For the most part what I learned during this project is the same thing I always learn when during a group project- people are difficult to organize with and manage. First, this is surprisingly not much more difficult online; true it is slightly more difficult as you have to wait for responses (which can take days), but all in all apathy is the same wether in person or through a computer. Secondly, it is just a matter of reality that there are those who will actively work toward a goal (even if it something they are not horribly interested in), those who do the bare minimum, and those who free ride and drag others down. Finally, most people are followers who will wait for someone to take the reins and tell them what to do, and if that person is not expressly specific in what they tell people those people (even if there are explicit instructions given to all) will inevitable place that onus onto the person who inevitable did what needed to be done.
Sorry for the rant, but I loathe group projects unless I get to choose who I want to work with, at least (and even then not so much)-- I know this is not always possible in the world; however, in the real world people are getting paid and that is a powerful tool in getting people to care about the final product and the initial effort.
Finally, I did learn a few things while doing this project. First, I learned what Google Alerts are-- pretty cool stuff that I'm sure I will be able to make great use of. It reminds me of RSS feeds but Internet Wide and subject specific, great idea! I also learned a lot about how social media can be used as a tool. Before last weeks lesson I still looked at social media and a personal vehicle for communication-- even though I have been getting used to corporations making use of the for a couple of years now. But after this project I can take a step back and actually analyze how well a firm is using social media to interact with consumers.
I for one, do not like being talked to by a company (as in traditional advertising), but to have a company offer interaction, or more specifically the power to opt in or out, even I am incline to look at a website for a company I do like. (this is truly profound as I have been an avid reader of Adbusters for over 10 years.
We covered all of the social media and web 2.0 heavy hitters and their use by EA (Electronic Arts): Facebook, Twitter, Twitrater, Google, Bing, Flickr, Instagram, Wikipedia, and Youtube. What I found most interesting, however, was the use of Flickr and Instagram to give users a window to see inside the offices of EA and from the point of view of the employees. I find this interesting because I don't think that it is necessarily the idea of the company to do this, but more of a spontaneous thing employees have don. It is an interesting perspective.
You can find the Wiki report here: https://ism3004.wikispaces.com/Electronic+Arts
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Week:13 Muddy
Although I am familiar with such things as tags and hashtags, I was not familiar with the term folksonomy; and although I've heard the word taxonomy in my education in biology as the classification of species, I was unsure what this meant pertaining to data on the Web. In other words, i understand the ideas, but am interested in fully fledging out the concepts.
Since we discussed Wiki's as a form of Web 2.0 throughout the lessons this week, I will use them as a tool to show how powerful the wisdom of the crowds and crowdsourcing can be, I'll allow Wikipedia to speak for itself. According to Wikipedia, taxonomy is:
"is the practice and science of classification or the result of it. Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon). A resulting taxonomy, a taxonomy, or taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ..."), arranged in a hierarchical structure or classification scheme. Typically this is organized by supertype-subtype relationships, also called generalization-specialization relationships, or less formally, parent-child relationships, typically indicated by the phrase 'is a kind of' or 'is a subtype of'. In such an inheritance relationship, the subtype by definition has the same properties, behaviours, and constraints as the supertype plus one or more additional properties, behaviours, or constraints."
This explanation cleared up little for me, but the article continued:
"Originally taxonomy referred only to the classifying of organisms (now sometimes known as alpha taxonomy) or a particular classification of organisms. It is also used to refer a classification of things or concepts, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Now where this idea gets really fun is in the postulation that the human mind naturally categorizes its understanding of the work in such systems. The philosopher Immanual Kant theorized such, and some anthropologists have claimed to have witnessed such systems existing in local cultural systems; such a thing is called a folk taxonomy. Which is where we get the term folksonomy, which is discussed in our book, from. However, the terms are not completely synonymous, as we will see.
A folksonomy specifically refers to categorizing on the Internet. Just like a folk taxonomy it is a taxonomy belonging to a group of people (in the latter a culture or society and in the former the group of users that make up the activity on the Internet). The term folksonomy is attributed to Thomas Vander Wal, a well-known information architect.
Essentially, folksonomies are a way of categorizing web content through the participation of users who create and manage tags. According to Wikipedia, "Folksonomies became popular on the Web around 2004[4] as part of social software applications such as social bookmarking and photograph annotation. Tagging, which is one of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 services, allows users to collectively classify and find information. Some websites include tag clouds as a way to visualize tags in a folksonomy.[5] A good example of a social website that utilizes folksonomy is 43 Things."
Most people are familiar with a tag cloud due to the popularity of Twitter. They look like this:
Since we discussed Wiki's as a form of Web 2.0 throughout the lessons this week, I will use them as a tool to show how powerful the wisdom of the crowds and crowdsourcing can be, I'll allow Wikipedia to speak for itself. According to Wikipedia, taxonomy is:
"is the practice and science of classification or the result of it. Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon). A resulting taxonomy, a taxonomy, or taxonomic scheme, is a particular classification ("the taxonomy of ..."), arranged in a hierarchical structure or classification scheme. Typically this is organized by supertype-subtype relationships, also called generalization-specialization relationships, or less formally, parent-child relationships, typically indicated by the phrase 'is a kind of' or 'is a subtype of'. In such an inheritance relationship, the subtype by definition has the same properties, behaviours, and constraints as the supertype plus one or more additional properties, behaviours, or constraints."
