Computing Group – Meeting Held On 14th February 2019

Meeting Content

Subjects covered:

  • Making the most of your Web Browser

  • An overview of the Apple Mac Operating System

Those who weren't able to attend can also benefit from knowing about the meeting content.

Meeting Details

The meeting had two parts: Part One Web browsers are now the vital piece of software that we use to find 'stuff' on the internet. But the most popular browsers have so much more to offer than simply using the internet to find what we are looking for.

A little on the history of the Web Browser:

A variety of web browsers are available with different features, and are designed to run on different operating systems. Common browsers include Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Firefox from Mozilla, Google Chrome, Safari from Apple, and Opera. All major browsers have mobile versions that are lightweight versions for accessing the web on mobile devices. Web browsers date back to the late 1980s when an English scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, first developed the ideas that led to the World Wide Web (WWW). This consisted of a series of pages created using the HTML language and joined or linked together with pointers called hyperlinks. Following this was the need for a program that could access and display the HTML pages correctly – the browser. In 1993, a new browser known as Mosaic was developed, which soon gained widespread usage due to its graphical-interface capability. Marc Andreesen, a member of the Mosaic development team, left in 1994 to develop his own commercial browser based on Mosaic. He called it Netscape Navigator, and it quickly captured over 90 percent of the nascent browser market. It soon faced stiff competition in 1995 from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which was freely bundled with Windows 95 (and later versions of Windows). It was pointless to buy Navigator when Internet Explorer was free, and as a result, Navigator (and Netscape) were driven into the ground. But while Mosaic and Netscape are no longer around, the age of the browser was launched and continues to this day, as more and more applications move to the web.

What can Web Browsers do? They can improve your productivity and the many 'extensions' are sometimes very useful to understand. The video that demonstrates the Google's Chrome browser is available to watch.

Part Two The main Operating Systems that are used around the world are Microsoft Windows and the Apple Mac. In this session we covered how the Mac OS works. There are lots of similarities between the two but we gave an overview of why the Mac is worthwhile considering when you come to change your pc. The Mac has been around now since 1984. The concept moved computing from the 'green' screen with text based commands to the idea of icons and pictures as well as text. It also introduced the 'mouse'. Clicking on the two links below will take you to the videos we watched during the meeting.

Steve Dotto is a Canadian.

He's an ex-television presenter who specialised in technology. His style is down-to-earth but he's well worth watching.

He has a vast wealth of knowledge of all stuff related to the internet and computing that he shares from his own website. He has lots of youtube videos that are accessible via his Dotto Tech Channel.

 

Anson Alexander is American.

In this short video he explains the basics of how the Mac OS works.

Like Windows it has software applications that help with productivity and the file and folder structure are also similar.

At first it seems very different to the Windows OS but it does lots of common features.

This video is from PHLEARN (Pronounced the PH as we do in English, as an F sound)

In this short video he explains some excellent ways of how to improve your efficiency.

Well worth watching!