Blue Marble Blog

I don’t even know all of the sources available to me in terms of Social Media [1].  But it is a little strange, I didn’t jump on the “blogging” boat – probably because I don’t journal like that.

To journal is human, to share it with all of your friends, and numerous strangers… well…. really?

On the other hand, to gain insight into thoughts, and trends is a different story completely.  I will buy into that.  So will many others.

Did you know that you can get paid to blog?  There are many “Blogging Mommies” (or daddies) out there that either get to test products for free just so that they can blog about it, or blog about something so that they can get paid.  I tried, partial-heartedly, to obtain some information about blogging for money, and my best guess is that you have to be part of the “in-crowd” to get in on that deal because I had a very hard time finding *any* information.

What about MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter?

MySpace (myspace.com):  Have your space!  What a nice way to connect, or re-connect.  Personally, the format just didn’t work for me.  I have an account that I haven’t logged into for months.  For me MS seems like just a fancy way for kids to post …. well, what teenagers would post.

Facebook (facebook.com):  Have your face!  (just kidding)  Consider me “connected” (my kids are on it too).  FB is surprisingly not for just teenagers, but for everyone.  I became a “fan” of news sources, products, TV shows, celebrity personalities, anything that I want to know about – including personal connections.  I am a fan of “Denver”, “The Denver Chamber of Commerce”, “CNN”, “New York Times”, “Science News”, “BBC”, … well, a multitude of “pages” that give me updates on things from business networking in Denver to the deaths of Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  For me, this is a “one stop shop”.  I get news, and updates all the time!  AND if I wanted to use this as a marketing strategy, the cost of advertising is *very* flexible, if not free should you choose not to “advertise”.  I would do it!

Twitter (twitter.com):  Have a twit!  (also a joke)  The latest rave!  The best part is that you can only use 140 characters!  I guess it works for a lot of people because a lot of people use it.  I haven’t spent a lot of time with Twitter, but it is an up-and-coming media source.

For public relations, how do you get your message out?  You can ask people to put the message out there for you, and hope that all of their friends will listen to what they are saying (Blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter).  How do you maximize that?  Connect with “Consumer Jane” that is “connected” on many platforms, and set her free!

Social Media is not limited to blogging, MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter – of course!  These are, however, just a few examples of consumer saturated methods to network.

[1] Social Media – Wikipedia  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media)

l after a 10 month stint, the least I could do was provide you with a hopefully interesting read.

I stumbled over an article entitled “Backlash starts against ’sexy’ databases” (1) and just had to not only read it, but also share it with you.

What I learned is that a ’sexy’ database is a “fashionable, quick-and-dirty product such as Amazon’s SimpleDB, Apache’s CouchDB, NextDB, and Google’s App Engine Datastore” (1). Honestly, I am not so sure I would call something “CouchDB” but whatever…

The point of the article is defending the RDBMS (relational database management system) by means of proper development of the database in a web environment. The issue at hand being the amount of intereface required with the database on a web application - which, as you could read in the article, is determined at development, and not directly related to the database.

What I choose to share with you:

Defending RDBMS, computer science student Ryan Park listed (2) 10 reasons for avoiding SimpleDB, CouchDB and Google DataStore. Among them: data integrity is not guaranteed, complicated reports and ad hoc queries will require a lot more coding, and relational databases are scalable even with massive data sets.

Thank you Ryan!

Long Live RDBMS!

(1)

(2)

In my research for something interesting to write about I stumbled over a discussion thread that was started on October 18, 1995 at 1:00 am in the comp.sys.mac.databases Usenet group. The discussion is entitled “Mac a risky bet for database development”.

The only reason I noticed the date was the archaic content. The comment “You gotta’ want to gamble that Apple and these companies will still be around in five years” would put anyone’s eyebrows up taken out of context.

Well here we are in 2007, and I don’t think that ‘Apple’ is having any problems ‘sticking to your ribs’.

