Secure Email

 

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/342679/government_department_seeks_secure_email/?fp=4&fpid=319049444

A government division in Australia, the Department of Human Services, is looking for a new service provider for its secure email. As a government entity, many private and confidential messages are sent between employees and other departments. Information leaking to the media of soon to be public policy can influence public opinion and create support or opposition for the policy. The department will have a minimum of 2000 users with an upwards of 3000 users. All companies who want to submit a proposal to provide services to the Australian government need to undergo a four-stage evaluation process that includes compliance checks, technical evaluations, financial evaluations and a value for money assessment.

Week Fourteen: Clear RAID

In enterprise computing, storage demands are just a little greater than in personal computing. Enterprises have vast amounts of data, much of it critical to the operations of the organization. If the data were to go missing or the computers were out of commission for even a short period of time, there could be catastrophic effects on business.

By using a combination of RAID0, 1, 5, and 6 storage methods, nearly all businesses can have an adequate and relatively cost effective method of protecting their data from hardware failure.

Just a few weeks ago when I was home for Spring Break, my father was trying to explain to me how "cool" this new 5 terabyte backup device he had just purchased. As it turns out this device he bought uses a RAID system, but at the time I didn't understand how this 5 terabyte device only had 3 terabytes of storage available. The moment I watched the lecture addressing this topic, that moment instantly came back to me and it all seemed clear.

Access Database

The Access Database Project was a hugely valuable lesson. As a graduating senior potentially looking for jobs in the digital marketing field, many job descriptions recommend or require experience with databasing and SQL. I feel like the project covered all the basic utilities that I would need to use in Access. My favorite use of Access was in form mode. Once the skeleton of a database is created, I really think that most widespread use would be through forms. I imagine creating a data collection tool to be distributed throughout an organization for use (I can dream can't I?).

If I were to change or improve the database I would like to analyze the frequency of someone using their membership. I understand that this data was not included in the initial members.csv file, but I think it would be a truly interesting analysis. If you were to combine that data with the members who left within 6 months, you can better try and understand why they left or did not renew their membership.I would break down the usage data by check-ins per month. That way you can see whether their usage increased, decreased, or stayed constant over a period and group members into high, medium, and low usage groups.

Week Twelve:

Voice Over Internet Protocol

For the most part, I considered working with VoIP and Skype a real pleasure. My first experience with Skype was while I was studying abroad in China. I was there for three months and I longed for the opportunity to see the faces of my loved ones. I hooked up my Hi Def Logitech web cam and like magic, I was talking with my parents! The next time I used Skype was when my cousin was deployed to Iraq. He has a terrible internet connection, a dial-up line or maybe worse, so the call often cuts out after just a minute or so. But even being able to see his face and to know he is ok is relief enough.

The only time I have ever had trouble using Skype and VoIP was for this project and trying to record the call through Jing. I started my call before I started recording and I worked like usual, but once I started recording the call the video and sound would chatter. When I went to stop the recording, it froze the whole computer. After four attempts to record the conversation, I finally got a workable recording. The conversation recording was saved and ready for upload to the web hosting site for Jing. After waiting for the 265MB file to upload, it told me there was an error and could not upload. I tried this again two more times but the same result after each attempt. I looked up troubleshooting online but that was of no help. So I hope that by the time you review this blog, I was able to get the video fully uploaded. And if not, I'm sorry!

http://www.screencast.com/t/MWJmNjlk

Creating My Avatar

My experience in creating an avatar was pure fun! I chose to use the "Build Your Wild Self" tool from the New York Zoos and Aquarium Wildlife Conservation Society. The avatar builder started with choosing my sex and then let me go through picking different features including hair, eyes, mouth, clothes, etc and then I got to add animal characteristics to my avatar. That is the "Wild Self" part of the avatar. I chose to have giraffe ears and octopus legs. In the end I set myself in an ocean scenery.

I feel like the tool let me build a very accurate digital representation of myself. The only thing I wish I could have changed that they did not have an option for was the nose. The default nose was a cute little turn-up nose, but a combination of heritage and genetics did not bless me with such a cute little nose.

Week Eleven: Muddy

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