FITTforLIFE

Wedding Photography

2010-07-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have seven photographer websites and some that concentrate on destination weddings, island weddings, beach weddings and Jacksonville weddings. My wife is a photographer and wants to concentrate on children, kids and infant portrait photography. My Island Photographer Website has specific islands for bald head island wedding photographer, Marco island wedding photographer, saint Simon's island wedding photographer, Amelia island wedding photographer, Cumberland island wedding photographer, Jekyll island wedding photographer, sea island wedding photographer, Anna maria island wedding photographer, honeymoon island wedding photographer, chincoteague island wedding photographer, Marcos island wedding photographer, Skagit island wedding photographer, Whidbey Island wedding photographer, Bainbridge island wedding photographer, Johns island wedding photographer, Pawleys island wedding photographer, Roanoke island wedding photographer, San Juan island wedding photographer, topsail island wedding photographer, tybee island wedding photographer, and Vancouver island wedding photographer.
My Christian Photographer site has just a few local beaches, Fernandina beach, ponte Vedra beach, Amelia island, saint Simon's island and Jacksonville beach. For Jacksonville Photography, I stayed local, but I think I went as far south as Orlando and as far north as Jekyll Island.
Up next, I need to build a resource for Mercer Island, just East of Seattle.

Jacksonville Photography Website

2010-07-10T20:38:00.001-07:00

Jacksonville Photography - Jacksonville Photographer

Week 14:Muddy Enterprise Computing

2010-04-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't score very well on the test and I at least thought I understood the different types of RAID, SAN and HSM. Much of what I have been learning up until now has been applicable to my computer experience and was generally easier to understand. I haven't used computers on a system or worked in a business that has.
In times past, when I didn't relate or understand ideas presented, I could often work out or visualize the main concepts. The information I was presented in the PDF and lectures was more technical than I have been exposed to and I was not able to create a relationship between all of the information so that I could remember exact details and interactions.
The only thing I have a little bit of experience with is the virtual machine. I have a virtual machine on my mac that runs windows xp and I have all my windows programs assessable to my mac for use, which saved me from having to buy the mac versions.
That is convenient for me, but very different than what the virtualization discussed in lecture.

Secure Email Project

2010-04-17T21:36:00.001-07:00

link to article about Russian Hackers

A rather shocking article, entitled ‘Russian Cyberthief Case Illustrates Security Risks For U.S. Corporations,’ made some broad generalizations about vulnerable corporations and how their complete trust in spyware enabled criminals to access their data. Apparently, organized Russian crime syndicates are swindling numerous small amounts that are adding up to large amounts and there hasn’t been much done about it yet.
The idea that interested me most was how the article presented hacking and how it could relate to preemptive war. The article claims that the Russian hackers were able to disrupt Georgia three weeks before Russia invaded. The article also relates how there are
‘currently 44,000 Turkish teenagers organized in a rigorous military-style community of hackers who are learning their tradecraft from each other. There are similar communities in Saudi Arabia with 100,000 members. Iraq has 40,000 members. China has more than 400,000 members ‘where you mentor each other in ways to attack the enemies of the state,’
These numbers are alarming and, if accurate, need to be properly addressed by our government. The article concludes with the suggestion that we fight fire with fire. I concur.

Week 13: Clear Security Concerns

2010-04-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

I was never aware of how fortunate we are for the creators of antivirus software. I take it for granted that my computer is updated against the newest threats. My wife has gone so far as to complain about the new voice for Avast! which lets you know that the 'virus database has been updated'
For absolutely no reason I can remember with certainty, I have always disdained Symantec. I think I might have had a few viruses get through on their software five to ten years ago, but I cannot remember. I have repeatedly uninstallated both Symantec and McAfee from any computer purchased in the past ten years. I'm not quite sure why I am so certain of Avast! and Spybots superiority over the those other two popular brands. I am now left to question whether Symantec and McAfee haven't improved to the same level or better than Avast! You would think with their cost and popularity(coming preinstalled with many systems,) Symantec and McAfee should have more resources to do a better job keeping up with viruses. Perhaps Ive been wrong to champion an essentially free software combination. In considering my alternatives, I'm reminded of the old saying, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

