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Tell Me How You Really Feel About Pinterest!

I have a confession... I Love Pinterest!  It's available for the web and for your mobile devices and is very user friendly. Because of that, new users can jump right in to using Pinterest and fall down the rabbit hole at breakneck speed! Pinterest utilizes Web and Mobile capabilities with a similar UI design structure for both platforms. I feel this is beneficial because it promotes consistent use. I don’t need to learn where certain features and commands are located because they are in a similar spot whether I’m on the Web or the Mobile App. Pinterest lets you create categories or “boards” where you can save or “pin” pictures, Gifs, videos or websites whose content you may be interested in, just to name a few. It's like your Bookmarks tab on your web browser but with pictures! It creates smart suggestions based on your interest and searches but not in a creepy "my phone is listening to me and sending me ads" sort of way. It allows you to locate an...
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SECURRITY!!!! I NEED SECURRRRRITY!!!

No, seriously... you do!      Companies and individuals primarily use computers to store confidential data. As we evolve in the way we use computers and store our personal information and data, network security becomes increasingly important. When security hacks and data breaches occur, they can slow or reduce access to websites and place personal information into the wrong hands. Data breaches occur often and can cost a company more than just money, it can cost them their reputation and the trust of current and future clients.      Security hacks like Distributed Denial-of-service or "DDoS" attacks can reduce and even cut off access to a website. A DDoS attack is a type of attack that can be executed using ping commands. These attacks overwhelm a website’s server and slows access. Imagine you are at home watching Netflix when your movie starts buffering every 2 seconds. Or you’ve just added items to your Amazon cart and you’re checking out when...
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Computers in the Workplace... Or like women, should their place be in the home?

Just kidding about that "women's place in the home thing... But I got you reading didnt I?      I work in the Financial Services industry. My company provides many different services other than life insurance. They provide services for retirement, annuities, investment securities, group life insurance and group disability. Due to its involvement with financial securities, Prudential is regulated closely by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority or FINRA. While the Securities and Exchange Commission is the government agency that acts as the regulator of the securities industry.      The functions of computers in my industry are useful for the completion of several different tasks. Computers are used for database management for customer information as well as maintaining licensing for the Financial Professionals. Computers help communicate important information within the company via email, instant messaging and the intranet. They are used with...
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I may be a computer hacker now!

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Ok, I confess! I am not a computer hacker! But I sure felt like one completing this assignment for my IT course. So I was tasked with creating a ping and traceroute command.  A ping command sends a packet of information to a website and waits for a response.  Think of it like you're playing a 2-person game of catch with a side of hot potato. You toss a ball to the person, they toss it back to you as quickly as they can, and you measure the time it took for them to respond to your throw… in milliseconds! A traceroute command sends packets of information, and you receive a report of the routers the packets passed through.  Think about when you book a cheap airline flight somewhere and the itinerary lists all the stops and layovers before you reach your destination (And there are a lot of layovers). But this report happens in real time… in milliseconds! I posted the results of my ping and traceroute commands below with screenshots.  I not...
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MS Office Programs... Useful and multi-talented!

I was tasked to journal my day using using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Honestly, this was pretty  easy because I use these programs almost daily.  From most experienced to least experienced, I would rank these programs like such: Word & PowerPoint (Intermediate) Excel (Average)  Access (Needs Improvement) Spell check is LIFE for me, especially in Word. The program as a whole it does its intended function and even goes beyond that with the numerous templates you can access and download.  Can't find a template? That's ok, make your own and publish it for others to use! User difficulty for a novice: 1.9/10 I love Excel's logic calculation formulas. You can highlight certain cells and tell the program to calculate the values or convert them into a percentage and much more. But the disadvantage with this program is its learning curve. Simple formulas and creating reporting information are picked up fast. But training or classes are needed f...
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Bee Bop Boo Beep: Programming Languages

I did a thing! https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/329948349 (The link if my embed code isn't working) <iframe src="https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/329948349/embed" allowtransparency="true" width="485" height="402" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe> This was my first time building a program with scratch. There was a bit of a learning curve for me because I have never coded to this extent. It took me some time to understand how to use the different blocks and understand which order I needed to connect them in order to achieve the desired result I was looking for. My first difficulty was just starting. I didn’t know what kind of program I wanted to create. Another difficulty I experienced was trying to figure out how to get my animation to do what I wanted it to do at a certain time. I also did not understand the number positioning, numerical color designation and the number ...
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