Social Media Project

The Social Media project was definitely an interesting take on Social Media, that's for sure.  My group chose Chick-Fil-A as the company that we would follow.  Here is the link to our Wiki site:

  https://ism3004socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Chick-fil-A

Chick-Fil-A is a fast food restaurant that employs a Facebook page and Twitter account.  The first thing you get when you Google Chick-Fil-A is the company home page and the next thing, if you have your location set in Google, is local Chick-Fil-As in your town.  This is excellent marketing for Chick-Fil-A in its own right.  I've never used Bing, so I don't know much about it other than that it's a search engine.  I prefer Google, personally, and I was not in charge of this portion of the project, so I can't give you much other than what's right there on the Wiki.

The Wikipedia for Chick-Fil-A was filled with the company's history and religious and political views, plus the homophobia controversy that has been spread in recent years.  Chick-Fil-A doesn't have an official YouTube channel, but you can find their commercials and parodies on YouTube.  You can also find rants, praises, settings, music videos, and anything else anyone can do with a restaurant in a video.  I'm sure there's probably someone breaking into a Chick-Fil-A on security footage some where on YouTube.

I think I found TwitrRatr to be very interesting.  The idea of being able to launch a search for a company (or your company, even) is very neat.  The results will give you a look at what people are tweeting about your company and how much is positive, negative, and neutral.  If Chick-Fil-A has never heard of this, they should.  If any company is never heard of this, they should.  This is easily the neatest feature I've seen on the web this semester.  Most of the feedback for Chick-Fil-A seems to be relatively positive.  I mean, they're food is rather delicious.

We also decided to add Pinterest to the list of Social Media sites to look around.  I thought this would be a good idea because I know my fianceé and her friends are on there looking up wedding things and funny pictures all the time, so why shouldn't this be a great avenue for Chick-Fil-A?  It seemed like it was a good call because there was plenty of stuff to find on Chick-Fil-A on there.  There wasn't an official Chick-Fil-A account, except for a couple of localized restaurants, but there were plenty of pictures promoting the product from other users.

I think the only fault that we found with Chick-Fil-A's Social Media was that they had no official Social Media Policy.  This doesn't seem to be harming their advertising and perhaps it's not published anywhere, but just something that's "known."  Who knows?  But I think it would be an excellent idea for them to write up something and post it on their website and perhaps their Facebook page, also.

All in all, I found this to be an interesting project all around.  It was definitely interesting going to all the different social media sites (I still get headaches every time I go on Twitter, though) and seeing the different opinions of businesses.  It was also interesting in that I was working with a group online.  I have never done that before and it seemed to work out well for us this time (other than one person not showing up at all, but 6/7 isn't bad!).

Week 13: Clear: Social Media

Social media is such a rapidly growing thing and everyone is trying to jump on it that it's easy to forget that you actually have to actively think and engage in setting up a social media site for your business.  I only joined Facebook because all of my friends from MySpace went there instead.  This definitely shows how the network effect takes place.  I have no urge at this moment to go to Google+, but that's what I said when I was on MySpace and Facebook was exploding.

I can definitely see the positives for having a social media presence for your company.  I already have several business that I've liked on Facebook (Blizzard, Circle K, Rock 104, and others).  Most are actively posting almost once a day about their products, specials, and news.  A good business will post at least or twice a day (if not more).  Rock 104, on my page, posts rock music news almost hourly.

Social media is the new form of advertising.  Marketing research is delving more towards social media than it is television advertisements, it seems.  On my Facebook page, I get advertisements about Military Gamer Discounts, Verizon Military Discounts, Facebook War Games apps, Military Social Work, how to win a gift certificate to OPGI.com (I have no idea what this even is), the "Best Star Wars Game on FB," and Lingenfelter Engines.

Two of those don't even apply to anything I have any remote interest in.  I've never posted my love of cars or... whatever OPGI.com is, yet they somehow have made the connection that I would be interested in their products.

Luckily, Facebook has made their advertisements seem out of the way and non-intrusive.  This is brilliant on their part because if they were intrusive, I would quit Facebook quick, fast, and in a hurry.  One thing I can't stand are pop-ups, advertisements, and anything of that sort.  They're plagued with viruses and spyware and are always trying to get some sort of credit card information from you by some point.

