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.
Monday, September 28, 2009
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
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