This explanation cleared up little for me, but the article continued:
"Originally taxonomy referred only to the classifying of organisms (now sometimes known as alpha taxonomy) or a particular classification of organisms. It is also used to refer a classification of things or concepts, as well as to the principles underlying such a classification.
Taxonomy is the science which deals with the study of identifying, grouping, and naming organisms according to their established natural relationship.
Almost anything—animate objects, inanimate objects, places, concepts, events, properties, and relationships—may then be classified according to some taxonomic scheme."
I now had a good understanding of where my confusion came from; I was unaware that the use of the word was so wide in scope-- though in hindsight, that makes much sense.
Now where this idea gets really fun is in the postulation that the human mind naturally categorizes its understanding of the work in such systems. The philosopher Immanual Kant theorized such, and some anthropologists have claimed to have witnessed such systems existing in local cultural systems; such a thing is called a folk taxonomy. Which is where we get the term folksonomy, which is discussed in our book, from. However, the terms are not completely synonymous, as we will see.
A folksonomy specifically refers to categorizing on the Internet. Just like a folk taxonomy it is a taxonomy belonging to a group of people (in the latter a culture or society and in the former the group of users that make up the activity on the Internet). The term folksonomy is attributed to Thomas Vander Wal, a well-known information architect.
Essentially, folksonomies are a way of categorizing web content through the participation of users who create and manage tags. According to Wikipedia, "Folksonomies became popular on the Web around 2004[4] as part of social software applications such as social bookmarking and photograph annotation. Tagging, which is one of the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 services, allows users to collectively classify and find information. Some websites include tag clouds as a way to visualize tags in a folksonomy.[5] A good example of a social website that utilizes folksonomy is 43 Things."
Most people are familiar with a tag cloud due to the popularity of Twitter. They look like this:
| Photo by:Cyprien |
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Week 12: Clear
I feel like everything was quite clear as we've covered a little bit of everything that was discussed this week in previous weeks (or with security, will be discussing it in the future in depth). I was kind of confused as to the purpose of this weeks lesson due to that. The discussion was interesting, but that feels like it could easily replace this blogging assignment for the week.
This lesson really just tied all of the things we've been learning nicely together (networking, waves of computing, DNS, protocols, Etc.) and added some Internet history and specifics; which was very interesting. I did go online and delve deeper. I found out that Norway was the first to disconnect from and implement TCP/IP over SATNET. Apparently this was before but around the same time the ARPANET implemented TCP/IP.
The history I found is a very detailed timeline and can be found here.
I guess what this timeline made clear to me is that before and after the creation of the Internet through implementing TCP/IP, there were are a lot of hardwired network infrastructures that were set up. It showed me the scale of the Internet "hubs". These I suppose these are the vertebrae or centralized locations seen on the infographic in this weeks lesson.
This lesson really just tied all of the things we've been learning nicely together (networking, waves of computing, DNS, protocols, Etc.) and added some Internet history and specifics; which was very interesting. I did go online and delve deeper. I found out that Norway was the first to disconnect from and implement TCP/IP over SATNET. Apparently this was before but around the same time the ARPANET implemented TCP/IP.
The history I found is a very detailed timeline and can be found here.
I guess what this timeline made clear to me is that before and after the creation of the Internet through implementing TCP/IP, there were are a lot of hardwired network infrastructures that were set up. It showed me the scale of the Internet "hubs". These I suppose these are the vertebrae or centralized locations seen on the infographic in this weeks lesson.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Week 11: Muddy
This may have everything to do with the fact that I am the farthest thing from a business major and am taking a business class, but all of this talk about collection of data makes me very uncomfortable. This could also be to the fact that I simply do not trust large corporations, not at all.
I am very skeptical of how easy it has become to collect data on individuals over recent years. I think there should definitely be more legislation restricting this kind of behavior. In fact, I’m quite shocked about how so many people are simply nonchalant about this matter and how it affects them; however, I shouldn’t be surprised when its becoming clearer just how apathetic and complacent people have come when it comes to technology issues.
First, lets start with the practical, groups like Anonymous have recently made it a mission to prove to IT professionals, corporations, governments, and individuals that what they think about online and database security is a farce. So far they have been quite successful in proving that such organizations that pride themselves on their “security” abilities are far from being secure. Luckily, Anonymous carries out attacks but has no interest in stealing information, however many others with an equal knowledge and ability do seek to acquire such information for malicious use.
You can view Anonymous's posting site in order to see what kind of activities "they" (they have no central leadership and are only loosely connected through sites like 4chan; hence, the quotations) have been up to and obtain explanations from "them" here.
The Logo is offered under the creative commons license by Anonymous. This can be seen by following the above link.
On another note, Anonymous has sought to single out and attack companies (most recently Facebook) that handle massive amounts of our (the common people's) private information and help to make it more readily available to corporations and government organizations (such as the FBI or CIA who by law can not spy on citizens, which is ironic because now citizens just give up all the information they can happily. note: before Facebook, it was more common for users to use pseudonyms or usernames when participating in social networking. Facebook changed this by simply asking users for their information to be displayed…this connects back to the previous statement about apathy and complacency).
