Tutorial 4 Blog

What key components do you think make up a good (LAN) local area network?  A high speed internet provider? A fast running modem? A high performance router?  Yes, all of these are important aspects of a good network.  But think about how the internet gets from the provider to the modem and then to the router?  These are arguably the most important parts of a network and without them we wouldn't be able to 'connect' the network together.  Hmm, let me think...I got it!  CABLES!  Yes you're right.  So right now you are probably thinking, "what do cable have to do with having a good network?" There are three main types of cables when dealing with a local area network. Let me break it down for you.  

Coaxial

First, you have the coaxial cable which has a copper core that data travels on. Coaxial has less attenuation and greater resistance to noise than other types of cable. It is an older technology with limited capabilities that is less expensive than fiber but more than twisted pair.

Twisted Pair

Next you have twisted pair cables which is your most commonly used ethernet cable on the market today.  This technology is compatible with almost every computer and peripheral device used within a standard local area network (LAN).  This cable offers the most bang for your buck and is easy to install.

Fiber Optic

Last but not least we have fiber optic cables.  Fiber optic is the fastest, most secure and most expensive networking cable available on the market today for a local area network.  The fiber optic is unique in that it does not contain copper as the coaxial and twisted pair cables do; allowing for little to no resistance when transferring data. Data is sent as pulsing light through the fibers from one node to another.

Things To Consider

Latency, throughput  and attenuation are factors to consider when trying to determine what cable would best suit your LAN needs. Latency is the delay in data transfer from point A to point B usually measured in (ms) milliseconds. Delays vary depending upon cable length, strength of signal and the number of devices it must travel through to reach its destination point. Throughput is a measurement of how much data can be transferred at a single time often measured in (b/s) bits per second. Attenuation is the loss of a signal the further away it gets from its origin. The fix for this is plugging into a amplifier, repeater or hub to further boost the signal strength.  Hopefully this information can help guide you to determine which cables you need to build your network.  Remember that your network is only as fast as your slowest running cable. 

Secure Email

Link to the article: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-HealthVault-Encrypted-Emails-Boost-Patient-Health-Data-Sharing-182340.shtml

This article is about Microsoft's HealthVault using encrypted emails within their project.  On February 2nd, 2011 there was a Health and Human Services event in D.C. where Microsoft announced the use of encrypted emails.  HealthVault will now be able to share patient information securely.  Patients can receive secure emails in hopes that they become more active in their healthcare plan.  All encrypted emails will be saved to HealthVault in the patients permeant file.  Their main goal is to be able to send patient information in a safe and secure way.

Presentation Blog

Here is a link to my presentation on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZaBc_wW9AM&feature=channel_video_title

The following is my self critic according to the presentation evaluation rubric.  I think that I had a good logical flow with my presentation material.  I could have improved it by adding more material but I did not want to make it very cluttered.  I feel I did an ok job of anticipating questions.  I do believe now that I probably did not answer every question.  I think I was decent at grabbing the attention of the audience.  I asked a single question, "How you can help?"  I think it is very clear what I am trying to present to the audience.  I really didn't validate any claims but I did reference the website at the end where I found my information.  I don't believe that I had any inconsistencies, errors and typos.  I think I did a good job of avoiding clutter, the material was very neat, clean and very readable.  I read the slides as I showed them to the audience.  That completes my self critic according to the presentation evaluation rubric.

The presentation evaluation rubric is such a great tool for editing and proofreading presentations.  It does a great job of breaking down a presentation so it becomes more clear.  Normally one would take in the whole presentation but the rubric gives you the structure to go section by section.  I feel this is a more clear view of the presentation.  Even a great presentation may seem flawless but until it endures the presentation evaluation rubric there is always something that can be improved.

I feel that the presentation project experience will for sure be useful to me in future business.  The different presentation tools that use Web 2.0 technology out there are unbelievable.  The presentation tool Prezi was amazing.  The amount of information you can present was limitless.  You can literally spend days and weeks playing around with it and just trying to get the hang of how it all works together.  I can see myself making some very dynamic presentations using this technology.  The possibilities for Web 2.0 presentations are endless.

