Paul's Calendar

My Blog - Module 4

I have always liked Dogpile from InfoSpace. To me, it is one of the best Metasearch engines out there. You can instantly query seven popular search engines, yellow and white pages, public records, and horoscopes, highlight keywords, and block pop-ups.

However, the live news ticker is what sets Dogpile apart. It displays hyperlinked headlines from ABC News, Fox News, or any RSS feed you choose. When you install Dogpile (Download here), it asks for your zip code and date of birth, so it can supply certain customized content, but you can refuse if you feel like your information may be compromised.

Project 1 - Displaying/Critiquing Blogs

Corporate Blog Sony
The Sony Blog is very creative and has a lot
of style. You can let others know what you are thinking about Sony's latest inventions, to all of the merchandise they have had in the past. You can also do some investigating of your own on the merchandise they sell. Sony has set their site up so that you can buy, talk, and criticize any thing they sell. Overall, I think this site is very innovative and has a professional appeal

 

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Musical Blog Music Matters

On the musical side of blogging, it appears that music really does matter! Bloggers can find out how to teach music, write music,  and sing. You can also find your own personal musicians and bands. There are a number of sites that review songs and provide information on how well the songs will do, but this site is a little different from your run of the mill music blogs.
Natalie Wickham operates a piano blogging site that really helps others how to play a piano. This site is really good because it has reviews written by people like us and not the so-called professionals. Therefore, you get a good idea of what it's like because critics tend to focus on some really negative points and leave out the good stuff.
Ever since she put up her website, she has been increasing the amount of content and the number of people that traverse her website regularly. 

                                                                               

Personal Blog Alesha's Blog 
I think the personal blogs are neat. The owners of the blogs put pictures up of themselves and their friends too! You actually know or see whom you are writing. Being personal with just about anyone in the world takes a lot of nerve, lol. I cannot see myself doing such a thing, oh, wait I think I am already doing it with this blog! Arrrggghhh! Well it is cool sharing all of your thoughts, pictures, feelings, and ideas with every one that is interested in your blog.
It appears to me that this just might be a new form of getting to know your future wife or husband. I am sure people have already met on blogs and got married afterward, and they did not even have to sign up with eHarmony to do it, lol.

Educational Blog The Tablet PC Educational Blog 
Although there are many educational websites out there, I have not run across any that are nearly as thorough about subjects as this site is. The owner of this website has done some extensive research on topics such as Tablet PC's and can help you get it done right! You can find information about other topics like Ultra Mobile PC's, Education, one-to-one computing, classrooms, and even classmates. It looks as if a lot of work has gone into this blog with extensive links to just about all of your computing needs and more.

Political Blog Politico 
Politico is a publication of the Capitol News Company, LLC. In this website you can find everything you need to know about the political world and other activities. You can read the newest and greatest news about our dear politicians, the Congress and its new agendas, the presidential campaign, and lobbying and advocacy. Politico covers political news with a focus on national politics, Congress, Capitol Hill, and more. Their in-depth coverage includes video features, regular blogs, photo galleries, cartoons, and political forums. This portal directs its coverage to all of the news related to the politics of Capitol Hill and other businesses of Washington D.C. You can browse for your favorite political subjects, participate in forums, and engage yourself with abandon in live chat with their online community. 

My Blog 3

The iPad is the newest and greatest gadget that Apple has introduced to the public. This multifunctional device has a 9.7 inch capacitive touch screen IPS LCD display, runs an Apple chip, supports YouTube HD, has iTunes built into it, and also has a built-in calender with a battery life of ten hours.  It looks and has the feel of a large iPhone; Apple is hoping that the iPad will take customers to a higher level of Web Surfing.
Compare it to the recently launched e-book by Amazon, the Kindle DX, the iPad is a lot swifter and has many more features than that of the Kindle. But you do not have to take my word for it, just visit the following link and read reviews by the best gadget reviewers in the world, cnet.
The new iPad

New To Blogging? Watch This Video!

If you are not sure what a blog is or how it works, the video called Blogs in Plain English will help. This video explains why blogs are such a "big deal." To view the video, just click on the large arrow in the middle of the video window below.

