest and simultaneously earned his diploma in chemical engineering from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. All this he achieved just at the age of 22 years. Neumann was considered to be a pioneering figure in the field of modern computer science. The modern computer architecture is largely credited to Neumann. He was the first person who made use of memory in digital computers to store both data and instructions. During the year 1945, while working on the EDVAC project at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, von Neumann wrote a complete set of notes which was titled“First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC”. In this draft report he laid the foundations for the modern computer architecture wherein both the data and the program are stored in the memory of a computer which has the same address location. This was later termed as von Neumann Architecture. Von Neumann is also credited with creating the field of cellular automate without any help from computers. He created the world’s first self-replicating Automata by utilising only a pencil and graph paper. Von Neumann has also made significant contributions in the study of algorithms. The renowned computer scientist Donald Knuth credits von Neumann with the creation of the Merge Sort algorithm.     

The text discusses the components and activities of operating systems however is largely silent on the individuals who played a role in their development.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE such individual. The individual should have had a significant influence on the writing or development of operating systems.

Linus (Benedict) Torvalds is credited with the development of the Linux OS. Having an intensive knowledge and understanding about hardware and programming, Torvalds was able to program a dedicated driver for a floppy controller. He possessed an in-depth knowledge about Q-DOS and was able to provide his own computer tools. During the year 1991, when the 386-Intel PC became to most advanced computer of its time, Torvalds utrilised a single PC to learn about the programming of the 386-Intel CPU. The Unix derivate Minix was the OS utilised during that time and Torvalds had already mastered Unix in 1990 and he was extremely upset about the terminal emulator program in Minix and found it to be inefficient. Thus, began his quest for finding a better terminal emulator with would provide the users with more functionality on the hardware level. He began his project of coding his own terminal emulator which would help in addressing the drawbacks of the existing computer OS. In his project, Torvalds programmed his own drivers for the access to data mediums and file systems. This provided his software the capacity to upload and download files from the internet. While Torvalds was busy in the development of the terminal program, he incorporated more functions within the program which ultimately convinced him to design and develop nit into a full-fledged and functioning OS which would better performance and capabilities as compared to the Minix. The new OS was termed as Linus and it was derived from the concept of Unix but the Kernal was completely written from scratch.      

The Development of Linux OS by Linus Torvalds

The Internet didn’t just appear – it was an evolution from earlier networks. Find and summarise a resource that describes ONEof the networks that led to the development of the modern Internet.  

The Internet draws its origins from the ARPANET. ARPANET is an acronym for the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network of the US military and it is considered to be a precursor to the modern internet which we are using in the present times. The concept of ARPANET was only an idea which was first published in 1967 but this idea later transformed into reality in 1969 with the simultaneous interconnection of four university computers. The main objective and purpose of this initiative was to communicate and share resources with different computers mainly among the scientific community who are working in connected institutions. With ARPANET came the idea of sending information in small units known as data packets which could be routed and sent to different locations based on the destination address. With the development and integration of the TCP/IP protocols, the size of the network was easily expanded and it truly became a network of networks. TCP/IP protocols played a very essential role in the making ARPANET more scalable and in the 1980’s the ARPANET was handed over to a completely new military network which was known as the Defense Data Network and the  NSFNet (a network of academic and scientific computers which was funded by the National Science Foundation. Because of this change ARPA’s name was changed to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The network was also referred to by many as DARPANET.

Ethernet is an example of a Layer Two (L2) data link protocol that is discussed in the text.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and uses of ONE other L2 protocol that is not discussed in the text (i.e. NOT Ethernet).

