Tablets in the Workplace

tablet article 

In latest news according to this article is how tablet devices have become a major part in today’s company IT strategy. The article is entitled “Tablets now Workplace Standard, says Dell.” It explains how tablets are a part of 90 percent of IT Company’s strategy. I can believe this statement because in every school meeting there is usually someone controlling a slide show or presentation using a tablet device. Using tablets has made many everyday tasks easier to do in a limited amount of time.

“Dell's tablet group vice-president Neil Hand said the results show the way people work is changing. 

"Days spent going to a specific place to conduct business are fewer, while more employees are on the move and require access to company information outside of the workplace,” he said.

Android takes the top spot for supplied tablet operating systems in the UK, with 69% of organizations supplying Android tablets to workers. Other operating systems were more popular overseas, with Microsoft Windows coming first in the US and Apple's iOS leading in Japan (article).” This portion of the article explains the portability of tablets. Wireless networks make it possible to exchange information and data with ease. The use of cameras helps to conduct online meetings without having to be in the same room. And google applications make it possible to exchange documents to one or more employees, colleagues, or any member of a company.  This article also talks about how the use of tablet will steadily increase as years pass. This captured my attention as well as an interesting and factual article to read.

Cloud Storage

Cloud Storage

Large companies, smaller companies, and very few individual people use a high amount of data storage on a daily basis. Most people however don’t need a lot of storage depending on the data and or the applications they intend on using. Cloud storage can be utilized if someone or a company doesn’t plan on using their computer hard drive space or portable storage device to carry around with them day to day. Cloud storage refers to saving data to an off-site storage facility maintained by third party. Instead of storing your data and information on your computer hard drive or local storage device, you can save it to a remote database. Your internet connection provides communication between your computer and the remote database which stores all your information.

As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages. An advantage over traditional data storage is that when you store your data, you will be able to get to that data from any location that provides internet access. You would not also have to carry around a physical storage device or use the same computer to save and retrieve your information. Most cloud storage data centers allow you to let other people access one or more saved files that is available on your cloud. 

A disadvantage would be that if you are not able to connect to the internet, you won’t be able to access your cloud data. This isn’t so much of a problem due to public Wi-Fi areas and hangouts. Other disadvantages or security issue with using cloud storage include data leakage, snooping, cloud credentials, and performance. There have been some recent reports of how data has been compromised due to cloud storage which has me on the fence about using it for certain storage applications. The whole idea of cloud storage is interesting but there are still a lot of bugs that need to be worked out for it to be a completely secure tool to use. 

Science Friday

Podcast Blog

This week’s assignment involved a podcast that is updated every week about science. This podcast is described as a weekly discussion of the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment. Science Friday is hosted by Ira Flatow. Ira interviews scientists, authors, and policymakers, and listeners are able to call in and ask questions as well.

I am personally don’t listen to or watch podcasts but the whole idea of a podcast has gained my attention overall. While searching through the iTunes podcast I found categories that sparked my interest, technology being one of them. This particular blog assignment may have helped me find a new source of entertainment and information gain in my everyday life. I feel as though I can keep up with current events, topics, news, technology, science and many more.

This podcast was titled “Quantum: An Ode to Particle Physics.” This podcast was relatively short, having a length of three minutes and six seconds and shown on October 2, 2014. The speaker and main view of the video was Gilles Jobin, a choreographer and artist. He basically talked about how he incorporated the principles of physics into a six person dance routine. The performers had on a one piece spandex suit with zig-zag line designs on them. The lights above the performers were swinging in a circular motion, each one at a different time. Jobin says that “science is human,” and that it is the “story of our lives.” This is what inspired him to create this type of performance routine. In this podcast he explains how he used the effect of vibrations and human body movements to represent magnetic forces that occur in physics. Vibrations, forces, and movements create the heat illusion that he made visible in the routine. This different way of thinking helped Jobin create this routine known as the Ode to Physics. 

RAID

RAID

ITT 305

As you can see this blog entry will be about RAID array. If you did not know RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAID was created to combine multiple less-expensive drives into a single, higher capacity volume. The design of arrays was also made to assist disk redundancy. This design is known as fault tolerance. Disk redundancy was taken into account because of the idea of one or two disk failures. Most often you may read or hear about one or two disk redundancy, which is the number of drives that can fail while the disk remains usable. The redundancy of a disk array is important due to the amount and importance of the data that has been stored. 

RAID has methods of how the drives are gathered together known as RAID levels. Three types of commonly used levels in a small-office situation are RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5. These are the common levels but there are more levels to choose from depending on how they are projected to be used. 

RAID 0: Faster performance, RAID 0, distributes data across multiple drives. By doing this, RAID 0 has increased write and read speeds. This method is referred to as stripping. This RAID array has no protection against drive failure and your data will most likely be gone. 

