Operating Systems

User mode and kernel mode on Windows

A processor in a computer running Windows has two different modes: user mode and kernel mode. The processor switches between the two modes depending on what type of code is running on the processor. Applications run in user mode, and core operating system components run in kernel mode. Many drivers run in kernel mode, but some drivers run in user mode.

When you start a user-mode application, Windows creates a process for the application. The process provides the application with a private virtual address space and a private handle table. Because an application's virtual address space is private, one application cannot alter data that belongs to another application. Each application runs in isolation, and if an application crashes, the crash is limited to that one application. Other applications and the operating system are not affected by the crash.

More details >> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff554836%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Lecture Evaluation: (some one said  that if you want to hide something from an African then put it in writing), credit goes to all those who participated in our evaluation exercise.

Every work done deserves to be evaluated, the power and effectiveness of the person delivering a service is based on how satisfied the beneficiaries are. Many times we fail to accept our criticisms leading to failure in strengthening our strong areas and improving our weak areas. 

This year 2012, I have managed to meet and teach very nice students of second year offering one of the three courses delivered under the institute of computer science of Mbarara University of Science and technology. These courses include Bachelor of Information Technology, Computer Science and Engineering. As an educator, it is always great to receive feedback from the students. On the 20^th November 2012 during my last meeting with these bright students of second year, I requested them to evaluate how the course has been delivered. This included both positive and negative views and their observations. The aim of this evaluation was to help me in evaluating myself and also allow students to express themselves freely and open helping in clearing the gap between the Lecturer and students.

The process I used was very simple, I requested students to get any plain paper and write the merits, demerits and any other comment that they deemed relevant for evaluation.

Below are some of the students’ positive comments to their lecturer,

Some appreciated the good introduction delivered in the first lectures which helped them enjoy the course, others admitted that at the beginning they never liked neither the lecturer nor the course because all were complicated but due to the clear explanations and examples, parental advise, encouragement, professionalism displayed and help from tutorial assistants, they were able to improve and change their attitude. “He is my mentor, values respect, open and I would like to be like him” are some of the comments passed on through the evaluation.

Updated, informed, friendly, audible, time management and approachable are other comments given about the lecturer.

Someone stated that, “this guy is caring because he teaches us in class, shares and lets us comment freely on his blog posts, involves us in decision making and he quickly responds to our consultations  from Facebook”.

“Since there is no smoke without fire” as one of the students put it, this drives me to the negative aspects given:

“The guy is complicated and hard to understand, too strict though he has a lot of jokes in class but to him business is nothing less, gives very wide notes like a street, tricky tests that need a lot of thinking, he never comes to social places to chart with us and he talks a lot”   

Most comments were concluded with lots of GOD’s blessings and good luck including comments like: “May you live to burst if any process calls in 2040”

Conclusion

However much we look at you/our students as consumers of knowledge, we have a lot of to share with them other than class work, tests and exams, the only way we can do this is through counseling, advise, friendship and providing you/them with any type of support to help them pursue their intended and targeted careers .

The field of ICT requires practitioners to be able to use various kinds of media especially in an academic setting, many lecture delivery methods exist but I chose to in the following ways: 1) lecture slides with clear explanations, 2) Social groups like Facebook and Google plus, 3) MUST Learning management system and 4) Blog. Among all the above tools, the mostly used tool was the blog (http://kimrichies.blogspot.com), almost 70% of my students credited the relativity of this tool in knowledge addition and free sharing.

What is an OS
Every electronic device is composed of both hardware (tangible) and software(non tangible) which cooperate together to enable the beneficially communicate with them and archive the desired results.

The operating system is the main driver in managing various interactions and resource allocation

Knowing the comparisons between UNIX and Windows is key to selection of an Operating System. A few of these comparisons in terms of functionality can be evidenced here >>>

Various types of Operating systems exist, more information can be accessed here>>