Here are some facts u won't learn from watching IT CROWD...

* IT crowd as in the british sitcom

Expansion Card
Also known as an add-on card, internal card or interface adapter, an expansion card is an electronic board or card added in a desktop computer or other non-portable computer to give that computer a new ability, such as the ability to connect to another computer using a network cable. Below is a list of expansion cards that could be installed in a an available expansion slot. Interface card (ATA / Bluetooth / EIDE / IDE / Parallel / RISC / SCSI /Serial / USB) Modem MPEG Decoder Network Card Sound Card Video Card Video capture card
Network Interface Card (NIC)
Network Card
Sound Card
Video Card
Video capture card

Plug & Play
Or more commonly known in the IT world as 'PnP' is a capability developed by Microsoft for its Windows 95 and later operating systems that gives users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. The user doesn't have to tell the computer. In many earlier computer systems, the user was required to explicitly tell the operating system when a new device had been added. Microsoft made Plug and Play a selling point for its Windows operating systems. A similar capability had long been built into Macintosh computers.

Sockets

Motherboards are subcategorized by the type of processor socket they have. The processor socket (also called a CPU socket) is the connector on the motherboard that houses a CPU and forms the electrical interface and contact with the CPU. Processor sockets use a pin grid array (PGA) where pins on the underside of the processor connect to holes in the processor socket.

Chips

A small piece of semiconducting material (usually silicon) on which an integrated circuit is embedded. A typical chip is less than ¼-square inches and can contain millions of electronic components (transistors). Computers consist of many chips placed on electronic boards called printed circuit boards.
There are different types of chips. For example, CPU chips (also called microprocessors) contain an entire processing unit, whereas memory chips contain blank memory.
Chips come in a variety of packages. The three most common are:
DIPs : Dual in-line packages are the traditional buglike chips that have anywhere from 8 to 40 legs, evenly divided in two rows.
PGAs : Pin-grid arrays are square chips in which the pins are arranged in concentric squares.
SIPs : Single in-line packages are chips that have just one row of legs in a straight line like a comb.
In addition to these types of chips, there are also single in-line memory modules (SIMMs), which consist of up to nine chips packaged as a single unit.


Slots

An opening in a computer where you can insert a printed circuit board. Slots are often called expansion slots because they allow you to expand the capabilities of a computer. The boards you insert in expansion slots are called expansion boards or add-on boards.
Do not confuse slots with bays. Bays are sites within the computer where you can install disk drives. Typically, slots are in the back of the computer and bays are in the front.

Bust lines ?
A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to personal computers, the term bus usually refers to internal bus. This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components to the CPU and main memory.

...Thats all for today, stay tuned for more facts on IT

IT

Wayy back then.. probably in the 90's, all i knew about IT was this... for those of u horror fans, do check this movie out its called 'IT' plenty of information about it =D

Careers in IT

Webmaster

A career that requires one to have HTML expertise as well as one or more scripting and interface languages. A person involved in this career manages, maintains, designs, monitors servers and ensures a certain website is operating accurately. A webmaster is most often the owner of a domain. To put it simply, a webmaster is defined as a person who manages a website.



Computer support specialist

Computer support specialists help people use computers. When something goes wrong, support specialists figure out why and find the best possible way to solve the problem. Computer specialists may work for the company that makes the computer software or for the place that uses certain computer software, such as a school. They may assist other employees at the company or the customers of that company. They also may be asked by the maker of the software for feedback on good or bad things about the product, since they work with it daily.



Technical writer

A technical writer is a profession that requires a writer who designs, writes, creates, maintains, and updates technical documentation; be it through a website or a user manual. As a technical writer one writes instructions to help people use a product or service.



Software engineer

Computer software engineers apply the principles of computer science and mathematical analysis to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems that make computers work. Software engineers can be involved in the design and development of many types of software, including computer games, word processing and business applications, operating systems and network distribution, and compilers, which convert programs to machine language for execution on a computer.



Network administrator

A person whose responsible for the maintenance of computer hardware and software that comprises a computer network. Other roles of this profession includes network design, management, troubleshooting, backup and storage, documentation, security and virus prevention as well as managing users. Roles of a Network Administrator may differ in different companies, however most of them commit to the same responsibilities.

Database administrator

A database administrator (DBA) is responsible for the performance, integrity and security of a database. Additional role requirements are likely to include planning, development and troubleshooting. The work may be pure maintenance or it may also involve specialising in database development. Responsible for the administration of existing enterprise databases and the analysis, design, and creation of new databases.

System analyst

System analysts help organizations to use technology effectively and to incorporate rapidly changing technologies into their existing systems. The work of computer systems analysts evolves rapidly, reflecting new areas of specialization and changes in technology. Computer systems analysts solve computer problems and use computer technology to meet the needs of an organization. They may design and develop new computer systems by choosing and configuring hardware and software. They may also devise ways to apply existing systems’ resources to additional tasks. Most systems analysts work with specific types of computer systems—for example, business, accounting, or financial systems or scientific and engineering systems—that vary with the kind of organization.

Programmer

A programmer designs software programs through building logical work flow charts, the functionality of which is translated into one of several languages that computers can understand. In the majority of cases, the computer programmer also designs a graphical user interface (GUI) so that non-technical users can run the software through easy, point-and-click, menu-oriented modules. The GUI acts as a translator between the user and underlying software code, negating the need to know the command line structure of the language.