Tuesday, March 12, 2024

First MOS Exam, Mid-Semester Highlights, Internet

The past two weeks surpassed the two weeks prior both in terms of excitement and achievement!

Twelve students took the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) MO-110 Word certification exam, joining Kiet who took his MO-110 three weeks ago. All thirteen students passed with Brandon scoring the highest and Justin second highest so far. Five students have yet to take the MO-110. They may yet overtake Brandon on MO-110 but no one will be able to challenge Kiet's feat on the next exam -- I will elaborate at the end of this blog post.

Haridev (Dev) and Anthony took advantage of the extension on Bonus Quiz 6 but Glenda remained on top. Sathya joined Glenda and Dev in taking Bonus Quiz 7 with Dev earning the first perfect score on a bonus quiz! A perfect score on a bonus quiz is definitely one of the two top highlights from the first half of the semester :-)

I walked through two-thirds of my Lecture 3: The Internet and will finish the final third when we return from Spring Recess. L3 will fuel BQ8 through BQ11. Jonathan presented his Favorite Movie: Pulp Fiction while Anthony shared My [His] Experiences in Japan with the class. The first two-third contains one of my signature topics: How to properly dissect a Uniformed Resource Resource (URL).

Looking back beyond the past two weeks, other highlights in the first half of the semester are Madison (Madi) and Dev earning bonus credit for being the first group of presenters; Dev earned highest score on BQ2 through BQ5 with Glenda sharing the top honor with Dev on BQ4 while Justin and Brandon doing the same on BQ2; and sixteen of the eighteen students sent in their Bonus Quiz 1 - Syllabus, fourteen of which kept working on it until they reached 100%.


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I can see Jonathan's reasons for why Pulp Fiction is his favorite movie based on his three reasons: the storyline, the music, and the suspense & comedy that can only come from director Quentin Tarantino. Anthony's wonderful experience in Japan involved three places: Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, and Okinawa; food such as ramen, sushi, sake; and site seeing cherry blossom trees and temples.


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Looking much much further back in time and far beyond of IS101, these three men made the Internet as we know it today possible:

Robert "Bob" Kahn and Vinton "Vint" Cerf led the design and implementation of the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that are the basis for the current Internet. Sir Tim Berners-Lee initiated the development of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that make up the World Wide Web (WWW). Each man's A.M. Turing Award came decades after their leadership changed the world. I will walk through each man's contribution as part of the final third of L3.


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Students,

Please answer these three questions/topics in your comment:

(1) As listed in the study guide for Bonus Quiz 8,(see [Week 8A: 3/9/2024] in Canvas) the steps to dissect a URL is also listed in the first image above. Will you practice it?

(2) Another topic from the first two-third of L3 that will make an appearance in BQ8 is country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) hack: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/country-code-top-level-domains/

(3) The top honor in the first half of the semester belongs to Kiet as he has qualified for, took, and passed the MO-210 Excel certification exam this past Saturday, weeks ahead of schedule. How did you perform in the first half of our semester? How will you perform in the second half?

11 comments:

  1. 1.) I'm committed to practicing dissecting URLs to improve my skills. I'll give it my all and strive to do my best.

    2.) Although I'm not entirely sure about the question, the code looks intriguing. As coding isn't my strongest suit, I see this as an opportunity to enhance my skills.

    3.) The first half of the semester was a balancing act, juggling between being ahead and falling behind due to my commitments, especially in financial accounting. However, I managed to excel, achieving an A+. As I enter the second half of the semester with a full-time job at the school district and two new classes, time will be tight. Nonetheless, I'm determined to stay current and succeed. While uncertain about the workload in my other classes, I'll give my all to perform well in this one.

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  2. 1). Dissecting URLs is tidier than frogs, so I've been practicing it plus added bonus is there's no formaldehyde smell. Dissecting URLs helps me figure out quickly when I am being spammed or phished ... a great Internet security skill. The ccTLDs and ccTLD hacks have helped me out tremendously since in the past when I encountered them, I avoided them since I thought they were dubious. Now I understand what they are, can dissect them, I am more comfortable on the Internet.

    2). I find the use of ccTLDs a great addition to the ability of smaller less technologically advanced countries ability to leverage their countries name to earn revenue from the Internet economy. Now rather than being left behind by larger powerhouse tech nations they now can share in the wealth generated by the Digital Technology of the 21st century.

    3). I give myself a big "Meeh!" My pace and performance in IS101 was hit or miss. Attention to detail bit me and I spent too much time trying to fix the errors to the detriment of accomplishing assignments on time rather than concentrating on learning Word in LabSim. I've resigned myself to the 0.5 scores versus the additional time and effort to try and raise them any higher versus trying to learn either Word or Excel. I found there was just too much posting/blogging/discussions/etc. all posted in different areas. My course rhythm suffered and as such so did the accomplishment and retention of the material. For the second half, I'll spend more time on learning and practicing Excel vs. trying to get all the other assignments done perfectly and accept the initial grade vs spending the inordinate time chasing perfection.

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  3. 1) Dissecting URLs are a little confusing but would certainly help to understand what I'm looking at when coming across malicious websites. I would usually do a quick glance and anything that seemed off to me would send red flags before I understood URLs.

