Secure Email Project Summary

*Snapshot of the laptop, Mozilla Thunderbird taken by myself



http://luxsci.com/blog/the-case-for-email-security.html

The article focusing on how a company can position themselves to be less vulnerable to email security breaches. The main points of the article focus around the route an email takes, security threats to your email, encryption and its importance, and how to stay as secure as possible. It became apparent after reading this article, as well as others, that email is far from private.

The threats associated with emails that are problem points to email messages are the following: eavesdropping, identity theft, invasion of privacy, message modification, false messages, message replay, unprotected backups, and repudiation. The eavesdropping can occur as the email is in transit and is copied and read if others are close to the path the email takes. The invasion of privacy occurs mostly with the unprotected backups, which are usually saved on back up servers at text data. The modification of a message can be done by anyone with access as a system administrator. False messages are great ways for viruses to breach into your computer and take form of a known sender and ask for unneeded information.

In regards to the above problems the article holds high consideration of encryption. Encryption creates a secret key that only you and the receiver have access too. The key turns a jumbled message sent by you back into original readable form. This is done by cyphertext, which is a random sequence of characters that makes anyone without a secret key unable to read it. This is a simple way to keep your emails harder to invade. It can still be gone, but it’s less likely to happen if a simple encryption were placed in effect.  The encryption used in this project was called asymmetric encryption. Asymmetric encryption involves creating a public key, each person; the sender and receiver get two keys. The keys have two differences one serves as a cyphertext and the other takes the message and decrypts it.   The asymmetric encryption does three very special things. First it sends an encrypted message, only viewable by a receiver having the other key to decrypt it. Second it proves you sent the message, which solves the false message factor. Third, it signs the message and shows if the message was altered during transit.

There are multiple ways of keeping information as safe as possible; another way is using a message authentication code. The code passing a message through an algorithm and turns the message into a completely difference sequence of characters. The output of the code is called a fingerprint and is virtually impossible to solve. An example given in the article stated that a fingerprint is so rare it would be like finding two strangers with the same fingerprint. The analogy seems pretty good on the side of those trying to protect themselves.

The last instrument used to better stay protected against privacy falters is using an email provider that is SSL. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer, which using a combination of asymmetric and symmetric keys. The benefits that the SSL provides is it determines you are connecting to the right server the email address is on and that you and the server can communicate securely. The above devices are ways to decrease the chance of being vulnerable towards privacy issues. It is important to stress that this ways to help secure your email does not completely protect you and can easily be seen if it was a high priority to someone.    



The Art of Search Engine Etiquette

The abilities of a search engine to pull certain information from the World Wide Web and filter it to specifics of a user are an incredibly resourceful and a vast time saver utility used many times everyday to seek information. A search engine is a program that finds web sites, web pages, images, videos, news, maps, and other information related to a specific topic.  The way this program works is by entering the search text, which is the word or phrase that additional information is needed on. The search engine then pulls results using formulas. The formulas are usually unknown; this is done to protect the success of the search engine’s guidelines when finding results, this process is what distinguishes the different search engines available.

The art of search engine punctuation has many tips that help eliminate and narrow the particulars on a search. I will share some tips I use when using a search engine to get exactly what information I’m looking for. By using the tips below it could make using a search engine that much easier, and provide an agent for weeding out unwanted results.

If the quotes ( “ ) punctuation is used, this tells the search engine that you want the results of that phrase in the exact same order. It is used when trying to find information on a certain person, or a famous quote or phrase. It would otherwise search for those words in everything, which would give results that had just one of the words. Another good tip would be asterisk (*) punctuation, this is used as a joker form; it holds space for anything to be replaced. For example, if you put Gainesville*, results would include Gainesville Sun, Gainesville restaurants, or Gainesville Nightclubs. It broadens the search to help find what is being researched. The use of OR in a phrase in a search engine will bring up results for either searched word. It helps grab more results because either word can cause the search engine to use it as a result.

