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.