Voice Over IP (VOIP) and Video Capture

2010-04-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ive used Skype for the last few years, to keep in touch with friends and family around the country. We use it most often to let my wife's parents see our daughter, Reagan. Its a great free resource and I have been a strong advocate for it, encouraging local friends to try it to keep in touch with far-away family. Everyone Ive recommended it to has followed through and enjoyed the application.
It was my first time using Jing. Its great that it is a free application. I always consider how trusting we are as a culture. We feel safe to use these free forms of communication that allow for the collection and storage of private data. I'm sure it isn't quite to the point of marketing use yet, but I can imagine that they will develop a software that will scan conversations for keywords like 'buy', 'buying' or distinctive brand names, and then classify the consumers focus and market towards it.
Link To View VOIP

Database Project

2010-04-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

I had never discovered Microsoft Access before this assignment and the many uses were overwhelming at first. The combined lectures and discussion board made the completion of this assignment possible. The assignment taught me how to use tables and interrelate data. It was interesting to see how any data source could be utilized. Using queries to qualify and categorize data seemed familiar, as so many Microsoft programs have similar functions. I can definitely see how, with a little practice, Access could improve my business capabilities.
The only things I would add to the form to make it better would be cost verifiers. Something to calculate the rate at which they signed up for and their monthly rate, etc. Consider how most gyms give you a high month to month rate and a better annual rate, discounting it further for two or three year commitments. It would be good to have a column to distinguish between rates paid. I guess you could also have a column for dues owed or a list of clients who are in collections for dues owed. That is fairly common for gyms, as clients lose their motivation and stop paying before their contracts expire. The gyms end up sending the clients to collections for the balance of their unfulfilled contract and generally are successful in collecting a portion of the balances.

Week 12: Clear Understanding of System Development

2010-04-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to learn how systems are designed and configured. It makes sense that a lot of software starts on a drawing board with teams working to flesh out the many aspects. I never considered how many rules and requirements come into play when developing systems. I especially liked learning about how software manages forms and how guidelines are set.
There are so many plug and play templates out there, with many free to use, that I tend to take them for granted. I usually fail to imagine how a programmer or team of programmers conceived and developed the forms. In reconsidering the effort undertaken to create the many programs and system I use, I realize I tend to take technology for granted.

Week 11: Muddy Data

2010-03-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I barely passed the weekly quiz, scoring a 70%. This indicates I did not absorb enough of the teaching from the PDF's and lectures. There was a lot of information about data and relationships I did not remember. I'm thinking those details will be important to study before the final.
The April 4th due date is coming up and with it the deadline for eight assignments. Oh boy! Luckily, I am completely caught up in Business Law and have been working hard to keep up in Managerial Economics. I'm hoping to complete a few extra credit assignments and maybe get an A or A- in this class. It will be worth the effort!

Week 10: Clear Assignments

2010-03-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

So far, this class seems to be moving along well. Now, on the horizon, I see a ton of assignments coming up and a few look to be fairly complicated. I need to work to set aside time after my test this Wednesday to start a few projects and do some extra credit. There are so many extra credit opportunities in this class, I would be an idiot to not try and take advantage of them.
I have enjoyed keeping up with the latest submissions to the IT Current Events Discussion. The topics have been the most relevant and interesting of any discussion board I've had to participate in for school.

Excel Project

2010-03-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Working with Excel to complete the project was relatively simple. The scavenger hunt and video tutorials made following the instructions much easier. I have only used Excel in college classes and have no real world experience with the program. I can imagine that many working, online students would find the project even easier.

In the past, I have used Excel functions in finance, math and computer classes. I've mainly used the basic functions like sum, divide and multiply. I had used various pages of data and made charts. In this project, I learned and applied the fixed cell function by utilizing the dollar sign before each letter and number. I was surprised I hadn't learned that before.
It was interesting to see how easy it was to apply data to a pivot table. I used two pivot tables for the assignment and the work went quickly. I wasn't sure if there was a better way to do a screen capture and using Excels help had no real help, so... here it is.

