Assignment 9

I am using my 1 free blog assignment that I got for attending the lecture on this blog.

Assignment 8

What is Net Neutrality? Most everyone hasn’t heard of this subject nor know what it is. Net Neutrality is typically referred to the current debate about keeping Internet service providers, ISPs, from prioritizing some information over others ,and having equal access to all information on the Internet with no restrictions on sites, content, or platforms.
Today in congress ISPs are lobbying for the right to give priority to sites. So they can basically charge sites for the privilege to be shown others. Or providing faster speeds for those who pay for it. Like if a web site were to enter into an agreement with the ISP their information would be provided to end-users at a higher rate of speed than others, or would just redirected you to their page altogether. Which this basically means if you wanted to go to reddit.com but digg.com paid Comcast to be shown over reddit.com, when you would type in www.reddit.com Comcast would redirect you to www.digg.com.
This sounds outrageous doesn’t it? We take the current form of the Internet for granted, and it seems unimaginable that this would ever happen, right? WRONG! Lobbies have successfully convinced a number of law makers against net neutrality.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE)
As you can hear, Senator Ted Stevens is against Net Neutrality but obviously has no clue what he is really talking about. I mean has this guy even used a computer in entire life? This is a scary thing happening. Most law makers are of an older generation, like Senator Ted Stevens, and have lived their live without the need for the Internet. So they are easily persuaded in this subject in which they know little about.
Today, we all live on the equal Internet, every site is treated the same. We need access to a free Internet, not a bias one. Please help spread the word and keep the Internet equal….Neutral.
Description of your rhetorical situation:
Net Neutrality is a very important debate that few internet users know little about. The timing of this editorial is set right at the peak of this debate. Obama is even getting into this issue, and I feel this issue needs to better know that it is at the moment.
Situation or context that this editor is written in is more or less like a call to arms short of message. This is written in the hopes that readers will become aware of Net Neutrality, and they might even right their congressmen to state their support on Net Neutrality. This issue must not go to an 2:00am session in which no one will hear about until the day you have limited access to some websites.
My Audience is the “Average Joe” Internet user. I want to appeal the everyday user that does not have a clue to what could happen to the Internet if nothing is done. Basically I want to paint a picture of a black and grey Internet that is mere pathetic joke compared to its former self. Even though if Net Neutrality is implemented it probably will not be that bad, it will not be good either. Freedom of communication is extremely important to maintain and this blog intends to promote this view and make people aware of the potential danger to the sanctity of the internet.
Even though not very many people will read this blog post at least my instructor will read it and maybe a couple of my fellow classmates will as well. As long as one person is made aware of this issue, I can be content.

Assignment 7

Background:
The web site I am choosing to critique is my World of Warcraft Guild’s web site: www.s2kguild.info. The reason I am choosing the site is because I frequent this site a lot and it is a typical bland site this in desperate need for improving. Our guild is currently going through a tough time, our server has a low population and we are having a lot of guild mates quitting the guild and going to other guilds or just transferring off the server all together. This has become a major problem when it comes to raiding. Raiding in the World of Warcraft consists of a group of 10 or 25 people who get together to go into an instance to defeat monsters. With people leaving so much we are having more and more trouble filling our raid spots. We use our website as a major role in recruiting. Not only do we use this website as a way to promote ourselves as a guild but we use it as a tool for the recruitment process. Potential guild mates have to put in an application on the forum section of our website. So it is very important that we have a website that reflects a profession feeling so we can recruit people how good quality to fill our raids.
Critique:
As you log onto the s2kguild.info for the first time you will notice that it is very bland looking. The goal of our website is to look profession so we attract recruits that will act in a professional way. Towards the top you notice the navigation bar. It is hard to see, it is located under the Spec to Kill banner. The main problem with the home page is there is no welcome message or description for new comers to register or direction on how to apply to the guild. Assuming that you guess you have to proceed to the forum section of the site you will be at the heart and soul of the website. As a regular member and visitor to the site, this is where I spend most of my time on this site. Again you will notice no direction for new comers to follow as how to apply to the website. The method of with you apply is by registering to the website then going to the Guild Recruiting, Rules, and Pending Applications section of the forums. If you click this link you will notice a few other applications and a application template for new applications to use. This site is not user friendly at all, and is in need a dire need of revamping.
The email to the Webmaster:
Dear webmaster.
As you already know recruitment is more important than ever, and our website is an essential tool in our ever growing quest to increase our numbers. I would like to recommend some improvements that can be done to the website to make it more user friendly in hopes that it will increase the number of applicants that we will receive.
The home page is in need of a welcome message; a short little paragraph describing our guild and direction for registering on the website as well as direction on how to apply to the guild. Also, is it possible for the navigation bar at the top to be a little bigger so that it is easier to notice? And could you also put a message describing the forum page of the website, this is the most important part of our website and it needs direction to it. It will help navigate new applicants to the proper sub-forum that they need to post the application to.
Thank you for your time, I feel that these changes will help our guild become greater that it already is. If there is anyway I can assist you in this process feel free to email me or contact me in game.

