Golf!

This semester I particpated in Professor Gerdes' Software Design course. We used Visual Studio 2010 to learn the Visual Basic coding language. Visual Basic (VB) is an object oriented programming language that is event driven.

One of the class assignments was to work in groups of three to develop a program. My group members with Brittany Greene and Deshanna Hayden, two IIT majors I had never met before. A few project ideas were suggested but Professor Gerdes left the assignment open for new ideas. The only special requirements were that the program incorporate a database and a dynamic web page. Our team met to decide on what to do for the project and I suggested a card game that I learned during college called Golf. We all agreed that the project sounded exciting and we drew up a proposal.

I was in charge of the logic behind the game. I had no previous knowledge of creating a card game and this was way beyond the complexity of small assignments we had completed in class. Using the class textbook and several helpful websites I completed the game itself in just under 20 hours and a little more that 600 lines of code. We decided to incorporate a database by storing the player's names and scores. Brittany designed a database using Microsoft Access that could hold the correct fields, then a few lines of code that would take values (player's names and scores) created during the game and store them in the correct fields. Then I created a feature that would write dynamic HTML code based on the database fields to display it all in a 'Recent Scores' table. Deshanna helped with the graphical design and even created a professional looking splash screen. There is also a tutorial describing the rules to the game.

Having no experience in VB before this semester this was definitely a challenging project that I am proud to have accomplished. Our class will be presenting our projects on Tuesday, December 4th.

Marketing Using Social Media

Social media is described as media for social interaction. Most times it involves easily accessible and highly scalable publishing methods. Common tools we see today are Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Most of these tools are all free to use, which undoubtedly helps them boast their large user numbers.

In recent years, businesses have turned to social media to reach out in marketing campaigns to the public. It is becoming a very common practice for marketing campaigns to expand into the growing world of social connectivity. Companies interacting with social media can often times build brand recognition and dedication as users 'like' pages and retweet relevant news. Campaigns of this kind are often times successful from the point of view of the company that creates them. They are highly accessible to the public, easy to use and low cost. As new forms of social media is created opportunity for marketing campaigns expands also.

So how should we use this information in order to better our marketing plan using social media? Free is good. New is good. Stay on top of the trending types of social media and take advantage of them. Don't expect results beyond what the tool is actually capable of. Be happy with an effective form of advertising that is being provided to you fairly inexpensively.

Dialogue IQ

I recently came across an idea like this while reading a book that was suggested to me. The book, "Crucial Conversation: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High" focuses on what makes certain people so good at open conversation. I cannot give this book enough praise. It is a quick and easy read without too much fluff. The content focuses on improving one's ability to communicate: common mistakes people often make that can kill conversations and relationships. The authors almost break down dialogue into a science.

In the first chapter there is a discussion of something called Dialogue IQ. The gist of Dialogue IQ is this:

Think of the general bubble of knowledge you have for a given problem. You could look at everyone's knowledge in the 'room' collectively and even give it a score (like an IQ score measuring knowledge). That maximum score is only achieved if everyone is open and willing to share their maximum knowledge. If anyone in the room were to not contribute some of their knowledge then the maximum "IQ" would not be achieved.

For an example say that you are a salesman in a meeting with several of your co-workers and managers. There is a great deal of diversification in the room in all different areas of the business including salesmen, marketing, your CIO, etc. Your manager is really pushing an idea to ramp up sales by offering an incentive to customers. You tried a similar tactic under the direction of the previous manager and you know that it was ineffective. However, you know the company is making cutbacks and it is no time to disagree with your manager so you go with the plan. Months later the project is a failure as you expected and you finally tell your manager who gave the order "I didn't think it would work. We actually tried this same incentive before you were hired." "Why didn't you say so?" he replies.

If problems like this sound familiar and you want to learn how to defeat them, check out the book.

Why I may buy CPSI

Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. (CPSI) is a healthcare information technology company that designs, develops, markets, installs and supports computerized information technology systems. The Company’s target market includes acute care community hospitals with 300 or fewer beds and small specialty hospitals, with its primary focus on hospitals with 100 or fewer acute care beds. CPSI is providing software and hardware products, complemented by data conversion, installation, support and information technology management and professional services.

-Taken from company description

Healthcare reform has given a big push to businesses such as CPSI as hospitals are required to implement new systems by regulation. CPSI's systems (patient management, accounting and clinical) meet these regulations. The company has a very solid record posting $2.39 EPS and a Price/Earnings ratio of 22.5. A few reasons why I believe CPSI stock is a bargain at current prices:

• CPSI's systems are compliant with healthcare reform regulations. Their is a huge demand for their systems that doesn't look to be going away.
• There is potential for a boom in demand in Q1 2013 as deadlines for reform approach.
• The company has consistently increased dividends for close to 10 years with an annual yield of 3.44%.

Cloud Technologies

The term cloud-computing entered the mainstream a few years back, but it is no new idea by any means. The cloud's model began in the 1950's as IBM began developing mainframe technology. Now consoles all over the world could alter data at a single access point. In example, with a banking mainframe a single clients account balance may need to be accessed by a teller at a bank, a machine that prints statements and an ATM machine. The data in the account must be identical when accessed in all three cases. This is done by having all the data handled by transactions through one single physical machine, a mainframe. This new machine largely shaped certain industries today such as banks and insurance companies as everyone knows money transferring is all electronic.

Sixty years later we are finding cutting edge ways to use this practice in various businesses.

The explosion of the internet has brought cloud computing to new levels. Data-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service are all industries that have bloomed as the cloud continues to grow.

Cloud computing can often times be a catalyst in business models. When a company implements a cloud technology into their business often times it can have amazing consequences. Take Netflix for example. Netflix (NFLX) went public in 2002, their strategy was to attract customers into paying a monthly subscription fee in exchange for movie rentals delivered by mail. Operating costs were being battered by shipping costs on the physical DVD's but the company was profitable. Then they introduced a system where for the same monthly fee a subscriber could stream video directly to their PC. The cost of streaming movies to customers instead of mailing them decreased costs as well as established a product line that would encourage a larger subscriber base. Needless to say interest grew in the company and their stock price soared.

So where will the next cloud system make a huge impact on a company? The company I am keeping an eye on is Microsoft. Microsoft (MSFT) is already the most widely used operating system among PC's with a huge footprint in businesses. Microsoft has a very strong cloud-based product line emerging with SkyDrive, Office 365 and Windows Azure. This combination allows Microsoft to outsource your entire infrastructure-as-a-service. 

Yahoo Answers Delivers

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100508154542AAe2LPl

Cloud computing taking big leaps recently

Anyone who uses Google Docs knows about the recent change to Google Drive. Now if you have a Google account you are entitled to 5 free gigs of cloud space. Pretty impressive when you consider how many millions of people will have access to this. That's a ton of data that has to be stored somewhere remember.
Now today at an earnings conference Oracle's CEO spoke of a large announcement in the next week.

In the company's earnings release, Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, said the company would announce new features soon.

 "A little more than a week from now we will announce lots of enhancements to the Oracle Cloud," Ellison said.

Google will really have a great product with the integration of Google Docs. They will most likely take on a business model similar to Box, charging for customized and large file storage systems. Oracle will also be "outsourcing hard disk" in a similar fashion more than likely. Let's not leave out Microsoft Roll-out of Windows 8 with Sky Drive in October.

Seems like a good time to be in the cloud computing business.