Tutorial Blog 3

I want to talk to guys about the power of the internet.  The interent has changed the world is so many ways.  Many of these ways people don't even notice or they take for granted.  Without the internet I wouldn't be attended the University of Florida, I wouldn't be taking this class and I wouldn't be writing this blog. Think about all the people that write blogs, where would they be today without them? Our generation lives and dies by the internet.  It is everywhere now. Its in almost every single pocket these days.  The iphone, ipod, android, ipad, etc. This is the information age. It's not about how much know, it is about whether or not you have the skills to find the neccessary information.  Think about it.  If you don't know the answer to a question, what do you do?  You look it up on the internet, plain and simple.  The internet has created billonaires and millonaires, think facebook, twitter and other internet compaines.  The internet has also made people broke with online betting and online pokers websites.  You can buy anything you can think of on the interent, the possiblities are endless.  You can buy shares of Apple stocks or crates of fresh apples.  To think that we have barely scratched the surface. 

Database Project Blog

Hello Bloggers!  Kevin here to talk to you about our most recent project, the database project.  This project was very interesting and quite challenging at times.  I enjoyed getting to learn how to use Microsoft Access and its infinite capabilities.  I know we only scratched the surface with the different techniques we learned with Access.  But, I feel that just with these techniques so much data can be organized in real world situations.  These are skills businesses look for everyday in future employees.  I hope to be able to widen my knowledge with Access and databases to enrich my business career.

I did find it kind of annoying that you had to set up the forms and the reports by yourself.  It would be nice if there were some automatic formatting for the length of text you were using.  I feel that would have saved myself a ton of time.  I'd say it would really help if it was more like a spreadsheet model on excel where you can double click the boarded between cells and it would automatically widen the cell to fit the desired text.  As far as that I experienced no other hiccups or hitches using Access that I didn't like.  

Tutorial Blog 2 1080p vs 720p

Hey bloggers Kevin here.  I want to talk to you guys about the difference between 1080p and 720p resolution TVs.  The average person would think that the 1080p is by far the better choice because it is a bigger number.  Well they are right, to an extent.  But as Prof. Olsen explained about the hard drives it is best to determine the application for the technology and then decide which is best.  For example, how large of a TV do you plan on getting and what will the viewing distance be from the TV.  These are very important questions to ask because it can save you hundreds of dollars.  Here is a chart that shows the best viewing range for each resolution at different screen sizes.

As you can see from the chart the two main questions that must be asked are screen size and viewing distance as I stated before.  The full benefit from each resolution is on a slope so when the TV gets bigger the viewing distance need to also get bigger to achieve the best quality.  Here is another good image comparing the two resolutions.

Step back a couple feet from your screen.  Can you see the difference?

Excel Project

This excel project was very fun and interesting for me.  I was able to use all the different techniques we learned from the lectures and actually put them to work.  At my current job I used an excel spreadsheet to display the staffing for the current shift at the unit I work on in the hospital.  What I use excel for at my job does not even scratch the surface of the capabilities that the excel program has to offer.

In the first half of the project while working with the raw data I was able to put a lot of the skills I learned from the lectures to use.  The one I found most useful was the control plus arrow keys to navigate the worksheet.  My current use of excel tops out at about 40-50 rows.  In the raw data we had over 500, so when it came to copying formulas to an entire column of 500 rows the shift/control/arrow keys were a must.  I also felt that the "IF" formula was one of the coolest as far as having total customization of the data.

In the second half of the project we worked with pivot tables.  Now I have never heard, seen or worked with a pivot table ever so this was all new to me.  I've been blessed enough with the opportunity to own a Macbook Pro, but unfortunately what we saw in the lectures didn't turn out to be similar in the Mac version of excel.  I feel that I had a decent grasp of the pivot table so hopefully my work will solidify that.  Overall I think the project did a great job of taking the new skills we learned and putting them to use.