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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Week Ten: Clear LAN and WAN

LAN and WAN. It sounds like a progressive band name. While they were progressive in their time, LAN and WAN is not a band name but area networks of connected computers. Nearly everyone who has interacted with a computer has accessed a LAN, and most people have encountered a WAN without even realizing it. 

A LAN is a local area network and connects network devices over a relatively short distance. They can typically be found in office buildings, schools, and homes. As the term implies, a wide area network or WAN spans a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth. A common interaction with WAN's is through bank ATM's.

Excel Project

Working on this Excel project truly was a pleasurable experience. I have always enjoyed working with Excel but have never learned to work with pivot tables. I think that having this skill in my bag of tricks will help me out immensely in the long run.

 

The project required me to manipulate and analyze data from a study of men and woman's heart rates while exercising. I added rows, created formulas, edited fonts and sizes, and created two pivot tables. As I mentioned before, I am new to pivot tables so I spent the grand majority of my time understanding the utilities of this tool and finessing the results shown in my tables. 

 

 Screen capture of a pivot table

This past summer, I did a lot of work in Excel with data of a research study conducted. I spent hours crafting complex functions to get specific results out of the information. If I had know pivot tables existed, I would have saved myself hours of racking my brain! With pivot tables, nevermore will I struggle with data analysis!

Week Nine: Clear- Relative and Absolute Cell Addressing

My first introduction to relative and absolute cell addressing was in the introductory required computing class CGS 2531. We had a MONSTER Excel project to complete. At one point a friend who was in the class with at the same time as me consulted the Microsoft Excel help desk because she was stuck and even the professional could not figure out the correct formula!

I revisited relative and absolute cell addressing this past summer at my internship where I used Excel on a near daily basis. One of the projects I was working on required me to write several complex formulas using data over several worksheets. I created a workbook that gave the results and my analysis of a market research survey I conducted. The knowledge I gained from that killer CGS 2531 project and referencing Excel Bible got me through the project with ease and certainly wowed by bosses with my above average understanding of Excel =).

Week Seven: Clear Disk Defragmentation

Once upon a time there was a teenage girl who was given her very own computer for the first time. This girl loved music and quickly began uploading her CD collection and downloading tracks she didn't already own. Before long, her computer was running slow and she barely had any space left on her mere 60 GB hard drive. What was a girl to do? Luckily, the girl in our story had a father who was very knowledgeable about computers and told her to run a disk defragmentation. The first time she ran this tool it took a very long time- nearly two hours- because all the files on her computer were spread out. The defragmentation tool bar looked like it was a rainbow because of all the separated files! Almost immediately she found her computer was running faster and she visibly had more available storage space on her computer. From then on she regularly ran the disk defragmentation utility to keep her PC at a high level of performance. The End.

The girl in the story, well, she was me. In high school I learned the value of regularly running a disk defragmentation after downloading waaay too much music. To this day, I still run the utility on a regular basis and like to think that this small conscious move will help expand the life of my computer.

Week Six: Muddy Tape Storage Devices

Probably because I am a member of Gen Y, I have never had the pleasure of working with tape based storage devices. I found the idea to be a little foreign, but then I realized that they are similar to audio cassettes.

I remember struggling with jammed cassettes and twisted tape that would always inevitably take at least an hour to getting it back into playable condition. An hour is an excruciatingly long time for an inpatient child.

My favorite cassette tape would play on repeat all day and all night and eventually the tape stopped playing. The same thing happens with tape storage devices. Either through repeated retrieval of information from the cassette or re-recording of information, eventually the tape will wear out.

Web 2.0 Project- Johnnie Hillwalker's Kyoto Walking Tour

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This assignment was truly a test of my patience and motivation. It took me nearly a week and a half to fully read through the instructions and understand what they meant. I usually like to be innovative and unique in my work, but this is one time where I had to wait to see what my peers had done to understand how to execute my project.

My Web 2.0 project is of the walking tour I took in the city of Kyoto, Japan. Johnnie Hillwalker's Johnnie Kyoto Walking Tour is one of the most esteemed and unique tours available. I created a video incorporating many of the stops along the tour and created a poll as an interaction method to see if people would be interested in taking the tour after seeing the video.

Through this project, I learned the importance of drafting a solid framework, but being flexible to work around any changes if needed. My storyboard incorporated a few things that I did not have images of, so I had to use images of other stops instead. This is very important in the business world because there is rarely, if ever, a situation with perfect information. Resources and information change quickly and you have to work with what is available to you.

From my peer's interactions with my my Web 2.0 tool, I believe that my photos thoroughly conveyed the uniqueness and quality of the Johnnie Hillwalker tour. Every peer who used the poll responded that they would like to participate in it if given the opportunity.

Would you want to go on Johnnie Hillwalker's tour of Kyoto, Japan?

Week Five: Clear Voice Input

I LOVED the segment on voice input and software to accomplish that task. My favorite part was the video of the NY Times review of the product with his hands tied behind his back.


The advances in voice recognition technology is truly amazing. I had been using voice recognition software to help further my practice with learning Mandarin and it was certainly a love-hate relationship. The "training" period with the software was longer than I expected and I would frequently lose patience and close the program for the day.

After watching this lecture and seeing some examples of its recent developments, I would highly consider using this kind of software again if I ever found a need.

