BIT320 Remix: Opinionslug Archives

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mobiles: New ball and chain

Study finds cellphones are interfering with family life

In del.icio.us/rasheff, 12/15/2005 | Original | Archive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SQL, XML, & Ice Cream

A remixable web learning project at Michigan's Ross School of Business

BIT320 Remix — Opinionslug