I found the topic of thin clients to be the most interesting. I have always seen them in stores, and have often wondered about them. I think it is a great idea for certain businesses. Some employees do not need the full capabilities of a desktop. One of the businees that I have been into quite a bit uses a thin client. The business is a roofing supply company, their customer service employees only use their computers for looking up prices, checking stock, and placing orders. All the functions that they perform are perfect for the thin client solution. On this HP website they talk about when to consider a thin client for your business.
There are also many benefits to having a thin client. You can lower your costs for computers, the purchase of a thin client is cheaper than the cost of a desktop. You can manage your network easier than with the desktops. The security is enhanced because there is no information stored on the thin clients. The benefits go on for the use of thin clients.
I found this website to be interesting, it talks about using a thin client in your home and managing your entertainment system.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Secure Email
Wells Fargo
in 2009 decided to use a new way for their business customers to send confidential information through emails. One of their top priorities when switching was to make it easier for the end user to use. They switched to Voltage Security's Securemail, which eliminates the need for certificates. The process is not completely free of steps. The user is still prompted to give some sort of identifying information, but they are free from downloading any certificates. In 2009 the bank was sending 60,000 secure emails a month using Voltage.
I found this project interesting. I have never sent a secure email before, I am not sure if I have needed to yet. I still find it to be an important topic to learn about. I can see the importance of sending secure emails, with the business environment becoming global and projects are being worked on all over the world. You will eventually need to send some sort of information securely.
I had a few issues with thunderbird. After speaking with the help desk and granting them access to my computer we solved the problem and I learned something about email settings. Come to find out the problem was not in the setting in thunderbird, but the settings in outlook. I have my gatorlink email set up in outlook and the income setting was set as a pop3. When you incoming setting is set to pop your emails are taken off of the server and saved on your computer. So when I clicked send/receive on outlook it was taking them off the server and storing them on my computer. In turn I was losing my received emails on thunderbird. The only issue I have now with keeping all my emails on the server is that I am limited to the space UF grants me, where before I was limited in the space on my computer.
in 2009 decided to use a new way for their business customers to send confidential information through emails. One of their top priorities when switching was to make it easier for the end user to use. They switched to Voltage Security's Securemail, which eliminates the need for certificates. The process is not completely free of steps. The user is still prompted to give some sort of identifying information, but they are free from downloading any certificates. In 2009 the bank was sending 60,000 secure emails a month using Voltage.
I found this project interesting. I have never sent a secure email before, I am not sure if I have needed to yet. I still find it to be an important topic to learn about. I can see the importance of sending secure emails, with the business environment becoming global and projects are being worked on all over the world. You will eventually need to send some sort of information securely.
I had a few issues with thunderbird. After speaking with the help desk and granting them access to my computer we solved the problem and I learned something about email settings. Come to find out the problem was not in the setting in thunderbird, but the settings in outlook. I have my gatorlink email set up in outlook and the income setting was set as a pop3. When you incoming setting is set to pop your emails are taken off of the server and saved on your computer. So when I clicked send/receive on outlook it was taking them off the server and storing them on my computer. In turn I was losing my received emails on thunderbird. The only issue I have now with keeping all my emails on the server is that I am limited to the space UF grants me, where before I was limited in the space on my computer.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Week 13: Clear
This is another topic that is so important to understand. With a lot of businesses moving to online transactions, online banking, sending confidential information online, and the list goes on and on, it is important to understand at the very minimum the security risks involved. I personally do all my banking online, pay all my bills online, keep track of all my accounts online, and interact with my accountant online. Without any type of security I could be wiped out very easily, but luckily everything I do that involves any type of confidential material is done right. My accountant has a file share that gets sent directly to them, not over a provider. All my bank accounts have different multi number, letter, and special character passwords. Now more bank sites are using multiple questions that you have to answer in order to get to the information. My ING account has a series of questions that it asks, not the same ones every time, and then I have to select a picture and but in a pin.
I also like to use multiple programs for malware, spyware, virus, and hard drive cleaner. My internet provider provides its users with the latest version of Norton every year for no additional charge. I use cnet to find other programs that are free to download as secondaries. Another important thing to do it to back up your computer, you can set for your computer to do it for you. I also use a godaddy online file folder and Norton has a backup that it runs for me. You can never be too sure when it comes to your personal information, I think you can never have too much, but you can have too little.