This issue came up at a really good time for discussion as Anonymous, three months ago, declared #OpFacebook. Since that time, the collective has disavowed the action, but the website has a lot of activity and the possibility of an attack in the future is possible. The attack would not be malicious per se, but an action take to get Facebook to handle users personal information with more care and consideration. There are many who doubt such an attack is possible (as Anonymous typically uses DDoS attacks), however they have often surprised their critics with they’re abilities.
As far as my personal feelings and experiences go I have many concerns.
I used to work an “unnamed” bookstore, where I was made to collect a quota on their for-sale loyalty cards. I was to talk customers in to giving up $20 dollars so that the company could collect data from the customer about the customer and their purchases. What did the customer get for this? A 10% discount. This meant that in a year the customer needed to spend $200 dollars in order to make their money back! After 6 months, I felt ashamed with myself and left the company. The company called this “customer service”; I find it to be predatory and quite opposite to customer service.
The fact that a company can turn selling information about people through data aggregators, into a multi-billion dollar industry is abhorrent and that should be obvious, I won't even go into an full explanation of why.
Other things like RFID chips, seem to be a little weird to me. I personally do not want a chip connected to anything that I carry around on my person. The ability to use this technology to more than just follow an item from production to storage to shipping and finally to store shelves seems obvious. There has been much talk about placing these in ID cards: one would have to be insane to let the government force you to carry an ID that can locate you at anytime. But that is where we are at. These things are becoming more and more acceptable to more and more people. And we go further down the rabbit hole.
This is just me, this is just opinion. But like the massive marketing and advertising world and public relations field, this kind of thing simply lowers my faith in humanity and unsettles my stomach.
I am very skeptical of how easy it has become to collect data on individuals over recent years. I think there should definitely be more legislation restricting this kind of behavior. In fact, I’m quite shocked about how so many people are simply nonchalant about this matter and how it affects them; however, I shouldn’t be surprised when its becoming clearer just how apathetic and complacent people have come when it comes to technology issues.
First, lets start with the practical, groups like Anonymous have recently made it a mission to prove to IT professionals, corporations, governments, and individuals that what they think about online and database security is a farce. So far they have been quite successful in proving that such organizations that pride themselves on their “security” abilities are far from being secure. Luckily, Anonymous carries out attacks but has no interest in stealing information, however many others with an equal knowledge and ability do seek to acquire such information for malicious use.
You can view Anonymous's posting site in order to see what kind of activities "they" (they have no central leadership and are only loosely connected through sites like 4chan; hence, the quotations) have been up to and obtain explanations from "them" here.
The Logo is offered under the creative commons license by Anonymous. This can be seen by following the above link.
On another note, Anonymous has sought to single out and attack companies (most recently Facebook) that handle massive amounts of our (the common people's) private information and help to make it more readily available to corporations and government organizations (such as the FBI or CIA who by law can not spy on citizens, which is ironic because now citizens just give up all the information they can happily. note: before Facebook, it was more common for users to use pseudonyms or usernames when participating in social networking. Facebook changed this by simply asking users for their information to be displayed…this connects back to the previous statement about apathy and complacency).
This issue came up at a really good time for discussion as Anonymous, three months ago, declared #OpFacebook. Since that time, the collective has disavowed the action, but the website has a lot of activity and the possibility of an attack in the future is possible. The attack would not be malicious per se, but an action take to get Facebook to handle users personal information with more care and consideration. There are many who doubt such an attack is possible (as Anonymous typically uses DDoS attacks), however they have often surprised their critics with they’re abilities.
As far as my personal feelings and experiences go I have many concerns.
I used to work an “unnamed” bookstore, where I was made to collect a quota on their for-sale loyalty cards. I was to talk customers in to giving up $20 dollars so that the company could collect data from the customer about the customer and their purchases. What did the customer get for this? A 10% discount. This meant that in a year the customer needed to spend $200 dollars in order to make their money back! After 6 months, I felt ashamed with myself and left the company. The company called this “customer service”; I find it to be predatory and quite opposite to customer service.
The fact that a company can turn selling information about people through data aggregators, into a multi-billion dollar industry is abhorrent and that should be obvious, I won't even go into an full explanation of why.
Other things like RFID chips, seem to be a little weird to me. I personally do not want a chip connected to anything that I carry around on my person. The ability to use this technology to more than just follow an item from production to storage to shipping and finally to store shelves seems obvious. There has been much talk about placing these in ID cards: one would have to be insane to let the government force you to carry an ID that can locate you at anytime. But that is where we are at. These things are becoming more and more acceptable to more and more people. And we go further down the rabbit hole.
This is just me, this is just opinion. But like the massive marketing and advertising world and public relations field, this kind of thing simply lowers my faith in humanity and unsettles my stomach.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Week 11: Database Project
I learned a lot during this project. For starters, I learned what a database was. Unlike Excel, which I had some rudimentary understanding of, I had never come into contact with a database nor did I know anyone who was familiar with one. In that sense, every in every aspect of this process I learned something.
One thing I definitely learned was that, again unlike Excel, there is not a good "undo" function in a database. Once I finished the project-- the first time -- and began to start the scripting extra credit, I somehow removed a members information from the database (you have to love touch-pads). I searched futilely for quite sometime to find a way to restore the data. Finally, I just began anew. Luckily, I had gotten pretty quick with the process on a second (well actually 3rd) go around.
