WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Today, computers are all around us. From desktop
computers to smartphones, they're changing

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the way that we live our lives. But have you
ever asked yourself, "What exactly IS a computer?"

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A computer is an electronic device that manipulates
information, or "data." The computer sees

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data as 1's and 0's, but it knows how to combine
them into more complex things, such as a photograph,

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movie, website, game, and much more.
Computers use a combination of hardware and

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software. Hardware is any physical part of
the computer, which includes all of the internal

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components and also the external parts like
the monitor and the keyboard. Software is

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any set of instructions that tells the hardware
what to do, such as a web browser, media player,

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or word processor.
When most people say "computer," they're talking

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about a personal computer. This can be a desktop
computer, or a laptop computer, which has

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basically the same capabilities but in a more
portable package.

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Personal computers come in two main styles:
PC and Mac. PCs are the most common type.

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There are many different companies that make
them, and they usually come with the Microsoft

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Windows operating system. Macs, or Macintosh
computers, are all made by one company - Apple

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- and they come with the Mac OS X operating
system.

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Computers come in many other shapes and sizes.
Mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, and

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even TVs have built-in computers, although
they may not do everything a desktop or a

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laptop can.
There's another type of computer that plays

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an important role in our lives: servers. A
server serves information to other computers

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on a network. In fact, every time you use
the internet, web servers deliver the web

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pages that you want to see to your computer.
Servers are also used in many offices to store

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and share files.
As you can see, there are many different types

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of computers out there, and they affect our
lives in a variety of ways.