****
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!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Day 9, or: 10001010101010101010101010000111...eh, yeah
100101000100001110111
I would say I hope that that string of 1's and 0's made some sense or something, but I highly doubt it. It's quite fascinating to consider that computer language is made up of just different groupings of these two numbers! I'd always been a spoken language nerd, one who loved hearing someone speak in a foreign language just to listen to the way the words sound. Computer language is not the same, in that it can't be spoken, but it was also interesting to learn about during this class.
First, the cloud computing case. I never knew that Google docs is considered cloud computing software! I'd learned to use it over the summer, doing an accounting class project in my Fullerton college class. It was amazing how Google docs had all of the aspects of what would be Microsoft Office on there. We mostly used the writing board, as part chat board and part creation board, but at one point one of the more proficient group members also set up a Powerpoint document on Google docs for us, to finish our final presentation. We never got around to using it as a group, since someone did the powerpoint solo in the end. It was interesting playing with the features by myself though.
As the case described, Cloud computing was very useful for us, and much more practical than storing a variety of files and sending/resending them to various members over email. When someone had time, they would log into the system, do a portion, and be secure in knowing that it was saved in an unforgettable place. Or we could have meetings, without juggling phones or another instant messaging system. Of course, we were a small project group, and Google Apps is free to use, so this is not going to be representative of what any real business would need of a more complete cloud computing system.
The other portion of the lecture that stood out to me was the discussion on computer language. Machine, assembler, high-level language, and...higher level language?(I'm not sure if I caught this correctly, must go recheck the powerpoint). I've never done programming, so machine is definitely foreign to me, but if I understand it correctly, Microsoft Excel's commands use a lot of assembler language? I remember learning to memorize excel functions in business statistics, such as =avg(first number, second number). Some, like mean, were also counter intuitive in a way, since instead of =mean, its =avg. Wonder what the "SUM THE FOLLOWING..." style language is used for. An example would have been interesting. X=Y+Z just reminds me of algebra, and again wonder what machine it applies to... Or maybe Professor Tuggle bulldozed through examples at the speed of light, and I didn't catch what it was, again...
And it was interesting also, to learn what 32, 64 bit refer to. Always wondered why my windows Vista system differed between 32 bit and 64 bit. I apparently have a 64 bit instruction field.
Would have also liked some more detail on object oriented programming. I've never heard of anyone programming straight by either assembly or machine language, but the names Java and C++ I've long since been hearing. Integrated data and procedures?...What someone is programming comes with instructions?...Doesn't seem right.
Lastly, the idea of Microsoft being powerful because Microsoft is powerful is somewhat sad but true. Kind of a reflection on the phrase "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer". In this, I somehow stubbornly hope that Microsoft doesn't develop any headway into the individualized software area, out of a stubborn need to always root for the underdog.
I would say I hope that that string of 1's and 0's made some sense or something, but I highly doubt it. It's quite fascinating to consider that computer language is made up of just different groupings of these two numbers! I'd always been a spoken language nerd, one who loved hearing someone speak in a foreign language just to listen to the way the words sound. Computer language is not the same, in that it can't be spoken, but it was also interesting to learn about during this class.
First, the cloud computing case. I never knew that Google docs is considered cloud computing software! I'd learned to use it over the summer, doing an accounting class project in my Fullerton college class. It was amazing how Google docs had all of the aspects of what would be Microsoft Office on there. We mostly used the writing board, as part chat board and part creation board, but at one point one of the more proficient group members also set up a Powerpoint document on Google docs for us, to finish our final presentation. We never got around to using it as a group, since someone did the powerpoint solo in the end. It was interesting playing with the features by myself though.
As the case described, Cloud computing was very useful for us, and much more practical than storing a variety of files and sending/resending them to various members over email. When someone had time, they would log into the system, do a portion, and be secure in knowing that it was saved in an unforgettable place. Or we could have meetings, without juggling phones or another instant messaging system. Of course, we were a small project group, and Google Apps is free to use, so this is not going to be representative of what any real business would need of a more complete cloud computing system.
The other portion of the lecture that stood out to me was the discussion on computer language. Machine, assembler, high-level language, and...higher level language?(I'm not sure if I caught this correctly, must go recheck the powerpoint). I've never done programming, so machine is definitely foreign to me, but if I understand it correctly, Microsoft Excel's commands use a lot of assembler language? I remember learning to memorize excel functions in business statistics, such as =avg(first number, second number). Some, like mean, were also counter intuitive in a way, since instead of =mean, its =avg. Wonder what the "SUM THE FOLLOWING..." style language is used for. An example would have been interesting. X=Y+Z just reminds me of algebra, and again wonder what machine it applies to... Or maybe Professor Tuggle bulldozed through examples at the speed of light, and I didn't catch what it was, again...
And it was interesting also, to learn what 32, 64 bit refer to. Always wondered why my windows Vista system differed between 32 bit and 64 bit. I apparently have a 64 bit instruction field.
