Cut-off date 16 November 2009

This assignment should be submitted electronically. You should write your solutions to the
questions in a single word document, which is named using the last four digits of your
student id, your full name, the course and the TMA number, you file name should look as
follows:
M150A-TMA-Fall-2009-YourBranchName-YourID-YourFullName.doc
Submit your document to your tutor on or preferably before the cut-off date shown above.
This TMA assesses your work on Units 1--5 of M150A. The marks allocated to each part of a
question are indicated in the margin. The total marks for each question are shown at the
beginning of each question.

Question 1 [20 marks]

a- Explain the difference between data and information; provide three examples illustrating
your answer. [5]

Data: is a symbol of information is a disconnected items

Information: is the collection of data, is the significance that people give to data in a situation
Examples: barcode on the shelf of a stand without any product on it is a data
Barcode on the shelf of a stand full of shampoo is information

A stand worker without his costume is a data

A stand worker with his costume is information

45$ is a data
The price of a true net router is 45$ is information

b- What do you understand by the term perceptual data? [2]

Perceptual data is when a human being recognize the sensations (data) during to his senses
(touch, sight, sound, taste, smell and balance)
Ex: when I smell a flower: I use my smelling sense to perceive the quality (data) of the flower

c- Signs or symbols can be defined as something that conveys some information by means
other than direct representation. Discuss in your own words the convention of using
particular colors as indicators for sign meanings. [3]

Signs play a role to help people to communicate and understand each other but first it must be
an agreement on what these signs means (a common knowledge between people who utilize
such a sign)
For example colors in traffic signs
Red means: stop
Yellow means: get ready
Green means: go
 d- List the four steps used by humans to turn data into information. [4]

1) make symbols corresponding to the data

2) have an agreement of the meanings of these symbols
3) collect these symbols to create information
4) use the information to connect with other people

e- Explain how the remote sensing satellites examined the earth from the space. [6]

With the spectrum of light and infrared and ultraviolet radiation remote sensing satellites examine the
earth from the space. This technology has a digital computer for processing the symbols which refer
to the pictures built up. After storing and transmitting these symbols to an earth station, another
computer switches the symbols back into pictures.
For temperature there’s a false color technique used by the satellites called ‘cold’ for the areas of
relatively low temperature, and ‘hot’ for the areas of higher temperature, and other color for middle
temperature. For the remote sensing we can say it is very accurate, it can spot pests, and vermin in
reap even before they’re visible from the ground.
And for the computers anything that can be represented in a suitable code can be captured, stored,
processed, and then fed back as information such as distance or velocity…
In addition computers have huge memories but it don’t have to storing enormous collections of data
that are further than the ability of a human being, so when the data is stored we do not need to
remember it but we can only aim on what it describes and where it can be found.

Question 2 [20 marks]

a- Email allows people to leave messages and reply in their own time. Explain in your own
words three important benefits brought by the use of email and three drawbacks of
using email for communication. [6]

The important benefits brought by the use of email are:

1) Email is fast, wherever you are you can send it to a destination and it would take a few
seconds
2) Email is capable, you can send the same message to a group of your friends in one simple
step
3) Email costs nothing, communication is very cheap

The three drawbacks of using email for communication are:

1) There’s a delay to responding on your message
2) Email can become misunderstood, because unlike the telephone, you can’t express the idea
directly in a second way to a recipient if he didn’t understand your first meaning
3) Because millions of users use this technology, the hackers are interested to send viruses in
order to damage or to mess up with your mail
 b- Define each of the following: IRC, netiquette, iris scanning, word processing. [4]

IRC: is where you can chat with people all over the world, even if they are not on the same server or
in the same channel with you. So it’s very beneficial, and fast, easy to use with no time limit, and has
a large list of servers.

Netiquette: is a guideline which people use it to correct and polite their behavior, and make each
other feel comfortable by the way they behave. More the social is interact more the netiquette is
useful.

