The Community Engine

take me to the mall

This article praises Walmart.com, Amazon, Apple and eBay for high online holiday sales. It’s interesting because actual results aren’t released until January, but predictions are made based on the amount of traffic between these sites and their shipping sites. If web users are browsing items and clicking on links to ship, they’re probably buying. Online shopping is predicted to grow about 24% this holiday season. That doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t think I’ll be included in that statistic. During the rest of the year, I do sometimes appreciate the convenience of online shopping - even though actually seeing/touching my purchase is a lot more fun. But during the holidays - I think it’s more than seeing the items, it’s actually experiencing the stores. What’s Christmas shopping without all the decorations and music surrounding you at the mall? That’s my opinion - and I’m sure it isn’t shared by all, especially those who hate the crowds more than they love the atmosphere.

The article makes a good point about a different use for online retail sites: research.

…retailers such as Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. may be coming up short in terms of converting traffic into Web sales. It was not clear, however, if this was due to some other dynamic — whether shoppers were simply looking at products online that they would later buy in stores, for example.

I do this all the time - and it can really make your trip to the store easier. Especially when you have to learn a significant amount about the purchase before you buy - like computers or other electronics.

In jb's blog, 12/20/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Merry Christmahununkwanzakah

As the blogging portion of the class comes to a close, it also signifies the end of a semester. People are starting to slow down a bit as finals time runs down, and the holiday spirit begins to set in. I want to wish everyone the best Christmas, Chununkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever you may or may not celebrate this holiday season (yeah, that’s about as PC as you can get. ). It’s been a great semester and I wish everyone the best of luck next semester and beyond.

In Matt's Musings, 12/20/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Can you hear me now? Umm…no.

A while back Supriya blogged about a possible migration of cellular companies from CDMA to GSM. PinkFootsie commented on the prevelance of cellular players outside of the US.

I’m a recent convert to the GSM camp. For years I had Verizon, followed by Sprint, and then Nextel. They all operate on CDMA networks. The each had various levels of call clarity (from high to low as listed), however I was never satisfied with the level of services offered. Then this summer I switced over to Cingular. While my call quality is definitely not as high as it was with Verizon or Sprint, I am a much happier cusomter. GSM phones use SIM cards, so transfering data from phone to phone is much easier, plus the GSM providers tend to offer a greater array of services.

However, lately it seems as if the GSM providers (Cingular, T-mobile) have been resting on their previously superior laurels while the CDMA providers have been upgrading their networks like crazy to reach 3G land. So I’ll give the throne at the moment to CDMA.

At this point, I don’t think their is a clear winner between the two technologies. Both have their pros and cons and from what I can tell, one isn’t necessarily better than the other. However, I think the cellular market would benefit from a unified standard (take a look at DVDs vs the Betamax/VHS fiasco). A unified standard would allow cell technology to advance and explode to unprecedented levels across the globe and very well may pave the way for a truly global communications network. However, CDMA towers aren’t easily converted over to GSM technology, so I don’t see the CDMA providers switching over anytime soon. They’ve spent billions of dollars on their current networks to change now.

So I’m not holding my breath for a change. But I CAN NOT WAIT for US carriers to get with the program and approach the level of technology currently enjoyed by the European and Japanese populace. I can not wait…until then, I’ll just drool at the phones I run across on Gizmodo.

In Matt's Musings, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Would you like no ‘ or two ‘’ ?

After reading Kevin’s post about Requirement 6, I checked out that SQL script he suggest.

It seems to be exactly what we’re looking for. However, when I tried to implement the script via the X-team, I ran into some syntax problems. In order to select a specific table, the script required that the table name be between apostrophes. However, the bind variable ? does not work when placed between apostrophes, ‘?’. Does anyone know how to get around this syntax error?

In Matt's Musings, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Server Side Up

In a recent post by Shady she comments,

“We would input information for a retailer through the web and it wouldn’t show up, out of the 5 - 10 times we tried to input, 2 or 3 would actually go through and show up on the website. It wouldn’t work, and then it would work, and then it wouldn’t work.”

Supermatt adds to Shady’s comments with,

“We have had similar issues were our code partly works, but never inconsistency when we update data. Although we have not inserted much today.”

Without knowing exactly what you were inserting I can’t say for sure, but I would bet that you were running into problems with non-escaped characters. With many databases, characters such as apostrophes and quotes can cause an insert statement to fault. This occurs because of the coding language uses these characters to delimit statements and so when it encounters when of these characters in your statement, it thinks it has reached the end of the statement and the insert fails. So when inserting things such as apostrophes, ampersands, quotes and such use HTML ASCII codes such as ” or &. Or escape the characters with a \ as in \&.

In Matt's Musings, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Opinion of BIT 320

I think that this course is extremely valuable and will be useful for a long, long time. I think that Bud provided a good high level overview, so that even the non-techie, non-programmer could understand how each language and step in the process linked together to provide the ultimate functionality that we were trying to obtain. I also think that the books were useful, especially with the course notes that gave good summaries of the chapters. I feel like I have a good enough knowledge that if a company came to me with a problem like Denali’s, that I would be able to figure out what steps to take to solve their problem and with the class resources as a guide, I could implement them. This is an extraordary amount of knowledge to learn in one semester.

In future classes, I would recommend a little more focus in class of what the function of everything is as if it were explained to the lamen. When people didn’t understand what the goal of learning how to do certain coding was, I believe that they lost the high interest level that they had when they understood clearly why it was important. As Pink Footsie said in her last blog, there are not many techie classes taught in the business school, so it is important to make the understanding simple for students who take this course. BIT301 prepared us for the first half of the course, so I am referring more to the second half.

In general, I would recommend that anyone who asks me should take this course. My biggest complaint about B-school classes in general is that they do not provide actual skills and specific knowledge that will be useful. They are usually filled with b.s. and ways of talking around situations with business jargon like ‘brand equity’. This class provides interesting, important, and useful skills that will help anyone with a career in business and especially with a focus in technology.

In musings of william h, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Advice for improving your interviews with BIT320

At a recent interview for an IT focused consulting firm, I was asked to describe some previous work that I’ve done in courses or a job that related to this type of work. I went into detail about the Denali project, and I recommend that you do the same at your next IT related interview. It provides a perfect story for them to hear the qualities and experience that they are looking for in a candidate.

Tell them about Denali, what the problem to solve is, then explain you decided to solve it (project 1) and how you have learned to implement the solution (project 2). This will put you far ahead other candidates, because it IS a real consulting project. I recommend that you flesh the story out and give yourself credit for devising the solution. I would even recommend using this for a job in a couple of years. This project is legitimate to use in an interview for any level job you’ll encounter in the next 5 years and it discusses technology and languages that will still be useful for a while.

In musings of william h, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Server Problem??

Following up on Shadywater’s question:

We couldn’t decide if it was our code’s problem or as we recently discovered at bud’s office, could be a server issue. What does everyone else think? Does anyone else run into the same problems?

We have not found this problem to be true. We have had similar issues were our code partly works, but never inconsistency when we update data. Although we have not inserted much today. Yesterday we added lots of data without problems. If it is a server problem please let us know.

In SuperMatt, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Servering Inconsistancies

So, as we were wrapping up our project 2 and just trying to our last minute testing to make sure everything works and we ran into some inconsistancies.

We would input information for a retailer through the web and it wouldn’t show up, out of the 5 - 10 times we tried to input, 2 or 3 would actually go through and show up on the website. It wouldn’t work, and then it would work, and then it wouldn’t work. We couldn’t decide if it was our code’s problem or as we recently discovered at bud’s office, could be a server issue. What does everyone else think? Does anyone else run into the same problems?

In Shady Waters, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

More RSS help

In addition to the helpful hint Kevin suggested. Another resource that I found helpful when learning RSS are two books from the library:

“Developing feeds with RSS and Atom” by Ben Hammersley
“Content syndication with RSS” by Ben Hammersley

If you were looking for the books I currently have the checked out from the Art, Architecture and Engineering library so if you are looking for them email me and I’ll get them to you. Good luck and happy coding.

In SuperMatt, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Helpful Hint

Requirement #6 asks us to generate a “show all tables and columns” report. At first we weren’t quite sure what this meant. After some exploration, we discovered the list_column_info_for_all.sql in our SQL directories. This should pull together all the tables and views.

Hope this helps!

