Network security

 Pinging a server or computer does not do much damage. It pretty much is the basic calling out someone’s name and them looking at you. That is about how much computing power it takes. However, imagine if you were in a small room filled with people and they were all shouting your name. That can cause quite a confusion for a person. How does a computer handle it? Well, it depends. It responds to each shout as fast as it can (Imperiva, 2020). If there is a bunch it can cause network congestion (small room) with multiple different responses (multiple people) in a short amount of time (Impervia, 2020). This type of attack usually happens over long periods of time (Impervia, 2020) and over multiple ping requests from a bunch of computers (Impervia, 2020). This can bring down at least the computer, at most the network it is operating on. A passionate company and be brought down to its knees. Microsoft has been victim of network manipulation multiple times (Microsoft, 2021). Script kiddies or hackers usually do it for the laughs or for social statements. Microsoft reported Anonymous released a statement on attacking Live Servers earlier this year (Microsoft, 2020). The reason why computers are vulnerable is because of how networking works. You cannot hide behind a door on a network. You sort of can, but not really. If you want to communicate to the outside world, you have obligations to fulfil. There are things like firewalls or VPNS which allow you to circumvent the system, but if your original IP is found out. It can still be pinged to death.

 

            Social Engineering is popular. My T-Mobile store gets hit multiple times a week by people pretending to be IT. They usually want you to give remote access or personal information over the phone. They speak in double speak and don’t give much detail. For instance, “Was your call over email access for account jsmith1 resolved last week?” turns into “Was your technical issue resolved last week?” It is annoying and shows humanity at its worst. These people are after social security numbers, phone numbers, address, anything really (Indusface, 2021). Most of the time, I answer with a quick “yes it was resolved and reviewed.” They sometimes get pushy but most of the time they will just hang up. Some of my classmates work in the health industry. I imagine that data is highly sought after. I am sure he has worse stories than phone calls. He probably gets people in person claiming to be IT. It just happens to be the necessities of a digital world.

Computers in the work place...

       I work at T-Mobile. There is a lot of method to the madness when it comes to getting a new cell phone. A sales agent theoretically get %100 of your data over to phone about 97.5% of the time. It should also take no more than 20 minutes (depending on data). You know your agent is good at his job when he appreciates the procedure and does everything according to the process. For instance, you don't want to port the number til last. This is because the old iphone might need to verify your new phone. Once you port the number, your old phone can't verify in most cases. Going from iPhone to android is easy, however android to iphone needs more love from apple. Move to iOS app hardly works and takes a long time. I suggest staying in the same echo system for as long as possible. My forecast is hopeful but I think transfer between iOS <-> Android will be easier. Everything seems to be streamlined on mobile devices and everything updates to the second. I think mobile experts need to be champions of at least one operating system (iOS or Android). They also needs to master the procedure of telecommuncation companies. As a t-mobile rep, its just as important for me to learn verizon procedure (for instance do they need their account active to get reasonable help?) as a new hire for verizon. I hope this gives you a little insight to the mobile sales rep day. Please feel free to ask questions.

Pinging and tracert.

"I was able to ping google.com, complexity.gg, and ashford.edu. I ran into a problem with tracert. I think its because I actually have T-Mobile Home Wireless Internet.  The internet is just a router given access to the cellular data network by T-Mobile. It actually has a SIM card and appears on my bill with a data usuage. It is not a third party Hughes Net. It was a perk at work and very affordable. I think the reason why mine glitched out is because the tracert routes would be towers or satellite IP addresses. If anyone knew those than they could target t-mobile. I know this is an issue because we actually get target calls at work. I also think that is it because PING worked, and the internet worked as well. It could be a firewall or permissions thing but I don't think so. If it is then I could theoretically change it if I logged into the router. I did open ports for my halo. I don't remember seeing anything about permissions to tracert. Also the tracert worked for two hops. I believe one is the computer and the next hop is the router. Then the rest are timed out."

 

Discord, not ZOOM.