Week 9: Clearly I Need To Keep Up With Assignments

2010-03-07T19:11:00.001-08:00

It is time to submit my Excel Scavenger Hunt Assignment and I have been unable to until just now. I actually started this post after I was unable to access the online webCT. I have not seen the website down due to high volume before. The most I had seen it before was at Medium usage.
The Excel Scavenger Hunt was interesting. I had taken computer classes before and used many of the features, but had never used group before. Unfortunately, I'm not using Office 2007, so the video tutorials didn't apply to my Excel toolbar. I was able to figure it out using the Excel search field.
I actually have Office 2008 on the Mac, but I do all of my web surfing and schoolwork on my laptop and I only have an old copy of Office 2003 on this computer. My wife and I use the Mac primarily for our photography business and I hardly use it at all. I need to get a copy of 2007 someday, but right now I can't even spare the $60 it costs to download and register the student version here...
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

Week 8: Clear Studying

2010-02-28T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ive been able to keep up with my reading in all of my classes this week. It has been interesting, Ive had two tests in a row the last two Mondays and I have another coming up tomorrow, which is Monday. Fun!!
I noticed this week that not too many students have submitted their assigned IT Current Events discussions. I am working on responding on different days, as specified in the instructions.
I hope my most recent response encourages students to discover the book '1984.' Aside from 'Brave New World,' I think '1984' was the most pioneering vision of what the dangers of the future hold. The predictions in both books have been slowly coming true and it is interesting to think that books written in 30's and 40's could be so telling of the future

Week 7: Clear Understanding of the OS

2010-02-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

I use the computer for work and generally understand the basic functions needed to create, store, zip and retrieve data. I didn't understand the order the operating system followed or how RAM and flash memory worked. I always believed you needed more RAM to operate bigger programs and had installed additional RAM in my desktop computer. Now I understand a little more of why that was important.
I was surprised CONTROL F was not mentioned when discussing swapping names in a document. I use that function all the time and its great. I was also surprised that WinRAR was not mentioned when discussing zipping folders. I had always thought WinRAR was able to handle more file extensions and be cheaper. I know WinZip became much more popular because of their relationship with Microsoft, but I would have thought WinRAR deserved at least a passing mention.

Week 6: Clear Reading, Lectures and Assignment

2010-02-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

Everything went well this week and the web 2.0 assignment was easy to follow. I was a bit surprised I only got an 80% on the weekly exam. I thought I got them all right! I wish the results were immediately available so I could tell what I got wrong.
The project was fun and interested me. I made a website with five pages using wix.com and published it in a unique URL. I originally started creating websites using Frontpage about 6 years ago and then moved up to using Dreamweaver and Flash. Using Flash usually takes me forever and I often have to continually save the movie repeatedly because I have made big mistakes in the past. This wix application streamlines everything and is super user friendly.
I noted that a lot of students were using the onetruemedia website when I went to post my reviews. I thought I probably would have received more reviews if I would have hosted through them. Oh well.

Project Web 2.0 Tools Website

2010-02-11T20:16:00.000-08:00

It was hard working for $7.25 an hour. It was humbling. After graduating high school in 1992, I landed a job working for RPS making $13 an hour. Almost 20 years later and I find myself mopping floors and cleaning bathrooms for minimum wage.
Please visit the website to see my story and take the survey.

Health Insurance Website and Survey

Description of interaction method: I created a short survey to encourage viewers to share a few personal facts so that I can tally up statistics of the participants and see how their experiences compare to mine.

So far I have had three responses and they all had worked for minimum wage in their teenage years. One submission expressed happiness at working for minimum wage because it was her first job.

I learned it was fairly easy to put together a professional looking website in a relatively short amount of time. In working to compose a flash website and put together a short survey to complete the assignment, I was able to realize my limitations and potential. The finished product was not nearly what I had initially envisioned, but the quality and standard of the finished product was very high and I was happy with it. I look forward to designing more websites in the future.

I was a little surprised when I watched my colleagues videos and saw how most were entirely composed of personal photos. It made me feel like my project was lacking in that one area.

