BSIT200 - Week 12 Posting - Passwords...

 About 21 years ago, Mr. Bill Burr wrote information security guidelines for the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and is responsible for the most obnoxious advice ever given about passwords. It's the one about how your password must be 15 characters long, include uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols, hieroglyphics, and a blood sample, and must be changed every 60 days. 

He has since apologized for writing a standard for passwords that no one can remember, and that causes people to write down their passwords, which defeats the purpose of complicated passwords in the first place. 

There's an excellent article about it here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.4240252/man-who-made-passwords-hard-to-remember-regrets-rules-that-drive-people-crazy-1.4240255

 This is the last blog posting for this class I'm taking (BSIT200), but no worries. I'm sure the next class I take will require blogging as well. 

BSIT-200 Week 11 Posting - Printers Kill Trees

 I can understand why in some situations we might need a "hard copy" of a document. But in my line of work, I see people print a lot of things that don't need to be printed. I generally tend to print things to a PDF file and then read them on my laptop or tablet. Where I see the biggest part of the problem is when business have to print documents that require "original signatures" to make them valid. I consider this to be a failure of the encryption and authentication methods used today by IT. 

If we had a secure and easy to use method of identifying ourselves via a cryptographic token, and the method was legally accepted by the US Government and business, I'm sure the pile of paper I had to deal with the last time I bought a house would be reduced drastically. We do have methods for signing a PDF file with a cryptographic token, but I don't think the legal system has caught up with it yet. Also the technology is not as wide-spread as it should be. 

BSIT-200 Week 10 Post - Why I love iOS and hate Android.

My preference for a mobile device operating system is Apple's iOS, which strikes a lot of people as odd, since I am a Linux Systems Administrator. Most Linux Admins prefer Android, since it is similiar to Linux, and can be tinkered with. I've heard some people actually refer to Android as a Linux Distribution!

However, my reason for liking iOS is simple. After a long day of supporting Linux servers and end-users, and dealing with other people's IT problems, the last thing I want to do is come home to IT problems. I have plenty to do at work. Bringing IT stress home is counter-productive.

I have an iPhone and an iPad, and I've never had a problem with any of these devices. The way they are designed allows me to perform the tasks that I want to perform without any issues, and without me having to fix, side-load, tweak, configure, or otherwise mess with, iOS in any way. I use Apple's Apps, and they just work. If I want to self-induce an IT headache, I have a Windows 11 Laptop for that. If I want to see a computer that just works,  I have a Linux PC and Linux servers for that. I'd rather leave all the IT stress at work where it belongs.

I tried Android once a few years ago and I did not like it. It made me work, by having to spend time configuring things and making them work. Also, the applications just didn't look as good as their iOS counterparts, nor did they seem as intuitive to use. I was using a Samsung Galaxy S10 (when it was new) and as an end-user, I just wasn't impressed. Someone suggested that I wanted to look into side-loading some apps and hacking something. 

No. Just, no.

 

BSIT200 - Week 8 Posting - Unraveling the Different Ethernet Physical Technologies

Ethernet, a critical element of modern networking, encompasses various physical layer technologies that enable the transmission of data across local area networks (LANs). These technologies include twisted pair Ethernet, which uses cables with twisted wires. There are two kinds: unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (STP). UTP is cost-effective and commonly used in homes and offices, while STP is more suitable for environments with high electrical noise, such as industrial settings.

Fiber optic Ethernet is another essential type that transmits data using light through glass or plastic fibers. It offers high-speed data transmission and is immune to electromagnetic interference, making it ideal for long-distance communications and high-bandwidth applications. Additionally, there is coaxial cable Ethernet, which, although less prevalent today, is proficient at delivering high-speed internet and television services due to its ability to carry substantial data with minimal signal loss. Understanding these distinct Ethernet physical layer technologies is crucial for selecting the most suitable option based on specific requirements and environmental factors.

 

BSIT200 - Week 7 Posting - What is "The Cloud" and why should I care?

 You will often hear informed IT people (often System Administrators) refer to the cloud as "Someone else's computer". Technically, they are correct. The cloud is indeed someone else's computer. Many computers as a matter of fact. So why should you care? One of the reasons is that you may already be using the cloud and not even know it. More and more companies are using the power of cloud technology every day to improve their services to the public, and cut down on their operational costs. Services such as Facebook, X.com, Instagram, and Snapchat are all cloud-based services. Applications running on large groups of interconnected computers at remote locations on the internet. 

File storage services such as Dropbox and Google Drive are hosted on computers out on the internet somewhere. Many people have personal web pages hosted on cloud-powered sites. Google's Gmail product is cloud-based, so your email is out on the cloud as well.

So is the cloud safe? It's as safe as your service provider can make it. So check the small print in the end-user agreements, and don't put anything in the cloud that you can't afford to accidentally share with the entire world!

BSIT200 - Week 6 Posting - Look at the size of that hard drive!

How big is your hard drive? As of August of 2023, the largest commercially available Solid State Drive (SSD) is the ExaDrive EDDCT100.EDDCS100 from Nimbus Data, which is 100TB in size and retails for $40,000 (Check it out here: https://www.techradar.com/best/large-hard-drives-and-ssds). Western Digital and Toshiba both have hard drives in excess of 20TB. But my favorite so far is the Seagate IronWolf Pro 22TB enterprise NAS drive, with a 6GB/s SATA interface and a rotational speed of 7200 RPM. Only $429.99 at amazon.com! What a Deal they have here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B94NBBJH

Can my PC support that? Well, Windows 10 will theoretically support drives up to 9 zettabytes (ZB) in size, so current drive sizes should not be a problem. NTFS theoretically supports volumes up to 16 exabytes (EB) and files up to 16 terabytes (TB), so putting a file system on it should not be too much of a problem. I'm going to go out on a limb here and theorize that by the time Windows 13 or 14 comes out, you'll need a 20TB hard drive just to install the OS and Microsoft Office 2030!

