Week 14: Clear RAID storage techniques

This week’s study topic was “Enterprise Computing.” In enterprise computing, storage methods or techniques can hinder an enterprise’s ability to thrive or it can be an advocate to the company’s success. Since computer storage is such a crucial element of the business, companies tend to seek out the best techniques for storage. Some storage techniques discussed in week fourteen’s topic were the RAID techniques.

An enterprise needs storage techniques that have a very great storage capacity, a high performance rate, and preferably a system for backing lost data. We learned about three different types of RAID techniques this week for this kind of storage: RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. First of all, RAID is short for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. A RAID storage technique is basically just a collection of storage disks that act as one.

RAID 1 is the “mirroring” technique. This means that every block of data is written on two separate drives that act as one drive. Therefore if there is a failure within one driver there is always a backup, and also the system will still run at full speed. Raid 0 is the “striping” technique. This technique uses two or more drives. In this technique the blocks of data are spread out on multiple disks, so if one disk fails the whole system fails. The reason why people take a chance on this method is because it is really fast. RAID 5 is kind of like RAID 1 and RAID 0 combined. This technique requires three or more disks. All disks except one have the data spread out onto them. The remaining disk mirrors the others for backup purposes.

Secure E-mail Project

E-mail Scandal at the University of East Anglia

Above is a link to an article about the "climategate" email scandal. The gist of the story is that a server was hacked at the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia. The successful hacking led to the theft of thousands of e-mails that were later leaked onto the Internet. Some of these e-mails contained controversial information that made it seem as if many climate scientists had been involved in fraudulent behavior. Whether the e-mails verified fraudulent behavior is irrelevant to this blog post, but the fact that the e-mails were stolen in the first place is significant. I don't understand why a hacker was able to simply gain access to all e-mails at this University's Climate Research Unit after hacking the server. Why wasn't a better encryption system implemented if they knew they were sending and receiving e-mails with controversial and secretive information? I suppose if someone hacks a server they automatically have access to everyone's public key in that network, and any encryption system is useless.

Week 13: Clear Malware

Most everyone who is a regular computer user has become familiar with malware over the years. Malware is short for malicious software. These malicious softwares are designed and operated to infiltrate a user's computer and cause some kind of harm to the computer. The most common kinds of malware are viruses, worms, trojans, and rootkits.

Computer viruses are probably the most common case of malware. A computer virus will find a way to infiltrate a computer's security, and once the security is breached it will alter the way a computer operates without consent from the user. Once a worm finds a way into a computer it will repeatedly copy itself onto the computer's memory or network. Then you could imagine the effects the user feels from the worm's constant replication. It could use up all available memory, therefore slowing down the computer immensely or maybe even shutting the computer down altogether. Both viruses and worms will eventually spread from computer to computer but the trojan malware only affects a single computer and will not spread to others. The trojan will present itself as a harmless program, therefore tricking the computer into allowing it access. Another type of popular malware is the rootkit. Once a rootkit is installed onto a computer it allows a user from a remote location to basically control the infected computer.

Malware is a huge concern for a user when thinking about the health of their computer and the privacy of important information; but usually if a user takes proper care of their computer this problem can be stifled. A user should make proper updates to security often, and install a firewall and reputable anti-malware program.

Week 12: Muddy Information System

To be honest I don't really understand much of what's going on in this week's topic. Here is what I have got from learning about information systems. The definition of an information system is that it's a collection of hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that work together to produce quality information. Basically what that means to me is that an information system is a company's method of distributing, using, producing, and modifying information. It is a company's way of executing activities that have to do with using computer data.

There is a systems development team and a systems analyst that oversees a company's information system and system development life cycle. The system development life cycle is comprised of planning, analysis, design, implementation, operation, support, and security. A systems analyst basically coordinates and manages the activities for people in the systems development team. After the information system is planned out, designed, and implemented the systems development team operates the system, supports the users, and makes sure the system is secure. What this means to me is that the systems development team makes sure the system is running smooth and makes sure proper changes are made when and if they need to be made within the system.

Extra Credit: Avatar

This was by far the most enjoyable extra credit assignment that was available. I chose to use the website http://www.meez.com/ to create my avatar. I went to a couple of the different sites, and Meez was the easiest site to use and it also had the most options for creating a unique avatar. Meez has four different steps to creating an avatar: body features, dress features, applications, and background. The body and dress features are just as it sounds; this is where a user decides what the avatar looks like. The applications feature is pretty unique from other avtar creating sites. This feature is where a user can have their avatar perform a variety of different movements; for example, a user can make their avatar perform a variety of dance moves. The background feature is obviously the feature where the user can put a unique background behind their avatar, and it's where I got this background of the White House.