In Kevin's Blog, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Update Forms

In class we’ve mainly been focusing on how to add new data via forms — but what about updating data? What if the sales representative enters the wrong information? Or what if one of the stores changes phone numbers? The trick is to use the update command instead of the insert command. You also need to use the attribute axis (@) in place of the bind parameter. You should end up with something looking like this:

xsql:set-page-param name=”id1″ value=”{@id1}”

UPDATE tableName SET id1 = ‘{@id1}’
WHERE id2 = ‘{@id2}’;

Hopefully this helps the other teams out. Good luck with the projects!

In Kevin's Blog, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

RSS - Team Goes for Bonus

Matt and I have been working on the RSS feed all night and we think we finally got it working! The feed is located at the following URL: http://elab-linux4.bus.umich.edu:8080/%7Ekevlers/RSS/testRSS.xsql (Bud - can you tell us if we’re all set with the feed)

The purpose of the feed is to notify customers of new store additions to the database. This is especially important to customers who do not have any stores in their immediate area. They can use the feed as a watch-list to see if any stores start carrying Denali Flavors. The xsql file pulls the information directly from the database, so it should be a valid feed, as opposed to just a well-formed document.

If any other teams are attempting to get the RSS feed working, I would recommend looking at this web site.

In Kevin's Blog, 12/19/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

The End is Near

As the semester draws to a close, I’m sure one question on everyone’s mind is what’s going to happen to http://www.thecommunityengine.com/bit320? Is the site simply going to close or will our posts live on? Will we be able to post once the course is over? Maybe Bud can let us know what he’s planning on doing. I absolutely think it’s worth keeping and would be beneficial to show future classes how we were able to develop a successful information community.

In Kevin's Blog, 12/18/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Responding to Aga

Aga, saw your two posts. I was unaware of the jEdit problem. You can log into two separate hosts under different user names, i.e., thecommunityengine.com and elab-linux4.bus.umich.edu. I guess, per your report, not the same host though.

As for your other issue, I fixed it. We should talk. The general strategy is what I outlined here, but a few of the details were missing in your effort. You were right. You almost had it.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/18/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Almost there: Please help

We’re getting the query form to work and we’re almost there. I got it to work (it’s simple, but the big complicated baby is being born tomorrow). I got everything to work except for the data to show up as a table. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s not working with connecting the simpleTable.xsl to the final output file and the only thing I could come up with was the templatematch command which refers to the rowset-element. I think everything is right so I’m out of ideas. Something’s missing and I’m determined to make this work. Please help. The files that interlink are on Kevin’s account under webapps/XSQL5/XSQL5TEST called createStoreInsertFormAGA1.xsql, customerHTMLAGA.xsl, insertStoreHTMLAGA.xsl, insertStoreAGA.xsql. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

In Pink Footsie, 12/18/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Disappointment with jEdit

One of the shortcomings with jEdit I noticed while working on this project is the inability to have several windows opened under a couple accounts. We’ve stored some things on my account, some things on kevin’s and others on matt’s because sometimes we had login problems when we worked simultaneously on someone’s account. Now trying to look between accounts either requires us to save it under somebody else’s account or opening and closing one person’s account and logging into the next person’s, searching for what we need and then closing that account and reopening the other person’s. Probably the easiest thing would be to transfer all of it to one person’s account (which we will have to do anyway) but this is definitely a shortcoming of the program. When you have two or more jEdit windows open it clears both into one person’s account. It’s something the designers could work on.

In Pink Footsie, 12/18/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

RSS Project Question, SuperMatt Goes for Bonus

Matt references an RSS question Aga raised last week. Frankly, I confused this one with a bookmark someone had made about RSS resources they had found for the project. The bookmark sounded like people were charging ahead. Matt and Aga want some ideas for how RSS could be used for Denali. Here’s a couple of ideas:

A feed of the most recent flavor requests from customers. Maybe the zip code could be a category element (i.e., a tag). You could easily aggregate requests by zip. Flavor might be another category element.
You could also have a feed of salesperson updates.

Basically, the ideas is to use RSS as a notification format. Categories give you convenient ways to aggregate the information in the feed.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

RSS Question still not answered

A week ago Aga wondered:

We’re wondering what kind of functionality would you like us to have involving RSS? We have a couple of ideas on how we could feed, but we’re wondering what are some options or preferential ways to feed into (let’s say we have a website…what do we feed it to? is there anything else we should consider?). Though we haven’t gotten to it, we’d like to attempt this portion though we may not get it to work. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

We still haven’t resolved this issue and now I am trying to decide which data I should try to transform into valid RSS feeds. Any ideas or thoughts are welcomed. Thank you

In SuperMatt, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

GSM technologies

Supriya recently wrote about Sprint’s possible move to GSM technology. I also researched wireless technology (we are in the same group in CSIB) and that’s good news for T-Mobile who shares a huge GSM network with its parent company, Deutsche Telekom. It is still the most reliable network and it is the most popular and widespread network globally. This might be why some companies might still be interested in investing in it. The economies of scale and the ability to expand your business into emerging markets might seem like a gold rock. Moreover, companies have to compete on many different fronts, and though Cingular, Verizon and Sprint are the mac daddy’s of the US market, it’s Vodafone, Bell and Deutsche Telekom that fire away in Europe (where cell phones are even more popular, and the market more saturated than in US, if you can believe it) and quickly forcing their way into China and other fresh markets. I guess what will happen remains to be seen, as network effects can be gained by moving to more popular technologies but US has always been the leader in technological movement but also not wanting to fall in line with the rest of the world, sometime because it’s strategic defensively (US security, and you’d be amazed how quickly you can disarm a country by sabotaging its electrical or wireless networks, just remind yourself of the big outage 2 years ago). The cards are to be dealt within the next 1.5 years.

In Pink Footsie, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

[no title]

The few comments that I got from outsiders about my blogs I really like because they have been about my Opinionslug ways. I have written a commentary on one journalist’s response to Microsoft’s Annual competition called “Don’t be so bitter”. He in turn responded back with:

Yes you are right, it is a choice. And I guess my comments might come off as bitter, but I’m trying to make a point. What the world needs is more entrepreneurs. Did you know that small businesses account for approximately 60% of the U.S. workforce? Growing the world’s ability to produce more wealth is the end result of building entrepreneurs. I believe that Microsoft should help these young technologists build their own companies, not steal their ideas with a bribe.

Another one was in reference to del.icio.us “For” feature and I got some advice:

You may want to have a look at Simpy’s Group functionality for a more robust non-tag-poluting public/private/invite/etc. version of that feature.

And one all the way back talking about Denali website characters. I think this is my favorite part of blogging, the interaction, the people who share and those who don’t your point of view. It’s a true test to knowledge management where people feed off of others’ opinions and thoughts to form an even better end product.

In Pink Footsie, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Answering Supriya’s question from 30,000 feet

After clearly having done much leg work, Supriya asks a rather detailed but conceptual question about how to employ user input to refine a query. My best answer, given the conceptual nature of the question, is to study XSQL4. In XSQL4, we took user input into an html form and submitted it to an XSQL page. In XSQL4, this page then added data to the database, but you could very easily have had the page just ask a query substituting the form data for the bind parameters.

My best advice is to start trying to figure out how to adapt XSQL4 and start asking questions from there.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

jbartko panics much too soon!

Jenny notes some continuing problems using a database sequence to generate a customer ID. Her team has struggled with this, and it is indeed hard to get to work right. You have to set up a sequence in oracle. You have to use XSQL to grab a new number from the sequence and XSLT to convert the result into an html form. Finally you have to submit the form to another XSQL page that actually inserts the customer into the database.

Well, Jenny’s group got the Oracle problem solved and thought they had everything set up for the rest of the chain. But, they were still getting an error message.

However, I tried it now, and it just worked.

“How can that be?” you might ask. Well, at each phase in the chain I just described, there is caching. Oracle cashes, XSQL and XSLT cache, and your browser caches. It can be hard to get all of these caches to clear out. Waiting a little bit can fix the issue. Changing the file slightly and resaving it can also fix the issue.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Question

I have a question regarding our project. So, I am trying to create a form which asks the customer to enter the retailername and outputs the store information (address, phone etc.) for the retailername queried by the customer.

Now, I have the xsql, xsml and xml working right now. But it is setup such that when I convert the xsql to xml, I enter RETAILERNAME= MEIJER in the secureshell as per the discussions with Tigerliliy and Bud earlier. But now I want to automate the whole process so that a form shows up on the screes where the customer enters Meijer, and the information shows up. My question is that how do I remove the manual interface of entering information in the secure shell, and put it in a form instead?