There are many options when finding a search engine to use. In fact, some search engines offer a wide variety of perks for using their site. Yahoo! allows a user to create an email, play games, check the weather, and change the whole layout of the website down to the colors and what widgets you’d like to see every time you visit their site. Yahoo! is my personal favorite, however, other top search engines are Google, Dogpile, Ask, Bing, and MSN. There are many others out there and finding the one that gives you as the user the most benefit is a must.

Below is a screenshot of Yahoo! results using the search engine and altering it with one of the commands to show the advantages of using the commands. The first shot is of a search engine getting results for Red Bull, the second shot is of using the OR command with Red Bull OR coffee. The example shows that using the OR command gets a lot more results, which is the reasoning behind the OR command. The red bull search resulted in 45.8 million hits while the red bull OR coffee resulted in 135 million hits, a much broader result. This command creates an expanded list to help someone looking for both red bull and coffee results. This saves time by performing two different searches at the same time.

A list of other options to help in your search engine etiquette is listed below. It has some very interesting commands that make using a search engine easier and less of a hassle.

http://searchenginewatch.com/2155981

*Pictures were screenshot by myself from Yahoo.com

Project 3

My third project focused on Microsoft Access and all the ways it can import data and generate a wide variety of document types. The types of activities I created were a table, query, form, and report. The activities take data from a database and manipulate the data in whichever way the user desires. I learned how to import data into Access by a text file, and be able to identify characters that symbolize breaks or new characters in a text file. This is an easy way to identify the layout of the document. There are 2 types of data entry, and I learned the delimited way, which is when a character separates a field, usually by semi-colon, colon, or a vertical bar. The query activity held the greatest challenge for me. I had to learn how to filter using criteria. Criteria would weed out unwanted data by using a formula type expression in the design layout.  It was difficult finding out how to only include the last 6 months of members who had left the gym. I discovered the problem was stemming from the field being a text field instead of a numerical field, and after fixing that minor detail it worked like a charm. The form activity created a form based off fields I needed and I learned how to delete fields off forms, as well as, turn a field into a read only field. The report activity was created off a query I made earlier in the project. It had certain guidelines that wanted the report first, grouped by city in ascending order, and second grouped by recently departed in descending order. The final challenge involved adding a footer to the report. I added my name and it after reviewing it kept getting a parameter value error.  It wasn’t as easy as adding a Microsoft office footer, that are for sure!

One enhancement available through Microsoft Access that I found to be very interesting and useful was the Report Activity and how quickly you could minimize thousands of fields into a report that has just what you want on it in a matter of seconds. The enhancement makes this process fast and less frustrating by taking the criteria you set and developing a report. An example could be an excel database with thousands of entrees of people who attending a weekend workshop. A questionnaire was filled out by everyone who attended and put into a database that included name, address, if they had a current job, Education, and if they owned a laptop.  On Monday, the boss wants you to bring a report of the people who attended the workshop that live within the city and have a master’s degree in Business. In Microsoft Access that report could be created and printed in seconds. I have never used Microsoft Access it is the only Office application I have no experience in at all, but after this project it seems beneficial on my behalf to start learning this application. It has more function ability then the other suites since I love statistics. It creates very cool and designer friendly activities, once you learn the basics.  

Presentation Critique

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jstevens32605-872941-cff/

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

I choose to do my presentation on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The main focus I had for the first few slides was to draw a curiosity and interest in what I was presenting without letting them know the main reason for the presentation. I believe it was a great attention grabber and kept the viewers watching. The flow of the presentation focused on Cystic Fibrosis and about the disease and how there are treatments that have greatly increased the life expectancy and abilities of a person with Cystic Fibrosis. The attention was then turned from the disease to how a person could help people with this disease. I choose the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation because of the websites user friendly and very organized attributes, which makes browsing the site for information and ways to donate easy. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation also had several ways a person could help; not just using the money approach but several other means to help.

I used many visuals to help radiate the presentation and give the viewers a harsh reality of what it’s really like having Cystic Fibrosis and what one goes through on a daily basis. I chose to avoid the cartoonish photo art and chose to use real photographs I took while I was hospitalized. I didn’t show the relationship between myself and having Cystic Fibrosis yet. I did not want to incorporate myself into the presentation until I could show how the people of donating, by whatever means, actually meant to people with Cystic Fibrosis.

