History and Future of Computers

 

For this post today I decided to talk about the history and the future of computers as I believe this is a great topic to talk about with what I have learned in the class Fundamentals of information Technology and Literacy. The fundamentals of technology all start with covering the history of it. To truly understand a topic you need to learn where something began and how it got to the point of where it is now. For example Charles Babbage invented the first mechanical computer and made it using punched cards to do it. Now of days we can perform calculate polynomial functions with the simplest devices. Then Ada Lovelace came along, and she was the first person to actual become a computer programmer. What I mean by this is that she used a document made up of Babbage’s engine and mixing it with her own notes to triple the size of the original document, The notes she used were named A-G and the G note was the first actual program because of how it detailed steps on competing the Bernoulli numbers. After 30 years of Ada’s, death Herman Hollerith created a machine that used a computer program that would summarize data and compile statistics which was later sued for the U.S Census which made the whole process take 2 years faster than what it would usually take. His invention was so grand that it stayed in use until about 1970 which in computer time is a very long time to use the same system. made another. Alan Turing is another important figure in computer history as he developed a cryptanalytic machine that could decipher any intercepted German messages. We Have him to also thank for a test for Ai called the turning test which is a test to see if a computer has actual intelligence. This is when we take a huge turn for computers, and it all starts with Grace hopper. Much later after the punch card computers in the 1940s and the 1950s we had very large rooms just for a computer which would cost more than a million dollars per system you had. Grace hopper invited a computer programing language complier, this was used to change any mathematical problems to machine code. She also gave us the term of “computer bug or debugged” as she removed a moth from the Harvard’s Mark ll computer. For a long time after that we see Moore’s Law kick in which is a law that states every two years, the microchip transistors will double its number and the price of computers will halve each time. Today we have come a long way and we have computers in the forms of servers, pcs, tablets, and smartphones. Servers typically the most expense and cost the most power put can run a lot faster than a normal computer and they are usually used to deliver webpages to other computer networks. Pcs are personal computers that can be a desktop or a laptop, They’re a lot more affordable compared to a server and are typically used to get web access. Last, we have tablet and smartphone the difference between the two is that smartphone typically can fit in one’s pocket while a tablet cannot. They are usually the most affordable options, and they consume little power to use and run slower than the other devices. Now that we know the past and present of computers we are going to learn about the possible future of all computers.  I believe in the future we will see even more devices being able to communicate with each other right now we are in this transition as we already have toasters and lightbulbs that can connect to your phone to automate tasks. We are getting closer and closer making an AI that can actually learn by itself which would bring most likely a new age of man as it would be able to solve problems that human kind isn’t able to solve just yet. It could be truly terrifying or help bring us to a golden era.

Rankin, J. L., & Moss, R. (2022, August 1). Computers rule our lives. where will they take us next? Science News. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.sciencenews.org/century/computer-ai-algorithm-moore-law-ethics#everywhere-and-invisible

By 2030, this is what computers will be able to do. World Economic Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/by-2030-this-is-what-computers-will-do/

Reflection on Blog

 

For my blog I used several tools to help bring it together so that it would flow as you use the website. First thing I did was make sure that the colors were not too bright but also didn’t clash with each other. I decided to use orange at the top with yellow on the background to help bring the eye to the middle which is a white background with black text with the titles also being orange. I think by doing this form of design I was able to keep things simple but also look professional in a way. When researching for my blog I found that just using one color wasn’t enough as it blends the page together and makes it hard on the eyes to read. I also found by doing my research that the most successful blogs would use tabs at the top that would bring you home, to an about me page and would almost always have a send a tip page. This send a tip page was a great way to help the blog grow as it was used to help find topics that the people using the blog were interested in. Some problems I ran into though was I did not know how to actually add this function to the blog. I had never used blogger in the past so I had to watch a few YouTube videos so I could. I am glad I did that though as working this blog I have been able to look more into topics and delve deeper then I normally would on a subject. My plan for this blog is to continue to post on it but for more of a personal use as I can use it as a portfolio of what I have accomplished with my school work.

