The Compact Disc was invented by Sony and Philips in 1981 in order to serve as a high-quality compact audio storage device which allowed for direct access to digital sound tracks. It was officially launched in October 1982. In 1984, the ... Read more
Introduction to the USB USB (Universal Serial Bus) is as its name suggests, based on serial type architecture. However, it is an input-output interface much quicker than standard serial ports. Serial architecture was used for this type of ... Read more
Why connect a computer to a sound system? These days, computers provide sound quality that is as good as hifi sound systems. It is possible to use them to listen to music, in particular thanks to mp3 files that provide sound quality that ... Read more
Description of the operating system Roles of the operating system Components of the operating system Multi-threaded systems Multi-processor systems Embedded systems Real time systems Types of operating system Description of the operating ... Read more
A quick history of the modem The first coding to enable long distance communication was Morse, which was developed by Samuel F.B Morse in 1844. This code is made up of dots and dashes (a sort of binary language...) and made it possible to ... Read more
LZW compression Abraham Lempel and Jakob Ziv are the creators of the LZ77 compressor, invented in 1977 (hence its name). This compressor was then used for filing (ZIP, ARJ and LHA formats use it). In 1978 they created the LZ78 compressor ... Read more
Document written by Nico VanHaute, Julien Barascud and Jean-Roland Conca Introduction: What are RTP and RTCP? The spread of computers, added to the availability of cheap audio/video computer hardware, and the availability of higher ... Read more
Information systems director (ISD) An information systems director (also called an IS director) has both managing and technical skills. He/she is in charge of bringing information systems in line with the company's plans, setting and ... Read more
Cathode ray tube monitor Most monitors (computer screens) use cathode ray tubes (or CRT for short), which are glass vacuum tubes into which an electron gun emits a flow of electrons guided by an electrical field towards a screen covered in ... Read more
The concept of inheritance Inheritance is specific to object-oriented programming, where a new class is created from an existing class. Inheritance (often referred to as subclasses) comes from the fact that the subclass (the newly created ... Read more
The concept of objects Object-oriented programming consists of arranging data in modular sets of elements of real world information (called a domain. These data elements are called objects. This data is grouped according to the main real ... Read more
Introduction to the GSM standard The GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) network is, at the start of the 21st century, the most commonly used mobile telephony standard in Europe. It is a so-called "second generation" (2G) ... Read more
Introduction to the Sasser virus Appearing in May 2004, the Sasser virus (also known as the W32/Sasser.worm, W32.Sasser.Worm, Worm.Win32.Sasser.a, Worm.Win32.Sasser.b or Win32.Sasser) is a virus which exploits a security hole in the LSASS ... Read more
Using style sheets along with the and tags, you can specify the location of text or images down to the pixel. This is possible with versions 4 and higher of Netscape and Internet Explorer; however, the technique is still problematic and may ... Read more
The concept of virtual private networks Operation of a VPN Tunneling protocols The PPTP protocol The L2TP protocol The IPSec protocol The concept of virtual private networks Local area networks (LANs) are the internal networks of ... Read more
Netiquette Netiquette (a contraction of the words "Net" and "etiquette") refers to the set of rules governing correct behavior on the Internet, in order to respect others and be respected in turn. They serve as guidelines for civility and ... Read more
Introduction to intrusion detection systems An IDS (Intrusion Detection System) is the term for a mechanism which quietly listens to network traffic in order to detect abnormal or suspicious activity, thereby reducing the risk of intrusion ... Read more
Agile methods "Agile methods" software development (also called Agile Modelling denoted AG for short) reduce software lifecycle time (thus speeding up development) by firstly developing a prototype version, then integrating functionality ... Read more
Information security officer (ISO) An ISO (information security officer) is in charge of setting and a company's security policy. He/she also plays a critical role in informing, advising, and alerting the general management on matters ... Read more
Introduction to multiplexing Multiplexing refers to the ability to transmit data coming from several pairs of equipment (transmitters and receivers) called low-speed channels on a single physical medium (called the high-speed channel). ... Read more
