ITGS Assessment

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(1)Calculate 230 decimal numbers equal in binary (2 marks)
230 = 11100110

(2)Calculate a thumb drive that has 128 MB capacity in bytes (1 KB = 1024 Bytes) (2 marks)
128 MB = 134,217,728 Bytes

(3)Distinguish the differences between data and information. Outline three examples each (9 marks)
Data is collection of words that even sometimes don’t have meaning. It’s considered as raw information. Example: lists of numbers, lists of names, and lists of movies.
Information is data with meaning, means that when we read it, we will understand. Example: A list of numbers is organized to show the increase of disposable income amongst South Africans, A list of names is organized to create a phone directory of people with a rare blood type, A list of movies are organized by ranking as my favorite to least favorite movies.

(4)Outline two each the advantages and disadvantages of portable computers (4 marks)
Advantages:
* Light weight, easy to carry.
* Easy and Mobile, suits for businessman that often travelling.
Disadvantages:
* Battery may drop in regular period.
* For some application such as movie editing, it’s not recommended to use laptop.

Developers explain why they’re avoiding Vista

Less than 1 in 12 programmers is currently writing applications targeting Microsoft’s Vista operating system. Windows developers are confirming the results of a survey released yesterday that found fewer than 1 in 12 programmers currently writing applications targeting Windows Vista.
Stymied by a lack of user interest in Microsoft Vista, many North American developers are still not targeting the new operating system when writing new applications, according to a survey released today. The survey did find that some growth in Vista development will come in 2009.
Only 8% of the 380 developers surveyed by Evans Data Corp. in April are writing applications for Vista, while 49% are still writing applications primarily for the predecessor Windows version, XP. In addition, 11% said applications are mostly for Windows 2003, while 9% are focused on Linux-based apps.
“Large enterprises don’t transition overnight to the newest platforms,” said Shannon Braun, a Microsoft MVP and Minneapolis-area-based programming consultant. “To me the adoption pace [of Vista by developers] seems pretty normal.”
“Vista is too bleeding-edge — not for us, but for our clients,” Krasowski said. PDSA’s clients include large, blue-chip customers such as Kaiser Permanente and Boeing Inc. “They’re all leery of Vista.”
And why shouldn’t they be? According to data released this spring by migration software vendor AppDNA, about a fifth of enterprise applications running on XP break when moved straight to Vista, mostly due to pre-XP-era code still lingering in the app. That increases to nearly half for apps migrated from 32-bit XP straight to 64-bit Vista.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/ … sta_1.html
http://www.computerworld.com/action/art … Id=9085478

(5)Explain two reasons why many developers are still not targeting the new operating system(6 marks)
* Because of lack of user interest in Microsoft Windows Vista, developers will think twice to develop new operating system. They will probably take a survey about this condition to find out the weakness point of Vista first before thinking of new operating system.
* It is said that some application is not running under Vista as well as under Windows XP. With this condition, developers will need to think more to solve these compatibility things.

(6)Distinguish three differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista (6 marks)
* Vista is running with 64-bit, while Windows XP still in 32-bit.
* Searching in Vista can be anything, such as files, folders, news, and dictionary while Windows XP only searches files.
* Vista has some new features such as widget and others.

(7)Explain statement by Shannon Braun, a Microsoft MVP that stated large enterprises don’t transition overnight to the newest platforms (3 marks)
When large enterprises decided to use new platform, they need to rearrange the entire computers, the operating system and the networks. Furthermore, they also have to train the entire employees which will consume a lot of time. This means, the transition will need time and is not possible to change overnight.

(8)Identify six IT Programs or Software that are working under Windows Vista (6 marks)
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Creative Suite
Mozilla Firefox
Nero CD Burner
CorelDraw X3
Macromedia Flash

E-Commerce Data Shows Consumer Slowdown Moving Online
10-31-08 4:00 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- In another indication that turmoil in financial markets was spilling over into the economy, U.S. e-commerce sales posted single- digit growth in the third quarter as penny-pinching consumers curbed their buying at Internet companies like Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and eBay Inc. (EBAY).
Market research group comScore said Friday that online spending grew 6% in the third quarter, compared with 23% for the same period last year.
The third-quarter 2008 figure marks a slowdown from year-on-year growth rates of 12% in the first quarter and 13% in the second quarter. Total U.S. online retail sales, not including travel, reached about $30 billion in the third quarter.
“Consumers’ economic pressures continue to have a significant impact on retail spending, which is evident in the slowing growth rates in the online channel,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni in a statement.
ComScore’s data underscored a sudden drop-off in consumer sentiment, which has deteriorated sharply in recent months. Earlier in the day, the Commerce Department said consumer spending fell 0.4% year-on-year, the first such drop since the recession of 1991. Through June, e-commerce sales had posted double- digit growth rates but had slumped to just 5% in September, the lowest recorded by comScore since it began tracking e-commerce sales in 2001.
The statistics suggest online retailers, many of which have cautioned it is difficult to predict future sales, will continue to struggle. Both Amazon and eBay have noted that online sales dropped sharply as the financial crisis took hold in the second half of the third quarter. Both companies recently cut their fourth-quarter revenue forecasts in light of the uncertain economic conditions.
In recent trading, Amazon was down 2.7% at $55.19 and eBay was up 6 cents at $ 15.45.
EBay said it expected a “very challenging” fourth quarter as consumers rein in spending amid a worsening economic environment. Amazon maintained that it was performing relatively well but acknowledged it had “limited visibility” amid the ongoing financial and economic turmoil.
Wall Street analysts have warned that no company is immune to the environment. Amazon shares have fallen over 40% this year, while eBay is down more than 53% for the year so far.
A comScore survey of more than 1,000 consumers in October found that 82% of respondents were more afraid about the economic future than ever before. Only 26% of respondents said they believed the economy would be “better” a year from now.
Amazon and eBay, however, have argued that price-conscious consumers will move more aggressively to the Internet in search of lower prices. ComScore said that despite the slowdown in Internet sales, e-commerce growth rates still exceed those at retail. The research group also noted that online marketing campaigns have helped retailers boost e-commerce sales as well as drive increased traffic into retail stores.
http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/pri … 3_univ.xml

