Unit2Topic2

1. Data. Data is raw facts and figures. A birthday date is data, but it doesn't mean very much without having the person's details whose birthday it is. An address can be made up of a number of parts - a house number, a street, a postcode, each part doesn't mean very much without all of the pieces together. Data can take the form of a number, a date, a word, an image, a clip of film, or a piece of sound.

How might Data arise? Data will come from a number of different sources in different forms.

Encoding data means that it has been put into a specified format relating to the type of the data. This means that it is a much more efficient way for the computer to use it , being processing data, transmitting and receiving data, or storing data. All computers ultimately transfer all data and encoded data into binary code before it can perform any processing. The binary code will be shorter if data has already been encoded thus enabling faster processing and transmission.

sound files;
- AAC: Compressed audio file similar to a .MP3 file, but offers several performance improvements; examples include a higher coding efficiency for both stationary and transient signals, a simpler filterbank, and better handling of frequencies above 16 kHz; maintains quality nearly indistinguishable from the original audio source.
  AIF: CD-quality audio file, similar to a .WAV file; developed by Apple Computer.
- M3U: playlists are typically used for audio playlists, but some may also include references to video files,
- MIDI: Standard MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file; contains music data such as what notes are played, when they are played, how long each note is held, and the loudness (velocity) of each note.
- MP3: Compressed audio format developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group; uses "Layer 3" audio compression; commonly used to store music files and audiobooks on a hard drive; may provide near-CD quality sound (stereo, 16-bit) in a file roughtly 1/10 the size of a .WAV or .AIF file.
- MPA: Compressed audio file using MPEG Layer I, II or III compression.
- WAV: Standard digital audio file format for storing waveform data; allows audio recordings to be saved with different sampling rates and bitrates; often used to save CD-quality audio.
- WMA: Audio file compressed with Windows Media compression; proprietary format developed by Microsoft, similar to the .MP3 format; can be converted to other more standardized formats; often used for playing music from the Web.
image files;
- BMP: Uncompressed raster image made up of a rectangular grid of pixels; each pixel is a different color (or level of gray for grayscale images), which together form an image; zooming in on a bitmap image will make it appear blocky since the size of each pixel increases.
- DRW: Generic drawing format used by several different programs; stores image data in a vector format, which uses lines and directions to represent the image instead of dots.
- GIF: Image file that may contain up to 256 indexed colors; color palette may be a predefined set of colors or may be adapted to the colors in the image; lossless format, meaning the clarity of the image is not compromised with GIF compression.
- JPG: Compressed graphic format standarized by the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group); supports up to 24-bit color, which makes JPEG a good format for storing digital photos; compressed using lossy compression, which may noticeably reduce the image quality if high amounts of compression are used. JPEG images are commonly used for Web graphics and for storing photos taken with a digital camera.
- PDF: Cross-platform document created by Adobe Acrobat or a program with the Acrobat plug-in; commonly used for e-mail attachments or for saving publications in a standard format for viewing on mulitple computers; usually created from another document instead of from scratch. May contain text, images, forms, annotations, outlines, and other data; preserves fonts and formatting electronically across multiple platforms; appears on the screen as it will when printed on paper.
- PNG: Image format that uses indexed colors and lossless compression (like a .GIF file), but without copyright limitations.
- PSD: Document created by Adobe Photoshop, the most commonly used professional image editing program; can include image layers, adjustment layers, layer masks, annotation notes, file information, keywords, and other Photoshop-specific elements.
- PSP: Color bitmap image saved in Paint Shop Pro format; may include layers, guides, vector paths, metadata, and other objects within the image file.
- QXP: QuarkXpress project file created by QuarkXpress version 6 and later; contains page layout information, text, and images; may consist of a single page or multiple pages.
- TIF: High-quality graphics format often used for storing images with many colors, such as digital photos; includes support for layers and pages.
video files;
- AVI: Video container or wrapper format created by Microsoft; stores video data that may be encoded in a variety of codecs; typically uses less compression than similar formats such as .MPEG and .MOV.
- MOV: Common multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files; uses a proprietary compression algorithm developed by Apple Computer; compatible with both Macintosh and Windows platforms.
- MP4: Movie or video clip that uses MPEG-4 compression, a standard developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); commonly used for sharing video files on the Internet. The MPEG-4 video format uses separate compression for audio and video tracks; video is compressed with MPEG-4 video encoding; audio is compressed using AAC compression, the same type of audio compression used in .AAC files.
- MPG: Common video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG); typically incorporates MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 audio and video compression; often used for creating downloadable movies.
