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.

Week 6: Clear

Photo by: phradaka
Open 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.