Tutorial 4: What is RAID?? Seriously...

That's how I felt when I first started learning about them. Turns out, they're not as bad as they seem at first. RAID stands for "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives". This is basically a way of  combining the storage across multiple drives to offer a single virtual device. RAID can provide the following benefits: Data redundancy (protects important data from failures), Fault Tolerance (provides a more reliable system), Increased Capacity (combines several disks together into one), Increased Performance (subjective to the type of RAID is used, overall the technology is the better option). These are the main types of RAID...

RAID 0: Also known as "Striping", the read/write operations are executed from the various drives simultaneously. Meaning, your data is split among different disks for storage. The total amount of storage available for use is the sum of all disk's memory. This translates into faster writing/reading times because of the simple fact that it can execute from several disks at once, as supposed to one for a big file. RAID 0, is the fastest and most efficient type of RAID. However, it does not offer any fault tolerance, simply because there is no extra disk where you may backup your data. This is a great choice for someone that backs up their data on an external hard drive often. Below we have RAID 0, striping.

Credit to: www.Iomega.com tutorial team.

RAID 1: Also called, Mirroring, is a two disk system that allows redundancy. The structure offers redundancy (as supposed to RAID 0) because, the data is written fully on BOTH disks. This is great for environments where, cost is not an issue but data loss is a big concern. Although, cost is 50% higher than Striping (you need double GB to store your data, twice), it's great when handling critical data. You may also add what is called a "Hot Spare" disk which, is an extra disk that is only used when one of the others (with data) fails. In the case of said disk failure, "Hot Spare" disk copies all the data from the "good" disk to create a second copy. When the failed disk is exchanged, it becomes the new "Hot Spare". Here is what RAID 1 looks like...

Credit to: www.Iomega.com tutorial team.

RAID 5: Is a redundant system, which is similar to striping but distributes parity among the drives. RAID 5 requires three or more drives as it spreads data blocks across all disks except for one, "Hot Spare". This system has relatively fast reads similar to striping. however, due to having to compute parity, writing times are a bit slower than previous RAID. In addition to fast read times, this provides data redundancy. If a single disk fails, due to parity, "how spare" can easily reconstruct the data lost. Here is what it may look like..

Credit to: www.Iomega.Com Tutorial Team

So now you have the main idea of what RAID is what their advantages are. If you're in the market for a RAID system, I would advice you to do extensive research on which is more appropriate to your environment. Here are some websites I find useful: Addonics RAID quick tutorial & Publib Boulder's RAID Journal.

Project: Secure Email

The article "Tampa Company Using Biometrics to Secure Computer Systems" explains a new technology that uses biometrics to secure "personal and corporate data". It is very simple, the user swipes his finger at a any computer (that has the technology installed) and he/she is given the access that they are allowed. This new security technology, called "bioLock", is going to help companies keep their data secure as it records and logs who accessed what, where and when. The article also explains how this new system could have prevented three famous corporate fraud cases, one being: NASA's 2008 identity theft which questioned the government's computer security. The article can be found at: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jan/07/071031/tampa-company-using-biometrics-secure-computer-sys/.

Below is the screen capture of my inbox. Highlighted in red are the two replies from ism3004.prof.

Screen Capture by: Cesar Tobar

Extra Credit Assignment: VOIP and Video Capture

I have been using Skype for quite sometime now, not knowingly that this is the Voice Over IP technology. As I just learned that Voice Over IP may come in many forms. The most popular is Skype, which allows you to make free phone calls and video conference (2 or more users) with just an internet connection. Like I mentioned before, I've used it since it was first released. I am now able to keep in touch with family and friends that I can't see very often. Attached is a video call with a friend of mine...
Screen Cast Skype_Call

Extra Credit: Creating an Avatar

To start off, I want to show you my avatar. I created it using the "Create Avatar-South Park Studios". I chose this website because it allows you to download the avatar in form of a background. As supposed to other choices, they email it to you which can take up to 30 minutes. I tried "Face Your Manga" twice and the avatar never came in my inbox. I also just enjoy South Park to begin with. So, here it is..

Created by: Cesar Tobar; Used "Create Avatar-South Park Studios.

I started off by using Google, the link to the website is: www.southparkstudios.com/avatar. The first step is, choose whether you want to; Create new avatar, Randomize a character, or view gallery. I chose create new avatar. The menu looks like this...

Created by: Cesar Tobar; Used "Create Avatar-South Park Studios.

As you can see in the picture, this is the navigation menu. The blue circle, represents the navigation menu (to jump sections) as well as an undo button. The red circles, are used to go to the next section once you have decided on a particular item on the present section. Yellow circles are also navigation arrows that allow you to scroll from one item to the next (skin colors).  Finally, the green circle, has a save button, share button (allows to share on Facebook and other media) as well as a random button if you are indecisive.

That does it for my avatar post. I had fun creating my avatar, it was quick and easy. I advice you, when you're bored, to get on a search engine and look for some web-flash based avatar creators and have some fun!