****
Felt like I was writing a final for Intro to Ethics all over again. Same kind of hand cramps from writing too much...Didn't help that the class was in the same not so friendly room that 5^infinity of my other classes are in. Aside from Info Systems' sudden and temporary move, I already had 3 classes in taht room in my schedule, 2 that occur the same day(Friday). Why is room 101 so popular? I'd love to get inside some of the other rooms upstairs in Beckman. And, why did we move for two days? Did the other class need computers for their demonstration or some activity or something? The other room is also warmer, which is very appreciated by me who is deathly afraid of and intolerant of cold.
Annoyance at the switch aside, that was a rather ominous way of preceding the lecture, Professor. Then again, although it was *kind of* harder to keep up and get down every single detail, it didn't seem like there were bits flying past me left and right.
One of my favorite parts of the material was about peer-to-peer networks. Although, from what I got from the lecture, I still can't pin examples to either of the two types. I get that one, the central-server type, is faster and relies on the powers and stability of the one server. The other, the pure peer to peer, kind of has more of a many-many relationship(?). In which one person seeking information relies on the rest of their network group as a whole. Would bitorrent(utorrent, ztorrent, etc) be an example of the first or the second? I'm thinking the second, pure peer to peer? What then would be an example of the first?
It was amusing to find out that Internet speed in the home relies as much on the house' telecommunications wiring as the ISP's wiring. That if the house's got twisted pair wire, and the ISP has fiber optic cable, then together that makes that house's internet speed slow anyways! Now I'm wondering what kind of thing our house has...would there be an easy way of finding out?(Short of tearing down some walls and checking the wires...).
Random aside, what, curiously, does LEO stand for in the communications satellites? GEO=geosynchronous I know, as said in the powerpoint...Its also funny to think that for the terrestrial microwave communication towers, any natural or manmade obstruction at all stops their functioning, and has desperate scientists wanting to tear the obstruction down...
Lastly, the bandwidth analogy with the water pipe really helped. Where pipe size and water flow speed both determine the overall speed of water getting from one place to another. Have more of these kinds of analogies or examples, please?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Day 15, or: making a series of Monday posts again
Which doesnt' actually seem to work that badly for me. Its easier for me to take a larger chunk of time, once a week, then have to make two reminders to go to the blog and type. Even though I was trying to reform myself last week, me thinks I actually like it this way, and will instead keep it.
Open question to the Prof': Would it be ok if I made one massive entry that was labeled for both days(if this is ok, I will start doing it next week. This is seeing as how you end up commenting on just 1/2 of my Monday entries), or should I still make a separate entry for each day?
This chapter on telecommunications feels much more interesting and less technical than the previous one on database management. Probably because telecommunications actually applies to everyday life in some ways(read: cellphones, internet), and database management is such an abstract concept. I enjoyed the discussion about the Internet2(is this how it is written?), and it would be interesting to learn more about the details. Why is it that we normal users do not and will not begin using the Internet2? From what I can tell by the class lecture, Internet2 just seems like a faster version of the internet, although a point was emphasized that the system is different from the internet, and that it is a closed system like Apple has. Guess I'll have to become a physicist at CERN to figure out the details!
I appreciate that Professor Tuggle also expanded a little more on what XML does. I remember XML coming up as a TLA in the material in one of the previous tests, but I only knew the name of it, and nothing at all about what it does. If I understand it correctly, XML and HTML are not *that* different, are they? HTML is in general, and XML is more focused on displaying data and information; more useful to the business world.
Didn't know that cookies and caches were bits of information stored on your hardrive from websites! So that's why its good to clear your cookies...What does happen though, if we leave excessive amounts of cookies on there for too long? I tend not to remember to do it too often...
Professor Tuggle was also most amusing to listen to on Tuesday when he was describing the evils of the invading cookies/caches.
Open question to the Prof': Would it be ok if I made one massive entry that was labeled for both days(if this is ok, I will start doing it next week. This is seeing as how you end up commenting on just 1/2 of my Monday entries), or should I still make a separate entry for each day?
This chapter on telecommunications feels much more interesting and less technical than the previous one on database management. Probably because telecommunications actually applies to everyday life in some ways(read: cellphones, internet), and database management is such an abstract concept. I enjoyed the discussion about the Internet2(is this how it is written?), and it would be interesting to learn more about the details. Why is it that we normal users do not and will not begin using the Internet2? From what I can tell by the class lecture, Internet2 just seems like a faster version of the internet, although a point was emphasized that the system is different from the internet, and that it is a closed system like Apple has. Guess I'll have to become a physicist at CERN to figure out the details!