One thing I would have added to the database would have been adding the "Membership Type" to the "Departed Member Report". My reasoning being that family memberships are going to be more expensive and therefore should be more aggressively sought after (followed-up with) by the business.
Due to the type of data (i.e. not a whole lot of numerical data) there not a lot you could do with it. You could determine your male-to-female ratios i suppose, or look for a time period where there was an increased number of "Departed members" to try an determine if there was an underlying reason. Also, you could look for the newest members (especially individuals to target people that you could offer a "friend sign-up bonus" to: this would be a program where you give the member a free months membership if they can refer a friend). For the most part, from looking at the scavenger hunt and lecture, I don't see much that would apply with this particular data set.
One thing I definitely learned was that, again unlike Excel, there is not a good "undo" function in a database. Once I finished the project-- the first time -- and began to start the scripting extra credit, I somehow removed a members information from the database (you have to love touch-pads). I searched futilely for quite sometime to find a way to restore the data. Finally, I just began anew. Luckily, I had gotten pretty quick with the process on a second (well actually 3rd) go around.
One thing I would have added to the database would have been adding the "Membership Type" to the "Departed Member Report". My reasoning being that family memberships are going to be more expensive and therefore should be more aggressively sought after (followed-up with) by the business.
Due to the type of data (i.e. not a whole lot of numerical data) there not a lot you could do with it. You could determine your male-to-female ratios i suppose, or look for a time period where there was an increased number of "Departed members" to try an determine if there was an underlying reason. Also, you could look for the newest members (especially individuals to target people that you could offer a "friend sign-up bonus" to: this would be a program where you give the member a free months membership if they can refer a friend). For the most part, from looking at the scavenger hunt and lecture, I don't see much that would apply with this particular data set.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Week 10: Muddy
I was a little confused after watching the lecture on databases and tables. There are two questions in this section:
1)How do you set a field to be a primary Key?
2) What is the most important characteristic of a primary key?
After watching the lecture a couple times, I determined that this was not discussed.
My first response was to open File Maker Pro and use the help menu; however, it cam up with nothing.
Then, I went to Google, where I found this answer:
"FileMaker doesn't have a checkbox/option like Access to define a specific field as a Primary Key. You can use any field as a primary key and many developers have a field naming convention to remind themselves which field they are using."
"The main thing you should really do with your field you want to use as a primary key is to turn on th validation option to ensure the values are unique and not allow the user to override that."
-this thread can be found here.
If I have this correct, I think the reason there is no Primary Key is because you can alter what source you want to use as you primary on a flip of a switch. If this is the case that means File Maker Pro makes it more easy to manipulate data in any way you would like. This seems like a great thing even if the program does have the flaw of not being able to save multiple sorted fields without scripting.
I think this issue is not so muddy for me any longer. I suppose we'll see when I go to due the database project.
1)How do you set a field to be a primary Key?
2) What is the most important characteristic of a primary key?
After watching the lecture a couple times, I determined that this was not discussed.
My first response was to open File Maker Pro and use the help menu; however, it cam up with nothing.
Then, I went to Google, where I found this answer:
"FileMaker doesn't have a checkbox/option like Access to define a specific field as a Primary Key. You can use any field as a primary key and many developers have a field naming convention to remind themselves which field they are using."
"The main thing you should really do with your field you want to use as a primary key is to turn on th validation option to ensure the values are unique and not allow the user to override that."
-this thread can be found here.
If I have this correct, I think the reason there is no Primary Key is because you can alter what source you want to use as you primary on a flip of a switch. If this is the case that means File Maker Pro makes it more easy to manipulate data in any way you would like. This seems like a great thing even if the program does have the flaw of not being able to save multiple sorted fields without scripting.
I think this issue is not so muddy for me any longer. I suppose we'll see when I go to due the database project.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Week 9: Clear
One thing that I understand extremely well is is the history of computers. In particular, the movement from the 3rd wave, which is the introduction of personal computers, to the 5th wave, concerning the common presence of computers in our daily life.
When I was a child in elementary school, we would freak out over the chance to play Oregon Trail at a friend's house (typically the one kid who everyone knew actually had an AppleII-- though one of the later models) or during class (on the only computer available for that grade level). I actually have friends who still own a Commodore 64 and keep it in their closet for nostalgia.
When growing up, my family did not have enough money for a computer, and so I never really get "into" them. I was more than happy with my NES (that's how gamer nerds actually referred to a Nintendo back then); this behavior continues to this day, where I'm more likely to turn on my Xbox or PS3 then my laptop (at least when I'm not in school).
But I digress, my point is that many things that are now considered a "part of life" were once just novel. People thought they were cool, but didn't see the need for them in their life. With Moore's law taking effect and technology getting cheaper and faster, we as a culture came to see how efficient and helpful these devices really could be.
For myself, by the time I turned 20 I had bought my own PC which I build myself and was using it to compile my music collection and go onto the Internet. Now, I use to professionally write, correspond, network. Furthermore, my TV is always connected to Xbox live where I join voice chats, interact with Netflix, and--of course--play online competitive video games with people all over the world.
 |
| Photo by Bill Bertram from WikiCommons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pixel8) |
When growing up, my family did not have enough money for a computer, and so I never really get "into" them. I was more than happy with my NES (that's how gamer nerds actually referred to a Nintendo back then); this behavior continues to this day, where I'm more likely to turn on my Xbox or PS3 then my laptop (at least when I'm not in school).
