ICT Chapter 4

Voice mail; delete or store multiple messages, forward to other mailboxes.

Menus; on digital phone systems to allow the caller a number of options to select. Example; in a school.

Ringback; if the recipient of a phone call is engaged, the caller can request a ring back. When the recipient of the phone call is finished, the original caller's phone will ring. When the original caller picks up the phone, it will then call the person originally engaged.

Automated teller machines (ATM);

• Insert card
• ATM reads the sort code and checked to see if its stolen
• Insert PIN (Personal Idetification Number)
• Check that the PIN in database is same as the one inserted
• Have a range of options such as;
• Withdraw cash
• Request statement
• Request balance
• Request new cheque book
• Change PIN

Cheque; Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) include cheque number, sort code, and account number. Sort code identifies the bank and branch, account number identifies account within that branch and the cheque number makes it be uniquely identified.

Production Control; Used in manufacturing industry. Systems vary based on the type of manufacturing and robots are usually used to carry out the actual production.

Global Positioning Systems; Use GPS satellites to identify their location on an interactive map. In navigation it is used to show the route to a certain location, the speed of the driver, where speed cameras are etc.

Using computers to assist with training. Could be something simple such as a presentation or a set of web pages that the trainee reads through.

Advantages to the trainee; monitor own progress, work at their own pace, use multimedia aspects.

Disadvantages to the trainee; requires self-motivation, may become boring, may read through them too quickly without taking the information in.

Advantages to the tutor; does not need to plan or prepare learning materials, identify common areas of weakness, can set assignments and see if they have been completed or not.

Disadvantages to the tutor; have to rely on training material produced by other people, some work cannot be marked, needs to be available at all times.

Laptops can only run for 3 hours on battery power= Development solid state storage will mean less battery power is required in the future.

Poor quality when watching live TV on your laptop= Larger bandwiths provided to homes may provide higher quality and high definition.

Phone screens are too small to look at web pages effectively= Fold up screens may be developed.

Some people find it hard to use laptop track-pads= Develop a scroll wheel or mini-wirelss mouse that can be slotted into the side of the laptop.

Credit cards require you to remember PIN which can be problematic = May develop biometric ways of paying such as fingerprints or eye scanning.

Partitioned Databases; stores different parts of data at different sites. No site stores every single bit of data. A site can be a server or just a single computer.

Vertical Partitioning; seperating the data based on fields.

Horizontal Partitioning; seperating the data based on records.

Replicated; copied entirely at each site within the network.

Central; only stored in one single location.

When replicated, security must be in place at every site. Security includes;

• physical
• encryption
• anti-virus
• firewall 

Computer programs that use knowledge and rules to help diagnose a problem, desgined to act as a real human expert. Examples; NHS, phone faults. A good expert system will;

• be able to make decisions based on uncertain data (eg. 'dont know')
• be limited to a particular area of expertise
• give advice and be able to explain those reasons

Components of an expert system include;

• Knowledge base- consists of knowledge and then has rules that apply with that knowledge (Eg. Knowledge- VAT rate is 15%, Rule- If the product is food, VAT doesnt apply)
• Inference engine- software that makes decisions based on answers (Eg. 'Does the phone switch on?' If they answer 'No', ask if battery is insterted, if they answer 'no' again, the diagnosis would be to insert it.
• User interface- this part is where the software asks the user questions and then gives them answers with the solution diagnosis.

Designed to organise information within an organisation in a way that it can be used to produce useful information to the management team of that organisation. It organises data and creates links of sets of data that are inter-related. MIS does not provide decisions itself, just the information that can be used by managers to make those decisions.

For example, your attendance of school and attendance of lessons may be unrelated. MIS can summarise the data about which students were in school but did not attend lesson.

MIS needs a human information manager to ensure the right type of data is being collected and also produce standard reports so that managers can see summaries of information.

Provide information helpful with tasks such as;

• monitoring budgets to see if actual expenditure is the same as it was planned
• identifying trends in sales
• cash flows
• monitoring rival businesses

Pay per view- viewers pay to watch a certain event, usually sporting one. Impacts;

• Individuals; can watch events without full subscription, some stuff can be watched at any time, have to pay for each programme building up a large bill.                                                
• TV Companies; recieve extra income, may lose out on revenue if they dont subscribe.
• Broadcasters; have to make this facility available, have to have security to make sure programmes cant be hacked, high bandwiths required to make it high quality.

Voting- feature that allows viewers at home to text, call, or use the internet to cast a vote;

• Individuals; can be expensive, feel sense of participation, could be frustrated by outcome. 
• TV Comapnies; boost revenue, if its about a preffered ending then 2 need to be produced.
• Broadcasters; facility could be quite costly to implement.

Game show participation; allows the viewers at home to play along with the gameshow contestant by answering the questions at home. Impacts;

• Individuals; feel part of the gameshow, frustrating if you answer the questions and lose it.
• TV Companies; likely to recieve more revenue from advertisers, set up facility= costly.
• Broadcasters; got to ensure that the facility is available.

Choosing camera angles;

• Individuals; choose what to focus on, may miss something exciting, choose to see replay.
• TV Companies; have to make sure all cameras constantly working, increase revenue, have got to make sure all content being shown from all cameras is appropriate.
• Broadcasters; require more bandwitdth to cover more features, have to make sure all advertisements are shown at the same time.

Feedback comments to studio; sending text messages to the show that it appears along the bottom of the screen. Possibly have comments read out or talk themselves on the show.

• Individuals; can be expensive, feel relieved if there opinion is out, frustration if not shown. 
• TV Companies; need to check they aren't offensive etc, difficult to find best ones.
• Broadcasters; have to make this feature available.

Interactive recording and live pause;

• Individuals; wont miss any parts, dont have to be at home when its on, series link.             
• TV Companies; adverts can be skipped losing revenue. 
• Broadcasters; need to ensure the Electronic Programme Guide is updated. 

Human; people that use and maintain the system. Their tasks could include;

• entering data into a system
• developing new software
• managing finances

Technological; electronic or equipment with moving parts in the business, could include;

• computers, servers, communication links
• computer aided manufacture (CAM) machines
• electronic point of sale (EPOS)

Accomodation; buildings, offices, and any other property owned by the business, includes;

• offices to work in
• factories to manufacture in
• retail outlets and car parks

Importance; information that is inaccurate is not useful because decisions could then be made based on wrong information. Therefore, information needs to be accurate in order to make it useful.

How is this acheievd?

• Validation routines; used to ensure that entered data matches a pre-defined set of rules. This prevents some incorrect data being entered, however not all of it because some incorrect data could still match these rules.
• Verification; process of checking that the source data matches the data entered.

Personnel database will include details about each employee such as;

• contact details
• attendance
• salary
• qualifications
• outcomes of appraisals

Finance system will store data about the finances of each organisation, tasks include;

• placing orders
• paying invoices
• setting budgets
• reports of profits
• forecasts of future cash flows
• information on total costs
• reports on the financial performance

Used to ensure that stock levels are maintained. Will hold information such as;

• minimum stock levels for each product
• re-order amounts for each products
• planned deliveries of replacement stock
• cost of purchasing each product
• location of each product in stock