Would have also liked some more detail on object oriented programming. I've never heard of anyone programming straight by either assembly or machine language, but the names Java and C++ I've long since been hearing. Integrated data and procedures?...What someone is programming comes with instructions?...Doesn't seem right.
Lastly, the idea of Microsoft being powerful because Microsoft is powerful is somewhat sad but true. Kind of a reflection on the phrase "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer". In this, I somehow stubbornly hope that Microsoft doesn't develop any headway into the individualized software area, out of a stubborn need to always root for the underdog.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Day 8, or: Class was short yay?
UHHH...
That top portion was supposed to be part of some witty theme describing the class, as I'd done for the past seven class meetings. For the first time I can't think of anything, and I really don't have that much to say about the material covered either. Strange. Even with the first disjointed class meeting, I had lots to rave about with how interesting the history of the internet was, but I've been trying to think of pulling together some brilliant theme describing this class and am coming up blank. What can I say?
Class was class. Class was about the "easy" portion of software, so says Professor Tuggle. And er, I agree with that. The material was fairly simple, definition based, and did not seem to have that many big concepts. There were also some "gimmie" definitions, with the fact that we all know what email and im are, what spreadsheets are, and software suites(at least in part, due to Microsoft Office's title always being Microsoft Office SUITE). Oh, and web browsers. "software that supports web browsing". The amount of self explanatory information in the second half of this pretty short lecture was rather appreciated. I could even keep up with writing appropriate red words in different colored ink, for when my notes get photocopied by the TLT.
The case study though, was interesting as usual. The idea of there being an ERP, something that integrates all of the functions a business needs(in accounting, various planning, etc, etc...) is rather amazing to think about. The best explanatory analogy I can come up with for this naming of "amazing" would be how I felt when, in managerial accounting, our professor introduced us to an accounting software that would do all of the basic sheets for us if we simply enter the appropriate journal entries. Much like WolfPack, this was after we had made it through a marathon 9 hour day of trying to do the accounting process by ourselves, failing, having to restart again, failing yet again...
Lastly...I do wonder what exactly happens when one violates the EULA on COT software they have purchased. We discussed that the EULA has the power to disable the software, but how exactly does it do that? I'm imagining a little computer robot with maniacally large scissors, poised to cut some kind of connection wire that keeps the software working for the end user...but that a bit too fantastically crazy...
Oh, and there was the fact that class ended early! Always nice to beat the jammed 7pm backlog out of the parking lot.
That top portion was supposed to be part of some witty theme describing the class, as I'd done for the past seven class meetings. For the first time I can't think of anything, and I really don't have that much to say about the material covered either. Strange. Even with the first disjointed class meeting, I had lots to rave about with how interesting the history of the internet was, but I've been trying to think of pulling together some brilliant theme describing this class and am coming up blank. What can I say?
Class was class. Class was about the "easy" portion of software, so says Professor Tuggle. And er, I agree with that. The material was fairly simple, definition based, and did not seem to have that many big concepts. There were also some "gimmie" definitions, with the fact that we all know what email and im are, what spreadsheets are, and software suites(at least in part, due to Microsoft Office's title always being Microsoft Office SUITE). Oh, and web browsers. "software that supports web browsing". The amount of self explanatory information in the second half of this pretty short lecture was rather appreciated. I could even keep up with writing appropriate red words in different colored ink, for when my notes get photocopied by the TLT.
The case study though, was interesting as usual. The idea of there being an ERP, something that integrates all of the functions a business needs(in accounting, various planning, etc, etc...) is rather amazing to think about. The best explanatory analogy I can come up with for this naming of "amazing" would be how I felt when, in managerial accounting, our professor introduced us to an accounting software that would do all of the basic sheets for us if we simply enter the appropriate journal entries. Much like WolfPack, this was after we had made it through a marathon 9 hour day of trying to do the accounting process by ourselves, failing, having to restart again, failing yet again...
Lastly...I do wonder what exactly happens when one violates the EULA on COT software they have purchased. We discussed that the EULA has the power to disable the software, but how exactly does it do that? I'm imagining a little computer robot with maniacally large scissors, poised to cut some kind of connection wire that keeps the software working for the end user...but that a bit too fantastically crazy...
Oh, and there was the fact that class ended early! Always nice to beat the jammed 7pm backlog out of the parking lot.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Day 7, or: What do you mean I don't write big enough, you meanie? D:
GRRRRR....
In all seriousness, I kid, I kid. This came up when I signed up for taking notes for the disabled student on Monday. I went to the TLT, and turned in my notes to Diane. She said that they were considered "itty bitty"...And I actually tried to write bigger. I really did. But I guess compared to the people who fill up the entire column, it's still considered kind of small. So basically, I spent this class more trying to perfect/improve my handwriting than to completely immerse myself in the lecture. I swear I also subconsciously absorbed everything! Its just that consciously, it felt like I was responsible for two now, and I would feel very guilty failing someone who needed obviously legible notes.
