Cloud Computing - Using Software on the Internet
Cloud computing means using software that is installed on the Internet. You can also save your work on another computer instead of the hard drive of your own PC or laptop. Music, letters, presentations and other projects can be stored on clouds, data storage areas on giant servers on the Internet.
There are many so-called web applications that can do the same as normal desktop software. Google Documents, for example, gives you a text editor, a slide show application and a program for creating tables and diagrams. You can use these programs for free – from any computer all over the world.
Up to now web browsers were only used to search for information on the Internet and show it. But now they have become something like operating systems which can give you almost everything that you have on your own PC desktop.
Cloud computing can also be cheaper than buying expensive software. Many basic applications on the net are free, but you may have to pay to use some of the more complexprograms. Companies do not have to buy expensive software licenses for all their workers and computers do not have to be better and more powerful all the time because all you need is a simple web browser, like the Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Cloud computing allows people from different parts of the world to work on a project together. Teachers and pupils, for example, might work on the same text together. Companies around the world can work together on a single computer and do not have to send data back and forth.
There are, however, some things that make computer users skeptical. One of the big problems is security. With cloud computing, you give your data to someone else. Users are also worried that they might lose their data on other computers. In any case, cloud computing is marching forward and in a few years we may only be having a web browser running on our PCs.
- application = приложение
- basic = основной
- complex = сложный, составной
- create = создавать
- data = информация
- desktop = рабочий стол
- giant = гигантский
- however = однако
- in any case = в любом случае
- instead of = вместо
- license = лицензия
- save = сохранять
- search = искать
- security = безопасность
- single = один и тот же
- store = хранить
Match the words from the text with their definition.
| basic | information |
| security | permission to use computer software |
| license | hard disks on network computers on which you can store your data |
| create | very big |
| giant | a system in a computer that helps all the programs work together |
| data | from one computer to another one that is far away |
| complex | look for |
| operating system | safety , protection of data |
| save | only one |
| search | with many different parts |
| back and forth | store |
| single | main, important |
| storage area | make |
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Read the article, answer the questions. Define the tense form of the underlined verbs.
Passwords test memory
Many of us have difficulty remembering the new password which we have to create. In this edition of Hi-Tech we look at those keywords which we keep to ourselves and which keep our secrets.
But how is it possible to look at people’s passwords if they are secret? One study comes from researchers in Ontario University, Canada, who analysed 32 million passwords, published by a hacker who cracked a database of an on-line gaming website. Here are some of the conclusions.
24 is the average number of passwords that each user has to remember and 43 percent of people use the same password for more than one account.
34 percent of us use simple passwords, based on elemental concepts while 66 percent use complex passwords, based on algorithms or created by a computer.
Many passwords are quite easy to discover for example 17 percent use birthdays, ten percent use their name or family name while nine percent use pet names.
Sometimes we get upset when we don’t remember a password. So we use different methods to remember them.
Seventy one percent learn passwords by heart, 12 percent write it on their computer or smartphone, 10 percent write it down on paper and seven percent save it using special programmes.
1. What is the number of passwords you have to remember?
2. Does the majority of people use simple passwords?
3. Is it easy to discover somebody’s password?
4. What methods do we use to remember passwords?
Put some questions to the article