Comments on the classes and ARTICLE 5.

Good afternoon. From Mobile Communication and Database lectures the most interesting and unknown things for me were: 1) New possibilities of connecting PC and TV work and Iphone structure and features; 2) Existence of different database types and their drawbacks. I was also surprised that Microsoft Access can not be classified as database at all.

Article 5. Cell Phones of the Future

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/cellphones/index_01.htm

Please, notice - there are different 8 slides in the article - each on separate page).


The article shows us that future cell phones add more and more different functions and, in my opinion, they loose the possibility of being called the “phones” at all as their main function becomes unknown. You can watch movies on them (see the last slide), use as the jewelry investment or wristwatch, etc. Soon anything available in our imagination will be performed in these small devices. It is very interesting and exiting. Especially if we remind ourselves that 20 years ago most of the people could not even imagine that they would use phone connection without wire attached to it. With such technology development speed we just forgot about these times with great pleasure.

Comments on the classes and ARTICLE 4.

Hello. The two new things from Software and Networking lectures for me were: 1) I didn't know that the device, which transforms analog signal into digital, is modem. What about when modem is used with digital phone lines? It still has to be present there. Does it have some other purposes then? 2) I knew about existence of client/server model of software communication, but never knew about other types possible.

Article 4.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201808208&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News
From the first sight this article does not seems to have a lot in common with our Internet topic. But let's take a deeper look on it. 20% of people claim that "they spend less time having sex because they're too busy online". Is not it horrifying? These simple data show us how deep Internet has penetrated in our life. Most of modern people even don't see any difference between online and offline life. Moreover some of them even replaced their offline life - they do most of the reading, shopping and even communicating online. I agree that it is easier. I do it by myself. I talk with my parents online, but I can't do it different way as they live in Ukraine. I'm really scared that in close future this "piece of hardware" can replace all the real human communication. Does it really have such abilities? For me - it does not. I do and will always believe that nothing can be better than sitting with your close friends together at one table and talking. It is the most valuable thing for me. What about you? Have you already exchange sex for Internet? :-))

Individual Assignment no. 1

Google AdWords is a quick and simple way to purchase highly targeted cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, regardless of user’s budget. AdWords ads are displayed along with search results on Google, as well as on search and content sites in Google’s growing ad network, including AOL, EarthLink, HowStuffWorks, & Blogger. With more than 200 million searches on Google each day and even more searches and page views on our ad network, exact Google AdWords ads reach a vast audience.
When user creates a Google AdWords ad, he chooses keywords for which his ad will appear and specify the maximum amount he is willing to pay for each click. The user only pay when someone clicks on his ad.
There's no minimum monthly charge -- just a $5 activation fee.

Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, text-based, un-obtrusive Google AdWords™ ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on user’s site, he'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance his content pages.
Simply put, Google provides the user with AdSense HTML ad code to place on the web pages on which he wants to display AdWords ads. Then, Google takes care of the rest by leveraging award-winning and proprietary Google search and page-ranking technologies to deliver relevant AdWords ads to those content pages.
The user gets paid whenever someone on his site clicks on one of the AdSense ads. Advertisers can also bid to appear on user’s site on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis. Both CPC and CPM bids compete in Google’s AdWords program to ensure that user optimizes his ad revenue.

Google’s income from Advertising:
($ in thousands, except per share amounts)

Revenue 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007Q1 2007Q2
(unaudited)
Total ads. revenues 410,915 1,420,663 3,143,288 6,065,003 10,492,628 3,627,450 3,838,341
Y/Y Growth rate 514% 246% 121% 93% 73% 63% 58%
Q/Q Growth rate NA NA NA NA NA 14% 6%

Source: http://investor.google.com/fin_data.html
P.S. Sorry tried several times, but can't import chart here.

My opinion is that both these programs are the most beneficial for small and middle-sized companies. One if the reason is: the search for the products usually is done per key word, which is the name of the product – not brand. So companies with unknown brands (small and middle-sized) and not expensive products are searched. If people need product of a big sized company they go straight to its website as its repeats the name of the company and usually well-know.

The most important difference from TV advertising is in customer orientation of the services provided. The users will be offered the only type of advertising that they are looking for (not the whole range of different products like in TV advertising). The second advantage is that advertisers can limit their target auditorium to specified location (state, city, etc.) when is much harder to establish in TV advertising.

Comments on the classes and ARTICLE 3.

Good afternoon! Today I would like to mention 2 new things learned from my classmates Hardware presentation and Software lecture. The first term I heard first is Virtualization, which "includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource." (Wikipedia source). The second new thing for me was the difference between machine languages of first and last generation, namely that you can understand the languages of last generation as they consist of plain English words.