That said, now to critiquing the class.
The case study was kind of interesting, and a cool coincidence, because right before coming to class I was doing a bit of research in contemplating whether to buy an Apple laptop. With how many people around campus use one, graphics design majors or not, the visual appeal of the apple was quite appealing. I wondered why it was that apple generally didn't drop prices low enough on ANYTHING, and I guess the whole closed systems thing we learned about Apple is why. It must drive off a lot of consumers if Apple is both as secretive as they are, and as high and mighty. It reminds me of reading about Abercrombie and Fitch in the newspaper, and how they refuse to make their clothing more economical and have more sales. They believed, doggedly, that brand loyalty and the high power image they created was enough to carry them. I guess apple thinks the same? Except it seems like for the small market share, they're still doing fine. I mean, why else does it seem like this campus is rampant with macbook users...
Much of the lecture was very technical, but again, not boring technical. I think I'm neutral this time, as far as interest in the material. Discussing speech recognition systems, and later on the mini palm computers(that Fedex and such use), was pretty cool. I kind of wish there was more details on those, because I always thought those gadgets were cool. How do they work?...Also, the mini credit card processing machine that they use on airplanes.(or at least, on United Airlines). I thought those were awesome as well, when I saw them on my plane to Hawaii and back.
Although the parity checking, and ASCII sections were not required for us to remember, it was quite interesting to listen to. By now I forgot most of the small details(since writing stuff down is crucial to my memory), but the overall idea of how a computer has to check and recheck(at times) each individual byte, to make up words, to make up sentences, and then to make up the monstrous wall of text that is my blog posts...that's amazing. Actual artificial intelligence might not exist yet, but it makes me appreciate how smart computers already are.
I hope the student is not visually impaired...I hope the student is not visually impaired...I hope the student is not visually impaired...
In all seriousness, I kid, I kid. This came up when I signed up for taking notes for the disabled student on Monday. I went to the TLT, and turned in my notes to Diane. She said that they were considered "itty bitty"...And I actually tried to write bigger. I really did. But I guess compared to the people who fill up the entire column, it's still considered kind of small. So basically, I spent this class more trying to perfect/improve my handwriting than to completely immerse myself in the lecture. I swear I also subconsciously absorbed everything! Its just that consciously, it felt like I was responsible for two now, and I would feel very guilty failing someone who needed obviously legible notes.
That said, now to critiquing the class.
The case study was kind of interesting, and a cool coincidence, because right before coming to class I was doing a bit of research in contemplating whether to buy an Apple laptop. With how many people around campus use one, graphics design majors or not, the visual appeal of the apple was quite appealing. I wondered why it was that apple generally didn't drop prices low enough on ANYTHING, and I guess the whole closed systems thing we learned about Apple is why. It must drive off a lot of consumers if Apple is both as secretive as they are, and as high and mighty. It reminds me of reading about Abercrombie and Fitch in the newspaper, and how they refuse to make their clothing more economical and have more sales. They believed, doggedly, that brand loyalty and the high power image they created was enough to carry them. I guess apple thinks the same? Except it seems like for the small market share, they're still doing fine. I mean, why else does it seem like this campus is rampant with macbook users...
Much of the lecture was very technical, but again, not boring technical. I think I'm neutral this time, as far as interest in the material. Discussing speech recognition systems, and later on the mini palm computers(that Fedex and such use), was pretty cool. I kind of wish there was more details on those, because I always thought those gadgets were cool. How do they work?...Also, the mini credit card processing machine that they use on airplanes.(or at least, on United Airlines). I thought those were awesome as well, when I saw them on my plane to Hawaii and back.
Although the parity checking, and ASCII sections were not required for us to remember, it was quite interesting to listen to. By now I forgot most of the small details(since writing stuff down is crucial to my memory), but the overall idea of how a computer has to check and recheck(at times) each individual byte, to make up words, to make up sentences, and then to make up the monstrous wall of text that is my blog posts...that's amazing. Actual artificial intelligence might not exist yet, but it makes me appreciate how smart computers already are.
I hope the student is not visually impaired...I hope the student is not visually impaired...I hope the student is not visually impaired...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Day 6: TEST!!!
JUDGMENT
The test was better than I expected in parts, and a lot worse in others. Although, now that I'm writing this post after the scores came up on blackboard, I don't really give a s*** what I was thinking at that time. What's done is done, and what's a 96 is a 96. No matter that I barely beat the average, and am personally used to being way above the average, what's solidly an A is solidly an A and I'm not going to ask for anything more.
