BOSS, is an open search web service platform by Yahoo with an aim to “foster innovations in search industry”.
Yahoo opened its search infrastructure around four months back giving developers an opportunity to use Yahoo’s core search technology to build their own search engine.
The queries sent via yahoo API returns 50 results in XML or JSON format along with imposed ads from yahoo displayed next to or within the result. Yahoo may impose some fees associated with the search if the developer decides to keep the search ad free. One exception to this imposition will be the academic developers.
The developers are free to hide the fact that their search is based on Yahoo. Another benefit is the fact that it does not impose any upper limit to the number queries searched or on the design of the page.
Now, the main differences between BOSS and Google’s Ajax is that the former is found to be more developer-friendly offering more features and flexibility, for example there is an option of getting XML output. Also, use of BOSS doesn't require "a valid and accurate http referrer header" as in case of AJAX.
BOSS is a bold move and is getting popular among developers. HAKIA and Med.ium have already moved to BOSS. Yahoo plans to give even more flexibility to the developers by allowing the developers to push their own data for indexing.
Read more (references):
http://developer.yahoo.com/search/boss/
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/google-search-rest-api.html
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/09/yahoo-radically-opens-web-search-with-boss/
Thursday, November 27, 2008
ATTRIBUTES IN DBMS AND ER MODELING
Attributes
* The set of possible values for an attribute is called the domain of the attribute
Example:
o The domain of attribute marital status is having four values: single, married, divorced or widowed.
o The domain of the attribute month is having twelve values ranging from January to December.
* Key attribute: The attribute (or combination of attributes) that is unique for every entity instance
o E.g.: the account number of an account, the employee id of an employee etc.
* If the key consists of two or more attributes in combination, it is called a composite key
Simple Vs composite attribute
* Simple attribute: cannot be divided into simpler components
E.g.: age of an employee
* Composite attribute: can be split into components
E.g.: Date of joining of the employee.
* Can be split into day, month and year
Single Vs Multi-valued Attributes
* Single valued : can take on only a single value for each entity instance
E.g.: age of employee. There can be only one value for this.
* Multi-valued: can take up many values
E.g.: skill set of employee
stored Vs Derived attribute
* Stored Attribute: Attribute that need to be stored permanently.
+ E.g.: name of an employee
* Derived Attribute: Attribute that can be calculated based on other attributes.
+ E.g. : years of service of employee can be calculated from date of joining and current date
Regular Vs. Weak entity type
* Regular Entity: Entity that has its own key attribute (s).
E.g.: Employee, student ,customer, policy holder etc.
* Weak entity: Entity that depends on other entity for its existence and doesn’t have key attribute (s) of its own
E.g. : spouse of employee
Relationships
* A relationship type between two entity types defines the set of all associations between these entity types
* Each instance of the relationship between members of these entity types is called a relationship instance
* E.g if Works-for is the relationship between the Employee entity and the department entity, then Rohan works-for CSE department,
Riya works – for EEE department ..etc are relationship instances of the relationship, works-for
Degree of a Relationship
* Degree: the number of entity types involved
# One Unary
# Two Binary
# Three Ternary
E.g: employee manager-of employee is unary
employee works-for department is binary
customer purchase item, shop keeper is a ternary relationship
Cardinality
* Relationships can have different connectivity
o one-to-one (1:1)
o one-to-many (1:N)
o many-to- One (M:1)
o many-to-many (M:N)
E.g.:
Employee head-of department (1:1)
Lecturer offers course (1:N) assuming a course is taught by a single lecturer
Student enrolls course (M:N)
Relationship Participation
* Total : Every entity instance must be connected through the relationship to another instance of the other participating entity types
* Partial: All instances need not participate
E.g.: Employee Head-of Department
Employee: partial
Department: total
ER Modeling - Notations
Steps in ER Modeling
* Identify the Entities
* Find relationships
* Identify the key attributes for every Entity
* Identify other relevant attributes
* Draw complete E-R diagram with all attributes including Primary Key
* Review your results with your Business users
These are some issues regarding attributes and ER modeling.
Some content taken from wikipedia.
* The set of possible values for an attribute is called the domain of the attribute
Example:
o The domain of attribute marital status is having four values: single, married, divorced or widowed.
o The domain of the attribute month is having twelve values ranging from January to December.
* Key attribute: The attribute (or combination of attributes) that is unique for every entity instance
o E.g.: the account number of an account, the employee id of an employee etc.
* If the key consists of two or more attributes in combination, it is called a composite key
Simple Vs composite attribute
* Simple attribute: cannot be divided into simpler components
E.g.: age of an employee
* Composite attribute: can be split into components
E.g.: Date of joining of the employee.
* Can be split into day, month and year
Single Vs Multi-valued Attributes
* Single valued : can take on only a single value for each entity instance
E.g.: age of employee. There can be only one value for this.
* Multi-valued: can take up many values
E.g.: skill set of employee
stored Vs Derived attribute
* Stored Attribute: Attribute that need to be stored permanently.
+ E.g.: name of an employee
* Derived Attribute: Attribute that can be calculated based on other attributes.
+ E.g. : years of service of employee can be calculated from date of joining and current date
Regular Vs. Weak entity type
* Regular Entity: Entity that has its own key attribute (s).
E.g.: Employee, student ,customer, policy holder etc.
* Weak entity: Entity that depends on other entity for its existence and doesn’t have key attribute (s) of its own
E.g. : spouse of employee
Relationships
* A relationship type between two entity types defines the set of all associations between these entity types
* Each instance of the relationship between members of these entity types is called a relationship instance
* E.g if Works-for is the relationship between the Employee entity and the department entity, then Rohan works-for CSE department,
Riya works – for EEE department ..etc are relationship instances of the relationship, works-for
Degree of a Relationship
* Degree: the number of entity types involved
# One Unary
# Two Binary
# Three Ternary
E.g: employee manager-of employee is unary
employee works-for department is binary
customer purchase item, shop keeper is a ternary relationship
Cardinality
* Relationships can have different connectivity
o one-to-one (1:1)
o one-to-many (1:N)
o many-to- One (M:1)
o many-to-many (M:N)
E.g.:
Employee head-of department (1:1)
Lecturer offers course (1:N) assuming a course is taught by a single lecturer
Student enrolls course (M:N)
Relationship Participation
* Total : Every entity instance must be connected through the relationship to another instance of the other participating entity types
* Partial: All instances need not participate
E.g.: Employee Head-of Department
Employee: partial
Department: total
ER Modeling - Notations
Steps in ER Modeling
* Identify the Entities
* Find relationships
* Identify the key attributes for every Entity
* Identify other relevant attributes
* Draw complete E-R diagram with all attributes including Primary Key
* Review your results with your Business users
These are some issues regarding attributes and ER modeling.
Some content taken from wikipedia.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
How To Create An MSN Robot
From the incesoft website, one can create an MSN robot using the ibot platform provided by the site.
“You can create your own robot simply by following steps:
1.
Go to the website Home of Service Provider to register as a service provider of Incesoft iBot Platform
2.