Bud, I know you mentioned about FORM ACTION, and to use that in your OH. However, where do I put this command? Does it go in the XSQL file, or do I create another file (of what type?)? Is there an example of such an interface with the form that we may have done in class?

I would really appreciate some help. Please let me know if you need any clarification. Thank you.

In supriya, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

need more help please

Follow up to Lindsay’s post:

Part 1 of our problem is solved. Create statements have been updated, sequences in there, etc.

PART 2 - we still don’t know what to do. High level problem: it is not grabbing the next number and putting it in the table. Therefore, we get a message that it cannot insert a null value for primary key (customer ID). Here’s the error message:

ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into (”JBARTKO”.”CUSTOMER”.”CUSTOMERID”) ORA-06512: at line 2

Help?

In jb's blog, 12/17/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

sequence problems

Lindsay mentions some sequence problems. Specifically, she is getting these problems:

create sequence retID increment by 1 start with 100
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00955: name is already used by an existing object

From the message, the issue is clearly that something else has the name she wants to give her sequence. A two part solution:

Give the sequence another name that will be unique, for instance, retIDSeq giving: create sequence retIDSeq increment by 1 start with 100
When dropping tables, don’t forget to drop the sequence, for instance, drop sequence retIDSeq

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/16/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Class Idea - Continued

Like Pink Footsie and Shady Waters, I definitely feel that there should be more “techie” classes at the business school. Personally, my experience with the BIT (once called CIS) program has been rather dissappointing. Coming into college, I wanted to do a CIS/MIS major, and pursue a career along those lines. I was deciding b/w the MIS program at Carnegie Mellon and the BIT Program here at the U of M. However, when I started with the business school here, I realized that there were not enough BIT classes or they were not as techie as I would like some of them to be, in order to get a solid CIS degree. Right now, I have enough classes to get a ” BIT concentration” but I feel that my knowledge is really not as good or thorough as some students graduating from other CIS programs. Realizing this last semester, I decided to pursue another concentration in Finance which also changed my career path.

I really hope that the business school adds more BIT classes, and make a strong BIT curriculum to match programs in schools like Wharton or CMU.

In supriya, 12/16/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Want to decode your Smile :)?

Reading news earlier this morning, I came across this article: “Computer Decodes Mona Lisa’s Smile” So, a computer engineer - Ncu Sebe, at the University of Amsterdam developed a software that can decode smiles. Sounds almost bizarre to me that a computer s/w can decode your smile and interpret your emotions!? Here is the method they used to decode Mona Lisa’s smile:

Sebe loaded average, neutral expressions of female faces into a database, which the software used to compare the painting against, says the “New Scientist” Web site.

And came up with these results:

The findings? Mona Lisa was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry, according to the British weekly “New Scientist.”

Has technology really advanced to the level where we can use computers to decode smiles? Also, I would think that each person would have very unique ways of expressing emotion, and maynot have the same facial expression or smile when responding to a particular emotion. Hence, how can you just compare against the average smiles and come up with such findings which sound rather precise?

In supriya, 12/16/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Exersizing past technology

I found an article on Nytimes that talks about getting inshape for those who play too many video games. It runs off of the PS2 and its called Eyetoy: Kinetic. There’s a video that tracks your movements and displays it on the screen and shows you where to move next. Essentially its just a video workout for your PS2 with a little interaction on the side.

I think video games and computers have given us an easy way out of just getting off our chairs, putting on some shoes and going out and doing some exersize…by ourselves or with others. It’s just sad that instead of going out and swimming, running, playing some sport, we would rather jump up and down in front of the TV or computer and relate to a video or a game than other people. And that’s one sad thing I think we’ve lost in this digital age ;(

In Shady Waters, 12/16/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Right on the Wiki

So a few people were talking about Wikipedia and the possible lies behind it since it its a user populated database. Sorry I couldn’t find the post for some reason, our tag cloud and the number of posts we have in totally is extremely large -_-

But I ran across an article in the NYtimes, a science journal, Nature says that Wiki

is about as accurate in covering scientific topics as Encyclopedia Britannica

And that the problems regarding incorrect information is actually very rare.

students got into a debate about the integrity of Wiki because many students use it now for research projects and what not. How much can you trust this or any source on the internet. I’ve found Wiki to be wrong on certain things but for the most part it is a detailed source and most of the time I try to get other sources that back it up or take it with a grain of salt.

In Shady Waters, 12/16/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Will del.icio.us be as del.icio.us?

Yahoo had an article about their recent acquisition of del.icio.us. Del.icio.us users are worried that their social bookmarking expereince will not be the same. They worry that Yahoo will “wallpaper del.icio.us with banner ads, force users to obtain a Yahoo ID and change the user interface.” Toby Padilla said:

“I’m very happy for the del.icio.us team for their successful exit, but as a user I’m a bit saddened by the fact that they aren’t going to try to go it alone. I think there is a certain amount of opportunity cost when an acquisition like this happens. I think their innovation will slow as they have to contend with the baggage of existing Yahoo services and general corporate bureaucracy.”

I truly hope that del.icio.us doesn’t change because I like it the way it is.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Is CDMA dead?

“Will US carriers switch mobile standards?” I read this rather shocking article which talks about how the US Wireless industry is moving from CDMA to GSM technology. I was shocked because I have been doing a lot of research on CDMA since I am writing a CSIB paper on Sprint which is a leader in CDMA technology. From the articles that I have read earlier, I got an impression that CDMA is still a leading technology in the US, and Sprint is further developing it by adding additional data features to it like the EV-DO technology and 3G networks. Also, there were discussions on how Sprint, after its recent merger with Nextel, will be able to combine its CDMA technology with Nextel’s WiDen services and lead the industry with the best networks.

However, this article talks about how there is a migration from CDMA to GSM. The article reads:

“CDMA is losing market share globally as the new mobile phone users live mostly in the areas where GSM is the leading technology”

From earlier blogs, I realize that our class has a good knowledge of different networks and the wireless industry since many of us are researching it for CSIB. What are your opinions? Is Sprint going to convert to GSM, and will GSM really take over CDMA?

In supriya, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Cheater cheater pumpkin eater..

Shadywaters recently posted about the big problem of cheating which seems to be surrounding B-School lately (First year BBA’s may I add *ahem*). I guess I never understood the point of cheating in college. I mean cheating shouldn’t happen period, but when you’re in high school and you’re forced tot ake certain classes, you will do anything to get an A so it doesn’t look bad on your transcript for HS. College isn’t about just getting that A anymore,I mean yes it is a large part, but the big difference is that in college, you CHOOSE what you want to do! DOn’t like a class? Drop it! Take classes you enjoy, and let me tell you, that the classes I’ve enjoyed the most are sometimes hte ones I get the worst grades in! There should beno reason to cheat, we’re all here to build our skills for our future careers or further education. I guess I don’t understand why someone would compromise learning for a cheap A.

In zee124, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Questions

Zeenah and Pink Footsie have been having a conversation about this clause in the project requirements:

justify the choice of functionality you implement

Zeenah’s cut:

Is this just telling us to explain the level we took our project to, in the aspect of how it serves customers and Denali, and why we took it to the level that we did?

Zeenah, you hit the nail on the head. Remember, you cannot do everything. Your group did a great job nailing the problem and proposing a solution. That’s a good way to define your focus, what you will and will not do.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Happynews.com

I came across a very interesting website called happynews.com. This website is the brainchiled of Byron Reese, who also has published several advice websites.

Media today is increasingly focused on accidents/ mishaps or exaggerating misery. Hence, I thought this website is a great way to learn about the happy or constructive events happening around the world and cheer yourself up from the dull and depressing media news.

For example, one of the stories talked about how Japanese are making the penguins exercise to stay healthy as they gain weight in the sever winters. Some other stories include: “Emily the stowaway cat is coming home”, “man decorates his house with synchronized lights” etc.

Even though some of these stories may sound lame or not as important, I think its a wonderful way to spread cheer and happiness and make people away of the good things that go on in this world in addition to the misery or war which is on media perpetually.

In supriya, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

CSI and Katrina

While we all know that most of the deaths were caused by the actual Hurricane itself, it has been 21 mysterious encounters. These deaths came from unexplained gunshot wounds to stabbings and fatal blows to the head. These unidentified victims are now the main characters in a real-life version of Crime Scene Investigation. While I’m not an avid CSI viewer I will be tuned in to see if they can indeed get to the bottom of this and the resulting actions. I don’t know how CSI’s current ratings are but I think that they will attract a host of new viewers when this is set to air. The dates of the shows were not given at this time but I’m sure they’ll be released shortly.

