On January 15, Wikipedia will turn 10. Yes, 10 years old!
Looking back over time, the search engine game has been one of the the most rapid evolutions on the internet.
Gopher dates back to the earliest days of the internet. Primarily a text-base (command line) interface, it severed well when academia was the primary beneficiary and searching scholarly papers was the intention.
Closely related early search engines were named Archie, Jughead, and Veronica. Archie is generally considered to be the earliest search engine focusing on FTP hosted files.
During the mid-to-late 1990s, Infoseek was a popular service. It was bought by the Walt Disney company and eventually became the Go.Com search engine. Later in the 1990s, Ask Jeeves was extremely popular with people posting actual questions - and the answers tended to be accurate!
Web 2.0 has both consolidated the search engines and fragmented the information on the web. Google remains the most popular search engine followed by Yahoo and Bing.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The cyclical high-tech companies
Throughout my career, I've seen behemoth companies that were on the top of the world and had the world beating a path to their door, only to be displaced by upstarts.
Wordstar (anyone remember this) owned the word processing market but was replaced by Word Perfect, and then Microsoft Word.
Same thing with spreadsheets: Visicalc --> Lotus --> Excel. And databases: dbase --> SQL.
Companies have also risen and fallen. Banyon was the premier networking company displaced by Novell, displaced by Microsoft.
Now people say Microsoft and Google are too large, too entrenched, too commanding. But look closely at Microsoft - it is losing edge in Office to Google apps and in networking to the ubiquitous Internet.
Google is large, having displaced Yahoo, who displaced Ask Mr Jeeves, who displaced Infoseek.
But I venture to say, in 5-10 years, that both Microsoft and Google will be scratching and clawing to hold onto their former glory. Maybe not. Maybe 15 years.
Wordstar (anyone remember this) owned the word processing market but was replaced by Word Perfect, and then Microsoft Word.
Same thing with spreadsheets: Visicalc --> Lotus --> Excel. And databases: dbase --> SQL.
Companies have also risen and fallen. Banyon was the premier networking company displaced by Novell, displaced by Microsoft.
Now people say Microsoft and Google are too large, too entrenched, too commanding. But look closely at Microsoft - it is losing edge in Office to Google apps and in networking to the ubiquitous Internet.
Google is large, having displaced Yahoo, who displaced Ask Mr Jeeves, who displaced Infoseek.
But I venture to say, in 5-10 years, that both Microsoft and Google will be scratching and clawing to hold onto their former glory. Maybe not. Maybe 15 years.
Online C# .NET Course Offerings
The Spring semester will begin in a couple of weeks - Tuesday, January 18. Lonestar College, Montgomery is offering several online software development courses.
Introduction to C# (COSC1420)
The course will instruct the student to basic programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. The student will learn the basics of the C# language and develop a basic Windows application. Language, Class, and Object fundamentals will be taught. A brief introduction to database interfaces may be included.
Advanced C# (ITSE 1492)
The course will instruct the student to advanced programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. Successful course completion will require the development of a deployed Windows application (including the creation of a setup file). Other topics include multi-threading, user-controls, reflection, SQL and ADO (introductory), event handling, and Office 2007 Look and Feel.
Web Applications (ITSE 2472)
The course will instruct the student in the development of a simple Web Application using an array of web application tools: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C#, and SQL. Successful course completion will require the development of an Internet (Browser-based) application including rudimentary SQL interfaces.
IMED 1316 - Web Design I
Introduction to website design and deployment with special attention to overall creativity uniformity. (Microsoft Expressions is used for application development this course.)
Visit my college blog at http://lonestar.edu/blogs/markreynolds. Or you may contact counselor Erma Walker at Erma.M.Walker@Lonestar.edu.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Data Mining and Data, Information, Knowledge
Throughout my Computer Science courses, I strive to teach the difference between data and information.
Information is what the user wanted when he ask for the data.
Seldom does an end user want reems of data or Excel spreadsheets hundreds and thousands of rows long. The use needs a discernable, digestable presentation so that he may cognatively absorb the concept being presented.
Should your supervisor ask for the 3rd quarter sales data in the mid-west, do not unload a truckload of sales reciepts on his desk. He is looking for presentations that represents the significance of the data.
But Information is not the end of the story either. An excellent article by Gene Bellinger, et. al. extends the concept of Data --> Information to be
Data --> Information --> Knowledge --> Understanding --> Wisdom
(http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm)
Presenting Data as Information has long been the objective of spreadsheets, reports, and even three-dimensional presentations. But moving from Information to Knowledge has been a little more challenging.
Data Mining is a tool to move the to this next level. A great overview of this is provided by Bill Palace at http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm
But Data Mining has advanced past Knowledge into Understanding through the advancement of 'semantics'. (Often referred to as the Semantic Web.) The Wikipedia article provides good coverage on this topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web.
Information is what the user wanted when he ask for the data.