Here's an image of my Facebook profile with some of the businesses I like and the advertisements listed above:

Week 12: Clear: Telecommunications

This week seemed a lot like an A+ Certification class.  I remember going over this several times while in the Army.  How TCP and IP sent data from one location to another.  TCP would break it up into packets, IP would send the packets across the network, and the TCP would collect the packets and rebuild them in the correct sequence.  How UDP was much faster, but less efficient and that's why your webcam feeds are always stuttering.

It's always good to get a refresher on them, though, just so you know you haven't forgotten your stuff.  I believe the thing I found the most interesting, though, had nothing to do with Telecommunications and everything to do with William Kamkwamba.  I find it amazing what type of people there are out there.  I know this wasn't really a part of the class, but the ability for a young man of 14(!) to build a windwill to create electricity for his family all from reading a book is ASTOUNDING to me.  I like to think I'm a smart person, but I could never, EVER do something like that. EVER!  This young man is a real genius and I have to at least put a small paragraph in here in respects to this man's genius.

Moving back to telecommunications, though, I find it to be a great way to learn about the Internet and how it works.  I've known for a long time that IPv4 was going to be going to the wayside (since 2003, to be exact), but I'm still amazed that I've only seen a few devices that use the new IPv6.  I'm sure there are probably several devices around my person right now that use it, but I have no way of finding out (or, to be more honest, I've yet to look up how to find out their IP addresses).

I also found the image of breaking the Internet down into numbers to be rather impressive.  5 million terabytes of information... I can't even comprehend that.  I've owned three different types of Terabyte hard drives.  One was a RAID drive, with four separate slots.  It weighed roughly 70lbs and had 8 separate hard drives that you plugged into it.  The next one was an external hard drive.  It was about 8 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 6 inches long.  It was significantly smaller than the RAID and could fit on a desk.  It weighed about 5lbs.  The final one I owned is now what most people see in Best Buy: about two inches wide, 5 inches tall, and 5 inches long.  It weighs about 2lbs and I have it hidden behind my monitor.  To imagine 5 MILLION of any of those items... that's incomprehensible.   The number is too large to actually visualize.

I now present you with a picture of a parrot for my visual aid:

Image created by Chris Guderian

Week 11: Clear: Data vs. Information

It's hard to distinguish between data and information.  I almost always have a dyslexic moment and switch the two around.  I know one means raw facts and the other means something you use to make decisions.  The former is data, while the latter is information.  I try to distinguish the two by using "raw data" = "raw facts and figures."

Data you can put onto a graph.  Information you can't.  Information aids you in deciding what to do.  Data aids the user by providing information.  Data BECOMES information.

Image created by Chris Guderian

Another way is "databases."  We input numbers and items into a database.  This we use as a means to glean information for our company's profit or structure or any other number of things.  Data becomes information.  The cycle is complete *cue 'Circle of Life' music*

Database Project

In this project, I was taught how to use Access Database and some of its functionality.  I imported a table from a .csv file and manipulated the date within it.  I also created a Query to be able to find out who left the gym within a specific time frame.   I then created a form for new members of the gym that the project was revolving around.  Finally, I created a Report that was based off of the Query that I created earlier.

All in all, it was relatively simple.  I was disappointed that I wasn't going to be using any of the advanced functions of Access.  I was hoping to learn more about relationships and all that, but no worries.  To give it some bit of a personal touch, I would have added another field with a picture of the member of the gym who was joining.  Granted, this probably wouldn't have worked for this project because these were all made up people, but in the instance of an actual gym and actual new members, this would have been excellent for the files of the gym.  You could match the face of the person in the database to the person checking in or whatever you were doing.  It would definitely cut down on non-members entering the gym, anyways.

Week 10: Clear: Access Database

I've only used Microsoft Access Database a little in the last couple of years with no experience with it previously.  I had to teach myself everything I could because I had to set up a database for my job at the VA Hospital in Gainesville, FL (and partially Lake City, FL).  I was creating a database to keep track of their equipment and my boss hoped to use my database as a stepping stone to making it a hospital wide policy (and, with any luck, a VA policy in general).  The system that they have is an old Linux program that is out of date and in serious need of updating.

