Week 10: Microsoft Access (Clear)

Each week I take an exciting adventure to learn something new in my class and this week was about a Microsoft product I've never heard of, let alone used. Maybe you know what I'm referencing, you might if it's Microsoft Access.

Let me briefly explain, this is a wonderful (and newly discovered product to me) product that will help you keep databases. If you own a business, this could be a great tool, or maybe you just like to look at numbers for a class project, it would be another asset that can help.

So, now that you're briefed on what the product is, let's dive in and I'll explain what a query is.

I know, another term you may not have heard of before but don't worry, I'll help you out.

A query is just a fancy way of saying how to describe data, it breaks it down into different parts such as planning, optimizing, etc.

Now that you're caught up on what a query is, let's talk about how to make one!

First, open Microsoft Access. You need to open the database by going to your recent (or another one you want to work in) and then click it. Select the table you want to work in.

How to create a query: Go to the ribbon bar at the top and click create. This will let you pick query design button and then you select the table you'd like to use as the source of the information. Click add.

Now, you can specify which fields you'd like to have in the results (this is in the bottom half of the screen). Click on the data sheet view.

In the design view, click the design icon in the top left corner, this is right under the file button. Now you can sort! (Kind of exciting, especially for those of you who love your organization). You can sort in the query definition in ascending and descending orders, this is for single items. In multiple fields, you click in both fields that you want and sort (in the record of each field).

And, you're done! It's that simply. It's so easy to do and really helps.

You're wondering how it's beneficial in the business environment and my question to you is how can it not be beneficial? As I mentioned, businesses can benefit by sorting their data. Any business from a corporation to a mom-and-pop shop can have some help from using databases to organize their information.

In case you're still a little unfamiliar with what Microsoft Access is, here's a YouTube video to help explain a little more.

Have a great week!

Week 9: Moore's Law (Clear)

Moore's Law was the topic of this week's class. It was named after Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel. Here's the historical background of how the technological landscape has changed over the years:

• 1500: ideas for mechanical computing started with Leonardo Davinci
• 1896: the Tabulating Machine Company was formed for mechanical methods to count the U.S. population for the Census. Later the company became IBM (International Business Machines)
• 1904: John Ambrose Fleming developed the first commercial diode vacuum tube, but Edison discovered this earlier and deemed it worthless. This allowed the electrical switch to turn on and off a thousand times faster than any contraption to date
• 1926: first semi-conductor transitor invented
• 1944: Harvard and IBM developed the Mark 1 (main frame computer). It weighed about 10,000 pounds and took up 51 feet in length, 8 feet in height and 2 feet in depth. 
• 1958: Texas Instruments built the first integrated circuit. This led to the modern processor and led to smaller computers to be produced.
• Early 1960s: 2,000 computers in use in the U.S.
• 1965: first microcomputer developed. It cost $18,000 (the PDP8 was the model) and there were 50,000 sold
• 1975: Altare 8800 sold at $397 without a keyboard, mouse, monitor or interface. It included the Intel microprocessor and 256 bytes of memory
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hacked this to create a computer with a display, built-in keyboard and disk storage: this was the apple

Moore's Law is chip performance per dollar doubles every 18 months. The next generation of chips should be twice as fast and cost the same thing as 18 months ago.

It's important to understand price elasticity which is the rate at which demand fluctuates with price change. High price elasticity means when the price drops, there will be a spike in demand.

The five waves of computing are how computers have evolved over the years. The five waves of computing are:

• 1960s: main frame (Mark 1 for batch computing with punch cards)
• 1970s: mini-computers (smaller than room-sized Mark 1, had a series of switches)
• 1980s: personal computers (Macintosh introduced in 1982. Uses a mouse and graphical interface)
• 1990s: mobile computers (laptops, personal computing devices)
• 2000s: ubiquitous computers (now an integral part of your life)
• referred to as the Internet of Things
• Cisco estimates that by 2020, there will be 50 billion things connected to the Internet. Intel claims there will be 31 billion things by 2020.

As a manager, you need to consider some questions:

• How long will your computing equipment remain useful?
• What does this mean for capital expense budget?
• What does it mean for your costs associated with maintenance?
• What does it mean for training budget?

Also, keep in mind the Death of Moore's Law. There are three inter-related forces: size, heat and power that threaten to slow down Moore's Law. This means there is only so much smaller in size, less heated and less use of power that can be accomplished.

Here is a website that gives a better understanding of Moore's Law: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/09/moore.ars

The site showed me how effective Moore's Law has been over the year and the origins of it. It goes more in depth on explanation and really explains any questions you have.

Business is important because we have to know what is coming and what more to expect in the future. In the questions to consider, it's important to think of these before making purchasing decisions to get the most out of your investment.

Until next time...

Excel Project

This week, I created an Excel project using information from 100 males and females ranging in age between 20 and 59 years old. This was not an easy assignment, but I learned a lot.

I used information my professor provided and added statistics to it, such as finding the average heart rate, average increase, target heart rate, highest heart rate, if the target was achieved, etc. One of the more interesting parts of the spreadsheet was figuring out how to mark yes or no for making the target heart rate. This was pretty cool because I learned how to make formulas and have them work, which I've always wanted to do and it helps knowing to put = before any formula you want to make (otherwise it just won't work).

Below is a screen capture of the average increase of the participants in the research. As you can see, females tended to have better results than males.