Seldom does an end user want reems of data or Excel spreadsheets hundreds and thousands of rows long. The use needs a discernable, digestable presentation so that he may cognatively absorb the concept being presented.
Should your supervisor ask for the 3rd quarter sales data in the mid-west, do not unload a truckload of sales reciepts on his desk. He is looking for presentations that represents the significance of the data.
But Information is not the end of the story either. An excellent article by Gene Bellinger, et. al. extends the concept of Data --> Information to be
Data --> Information --> Knowledge --> Understanding --> Wisdom
(http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm)
Presenting Data as Information has long been the objective of spreadsheets, reports, and even three-dimensional presentations. But moving from Information to Knowledge has been a little more challenging.
Data Mining is a tool to move the to this next level. A great overview of this is provided by Bill Palace at http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm
But Data Mining has advanced past Knowledge into Understanding through the advancement of 'semantics'. (Often referred to as the Semantic Web.) The Wikipedia article provides good coverage on this topic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web.
Social Networking in 2011.
(re: article by Ben Parr - http://mashable.com/2010/12/31/social-network-predictions/)
Bob Metcalf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe) once said "look at the telephone and how far it has come in a century, the Internet is only a few years old..." [paraphrased].
I do not think we can accurately judge or predict what communication and social interaction will come this year, or this decade. Looking back over that last decade, email was the extent of social interaction. Instant messages are almost gone - in favor of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blogs. But even still, Twitter has been relegated into a tool for publicist and political activist, not social discourse.
Do not count Google out. But do not look for a lot of rejuvenation behind MySpace, Twitter, or Instant Messaging either.
The true untapped social frontier is business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Look for the greatest advancement and monetization to occur here!
(re: article by Ben Parr - http://mashable.com/2010/12/31/social-network-predictions/)
Bob Metcalf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe) once said "look at the telephone and how far it has come in a century, the Internet is only a few years old..." [paraphrased].
I do not think we can accurately judge or predict what communication and social interaction will come this year, or this decade. Looking back over that last decade, email was the extent of social interaction. Instant messages are almost gone - in favor of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blogs. But even still, Twitter has been relegated into a tool for publicist and political activist, not social discourse.
Do not count Google out. But do not look for a lot of rejuvenation behind MySpace, Twitter, or Instant Messaging either.
The true untapped social frontier is business-to-consumer and business-to-business. Look for the greatest advancement and monetization to occur here!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Spring Classes at Lonestar College
The Spring 2011 session begins in a couple weeks! Classes to be taught this semester are:
Introduction to C# (COSC1420)
The course will instruct the student to basic programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. The student will learn the basics of the C# language and develop a basic Windows application. Language, Class, and Object fundamentals will be taught. A brief introduction to database interfaces may be included.
Advanced C# (ITSE 1492)
The course will instruct the student to advanced programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. Successful course completion will require the development of a deployed Windows application (including the creation of a setup file). Other topics include multi-threading, user-controls, reflection, SQL and ADO (introductory), event handling, and Office 2007 Look and Feel.
Web Applications (ITSE 2472)
The course will instruct the student in the development of a simple Web Application using an array of web application tools: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C#, and SQL. Successful course completion will require the development of an Internet (Browser-based) application including rudimentary SQL interfaces.
IMED 1316 - Web Design I
Introduction to website design and deployment with special attention to overall creativity uniformity. (Microsoft Expressions is used for application development this course.)
Contact me at Mark.E.Reynolds@Lonestar.edu for additional information. Or visit my college blog at http://lonestar.edu/blogs/markreynolds.
(If you have not had all of the prerequisites for a course, contact me and we will discuss your options. Or you may contact counselor Erma Walker at Erma.M.Walker@Lonestar.edu.)
Introduction to C# (COSC1420)
The course will instruct the student to basic programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. The student will learn the basics of the C# language and develop a basic Windows application. Language, Class, and Object fundamentals will be taught. A brief introduction to database interfaces may be included.
Advanced C# (ITSE 1492)
The course will instruct the student to advanced programming constructs using C# and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008*. Successful course completion will require the development of a deployed Windows application (including the creation of a setup file). Other topics include multi-threading, user-controls, reflection, SQL and ADO (introductory), event handling, and Office 2007 Look and Feel.
Web Applications (ITSE 2472)
The course will instruct the student in the development of a simple Web Application using an array of web application tools: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C#, and SQL. Successful course completion will require the development of an Internet (Browser-based) application including rudimentary SQL interfaces.
IMED 1316 - Web Design I
Introduction to website design and deployment with special attention to overall creativity uniformity. (Microsoft Expressions is used for application development this course.)
Contact me at Mark.E.Reynolds@Lonestar.edu for additional information. Or visit my college blog at http://lonestar.edu/blogs/markreynolds.
(If you have not had all of the prerequisites for a course, contact me and we will discuss your options. Or you may contact counselor Erma Walker at Erma.M.Walker@Lonestar.edu.)
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