Computers Ethic in the Workplaces - Coursework Example

COMPUTERS IN THE WORKPLACE Ethical and legal usage of computers may be unclear for employees. Because of un d boundaries, there are employees who unknowingly break laws as well as violate computer ethics unintentionally. According to the Free Encyclopedia of Commerce, a recent study on Fortune 500 companies revealed that about 97% of employees feel that it should be necessary to establish grounds which make ethical and non-ethical usage of computers clear. Much data from other studies also showed that guidelines that have been printed on paper reduced the risks of breaking ethical norms in the workplace. There have been many legislative laws passed to punish and/or prevent deviance from computer ethics in the workplace. Such legislations include the Foreign Corrupt Practices act of 1997 and the 1991 Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 states that companies are responsible for their employee’s actions. The Foreign Corrupt Practices act of 1997 was created to recognize questionable actions among corporations. Guidelines that have been created are amongst the following: 1. All forms of communication devices or otherwise that belong to the company can only be used for the benefit of the company. Only those who are authorized may be able to use the internet but only for official business reasons. 2. Software that is needed to support your job must be analyzed and accepted by a supervisor and installed by the IT department. 3. Use of internet can provide security breaches and other harmful effects to your company’s system. Thus only authorized personal should be able to use the internet. 4. E-mail also applies to this. It can only be used for reasons that involve the company’s intention. Any viewing of pornography or sending of pornographic messages will be logged and taken against the offender. Any discrimination found in e-mails will also be logged and can be grounds for termination. 5. Any information stored or sent from company’s devices are property of the company. No information created or stored in the workplace should be considered private. Your computer and information can be confiscated at any time. I agree with these terms because this equipment is company owned. The company has every right to know what is going on with its employers and how its devices are being used. Secondly, work is work. There is time for one to play games but not during work hours and especially not with work property. Information and Hard Discs 1. First the information must be located on a disk. The wares that determine which part of the disk to read can be the application, operating system, system BIOS and a specialized driver software for the disk. 2. One or more translations steps are needed make a final request to the drive producing an address expressed in its geometry. The drive’s geometry typically consists of terms such as the cylinder, the head and sector of the drive that is supposed to be read. Through the disk drive interface, a request is sent to the drive giving the specified address and permission to retrieve the sector of interest. 3. The control program of the hard disk will begin by checking if the requested information is in the hard disk’s cache. If it is present then the program will supply the information on the spot. 4. Drives are usually spinning. If the power management has been modified to "spin down" to conserve energy, the drives controller board will allow the spindle motor to “spin up” the drive so it can operate. 5. The controller board would continue reading and translate information .It would also consider the unique characteristics of the drive. The logic program of the hard disk would consider also the number of the cylinder. The cylinder then relays to the disk what track should be used on the disk’s surface. Then, the actuator finally reads/write the head to the right track. 6. As soon as the heads are in the right place, it starts reading the location. It prioritizes the sector that was requested to be read. The disk would rotate until it has the correct sector number. Finally, he heads start reading the contents of the selected sector. 7. The controller board manages how information from the hard disk is stored into a storage area known as buffer. Lastly, the information is sent to the system memory, fulfilling the system’s request. Utility Program Functions 1. Defragmenting utility – This utility is important for a PC user because it can make the computer work efficiently. There are times when files on a drive becomes fragmented thereby causing the drive head to look in different places just to locate information. This utility is like a filing system where noncontiguous files are reorganized so they can become contiguous files. The main benefit of having this utility file is that it boosts the performance and reliability of the hard drive. 2. Anti-virus utility – One of the most popular utilities used today due to the presence of security threats to computers. An anti-virus utility is basically a software that protects computers from other threats such as spyware or malware, which can corrupt your system or steal information. Constant updates are needed so the utility can ward off the latest threats. Although this utility can sometimes slow down the operations, especially if it is scanning in the background. There are numerous types of anti-virus utility available offering different levels of protection. 3. Registry cleaner utility – Another type of software utility that can clean the invalid entries on the database which can’t be done manually. This was designed basically for Windows OS to clear up registry that is not anymore needed within the system. Among the basic functions of registry cleaner utility are: searching invalid entries or repairing broken links within the system. Part 2 Most dictionaries define a programming language as a coded language mainly used by programmers to write instructions, which can then be translated into a machine then executed by a computer. Presently, there exists thousands of programming languages. Grouping the languages can be done by determining their function or use. The most general classification would be between a compiler language and an interpreted language. A compiled language is a code developed by a programmer who can be converted into machine language through the use of a special software called compiler. Popular example of which is C++. On the other hand, there is an interpreter language which actually shares almost the same structure as the compiler. The main difference is that the interpreter utilizes less time than the compiler and produces a much different code. Here are the main characteristics of each language: Compiler characteristics: Uses more time to analyze program The machine produces a binary-code. The computer hardware directly interprets the code. Fast execution of the program Interpreter characteristics: Time spent on processing the program is short. The code result is an intermediate code. The code is not interpreted by the machine, but by another program. Slow execution of the program Low-level language There are two generations of low-level language developed so far from which comparisons can be made. The first generation programming language (also known as 1GL) is actually a machine code. In fact, this is the only language most microprocessors use directly. Nowadays, this language is rarely used because it is too complicated. Instead, high-level programming languages are used because they are more efficient in handling tasks. The second generation programming language ( 2GL) is an assembly language. The programmer who uses this language must be very familiar with a microprocessor’s architecture. The basic instructions are assembled (hence the term “assembly”) into the machine code directly. Both the machine code and the assembly code are abstracted into another assembly code. Sources " Computer Ethics - Computer Ethics In The Workplace - Ethical, Companies, Company, Organizations, Norms, and Employees ." Free Encyclopedia of Ecommerce. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. . Heathfield Susan M.. "Sample Internet and Email Policy."Human Resources - Business Management Development Jobs Consulting Training Policy Human Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2011. Read More