I finished that last AV job. It was a temporary position. I liked it well enough in the way that I enjoyed learning what I do not want to do with my life. The people were nice, the work was all right, but I want something far more social engaging, physically active, and mentally challenging. With that, I am job searching. I keep finding a lot of interesting jobs that I feel I would do well in -and all of them require knowledge of directory services and/or Active Directory specifically. This seems to be a giant, gaping whole in my knowledge of computers, so here I am to figure it out.
What is a directory service?
Initially it always seemed like a directory was a form of a database, but the article I'm trying to learn from makes it seems like directories and databases are distinct things. They mark out a few differences in the construction and use in order to demonstrate to the student how it differs. I will try from memory first to outline these differences then fix it afterwards.
Hierarchal construction in directories vs. geometrical construction of databases:
Perhaps with this non-sense it shows I'm still trying to figure out databases, too. I also couldn't figure out a word to describe what I know of databases' non-hierarchal, but also non-chaotic nature. I see them as blocks of information and then when you get into relational dbs, you start to draw lines in the diagrams when drawing your dbs designs, thus...geometrical *shrugs* It's all I got haha. Directories are hierarchal though from what I understand in that you have an information type and then you have subtypes of that information -kind of like an outline consutrcted during the plot/story design of a book or essay (and unlike this blog which is non-hierarchal, and most definitely chaotic).
Interaction via protocol (directories) vs. API (database)
Directories specifically are good for sharing information between various applications for use in a variety of contexts. Databases are designed and controlled with an API of some language and thus are application specific.
Those are the only differences I can remember. Also this does not answer the initial question -what is a directory *service*? This begs the question...are there database services? Services are another huge part of computing that I know almost nothing about -perhaps I should be exploring what this is first.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Breaking down the definition of "Signal"
I'm at a new job unexpectedly working with AV and was thinking this wasn't my scene. However, it turns out all the devices are now networked and there's a large digital component to the systems that I was unaware of. In result, I'm learning the lingo and inner workings of this world.
I don't come from an electrical engineering background, so when someone says "signal" I'm wary of what they could possibly be referring to. Wikipedia refers to it as a function which conveys behavioral or characteristic information of a phenomena (not word for word). This is less vague than I expected but still kind of vague. When it says function, does it mean a mathematical function or like a function found in OOP, or generally the function of some sort of a tool. The final one doesn't seem right simply because it's not being used in the sentence correctly for that version. I'm just going to ignore this word for now. It is something that conveys information about something that happens in nature. How about that?
Furthermore, Wikipedia claims that any quantity that can be measured concerning a variation in time or space may be a signal since it will provide information about a physical system. This, I think is more telling of what a signal actually, effectively is.
Yay for clarifying ambiguous engineering terms!
I don't come from an electrical engineering background, so when someone says "signal" I'm wary of what they could possibly be referring to. Wikipedia refers to it as a function which conveys behavioral or characteristic information of a phenomena (not word for word). This is less vague than I expected but still kind of vague. When it says function, does it mean a mathematical function or like a function found in OOP, or generally the function of some sort of a tool. The final one doesn't seem right simply because it's not being used in the sentence correctly for that version. I'm just going to ignore this word for now. It is something that conveys information about something that happens in nature. How about that?
Furthermore, Wikipedia claims that any quantity that can be measured concerning a variation in time or space may be a signal since it will provide information about a physical system. This, I think is more telling of what a signal actually, effectively is.
Yay for clarifying ambiguous engineering terms!
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Digital Logic - Reviewing Truth Tables and Transistors
Goal:
Create a calculator with basic single digit addition on a breadboard.
Knowns:
There are various gates made of different transistor combinations. The most common are:
a. AND
b. NOT
c. OR
d. XOR
e. NAND
Please let me know if I have forgotten a common one.