In The Blogstar, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I sympathize with Shady & Pink Footsie

The recent post by Shady and Pink Footsie about grades and the competition behind them sparked a few thoughts of my own. Pink Footsie made a comment saying,

What I’d really love, and this is definitely idealistic, is to be able to go to college and go to class without feeling the pressure to turn in an assignment, or to participate more than person X or regurgitate information at an exam (without being ranked, graded, evaluated).

While yes this is very idealistic, I think people tend to work better thar way. (or at least for me that is) It’s something about having the option to do something that takes a load off of me, and typically brings out a greater effort or the given assignment.

Besides that, when we are in competition with others concerning grades a lack of effort can derive from that at times. For instance, if you notice that you not at the top of the grading scale you made put forth just enough effort to get by knowing that you no longer qualify for the A, A+ in the course. None of us like to see our work overshadowed, but at times that may be the case b/c of the way the grading system is set up.

In The Blogstar, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

And You Thought Your Toilet Seat Was Comfortable

Check out the latest investment of the Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. This 1.3 million dollar toilet seat is getting rave reviews. This high-end, high-tech potty plug-in that bathes its user’s undercarriage with warm water and did I mention, it’s also wireless-enabled. It’s part of the mission “to create a better bathroom experience.” All of it’s features including the warm water wash and the heated seat operate at the push of a button. The Swash 600 model even has a warm air dryer and wireless remote control. While critics in America are skeptical of its potential success a similiar brand has already been proven to be worthwhile in Japan. According to WIKI they’re already in almost half of Japanese homes. We’ll just have to wait and see how Americans catch on to this top of the line toilet.

In The Blogstar, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Life as a Musical

So I said I would, we were talking about this one day in class when we just had a random thought, what if life was a musical? And everything you did had to be sung and have a little dance attached?

It’s a little easier doing it when you actually have a movement but I don’t know about having a musical in a computer room. You would definatly have to get up and do a little dance and swing around in the rolly chairs.

For awhile there, I tried to push my group to do a song and dance presentation for class, but I think the time crunch got in the way. Really it did!

So Matt, suggested that I post about this and then post a question at the end. And I was thinking, as the last major on this remix, what do we think about cheating in the business school. It has been the recent hot topic with all the cheating going on, but what does everyone else think?

I kind of feel that, if you are at the bschool and you cheat, you have to be really REALLY obvious to be caught. Which is unfortunate because cheating shouldn’t be acceptable but often times, maybe because I am a student also, it seems more obvious to me? Who knows yet again

In Shady Waters, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Techie Focus

Pink Footsie posted on the topic of class options and I have to agree with her whole heartedly! The number of BIT class options is just not enough in the bschool. I think part of is that the school isn’t focused on it. They are more focused on finance and accounting.

But really, I wish there were classes for the tech applications to business. It’s something that would be useful as we go forth and necessary and the fact that the bschool doesn’t focus on it past excel and database really means that we aren’t going to be fully prepared for entering the business world.

But I guess if you look at it from another perspective, if the focus of the bschool isn’t technology managment, then can you really blame them? Instead we might have needed to go to a school that did have such a focus. who knows!

In Shady Waters, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Hi-Tec City

I’m finishing up my packing to be on my way to India. It’s been four years since the last time I went and I can’t imagine how much has probably changed. But what I do remember was the commotion over the Hi-Tec (Hyderabad Information Technology-Engineering Center) City. Bill Gates had just come over and young Indian software engineers were given the chance to work for such a big company in their own towns. The buildings were still in construction, but had high expectations. I am definently going to go back there in this trip to see how much technology has really changed India. I’ll post pictures of the buildings as soon as I can!

In zee124, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I sympathize with Shady

I sympathize with Shady’s argument about grades mainly probably because I used to be very competitive but I’m less now. I don’t know if I really changed because of something or I have always looked at this issue differently (though I’m no saint and have my moments). I think we all have different personalities and the reason we are in this school is because we do have some competitive nature to us and we do want to be the best we can be. We also want to be recognized for the hard work we put in and sometimes grades look more at genius/experience than at effort mainly because effort is so much harder to see and evaluate. I think professors do their best to reward us based on what we really devoted to their class.

What I’d really love, and this is definitely idealistic, is to be able to go to college and go to class without feeling the pressure to turn in an assignment, or to participate more than person X or regurgitate information at an exam (without being ranked, graded, evaluated). Obviously there’s a purpose to this, repetition and effort encode things in your brain. I would love to go to a class and just sit and observe, volunteer information at will and go home pleased about the experience itself. I know this sounds very philosophical and perhaps wouldn’t work in practice, but some day I hope people will want to go to the classes they enrolled in because they want to, not because they have to (or need to for X purpose). Maybe it’s only a dream.

In Pink Footsie, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Zeenah’s question

Zeenah says:

justify the choice of functionality you implement
Is this just telling us to explain the level we took our project to, in the aspect of how it serves customers and Denali, and why we took it to the level that we did?

I think you are correct. That is what we are planning on doing. In addition to a thorough description of the business problem, we are supposed to justify why we chose to implement what we did and why we thought those things to be more important than others (why some things are just a mock up). Obviously some things we don’t know how to do, but I think this is an exercise in being able to justify why let’s say Denali should go with your version of the project than their professionals’. I think it’s just selling your idea and being able to explain why X and not Z. I hope this wasn’t too confusing and that it helps.

In Pink Footsie, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Class Idea

As I was perusing this year’s courseguide and editing my schedule I realized that unfortunately there aren’t many options as far as BIT classes and Operations classes go. I realize we have a very strong accounting and finance program and that maybe the lack of class offerrings is due to students focusing on those two areas. I, however, (because I like to be different as you know) would like to see more choices on that spectrum. Finance and accounting are foundations of business, but who cares about them at this time and place without strong operations and technology base (they’re all interdependent). Afterall it is the overall picture the world wants us to get, and even if we’re not an expert in X or Y we should know more about it.

I am not technically savvy but I’ve been prodding along in this class for hours, trying to get things to work. Whenever Oracle does NOT spit out: error…I do a little dance to the weird looks and laughs of the other business students. I’m proud of myself, though what I’ve done may not be much. Which brings me to an idea: I would love to see a class that focuses more on the software side of things. Now I know that engineering offers some introductory coding but I think Bschool could bring forth a course that could employ that subject as well as others, targeting it at the business professional. Now we all know Word, Powerpoint, there’s even an Excel course (some better than others). Though I think there might be ppl who are “familiar with” Dreamweaver, Photoshop, FrontPage, I could bet that there are few who would profess to be experts on it. I think it would be cool to take a class (perhaps a sequence) that teaches students the tricks and trades of programs like these, and maybe one on the hardware side as well. I know I’d take it.

In Pink Footsie, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Question about Write Up

The last section of Project 2’s write up says to

justify the choice of functionality you implement

Is this just telling us to explain the level we took our project to, in the aspect of how it serves customers and Denali, and why we took it to the level that we did?

In zee124, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Presentations

I think all of the teams did an excellent job presenting on Tuesday. It was great to see the course material really start coming together. I also enjoyed seeing the different groups apply what we’ve learned to solve a real-life business problem. I’m really motivated now to go back and improve on what Bud thought was weak with our project. Remember, the presentations were more of a check point than a final product. The presentation feedback was meant to inspire confidence and also to encourage us to continue developing our projects.

In Kevin's Blog, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Time Archive online for free

In response to Matt’s blog about how much he enjoys Time Magazine, there is some useful information that I just found out. I have been an avid reader of Time for the last 3 years. I like it so much because it provides news in all subjects and focuses on technology as well. Their technology section does a great job of keeping people informed.

Now, Time is offering a new reason to become a subscriber. Now subscribers have FULL ACCESS to ALL Time articles in their online archive back to 1923. This is awesome. I really like using past articles from Time or Newsweek to understand the perspective at a specific time in history and now I can do this without going through a database or library.

I recommend getting Time if you are choosing between a news related magazine, especially with this new free offering. Its pretty cool.

In musings of william h, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Challenge X

With all the talk about hybrids and fuel efficient cars going on, I thought I’d let you know about a cool experience anyone who is interested can be involved in.Challenge X is an initiative between the Department of Energy and GM. In this challenge 17 schools across the country compete to develop the next source of sustainable energy for cars. For more information on this challenge you can visit www.challengex.org or email Steve Scott (steve.scott@onstar.com). It sounds like a long commitment but a very fulfilling experience.