I appreciate that Professor Tuggle also expanded a little more on what XML does. I remember XML coming up as a TLA in the material in one of the previous tests, but I only knew the name of it, and nothing at all about what it does. If I understand it correctly, XML and HTML are not *that* different, are they? HTML is in general, and XML is more focused on displaying data and information; more useful to the business world.
Didn't know that cookies and caches were bits of information stored on your hardrive from websites! So that's why its good to clear your cookies...What does happen though, if we leave excessive amounts of cookies on there for too long? I tend not to remember to do it too often...
Professor Tuggle was also most amusing to listen to on Tuesday when he was describing the evils of the invading cookies/caches.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Day 14 or, awesome a whole week off intensive note scribbling!
CONTINUES!!
As selfish as this may sound...in all honesty I love how slow paced the demo class sessions are, so that I'm not scrambling to process Professor Tuggle with writing down important bits of the powerpoint with comprehending in the moment what the information is that is being said. That I don't have to scribble in the front row like a maniac, and that overall, this has been a very nice vacation week. Learning to use Access was pretty fun too, given that I'd always overlooked the program on the whole. I wondered what it was when I got my MS software suite, and always confused it with being similar to Outlook, for emails.
The second day of the Access in class demos went a lot smoother than the first, given that we'd already had one go at the basics. Mostly proud of the fact that I remembered what I did wrong the first time, and fixed it! No major problems this time!
Haven't had the time to play around with the screenviews and reports yet, but looking to fit that in sometime this week. Both look like very "nifty" tools, especially screenviews. I liked how it was presented compactly, and we just had to scroll. Question though-how do I add a date to the report? Professor showed us how to move the title to centered position, but I didn't see how the date was done, and it definitely wasn't there...
As selfish as this may sound...in all honesty I love how slow paced the demo class sessions are, so that I'm not scrambling to process Professor Tuggle with writing down important bits of the powerpoint with comprehending in the moment what the information is that is being said. That I don't have to scribble in the front row like a maniac, and that overall, this has been a very nice vacation week. Learning to use Access was pretty fun too, given that I'd always overlooked the program on the whole. I wondered what it was when I got my MS software suite, and always confused it with being similar to Outlook, for emails.
The second day of the Access in class demos went a lot smoother than the first, given that we'd already had one go at the basics. Mostly proud of the fact that I remembered what I did wrong the first time, and fixed it! No major problems this time!
Haven't had the time to play around with the screenviews and reports yet, but looking to fit that in sometime this week. Both look like very "nifty" tools, especially screenviews. I liked how it was presented compactly, and we just had to scroll. Question though-how do I add a date to the report? Professor showed us how to move the title to centered position, but I didn't see how the date was done, and it definitely wasn't there...
Day 13, or: HOW DID I END UP IN THIS CATCH UP POSITION AGAIN??
Repeat to self: must write blogs the same day as the class ends. Must write blogs the same day the class ends. Write blogs the same day the class ends....
:keyboardsmash:
The first day of learning how to work Microsoft Access was fairly interesting! It was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual lecture. In my opinion, the actual Access program was pretty user friendly, since everything is pretty well spelled out between the instructions Professor Tuggle provides us, and the instructions that are built into the Access database. The best part of course being, that we don't have to type in strange semi-English code! That was the bane of my existence when learning Excel in Business Statistics. I would understand how each of the queries work, but memorizing a bunch of technical jargon on top of the math? That was almost a disaster...
I ran into a slight problem with entering the data, but thankfully Professor Tuggle helped me fix it after class. Seems like the relational items have to be related by tables that have the same name, not just the first tables. I definitely made a note of it for the homework, and breezed through construction the second time(technically third time, after the second day's lab practice) around! Though, its definitely still not second nature yet what all the stuff to add to a query works out to be...
:keyboardsmash:
The first day of learning how to work Microsoft Access was fairly interesting! It was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual lecture. In my opinion, the actual Access program was pretty user friendly, since everything is pretty well spelled out between the instructions Professor Tuggle provides us, and the instructions that are built into the Access database. The best part of course being, that we don't have to type in strange semi-English code! That was the bane of my existence when learning Excel in Business Statistics. I would understand how each of the queries work, but memorizing a bunch of technical jargon on top of the math? That was almost a disaster...