Database Project

I hadn’t used Microsoft Access since about 2002 or 2003, so I learned a lot from this project. The last time I used this application was in the eighth grade, but I don’t know why instructors stopped teaching Access in class because it is very useful in the business world. Many companies have many recurring customers, and in result many companies have a lot of information on customers due to recurrence and good relationships. There are many instances when the company would need to sort and organize this massive amount of data, and Microsoft Access Is perfect for that. For example, what if the company wants to send out promotions to their customers but only a specific demographic of customers? Their customer database must be sorted to filter in only the customers that fit that demographic.

A really good way to increase the functionality of any Access database is by modifying the field properties. We didn’t really have to modify any field properties for this project but I did anyway. For example, we had over 1,000 gym member in the project database. When entering this much data into the system any assistance is beneficial. So I used “input mask” on both the zip code field and the home phone number field. Instead of a home phone number being ten numbers in one row (8632945465), it appeared as (863) 294-5465 as I was entering the data. There are many more beneficial applications of the field properties. For example, you can edit how many characters can be used in a field with the “field size” property. You can edit the format of any field’s text so it would appear differently. If a field is crucial information you can edit its property to be a required field. The benefits that can be obtained from field property modification are infinite.

Week 11: Muddy Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is the one Microsoft Office application that I’ve had very little experience using. Basically it’s a lot like Microsoft Excel in the sense that is used to store large amounts of data. In other words, it is a database. Access is more convenient than Excel when it comes to organizing a colossal amount of data into related groups called fields.

All data within Access is stored in tables. Each column within a table contains a specific field of unique information. The way a user interacts with the data in Access is via a query. While using a query, a user can perform four basic operations on the data: create, retrieve, update, or delete. This really is where Access has the advantage over other databases, like Excel, because here you can sort data in relational fields for easier data updating or data retrieval. After data is entered into the database it can be manipulated into reports for use in presentations.

Week 10: Clear Communications

In week 10 of Business Computing the primary topic was networks, and the main purpose of creating networks is to make communications more practical and productive. Essentially a communication is merely the transfer of data among two or more devices.

There are three primary kinds of devices that communicate via a network: workstations, nodes, and servers. The server is a computer whose sole purpose is to control and provide services to nodes and workstations connected to its network. The workstations are merely client computers that are connected to the network, and nodes are all other devices connected to the network.

To create a network there has to be a media through which data can be transferred between the server and its nodes. There are two general kinds of media used here: physical and wireless. The physical media is a copper or fiber-optic wire, and the wireless media is radio waves or infrared waves.

The bandwidth of the network is the amount of data that can be transmitted through the media in a given amount of time. To optimize the speed of the network you want to increase bandwidth and decrease latency, which is the time delay due to the conversion between analog and digital data. There is narrow band and broadband, and of course to optimize the speed of the network broadband is more efficient.

Excel Project

For this project we were obviously working with excel. We were given a worksheet of data on a new exercise regime created by a large fitness center, and now the owner of the center would like us to format the worksheet to her liking.

Having grown up using a computer my whole life, I didn’t really learn anything new in step one of the project. Most of step one was just tweaking the format of the worksheet a bit for convenience sake, and working with excel functions. The rest of step one was just changing the printing format in “print preview” so the printouts would be more practical. I will have to say though that I learned something new during step two of the project. This is the first time I have ever used pivot tables. The reason I have probably never worked with pivot tables is because I have never dealt with worksheets large enough to need a pivot table for data filtering. Now that I have used pivot tables I can see they can be extremely beneficial in the business field when dealing with very large worksheets.

Week 9: Clear IF Functions

Functions are one of the most essential applications of the excel spreadsheet. Without functions many uses of excel would be much more tedious. Usually functions utilize mathematical calculations to achieve some numerical value as a result. One type of excel function that is not usually used to derive a numerical value as a result is the “IF” function.

