Final Blog Post

ITX was a great class for me to take. I have never felt that I am an expert user of technology but I definitely understand how important it is. ITX showed me many more practical applications technology has in the workplace and everyday life. In recent years I have been slightly opposed to changes in my technology use. When I got office 2007 at home I briefly considered downgrading to 2003 because I didn’t want to put in the time to relearn the applications. I was also weary of using social networking sites because I didn’t know about the practical applications of them. ITX has encouraged me to embrace new technology and use it to advance my knowledge, career, and life. Technology will always be advancing and if I remain stagnant and fail to stay up-to-date I will be left behind. And last but not least….it was a very fun class..there were always interesting stories and fun facts.

Disappear Like A Ninja

I couldn’t get the QuickTime to work for “Christopher S. Penn: New Media 101 @ Bentley College CIS Presents” but then I got caught up in browsing other Chris Penn videos and articles. “How to disappear like a ninja” and “How World Of Warcraft can make you a better marketer” stuck out as particularly interesting pieces. How to disappear like a ninja is about the phenomenon of people disappearing using their ipods or cell phones. When you are on your phone or listening to your ipod no one will bother you… you have basically disappeared. This can be potentially beneficial in certain situations like avoiding an ex. But in other situations some people disappear when it would be best to be visible. Disappearing in uncomfortable situations might be the easiest thing to do but one should be mindful of potential networking situation. Chris Penn discusses this in an interesting way and brings up a lot of questions and food for thought.

Careers in CIS

I admit I dropped the ball. I lost track of how many CIS presentations there were and the Chris Penn presentation was the first one I went to and there were no more after that. However I did view the Careers in CIS presentation on slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/checkmark/careers-in-cis-presentation . Wow there are a lot of careers in computers. The starting salary stat was particularly interesting. A 28% increase in starting salary would be nice. With so many different options it would not be hard to find a good one for me. Since I’m not quite sure what I want to do after college I might want to consider a career in CIS, especialy with that extra %28. Perhaps I'll get a CIS minor to complement another major. I should definetly use what I learn about technology to keep track of thing I need to get done. Maby then I won't forget to go to CIS presentations.

Chris Penn CIS Take 2

I was just going on my blog to put up something for another CIS presentation and I noticed there was nothing on the Chris Penn presentation. I was sure I had posted something about it few days after I went to it but I guess I must have closed the window before posting it. So here I go again.

Chris Penn's presentation about branding yourself on the web was very thought provoking, and made me appreciate the potential that social networking sites have as an aid. It seems that if a potential employer were to look up people on the web before an interview it could either make or break the potential employee. While at the presentation I decided to google myself. Not much came up for my name but there were a lot of hits for "flyingdutchman265" which is my name for most webpages. My blipper account, my updown profile, my wikipedia profile, my youtube account, and even an obscure lacrosse website that I bought something from one time. A potential employer could gather a lot of information from a simple web search.

Presentation

I thought Pistachio’s presentation was very interesting. I started thinking about all the applications Twitter could have in the business world. I like how through her answering the questions we really got a sense of how she did her job and how she made a business out of consulting on Twitter. There were some good quotes that were part of the take home message for me. “Why do you rob a bank? Because that’s where the money is” was pretty funny and something like “if you have something that you really need to do… just do it.” Two of my classmates also thought these messages were good and tweeted them which reinforced their importance to me once again. She was very charismatic I can see why she would be a fantastic consultant on anything she was knowledgeable about but because she is so passionate about the future of web applications like this it makes her even more qualified to consult on Twitter. Therefore it might be her passion that makes her successful. Which I believe is the biggest message of all.

CCleaner SuperAntispyware

Ccleaner and SuperAntispyware have been great so far. SuperAntispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/ found a Google ad application that I was really surprised about. It must have come along with chrome. I think Google must use it to help select which advertisements to show you. They gain from it because they can tell potential clients that they gear advertisements to the customer’s personal information. You get adware and spyware when you download things. I was surprised that I had 11 things come up in the spyware search, I don’t think I even downloaded 11 things but when I looked at what they were it made sense. I don’t think all spyware or adware is particularly dangerous to a PC it probably just depends on who is controlling it and to what extent it takes information and uses memory. Spy ware might be more problematic if it was used to record keystrokes or steal your IP address.

About Gettin JINGy with it

I learned alot about computers from useing Jing and CrossLoop. There are an infinite number of aplications for tools like this. From businesses customer support systems to just one friend showing another how to do something. I also thought about how fun using Jing could potentialy be. If one used Jing while playing games they could post their acomplishments to the web or send it to friends. I once saw a video on youtube where a guy painted a perfect car using microsoft paint. I always wondered how he captured his actions on the screen and then sped them up. He must have used a program like Jing. I think I'll use both these programs (or at least ones like them) outside of IT class. Knowing that usefull free software like this is readaly available will make me look for an easier solution to a complex task later if i am faced with one. There could have been other ways to preform the functions of Jing i.e. using a camera. But the ease and availability of this program was perfect for the project that was presented.

gettin JINGy with it

http://www.screencast.com/users/smits_paul/folders/Jing/media/a2750e97-2840-4c96-91e1-8747130d0dc7

video

Why do factories stil produce nail clippers?

Wouldent one nail clipper per person in the world be suficient? Where do they all go because people buy then at cvs or wallgreens regularly. They dont break. What happens to the thousands that get taken at airport security? Do they disapear of the face of the earth? WHERE DO THEY ALL GO?