Week 7: Clear

I know that I have been posting many "Clear" posts lately, so I was planning on writing a "Muddy" post for this week, however my favorite/the most interesting part I found, I happen to understand. This week I learned how important it is to defragment your computer. Personally, I have a Dell computer with Windows Vista. However, I have never before known how my computer was saving its files or how to defragment my hard drive.

Files on a Windows computer are not stored in one contiguous piece. They are broken up into fragments and stored in different locations across the hard drive. As files and programs are created and deleted, fragments are created for Windows to try and fill up every nook and cranny of the hard drive. Unfortunately, as files become more and more fragmented, the hard disk has to do more work to access all pieces of the files. It causes mechanical work in addition to the electronic processes, and results in lower performance by your computer. This could end in early hard drive failure, or atleast problems within the computer system.

By defragmenting the computer, files and unused space are reorganized in to contiguous sectors on the hard disk so that the operating system can access the data faster and programs can run quicker. It is recommended to perform this task on a "frequent and regular" basis. This way the computer can run 50-80% faster without paying someone to revamp or fix your computer. By simply clicking the "Defragment Now" button found in the tools menu, we can see significant performance improvement in our computers. I was not aware of this fact, and now plan on defragmenting my system quite often. Hopefully this will save me a lot of frustration and time.

For a tutorial or more information on this topic, you can visit:

http://windows.about.com/od/maintainandfix/ss/defragment.htm

Week 6: Clear

When I was going through all of the lectures this week, the concept that stuck out the most to me were the health risks that are becoming a huge issue in our world today. The most prevalent one is Repetitive Strain Injury or RSI. This happens if you do the exact same bodily motion over again, such as typing, gripping the mouse, or staring at the monitor, because that can cause damage to your tendons, nerves, and muscles. The damage can take form as tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, mild facial pain syndrome, burcitis, or tensivitis. As computers are used more and more every day, repetitive strain injuries are a real health risk. You should watch out for symptoms for yourself, your families, and those you supervise in the business environment. Symptoms to watch out for are tightness, discomfort, stiffness, soreness or burning in the hands, wrists, fingers, forearms, or elbows; gentling, coldness, or numbness in the hands; clumsiness or loss of strength and coordination in the hands; pain that wakes you up at night; feeling a need to massage your hands, wrists, and arms; and/or pain in the upper back, shoulders, or neck associated with using the computer. If you notice any of these, then it is definitely time to change your habits so it doesn’t get worse. Also, you shouldn’t always wait until you see a problem before you take precautions; preventative actions should be taken so that there is never a need to worry.

There are actions we can take ourselves, as well as technologies we can purchase to reduce the risks of injury by computers. Natural tactics include correct typing techniques, correct posture and chair height, and not resting or angling your wrists while typing or using the mouse. If your wrists are straight and you are at the correct position for your computer screen, your body will be in a more natural and comfortable position while you do your work. Many people surf the web just to pass time, for no purpose or work goal. If you eliminate unnecessary computer use, or do some of our work with paper, pen, and physical calculators, the risks will be severely reduced. It is also recommended to take breaks from constant computer usage, even just to walk around the room, stretch your legs, arms, and necks. This would be very beneficial to you. I would suggest interval breaks for the entire office, where everyone can get up and walk around and do hand exercises for a few minutes to prevent your employees from being injured as well. There are “natural” keyboards that are built at various angles so that wrists aren’t strained while you get your work done. There are different shaped mice to keep your arm at a natural angle to avoid stress. Wrist rests are also a valuable purchase, because they provide a way for you to not hold your wrists at a straight angle, without causing long term damage. Monitor and chair adjusting should be taken into account if any symptoms are noticed.

Other things that I am sure will become a concern in society soon are damage to your eyes from the monitor, and radiation from the computer. We place laptops on our thighs and near our reproductive areas. I have a strong feeling that cancer will be found in those areas because of this, in addition to reproductive issues of some kind.

For more information on symptoms and preventative tactics of RSI, you can visit:
http://www.safecomputingtips.com/repetitive-stress-injury.html
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~cscott/rsi.html

Web 2.0 Tools Project

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When I found out I had to make a video for this class, I went through what I could possibly make it about. I could do a slideshow of one of my family vacations or a history of my friendships. I wanted to do something that would entertain myself as well as everyone else. Then I realized I had the perfect video, that just needed some editing, and would be perfect for this project. My apartment complex has a job position titled "Maverick" that plans events for the neighborhood, acts as a liasion between the residents and the leasing office, and tries to make residents feel welcome and comfortable. The community tries to make it a home away from home in a college town. I decided to apply for this job, and the first round of interviews/requirements was a video application. This is what I started with to make the video for this project. I put it together on Windows Movie Maker, with clips I took with my video camera. I then uploaded the video through One True Media. I found out at this point what I had been missing out on all of these years, not knowing about the various web 2.0 applications. It was so simple to upload a movie to this website and then embed it into my blog. It took me a long time to figure out a good application to make an interaction method for classmates to provide feedback, and finally used polldaddy.com to make the poll shown below. Making and posting this video, I hope to show classmates, and anyone else who comes across my video how to properly market yourself for a job, and how to successfully make a video application for an interview. Obviously, mine is not the only way to do it. I wanted mine to be fun, which is why I included the bloopers at the end. It must have properly shown off my personality and intelligence, because I got the job! I learned that there are many different web 2.0 applications out there that are free and easy to use, and I should definitely take advantage of them. This project was very helpful because the world is changing every day as technology becomes more and more important in the workplace as well as our everday lives. Companies are increasingly requiring videos to be submitted before they will hire you, and they also require familiarity with various internet aspects. I hope everyone enjoys my video as much as I enjoyed making it!



This is what my original storyboard looked like...

Week 5: Clear

The concept I found most interesting and most understandable during this week of Hardware lectures, was during the section on the Processor. The processor is constantly directing, organizing, receiving, interpreting, and initiating instructions. It makes sure that the correct sequence is carried out by the correct application. Instructions are cycled through the processor atleast a million times a second.

There are two ways to process this information; the first is similar to an assembly line for a vehicle. The parts are put into place and then moved down the row for the next pieces to be added on. The beginning operations are "dormant" while the next steps are taking place, which is extremly wasteful and inefficient. The second way is termed pipelining. With this process, the CPU is simultaneously working on 4 instructions. While the CPU is decoding instruction 1, it is fetching the information for instruction 2. When the first instruction is done, it can begin on instruction 5, as opposed to instruction 2. This is an extremely efficient process, increasing the performance of the system. There are even systems set up for if a decision needs to be made down the pipeline. There are 2 options for handling this situation. The first is to stall the pipeline, which would stop "fetching" new information until the decision has enough information to be made. Then the pipeline will continue with all instructions. The other is called branch predicting. The pipeline in this case follows through with one option, lets call it assumption A. If this was guessed correctly, the CPU keeps rolling along at full speed and the pipeline never stops working. If it guesses incorrectly and needs to perform assumption B, then it throws away the other, partially executed instructions, and follows assumption B. This process of pipelining is incredibly more productive than the simple assembly line approach.

If the concept is still unclear at all, the following website provides animations and graphics along with further explanations:

http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~prabhu/Tutorial/PIPELINE/pipe_title.html