But I digress, my point is that many things that are now considered a "part of life" were once just novel. People thought they were cool, but didn't see the need for them in their life. With Moore's law taking effect and technology getting cheaper and faster, we as a culture came to see how efficient and helpful these devices really could be.
For myself, by the time I turned 20 I had bought my own PC which I build myself and was using it to compile my music collection and go onto the Internet. Now, I use to professionally write, correspond, network. Furthermore, my TV is always connected to Xbox live where I join voice chats, interact with Netflix, and--of course--play online competitive video games with people all over the world.
Excel Project Week 8-9
Mr. Olsen called Microsoft Excel a “Swiss army knife” of computer programs. After working with the program, I am inclined to agree. I was often amazed with just what can be done with the program, and how accessible and easy it was to use.The project we were given was to take raw data for 1,000 participants in a 20-minute exercise routine at a fitness center. Then, we were to manipulate it in order to ascertain multiple facts that could be derived from that data. Information provided was the age and sex of subjects, their beginning heart rate, and their heart rate at each minute mark throughout the routine.
Next, we were to determine, using both numerical and logical formulas, certain aspects of this data. The maximum heart rate for each participant was to be determined first. Then, we were to determine the target hear rate for each participant. We used this data to determine if participants reached their target, designated by “yes, or “no”, by pulling out each participant’s highest heart rate achieved and then applying a logical formula. Finally, we were to determine the percent of increase for heart rate, for each participant throughout their routine.
Finally we were to create to pivot tables used to analyze certain characteristics of the data. The first pivot table concerned the number of participants, separated by gender, who both reached and did not reach the target heart rate. Also, an aggregate of the combined sexes was to be displayed. The second pivot table, which can be seen above, was to display the average percentage of heart rate increase of each age group (broken down by 10-year increments), separated by gender.
I personally found this project to be a lot of fun. I was constantly amazed by the capabilities of the program. I even called family members who work in offices and offered to show them some new tricks. I did, however, have some issues. I recently bought a MacBook Pro, as requested of the journalism college, and obtained a copy of MS Office for Mac 2011. Though this version is, in my opinion, more efficient and easier to use than its PC counterpart, the instructional videos were for PC. I had to discover shortcuts and ribbon/menu pathways on my own.
This, for the most part, was not a horrible problem; however, some issues, like taking a screen shot or determining how a pivot table should analyze the data, were very different from the PC program. Though it took a while to figure such things out, I did come to the determination that they were difficult to figure out because they were more simple, while I was hunting for some complicated process. End of story, I recommend the Mac version of Excel.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Week 7: Muddy
I suppose there is no good way to make virtualization clear. Though I left the lesson feeling I did understand it, I felt looking it up online would be helpful. I was also interested in it being a viable option opposed to dual-booting or using Apple's Boot Camp.
Essentially, it all comes down to the advent of multi-core processors. In fact, virtualization has been around for a long time but the process could only be used on super-computers and the like. Since 2005 or so, multi-core processing has allowed us to harness this tool on servers and PCs.
Many in the class were likely confused in that virtualization and cloud computing seem similar (especially when talking about virtualization on a server for use by an enterprises staff). I found this definition helpful:
"One way to look at it is that virtualization is basically one physical computer pretending to be many computing environments whereas cloud computing is many different computers pretending to be the one computing environment (hence user scaling). Virtualization provides flexibility that is a great match for cloud computing. Moreover, cloud computing can be defined based on the virtual machine containers created with virtualization. Virtualization is not always necessary in cloud computing; however, you can use it as the basis. Cloud computing is an approach for the delivery of services while virtualization is one possible service that could be delivered."
-from erpsoftwareblog.com
As far as using virtualization on a PC to run multiple OS, I found this info to be particularly helpful:
"The concept of virtualization is hard to explain, but in essence, what it does is to allow you to use a single physical machine to create one or more environments that look and act just like they were separate physical boxes...When you run the program, you get to define a virtual machine by telling the system how much disk space and RAM to set aside, what kind of network access you want to set up, and so on. You then “boot” the virtual machine using a bootable CD or DVD (or an ISO image file) and install the operating system in the VM. When you’re done, you can go to the window containing the VM and do anything you would do on a physical machine."
-EdBott.com
Photo by: cote (flickr.com)
This I find particularly great in that I can keep Linux open in separate space allowing me to learn from playing with it, while still maintaining Mac OS X with which I am more comfortable. Of course it has many other, and likely better, uses. But for me this is a profound advancement from dual-booting (which I had played with many years ago on a Windows PC).
Finally, what was least clear to me this week was the concept of the hypervisor. I won't go into that here however I found a great web page that explains it here. Simply put, it is the mechanism that allows multiple OS to exist on hardware. It does this by allocating resources to each OS and making sure there is no overlap. I am no "1337" computer nerd by far, but this is extremely interesting stuff and is well worth taking a look at.
Essentially, it all comes down to the advent of multi-core processors. In fact, virtualization has been around for a long time but the process could only be used on super-computers and the like. Since 2005 or so, multi-core processing has allowed us to harness this tool on servers and PCs.