Iris scanning: is used for identification and other method available more than other technologies due
to its highest technique to run over the iris of the eye and record the patterns. It works with mixing
computer vision, pattern recognition, and optics.

Word processing: is when the keystrokes are transformed into an image on the screen. In other
words, when there’s software recognition. You enter the input in the computer using keystrokes, and
then the computer answer you back as output using a monitor or a printer.

c- State three problems you face in your daily life where they have been solved using
computers. [3]

1) The use of an ac remote, when I wake up and feel cold. I turn off the ac with the remote
2) The use of a mobile phone, when I have a car problem on the road. I use my mobile phone to get some
help
3) The use of an application on the laptop, when the tutor explains something hard to understand. I open
my laptop and do a Google search

d- You have seen in unit two that communication relies on convention. Explain in your
own words what this means. [3]

To communicate is to share information, but to share information and let others understand your
information; it needs a convention, an agreement, a common knowledge, a guideline, between you
and others.

e- List three types of communication protocol and explain the important features of each
of them. [4]

Http: Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a Web
server and a Web browser.

UART: universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter is a protocol that provides predictable delay for
communication between computers of disparate ability.

FTP: file transfer protocol is when you download files from the internet, is a method of
Transferring/exchanging files between computers over the internet.
Question 3 [30 marks]

a- What does effective representation mean? [2]

Effective representation is when you create an obvious link between the meaning and the symbol
which refers to it.

b- List three modes of perception which are used in our daily communication and explain
two of them in detail in about 100 words. [5]

The modes of perception are: auditory representations-visual representations-tactile representation.

Visual representations are apparent as sight, like when the people recognize the written language,
and the traffic signs, and the buildings, even each other faces in a visualizing way.
And when you work on your desktop which it also deals with visual representation, like when the
scanning progress an image from a sheet of paper onto the screen.
Tactile representations are apparent by touch, and used by people to convey messages via the most
common form of input is via keyboard and mouse, and many computer games rely on joysticks.

c- Explain where compression and decompression techniques are used? [2]

Compression is used for reducing the size of a file
Decompression is the reverse of compression to get the source data (or file) back by applying some decoding
algorithm

d- What is the difference between lossy and lossyless compression [2]

In lossless compression there is no loss of data during compression and
decompression. It is mainly used in compressing text documents but in lossy
compression there is a loose of data during compression. It is mainly used in
video compression

e- Provide an example of your choice and, in a way similar to Exercise 3.8, use five special
symbols that corresponding to five different small texts. Explain how much space you
gained using symbols instead of text in your example. [5]
f- Use a search engine to look for the following symbols.
o Bicycle road

http://images.google.com.lb/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=Bicycle+road+signs

o Maximum speed

http://images.google.com.lb/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=Maximum+speed+signs

o Pets are not allowed

http://images.google.com.lb/images?hl=en&um=1&q=Pets+are+not+allowed+signs

o Train station

http://images.google.com.lb/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=Train+station+signs

o Airport

http://images.google.com.lb/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=Airport+signs
o supervise zone

http://images.google.com.lb/images?
hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=supervised+zone+signs

i- Name the search engine you used to find your symbols. [1]
The search engine is Google

ii- Copy each symbol and paste it in your TMA file. [3]

iii- Write beside each symbol its web site address. [2]

G- Explain in your own words what we mean by standardization in terms of data formats
and provide three examples of standardization. [3]

Standardization is when a group of people create a standard, distribute the description and
keep track of it over time.
Examples: 1) when a Japanese woman combine her phone and her camera on one device.
2) When the motor car that uses the gasoline was invented it became a dominant
design in the market and now all car manufacturers are using this type of motor

h- List five different file extensions and explain what each of them means. [5]
Question 4 [20 marks]
.doc: is a file extension for word processing documents and formats
.txt: A text file is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines.
.pdf: Portable Document Format facilitates document exchange. One of the great advantages of PDF
is that its representation on the PC screen looks exactly the same way it would look on a paper if you
print it.
.wav: Windows uses the Wave Form Audio (WAV) file format to store sounds as waveforms
.rtf: Common text file format that supports "rich text" may include several types of text formatting,
such as bold type, italics, different fonts and font sizes, custom tab settings, etc; may also support
images saved within the text file.
a- Explain in your own words the main difference between analogue and digital
representations. [2]

