Introduction to Computers: Fall 2013

Lectures

Notes:

I provide both the Powerpoint presentation, and a handout version (PDF document with 3 slides/page) for each lecture
"Lecture" should be distinguished from the actual class. A lecture is more like a chapter; some of these lectures will require more than one class time.
Lecture notes may change as quarter progresses

Number	Topic	Notes	Further reading/Comments
1	The need for computer literacy	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Did you know? A simple video on the progression of information technology Wikipedia: Computers. A nice overview of computers from Wikipedia
2	Digital data: numbers, sound, images	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	How-to on converting from Decimal to Binary How-to on converting from Binary to Decimal An online converter An handout on counting in base 2, 10, and 16
3	From logic to CPU	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Wikipedia page on truth tables Wikipedia page on Logic gates A simple summary on logic and logic gates Wikipedia page on CPU
4	Computer: Hardware	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Random Access Memory (RAM) Hard drive disks Northbridge Southbridge
5	Computer: Software	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Computer software Programming language List of programming languages Presentation of Python
6	Writing and Oral presentations	Worst presentation ever: Powerpoint	UC Davis Library guide for ECS15 A small guide on formal writing
7	Python: Introduction	Word document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Official site for python Documentation for Python 2.7 Howto Install Python (Samuel Johnson, 2008)
8	Python. Chapter1: variables	Word document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Program samples: rectangle.py chargaff.py bmi.py
9	Python. Chapter2: Arrays	Word document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Program samples: roman.py grade_average.py
10	Python. Chapter3: Control structures	Word document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)	Program samples: wordinfo.py sum_squares.py sum_digit.py
11	Computer: The Internet	Powerpoint document (click to download) or PDF handout (click to download)