Download the Incesoft iBot Platform SDK from the website
3.
Create your own robot with the SDK and run”
From the very beginning, you should register one MSN account for yourself to be the view of the robot, because only when you have the MSN account, you can access to Microsoft MSN server and use those sending message or receiving message functions.
Then register an Incesoft robot holder account to get service of holding your MSN account accessible and running your customized program.
After that, please provide your account’s username and password to Incesoft website, and your program later. When the account is activated, then there would be a new “user” which keeps online. Everyone sends a message to this “user”, the information would be sent to Incesoft’s server. The server would find the corresponding holding program and put the message onto this program. There would generate a reply through the program rules, and finally send it back to the source.
It would be OK if you only upload the MSN account information without the rule program. When you active the MSN account on the holder server, you could see that "user" is online. But whatever you send to this "user", there would be no reply.
“You can create your own robot simply by following steps:
1.
Go to the website Home of Service Provider to register as a service provider of Incesoft iBot Platform
2.
Download the Incesoft iBot Platform SDK from the website
3.
Create your own robot with the SDK and run”
From the very beginning, you should register one MSN account for yourself to be the view of the robot, because only when you have the MSN account, you can access to Microsoft MSN server and use those sending message or receiving message functions.
Then register an Incesoft robot holder account to get service of holding your MSN account accessible and running your customized program.
After that, please provide your account’s username and password to Incesoft website, and your program later. When the account is activated, then there would be a new “user” which keeps online. Everyone sends a message to this “user”, the information would be sent to Incesoft’s server. The server would find the corresponding holding program and put the message onto this program. There would generate a reply through the program rules, and finally send it back to the source.
It would be OK if you only upload the MSN account information without the rule program. When you active the MSN account on the holder server, you could see that "user" is online. But whatever you send to this "user", there would be no reply.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Gmail account is now an OpenID
Currently, many websites require user to apply an account to visit it. However, the application is such a bothering procedure. Sometimes, when the number of your accounts increasing, you may forget your userID or corresponding password. So in this scenario, the Concept of OpenID comes out. “OpenID is a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, single sign-on, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site. OpenID is a decentralized, free and open standard that lets users control the amount of personal information they provide.” Now, Google has moves towards single sign-on with OpenID, and Gmail becomes an OpenID after Yahoo ID does. It complies with the protocol of OpenID. Along with the increase of OpenID applications, you may be released form the fussy procedure when visiting websites in the near future. However, Gmail, in the current phrase, just has a few applications in terms of OpenID. You can test your google account on Zoho.com. However, the security of Gmail is very important issue we should take care of. So one’s most important Gmail account is not encouraged to be used anywhere as OpenID.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
INTRODUCTION TO SQL
SQL
* SQL is used to make a request to retrieve data from a Database.
* The DBMS processes the SQL request, retrieves the requested data from the Database, and returns it.
* This process of requesting data from a Database and receiving back the results is called a Database Query and hence the name Structured Query Language
* SQL is a language that all commercial RDBMS implementations understand.
* SQL is a non-procedural language
* We would be discussing SQL with respect to oracle syntax
statements:These are the statements present.
* DDL (Data Definition Language)
o Create,Alter,Drop,Truncate
* DML (Data Manipulation Language)
o Insert,Update,Delete,Select
* DCL (Data Control Language)
o Grant,Revoke,Commit,Rollback
Data types are
* Number,Char,Varchar2,Long,date
NULL
* Missing/unknown/inapplicable data represented as a NULL value
* NULL is not a data value. It is just an indicator that the value is unknown
Operators
* Arithmetic operators: +, -, *, /
* Logical operators: AND, OR, NOT
* Relational operators: =, <=, >=, < >, < , >
SQL Data Definition Language
Types Of Constraints available are:
* Column Level
* Table level
Types Of Constraints
* Primary Key Constraint
* Foreign Key Constraint
* Unique Constraint
* Check Constraint
* Not Null Constraint
There is a lot to say about SQL.This is just the introduction about the types of constraints and few more things.
Some content from wikipedia.
* SQL is used to make a request to retrieve data from a Database.
* The DBMS processes the SQL request, retrieves the requested data from the Database, and returns it.
* This process of requesting data from a Database and receiving back the results is called a Database Query and hence the name Structured Query Language
* SQL is a language that all commercial RDBMS implementations understand.
* SQL is a non-procedural language
* We would be discussing SQL with respect to oracle syntax
statements:These are the statements present.
* DDL (Data Definition Language)
o Create,Alter,Drop,Truncate
* DML (Data Manipulation Language)
o Insert,Update,Delete,Select
* DCL (Data Control Language)
o Grant,Revoke,Commit,Rollback
Data types are
* Number,Char,Varchar2,Long,date
NULL
* Missing/unknown/inapplicable data represented as a NULL value
* NULL is not a data value. It is just an indicator that the value is unknown
Operators
* Arithmetic operators: +, -, *, /
* Logical operators: AND, OR, NOT
* Relational operators: =, <=, >=, < >, < , >
SQL Data Definition Language
Types Of Constraints available are:
* Column Level
* Table level
Types Of Constraints
* Primary Key Constraint
* Foreign Key Constraint
* Unique Constraint
* Check Constraint
* Not Null Constraint
There is a lot to say about SQL.This is just the introduction about the types of constraints and few more things.
Some content from wikipedia.
Microsoft is providing free Anti-virus from end of June 2009
Microsoft is providing its all in one security software from the end of June 2009. This is a surprise move by Microsoft since it has the strategy of not providing any programs free of cost.The antivirus software is called "Morro", and will be suitable for smaller and less powerful computers.
It will support the operating system like Windows XP, Vista and upcoming version "Windows 7."
Microsoft has made this transition because "OneCare" service is booming in the field of security software and hence Microsoft is afraid of losing its market in the particular field. This is another business strategy of Microsoft.
It will support the operating system like Windows XP, Vista and upcoming version "Windows 7."
Microsoft has made this transition because "OneCare" service is booming in the field of security software and hence Microsoft is afraid of losing its market in the particular field. This is another business strategy of Microsoft.
Since its launch in May 2006, OneCare has garnered less than 2% of the security software market share.
In a statement, Microsoft said that Morro would be designed specifically to be a small-footprint program that uses fewer system resources. This, it said, would be ideal for users with low-bandwidth connections or computers without much processing power. (ref bbc news)
Adobe Dreamweaver
Just a bit of information for the project layout developers.
Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application originally created by Allaire Systems, which was acquired by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe Systems.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows Operating Systems. Support for various web technologies such as CSS, Javascript and various server - side scripting languages and frameworks including ASP.NET, COLD FUSION, Java Server pages and PHP have been developed.
Features of Dreamweaver :
Dreamweaver can hide the HTML code details of pages from the user, making it possible for non - coders t create web pages and sites. It allows users to preview websites in many browsers, provided that they are installed on their computer. It also has some site management tools and a templatisation feature for creating multiple pages with similar structures.
