ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #14

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

In this chapter we studied systems administration and this Microsoft site gives you a step-by-step detail on how to accomplish successful systems administration.  It starts with removing spyware and viruses.  The writer follows with freeing up disk space using clean up tools that are found in Windows.  Moves on to defragmenting, repairing hardware disk errors and then covers some of the new features in Windows 7 and Vista such as ReadyBoost.  By following the recommendations of this article and performing computer maintenance your computer OS will live a longer happier and much more efficient life. 

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx

 

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #13

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Since this chapter discussed internet communication so in depth I wanted to do more research and understand how the internet came about.  The website I found game me some clarity and seems to be a pretty reliable source.  The website is actually developed by the Internet Society or ISOC.  They were founded in 1992 to help provide internet standards, education and promote policy.  It is hard to believe that the concept of the internet goes all the way back to 1962 when J.C.R. Licklider of MIT was developing his “Galactic Network” concept.  He envisioned a global network of computers that would allow every to share data and access programs.  By 1969 the ARPNET was up and the internet was born.  This is a pretty in depth article and gives a great overview of the various stages of development up to now. 

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

 

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #12

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/raid-levels-tutorial/

This website provides an overview and explanation of RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 (or RAID 1+0) with diagrams.  The content on this website is extremely easy to follow.  The article starts out by stating what RAID is an acronym for, Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Independent) Disks.  The article then explains the main difference between the RAID levels using a diagram and key points to remember in an easy to follow bulleted list format.  The diagrams were extremely helpful.  The one think I did not like about the article, is how it only explained half of the RAID levels.  I thought this article did such a good job with the explanations; but I think that the explanation of all RAID Levels would have been more beneficial.  The web page also had a blog or discussion forum component that allowed people to provide their comments to the article.

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/08/raid-levels-tutorial/

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #11

http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/virtual-machine.html

This website is for VMware which is the global leader in virtualization and virtual machines (VMs).  I know that Microsoft has developed a virtualization product, but I am unaware of the specifics and don’t think that it has received as much exposure as VMware.  The “Virtualization” tab of this website describes the advantages of implementing virtualization with VMware.  They even go on to explain that “VMware customers typically save 50-70% on overall IT costs by consolidating their resource pools and delivering highly available machines with VMware vSphere”.  In my opinion 50 – 70 % savings in IT costs is a bold statement, but I know at my job with virtualization we were able to consolidate many of our servers.  Our company probably did not save as much as most because our level of consolidation was limited based on Department of Defense (DoD) Security Technical Information Guides (STIGs) that we are required to implement in our environment.  Apparently there are a lot more security configurations that need to be implemented before we can take full advantage of virtualization.  On another note, the site goes on to define virtualization and VMs as well.  There are other links that users can navigate to learn more about the products, company, press releases, etc. 

http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/virtual-machine.html

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #10

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/71151/System_Development_Life_Cycle

This article by Russell Kay dates back to 2002 but I think that it provides a great explanation of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).  The writer provides an overview of the Waterfall methodology and breaks it down.  He then goes into the pros and cons.  It is explained that the system works great for accounting purposes but not so well for information sharing and knowledge based systems.  The writer then proceeds onto some of the other methods such as the fountain and spiral models.  The author does a good job of taking the complexity of the SDLC and putting it into simple to understand language.  The article is just hits the surface and is for someone just getting their feet wet.  At the bottom of page 2 of the article are some reference sites for people who what to delve deeper into the SDLC and gain a better understanding.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/71151/System_Development_Life_Cycle

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #9

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/103884

This website is hosted by Microsoft and provides information on the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Model.   The article describes and explains the seven layers of the OSI Model beginning with the lowest layer in the hierarchy (physical) and proceeds to the highest layer (application).  The article is easy to follow because a lot of text is not used and a bulleted list format is incorporated into the article.  The bullets list the functions of each OSI layer.  The article also provides readers and users to provide feedback about the article via a feedback web form that can be submitted.  On the right of the article, Microsoft provides links to related topics and articles.  One thing that would have made the article easier to navigate is if the OSI Layers list at the beginning of the article was linked to the sections describing them – that would have lessened the amount of scrolling. 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/103884

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #8

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227189/moving_to_the_cloud_isnt_for_everyone_what_to_consider_first.html#tk.mod_rel

This article covers cloud computing and is great for small companies who are considering moving to cloud computing services and IT professionals that work with those companies.  There is no sugar coating here.  The advantages and disadvantages are both laid out on the table.  The practical business approach of discussing does it or does it not save money is a big thing for all businesses, because if it don’t make a profit it doesn’t make sense.  The article goes on to give an overview of the security pros and cons followed by that big issues, what happens when the internet goes down.  Elsa Wenzel of PC World who is the Author of the article was kind enough to throw in a case study for us.  All-in-all I thought the article was insight and a good read for tech or not who is considering the cloud route.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/227189/moving_to_the_cloud_isnt_for_everyone_what_to_consider_first.html#tk.mod_rel

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #7

http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computersandinternet/

 