In zee124, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Building your Own Search Engine

There’s been a lot of talk about search engines and Google’s domination. We discussed in class how MSN is even thinking of paying people to use its search engine. Amazon is changing things areound. It’s offering to lease a complex internet search service so people can build their own search engines. It will provide access too ver 5 billion webpages. In essence

“Instead of a map of the world, Amazon has a map of the Web—a database of the Web and map of the relationships between them. And [the company] expects people can do interesting things with that information.”

I’m not sure if people will utilize this service. Even if you have access to over 5 billion webpages, will it really be as effective s google? I’m not seeing the benefits of having your own search engine built to your needs.

In zee124, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

At the End of the Show

Recently, there has been a bit of flurry on the communityengine regarding the project presentations, the level we should attain, and each groups feelings regarding it. JB, Matt and Matt, Tigerlilly, and Bud have all commented extensivly.

There has been a general concern regarding the comparison between groups because each group has different levels of ability and that directly effects the output of each group and also the grades each group gets. I think they are all valid concerns. Bud has address this concern by saying:

I’m willing to give up to the allowed 60% As in the class and, after today, see that as the likely outcome. However, for that to happen, you need to continue to sell me on why your project is good, not on why you cannot achieve as much as your peers.

But I think another interesting point to make is, why are we all so competitive? Is just a trait that business school students have, develop when we enter the bschool community, or maybe it isn’t competitiveness at all? I am as guilty as any other of competition and the desire to win. And this type of question leads directly to our reward system, grades, and what it actually encourages.

We’ve talked about this issue off and on here on the Remix. But its always an interesting questions to bring up. Because in it’s basic, education should be about learning…our desire to learn and ideal, we should be able to motivate ourselves regarding learning as much as we can. But its not ideal, and sometimes if there wasn’t something on the line for me at the end, I know I would have trouble motivating myself to learn and finish learning certain things…especially in the time crunch as students we are in. Actually, it’s not I know, it’s I do.

Just some thoughts on the issue. And Bud, its ok, you don’t have to say anymore ;D

In Shady Waters, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Don’t write more in your blog than it takes to solve the issue

Matt observes:

HOWEVER, he went on to say:

Their problem description needed a little work, but their solution was spot on and well thought out.

This was a little disappointing to hear. Obviously, it is not a hard problem to solve, but the lessons that are behind it are important.

You guys are doing fine, just sharpen that objective. Your other points are good, but I really just meant for you to sharpen things a bit.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I can mildly sympathize with this point

JB remarks:

I’m not bitter or anything. I still love the class and it makes me feel smart. We’ve been trying hard and doing great. But it’s just frusterating when our hardest work looks so little next to someone else’s.

I can mildly sympathize, but several points keep me from becoming fully sympathetic:

Projects will always have different strengths. While JB’s project may not have had wizardry, it did have a solid grasp of the basics, and the busines objective was the best stated. This type of project is more likely to produce an effective result than one with wizardry and no business objective. In other words, Jennie is underrating her accomplishment.
The project with “wizardry” actually only adapted XSQL5. In other words, they just used the callow strategy of changing some words in an already existing example. Therefore, the logic that I only know how to change words, thus I cannot produce technical “wizardry” just does not add up. The word changers were smart, leveraging their word changing skills with a good, though poorly stated, understanding of the problem.
I have students coming to me with no technical background, making great progress. Some of today’s “wizardry” came from just these students. Not years of experience to show what was shown today. Two months and a will to do it.

I walked away from today’s presentations thinking everyone had made great progress but also that everyone still had some work to do, some more than others.

Recall that grading is competitive. I’m willing to give up to the allowed 60% As in the class and, after today, see that as the likely outcome. However, for that to happen, you need to continue to sell me on why your project is good, not on why you cannot achieve as much as your peers.

I’m not going to say anymore on this topic. I’m willing to help people who want to make progress.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/14/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Feedback - My thoughts

I was happy that many people complemented the effort and technical success that my group has achieved. Bud was kind enough to say:

All groups should aspire to the technical level that Kevin, Aga, Matt Ruprecht, and Supriya achieved.

HOWEVER, he went on to say:

Their problem description needed a little work, but their solution was spot on and well thought out.

This was a little disappointing to hear. Obviously, it is not a hard problem to solve, but the lessons that are behind it are important.

The first lesson is understand the level of comprehension of the problem on both sides of the table. For this project we are IT consultants, we are given a real business problem from a customer and we are expected to have the business and IT knowledge to solve. For any of us that are going into consulting, IT consulting, or any technical field it is important to understand more than just the problem. We need to understand how the other person understands the problem A funny example of this actually happened to me this week at Merrill Lynch. My boss at work has a dual display for his computer. He has very little understand of computers and so to keep things simple for himself he keeps Outlook open on his left monitor and Merrill software on the right monitor. When I was at work this week his Outlook (on his left monitor) froze. Since he has such a limited understand of computers, he thought there was a problem with his left monitor. Now of course this is such a simple example, but when things get technical these problem could easily exist.

The second problem is we need to understand how the person wants the problem solved. For example, we all assumed that Denali flavors would want to use html insert forms to enter data into their database (of course this assumption goes along with course materials and project requirements). The truth is that John never mentioned that he wanted us to use web form to input data. If he only wanted data to be added at the main office typing in ugly SQL language, we would have wasted our time, and not really solved the problem the way the client wanted.

The third problem is over doing it. Bud told about an experience he had in his professional career about how sometimes doing more doesn’t always help. As students we barely have enough time to do all of our required assignments let alone time to over do it. It is something to remember that extra work isn’t always worth it.

As much as doing extra work is a bad thing. I think there is value in explaining to customers the full potential of their database. For example, in my part of presentation, I made many demands for my database, and I bet that when our projects are done ALL of the groups well have solved the problems I “demands” I listed. One lesson that Bit301 taught is the value of information and databases, now in Bit320 I’m learning how to make them, I want to harness their full value. So while I will state the problem in the project that Denali wanted a well-formed normalized that database that would allow customers to search for and find their favorite flavors in their local stores. I will know and make a database that can do much more.

In SuperMatt, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I want a cell phone with a camera and a planner and a mp3 and a…

Tigerlily23 brings up many topics for discussion in her articles about movies on Cell phones. I want to take it into a new direction. Cell phones are starting to offer more and more features: cameras, planners, mp3 players, etc. However these Swiss army devices are thought of as phones with other features. Mainly because these secondary features do not measure up in quality to devices that specialize in these features. For example the 1 mega pixel cameras in cell phones do not come anywhere close to the 3-8 mega pixel that are on the market, and I don’t think a cell phone could ever complete with Apple’s Ipod. The reason I feel this way is not because of technological reasons but for business reasons. If Apple wanted to they could partner up with a cell phone manufacturer to produce a great cell phone / mp3, but what would be Apple’s motivation all this would do is a cannibalize Ipod sales. I think that this ultimately hurts the consumer because I would rather have a cell phone/Ipod/camera in my pocket as opposed to all three separately. I searched for articles about this on the net, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. What do you think? Are there reasons for firms to collaborate? What would be the long term implications for the industry? Have you seen any articles about this on the web?

In SuperMatt, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Talk

Let me jump right in to the discussion. I liked the presentations today: everyone had some great stuff going on. I did share Lindsay’s concern in that I fear our team is lacking a “wizard.” I read Bud’s response and I know that we’ve all learned the same things in this class… but I still maintain that 2 months of looking at this material does not put us on the same level as a person who may have been looking at it for years. Even if you haven’t been learning the X-men exactly, learning about anything related to in-depth html, databases or any kind of code does put you a little ahead of others. But - don’t get me wrong - I’m not bitter or anything. I still love the class and it makes me feel smart. We’ve been trying hard and doing great. But it’s just frusterating when our hardest work looks so little next to someone else’s.

And I also agree with Lindsay’s great point about why it would be helpful to write something like SimpleTable. I know it’s tedious and probably not appropriate for BIT320 - but can you imagine how much easier it would be to “debug” a file if we knew exactly what every line in that file actually does? Sometimes when we have to figure out an error I feel so lost just staring at the screen. So, while BIT320 is excellent for the “big picture” - at some point it would be cool to write a file like that.

I like how BIT320 is kind to business majors. We love the big picture. And like Bud said and blogged today, it seems that one of the best things our team did was identify the problem and understand what the solution should look like. So when we’re out in the business world, we can at least say “hey, maybe this problem can be solved with a nice user-friendly web interface and a giant database… here’s what it would do, now who can we hire to write that up?” Which is similar to Matt’s opinion.