Thanks again

Will, aka Madadory

Assignment 6

My roll in my group has been straight forward. I have been elected as the group leader so I have been taking the majority of the grunt work so far. Being elected the group leader has not been so bad; it helps that I feel very comfortable are my T.A., Mr. Love. As the group leader I have planned all events as well as attended them. To summarize what I have done for the group so far; I have rented the camera and been to the Animal Shelter and to occasions to film it. Now that is left for me to do is meet with my group members and edit the video. Due to face that I’m the only person in the group with technical skills I will be the person actually editing the video. My group members will assist me in how I edit it.
Overall our group has been very successful in meeting our schedule deadlines. After editing we will be done, most of the grunt work is over with. The only problems that has arisen is during the first filming session the camera’s battery died on us so we had to come back after charging the camera. We all handled this minor inconvenience very good, no one thought it would be a big deal just to come back.
The other problem was that, when we first attempted to sit down and edit the video we could not really decide what to put in the slides and each of us had our own opinion on what the video should read. In order to solve this problem we started looking up other youtube videos on animals shelters to see what they put on their videos, and we also grab the Southern Pines Animals Shelter's brochure and we found several great facts to put in our video. So, we decided, that I would make the stills for our video. So we adjured for the meeting, and now I have to go make the stills. Which I plan to do in photoshop, simply because I've used photoshop for so long that it will take all of three minutes to make the stills.
I am extremely confident that we will finish this project on time.
In conclusion I am very happy that I got nominated the group leader, I like the responsibility. My group is a very competent group of individuals; each has helped in one way or another. This project has gone smoothly so far because of everyone’s willingness to help. I am very lucky to have been assigned them.

Assignment 5

The one thing that makes me feel bad about my career choice is that on monster.com there aren’t many hits for job opening in my field. There was only one good job offering I found in the local area. Which isn’t a real big deal for me, I have always imagined myself leaving Mississippi after I graduate. There is currently a job opening for a I.T. Database Administrator for Pine Belt Medical in Hattiesburg: http://jobview.monster.com/getjob.aspx?JobID=83693282&tjt=database&where=39401%2c+Hattiesburg%2c+MS&lid=776685&rad=20&rad_units=miles&tm=60&AVSDM=&pg=1&seq=1&fseo=1&isjs=2&re=1000
This job requires at least just basic hands on maintenance of computer related systems and network infrastructure. Which is a skill I picked up and toned a long time ago, especially in a Microsoft Window’s environment. “Working knowledge of software installation also necessary.” Is just second nature to me at this stage in my life. I believe the only thing that would prevent me from getting this job be my lack of work experience. I only have about half a year experience in an actual technology based work field.
Even though I would love this job because of it’s location and pay, a guy of my experience would not stand much of a chance getting this job. I did how ever find another job listing that would better suite my newbie experience. http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=ILKGV&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J3G5YK5VN4WZND5F7P6

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=ILKGV&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J3G5ZS6Y2YDTND3N7XT

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?IPath=ILKGV&ff=21&APath=2.21.21.0.0&job_did=J8D8B96Y9H7KKBX82MM

These job links all are from careerbuilder or monter.com, they all require at least two years of on the job experience in the computer field. I fill that this will be my biggest hurtle to get over. It seems that all the jobs listed on these job finding sites require years of experience before they will even consider hiring you. The only real chance I have is to really play on the fact that I have spent most of my live living and breathing computers. I research new computer hardware for fun, and code programs in my spare time. I really want to turn my passion for computers into a successful career. Each on of these jobs each require years of experience with computer software, programming, and database administration. If I could ever get into the interview stage I could really play on my personal experience with computer hardware and software. The only thing I would have to improve on is my database stills. SQL is a simple concept but I am fairly new to the language itself. I can write simple query statements, but I know I need a little more experience before I can be efficient with it.

My skills include knowledge of Visual Basic and C++ and C programming languages. I have experience troubleshooting problems with Win XP, Vista, Mac OSX, and Debian based Linux systems. I have many years of experience with computer hardware. Such as installing and configuring new hardware. I have also had job experience in network administration, and client relations. This is the one thing I will really need to play on. I was an Assistance Network Administrator for a county contractor. I really enjoyed my job except for all the driving I had to do for it. My boss for that job was way better than my current boss.

The job that I would pursue is the Computer Technician for Henry Schein Dental. Even though this position only requires a two year degree, it would help me get the experience I need to get jobs more related to my degree. I would first form my cover letter especially for Henry Schein Dental. I would call their office and find out who is in charge of hiring so I would know who do address the letter to. I would call attention to how their company is helping the nothing part of the state with their dental care and how I would like to be apart of their company.

