DEV Community: Oluwademilade Ala

Discussion on Computer fundamentals 2

Oluwademilade Ala — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 22:55:06 +0000

Hello everyone, my name is Oluwademilade Ala. I am currently studying and understanding Cloud computing. On today's topic I will be discussing about the CPU, RAM, Storage, Motherboard and OS (Operating System).

Before I begin, here is a side note of what I learned from my late night youtube series:

The earliest recognised device for computing was the “Abacus”, invented in Mesopotamia around 2500 BCE. It is a hand operated calculator that helps add and subtract many numbers. It also stores the current state of the computation much like our hard drive does today

If you want to learn more about that, I'll leave the link at the end of the lesson.

1. CPU
The CPU which stands for Central Processing Unit excutes instructions. Our programs are made up of instructions that the CPU executes. There are three terms we need to understand.

a. Core: This is an individual processing unit within a CPU. A CPU can contain multiple cores, most modern CPUs contain multiple cores

b. Clock speed: This roughly indicates how many CPU cycles occur per second, and it is usually measure in GHz(gigahertz). Note that a higher GHz alone doesn't guarantee that you'd have a faster computer because other things matter, like the CPU's architecture and workload.

c. Instruction: This is a basic operation that the processor can execute

I saw that later in AWS, I'd encouter something like EC2 and vCPU. A vCPU represents virtualised CPU capacity that is made available to your virtual machine

2. RAM
RAM (Random Access Memory) is responsible for holding information that programs are actively using.

so let us imagine you are working on your desk/table.

Your *SSD (Storage) * is the drawer containing all your books
Your RAM is where you put the books you are currently using
Your CPU is you, actively working on your maths assignment in your book (or maybe you're sneak watching NBA, I see you 👀.), and that's about it

One thing to note is that RAM is volatile, its content normally disappear when power is removed. That's why RAM isn't where you permanently store your books (documents, images,etc).

3. Storage
According to wikipedia (

Computer data storage or digital data storage is the retention of digital data via technology consisting of computer components and recording media. Digital data storage is a core function and fundamental component of computers.

View on Wikipedia>

)

Computer storage is any hardware or technology that captures and retains digital data (1s and 0s) so your computer can remember and access it.

A storage is persistent

Your applications, operating system, photos, videos, documents can remain there even after shutting down your computer (or when power is removed). Two major types of storage you'll encouter are HDD and SSD

a. HDD (Hard Disk Drive): This uses spinning magnetic platters to offer large amounts of storage space at a low cost.

b. SSD (Solid State Drive): This uses flash memory chips with no moving parts, making it much faster, quieter, and more durable than an HDD.

HDD — Hard Disk Drive: magnetic spinning disks; generally slower.
SSD — Solid State Drive: flash-based storage with no mechanical spinning disk; generally much faster.

I learnt that Cloud computing has the same concept. for instance, AWS EBS can provide persistent block storage to an EC2 virtual machine. we also have

YOUR COMPUTER CLOUD

CPU → vCPU
RAM → Memory
SSD/HDD → Persistent storage

4. Motherboard
The motherboard is the main circuit board connecting major hardware components.
CPU, RAM, storage and other hardware ultimately communicate through systems connected to the motherboard.

5. Operating System
This is the main software that manages a computer's hardware and runs other programs. Examples include: Linux, Windows and macOS.

An OS manages things such as CPU usage, Memory, Storage/Files, Hardware devices, Running programs

When you launch Chrome or brave, The browser doesn't simply take complete control of your CPU and RAM. The operating system manages resources and coordinates programs. This becomes extremely important later because much of cloud engineering involves Linux servers.

          APPLICATION
               ↓
      OPERATING SYSTEM
               ↓
  ┌────────────┼────────────┐
  ↓            ↓            ↓
 CPU          RAM        STORAGE

processing working persistent
memory data

Alright so that's my discussion and if you understand that, we're already building the mental model we'll eventually use for cloud servers. I'll see you in the next discussion about CPU + processes + threads

Oh here is also the I link I promised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5nskjZ_GoI&t=543s

À tout à l'heure.

Discussion on Computer fundamentals 1

Oluwademilade Ala — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 21:58:20 +0000

Hello, my name is Oluwademilade Ala and I am currently studying on computer fundamentals

Today's topic will be What is a computer?

In our generation or time, there is hardly going to be an individual that hasn't seen a laptop before except maybe you were born in the skies. Today I'll be discussing what actually happens when you pick up your laptop, try to play a game or watch a movie with your girlfriend, or even try to see what number of points Steph curry has on google.

Alright, so at the simplest level. We can think of four basic functions and say that a computer is a machine that

Recieves data --- Your keyboard (being the input) typing "Steph".
Processes data --- The computer processing that input using the CPU (Central processing unit)
Stores data --- The program and information it is currently working with are held in RAM (Random-Access Memory)
Produces a result - Your laptop screen showing Steph's 100 point.

This is what I understand as the basic computer model.

Next up, we'd be talking about the CPU (Central Processing Unit).

À demain tout le monde.
See you tomorrow.

A new discovery

Oluwademilade Ala — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 21:12:16 +0000

Hello everyone, I am starting a new series to document whatever I learn in this new path of my life.

My name is Oluwademilade Ala and I’d like to consider myself a man of many interests (or young man lol) but I am not writing this to talk about my many interests. That could be for another time, I guess.

This series would be about my newly found interest in Cloud engineering.

