Another reason for so much wasted time is all the fussing that employees do with hardware, software, and online connections. One study in the early 1990s estimated that microcomputer users wasted 5 billion hours a year waiting for programs to run, checking computer output for accuracy, helping coworkers use their applications, organizing cluttered disk storage, and calling for technical support. And that was before most people had to get involved with making online connection work or experience the frustrations of untangling complications wrought by spam, phishing, viruses, and other internet deviltry. The Stanford study led by Nie, referred to above, found that junk email and computer maintenance take up a significant amount of time spent online each day. Indeed, people surveyed said they spent 14 minutes daily dealing with computer problems, which would add up to a total of 10 days a year. Comments technology writer Dan Gillmor, “We would never buy a TV that forced us to reboot the set once a month, let alone once a week or every other day,”

What kind of natural hazards in my area might be a threat to my computer system?

Some disasters do not merely lead to temporary system downtime; they can wreck the entire system. Examples are natural hazards.
Whatever is harmful to property (and people) is harmful to computers and communications systems. This certainly includes natural disasters: fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and the like. If they inflict damage over a wide area, as have ice storms in eastern Canada or hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast states, natural hazards can disable all the electronic systems we take for granted. Without power and communications connections, cellphones, automated teller machines, credit card verifiers, and bank computers are useless.

How can JavaScript be helpful?

JavaScript is a popular object-oriented scripting language that is widely supported in web browsers. It adds interactive functions to HTML pages, which are otherwise static, since HTML is a display language, nor a programming language. JavaScript is easier to use than Java but not as powerful and deals mainly with the elements on the web page. JavaScript was originally developed by Netscap Communications under the name LivaScript” but was then renamed to “JavaScript” and given a syntax closer to that of Sun Microsystems’ Java language. The change of name happened at about the same time Netscape was including support for Java technology in its Netscape Navigator browser. Consequently, the change proved a source of much confusion. There is no real relation between Java and JavaScript; their only similarities arc some syntax and the fact that both languages are used extensively on the World Wide Web.

Many website designers use JavaScript technology to create powerful dynamic web applications. One major use of JavaScript is to write little functions that are embedded in HTML pages and interact with the browser to perform certain tasks not possible in static HTML alone, such as open­ing a new window and changing images as the mouse cursor moves over them.

What are e-business and, e-commerce, and what are three types of e-commerce systems?

At one time there was a difference between the Old Economy and the New Economy. The first consisted of traditional companies—car makers, pharmaceuticals, retailers, publishers. The second consisted of computer, telecom­unications and internet companies (AOL, Amazon, eBay, and a raft of “dot-corn” firms). Now, however, most Old Economy companies have absorbed the new internet-driven technologies, and the differences between the two sectors have dwindled. In other words, most companies arc now engaged in e-business, using the internet to facilitate every aspect of running ^business, As one article puts it, “At bottom the internet is a tool that dra­matically lowers the cost of communication. That means it can radically alter any industry or activity that depends on the flow of information.”
One sign of growth is that the number of internet host computers has been almost doubling every year. But the mushrooming of computer networks and the booming popularity of the World Wide Web are only the most obvious signs of the digital economy. Behind them lies something equally important: the growth of vast stores of information in databases.