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.
Friday, October 28, 2011
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.
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| 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.
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