Week 14: Clear

Some of the information I read this week was way out of my realm of knowledge. I do remember, however, most of the stuff about RAID storage because of a previous lesson in this class. I did find DaaS pretty interesting however. Above is a slide from a powerpoint online I found that sort of breaks down more information about this topic.

According to the lectures, DaaS stands for "Desktop as a Service." It's described as desktops in the clouds and is a pay-as-you-go service. It's described as provision using policies and it changes from capital expenditures to operating expenditures.

Below is a link to a great article from Entrepenuer.com about DaaS being the new gold mine. It may be the best option for start-up-types and and for those just starting a business. I really enjoyed this article.

Link: http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/businessideas/article204498.html

Secure E-mail Project

It was truly an experience using Thunderbird for this project. I have never even heard of it before. One thing I do know, it makes my computer run super slow! Aside from that it is a pretty cool application.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/Secure-wireless-e-mail-promised-for-office/2100-1033_3-893756.html?tag=mncol;8n

This article was from CNET.com. This article talks about Sprint, Sprint PCS and Cingular all getting mobile, wireless secure e-mail apps or features for their phones. It is amazing how fast technology is changing and instead of reading about new secure e-mail programs online, we are reading about them being installed on wireless devices.

Sprint is also debuting a secure more like "text messaging" system where IT persons at a company can download the program at the computer and you can send e-mails and text messages simultaneiously.

I think with the way corporate America is going wireless, this is defintely needed.

I never knew how to encrypt an e-mail or what that even meant until this project. It was really interesting to even sign up with VeriSign because I had no idea what any of that even was. Very information and meaningful project!

Week 13: Clear

I found this weeks information more relatable then ever. I mean, everyone knows someone, or themselves, who has or had a virus on their computer. Recently, my friends entire computer shut down with a virus related to Lime Wire. I think it is all about taking care of your computer and making sure you have virus and other protection to increase it's lifespan.

The book talks about, on pages 556 and 557 about computer secruity risks. Here are some of what they talked about as well as what Professor Mearns talked about in her lecture. By the way, the interview with the UF department for computer secruity risks was very informative!

• Hacker: someone who gets access to a computer, illegally.
• Cracker: Acesses a computer illegally, much like a hacker, but with the intent to destroy data
• Script kiddie: Seems like a cracker, but does not really have the skills to perform those tasks
• Cyberextortionist: Uses e-mail as a way to extort
• Cyberterrorist: Uses the internet to destroy computer related to political reasons.

Hacking is some scary business, especially how you hear in the news about big businesses computers and networks getting hacked- because you'd think they would have enough security for that NOT to happen. Last week, I got a letter from University of North Florida, saying because I had applied there in 2006 and my personal information was in their system, a hacker had recently stolen files and mine could have been one of them. I had to call the crecit reporting bureaus and put a fraud alert on my credit report.

Below is a really great video I found on YouTube that talks more about viruses and hackers that has great narration and pictures. It helped add to this weeks lesson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRcJtpjYQY



Week 12: Clear

This weeks information was more of a refresher for me. I took a class Fall 2009 that went into nodes, TCPIP and nodes. Even though I am not a business or computer major, I found this information somewhat interesting. Computer technology is changing every minute, so who knows? Maybe all of this information in the power points will be obsolete in months? Years maybe?

• A PAN, or Personal Area Network, is a network that people have inside of their homes. According to the power point, it generally reaches around 10-30 feet and is the smallest of the networks that we talked about.

• A LAN, or Local Area Network, is a network that could span one building or several buildings clumped together. This may span nearly one mile.

• A MAN, or Metropolitan Area Network, is a network that spans roughly 50 miles and could include a town, or perhaps a university that needs the network for research.

• Finally, a WAN, or Wide Area Network, is a network that spans statewide or globally. An example of this is the internet itself.

I have a Wireless Router in my apartment, which inside my apartment I get perfect interset signal. However, the moment I step onto my porch, the signal strength goes down. According to the lecture, this could be due to the amount of obstructions inbetween the computer and the source of the signal. Also, because I do not have my network protected with a password, sometimes I cannot get on the internet, or my connection is slow because someone living next to me or above me is using my internet connection.

I used this video below to supplement some of the tougher material in this weeks information. I hope you find it useful, too.

Computer Networks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVvEheZVwdg

Extra Credit: Avatar

This avatar project was pretty fun. I chose a website where I did not have to sign up and give my e-mail. I chose the NY Zoo and Aquarium one because it is related to the Wildlife Conservation and I really care about animals. This was the first time I have ever created an avatar. I started making mine with real human characteristics, then I switched to making more of animal characteristics. I like how the different animal parts made different noises as you made them. Then lastly you can change the background you want your half animal/half person to be in! I really enjoyed this extra credit!

Access Database Project

I'd say after watching the video lectures online, it was not too bad doing this project. I guess I was a little nervous after the readings online said this project would be harder than the excel project. I learned actually a lot from the project- I really like the Report Wizard part the most. It is nice, thinking about it, after you make the forms and queries, putting it into one report and being done with it. The steps I found challenging, but I worked through them easily. I'm glad I got to download this program and do this project- it may be very certain I will use this during an internship or a job.

One item of functionality is importing one file at a time, or many files. For instance, if we wanted to just import one file on one certain person, we could do that- we would not have to import the entire file list containing all 1000 people. This would be good for use in a doctors or dentists office- for they have tons of patients and it would be time consuming if they had to import all of their patients name at one time, or just selecting one to import. Perhaps this would be useful when making the schedule for appointment or the list of patients for the next day.

I really enjoyed this project-I can't believe it is the second to the last project left for this semester. Can't wait to see what the Secure E-mail project is all about!

Week 11: Clear

I really enjoyed this weeks lesson on a topic I was a little foggy on. However, I was suprised when we went over Microsoft Project! I knew about the program, and was under the impression not a lot of other people did. I used it for one of my intenships over the summer. With my major being Public Relations and us using Gantt charts a lot, I found this program very useful!

The book, on page 623 talks about Project Management Software. It's software a project manager can use to assist them in things like planning and implementating, and making sure all parts of the project were divided up and among whom. The book talks about Gantt charts and PERT charts, both of which I have learned about in my PR classes.

A Gantt chart is abar chart that uses horizontal bars to show the project phases or activities. It is pictured above and was invented by Henry L. Gantt.

A PERT chart, pictured above, is a chart that analyzes the time requried to complete a task and the minimum time required to do so. It was developed by the US Department of Defense.

Either of these charts would be useful. During my internship, I used Microsoft Project to assign tasks to other interns who were Freshman. It gave due dates and short project descriptions for each. I found it very helpful.

Below is a link to a video to help you use Microsoft Project. When I first started using it, I found it very difficult to understand and manevuer until I finally got the hang of it! Hope this helps.

Microsoft Project help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2tQLHD1cRk