"Technology is Our Business"

The following people came to speak to us about technology and how it will affect our lives and careers:

Microsoft - Edwin Guarin
DelphiGroup - Tom Koulopouslos
GreatPaths, Inc. - Carol Vallone
Synapse Group - Lisa Hoffman
Fidelity - Josh Marine
Aetna - Brian Heemsoth

Guarin is a self-proclaimed "education evangelist." He showed us a super zoom to count people in a tower from extremely far away. He showed us the same concept in a picture on a website, where it zoomed out from figures of the Beatles, to a showcase in a window, to a street showing the Hard Rock Cafe, to a set of pictures. He demoed the voice command technology in Windows Vista. For the most part, it worked, but it still has many problems. He stresses that it is useful for people who cannot type.

Tom Koulopoulus graduated from Bentley more than five-ten years ago. He asked to picture the world in our head, and then he told us that we should think about networks, cell phone towers, etc. That is the future. We are all "technology geeks" compared to twenty years ago. CIS is not just technology; it is the "glue that holds everything together." Do something you love and you are "great" at. "Core competency" is the subject, or area of study, that you are passionate about and that you are great at. He said that we should have a mentor, someone who genuinely cares about you and to whom you really look up. He said that we, college kids, CIS majors (I think) are going to build what the world will be in ten years.

Mr. Koulopoulus took questions about how he got here and what he does now. He started DelphiGroup, sold it, and bought back the name. A good question from the audience was, "If you were a CIS major now, what would you focus on?" He says that language is very important, not to know it, but to know how other people think. Also, he says managing a project is extremely important, from the technical side and the human side. Take courses in innovation.

"What global innovations do you see for the near future?" He says that CNN will have really cool technological innovations for the election tomorrow.

CCleaner and Ad-Aware

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Ad-Aware is a very useful, free program that searches the computer for spyware and other malicious files and asks the user if they should be deleted. The results of my search were not surprising as I do not or cannot use programs that are known to give off spyware. Two files were found, and their risk factors were pretty low.



Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!



Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

CCleaner is also a really cool program. I learned about it a few years ago from a friend. CCleaner searches the computer for any useless files, or crap (from which the C in CCleaner comes) and deletes them. However, it also does two more things. It also searches the registry for any problems in there and gives the user the option of deleting them. The final thing CCleaner does is allow the user to uninstall programs from the computer.

I was not surprised by what CCleaner deleted for a few reasons. First, I have used the program before. Second, the program clearly defines where it is searching and what it is searching for. For example, on the left it says it is searching Internet Explorer for Temporary Internet Files. So, I was pretty certain that CCleaner would go after that. It did.

Spy-ware is generally hidden in programs. They get there by paying the company that publishes the program. As a result, both the program and the spy-ware company benefit.

Vista Feature Project

Search Menu Video

In the video, I detailed the usefulness of the new Windows Vista Search box. Search appears in any Windows Explorer, and it helps us find programs and other folders much more easily than manually searching. It is also available on the Start Menu, which is an extremely helpful alternative to displaying all the programs.

CrossLoop is a very useful program in that it can help a novice computer user solve problems much more easily than by calling a service company on the phone. It allows the company to take control of the computer and solve the problem. It can also be very useful in businesses which use computers to spread ideas and give presentations. As far as my personal use, I will now be able to connect to the computer at home and retrieve files that I accidentally left there. In fact, now that I know the capabilities of CrossLoop, I plan to use it more often in the future for my computing needs.

IT Video Greeting

First Blog Post

w00t!