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.



Week 7: "Muddy/Clear" Application Software 2

This week was all on the cloud and opensource. I have never heard of these things, actually I have but I never knew what they were or I didn’t give any thought to it. I mean like my best friend of 20 years works for EMC and I also know the widow of one of three original founders to EMC. Shows how much I pay attention to things that go on around me.... That’s where the muddy part comes in, as far as the principals of this technology it was pretty clear. Not too hard to comprehend. The video below is from EMC and published with permission with the standard youtube license.

The idea of owning a company or starting up a company and not having to worry about having any type of server in my building is amazing. Then on top of that to not even have to pay all those costs for windows and use Linux for free. There are pro’s and con’s of everything and that is why they stressed this week about being a manger and weighing costs to see what is or will be beneficial to the company.

When I saw the servers in cargo containers I thought that was pure genius and I can see why these major corporations make so much money. Why do you need a multimillion dollar building? Just put the servers in some metal storage container out in a field somewhere with thousands of other storage containers. Then have some web based application that customers can access with their monthly accounts to hook them up to these servers.

Another great thing I learned about software this week was that once you spend the millions of dollars paying programmers to write up the code it costs pennies to produce more of your software. I compare this to cars, say it cost 20,000 to build my Honda and I paid 27,000. This is only 7,000 per car minus all other costs that the dealer incurs in each car sale. But for windows 7 or Microsoft office, the code was written and it has its cost to pay the programmers, but when it’s loaded on every Dell machine practically sold the profit is out of this world. Hence, this is why Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest philanthropists on the planet. Maybe I could learn a thing or two about this.

Presentation Project

This presentation I kind of had a jump start on because last semester in my business writing class I had to make a presentation with 4 other members on PowerPoint with photos, and my voice. I still am a rookie when it comes to using PowerPoint. Last semesters presentation was on mountain biking at Whistler the best downhill mountain bike course in North America. It was really fun because I got to learn more about something that I love and it seemed that the other people in my virtual group who I had never met were cool with it also.

This course I got to learn a little more about new programs or software that can be used for creating presentations. This is the first time I have ever uploaded a video to Youtube, I know I know… I am probably the last person on earth to have ever done this. I also used this program called Camtasia, which is awesome. I can see myself purchasing this software and using it more and more. I do use my GoPro video camera for mountain biking and I need some good video editing software and this is exactly what I was looking for. The time line at the bottom is easy and very useful. Big thumbs up to camtaisa.

“Presentation Evaluation,” This is where the fun begins right… My logical flow and sequence of content is good, I did throw in the mix an off topic subject about my cousins alert response dog Lilly, but I felt it was a good addition to the project even though the JDRF has nothing to do with those services. I stated the questions on my powerpoint presentation as I was reading the answers and I thought that was good so the audiences can see the screen and hear my voice and it showed consistency. I never had any questions that were not answered.

“Evaluation continued…” I definitely grabbed the attention of my audience in the first 30-60 seconds, I mean it is only 2:45 how could I not right? If my questions did not spark the curiosity of my audience then they don’t really care about the JDRF and its cause anyways. I was clear in what I was trying to say. I spoke about what type 1 diabetes is and how it affects the lives of millions of Americans and how donating money to the JDRF is for a good cause.

“Presentation Evaluation…” I had a few inconsistencies in my speech while I was trying to speak about JDRF. This was my first presentation on this type of system so I was a little new and nervous so I stuttered a few times. My grade will show with these faults but I take it all as a learning experience and strive to do better. Overall this was a good experience and look forward to using these tools in the future.