Dreamweaver can use " Extensios " small programs, which any web developer can write (usually in HTML and Javascript). Like other HTML editors, Dreamweaver edits files locally, then uploads all edited files to the remote web server using FTP, SFTP or WebDav.
As of version 6, Dreamweaver supports the following languages:
Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application originally created by Allaire Systems, which was acquired by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe Systems.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows Operating Systems. Support for various web technologies such as CSS, Javascript and various server - side scripting languages and frameworks including ASP.NET, COLD FUSION, Java Server pages and PHP have been developed.
Features of Dreamweaver :
Dreamweaver can hide the HTML code details of pages from the user, making it possible for non - coders t create web pages and sites. It allows users to preview websites in many browsers, provided that they are installed on their computer. It also has some site management tools and a templatisation feature for creating multiple pages with similar structures.
Dreamweaver can use " Extensios " small programs, which any web developer can write (usually in HTML and Javascript). Like other HTML editors, Dreamweaver edits files locally, then uploads all edited files to the remote web server using FTP, SFTP or WebDav.
As of version 6, Dreamweaver supports the following languages:
- Active Server Pages (ASP)
- ASP. NET
- C#
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)
- Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
- Java
- JavaScript
- Java Server Pages (JSP)
- PHP : Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)
- Visual Basic (VB)
- Wireless Markup Language (WML)
Website Navigation
Website Navigation is important to the success of your website visitor's experience to your website. The website's navigation system is like a roadmap to all the different areas and information contained within the website.
Using a constant navigation schema from page to page helps the website visitor learn your website navigation system.
Out of different types of navigation systems few of them are
Tips to develop effective website navigation system:
Creating a website navigation system at planning stage of website will effect overall
design of webpage layout and help develop overall plan for the website.
Using a constant navigation schema from page to page helps the website visitor learn your website navigation system.
Out of different types of navigation systems few of them are
- Hierarchial Website Navigation
- Global Website Navigation
- Local Website Navigation
- Text Links
- Bread Crumbs
- Navigation Bar
- Tab navigation
- Sitemap
- Dropdown Menu
- Flyout Menu
- Named Anchors
Tips to develop effective website navigation system:
- To be consistent throughout the website. Any visitor to website learns through repitition.
- Needs the main navigation links kept together
- Needs reduced clutter by grouping links into sections.
- If the number of clicks to the web page the visitor wishes to visit in minimal clicks,
- this leads to a better experience.
Creating a website navigation system at planning stage of website will effect overall
design of webpage layout and help develop overall plan for the website.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
CrowdSourcing:
Crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe in 2006 in an article in Wired magazine. It is all about getting task done by an undefined mass of people. These are not regular employees or a body of people who get your outsourced work, but these are the people who were once categorized as amateurs, hobbyist, part timers etc. and can help you get a work done for much cheaper cost as compared to having a full time employee and saves on time as well.
A successful example of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia where the task of writing in an article is shared by a very large group of people and the task of maintaining the Wiki standards is also taken care of by the people. These set of people are in turn the customers of Wikipedia.
Web 2.0 entrepreneurs can use crowdsourcing for the growth and viability of their internet based business. The customers can be involved in generating ideas, helping in product design and even giving the final product its shape.
A successful example of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia where the task of writing in an article is shared by a very large group of people and the task of maintaining the Wiki standards is also taken care of by the people. These set of people are in turn the customers of Wikipedia.
Web 2.0 entrepreneurs can use crowdsourcing for the growth and viability of their internet based business. The customers can be involved in generating ideas, helping in product design and even giving the final product its shape.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Week 12: CMPS 598 Co. gears up, dives into product development
The CMPS 598 co. have decided to invest on the idea of building a Virtual ACTR Network.
ACTR stands for Advanced Computer Technology and Research Hall. It is the home of CACS and Computer Science Department. Through this application, we want to provide an online information center of ACTR, including its facility, residents, and events ... We will also implement an unique "Tangible Social Network" concept that was invented in the class.
Here is how we see the application that we are creating:
ACTR stands for Advanced Computer Technology and Research Hall. It is the home of CACS and Computer Science Department. Through this application, we want to provide an online information center of ACTR, including its facility, residents, and events ... We will also implement an unique "Tangible Social Network" concept that was invented in the class.
Here is how we see the application that we are creating:
The Virtual ACTR Network is an online information center about ACTR and social network tangible to its stakeholders.
For Students: It is a virtual living space. Students get answers to questions on coursework, exchange notes, share latest in technology, research together, learn about job and internship opportunities, meet their friends, professors and mentors.
For Faculty and Staff: It is a medium. They share, publish information about their research projects and interests, classes that they teach. They connect with students and other potential collaborators.
For Businesses: It is a market space. They can advertise, recruite future employees, and do market study.
For Administrations: It is another effective information source/communication channel
For Guests: They get a virtual tour. They can get live and “tangible” info about ACT.
For Alumni: They will find their own Carbon foot print which will remind them –“In those old good times …”
Many things are happening in CMPS 598 Co. We prepared and made pitch presentations to some of our advisers, made some mockup pages, and did a user survey yesterday and got interesting results. Some of these materials can be found at: http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~zwu/cmps598/intro.html
We are busy with writing a business plan, building use cases, setting up database schema, setting up the development environment and educating ourselves on new technologies.
A little bit more than 3 weeks is left for CMPS 598 class, i.e. 3 weeks left for our company's "product release". Time is so limited ...
For Students: It is a virtual living space. Students get answers to questions on coursework, exchange notes, share latest in technology, research together, learn about job and internship opportunities, meet their friends, professors and mentors.
For Faculty and Staff: It is a medium. They share, publish information about their research projects and interests, classes that they teach. They connect with students and other potential collaborators.
For Businesses: It is a market space. They can advertise, recruite future employees, and do market study.
For Administrations: It is another effective information source/communication channel
For Guests: They get a virtual tour. They can get live and “tangible” info about ACT.
For Alumni: They will find their own Carbon foot print which will remind them –“In those old good times …”
Many things are happening in CMPS 598 Co. We prepared and made pitch presentations to some of our advisers, made some mockup pages, and did a user survey yesterday and got interesting results. Some of these materials can be found at: http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~zwu/cmps598/intro.html
We are busy with writing a business plan, building use cases, setting up database schema, setting up the development environment and educating ourselves on new technologies.
A little bit more than 3 weeks is left for CMPS 598 class, i.e. 3 weeks left for our company's "product release". Time is so limited ...
RSS - Really Simple Syndication
Hola,
I have been wondering what to write.. Suddenly this word striked me 'RSS'. Its been around the corner of every webpage for a while . I never cared to check what exactly it is.
Finally I thought to hunt it down for myself and share it with you. This is what I found -
So, What is RSS ?
Wikipedia says -
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.
An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.
So, how do you view it now?
RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based.
A standardized XML file formatallows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs.
The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to non-technically as a URL) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process.
The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Wow that's cool !
Here goes another definition of RSS -
RSS is a mechanism used to distribute news content without depending on the browser or email client. Not everyone agrees precisely what RSS stands for, but “Really Simple Syndication” is a popular choice.
What are the advantages of RSS?
