Week 6 - Topics and Readings

This week we concluded the Computing section. Can I get an amen? Not my favorite part of the course, but I will never deny the power of the personal computer and their purpose. On Tuesday we looked at hot topics like virtualization, thin computing, and cloud computing. Also, we finished up with some US and International sales info for the industry. Simply said Acer improved, Dell hasn't been impressive, Lenovo is down, HP is respectable and Apple only made the US list. Oh yeah, Virtualization, Mobile Computing and Cloud Computing are hot topics and very relevant. The benefits are pretty obvious depending on the situation.

Thursday we will dive in head first into Digital Media. We will meet in WSOM 009 and "kick the tires." My plan is to attack Photoshop, Flash, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker and Powerpoint, this class will help you as you work on your second project. You are required to create a digital media advertisment (see syllabus). Next week we'll get into the details and power of digital media, drivers, formats, definitions and issues.

Oh yeah, three more things:

1. We'll keep cranking on the individual project presentations. I'm hoping you are seeing the pattern.

2. Twitter is silly, see here. Why are people following my useless comments?

3. Quiz and Project grades should be posted on Blackboard by Tuesday.

Download Reading Assignments Here

Mac vs. PC

As we are entrenched in the computing section of this course we need to enter into the Mac vs. PC battle.

1. Which is the better personal computer and why?

2. Which is a better enterprise computer? What I mean is which does CPU Inc. need - They have 500 PCs (towers and notebooks), need integrated file and communication systems.

3. As the Director of Technology I am very interested in the future of the Mac vs. PC battle on the student level. Which computer are students going to bring to campus over the next 2-5 years. Mac or PC?

Week 5 - Topics and Readings

This week we continue the individual project presentations and we start focusing on Computing. I like to discuss the history, evolution and improvements in the computing industry. We'll cover a number of simple computing terms and definitions by taking a look inside the computer. Glenn Santa (Computing Specialist) will help us discuss the "guts" and "uses" of computing parts. After the basics we'll dive a little deeper into processing power, Moore's Law and miniturization. The main ideas here are today computers and components are generally smaller, faster, and more powerful/capable.

I am also pleased to have Ryan Elstad (System Admin) and Peter Pizzimenti (System Admin) as guest speakers this week. Ryan and Pete are bright lights in the world of computing and IT infrastructure here on campus. I've asked them to discuss servers (file vs media), storage, backups, green computing, data centers and virtualization. And of course they will discuss costs and companies involved. This will be a great session. I learn something new every time I talk to them.

Download Reading Assignments Here

*Your paper is due 2/12.

My First Computer from 1982!

As we move into the Computing Section of this course I started thinking about my first computer it was the Commodore 64. What a purchase by my dad. At the time the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were rivaled only by the Atari (hopefully you know what Atari is). Also it was the best selling computer of all time (at the time). At the time I was five and playing some really lame games: Super Bowl Sunday, Frogger and Q-Bert.

What are the biggest differences between your first computer and your present computer?

These screenshots are pathetic and real. I remember these games, the lame controller and the 5in floppy disks. Oh yeah did I mention there was no internet. That explains my 15 year obsession with John Madden Football and the Internet.

As you can see, when you are an old timer a lot has changed. The biggest difference my my C64 and my MacBookPro is speed, size, power, storage, networking and graphics capabilities:

64KB of RAM (C64) vs. 2GB of RAM (my MacBookPro)
1.02 MHz CPU (C64) vs. 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo (my MacBookPro)
16 Colors (Monitor) vs. Millions of Colors (Monitor)
Commodore BASIC 2.0 OS (C64) vs. Mac OS X Leopard (my MacBookPro)
$595 COST (C64) vs. over $2,000 (my MacBookPro)

1999 vs 2009

Which is the most significant technology development over the past ten years? and Why? Please give examples.

a. Computing (Size, Speed and Power)
b. Broadband Internet (Wired and Wireless)
c. Digital Media Explosion (Audio/Video Formats, Tools and Services)
d. Other... (please explain your custom answer)

Welcome to the Entrepreneurship and Digital Commerce Blog

Welcome to the eee439 blog. We will utilize this blog to share information and thoughts as we progress through Entrepreneurship and Digital Commerce Spring 2009 semester. I encourage you to use this site as a tool as it will be pulling current technology and business news 24/7. Also, I encourage you to participate in this blog, comments will be part of your participation grade. So what is this course about?

Overall, eee439 will focus on the current revolution in technology that is transforming significant segments of our economy and our society. The Internet, the World Wide Web, fiber optics, Internet telephony, MP3 compression, digital interactive television, wireless communications, streaming media and a host of other digital technologies are creating many opportunities to establish viable, sustainable new ventures. But as the rise and fall of the dot.com phenomenon has demonstrated there are some huge potholes in the road to entrepreneurial success. This course will help you gain the knowledge and develop the insights and vision required for successful digital commerce ventures.

Digital commerce comprises a wide range of commercial activities that are based on new digital technologies that overcome barriers of distance, time, and resource. Successful new ventures include innovative new products and services; new businesses that utilize the Internet as a global platform for buying and selling conventional products and services; and technology products that enable significant gains in efficiency and productivity or improvements in business processes.

Successful entrepreneurs wishing to pursue digital commerce ventures must understand the technological underpinnings and the non-technological factors that will continue to shape entrepreneurial opportunities and viable business concepts. This course will ensure that you gain this crucial understanding. The course will also help you understand how new technologies impact the process of entrepreneurship, and it will help you to identify entrepreneurial opportunities and business concepts suitable for further development in the Capstone course (EEE 457).

Here we go...