I ran into a slight problem with entering the data, but thankfully Professor Tuggle helped me fix it after class. Seems like the relational items have to be related by tables that have the same name, not just the first tables. I definitely made a note of it for the homework, and breezed through construction the second time(technically third time, after the second day's lab practice) around! Though, its definitely still not second nature yet what all the stuff to add to a query works out to be...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Day 12, or: TEST 2!!!
TEST(2)!
Its test day again! This time I feel like I faired better than last time, even before I checked my score and verified that it was indeed true(by one point, but still). However, as usual, I did the test out of order, starting with the TLAs, and jumping into the parts of each of the previous three sections that I felt to be the easiest, in order. I decided that I will keep starting with the TLAs, because for me memorization is my biggest pain in the rear(hate it). Therefore, I'm always afraid that I'll end up forgetting parts of the TLAs as the test starts. However, this time it definitely was not so. Compared to last time, there wasn't say, USB, that seemed to be given last time as an example but was actually a test question...
Overall, it seemed like the true and false section was the same difficulty scale as last time. Good mix of questions, including the one with the relative date(ENIAC made in the early 1900's?), although I'm as terrible with dates as I am with memorizing facts. However, since it sounded reasonable, on that one I went for true. No complaints or wonderings about the others, that I can remember, but I did debate on that one for a bit.
For the multiple choice, it also seemed that the difficulty was similar, if slightly less. If I remember correctly, there didn't seem to be those questions that included a "none of the above" option, or if so, it was on a topic I was fuzzy with. "NOTA" on a test tends to throw me off, in addition to "all of the above", because it makes me think harder on the relative applicability of the other options, and sometimes overthink it.
For the free response, there were more list based things! Which makes them more on the memorization side. *sigh* Thankfully, some of them, such as the last two questions about data cleansing and the problems with traditional file processing, were halfway between theoretical understanding and memorization. For the file organization one, I remember that there was a certain rolling sound to the list of words, and combined with the one true/false question, figured that "bit, byte, field, record, file, database", sounded better than having field and file next to each other. That one I'm pretty sure has to be right, because the words had a rolling quality when I repeated them to myself.
Eh, time for new stuff. Like last time, what's done is done =D
Its test day again! This time I feel like I faired better than last time, even before I checked my score and verified that it was indeed true(by one point, but still). However, as usual, I did the test out of order, starting with the TLAs, and jumping into the parts of each of the previous three sections that I felt to be the easiest, in order. I decided that I will keep starting with the TLAs, because for me memorization is my biggest pain in the rear(hate it). Therefore, I'm always afraid that I'll end up forgetting parts of the TLAs as the test starts. However, this time it definitely was not so. Compared to last time, there wasn't say, USB, that seemed to be given last time as an example but was actually a test question...
Overall, it seemed like the true and false section was the same difficulty scale as last time. Good mix of questions, including the one with the relative date(ENIAC made in the early 1900's?), although I'm as terrible with dates as I am with memorizing facts. However, since it sounded reasonable, on that one I went for true. No complaints or wonderings about the others, that I can remember, but I did debate on that one for a bit.
For the multiple choice, it also seemed that the difficulty was similar, if slightly less. If I remember correctly, there didn't seem to be those questions that included a "none of the above" option, or if so, it was on a topic I was fuzzy with. "NOTA" on a test tends to throw me off, in addition to "all of the above", because it makes me think harder on the relative applicability of the other options, and sometimes overthink it.
For the free response, there were more list based things! Which makes them more on the memorization side. *sigh* Thankfully, some of them, such as the last two questions about data cleansing and the problems with traditional file processing, were halfway between theoretical understanding and memorization. For the file organization one, I remember that there was a certain rolling sound to the list of words, and combined with the one true/false question, figured that "bit, byte, field, record, file, database", sounded better than having field and file next to each other. That one I'm pretty sure has to be right, because the words had a rolling quality when I repeated them to myself.
Eh, time for new stuff. Like last time, what's done is done =D
Day 11, or: Why am I getting massively behind in blogging...
Blah.