In jb's blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

FireFox Fan, but not yet ready for 1.5

I agree with JB, FireFox is definitely one of my favorite discoveries of 2005 (Sorry Kevin and Aga). As JB points out it is important to remember that although they are working out a few bugs:

Don’t worry fellow fans - the security threat is low and doesn’t open up systems to bigger attacks. The file can be removed and there are ways of dealing with this issue, published by both Mozilla and other sources.

I was temped to download the new version, however, I think the last thing I need this week is computer problems so I think I will wait till break to upgrade. In addition to plug-in problems that I blogged about earlier this week, I sometimes have a problem viewing PDF files. On my computer I have the full version of adobe acrobat 6.0, and I think Firefox actually works better with the free acrobat reader as opposed to the full version. If I were Adobe I would want it to be the other way around! In any event, I don’t think I’ll use IE if I can help it. If you are still unsold on FireFox check this it out: This article discuss some of the benefits of FireFox. It is older, but filled with good basic benefits of the browser.

In SuperMatt, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

RSS feed

Our team has a little question about the RSS portion of the project. We’re wondering what kind of functionality would you like us to have involving RSS? We have a couple of ideas on how we could feed, but we’re wondering what are some options or preferential ways to feed into (let’s say we have a website…what do we feed it to? is there anything else we should consider?). Though we haven’t gotten to it, we’d like to attempt this portion though we may not get it to work. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

In Pink Footsie, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Time and other periodicals

I liked reading Dave’s most recent blog post of new technology. He discovers:

In the current edition (Dec. 12th) of Time Magazine, there is an extremely interesting section on tech pioneers. It has 1-2 column articles about different companies that are coming out with cutting edge technologies, services, and products. I highly recommend reading it.

ls is my favorite form of reading because they compress lots of information into a few concise paragraphs perfect for a business lifestyle and support my short attention span. Of course the major problem for me is that I’m cheap and I don’t like to spend $5 a month. My solution: Proquest. When you are on the main page click on the Publication tab. Finally search for your favorite periodical. I bet they have it.Best of all it’s free. The only downside is that it may runs on a three month delay. This is also an excellant example of a database. Maybe someday it will be on an RSS feed, so I can select my favorite magazines and then when it is updated it will come directly to me.

In SuperMatt, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

What to take-away

I couldn’t agree with Matt more when he says

Will all of us go off to our next jobs and say, “Hey, I can write XML?” Well, probably not. But we will be able to say with confidence, “Yeah, I’ve seen that before.”

This class has taught me a lot about the basics behind XML and SQL and all the components, but I wish we had more time. I would have loved to go in deeper and experiment with more complex models. Sometimes the courses at the Business School go by so fast that I feel like I just get a taste of things without really deepening my knowledge of it. The BIT department should definently think about making this course longer so that students can go more in depth.

In zee124, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

How to skin a moose?

Just like Bud and Tigerlily, I have to say I was quite impressed with the project presentations today. Like Tigerlily said,

“I kind of expected today’s class to be boring because I would have to listen to the same thing three times, but it wasn’t.”

The way in which we each attempted to approach the project was unique and really went to show that there is more than one way to skin the preverbial cat, or I guess in this case, the moose.

yond the slick and shiny interfaces shown off today, I was more excited about what working models mean: an understandinng of the technology. For a couple weeks, I knew I had an understanding of the X-team. But it wasn’t really until I dug my heals in and got my hands dirty that I realized that I didn’t know have as much as I thought I did, and at the same time, knew more than I thought I did. Does that make sense? On some level I think it does. Will all of us go off to our next jobs and say, “Hey, I can write XML?” Well, probably not. But we will be able to say with confidence, “Yeah, I’ve seen that before.”

Since the theme of the day is “value-added”….here’s a link to a listing of all the dairies producing moosetracks in the US. It may help you out adding real data to your databases.

In Matt's Musings, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Response for Supriya

Sorry for being a little vague. In my previous post, about supriya’s question I said you need to have ?RETAILERNAME=MEIJER (or whatever retailer you want) at the end of the URL for whatever page it is on. So in response to your recent post, it would be this url. I know you can do something so that it automatically comes up but we haven’t figured it out yet. Hope this helps.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Question for Tigerlily

Thanks to Tigerlily for looking at our code, and coming up with a possible solution. I have a quick question. When you entered ?RETAILERNAME=MEIJER, where did you enter this? As in, did you enter it in the Where clause or along with xsql:query bind-params=”RETAILERNAME”? I actually entered in with the Where clause but that is still giving me an error. Also, do you still define the bind param with the command xsql:query bind-params=”RETAILERNAME”?

Thanks again for your help

In supriya, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project Presentations

First off, I liked the project presentations. Each added something. Matt Aldridge, Dave Reiss, and Ryan Sheffield had a nice thank-you screen that came up after the user did their thing; overall a good interaction design. They have some work to do in getting their initial attempts to a more complete stage so that they meet the project requirements.

Lindsay, Stephanie, Zeenah, and Jennie did a very good presentation on the web. How they set the scene was excellent. They actually did the best job of describing the problem to be solved and presented the beginnings of a solution. Their plans to add features to their solution such as a auto-generated IDs are the right next step.

All groups should aspire to the technical level that Kevin, Aga, Matt Ruprecht, and Supriya achieved. Their problem description needed a little work, but their solution was spot on and well thought out. There has been some suggestion that their solution was due to the wizardry of one person and that other groups just cannot get there. Others only know how to change a word here or there.

I don’t believe that for one minute. Nobody knew this material before taking the class, and all groups displayed some mastery of it by the end of the class. For instance, although Matt Aldridge’s group perhaps has the furthest to go in their implementation, Matt displayed a good understanding of what was going on by creating a template to display a nice message once the user had input their data. Aga, who professes to have little knowledge of html is soldiering on to get one of her XSQL pages to work.

I like determination, resourcefulness, and people who figure out how to get the job done. I’m ready to help anybody succeed who arrives at my door with this set of attitudes. That is the set of attitudes that works in today’s burgeoning and rapidly changing technology world.

You all can do well. Keep on trying. I will only consider and accept your best. Show it to me.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Supriya’s Question Suggestion

In her post, she said that their view didn’t return any rows (i think). We had a problem with having a bind variable that was text and we changed what he told us (which is the same thing he told you). We didn’t get anything to show up originally because with this type of bind parameter you can set a default. So we had to type ?container=5+gal, where container is the bind and 5+gal is what we want to find. This is typed at the end of the URL on that page. I did this for yours and added ?RETAILERNAME=MEIJER and it returned this:

&ltpage>
-
&ltROWSET>
-
&ltROW num=”1″>
&ltRETAILERNAME>MEIJER
&ltZIPCODE>00002
&ltSTORESTREET>543 BUD STREET
&ltSTORECITY>DETROIT
&ltSTORESTATE>MI
&ltSTOREPHONE>5233542654

-
&ltROW num=”2″>
&ltRETAILERNAME>MEIJER
&ltZIPCODE>00004
&ltSTORESTREET>243 JENNY DRIVE
&ltSTORECITY>SEATTLE
&ltSTORESTATE>WA
&ltSTOREPHONE>5234543577

I don’t know if you have tried this yet, but I hope it helps.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Presentation and Project Thoughts

First let me say how amazing it is that three different groups working on the same problem that Denali is having, can have such different interpretations and presentations. I kind of expected today’s class to be boring because I would have to listen to the same thing three times, but it wasn’t. I think we have each succeeded at “adding value,” (at least a little value) to Denali in some form or another, now we just need to make ours (my group and the group that went second) as good as the last group that presented. I only wish we had whoever knows how to do all of that stuff in my group. On that note, I hope Bud takes into consideration that some of us are not as web-design-savvy as others.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

The value of learning to write simpleTable

After speaking in class about the almost pointlessness for us to create our own templates in an effort to create value, I realized why I think it is still beneficial for teaching in class. In learning to write one, I will know what each little line does and stands for. Now, I have no idea what most of it does. All I know is that you have to change a word here and there. I think learning how to write one will give us a better understanding of what exactly we are doing that is creating value for someone else (Denali). I agree with Bud in that writing our own for this project wouldn’t add value, but five years later when I need to do it for someone else, what will I do? It is more about understanding what we are doing than just changing a word. I hope this clears up the reason for why I wish the class spent more time on teaching us xsl, xml, etc.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Seniors and Technology?