My resume would emphasize my computer knowledge and really heavily describe my last job with the county contractor. I would list all the computer languages I know as well as the operation systems I have working experience in, which is all the major ones. My resume would not focus so much on experience because for now it is not my strongest suite. I would emphasize my only work experience and try to play on that, but would mainly focus on my computer knowledge rather. Another strategy I can take is to emphasis my four year degree and extracurricular activities sense most of the applicants would likely have a two year degree. Play on how my extra training would be beneficial to their company and a great asset. Hopefully this would be successful in my future attempts for employement

Assignment 4

To: T. Leoni, Manager, Personnel Department
From: Donald Pryzblo, Manager, Data Processing Department
Subject: INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS
I have been reviewing the “errors” in the computer files. I feel that your assumption that my department is at fault is incorrect. My department correctly copied the time tickets that your clerks prepared. I feel the error happened in your department and my people should not be blamed for an error they did not cause. I do not feel your recommendation for my department to compare the copied time sheet to the original entries is not our responsibility. I am offended that you feel that this is my departments fault, and that I had to review over your department’s work to find the error. It also offends me that you were quick to assume that it was my fault before reviewing over the error. I feel that this error can be easily correctly by asking your department to review their work carefully before giving it to out department. Thank you for your time, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Respectfully
Donald Pryzblo
Manager, Data Processing Department

The first thing I did with this email is to tone down the anger that this person seems to have. Even though the anger may be justified, but a person receiving an angry email may not be so willing to accommodate the person who wrote the email. Besides, an email of this manner is not good conduct for a professional level. I did not modify the first sentence because I feel it sets the mood of the email, but in a tactful manner. However, the second sentence is very straight forward; it plainly states that the reader is a fault. I feel that this is not a great move. The reader might stop reading the whole email because this one sentence. The reader might get offended or feel that this is just going to be an email that will be filled with finger pointing, and the e-mail’s purpose fails to get through. I reworded the sentence to read more tactful, but still have the same meaning as the original. Most of the sentences the follows were reworded for the same reasons. The part of the email that talked about how it was not my department’s responsibility to proofread their work, it presented some difficulty to reword this part in a tactful way. This is a very important part of this email; I had to revise this part in a way that it is both tactful but yet still sends the message that I feel that this is your fault and your responsibility to do your job, not mine. Because that I made this e-mail more tactful I also felt that it dumb down the message the writer felt offended by being blamed for an error that he felt that wasn’t his fault. So I added a couple of sentences that stated in a tactful manner that the writer felt offended by the readers accusation of guilt, but at a professional level.

Assignment 3

As you already know Information Technology is my major so for this blog assignment I have looked at some of other University's IT department's brochure to see have they handle recruiting people into their program. My first stop is Ole Miss's Information Technology department's brochure.

http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/

This is a very well planed brochure. This website has links to course outlines and degree plans. It also gives an explanation of the whole department's purpose complete with a welcome letter and teacher description. It is not much to look at, but it gives a very good description of Ole Miss' IT program.

Now every nerd dreams of going to MIT, so I thought it would be cool to look up their IT program there. Apparently they don't have a specific IT department online brochure. The closest I could find is the whole School of Computer science website:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-00Fall-2008/CourseHome/index.htm
It is a cool site that offers the option to view online lectures. However it is disappointing that I could not find a IT department website that was not an from the actual IT department that deals with MIT's on site network. And of course USM's IT department's website is just like Ole Miss', not much to look at but gets the job done. http://www.itc.usm.edu/online/

The worst site I came across was the UTEP IT department's IT page.
http://www.cs.utep.edu/grad/mit/
This is just sad, it is a welcome statement and a print of of two documents and the link to the old web site that use to be run by another department. This website has all the information that a future student needs. It is just sad that the new department doesn't update the site to fit their needs.

The remaining part of this blog entry will focus on the answering of the Defining Your Communication’s Objectives document.

If I had to write a brochure for USM's IT department I would write a brief description of our department and provide certification that one would be able to obtain once complete with our program. What prompts me to write is the face that I would like more students to bring their attention to the IT field and the opportunity it offers. The desired outcome is that potential students would call and inquire information about our program here a Southern Miss. The outcome the our reader would most likey desire is that he/she is provide enough information about our program to make a decision. Our primary readers are potential college students. The relationship would be one of a teacher student one. We must assume that our readers are not very familiar with our program and we must provide as much information to that reader without overwhelming them.

I have learned a lot from this assignment. I learned that one must provide just the right amount of information. You must provide enough so the reader can make a decision based on the information, but not too much that the reader is overwhelmed by it, or just doesn't read it at all.