RAID 1: Reads and writes the same data to pairs of drives, referred to as mirroring. Since the data is mirror, if one drive fails you can still continue to access your data from the other working disk. You will only be able to use 50 percent of your total drive capacity. 

RAID 5: This RAID offers speed and data redundancy. This RAID writes data and reads from multiple disks. All data is distributed across all the disks on the array. Since parity info is saved across all the drives, any drive can fail without causing the entire array to fail. Performance can improve for RAID 5 due to the data being read from multiple disks.

Open Source Software

This particular blog is about my favorite open source software or product. Open source software is everywhere on the internet. Even most of our blogs are run by BlogSpot or WordPress right now. I do not particularly have a favorite but I do have a few that I like. The open source product/software that I plan on talking about is Mozilla Firefox. As you all know it is a web browser available on Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, and android devices. When it comes down to what browser I use more I would have to say Firefox. 

This browser is arguably the most software for internet browsing due to its privacy features.

Firefox limits scripts from accessing data from other web sites. This browser also has add and pop up blockers for sites that users don’t intend on coming up. Most people don’t know but the Mozilla Foundation offers what they call a “bug bounty” which is a $3000 cash reward for researchers who discover severe security holes that the Firefox browser may have. Firefox does not have as many or fewer publically known security issues when compared to other browser's which is why I choose to use it more.
 

Firefox comes loaded with plenty of features including basic features and newer more updated features. Some include bookmarks, pop-up blocking, download manager, find as you type, session restore, spell checker, smart tool bar, add-ons, themes, and many more. I probably use the bookmarks, pop-up blocking, and download manager more than any other features that are offered by this browser. All of the other features offered are just a plus in my book. Firefox also allows its users to customize the browser and access apps, which is a step forward as far as open source browser features. According to the Firefox website, it is currently the fastest when compared to other browsers like Chrome, Opera, internet explorer, and Opera Next. Due to these key features I plan on using this software browser for many days to come and look forward to what they have in store for the future.

Boston Celtics Data Storage

Devon Gay

9-11-14

ITT305

The purpose of this particular blog was to read a recent article on techtarget.com and summarize the specific topic. I am new to this type of website so I looked around until I found something interesting and of course I did. The headline of the topic that caught my attention is "Boston Celtics' IT takes a shot at scale-out digital video storage" written by Carol Sliwa and published on August 18th, 2014. This sounds interesting because it is an article about storage technology being used by a major NBA team. 

This article was simply about the flood of data and how it is being stored by the team. Stats on points, assists, rebounds, shot percentages, business information, and basically all around team data don't take up 1 terabyte of the 100 terabyte total of the teams storage data. If you thought and guess video storage takes up most of the storage, then you have guessed correctly. Audio, photos, and graphics consume much less space when compared to the video storage of the Celtics. Season after season the expected growth rate is at least 20 terabytes per year. 

The Boston Celtics are planning on changing their approach from a scale-up to scale-out storage system, according to Jay Wessland, the Vice President and CTO of the Boston Celtics. As of now the Celtics are using an older system for backups and archive but are considering a scale-out option of the EMC's Isllon NAS. 

When asked what has been the greatest challenge with data storage over the last few years, Jay Wessland replied with the simple answer "explosion of digital video." Wessland explains that the team has plenty of other media but digital video consumes more space than all others. I find this to be true because of the team website with video highlights and game video available online to view at any time. 

This team uses video in two different ways. One way is the business side where there are game videos, interviews, and event videos. These videos are posted to the team website which is Celtics.com and other sites such as YouTube and social sites. The other side of video is actual basketball video which is targeted towards scouting. Types of scouting include self-scouting, other player videos, and other team videos which are all stored separately from the business side. 

 It is interesting to see how the Boston Celtics use their storage technology but now I am a little interested in how other NBA and professional teams handle the mass video data over the years.

Any Latest Product

ITT 305: Kicker Amplifier

     

 For this first blog entry I would like to share information about audio amplifiers. The Kicker brand name series produce high quality amplifiers and audio equipment, which is why I chose them for the spotlight of this particular blog. Kicker has more than one series of amplifiers but I will focus on the cx-series.

This 2013 model offers advanced features and high qualities that ensure the best sound for audio system. The cx-series amp exceeds its rated wattage power and it is certified to do so. It consists of multi-channel modes and and a mono block mode for one speaker. This compact package is the most efficient model in its class when compared to other brands. Its little but still delivers a powerful punch.
The newer series amps offer 300, 600, and 1200 watts. They all can be controlled with a remote bass knob that allows you to change the frequency and all are relatively the same size. All models have active crossovers and operate at low pass, high pass, or all pass frequencies.
The cx amplifier features advanced features and reliable performance, compact size for hard or challenging installations, Fail-Safe Integration Technology that protects the amp from overpowering and over heating, noise rejection inputs, auto turn-on mode, sturdy metal frame to reject radio interference and noise, and finally a built in crossover.