Many in the class were likely confused in that virtualization and cloud computing seem similar (especially when talking about virtualization on a server for use by an enterprises staff). I found this definition helpful:
"One way to look at it is that virtualization is basically one physical computer pretending to be many computing environments whereas cloud computing is many different computers pretending to be the one computing environment (hence user scaling). Virtualization provides flexibility that is a great match for cloud computing. Moreover, cloud computing can be defined based on the virtual machine containers created with virtualization. Virtualization is not always necessary in cloud computing; however, you can use it as the basis. Cloud computing is an approach for the delivery of services while virtualization is one possible service that could be delivered."
-from erpsoftwareblog.com
As far as using virtualization on a PC to run multiple OS, I found this info to be particularly helpful:
"The concept of virtualization is hard to explain, but in essence, what it does is to allow you to use a single physical machine to create one or more environments that look and act just like they were separate physical boxes...When you run the program, you get to define a virtual machine by telling the system how much disk space and RAM to set aside, what kind of network access you want to set up, and so on. You then “boot” the virtual machine using a bootable CD or DVD (or an ISO image file) and install the operating system in the VM. When you’re done, you can go to the window containing the VM and do anything you would do on a physical machine."
-EdBott.com
This I find particularly great in that I can keep Linux open in separate space allowing me to learn from playing with it, while still maintaining Mac OS X with which I am more comfortable. Of course it has many other, and likely better, uses. But for me this is a profound advancement from dual-booting (which I had played with many years ago on a Windows PC).
Finally, what was least clear to me this week was the concept of the hypervisor. I won't go into that here however I found a great web page that explains it here. Simply put, it is the mechanism that allows multiple OS to exist on hardware. It does this by allocating resources to each OS and making sure there is no overlap. I am no "1337" computer nerd by far, but this is extremely interesting stuff and is well worth taking a look at.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Presentation Project
In order to post my presentation online, I used http://www.authorstream.com. I attempted to use a few other sites; however, this was the first site to truly allow the Powerpoint Presentation to retain its recorded audio and transitions. It wasn't perfect however: the transitions I chose for each individual slide were replaced by default transitions when uploaded to the site.
The Achs Needs Your Support
More PowerPoint presentations from throc morton
In evaluating my presentation: I am happy with most of it, however, not all of it. It had a logical flow and sequence with one slide leading to the next. I believe starting out focusing on a common fondness for pets in society and then asking a question was a good way to grab attention. Also, here I felt the images I used were appropriate. Next, my claims were validated by my sources though, this was difficult as raw data on the issue is non-existent; this is because only estimates are published. Finally, the ability to use recorded audio left my slides uncluttered displaying only graphs and images with (perhaps frivolous) header text. This also allowed me to "Say it, then show it".
On the other hand, there are a few things I am not quite happy with.I feel I could have explained things a little further (more concisely). I was so concerned with sparse time that I relied on my graphs to provide information that might have been more powerful if I had spoken on it. (ex: estimated 3.5 million animals euthanized per year at shelters: I only spoke of 1/3 of shelter animals and let the graph speak for me.). In the end, it was pointless to have edited so much out as I could not find a video to place into my presentation (this is the reason why the presentation ends 20 seconds before the 3 min. mark).
Another issue is the I feel my graphs are slightly unreadable. By this I mean that the text is to small and one graph is too cluttered. This is mostly due to having had to find a low-tech graph-making site. I had to do so because my excel skills are not particularly strong (the main reason I chose to take this class), and most of those sites require a excel file for import. I made a few attempts but they ended in frustrating failure.
In evaluating my presentation: I am happy with most of it, however, not all of it. It had a logical flow and sequence with one slide leading to the next. I believe starting out focusing on a common fondness for pets in society and then asking a question was a good way to grab attention. Also, here I felt the images I used were appropriate. Next, my claims were validated by my sources though, this was difficult as raw data on the issue is non-existent; this is because only estimates are published. Finally, the ability to use recorded audio left my slides uncluttered displaying only graphs and images with (perhaps frivolous) header text. This also allowed me to "Say it, then show it".
On the other hand, there are a few things I am not quite happy with.I feel I could have explained things a little further (more concisely). I was so concerned with sparse time that I relied on my graphs to provide information that might have been more powerful if I had spoken on it. (ex: estimated 3.5 million animals euthanized per year at shelters: I only spoke of 1/3 of shelter animals and let the graph speak for me.). In the end, it was pointless to have edited so much out as I could not find a video to place into my presentation (this is the reason why the presentation ends 20 seconds before the 3 min. mark).
Another issue is the I feel my graphs are slightly unreadable. By this I mean that the text is to small and one graph is too cluttered. This is mostly due to having had to find a low-tech graph-making site. I had to do so because my excel skills are not particularly strong (the main reason I chose to take this class), and most of those sites require a excel file for import. I made a few attempts but they ended in frustrating failure.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Week 6: Clear
Photo by: phradakaOpen Source software is, typically, freely distributed software and source code. The first time I ever came across a piece of open-source software was when I was introduced to the Linux OS. At the time I had known some computing "revolutionaries" (this was in the late 90s) who espoused the use of this OS as it challenged monopolies held by Microsoft.
The went on to explain that more and more open-source software would continue to show-up (and they were spot on in that prediction as even Google went on to create a slew of open source software mimicking many programs offered commercially; they're open-source program office now homes 250,000 open source programs being created as we speak). They likened the concept to the ability to use manual transmission in a car: it gives you slightly more control over how the engine works. Likewise, the use of command prompts, among other things, allowed them to use their computers in whatever manner they would like.
