Week 14 - Clear

I understood the first two lectures that discussed storage because we already touched on storage in the first couple of lessons in the beginning of the semester. It was somewhat of a review to learn about raid storage and it was interesting to learn about the newest form of raid storage Raid 6. I really understood some of the storage problems as well as the benefits and drawbacks of each of the storage options. I truly understood Raid 5 after viewing the diagram. Raid 5 seems to be the perfect option because it is a combination of Raid 1 and Raid 0. Information must be spread across disks with one that can be used as the hot spare for error recovery. This is great because if there is a single drive failure, although the system will slow down somewhat, the information will be replaced by the idle hot spare. I found it interesting to learn about the computation that the parity uses to read a damaged hard drive.

I think knowledge of storage techniques is important because this will help to overcome storage problems and help business executives know what type of storage they need for their computing needs. I would be worried to use a Raid 0 because I would be fearful that all my information would be lost at the failure of one disk. I do realize however that it is extremely fast and can hold large files while things are happening simultaneously, which is helpful.

I found a website that explains all levels of Raid and was very helpful.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html

Week 13 - Clear

I found this week to be particularly interesting because it was about a topic that I have always thought about...security with computers. I always wondered why and how so much information can be protected such as social security numbers and credit card information. When I read the introduction for this week I was so excited that I could relate. A question asked was "Why do people create and attack other computers with viruses?" I have always wondered this...what would possesses someone to sabotage the work of another. I am always so weary of downloading anything and opening email attachments.

I enjoyed learning about the topic of software piracy. Software piracy is the illegal copying of software. If you do not buy a particular software then you are not licensed which means you cannot make copies to sell to others, you can only use the copies for backup purposes. The website http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/ offers great tips about how to protect yourself and when exactly to know that you are a victim of software piracy. I think it is so important to look for a Certificate of Authenticity and only accept information from well-known sources.

Secure Email

I found the secure email project to be very fun! It was interesting and introduced me to a useful program called Thunderbird. I thought the directions were helpful and easy to follow and definitely opened my eyes to the importance of secure email.

I found an article from http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Secure-Email-is-Crucial-For-Any-Business&id=3313320 that discussed the importance of secure email in the business realm. Secure email systems help to keep hackers away and help business keep their secrets, legal documents and agreements private. Secure email systems also protect information from leaking to the public, due to people that are fired or let go from a company. Also when employees or executives of a company use hot spots or Wi-Fi, secure email systems give extra security to important information. The article discussed the fact that other companies/competitors can easily locate information if they wanted to and secure email systems help to prevent any theft as easily as possible.

Below are my screenshots of my emails from Thunderbird.

Week 12 - Muddy

Networking...seems like a pretty easy concept to grasp. Well, somewhat. I am a public relations major so in my field communication is extremely important. It is always exciting to learn about different forms of communication and especially the interworking of the Internet. But I was wrong. I really took to ViOP because these type of programs keep people in touch as the world is constantly changing and becoming more technologically savvy. I enjoyed learning about Ethernets because ironically I had never heard of the official term until I cam to UF. This is because it is commonly used in business settings and hospitals and college-settings. It is a cable used for local area networks and transfers radio frequency signals between multiple computers at a rate of 10 megabits per second. There are also Ethernet cards that serve the same purpose.

I started to get confused with the TCP/IP jargon. Computers are sometimes too technical for me and this was somewhat confusing. TCP/IP is communication language between computers on the Internet. It is amazing to me how the Internet works so it is hard for me to grasp such detail-oriented concepts. TCP is the communication between applications, and occupies the communication line. The IP is communication between computers without network lines. I utilized this website to help me understand in more basic terms http://www.w3schools.com/tcpip/tcpip_intro.asp and this website http://www.yale.edu/pclt/COMM/TCPIP.HTM. I also found a tutorial helpful. This topic is important for business because it establishes how any form of interaction can take place via computers and the Internet

Voice Over IP Extra Credit

I thought this assignment was very interesting. I can say that I need to get more equipped with the various technological resources and social media sites that exist especially as a public relations and business student. I have a Twitter and Facebook and I hardly use them both. I do not have a skype but I downloaded it for the purposes of this assignment. I never had a MySpace and actually only got a Facebook once I came to college just to stay updated with activities and long-distance friends.

I downloaded and used Skype for the first time and I found it to be so cool. In my conversation with my friend Armando, I thought it was the greatest thing to be able to hear his voice and not use a phone. Once I turned the web cam on, my excitement launched to a whole new level, although I tried to act cool. Skype is great! And it is amazing to have a real conversation with someone and be able to see them at the same time. I made faces at him and did strange movements with my head, just because I thought it was neat that he could see my every move.

I think ViOP programs can be very important and useful for conducting business meetings and transactions. ViOP offers a simple way for people to communicate and present or show information at the same time. I don't know why I never used Skype but I will utilize it now.


Links to my videos can be found below.

http://www.screencast.com/users/CWhitlow01/folders/Jing/media/edb12726-79ae-4772-bdab-9f52cb1ca6e2

http://www.screencast.com/users/CWhitlow01/folders/Jing/media/92e096aa-124f-4cf6-bcea-553269bc9bcd

Avatar Extra Credit

I had fun creating my Avatar using a website inspired by the Wildlife Conservation Society and New York Zoos called Build Your Wild Self. I thought it was really fun and interactive. I got the opportunity to make myself like an animal. I liked the fact that you could also make yourself a regular human but I thought the animal aspect was a fun twist. I made myself an elephant because that animal is significant to my sorority. I also made my attire colors that are similar to that of my sorority's colors because my sorority is important in my life. I got an opportunity to put my Avatar in a specific background and I chose a Sahara-like atmosphere because I feel like that gives elephants a vast amount of space to roam. The background has sound effects with thunder and lightning and also my Avatar's trunk moves and I can hear elephant sounds. Although my Avatar had elephant feet and ears as well as a trunk, I made skin and hair color significant to my own and I made the eyes and eyebrows look as if they were peering to the side because I always have my eyes and ears open and I am very nosey! That is also why everything is big - eyes, nose (tusk) and ears!

I think creating an Avatar is an interesting project. It is pretty cool to make a 3-D you! You can customize it to be just like you or maybe an alter ego. They are commonly used in video games and they can also be used to replace a username when an individual writes a post or discussion. I enjoyed this activity!

Week 11 - Muddy

This week I found Information systems to be quite complex. It seemed easier than I thought. However, I was thoroughly confused! I think that this topic may be beneficial to grasp but it will definitely take me some time. I didn't quite get the language especially relating to programmers, analysts and. I did find the system development cycle with steps including: planning, analysis, implementation, testing and maintenance, to be quite interesting. However as I was doing my research I noticed that there can be anywhere from five to seven steps in the cycle. I feel like the more in-depth, the better because it is more thorough and helps to capture all elements of developing a project. I also understood change management and the emphasis and outlooks of two different perspectives, the manager/boss and the employee. It will affect them differently.

I really have to give it to system analysts. I could not do their job. I truly admire their ability to understand programming language, create, deploy and test systems. These skills would be useful in the business setting because so much of what is done now a days is technical and involves computers. However, I do not think these skills are very transferable. I feel that they take some time to develop. They are very unique and seem like it takes a lot of practice to acquire. I found a video to clear up some confusion.