In the article High-Tech for Seniors Moves Beyond Clapper, they address a few new technologies to “help seniors and their families live happy and healthy in their own home.” For instance, there is a telephone, by Intel, that helps Alzheimer’s patients by showing them a picture of who is calling them, how they know that person and when they last talked. “No more embarrassing pauses while the person getting the call tries to remember who Christine is.”

In addition, Accenture has designed a “medicine cabinet that can be programmed to keep track of what medicine it holds and when it should be taken. A built-on camera scans the face of the person at the cabinet and a voice can remind that it’s time to take a pill. If the wrong bottle is chosen, the voice warns of the error. The medicine cabinet even has a blood pressure cuff and is connected to a scale, so it can collect weight and pressure data and e-mail the information to a physician or caregiver.”

Furthermore, the Medical Automation Research Center created floor that can track the movement. These sensors “recognize changes in gait and detect a fall.” This organization also “developed the bed that senses breathing rate and pulse.” Both of these technologies will call a caregiver for help if there is a sudden change in pattern.

There are other technologies listed in this article including:

Video games that track dexterity and speed, which helps doctors diagnose neurological diseases.
A watch that tracks the movement of people and will warn them if they have forgotten to take their pills.
If a senior falls, a robot can go to the scene (along with caregivers) and broadcast back to a doctor, who can advise the them on how to assist the patient.
A computerized flash card that can attach to a key ring and provide access to a person’s medical history.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Movies on a Cell Phone…is this necessary?

No big surprise…if you can watch videos on an iPod, why not watch them on a cell phone. The article stated:

Sprint has has made no secret of wanting a piece of the mobile digital content revolution. On Monday, the company announced plans to move quickly into video services — maybe too quickly. Sprint said that full-length movies will be available for users of many of its mobile phones. The jury’s still very much out as to whether the mobile phone providers have all the right moves in this area, though, and so far the Sprint offering doesn’t sound too compelling.

I am not surprised with this move, but I think iPods will have an edge since they are so popular. However, your iPod can’t call anyone…yet. For $6.95 a month sprint users will have access to unlimited movies, tv shows and other video content. Currently, however, they only have “Angel and the Badman, One-Eyed Jacks, Short Circuit, and Night of the Living Dead.” Okay, so I have heard of like one of those movies, and consequently, won’t be jumping at this offer. Thankfully, Sprint has announced a deal with ESPN (and Disney) so maybe the content will get better than the four movies they currently have. My final comment on this is good for Sprint, but I can’t watch a hour and a half movie on a one-inch screen. Can you?

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/13/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Project: Problem with XSL File

We have another problem with our XSL file. We modified the original XSL file that we used to create forms to input store information and was working to create another file to create a form that the customer would enter the query and retrieve the store information. So, the xsl file is called insertStoreHTMLTEST3.xsl and we converted the xsql to TEST6.xml. Now, when we do oraxsl insertStoreHTMLTEST3.xsl TEST6.xml, we get the following error:

Error occurred while parsing insertStoreTEST3.xsl: /home/usr01/bit320/kevlers/webapps/XSQL5/XSQL5TEST/insertStoreTEST3.xsl (No such file or directory)

But insertStoreTEST3.xsl does exist in the directory. Could you please look into our files, and tell us where we are going wrong?

Thank you.

In supriya, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Question regarding project

We made the changes as advised by Bud in his post and added the RETAILNAME parameter in place of the ?. However, our XSQL is still not working. Our files are in Kevin’s account in the directory kevlers>webapps>XSQL5>XSQL5TEST. We created two versions - insertStoreTEST5.xsql has the code as advised by Bud. The other file - insertStoreTEST3.xsql has the same code as the other but we defined the bind param in the code above.

However, neither of the two files are working.

When we run the file insertStoreTEST3.xsql, we get the followin error:

&lt ?xml version = ‘1.0′? &gt
&lt page &gt
        &lt xsql-error code=”1006″ action=”xsql:query” &gt &lt statement &gt SELECT RETAILERNAME, ZIPCODE, STORESTREET, STORECITY, STORESTATE, STOREPHONE
        FROM STORE
        WHERE RETAILERNAME='’ &lt/statement &gt &lt message &gt ORA-01006: bind variable does not exist
&lt /message &gt &lt /xsql-error &gt
&lt /page &gt

Then, when we run the file insertStoreTEST5.xsql, we get the error:

&lt ?xml version = ‘1.0′? &gt
&lt page &gt
&lt ROWSET&gt
&lt /page &gt

Could you please tell us what is going wrong. We replaced the ? with the RETAILERNAME parameter, and then tried two ways: with and without defining RETAILERNAME parameter, but none of it is working. Thank you

In supriya, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Silicon Optix solves problem with HDTV

In the current edition (Dec. 12th) of Time Magazine, there is an extremely interesting section on tech pioneers. It has 1-2 column articles about different companies that are coming out with cutting edge technologies, services, and products. I highly recommend reading it.

One of the businesses featured is called Silicon Optix. It has developed an “advanced video-processing chip, the Realta chip, that enables real-time pixel-by-pixel processing of HDTV, delivering Hollywood-quality video to consumers at a fraction of the cost.”

Currently, if you most channels only transmit their content in standard definition format, no in HD quality. This chip converts the signal into HD on your TV so you get the HD quality for channels that don’t transmit in HD. This makes purchasing an HDTV much more valuable to a consumer.

In musings of william h, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

A problem with Firefox? (Gasp!)

I’m not too happy about this, either. Firefox is among my top five favorite new things of 2005. (I know, it’s older than that, but I was a little late.) Anyway, we’ve been blogging about Firefox plug-in issues while using computers at the Bschool. With Firefox on the brain, I came across this brief article about the new version 1.5. It seems that Firefox is susceptible to a certain type of history file contained on bad websites. The file causes Firefox to freeze up upon start until the file is deleted.

Don’t worry fellow fans - the security threat is low and doesn’t open up systems to bigger attacks. The file can be removed and there are ways of dealing with this issue, published by both Mozilla and other sources.

Does anyone have 1.5 yet? It’s only a few days old, right?

In jb's blog, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I’m Headed in the Right Direction

Kevin’s post about the Ancestry Map is really cool. The map shows which ancestry has the largest population in a given geographic area of the United States. I’m off to New York next year, which is already highly populated by Italians. (I know, the last name might throw you off, but I’m actually 50% Italian.)

As mentioned by Aga, this is just another example of technology connecting to everyone in every way that matters. Contrary to what some non-techies might believe, the internet is not just for techie-talk. I’m going to show this sight to my Grandpa and hopefully add to my argument for why he should do more than just email on his PC.

In jb's blog, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I Share Matt’s OCD

Today while finishing up our project we checked out the results of our Customer Insert Form in Oracle. Turns out we found one of those blank numbers that SuperMatt and Matt have blogged about. Matt says:

Plus, the OCD side of me would flip out at a non-sequential number sequence in the database.

I agree; it really got on my nerves. We sat there trying to remember how to delete entries but decided we’d just have to let it go and push on with the rest of the presentation. First of all, does anyone know how to delete the blank numbers? I guess we’ll have to put up with the skips in sequence, but the blank rows are killer. (I assume you guys are also getting the blank rows… or is it just us?) Second, I completely agree that the next new number should be generated at some point after the page loads, if we are in fact correct in assuming that the number is generating upon the loading of the page. (Which was originially SuperMatt’s assumption.)

In jb's blog, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Man apologizes about fake Wiki bio

I recently made a post about how a man found himeslf to be party to the assassination a Robert Kennedy in a Wiki bio. The author of the bio has apologized to him and his excuse was,

“I didn’t think twice about just leaving it there because I didn’t think anyone would ever take it seriously for more than a few seconds”

It was intended to be a joke between him and a co-worker. It’s still hard to believe that a site that gets 10’s of millions of viewers a month would have questions about credibility. The falsely accused man said that because of this and many incidents as such, he fears that we’re soon going to get goverment regulation over th internet. Is that something that we really want?

In The Blogstar, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Cheap computers for people in the developing world

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab run by Nicholas Negroponte will produce a few million hand cranked computers for people in the developing world that want coomputers that can access the internet.

“United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has welcomed the development of the small, hand-cranked lime-green devices, which can set up their own wireless networks and are intended to bring computer access to areas that lack reliable electricity.” - MSNBC Article

The first few million will be distributed to schoolchildren in Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria. The cost for school-children is $100. The cost to the general public is $200.

This is a great idea for spreading internet acess to people that are currently removed from the vast opportunities for learning and business that the internet offers. This can allow a person from Egypt that whittles fancy wooden rockinghorses to sell them on the internet through ebay if he wanted for American currency. Access to that can really help business out for small businesses. I hope more companies innovate like this.