Anyways, from this course, I was hoping to learn a little about relationships and macros in this week's module.  It appears that that won't be taking place until next week.  Everything from this week's lesson I had learned myself from books and the Internet (Yay Google!).

The basic template of creating a table was rather simple.  It was pretty much like using Excel with a few different categories.  I enjoyed the ability to create fields and the manipulate them as I saw fit to only be able to have Numbers or text or even attachments.  My favorite was the attachments because with the above database that I described for the VA, they wanted to be able to attach pictures of the equipment to the item number.  This ability to create a field like that was extremely useful in that situation and would be also useful in many other situations.

Forms were a unique experience.  Forms are like trying to make a webpage in a way.  You try to make it as clean and flowing as possible so as not to distract, but draw the eye.  I played with colors, variations on the field name and many other things.  It was definitely interesting, but, again, things that I had learned already by myself.

I'm definitely excited for next week.  I'm hoping this class will help me better understand relationships in Microsoft Access.  They are a complete mystery to me and I'd like to be able to have a full grasp of Access for when I go out into the job market.  Being able to manipulate and create databases is an extremely useful skill to have.

Here is a picture I created of my example database that I did for the VA, I smudged serial numbers just to be safe:

Image created by Chris Guderian

Week 9: Clear: The Future of Technology

I had no idea that the future of technology was so close.  I found Dr. Machio Kaku's video to be very informative.  The idea of shapeshifting being within reach in the next decade is mind boggling.  To think that technology is moving that fast makes my nerd brain work in overdrive.  'Oh God!  Skynet!  Zombie Apocalypse!  RISE OF THE MACHINES! NEOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'  My imagination can run wild sometimes.

I had heard of a version of Moore's Law in that technology seems to be outdated by the next year, but this is everyone's common knowledge.  I didn't know there was true science behind it, which I find very interesting.  The idea that a CPU's ability can double in 18 months at first seems ridiculous, but if you truly think about it, it's right on the money.  Every year and a half there is newer and faster memory out.  Newer and faster operating systems.  Newer and faster motherboards.  Innovation is happening all the time.  The releases for new phones seems to be that you buy the new iPhone and then put down a pre-order for the next generation.  And the fact that everyone has access to these new advances in technology seems a bit ridiculous also.  I recently saw a picture online that said "I wish I had enough money to buy an iPhone like the girl in front of me paying with her food stamps."  People believe that they need these inventions.

I didn't have a cell phone until about four years ago.  I absolutely refused to have one, mostly to avoid work (the Army) calling me when I was off duty, which happened a lot.  I got one the year before I got out of the service and then I couldn't see myself without one.  I look back now and I know I lived perfectly well without one, but to think about living without a cellphone now?  I wouldn't know what to do with myself.  Now I have an iPhone and I wouldn't know what to do without it.  I think right now that the iPhone 4S is ridiculous to purchase when I have a perfectly functioning iPhone right here, but that's what I thought about the regular iPhone when I had my regular cellphone.  I'm sure if I got the iPhone 4S I wouldn't know what to do without it.  I'd probably starting thinking of Siri as a person (but I probably wouldn't go so far as to say I'd be Raj from The Big Bang Theory TV show).

I just think that the evolution of technology is going to continue to grow and grow.  Humans are adaptable creatures.  I believe that if we do reach the "end" of Moore's Law with our current limitations, we'll find some new way to go about making computer chips.  Even Dr. Kaku stated the new ways scientists are trying to get around this limitation.

Excel Project

This week I started in on my Excel Project.  I've worked a lot with Excel, so most of this was rather simple.  I've used Functions and cell cropping, inserting, and everything under the Sun with Excel.  The first part of the project was to add several columns of data that would give you the max heart rate that you were allowed to achieve.  This was a simple Function calculation of 220 minus the cell the contained the Subject's age.  The next thing was creating a Target Heart Rate for the subjects.  We first had to create another column, then make an area for which to refer to the percentage of the Max Heart Rate that you wanted the Target Heart Rate to be.  You then created a Function of the Max Heart Rate multiplied by the Absolute Value of the Target Heart Rate percentage.  We then created another column with the Max Heart Rate achieved through the testing phase.  I created a Max function that encompassed the different times (20 of them).  This gave me the max heart rate of those 20 different observations.