Week Four: Muddy

Lossy. Lossless. What the heck is the difference? After listening to close to two hours of lectures mentioning the topic, I couldn't tell you.

When breaking down the words by their pre/post fixes, you can begin to understand what lossless means.

Main Entry: loss Pronunciation: \ˈlȯs\ Function: noun 1 : decrease in amount, magnitude, or d.egree 

Main Entry: -less Function: adjective suffix 1 : destitute of : not having less> less>

 

So pretty clearly, lossless= not having any decreased in amount.

 

Lossy on the other hand, doesn't have as clear etymological roots. It turns out that lossy, in contrast to lossless, means that the file does lose some parts. Files saved in a lossy format remove sections in order to decrease file size but not enough to have a noticeable difference to the user.

 

A lossless file doesn't compress files the way lossy files do, but reorganizes them for easier digital transmission. If there are sections of a file that are repeated, an algorithm finds colors, sounds, etc. that are the same, and creates code so it only uses one of the repeated sections over and over again. I found this explanation of  lossy vs. lossless made it much more clear to me.

Week Three: Clear- Wi-Fi

As a marketing major, I understand the value and importance of strong branding. When wireless internet was first being introduced, the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance hired Interbrand to come up with a commercial name for wireless internet. the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance selected the name Wi-Fi, a meaningless phrase, from a list of potential brand slogans. The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance took it upon themselves to add the tagline "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity."

They thought that by adding the tagline, it would make more sense to the consumer.The phrase "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity" has no true meaning. Wireless fidelity, what most people commonly believe Wi-Fi to stand for, are just two words that seemingly fit the abbreviation.

The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance's attempt to clarify their product actually diluted the brand and confused the customer. They promoted false information which is still a common belief ten years after its removal from the marketplace.

Click here to read the original article

Week Two: Muddy Unicode

Like many students in the class, my copy of the textbook has yet to arrive on my front door. So between the history of computing and coding and numbering schemes, coding and numbering takes the prize for being the most confusing topic of the week.

I have always heard horror stories from my father regarding computer languages and mind you he is absolutely brilliant with a computer. While he was here at UF, he began his studies as a Computer Science major. Except he could never quite grasp computer programming languages they way his professors taught them. He switched majors to business and said it was one of the best decisions he ever made.

With genetics clearly not being on my side here (no computer genius rubbed off on me), I have to thank fellow ISM 3004 student, Randy Tackling, for posting the link to his blog on the discussion boards and also writing about coding this week. He found the like to a tremendous video Binary Numbers in 60 Seconds that made Unicode shrink from a mountain to a mole hill in less than a minute. What the video did not explain was if I want to go from decimal to binary, how do I know what power to raise 2 to. The video Decimal to Binary showed two ways to calculate a binary number.

1. Divide your number by two until you no longer can. The remainder each time you divide (either one or zero) makes up your binary code.
2. Write out all of the powers of 2 and find the largest power that still goes into your decimal number.

I find that both ways are terribly time consuming and that there must be an easier way to do it. So if the cosmic forces align and someone out there in cyberland who a)reads this blog and b) knows the answer, please show me some good netiquitte and help me out!

Week One: Muddy

Hello there world! If (by some chance) you are still following this blog from my study abroad experiences in China, I am now writing about my learning experiences in my computing class ISM 3004. As part of my course grade, we are to post blogs discussing what was either the most clear or confusing thing that was covered in that week's material.

For me, the task of blogging for this course will undoubtedly be the hardest task for two reasons.

1. I am absolutely terrible at putting my thought into words. 
2. I understand that I have to write about what is muddy or clear to me, but I'm really not certain how I'm supposed to expand upon that idea for a whole blog post.

I'm going to expand on my second reason first. Once I state that I don't understand something, am I supposed to talk about all the ways I don't understand? Criticize my instructors and point out flaws in their teaching methods? Admit that I am an all around lunkhead? I understand that I am responsible for the material on quizzes and exams in the future, so being the "good student" I am, I will look into alternate explanations of the material so I am not entirely clueless. Will writing out my new found understanding of a concert really help me understand it better? Maybe. Even still, for the concepts that I understand best of all, am I looking into new applications of the concepts? Explaining why it is important? Or, just rehashing using different words?

Now for my first reason. The (in)ability to eloquently turn my thoughts into words. Especially onto paper (or in this case, my computer screen). This is something I've ALWAYS had trouble with. It honestly takes me three times as long as the normal person to compose something. So before I even sit down to write about my weekly blog, deciding what I will write about is going to be a toughie. My outlook on life is to take things as they come, file that little nugget of information away in the proper place in my brain, and don't really dwell on it unless it really strikes a chord with me. **Warning: Professors of ISM 3004, please don't take offense to this next statement** I honestly believe that I will have difficulty finding at least one thing every week that truly resonates with me. In the many many classes I have taken at UF in my 7 semesters here, I can only think of 3 classes that have actively engaged me and made me think all semester long. I hope this class doesn't become just another number, but one of the few that truly stands out in my memory when I leave Gainesville for good in May.

So we'll see how this fun little experiment turns out in sixteen weeks. In the mean time- adios, sayonara, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, zai jian, or plain old goodbye.