In general it means time savings because, thanks to RSS, you stay ahead of what’s new without having to browse every site you normaly visit. An RSS reader aggregates the content for you to view in one place, this saves time and brings you the content like when you're reading a newspaper with the advantage to view only headlines. You're in control of which articles you want to read.
RSS enabled sites
The following type of sites are typically now RSS-enabled;
- News services
- Databases
- many web logs (commonly called "blogs")
It will be a very good decision if we can add 'RSS' into our new web site 'SPARSH'. We can update data like News, Events , Blogs and other frequently updated works.
I have been wondering what to write.. Suddenly this word striked me 'RSS'. Its been around the corner of every webpage for a while . I never cared to check what exactly it is.
Finally I thought to hunt it down for myself and share it with you. This is what I found -
So, What is RSS ?
Wikipedia says -
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.
An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.
So, how do you view it now?
RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based.
A standardized XML file formatallows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs.
The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to non-technically as a URL) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process.
The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Wow that's cool !
Here goes another definition of RSS -
RSS is a mechanism used to distribute news content without depending on the browser or email client. Not everyone agrees precisely what RSS stands for, but “Really Simple Syndication” is a popular choice.
What are the advantages of RSS?
In general it means time savings because, thanks to RSS, you stay ahead of what’s new without having to browse every site you normaly visit. An RSS reader aggregates the content for you to view in one place, this saves time and brings you the content like when you're reading a newspaper with the advantage to view only headlines. You're in control of which articles you want to read.
RSS enabled sites
The following type of sites are typically now RSS-enabled;
- News services
- Databases
- many web logs (commonly called "blogs")
It will be a very good decision if we can add 'RSS' into our new web site 'SPARSH'. We can update data like News, Events , Blogs and other frequently updated works.
Between the academic world and the business world: Revisit
As it is an entrepreneurship class, we have been trying to work together in an simulated company setting. We had some discussion on what is different between the university class setting and a IT company setting.
Yesterday, I came cross an "old" article "Bill Gates's 11 Rules of Life", it has the text of one of his talks to a group of high school students. I feel that many of the 11 rules addressed the our issue too.
Here are some of the relevant rules that I picked:
Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. (My favorite one, BTW)
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
You can read the 11 rules at many websites, one of it is provided here.
Yesterday, I came cross an "old" article "Bill Gates's 11 Rules of Life", it has the text of one of his talks to a group of high school students. I feel that many of the 11 rules addressed the our issue too.
Here are some of the relevant rules that I picked:
Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. (My favorite one, BTW)
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
You can read the 11 rules at many websites, one of it is provided here.
Relationalship model basics:
Relational model basics
* Data is viewed as existing in two dimensional tables known as relation.
* A relation (table) consists of unique attributes (columns) and tuples (rows)
* Tuples are unique
* Sometimes the value to be inserted into a particular cell may be unknown, or it may have no value. This is represented by a NULL
* Null is not the same as zero, blank or an empty string
* Relational Database: Any database whose logical organization is based on relational data model.
* RDBMS: A DBMS that manages the relational database.
* Keys
* Candidate key
A Candidate key is a set of one or more attributes(minimal) that can uniquely identify a row in a given table.
* Primary Key
During the creation of the table, the Database Designer chooses one of the Candidate Key from amongst the several available, to uniquely identify row in the given table.
* Alternate Key
The candidate key that is chosen to perform the identification task is called the primary key and the remaining candidate keys are known as alternate keys.
* Super Key
Any superset of a candidate Key is a super key.
Key and Non-key Attributes
* Key Attributes
The attributes that participate in the Candidate key are Key Attributes
* Non-Key Attributes
The attributes other than the Candidate Key attributes in a table/relation are called Non-Key attributes.
OR
The attributes which do not participate in the Candidate key.
Foreign key
A Foreign Key is a set of attribute (s) whose values are required to match values of a column in the same or another table.
Database Design Techniques
* Top down Approach
o E R Modeling
* Bottom Up approach
o Normalization
ER modeling
* ER modeling: A graphical technique for understanding and organizing the data independent of the actual database implementation.
* Entity: Any thing that may have an independent existence and about which we intend to collect data.
Also known as Entity type. E.g.: Trainee
* Entity instance: a particular member of the entity type e.g. a particular trainee
* Attributes: Properties/characteristics that describe entities: Trainee name, Batchname, DOB, Address, etc.
* Relationships: Associations between entities.E.g.: Trainee belongs to a Batch
This is Relationship mode basics.
Some content taken from wikipedia and infosys Site.
* Data is viewed as existing in two dimensional tables known as relation.
* A relation (table) consists of unique attributes (columns) and tuples (rows)
* Tuples are unique
* Sometimes the value to be inserted into a particular cell may be unknown, or it may have no value. This is represented by a NULL
* Null is not the same as zero, blank or an empty string
* Relational Database: Any database whose logical organization is based on relational data model.
* RDBMS: A DBMS that manages the relational database.
* Keys
* Candidate key
A Candidate key is a set of one or more attributes(minimal) that can uniquely identify a row in a given table.
* Primary Key
During the creation of the table, the Database Designer chooses one of the Candidate Key from amongst the several available, to uniquely identify row in the given table.
* Alternate Key
The candidate key that is chosen to perform the identification task is called the primary key and the remaining candidate keys are known as alternate keys.
* Super Key
Any superset of a candidate Key is a super key.
Key and Non-key Attributes
* Key Attributes
The attributes that participate in the Candidate key are Key Attributes
* Non-Key Attributes
The attributes other than the Candidate Key attributes in a table/relation are called Non-Key attributes.
OR
The attributes which do not participate in the Candidate key.
Foreign key
A Foreign Key is a set of attribute (s) whose values are required to match values of a column in the same or another table.
Database Design Techniques
* Top down Approach
o E R Modeling
* Bottom Up approach
o Normalization
ER modeling
* ER modeling: A graphical technique for understanding and organizing the data independent of the actual database implementation.
* Entity: Any thing that may have an independent existence and about which we intend to collect data.
Also known as Entity type. E.g.: Trainee
* Entity instance: a particular member of the entity type e.g. a particular trainee
* Attributes: Properties/characteristics that describe entities: Trainee name, Batchname, DOB, Address, etc.
* Relationships: Associations between entities.E.g.: Trainee belongs to a Batch
This is Relationship mode basics.
Some content taken from wikipedia and infosys Site.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Relational database
Some concepts of database：
A relational database structures data in tables, tables could be regarded as matrixes with columns and rows. Columns mean the title, the categories while rows contain the actual data for each category. Columns are also called “fields”, and rows are also called “records”.
Entity table: a table which is used to store things that are in the real world. We use different categories to describe those aspects of those things to make them different from other records.
Relation table: a table which specify the relation between the entity tables.
Primary Key: a primary key is a field that each record’s data in this field could not be the same as others. This data should be unique. In the database design, for every entity table, there should be a field that is defined as a primary key. It would also be good to define such a primary key for the relation table to make the records easier to reach.
That might be some rules that we should set up to make our database more structured and easy to be used and maintained.