As far as the day of the test goes, I first flipped to the last section to scout for the TLAs. I'd always extremely abhorred having to memorize and repeat anything(there's a professor I have this semester that keeps telling us to "write this down. write this down. WRITE THIS DOWN", and it annoys the heck out of me), and so before I forgot what it is I forcibly crammed into my head I wanted to spit it out on the paper and be done with it. I'm very sure I got both TCP/IP right(one of those being extra credit, I presume?), but I was thrown for a loop by seeing USB on there! I thought Professor Tuggle had just mentioned it in the beginning as a random example of similar TLAs, not that the specific USB TLA would be on the exam...
Which of course means I didn't get it right. I made a random guess that USB stood for universal storage bus...and later checked it to find that I had one/three letters right. Is there such a thing as 1/3 credit? To my dismay I also got only 2/3 right for URL, because for some reason universal resource locator made more sense to me than uniform resource locator.
So with such a bad showing on the TLAs, I was rather pessimistic for my chances on the rest of the test. I think I got the true/false section completely right, because it seemed that what was false was obviously so, and there weren't exactly subtleties meant to trip me up. (Just like Professor Tuggle promised! yay!) There was one question on the multiple choice that tripped me up pretty completely, about types of data in information systems. Whether data could be: alphanumeric, text, images, or all of the above. Part of my intuition says to go with alphanumeric, because computers deal in numbers, but in the end I went with all of the above, because it seemed excluding the other choices would be committing a fallacy of being too absolute.
For the short answer, I think I generally made out fine as well. There was more one, like the one asking us to simply list all six elements of an information system, that I found myself wondering whether it was too easy to be true. For those, all I can do is hope that it was actually true. One or two others, such as giving the definition of a cybernetic system, I feel like I didn't exactly hit on the correct "textbook" term, and skirted around the definition. I tried to do a good roundabout explanation. But I think for that one specifically, my example was good.
Overall, after a test I tend to have selective forgetting, and especially since the grades are already out, it really doesn't matter to me now what I thought of the test. What's done is done!
The test was better than I expected in parts, and a lot worse in others. Although, now that I'm writing this post after the scores came up on blackboard, I don't really give a s*** what I was thinking at that time. What's done is done, and what's a 96 is a 96. No matter that I barely beat the average, and am personally used to being way above the average, what's solidly an A is solidly an A and I'm not going to ask for anything more.
As far as the day of the test goes, I first flipped to the last section to scout for the TLAs. I'd always extremely abhorred having to memorize and repeat anything(there's a professor I have this semester that keeps telling us to "write this down. write this down. WRITE THIS DOWN", and it annoys the heck out of me), and so before I forgot what it is I forcibly crammed into my head I wanted to spit it out on the paper and be done with it. I'm very sure I got both TCP/IP right(one of those being extra credit, I presume?), but I was thrown for a loop by seeing USB on there! I thought Professor Tuggle had just mentioned it in the beginning as a random example of similar TLAs, not that the specific USB TLA would be on the exam...
Which of course means I didn't get it right. I made a random guess that USB stood for universal storage bus...and later checked it to find that I had one/three letters right. Is there such a thing as 1/3 credit? To my dismay I also got only 2/3 right for URL, because for some reason universal resource locator made more sense to me than uniform resource locator.
So with such a bad showing on the TLAs, I was rather pessimistic for my chances on the rest of the test. I think I got the true/false section completely right, because it seemed that what was false was obviously so, and there weren't exactly subtleties meant to trip me up. (Just like Professor Tuggle promised! yay!) There was one question on the multiple choice that tripped me up pretty completely, about types of data in information systems. Whether data could be: alphanumeric, text, images, or all of the above. Part of my intuition says to go with alphanumeric, because computers deal in numbers, but in the end I went with all of the above, because it seemed excluding the other choices would be committing a fallacy of being too absolute.
For the short answer, I think I generally made out fine as well. There was more one, like the one asking us to simply list all six elements of an information system, that I found myself wondering whether it was too easy to be true. For those, all I can do is hope that it was actually true. One or two others, such as giving the definition of a cybernetic system, I feel like I didn't exactly hit on the correct "textbook" term, and skirted around the definition. I tried to do a good roundabout explanation. But I think for that one specifically, my example was good.
Overall, after a test I tend to have selective forgetting, and especially since the grades are already out, it really doesn't matter to me now what I thought of the test. What's done is done!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Day 5, or: Class was AWESOME. AGAIN.
COMPUTERS
Why am I never bored learning about computers and the internet? This class felt as interesting and exciting as the first lecture, when we talked about the history of the internet. Instead of the internet, it was about computers, but learning about the "intimate"(so to speak) details of the computer and how it came to be was very much fun for me. I had always just accepted the fact that the computer had a "ROM" and a "RAM", but knowing what it means is definitely a lot cooler. Compared to the rest of the lecture though, I didn't find the case discussion about wireless employee connectivity as thrilling. The "crackberry" concept was funny, but paled in comparison to later discussions about mainframes and servers.
