Most people who use computers are clueless to the internal ways that computers work. Here we will be talking a little about why a computer user might need to be familiar with things such as the binary system, Boolean operations, and the time it takes to transfer data. The average computer user is probably not aware that the actual operations of a computer are done with a binary system. Most of the time a typical computer user has no need to think about this aspect of computers, but every now and then the underlying binary nature will manifest itself. It’s more likely they will encounter a more compact variant of the binary system, called hexadecimal (or “hex” for short). Hex can come up on a Windows error message and the hex addresses may help pinpoint the source of trouble. Hex can also be used by spammers to hide their internet addresses. Another place where hex numbers commonly occur is in hypertext markup language (HTML) code where they are used to designate colors. Boolean Operators are simple words (AND, OR, NOT) used to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused and productive results. Using these operators can greatly reduce or expand the amount of records returned. They are useful in saving time by focusing searches for more ‘on-target’ results that are more appropriate to your needs. The AND operator narrows the search by requiring both terms to be in each item returned. If one term is contained in the document and the other is not, the item is not included in the resulting list. The OR operator broadens the search by making both terms be in the returned document. When using the NOT operator the first term is searched, then any records containing the term after the operators are subtracted from the results. The second most significant concept to understand about computer measurements is bandwidth, also known as data transfer rate. Bandwidth refers to the amount of information that can be sent or received through a computer or network connection in one second. If a person was trying to decide if they wanted to use a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 or a USB 1.1 to send a picture, they would look at the bandwidth of each to see which one is faster. A USB 1.1 port running at full speed transfers a maximum of 11 megabits per second (Mbps) and a USB 2.0 port running at high speed is 480 megabytes per second (MBps). The person should choose the USB 2.0 because it’s faster. There are two major types of data transfers that take place within a computer, parallel and serial. Before the development of high-speed interfaces, parallel interfaces were the most common types of interfaces between peripherals and PC components. Parallel is faster because when using parallel transfers, multiple bits of information are sent at the same time and when using serial transfers, only one bit is sent at a time.