But what about your database? Technology is changing all the time. What will the illustrious life-saving head-turning magical-report-making database be capable of in your company’s future? There are so many positives and pitfalls that a company can latch on to.

Here is one of each:

Pitfall: My database won’t allow me to keep up with current technology; I have to run it on a Windows 95 for Pete’s sake.

If that is the case today, then it is time to get an expert in to make your database more flexible.

Positive: I know that my database is structured on the data, not the platform so I can make any changes I want.

With the right engineering and design, your database will be flexible enough to change with technology.

A database is for data, not to debilitate technology systems, or your effectiveness.

Oh yeah, developing databases on an ‘Apple’ works just fine. :o)

Open source software development is a breeding ground of creativity and reliability. There are an outstanding number of computer users that still insist on padding the pockets of big corporations by purchasing their software (count me in). Today though, that isn’t the only solution.

If it’s free, who uses it?

The big surprise may be that there are plenty of companies that use FREE Open Source software to manage their data and/or data server – successfully! With some of the big name open source applications available for web servers, database interface, et al, small and large corporations with small or large data needs can find an affordable management system foundation.

If it’s free, does it work?

With the appropriate hardware, applications, and people, the system can be extremely reliable. With a time investment that is usually with no greater than installing a product “out of the box”.

If it’s free, what is the real benefit?

The real benefit is that the fewer resources invested in software certainly means more available to invest in the actual working product. With a reliable software foundation, you can get the top of the line Engineers to develop the best data management system for your needs.

Companies that manage data consisting of images can relate to the headline. Perhaps they relate in a painful way… who wants to manage 1,000TB of data? It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a choice.

Is your data management tool a crystal ball or a ‘ball & chain’ at that size?

Companies are not quite housing data consisting of 1,000TB, yet there are some that manage more than 200TB in unique ways. Not to mention, a study commissioned by EMC Corp. speculates the ‘digital universe’ to grow to 988EB by 2010 [1].

TB: terabyte = A unit of information equal to a trillion (1,099,511,627,776) bytes or 1024 gigabytes
EB: exabyte = (computing) one quintillion (10^18) bytes or 2^60 bytes

I remember trying to see how far I could count when I was a kid… I don’t know if I ever made it past 1,749 before I gave up. The bigger challenge is helping my brain make a tangible analogy with the concept of a ‘byte’.

Truth be told… Size doesn’t matter! With an experienced Engineer at your side to help develop or update your system, your data management tool can be a crystal ball once again!

A resounding yes would be a terrific answer, but the truth is it all depends.

You have this spectacular database that you have extracted wonderful data from to create charts, graphs, and an hour long presentation for some audience. Then the worst thing in the world happens, you are confronted with a question you didn’t expect. The beads of sweat start to develop, and you are resigned to tell the eager audience that you will have to get back to them because the information you need to answer the question is in THE DATABASE.

If your database solution exists on the server in your office, and there is no remote connection to it, you may find yourself in this situation. It happens.

But what if your database solution allowed remote connection, or had a web based interface? Spend a moment dreaming about that….

…[still dreaming]…

All of those dreams could become a reality. Really. Top it off with today’s latest mobile technology and you no longer have to worry about the questions you didn’t expect (at least not the ones related to data in the inaccessible database).

Check your email, update your calendar, read the news, view the web page of a prospect, prepare a chart, get the sales figure from your web-based database solution, watch a movie, spy on your dog Fido… whatever you have set up to access from your mobile technology.

So, yes, with the right resources, you could work from the swimming pool.

What is a reliable source of information these days?

I remember when:

* I would go directly to the encyclopedia to find information on Albert Einstein, or the Bushmen of the Kalahari.

* I would find the most interesting, yet shortest, newspaper article to clip and write a paragraph about just to fulfill the requirements for the “current event” assignment for the week - do two and get extra credit!

Well, my guess is that all of the kids that did five ‘current events’ each week are the same wondrous authors of the numerous blogs that feed us information, reviews, opinion, or simple perspective on current events, products, companies, or their cousin Joe (okay - maybe not, unless he is the founder or CEO of some company).