Linux was created by Linus Torvalds, and was based off of Unix and the GNU project. However, as no free kernel (which connects application software to the hardware in a computer, as seen in Prof. Olsen's layer cake analogy) was available at the time, he set off on creating his own. The code in Linux is allowed to be manipulated and redistributed (hence, open-source), and has led to the many different forms of Linux available to us today.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Week 5: Clear
Multimedia use is now simply becoming a standard tool in many industries. I understand this well as a student studying journalism. The new rule of the day: when posting content online, use multimedia tools. Those who don't, are losing an audience.
This being the case, I am not surprised to find out that the same concepts are being used for presentations. Furthermore, no one in higher education should be surprised: since my first day of classes in 2007, any presentation has required links, video, audio, or images along with or in place of text. After all, what is the point of PowerPoint? If we didn't require these tools, we would still be using projectors and pieces of paper, right?
This being the case, I am not surprised to find out that the same concepts are being used for presentations. Furthermore, no one in higher education should be surprised: since my first day of classes in 2007, any presentation has required links, video, audio, or images along with or in place of text. After all, what is the point of PowerPoint? If we didn't require these tools, we would still be using projectors and pieces of paper, right?
One thing that I did notice was missing, however, was interactive content. Things like polls, FAQs, animated maps, 3D tours, etc. to further their understanding. I do agree, it doesn't have as much place in a presentation, but under the right circumstances it could be an amazing addition. After all, it is the future of multimedia!
Here is a link to the journalism 2.0 blog, in case you are curious as too how multimedia affects journalism. Also, a full, free .pdf can be found here for the book of the same name.
Here is a link to the journalism 2.0 blog, in case you are curious as too how multimedia affects journalism. Also, a full, free .pdf can be found here for the book of the same name.
( photo from http://www.kcnn.org/resources/journalism_20/)
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Week 4: Clear
Distribution channels are very clear to me. I can understand it in terms of my work history in retail, by understanding how many of our goods came from multiple sources in a direct distribution channel. Furthermore, I can understand it through my observations of my step-father's business Amedank Holdings, which in its current state is a auditing and weatherization (in conjunction with The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) enables low-income families to permanently reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient services provider; however, originally it was a distribution company that collected goods from multiple "green" companies and sold them through a web site. Finally, the products were shipped from their home.
In both cases we are dealing with the final firms of a distribution channel; however, the products supplied came from multiple sources --and especially in the case of my step-father's company-- and often products came through a chain of multiple firms.
All rights reserved by johanvm
In both cases we are dealing with the final firms of a distribution channel; however, the products supplied came from multiple sources --and especially in the case of my step-father's company-- and often products came through a chain of multiple firms.
All rights reserved by johanvmSaturday, September 10, 2011
WK 3: Clear
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| Source:Google Images>lounge.cigarfamily.com |
Furthermore, this idea of 4G being a semi-lie is backed up by journalist John Dvorak, for the Market Watch website, who states that according to the International Telecommunications Union (the industry's standard maker), "The industry itself says that 4G will not be a real technology and available to the public until at least 2014."
Of course, this technology will continue to improve and, at some point, will deliver the promised speed increase-- and probably revolutionize smart phones-- but not yet. It is important to state, however, that those who use 4G for media on their smart phones are happy with any increase to speed. Though this may be true, are we still perhaps paying to much for this new "improved" service?
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Chris Baldwin vs. The World: My Avatar Creation Experience.
In creating my online avatar, I sought an avatar editor that fit my tastes and attitude. Eventually, I found the Scott pilgrim Vs. The World avatar editor, a promotional tool on the movie's web site. And though I'm no lover of Hollywood promotional tools, I do have a deep affinity towards this movie in particular.I love this movie and the graphic novels that inspired it due to the nature of its content. It takes place in a Toronto (Canada) around a group of video game/anime/music (typically 90's grunge/alternative and punk/post-punk rock) fan boys and band members. They encounter those they like to mock (hipsters, ultra-pretentious vegans, jocks, ignorant people, preps, etc.). Furthermore, it touches on themes of how such people relate to each other: sarcasm, apathy, friendly bullying, and the complexities of love in such small social circles. More than anything the movie brings the [video]gamer's imagination, culture and sense of humor to life in a mainstream medium.
Finally, back to my experience. I found this editor simple and fun. Obviously it is not a complex editor, but it does a good job customizing a character that fits in the manga-style medium of the property's original format. I really do look similar to myself, and at the same time similar to a typical type of character seen in the manga or video game; however, I'm sure this wouldn't work for just anyone, due to the aesthetic costume style being similar to some very specific American music subcultures. The only major problem I had with the editor was that I was forced to make my beard brown and my hair red when, in reality, it is the other way around. In the end, I give this editor "Epic" status even though the facial color scheme was a "Fail".
On a side note, "grad student" doesn't exactly fit, but it was the closest I could find.
Wk. 2 Muddy(?) Blog Post, "Personal Computer."
I am not completely sure that I found this muddy, per se, but that I wanted to understand it more: the crystal oscillator. I especially found the terms to be interesting. One reason I was intrigued, was because of this concept of a crystal being used in so many devices (LCD screens, watches, and computers). Another reason is because "new-age" metaphysics uses similar terms when discussing the powers of crystals (resonance, vibration, etc.). First, I found the Wikipedia page for crystal oscillator: which describes it both simply and also enters into the more complex components.
