DEV Community: persialouis

Normal Forms

persialouis — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 23:15:53 +0000

Today I want to talk about ways to improve a database in terms of normalization. Normalization is a way of restructuring your database to help prevent data redundancy and streamlines your data.

For this post, we are going to look at the first two forms of normalization. The First Normal Form (1NF) is whenever data is stored in tables with rows that are all uniquely identified by the primary key, when the data in each table is in its most reduced form, and there are no repeating groups. The Second Form (2NF) requires everything from 1NF along with having no in-table dependencies between the columns in each table.

How this relates to my data

With normalization, we can make the data from the COVID risk chart streamlined and less redundant. In the picture provided, we can see I am in violation of 1NF. This is due to my inclusion of the "Underlying Condition" column in the "Risk" table. The problem is that the underlying condition is already mentioned in the "Person" table, making it so we have duplicated data.

To make sure this works with 1NF, have to remove the "Underlying Conditions" column in the "Risk" table.

With 2NF, there is a possible problem in the "Behavior" table. The problem is how there are two columns that mention whether or not someone has traveled. To fix this, we can remove the "Travel Destination" column because it does not play a major factor in assessing someone's risk.

For further explanation of the topic, here is a video to help:

Continued Work in ER Diagrams for SQL Databases

persialouis — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 23:21:32 +0000

In a recent TechCrunch article, Albion college,a small school in Michigan, was being brought up for their implementation of what seems to be the worst app to track Covid-19 cases on campus. What was really intriguing about this article is just how horrible the idea/ implementation of it was. Students were notified that they were forced to use the app, Aura, two weeks before classes started, without an option to opt out. Along with that notification, they also provided very strict guidelines for students while on campus. Not only would they be tracked 24/7, but the would be forced to stay on campus.

With these regulations, what seemed to be a small college basically turned into a somewhat nicer prison. While schools should have regulations to help prevent the spread of covid-19 on their campuses, adult students shouldn't b forced into a monitoring system that invades on their personal lives. Along with the app being over the top in their 24/7 monitoring, the security with it is horrible. Many people who tried found very easy security breaches that can allow for students' locations and covid-19 results. These leaks can even allow for students who may not be cleared to take advantage of them and gain access to campus buildings and public areas.

As a student of a much bigger school in comparison to Albion college, seeing how these measures are not in place makes me feel more comfortable being here. I know being here puts me at a much bigger risk than other people, but with how schools go to prevent the spread of covid-19, Penn State's prevention methods are much better than Albion college. Personally if Penn State adopted a method of 24/7 tracking, I would spend my semester at home. With the reasoning for this app being made, it does bring up the question of whether your privacy is worth more than your safety. That question can provide a multitude of different answers, but personally, as someone who won't die from covid-19, I would choose my privacy over my safety. Even though many websites and apps can monitor your location, the Aura app is an exception because it mandates 24/7 tracking with implications on a student's education if found in violation of it.

When looking at things they could have done better, I have multiple ideas. In terms of tracking students, you could track ID card swipes. By doing this, administrators can know where students last swiped into, getting some semblance of a location on the student body. Another idea comes from a device that's already been made. It is like a beeper that you carry on you, and if you get to close to another beeper, they emit a loud beeping noise. This way it can enforce social distancing.

Updates to my COVID-19 Risk ER Diagram

Looking at what I made last week and seeing how I could improve my model. I remodeled my conceptual diagram along with my Excel diagram with tuples.

Conceptual Diagram

Physical Diagram

Diagram with Tuples

Video with Closer Look into the Diagrams

COVID-19 ER DIAGRAM

persialouis — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 03:00:45 +0000

With most of the year being all about the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of news when it comes to your risk has been somewhat conflicting. So I decided to create a chart/ table to help people figure out how much risk one might put on themself for covid-19.

How the chart works

The chart is broken down into 3 main shapes/ categories:

Yellow boxes are entities
Blue diamonds are relationships
Green bubbles are tuples

Along with the chart I have provided a table to where people could put in their responses to the tuples, and with that, we can deduce whether or not you would have a greater risk for covid-19.