We then made an If Function to show whether the person reached their target Heart Rate by comparing the Highest Heart Rate column and the Target Heart Rate column.  If the Highest Heart Rate was greater than or equal to the Target Heart Rate, then the Function should return back "Yes" if not, then "No."  This is where I hit my first snag.  I had forgotten that you had to place the words "Yes" and "No" into quotation marks.  It took the use of the Excel Help function to aid me in that area.  Needless to say, I figured it out within a couple of (somewhat) frustrating minutes.

The final column we had to create was the percentage increase in heart rate from the starting heart rate to the Max Heart Rate.  This one was simple math of  (Max Heart Rate - Starting Heart Rate)/Starting Heart Rate.  Easy peasy.

Now we get into the fun stuff.  I had no idea what PivotTables were until this class.  This was exciting.  I love learning new things, especially about stuff that I know a LOT about.  It felt like the instructions kind of held our hand through it, but that's probably for the best.  I would have been a little lost on how to do it.  I don't know how to explain what I did, but here's my final product.

Image created by Chris Guderian

Extra Credit: Live Meetings

I found the Live Meetings to be extremely neat.  I've used other programs like Netmeeting and hardware such as Tandbergs while I was overseas for kind of the same thing.  It was a long time ago when I used a program similar to these, so I don't exactly remember the name.

The ability to have multiple peoples' webcams and audio on is very neat.  I could definitely see the usefulness when in a business environment for people that are abroad.  I currently work at the VA Hospital here in Gainesville and they use their phones as a means of doing meetings and I think these programs would be much more efficient because they have to print out all of these documents to keep track of what order the objectives are on.

Of the two different Live Meetings that I was a part of, I found Big Blue Button to be the worst.  It was highly frustrating because I kept getting logged out and I would have to log back in and I would stay in the conference for about two minutes and then be logged out again.  I would miss a lot of information between these sections.  It was a bad experience all around.

The other live meeting that I was a part of was the Connect.  I had no problems with this program.  It was easy to use.  I had no problems logging in.  The only problem I saw was that when you had too many features going at once, it would start to bog down.  This is common, though, with most software that utilizes video, audio, and desktop sharing.  I even got to play with this software twice and it was great both times.

If I were to choose between the two that I was a part of, it would overwhelmingly be Connect.  It was a smooth bit of software from what I witnessed.  I hope the University implements this software as it is the best one that I encountered.

Week 7: Muddy. Open Source Software

Open source software seems to me that it's just software you can get online for free.  If this is the case, then I completely understand it.  If not, then it needs to be made a little clearer.

Is it alternatives to programs that you have to buy?  For instance, Microsoft Office's open source competitor is Open Office.  Is this what Open source is?  Just an alternative to something you have to buy?  Or is it something like Firefox, where it's the standard?  This could probably be made more clear in the videos.

Also, I have to bring up the copyright stuff.  I'm still not fully grasping that fact.  Every time I place an image in one of my blog posts, I'm getting blasted for it being copyrighted.  Even when I get it off of the Public Domain.  So, I'm boycotting using images in this post and instead I will draw you a puppy in Paint.

Copyright of Chris Guderian.

Presentation Project: The Next Big Comic Book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3vJkQlGZKQ&feature=youtu.be

This was probably one of the most difficult projects I've had to do in a long time.  I found that my project was tougher to do when you had so many restrictions on copyright and whatnot.  I'm still not fully certain I grasp the concept of copyrights, hence I used mostly user created images and took pictures of myself and things that I owned.

I believe that my presentation flows very well, but I may have spoke a bit fast.  I tried several attempts at trying to slow down my speech, but the final product shows what I was able to do in that area.

I don't know if I anticipated any questions.  I thought I put my ideas out there and how the fans would react.  I believe I got my idea across, though.

I hope my presentation grabs your attention within the first few seconds.  What isn't more shocking than death?  I hoped this would get my audience invested and interested.  I believe asking the question of what you thought the most memorable moments in Marvel comic history made you think and perhaps your idea was right there in my presentation.

I didn't have much type in my presentation and I believe that my presentation was presented in a proper way.  I don't think there was any clutter.  I avoided as much text as I could and presented the audience with a more visually aesthetic presentation.