In my opinion, there should be a primary key field called “id” in each table. We could use this field to be the index of each table. Also we should put the data created date and the data modified date to make it possible to trace the modification of each record. In those tables which could be modified by users (other than those only be controlled by the administrator) we may put in a field to specify who create this record. Together with the created date and the modified date, it would be easy to control and trace the data.
Any other idea for the database schema? I think that we should decide some common rules for the database structure first.
A relational database structures data in tables, tables could be regarded as matrixes with columns and rows. Columns mean the title, the categories while rows contain the actual data for each category. Columns are also called “fields”, and rows are also called “records”.
Entity table: a table which is used to store things that are in the real world. We use different categories to describe those aspects of those things to make them different from other records.
Relation table: a table which specify the relation between the entity tables.
Primary Key: a primary key is a field that each record’s data in this field could not be the same as others. This data should be unique. In the database design, for every entity table, there should be a field that is defined as a primary key. It would also be good to define such a primary key for the relation table to make the records easier to reach.
That might be some rules that we should set up to make our database more structured and easy to be used and maintained.
In my opinion, there should be a primary key field called “id” in each table. We could use this field to be the index of each table. Also we should put the data created date and the data modified date to make it possible to trace the modification of each record. In those tables which could be modified by users (other than those only be controlled by the administrator) we may put in a field to specify who create this record. Together with the created date and the modified date, it would be easy to control and trace the data.
Any other idea for the database schema? I think that we should decide some common rules for the database structure first.
Is Facebook the Next Geocities?
This is the question brought out by Andrew Goodman. 1999, Yahoo! Spent 3.6 billion dollars to purchase GeoCities. May be, you are wondering: is facework capable of making huge amount of money? Just from the look of the website, you can’t image that facebook is growing in an amazing rate, overrunning myspace a lot. However, the incredible growth costs a lot, for example, for example, “a couple of hundred million dollars a year just to keep the lights on at Facebook. But the real problem is keeping up with growth, particularly storage needs. Add another $100 million or more per year for capital expenditures, and you’ve got a company that’s doing exactly the opposite of printing money.” So as Michael said, it may force Facebook back to the capital markets. Not just Facebook along, many excellent web-based company have been listed as candidates of death. To deal with this winter of economy, small company with bad health should save energy and decrease consumption, however, Facebook is not a small company anymore. Her huge increase makes others jealous. She is changing rules of the game to set up a new patten of web and make all rivals feel uneasy. This winter may be an opportunity for Facebook to show its talent and became outstanding, as the last winter helped Google a lot.
An Introduction to ASP.NET MVC
Since we have come to the conclusion to pursue development of our application using C# and ASP.NET MVC (Wikipedia article) framework, I thought that I should post a little getting started guide to help introduce the concepts to those they may be new to.
The Model-view-controller design pattern is used as an architectural guideline for designing software. It's main goal is to separate the concerns of an application by splitting the different aspects of the application into different areas. The model aspect of the application is responsible for handling the data and business logic rules. The view is used to present the data sent from the model to the user over a UI or structured data output. The controller is for directing input from the user into the model.
To get started with ASP.NET MVC, the following requirements must be met:
Once the requirements are met, you can quickly create a blank MVC application through Visual Studio by creating a ASP.NET MVC Web Application. The MVC Beta install creates a nice starter application that can be browsed through to understand how it is working.
There are many screen casts and tutorials on the ASP.NET MVC website that are helpful in getting an overview of how it works. The walk through and tutorial for building a task list application go through the steps of starting a new application and building it up.
The Model-view-controller design pattern is used as an architectural guideline for designing software. It's main goal is to separate the concerns of an application by splitting the different aspects of the application into different areas. The model aspect of the application is responsible for handling the data and business logic rules. The view is used to present the data sent from the model to the user over a UI or structured data output. The controller is for directing input from the user into the model.
To get started with ASP.NET MVC, the following requirements must be met:
- Visual Studio 2008 (Visual Web Developer Express can be used too)
- The .NET 3.5 Framework (SmallestDotNet will help)
- The latest ASP.NET MVC release (Beta Download)
Once the requirements are met, you can quickly create a blank MVC application through Visual Studio by creating a ASP.NET MVC Web Application. The MVC Beta install creates a nice starter application that can be browsed through to understand how it is working.
There are many screen casts and tutorials on the ASP.NET MVC website that are helpful in getting an overview of how it works. The walk through and tutorial for building a task list application go through the steps of starting a new application and building it up.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Microsoft's Windows 7
After Windows Vista Microsoft is planning to launch its new operating system called Windows 7.According to Microsoft it will be ready within couple of years unlike Vista which took almost 5 years to start its business.
Microsoft's VP, Steven Sinofsky, described Windows 7 as an "exciting new version" and claimed it would deliver a more personalized experience.
With Windows 7, Microsoft has added a range of new functions including:
- A new taskbar to give more rapid access to files and programs.
- A feature called HomeGroup, allowing users easy sharing of data across PCs and other devices in the home.
- Support for devices such as cameras, printers, and mobile phones with a product called Device Stage offering a single window to manage tasks for each device.
- Windows Touch - software for touch screen devices that enables users to use different gestures to perform tasks.
- Improvements to some applications, such as MS Paint, and Calculator.
Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie said Windows 7 would be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. ( according to bbc news)
Well I also will be waiting for this new operating system of Microsoft but lets hope that it will not run slowly and fail to work at all with some programs and devices like windows vista does.
Well I also will be waiting for this new operating system of Microsoft but lets hope that it will not run slowly and fail to work at all with some programs and devices like windows vista does.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Writing A Business Plan:
A business plan is a document which gives a detailed explanation of the mission statement, operation, market, the profit etc of a company (or business to generalize it). It is a document which acts as an open window to your business through which others (or even you) can get a better insight of the company.
A business plans has following parts:
An executive summary:
A short half to one page long description of key business points like purpose of the business, methods of operation, finances, management and a closing statement.
Describe the business:
Start with a short description on the current industry like a background search on the current and estimated future players. Give an overview of the product or service, nature of the business like is it a startup or acquired, manufacturing, retail etc. and the most important questions like how will you price it and how would it help make profit and do you place your different from that of the already existing ones?
Describe the market:
Describe size of the market, the current trends, estimation of sales and the method of sales.
Also mention about the distribution methods and the projection policies which includes your analysis on market trends governing your product popularity.
Mention about the type and size of competitors:
An analysis on the strength and weaknesses of the competitor is to be mentioned and showed how has it been used in the product developmental stages. Also define your distinct competitive advantage over your competitors while defining your strategies to use it in attracting market and sustaining.
Design and developmental plans:
It covers the goals, procedures and cost involved in terms of money and muscle (employees) for product development, market and organizational development.
They also can include the Operation, sales, marketing and advertizing plans.
Management and organizational structure:
This section becomes crucial as several businesses fail due to lack of proper management. Describe the executive management structure and organizational hierarchy properly.
The financial component:
Includes an assessment of risks and details of cash flow statement, income sheet, balance sheet, projected revenue, exit strategy etc.
