Tutorial 4- What does RAID 1 do for you?

Look into a mirror and tell me what you see. Well you are looking at yourself and that is how RAID 1 works. According to Intel "A RAID 1 array contains two hard drives where the data between the two is mirrored in real time. Because all of the data is duplicated, the operating system treats the usable space of a RAID 1 array as the maximum size of one hard drive in the array."



Here is a image of RAID 1

So you are probably asking what does this means to you. Well have you ever had your hard drive crash and you lost all your data? How will you like to prevent this from happening again? RAID 1 has two hard drives that mirror each other. When one hard drive fails the other hard drive continues to contain your data. This gives you a chance to buy a new drive before the second drive fails and you lose all you data. According to Intel "The primary benefit of RAID 1 mirroring is that it provides good data reliability in the case of a single disk failure. When one disk drive fails, all data is immediately available on the other without any impact to the data integrity. In the case of a disk failure, the computer system will remain fully operational to ensure maximum productivity."

Maximum productivity means that your computer will read fast and you will not spend lots of time trying to find your data when one of the hard drives fail. Productivity is very important for business to make or increase profit. RAID 1 is great for fast performance and temporary usage. When looking for drives that are great with large amounts of data RAID 1 might not be exactly what you need. Consider what your most important need is before choosing one of the RAIDs.

Acknowledgements:

Pictures were created by Joel Acevedo for public use.
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/sb/cs-009338.htm?wapkw=(raid+1+mirroring)

Secure Email Project

Secure emails protect businesses and their customers from many hackers. One of the latest breaches has customers worry about their data. Epsilon which is a Dallas based marketing firm that sends out billions of emails for their clients had breaches in their system. The hacker(s) obtained email addresses and names of many customers from big firms like Best Buy, Walgreens, Citigroup, and etc. The breach could bring more attacks to customers. Customers are being warned that businesses do not try to gather their information via email.   

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/epsilon-email-breach/story?id=13291589



Here below is a photo of email replies to a digitally signed email and an encrypted email.

Acknowledgements:

Photo was created by Joel Acevedo for public use
Information was gathered from
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/epsilon-email-breach/story?id=13291589

Tutorial 3- A how to step by step process of importing an Excel spreadsheet into Access

Databases are great tools and one of its best attributes is the ability to import external data. I have great news for you today as I will show you a step by step procedure on how to import an excel spreadsheet into Microsoft Office Access 2007. Before we began our step by step lesson I will explain first what this means to import an external data. Importing an Excel spreadsheet into Access is gathering data from an Excel file and entering the data into Access without retyping huge amounts of data. This process save you lots of time and allows you to use an excellent program.

Step 1: After Access has been opened press the "External Data" tab.

Step 2: In the import section of the ribbon press the "Excel" button.

            Step 3: Press the "Browse" button when the "Get External Data-Excel Spreadsheet" window opens.

Press the box to view the image

            Step 4: Select the file you will like to open and press "Open." ***Note: Know where you have your file saved.

            Step 5: Press the "OK" button after you file has opened.

            Step 6:  Make sure that if you have a headings column you check the box that acknowledges headings then press "Next."

           

            Step 7: In the "Field Options" box choose each field and select its data type. IE: Text, Then press "Next"

 Press the box to view the image

           Step 8: When selecting your primary key you have the option to choose the key yourself or let Access choose the key for you.

            Step 9: Press "Next" and then press "Finish" and finally press "Close."

            Now that you have successfully imported a file into Access look at your data and see if the formatting is correct. Access will allow you to change things that you might have mistakenly done. After your file has been imported and the formatting is correct let the fun begin and improve your work speed.

Acknowledgements: 

Pictures have been created by Joel Acevedo for public use. 

Database Project

I learned how to create and what are databases during this project. I use my employers’ database in my job everyday as an end user. However I never knew exactly what I was working with until I started this project. I realized this when I started to create forms and began to enter the data for the new members. I recognize some similar attributes of what we were creating with this project and what I am currently using at work.  The ability to have read only users and automated numbers are those attributes that caught my attention and made me realize what databases do for business and end users.