All in all, this was a very difficult assignment and I wish I could have had my presentation lengthened further with more images, but it's very difficult getting around the copyright infringement, thus I avoided it entirely.

Week 6: Clear Software

Software is probably some of the most complicated matter out there.  Installation can usually be a breeze, but when it comes to utilization it can be a nightmare.  All software these days has so many different gadgets and features that it is nearly impossible to figure them all out in your lifetime.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) is probably one of the most skipped over things in the world.  I have never read the EULA in all of my years.  I should probably do this more often.  You have no idea what you're agreeing to until you read the EULA.  Software licensing is usually pretty straight forward, but there is always that one bit of software that tries to "get ya."

Most software is simple enough to understand.  Microsoft Office, video games, instant messengers, imaging programs, etc.  There are many different kinds of software and for each kind of software there are many different vendors from which to choose.

The Operation System (OS) is the most important bit of software on a computer.  It enables the rest of the software to talk to the hardware.  The OS enables your computer to work.  If not for the operating system, you would have a very large paperweight.

Application software, on the other hand, is all of the software that you use.  It can be separated into Desktop Software and Enterprise Software.  Desktop software is the software that can be used on a single desktop for a single user.  Enterprise software are applications that are designed to address the needs of several users at once.

Application Software.  Copyright of Yahoo.

Enterprise Software.  Copyright of Symantec Norton Antivirus.

Week 5: Clear Presentations

I've given many presentations in the past while I was in the Army.  I had to give several on different types of first aid treatment for cross-training purposes.  One specific one comes to mind about the hazards of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.  I went onto the Army website's public domain and got several pictures of soldiers in varying forms of these illnesses.  I remember one specific picture was of a young soldier completely covered head to toe in ice to lower his body temperature.  I gave a small presentation on how to identify and aid in these situations in front of my peers and supervisors.

Copyright of MilitaryFamilyDoctor.org

Other presentations I've given have been on how to create different types of Access Databases.  These have all been PowerPoint presentations that I gave to my supervisor to aid them in their own day to day work activities.

On the other hand, I have never before used Web 2.0 and I'm curious and excited to see how this works out for me.  I'm nervous, but the idea of learning something new that is technical related has always piqued my interests and excited me.

The idea of storyboarding is very neat, also.  I've done these for little comic projects when I was a kid in middle and high school.  My friend, Josh, and I would create these storyboards for our imaginary comic book that we were one day going to create and publish and become millionaire writer and artist team.  He being the artist, of course.  I couldn't draw even a stick figure properly to save my life.

My idea for this presentation will be about the comic book industry, also.  I can't wait to get it finished and show it off to my peers and teachers.  I've always enjoyed the idea of the idea that I will be pitching, but I don't want to give anything away just yet.  Suffice it to say that it's nothing that has ever been done in comic books and I hope it will titillate your imagination as much as it does my own.

Week 4: Muddy: Porter's Five Forces

As I was watching the video, it was hard to distinguish what exactly Porter's Five Forces were.  The lesson was rather hard to follow.  I actually had to look it up on Wikipedia to figure them out and they seem more like what I heard in Micro/Macroeconomics while I was at Santa Fe College:

The Threat of New Competition
Threat of Substitute Products and/or Services
Bargaining Power of Customers (Buyers)
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

These five things are rather simple to understand, I suppose.  The threat of new competition is that things that are highly profitable will create high demand and open up new businesses that wish to jump on the bandwagon.

The threat of substitute products and/or services can be rather difficult to understand.  It's not products that are similar to your product, but products that can replace your product.  For instance, the ability to order your plane tickets online has negated the need for a travel agent.

Bargaining power of buyers is another that can be simplified.  It's the ability of the customer to put pressure on the company to change prices.  How could this happen?  Well, we've just seen it with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  People believed that it was an unfair act and let their Senators know and the act was placed on the back burner to be re-reviewed.

Copyright of Memebase.com: http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/

Bargaining power of suppliers is pretty much the opposite of bargaining power of buyers in that the suppliers of the raw goods/services needed for your product can affect the price of your product.  Say you're a plumber, if the price of PVC pipe increases, it causes your service price to increase so that you may pay for the PVC pipe in order to fix your customers' plumbing.

