Final Assignment

When I was in the 4th grade I was diagnosed with ADD. My mom did everything she could including reading everything that she could find, getting me tested for special ed classes, and finally getting me medicated. When I took a English and Math test I would alway score in the high 90's for Math and the teens for English so according to CA law since average was above 50% I could not be in the special ed class. I was put on Ritalin for medication and every night at 7 pm I would begin to cry because the medication wore off. I could not stop the crying and would no longer take the medication. My biggest challenge was that I had a writer's block if you will. I could not get my ideas on to paper. I could verbalize it but I could not write it down it was as if my hand could not do what my brain was telling it to. Someone gave the suggestion that my mom try having me use a computer so my parents purchased a used computer with WordPerfect on it. I can still remember the blue screen and white text. They sat me down showed me the general use and ask me to write an assignment. I was able to get my fingers to type what my brain was thinking it was a miracle! I used my computer for every assignment, at times I had teachers who would not accept assignments typed so I would type the assignment then print it out and then copy the words in hand writing because I still could not get my hand to write my thoughts but I could get it to copy.

My relationship with the family computer continued until I got into High School and I found that they offered classes on programing and something called R.O.P. Computer System Management. The teacher for all the the computer classes was the same person Harris B. Holler. He was an ex-CIA tech who knew just about everything about anything. My senior year I took a NetPrep Course from WestNet Learning Technologies where I learned all there was to learn about Networking. I did not attempt the certification test which is one of my biggest regrets. I also acted as a Network Administrator in the High School. From these experiences I found a true love for computers. I did my own personal study to try and become A+ Certified.

From you CS 1030 class I learned how to covert binary to hexidecimal and from hexidecimal to base 10. That is something that I never really understood and am so glad that I took your class for that reason alone. I enjoyed the stimulating conversations that took place in class. This was my first semester taking classes with my peers. I am really grateful for all the websites and software applications that you introduced me to. I have found Acronis® True Image™ Home on sale through Newegg.com and I am just waiting for when I have the money and it is on sale. 

As I stated before from my high school and person study I was very familiar with the home networking and wireless basics subject so I was a litter board with the setup the access point activity. Once we got everything set up and running the following class period I do have to say that the conversation about how it works for me as a customer made me stop and think. In high school and in doing jobs for small businesses I had run into the internet not working but it was always something out there being the reason. On my first job working with SBC Yahoo I was not familiar with  filters because I had never used on so it took a representative coming out to tell me that they had the computer plugged into the phone part of the filter. When I went and helped my wifes employer for fun I did everything the Comcast Representative wanted me to due including getting a patch cable to see if it was the modem because I did not want to be held liable even though I could have been held liable. They sent a new modem only to find that the actual wiring from the street could no longer support the kind of system they had switched too. The point being I never had to think about it they way we did in class. 

I would say that I enjoyed this class so much because it took the information that I had and expanded it or made me think of it from a different point of view. I was unable to attend the BEYOND THE BASICS: Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights seminar because I had other classes. 

I enjoyed the when we covered the subject in class and took as many notes as I could but everyone referred to the seminar and gave more of a cliff note version. I know I was not the only person who missed the seminar but I felt like the only person in the room who didn't know what was going on so I asked questions. I will use this information. One of the big things that I took away was that was unless I was financial strong filing for a patent is something that takes $10,000 to 15,000. I also know from other classes that if I start a company I better be able to afford a company attorney. 

Disaster was something that I had thought about for my home in regards to have batteries, food, water, etc. I know that I need to get a battery backup for my computer but I never really thought about flooding, fire, or something that would destroy my home. I definitely never thought about wide scale disaster for a businesses data. When I upgrade a hard drive for personal use I clone the hard drive and keep the old hard drive for 5 years and then dispose of it in a way that no one can access the information. I do this in case I needed old information that I deleted not because I was trying to have a backup for disaster. I never even thought of purchasing a safe deposit box to put it in. I also used a thumb drive for school word would back it up once a semester. Now I plan to buy Acronis® True Image™ Home and I use dropbox.com. 

I have to say most people consider me a little paranoid before this class and now I feel like I am not paranoid enough.  What I mean by that is there are somethings I do not question. Those things are very few but I feel like they are set by society and that is that. An example would be email addresses. If my sister or wife sends me an email I verify it is them only if they send me something I would question or if they were asking for information that they would not do over the internet. I now think that either someone is trying to get me by using a know email address. If that wasn't bad enough I also have to worry about someone else looking at what I am sending. It's a wonder that I don't live in a whole in Nevada after this class. This paranoia doesn't stop at emails now I think before I act in grocery stores on my cellphone or just talking with a friend. I think I have dubbed it down enough so that I only look a little more paranoid then I was before. I did change the security settings on my facebook account and I stopped using the new places feature on my iPod touch for Facebook.

What I would consider the basics of computers like layers I had learned in high school and then reviewed in CS 1020. I do wish that someone had told me before this class don't use yola or weebly you should use wordpress if you want to learn something that you will use in the future.  

I really enjoyed this class and hope I did justice on all the things that I learned!  

Copyright 2011 Matthew Van Dusen