Week 10: Clear- Skills Track

office-2010-access.blogspot.com

Microsoft Access is wonderful software that I have just had the pleasure of introducing myself to this week! I have to admit that I had never even heard of this software prior to this course, and after watching the lectures, I feel that it will be extremely helpful in future courses as well as the work environment.

The formatting of this software is fairly similar to Microsoft Excel, so with a little practice, I will be able to create databases for myself rather than simply trying to follow along with the instructor. The lectures that we watched this week took us step by step of the main points of Access. The scavenger hunt that was a part of the week’s exercises was not only helpful but also imperative in my opinion. Without knowing exactly what can be done on this software, you really don’t know what to look for or where to look.

databasedev.co.uk

The four sections of study for the week has been Databases and tables, queries, forms, and reports in Microsoft Access. Many of these concepts were pretty straight forward once you got your hands in there and began to work with this program. I particularly like the validation and criteria that can be set so you are able to narrow down all the data into usable sections. The hardest part of this aspect, for me is to find the correct language to type into the criteria in order to achieve what it is that I’m after.

I would like to thank these following websites for the use of their copyright free images that I used in this post.

databasedev.co.uk

office-2010-access.blogspot.com

Google+



mashable.com

I really like Google+ networking site a lot better than Facebook. The appearance is much cleaner and there is not so much chaos going on that the user’s attention is being pulled in several directions at on time. Facebook just has way too much stuff going on to enjoy the site. I do not use these types of sites very often and when I log back onto Facebook, I always have way too much stuff to wade through before I can even do what it is that I logged on for at that time. I am not a gardener and I do not want to have farms and such that I am supposed to take care of on-line as well.

analoghype.com

The article, 50 Percent Will Abandon Facebook for Google+, Poll Finds, has comments as I am stressing that will undoubtedly cause more and more users to switch from Facebook to Google+. I completely agree with the article. I am not a big social media networking fan, I do not have the time or patience to spend hours on these types of sites, however after looking through the Google+ site, I can easily log on and contact my friends and search for the things that I am looking for and log off again without wasting time. At this point, the only people that I have been able to locate on Google+ are a handful of fellow students.

My personal friends and family have not joined this site yet. I will be contacting them to encourage them to join Google+ and use this site as one of their main networking sites if they do not want to switch completely.

I would like to thank mashable.com and analoghype.com for their copyright free pictures.

mashable.com

analoghype.com

Week 9: Clear- Moore’s Law

The future of technology is in constant change. Where will it lead us to next?

Investopedia describes Moore’s Law as “An observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965. He noticed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their invention. Moore’s law predicts that this trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Although the pace has slowed, the number of transistors per square inch has since doubled approximately every 18 months. This is used as the current definition of Moore's law.”

We have all noticed several changes in the amount of information that can be stored in our computers, the size of the computers, as well as the accessories that can be used as personal computers. The technology has been steadily changing, and shrinking by the year. The article, Moore’s Law and Knowledge Management has a clear understanding of the changes that have taken place with the development of technology in the computer industry. Beginning in 1970, and continuing over the next 30 some years, ‘the processors have become ten thousand times faster, have ten thousand times as many transistors, and the transistors used have shrunk by a factor of ten thousand…”.

As with everything else, all things must come to an end; but when will the end of Moore’s Law be?  

http://www.uberpulse.com/us/2008/02/moores_law_ends_in_2010_cadence_

This is the website to a great video explaining what the techs think about the conclusion of Moore’s Law, how far they believe it will continue due to the ever approaching limitations. As stated in Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing, “the shrinking can’t go on forever, and we’re already starting to see three interrelated forces—size, heat, and power—threatening to slow down the Moore’s Law gravy train.” It will be interesting to see what will be the new “Moore’s Law” once we have pushed Mother Nature to the limits of size and capacity.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mooreslaw.asp#axzz1bMoGqWmu

Physorg.com

Computerhistory.org

Cmg.org

http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/pcheung/teaching/ee4_asic/notes/Lec%201%20Moore%20Law%20and%20Knowledge%20Management.pdf

cartoonscrapbook.com

Project

Microsoft Excel is an excellent tool to utilize in school, home offices, and work. The Excel Hunt that we performed brought back many of the skills that I learned during a course that was taken awhile back. This is definitely something that should be practiced and refreshed regularly in order to use this service to the greatest extent. All of this information aided in the completion of our Excel Project in which we were to organize data on heart rates during exercise intervals and with that information acquire additional data as to which gender and age bracket of participants were able to achieve their target heart rates.