Somewhere along the way my inner Asian math, science, and technology geek must have been suppressed. With how much I enjoyed math and science(for getting terrible grades at it) in high school, I have no idea whatsoever how I ended up in a business school. Oh well. Moving on.
From the history of computers section, the power of the abacus really stood out to me. Even being Chinese, and associated with the origin of the abacus, I had simply used to accept it as some crazy counting tool that only the truly insane math heads could work. I was definitely more inclined to shake the beads and play with it than try to figure out how abacus(es?) could do calculus. But apparently they...can? And are as powerful as modern calculators, in a relationship that I currently still don't understand. I must look up and think about why is it that being able to do the four basic functions, a tool or machine can than do all of the rest of math's calculations. This lecture simply imparted in me that it can, not why it can.
The most interesting part of the lecture for me was the discussion of the CPU. As previously mentioned, I'd usually glance and gloss over computer specs that came with new pcs, kind of noting them in my head but generally not understanding what each part meant. Like a previous class' example of transforming a string of numbers into an airplane's leaving and arrival time and locations, this discussion did that for me and my understanding of computer specs, at least in part. Particularly, I didn't know that RAM was so powerful, and considered an expensive portion of the computer. I knew ROM stood for Read Only Memory, but never heard exactly what memory it's storing.
After the descriptions of the microcomputers, I started falling behind the lecturing speed(or it started speeding up...), and so did not fully comprehend the portion, but wrote down most of it. I seem to write faster than my brain works, in these fast paced situations. The portion about terminals, especially, was all a blur, but the pictures of the rack server and blade server did help with the last bit about storage systems. A picture is worth a thousand words?
Kinda curious, instead of scared, of what the test will bring. Although sometimes I think I'm too stress free for my own good. Mosquitos are apparently attracted to bodies that produce less stress hormones...
Why am I never bored learning about computers and the internet? This class felt as interesting and exciting as the first lecture, when we talked about the history of the internet. Instead of the internet, it was about computers, but learning about the "intimate"(so to speak) details of the computer and how it came to be was very much fun for me. I had always just accepted the fact that the computer had a "ROM" and a "RAM", but knowing what it means is definitely a lot cooler. Compared to the rest of the lecture though, I didn't find the case discussion about wireless employee connectivity as thrilling. The "crackberry" concept was funny, but paled in comparison to later discussions about mainframes and servers.
Somewhere along the way my inner Asian math, science, and technology geek must have been suppressed. With how much I enjoyed math and science(for getting terrible grades at it) in high school, I have no idea whatsoever how I ended up in a business school. Oh well. Moving on.
From the history of computers section, the power of the abacus really stood out to me. Even being Chinese, and associated with the origin of the abacus, I had simply used to accept it as some crazy counting tool that only the truly insane math heads could work. I was definitely more inclined to shake the beads and play with it than try to figure out how abacus(es?) could do calculus. But apparently they...can? And are as powerful as modern calculators, in a relationship that I currently still don't understand. I must look up and think about why is it that being able to do the four basic functions, a tool or machine can than do all of the rest of math's calculations. This lecture simply imparted in me that it can, not why it can.
The most interesting part of the lecture for me was the discussion of the CPU. As previously mentioned, I'd usually glance and gloss over computer specs that came with new pcs, kind of noting them in my head but generally not understanding what each part meant. Like a previous class' example of transforming a string of numbers into an airplane's leaving and arrival time and locations, this discussion did that for me and my understanding of computer specs, at least in part. Particularly, I didn't know that RAM was so powerful, and considered an expensive portion of the computer. I knew ROM stood for Read Only Memory, but never heard exactly what memory it's storing.
After the descriptions of the microcomputers, I started falling behind the lecturing speed(or it started speeding up...), and so did not fully comprehend the portion, but wrote down most of it. I seem to write faster than my brain works, in these fast paced situations. The portion about terminals, especially, was all a blur, but the pictures of the rack server and blade server did help with the last bit about storage systems. A picture is worth a thousand words?
Kinda curious, instead of scared, of what the test will bring. Although sometimes I think I'm too stress free for my own good. Mosquitos are apparently attracted to bodies that produce less stress hormones...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Day 4, or: Class wasn't as boring as warnings indicated! Wait what was class about again...?
Confession
I honestly didn't think class wasn't as boring as Professor Tuggle made it out to be at the beginning. Frankly, the structure and content reminded me a lot of what we are covering in Principles of Management, in the introductory chapters. 5 competitive forces. 5 competition strategies to combat these forces. Second list of additional strategies. Various theories here and there about business strategies and how to use IT to make the most of them. I actually thought class, overall, was more INTERESTING, if possible, because it integrated better the business side of this class and the technology side. If my complaints the first lecture were mostly because of the inundation of technical terms being thrown at me left and right, without much relevance to my major, this time around those complaints get answered.
