Week 11: "Database 2" Muddy

-There were a lot of things that I learned this week on databases, so once again this is a muddy topic for me. I have heard of previously about 95% of the stuff in this class, however, this stuff is unknown to me because I have never done any research on these topics before. Sure I have heard of data and information, like who hasn’t right? But to learn that information is data just presented in a context that people can understand it. There is use to putting all sorts of numbers into databases like sales and losses, or new members vs. members that left the club, and so on. There are programs that filter all of this information and help companies with marketing and other areas of their business to help with growth and sales.

-I had not a clue what SQL was or is, a structured query language that is used to create and manipulate databases. Microsoft has SQL server which probably costs a ton of money and opensource has MySQL which was noted in a previous lesson, is free for the most part. To analyze the data is just amazing with how much data is out there, it was noted in the book that walmart has more than 125 times the data than the US congress or something in that area.

-There was also talk this week about big companies having a lot of data but nothing to do with it. Like if two companies merge and the data is different or the systems are not compatible what is the company to do? And I have never heard of a data warehouse or a data mart? Definitely a first for me, but all very interesting. Like I said last week, I have only made two databases and this project will be my second one. Not too hard but I guess I will find out by my grade L.  Here is a short video on the basics of data warehousing that I found helpful on Youtube, with permission “standard Youtube license.”

Database Project

I learned a little more about databases this semester with this assignment. I did something similar to this about 2 years ago in my ISM course at Palm Beach State. We did the basics when it comes to Query's and forms and reports. I know I am going to lose points because of lack of understanding when it came to the query and where it said "membership types who have left the gym within the last six months (six months prior to the database project due date)" From what I understand our database project is due April 1st 2012, and six months prior to that date is October 1st 2011. Well the excel spread sheet that was called for on this assingment has the most recent date for someone to leave the gym as 8/5/2011 so I ended up just putting all the members who left. Wouldn't I have a blank database? Or query.

I hope it isn't too many points... :( I did note in my week 10 blog post about microsoft access that I am sure there is a lot more to it then what we are diving into. I could only imagine what the access book is like because the Excel book is over 1000 pages. I have not a clue on how I could enhance the functionality of this database... I know I am still kind of lost when it comes to Microsoft Access but I will keep messing with it until I get it figured out like with most things that I do. Practice makes perfect and this is a great tool especially in the business world. I use it every day at work, just to input data, I by no means create these things.

Week 10 "Database Skills Track"

This is the second time that I have ever made any type of database and I will go with a big muddy understanding of it. Not really easy to make, even though I use it almost everyday at work. When we get jobs that come from New York they can see when we completed the jobs and how long the jobs took to be completed. I update them all the time just never create them.

There are so many features to these programs and I know this because I have the book from 2007 and it was an introduction book to Microsoft Office and it is almost 1000 pages. I mean the features and options of all these programs is amazing. There is so much to learn and when I took ISM2000 at palm beach state college we took a dive into micrsoft office and did a small microsoft access project.

I still feel like I have not the greatest understanding of the database, I think I will crack out the old 2007 book on Office.

Week 9: "Moore's Law"

Moore's law makes a lot of sense, but then again I have never done the math to see if I can get twice the speed at the same price in 18 months from now. But when I did buy my first ipod in 2008 it had 8 gigs and it was $200 and now you can get one with video and pictures and all theses other features and has 32 gigs for about $200. Like how much smaller can we really get when it comes to technology and faster. Well here is a funny youtube clip with the guys from Myth Busters. With permission standard youtube license.

This is why there is talk about the death of Moore's law. Size, heat and power will be the death of Moore's law. Then according to Dr. Michio Kaku we will be living on other planets in 100 years, ok he didn't say that but his clip on the future of technology was a little mind boggling.

Of course we will find new technologies and robots will be smarter than people and Moores law will come to an end, then there will be some other law that people follow and so on and so forth. I think form the lecture the first computer came out in 1944. "Professor Means said we didn't have to remember those dates." But look at where we are now, from bytes to Zettabytes. A zettabyte is what about of data the U.S. consumes yearly or 3 or 4 zettabytes.

Excel Project

I figured out how to do a screen capture of the Average increase pivot table that I created, and I used the snipping tool and this was a first for me. I never think to just look up in the help section of programs or even online of how to do certain things. I know I got a good screen shot of my pivot table, however, I am not very confident of the pivot table portion of my excel project. Here is my screen shot...

I think I did this pivot table to the best of my ability. The instructions asked to group the ages by decade and I did, the gender in columns and age in rows and I did... I suppressed the display of grand totals and I am not confident on the display of percentages with 1 decimal place. Well this was the first time I have ever attempted something like this before and I am learning so much.

As for the rest of the project I have played around with excel but not like this. All the formulas were really interesting and could definitely be useful in the future. At my office once a year one of the trainers has classes on word, excel, and other office software and I can say that I have a general knowledge of excel and its features. I use excel at work every day and I use it to log in all the completed jobs. Its great because I update it daily with counts and who submitted the work and estimated time of completion of the projects and so forth.

I am the kind of person that will keep doing things the hard way until I find out by coincidence, like I never knew you could print titles on spread sheets, I always tried to make the headers of the worksheet fit above the columns like an idiot. Or I would copy the column headings and paste them to each sheet and have it in page break preview. Oh the joys of school to make my life a little bit easier.