Week 5 - Clear

This was another pretty easy week for me I have worked on excel before with another computer basics class I took my Freshman year in college. I had to do a more basic version of the project we are doing now. I have always been intrigued with Microsoft systems and enjoy learning new versions. I feel like every time a new version comes out there is so many new features in it.

Excel especially comes out with new information to use one difference in the 2007 version then the old version is you can add a lot more data if needed although I cant imagine any one going to column XFD or row 1048576 its good to know that the technology is here if its needed. Another cool feature on the 2007 version of excel is the ability to easily access the f1 button functions by just entering a question mark and start typing what it is you want to do for instance if you enter =aver .... average will appear up.

For the most part I believe that Excel is pretty self explanitory when it come to making a basic spreed sheet and does not take much time to get used to. How ever there was lots of features the lectures that I have never even heard about so it was cool to learn new things such as all the different ways you can enter a date as well as all the different ways you can make a formula apply to multiple cell blocks. Such as the absolute average where you enter $ before the column and the row and it will use only the cell block you have entered.



JOKE

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed a desire to become a great writer. When asked to define "great" he said:

"I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, wail, howl in pain, desperation, and anger!"

He now works for Microsoft, writing Excel error messages. - AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Week 4 - Clear

This week was pretty clear for me, even though there is a lot more put into buying software then you think a lot of it does seem like common sense. When it comes to buying application software programs for your business the key is to know what it is your looking for. You need to figure out what the key things are that your business is going to be using this software for. For instance you need to know if you need digital advancement in the program, if you need mutliple programs based off the application software, as well you need to know which program would best benefit your company.

The one section in this week that I didn't know much about was the licensing off the software I always click straight through the set up when ever I install a program and never really take the time to go through all the copyright material and watching the video on licensing there is a lot more to it then just a scroll box. there is many different kinds of licensing from the instant you download the program you have agreed to the terms, as well as there being free trials where after a certain amount of times you use it then you then have to get it licensed.

Here is a web page that lists all the free open-source application software available on the internet for windows

Open Source software

Week 3 - Getting clear

This week was a little more clear then last week although it is still a lot of information. I never knew how much technology was put into a computer. It is things you don't really think about to much when you boot up your computer and immidiatly jump on to the internet or any other site with no worries. There is so much put into it like all the applications needed to run programs and all the different types of memory you need to run different programs.

Another big thing I learned about this week watching the videos is all the different ways to back up your hard drive and how important it is to do this. There is multiple ways such as RAID1 mirror this protects your hard drive when the hard ware fails but not when your computer is stolen or broken. You can use external disk's to back up your information as well such as a USB, firewire, or eSATA. Also you can use a local network or online backup service.

One last thing that I learned about that I found interesting is the BIOS screen when you boot up your computer. Learning new things about my computer and how I can optimize its productivity is very interesting to me and I had no idea about this screen till I watched this video. When you boot up your computer and get to this screen you can do many different things such as enable or disable the motherboard and USB ports which is use full in the business world in case you let some your employees use your computers and don't want them uploading or downloading things. You can also configure your storage in this menu and configure these files. However as the teacher had said its not smart to play around on this screen unless you know what you are doing because you could do damage to your computer.

Here is a website that has frequently asked questions and lots of facts about your BIO's start up menu

BIO's information

Week 2- Muddy

The information for this week was a little bit muddy to me just because it was a lot of information about a lot of different things. I never really realized how much was put into a computer to make it tick. There is so many different aspects you need to look at when buying a computer, I usually just got for the one that looks the best but in the long run there is so much more needed to establish a computer that is right for the right person such as speed, memory, size, battery life, etc.

Also there is so many different parts to the computer that if your computer starts acting up you usually just take it to a shop and they fix it no questions asked and you never really wounder about what is actually wrong with it or what it is going to take to fix it. Such as a hard drive crashing or a disk being deleted. I learned that it is very important to back up almost everything you have on your computer just in case something like this happens.

This week was a lot of information and some times it was hard to keep up with but it was very interesting to me to learn because I use computers on a daily basis and never really thought to much into it about what makes it work so learning about the mother board and all the USB ports and firewalls was very intriguing.