Switching handwriting and pen holding styles slightly also helped me keep up more effectively. I tend not to have a set handwriting or way of holding the pen, except when I'm having to write my fastest, such as in timed essays. By using this style I feel like I was better able to keep up.
One thing I particularly enjoyed was that the two case studies were of major companies I knew. Before, with Sew What? one day and Autosystems the next, I had no idea what kind of companies they were and could not come up with general ideas on answering the case study questions either. However, knowing something about the distinction between FedEx and, say, UPS, and a bit about GE's power in its market, helped me appreciate the material more. I was surprised to learn that FedEx is as aggressively innovative a company as it is, with its "move, communicate, and shoot" slogan. Also kind of sad to see that DHL is moving out of the United States market, not finding a niche amongst the FedEx and UPS monopoly.
Another point of specific interest was the idea of locking in customers, and then raising the prices, told with the unique spin of IT. I loved the story of American Medical Supply, and how it won over the nurses and then held the high switching costs over the hospitals. Smart and yet sneaky business dealing. Also of Cisco, how it can enjoy manipulating its suppliers against each other.
Overall, although the class was still fast paced and the material technical, I for one enjoyed it and simply felt the time passed quickly and more interestingly.
....
...
.
Although confession number 2: Being quite the recently converted tennis fan, I was nervously checking on the status of the rain delayed Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez match, when the material got too technical or the examples too hard to follow.
...A pity Rafa was too injured and not at 100% today to fend off Del Potro.
I honestly didn't think class wasn't as boring as Professor Tuggle made it out to be at the beginning. Frankly, the structure and content reminded me a lot of what we are covering in Principles of Management, in the introductory chapters. 5 competitive forces. 5 competition strategies to combat these forces. Second list of additional strategies. Various theories here and there about business strategies and how to use IT to make the most of them. I actually thought class, overall, was more INTERESTING, if possible, because it integrated better the business side of this class and the technology side. If my complaints the first lecture were mostly because of the inundation of technical terms being thrown at me left and right, without much relevance to my major, this time around those complaints get answered.
Switching handwriting and pen holding styles slightly also helped me keep up more effectively. I tend not to have a set handwriting or way of holding the pen, except when I'm having to write my fastest, such as in timed essays. By using this style I feel like I was better able to keep up.
One thing I particularly enjoyed was that the two case studies were of major companies I knew. Before, with Sew What? one day and Autosystems the next, I had no idea what kind of companies they were and could not come up with general ideas on answering the case study questions either. However, knowing something about the distinction between FedEx and, say, UPS, and a bit about GE's power in its market, helped me appreciate the material more. I was surprised to learn that FedEx is as aggressively innovative a company as it is, with its "move, communicate, and shoot" slogan. Also kind of sad to see that DHL is moving out of the United States market, not finding a niche amongst the FedEx and UPS monopoly.
Another point of specific interest was the idea of locking in customers, and then raising the prices, told with the unique spin of IT. I loved the story of American Medical Supply, and how it won over the nurses and then held the high switching costs over the hospitals. Smart and yet sneaky business dealing. Also of Cisco, how it can enjoy manipulating its suppliers against each other.
Overall, although the class was still fast paced and the material technical, I for one enjoyed it and simply felt the time passed quickly and more interestingly.
....
...
.
Although confession number 2: Being quite the recently converted tennis fan, I was nervously checking on the status of the rain delayed Rafael Nadal and Fernando Gonzalez match, when the material got too technical or the examples too hard to follow.
...A pity Rafa was too injured and not at 100% today to fend off Del Potro.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Day 3, or: Talking toilets and refrigerators! Hahahaha!
Cybernetic Systems
Among other things, were made amazingly interesting by this short but informative lecture.
First observation about class though, I'm still rather surprised that Professor Tuggle gives us all the time we want to include additional news volunteers. In my experiences with teachers, or rather, just people choosing volunteers in general, they usually start big, end up picking 2 people, and then cut it off. I LOVE the fact that Professor Tuggle's so generous with his time...and extra credit. Make no mistake that I'm out to get an A in every class I take, so getting the extra padding wherever I can never hurts.
I thought the first case of Autosystems presented an interesting and useful concept. Definitely a cool and efficient idea to insert notes about the manufacturing into IT networks. GIGO, garbage in garbage out, is such an amusing phrase that it doesn't seem like it fits into the technical jargon.
Cybernetic systems were indeed the most interesting type of system, as promised. The examples about the human body temperature regulation, and the home cooling system, by relation, where both fairly straightforward to see. I enjoyed the analogy of the a business being a cybernetic system, mostly because of how complex the relationships are between getting from economic resources as inputs to goods and services as outputs. It's kind of surprising to find that information systems, themselves, are also considered cybernetic systems. Kind of a circular definition, in a strange way, but I suppose it ties into the meaning of the class.
