1.3 Exchanging data Flashcards
What is the purpose of compression?
- Reduce the size of a file
- Reduce download times
- Reduce storage needed
- Make best use of bandwidth
What are the 2 methods of compression?
- Lossy
- Lossless
How does lossy compression work on images?
- Stores a lower number of colours or stores larger areas of pixels as a single colour
- As a result, reduces the quality of the image.
- A small reduction is barely noticeable, at least by the human eye.
How does lossless compression works?
- Compresses an image to the point where it doesn’t lose quality, as it best works on images where there is a continuous area of the same colour
- Most effective on vector- style images such as logos and icons
What compression type should you use on text files and executables and why?
- Lossless
- Because we must not lose any of the data during compression
What are the characteristics of lossy compression?
- Some data is lost when the file is compressed
- Slightly reduces quality but significantly reduces file size
- Suitable for images, audio and video
What are the characteristics of lossless compression?
- None of the original data is lost
- The original file can be recreated when it is uncompressed
- Suitable for executable files and documents
What is a database?
- An organised collection of data
What is a flat file database?
- A database that contains only a single table, often saved as a CSV file.
What are the benefits of a flat file database?
- Simple to understand
- Quick to set up
- Requires little expertise to maintain
Why can flat files become inefficient?
- Repetitive data
- Repeating data takes up more space in the database, and as the database grows, the situation will get worse
- If you only used flat file databases, they would soon become difficult to maintain, slow to query and take up unnecessary space
What do 2 tables need to be turned into a relational database?
- A common field
What is a primary key?
- A field in a record that is unique
- Primary keys serve as unique identifiers for each row in a database table
What are the 3 possible relationships in linking tables?
- One to one
- One to many
- Many to many
What is a ERD?
- Entity relationship diagram
- A sketch of the relationships between databases tables
What is a foreign key?
- Foreign keys link data in one table to the data in another table
How can you capture data?
- Using paper-based data capture form
- Optical character recognition (OCR)
- Optical mark recognition (OMR)
How can we design a data capture form to avoid errors and make it as fast as possible?
- Every part of the form labelled clearly
- Instruction to complete the form in a black pen
- Instruction to complete the form in capital letters
- Use of tick boxes
- Squares for entering each letter separately
How does OCR work?
- Reads text by interpreting the shape of the letters, it works better with printed text rather than handwriting
How does OMR work?
- Often used for multiple-choice tests and lottery tickets
- Very fast and efficient for collecting data and inputting it in a database
What are examples of selecting data?
- SQL
- Query by example (QBE)
What do both SQL and QBE allow you to do?
- Specify tables, fields, criteria, output sorting
- Use boolean expressions
What does a DBMS provide?
- Hides the underlying structure of the data and ensures it remains integral by:
- Preventing the creation of duplicate primary keys
- Enforcing validation rules
- Providing secure access
- Providing encryption
- Providing program data independence
- Managing multiple users
What are the 2 common formats of exchanging data?
- CSV
- XML
- JSON
What is EDI?
- Electronic Data Interchange
- A protocol between 2 systems to facilitate exchange of data
What is a standalone machine?
- A single computer not connected to anything else
What are some advantages of a network?
- Users can share files
- Users can access files from any computer on the network
- Users can share peripherals and connections to other networks such as the Internet
- Communication with other people
- Servers can control security, software updates and backups of data
What are some disadvantages of a network?
- Increased security risk to data
- Malware and viruses spread very easily between computers
- If a server fails, the computers connected to it may not work
- Computers may run slower if there is a lot of data travelling on the network
What are standards?
- Set of hardware and software specifications that allow manufacturers to create products and services that are compatible with each other
What are some examples of standards?
- HTML
- Character sets
What is a protocol?
- A set of rules for communication over a network
What are the 3 types of protocol used for communication over LAN/WAN?
- TCP
- IP
- UDP