After watching other presentations I noticed those to have a non-personal effect on myself as a viewer. I decided to make the presentation a little more personal by showing photographs of myself and events I had accomplished, even though at birth I was not suppose to live a normal and long life. I think by added this personal approach it made the presentation more memorable by adding a face to the disease. The ending slide closes the presentation very well. I think by stating not only to focus on Cystic Fibrosis, but helping any foundation is a great feeling and very appreciative at the receiving end.

My evaluation was done on a presentation about pit bull rescue and the background of the pit bull. I found the presentation very interesting and enjoyed the background of how the pit bull got its name and the unfair marks society has on pit bulls. I know many people with pit bulls as pets and none of them display the characteristics labeled on all pit bulls. I think society as unfairly used a couple cases of unfortunate pit bull cases to slap such a horrible predetermined attribute of all pit bulls. If this were the case all types of animals should have the same label and looked upon as violent and killing machines.

During the creation of my Cystic Fibrosis presentation I discovered many tools the web has to offer. There were so many ways to present and make a presentation that will keep the audience a live and interested. I used the Takahaski Method in my presentation, which is using big text as a visual and I think it worked perfectly. I also discovered a website called authorstream that has developed a central point for PowerPoint presentation users to upload their presentations, get constructive criticism, and communicate with other PowerPoint lovers to get new ideas and excellent ways to add extra spunk to a presentation to give it the X factor needed to effectively present a presentation.    

Mp3 vs. WAV

What is the difference between a Waveform file (WAV) and the MPEG Layer 3 file (Mp3)? There are very important and distinct differences for using each one on these audio files over the other. It depends on how you plan on using the file, what you plan on doing with the file, where the file is being saved/located,  how many files alike are being saved, and how important or rare is the file. 

The WAV file was created by Microsoft with the sole purpose of storing audio. Sound, when recorded, is captured as waves varying in size and steepness. A WAV file is categorized as a “lossless” audio file.  A WAV means that the quality of the file isn’t disrupted in any way when saved. This makes a WAV file perfect for keeping on your computer as the original copy of the musical piece. The sound difference of a WAV and Mp3 can is very little on a typical song to an average person; however, if you have a specialty for hearing those differences then the quality is definitely an issue when converting to Mp3. If you plan on using the file for your musical library and don’t plan on copying the file then either would do. The only problem stemming from a WAV file would be the file size, which, is huge compared to its Mp3 counterpart.   The file space on your hard drive can be an issue, as well as, file transferring.  If you will be transferring music/sound files it would be wise to use Mp3 for saving transfer time and disk/media space. 

The Mp3 file is the most widely used form of music files. The reasons for this are it’s much smaller size compared to WAV files, and it does so without losing the music’s quality for the average listener. It does this by compressing, encoding the data, and eliminating low sounds, usually not heard by the ear. This file is used on almost all mass produced sound forms, such as CDs and is the form used for Mp3 players, hence the name of the device. It allows the distribution of the file to be transferred faster than a WAV, and also takes up much less space. I will demonstrate burning a CD with Mp3 files and WAV files to show the comparison in size to see just how BIG a difference in size their actually is between WAV and Mp3 files. The screen shots below are clear evidence that the Mp3 is compressed and does lose some quality, but the upside is more files can be put in the same amount of space as its opposition the WAV file.

Below are several website for FREE software for file conversion of WAV and Mp3:

Exact Audio Copy

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/en/index.php/resources/download/

Monkey's Audio

http://www.monkeysaudio.com/download.html

MP3Decode

http://www.etalonsoft.com/mp3decode.html

Excel Project

The Excel project puts you in the shoes of a large fitness center's employee who has to do analyses on data from 500 clients.  The employee must determine the effectiveness of a particular workout.  The data ranges from age and gender, to maximum heart rate, and targeted heart rate.  The owner of the fitness center wants the spreadsheet returned promptly.  After I completed this project I would be able to deal with a situation similar to this, in a very efficient and timely manner. My proficiency in Excel and this project allowed me to present data in an effective manner without displaying all the raw data.