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is another resource which utilises the Layer Two (L2). This is a protocol for mapping an Internet Protocol (IP) address to a physical machine address (MAC) which is recognised in the local network. This protocol operates below the network layer and it acts as the interface between the OSI network and the OSI link layer. All IP networks which are working on Wi-fi or Ethernet makes use of ARP for their proper functioning. The ARP was developed in the year 1980 with the sole purpose of an address translation protocol for IP networks. The ARP allows a network to manage their different connections in an independent manner without the compulsion of the physical devices being attached to one another. This provides greater capacity to the Internet Protocols and they are able to operate in a more efficient manner by reducing the need to manage all the different hardware devices which are operating within a network.  The protocol support is provided within the device drivers of the network operating systems. The technical details of the ARP such as its functioning and packet format are documented in the Internet RFC 826. Whenever any device intends to send data from another device (also known as target devices), the device must try to determine the MAC address of that target device where they want to send the data with the help of their IP addresses. These mappings of the virtual and physical address essentially take place in the ARP cache which is present on each individual devices.

ARPANET and its Contributions to Internet Development

The text mentions the role of hackers in attacks on networked infrastructure.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE famous or well-known hacker.

The most famous hacker of this present generation is Kevin Mitnick. He has been described by the US Department of Justice to be the most wanted cyber criminal in US history. Kevin Mitnick gained so much notoriety in his time that his life story has been incorporated into a movie named as Track Down. Mitnick initially hacked into the Digital Equipment Corporation’s network for which he was sentenced to a year in prison after which he was let out on the condition that his activities would be supervised for the next three years. During the end of that supervised period, Mitnick fled from the surveillance of the legal authorities and went on a hacking spree that lasted for a period of two and half years. During this time, he was also accused of breaching the national defense warning system and compromising its security by stealing important corporate secrets.  The law authorities eventually caught up with Mitnick and he was found guilty of cyber crime.  He was eventually handed down a prison sentence of 5 years. After completing his time in prison, he later become a consultant, expert and public speaker on computer security and he is presently the owner of Mitnick Security Consulting, LLC which is considered to be an organisation that provides the world’s best penetration testing, security assessments and training to their customers. Kevin has also written books on computer security which have gone on to become market bestsellers.   

Society is increasingly reliant on networks and network technologies but they are evolving at a rapid pace.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of a future networking technology or trend that will impact society.

The future for mobile network communications looks extremely promising with many technological innovations presently undergoing the stages of development and which has the capacity to transform the future. One such technology is the Wireless Datalinks for drones. The aviation industry does not have any avid reputation in the market for being a trendsetter in wireless networking technology. People consider themselves to be lucky when they able to check their emails while they are in-flight. Majority of the times, there is only a limited amount of bandwidth which is available to an individual while in-flight and this makes it extremely inconvenient for a person to access their emails or any other web content. But lately, due to emergence of the Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) or drones (as they are more popularly called) our perception about the aviation industry has changed significantly. Presently, there is cutting edge research going on to make long distance and high-speed wireless network a reality in the near future. This technology would play a vital role in streamlining and enhancing the communication between the manned aircrafts and the UAVs and this would provide greater in-flight safety for the flight passengers in the near future. This technology has limitless future implications both in the aviation industry as well as the mobile computing industry and it is indeed going to make our expectations of a high speed wireless network a distinct possibility which is not far-fetched from reality.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) as an L2 Protocol

The text mentions social business and the impact of the use of social networking platforms.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the history of the development of ONE such social media platform.

Social networking has really made a huge impact on our lives. It has played a vital role in bringing people from all over the world closer to each other thereby making the world a much smaller place. One of the most successful social media platforms is Facebook which has a registered user base of more than 2 billion people all over the world. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerburg while studying Psychology at Harvard University. Zuckerburg was a expert computer programmer who had the already created a reputation for himself by making social networking website for his fellow college mates. He had created Coursematch (where people were able to showcase their academic qualifications to others) and Facemash (where students had the opportunity to rate their classmates based on their attractiveness) before developing Facebook. Facebook was originally launched as “The Facebook” in February 2004 and within 24 hours of its creation, the website had a total registered user base of 1200 Harvard students. In the next one moth more than half the Undergraduate student population at Harvard had a profile on “The Facebook”. This student network was later extended to include all the other Boston Universities, the Ivy League and finally all the US universities. Facebook was officially launched as Facebook.com in August 2005 and the web domain name was purchased for $200,000. After this, Facebook began to expand overseas and reached UK Universities in the month of September 2005. From September 2006, Facebook began extending their network beyond the educational institutions to any individual or entity that had a valid email address. The site was free for all and nobody had to pay any subscription charges for using the social network. Facebook primarily generated revenues through advertisements given by online advertisers.

