Thursday, July 20, 2023

Some Thoughts Regarding Programming Languages

  

Programming in and Difficulties with Scratch

            Overall, the programming process was not too difficult after viewing the tutorials. The one main difficulty encountered was figuring out how to attempt to save the program once completed. After finding a video on the website, that challenge was overcome. The program was fairly simplistic regarding the available tools but not as easy as writing actual code in another language, such as JAVA or PYTHON. The drop and drag features made it somewhat difficult to use the variable blocks. After attempting to use one to see the outcome, the action was abandoned as it did not fit with the program that was being written. Honestly, using an actual coding language seemed to be an easier task.

My Scratch Project:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/869214128

Comparing Scratch, Machine, Assembly and High-Level Languages

            Programming with machine languages has always been a struggle in my experience. Machine language only understands zeros and ones, and it was very cumbersome to program with; it was also limited in the functions that could be performed using it. Programming in Scratch, compared to machine language, was much easier. Assembly language uses human-understandable text to convert binary language into a readable language making it easier for programmers to input instructions using an assembler allowing the CPU to convert the commands to machine language allowing for easier readability for both input and output. Again, Scratch was easier than assembly language as it is simply a drag-and-drop program that uses the basis of assembly language as the commands are in the understandable text.

            To date, multiple high-level languages have been created, and the ease with which these use assembly language to convert to machine language. High-level languages store more complex instructions in memory using variables, allowing the CPU to convert more complex commands into assembly and machine language. Scratch could be compared to high-level languages since Scratch allows the use of variables during programming, allowing it to perform more complex instructions.  

Describe the Differences Between Programming Languages

            Machine languages are the most simplistic of computer languages. They are based primarily on binary and hexadecimal numbers, which carry out the program instructions based on the sequencing of these numbers and how the CPU processes them. Machine language would primarily be used to develop software for operating systems. Assembly languages add the element of text into their instructions so the human user easily understands them; they are then converted to machine language by the assembler to carry out the input instructions. Assembly languages have been used to develop programs such as Lotus 1-2-3 and the IBM-DOS PC operating systems. High-level machine languages are the most complex and are used for running and developing more complex programs. High-level computer languages are used for web development, data analytics, application development for both desktop and mobile applications, and even artificial intelligence (AI).

Explain Which Programming Language is the Most Popular and Why

            In contrast to the programming languages reviewed thus far, high-level languages are the most popular. The reasoning behind this opinion is that the ease of use of these languages and the number of applications they can be applied to is far superior to the older forms of programming languages. A prime example of such a language is Python; having used this language, the fact that it is extremely easy to use is highly adaptable, and it can execute very complex instructions with little to no effort on the programmer's part.

 


Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Some Insights Regarding Web Applications

 For this discussion I have chosen my employers app, Venus.com. The application overall is user friendly and works on both Android and iOS, the simplification of the UI/UX was the main goal when the app was developed. There have been several versions deployed since the first implementation, primarily based on consumer feedback and what they were looking for in terms of usability, the way categories were laid out and the way images were being displayed. When the app is initially opened, the first thing a consumer will see is any promotional offers that are currently available, if we are not running a promotion, a pop-up window appears advising the customer they will receive 15% off of their first purchase if they sign up to receive SMS messages or email offers. Customers can then navigate to the main category page, choose the category they wish to view, I have chosen clothing and the subcategory of dresses. At this point, they can choose their item and proceed to the checkout page. Here, they can view their shopping cart, add, remove or save items for later purchase, choose their shipping method and payment options. There is also an option to add an alternate promotional offer code should one not be immediately available. The application also provides photos of real consumers and influencers wearing our products at the bottom of the homepage of the site so consumers can get an idea of what the item would look like on a "real" person as opposed to a professional model.

The application offers the capability for consumers to leave reviews of the items as well. In my own experience, when you see consumer reviews on sites like retail sites, a majority of them will only post the positive reviews. However, being that we are an extremely customer-centric organization, we will post the good and bad reviews as we rely on this feedback to not only improve our customer experience, but also use this feedback to look at ways we can enhance the application itself. In recent months, we have added a feature to our UX that allows customers to return items and instead of simply issuing a refund, we give them the opportunity to store that credit in what we call their " Venus wallet." this essentially stores their store credit for them, so they no longer have to try to keep track of it. One of the downfalls of this program at this time is that in order to use these credits, customers would still have to call our customer care center to have them applied. The improvements that have been suggested and are in development is to allow the consumer to apply these credits at the time of checkout on the app and website, they will also have the ability to view any remaining credit they may have so there is no need for them to try to keep up with it. Another improvement is to make the viewability a little easier, we have been advised with some of the promotional banners, the pixelation for Android and iOS can vary, which can cut off some of the images or blend them together. The final improvement would be to elevate the timeframe that items are held in consumer carts, it has been expressed that consumers will save items, and if they have not logged in for several days, the items are removed, and their carts are empty when they decide to come back to purchase them.  Overall, we tried to keep the app as simple as possible and there are more advancements coming, but due to our main demographic in the age group of 35-60, we wanted our consumers to have a user-friendly experience, but also allow them the sense of security of using the application without reservation about putting personal information on it. 









Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Some Applicable Thoughts On Applications

 

The Functions of Applications

            Applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can be used for various tasks, from business to personal to entertainment purposes. Word processors are primarily used to write and revise documents, allowing users to edit, format, and change text layout. They provide the ability to output text to a printer or file and have other features such as grammar and spell check and the ability to add charts and graphics to documents. Word processors are the most commonly used applications in business, education, and personal document creation.

            Excel is an electronic spreadsheet application designed to allow users to enter, store, manipulate, and calculate data. A spreadsheet is extremely useful for accounting purposes as formulas can be written for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Spreadsheets such as Excel are also used to create various types of graphs and charts. PowerPoint is primarily a presentation software for creating slides that can be integrated with graphs, charts, pictures, animations, and text. PowerPoint allows the user to use different templates to customize their presentation to their needs.

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many advantages to using these applications; the first is convenience. Word processors today are much more advanced than previous methods, such as typewriters. Modern word processors allow documents to be easily and quickly corrected, shared, and stored. One disadvantage would be security. Word processors are typically used online; if a document requires the utmost security, using a typewriter may be an option. Excel provides the ability to calculate and manipulate numbers, text, and various types of charts in an orderly manner quickly. This ability provides an advantage over previous methods like using paper and pencil with a manual calculator to perform these same calculations or manually draw a chart. Applications such as PowerPoint provide the ease and convenience of putting together presentations that can include text, animations, and photos in a slide format that can be shared and modified by more than one user; some of the advantages of using PowerPoint are the flexible use, for business and education, the ability to make engaging presentations, the customization capabilities and the ease with which beginners can use it. A few disadvantages are the possibility of creating a presentation that is not engaging by putting unnecessary elements in that may distract viewers from the practical points of the presentation. Other disadvantages may be technical problems, such as corrupted files or compatibility issues which may cause the presentation not to operate properly.

Most Appropriate Recommended Application

            Although I found Word the easiest to use, the application that seemed to be the most useful in terms of readability, adjustability, and the ability to show the hours and percentages of how my day breaks down, using Excel is the most visible way to plainly view what tasks take the most and least amount of time during my day to accomplish.

Monday, July 17, 2023

A Trek Through A Network

 This post shows the paths of a network packet using PING and TRACEROUTE commands. Knowing the importance of how these packets travel through the network is a great way to enhance your skills in both Information Technology as well as Cybersecurity. You can learn the times it takes for a packet to travel through the network as well as how many routes it takes to reach its destination and be returned to you.

For the ping requests, I used Google.com, amazon.co.jp, and ireland.ie. The ping back from Google yielded four packets, sent, four packets received, zero lost packets and took an average of 34ms to make the round trip. Amazon.co.jp, Japan's amazon website yielded 4 packets sent, 4 packets received and zero lost packets, it took an average of 88ms to make the round trip. Finally, I attempted to ping the visitor site for Ireland, ireland.ie, after a few attempts the site timed out, four packets were sent, zero were received and four were lost.  Several reasons for this error could be the firewall on my computer would not allow the packets to be sent, or the firewall on the receiver blocked the packets, there could also network configuration error or the network could be congested. 


Using traceroute with the same sites that were used for Ping, I was able to determine the travel points of the packets sent and the length time it took for each site to respond. Google took an average of 35ms, Amazon Japan took an average of 59ms, after a brief time out the reconnection took approximately 82ms before timing out again and completing the trace. Finally, the ireland.ie site took a maximum of 118ms before timing out. The traceroute command can also be useful in tracking down IP addresses and checking to see if a site may be compromised by being able to see an unfamiliar IP address routing. Using this tool essentially allows someone to track sent IP packets along their route to their destination, the time it takes to reach them and be returned to the sender. 







Sunday, July 16, 2023

Computers: Do We Need Them to Do Our Jobs?