Estimated growth rate:
It can be included at the business description level, but if you have enough data for a complete analysis of the growth rate, this can be a separate section.
Sample biz plans:
Entrepreneur . com
Businessplan . org
Post from Yale
A business plans has following parts:
An executive summary:
A short half to one page long description of key business points like purpose of the business, methods of operation, finances, management and a closing statement.
Describe the business:
Start with a short description on the current industry like a background search on the current and estimated future players. Give an overview of the product or service, nature of the business like is it a startup or acquired, manufacturing, retail etc. and the most important questions like how will you price it and how would it help make profit and do you place your different from that of the already existing ones?
Describe the market:
Describe size of the market, the current trends, estimation of sales and the method of sales.
Also mention about the distribution methods and the projection policies which includes your analysis on market trends governing your product popularity.
Mention about the type and size of competitors:
An analysis on the strength and weaknesses of the competitor is to be mentioned and showed how has it been used in the product developmental stages. Also define your distinct competitive advantage over your competitors while defining your strategies to use it in attracting market and sustaining.
Design and developmental plans:
It covers the goals, procedures and cost involved in terms of money and muscle (employees) for product development, market and organizational development.
They also can include the Operation, sales, marketing and advertizing plans.
Management and organizational structure:
This section becomes crucial as several businesses fail due to lack of proper management. Describe the executive management structure and organizational hierarchy properly.
The financial component:
Includes an assessment of risks and details of cash flow statement, income sheet, balance sheet, projected revenue, exit strategy etc.
Estimated growth rate:
It can be included at the business description level, but if you have enough data for a complete analysis of the growth rate, this can be a separate section.
Sample biz plans:
Entrepreneur . com
Businessplan . org
Post from Yale
Who Dares Wins !!
How to act boldly but not foolishly!!
Just thought of motivating our team. Let's take up the initiative to take up the big risk !!
Source: www.spectrum.ieee.org
Just thought of motivating our team. Let's take up the initiative to take up the big risk !!
We've heard examples of the great things that can happen to those who take risks.
Bill Gates dropped to those who take risks. Bill Gates dropped out of Harward, founded Microsoft, and become the richest man on the planet. Steve Jobs completely changed both the hardware and software foundations of Apple's long established Macintosh line of computers and was rewarded with increased market share and critical acclaim with the PC industry. Burt Rutan eschewed decades of experience with solid and liquid rockets in favour of a hybrid engine that helped him seize the US 10$ million Ansari X-Prize for the world's first private reusable spacecraft.
Bill Gates dropped to those who take risks. Bill Gates dropped out of Harward, founded Microsoft, and become the richest man on the planet. Steve Jobs completely changed both the hardware and software foundations of Apple's long established Macintosh line of computers and was rewarded with increased market share and critical acclaim with the PC industry. Burt Rutan eschewed decades of experience with solid and liquid rockets in favour of a hybrid engine that helped him seize the US 10$ million Ansari X-Prize for the world's first private reusable spacecraft.
Source: www.spectrum.ieee.org
WiFi VS. WiMAX
WiFi and WiMax are competing wireless broadband technologies that are considered useful for "Voice over Internet Protocol".
WiFi is used for closed circuit business networking and for connecting customer electronics and provides cheap wireless internet service. It is mostly confined to " LAN " (Local Area Network).
As the world is going online new solutions are coming up day by day for the people who are at commercial venues like cafes, hotels or parks or buses to use the free internet access. One such smart solution is "WiMax technology" .
WiMax on the other hand does proivide wireless reception over significantly greater distances and at higher broadband levels. The technology behind WiMax is to use " transmitters like cell phone towers, to carry its signal " rather than using fixed lines like cable or telephone line to bring the Internet access into a building.
The advantage of WiMax over WiFi is that several subscribers can connect to a tower, even if it is being blocked by any physical obstruction, making it one best solution to reach to the most remote locations. Few more benefits of Wimax over WiFi is that it has greater range and connection quality. When a WiMax tower is nearing its maximum broadband capacity it automatically redirects additional users to another WiMax access point.
Many large businesses and companies with large physical space are opting for "WiMax" to avoid buying many repeater access points required those are required with "WiFi".
The only disadvantage in WiMax is the cost factor which can be resolved in a distant
future for more powerful and more accessible wireless Internet access.
WiFi is used for closed circuit business networking and for connecting customer electronics and provides cheap wireless internet service. It is mostly confined to " LAN " (Local Area Network).
As the world is going online new solutions are coming up day by day for the people who are at commercial venues like cafes, hotels or parks or buses to use the free internet access. One such smart solution is "WiMax technology" .
WiMax on the other hand does proivide wireless reception over significantly greater distances and at higher broadband levels. The technology behind WiMax is to use " transmitters like cell phone towers, to carry its signal " rather than using fixed lines like cable or telephone line to bring the Internet access into a building.
The advantage of WiMax over WiFi is that several subscribers can connect to a tower, even if it is being blocked by any physical obstruction, making it one best solution to reach to the most remote locations. Few more benefits of Wimax over WiFi is that it has greater range and connection quality. When a WiMax tower is nearing its maximum broadband capacity it automatically redirects additional users to another WiMax access point.
Many large businesses and companies with large physical space are opting for "WiMax" to avoid buying many repeater access points required those are required with "WiFi".
The only disadvantage in WiMax is the cost factor which can be resolved in a distant
future for more powerful and more accessible wireless Internet access.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Future of Social Networking
Social Networking -
At the heart of any Social Networking site consists of an online community which allows users to share information, Connect with new users and reconnect the old ones.
Social networking site comprises of tools of communication such as Email, Text Chat, Voice, Video and a lot more. Here, the users of similar interests can share information and interest and provide feedback and reviews.
For example, my father back in India is a diehard fan of Jim Reeves – A great Artist (songs).With the help of social Networking sites, my father can meet users who have the similar interest and share songs and get information about the great singer.
What’s Next ? -
Future of Social Networking will become more significant since the platform on which they are build expands.
The Killer apps introduce more mobility, presence, and Geographical (Location) awareness, making your physical life more convenient thorough virtual network.
In future, you will know which of your online friends are nearby. When you travel, the social networking site will sense your friends nearby, so that you can just drop by and visit them. This location awareness tool can sense local business and entertainment of your interest based on your profile.
Social Networking sites will become smarter with the touch of Artificial Intelligence mining all sorts of information across the web. Sites will keep a track your interest based on behavior.
It keeps track of the websites you visit, music you listens to, Article you read, friends you chat and their interests.
Every time you click a link on the website, the site gain intelligence thereby enhances your social network.
A bit of Risk -
As the platform expands and users enjoy the benefits, so will opportunities for attackers. Spammers and scammers will keep trying to exploit this huge base of information.
Site administrators will have to work hard in keeping these spammers off, keep the content quality high, while blocking the bad guys and still allowing everyone else to use the site.
At the heart of any Social Networking site consists of an online community which allows users to share information, Connect with new users and reconnect the old ones.
