Overview, Computers 101, Safety and Professionalism

Monday night we covered initial topics in A+. The overview gave informed us of the Certification Process, hands on process, and Employment Outlook. We were also told about having a G(oal) P(lan) S(acrifice). This GPS is a road map for achieving our Certification goals.

 My goal is to become an A+ Certified Technician by passing the following exams on the first try at the 95% (95 questions correct) level: 220-701 A+ Essentials and 220-702 A+ Practical Application. My plan for achieving this goal is the following:

1. Attend all scheduled days of CompTIA A+ Certification at MicroTrain Technologies (5 hours a week).
2. Focus on acquiring and understanding the material so I can score at 95% or better on class quizzes by 21 December.
3. Study outside of class at least 4 hours a day/20 hours a week)
4. Use all supplemental resources available to me either which were handed out in class or which I have purchased.

Achieving this goal by following this plan means sacrificing extra church activities and spending time with friends.
We also went over the rules for Business
Rule #1: Make Money
Rule #2: Don't Forget Rule #1.
How to make money

1. Customers [Computers: Businesses 99.9%, Homes 70%]
2. Service or product [fulfills a need or want]
3. Trust.

What this class can do for you.

1. Certification (talk)
2. Hands-on (walk)
3. $$$

Class Content
We covered Computer Hardware and Software, Computer Measurements, System Resources and Safety, as well as Professionalism and Communications. We had to memorize the Computer Measurements chart on page four of the notes and the System Resources charts on page 35 of the notes for the quiz on Wednesday. We discussed particulars with regard to computers and software, learned of an assorted list of items that are part of a computer system, types of computers and types of software.

Computer Measurement
bits (b)	0's and 1's
Nibble	4 bits
Byte (B)	8 bits
Kilobyte (KB)	1,024 Bytes
Megabyte (MB)	1,048,576 Bytes
Gigabyte (GB)	1,073,741,824 Bytes
Terrabyte (TB)	1,099,511,627,776 Bytes

System Resources

Resource	DMA	IRQ	I/O Address
System Timer		0	040-043
Keyboard		1	060-064
Cascading with 9		2
COM 2 or COM 4(Serial or Infrared Devices)		3	2F8-2FF or 2E8-2EF
COM 1 or COM 3(Serial or Infrared Devices)		4	3F8-3FF or 3E8-3EF
LPT 2 or Sound Card	1	5	278-27F or 220-xxx
Floppy Drive Controller	2	6	3F0-3F7
LPT 1 (Paralell Devices ECP or EPP)	3 (ECP)	7	378-37F
System CMOS/Real Time Clock		8
Cascading with 2		9
Open	5, 6, 7	10, 11
PS/2 Mouse Controller		12
Numeric Data Processor aka Math co-processor		13	0F0-0FF
Primary IDE or Hard Drive Controller		14	1F0-1F7
Secondary IDE or Hard Drive Controller		15	170-177
2nd DMA Controller	4
Joystick			200-207