The examples of other wireless sensors, though, was extremely funny. The idea of my refrigerator talking to me about forgetting to buy milk was especially cute. The toilet I guess would be useful, and would avoid the uncomfortable idea of having to take stool samples to the doctor in a baggie.
Overall, this class I thought was a lot more coherent, and properly paced, than the previous one. Or, maybe I'm just getting used to the methods to Professor Tuggle's madness.
Among other things, were made amazingly interesting by this short but informative lecture.
First observation about class though, I'm still rather surprised that Professor Tuggle gives us all the time we want to include additional news volunteers. In my experiences with teachers, or rather, just people choosing volunteers in general, they usually start big, end up picking 2 people, and then cut it off. I LOVE the fact that Professor Tuggle's so generous with his time...and extra credit. Make no mistake that I'm out to get an A in every class I take, so getting the extra padding wherever I can never hurts.
I thought the first case of Autosystems presented an interesting and useful concept. Definitely a cool and efficient idea to insert notes about the manufacturing into IT networks. GIGO, garbage in garbage out, is such an amusing phrase that it doesn't seem like it fits into the technical jargon.
Cybernetic systems were indeed the most interesting type of system, as promised. The examples about the human body temperature regulation, and the home cooling system, by relation, where both fairly straightforward to see. I enjoyed the analogy of the a business being a cybernetic system, mostly because of how complex the relationships are between getting from economic resources as inputs to goods and services as outputs. It's kind of surprising to find that information systems, themselves, are also considered cybernetic systems. Kind of a circular definition, in a strange way, but I suppose it ties into the meaning of the class.
The examples of other wireless sensors, though, was extremely funny. The idea of my refrigerator talking to me about forgetting to buy milk was especially cute. The toilet I guess would be useful, and would avoid the uncomfortable idea of having to take stool samples to the doctor in a baggie.
Overall, this class I thought was a lot more coherent, and properly paced, than the previous one. Or, maybe I'm just getting used to the methods to Professor Tuggle's madness.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Day 2, or damn Windows Vista that this post is late
VISTA
The new bane of my existence!! Short aside: on Thursday night I started up my newly purchased(within the month) Lenovo p.c. with Windows Vista. Tried to open the Internet to return to my equally newly minted blog, the machine froze. Tried again, it froze again. Went through a bunch of incompetent technical support to get through a total system reset. Reinstalled the internet. Was very excited about finally typing that blog today on the Lenovo. And then it froze again. The computer seems to have no hardware problems, so I'm very inclined to blame the Vista.
Heh...it seems the aside was not so short afterall.
To the main attraction, thoughts about Thursday's class. My overall impression was that the class was conducted extremely fast and hurriedly. Having still been in the adjustment period to a morning bird's schedule(from waking at 9 or later to 6am everyday, quite the adventure), I didn't have the energy to properly read the first chapter before class. I'm not sure if the material covered in chapter 1 is of inconsequential or simple and introductory nature, but it felt rather harder to keep up with the lecture. Furthermore, compared with the first lecture on the history of the internet, it did not feel as cohesive or as unified.
On the other hand, the case study about Sew What? was both interesting and entertaining. I enjoyed listening to Professor Tuggle describe such a unique company, and was definitely surprised at how their small and specialized idea could grow so large, and find such a good market through the World Wide Web. I suppose this reflects what they say about "finding one's niche", and filling up a specific area of a specific market.
Overall, this lecture threw me for quite the loop from what I'd experienced with the first class. It may be because I had false hopes coming into the class about exactly what the material would be about, but this chapter seems to be quite simply dry, technical, and without the quirky bits that the internet lecture had. Though then again, maybe that's just my being interested in everything related to the Almighty Internet God.
Signing off to go get friendly with Lenovo technical support...again,
Grace(/Elen)
The new bane of my existence!! Short aside: on Thursday night I started up my newly purchased(within the month) Lenovo p.c. with Windows Vista. Tried to open the Internet to return to my equally newly minted blog, the machine froze. Tried again, it froze again. Went through a bunch of incompetent technical support to get through a total system reset. Reinstalled the internet. Was very excited about finally typing that blog today on the Lenovo. And then it froze again. The computer seems to have no hardware problems, so I'm very inclined to blame the Vista.
Heh...it seems the aside was not so short afterall.
To the main attraction, thoughts about Thursday's class. My overall impression was that the class was conducted extremely fast and hurriedly. Having still been in the adjustment period to a morning bird's schedule(from waking at 9 or later to 6am everyday, quite the adventure), I didn't have the energy to properly read the first chapter before class. I'm not sure if the material covered in chapter 1 is of inconsequential or simple and introductory nature, but it felt rather harder to keep up with the lecture. Furthermore, compared with the first lecture on the history of the internet, it did not feel as cohesive or as unified.
On the other hand, the case study about Sew What? was both interesting and entertaining. I enjoyed listening to Professor Tuggle describe such a unique company, and was definitely surprised at how their small and specialized idea could grow so large, and find such a good market through the World Wide Web. I suppose this reflects what they say about "finding one's niche", and filling up a specific area of a specific market.