Whole-House Surge Protection

It's important to protect all your electronic devices, not just computers, from surges. Printers, televisions, appliances, and computer peripherals all require protection. However, it can be inconvenient to use individual surge protectors on all devices that need protection. One solution is to install a whole-house surge protector as shown in this photo. The device is installed by an electrician and is attached to your circuit breaker panel. Whole-House surge protectors function like other surge protection devices, but they protect all electrical devices in the house at once. The typical cost of $200 to $300 (installed) is generally less than buying individual surge protectors for every electrical devices in your home.

Wireshark Lab for Networking 125

Our assignment for this week was very complex and a great learning experience!
1.      Start wireshark and view the packets that are being picked up by your computer.

2.      Look at several packets and then complete the following :

a.       Look at a packet that is using TCP and then answer the following:

                                                  i.      What is the source port? My source Port is (80) Why is this source port used? The source port, which can be a random number, is assigned to the client and is used to keep track of user sessions. For example, port 80 is the standard port number for HTTP traffic, and port 80 packets are processed by a web server.

                                                ii.      What is the destination port? My Destination Port is (52689) Why is this destination port used? The Destination Port is used to route packets on a server to the appropriate network application. Destination ports are typically well-known ports (0-1023) for common Internet applications such as HTTP, FTP, and SMTP. It can also be a registered port (1024-49151) that vendors use for proprietary applications.

                                              iii.      What is the flag? 0x10 (ACK)  Why is this flag used? It shows that the request is being acknowledged.

                                              iv.      What is the source and destination IP address?   Source:192.168.1.100,  Destination: 74.125.45.19

                                          Is this packet coming or going from your computer? It is coming from my computer (Use IP config  command from the command prompt to view the IP address of your computer).

                                                v.      What is the Time To Live for this packet? 128 What does TTL mean? Time To Live. Indicates the maximum time that a datagram can remain on the network before it is discarded. Although this field was originally meant to represent units of time, on modern networks it represents the number of times a datagram has been forwarded by a router, or the number of router hops it has endured.

                                              vi.      What is the Differentiated Services field? 0x00 (DSCP 0x00: Default 0x00; ECN: 0x00)  List the current value. 0x00 What does this mean? It has no value  List 4 other possible values. 0x02, 0x10, 0x06, and 0x18

                                            vii.      What is the protocol field set to? TCP (0X06) What does this mean? Transmission Control Protocol is being used.

                                          viii.      What else did you see that was interesting about the IP packet? I think it is interesting that it records the time and date of the packet

                                              ix.      What is the framing type used? Ethernet II

                                                x.      What is the source and destination MAC addresses? Source: Dell_28:25:36 (00:21:9b:28:25:36),  Destination: Cisco-Li_2d:8c:88 (00:23:69:2d:8c:88) Is this frame coming or going from your computer? Coming from my computer (Use IP config /all command from the command prompt to view the MAC address of your computer).

                                              xi.      What else did you see that was interesting about the Frame? You can see information about the Frame number, Length, and Capture Length.

b.      Look at a packet that is using UDP and then answer the following:

                                                  i.      What is the source port? I do not have a User Datagram Protocol in this particular example.

c.       Intercept several TCP packets until you can view the three way handshake (read about this on pg 118 and 119). What are the sequence and acknowledgement numbers on all 3 segments? SYN = 0; SYN, ACK SEQ = 0 ACK = 1; ACK seq = 1 ACK = 1

d.      Intercept an ARP frame.  List the following:

                                                  i.      What is the destination MAC address? Destination MAC address: Cisco-Li_2d:8c:88 (00:23:69:2d:8c:88) Why is this address used? It is coming through my Cisco router.

                                                ii.      What is the source MAC address? Source MAC address: Dell_28:25:36 (00:21:9b:28:25:36) Why is this address used? It is coming from my computer

                                              iii.      What is the destination IP address? 192.168.1.1 Why is this address used? This is the address that is assigned to my Cisco router.

                                              iv.      What is the source IP address? 192.168.1.100 Why it this address used?This address is the one that my IP provider gave to me, so that it can identify who I am.