- RM: Media file format used by RealPlayer; may contain audio or video data or both; can be a downloaded file or a streaming media file, which is played back as it is downloaded.
- SWF: Animation created by Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash); can include text as well as both vector and raster graphics; plays in Web browsers that have the Flash plug-in installed; most Web browsers come with a recent version of the Flash plug-in.
- WMV: Video or audio file based on the Microsoft Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container format and compressed with Windows Media compression; basically an .ASF file that is encoded using the Windows Media Video (WMV) codec.
text files;
- ASCII: Stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." ASCII is the universal standard for the numerical codes computers use to represent all upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and puctuation. Without ASCII, each type of computer would use a different way of representing letters and numbers, causing major chaos for computer programmers. Data from the keyboard is coded in Binary, but using a special code of 8 Bits, known as a Byte (Bit is a binary 0 or 1; a Byte is a collection of 8 Bits). For example capital A is represented as 0100 0001.
- DOC: Word processing document created by Microsoft Word, the most popular word processing program; included with all versions of Microsoft Office; may contain formatted text, images, tables, graphs, charts, page formatting, and print settings.
- DOCX: Word processing format introduced with Microsoft Word 2007 (part of Office 12); based on Open XML and uses ZIP compression for smaller file sizes.
- RTF: Common text file format that supports "rich text;" may include several types of text formatting, such as bold type, italics, different fonts and font sizes, custom tab settings, etc; may also support images saved within the text file.
- SMS: A group of SMS text messages exported from a Sony Ericsson cell phone; saved in a text format that can be viewed with cell phone software or a basic text editor.
- TXT: Standard text document that contains unformatted text; recognized by any text editing or word processing program; can also be processed by most other software programs.
- WPS: Text document created with Microsoft Works Word Processor; similar to Microsoft Word (.DOC) document, but does not include advanced formatting options and macros that a Word document may contain.
data files;
- DLL: Text document created with Microsoft Works Word Processor; similar to Microsoft Word (.DOC) document, but does not include advanced formatting options and macros that a Word document may contain.
- MDB: Database file created by Microsoft Access, one of the most widely-used database programs; contains database content as well as tables, forms, queries, etc.
- PPT: Editable slide show created with Microsoft PowerPoint; often used for creating presentations; may include formatted text, bullet points, images, movies, sound effects, and other audio files; often built from one of many templates included with the PowerPoint software.
- SQL: Database file written in SQL (Structured Query Language); can be read by any SQL-compatible database program, such as FileMaker, MS Access, or MySQL.
- XMS: Spreadsheet file created by Microsoft Excel, the most widely-used spreadsheet program; stores data in a table with rows and columns; table cells can contain manually entered data or the results computed from the data of other cells; can also be used to create charts and graphs.
web files;
- HTM: HTML Web page that contains code which displays and formats text and images in a Web browser; ".htm" is the extension typically used by Microsoft FrontPage or newer Microsoft Web development programs such as SharePoint Designer and Expression Web.
- HTML: Web page coded in HTML that can be displayed in a Web browser; formats text, tables, images, and other content that is displayed on the page; HTML source code is parsed by the Web browser and typically not seen by the user.The raw HTML source code can be viewed by choosing "View Source" from the Web browser's view menu or by opening the HTML file in a text editor.
- JS: Text file containing JavaScript code; used to execute JavaScript instructions in Web pages; may include functions that open and close windows, validate form fields, enable rollover images, or create drop-down menus.
system files;
- DRV: Allows certain hardware devices (both internal and external) to be recognized and used by the computer; contains commands that enable communication between the computer and hardware devices.
- KEY: Contains registration information or a security code for a software program; often created when the program is registered; typically stored in the program's application folder or the system preferences folder.
- SYS: Stores system settings and variables used by the DOS and Windows operating systems; also contains functions that are used to run the operating system; SYS files typically should not be edited.

There is another way of encoding data before being input into an ICT system, there are a number of reasons for this:

2. Data is processed to produce information. (Much more about processing data is in Topic 7). The type of processing that takes place are: calculating; sorting; grouping; filtering; structuring; making decisions - (Boolean meaning AND OR NOT).

3. Information. Is the result of the processing, and is used by people. People will also use their knowledge of the results to give it meaning as so base decisions on that information.

Useful information has meaning to the user of that information, if the information is:

Data collected and held by organisations quickly becomes out of data. Organisations spend a lot of money collecting data for their own requirements, and for that data to be useful they also need to keep it up to date.

2. Data & Information