Final Reactions!

The end has arrived!  Although this is really just the beginning.  This was my first course on my way to getting my Masters in Information Assurance.  This was also my first "real" online course (I took the required library class during the summer).  Overall I had a fantastic experience.  I do not have much "official" IT experience, but I do know a bit.  This class was a great introduction into terms and trends, some I knew, some I did not.  I learned a lot, and this was a great course to get me on my way into the wonderful world of IT.  I liked the class set up, I enjoyed the class discussion, I thought the exams were fair, I really enjoyed how all the work done was not just reciting back word for word from the text book, but using the knowledge acquired from the text and then applying it to real world situations.  The group project was very interesting where you had to create a paper based only off discussion online.  This could end up being very beneficial because in today's business world, a lot of business and reports are done with people who my not be in the same office, the same building, the same state or even the same country.  Things I learned in this course will not only benefit me in my future professional endeavors, but also in my personal life.  I enjoy technology (I just wish it wasn't so expensive) and this helped me understand a lot of it better.  I just want to thank Les (Dr. Pang) and everyone else in the class, it's been a great experience and you all taught me a lot.  I wish everyone the best going forward and maybe I'll run into some of you in other classes as well!

Since there is no video footage of us I'm using the Seinfeld farewell montage as our unofficial class farewell montage.

Week 10 reactions

The end is approaching!

So we have finished the chapter in our book and spent this week mainly focusing on our paper.  There are some difficulties trying to coordinate a project between people who never meet in person; however, my group has seemed to do a good job of everyone taking a responsibility and getting the work done.  I learned a lot about how data driven policing is these days and how much IT is playing a part in fighting crime.  Other than our paper we had to make a change to a wikipedia page that was based on a topic from our class.  Everyone knows you cannot trust everything you read on wikipedia, but it was interesting to see some of my classmates changes and to make my own.  I have never made a "serious" change to wikipedia page.  I made a change to the fuzzy logic page.  Fuzzy logic is very interesting to me.  Just how it effects AI in general to me is fascinating and that it can bring AI reasoning closer to our own.  I thought the page lacked a general basic description of describing what exactly fuzzy logic was.  I liked the description in the textbook and chose to paraphrase that as my change.  For my discussion topic, I chose closed vs open source.  I like to follow smartphones and the constant battle between Android and iOS.

Each system has it's positives and negatives and sometimes it depends on the users preferences, but it is a huge debate and it was interesting to read my classmates responses.

One more week left!  Final exam time this upcoming week.

Week 9 (and 8) reactions

So I just returned from Disney World over the Thanksgiving Holiday week.  I somehow got stuck in the one hotel not in a rural area that did not have any WiFi, not sure how that happens in this day in age. 

(So if you read my response about GPS tracking this picture doesn't make much sense, without getting too much into my personal life, let's just say it was a long week and the expression on my face fits)

Dreams come true!

Happy Turkey Day! (I unfortunately didn't get any Turkey, but I was in 80 degree weather!)

Well back to reality and onto the final Chapter, chapter 13, IT Security and Ethical Challenges.  The security aspect was very interesting to me, the ethical not so much.  I personally think Ethics is such a topic that varies from person to person.  Sure "core" ethics is similar, but everyone has their own opinion, where as security is cut and dry.  IT security is one of the most important jobs in America and probably the world these days.  The Internet and computers are used everyone now, to not only transmit data, but also to store it.  Personal information if not properly protected will end up in the wrong hands and if you give personally information to a company, you want to know that it will be secure.  This week, I also created an avatar using Voki.  My avatar was very seasonal and it was a gingerbread man.  It was also chose by my kids, who also picked out the background, so blame them if you get sick watching it.  My subject though was something that really bothers me.  I do work for a small company; however, they are very frugal and choose not to spend money where they should and one place is computers and security.  Our systems are very outdated and our security is lacking, something I cannot stand, but unfortunately it isn't in my job description (yet) to be able to do anything about it.  Even if I mention something, it is overlooked.  

Anyways, another week in the books and I am back to reality and by the end of the week back to the cold (thank goodness it wasn't freezing when I came back and I have a nice transition). 

Week 7 (and 6) reactions

Well I didn't do a reaction last week, I was concentrating more on my midterm, but I liked the midterm, thought it covered the material well.  The only question I did not like was question 2 (and it showed, I only received 2 points on that question). 