The IF function is basically a statement that derives true or false as a result. An IF function asks a question of the data, and there is only a set amount of definitive results. For example, suppose you are a basketball recruiter for a college. You have scouted over 100 players. Since you have so many players to choose from you would like to focus only on the players who are above 6 feet tall so you can get rid of the less significant shorter players. You have the heights of all the players on an excel spreadsheet (in cells A1:A125). To categorize these players as “tall” or “short” use the function =IF(A1>6,”tall”,”short”). After this information is calculated in cell B1, copy and paste the formula to cell B2:B125.

Again, the IF function is perfect if you have data in which you wish to sort into different categories.

Week 7: Muddy Virtual Memory

As I watched the lecture on “Operating System Functions” I was first a bit confused on how virtual memory and file swapping worked, but after watching Professor Olson explain it a few times I believe I have a decent understanding on the matter.

The use of virtual memory becomes necessary when the amount of memory in a computer is not sufficient to handle all tasks thrown at it by the operating system, system utilities, and application software. When this overload occurs the operating system will come in and create more room for data by creating this “virtual” memory. The OS creates virtual memory by “swapping” files among the computer’s RAM and storage. The computer’s RAM needs to contain all frequently and recently used data, and all data not being used frequently or recently will be swapped into storage. If data that is rarely used is in storage and needs to be used to perform a task then the OS will swap it into the RAM and bring some other data not frequently used into storage.

The use of virtual memory is beneficial in the fact that it allows a computer to exceed its maximum memory capacity, but it also will make a computer much slower. As Professor Olson stated the most efficient way to handle this problem would be to buy more RAM to install into your computer.

Week 6: Clear Storage Disposal

The proper disposal of computer storage is a crucial part of any organization such as a school, business, bank, or hospital. These organizations could and probably would have extremely confidential data stored on its old computer drives. For example a bank or business may have important financial data about its clients on old storage. A school may have social security numbers of its students stored on old drives. If these organizations accidentally leaked out any information of this kind it could face hefty fines, bad press, or may even face being sued.

To protect itself from leaking out confidential information about its clients these organizations must do more than just dispose of old computer drives into the garbage. If the old drive just simply has useless information on it but is still functional you can write over the old data with a 3-pass overwrite. On the other hand if you have a broken drive and you want to trash it altogether then you can degauss it. Degaussing is making a magnetic storage media useless by using an electromagnet to rearrange the storage media's magnetic domain in random directions. If you are trying to dispose of a floppy disk, cd, or dvd then you could purchase a machine that shreds these types of storage media into many pieces, but if all else fails could just incinerate any type of storage.

Project: Web 2.0 Tools

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I have been struggling with this project for the past two weeks because I am not a creative person. The majority of the time I spent on this project was probably staring at the computer trying to decide what my story topic was going to be. I haven’t really done anything too exciting thus far in my life, so really the only topic I could think of was my wedding. Once I decided what my topic was actually going to be it was smooth sailing.

The amount of different ways web 2.0 tools can be used in business is infinite. Of course these tools would be extremely beneficial for meetings or presentations. For presentations they are helpful in controlling the flow and keeping the speaker on track. They could also make a presentation more entertaining and enjoyable for the audience. Another way web 2.0 tools can be used in business is on a business’s website in the form of a video or slideshow. If the company is fortunate enough to go global there will be many customers/clients that may not be able to physically come to the store/business due to geographical constraints. Web 2.0 tools can be used to present a variety of ideas and products to the consumer.

I am using the comment box here on my blog as my form of web 2.0 interaction, so please feel free to leave a comment about my project. I have also created a poll about marriage, so please respond to it as well if you can. Thanks for looking.

Week 5: Muddy Memory

In week five the greatest difficulty that I ran into was trying to differentiate among the different types of memory. This is my best understanding of computer memory. First of all, let me define computer memory on a broad spectrum: computer memory is usually a group of chips installed on a small circuit board that stores data to be used at a later point in time. Now that we know what computer memory is and what it does we can differentiate the many types of computer memory into two basic categories: volatile and non-volatile.

Volatile memory stores all of the frequently used data and instructions, but its content will be erased once the computer is turned off. The most basic form of volatile memory is called Random Access Memory (RAM). With time came innovation and the creation of many types of RAM: Static RAM, Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), DDR2 SDRAM, Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM, DDR3 SDRAM, and RAMBUS. To my understanding the most widely used type of RAM is DDR3 SDRAM and DD2 SDRAM because they are affordable yet fast.

