Thursday, October 27, 2011

W8 T8.3. Choice of Apps and Sevices for Productivity and Communications

Thursday, October 20, 2011

W7 T3.3 HTML LAB

Best Video Game in 2011


Xbox 360


Batman Arkham City





Batman Arkham City for the Xbox 360 system is by far the best game created in 2011.





Why is Batman Arkham City the best game available now? The graphics are great, the animation is superb, and the story is fascinating!!



    Best Games 2011
  • Mass Effect 2

  • Fallout Las Vegas

  • Forza Motorsports 3

  • La Noire

  • Gears of War 3

  • Rage

  • Deus Ex

  • Borderlands




    Worst Games 2011
  1. Barney Play Along

  2. Elmos fun house

  3. Kinnect Sports

  4. Billys newspaper

  5. Sesame Street Adventure





Visit for all your gaming needs!!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Cloud Computing T4.4

Introduction

The cloud computing market is receiving plenty of attention from distinguished players in the computing industry; such as Microsoft Corp, Oracle, Google and Amazon to name a few. What is “Cloud Computing” and why is it so appealing as today’s emerging technology? A quick response would be the “bottom line.” More profit reported on their financial statements, which translates to greater dividends to investors. Cloud computing is compromised into the following categories: Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service, Software as a service, and Communications as a service.

Types of Cloud Computing

The first class of cloud computing this research will touch upon is Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). “IaaS” is tailored to an organization which has decided to outsource the equipment utilized for supporting operations, storage, hardware, servers and networking components. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, maintenance and performance of their assets. The business usually client pays a per-use fee for the services.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a software distribution package in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. A great example of “SaaS” would be Direct2Drive.com, once in the website the user pays the suggested retail amount for a video game or software. The transaction gives user the right to download, install, and play the software on a single pc.

The third class is Platform-as-a-service (PaaS); this platform offers a quick and cost-effective standard for application innovation and transmission of information. “PaaS” offers the framework needed to run applications over the Internet. Users simply log in and allocate their needs bypassing complicated programs and system protocols. Platform as a service is based on per-usage or subscription and end-users ultimately only pay for what they use.

The fourth class of cloud computing is Communications as a service (CaaS), which is an outsourcing product, designed for business communication including over IP, contact center applications, and voice conferencing. “CaaS” shares the same benefit as the other classes of cloud computing such as the minimal amount of overhead costs, management and efficient delivery of the service to the end-user. Communications provider Mitel is a perfect example of a company using their real time voice applications for business to streamline their communication opportunities. [1]

Understanding Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform as a service (PaaS) basically revolves on facilitating the execution of applications without inheriting the cost and elaborate purchasing and managing of hardware, software, hosting. “PaaS” is also provides all end-user branches with the required support needed to run the complete life cycle of building and delivering of web based applications and services. Platform as a service solutions are development packages in which the development tool itself is hosted in a cloud network and accessed through a browser. Developers can build web applications without installing any tools on their computer and apply those applications without any specialized systems administration skills.

Utilizing (PaaS)

A great example of an organization using “PaaS” would be the United States Department of Defense. The Defense Information System Agency is scheduled to release next year a Platform as a service package to a slew of cloud services. This new “PaaS” based on the Google App infrastructure and Microsoft Azure, is a platform on which applications and services can be executed, but does not burden the end-user with server complications, security protocols, and management. This form of “PaaS” streamlines the Defense Information System and projects government with thousands of dollars in savings. Major advantages of switching over to the new platform as a service module allows for new support for Red Hat’s servers and products. As well as efficient use of server bandwidth and widgets will be incorporated onto the dashboards to provide users with some insight into what's going on in the background with the underlying servers so that they can do initial triage for service problems. "We're hoping this will help with the resolution of problems more efficiently," Robinson [2] An advantage of implementing this system is the level of security of running a cloud based system would exceed their current standards. Additional research into finding what the Department of Defense uses as a primary security module in not shared publicly and an exact determination of how much secure a cloud based system is over their current program is unknown at this time.

Red Hat, Inc. The worlds leading provider of open source solutions has created a product called “OpenShift,” a Platform as a service for developers who use open source. “Open source is the practice in production and development that promotes access to an end source product.” [3] Basically, an open source program allows the user/developer to work on existing code and work in peer productive collaboration, for the access of specifications, source material, and finally an end product at no cost to the public in some cases. The release of Red Hat’s Openshift allows a new level of choices in regards to languages, frameworks, and clouds for developers to build, experiment, and manage their applications. This allows users to choose the cloud provide upon which the application will run. The unique strength of this form of “PaaS” is giving developers access to a vast selection of middleware services. Middleware services is perfectly described by U.S. Research and Education Community as “the intersection of the stuff that network engineers don't want to do with the stuff that applications developers don't want to do." [4] The only improvements I would make with OpenShift would be enabling this powerful tool with a sort of perpetual rating system in which other users can quickly look at the program and provide real time information to struggling users.

Conclusion

To recap cloud based computing revolves around the following market characteristics cost effectiveness, operational simplicity and high availability. Offering these services allows a broad range of technology organizations to decide what information and processes they want to keep and which they rather outsource. Cloud based computing is an emerging technology that will continue to grow as time goes on and may in fact end of the “PC” program based era.







References

1. Shipley, G. (n.d.). Red Hat PaaS. Red Hat PaaS. Retrieved September 26, 2011, from https://www.redhat.com/openshift/blogs

2. TE. (n.d.). Defense Agency Plans Platform-As-A-Service Offering - Government - Cloud/SaaS - Informationweek. InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs. Retrieved September 27, 2011, from http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/231500215

3. Shipley, G. (n.d.). Red Hat PaaS. Red Hat PaaS. Retrieved September 26, 2011, from https://www.redhat.com/openshift/blogs

4. Wagner, M. (n.d.). The Bright Future for Cloud Computing is Becoming Much Clearer - Money Morning. Investment News: Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From. Retrieved September 27, 2011, from http://moneymorning.com/2010/09/23/cloud-computing/

redhat.com | Red Hat Delivers the Platform-as-a-Service Cloud for Open Source Developers. redhat.com | The World's Open Source Leader. Retrieved September 27, 2011, from http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2011/Red-Hat-Delivers-the-Platform-as-a-Service-Cloud-for-Open-Source-Developers

W7 T3.3 LAB

Best Video Game in 2011

Xbox 360

Batman Arkham City

Batman Arkham City for the Xbox 360 system is by far the best game created in 2011.

Why is Batman Arkham City the best game available now? The graphics are great, the animation is superb, and the story is fascinating!!

    Best Games 2011
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Fallout Las Vegas
  • Forza Motorsports 3
  • La Noire
  • Gears of War 3
  • Rage
  • Deus Ex
  • Borderlands
    Worst Games 2011
  1. Barney Play Along
  2. Elmos fun house
  3. Kinnect Sports
  4. Billys newspaper
  5. Sesame Street Adventure
Visit for all your gaming needs!!!

TASK T5.3

Task T3.4