                Things that I would like to enhance about databases are the ability to change views from a tab instead of a drop down menu and having easier ways to add headers and footers. Having tabs instead of drop down menu makes a multiple button pressing step into a single press. This improves an employee’s speed and will allow the employees to work on other things. Adding headers and footers are difficult in databases because you have to add a text box instead of just tabbing in the section and start typing. This new ability will also increase work speed. Databases are great tools for companies with large amounts of data because they improve work speed, however; work speed can still be improved.

Acknowledgement:

Picture was created by Joel Acevedo for public use

Presentation Project-World Vision

The logical flow and sequence of the presentation is made to grab a person’s attention at the beginning and inform them about world vision. Then to let people know what is going to kids around the world. After accomplishing these tasks the presentation is build to paint a picture in people’s mind of how would they feel if their kids were in those situations. Finally we ask the audience to help a child with sponsorship. I could have improved the presentation by adding voice over during the presentation. However I did not have the equipment or money to make this happen.

The presentation answers the question of who is World Vision so that the audience does not feel that World Vision is a fraudulent organization. Then the presentation places a question to the audience that makes them feel like everyone in this world should have food to eat. The question gets the audience to understand that not everyone lives in countries like United States where people have food to eat and they need to help. The presentation then makes a statement that not everyone gets an education. Afterwards the statement is supported by a video of places in Africa without schools and water wells for kids.   

The presentation is straightforward without error or exaggerated statements and making each slide easy to read by creating spaces between lines. There is not a narrator throughout the presentation which makes this presentation a brain teaser to make people think about what is happening in the world so that they can change it.

Web 2.0 is very intriguing tools and they are still complicated tools for me to use. I learned many things while doing this project. For example how to add a YouTube file to a page and how to synchronize them to other slides. Webs 2.0 are great tools because they allow people to gather information throughout the world so that they can make a bigger impression on people. Impressions are the keys to a business success because it is not what you think about your company but what others think about it.

 I will learn more about Web 2.0 because when making a presentation to a company I can use many tools. The ability to use videos and with other tools combine gives me the freedom to be creative. I also enjoy the satisfaction of not having to carry around a USB drive because there have been times in my life where I could not find my USB drive and it had ruined my presentation. Web 2.0 gives me the power to always be prepared for my presentations.

Here is my presentation and hope you enjoy and now let the show begin.


http://portal.sliderocket.com/AOUII/Presentation-World-Vision


Let us united the world!!!

Tutorial 2- Absolute Cell Reference

Microsoft Excel is a very useful application software. Excel has many tools that save businesses time and money. One of those many tools is functions. Functions allow users to copy formulas so that they do not have to recreate a formula in a different cell. The ability to copy formulas saves a business so much time to do other productive task. 

Absolute Cell Reference is a cell that you do not want changed as a formula is copied. An example of an Absolute Cell Reference is when the user wants to calculate a 6.5% tax on every transaction they will record on your spreadsheet. To create an Absolute Cell Reference the user will need to use dollar signs before the cell letter and number. For example the user needs to type $B$6 to make the cell absolute in the function.

Here is an image below:





Now that you have a grasp of what is Absolute Cell Reference watch this video and follow along for further comprehension of Absolute Cell Reference.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYkBsnrvn4


Special Thanks:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/get-to-know-excel-enter-formulas-RZ006107930.aspx?section=13 for the absolute cell reference definition.

Image was created by Joel Acevedo for Public Use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYkBsnrvn4 For video use.

Excel Project

I currently use Excel in my job which is a great tool to have. The formulas in Excel make people's lives easier as they are very user friendly. Nevertheless, I had never used the Pivot Table until I started this project. My experience with Pivot Table was of trial and error as I made many mistakes. I then used many methods to figure out how to accomplish this project. For example, I used the discussion boards, instruction sheets and Excel Help Menu to guide me in the right direction.

The Pivot Table as seen below can be a very useful tool to use when you need to analyze large amounts of data in a very short time frame. The Excel Procject is very similar to data that I have to analyze at work. At my current job, I have to analyze years worth of natural gas prices in a short time frame. Having the ability to use Pivot Table, will increase my productivity at work and make presentations to my customers more professional.

Acknowledgements:

Pictures were created by Joel Acevedo for public use