Is the blog a reliable source of information? I am going to say YES!

For the following reasons:

* We want to know what the consumer’s response is.

* We want to have instant feedback to our publicity since we aren’t going to call them and ask “What did you think about the story you read in today’s Local Paper about us?”

* We just might be interested in what the average Vicky HomeMaker, Corey CollegeStudent, Hank CorporateClimber, or Josie TeenieBopper has to say.

* We are interested in what the ‘professional blogger’ has to say.

Thank you for reading this one.

In the engineering world, there is still nothing better than a white board and dry erase markers or a nice green engineering grid paper pad and a pencil. That clean slate is just begging for all kinds of creative problem solving to be scrawled on it. And when it’s been covered in math and pictures and arrows and notes, it’s the evidence of genius (or at least of creativity) and the declaration of independence for a new solution to some problem or challenge. Yup, that’s what engineering is all about. Problem solving starts with a concept, a dream, a proposal.

I had a strange week. Let’s just say that, for a change, I was not the engineer with the biggest pencil. Three separate potential new customers came my way, each with a pencil in hand and no fear of drawing that weapon - no pun intended. Each drew out the ideas they were trying to tell me about and left me with a napkin, some scraps from a daytimer or the backs of an old printout. Each diagram was filled with words, arrows, symbols, exclamation points and stick figure users.

These potential customers have no idea how to build a database (or they wouldn’t be talking to me) yet each had a clear idea of what should happen in the system they need. They imagined themselves and their customers using the finished product and getting useful information and services from their software. They’ve thought so much about it that they cannot miss the chance to memorialize it in graphite.

Every now and then, we are blessed with a blinding flash of the obvious. I have to say that these three people and their pencils reminded me that the customer is often the best engineer in the requirements phase of any development project. Give that man a pencil! It will save us hours and hours of work and questions and trial and error.

Goldilocks was a hard woman to please. She had to have everything just right. Well why not? She deserves it.

How many times a week have you wrestled with a resource and commented “I wish I could do [some task] with [some tool]”?

Have you ever paid on an invoice and thought “I don’t understand why I am paying [a gazillion dollars] for this resource when I don’t even use all of it’s features”?

As a small to mid-sized company, it is hard to find exactly what you are looking for - especially when justifying the expense.

Goldilocks didn’t look at her resources using any cost analysis (”How much is this ineffective resource costing me?”), but she was famous for trial and error. Not that there is much wrong with trial and error in some unique situations… however, it can get expensive and start to strain other resources (efficiency, effectiveness, etc.).

There exists a data solution that can perform exactly the task you need. There is a data solution that is a justified expense, and is dynamic just like your business’s needs.

To use a company like Blue Marble, you have to be special. Special in the sense that there is not already a software product out there that does what you need and does it well. After all, we aren’t in the business of re-inventing the wheel and it’s not cheap to develop custom software. Two things have to be working well when that special project comes our way - vision and passion.

One of the neatest parts of my job is meeting the people who have those qualities. Whether or not they know a lick about computers, the special person who needs special software can often describe exactly what their program will do. They have envisioned someone using it. They know what it does for them and what it should look and feel like. It’s a pleasure to talk with them about their project and to get caught up in their enthusiasm.

I recently met some educators from charter schools.  They have so much passion. I think I understand why there is so much interest in special charter schools at this time. In order to move beyond the bureaucracy of state testing and the sheer routine of the social management of large groups of children and young adults, these schools attempt to specialize in some approach or discipline. They’re special.

Recently, I have talked to several educators who are thinking of using database software to manage some aspects of their special schools. In the charter situation, they have high hopes that investing in technology that the public school doesn’t have will allow them to educate better. They want more than a system to record grades and attendance. They envision collecting data about their students and the benefits of being educated in a charter school environment. They are going after grant money to make it happen. The most interesting part of their vision is tracking a student after they leave the primary education system to see what they do with their education and what their adult attitudes toward learning have turned out to be.