Final Post

This CSC 175 course has taught me a lot about computers and how they work. Whether it be the Our Digital World book or the excel and access assignments. We also had weekly blogs and other assignments like the group presentation, all of which were interesting and helpful. All of these taught me much more than any of the other computer classes I have taken, taught me and will be very beneficial to me in the future .

Over the course of this class, I have learned a great deal about both Microsoft Excel and Access. Before the class I had limited knowledge of Microsoft Excel and I had never even used  Access. All of the tutorials were really helpful and the assessments too. The tutorials, even though they were very long and time consuming, were the best way to learn about the different features and functions of excel and access. Especially for an online class. I really enjoyed the both the excel assessments, especially the assessment where we  planned a vacation. It was a great way to do something different instead of the tutorials and cases. Both of the excel assessments were creative ways to put to use our excel skills. I haven't started the access assessment yet, so I cannot comment on it. But overall, everything that we did containing to excel and access will be beneficial to me in the future. I am a finance major so I will more than likely be using a lot of excel, and I have also learned that access is becoming very popular in business and I might end up using it too. Even though I would prefer not to use Microsoft Access at all. I also enjoyed the weekly blogs. It was something different from all the excel and access assignments, especially some of the interesting topics like photo tampering and internet hoaxes. It was another outside of the box way to learn in this class. And Lastly, the Our Digital World book taught me all the ins and outs of the computer and how it works.

I honestly don't feel like anything is missing from this class. We didn't go over and Microsoft word or powerpoint material but that is what I was most common with coming into this class, so for me it wasn't needed. We learned a great deal about Microsoft excel and access, which for me was needed, and just about computers in general. I feel like this class covered everything excellently, especially for it being an online class, and I would not change anything about it for the future. 

Week 13 Blog

On April 8th, 2014, last Tuesday, Microsoft finally cutoff support to the Microsoft XP operating system. XP made its debut in October of 2001, and even though it is over 12 years old, it is still one of the most used operating systems in the world. An estimated  500 million computers still use XP, with 1 in 5 computers in America still running the system and over half the computers in China still using it. But the end of XP should come as no surprise considering Microsoft had been warning users of plans to discontinue XP support as early as 2007. Customers were giving more than long enough to adjust and setup new operating systems, but a lot have still yet to change and that is the problem.

With the XP systems open to hackers, now that Microsoft will stop any XP updates and security fixes, it poses a problem to those still using the XP system and anyone else using Microsoft operating systems. To the 500 million still using XP, a switch of operating systems is a must. The vulnerability of the XP systems to viruses puts all info on those computers at risk. Passwords, financial info and other important information will be extremely susceptible to any malware or other viruses. But also, those with other Microsoft operating systems such as 7 or 8 will also be at more of a risk. Microsoft shares much of its code with successor programs, so once hackers are able to hack into XP systems, they will be able to use those codes to easily hack into Microsoft 7 and 8. The discontinuation of Microsoft XP will leave not only XP vulnerable but also new versions of Microsoft operating systems.

Even though I am sure it cost Microsoft a lot for the upkeep of XP, I believe that they should have continued to do so. With over 500 million people still using the operating system, it seems a bit harsh for Microsoft to just cutoff support for the system. Considering all the money that Microsoft has made from its customers, and apparently some very loyal ones to still be using XP, it only seems fair that Microsoft would have offered a free upgrade. Maybe not a free upgrade to the newest system, but an upgrade to at least windows 7 would have been reasonable.  But because of Microsoft insisting that XP must go, now all of Microsoft users are vulnerable. 

News article: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/microsoft-xp-cybersecurity-problem-105451.html

Most Interesting Thing Learned While Researching

One of the most interesting and possibly best things I have found while doing my research for this project, is the correct way to use Wikipedia. I personally love Wikipedia, and I get a lot of my general knowledge from the site. So when teachers assign work and tell us not to use Wikipedia for our research, it's kind of a bummer. But, I fully understand why most teachers do not allow the site as an appropriate research tool. Wikipedia's information can be manipulated by any of its users and therefore can be unreliable. So when I was doing my research for how to research on the internet, I came across some useful tips when trying to figure out how and when to use Wikipedia. This new method of doing research on Wikipedia allows me to use the information that I find from the site, just in a different way.

To use Wikipedia correctly, one tip that I found was to use it kind of as the search engine. When reading a Wikipedia page, and you come across information that would be helpful or useful to use in your assignment, the best thing to do is to click on the footnote. By clicking on the footnote it will take you to the citation from where that piece of information was originally found. That source may be a book, magazine, or online site. So if it was an online article, you can just click on the source and it should take you to the original site of the information. This method will work almost all of the time because if the information on the Wikipedia page is not cited, then there will be caution headings at the top of the page. This method of using Wikipedia for research is really simple, and even though it has always been right in front of me, I have never thought about using it before.

From now on, when I have to do research for an assignment, which I am not allowed to use Wikipedia on, I will be able to still use Wikipedia in a sense. Sometimes, good factual information can be hard to come by, but now, most of the information that is on Wikipedia will also be available to use. Once again, this may not sound like the biggest discovery to most, considering a lot of people probably already knew about doing this, but to me, it will help a lot in my future research.

Businesses and Social Media Use

In today's world, with the massive use of the internet all over the world, businesses are using every form of social media possible, to push their business. The company that I will be using in this exercise is Tommy Hilfiger. Tommy Hilfiger is a well known clothing company, so it comes as no surprise that they use about every form of social media possible, even Youtube. Tommy Hilfiger can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and they even have some sort of email chain.

Like many other businesses, Tommy Hilfiger uses their social media accounts to promote their clothing, along with even giving out certain promotional deals. The Facebook and Twitter accounts are very similar in their layout and the purpose they serve for promoting the business. Once you "like" the Hilfiger page on Facebook and follow the Hilfiger page on Twitter, statuses and posts will start to show up on your feed. Most of these posts on both Twitter and Facebook are pictures of models wearing Hilfiger's new clothing items, along with links to the main Tommy Hilfiger online store.

Twitter

On the Tommy Hilfiger Instagram page, the business takes a similar approach to that of the Facebook and Twitter page. The only difference is the Instagram page just posts pictures of models wearing Hilfiger clothing, whereas the Twitter and Facebook page do more promoting with links to the online store with most all pictures and some interactions. Maybe the most surprising of the social media forms that Tommy Hilfiger uses, is Youtube. The Youtube channel, which isn't nearly as active as the other social medias, posts mainly commercial type videos on their site. These ads are usually anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute long, advertising a new collection of clothing. But the Youtube channel does have a few other types of videos such as behind the scenes videos. And just like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, subscribing to the Youtube channel will put Tommy Hilfiger videos on your feed.

The last tool that Tommy Hilfiger uses to promote their business is emails. To be able to purchase an item on the Hilfiger online store, you have to include an email address, which in return, will result in one or two emails a day about new clothing and promotional deals. Unlike any of the other forms of social media, the email chain is the biggest way that Tommy Hilfiger informs its customers of sales and promotional deals. Most of these sales and promotions can only be found through the email chain.

Email

Social media has just allowed businesses to expand even further and constantly be in our life. Following any type of business on any of these social medias, will result in their business constantly popping up in your life throughout the day, enticing you to buy their product. 

https://www.facebook.com/tommyhilfiger

https://twitter.com/TommyHilfiger

http://instagram.com/tommyhilfiger

https://www.youtube.com/user/tommyhilfiger/videos