I’ve been able to curate a roadmap and I’ll be following through with it. I’ll share what I have learnt and also read corrections about how things could or can work better.

Here is the roadmap I intend to follow:

Phase 0 - See the entire journey
Phase 1 - Computer fundamentals
Phase 2 - Networking fundamentals
Phase 3 - Deeper networking
Phase 4 - Linux
Phase 5 - Bash
Phase 6 - Python automation
Phase 7 - Git/Github
Phase 8 - Cloud fundamentals
Phase 9 - AWS
Phase 10 - Terraform
Phase 11 - Docker
Phase 12 - CI/CD
Phase 13 - Kubernetes
Phase 14 - Monitoring
Phase 15 - System Design
Phase 16 - AWS Architecture

See you in the next one. I have a lot of people I can’t let down. I appreciate you for the daily reminders, too, Praise et al.

Bye
A plus tard.

Introduction to Github

Oluwademilade Ala — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 01:20:44 +0000

Have you ever wondered how to store or keep track of your project versions as a developer or software engineer? How to present your project to clients or collaborate with other developers?

We will go over how to combine Git with GitHub, one of the web platforms that developers use the most to share code and work in teams.

In this article, we'll cover the following to simplify how Git and Github works:

Difference between Git and Github
Create a Github account
How to get started with github and git
Create your first Github repository
Clone a Github project
Make a github commit
Github Desktop and Github CLI

What is Github

Github is a platform for developers to create, manage, store and share their code. Github also serves as a hosting service you can use to collaborate on projects and share files.

According to Github resources, It's not just developers who build on GitHub. Fortune 500 companies, small teams, project managers, and college professors all use GitHub to do their best work, in one place.

Why Github

Github is widely used among millions of developers to collaborate and work together, and the numbers keep increasing.

As a result, an increasing number of companies are expecting new workers to know how to use GitHub and Git. Therefore, these are the skills to have if you are looking for a job as a developer.

The interface also makes it easy for users to oversee other projects like documentations,research papers, grant proposals etc. Anyone can register and own a public repository on Github. It also helps businesses manage their team members and security.

Git vs Github

According to FreeCodeCamp, Git was developed in 2005 by Linus Torvalds as open source software for tracking changes in a distributed version control system.

You'll need an approach for tracking or documenting your code when working on a project. This helps with organization of your work and allows you to monitor the changes you have made. Git allows you to do this.

Git is a tool for managing different versions of source code updates that are afterward transferred to files in a Git repository, while Github is a location where copies of a Git repository can be uploaded.

How to get started with github and git

1. Install Git
You can check if you have git installed already by typing git version in your terminal.
To open your terminal in windows, click on the windows button and search for terminal or cmd. For mac, press the command and space button, then search for terminal.

If you don't have git installed, you can download git with this link and then choose the operating system you want to use.

2. Create a Github account
To register an account on github, click on this link where you'll be required to fill some information, make sure to set a strong and unique password.

3. Set up Git

set your username and email
Open your terminal and type the following commands

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"

To confirm that you have set them correctly, enter the commands:

git config --global user.name
git config --global user.email

You should have your selected name and email as the output

4. Create and edit your various files locally

5. Create a Github repository
You can create a github reposistory by visiting github.

After registering, select the Repositories tab

Select the add NEW repository button to create a new repository

Enter your name, choose whether to make the repository public or private. Anyone that is one the internet can see a public repository while you choose who can see and commit to a private repository.
Choose to add a README file where you can write a long description of your project.
Select the Create repository button to create your first github repository.

Clone a github project

After creating a github repository, navigate back to the Repositories tab. Follow these steps to clone a Repository to your local machine.

Copy the Repository URL

Open your terminal
Navigate to the directory where you'd like to place your project folder
Run git clone followed by your Repository URL

git clone https://github.com/"your-username"/your-repository.git

Navigate into the cloned repository

cd your-repository

You can open the Repository with any IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of your choice.

Make a github commit

Once you've added your files or made edits to your project files, you can save your changes on git by adding commits.

Commits allow Git to track changes locally on your device. This enables you to keep a history of changes to your files, allowing you to revert to a previous version if needed.

You can follow these steps to make a commit:

Open your project terminal

Stage the changes

git add .

Commit your changes

git commit -m "First Commit"

The -m flag in the git commit command stands for "message." It allows you to provide a commit message directly from the command line.

Push the changes to Github

git push origin main

If the origin is not set to main, adjust the command accordingly.

Github Desktop and Github CLI

Github Desktop is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) application that simplifies working with Git and Github.

The CLI offers a more direct and flexible way to perform Git operations Vishwas Acharya (GitHub Desktop vs Command Line: Which is Right for You?)

Both GitHub Desktop and GitHub CLI provide special benefits. GitHub Desktop is a great option for beginners and those who prefer a visual approach because of its user-friendly graphical interface, which makes interacting with Git and GitHub easier. GitHub CLI, on the other hand, gives users the command-line's flexibility and control, making it perfect for expert users and those who want to automate and script their GitHub activities. They are both made to help you be more productive and optimize your version control procedures.

In conclusion, Git and GitHub are strong tools that complement one other to facilitate collaborative development and version control. Git is a distributed version control system that facilitates version control, change tracking, code version management, and effective teamwork. By offering a repository hosting platform, encouraging teamwork, and including extra capabilities like pull requests, issue tracking, and continuous integration, GitHub expands upon Git.