With even the basic knowledge of excel, the workbook structure, data basics, and printing are easily followed and transferable to many of the other Microsoft Office programs. This would include turning the page to have it view as landscape, ordering certain pages to be printed, navigating the worksheet, and other such information. The other information, such as creating formulas, absolute vs. relative cell addressing, functions, and pivot tables were all in desperate need of refreshing. Without constantly using this program, you will negate the positive effects of such programs. For example: when creating a function; as long as you know what you are asking for, and can put that into mathematical terms, the computer program will do the job for you, such as finding the average of a group of cells, or the greatest or least value in a large group of cells.

One of the functions on Excel that I learned during this project was the pivot table. I had no experience with this function prior to the Excel Hunt and Excel Project. PCA explains that the “Pivot tables summarize data into rows and columns of summed up (aggregated) data. Excel spreadsheets are most often designed as flat, one-dimensional tables, consisting of data elements organized under column headers. This often makes it difficult to get summarized information, particularly when data needs to be grouped and sub-totaled into any number of categories or dimensions. Pivot tables overcome this obstacle by quickly aggregating (grouping) and summarizing large amounts of flat data, giving it depth and the desired aggregate values.”

The process for creating the Pivot Tables in the Excel Project took a bit of time. After understand exactly what I was supposed to be looking for and how you enter data into the tables, it became fairly easy to use. On top of that, the pivot tables allows you to break down a large amount of data into easily readable and understandable charts or tables with a lot less information in front of you to have to wade through.

Logotypes101.com

http://www.pcapps.com/business-intelligence-analytics/pivot-tables-and-pivot-charts.aspx

Week 7: Clear - Software in Flux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

 

Wikipedia defines Cloud computing as “the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network (typically the Internet)”. According to our text Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology, cloud computing consisted of $36 billion dollar market back in 2008 equaling 13% of the global software sales. There are two forms of this that we have gone over including SaaS and Utility Computing.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm

YouTube carries a video that explains cloud computing and how and why it is faster and lower in cost without utilizing all your IT resources.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms

Although the theory of cloud computing seems easy enough to understand, the actual outline of it seems to evade even the most tech savvy in the business world. I think the reason behind this is because it can encompass so much and also be limited to the basics of systems at the same time.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031

In InfoWorld’s article, What cloud computing really means, they state that “Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38805/?mod=chfeatured

Technology Review offers an article called Can an Open Cloud Compete? In this article, they explain that “many companies have flocked to cloud computing. It removes the need for expensive up-front investments in information technology departments, since computer power and storage can simply be leased. However, most cloud services are proprietary, and the technology used to run them is kept secret. Once a company signs up for one cloud service, it can be difficult to move to another provider”.

In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest. They also offer a very good video on cloud computing.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38805/?mod=chfeatured

http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Project Presentation: Breast Cancer Awareness

http://portal.sliderocket.com/BAELY/Breast-Cancer_2

There seems to be a logical flow to the information and sequence of the content involved in the presentation. Breast cancer is a serious issue and is in the forefront especially this month of October. There is information describing who is at risk, how many are affected, what we can do to help the cause, as well as what websites we can visit to get more information. The introduction could be stronger, but it grabs the attention of the viewers. Everyone recognizes the pink ribbon!

The statements made during the presentation, grab your attention by making you ask the question while the answer is being given. More questions are asked throughout the presentation to try to step on your toes and make you want to do something to help. All of the information in the presentation is understood before the presentation is even viewed, however, it puts it out in front of you and offers cites to visit which can validate the information.

The overall appearance of the presentation is easy on the eyes and presents easy readability with the exception of two slides where the image of the website was reversed. There is no clutter, but perhaps it could use a little more sparkle to help dazzle the viewers.