Nevermind. I believe I answered my own question of long ago as to why I was not an engineer, and was a business student. The technical stuff that we're continuously learning might have been flashy and cool when it was new, but now after slogging through a few weeks of the stuff, it is no longer cool. Or at least not cool everyday. Especially after it got a lot more technical and in depth, such as this chapter we're on about data management. Data management is such an abstract concept that only the really hardcore engineers/technical geeks will probably find it wholeheartedly interesting...Ergo I fall behind in blogging for lack of interesting wall texts! Weak excuse, yes I know. Then again, it kind of is true.
Overall, man am I glad that with the text this past Thursday, this chapter is over. Haven't checked the next chapter, but hopefully a change of pace at least is good.
The example that preceded Tuesday's lecture was kind of a different approach, and I appreciated how it broke up the somewhat now monotony of slogging through technical material. It also really did make me think, that technically speaking each time you fill out one of those 'name, address, phone number', etc things is technically a new record on your person. And that of course, in addition, when another department or area requests a copy of your 'other' records, technically that's also another record on your person, but with that different group. One would think that the 'average Joe(/Jane)' that we are all currently wouldn't really be overly RECORDED in that sense, but if put this way, even we are very monitored...I don't know whether to feel more important, or less at ease, with all of the monitoring. I'll settle for more important at the moment, to put a positive spin on things.
As for the main lecture, there was a portion I was somewhat confused on. What are the differences between distributed database and external database? I could have sworn that when the diagram came up, Professor Tuggle gave an example of Wikipedia as a distributed database, except when it came to discussing the categories in detail, it changed to Wikipedia being an example of an external database? Which is it?
I am also looking forward to learning about Access, as it seems to be an interesting program. Enjoyed the example page given about how to use Access. However, overall I was wondering what are the practical applications of the massive discussions on these database management systems/techniques, data cleansing, and such? It is well and good to know the theory behind how these work, but I would like more practical examples, perhaps of how, for example, Macys would use data gathered to help its business prosper. This section, and at large this whole chapter, seemed very theoretical on top of being technical, which detracted from my interest.
And lastly, the story about Axiom was quite funny. It was amusing to think that an established company(or was it new at the time?) would easily accept that person's word on needing data for national security.
Nevermind. I believe I answered my own question of long ago as to why I was not an engineer, and was a business student. The technical stuff that we're continuously learning might have been flashy and cool when it was new, but now after slogging through a few weeks of the stuff, it is no longer cool. Or at least not cool everyday. Especially after it got a lot more technical and in depth, such as this chapter we're on about data management. Data management is such an abstract concept that only the really hardcore engineers/technical geeks will probably find it wholeheartedly interesting...Ergo I fall behind in blogging for lack of interesting wall texts! Weak excuse, yes I know. Then again, it kind of is true.
Overall, man am I glad that with the text this past Thursday, this chapter is over. Haven't checked the next chapter, but hopefully a change of pace at least is good.
The example that preceded Tuesday's lecture was kind of a different approach, and I appreciated how it broke up the somewhat now monotony of slogging through technical material. It also really did make me think, that technically speaking each time you fill out one of those 'name, address, phone number', etc things is technically a new record on your person. And that of course, in addition, when another department or area requests a copy of your 'other' records, technically that's also another record on your person, but with that different group. One would think that the 'average Joe(/Jane)' that we are all currently wouldn't really be overly RECORDED in that sense, but if put this way, even we are very monitored...I don't know whether to feel more important, or less at ease, with all of the monitoring. I'll settle for more important at the moment, to put a positive spin on things.
As for the main lecture, there was a portion I was somewhat confused on. What are the differences between distributed database and external database? I could have sworn that when the diagram came up, Professor Tuggle gave an example of Wikipedia as a distributed database, except when it came to discussing the categories in detail, it changed to Wikipedia being an example of an external database? Which is it?
I am also looking forward to learning about Access, as it seems to be an interesting program. Enjoyed the example page given about how to use Access. However, overall I was wondering what are the practical applications of the massive discussions on these database management systems/techniques, data cleansing, and such? It is well and good to know the theory behind how these work, but I would like more practical examples, perhaps of how, for example, Macys would use data gathered to help its business prosper. This section, and at large this whole chapter, seemed very theoretical on top of being technical, which detracted from my interest.