What the chart means

Patients:
Physical Well Being: Seeing whether you got a strong body, eat the right foods, and exercise regularly
Current Health: How your body feels, in terms of having lungs, a good heart, and everything on the inside works good
Race: The race of a person can affect their risk for Covid-19, so it is imprtant to know
Age: The age really helps because many younger people will end up fine if they contract the virus
Gender: Gender is a category that can help identify who is exactly getting infected

Occupation:
Time at work: Just how long are you at a different place
Health Insurance: Are you covered for if you are sick/hurt
Time with co-workers: Being with multiple people will increase your risk of being infected
Current Prevention Guidelines: Does your place of employment require masks, gloves, social distancing, etc.
Remote Work: Are you able to work from home

Geographical Location:
Country: The country you live in determines whether or not you are at a risk or greater risk
City/Town: This specifies your location and your risk of contracting the virus
Population: If your area has a high population, you are more at risk
Weather/ Climate: Like the flu, Covid-19 spreads well in colder weather
Current Risk Status: Is your area going through a surge in covid-19 cases

Hospitals:
Distance form home: Is your hospital far from your home
ICU beds available: If you have the virus, you will be put in the ICU, so it is important to know if they have spots available.
Current Occupancy: This is important to know because you do not want to show up to a hospital to learn that it is at full capacity
Health Insurance Compatibility: Does your hospital accept your health insurance
Staff on the clock: Are there enough workers to take of you and the people at your hospital

Behavior:
Works Out/ Exercise: Are you an avid gym goer, or do you not work out entirely. This plays an effect on your physical health.
Go out a lot: Are you doing chores everyday, and are you outside your home a lot?
Follow health guidelines: Are you wearing a mask, and socially distancing?
Travel/ Vacations: If you travel or go on vacations a lot, you may either be at risk at the places you are going, or you may bring the virus back to your home
Parties: Do you party a lot? If you do, your risk goes up drastically

Risk:
Contact with people: Family or not, physical contact with people with raise your risk of the covid-19 virus.
Asymptomatic?: If you are asymptomatic, you may spread covid-19 to people without knowing it
Followed Guidelines: If you follow the guidelines, you are less likely to contract covid-19 when compared to someone who doesn't
Already infected with the virus: If you have been infected earlier and are healthy now, your risk of contracting the virus again has greatly decreased
Underlying Conditions: If you are someone who has a weakened immune system, or has current illnesses, your risk of not only contracting covid-19, but dying from it has increased.

Video

Intro Lab: SQL vs NoSQL

persialouis — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 20:46:43 +0000

Who am I

My name is Louis Persia. I was born and grew up outside of Pittsburgh, and recently came to school here at state college. I am currently a freshman; I am a cybersecurity major and looking to gain knowledge in almost all things computers.

My Tech interests

My interests in software and tech came to me somewhat later in my life. I was first interested in the hardware aspect of computers, as some of my friends were PC gamers. While I never built my own computer, I do plan to when the time and money are right. When looking at the software of a machine, I am very much interested. I am not the best coder, but in my brief experience in python and HTML, I have made some cool things, in my eyes. As I grew older and started to think about a possible career with computer sciences, I kind of caught an attraction to cybersecurity. Being able to safeguard networks and essentially become a hacker, but work the good side, sounds super cool to learn and do, and that's what I hope I can do in my future.

My IT Profession

As of now, I am no professional in any type of IT. Right now, I see myself as some kind of sponge just trying to absorb any type of IT knowledge that will benefit me in my future IT career. As I mentioned before, I am a cybersecurity major and hope to find a job through that, but I am also taking SRA classes to further deepen my knowledge as a quote on quote network protector(I made that up).

What am I doing with this

While having written posts and videos, are assigned, I am using somewhat of a brand to go by when talking about the projects. I created, "The Box" which what I am hopefully trying to provide is more so a place someone can go to look find the right places to go to find IT information. I basically took idea from a "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" episode where bounty hunters are in a box to test their skills as bounty hunters. As they go deeper into it, the stages get harder. With my box, I hope to uncover and go deeper into IT topics, to show people online.

Lab 1: SQL vs noSQL

In this lab, I explain what SQL and noSQL databases are, along with what makes them different, and where the databases work best.