Computers
as a Second LanguageComputers
as a Second LanguageHardware and Software
PRINTERS In
the last five years, printer technology has advanced significantly and
prices have fallen dramatically. A high quality black & white
laser printer, that would have cost more than $2000.00
five years ago, can be purchased today for around $400.00. Color
ink jet printers are available for less than $300.00
and they can produce near photographic quality images. They are fast
enough for printing straight black & white text as well.For
printing full color brochures there are inexpensive dye
sublimation and thermal-wax printers. The
noisy old dot-matrix printer still has a place if you
need to print onto multi-part forms. Because there is impact of the
printer head against the paper, the text is readable on each layer of
the form.The
quality of a printer's output is expressed in dpi or
dots per inch. A
printer rated at 300 dpi creates a 1 inch black square
by placing 300 dots across by 300 rows high. This is 90,000
dots per square inch. Better quality printers are rated at 600
dpi., creating 360,000 dots per square inch. This is
four times the resolution of a 300 dpi printer!MODEMSThe
modem is a device that allows a computer to be connected to your
telephone line. Modems may be installed inside the computer's case or
connected to the computer's exterior serial port.Once
connected, you can send or receive faxes and electronic
mail. Many people are purchasing modems today so they can
connect their computers to the Internet. The Internet
is a vast connection of about 100 million computers worldwide. It
provides instantaneous access to thousands of companies, news services,
libraries, and individuals anywhere in the world.Today,
the industry standard modem transmits data at 57,000
bits per second or
bps (NOT bytes per second). They are often called
56K modems and are priced around $150.00. Less
expensive models, that transmit data at 28,800 bps,
are available for less than $70.00.SCANNERSA
scanner is used to transfer text or photos (illustrations) to the
computer. Scanners are usually connected to the computer's parallel
port, or to an auxiliary SCSI card installed
on the computer's motherboard. SCSI stands for
Small Computer System
Interface.A
flatbed scanner resembles a small photocopier. You
insert the original document face down onto a glass plate. A special
software program controls the scanner. Once the document is scanned, it
can sent to the printer or faxed via the modem. Flatbed scanners are
priced from $300.00 to $1500.00. For about $100.00, you can purchase a
small hand-held scanner that produces reasonably good
scans.A
newer type of scanner that is gaining popularity is the portable
drum or desktop scanner. Its main advantage
-- it takes up very little desk space. Its main disadvantage -- you
can't scan a page from inside a book. You are limited to individual
sheets of paper. The paper is inserted from the top of the scanner. It
passes around a drum and emerges out from another slot. The portable
drum scanner can also double as a FAX machine for transmitting brochures
and correspondence.One
important use of scanners is Optical Character
Recognition or OCR. A typed document
can be scanned to produce a text file that can be loaded into your word
processor for revisions. Some OCRs can recognize handwritten text and
convert it to a computer file for editing and printing! |
