Packet Watch

  Network Security Network security is paramount because it helps keep sensitive data safe and ensures that network data is trusted. Keeping a network secure requires a multi-layered approach which includes software, hardware, and training. Your network can contain sensitive data which could harm or embarrass a company or even an individual. A company could have trade secrets, which, if divulged, may cause them to lose their edge in their field of business. Data may be simple but necessary to carry out daily business. Customer private data needs to be protected. A breach of customer information could open them up to identity theft and financial ruin. As many companies interconnect with other companies using cloud-based products, managing access to needed services and maintaining security becomes even more complex. As an individual, your network should also remain secure. It might seem a mild annoyance if someone gets onto your home network and turns your lights on or off. They may ...

Automotive History Before Computers The automotive industry is heavily computerized, but it wasn't always so. Vehicle engines used to be completely mechanical. Gauges were nothing more than sensors or glorified dimmer switches. Some vehicles started adding digital gauges in the mid-1980s, although sensors remained analog for longer. When you would take your vehicle in to get service at a dealership, your service write-up was on carbon paper and handwritten. When parts departments initially started to keep inventory electronically, the paperwork was still handwritten. You used to gather your invoices at the end of the day and enter your sales into a "deck writer." A deck writer was a computer keyboard connected to a line printer. It was still just a dumb terminal connected to an on-site server. After entering your sales for the day, your electronic inventory was updated. To see your inventory, you would need to print it out on paper. Eventually, monitors and additional key...

  Packet Data D ata is sent through a network in 'packets'. Data is taken and disassembled and placed into smaller chunks called packets. Each packet has a unique identifier added to it in addition to source and destination IP addresses. A packet is sent off to its destination computer. Along the way, each packet can take a different route, hopping from one server to another to find the best route to get to its destination. When the packets reach the recipient, the computer will re-assemble all of the packets into a complete message. Ping is a simple command to see if you can reach an end device. If this times out, the device isn't reachable on the network. This could mean a connection is down or not connected. Ping will also let you know how long a connection takes and if any packets are lost.
Traceroute is a more comprehensive tool that will show you every router along the way. Traceroute can help determine where network congestion and slowdowns occur. A ping or tracerout...

  Common Types of Applications Microsoft Corporation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons We use different applications to format, edit, store, retrieve and perform calculations on our data. The four common types are word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, and database applications. Each of these applications has strengths in specific areas for their intended uses. Some of the applications have some feature overlap. These features that overlap are helpful to the end user, so you don't need to switch between applications just for a particular feature. Word Processors Word processors are used when the end goal is to provide a document for someone to read. A word processor is best for the task when there is a lot of detail that is not numeric in nature. A word processor is best when you have paragraphs of words, or you want fancy headers or footers. Word processing applications such as Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Apple Pages, and Google Docs all have strengths in writing...

Apple Music App Review The Apple Music app comes on every Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac computer. The Apple Music app is also available for Android devices on the Google Play store. I am unsure of the features offered on the Android version, so this review will be for the app running on an iPhone. Features also vary on different Apple devices. History The Apple Music app has evolved over the years from iTunes. iTunes used to be an app where you could digitize your CDs and buy songs from the iTunes store. When it was iTunes, you could transfer your songs using a USB cable from your Mac or PC to your Apple portable iDevice. The older iTunes interface added movies and TV shows and was eventually broken into separate applications, Apple Music, Apple TV, and the iTunes Store.  Apple had purchased Beats and incorporated much of Beats' existing technologies that used curated music lists to help users discover more music that was similar to what they liked. This coincided with Apple...

Using Scratch Scratch is an elementary coding language with a visual interface. "Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab (Scratch - Developers, 2021, p. 1)." It is designed for ages 8 to 16. When I started my first project in Scratch, I saw the building blocks and quickly built a little 9-step animation. I could not figure out how to get it to start. I needed to watch some of the help videos. I was then able to get the animation to work, but each time I ran the application, it started from where it had previously left off. I found a video on restarting locations. I realized that I needed to initialize specific settings at the beginning.  The application made motion easy by filling existing coordinates into the visual code blocks. I then found it difficult to go back a step, so I needed to figure out how to reset orientation and starting point. I found that I could use individual blocks outside the application but within the workspace to re...