Social networking site comprises of tools of communication such as Email, Text Chat, Voice, Video and a lot more. Here, the users of similar interests can share information and interest and provide feedback and reviews.
For example, my father back in India is a diehard fan of Jim Reeves – A great Artist (songs).With the help of social Networking sites, my father can meet users who have the similar interest and share songs and get information about the great singer.
What’s Next ? -
Future of Social Networking will become more significant since the platform on which they are build expands.
The Killer apps introduce more mobility, presence, and Geographical (Location) awareness, making your physical life more convenient thorough virtual network.
In future, you will know which of your online friends are nearby. When you travel, the social networking site will sense your friends nearby, so that you can just drop by and visit them. This location awareness tool can sense local business and entertainment of your interest based on your profile.
Social Networking sites will become smarter with the touch of Artificial Intelligence mining all sorts of information across the web. Sites will keep a track your interest based on behavior.
It keeps track of the websites you visit, music you listens to, Article you read, friends you chat and their interests.
Every time you click a link on the website, the site gain intelligence thereby enhances your social network.
A bit of Risk -
As the platform expands and users enjoy the benefits, so will opportunities for attackers. Spammers and scammers will keep trying to exploit this huge base of information.
Site administrators will have to work hard in keeping these spammers off, keep the content quality high, while blocking the bad guys and still allowing everyone else to use the site.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Microsoft Launch Browser Version of Office:: Seeks to Counter Google Apps
It has been announced by Microsoft on October 28 at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, that they are planning one of their most popular applications, Microsoft Office Suite to be delivered through Web Browsers. They are going to allow users to create, edit and customize office documents through a Web Browser, by implementing lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Microsoft made it clear that the Web Version of the software, will not be anything different from it's desktop version.
Users will still have a consistent office experience whether they are using desktop or web version of the software. The increasing demand of using same documents on both desktop and mobile devices, led the company to make office applications available through web browser. The company made it clear that Office Web will work on all major web browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer,Safari & Firefox and will utilize HTML, Ajax and Microsoft Silverlight. Regular consumers can access Office Web Applications through office Live. Office Web Apps will be available to business users through a hosted subscription service and volume licensing agreements.
The applications will be available at the end of this year, once Microsoft will be releasing their new version of Office, which is known as Office 14. They also mentioned that some versions of Office Web will be available free to consumers by making them supported by advertisements. Provided the continued develeopment of Office applications, from Google, Adobe, one could have sensed this coming from Microsoft.
Microsoft realised that if they are going to stay competitive and keep Google and their web version of Office Applications at Bay, then they need to start this transition to Web Platform very soon.
Users will still have a consistent office experience whether they are using desktop or web version of the software. The increasing demand of using same documents on both desktop and mobile devices, led the company to make office applications available through web browser. The company made it clear that Office Web will work on all major web browsers, e.g. Internet Explorer,Safari & Firefox and will utilize HTML, Ajax and Microsoft Silverlight. Regular consumers can access Office Web Applications through office Live. Office Web Apps will be available to business users through a hosted subscription service and volume licensing agreements.
The applications will be available at the end of this year, once Microsoft will be releasing their new version of Office, which is known as Office 14. They also mentioned that some versions of Office Web will be available free to consumers by making them supported by advertisements. Provided the continued develeopment of Office applications, from Google, Adobe, one could have sensed this coming from Microsoft.
Microsoft realised that if they are going to stay competitive and keep Google and their web version of Office Applications at Bay, then they need to start this transition to Web Platform very soon.
A good free online image editor
When the concept of Web.2.0 stepped into our eyes, now there is a wide variety of easy-to-use online software and tools to choose from. Pixlr.com is such a good free online image editor. The design is like simplified Adobe Photoshop, but the features of Pixlr.com are much richer than those of Adobe Photoshop Express, which is spreaded by Adobe itself. We can see that the UI of Pixlr.com is a clone of phtoshop at all!
In addition, it provides API to enables developers/users of other sites to gain access to a powerful image editor. As Pixlr.com mentioned:” The API is open for everyone, all free and without any restrictions.”
It is really cool!
In addition, it provides API to enables developers/users of other sites to gain access to a powerful image editor. As Pixlr.com mentioned:” The API is open for everyone, all free and without any restrictions.”
It is really cool!
Important aspects for a successful project
For a product to be manufactured and to be sold out, for a project to be successful we need to consider the following aspects,find the answers for them such that it satisfies both the manufacturers and the customers.
The important factors for a project are:
Critical mass and database scalability.
Critical mass is to face challenges such as 1.usability study and 2.How to start the implementation?(for any product not only website)
The other factors to be considered are
1.How do we get people to use it?
2.After the project completion in one phase, How do we start or go with this project or product in the other phases(step by step increase in the scalability of product)?
3.How do we commercialize the product?
4.How do we advertise the product?
5.From where do we get the starting funds?
These are some of the questions we need to answer for a product or project to be successful.
Critical mass is getting the appeal from everyone that is the maximum appeal or the maximum utilization of our product.Critical mass plays an important role.More the critical mass,more the
project is successful.So we have to think the ways to commercialize the product as well as to get the critical mass.
An example of critical mass taken from Stanford's entrepreneurship corner:
Estrin explains how it is difficult to reach critical mass in a tough economic environment, which prevents startups from growing enough to compete.A personal example of Precept attempting to enter the market, but not reaching critical mass by the time Microsoft entered the market as well.
This example tells that it is very difficult for a new product to enter the market when there is heavy competition and to achieve critical mass is very difficult.
So we need to find the ways of increasing the critical mass and also step by step marketing our product.We should also pay attention to the day by day growth of our product and have patience also which plays an important role in this.We need to concentrate on connecting people.Productivity is the first phase where as,after that we have to connect the people and make them use it.
These are the important aspects which we need to consider for a product to be successful.
Some concepts taken from the speech given by the head of golfballs.com
The important factors for a project are:
Critical mass and database scalability.
Critical mass is to face challenges such as 1.usability study and 2.How to start the implementation?(for any product not only website)
The other factors to be considered are
1.How do we get people to use it?
2.After the project completion in one phase, How do we start or go with this project or product in the other phases(step by step increase in the scalability of product)?
3.How do we commercialize the product?
4.How do we advertise the product?
5.From where do we get the starting funds?
These are some of the questions we need to answer for a product or project to be successful.
Critical mass is getting the appeal from everyone that is the maximum appeal or the maximum utilization of our product.Critical mass plays an important role.More the critical mass,more the
project is successful.So we have to think the ways to commercialize the product as well as to get the critical mass.
An example of critical mass taken from Stanford's entrepreneurship corner:
Estrin explains how it is difficult to reach critical mass in a tough economic environment, which prevents startups from growing enough to compete.A personal example of Precept attempting to enter the market, but not reaching critical mass by the time Microsoft entered the market as well.
This example tells that it is very difficult for a new product to enter the market when there is heavy competition and to achieve critical mass is very difficult.
