Monday, 29 February 2016

Data Protection Act (1998)

Data Protection Act (1998):

The Data Protection Act covers all personal information like addresses, phone numbers email addresses and other information people could abuse.

You cannot use data you collect for any means other than those stated when it was collected.
If you store other people's data it must be well protected.
Data must not be kept for longer than is necessary and must be kept up to date.
Data must not be sold or given to other people or organisations unless the data provider agrees.
If a person or organisation has false data about you, you have the right to change it.
Organisations that store data must be registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.

Thursday, 25 February 2016

25/02/2016 Tasks

Pros and cons of original source data:

Pros:
You get the exact data needed.
Only gather as much as you need.
You know where the data came from;
so can judge how reliable it is.

Cons:
Takes a long time, depending on how much is collected.
Expensive unless hiring a third party.



Pros and cons of indirect data:

Pros:
It takes less time to gather indirect data than original source.
Cheaper to obtain.

Cons:
It could be false data.
No way of telling where it came from.
Could be more expensive than collecting it yourself.
May not be able to collect the exact data you want.



If you were developing a social media site, which type of data would you use and why?

Static: Some information like date of birth doesn't need to be changed, so it wouldn't make sense making it dynamic.
Dynamic: Most information would need to be to changed at some point, like age, name, gender, relationship status.

If you were developing a database archiving important government information, which would you use and why?

Static: Most information wouldn't change very often if it's important government information, so archiving the information would be better if it's static.
Dynamic:


Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Database task 1


Number 254    information: house number     knowledge: if between 200 and 300 deliver to address, data type integer, format text.

String 01874    information: telephone number    knowledge: add remaining digits on to make a mobile phone number.    data type string    format text

Colour Green    information: colour of text  Knowledge: if the colour of the text is green, it is above average    data type text    format text

Date 16/08/1974    information: date of birth    knowledge: if the date of birth is between 1951 and 1998.   data type date    format text

Number 89    information: age of a person    knowledge: if between 18 and 65 pay taxes    data type: integer    format: text


Friday, 12 February 2016

Caesar Cipher

A Caesar cipher is a cipher that encodes a message by shifting the alphabet by a certain amount of letters.
For example, if the cipher had a shift of 1 the alphabet would look like:
A B C D E F G H I
Z A B C D E F G H

So if the message was: "Cipher, not salad", and the cipher used a shift of 5:
The encoded message would be: "Hnumjw, sty xfqfi"

Caesar ciphers are easy to solve by hand and are extremely simple.


Thursday, 10 December 2015

Apple newsletter



The apple newsletter has text in small chunks so that it's easier to read and doesn't seem like you're reading as much. The logo is in the top-left of the page, as that is where your eyes are drawn to immediately, which they do so that you subconsciously associate the logo with the deals and brands. The information on the leaflet is about the new features of the new iMac, that is foregrounded because it's bigger and more contrasting than everything else, and other items. The images are very professional and easy to understand, relating to the text around it. There are contact details on the top and bottom of the page, along with on the section related to shipping.




Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Exam Question

1) One disadvantage of using printed acetate is that since it has to be put on a surface to be displayed on a wall, somebody could get in the way of the light and block it from being presented.
2) Another disadvantage of using printed acetate is that you would have to print off the sheets you want to present, instead of using a projector linked to a computer that would allow anything on the computer to be displayed.
E