 

For this post, to emphasize the importance of technology in the workplace, I have chosen the fashion industry. Within the fashion industry, organizations are relying more and more on technology to conduct business, from websites to applications, logistics, manufacturing, and order processing, all aspects of the industry require the use of technology. It is extremely important that all users of technology within the industry are computer literate in order to perform their job functions as well as have knowledge of compliance and regulatory requirements to work in this industry. Over the last decade, the fashion industry has come to rely on technology in terms of designing garments, marketing and selling these items, and processing transactions. Creating the convenience for consumers to shop for items from virtually anywhere creates the need for faster, more secure ways to get the best shopping experience they can. In the next ten years, the digitization of the fashion industry will provide not only consumers, but organizations with innovative ways to shop, from VTO (virtual try on) applications to AI to create a personal shopping experience to more enhanced security features to make shopping safer and maintaining the integrity of websites and applications to protect user data not only on the consumer side but also for the organizations to prevent potential data breaches or other incidents where systems could be infiltrated allowing access to financial, personal or other data. The use of cloud computing as well as other forms of cybersecurity measures are being implemented more within the fashion industry to curb the potential for a breach, including the use of the aforementioned VTO systems. However, there is concern that these types of systems can be vulnerable as well, so the discussion has arisen to protect shopper data by implementing further safeguards such as creating laws similar to HIPAA that will not allow disclosure of any personal data that may be used by threat agents to compromise safety. 

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Network Security: Why It's So Important!!

In all networks, whether it be a personal or organizations network, ensuring it is secure is one of the most important things you can do. Whether it entails the installation of anti-viral software, having separate storage methods such as a removable hard drive or completely separate hard drive, these can be preventative measures you can take with very little expense. With all of the ways that hackers have to get into systems, knowing how to mitigate or prevent these attacks is something that everyone that works with computers should have a basic knowledge of. I have included only two ways both people and systems can be vulnerable and some possible ways to prevent becoming a victim. 

Email Spam

            Email spam and phishing can go hand in hand. One of the most common ways threat actors can access a network or system is by using spam email. To gain access, hackers will try to fool the email recipient into thinking the email is legitimate. These emails can come in the form of a notification, such as something is wrong with your bank account, your computer, or even an email from a coworker or family member. Once the email is opened, it can allow a hacker to install a virus or another type of malware into the system, gain access to personal data or even steal money from the recipient. The best way to prevent these types of attacks is to be aware of who the email is from, do not open any attachments in an email unless you are familiar with the sender, and only open emails from a verified source. Some ways to tell if an email is spam are grammatical errors in the subject line or the sender’s address, attachments that look unfamiliar and unsolicited emails.

Social Engineering

            Social engineering is another common tactic hackers use to gain information about network topography. However, they use human nature and deceit to do this. There are multiple ways that they can gain information simply by just being in the right place at the right time. When a hacker applies social engineering, they can attempt to convey a sense of urgency to get information, such as claiming they are someone else, such as a superior or another figure of authority, they are from another organization familiar with the target organization, or some other entity. With more and more organizations using remote devices to conduct business, it is even easier for someone to obtain information by such acts as shoulder surfing which can reveal passwords or other account information, social networking, or becoming friendly with someone within the target organization, piggy backing to bypass security measures and using websites and social media accounts to learn about employees and companies. There are several ways to avoid being a victim of social engineering, such as being aware of your surroundings when using your cell phone in public, at ATMs, and using public Wi-Fi.


Friday, July 14, 2023

A Favorite Tech Topic

Tech Topic

                The topic chosen for this post is network security. Network security is an integral part of any organization's infrastructure and should be one of the first things to consider when developing any network or personal computer system. The importance of having a security plan in place allows for the prevention of lost or stolen data such as personal, financial, or business information. It also prevents a system from being compromised or infected with malware or a virus. After taking a few courses in cybersecurity, I found myself fascinated with how easy it was for potential threat agents to access systems and was intrigued by how to prevent these types of incidents. Unfortunately, my interest in this field came towards the end of my program, or I would have switched majors. However, I do plan on pursuing this more on my own once I graduate. The organization I currently work for is switching to the Azure cloud, so learning as much as possible about keeping that data secure before the implementation will give me an advantage when searching for another position within the company. At this juncture, cybersecurity is needed more than ever with the constant introduction of new technologies and the ever-increasing instances of hackers compromising systems from banks to hospitals to entire governments.    Security should be a combination of several things, having a strong security and access policy should be where the basis of network security starts. In terms of organizational security of a network, every employee from management to the end user should be aware of what they should have access to in order to do their job, but also have the knowledge of how unauthorized access to certain aspects of the network can be detrimental not only to the organization, but the clients they serve. Secondly, having some type of infiltration prevention such as a strong firewall, anti-viral software and intrusion prevention systems. Performing regular audits of network security, ensuring these prevention methods are regularly updated and maintained, and having the system regularly tested for vulnerabilities can be invaluable. Although some of these processes can only be performed by IT professionals, there are a lot of ways that as a regular user of a network can apply these practices. One of the simplest ways for anyone to do their part is to not share vital information with anyone such as log in or password credentials, making sure that they have some type of firewall or anti-viral software is in place and ensuring that network connections secure such as making sure public wi-fi or unsecure networks are not used to access the network.