We are not into the second half of our semester.  Things started off with an interesting mini-assignment.  It took me a little while to get used to navigating the Fedscope site.  It was not the easiest website to find your way around.  I did eventually find an interesting trend showing the employment of Department of Defense employees since 2006, which surprising to me, was actually increasing! 

In addition to our mini-assignment we read chapters 10 and 14.  Chapter 10 was a bit more difficult to understand, very technical.  It was interesting to read about the neural networks and the sections on artificial intelligence.  Very cool stuff and amazing to think what they are getting machines and robots to do.  All I could think about was Terminator and Skynet taking over. 

(Let's hope it doesn't turn out this way!)

Chapter 14 was about Globalization, Outsourcing, Offshoring, etc.  This chapter is a major topic in today's business and IT worlds.  Thanks to IT these are now viable options for companies to utilize and whether you agree with them or not, they prove to be beneficial for businesses at least financially. 

Another week in the books, we'll see what next week brings.

Week 5 reactions

So, this week was tough for me.  I admit, I'm more of tech guy than a business guy.  Our mini-assignment was very difficult, not necessarily in the scope of work, but just coming up with an idea that doesn't exist.  It wasn't easy, I was racking my brain all week, even asking people to help me brainstorm.  I came up with a list of ideas, but for whatever reason, my best was a fantasy football site that combines all your teams into one site.  I have to admit, I would love a site like this.  It would be great.

 

E-commerce and E-business is huge in today's society, so I know this section is very important.  I know I have ordered many things online, whether it's Ebay, Amazon, iTunes or even just ordering new shoes off Footlocker.com because I'm too lazy to go into the store.  More and more people do business online each year and with the holidays coming up, e-business is going to be huge.  Black Friday deals, cyber Thurdays, or just ordering your gifts online because you don't feel like waiting in line, e-commerce is the way to go.  More and more, people will not necessarily be finding ways to provide sales over the Internet, but making people buy more, with ads and suggestions.  

Until next week...

Week 4 Reactions

It's that time again!

So I finished chapter 6, it was all about networks.  Networks are obviously very important, without them we would have the Internet.  These days everyone has a network.  Business us networks to link all of their employees and share information.  Even houses now are set up with a personal network, where they may share music, videos or pictures, or even have one printer that is used by multiple computers in the house.  It seem though that now more and more people are moving over to wireless networks.  I know in my house, I have a router that provides service to a desktop, a laptop, a cellphone, a tablet and even my PS3.  More and more "gadgets" are being connected to the Internet.  With a network set up, all of these devices can share files.  This chapter did seem to get a bit more technical than others, in my own opinion.

One thing I did not know, was all of the organizations out there that are maintaining the Internet.  Usually people think of the Internet as a "lawless" land, yet it still needs to be maintained or else it simply will not work.  I'm actually somewhat surprised that the move to IPv6 hasn't happened sooner simply due to the incredible rate that the Internet has grown over the years and the more and more devices that are utilizing it.

Our mini-assignment was about Twitter and it's impact.  If you didn't see my post, just a reminder you can follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/Bauce40

Week 3 reactions

Another week has passed.  This week we began our group projects by selecting 3 topics.  This is my first group project online and I'll admit, I am a bit nervous.  There is no "instant" interaction.  Everyone submits an idea or a suggestion and we have to wait for a response.  So far it seems to be working well, my group mates have provided some feedback and we seemed to have decided on our three choices.  Jason Lee Saxon, seems to have taken over the reigns as the leader (whether he wanted to or not, he stepped up and I appreciate that).

Our mini project this week was assessing the Zillow website.  I looked at it from a consumer point of view.  I have bought a house before and I've actually visited other websites similar to this, but never one with this abundance of information.  I really liked it, I wish I had known about it before this.  I had heard of Zillow before, but never actually visited it, it was impressive!

Finally, I read chapter 5.  This was all about database management.  It described the many ways to search and access data.  Again, this is something we do every day, whether it's googling something or even just entering information into your computer at work.  Data use is increasing all the time and the size is also increasing; however, people still need to quickly access their data.  Time is money and in this "instant" age, people want their data quickly.  Moving forward, the biggest key for IT workers is to make sure people can access large files quickly and securely.