UACE Marking guide

S850/1 Subsidiary ICT

Qn1
 Many countries require senders of Emails to obtain ‘opt-in’ permission before emails
are sent out
 A company or individual must have a clear way for recipients to ‘opt-out’
 Companies must provide subscribers with a very clear way to unsubscribe from their
listings
 Companies and organisations must take their privacy policy very clear to subscribers
who must be made aware of such policies
 Many countries don’t allow companies to harvest email addresses
 A valid postal address must accompany emails from companies or organisations
 It is important that emails are not sent out with false or misleading subject lines
Qn2(a) Netiquette refers to the need to respect other users’ views and display common
courtesy when posting views in online discussion groups or when sending out emails.
(b) Some ideas of what constitutes netiquette
 Don’t be abusive-don’t threaten people or use personal violence
 Don’t send spam-don’t repeatedly send somebody the same information
 Be clear and neat with your message
 Remember that posts are public in most cases and can be read by anyone
 Always check your spelling and grammar-give a good impression
 Respect people’s privacy and don’t discuss or publish information that might embarrass
somebody
 Forgive people’s mistake-don’t be compelled to respond to an error
 Don’t use CAPITAL LETTERS to highlight comments-this is seen as ‘shouting’ in emails,
text messages and online forums
 Don’t plagiarise-always acknowledge quotes used in any messages you write
 Don’t use too many emoticons as they might annoy your readers
Qn3 Differences that exist between the internet and an intranet
 An intranet is used to give local information relevant to the company or organization
whereas the internet covers topics of global or general interest
 It is possible to block certain websites using the intranet; while this is also possible with
the internet, it is more difficult
 The internet can be public access, whereas intranets tend to be private access
 An intranet is behind a firewall, which gives some protection against hackers, viruses;
this is more difficult to do with internet access since it is open on an international scale
 Intranet is an internal restricted access network while internet is an international
network
Qn4
Advantages
 Client files stored in the cloud can be accessed anytime, from any device, anywhere in
the world, provided internet access in available
 There is no need for a customer/client to carry an external storage device with them, or
even to use the same computer, to store and retrieve information
 The cloud provides the user with remote backup of data with obvious advantages to
alleviate data loss/disaster recovery
 If a customer has a failure of their hard disk, cloud storage will allow recovery of their
data
 The cloud system offers almost unlimited storage capacity
Disadvantages
 If a client has a slow internet connection, they could have problems accessing or
downloading their data.
 Costs can be high if a large storage capacity is required; it can also be expensive to pay
for high download/upload data transfer limits with the client ISP
 The potential failure of the cloud storage company is always possible- this poses a risk
of loss of all backup data
Qn5 (a) A web browser is software that allows a user to display a web page on their
computer screen.
(b) Features which are shared by web browsers
 They have a ‘home’ page
 They have the ability to store a user’s favourite websites/pages
 They keep history of the websites visited by the user
 They give the ability to go backward and forward through websites opened
 They have hyperlinks that allow users to navigate between web pages
Qn6
 Anybody can set up a website (claiming to be factually accurate), so information is not
necessarily reliable or accurate
 Some commercial websites will be biased (to advertise their products, for example)
 If website has excessive advertising it could be unreliable (due to pressures from those
advertising on their website)
 If the advertising on a website is related only to its own products it could be unreliable
 It is possible to use final part of URL to identify a website’s reliability-forexample,
websites ending with: .ac and .gov are more likely to be reliable
 It is always a good idea to see if responsible bodies have endorsed the website
 Check if the website has links to other reliable websites or to unreliable websites
 If a website has testimonials, this can indicate reliability
 If the date of the last update was a long time ago it is likely to be unreliable or out of
date
Qn7 (a) Generic file formats allow you to save files so that they can be opened on any
platform
(b) Common generic text files
Comma separated values: these files have a .csv file extension. This type of file takes data in
form of tables and saves it in text format, separating data items with commas.
Text: these files have a .txt file extension. This is not formatted and can be opened in any
word processor such as Microsoft Word.
Rich text format: these files have a .rtf file extension. This is a text file type that saves some
of the formatting within the text.
Qn8 (a) what is the difference between a header and a footer?
A header is the area of a document between the top of the page and the top margin.
A footer is the area of a document between the bottom of the page and the bottom margin.
(b) Why are headers and footers needed?
Headers and footers are needed to make sure that each page has elements like the page
number, book/document/chapter, logo, titles, file etc. placed consistently within them. If
these are placed in the header or footer, they only have to be placed once but will repeat on
every page. This saves the author a great deal of time and effort, not having to duplicate
their work on every page.
Qn9
a. HDD—Hard disk drive
b. ROM—Read Only Memory
c. RAM—Random Access Memory
d. SSD—Solid State drives
e. CMOS—Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-conductor
