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.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
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 The system that they have is an old Linux program that is out of date and in serious need of updating.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:
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
Monday, March 19, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
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.
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
Friday, March 2, 2012
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.
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.
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