5/10/10 Test Question

Could you help me with the answer to case 1, question 3?

5/6/10 Class 22 Reaction

You said in class that the one reason why IT fails is because users don't accept it....what does that mean exactly? People just choose to ignore the implementation of the new IT system?

Between the two most common approaches to SA&D, object-oriented analysis and design and systems development life cycle, are both used equally or is one approach more popular than the other? It seems that the SDLC is more widely used because we're ignoring the object-oriented analysis, but I don't want to assume...

5/4/10 Class 21 Reaction

The second in-class excel demo seemed pretty easy. I like how you go slow over the new material, it helps to not get lost. I feel that the homework won't be too hard, just might take a little longer to do than the first one.

I really have nothing else to say about it.

4/29/10 Class 20 Reaction

We went over the first excel assignment and I learned a couple new things, such as the 2 components in the what-if analysis: goal seeking and scenario manager. I don't know a lot about excel, except for the few basic things we learned in the Business Stats course. So I know how to find averages, standard deviation, the mean, and some other formulas, but I never knew about this what-if analysis.

I feel that now that I know about this data tool, I will definitely use it more often, especially for later on in the future. It is so simple to use, but yet so effective.

Another new thing I learned in class was using the dollar signs (ie, $B$2) to tell excel that it cannot change to another column or row when you want to click and drag to compute the other values. It has to stay in that cell. We were taught it in Stats, but I never fully understood its purpose.

I like doing these homeworks because it allows me to put everything that I am actually learning in the lectures into some real life situation. It helps keep me focused, where as with lectures I can sometimes drift in and out.




I have one more question, but it is about the final exam......What chapters are going to be covered on it? Just chapter 10?

4/28/10 Class 19 Reaction

Is it possible for me to come to the 11:30 class tomorrow?

4/19/10 Class 18 Reaction

I need help understanding a couple things for the test:

1) Is there a specific example of a virtual private network?

2) Could you give me an example of interoperability? I understand the definition, but I'm having trouble thinking of a real life example to fully understand the concept of it.

4/13/10 Class 17 Reaction

I was making notecards for the test and I came across some things that I had questions about...

1) for wide are networks, what do you mean by "think second life or MMOGS"?

2) under modems, what does "modulator-demodulator" mean?

3) Is Internet telephony like skype?

4/8/10 Class 16 Reaction

Could you go over the second question for case number 2? I understood the second part where IT systems are not helpful, like for measuring personal characteristics, but I zoned out when you were talking about the entry level positions...

Between the two systems, accounting IS and financial mgmt systems, do companies choose to have only one running in their business? You said that the financial mgmt system is simpler than the accounting because it really only has two issues, short-term and long-term financing issues, does this make a huge difference to organizations? Is the financial mgmt system more popular because of its simplicity?

4/6/10 Class 15 Reaction

I didn't catch the answer for the second question the case 1 study, could you go over it one more time?


Do businesses normally have just one system from the "big three" or do they usually implement all three into the company?



Sorry it's such a short blog today!

3/25/10 Class 14 Reaction

I have a lot of questions on this chapter....just need some clarifications....

1). Could you go over the differences between cloud computing, network computing, and thick computers?

2). What did you want us to know about the top layers of OSI and TCP/IP models?


I have been playing around with the second access assignment and I still can't find the extra credit part (total values for each company), could you give me a hint or at least point me in the right direction??

3/23/10 Class 13 Reaction

I was reading the USA Today newspaper and there was this article under business travel, called "Hearing online critiques," that basically summed up the value of business intelligence. The article was about hotel managers responding quickly to negative blog/review posts on the Internet. These hotels are trying to maintain their business' online reputation through finding solutions to the problems that the hotel guests are writing about to other travelers. Reading these critiques are another way for hotels to find ways of improving operations through training, adjusting restaurant and staff hours, adding or removing amenities, as well taking it as opportunity to stand apart from the competition.

There are many hotels that are using software tools that will combine all the reviews and comments on websites, blogs, and other social-media sites. The article said that Starwood Hotels is also using a Review Analyst to manage online content. Hotel managers are even setting certain phrases to be caught on these sites, such as bedbugs, discrimination, eviction, police, security, etc, so immediate action can be taken.

All of this information shows how vital a component IS and IT are to running a successful business. These hotels are taking a corrective stand in the hopes of satisfying customers and ultimately expanding their business. All this work being done now is showing an improvement to the effectiveness and efficiency of running the hotels.

3/18/10 Class 12 Reaction

I can definitely see how creating these databases, especially building screenviews and reports, would be beneficial for a company. It makes it a lot easier for someone working for an organization to print off customer transactions and information for a manager or board meeting reviewing certain aspects of the company. Or even to just change or clarify a transaction for a customer. It allows the company to move forward seamlessly, with little to no problems with data and clients.