Qn10 the main features of a mainframe computer are:
 It has several CPUs
 It has very fast processor speeds
 It can support multiple operating systems
 It has huge amounts of storage capacity
 It has huge internal memories
 It often operate using time sharing or batch processing
Qn11 Advantages of digital cameras
 Easier to produce better quality photographs than with a traditional camera
 Easier and faster to upload photographs to a computer rather than having to scan in
hard copies when using traditional methods
 No need to develop film and print out photographs anymore—this saves money and is
also environmentally more acceptable
 Memory cards can store several hundred photographs
Disadvantages of digital cameras
 Images often need to be compressed to reduce the amount of memory used
 Need to be computer literate in using the camera properly; also, the transferring,
storing and manipulating of the images via a computer requires some understanding of
how computers work
 The resolution still isn’t as good as many expensive traditional cameras
 There is some artistry lost since clever software now corrects errors in the photographs
Qn12 methods of how to increase the security of Emails
 Using strong passwords when logging on to your email
 Changing passwords on a regular basis
 Using spam filters to remove suspicious emails to a ‘junk folder’ or even to block the
email entirely
 Running antivirus and ant-spam software at all times on your computer to protect
against emails from unknown or malicious sources
Qn13 Advantages of using magnetic stripe readers to read information
 Fast data entry compared with keying in with a keyboard or keypad
 Error free (since no typing is involved)
 Secure (information not in human readable form and, since there is no typing, removes
the risk of somebody observing your key strokes)
 Prevents access to restricted/secure areas
 Not affected by oil, water, moisture etc.
 No moving parts—so physically very robust
Qn14 Advantages using flash memory cards
 Very compact and can be easily removed and used in another device or for transferring
photos directly to a computer or printer
 Since they are solid state memories, they are very robust
Disadvantages
 Have a lower storage capacity than hard disks
 Expensive per gigabyte of memory when compared to hard drive disks
 Have a lower storage capacity that hard disks
Qn15 Advantages of connecting to the internet with a mobile phone
 It is easier to use a mobile phone while on the move than the other devices
 A person is more likely to have a mobile phone with them at all times
 Very portable; can be used almost anywhere provided a mobile phone network signal
can be accessed
Disadvantages
 Expensive to use if Wi-Fi hot spot not available
 The displays on mobile phones are smaller than on other devices—this makes it more
difficult to read web pages
 Keyboards are very small—it is therefore more difficult to type in messages or navigate
web pages
 Not all websites are mobile-friendly, therefore not all websites may be accessible
 Signal less likely to be as stable or reliable as a wired system (used by PCs and laptops)
Qn16 potential issues with video conferencing
 Potential time lag in responses/delays when talking
 Jerking images-usually due to poor internet/network performance or a poor bandwidth
 Can be very expensive to set up in the first place (both the hardware and the software
are expensive to purchase and set up correctly)
 There can be problems if the delegates live in different countries where the time zone
differences are large
 Training people to use the system correctly can be both costly and time consuming
 It can be demotivating for staff if they believe that one of the ‘perks’ of their job is
international travel
 The whole system relies on a good network connection—if it breaks down or the signal
strength is diminished in anyway, then the video conference can be almost unusable
Qn17 Advantages of multimedia presentations
 Use of sound and animation/video effects which are more likely to grab the attention of
the audience, and can also make the presentation easier to understand
 It is possible to have interactive/hyperlinks built into the presentation; this means the
presentation could access a company’s website or even key files stored on the cloud
 Use of transition effects allow a presentation to display facts in a key or chronological
order
 The presentations can be interactive
 They are more flexible; because of the links to websites and other external systems (e.g
the cloud), the presentation can be tailored to suit a particular audience
Qn18
Biometric technique Devices needed
Fingerprint scans scanner
Signature recognition Optical pen
Irish recognition Digital camera
Face recognition Digital camera
Voice recognition Microphone

Qn19 (a) spam as used in computing

Spam often referred to as junk email, is usually sent out to a recipient who is on a mailing
list or mailing group. Spam generally refers to unwanted/junk emails which are normally
sent to an individual
(b) Spam prevention techniques
 Do not sign up to commercial mailing lists
 Do not reply to an email or unsubscribe from a mailing list that you did not explicitly
sign up to in the first place
 Look out for check boxes that are already selected when items are bought online;
companies sometimes add a check box to indicate that you have agreed to sell or give
your email address to third party users; make sure that this check box is ‘unticked’
 To obtain the maximum protection possible when using the ‘junk email filter’ set the
protection level to high or to safe lists only. Make sure the junk mail filter is kept up to
date
Qn 20 sort of data which would be required on a patient for this database
 A unique identification number
 Name and address
 Date of birth
 Gender
 Medical history
 Blood group
 Any known allergies
 Doctor
 Any current treatment
 Any current diagnosis
 Important additional information such as X-rays, CT scans etc.