The Witty Tech Newbie

  The internet has allowed for so many positive advancements in technology.  Unfortunately, the worldwide connection also brought about advancements in malicious attacks that make networks vulnerable to a host of security breaches.  Each kind of breach opens up a computer to a different threat.  These breaches can be caused by everyday occurrences – websites, emails, even pinging.  Awareness of security holes and vulnerabilities and attacks like phishing help organizations and individuals alike to keep their networks secure. The ping technique is an excellent example of how a purposeful network tool can also be used maliciously.  Pinging is done to test a network connection by sending a packet of information to a recipient and requesting a response.  In a Ping Flood, packets are sent as quickly as possible and the response packets are discarded, overwhelming the recipient’s network, and resulting in a Denial of Service (Do...

Fun fact – my favorite word is ubiquitous .    Today I’ll get to use it and I’m excited! In the insurance industry, computers are ubiquitous.  Everything needs to be done on a timeframe that faster technology makes possible.  Speed is the name of game in claim processing, and technology allows for this to be both fast and mobile.  Data needs to be used in forecasting and assessing risk for underwriting, and there’s a good deal of querying involved in financial reporting.  Then there’s the customer experience.  How convenient and user-friendly is the website?  The mobile app?    What story can user data tell in order to make improvements? Working in finance, I have seen quite a bit of change over the last 15 years.  From mainframe systems that printed reports, to web-based reader-friendly interfaces that were more intuitive and allowed most of the work to stay online.  The reduction in pap...

I had my first experience using ping and traceroute! Networking isn’t my favorite thing at the moment, I would prefer it if all devices could magically connect to each other effortlessly and without fail. I’d pay good money for a magic wand to make it so! That being said, this activity was interesting. Hopefully more experiences like this one will help make me less in the market for an expensive magic wand.    A ping sends a packet of information to an IP address and requests a response, to make sure the IP address can be reached. It can troubleshoot a connection issue with the receiving device. I sent a ping to google.com, australia.gov.au, and royal.uk, to test the reachability of IP addresses in several places in the world. I sent 4 packets successfully to all three addresses with no packets lost, so they were all reachable. My averages were 29.935, 30.228, and 32.616 milliseconds respectively. It was surprising to me that the ping to Australia took less time than the ...

Microsoft Office Suite is a standard for almost all work and school situations, as well as personal computer purchases.  The suite typically includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access, applications that are incredibly well-known, and commonly used.  However, despite name recognition, the nuances and best uses for each application may not be quite as well-known.  Exposure to different applications varies greatly based on an individual user’s needs.  Word processor, presentation, spreadsheet and database applications each have their own specific functionality that can be best leveraged in different situations.  I had the opportunity to explore these applications while documenting a day in my life. A word processor like Microsoft Word is an essential part of written communication.  This application allows for written work to be formatted neatly and consistently, easy to read and scan for important information, and able to be sent...

Life can be crazy sometimes!  I’ve just had to look for an easy way to incorporate a few minutes of self-care into my routine to help me relax and keep my focus. I came across a suggestion on the Insight Timer app and decided to try it. Since stress is not an experience unique to me, I wanted to do my review while getting started and share it with all of you.   Insight Timer is a meditation app with an expansive selection of guided meditations, talks, live events, and calming music, all completely free. A premium membership adds available courses. The app could be used as a guest, though the process of setting up an account was very easy, involving a few questions about preferences and experience, to make it personalized. The first option was an intro challenge that introduces a new topic each day, so I didn’t have to overcome paralysis about where to start. This led to setting up optional reminders, which can be easily updated.   I found the main pages to be ve...

Beginning an introduction to programming languages is an exciting start to the IT world! Programming languages allow us to harness different aspects of technology and use our creativity to imagine what could be. This journey began with a dive into Machine Language, Assembly Language, and High‐Level Languages, and ended with small project created in Scratch. These languages built upon each other and provided a new opportunity, and each has its own place where it best fits. Much like how the technology we use fits in to place, so does each person entering the technology field, with their own preference on the type of technology they use and the languages within it. It all fits together like the puzzle pieces that were so beautifully designed for Scratch.   Creating a project in Scratch was a fun, hands‐on introduction to programming languages. At first it felt a little overwhelming to dive into a program I hadn’t used before, but the platform was user‐friendly and easy to figure out....