Post #6 – Network Security

   

  When it comes to network security there are many ways that people can get around it and use it to harm your systems. I will be covering three different ways in this paper. The first one we will be talking about is through ping. What attackers will use is called POD or ping of death which is very similar to a regular ping test but instead it breaks the packets into smaller bytes to overload a server and cause a freeze, reboot or even a crash to the computer. Another attack using ping is called Smurf, Smurf is when you overload a network with one single ping amplified to 255 times its normal size. By doing this it causes the computer network to slow down till it’s impossible to use. The best way to protect yourself from any type of Ping attack would be using firewalls and limited access to your network through your router. The next attack we will be talking about is an attack through email spam, this a very common tactic used, and you most likely have already run into it in the past. Email spam most of the time looks real briefly but if you look very closely you can see little things off with it. To determine what is email spam here are some examples you may see, generic greeting, email states there is a billing issue, or the email states you to click on a link to update payment details. If you are unsure if the email is still real or not instead of clicking on the link provided go to the website directly instead. My recommendation to prevent this is to use spam filters on your email and report any emails that are suspicious to your email company. The last attack we are going to go over will be A computer virus one of the most well-known attacks yet most people don’t know how they actual work. A computer virus is a type of program that runs one someone’s computer without the persons knowledge and is able t spread to other computers or networks. Computer viruses usually are used to a 3^rd party to conduct illicit tasks, steal information or doing harm to said computer. What I would recommend to counter computers viruses is don’t click on suspicious links and to download a anti-virus security program to help counter any viruses you might run into.

Post #4 – Traveling Through a Network

 

Up above are the ping websites (google.com , australia.gov.au, and yahoo.co.jp) It was surprising for the ping for the websites I choose.The Australian ping was a lot better than I thought it would be and it was actual quiet similar to the google server ping. I suspect that its that the Australian server is very good or that they are both around the same distance but I think its more likely that it's just a better network.

Same websites as above but with traceroute instead.
Traveling Through a Network Reflection

Actually running the ping and trace route tests was a lot easier then I thought it was. It was super easy to find the IPs and it was interesting to see how different locations varied in ping. The ping command is an amazing way to identify connection between two different networks.  It sends data  through the networks in small packets which will give you a measurement once it reaches the other network. These packets can lag or not make it through which is called packet loss. Ping tracing can be used to help determine the length of time it takes for these packets to reach the other network and report back any issues. some reasons for a ping error or a time out would be an incorrect network, the other network may be offline, or your internet might be having issues. The longer the distance between the networks the more latency issues you could run into while using your computer internet. for my current job using this tool is very useful as it is an amazing way to test our equipment to see if packet lose is coming from our router, our modem or our cable. Its good to know know that packet lose can be caused be outside sources like equipment or internet providers. 

Post 3- Documenting a day

 

   

 Today I work up around 7am to start my day, I made myself some toast and jam with an energy drink to have for breakfast which took about 10 minutes to do as I was very groggy.(7:10) After eating I did my morning workout of going jogging which was about an hour(8:10), after said workout I took a shower and relaxed for another hour.(9:10) Then I pulled up my school and decided to read my textbook for about 1 hour and 30 minutes trying to retain some new information for future assignments.(10:40) After that  I decided to watch some YouTube videos on using python and try to teach myself some simple programing till noon.(12:00) After that I made myself lunch A BLT with turkey bacon and wheat bread. This took another 10 minutes (12:10) and did some cleaning afterwards. This included starting my laundry and washing dishes (1:00). As everything was being ran, I decided to head to the grocery store to grab some food and go pre-order a game. I ended up also browsing a clothes store and I didn’t get back home till around 3:25 which I decided to unpack everything and relax which took about 10 minutes to do. (3:35) After getting everything I needed to today I decided to play video games till around 8pm. I made myself some rice and chicken for dinner which took about 30ish mins to cook. (8:30) After I was done eating, I cleaned my dishes and finished laundry for the day which took another 20 minutes to get done. I decided after cleaning “So much” that I should catch up on some shows I have been watching until my girlfriend got back home from work which was around 10:30. When she got back home, we talked and spent the rest of our night watching tv together till around midnight.

0. Sleep: 7 hours: 7:00am
1.Breakfast: 10 Minutes: 7:10am
2.Workout: 1 hour: 8:10am
3. Relaxed: 1 hour: 9:10 am
4.SchoolWork: 1 hour and 30 Minutes: 10:40am
5.SelfStudy: 1 hour and 20 Minutes: 12:00 pm
6.Lunch: 10 minutes: 12:10pm
7.Cleaning: 50 minutes: 1:00pm
8.Shopping: 2 hours and 25 minutes: 3:25pm
9.Unpacking: 10 minutes: 3:35pm
10.Video Games: 4 hours and 25 minutes: 8:00pm

11.Dinner: 30 mins: 8:30pm

12.Watch TV Shows: 2 hours: 10:30

13.Spend Time with Girlfriend: 1 hour and 30 minutes: 12:00am

 

