Information Technology Blog

  Welcome to Java! Java is programming language and platform used for developing code in computing. (Java, n.d.) Java is an object-oriented programming (OOP) computer language, which means that everything in Java is considered to be an object, an entity that has state, behavior, and identity. (javaTpoint, n.d.) The state of an object represents its value, the behavior describes what it does, and the identity is its unique name. An object can be part of a class, a group of objects with shared properties. One of the benefits of using Java is that the code is reusable, an object can acquire properties from another object through inheritance. There are four principles of OOP, encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism. Encapsulation allows a programmer to hide certain data in Java, by keeping it private to only members of its class. Abstraction is similar to encapsulation in the sense that certain data is hidden, but it displays important details to users. Inheritance, a...

  I have decided to focus my tech topic on programming languages. I am interested in programming languages primarily for two reasons, one is that I think it would be beneficial in helping me work on new projects in my career, and the second reason is that I feel like a stranger in a strange land when programming is discussed. I very much want to learn about the different languages and how they are written and how they are used when building programs. So often you get to see little snippets when you work on a computer, either an error or a window that will reference Java or C++, it would be great to have a basic idea of what it all means. In the course, Fundamentals of Internet Technology, we touched upon programming at a very basic level. How it is accomplished with a series of zeroes and ones, where the order will result in the desired program, and how this method has been adapted in the various platforms for programming. The basis of programming is similar to that of the telephon...

  A common form of computer attack is a Denial of Service attack (DoS). A DoS is an attack is when users are unable to access information or services on their computer. (CISA, 2019) This is achieved by flooding the recipient of the DoS with activity until either the recipient is overwhelmed or their system crashes. Either way, the information is not accessible to other users. For example, a common method is the Smurf Attack, where the ICMP sends numerous packets with fake IPs to the recipient, whose system responds until it overloads.   (CISA, 2019) This is a method of ping attack that can be used to flood a recipient computer. Another type of ping attack is a ping of death attack. (Fortinet, 2021) The ping of death occurs by sending the recipient a packet that is the inappropriate size, too large for the recipient computer to process and the system crashes. There are many different variations of the attacks, but ultimately, they involve either flooding or crashing the system....

I have worked at reference laboratories for most of my professional career. The departments I have worked in have dealt primarily with oncology clinical trials at various phases. The lab tests samples from patients on the clinical trial and then we provide the results to the pharmaceutical sponsor. The documentation involved is critical and subject to evaluation by various regulatory agencies, so it is important that everything is captured appropriately. Many labs use Laboratory Information Systems to track their progress. Some have a very manual method, where everything is received and logged using excel sheets and stored to the server, while others have developed more complex systems that will track a specimen through the lifecycle of a specimen. Some of the systems that I have worked on are Microsoft Access based, and others have Java EE servers and databases with cloud-based options. Having a developed system like this makes it easier for a lab to provide traceability to samples th...

To ping is to send a small bit of information to an IP address or domain that requests a response from the recipient. In order to contact google, I entered the domain name “google.com”. The response varied in length from 30-35ms, averaging out at 32ms. My next selection was the website Alibaba.com, a Chinese retail website, similar to Amazon. My ping response time was almost seven times as long, with the minimum response time at 220ms and a maximum at 228ms. Next, I tried pinging japantimes.com to see how the response times would be. The response times were similar to the Ali Baba website, with a minimum of 196ms and a maximum of 205ms. When I performed the traceroute command for all three sites, I was able to perform a full trace of the path to the google website, within the maximum of 30 hops. I attempted to perform traceroutes for both the Ali Baba and Japan Times websites, and I did have several attempts time out. I was able to trace the path for Japan Times successfully, but could...

To document my day, I utilized three applications, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I have regularly used all of these applications in my work life, so it was an easy transition for me for this purpose. Microsoft Word is a word processing app that uses formatted text to create the document. (Vahid, 2017) Unlike other apps like Notepad, you can use features to format your paragraphs, specialize the font, and add some graphics. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet app that can be used to graphically display data. (Vahid, 2017) Excel has features that enable the user to input the data and then create formulas to perform calculations on the data, as well as options to display the results, like graphs and charts. PowerPoint is a presentation app that can be used to create a slideshow to display text and graphics. (Vahid, 2017) Each slide can be formatted for design and graphics and can have animation added.             Microsoft Word...