Section 1.3

I finished section 1.2 today, which went over the installation process of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The processes were much more simplified than Windows Xp, since the installation is guided by a more user friendly prompt. Any differences existed in the new abilities in Windows 7 and Vista- mostly having to do with internet and network set-ups. After 1.2, I started 1.3- which detailed using the command line (cmd in Windows computers) to complete functions that you would normally do with the Windows interface. These functions include navigating directories (file folders) and copying, removing, and making directories. For example, to move to "my documents" in the command line, I would have to type "dir" to show all of the available directories, and then type in "cd 'my documents'" to move to it. I also learned how to partition any available drives with the "diskpart" command variations and format them with the "format" command. I then learned the ways to list and kill tasks that are operating on a computer through the command line. The next subsection began discussing the different commands used to diagnose network problems. The first and most useful command is "ipconfig," which lists all Internet Protocol ID's and your computer's gateways for the internet. I also learned the commands "ping" and "tracert" which help diagnose connections to local networks and different DNS servers (DNS servers being the different computers or networks you can connect to- like google or youtube). All of this is especially useful if you only have access to the command prompt- which can often happen with computer crashes. I spent two hours taking notes on all of these subjects, giving me 7 total hours out of 25 for my Capstone Project.

Section 1.2

I've taken notes for about 2 more hours on section 1.2 of our tutorial video. This section focused on installing operating systems (OS's), what requirements must be met for operating systems to function, and what is done during an operating system installation. I learned different ways of installing OS's- through a CD-ROM, or through a formatted USB drive. I learned how to create a hard drive partition, which is a separated "section" of your storage device. The OS can be downloaded on a hard drive partition if an OS is already present (you can have a Mac OS on one partition and Windows 8 on another for example), or you can overwrite the partition. I learned how to do each of these steps in greater detail. Once the OS installation is taking place, you can choose the file systems type (how data is stored and read on the piece of hardware). I learned about the different types of file systems- FAT, FAT 32, NTFS, and CDFS- and what the differences are between them. The tutorial then went into the actual installation process, using Windows XP as the first example. Again, this entire section was very informative and I have a feeling that the content I learned about here will remain significant not only throughout the tutorial video, but throughout my work with computers in general. In total, I now have 5 hours done out of 25 for my Capstone project.

Section 1.1

I finished taking notes on section 1.1 of the tutorial videos today. This took an additional hour and a half to complete. So far, I've learned about the different versions of the Windows Operating System (Windows XP, Vista, and 7) and what services they offer. I also learned about the different requirements a computer must meet in order to run the different operating system. Since the topic is discussed so thoroughly, I have to look up many terms like "Active Directory," "partitioning," or "New Technology File System." Despite these complicated terms, the lesson mainly serves as a background for later lessons. The videos go up to section 4.9, so it will take me a while to go through the entire lesson. The content is very interesting so far, and I'm actually enjoying going through these tutorials. I have a feeling that I will encounter these concepts later on when I take computer science courses in college. I now have 2 1/2 hours finished out of 25.

Mistake in Video Length!

It turns out that my partner had made a mistake in running the CD's our mentor gave us- the CD is divided into many files with a video in each. I received the CD's today, and we have nearly 3 hours of video on the CD's. Each video is from a licensed partner for the IT trade association- CompTIA. I took notes on the first two videos (about 10 minutes of total video) but since there is a lot of information (and items/topics I had to look up to understand), I ended up taking notes for about an hour total. Therefore, I have 1/25 hours for my Capstone Project!