Week 13: Clear: Social Media

Social media is such a rapidly growing thing and everyone is trying to jump on it that it's easy to forget that you actually have to actively think and engage in setting up a social media site for your business.  I only joined Facebook because all of my friends from MySpace went there instead.  This definitely shows how the network effect takes place.  I have no urge at this moment to go to Google+, but that's what I said when I was on MySpace and Facebook was exploding.

I can definitely see the positives for having a social media presence for your company.  I already have several business that I've liked on Facebook (Blizzard, Circle K, Rock 104, and others).  Most are actively posting almost once a day about their products, specials, and news.  A good business will post at least or twice a day (if not more).  Rock 104, on my page, posts rock music news almost hourly.

Social media is the new form of advertising.  Marketing research is delving more towards social media than it is television advertisements, it seems.  On my Facebook page, I get advertisements about Military Gamer Discounts, Verizon Military Discounts, Facebook War Games apps, Military Social Work, how to win a gift certificate to OPGI.com (I have no idea what this even is), the "Best Star Wars Game on FB," and Lingenfelter Engines.

Two of those don't even apply to anything I have any remote interest in.  I've never posted my love of cars or... whatever OPGI.com is, yet they somehow have made the connection that I would be interested in their products.

Luckily, Facebook has made their advertisements seem out of the way and non-intrusive.  This is brilliant on their part because if they were intrusive, I would quit Facebook quick, fast, and in a hurry.  One thing I can't stand are pop-ups, advertisements, and anything of that sort.  They're plagued with viruses and spyware and are always trying to get some sort of credit card information from you by some point.

Here's an image of my Facebook profile with some of the businesses I like and the advertisements listed above:

Week 11: Clear: Data vs. Information

It's hard to distinguish between data and information.  I almost always have a dyslexic moment and switch the two around.  I know one means raw facts and the other means something you use to make decisions.  The former is data, while the latter is information.  I try to distinguish the two by using "raw data" = "raw facts and figures."

Data you can put onto a graph.  Information you can't.  Information aids you in deciding what to do.  Data aids the user by providing information.  Data BECOMES information.

Image created by Chris Guderian

Another way is "databases."  We input numbers and items into a database.  This we use as a means to glean information for our company's profit or structure or any other number of things.  Data becomes information.  The cycle is complete *cue 'Circle of Life' music*

Week 10: Clear: Access Database

I've only used Microsoft Access Database a little in the last couple of years with no experience with it previously.  I had to teach myself everything I could because I had to set up a database for my job at the VA Hospital in Gainesville, FL (and partially Lake City, FL).  I was creating a database to keep track of their equipment and my boss hoped to use my database as a stepping stone to making it a hospital wide policy (and, with any luck, a VA policy in general).  The system that they have is an old Linux program that is out of date and in serious need of updating.

Anyways, from this course, I was hoping to learn a little about relationships and macros in this week's module.  It appears that that won't be taking place until next week.  Everything from this week's lesson I had learned myself from books and the Internet (Yay Google!).

The basic template of creating a table was rather simple.  It was pretty much like using Excel with a few different categories.  I enjoyed the ability to create fields and the manipulate them as I saw fit to only be able to have Numbers or text or even attachments.  My favorite was the attachments because with the above database that I described for the VA, they wanted to be able to attach pictures of the equipment to the item number.  This ability to create a field like that was extremely useful in that situation and would be also useful in many other situations.

Forms were a unique experience.  Forms are like trying to make a webpage in a way.  You try to make it as clean and flowing as possible so as not to distract, but draw the eye.  I played with colors, variations on the field name and many other things.  It was definitely interesting, but, again, things that I had learned already by myself.

I'm definitely excited for next week.  I'm hoping this class will help me better understand relationships in Microsoft Access.  They are a complete mystery to me and I'd like to be able to have a full grasp of Access for when I go out into the job market.  Being able to manipulate and create databases is an extremely useful skill to have.

Here is a picture I created of my example database that I did for the VA, I smudged serial numbers just to be safe:

Image created by Chris Guderian

Week 9: Clear: The Future of Technology

I had no idea that the future of technology was so close.  I found Dr. Machio Kaku's video to be very informative.  The idea of shapeshifting being within reach in the next decade is mind boggling.  To think that technology is moving that fast makes my nerd brain work in overdrive.  'Oh God!  Skynet!  Zombie Apocalypse!  RISE OF THE MACHINES! NEOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'  My imagination can run wild sometimes.

I had heard of a version of Moore's Law in that technology seems to be outdated by the next year, but this is everyone's common knowledge.  I didn't know there was true science behind it, which I find very interesting.  The idea that a CPU's ability can double in 18 months at first seems ridiculous, but if you truly think about it, it's right on the money.  Every year and a half there is newer and faster memory out.  Newer and faster operating systems.  Newer and faster motherboards.  Innovation is happening all the time.  The releases for new phones seems to be that you buy the new iPhone and then put down a pre-order for the next generation.  And the fact that everyone has access to these new advances in technology seems a bit ridiculous also.  I recently saw a picture online that said "I wish I had enough money to buy an iPhone like the girl in front of me paying with her food stamps."  People believe that they need these inventions.

I didn't have a cell phone until about four years ago.  I absolutely refused to have one, mostly to avoid work (the Army) calling me when I was off duty, which happened a lot.  I got one the year before I got out of the service and then I couldn't see myself without one.  I look back now and I know I lived perfectly well without one, but to think about living without a cellphone now?  I wouldn't know what to do with myself.  Now I have an iPhone and I wouldn't know what to do without it.  I think right now that the iPhone 4S is ridiculous to purchase when I have a perfectly functioning iPhone right here, but that's what I thought about the regular iPhone when I had my regular cellphone.  I'm sure if I got the iPhone 4S I wouldn't know what to do without it.  I'd probably starting thinking of Siri as a person (but I probably wouldn't go so far as to say I'd be Raj from The Big Bang Theory TV show).