For this day I used three different Microsoft programs to keep track of  my journal entry of what I did in a day. The first Program I used was the word processor which was nice for a more freestyle on how I made my journal entry. It was nice to be able to list everything out that I did in a familiar format. I do wish that I could organize it more like the other 2 as it isn’t as easy to read. After that I used the Spreadsheet Program which ended up being my favorite of the three programs. The reason I enjoyed this one the most was I could plug in formulas to make it more easy to understand and can use said formulas to auto fill information I would need. I could also use the data from the cells to make graphs like a pie chart or a bar graph to show how my time was spent in different ways. It did have the disadvantage of keeping everything in cells which makes it hard to have lots of information. The last program I used was the presentation program which was nice because of how visually it was more appealing then the other 2. You could breakdown certain actions with PowerPoints which made it easy to read. After going through the three I would recommend Using spreadsheet over the other 2 as it feels the most professional and versatile. You could use this application as well to calculate a budget that you need to follow. You can use the formula functions to calculate the average between the highest you would spend and the lowest you would spend. According to the textbook this called the “AVERAGE”, and you would write it as “AVERAGE(B2:C2)”. This would use the cells that are right next to each other on row 2.

Post 2- Web App Critique

While reading this discussion only one app came to my mind the Steam app.

The steam app serves many purposes that being a way to connect to friends/communities, to purchase and play video games on a computer.

When opening up steam you are greeted with a store page where you can browse games that are popular or that are similar to other games you have played in the past.  You can explore these game by using the image above tabs or by using something called the discovery queue. How this works is that it recommends 10 games and you tell steam if you like the recommendation or not. By doing this you can narrow down what games you actual want to see and might find something new you will like. What's also nice is you can go to a preference section in your profile to block any content of games you don't want to see like for example show no Pre-Order content. You can also block certain game tags which are one word that describes a game(For example Action, Gore, Racing, and Strategy). 

 Another feature that I personally use it the sorting system for games you own. Steam can be installed on a any Microsoft Windows, Mac, or a Linux PC. You can also download it on your mobile phone but with less usage.

The first suggestion I would have for the steam application would be for an improvement to the voice chat that is built into steam. What I mean by this is by taking some notes from other apps like Discord and Skype. The voice quality on there platform is terrible and tends to lose connection a lot more often then other platforms that do the same thing. It is hard to access as you need to go through many options in the friends menu to just set it up. What would also help this one feature is to have a way to set up an open voice chat that anyone can join as long as they fit the permeators the owner of the voice chat has made.

My next suggestion for the Steam app would be to add more customization for the home page. What I mean by this is to add a way to make it so you can shape your feed to what you wat to see. for example I would like to be able to see any news for games I already know or are following before I look at what is popular on the game store. By doing this I can see an improvement in customer satisfaction as it will be in the menu will be to the customers liking.

My last suggestion to steam would be change a system they have implemented called the point shop. The point shop is a store you can use points to buy small customization items to add to your steam profile. You may be asking how you get said points, well you get these points by spending money on steam. I think that it would benefit steam to also use these points to get coupons or actual games as it encourages the user to spend money more often. 

Post #1- Programming languages

 

Today was the first time I have ever used the scratch website and it was a very interesting experience. I made a 30-block program but wasn’t clever enough to do really anything with it. What I did in this program is have a cat image meow and then turn to ask the user what their name was. It would then take this response, wait 2 second sayings hmm and then repeat the name back. After repeating it would meow in a much deeper tone, responding with that is a great name while resetting back in the original position.

            I did struggle a lot with this website as I have no programming experience that I can pull from. I did end up pulling up a YouTube video to help me understand exactly how to use this website. I learned how to read code in a simplified way. The website is great at showing you how order of operations works in a code. After going through Scratch, I have to say I still prefer using Python as I feel that I have way more control in what program I have made. The textbook made a lot more sense while doing the activities because of how free the typing of the code was.
            There are many programming languages, but the most popular ones would be C, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript. The C language is more for game programming as its programs tend to run faster then something like C++. C++ is a great language for larger projects and the way it is used the code can be reused. Java specializes in more of a networking setting, as it is great for cross platform programs. Not only that but it's very easy to learn. JavaScript is used mostly in web browsers but can be used in other places but not as efficiently. To me I think that C++ would be the most popular as it is very universal and is efficient in many fields of programming.You can check out my project with the link below. 

        https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/750499988