With the advent of mass data collection and storage has come data mining. Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example where data mining has been used successfully by a business.  You should not use any examples covered in the textbook.

The Data Mining is a relatively new technology which enables us to examine the data and information in huge quantities in order to evaluate the trends which emerges from the data. It involves the practice of examining large pre existing databases in order to create new information from the existing data. Data mining has huge implications in the world of business and it is one technology that is hugely popular among the global business establishments. With the growing importance of the data analytics in business, companies are invariably finding out more utility and applications for data mining techniques.  An example of data mining is that used by Amazon which is one of the largest e-retailers of the world. Amazon makes use of data mining techniques in order to keep a tract on the buying behaviour of their customers. The organisation tracks their customers with the help of cookies and this allows them access to important information regarding what types of products and services they are buying from the online shopping portals. With the help of Cookies, Amazon is able to identify the buying behaviour and habits of their customers and this enables them to provide appropriate products and services to their customers.       

Famous Cybercriminal Kevin Mitnick

One of the greatest success stories in application development in recent times has been the popularity of mobile apps.  Find and summarise a resource that describes the story of ONE successful mobile app developer.

Tinder is one of the most popular mobile apps which has a huge fan following across the globe. Tinder was founded by Sean Rad, Joe Munoz, Jonathan Badeen, Dinesh Moorjani, Justin Mateen and Whitney Wolfe. This mobile application was initially incubated within Hatch Labs and it was officially launched on the Google stores in 2012. Sean Rad was a student of Business Entrepreneurship at University of South Califonia. In course of time, Sean had a chance encounter with his childhood friend Justin Mateen and the two rekindled their friendship. During his freshman year at the University, Sean started his first company which was called Orgoo.  Both Justin and Sean were helping each other with their individual business ventures. In 2008, Sean dropped out from USC in order to dedicate and focus more of his time on his entrepreneurial pursuits. In 2009, Sean successfully launched Ad.ly which was a celebrity endorsement platform. Later in the year 2011, Sean sold his stake in Ad.ly as soon as the platform started to become popular among the masses. Sean joined Hatch Labs which was an incubator (business start-up) based in IAC.  During his stint at Hatch Labs, Sean met Jonathan Badeen and they began collaborating on their maiden venture Cardify which was a location based loyalty platform. During the winter of 2011, Sean was hanging out with Justin and Jonathan when suddenly the three of them stumbled upon the idea to develop the Tinder app and they eventually decided to ditch Cardify. This was indeed a huge risk since the plans for Cardify were already set in motion. But the risk eventually paid off and Tinder became one of the most popular apps on the Google webstore.     

While information systems and technology deliver many benefits to society, they can also result in (sometimes inadvertent) negative effects and outcomes.  Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of where the use of an information system or technology has led to negative consequences for humans.

There is little or no confusion about the fact that Information Technology has played a very essential role in transforming our lives. It has created new employment opportunities for millions of people and has enhanced the business productivity of global corporate business entities. However, there are certain drawbacks and negative impacts of Information Technology that we fail to identify and this is having a detrimental impact on the health and well being. Technology has given rise to a lot of work related stress due to the fact that we are always connected to the workplace either through our smart phones or our computers and we do not have any free time that we can devote to ourselves or our family members. Studies have showcased the growing prevalence of IT induced technology stress, technology addiction and technology misuse at the workplace. This has really made us question the very essence of implementing IT at the workplace. The qualities of portability, reliability, user-friendliness and processing speed which made IT a useful asset at the workplace is slowly undermining the employee productivity and employee well being and this is bound to have a drastic impact on the corporate sector sooner or later.