Week 5: Clearly Advantageous

2010-02-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

My textbook finally arrived in the mail on Friday. I expect it will help with the quizzes and upcoming test. I need to commit to reading to try to catch up so I wont need to cram before the exam.
My wife and I just returned home from a Superbowl party. We left at halftime and most everybody was either sober or slightly tipsy. There may be a small few who actually go all out and get drunk. I do not think we will be adding to the statistic I read about where 1.5 million people have been calling in sick the day after the Superbowl.
That is an extremely high number and I am surprised management hasn't acted to deter or prevent this phenomenon. I am thinking a large number of these people calling in either work construction or a trade job, but maybe I am wrong.
The Labor Department published the 1.5 million statistic

Week 4: Clear Computer Knowledge

2010-01-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

Learning about the variety of web uses and watching the video pertaining to different browser and non browser uses was entertaining. Learning more about how computer systems function, their history and how applications and software are read/used has been enlightening and enjoyable. So far the class and assignments have been fun and easy to understand, hence the titles "Clear."

I found a funny link for the google toilet I will share here:
Google Toilet!

Week 3: Clear Timeline Assignment

2010-01-24T14:05:00.001-08:00

Three weeks have passed and I am still without a book. After placing my second book order on January 13th, I have yet to hear back from the sender on the timeliness of their mailing. Luckily, the Professor pushed the Internet and Web Quiz submission deadline off to January 31st.
The timeline assignment was straightforward and easy to understand. I was able to find a computing reference that had not been identified previously and can only hope it gets read by a few of my peers, as it is a very important technology and potentially a threat to humanity.
For the context event, I chose to elaborate on Ronald Reagan and his 'Star Wars' dreams. It was a great idea that initially cost tens of billions and continually failed, but it eventually morphed into the working system of defense we have today. Even I didn't know it had finally succeeded!

Week 2 : Clear Concepts, Leaped Too Soon!

2010-01-15T20:33:00.000-08:00

The concepts presented in the lectures were interesting and enjoyable to learn. I watched the videos and took notes on the timeline. I was unable to do the reading assignments because my textbook has yet to arrive.
Side note: My book order from January the 4th was just cancelled on January the 13th!! So now I get to wait for the book I reordered on the 13th. To make matters even more frustrating, I am unwilling to leave negative feedback because I would not want it to be reciprocated. Am I being foolish?
So, with a decent amount knowledge, I attempted the test with no book to rely on and my basic timeline notes. Surprisingly, I failed miserably! I actually felt pretty confident before taking the quiz. The lecture was entertaining and easy to follow. I had taken a decent amount of notes. But, alas, it was not enough.
Apparently, I wasn't the only student awaiting their textbook delivery. The Professor was kind enough to extend the quiz deadline to 1/24 to accommodate those still unable to complete the reading. If only I had waited!
Final note: I have always had good service with half.com and I will continue to trust sellers on the website, but will be wary to order from members with low feedback numbers and would advise anyone reading this to proceed with caution, as well. And watch out for this guy!

Week 1: Clear Website

2010-01-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

The course website for ISM3004: Computing in the Business Environment was interesting, in that you had to fulfill a scavenger hunt list and take a test to access the rest of the site. Since much of the information and many of the concepts are relatively new to me, it may take me awhile to 'flow.'
On a side note: I determined a few months back that I would begin to text on my phone and have made zero progress toward that goal.
Having all of the information well-organized and structured, it was relatively easy to learn the information and remember the few specifics necessary to obtain access to the class. Upon gaining that access, there was even more information to consider and determine which way to proceed next. The calendar and many lists of due dates were at first intimidating, but the reading seems relatively light compared to my other courses and I believe I should be able to keep up.
The course website is a well organized resource for keeping up with the required reading, lectures and due dates for various assignments. It is good to feel comfortable with the given information, knowing that if I follow the timeline, I will be able to keep up.

Is it early or late?

2010-01-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

Stayed up all night working on my Managerial Economics homework. Its morning now. So far, I can understand all of the concepts and applications. Now I need to catch up on my Business Law lectures and stay ahead on the assignments. And find time to sleep.