Welcome to September – back to school, and the last big
picnic. I've been alternating between preparing this issue and
planning for Labor Day festivities (shish-ka-bob and leftover
fireworks from the 4th).
I finally settled on GIS as the
topic for the technical article as this technology is rapidly
becoming part of business intelligence systems which remain
corporate America's #1 technical interest. For dessert (can't
completely leave picnic planning and I don't yet have a dessert
planned), I added a piece on Microsoft's Windows. So many people ask
about the different versions with so many different names - I
thought a summary would be helpful.
As usual, congratulate
yourself if you get above a 40 on the quiz. Swarming (the teaser)
has nothing to do with picnics! We'll be in Chicago and the NYC area
in September, and Web sessions are on the 10th, 11th, and 12th.
Keep in touch …
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Growing uses of
GIS
GISs (Geographic Information Systems)
combine such things as demographics, corporate revenues, and taxes
with maps. The maps allow geographically pertinent information to be
incorporated into standard company information processing. These
systems work with spatial information and actually are
special-purpose digital databases holding spatial data. In addition
to the database, GISs contain subsystems for:
data input;
data storage, retrieval, and representation;
data management, transformation, and analysis;
data reporting and product generation. The
system contains both the database with geographic data already in
the database, and the processing systems.
GISs have been
around for quite some time, but have been used mostly for
scientific, government, military, and municipal functions.
Municipalities use GISs to locate the best site for a new fire
station or police station through demographics, available lots, and
street data. Government agencies have used GIS technology to protect
national forests and manage national parks. The military relies on
these systems for planning, training, and conducting warfare and
scientific bodies locate and protect natural resources and
endangered species among other things.
The corporate world
has taken note, and now it too uses GIS. Retailers have long used
GIS to decide the best location for stores, but other newer business
uses go much further than this. Manufacturers of outdoor gear use
GISs to provide online maps for customers to explore trails and plan
day hikes before leaving home. Insurance underwriters use GIS to
analyze multi-layered data in order to underwrite policies that
could have different premiums based on e.g. 100 feet in distance
from a shoreline is the difference between a property that floods
and one that remains dry. Distributors plan activities and manage
transportation fleets for delivery of goods. This is an example of a
GIS that incorporates access to GPS technology.
GPS (Global Positioning System) is a
network and location system that uses GPS satellites to communicate
with GPS chips in handsets of many different devices. Distributors
using this technology can find exactly where trucks are to check the
status of an order. Companies also use GPS to locate the closest
repairman for emergency situations, and reassign personnel depending
upon circumstances. GPS systems are included in automobiles and
users can get new directions if they're stopped by an accident, or
can ask for the location of gas stations or hotels.
In
addition, GIS products are now used for business analytics. GIS mapping is a software application that
takes geographic data from any source and converts it into a visual
representation such as a colorful map of the entire U.S. or a
specific region. A GIS map presents spatial relationship of
variables and consumers so that an analyst can recognize
associations, patterns, and interactions. Many of today's data
mining tools use GIS mapping to reveal hidden trends, patterns, and
distributions. Users can gain new insights and better understanding
working with visual data. In fact, many of these tools use visual
maps for input – users can simply click on an area of a map to
request analytical information to compare activity or sales in
different districts.
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Techknowledge (MS Windows)
|
Microsoft
Windows
Microsoft
actually produces three different operating systems: Desktop, Server and
Handheld systems. Desktop operating
systems, in blue, are those we use on our PCs and laptops. Server
systems, in red, run on larger computers and are used by the
technical staff. Operating systems for handheld systems, in green,
run on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Major and planned
releases are as follows:
1990 Windows 3.0
1991
1992 Windows for
Workgroups
1993 NT
Workstation -- NT Advanced
Server
1994
1995 Windows 95
1996 NT Workstation 4.0 --
NT Server 4.0 -- Windows CE
1.0
1997 Windows CE
2.0
1998 Windows 98
1999
2000 Windows ME, Windows 2000
Professional --
2000 Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server,
2000 Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
--
2000 Windows CE 3.0, Pocket PC 2000
2001
Windows XP
2002 Windows XP Media Center, Windows XP Tablet PC --
2002 Pocket PC
2002, Smartphone 2002, Windows CE 4.0
2003 Windows Server 2003,
2003
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition,
2003 Windows Server 2003 Datacenter
Edition,
2003 Windows Server 2003 Web
Edition --
2003 Windows CE 4.2, Windows Mobile 2003
2004
Windows CE 5.0
2005 Longhorn
2006 Blackcomb
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1.
1. Everything in IT starts out expensive, but IT can claim the
biggest price drop that has ever occurred. What product, technology,
or service in IT has accounted for the biggest price drop ever
encountered in all commerce throughout all history?
2.
What does the "g" in Oracle 10g stand for?
3. What
is Microsoft's Pocket PC?
4. In what order did the
following appear?
Greenwich
Office Live Communications Server
2003
RTC (Real-Time Communications)
5.