And lastly, the story about Axiom was quite funny. It was amusing to think that an established company(or was it new at the time?) would easily accept that person's word on needing data for national security.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Day 10: or, I am running out of witty titles
Confusion
Tends to happen when the material speeds past in a blinding blur. With confusion, I tend not to have fun things to say about the lecture. Given that I am now taking notes for two, I am so much more focused on getting down a coherent presentation on paper, and will tend to shuffle the immediate comprehension out the window. This is what happened for me in Thursday's lecture. In retrospect, some of the things do look interesting and I could written wittier things, but by this point I'm more eager to get through this block of material to the test, and move on to something different.
Case 1's concept of data sharing, in particular, was quite fun to learn. I didn't know what Amazon and eBay did, with their customer ratings system, was considered sharing their company's data with the public. I suppose this kind of thing is so ingrained in my understanding of consumerism, and the whole current societal structure, that it didn't seem like any new concept to me for Amazon and eBay ratings to be open to the public view. When I decide to make some kind of big purchase, and even sometimes for small purchases, I will always turn first to google, and type in something along the lines of "product X reviews". In this way, I want to be sure that I am spending my money on a quality product, without having to leave my home to go to a store and handle the product myself. As far as others contributing entrepreneurial ideas though, I don't understand what that means. Unless there was another aspect of data sharing besides making customer reviews public?
One question-why are flat files considered "flat" files? From what I understand of the lecture, what makes the files confusing is that each department keeps a different format of record from the others, or a slight variation of format. A marketing department may keep first and last name together, whole address, whereas a billing department may separate first and last name, then address(as mentioned in class). Wouldn't this practice be adding dimensions(albeit confusing ones) to the filing? So it seems like the name "flat" file is somewhat of an oxymoron.
Later on with the discussion of key fields and accessing records, I was a bit miffed about being named as the example! Bad memories of unwanted attention in business law, where the professor though I was smart and would rather frequently make references to my intellect. A bit off topic but, its not that I necessarily think I'm an idiot, but I'm not that fond of being put in the center of attention. Professor Tuggle, I'd prefer no more references to me please? If that's not too weird of a request...
Back on the subject of key fields, the entire idea is pretty cool. I'd be interested in learning more about how the mysterious "transformation algorithm" that allows key fields to be instant locators, works. Again, I probably could and should have been an engineer.
Last thing, the definitions of the different database structures were cool to listen to. The pictures certainly helped though!
Tends to happen when the material speeds past in a blinding blur. With confusion, I tend not to have fun things to say about the lecture. Given that I am now taking notes for two, I am so much more focused on getting down a coherent presentation on paper, and will tend to shuffle the immediate comprehension out the window. This is what happened for me in Thursday's lecture. In retrospect, some of the things do look interesting and I could written wittier things, but by this point I'm more eager to get through this block of material to the test, and move on to something different.
Case 1's concept of data sharing, in particular, was quite fun to learn. I didn't know what Amazon and eBay did, with their customer ratings system, was considered sharing their company's data with the public. I suppose this kind of thing is so ingrained in my understanding of consumerism, and the whole current societal structure, that it didn't seem like any new concept to me for Amazon and eBay ratings to be open to the public view. When I decide to make some kind of big purchase, and even sometimes for small purchases, I will always turn first to google, and type in something along the lines of "product X reviews". In this way, I want to be sure that I am spending my money on a quality product, without having to leave my home to go to a store and handle the product myself. As far as others contributing entrepreneurial ideas though, I don't understand what that means. Unless there was another aspect of data sharing besides making customer reviews public?
One question-why are flat files considered "flat" files? From what I understand of the lecture, what makes the files confusing is that each department keeps a different format of record from the others, or a slight variation of format. A marketing department may keep first and last name together, whole address, whereas a billing department may separate first and last name, then address(as mentioned in class). Wouldn't this practice be adding dimensions(albeit confusing ones) to the filing? So it seems like the name "flat" file is somewhat of an oxymoron.
Later on with the discussion of key fields and accessing records, I was a bit miffed about being named as the example! Bad memories of unwanted attention in business law, where the professor though I was smart and would rather frequently make references to my intellect. A bit off topic but, its not that I necessarily think I'm an idiot, but I'm not that fond of being put in the center of attention. Professor Tuggle, I'd prefer no more references to me please? If that's not too weird of a request...
Back on the subject of key fields, the entire idea is pretty cool. I'd be interested in learning more about how the mysterious "transformation algorithm" that allows key fields to be instant locators, works. Again, I probably could and should have been an engineer.
Last thing, the definitions of the different database structures were cool to listen to. The pictures certainly helped though!
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