I also like to use multiple programs for malware, spyware, virus, and hard drive cleaner. My internet provider provides its users with the latest version of Norton every year for no additional charge. I use cnet to find other programs that are free to download as secondaries. Another important thing to do it to back up your computer, you can set for your computer to do it for you. I also use a godaddy online file folder and Norton has a backup that it runs for me. You can never be too sure when it comes to your personal information, I think you can never have too much, but you can have too little.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Week 12: Muddy
I cannot quite put my finger on this weeks lectures. I am not sure what part of the lecture I am confused with, other than the entire lecture. I scored an 8 out of 10 on the quiz, but I feel as though I did not grasp the concept of the lecture as I did the others. I have spent the last hour or so on google trying to find a website that may be able help me understand the concept a little better. I have been unable to find anything. I may be using too broad of a search, but this also reaffirms my thought that I did not grasp the lecture. If I cannot find something on google, I am giving it the wrong parameters. If there is any website, that any of you may reccomend please send me the link so I can check it out.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Database Project
I have never really dived into using Access before, so from this project I learned a lot. Some of the steps were difficult, but I made it through them. One of the difficulties was importing the data onto the existing table. It took a few tries to accomplish, I learned the hard way that everything you were importing had to match up exactly with what you were importing it onto. I also liked the New Members Form, I can see this as being a very helpful tool when you have a high volume of new clients coming in. It was nice and easy to add the new five members once the form was built.
A good way to enhance this database is to set up for multiple users. In this business environment you will have the customers dealing with different staff members, and it would be nice if they were all able to access the database at the same time. You could have one individual filling out new member forms, one sending letters to recently left members, and another sending out promos to individuals who are coming up on their end of contract date. The main table provides a lot of information that can be used in many different ways to help the business. If staff members have access to the information, they may be able to use it and improve the bottom line.
A good way to enhance this database is to set up for multiple users. In this business environment you will have the customers dealing with different staff members, and it would be nice if they were all able to access the database at the same time. You could have one individual filling out new member forms, one sending letters to recently left members, and another sending out promos to individuals who are coming up on their end of contract date. The main table provides a lot of information that can be used in many different ways to help the business. If staff members have access to the information, they may be able to use it and improve the bottom line.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Week 11: Clear
I wish I was as familiar with Access as I am with Excel. After this weeks lectures I will be a little more knowledgable on the program. It appears that Access can be very useful for business applications. If you go to Microsofts website, this one shows the Access templates, you can browse all the templates that have been submitted to see what you can use them for. After just about completing the project, I think I will try and use Access more often in my business. We just recently made a list for mailings, I think I will import it into Access to make a database of potential customers. We just recieved our first phone call from the mailings, and using Access I can use the form to put in all the homeowners information in.
Again, I wish we would spend more time in the class on these kinds of programs than on networks. I can see the importance of understanding networks, but not a whole weeks of lectures on them. The business student will spend more time on running Excel spreadsheets and Access databases than they will trying to repair a network. I think we need to know enough, so we are not dangerous in the IT realm.
Again, I wish we would spend more time in the class on these kinds of programs than on networks. I can see the importance of understanding networks, but not a whole weeks of lectures on them. The business student will spend more time on running Excel spreadsheets and Access databases than they will trying to repair a network. I think we need to know enough, so we are not dangerous in the IT realm.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Week 10: Muddy
This weeks material was a little tricky for me. Where I had the most trouble was grasping the WAN and LAN portion of the material. Understanding how the computers communicate with each other is going to take a little longer than a week, at least for me. I am glad that computers are able to do all these wonderful things, because without them I would not be taking this class in the format it is offered.
Google is a great source to help you find whatever you are looking for, normally. When trying to find another source for understanding networks, you are bombarded with a million different sites to choose from. After reading many different sites and what they have to say, I think this one, is the most beneficial. For me it was easier to read and follow, not a lot of computer "jargon" and well laid out. I will be spending some time reading all the articles that come with the site, to help me study for the test.
One last note. I thought the Marine Corps had a lot of acronyms, I think the computer world is giving it a run for its money.
Google is a great source to help you find whatever you are looking for, normally. When trying to find another source for understanding networks, you are bombarded with a million different sites to choose from. After reading many different sites and what they have to say, I think this one, is the most beneficial. For me it was easier to read and follow, not a lot of computer "jargon" and well laid out. I will be spending some time reading all the articles that come with the site, to help me study for the test.