So we need to find the ways of increasing the critical mass and also step by step marketing our product.We should also pay attention to the day by day growth of our product and have patience also which plays an important role in this.We need to concentrate on connecting people.Productivity is the first phase where as,after that we have to connect the people and make them use it.
These are the important aspects which we need to consider for a product to be successful.
Some concepts taken from the speech given by the head of golfballs.com
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Keep The Webpage Simple
Here, the word “simple” means we should make the website style easy to understand, easy to use. It does not mean that we cut down thing to make the website a blank page. That’s a very artful idea. A “simple” would bring a lot of advantages, as the following:
1, emphasis on the functions of the website.
2, increase the click efficiency.
3, more popular among visitors
4, faster speed
What we should do to achieve such a simple webpage, we should care about the following things:
1, only put the thing that you need
One of simple page’s most important aspects is to show the information that is useful only for the commercial part, no other things. We should make sure the information is meaningful to introduce the products or services.
2, decrease the number of clicks
The fewer clicks to reach the users’ destination, the larger chance there would be for users to use this function again.
3, decrease the number of paragraphs
If there are too many paragraphs in one page, then the commercial content of each product would have less space to show them. We should get those information which users do not want out of the website.
4, offer fewer options
It would cause pressure to the users who use the website functions. They would like to think less when they use the services. Fewer options would make the users do what they want to do more quickly, and bring them back with a joyful mood.
5, keep it neat and in order
A neat design could let the visitors feel comfortable, make it more possible for them come back again.
We could get some ideas from http://www.apple.com/. This well known site satisfies those requirements.
Also we could get to the site http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ to learn more about how to build a simple webpage, to deal with the images, showcases, fonts... those detailed parts.
1, emphasis on the functions of the website.
2, increase the click efficiency.
3, more popular among visitors
4, faster speed
What we should do to achieve such a simple webpage, we should care about the following things:
1, only put the thing that you need
One of simple page’s most important aspects is to show the information that is useful only for the commercial part, no other things. We should make sure the information is meaningful to introduce the products or services.
2, decrease the number of clicks
The fewer clicks to reach the users’ destination, the larger chance there would be for users to use this function again.
3, decrease the number of paragraphs
If there are too many paragraphs in one page, then the commercial content of each product would have less space to show them. We should get those information which users do not want out of the website.
4, offer fewer options
It would cause pressure to the users who use the website functions. They would like to think less when they use the services. Fewer options would make the users do what they want to do more quickly, and bring them back with a joyful mood.
5, keep it neat and in order
A neat design could let the visitors feel comfortable, make it more possible for them come back again.
We could get some ideas from http://www.apple.com/. This well known site satisfies those requirements.
Also we could get to the site http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ to learn more about how to build a simple webpage, to deal with the images, showcases, fonts... those detailed parts.
Selling a website:
A website may be ready for sale ones the owner decides to get it in market. The decision can be based on several factors like, a great domain name which is in demand currently or the website is calling too much of traffic for the owner to handle or the owner wants to just get rid of it. Another, reason for sale can be a potential buyer knocking at the door.
There are a few basics things that one needs to keep in mind if planning to sell a website.
1. Assessment of the worth of the website:
Some websites like www.directory.sootle.com, www.cwire.org etc help in calculating the worth of other websites. A buyer will make use of these to find out the value of the site but the actual cost may or may not be the same. A website is accessed based on the number of visitors it attracts, for example, each visit is $20 (on avg) and there are 100 visitors in a day, the domain can be worth $2000. Also, if a unique visitor is weighted 10 times higher than the return click, the website may be worth a fortune.
2. Preparation before the sale:
- Boost the website traffic by adding catchy themes (always get inspired by your competitor), get specific, give personal touch to advertisement by writing blog articles, use internet discussions, forum, Q&A websites to promote the website. Make your website search engine friendly.
- Keep a detailed log of traffic to your website along with information on growth rate over the time, number of unique visitors, and demography of visitors.
- Do a book keeping of financial figures even before you decide to sell the website off.
3. Where to find buyers and sell the website?
If lucky and have a great and unique website with a nice domain name (which is hard to describe), or the website is a hit, it would call buyers by itself. If one is looking for buyers, there are two ways to do it.
- The first way is to do it yourself. There are several dedicated websites like eBay, sitepoint market place, pixel2life sales area.
-
- The second method is to take help of a brokerage website like businessbroker, buysellwebsites, ebizbrokers. These may cost a part of sales money.
4. Information to be made available before the deal:
- Website details like what it deals with, its links, time period for which it has been running, registration information etc.
- Pagerank, traffic information, website income, the market and audience
- Cost in terms of hardware, time for maintenance, employee, equipment, licensing and advertisements.
5. Sale of hosting:
If the website is being sold along with the account on which it is being hosted it is important to make sure that the billing of the host has been taken over by the buyer.
Some of the websites I have referred to get the information above are:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/266/how-to-sell-a-website-how-much-is-your-website-worth/
http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/sellyourwebsite.htm
http://www.pixel2life.com/publish/tutorials/361/selling_your_site_learn_how_to_sell_your_website_and_not_get_ripped_off/
There are a few basics things that one needs to keep in mind if planning to sell a website.
1. Assessment of the worth of the website:
Some websites like www.directory.sootle.com, www.cwire.org etc help in calculating the worth of other websites. A buyer will make use of these to find out the value of the site but the actual cost may or may not be the same. A website is accessed based on the number of visitors it attracts, for example, each visit is $20 (on avg) and there are 100 visitors in a day, the domain can be worth $2000. Also, if a unique visitor is weighted 10 times higher than the return click, the website may be worth a fortune.
2. Preparation before the sale:
- Boost the website traffic by adding catchy themes (always get inspired by your competitor), get specific, give personal touch to advertisement by writing blog articles, use internet discussions, forum, Q&A websites to promote the website. Make your website search engine friendly.
- Keep a detailed log of traffic to your website along with information on growth rate over the time, number of unique visitors, and demography of visitors.
- Do a book keeping of financial figures even before you decide to sell the website off.
3. Where to find buyers and sell the website?
If lucky and have a great and unique website with a nice domain name (which is hard to describe), or the website is a hit, it would call buyers by itself. If one is looking for buyers, there are two ways to do it.
- The first way is to do it yourself. There are several dedicated websites like eBay, sitepoint market place, pixel2life sales area.
-
- The second method is to take help of a brokerage website like businessbroker, buysellwebsites, ebizbrokers. These may cost a part of sales money.
4. Information to be made available before the deal:
- Website details like what it deals with, its links, time period for which it has been running, registration information etc.
- Pagerank, traffic information, website income, the market and audience
- Cost in terms of hardware, time for maintenance, employee, equipment, licensing and advertisements.
5. Sale of hosting:
If the website is being sold along with the account on which it is being hosted it is important to make sure that the billing of the host has been taken over by the buyer.
Some of the websites I have referred to get the information above are:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/266/how-to-sell-a-website-how-much-is-your-website-worth/
http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/sellyourwebsite.htm
http://www.pixel2life.com/publish/tutorials/361/selling_your_site_learn_how_to_sell_your_website_and_not_get_ripped_off/
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