IT 100 - My Experience

This semester I had to take IT100, and there were many new things that I had learned, and a few that I have already known; I also felt that I didn’t really need the course, but I found out that I didn’t know too much about computer security or about computer fundamentals like what a mother board is and its functions. For example in excel I knew how to do the sum of cells, but I didn’t know how to do an IF formula. And though I knew how to do many of the things that we learned using the Microsoft Word 2003, I was confused about how to perform these actions on the newer Microsoft 2007. Microsoft 2007 now has ribbons in their programs which make performing many actions much easier to do.
The thing I liked the most about this class is Microsoft Excel and Access because I feel that as a business major these two programs will be the most useful to me. I was not a big fan of assignments such as creating a blog or the Jing project because I feel that they will not be very useful to me even though they may help other people. Another topic covered that I feel is unneeded it learning about the Library. Yes a quick overview of what the library has to offer is helpful, but I feel that we spent too much time on the subject. What I would like to have learned more of in the class is Microsoft PowerPoint. Though it may not be professional, PowerPoint has many actions it can perform such as adding animations, buttons, and sounds, which I feel can help keep the attention of an audience viewing the slideshow.
Since IT is a class about technology and computers, it makes sense for it to be a hybrid course. Going to class two times a week would just waste time in my view. I would rather have more work and less class time in this course because I feel that it is a subject where you can teach yourself many of the things you learn just by using the book.

Search Engine

Search Engines such as Google, Ask Jeeves, or Yahoo can be a ton of help, as long as you know how to use them properly. Have you ever needed do some research on a topic and you spend hours looking up the information you need on a search engine when you could have found what you needed in a few minutes, its probably because you are not using the search engines properly. To find what you need you must use keywords and remove anything that you probably don't need from your search, this will eliminate many unneeded sites from your search. The Keyword Challenge is a great game that will teach you how to identify what keywords are and what words you probably don't need in your search. When I played the game I found out that when I do searches I normally use many extra words in the search engine which would make it harder to find the information I need. This game can be a bit frustrating though because it separates words into 4 different categories of importance; these categories range from keywords, words that could help you find what you need, and words that you don't need in your search. Even if you can't get 100% in this game, most likely you can still find what you need when using a search engine.
If you want to strengthen your search engine ability you should play Live Search Challenge. In this game you must use your own skills that you learned from the Keyword Challenge to answer a question that the game will give you. The answer to the question is somewhat hard to find using a search engine, and this is how the game shows you that keywords are important when searching for information.

Anti-Phishing Phil

Phishing attacks are a type of scam with the intent of capturing personal information such as Social Security numbers, online banking user identification numbers, debit and credit card account numbers, and passwords. Many people can not identify what a phishing attack looks like, and even with resources like eBay's spoof e-mail tutorial and FTC's phishing prevention guide , these people will still go on unable to identify a phishing attack. I think it is important for people to be able to identify at least the most basic types of phishing attacks because they are so simple to ignore, but they can cause much damage.

After playing the game Anti-Phishing Phil I could understand how the game was much more effective in teaching people then traditional resources like eBay's spoof e-mail tutorial etc.. The reason I think that the game is much more effective is because it is a game; when people play a game they want to win, so after the first round when most people can not identify web site spoofs, they actually read and try and remember who to identify them so by level 2 they can identify them in the game and they can win. Also the game made it very simple to identify phishing scams because it would break apart URL addresses and show you what each part is, and in doing so teach you the basics of what a URL is, and then the game shows you what phishing scams do to the URL so they can steal information.

Symantec Internet Security

Though this video that Symantec may be fun to watch with its creative imagery to demonstrate Internet Security and its techno music playing in the background, it truly is a very informative video. They way they set it up also helps the audience see how severe computer attacks are because they have the video set up to automatically pause every time a new bit of information is presented, so the user must either read or ignore the information completely then press play again. Hopefully most viewers actually read the information cause they might actually learn something they haven't already known. Such as here in America we account for 31% of malicious activity. When I read this it make me feel that I should make my computer even more secure from harmful attacks. Within this malicious activity that America accounts for 31% are the 11,254 vulnerabilities that Symantec has identified, and the 499,811 malicious code threats from web pages, or the 1,134 malicious emails sent everyday, this makes up 71% of all email that is spam and phishing emails. These numbers are staggering, sadly though, many people will watch this video and still go on with their computers unprotected until they are attacked by a virus, worm, etc; and then they will regret not listening to what they were told about protecting their computers.