One last note. I thought the Marine Corps had a lot of acronyms, I think the computer world is giving it a run for its money.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Excel Project
I thought this was a great project to do. I enjoyed working on it. I find excel worksheets easy to use and manipulate, so this project only took me one day to complete. I was not familiar with Pivot Tables, but as with everything else in Excel it did not take long to learn about it. I have "Excel 2007: The Missing Manual" as my trusty side kick, and not to mention you can find just about any "how to" video on youtube, this one is from the author of my book.
I wish the project dived more into formulas than the basic layout of spreadsheet. Just recently I learned how to use a new formula. For my business we just mailed out nearly 600 mailings and we wrote all the addresses in Excel and submitted it to the mailing company in that format. They came back and told me the street number and name needed to be combined into one cell. I didn't know how to combine the two without retyping all 580 addresses, so I pulled out my handy sidekicked and I learned about the function "Concatenate", this allowed me to combine the two texts into one cell. I had the file back to them in five minutes. There are so many functions to use in Excel, I wish we would have explored more of them.
I think the course needs to have more Excel projects. Excel plays a vital role in the business environment. I enjoy the lectures on networks, but covering more in Excel may be more beneficial for Business students.
I wish the project dived more into formulas than the basic layout of spreadsheet. Just recently I learned how to use a new formula. For my business we just mailed out nearly 600 mailings and we wrote all the addresses in Excel and submitted it to the mailing company in that format. They came back and told me the street number and name needed to be combined into one cell. I didn't know how to combine the two without retyping all 580 addresses, so I pulled out my handy sidekicked and I learned about the function "Concatenate", this allowed me to combine the two texts into one cell. I had the file back to them in five minutes. There are so many functions to use in Excel, I wish we would have explored more of them.
I think the course needs to have more Excel projects. Excel plays a vital role in the business environment. I enjoy the lectures on networks, but covering more in Excel may be more beneficial for Business students.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Week 9: Clear
Is there anything Excel cannot do? Really, Excel is such a vital tool to have in the business world. My father and I own our company and we use Excel spreadsheets for just about everything. We use Excel for our estimating. Instead of buying software, we created an elaborate workbook which does 90% of the calculations for us. We just have to enter the measurements and the type of product, Excel will spit out a price for us. We use it to track time of our employees, estimate taxes due to the payroll company. I used it to do a linear regression of the permits pulled over the last year in Duval County to see if there was a relation to price to squares (the quantity we sell in roofing).
Excel is a magnificent tool to have for your business, but if you do not understand Excel it goes to waste. It is easy to jump on Excel and do simple functions and create simple tables. To get the full use of the program you need to understand Pivot Tables, how to use all the functions, absolute cell referencing, changing the theme of you worksheet and all the other options to make the worksheet jump out.
Excel is a magnificent tool to have for your business, but if you do not understand Excel it goes to waste. It is easy to jump on Excel and do simple functions and create simple tables. To get the full use of the program you need to understand Pivot Tables, how to use all the functions, absolute cell referencing, changing the theme of you worksheet and all the other options to make the worksheet jump out.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Week 7: Clear
This weeks topics was pretty simple, compared to understanding binary, but without understanding these simple procedures you will not get the full use of your computer. You do not have to be a master of the BIOS or understand how to properly use command line, which I do not, yet. If we can understand the basic of these subjects we can arm ourselves with the proper questions to ask the professionals.
In 2006 I bought a basic Dell Laptop for about $500, it had 512MB RAM and a 1.5GHz processor, nothing too fancy. With just my basic knowledge and understanding of how to take care of the computer and properly use it, I still have it today. It has some minor upgrades to it, I just recently upgraded to 2GB of RAM at a whopping cost of $70. I also upgraded to Windows 7, so it can communicate easier with my desktop. Since 2006 one of my good friends who does not have the basic knowledge, has bought two laptops and spent nearly $2,000 on them.
A great website you can use to find free downloads and paid downloads to help you protect your computer and help optimize it is www.downloads.cnet.com/windows. Some other downloads I would recomend to get are a cleaner, this utility is built in to your computer but if you do not know how to open it this does it for you and it is free, and a HDD Health Checker that can be downloaded from CNET for free.
One more website that will run a scan of you computer to know what kind of upgrades are available for you computer and you can order them right from the website of just get the information you need to go to you local computer store to purchase.
In 2006 I bought a basic Dell Laptop for about $500, it had 512MB RAM and a 1.5GHz processor, nothing too fancy. With just my basic knowledge and understanding of how to take care of the computer and properly use it, I still have it today. It has some minor upgrades to it, I just recently upgraded to 2GB of RAM at a whopping cost of $70. I also upgraded to Windows 7, so it can communicate easier with my desktop. Since 2006 one of my good friends who does not have the basic knowledge, has bought two laptops and spent nearly $2,000 on them.