BSIT200 - Week 5 Posting - Windows 10 vs 11

I've been hearing a lot lately about Microsoft Windows 10 versus Microsoft Windows 11. Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date. So should be upgrade now, wait until the bitter end, or just give up and install Linux?

Well, the upgrade to Windows 11 is free, but only Windows 10 PCs that are running the most current version of Windows 10 and meet the minimum hardware specifications will be able to upgrade. Hopefully, your motherboard already has a TPM 2.0 chip on it. Otherwise the Windows 11 upgrade will reject your hardware. This means either you're buying a new motherboard for your desktop, or buying a new laptop. At this point, it seems like an American tradition, since it seems like every new version of Windows ends up requiring a hardware upgrade of some kind.


Should we even consider installing Linux on a Laptop? Actually, yes. These days Linux does quite well on a laptop. My favorite distribution for this is Linux Mint, which is based on (and compatible with) Ubuntu Linux. More and more hardware manufactures are making their laptops compatible with Linux, and some laptops can now be purchased with Linux pre-installed! If you don't use your laptop for playing all the latest games, you can get mostly free open-source software to do just about everything else a Windows Laptop can do.

BSIT 200 Week 4 Posting: Repairing a PC power supply

Repairing a PC power supply can be a cost-effective solution for tech-savvy individuals with electronics expertise and the right tools, but it also entails significant risks. While it offers the potential for cost savings and the opportunity to gain valuable troubleshooting skills, it can also void warranties, pose safety hazards due to high voltage components such as capacitors, and result in time-consuming, expensive, and complex repairs. For those without prior experience in electronics, seeking professional assistance or opting for a replacement power supply unit is generally a safer and more reliable choice to ensure the continued and safe operation of their computer systems.

 

Repairing your own PC power supply can
be dangerous and is best left to professionals.

BSIT200: Week 3 Posting - An Article about Solid State Drives

This weeks article is from the ARS Technica website and is titled "Solid-state revolution: in-depth on how SSDs really work" (Lee Hutchinson - Jun 4, 2012). In it, Mr Hutchinson discusses Solid State Drive (SSD) technology and how it can make a computer subjectively faster by replacing tradition "spinning platter" disk drives. 

SSDs are basically a storage device that replaces spinning metal disk/platters commonly found in traditional hard drive mechanisms with non-volatile NAND flash memory, which allows SSDs to function at much higher speeds by reducing the latency time of read/write operations. NAND flash memory is the same technology found in cell phones and USB "Thumb" drives. The author provides a very detailed description of exactly what NAND memory is and how it functions. 

Interestingly, SSDs have one big shortcoming: they can only be used for a finite number of writes. Over time, the process used by SSDs to free up previously used space for new write operations slowly degrades the functionality of the SSD, slowing down the write times, until eventually it enters into a read-only condition where data can no longer be written to the disk. Manufacturers use controllers to attempt to manage the degradation and prolong the writable life of the SSD as much as possible. 

The author then progresses through various methods used by SSD manufactures to prolong the usable life of SSDs, before moving on to Write Amplification, which refers to the logical amount of data written to the SSD versus the actual amount of data written to the SSD, and wear leveling, which refers to how write operations are spread across all of the flash cells in order to keep their use evenly distributed across all of them. 

Finally the author goes into the popularity of SSDs, specially in data center operations where high I/O applications benefit from the low latency of read/write operations to/from SSD drives, as opposed to other well established technologies such as Fiber Channel attached drives and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. SSDs tend to be more expensive per megabyte, but prove to be exponentially better because of their speed. 

Personally, I have an old Apple MacBook Pro (from 2012) that originally came with a SATA drive installed. Replacing that drive with a SSD effectively gave the laptop a new lease on life and since MacOS was able to read/write to/from it's operating system drive a lot faster, everyday operations became effectively faster, and made the old MacBook usable. 

 

Lee Hutchinson    -  Jun 4, 2012 3:30 pm UTC. (2012). Retrieved from https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/inside-the-ssd-revolution-how-solid-state-disks-really-work/

BSIT200: Week 2 Posting - Do the graphical elements introduced in Windows operating systems help or harm productivity?

It can be argued that the Windows Graphical User interface is responsible for making computers accessible to, and usable by, most non-technical people by hiding the complexities of the underlying operating system with a pleasant intuitive interface. You don't have to know what model of CPU you have or how much RAM is installed in order to send Mom an email, or search google for a recipe. On the other hand, by hiding complexity behind an easy to use interface, Microsoft has also removed any need for the average end user to understand how computers work, or what they are capable of doing, much to the consternation of many Technical Support Personnel. In my personal experience using computers, as well as in the experience of my customers over the years, productivity does seem to be impacted by the quality and usability of the GUI. Both Microsoft and Apple employ User Interface (UI) Designers just to ensure that the look, feel, and end user experience of their products keeps the users using their products, which opens the companies to future sales of add-ons, applications and services.    

BSIT200: Week 1 Posting - Introduction

Greetings all! I'm Pete and I'm a 57 year old Systems Engineer who specializes in Linux systems and AWS Cloud solutions. I've been working in IT for about 40 years and have had many interactions with the networking department. As a Sysadmin, I do understand quite a bit about networking as it applies to the IT infrastructure and the servers that I administer. I've never configured a Cisco Router, but I also have never been to that class! 

I'm looking forward to this experience, although at the moment I'm still trying to figure out the basics, such as how to be a student, how to write a paper with citations in it, and how to use the website. No panic yet, but I'm getting close. Wish me luck!