                                                v.      Write a paragraph about anything else your learned from capturing an ARP frame. Address Resolution Protocols hover in the shadows of most networks. Because of its simplicity, by comparison to higher layer protocols, ARP rarely intrudes upon the network administrator's routine. All modern IP-capable operating systems provide support for ARP. The uncommon alternative to ARP is static link-layer-to-IP mappings.

e.       Write at least a half page about Wireshark? Wireshark is a network packet analyzer. A network packet analyzer will try to capture network packets and display that packet data as detailed as possible. You could think of a network packet analyzer as a measuring device used to examine what is going on inside a network cable, just like a voltmeter is used by an electrician to examine what is going on inside an electric cable (but at a higher level).
      In the past, such tools were either very expensive, proprietary, or both. However, with the advent of Wireshark, all of that has changed. Wireshark is perhaps one, if not the best, open source packet analyzers available today. There is no need to tell Wireshark what type of file you are reading; it will determine the file type by itself. 
      Wireshark is also capable of reading any type of file format even if they are zip files using the gzip. Wireshark recognizes this directly from the file; the .gz extension is not required for this purpose. 
Like other protocol analyzers, wireshark's main window shows 3 views of a packet. It shows a summary line, briefly describing what the packet is. A packet details display is shown, allowing a user to drill down to exact protocol or field that you are interested in. finally, a hex dump shows you exactly what the packet looks like when it goes over the wire.      What did you learn? That administrators use applications like this to examine their networks and also troubleshoot the networks that they are on.  
      What was interesting? You can change the foreground and background colors of the packet information in the list of packets, based upon display filters. The list of display filters is applied to each packet sequentially. After the first display filter matches a packet, any additional filters in the list are ignored. Therefore, if you are filtering on the existence of protocols, you should list the higher-level protocols first, and the lower-level protocols last.  
      Do you feel this is a valuable program? Yes, I do! 
      In addition, Wireshark has some features that make it unique. It can assemble all the packets in a TCP conversation and show you the ASCII (or EBCDIC), or hex) data in that conversation. Display filters in Wireshark are very powerful; more fields are filterable in Wireshark than in any other protocol analyzers, and the syntax you can use to create your filters is richer.

Blog 2

One of the most advanced emerging technology is Biofeedback or thought-control devices
http://www.emotiv.com/ A number of companies and research institutions have shown how brain waves, captured using sensors on a skull cap or head-set, can be used to control computer systems. The applications are medical, giving communications and control of the environment to severely disabled people, military and increasingly, in consumer and computer games control interfaces. This may seem like science fiction but the thought-control human-computer interface is here now and is being promoted by companies such as Emotiv Systems Inc in San Francisco, California.

Microsoft Office 2007 for Students - Cheap!

Microsoft is running an offer especially for college students called The Ultimate Steal. For a limited time, students can obtain a copy of Microsoft 2007 Ultimate Edition for only $59.99. To qualify for this offer, you must be enrolled at a US educational institution and have a valid e-mail address that ends in the edu domain. Considering this package is available at retail for around $500, this is a fantastic deal for students. So check it out and save some $$$ today!

Even though you can download the software from the Web site,  you should also consider purchasing (for an additional fee) the software on DVD. This will make reinstalling the software much easier in the future in case you have a problem (such as your hard drive fails).

I am trying to learn how to Blog!!!

This is my first time Blogging and I have posted my picture of the assignment we had in class on Thursday 21, 2010 in Networking 125 with our Instructor Mr Brad. Our lab this week included working with wires and wall plates. We had to install RJ-45 connectors onto an 8' UTP cable. We then had to check to make sure that the wire could transmit information through it. Our Instructor Mr. Brad, had a limited supply of RJ-45 connectors to work with so we had to try our best to get it right the first try. These are twisted pair cables with RJ-45 connectors and a Ethernet CAT6 RJ-45 housing for a wall plate.

 

We had to connect the wires from the cable to the RJ-45 connectors.

We then had to take a tool and punch the wires into the wall unit as shown above (this is shown with end caps on it). We had to take these very little wires and connect them to RJ-45 connectors and show the ends of the cable from inside the connectors.