A great website you can use to find free downloads and paid downloads to help you protect your computer and help optimize it is www.downloads.cnet.com/windows. Some other downloads I would recomend to get are a cleaner, this utility is built in to your computer but if you do not know how to open it this does it for you and it is free, and a HDD Health Checker that can be downloaded from CNET for free.
One more website that will run a scan of you computer to know what kind of upgrades are available for you computer and you can order them right from the website of just get the information you need to go to you local computer store to purchase.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week 6: Clear
This week I finished up the Computer Hardware topic. As a partner in a small business in Jacksonville we are trying to be paperless, so we are storing a lot of information on an external hard drive right now. When ever we recieve any invoice it gets scanned and saved in the proper folder. What else is making this process easier, businesses that we deal with direct offer online services to view our invoices and recieve them via e-mail rather than mail. While this is becoming the trend to be paperless, the issue of backing up is becoming more important than ever. If you were to lose all that data now you do not have a paper trail to fix it.
Being a small business at this point we do not have all that much funding for tape back up. We are relying on online backup. This is becoming a popular method for individuals and businesses. The monthly or annual fee for these services is pennies on the dollar compare to any of the other backup methods talked about in the lectures. Carbonite is one of the options that cost $60 a year for unlimited backup capacity. This method requires almost no human interaction on your behalf. Once you setup you can set scheduled backups, or you can run manually. This allows you to focus on more of your business needs. This is a great way to backup your business and personal needs for a low cost.
Being a small business at this point we do not have all that much funding for tape back up. We are relying on online backup. This is becoming a popular method for individuals and businesses. The monthly or annual fee for these services is pennies on the dollar compare to any of the other backup methods talked about in the lectures. Carbonite is one of the options that cost $60 a year for unlimited backup capacity. This method requires almost no human interaction on your behalf. Once you setup you can set scheduled backups, or you can run manually. This allows you to focus on more of your business needs. This is a great way to backup your business and personal needs for a low cost.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Web 2.0 Project
This project, I found to be fun. I allowed me to really look back at a time in my life when a lot of things happened. It allowed me to put it all together and share with others my experiences. I tried a couple different sites out that were listed on the site provided in the instructions. I watched alot of different presentations about a dog named Dominoe.
The site I decided to use was One True Media. I found this site to be very user friendly and very easy to create. You can view my project on my blog or from here the One True Media site. Both sites allow you to leave comments, any comment left is appreciated. Putting this montage together was fairly easy becasue I had all the media already I was going to use. I just needed to put it all together in a story format.
When relating this to business, I think it would be useful if you were having an employee who has worked for the company for many loyal years retire. If you had the media to put something together to commerate their service to the company. With One True Media you can order a DVD of your montage, that could be a good departing gift.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." - William Shakespespeare
The site I decided to use was One True Media. I found this site to be very user friendly and very easy to create. You can view my project on my blog or from here the One True Media site. Both sites allow you to leave comments, any comment left is appreciated. Putting this montage together was fairly easy becasue I had all the media already I was going to use. I just needed to put it all together in a story format.
When relating this to business, I think it would be useful if you were having an employee who has worked for the company for many loyal years retire. If you had the media to put something together to commerate their service to the company. With One True Media you can order a DVD of your montage, that could be a good departing gift.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." - William Shakespespeare
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week 5: Clear
I watched lectures up to disk storage and I found the ones I watched to be fascinating. In particular the lecture on processors, 80 cores wow. I found it hard to believe that there could be that many any time soon. I looked into it, sure enough 80 cores, this website talks about the cores and how they may have some problems after 16 cores with a diminishing return. The article was written in 2007, so some of that may have changed since. But still, I have an Intel Dual and it works just fine for what I use my computer for. I could not imagine what programs would be running to need 80 cores.
I have a 700GB external hard drive and I have taken all of about 50GB of space. There is an article talking about the NSA building a facility to house a yottabyte of storage, a warning if you read the article it talks about all this big-brother stuff. A yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB of storage, holy s*&%. According to Wikipedia site on Yottabytes, as of 2009 the internet contained close to 500 exabytes which is two steps down from a yottabyte. Right now I just find that much storage hard to believe, ask me again in about two weeks and I may have a different answer for you.