Job Search

After completing my 4 years at Monmouth to get my degree, I want to go back to my previous employer. I used to work for Hollister Co. and after I graduate I want to become a manager there only for a few years because I would like to be placed on the rehab team. The rehab team is a group of people who work for the company in all of Abercrombie's brands and they get to travel around the country and recently to other countrys such as London and Tokyo and they help open new stores. I just want to have the experience of traveling around the globe and still building my resume as a manager. After working for the company for a few years I would like to move on to a more stable job that is more professional.

In my search for job in the business management field I have come across a few positions that require computer literacy. One of these jobs was a general manager position with BP. Under the skills & Experience category they require a "Basic computer/systems literacy (e.g., Back Office System, Word, e-mail)", and all of these topics we will be covering in IT so it looks like I would be prepared. Another job I found was as an assistant branch manager with Regions Financial. Though they do not provide specifics of what kind technology skills are needed, they do require you to have computer literacy. This basically means you should know your way around a word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail etc.

Status Update: Your College Is Checking Your Facebook.

When you put your pictures up from last weeks party or say something offensive in a comment you though that only your "Facebook Friends" would see, but you thought wrong. Colleges are now using social networks to weave out the applicants they no longer want to go to their school. This may sound extremely unfair, but it does happen. Why shouldn't they be allowed to view your facebook though, it you post a picture that is really incriminating or embarassing then maybe you should think twice before posting it online for everyone to see. Maybe you think that if you put up privacy settings on your facebook then only your friends can look at your profile, but once again you are wrong. Just because you have privacy settings does not mean that everyone can't see your facebook. Sometimes your friends on facebook will use incriminating pictures or anything else on your facebook against you for many different reasons. Like my friend who was in beauty pagents. She told me that other girls in the pagent wanted to win so bad that they would use their facebook and show the judges the competition just to eliminate them and further their chances to being the winner.

So next time you post that picture up of you and your firends drinking at a party, think twice because that picture can affect you in ways greater then you thought they could, such as applying to college.

FORUM 10: More To Life Than The Office

Things To Think About

Instead of buying Microsoft Office, consumers also have the options of buying other programs such as IBM workplace, OpenOffice, or ajaxWrite. Office has a 95% market share and 400 million copies in use. These figures are probably so high because Office’s toughest competition is none other than, well, Office. That is, older versions of Office. This is because people have grown accustomed to their older versions of Office and don’t really see the need in upgrading to the newer versions.

OpenOffice is described as a clone to Microsoft’s Office because it works in the same way that Office does and the documents made in one of the programs can be viewed in the other. While documents made in OpenOffice can be viewed in Microsoft’s Office, it isn’t necessarily true the other way around. Not all documents made on Microsoft’s Office can be seen on OpenOffice, which is one of the main drawbacks for OpenOffice since Microsoft’s Office is still a widely used program. This may only last so long though because the International Organization for Standardization approved a new technology standard. This new standard is called the Open Document Format which assures that any word processor or spreadsheet application must communicate freely with any other.

The government, such as the executive branch of Massachusetts has decided to adopt the new Open Document Format standard. This means that no one company will be able to can bind their customers to one Word Processor. Microsoft will not have this though. Their plan, make their own new file format which they will license for free to all comers. This creates a new competition of document format standards. Though it may sound unfair to Microsoft that the government is adopting a new standard, this makes it better for the market place. If they adopt a new standard then it will create competition in the marketplace and that will give the average consumer more options of what word processor they want to purchase. The government it not stopping Microsoft from selling its product, they are just making them adapt to others needs, and not the average consumer have to stay up to date with Microsoft’s applications.

Even though there are more online applications for word processors being developed, I personally don’t think that Microsoft has to worry. Even though the applications online are available for free, some people may feel that it doesn’t provide as much security or simplicity as Microsoft Office; this is why many people are still sticking with their Microsoft Office programs. Just because young users are the people who are becoming more online savvy does not mean that they will be creating all of their documents on these free applications.

I believe that Microsoft Office may become integrated in the future. Some people may find it necessary for the different programs such as word and spreadsheets to be separate, but others may find it easier if these programs were all in one. This is why I think Microsoft Office will develop an application where you can choose if you want all of the applications integrated or not. If you want to see what an integrated program looks like go to Evermore Integrated Office. EIOffice is software that is Word Processor/Spreadsheet/Presentation Graphics, and Macro Editor integrated into one application with the look and feel of Microsoft Office.