Methods for analyzing non-quantitative data, understanding crime statistics, writing better prose, using WORD more effectively, starting a new IA course successfully, and taking care of data stored on your hard disks -- among other things!
This little spreadsheet lets you enter the number of positions in a key, the number of values per position, and the number and speed of processors attacking the keyspace. It computes the maximum time required for brute-force cracking of the entire keyspace measured in seconds, hours, days, years or universe-lifetimes.
An easy method using a spreadsheet to improve brainstorming. Takes the insights of the Delphi Method and applies them to live brainstorming sessions. The PPT file is a narrated introduction excerpted from a lecture on leadership techniques originally created for MSIA students; the PDF is a printout of the CAC slides from that talk. The MP3 file is the extracted voice-stream from the original slide presentation.
An easy method using a spreadsheet to isolate facts, ideas, opinions and feelings into themes and then organize these themes into a coherent structure without having to impose an extrinsic framework on them. Useful for all students and researchers.
For a guided tour of the method with voice commentary, click here to download a PPT (PowerPoint) file with narrated slides (~7 MB) and then play the slide show (press F5) with your computer sound enabled.
How can we check to see if files we have modified to correct errors such as extra characters are consistent with the original data and our intentions?
This Excel file can be modified by teachers to track grades in specific courses. Provided in Excel 2007 (XLSX) and Excel 2003-1997 (XLS) formats.
Excel file let user convert pasted data that has last name in a column and first name in a separate column (e.g., from Bannerweb advisee listings) into a single field with < lastname, firstname >. Includes simple instructions.
Excel file demonstrates the use of a VLOOKUP function to choose correct letter grade (at Norwich University) automatically for any percentage. Details are easy to modify to meet the academic standards of any institution.
The NUoodle (a variant of Moodle) learning management system (LMS) accepts questions in several formats, including GIFT (General Import Format Technology). This spreadsheet provides an easy way to create multiple-choice questions with five answers, check for duplicate answers, keep track of the source for every question, randomize the questions (without answers) to create review sheets, and generate TXT files in GIFT mode for import into the LMS quizzes.
A guide (PDF) and a narrated lecture (PPTX) about reading books aloud.
This Excel file can be modified by teachers to record and report on essay grades in specific courses with up to 44 students. It includes suggestions for assigning grades; all of these suggestions can easily be modified. When one has completed the grades for a student, that student's grades and comments can be hidden temporarily. Instructors can print a complete set of reports in a single operation to create a single PDF file that can be printed to generate all the student reports at once (as shown in the PDF file indicated). Using Acrobat, the global PDF can also easily be split into individual PDF files (in a single operation) to provide each student with an individual report file that can be sent by e-mail. Provided in Excel 2010 (XLSX) format.
The National Institute of Justice has issued its second edition of this classic guide. Read the review and download the document. It is required reading for all information assurance professionals who could have contact with a crime scene involving computers and networks.
I’ve been editing technical writing since 1970 and notice that some
errors keep popping up in many writers’ papers. I’ve been collecting
the comments I make about these errors and hope that you will find some
of them helpful.
Discusses search engines, operators, open-access journal databases, checking the credibility of sources, citation, and avoiding plagiarism. Link contributed by Sandra Beals.
Students often need to locate courses for transferring credit into their Norwich University transcript. This simple guide shows them how.
When an instructor creates a test with many questions, it can be useful to determine if any of the questions have a low, zero or negative correlation with the overall score. For example, do high-scoring responders tend to do poorly on particular questions? Do low-scoring responders tend to do well on particular questions? Any such suspect partial correlation warrants examination of the questions that are outliers. Are they ambiguous? Do high-scorers see subtleties in the question that lead them to an answer different from what the tester expected? The XLSX file provided here uses a simple correlation matrix without tests of statistical significance as a simple heuristic to direct attention to peculiar questions that warrant further attention.
New instructors starting to teach information assurance (IA) courses can face a major challenge, especially if no one has taught such courses in their institution. This paper reviews the Computer Security Handbook (CSH) designed for two undergraduate courses, Introduction to IA and Management of IA in a baccalaureate degree in information assurance or for the foundational courses of a Master’s degree in information assurance. Resources are freely available to all IA instructors from long-time IA teacher M. E. Kabay. Resources include
• Course descriptions
• Syllabuses
• Extensive PowerPoint slide sets
• Teaching platform design
• Sample memo-type exam questions
• Over 1500 multiple-choice questions
• Recommendations on use of Moodle and Facebook for teaching.
Here are a few simple instructions -- with screenshots -- of how Norwich University students can use the research databases licensed by the Kreitzberg Library.
Gary Tagg's excellent 6,000 word chapter on Insider Crime from the Computer Security Handbook, 6th Edition, serves as a superb model for students to study as they prepare their own "term papers" or "project reports."
I have compiled some essays about writing (originally posted on the Norwich University MSIA Graduate Portal) into this document and hope that all students will find the ideas and resources interesting, stimulating and useful.
How can you organize information on your hard disk and on your desktop for easy retrieval? What are some easy steps you can take to safeguard your precious information against accidents? This paper has lots of screen shots from a system using Windows 10 to illustrate simple principles that can help you manage your computer files and programs.
Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Criminal Division -- United States Department of Justice (July 2002). This publication is available from the DOJ Cybercrime site in HTML. I have produced a PDF of this public-domain text and added a set of bookmarks to correspond to most of the table of contents links in the original Web version of the document.
Reading assigned materials a few times does not work as a method for integrating knowledge. Try Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review (SQ3R), a method long-established as an excellent way to tackle new written information.
This evolving document lists some useful tips for using WORD as more than the electronic equivalent of a typewriter. Topics include autosave, spell-checker, grammar-checker, paragraph spacing, autotext, autocorrect, keyboard macros, bookmarks, special characters, defeating automatic formatting, automatic bullets and numbers, columns, working with bibliographic references, footnotes or endnotes, cross-referencing footnotes, headings, document map, outline view, outlining toolbar, creating tables from text, autoformatting tables, managing tables, styles, tracking changes, pictures, using macros when editing, design options, and creating and updating a table of contents and an index. Updated January 2016.
A guided tour for beginners learning PowerPoint. Brings to light many features that can save beginners time and reduce pain. First version produced January 2016 for CS120 course.
Empty MS-Access database showing the format I used for many years in keeping track of projects and priorities. The TASKS function in Outlook provides a useful substitute that I have been using in later years.
Many new users of Word are mystified by Track Changes. This PPT file demonstrates how to use the feature in MS Word 2003. The functions are similar in Word 2007 even though the user interface has changed.
Why one should be careful not to over-interpret published surveys and studies of crimes, especially computers crimes; and how to make sense of sampling, sample sizes, confidence intervals and contingency tables. Updated December 2008 with new material on confounded variables and in June 2009 with minor updates. A brief description of meta-analysis was added in January 2013. This paper is the basis for the corresponding chapter in the Computer Security Handbook (4th, 5th, 6th editions).
I was asked to show students (or anyone else) how to use Excel to create a calendar. I added instructions for Outlook as well. This is a narrated PowerPoint file with screenshots. Press function key F5 to start the show after you download and open the file.
Dan Swanson has been writing and editing technical articles for decades. Here is his extensive collection of useful resources (posted with permission).
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