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.