If some people are not familiar with Excel; the formula bar creates a time saving function. The function allows you to enter a formula for one problem, and Excel has the ability to perform the same formula to additional cells/rows you want included. So instead of finding the answer for all 500 clients, a simple formula inserted in the formula bar inputs a set equation, and plugs in the different numbers for each cell/row to create its own unique answer. One of the formulas asked was Maximum Heart rate, which would be written as (220 - the age of the subject).  Another formula was the percent increase heart rate formula which was written (Highest heart rate - Start heart rate)/start heart rate.  If not for the formula input ability it would have taken hours to find the maximum and increased heart rate for every client.

An interesting feature in Excel that I was unaware of, is the Pivot Table function. This function allows you to aggregate your data and display in a table a number of options.  Such as the percent of people above 25 or how many reached their target heart rate. The Pivot Table then allows the user to format the analysis in an attractive table for easy presenting and understanding. I will certainly be using the Pivot Table function in future projects with Excel, as it is very simple and easy to understand. The Below screen shot is of my Pivot Table I did for my project. It was for finding the demographic group that most benefited from the exercise workout by looking at the percent of each demographic that reached their target heart rate.

Tutorial 1: Open Source Software

I would like to take a moment and elaborate on the world of Open Source Software also referred as OSS. The advantages and why people should want to familiarize themselves with such software. The meaning behind open source software is its release of the source code for revising, and studying how the program works. The program can be tailored into personalized software built for the exact needs of the user (if you know how to do so).

There are common myths that OSS is not as reliable, rich in features, or as attractive as licensed software. These are hardly accurate, and while the latter one might hold truth, it can easily be changed into exactly what your ideal attractiveness of such program should be.  The reliability issues are quickly fixed due to the high volume of users that experience the problems and develop a patch to resolve the issue. The features are very similar to their counterparts in their industry, and on several occasions, I have found very interesting and exotic features not offered by the common licensed software.

I have taken two specific OSS straight from my very own laptop to share with you. The three I have chosen VLC and GIMP. These programs are used by myself and millions of others instead of the superstars of their industry.

VLC

VLC is a media player similar to Windows Media Player. VLC was released by VideoLAN in the early 2000s.  The features of VLC are off the charts basically coming with every codec you’d need.  Here is a chart of the downloads they have had since their release http://www.videolan.org/stats/downloads.html  although they are not completely accurate it gives you some idea of the growth of the software. 

VLC is by far my favorite OSS I have ever used, and am always recommending it to others. I have downloaded and tried many videos with Windows Media Player and was unable to play due to the supporting that came with Windows Media Player. The Windows Media Player would play or the sound, or just the video, and sometimes it is very frustrating trying to find the correct codec to get the video to work.  VLC has played every single file I have tried. The results were amazing compared to Windows Media Player, and I couldn’t believe it was free.

Below is a screenshot of VLC playing a video I took from my HTC Evo 4.

It’s upside down because I’m left handed and do everything upside down with my phone.  Pic is from New Years 2011.

GIMP

GIMP is similar to Adobe Photoshop. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The GNU stands for GNU not UNIX. The GNU is the operating system created by GNU Project. A little confusing I know.  GIMP is used for photo composition and superior editing. I started using this software shortly after my computer had crashed and I was unable to find my Adobe Photoshop registration code.  I quickly fell in love with its features, very similar to Adobe Photoshop and extremely happy with the $O price tag. Below are two features I made using this software. First is a feature called Filmstrip, which is basically taking edited photos and grouping them together to form a film strip with your favorite pictures displaying in the filmstrip.  The second is a feature called multi photo sphere.

 Tutorial:  http://designorati.com/articles/t1/illustration/880/how-to-fast-and-easy-filmstrip-effect-in-the-gimp.php

Tutorial http://boitblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/grid-on-globe.html

Below are links to download VLC and GIMP, as well as OSS website for downloading other software.  The OSS website also has feedback and a rating system to review the comments from users.  The search feature, type of software tool allows quick and easy navigation.  This aids in quickly narrowing down and listing the best rated software.  It also has “Hot” software that has had recent increases in downloads.

VLC

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Open Source Software (my favorite)

http://sourceforge.net/