A truth table is a table of inputs into a circuit and outputs after the corresponding inputs have been processed by the overarching logic path or set of gates the inputs go through. A circuit can have multiple combinations of inputs (consisting of either 0 or 1) and types of gates that those 0 or 1 inputs are modified by (AND, OR, NOR, etc...). For example a single NOT gate takes one input of 0 or 1. If input 1, but run it through a NOT gate, the output is NOT 1, but 0. Alternately if you input 0 into a NOT gate, then it will come out NOT as 0, but as 1. This is what the truth table for a NOT gate looks like.
NOT
Input (I) | Output (O)
1 0
0 1
Some gates take two input. Each of these gates handles each combination of input types differently. For example, if you take 1 AND 0, you get 0. However, if you take 1 OR 0, you get 1. There are truth tables to help lay out the full mathematical modification. This type of math is call boolean algebra. This isn't your normal adding, subtracting, multiplication and division -that is arithmetic. I have included the full truth tables for AND and OR as well. Now that you know what to search for online, you can learn more about digital logic -the language behind circuits and electronics. As a note before you research more, sometimes instead of saying "input" or "I", a truth table will use "p" and "q" for multiple inputs and use "z" or "r" or all kinds of other things for an output. The key for the output is that it'll always be the on the farther right and there'll always only be one.
AND
I.1 | I.2 | O
1 1 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
0 0 0
OR
I.1 | I.2 | O
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 1
0 0 0
A normal transistor is simply a physical device that either lets through a flow of something or not. Like a draw bridge that goes up and down. When it is lowered, flow of traffic between a castle and the outside can happen; when it is raised, the flow of traffic in and out stops. In circuits this is instead electrons (negatively charged particles normally found in an atom) flowing around the gold, silver or copper (metals -which are conductors).
I've been writing this post for a few days and finished the bulk so I'm gonna stop here for now and work on my next one.
Mindy R. Bowen
Create a calculator with basic single digit addition on a breadboard.
Knowns:
There are various gates made of different transistor combinations. The most common are:
a. AND
b. NOT
c. OR
d. XOR
e. NAND
Please let me know if I have forgotten a common one.
A truth table is a table of inputs into a circuit and outputs after the corresponding inputs have been processed by the overarching logic path or set of gates the inputs go through. A circuit can have multiple combinations of inputs (consisting of either 0 or 1) and types of gates that those 0 or 1 inputs are modified by (AND, OR, NOR, etc...). For example a single NOT gate takes one input of 0 or 1. If input 1, but run it through a NOT gate, the output is NOT 1, but 0. Alternately if you input 0 into a NOT gate, then it will come out NOT as 0, but as 1. This is what the truth table for a NOT gate looks like.
NOT
Input (I) | Output (O)
1 0
0 1
Some gates take two input. Each of these gates handles each combination of input types differently. For example, if you take 1 AND 0, you get 0. However, if you take 1 OR 0, you get 1. There are truth tables to help lay out the full mathematical modification. This type of math is call boolean algebra. This isn't your normal adding, subtracting, multiplication and division -that is arithmetic. I have included the full truth tables for AND and OR as well. Now that you know what to search for online, you can learn more about digital logic -the language behind circuits and electronics. As a note before you research more, sometimes instead of saying "input" or "I", a truth table will use "p" and "q" for multiple inputs and use "z" or "r" or all kinds of other things for an output. The key for the output is that it'll always be the on the farther right and there'll always only be one.
AND
I.1 | I.2 | O
1 1 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
0 0 0
OR
I.1 | I.2 | O
1 1 1
1 0 1
0 1 1
0 0 0
A normal transistor is simply a physical device that either lets through a flow of something or not. Like a draw bridge that goes up and down. When it is lowered, flow of traffic between a castle and the outside can happen; when it is raised, the flow of traffic in and out stops. In circuits this is instead electrons (negatively charged particles normally found in an atom) flowing around the gold, silver or copper (metals -which are conductors).
I've been writing this post for a few days and finished the bulk so I'm gonna stop here for now and work on my next one.
