Bits and Bytes: A Information Technology Blog

  The ping command is a “network utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network” (Nek, 2012). However, malicious actors can misuse this tool for various attacks. One attack is a ping flood (ICMP Flood). In this type of attack, the attacker sends a massive number of ping requests (ICMP echo requests) to a target system, overwhelming the target's network resources and making it unresponsive to legitimate traffic (Sankar, 2023). This causes network congestion, high network latency, unresponsive or slow network services. You would want to Implement rate limiting on incoming ICMP requests, configure firewalls to block excessive ICMP traffic, and utilize intrusion detection systems to detect and mitigate ICMP flood attacks. Another attack using Ping commands is called the ping of death. The attacker sends an ICMP packet that exceeds the maximum allowed packet size, causing the target system to crash or become unstable. This attack causes system cra...

In the healthcare industry, computers are crucial, ranging from patient care and record-keeping to research and development. Here's an overview of the functions of computers in healthcare and the importance of computer literacy for employees in this industry. Computers are used to create, maintain, and access electronic health records. EHRs like Epic, Cerner, and Meditech store patient information. To include medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory test results. Computers aid healthcare professionals in making informed decisions by providing evidence-based recommendations. These systems can analyze patient data to offer guidance on diagnosis, treatment plans, and medication dosages. Computers facilitate remote consultations, diagnostics, and monitoring of patients through telemedicine applications. This is particularly important for reaching patients in remote or underserved areas. Computers are utili...

Using the ping and Traceroute commands can provide valuable insights into how packets travel through a network and help troubleshoot internet connection problems. “A computer communicates via the Internet by sending a packet, containing information like an address for a destination computer, the data size, and the data itself” (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019). Traceroute Result Analysis: The Traceroute command reveals the path packets take to reach a destination, hop by hop, showing the IP addresses and roundtrip times for each hop. In the example provided, we traced the route to "google.com" (IP address 142.250.217.78) from the local network. The first hop is the local router with a minimal roundtrip time (3ms). Subsequent hops traverse through various routers within Comcast's network. Eventually, the packets reach Google's servers with an increasing roundtrip time. The ping command measures the roundtrip time for a packet to travel from the source to the destination an...

The GolfShot Mobile App is a golfer's dream come true, offering comprehensive features that enhance your golfing experience. After spending some time with this app, here's a detailed evaluation of its usability, design, and functionality.                            GolfShot's usability is a standout feature. The app is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for novice and experienced golfers to navigate. The main menu is well-organized, allowing quick access to key features such as GPS rangefinder, scoring, and stats tracking. The inclusion of a brief tutorial upon installation further eases the learning curve. However, there's room for improvement in streamlining certain features to make them even more user-friendly. The app boasts a clean and visually appealing design. The interface is thoughtfully designed, emphasizing easy readability even under the bright sun on the golf course. The choice of colors and...

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access have been used for ages to help document events, develop presentations, validate and manipulate data, and track finances. Each software has their own advantages and disadvantages, and each also have a wide variety of scenarios where they would be most successful. Word is primarily a word processing software used for creating and editing text documents. It offers features for text formatting, spell-checking, document design, and collaboration (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019). Word is easy to use for creating textual documents, such as letters, reports, essays, and articles. It also has rich formatting options for styling text and documents. One of its better features is Collaboration, like track changes and comments. Some disadvantages of word is that it is not suitable for complex data analysis or calculations. It also has limited support for numerical data and charts. Word is useful for creating reports, essays, and any text-based content. Word is also u...

When looking at programming, there are 3 types of programming languages. Machine language is the lowest-level programming language, consisting of binary code, which I did during the 2.8 participation activity, where we had to configure the instructions to get certain inputs. Assembly language is a middle-level language that uses mnemonics to represent machine code instructions. It uses an assembler to convert assembly language programs into machine language (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019), as we did in activity 2.9. High-level languages like Python are more human-readable and use abstractions that make it easier to write complex programs. Typically, a high-level language is automatically "converted to an assembly or machine language before being run" (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019). I found High-Level Languages easier to use due to the easy-to-read keywords to better understand what it is you are asking and writing. While programming in Python is easier as you do not have to worry ...