I just think that the evolution of technology is going to continue to grow and grow.  Humans are adaptable creatures.  I believe that if we do reach the "end" of Moore's Law with our current limitations, we'll find some new way to go about making computer chips.  Even Dr. Kaku stated the new ways scientists are trying to get around this limitation.

Week 6: Clear Software

Software is probably some of the most complicated matter out there.  Installation can usually be a breeze, but when it comes to utilization it can be a nightmare.  All software these days has so many different gadgets and features that it is nearly impossible to figure them all out in your lifetime.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) is probably one of the most skipped over things in the world.  I have never read the EULA in all of my years.  I should probably do this more often.  You have no idea what you're agreeing to until you read the EULA.  Software licensing is usually pretty straight forward, but there is always that one bit of software that tries to "get ya."

Most software is simple enough to understand.  Microsoft Office, video games, instant messengers, imaging programs, etc.  There are many different kinds of software and for each kind of software there are many different vendors from which to choose.

The Operation System (OS) is the most important bit of software on a computer.  It enables the rest of the software to talk to the hardware.  The OS enables your computer to work.  If not for the operating system, you would have a very large paperweight.

Application software, on the other hand, is all of the software that you use.  It can be separated into Desktop Software and Enterprise Software.  Desktop software is the software that can be used on a single desktop for a single user.  Enterprise software are applications that are designed to address the needs of several users at once.

Application Software.  Copyright of Yahoo.

Enterprise Software.  Copyright of Symantec Norton Antivirus.

Week 5: Clear Presentations

I've given many presentations in the past while I was in the Army.  I had to give several on different types of first aid treatment for cross-training purposes.  One specific one comes to mind about the hazards of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.  I went onto the Army website's public domain and got several pictures of soldiers in varying forms of these illnesses.  I remember one specific picture was of a young soldier completely covered head to toe in ice to lower his body temperature.  I gave a small presentation on how to identify and aid in these situations in front of my peers and supervisors.

Copyright of MilitaryFamilyDoctor.org

Other presentations I've given have been on how to create different types of Access Databases.  These have all been PowerPoint presentations that I gave to my supervisor to aid them in their own day to day work activities.

On the other hand, I have never before used Web 2.0 and I'm curious and excited to see how this works out for me.  I'm nervous, but the idea of learning something new that is technical related has always piqued my interests and excited me.

The idea of storyboarding is very neat, also.  I've done these for little comic projects when I was a kid in middle and high school.  My friend, Josh, and I would create these storyboards for our imaginary comic book that we were one day going to create and publish and become millionaire writer and artist team.  He being the artist, of course.  I couldn't draw even a stick figure properly to save my life.

My idea for this presentation will be about the comic book industry, also.  I can't wait to get it finished and show it off to my peers and teachers.  I've always enjoyed the idea of the idea that I will be pitching, but I don't want to give anything away just yet.  Suffice it to say that it's nothing that has ever been done in comic books and I hope it will titillate your imagination as much as it does my own.

Week 3 - Clear: Networking in Real Life; Patch Panels

Patch panels are probably the most infuriating things I have ever worked with in my career.  They are also the most convenient and make everything run that much smoother.  The annoyance and pain is worth it in the end.

Installing a patch panel was about as difficult as Professor Olson described it as being.  Running cables through pipes and through the ceiling tiles and using the punch tool to put the wires into the network jack.  The punch tool was probably the biggest pain of the entire process, but it's impossible to do the job without it.  Here's a picture of one:

                                                                        Copyright of Cat5eCableGuy.com

As I've said this is the most important tool in the patch panel process.  You'll hate it throughout the experience, but you'll love it in the end, because once you've got all your cables zip-tied together and looking pretty, there are no more cables just running all over the place in your work environment or home.

The patch panel is probably mostly used for work environments, though.  They're generally used for when you have large amounts of users in a single location.  They make everything look cleaner and more efficient looking than just having a tangle of cable going from all the separate machines to your switch/router.

Week 2: Clear. Computer Hardware

I love this topic and I could probably go on and on about it, but I shall not.  I love computers.  I want to be, and am, a computer administrator, so this is a good thing.  This week's content has been geared to exactly what I know and some things that have been clarified for me.

I have built several computers over the course of my career and school time.  Everything that Professor Olson talked about were things that I've known or had a general idea about.  My current computer system is a few years old, but I have about a two or three year old motherboard in it (due to my budget), but it's brand new in the fact that it was just placed into my system (by myself) about five months ago.

Building computers has mostly been a hobby, though.  I had to teach myself with a pre-built computer and add components as they either died or became obsolete.  I've given my system plenty of blood, sweat, and tears over the years (literally in all three cases, ha!).

I don't know enough about the specs for most hardware, though, so I'm almost always behind the times with my hardware, but that's fine.  My computer simply needs to be able to run the internet, a few games, a couple messenger services, and Office.  The games are the things that cause most of the headache to get the required specs.  I never want just the "minimum" so I have to figure out what is good, but not the best.  I do research on the web and they throw numbers and acronyms that usually mean nothing to me.  This lesson has helped answer some of these questions for me.  (RAM was a large proponent that I had to learn off the cuff.  Sadly, this was detrimental to my pocket at the time.)

I have no pictures at this time for this subject.  Mostly because they're all deemed classified or show equipment that the military would frown upon me showing onto a non-secure site.  Oh well!  I had a picture of me in a tunnel in Iraq running cable, but 1) I have lost that picture and 2) it's more in line with next week's topic of Networking than it is Hardware in the computer.