I have a 700GB external hard drive and I have taken all of about 50GB of space. There is an article talking about the NSA building a facility to house a yottabyte of storage, a warning if you read the article it talks about all this big-brother stuff. A yottabyte is 1,000,000,000,000,000GB of storage, holy s*&%. According to Wikipedia site on Yottabytes, as of 2009 the internet contained close to 500 exabytes which is two steps down from a yottabyte. Right now I just find that much storage hard to believe, ask me again in about two weeks and I may have a different answer for you.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Week 4: Clear
Where would we be without application software?
I never realized everything I essentially used on the computer was application software. I think the personal use of the computer would not as wide spread as it is today without the development of applications. Think about it. Every time I turn on my computer, one of the first things I do is open up outlook. At one point I managed without outlook, but now I cannot imagine how I would do without.
Application software has had a huge impact on the business I run with my father. We are a small roofing contractor in Jacksonville and we use Quickbooks to supplement not having a full time accountant. We still use one once a month to estimate taxes but other than that, Quickbooks does everything else. Being able to use that application has saved our company countless dollars.
This link provides one persons opinion to the top 10 advances in software development. I do not think we can argue with his number one.
I never realized everything I essentially used on the computer was application software. I think the personal use of the computer would not as wide spread as it is today without the development of applications. Think about it. Every time I turn on my computer, one of the first things I do is open up outlook. At one point I managed without outlook, but now I cannot imagine how I would do without.
Application software has had a huge impact on the business I run with my father. We are a small roofing contractor in Jacksonville and we use Quickbooks to supplement not having a full time accountant. We still use one once a month to estimate taxes but other than that, Quickbooks does everything else. Being able to use that application has saved our company countless dollars.
This link provides one persons opinion to the top 10 advances in software development. I do not think we can argue with his number one.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Week 3: Clear
This weeks lectures were pretty straight forward. The majority of the the imformation given I was familiar with others I knew about but did not know the official title of it. I new that cell phones could only surf on certain sites but I did not know that those were called microbrowsers.
I think that anybody who uses the internet on a daily basis would gain the majority of this information, may not know all the technical terms for them but a good general understanding. I hope that as the weeks go on the class becomes more challenging and covers more in depth information than a section on sending e-mails in the book.
Next time you are on the web and you are bored check out this website.
I think that anybody who uses the internet on a daily basis would gain the majority of this information, may not know all the technical terms for them but a good general understanding. I hope that as the weeks go on the class becomes more challenging and covers more in depth information than a section on sending e-mails in the book.
Next time you are on the web and you are bored check out this website.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Week 2: Muddy
Can anyone say hexa... what?
I enjoyed the first three parts of this weeks lecture. Learning about the history of the computer and its lot longer history than I was aware of. When Coding Schemes and Numbering Systems came up I was lost in the sauce. I have never had a strong interest in understanding the inward workings of my computer. I understand how to take care of my computer and how to use it properly but never came across a situation where I needed to understand binary, that is not to say I will not. I find it facinating that there are people out there that can read and understand binary.
I have seen the blue screen of death before, next time it happens I still will not be able to understand why.
Here is a website that converst binary for you, check it out.
I enjoyed the first three parts of this weeks lecture. Learning about the history of the computer and its lot longer history than I was aware of. When Coding Schemes and Numbering Systems came up I was lost in the sauce. I have never had a strong interest in understanding the inward workings of my computer. I understand how to take care of my computer and how to use it properly but never came across a situation where I needed to understand binary, that is not to say I will not. I find it facinating that there are people out there that can read and understand binary.
I have seen the blue screen of death before, next time it happens I still will not be able to understand why.
Here is a website that converst binary for you, check it out.
Week 1: Clear
Week one of the semester was clear for me to understand. I find it to be very important to have netiquette when dealing with digital business communications. Written communications can be easily misunderstood if you put a ! where one would not normally go or WRITE IN ALL CAPS.
I 100% agree with the statement "Don't send out unnecessary emails". There is already enough viagra emails, and promises to award you millions if you help some Princess in Nairobi. We all do not need to filter through e-mails from people we know and trust for what is junk and what is not.
Here is a link to a website with some funny work e-mails that were not supposed to be sent out.
I 100% agree with the statement "Don't send out unnecessary emails". There is already enough viagra emails, and promises to award you millions if you help some Princess in Nairobi. We all do not need to filter through e-mails from people we know and trust for what is junk and what is not.
Here is a link to a website with some funny work e-mails that were not supposed to be sent out.
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