In musings of william h, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Plugged in there, Plugged out here

Matt’s comments about active-x and flash pluggins made me think about the situation. Most websites that are recently being created like, Lettuce, use flash as the only way for getting the full animation of the site. Since these are not secure, will this eventually cause webdesigners to use another method than flash. Because I bet this situation arises at other universities, high schools, businesses, and government facilities, in which people can’t access them.

Does anyone have any ideas on how this phenomena will affect future webdesigning?

In musings of william h, 12/12/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I heart the t word

Just like Kevin looked up his roots, I decided to take a study break and look up mine. What I love about technology is that it enables you to connect to the things that matter most to you, to your family and to everything that makes you who you are today. You might have gotten so used to using email, Skype, sending pictures over the internet, that it’s value is meaningless to you except for the speed and the convenience of having everything on one piece of machinery. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But imagine how it used to be and how it is for those like me who connect to their family globally. I have an aunt in France, best friend in England, family and friends all over Poland including my dad, a cousin in Atlanta and one is Australia, my sister is in Ohio and in about 9 months I will be in Seattle, WA, 4.5 hrs by plane and 1600 miles away from my nearest relative and my closest friends.

To me, my phone, my digital pictures and my email mean more than you might possibly imagine. And to me finding out what my family is doing and what’s going on in the country I was born, which forever will be my second home, is priceless. No it’s not another Mastercard commercial, this is my life. And to give you a sneak peek into something very different, I would take a look at this website which gives you link to download just a snippit of Poland’s hip hop culture. Yeah you heard it right, hip hop culture. You probably won’t understand and you will most likely laugh just like i did when i first heard it, but at least you will connect to something you probably never heard before or didn’t know it existed, and trust me those moments for me too have made life worth living. Technology is one of those over used words like synergies, core competency and other bs but I can tell you the impact of it and the importance it holds for some people means more than any other over used word can imply.

In Pink Footsie, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Lindsay comes clean

I like Lindsay’s honest appraisal of BIT320:

My only complaint about this class is that it is too fast. It has nothing to do with who teaches it or what the project is on, simply there is too much information packed into 15 weeks. I think it may be better to have a prereq that is a more intro level database class so that students have an idea of the basics. After taking that class, they can take this one and focus on xml, xslt, xsl and everything else we covered in the second half. I think all of this stuff is interesting, but because I didn’t know anything about it previously I have been a little lost for the last month. I think it would have been nice to learn more about how to write these templates/stylesheets than to reuse ones from class. I may be a little pessimistic in class but it is a result of my confusion.

Let me say that I agree that there is a lot of material packed in. The chief benefit of that is that we get to something that can be implemented. In other words, you get some real world bang for your buck.

I also understand the unease at using code you do not quite get intellectually. Personally, I would say that the advantage of that is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Also, it presents a realistic picture of what you can expect to find. The experience I had this term of helping the Corante network implement our tag cloud technology really illustrates that. The Corante guys had a high level understanding of what was going on, but did not know all the details.

My hope would be that people who are interested in a more in-depth treatment of any of these items would pursue other courses. I honestly believe that the technologies you have learned about in this course are not just in the coming wave but in the wave that is currently breaking, fundamentally changing the business shoreline. Just look at Google’s valuation.

In this regard, let me say that I appreciate Lindsay’s contributions. That superglu thing was fantastic. I blogged about it, linking to her, on my main blog and got it picked up in a few places. If I think that I helped make people in this class able to look out for that sort of thing, then my mission was a success.

In Blogonautic Solutions, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Racial demographics of the United States

The United States is indeed a very diverse country. I was interested in finding out how my ancestry (German and Norwegian) is spread out across the U.S. Interestingly, it turns out that German is the top ancestry in the U.S., with 15.2% of the population stating they have German ancestry. The following map on Wikipedia.org maps out the largest ancestries by counties. It’s fascinating to see the effects of immigration in the Southern U.S.

This link contains a figure showing the top fifteen ancestries.

This last link shows the 2000 population distribution in the U.S – also very interesting.

In Kevin's Blog, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Frame Alternatives

As Bud already touched on, frames are generally looked down upon in the web design community. In fact, some go so far as to say that using frames is one of the top ten biggest mistakes in web design. A brief search on the term frames on Google revealed many web sites, such as this one, that discuss the downsides of using frames.

Many of you are probably wondering how to include a navigational structure on top of the XSLT pages if you can’t use frames.

One option is to include an inline frame. Inline frames are similar to frames pages except that the inline frame and its contents are embedded on an existing Web page, so you don’t need a separate frames page. Below is an example:

http://elab-linux4.bus.umich.edu:8080/~kevlers/XSQL5/VARIETY%20insert%20form/VARIETYInsertForm.html” title=”Variety Insert Form” scrolling=”no” border=”0″ frameborder=”0″><br />Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.<br />

Another way to include content is to use server side include. SSI
allows you add dynamically generate content into an existing HTML page, with
the following code <!–#include virtual="PageToIncludeHere.htm" –>

Another option is to simply include the navigational structure directly
in the XSLT pages. However, this becomes complicated when updating.

In Kevin's Blog, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Mimobots are just the beginning…

Yesterday, Supriya was talking about the Mimobots explaining:

Mimobots are little friendly data fiends! Feed the 2″ monsters all your essential data (tunes, pics, presentations, videos, etc.) and transport your files wherever you go. mimobots are what happens when designer toys meet USB flash drives - a marriage of art and technology.

hat is just the tip of the ice berg for wacky USB devices. Check out this site. It has The Top 10 Weirdest USB drivers ever. Highlights include USB drives shaped like: a duck, sushi, a human thumb, and a Barbie. If everyone is going to have a USB drive it might as well be more personalized.

In SuperMatt, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

Is nothing sacred?

The Grateful Dead, the original proponents of improvistational rock shows and having tapers record the shows for the benefit of all who care to listen, has responded in poor taste to the changing music industry. As they do not tour and most music sales come from iTunes and paying for top-sound quality shows from their own website, the Grateful Dead forced free sites to take off their concert performances.

Fans became enraged as they felt abandoned by one of the only sacred things left in their lives. Petitions flew through the internet threatening to boycott the purchase of all Grateful Dead memorabilia. The Dead rethought the situation and pulled a 180. They decided to let the sites distribute their concerts for free to fans and all are happy again. But, this is a sad moment. When the technological innovation and desire for profits makes a group of individuals that stood for the sharing of free music to stop what they have been doing since the mid 1960’s. This article describes the situation in further detail.

In musings of william h, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

RSS Helper to answer Matt’s Question

I have to admit when Bud first taught us about RSS, I was not as excited as Bud. However, for Project2 I have started to look at the capabilities and I have found a new friend. I have to admit a few days ago I really knew NOTHING about how RSS works and the real benefits. Matt was curious too when he remarked:

Does anyone have an experience with them and could reccomend a good one? I noticed that PinkFootsie blogged a bit about the Google reader. And I know that Safari has a built in RSS reader. I figured it’d be a good way for me to fully understand the RSS phenomenon. Any thoughts?

I have found the great website that does a tremendous job explaining:

What is RSS?
Who publishes RSS feeds?
How do I read RSS Feeds?
How can I publish my own RSS Feed?
Where is RSS headed? What’s next after text?
And finally, some technical backstory

Click on the picture below to access the site.

In SuperMatt, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

I’ve been mislabled…and my review of BIT 320

Recently, I have gotten the impression that I am the one person in BIT 320 that hates the class. This is not true. Coming into the semester, I had a strong interest in taking this class because I did not know much about Databases and I had never used Oracle. I am glad I am in this class because I have found the class very interesting and I have learned a lot.

My review:

My only complaint about this class is that it is too fast. It has nothing to do with who teaches it or what the project is on, simply there is too much information packed into 15 weeks. I think it may be better to have a prereq that is a more intro level database class so that students have an idea of the basics. After taking that class, they can take this one and focus on xml, xslt, xsl and everything else we covered in the second half. I think all of this stuff is interesting, but because I didn’t know anything about it previously I have been a little lost for the last month. I think it would have been nice to learn more about how to write these templates/stylesheets than to reuse ones from class. I may be a little pessimistic in class but it is a result of my confusion.

In the end, I think this class is very interesting and I did learn a lot. I just wish I would have had more time to learn the basics.

In Tigerlily's Blog, 12/11/2005 | Original | Archive | Post to del.icio.us | Technorati

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