HOMEWORK DUE MARCH 31, 2008

F.T.P. = FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL






Click on the link to Boston College's Help Page for FTP.

http://www.bc.edu/offices/infotech/depts/slsc/tutorials/utilities/ftp/

FTP means File Transfer Protocol. Using a FTP server to transfer your files is necessary when the file is too big to be emailed. It is a faster way to get your files to another location.

You need a Host location. We use www2.bc.edu as our HOST. It is secure because you need a USER NAME and PASSWORD to access the site.

You can put files on the server (upload files)and take files off the server (download files). It can also serve as a backup. There should be a changelog file that accompanies each post to your site so that changes are documented.

Homework Due March 24, 2008

http://www.geocities.com/clifford_virginia/changelog_20080324.txt

MITCHELL BAKER INTERVIEW

The file contained an excerpt from the McKinsey Quarterly entitled
"Succeeding at open-source Innovation: An Interview with Mitchell Baker"

Ms Baker is the creator of Mozilla FireFox. She has an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from University of California at Berkley. She got a law degree and worked at Netscape as an Associate General Counsel.

Mitchell explained the idea of Mozilla and its open and participatory Internet.
Google was mentioned and of special note, it was used in reference as the source of their Revenue being 3 times greater than expenses. What a return! That is a remarkable (67% Gross Profit).

Their idea is to have free flowing of information and constant creation. Originally it had about 25 employees, now it has about 120. While some of the workers are employees and paid, most of the work is done by volunteers. The control is that the code for FIREFOX is very disciplined. I liked the fact that if anyone disagreed, it was put out into the public domain for comment. They listen to others and remain open-minded. This gives everyone a sense of ownership and the momentum keeps up.

HARDWARE ASSIGNMENT

USB HUBS
Do you ever have to decide what you need to plug in versus what you have to plug in? The answer to having everything ..... or at least to having everything available on your PC at the same time. The USB Hub allows you to plug in your camera, scanner, hard drive, IPOD, PSP, Mouse, Keyboard, Cable Box, Printer, or whatever to your PC. You are not limited to the number of devices due to the number of USB ports on your computer.

A USB hub is a device that contains several USB ports. A USB port is a "Universal Serial Bus". It allows devices to be connected to your computer. The hub has a USB cord that gets plugged into one of the USB ports which allows for the expansion of more USB ports. USB is supported by Windows 95 and later editions.

The USB has increased the efficiency of multi-tasking. Although, it has been out for several years, it was not always used to optimal performance. The main reason was that there was no uniform USB port on the personal computers. Certain computer manufacturers had different sizes for their USB port and as a result USB was once known as "useless serial bus".

SECOND LIFE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

I went to Second-life and signed in and made an account. My username is Student Ninetails. It was a very easy process. I find it hard to get around. I managed to hop on a scooter and get rid of some rats. That was interesting. I made it to the flight school and exited.

My image of second life is titled 'SECOND LIFE TO OPEN IN SECOND LIFE'. It is pretty funny to think about getting a second chance at a second life!!!!

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #2

MSN TO BUY YAHOO?????

MSN wants YAHOO, and MSN needs YAHOO and all of its cumstomers if they want to compete against an industry giant like GOOGLE.

GOOGLE rules the world in regards to the search engine industry and namely big money with advertising.

MSN once dominated the ISP (internet service providers) with its Dial-up Internet service and Encarta Online Encylopedia. It has lost most, if not almost all of its market share to the high speeds of cable and DSL technology. Just recently, MSN started to offer "free email" accounts, something that YAHOO has always offered. They may have been trying to appear like YAHOO, but now MSN is trying to join forces with YAHOO and try to take the lead as the industry giant for search engines.

GOOGLE, however, does not want this to happen and will not let it happen without a fight. They plan to help Yahoo and block the "take-over".

The New York Times reported back in September that Ask.com, Yahoo and Microsoft were trying to compete against GOOGLE who dominates the search engine market. The article stated that MSN had been making changes to their search engine several times a week. MSN has been fine tuning its search engine for awhile.

GOOGLE claims to know what the consumer wants. The have been dominating the market for a longtime. If MSN is sucessful in buying YAHOO that will mean problems to GOOGLE. GOOGLE wants to make it hard and expensive for MSN and will try to manipulate the advertising world.

YAHOO to join with GOOGLE to fend off 45 Billion takeover bid????? Posted tonight.

FIRST HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Homework #1
HD-DVD, Blue Ray, Comcast High Speed Internet and IPods :
Business Strategy : Fear and Opportunity

The most interesting fact I find is the similarity of the new technology taking over the existing market of home entertainment. There is always the need for faster games and crystal clear movies. Play-Station-2(PS2) did to VHS what Pay-Station-3(PS3) with Blue Ray is doing it to HD-DVD market. No one uses VHS anymore and soon the new technology of Blue Ray will replace all HD-DVD until IPOD and Comcast figure out a way to make downloading of Videos faster and then it is goodbye to Blue Ray, too. New technology impacts the home entertainment market and everyone wants the latest technology and they want it fast and with high quality.

Toshiba (HD-DVD)wants to limit their losses and cash out. They know they have lost, but they can continue the fight and cause Blue Ray to spend a lot of money or give them some money to go away. Sony should either lower the price of PS3 or give Toshiba the hush money. I would lower the price of the PS3 to gain greater market share for the Blue Ray which might sustain Blue Ray's shelf life, but there is evidence to suggest that IPOD and Comcast might eliminate HD-DVD altogether, along with Blue Ray.

Comcast and Apple’s IPOD offer video and there is a new device in the works to make the download of video’s faster and you do not need a HD-DVD or Blue Ray system to use them. IPOD’s have video and with a connector cord, similar to a current DVD player connector, you can watch videos on your TV, and as an added bonus, it is portable so you can watch your video anywhere and at anytime. Soon it will be faster.

Ipod sold 119 million as of October 2007 and clearly already has great market share.