Non-volatile memory is much slower than volatile memory, but it does not lose its content when the computer is turned off. Types of non-volatile memory are Read Only Memory (ROM), and Flash Memory. Most types of ROM have data that is written into it at production and this data cannot be changed in any way. To my understanding EEPROM came along before the creation of Flash Memory and it was the first rewritable non-volatile memory.

Week 4: Clear Software Licensing

It is pretty standard that all software comes with some sort of license agreement that the user must agree to in order to use the software. The agreement is called a license agreement because the user is purchasing the license to use the software and not the software itself. This agreement is typically referred to as the End User License Agreement. Users typically choose to agree or disagree with the EULA before the software purchase is made or during the installation of the software.

The EULA is that box that always pops up during the installation of software such as Limewire, Itunes, RosettaStone, and Microsoft Office. Typically users just click agree on the EULA without even reading or considering what the EULA contains. The content of a EULA is pretty standard in differing types of software. The EULA will usually create legal limitations on the user. For instance, the EULA will typically protect the licensor from being liable if the software damages any aspect of the user’s computer. The EULA will also define what uses of the software the licensor feels should be illegal.

The EULA is created primarily to legally protect the licensor, but there are many other contents in the EULA. For example, the EULA can be used to define what the software can do and it can also protect the user from possible defects.

Week 3: Clear ARPANET

Before the creation of the internet, there was the ARPANET. ARPA or Advanced Research Projects Agency developed the first computer network for the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969. This network had four servers. There were two servers located at different University of California campuses and the other two were located at the University of Utah and the Stanford Research Institute.

Since ARPA developed top secret systems and weapons for the U.S. military during the Cold War many thought that the ARPANET was created as some sort of military intelligence or defense, but former director of ARPA, Charles Herzfeld, denies that it was created for that purpose. Herzfeld stated, “it (ARPANET) came out of our frustration that there were only a limited number of large, powerful research computers in the country and that many research investigators who should have access were geographically separated from them.”

There were many innovations to computer networking under the first network, ARPANET. Some of the more important innovations were e-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), and telnet.

ARPANET was finally shut down in 1990 because it had become old and outdated technology to the new LANs (local area networks). At first LANs connected to the ARPANET but in 1986 NSFnet branched out from the ARPANET and formed its own network on its own supercomputer servers. This began the trend of the local area networks branching away from the ARPANET.

Week 2: Muddy Coding Schemes

In week one everything the class covered was obviously pretty basic with netiquette, information search, and copyright. In week two things were equally as basic in the chapter one readings and in the timeline readings. Chapter one basically covered general information that any regular computer user would know. When I got to the appendix readings for the week things started moving away from the general computer education category. I know that I’ve heard about coding schemes before, but I can’t explain what they do or where they came from. In listening to the lecture and reading the appendix on coding schemes I’m still not sure where these schemes are even written.

Even though I’m still muddy on this topic here is my understanding of coding schemes. Coding schemes are binary number systems that represent symbols such as letters, numbers, and punctuation. The most widely used coding scheme is the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). In the ASCII coding scheme every symbol has a unique binary number scheme. For example, in the ASCII scheme “A” is represented by 01000001. Seven of the eight numbers in this binary format of “A” are bits to define “A,” and the extra bit is a parity bit. A parity bit is used for detecting errors in the information being transmitted.

The amount of characters that are represented by the ASCII coding scheme is sufficient for the English language, but is insufficient for many other languages. The solution to this problem was the Unicode. Unlike ASCII which uses an eight bit system, the Unicode uses a sixteen bit system. This increase in the usage of bits made it possible to encode the proper amount of characters and symbols for any language.

Week 1: Clear Information Search

When searching for information on the web, users typically use one of the two: search engines or subject directories. Search engines contain much larger databases than subject directories. These search engine databases are compiled by programs called "bots." Some search engines have different kinds of bots programmed into their database. For example, Google has two bots compiling their database: deepbot and freshbot. Deepbot goes much more in depth than freshbot by searching every possible link on the web pages that it searches. Freshbot is programmed to only visit the web sites that update very frequently.

Subject Directories are much more smaller and selective than search engines. While the search engine, Google, has over one trillion pages cataloged the Librarian's Internet Index, a subject directory, has only 20,000 sites cataloged. The database of the subject directory is so much more selective because instead of programs called bots updating and compiling data humans edit the data used in subject directories. There are subject directories for generalized information but the bulk of subject directories are for specialized information. For example, the subject directory Internet Movie Database compiles solely information on actors and movies.