ARTICLE 3.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9035459&intsrc=hm_list

As you can see from the article a new edition of Sports software - MagicSports 4.0 - was introduced targeting especially sports fans, who are too busy to watch every game, but still want to know all the details of favorite events. The software can analyze 4 types of games - football (new), soccer, baseball and sumo wrestling and using several special techniques (like four-star classification) creates 20 minutes final video. It offers number of convenient options like watching the game from the favorite point or moving back and forward, editing the game and creating own video, which can be shared with friends. The program is user friendly and easy to install.

Comments on the classes and ARTICLE 2.

Hello! Today I would like to share my impression on the two last classes and tell you what was the most interesting for me. The first thing that I found new and pretty simple is the approach of solving of every kind of the problem from IT side. In the beginning it seems for you impossible to solve some sorts of issues, but if you classify them first as per categories given and then just apply one of the possible solution choices it becomes much easier. The second thing, which was new for me, is availability of different types of computers (huge classification) even though some of the names mean almost the same and you can't see the difference between them from the first sight.

ARTICLE 2.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20070904234014.html

You can see the direct connection of this article with class topic "Hardware" as it is one of the "input" devices as per general rule. But if to take a look on this keyboard I believe we can also say that it is "output" device as well: "Specially designed software will be able to change images on the colour screens depending on the program running." So it will give you some information depending on the task. This keyboard has already found its place in the market, but I personally don't see a lot of application for it. And what about you?

Week 1 article.

Some lessons from dot-com crisis
Birmingham Business Journal - December 28, 2001 by Scott Clark

Aside from creating and selling several technology-driven businesses, in my spare time I write books, give workshops and teach as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa.
A scant 18 months ago, many of my students were still eager to create dot-com companies, having read about the millions raised in venture capital overnight and the soaring value of dot-com stocks.

Even some business academics became hypnotized by the opportunity. One of these, Lyle Bowlin, from the University of Northern Iowa, was profiled last year in a Wall Street Journal article. According to The Journal, Bowlin raised $90,000 for a book-selling dot-com business operated out of his home (http://www.positively-you.com/) competing with Amazon.com and barnesandnoble. com. He received glowing write-ups in The New York Times and Time magazine, quickly followed by guest spots on the morning talk-show circuit. Predictably, orders shot up from $2,000 per month to $50,000 per month.
The company had not planned for such growth and was constantly behind the power curve, soliciting friends and their families to help pack and ship books rather than focus on profits and strategies.
Management apparently abandoned sound business principles and assumed its Web-based business was a bottomless well of increasing orders, even though it was still losing money. It's not hard to imagine what happened next.
Because of a combination of several factors (which may have included lack of a plan, lack of profits, lack of financial controls, lack of management oversight, inappropriately high salaries, high expenses without controls, inadequate software and/or hardware to cope with growth and/or competition), the company ran out of both money and customers, subsequently fading into oblivion.
In all fairness, Bowlin was just one of many dot-com dreamers who started companies to ride the wave of prosperity rather than focusing on plans, profits or fulfillment. Large businesses succumbed to the lure of easy money as well: Remember the disastrous Christmas of 1999 when Toys 'R Us created toysrus.com without focusing on fulfillment, thus failing to deliver thousands of Web-ordered toys in time for Christmas?
The Internet bubble finally burst in the spring of 2000. When the smoke finally cleared, the Nasdaq plunge (and its accompanying dot-com bloodbath) had erased 62 percent of the Nasdaq's value, which plummeted from a high of 4,260 to a low of 1,620 12 months later.
In retrospect, the dot-com bubble was fueled by greed, rather than by sound business practices. Aspiring Internet entrepreneurs thought they could bypass the long haul to success and achieve instant wealth just by hanging out a dot-com shingle. No need to focus on profits or management or order fulfillment or customer satisfaction; just launch the business and watch the money flow in.
They learned too late this simple truth: If more money flows out of the company than flows in, eventually the coffers will be empty and the business will die.
As a result of the dot-com rubble, today's crop of aspiring entrepreneurs has a much more realistic picture of what it takes to start a business. The few who are interested in dot-com businesses are focused on sound business principles rather than on pipe dreams and bandwagons as they assemble their plans.
So the good news from the dot-com crash is that fledgling entrepreneurs (and their investors) once again realize there is no quick path to easy street. As a result, most of today's new crop of entrepreneurs are launching businesses based on sound business principles.

Visit the Company Doctor's Web site (www.saclark.com) for additional information or to share your ideas.

Week 1 article comments.

To tell you the truth I did not know a lot about the dot-com crisis before the class. So it was very interesting for me to learn all these new old facts. And as you can see from the article the reasons we named in the class are almost the same here, namely: "lack of a plan, lack of profits, lack of financial controls, lack of management oversight, inappropriately high salaries, high expenses without controls, inadequate software and/or hardware to cope with growth and/or competition". Is not it excited? I believe this is important - to learn something and to know that you do it by yourself and right.