Analogue representation is when the information presents in a continuous and constants way but digital
representation is when the information displays in terms of discrete with symbols and codes.

b- Which of the two types of representation is more accurate? Illustrate your answer with a
real example. [3]

Digital representation is more accurate, taking an example the speed in a car.

The analogue form don’t show you the speed between 10km/h to 20km/h but the digital one show you
11km/h and 12km/h and 13km/h etc…

c- Convert the decimal numbers 1987 to binary then to octal. Show all of your working. The
correct result without any working will not receive any marks. [3]

1987 divided by 2 = 993 decimal to binary: 11111000011

993*2 = 1986
= (1) decimal to octal: 0001 1001 1000 0111
993 divided by 2=496
496*2=992
= (1)
496 divided by 2=248
248* 2=496
=0
248 divided by 2 = 124
124*2=248
=0
248 divided by 2=124
124 divided by 2=62
62*2=124
=0
62divid by 2=31
=0
31 divided by 2=15
15*2=30
=1
15/2=7

7*2=14
=1
7/2=3
3*2=6
=1
3/2=1
1
 1/2=0
=1

d- Convert the binary number 110101001 to decimal then to octal. Show all your working. The
correct result without any working will not receive any marks. [3]

f- Explain how RGB color encoding is used to represent images and colors. Provide an
example illustrating your answer. [5]

When you have a great need for a flexible workflow, and a master image that can be used with many
different output methods RGB is your request.
Each pixel in an image represents how much red and green and blue are in that picture component. For
example, if it’s black the values are 0, 0, 0. And yellow FF, FF 0 because red and green make yellow in the
preservative system used on color monitor.

g- Consider a three-hour film to be displayed on a computer at 32fps. Each frame is

600X800 pixels and 24-bit RGB color encoding is being used. How many bytes will be
required to represent the whole film? Explain how you arrived at your answer. The
correct result without any working will
not receive any marks. [4]

600*800=480000pixels. Each pixel will require 24 bits that is 3 bytes

So the image will require 480000*3=1440000 bytes

Question 5 [10 marks]

The following text states the definition of Open Learning: Add the necessary HTML tags
What is Open Learning
An Introduction to Open Learning
Open Learning is a flexible distance learning method of studying online that is designed to fit
around your busy life. Work, family and social commitments take up a lot of time and often
conflict with a traditional academic calendar. Open Learning allows you to organize your
studies around your life so that you can pursue your academic and professional goals on your
own schedule. Open Learning helps provide students and employers with options that other
providers cannot match:
When do you want to start your studies?
What time of day do you prefer to study?
Where do you feel most comfortable learning?
The choice is yours. Open Learning enables you to study when you want and where you want.
This flexibility allows you to start preparing for a new role or a new career when it is most
convenient for you.
How does Open Learning work? Once you have been accepted, you will be able to go online
and use your personal login code to enter our innovative AOU Open Learning classroom.
Courses will be accessible from anywhere and at anytime as long as you have an internet
connection. All of your lectures and tutorials will be interactive and dynamic. You will have the
opportunity to meet other students and speak to your lecturers, either in a group forum or on
a one-to-one basis. Each module will have an element of work based learning so that you can
integrate your own professional experiences into your studies. If you want to learn more about
open learning, please visit the web page of the Arab Open University http://www.arabou.org/
5
needed to format the above text so that it will appear in a browser as shown in the next figure.
[6]
a- Write an XML document with the following tags:
Student List as a main element
Name
Major
City
Academic Year
Fill in the tags with data about you and three of your colleagues. [4]