3/17/10 Class 11 Reaction

I was expecting Access to be impossibly hard, maybe because my friend from a different school is doing it right now and they said that, but I found what we did in class definitely doable. In class you said that all fields are required, does this just apply to what we're doing in class, or are fields required all the time no matter what the circumstance?

3/9/10 Class 10 Reaction

For the database interrogation, could you please explain again SQL Queries and this one phrase:
query form is SELECT......FROM......WHERE....

I got the first two parts, but not the where part. I definitely feel like this next test is going to be super hard because there is so much information in just these three chapters to know.

I'm also struggling to find things to say in these blogs....any suggestions?

2/26/10 Class 7 Reaction

What does EULA stand for? End user.....

2/23/10 Class 6 Reaction

Why does IBM use a different representation of the bit (EBCIC) than the rest of the world (ASCII)? Would anything dramatically be altered if IBM changed its system and started using ASCII?

I know this is a little off topic, but there is a song by Flight of the Conchords called "Robots", where they sing a binary solo....you might find this group pretty funny...a great laugh....but anyway, I knew that a binary representation was made up of 1s and 0s, but I never knew it's purpose and what the two numbers actually meant. So that's really all I could think about when you were talking about bytes.

2/16/10 Class 5 Reaction

I was talking to my dad about salesforce.com and he said that his good friend from college started up a new company that is very similar. It's called platteriversystems.com and their main competitor is salesforce.com. My dad said he has a lot of money invested into this new company because it has a better platform, but the company is small and just getting started, where salesforce.com is giant. Take a look at it!

2/11/10 Class 4 Reaction

I think the most important piece of information that I got out of Thursday's lecture was Per Nicholas Carr's "the 'I' and the 'T' in IT." It honestly is the only thing that really got ingrained into my memory, which I think, is a great thing to know, let alone fully understand it. It seems that customers are the sole reason why markets succeed or fail in their lifetime, so learning to understand their emotions and reasoning is something that will take a company farther in their career.

For the third case in chapter 2, we went over it really fast and I didn't get the answer to the first question about the competitive advantages. Could you go over it again?

2/9/10 Class 3 Reaction

I really like starting out each class with the technology news reports. Partly because one, I'm fascinated with the new and innovative things people are inventing, that are changing our world; and two, it's fun to hear about the crazy and pointless inventions that really have no real purpose, except to look and sound cool. I was nervous giving my report on Hulu, but I think it's something that will only get easier each time I do it.

The third case with Sew What? reminded me a lot of my dad's small business. He created a website for his tower crane insurance business, but I haven't ever asked if he thinks it actually helps bring in new customers. He has asked me to help him with some marketing plans and I think that after this class, maybe I'll be more knowledgeable with the computer and help him expand his business.

I never thought of the human body system as a cybernetic system, but after learning about this system, it makes sense now.

2/4/10 Class 2 Reaction

After class I didn't feel bored even if the material was a little dry. Even though it was homework, I found reading the chapter and then relating what I had just learned to the technology news reports and the case studies was interesting and helped me understand the concepts more quickly. For the career opportunities in IS, you said that after this course we'll be junior level database analysts and system analysts, I personally think that is pretty cool. I am definitely not a tech or computer savvy person, so knowing that I will basically be able to do those two jobs is amazing to me.

I know you said that you would explain later to us what a "cookie" was....but I'm too curious. Could you possible explain it briefly to me?

With our world becoming more high-tech, what's stopping everyone from only using online processing for transactions? It's obvious that batch processing is efficient, but not as effective as online processing...

2/2/10 Class 1 Reaction

Before class, I had no idea what information systems would be about or what topics we would be learning. During, I definitely felt overwhelmed with the idea of having to prepare two or three technology news reports for each class, and then on top of that, being randomly picked to present our findings in front of the entire class. I will honestly admit that I do get nervous in front of certain crowds of people, especially if it is a larger group. Although I'm feeling stressed about this course and the requirements already, I really hope that everything just falls into place and that I'll finally get comfortable participating more.

When we started the lecture, I found myself really interested in how you were explaining how emails are sent through packets. I never knew that these packets travel different routes to get to the same destination. I always thought they all travelled together just like it shows you when you send your email and up pops a virtual envelope magically flying and disappearing into cyberspace. I also never knew that the Internet is considered hardware, and different than the world wide web, which it being software.

I did want to clarify if DNS (domain name server) is just the IP address for something?

Also I was confused about the meanings for DOS and CLI...