Then, I looked into the metaphysical components of crystals. I surprised, though I vaguely remembered, that it was an IBM research scientist named Marcel Joseph Vogel, who was responsible for bridging the gap between computer science and metaphysics with his theories and the creation of the Vogel crystal. A man made crystal that supposedly has special properties regarding healing and meditation.. Though it is true that crystals has a place in metaphysical ideologies long before Mr. Vogel, what he did in bridging the scientific/metaphysical gap is akin to what some modern quantum physicists are doing with their theoretical science and metaphyisical spirituality (as can be seen in the film "What the (Bleep) Do We Know"
Finally, I was interested in the modding of internal clocks in computers. I think modding has become more and more common, as I have recently witnesses in the video game community (hackers ruin FPS's by the way). So, I looked for examples of modded internal clocks (crystal oscillators) in PC's and video game consoles.
The first two are more complicated, the last ones, having to do with different types os gameboys are more fun. This type of modding can be done to many electronic devices including controllers, music software, gaming systems, and more.
How to overclock a Nvidia graphics card:
http://youtu.be/qGQvmiRHSnw
and a PC CPU via BIOS:
http://youtu.be/bpwcQH-AATE
A modded crytal oscillator (in this case by simply replacing with a faster one) on an original Game Boy:
http://youtu.be/q9BgDMTfbyY
This link will show you the effects of this type of mod on a Nintendo DSI lite:
http://youtu.be/Z4WQg_XIddM
Then, I looked into the metaphysical components of crystals. I surprised, though I vaguely remembered, that it was an IBM research scientist named Marcel Joseph Vogel, who was responsible for bridging the gap between computer science and metaphysics with his theories and the creation of the Vogel crystal. A man made crystal that supposedly has special properties regarding healing and meditation.. Though it is true that crystals has a place in metaphysical ideologies long before Mr. Vogel, what he did in bridging the scientific/metaphysical gap is akin to what some modern quantum physicists are doing with their theoretical science and metaphyisical spirituality (as can be seen in the film "What the (Bleep) Do We Know"
Finally, I was interested in the modding of internal clocks in computers. I think modding has become more and more common, as I have recently witnesses in the video game community (hackers ruin FPS's by the way). So, I looked for examples of modded internal clocks (crystal oscillators) in PC's and video game consoles.
The first two are more complicated, the last ones, having to do with different types os gameboys are more fun. This type of modding can be done to many electronic devices including controllers, music software, gaming systems, and more.
How to overclock a Nvidia graphics card:
http://youtu.be/qGQvmiRHSnw
and a PC CPU via BIOS:
http://youtu.be/bpwcQH-AATE
A modded crytal oscillator (in this case by simply replacing with a faster one) on an original Game Boy:
http://youtu.be/q9BgDMTfbyY
This link will show you the effects of this type of mod on a Nintendo DSI lite:
http://youtu.be/Z4WQg_XIddM
Wk:1 Muddy Blog Post; "Getting Started"
One issue that I found was a little "cloudy", in the intro to this class, were the issues surrounding the "fair use" principle, though I suppose it is sufficient when stating those guidelines will not be followed pertaining to this class; however, what I am more concerned with is the creative commons (not just the site but the concept). I imagine that when using images found on sites like wikipedia, those files are considered in the creative commons or protected by fair use.
Another factor that wasn't clear, was how do we properly cite images, graphs, or other data into our blogs? Do we follow guidelines we are familiar with, such as APA, or MLA. Indeed, this is a big concern when discussing the fact that improper use could affect our grades. It is especially confusing, when traditional blogging/bloggers tend to use widely dispersed images from the Internet without a second thought to who owns the image. There is a great sense, perhaps due to tumb1r, 4chan and space ghetto, that such images are ever-present in the public online space of the Internet, and therefore, belong to or can be used by all.
Another factor that wasn't clear, was how do we properly cite images, graphs, or other data into our blogs? Do we follow guidelines we are familiar with, such as APA, or MLA. Indeed, this is a big concern when discussing the fact that improper use could affect our grades. It is especially confusing, when traditional blogging/bloggers tend to use widely dispersed images from the Internet without a second thought to who owns the image. There is a great sense, perhaps due to tumb1r, 4chan and space ghetto, that such images are ever-present in the public online space of the Internet, and therefore, belong to or can be used by all.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
What is the uncanny valley?
The uncanny valley refers to a psychological hypothesis in modern 3D digital animation and robotics often attributed to Masahiro Mori , though its ideological roots can be found as far back as Sigmund Freud. The theory proposes that when an animated or robotic model replicates a human being to almost near perfection, it can too closely resemble a human being. At this point, when a human observes the model, they will feel revulsion. Moreover, the human reaction occurs on a gradient scale, so that as a model becomes more human-like, the observer has a more positive reaction; however, after a certain point, the human reaction quickly changes to a strong sense of revulsion. For example, C3P0 elicits a positive response from most people familiar with Star Wars, but many people react negatively to porcelain dolls (which completely freak me out, by the way) As seen on this graph from wikipedia.org, a sharp dip, or "valley" signifies the sudden shift in emotional response.
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