Relfections on Class

CSMN 601 has been a good experience. I actually started this same class 8 years ago, but withdrew half way through the class. Getting cancer (said in a Monty Python way "...but I got better") and having a newborn didn't leave much time for school work. This go-round things were much more manageable.

I learned a number of things and solidified some more familiar technologies. I now find myself looking at the tech sites each morning for "what's new." Now on to "computer security."

Thanks!

Reflections on Week 14

My mini project dealt with robots. Here is my favorite robot. I would have said Ultra Man, but he technically wasn't a robot.

The discussion question on teleworking was relevant for me. This issue comes up often at UMBC. In the end, for professional level staff, it comes down to a case-by-case basis. Blanket policies don't seem to work out well for people with diverse jobs and responsibilities.

I did enjoy watching the Steve Jobs speech - even though I'm a much bigger Steve Wozniak fan :)

Reflections on Week 13

The countdown has started. The end of the semester is approaching and assignment due dates are coming fast and furious.

I've found that the readings have become more and more interesting to me, in that they touch on a lot of the situations that I have been in. Offshore outsourcing being one. I see the practical application of this practice, yet my personal experience left a little to be desired. Perhaps that was because I was in a development role rather than customer service.

I have to go now and punch in the numbers which will allow me a little more time to work on my projects. Let's see... where did I put those numbers? Ah, yes...
4...8...15...16....23....42

Reflections on Week 12

Software development.. A subject that is near and dear to my heart. Pictured is my first computer. A TI99-4A. I taught myself to program on it. I had a giant 16k worth of memory. My how times have changed. The subject discussed this week was object oriented vs. procedural. Both methods are great ways to develop. It all boils down to "the right tool for the right job." Thats very similar to the question regarding SDLCs and web developers. All things in moderation...

Now leave me alone so I can work on my research paper - my prof is cracking the whip!

Reflections on Session 11

In this session we discussed the topic of successful and not so successful e-businesses. We also discussed how we could use IT to make our own businesses more competitive. Thinking about this from the perspective of a public institution was interesting. I often made fun of some of the "hip" banner ads that I've seen for UMBC. I would joke and say that I've found one that had a picture of a skateboarder that said "UMBC: Come Get Your Learn On!" But the more I think about it, the more I see that this type of advertising might just attract the technically savvy young people that UMBC would like to have apply.

The article that I posted was about the speed of wireless / mobile networks. I found the idea that a Japanese company is testing out a 300Mbps network to be a little depressing. Depressing in the fact that my iPhone maxes out in the 1.5Mbps range.

Reflections on Week 10

Week 10 was quite eclectic. We discussed data warehousing as well as GPS technologies. While I very much enjoy using a GPS for both turn-by-turn directions as well as Geocaching, I really dislike data warehousing. Coming from a DBA, that might sound odd. My experience has been that the data warehouse community is a whole separate subculture from the rest of the IT world. They feel that IT is a necessary evil that really stands in their way of obtaining their rolled up facts and figures. I happen to disagree. I feel the bread and butter of an organization is the day to day transactions and transactional data. This IS the business, and not just a means to obtain summary information. I suppose thats why I won't be invited back to another Data Warehousing Institute conference. Whew!

Reflections on Session 9

Week 9 discussed teamwork and collaboration. One collaborative tool that I really make use of is the wiki. While I'm not sure it's for everyone, I can't help believe that an organization wouldn't benefit from one or more. Gone "should" be the day of the magic operations or policy binder. Gone "should" be the day of documents stored locally that contain important information / scripts / how-to, etc. I've found the easiest way to manage these types of information is through a wiki. Our text book mentioned "Organizational Memory." The wiki is the perfect tool to be part of the overall organizational memory strategy.

Wikis: They're not just for geeks anymore!

Reflections on Session 8

Session 8 discussed e-business. The mini project I thought would be a simple task. Well, it didn't turn out that way. My first idea, a moving service for college students, turned out to be not so unique. Leave it to Les to find www.collegeboxes.com. So much for my original idea. Thankfully my second choice, Mom's Taxi, was more original.

Getting in the e-business state of mind and going through the project made me think. The internet has to be the single biggest influence in business in at least 50 years - probably more. Wow, Al Gore really knew what he was doing when he invented the internet. ;-)

Reflections on Session 7

The reading for this chapter was right up my alley. Enterprise Resource Planning. I work in an ERP environment - PeopleSoft. We went through a 2 year implementation of Finance and Human Resources. Now we are just starting the implementation of the Student Administration system. All of the items discussed in the reading applied to our implementation. Staffing issues, consultants, fit-gap, hardware... you name it. I still wonder what our return on investment is with the ERP implementation. Are we truly better of than if we would have taken the millions of dollars spent and modified our in-house systems?

Reflections on Session 6

The reading for the session was Transactions and Operations. This was the first chapter that I didn't breeze through. There were a few concepts introduced that were new or helped to solidify a minimal understanding of a topic. For example, EDI. While I knew it existed, I have not had hands-on experience with EDI. The use of it is far more outreaching than I thought. It was interesting to see that XML is making its way along side of EDI.
I was also amazed to see how many online transaction processing businesses that are available. I could only think of the major ones - PayPal, Google, etc.. It seems there really is a market for everyone.