Overall, this lecture threw me for quite the loop from what I'd experienced with the first class. It may be because I had false hopes coming into the class about exactly what the material would be about, but this chapter seems to be quite simply dry, technical, and without the quirky bits that the internet lecture had. Though then again, maybe that's just my being interested in everything related to the Almighty Internet God.
Signing off to go get friendly with Lenovo technical support...again,
Grace(/Elen)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Day 1, or: OHHH its THAT room!
Beckman 206A
I didn't realize until I walked up to the room that Info Systems would be in the same room that Business Stats was in. Always liked that room since stats, because I thought it strange that uniform looking Beckman Hall also had a computer lab. Plus, it was the only room ever warm enough for my cold blooded self. Something in the Awesome Corner Room(ACR! ) must not be bad at all.
Professor Tuggle...I had met with him before registration, to get his signature on an add/drop form so I could register for the class at all. Didn't have Actg 211 done by then, but from that first meeting, I'd already gotten the impression that he is a very nice and good natured person. In addition to discovering Mgsc 300's location in the ACR, seeing Professor Tuggle "in action" was the second reason I'd rather been looking forward to the class. Listening to the Professor in person cemented my first opinions of him. He's got a nice sense of humor, and I'm thinking it will definitely keep me more focused during this class' early evening time.
Once he told us that extra credit comes in the form of blogging, I was definitely for the idea. With fond memories of playing typing games throughout elementary school, this blog will be the perfect way to quench my often thirst to type up massive walls of text. Although maybe...not so massive.
The first lecture was also rather interesting. I'd heard things about how the material in this class is enough to bore one to sleep, but I'm kind of excited about the prospect of learning about internet, technological developments, and TLAs, even. When Professor Tuggle questioned whether anyone knew what "url" meant, it made me think. I never did question what url meant! It'd come to be something I'd come to accept as a jumbled word/word construct. Much like how many times I'd come close to saying "lol" outside of internet conversation. Would lol be considered a TLA? Am I thinking too far into this?
As for the brief history of the internet, I've never questioned that later. Its history was first brought to my contemplation with Angels and Demons' claim that CERN created the internet, and then others(Angels and Demons haters? Honestly though, if fiction were completely and thoroughly researched to a T then wouldn't it become nonfiction?...but I'm digressing) debunking it. I was kind of glad to know that Angels and Demons wasn't completely wrong on the issue, and that CERN had a hand in the WWW(but not the internet! not the hardware!).
Signing off to go peruse the technological news websites, or maybe finally read that accounting textbook. Still so SO averse to the idea of reading for something like accounting...
-Grace
I didn't realize until I walked up to the room that Info Systems would be in the same room that Business Stats was in. Always liked that room since stats, because I thought it strange that uniform looking Beckman Hall also had a computer lab. Plus, it was the only room ever warm enough for my cold blooded self. Something in the Awesome Corner Room(ACR! ) must not be bad at all.
Professor Tuggle...I had met with him before registration, to get his signature on an add/drop form so I could register for the class at all. Didn't have Actg 211 done by then, but from that first meeting, I'd already gotten the impression that he is a very nice and good natured person. In addition to discovering Mgsc 300's location in the ACR, seeing Professor Tuggle "in action" was the second reason I'd rather been looking forward to the class. Listening to the Professor in person cemented my first opinions of him. He's got a nice sense of humor, and I'm thinking it will definitely keep me more focused during this class' early evening time.
Once he told us that extra credit comes in the form of blogging, I was definitely for the idea. With fond memories of playing typing games throughout elementary school, this blog will be the perfect way to quench my often thirst to type up massive walls of text. Although maybe...not so massive.
The first lecture was also rather interesting. I'd heard things about how the material in this class is enough to bore one to sleep, but I'm kind of excited about the prospect of learning about internet, technological developments, and TLAs, even. When Professor Tuggle questioned whether anyone knew what "url" meant, it made me think. I never did question what url meant! It'd come to be something I'd come to accept as a jumbled word/word construct. Much like how many times I'd come close to saying "lol" outside of internet conversation. Would lol be considered a TLA? Am I thinking too far into this?
As for the brief history of the internet, I've never questioned that later. Its history was first brought to my contemplation with Angels and Demons' claim that CERN created the internet, and then others(Angels and Demons haters? Honestly though, if fiction were completely and thoroughly researched to a T then wouldn't it become nonfiction?...but I'm digressing) debunking it. I was kind of glad to know that Angels and Demons wasn't completely wrong on the issue, and that CERN had a hand in the WWW(but not the internet! not the hardware!).
Signing off to go peruse the technological news websites, or maybe finally read that accounting textbook. Still so SO averse to the idea of reading for something like accounting...
-Grace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)