Finally, intensity of competitive rivalry is another one that I had to delve a little deeper to get a better understanding.  I suppose the best example, though, are any type of political campaigns that you see online.  They attack people's character and want you to NOT vote for that person and vote for them.  This area of business has a high intensity of competitive rivalry.

So, in the end, I had to teach myself this instance, but it wasn't too difficult to understand.  The videos that I watched in the lectures were good, but they didn't seem to delve too deeply into the definitions of the separate factors.

Week 3 - Clear: Networking in Real Life; Patch Panels

Patch panels are probably the most infuriating things I have ever worked with in my career.  They are also the most convenient and make everything run that much smoother.  The annoyance and pain is worth it in the end.

Installing a patch panel was about as difficult as Professor Olson described it as being.  Running cables through pipes and through the ceiling tiles and using the punch tool to put the wires into the network jack.  The punch tool was probably the biggest pain of the entire process, but it's impossible to do the job without it.  Here's a picture of one:

                                                                        Copyright of Cat5eCableGuy.com

As I've said this is the most important tool in the patch panel process.  You'll hate it throughout the experience, but you'll love it in the end, because once you've got all your cables zip-tied together and looking pretty, there are no more cables just running all over the place in your work environment or home.

The patch panel is probably mostly used for work environments, though.  They're generally used for when you have large amounts of users in a single location.  They make everything look cleaner and more efficient looking than just having a tangle of cable going from all the separate machines to your switch/router.

Testing Photos

Photo by Chris Guderian

Week 2: Clear. Computer Hardware

I love this topic and I could probably go on and on about it, but I shall not.  I love computers.  I want to be, and am, a computer administrator, so this is a good thing.  This week's content has been geared to exactly what I know and some things that have been clarified for me.

I have built several computers over the course of my career and school time.  Everything that Professor Olson talked about were things that I've known or had a general idea about.  My current computer system is a few years old, but I have about a two or three year old motherboard in it (due to my budget), but it's brand new in the fact that it was just placed into my system (by myself) about five months ago.

Building computers has mostly been a hobby, though.  I had to teach myself with a pre-built computer and add components as they either died or became obsolete.  I've given my system plenty of blood, sweat, and tears over the years (literally in all three cases, ha!).

I don't know enough about the specs for most hardware, though, so I'm almost always behind the times with my hardware, but that's fine.  My computer simply needs to be able to run the internet, a few games, a couple messenger services, and Office.  The games are the things that cause most of the headache to get the required specs.  I never want just the "minimum" so I have to figure out what is good, but not the best.  I do research on the web and they throw numbers and acronyms that usually mean nothing to me.  This lesson has helped answer some of these questions for me.  (RAM was a large proponent that I had to learn off the cuff.  Sadly, this was detrimental to my pocket at the time.)

I have no pictures at this time for this subject.  Mostly because they're all deemed classified or show equipment that the military would frown upon me showing onto a non-secure site.  Oh well!  I had a picture of me in a tunnel in Iraq running cable, but 1) I have lost that picture and 2) it's more in line with next week's topic of Networking than it is Hardware in the computer.

Week 1: Muddy

Hi there.  My name is Chris Guderian.  I am 27 years old and currently engaged to my wonderful fianceé, Julia.  I am in my second semester at the University of Florida and I recently graduated with my AA from Santa Fe College.  I've started this blog for my ISM 3004 class, Computing in the Business Environment.  I was in the United States Army from October 2002 until October 2008 as an Information Systems Operator-Analyst, or to put it in simple terms, I was a computer administrator.  I will more than likely make some reference to my military time in one form or another in every single one of my posts.

Like this:

Video by Chris Guderian.

Yes, that is me and yes, that is Iraq.  I've served overseas in Iraq three separate times for a total of  22 months.  It's probably as hot at that time as it looks in that video.  I was wearing gloves because the weapon was scalding skin.

So far, this class has been rather confusing to figure out.  It is a much different format than other classes that use the Sakai system.  I think I've finally figured it out, though, with going through the Lessons tab and just viewing the links on there in order.  I'm hoping tonight's (1/11) Live Meeting will help me a lot more.

Well, I believe that's all I can think of to put into this blog post.  Thanks for reading.

-Chris Guderian

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.

Background image is Copyright of Jenn Sokol.