(9) State three conclusions which can be drawn from the data included in the article above that related with the topic (3 marks)
* Market research group comScore said that online spending grew 6% in the third quarter, compared with 23% for the same period last year.
* A comScore survey of more than 1,000 consumers in October found that 82% of respondents were more afraid about the economic future than ever before. Only 26% of respondents said they believed the economy would be “better” a year from now.
* In recent trading, Amazon was down 2.7% at $55.19 and eBay was up 6 cents at $ 15.45.

(10) Predict four possible impacts in Business and Employment when this situation will last in the next 10 years and people no longer go online for shopping (12 marks)
* Most of Online Shopping Company will probably close their business, since not many people go online for shopping.
* While lots of companies went bankrupt, many of employees will lose their job.
* Web Hosting Company will also receive an impact; because a lot of company will abandon their website since they are no longer have their customers.

(11) Explain three categories of e-commerce and identify an example of company for each category (12 marks)
* B2B – Business to Business
Example: Cisco Network
* B2C – Business to Consumer
Example: Amazon
* C2C – Consumer to Consumer
Example: eBay

(12) Outline three kinds of advertising media and describe two each the advantages and the disadvantages (27 marks)
Television
Advantages:
* The advert will go out to millions of people
* The product can be shown in a very favorable way, making it look attractive
* It reaches the biggest number of customers.
Disadvantages:
* Very expensive form of advertising.
* Some people have habit – change TV Channel while displaying advertisement.
Radio
Advantages:
* Cheaper than television
* Usually reaches a large audience and often uses a memorable song or tune so that advert will be remembered
Disadvantages:
* Cannot put across a visual message
* Quite expensive related to other methods of advertising
* Not as wide an audience as television
Magazines
Advantages:
* Magazines are read by a specific type of person.
* Magazine adverts are in color and therefore can look more attractive
Disadvantages:
* Magazines are often only published once a month or once a week
* More expensive than newspapers.

HP customers vulnerable to software update tool flaw
By SearchSecurity.com Staff
29 Apr 2008 | SearchSecurity.com

The tools contain several ActiveX flaws that could be exploited by tricking Internet Explorer users into visiting a malicious website. Danish vulnerability clearinghouse Secunia gave the threat a “highly critical” rating in its Secunia SA29966 advisory. Secunia said the potential exposure of system and other sensitive information as well as remote system access warranted the rating.
The vulnerabilities are reported in versions 4.000.009.002 and prior. HP has issued an advisory and an update for the tool to plug the holes. HP said the Software Update tool is often installed as part of software supplied with its PCs, printers, scanners or cameras.
The flaws were discovered by security researcher, Tan Chew Keong. Specifically, the tool has an ActiveX control flaw, which could be exploited by an attacker to cause a stack-based buffer overflow. Keong said the flaws were discovered in March.
“Successful exploit requires that the user is tricked into visiting a malicious website using IE6 or earlier,” Keong said in a vuln.sg research advisory. “If the user uses IE7, he must first be convinced into allowing the ActiveX control to run.”
A second ActiveX flaw could be exploited to read registry entries or text files. After successfully exploiting the flaw, an attacker could also retrieve system and OS information, Secunia said.

(12) Define what ActiveX is (2 marks)
ActiveX is the name Microsoft has given to a set of strategic object-oriented programming technologies and tools

(13) Explain how hacker can exploit HP’s software update tool, according to Tan Chew Keong (3 marks)
From the HP Software Update Tool, user is tricked into visiting a malicious website, so when they visited the website, some malicious code will probably download automatically without they realize it.

(14) Explain why this is only vulnerable in IE6 (3 marks)
In IE 6, an ActiveX Control can activate automatically, or this option has been enabled for default.

(15) Identify three kinds of exploits that can happen in article above (3 marks)
* Read Registry Entries.
* Read some text files or documents.
* Retrieve System and OS Information.




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