    2) I personally don't remember coming across the examples like .fm & .me. Although, I remember when I created a website I've used .co but I'm not sure if it falls under the ccTLD category.

    3) The first half of the semester wasn't bad. I was a bit frustrated towards the end because I would misread some of the LabSim task and get the answer wrong of course. I was certainly surprised by my Word exam score; I thought I might've gotten a few more things wrong but I was satisfied with the outcome. Microsoft Word being the most common software used during my time in high school certainly made this a little easy but with Excel coming up soon, it will definitely be a curveball.

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  4. (1) Yes, I am practicing it as a part of my every work.

    (2) This information on this website is informative, since there is fancy website selection name with respect to ccTLD, which I am not aware of. Also, the discussion on Pros and cons was more informative.

    (3) I have done with the 1st half of the semester, but still there is better room for improvement. Wil try to focus more on upcoming part.

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  5. 1. Yes, I did practice it. Initially, I was confused about its arrangement because I was trying to dissect it from left to right. However, after weeks of practicing, I figured it out.

    2. I did come across this link already while I was doing a bonus quiz. I believe I used the ccTLD of .my, but my mistake was that I submitted a website name instead of just submitting a domain hack.

    3. I feel confident about the first half of the semester, and I plan to continue with the same approach for the second half.

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  6. 1) Yes, I have been practicing it. Once in a while in my personal life, I come across some weird URLs, and with the knowledge I have now, it's cool to dissect the origins. I'm in general a curious person, so I have the ability to know what a website is displaying.
    2) The website itself was an interesting read. I honestly never had a chance to take the quiz, so coming across this was an overload of information. I found interesting the domain name for each country and their respective prices. Understanding the concept of ccTLDs in regards to businesses. When you think about it, someone could own the name or brand of well known business, and they would have to find ways to publish or sell their products.
    3)When it comes to the first half of the semester, I performed medically. I don't plan on becoming an overachiever in college, like I did in high school. It takes too much of my personal time to dedicate time to school. I can barely handle mundane tasks in my personal life, and I get paid to do that. I wouldn't want to do that in school, even if I were getting paid. When it comes to the second semester, I want to get my assignments done more quickly and efficiently.

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  7. 1) I've been trying to do so and I'll continue to. It's nice to know what each part of a URL do and it's great to know in case of an Internet attack.
    2) The website was pretty interesting, I didn't know companies did domain hacks, which is turning the ccTLD into part of its brand name.
    3) The first half wasn't too bad, I got everything done but I was doing the LabSim days after it was due. The second half was pretty similar, but I performed well in my presentation and my MO-210 exam.

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  8. (1)Yes I am committed to practice it. This is because I need to know everything about URL's for my career. As well as it helps to keep me same online by knowing what is included in these URL's.
    (2) Reading through the website I learned a bit of information. One of the main things that I did not realize is that whole countries can ban the use of certain ccTLD's. Another useful thing the website gave us was the chart at the end. It tells us different codes for different countries.
    (3)In the first half of the semester I performed OK-ish. I could definitely improve moving forward and I plan to do so as well. Hopefully next semester I kind of get it together and actually focus on my work, but again we will see how that goes.

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  9. (1) I have been trying to practice it. Well its good for me and I will do it.

    (2) Reading through the article it was interesting though I am not an expert on it.

    (3) First half of the semester, I was doing good. There were some days that I did not pay attention to my work but I was doing it better.

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  10. First of all, thank you professor for the compliment,

    1) I've been diving into dissecting URLs lately, finding it to be a cleaner and more useful skill than dissecting frogs – no formaldehyde smell included! It's been eye-opening for Internet security, helping me quickly spot potential spam or phishing attempts. Understanding ccTLDs and their hacks has been a game-changer, empowering me to navigate the web with confidence and avoid previously suspicious links.
    2) The use of ccTLDs opens up new opportunities for smaller countries in the digital economy, allowing them to harness their national identity for economic gain. It's a positive shift, ensuring that smaller nations aren't left behind in the tech landscape but instead can participate and benefit from the wealth generated by digital technology.
    3) Reflecting on the first half of the semester, I struggled to maintain consistency in IS101, often getting caught up in fixing errors rather than focusing on learning Word in LabSim. Moving forward, I plan to prioritize learning and practicing Excel, accepting initial grades rather than chasing perfection in every assignment to maintain a better course rhythm and material retention.

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  11. I am interested in practicing URL’s. I think this is a piece of knowledge that will help me understand the type of websites I am clicking on and help me know what websites are just scams.
    I personally did not take the Bonus Quiz so this information was a lot to digest in a single sitting. Although, it was a very interesting read once I understood what information it was telling me.
    I feel like I performed well in the first half of the semester. I may have never gotten ahead of my work enough where I was ahead for longer than a couple of days, I stayed with it where the work never became overwhelming. In the second half of the semester I never was ahead, even for a couple of days. Because of sickness and personal reasons, I never got the chance to sit down long enough to dedicate time to get ahead. Although, I still was never stressed over the amount of work I had. I stayed with the work enough that everything was turned in and I actually learned how to use Excel, which is something I have been trying to do for a while now. So all in all, this semester in this class has been a positive one.

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