In chapter 7 we learned about input/output technology, everything from fonts, graphics, printing, and video displays. With that in mind I really enjoy the brainpop.com website. Through fun and interactive movies you can learn everything about engineering and technology including computers and the Internet. In this section there is a really good tutorial about printers and the differences between ink jet and laser printers. The tutorial is great and I’ve recommended it to several people I work with because they get the two mixed up quite a bit. With input/output technology in mind there are several other tutorials that are very interesting including how computer mice, digital animation, mp3 and video games work. Brainpop.com is not free unfortunately but there are some tutorials you can go through without charge including the digital animation tutorial.

http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computersandinternet/

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #6

http://www.interfacebus.com/Interface_Bus_Types.html

In chapter 6 we learned about the system bus and how it connects computer system components including CPU, memory, storage and peripheral devices. If you build your own computer interfacebus.com is a great site to check out. Not only does it link several different vendors for many different computer parts it gives detailed information on several different PC cables and slot buses on the interface bus types subsite. Any computer technician that needs a very resourceful and very detailed website on bus design can really make use of this site. As an example, if we look up the Universal Serial Bus we can see tons of information, when it was created, why, by whom, all its technical specifications, its different version and manufacturers. This is more information than the typical person would probably use but it is very practical for those in the electronics industry.

http://www.interfacebus.com/Interface_Bus_Types.html

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #5

http://www.easeus.com/resource/data-recovery-tips.htm

In Chapter 5 we read all about different varieties of storage devices and how data is stored on those devices. I really enjoy browsing through the EaseUS website when I need help with a variety of storage software needs, such as backups, recovery and partition management software. The Data Recovery Wizard software has worked very well when attempting to recovery data from your standard IDE or SATA laptops or desktops hard drives. In the Resource (

http://www.easeus.com/resource) area you can find a multitude of information pertaining to every time of storage media, what they are and how to manage them and tips on how to perform data recovery or drive manipulation. Not only does the site provide many software solutions for every level in IT, the Resource site provides valuable information in an easy to find location. Besides hard drive recovery and partition software the site also offers system and data migration, snapshot technologies for virtualization, Exchange backup and restore and RAID-5 repair.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter #4

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

We learned all about processors and how they worked in chapter 4 of the textbook. One of the subjects we learned was in regards to benchmarks and how we can accurately measure the performance of our computer systems. I found a website that benchmarks these computer systems and currently has over 600,000 CPUs tested. Although the site is mainly a benchmark for CPUs they also test video cards, hard drives, RAM, computers and phones. As the site indicates “CPU Benchmark results (“Baselines”) were gathered from users’ submissions to the PassMark web site as well as from internal testing. PerformanceTest conducts eight different tests and then averages the results together to determine the CPU Mark rating for a system.” The standard CPU tests using mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, 3DNow! instructions as well as others. After you download, install and run the PassMark Performance Test you’ll be given the results to each of the tests as well as an overall “Parkmark Rating.”

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter # 3

http://www.theparticle.com/javadata2.html

During my first two semesters here at NVCC I took the Software Design and JAVA Programming I classes. In these classes I learned a lot about primitive data types, arrays, classes and methods. Sometimes the books could not explain certain concepts clearly and I needed to turn to the Internet for help. There are many sites that can help in the process of learning data types and how they are applied in programming including the one I have referenced in this blog. The website explains in detail what variables are, such as Boolean or char or int and how to use them with good examples. You also have the option to download all the sources and content from the document for use in an IDE program. Beyond the basics the website also allows you to download the code for many applets so you can apply and learn from them or for entertainment.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter # 2

http://cloud-computing.tmcnet.com/

 

I previously worked for a company that hosted other company’s virtual machines. These included everything from web servers to Exchange servers and file and print servers. The virtual machines were all accessed from our company’s cloud. Being responsible for the administration of these virtual machines and the cloud they resided in I needed to have access to up-to-date resources on cloud computing and chose to subscribe to a magazine by the same name. Cloud Computing magazine and their website gives great information on learning to manage the cloud, new software and hardware capabilities as well as administration tips and techniques. The magazine is free as well as articles posted on the website and feature columns for technicians who work with the technology, salespeople who need a general knowledge on the subject and IT managers who need help in deciding what technologies to implement even if their technical knowledge isn’t as vast.

ITE 221 - Fall 2012 - Chapter # 1

http://www.ittoolkit.com/

Ittoolkit.com is an IT project management website designed to help provide project and IT consulting services to corporate and small business clients. Project managers in information technology need to have a great deal of knowledge in the systems development life cycle, also known in modern days as the Unified Process. The website helps project managers with managing IT plans, creating IT policies, planning for new environments and future growth, and managing risks and issues associated with them. You can review numerous articles on various aspects of the life cycle or even download free tools and templates when a free membership is acquired. The textbook mentions system evaluation and maintenance as an informal UP discipline and on that note I really enjoyed the article "Is the Time Right for an Upgrade?" which helps with making effective upgrade decisions and goes into detail the planning and evaluation involved in undertaking such tasks.