Mindy R. Bowen
Monday, December 15, 2014
Google Sheets Scripting - Proper use of onEdit
Goal:
To create a Google spreadsheet function which fires when a user enters a particular, exact value (in this case, the person's legal name) into a cell (in this case it will always be in the first column). Upon firing, the row color of that cell which was edited should change the background color, text color, and font type. It should also automatically enter the current date into the same row, in the second column.
Questions:
Event objects - what are objects? Review this.
onEdit - can I call my setRowColors function inside of it? If so, how?
Knowns:
The sample that google gives for using onEdit in sheets is the following:
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/#onedit
Processing/Assumptions:
1. Objects have properties and values. "e" is the name of an established object from Google which has different properties available depending if one is working in Sheets, Docs, Calender, etc...and the type of desired trigger/event. We are in Sheets so the available properties are we are wanting a function to run upon Sheets being edited. Therefore the properties we have available are
a. authMode
b. user
c. source
d. range
e. value
2. I found a list of functions built in to Google scripts which are associated to objects (in other words I found a list of methods per established objects). The above list that I first thought were properties are actually the established objects themselves which have their own set of associated functions or methods. Value is the same as range only when it refers to a single cell -therefore it most useful to look at range's set of methods: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/spreadsheet/range
3. The header of the previous page actually refers to range as a class -not as a single object. A class is a "type" of objects. Range is a type or category of objects. Classes have certain methods and properties. The link above are still methods associated with this class. We create an object "e" which represents an "event object" in the class "range." Maybe this is wrong, but I am done for the day.
Mindy R. Bowen
To create a Google spreadsheet function which fires when a user enters a particular, exact value (in this case, the person's legal name) into a cell (in this case it will always be in the first column). Upon firing, the row color of that cell which was edited should change the background color, text color, and font type. It should also automatically enter the current date into the same row, in the second column.
Questions:
Event objects - what are objects? Review this.
onEdit - can I call my setRowColors function inside of it? If so, how?
Knowns:
The sample that google gives for using onEdit in sheets is the following:
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/#onedit
Processing/Assumptions:
1. Objects have properties and values. "e" is the name of an established object from Google which has different properties available depending if one is working in Sheets, Docs, Calender, etc...and the type of desired trigger/event. We are in Sheets so the available properties are we are wanting a function to run upon Sheets being edited. Therefore the properties we have available are
a. authMode
b. user
c. source
d. range
e. value
2. I found a list of functions built in to Google scripts which are associated to objects (in other words I found a list of methods per established objects). The above list that I first thought were properties are actually the established objects themselves which have their own set of associated functions or methods. Value is the same as range only when it refers to a single cell -therefore it most useful to look at range's set of methods: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/spreadsheet/range
3. The header of the previous page actually refers to range as a class -not as a single object. A class is a "type" of objects. Range is a type or category of objects. Classes have certain methods and properties. The link above are still methods associated with this class. We create an object "e" which represents an "event object" in the class "range." Maybe this is wrong, but I am done for the day.
Mindy R. Bowen
Purpose
I would like to get into Digital Forensics, but I am a 4th year chemistry major. I've been reading about how to get into this and one way to keep up and show that I have been working towards this is to keep a blog about what I have been studying and discovering.
I will start with what I have been doing recently, then journal as I learn or do new things. This should help me also process the information and become better at communicating information about this field.
Windows Registry - Rogue Killer
Tools - AVG PC Tune Up
Solid State Drive - Freeing gigabytes
Malware remediation - Multiprogram process
SSD/HDD PC - Proper configuration for running Windows from SSD while all else goes to HDD
Windows print device driver for 2007 Lexmark X2500 - Visual C++ Programming
Data recovery - Knoppix
Fake Anti-virus program - McAfee Security Scan Plus
Symantec Endpoint Protection Firewall configuration - UDP port for Buffalo Server to NAS Navigator
Digital Logic - Reviewing Truth Tables and Transistors
Quantum Computing - Materials for Memory
After writing all of this I know I am not going to get through all of this in one day. Plus some of these I need to keep working on. I think they each may be their own entry.
Mindy R. Bowen
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