Jobshadowing

On Tuesday, I went to International Business Machines in hopes of learning about management and interactions inside of teams in corporate America. I wanted to learn how large businesses operate and manage people all around the world and how coworkers in different continents managed to get work completed. I shadowed Rob Suerwalt, as a Manager of Cloud Initiatives. The day looked something like this:

Ø  Arrive and get settled/quick email check and check to-do list

      Read the first paragraph of a document emailed to Mr. Sauerwalt. It stated how IBM wanted to move toward more simplistic approaches and interactions. 15-page document on simplicity…

Ø  First call

o   With Steve Robinson and Wendy Toh

§  Talk about moving people should budget and divisions get altered

Ø  Second Call

o   Wendy Won, Randy Johnson and Rauhl

§  Talk about code development for Kaiser project. 

·       Talked in circles! Status: Not finished. When was it supposed to be finished? A week ago. This is where I learned my frustration for people who make excuses for incomplete work. Do your work, if you don't get it done, own up to the fact you were not able to complete it.

         “I have no interest being the best-looking deckchair on the Titanic.” ~Andrew Koopetz

      “IBM does a lot more discussing and planning than doing.” -Rob Sauerwalt

Ø  Education Call

o   Technology enablement (1,000+) people

·       Projected slides so I could follow along. Discussed programs and options available with IBM. BMaas (provide hardware), Iaas (provide virtual machine), Paas (provide entire environment). To help me understand these concepts better, Rob showed me the pizza making comparison chart.

Ø  Lunch

§  Pasta Salad for me and Broccoli Cheddar soup and grilled chicken burger with cheese and fries for him.

     Talked about simplicity and saying what you mean as well as people skills

Ø  Moved to Building 500

·       Jumped in a car to move from building 002 to the 500 complex (the red complex)

      Discussed the efficiency epiphany on our walk

Ø  Meeting

o   Jane and Wendy Toh

§  Organizational structure

Six Hours of Job Shadowing Ended Here

Ø  Phone call

o   Out of room

S   Stayed with Mrs. Jane. Drew a mushroom on the board while she answered emails. It is almost impossible to shade sketches with dry-erase markers.

Ø  Phone call

o   Sara Reger

§  Current Assignment (Sales program)

§  Switching to a closer-to-the-clients occupation within IBM 

·       Rob to speak to Jane about moving her

Ø  Phone call

o   John Easton

§  Wanted to know strategic direction end of quarter four moving into the new year

Ø  Final Meeting

o   Jane and Wendy Toh, Steve Robinson joined later.

§  Organizational structure (again)

     Asked about Graphic design interest. Jokingly (it sounded) asked to help design a logo if needed.

L13 - Operating Systems

Statement: An operating system is a type of software

• True

Statement: Operating systems control the loading of software applications onto a computer

• True

Statement: All OS's offer user preferences allowing you to customize your computer

• True

Statement: An operating system prioritizes the tasks that a CPU does

• True

Statement: The following devices have an operating system: An apple IPod, a Dell laptop computer, and a Nintendo Wii.

• True

Lesson 11 - The Internet

How the Internet Works: 

What is the internet?

            The internet is a Wide Area Network made by a connection of millions of smaller networks. It was first created when researchers for the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) needed to connect their computers in California and Boston. On October 29, 1969, the ARPANET was created and it linked four small computers to two large mainframe computers. In 1983 Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) were developed and are the standard internet protocol today. They define how data packets look on the internet and how they are sent and received. Another protocol used is HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which controls more specific messages and data formats the network uses. The internet hit a global use in the mid 1980’s. The internet connects smaller networks that all use the same protocols, which allows them to communicate freely. A huge part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW) which is a huge set of documents linked together by URLs and hyperlinks.

What is a protocol?

           A network protocol is a rule that controls how computers on the network communicate with each other. Protocols control the connection, communication and data transfer between two computers. APRANET created the first set of network protocols in 1969.In 1973 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was developed and allowed computers to share files. In 1983 the standard internet protocol TCP/IP was created and allowed computers to exchange messages at the information packet and Internet levels.

What is DNS?

            A Domain Name Server (DNS) is a way of sorting IP addresses that allows you to find and communicate with the right IP address. A DNS looks up a host name and returns an IP address, or it can return a host name when you search an IP address. A DNS server only has information for a limited number of IP addresses and host names, if it doesn’t have information on the domain you search, it queries other DNS servers in the network. The request for a search is called a DNS lookup. The DNS lookup goes on until the DNS name is found on a DNS server and then “resolves” the name the IP address your computer needs to application with the right computer.

Explain what an ISP is and what it does?

            An internet service providers (ISP) is a method of stat transfer for the internet. ISPs connect to Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) through routers. Routers determine where to send information between two computers. The data moves from its start location to its final destination by “hopping” through routers. If a user wants to trace how their information moved through the internet, they can use a utility called Traceroute. An ISP help individuals access the internet.

What is a PING and Firewall?

            PINGs are used to check network connections and Firewalls can protect a user and computer from internet threats. A ping utility sends test packets to a machine to evaluate if the machine they were intended to reach receives them. A PING can whether the user’s connection to the machine is functional. Firewalls block unauthorized access to while allowing communication to other machines. A Firewall can be either software or hardware based.

Connecting to the Internet:

How Networks Link to the Internet

            A bunch of small network link together to form the internet. The smallest networks are the ones the users set up at home, they are then connected to a larger network run by their ISP. The ISP connects to other networks at internet access points. The internet is just an aggregate of these connections. Data is handled at the highest levels through backbones and routers which are responsible for moving data between networks.

What Is an Internet Service Provider?

            An Internet Service Provider (ISP) helps people and companies connect to the internet. Signing up with and ISP usually included and email address, some storage space on the servers and, occasionally, web hosting services. ISP’s allow the client to choose the service that will best accommodate their needs. Dial-up accounts (connections over telephone lines) were common not that long ago, however, we us Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs) as the most common connection type now. Connections can be made through telephone wires made of copper, cable TV lines or another form of wiring like fiber-optic cables.

Connecting Your Computer to the Internet

              There is a variety of ways to connect a computer to the internet, but fundamentally, they are all the same, connect your computer to a modem, turn it on and make sure you have an ISP. If you have broadband, when you connect to a modem you don’t always have to connect to your ISP to get to the internet. DSL lines can “always be on” because they send data at a higher frequency as not to tie up the phone line. If you have a T1 connection, no one else can use your line. Like phone lines, T1 lines are connected with copper wires. If you have a dial-up modem, your modem uses a phone line to dial the back of other modems at you ISP every time you connect. You may also choose to connect wirelessly to the internet. Instead of the modem connecting to your computer, it connects to a hub or router. Once your computer connects to the ISP, it is assigned an IP address, the number that will be used to identify your machine on the internet.