Week 13- Clear

There is a lot of information out there on the Internet. Some of that information is personal and not for everyone to have access to. If personal information gets into the wrong hands, it can be detrimental. Examples of some of this personal information is bank account info, social security info, and driver's license info. If someone can get this information over the Internet they can steal people's money, assets, identity, and more. So, it is important for people to make sure that their information on the Internet is safe. A good place to start for Internet Security is to have passwords.

Any website that you have an account with that contains personal information of yours, should protect your information with user names and passwords. A user name is a type of identification for a customer. It is usually your name or your email address, something that you can easily remember. A password is a private collection of characters that goes along with the user name. Most networked systems require the correct user name and password combo to access the information. Passwords protect peoples info from cybercrime. Cybercrime is when people commit online illegal acts. Hackers are people who try to break into systems, plant viruses, steal information, and do other illegal things via the web. These hackers are usually very smart, so to have a good password that they cannot figure out is safe. The longer the password and the more characters that you use, greatly increase how secure your info is.

Week 12- Clear

Do you ever wonder how computers and information are connected to each other? They are connected by networks. A network is a collection of devices connected together by transmission media. For example, a business can decide that they are going to provide all of their employees with computers that are connected together by a network. Advantages to this is that the company can control what programs and tools are available to each person. There are other advantages as well like better communication. Through networks people can communicate by email, chat, blog, and many other ways. Also, through networking you can share software and hardware. For example, many computers in a computer lab can be connected to one printer instead of the costly and inefficient alternative of each computer having its own. And say you want all of the computers to have Microsoft Office. Through networking, you can by a site license, for a discounted price, that allows all devices on that network access to the software.

Some common types of networks are LAN, MAN, and WAN. Local area network (LAN) is a network that connects devices in a limited area. A home, business office, or a school lab would be examples of this type of network. A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that connects LANs in a city or a town. A cable provider like COX or a telephone company would be an example of people who manage MAN networks. Finally, a wide area network (WAN) connects extremely large areas like countries or the world using a communications channel. The Internet is the biggest WAN in the world.

Week 9- Clear

Everyone uses the internet in today's times, but there are some things about the online world that people don't know. For example a URL,which stands for Uniform Resource Locator, has four different parts to it. A protocol, a domain name, a path, and file name. The protocol is the http://part/ of it. tfhe domain name for example would be yahoo and the path would be .com. Finally the file mane would be music/beyonce if thats the page you went to http://www.yahoo.com/music/beyonce. Also, did you know that each specific page on the web has it's own unique web address. This is how the computer knows where to take you.

The web is used for four different reasons. To learn, to feel, to connect, and to trade. Search engines help people to learn about info on the internet. some popular search engines are google, Yahoo, and Bing. Next, to feel on the internet is entertainment. People watch TV on the internet, they check scores for sports , they keep up on all the lastest fashion and celebrity news. I would say much of the use of computers comes from this category. Another is connecting. Social networking is the new telephone, the new reunion, the new newspapar, the new gossip. Facebook, myspace, and twitter are changing the way the world communicates. And last but not least, trade. More and more people are buying online now. You can get things personalized, shipped right to you, and get exactly what you were looking for even though the store was out of stock. Internet technology is changing the culture and the world.

Week 7- Clear

We have all been the victim of a painfully boring presentation before. Heavy eyelids, wondering eyes, deep sighs, and slouched bodies are never good body language signs to see while your the one giving a presentation. So how do you make your presentation one that everyone enjoys and remembers? Some keys things to do are pick an interesting topic, keep your context clear and to the point, and use visuals to enhance the presentation. First, make sure you pick an interesting topic. Know your audience and pick a topic that they can relate to. For example, when presenting financial advice to college students, talk about something relevant like ways to save instead of retirement planning which doesn't really apply to their lives. Next, make sure to present your topic in a clear way. You, being an expert, might know every little detail about your topic, but remember the audience doesn't want to be overloaded with too much information. Giving too many facts and irrelevant information is a sure way to lose your audiences attention. Then, use visuals to help you. Audiences like to be able to see what your talking about. It helps people learn and stay focused. PowerPoint's, pictures, tables, or finished products are some good examples of visuals for presentations.

Now you know some tips to help you make a great presentation, here are some pointers on how to present a great presentation. This is often the more difficult part of the presentation, the delivery. These tips might take some practice because becoming a good speaker is hard for a lot of people. Make sure that you speak loud and clear. Try to avoid saying words like "um" and "like" a lot. Make eye contact with the audience frequently, do not just read straight from you notes or off of the PowerPoint. Let the audience know that you know about the subject. Try not to stay in the same spot the whole presentation. Move around in moderation, even use hand gestures create a more relaxed feel. Now your presentation will be really good.

Week 4- Clear

Application software are the programs on your computer that you use everyday. These types of software perform functions that are designed to assist users with personal tasks. It is especially important in the business environment to have a good understanding of the different types of application software. Business application software includes programs like word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and management programs. Graphics and multimedia are another category of application software. There is personal/home software which are programs to help people with finances, taxes, entertainment, editing, and things like that. Communications, which is web browsing, email, blogging, instant messaging and so on, are also a major category of application software. click here for more categories

Application software can be categorized as either horizontal applications or vertical applications. Horizontal applications refers to programs used in all different industries and by all different people for multiple different uses. An example of a horizontal type of application software is the web browser Internet Explorer. This software can be used by a scientist to do research, a professional baseball player to look up stats, or by a kid to play a computer game.  On the other hand, vertical application software are designed to meet the specific needs of a particular market. An example of this could be a Walmart point-of-sales system. This would be a systems designed specifically for managing the retail of  Walmart merchandise.

Week 3- Clear

When people have an object that is no longer useful to them they throw it away. Although this may seem logical, it is not always the proper solution. Personal computers should not just be trashed when the owner doesn't need it anymore. Computers contain metals and chemicals that are hazardous to the environment. They should be taken or shipped to professionals that know how to properly recycle and dispose computer parts. Another option for someone who is getting rid of their old computer to change to an upgrade is to donate it. In this situation, the old saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" could be true.

Find A Company Near You That Recycles Electronics

A very important factor to keep in mind when getting rid of a computer is that the computer still contains your information. It is especially important to clear the data from your computer before giving it away. Personal information, private business files, images, and everything that could be saved on your personal computer needs to be erased. A hardware system that is made to protect your disposed information is Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) Link to DBAN. This overwrites computer data over three times so that information cannot be seen. If your hard drive is a magnetic disk, getting it degaussed makes information irretrievable. Other ways to protect your work would be to burn or cross-cut shred your memory hardware.

Week 1: Clear

The internet. It is where this generation finds the answers to all of their questions. For example, "Where is the nearest mall? When is that assignment due? How do I get season tickets? What is my favorite celebrity doing at this very moment?" The internet is a tool that gives an individual access an unimaginable amount of information. Search engines and subject directories are how a computer narrows down the massive expanse of data to give each person exactly what they are looking for. 

Search engines are an essential part of the internet. General search engines use "bots" to collect data from the web. These bots index and sort the data so that information can be found quickly. Then, when a person is looking for something, they type in keywords about their topic of interest and the search engine gives them different websites that contain those keywords. There are general search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing that basically search the entire web. You can narrow your search by using search engines that search only specific areas. For example, you can search videos, images, news, and search engines.

Search Engine- Google

Another type of information search is subect directories. Sometimes using general search engines can leave you with hundreds of pages of irrelevant results. Computers are only machines, but the human mind can process and analyse information. Subject directories are internet data sorted and organized by actual people. Therefore, these searches often give more selective and related matches.

Subject Directory- Google