Which of the following does not belong?
a) change management
b) refactoring
c) SCM
(Software Configuration Control)
d) version
control
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Time
has become a premium. Companies are doing more with fewer people,
and everyone seems to have additional tasks on their plates. While
this can be exciting as jobs change and grow, it's frustrating when
you find you're coming to work earlier, staying later, eating lunch
at your desk, and still not catching up!
Take a look at what
you're spending time on, and if understanding technical jargon is
one of the culprits, we can give you back that time. Your job is
recruiting, or sales, or business analysis, or . . . Understanding
technology is a part of your job, but the more time you spend here,
the less time you have to do the things you were hired to do. Well,
our job is understanding technology and we're really good at
it!
We are a one-stop resource for technical knowledge. Our
seminars begin your understanding, then you continue learning by
using TechRef after the seminar. If TechRef doesn't answer your
question, an email option gets you a same-day response from us.
How much time will you get back if:
you don't have to follow-up a meeting by figuring out what
people were talking about,
you don't find out at the end of an interview that this
candidate is not qualified,
getting a job order doesn't mean having to ask around to find
out what these skills are?
We'll give that time back to
you.
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Short Open Source
Vocabulary |
open source A tradition of open standards, shared
source code, and collaborative development that has contributed to
software such as the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems; the Apache
Web server; Perl, Tcl, and Python languages; and much of the
Internet's infrastructure. Groups working on open source software
follow:
Free Software Foundation Consortium of IT
people working to establish free operating system software,
specifically GNU Unix.
ObjectWeb Consortium of vendors
who develop open source middleware.
open systems A
philosophy that both software and hardware vendors should make
pertinent information about their products available to each other
so that products from different vendors can work together. This
extends to the agreement that vendors should follow the same
standards. Open systems also states that all systems should be
interoperable, scalable, and portable. Movement towards open systems
is most obvious in the area of communications.
OSI (Open
Source Initiative) Non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting
open source software. Open source software implies that software is
available without restrictions or charge, and that modifications and
derivative works are permitted. Officially, open source means that
source code must be available for redistribution without restriction
and without charge, and the license must permit the creation of
modifications and derivative works, and must allow those derivatives
to be redistributed under the same terms as the original work.
Licenses that conform with the Open Source Definition include the
GNU Public License (GPL), the BSD license used with Berkeley Unix
derivatives, the X Consortium license for the X Window System, the
Mozilla Public License, and others.
SourceForge Host
site for open source software. The mission of SourceForge.net is to
enrich the Open Source community by providing a centralized place
for Open Source developers to control and manage Open Source
software development.
The Apache Group Consortium of
individuals working on open source projects. Originally called the
Apache Group. Member-based, not-for-profit organization that
supports Apache open-source software.
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1. Since the invention of the microprocessor, the cost
of moving a byte of information around has fallen on the order of
10-million-fold. Never before in the human history has any product
or service gotten 10 million times cheaper-much less in the course
of a couple decades. That's as if a 747 plane, once at $150 million
a piece, could now be bought for about the price of a large pizza."
--Michael Rothschild
2. Oracle isn't saying yet! But,
of course, there are guesses. Oracle 10g is the next release of the
Oracle database, will follow Oracle 9i, and is expected in 2004.
Oracle (and most of the IT industry) feels that the "i" is no longer
necessary to indicate an Internet enabled database, as the Internet
is now an integral part of all software systems, including DBMSs
(DataBase Management Systems). That leaves room for a new initial,
and the most common guess is that the "g" stands for grid, as in
grid computing. Grid computing uses software to build a grid of
processors and other computing resources (e.g. databases) that is
available over a local or wide area network. The grid system appears
to an end user or application as one large virtual computing
system.
3. It actually isn't Microsoft's product. A
Pocket PC is a handheld computer, or PDA (Personal Digital
Assistant) and the specifications are written by Microsoft. The
actual devices are manufactured by many vendors including, Casio,
Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, NEC, etc. These devices use a
touch screen and a pen for user interaction. All of these devices
use Microsoft Windows operating systems: Customized Windows CE 3.0;
Pocket PC 2002, and Windows Mobile 2003.
4. These are
all names that have been used for the same communications software
from Microsoft. Greenwich was the development name, then RTC
(real-Time Communications was used when the product was released.
RTC was soon replaced by Office Live Communications Server 2003. The
software is a communications package that provides collaboration, IM
(Instant Messaging) tools, and security functions for corporate use.
IM processing appears when users are online; data collaboration
functions include whiteboarding; security functions include
encryption, logging and recording messages. Microsoft plans to
incorporate this software with Office 2003 and the next releases of
Outlook. Released: 2003.
5. b) does not belong, but
not by much. Refactoring is rewriting a program to clean up the
source code without changing the external behavior of the program.
Refactoring does produce new versions of the software, which must be
handled by software providing version control. Handling different
versions is part of change management, which is part of SCM
(Software Configuration Management) systems.
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