     I use a gamer communication app called Discord. You create an account that can go into any server you get linked to. The first picture I will use shows two things. The left chat displays all the servers I am apart of. The right displays all the chatrooms for that server. The channels use hashtag feature. There also chat channels if you need them. The circles on the left are all the servers I have joined. The small blip means there are new messages in that server that I haven't read yet. Each channel follows certain rules for most discord channels. For instance #gamertags isn't for chatting. Its just a directory for gamer tags.

Chat rooms look like this. You can see someone getting tagged which notifies the person mentioned. Slowmode is enabled so there wont be much spam. This channel happens to be #formal, so its a place for formalities. All team related stuff is posted in this channel. The user names are just for this server. For instance, my account has its own name that I can give nick names for each discord server I am on. This is great for privacy and trying to keep a coherent username to each theme of the discord. 

 If you pay for nitro plus you can share emojis from other servers. Some people will just join a server for its emojis. These are usually graphic designer based discords that are popular.

This is the account profile page. It has options like two factor authentication, notifications, text and images. Along the bottom is (discord aka servers), friend and private messages, search, mentions, and your profile. You can subscribe to Discord nitro, and boost servers. Boosting servers allows the members to use more bandwith with graphics, streams, icons etc.  Its great option for the servers that want to build a community and invest in options.

 

This is my favorite app, and lets me get in touch with people from all around the world. Thank you for reading.

 

Apparently it isn't just my favorite app. Microsoft is in talks to buy the company out for $10bln. Microsoft is my favorite company so I am ok with it. I think Discord has the best layout for gamers and it is fun to use. It makes the world a little bit smaller.

https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/tech-news/microsofts-us10b-plan-to-buy-discord-why-the-fuss-over-a-chat-app-for-video-games

 

Scratch Post

           This assignment brought back a lot of memories. I took a college programming class in high school with select few other high school students. Of course, we were grouped up in the Java class. My favorite assignment was creating a tool used to change liter to oz or lbs., etc. In short, the code ended up being 1,000 lines of full brute force coding. Providing no room for the computer to experiment. It looked in one spot for the exact coding and plugged in the variables. This reminded me of it because I think I did the assignment correctly. I just do not think I let the program compute much outside of the bounds of my logic. The problem I ran into was using a variable (clone = 2) to delete the clone. Instead, I gave it an alternate ending where space bar deleted the clone. My friend (who was in that java class) told me notes are very important for coding. It lets other programmers know your logic. Unfortunately, after two attempts, they deleted or disappeared. My notes aren’t in there, but it gave a little advice on the three lines of program grouped together.  For the technical side of things, I wish there were a reset program. Where it brought the cat to a neutral state.

               "This was my first time at block coding. I loved it. It seems cool where the block of program is provided by the idea. You are free to plug in play if the pieces fit. I enjoyed it very much. From the programs provided, I did not see a newbie section. I did see those awesome programs that seem over my head right now though. Overall, I give the website 9.5/10. It was great experience and glad I have something to reference for the future. "

Learning block program is a goal. I actually had a friend talk about it to me last year. He was dropping me off at the airport and explained his job is to just click blocks of logic. I didn't really understand it at the time, but now seeing it. I really appreciate this type of programming. The way I see it, its just basic logical commands with variable x, y, z for the additional options or subset blocks.  I hope my future classes use it. I will definitely try to get cat scratch fever.

Check out my scratch program:

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/497806834/editor

 The History of Computers

Computers started out as mechanical calculators.  They could do math by digitizing on/off switches and perform calculations based on pages and pages of program.

 They would take up a room and only really have motherboard, ram, and CPU. Graphics were added later and were basic. The color of a pixel was considered artistic. Now, graphic cards have GPU (graphical processor), hard drives (instead of printed information). Lets not forget keyboard and mouse. While ago you would build a room for a computer. Now, you build the entire house with computer in mind. We are now building digital wall paper, and hooking up the internet to everything.  Now, everyone has a personal secretary on their phone.  Computers evolve and are now adapting to quantum mechanics do to calculations. Instead of the on/off confirmation for calculations it brings in the possibility of if.

I will end with another evolution in computers. This lady recently designed a program for black holes :