On a side note, I bought my iPhone this past Friday. While they were getting the store ready, the employees were removing the "coming soon" letters from the store window. They accidently removed one too many letters. I was able to snap a picture before they fixed it. I thought it was funny looking. :)

Week 5 Reflections

It was nice having a "single" week after our first "double" week! I enjoyed the reading about computer security. Passwords and encryption schemes have always interested me, but admittedly, its not my strong suit. For that reason, I think I will be taking the course in Encryption during the fall semester.

The discussion question on "Alternatives to Passwords" gave me an opportunity to talk about PassFaces. The is a visual password technology that we piloted here at UMBC. An interesting alternative to traditional text based passwords.

The group project is finally starting to get underway. We have posted the questions we need to address and group members are starting to claim stake to their part. I'm starting regret not taking the library course this semester. Research should be "interesting".

Week 4 Reflections

Being an Oracle DBA for the past 10 years, I looked forward to the Database Management chapter. I was a little disappointed. I'm sure I'm being unfair, but I felt the chapter spent too much time discussing building reports and menus (which are NOT part of database management). Instead, the chapter should have addressed backup and recovery issues as well as database tuning. Yes, I know, I'm looking at it from a DBA's perspective rather than from the perspective of an end-user.

The discussion question on database security allowed me to speak to one of the current topics on the net - SQL Injection. This allows a user to add his/her own SQL code to a database form and have it executed on the server. It wasn't 6 months ago that the developers of web applications here at UMBC had a project to tighten up security to prevent SQL injection.

Week 3 Reflections

Week 3 began our first "double-up" week. One of the joys of taking a summer class. I found the reading much more enjoyable. I've always found networks and telecommunications interesting. Not that I'm an expert on them, but interesting none the less. I've always dealt with many of the individual parts discussed in the reading, but it was good to get an overall view that glued the pieces together. An example would be the discussion on the different layers of the network. Starting from the physical layer, moving to internet (IP), up to transport (TCP) and then finally to the application layer. This shows how a message or packet moves through all of these layers to request and receive information on our behalf.

I found the discussion question on E-mail overload humorous. It seems email overload was a common thread, yet people's perspective on email varied greatly. Some looked at email as evil while others thrived on it. I find myself on the side of thriving. :)

Week 2 Reflections

Week 2 brought about the reality of getting back to school.   Reading here.. responding there. Chapter 2 in our text, Information Technology Foundations, was pretty basic.  Again, looking forward to getting more into the meat of the book.  Glimpsing ahead, I see some interesting chapters ahead.  Being a DBA, chapter 4 - Database Management should be an interesting read.

The discussion questions for week 2 were of particular interest.  One of my focuses over the past year in our organization has been the need for faster and MORE storage.  It doesn't matter how much storage you get, it always seems to not be enough.  Discussing technology refresh kind of scratched the surface of my multiple hats here at UMBC.  On one hand, I'm a technologist that loves to get in the latest and greatest.  On the other hand, I'm a manager and have a budget that I need to stay within.  

Week 1 and The Merging of Technologies

Whats In A Number?


Week 1 in class has actually been fun. No, I don't mean to sound surprised. Being that it's my first grad class, and an accelerated one at that, I just wasn't sure what to expect. I am a little apprehensive about the group project. I don't ever recall hearing someone say "I love group projects - can't get enough of them!" The reading was interesting, but I'm looking forward to getting into the real "meat" of the book and out of the introduction.

My expectations of my professor have been exceeded. (begin suck-up opportunity) You see, working at a university, I deal with a lot of faculty. Let's just say that a sense of humor is not high on their priority list. Perhaps it has something to do with working with PeopleSoft. Regardless, it has been fun to be in Les' class. Anyone who understands the significance of the number 42 is alright in my book!

The iPhone is coming! The iPhone is coming!


This past week Apple announced the release date of the iPhone (June 29th). I have to admit, I've been following all of the buzz on the iPhone since Steve Jobs announced the product in January. Reading through all of the information and speculated features one thought continues to come to mind. What we are seeing here is a shift of a few industries towards each other. The business end of personal computers / communicators is being married up with the consumer electronics and entertainment industries. This one device will allow me to control my 50 oracle databases through the Oracle Grid Control web application, while at the same time get my groove on with the latest music from iTunes. While other so called "smart phones" have similar features, I believe the iPhone will drive the industry further into developing multi-function / multi-purpose appliances.

Yes, I admit it - I will be in line on June 29th for the iPhone. While I'm waiting there I'll try to come up justification to myself as to why I need a $500 phone... appliance...gadget... thing. Suggestions welcome.

Welcome to Toddville!

Greetings and welcome to Toddville!

This blog will reflect the fountain of thoughts that flow from my mind through my journey of CSMN601. Before you start checking out my thought fountain, an introduction is in order.

My name is, yes, you've guessed it - Todd. I live in Maryland with my wife and two children. I currently work at the University of MD, Baltimore County managing the database administration group within the Office of Information Technology. While I'm not tuning a database or writing blog entries for my class, I do enjoy a few other activities. Being spring now I've gone on a few bike rides with the kids as well as frequented the community pool. This past winter I tinkered with building a few robots. Nothing too exciting, but still quite fun! Finally, on the occasional evening, I like to challenge the family to a good game of Wii Sports.

Finally - What's in a name? The name of my blog, Toddville, is a tribute to tech-god Leo Laporte at leoville.com. I've enjoyed his television shows and podcasts for a number of years.