The xbox kinect is a motion input device placed on the xbox 360 game console with it's function for users to control and interact with their xbox 360 console without the use of any controllers but control through the use of their body and voice commands.
Below is a video of the various functions of the xbox kinect:
What is so fascinating about xbox kinect, is its functions aren't limited to the ones shown in the video above. Instead the video below shows xbox kinect's unlimited capabilities and why it is the future of living room entertainment!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
SAP Distribution Game
Based on my team's sales and profit/loss results, we came third to last in the first round with a minor profit, then moved up three positions in the second round by increasing sales and then came fourth in the last round by increasing our profit margin.
I the first round, our team strategy, since it was three of us, we assigned a task to each one; I did the pricing of the the products, other group member did marketing and one reviewed our bottom line (profit/loss) during the selling of products. This was our weakest round and what we could've done better was to make use of the multiple windows you can have open to monitor other departments of our company (e.g marketing) and other business activity like prices competitors were charging for similar products. Instead, we just had our specific job task window open to use, which made us to make decisions on prices and marketing without other helpful resources.
In the second round, we improved by everyone having multiple windows of different data open to aid us making our decisions. I think this was the key factor in our increase in sales and also, the communication between our group member in charge of inventory and I (the price maker); as I was able to let him know what we needed more of through what was selling the most, vice-verse.
In the third and final round, we improved greatly by increasing our sales and profit margin. The key behind our performance in this round was better pricing of our products and this was a collected team effort through, my group members aiding me with information on the market prices for each products. Then, I was able to price our products at a better price than our competitors.
Overall, I think my team did a fantastic job and given more rounds we would likely have gained top spot as we were steadily improving at a rapid rate. Also, I learned that in a business' operations, everything depends on each other in some way like marketing and pricing or inventory and pricing. More surprisingly, communication plays a vital role in making vital business decisions because good or lack of communication in a a company can be the difference in a company loosing a lot of money or an opportunity to make a lot of money.
I the first round, our team strategy, since it was three of us, we assigned a task to each one; I did the pricing of the the products, other group member did marketing and one reviewed our bottom line (profit/loss) during the selling of products. This was our weakest round and what we could've done better was to make use of the multiple windows you can have open to monitor other departments of our company (e.g marketing) and other business activity like prices competitors were charging for similar products. Instead, we just had our specific job task window open to use, which made us to make decisions on prices and marketing without other helpful resources.
In the second round, we improved by everyone having multiple windows of different data open to aid us making our decisions. I think this was the key factor in our increase in sales and also, the communication between our group member in charge of inventory and I (the price maker); as I was able to let him know what we needed more of through what was selling the most, vice-verse.
In the third and final round, we improved greatly by increasing our sales and profit margin. The key behind our performance in this round was better pricing of our products and this was a collected team effort through, my group members aiding me with information on the market prices for each products. Then, I was able to price our products at a better price than our competitors.
Overall, I think my team did a fantastic job and given more rounds we would likely have gained top spot as we were steadily improving at a rapid rate. Also, I learned that in a business' operations, everything depends on each other in some way like marketing and pricing or inventory and pricing. More surprisingly, communication plays a vital role in making vital business decisions because good or lack of communication in a a company can be the difference in a company loosing a lot of money or an opportunity to make a lot of money.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
APPLE EMPLOYEE: LAWFUL OR UNLAWFUL FIRE?
Fortunately, I can answer this blog topic confidently after our business law class topic discussion was employment contracts. Basically, there are two types of employment contracts which include:
1. At will: where you can be fired for any reason whether petty or not; as long as it is lawful.
2. Contractual employment: where someone is employed for a stated duration of time and if fired, they are obligated to the rest of any economic funds promised in the contract.
In this case, the Apple employee falls under the "at will" category. So by law, Apple's firing of the employee was not unlawful as it is not a discriminatory firing (gender, race, sex, social class) of any sort.
In my opinion, I feel the firing of the Apple employee was right and necessary. Apple's main contributor to their success is the value of their brand. So if I were Apple CEO, anything that degrades the value of Apple's brand, which in my opinion they've worked so hard to obtain, should be punished.
As a Mac user, Apple's quality in products is one off! This might be a biased opinion but, this firing just shows the extreme care Apple take's in preserving their brand value. The link below is a testament to Apple's brand value:
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
DSS: INVESTING APPS
It was hard for me to think of any decision support systems that I utilized in my life because I was only thinking of decision support systems school related. But, then I thought of y investing apps I used to make trades on my virtual trading platform.
In my earlier blogs, I mentioned my career aspiration is to become a wall street trader. So in preparation for that, I currently trade stocks in order to gain experience but being a trader requires you watching the markets at all times and having access to software to make trades. You can loose or make a lot of money in a matter of seconds as stock prices are always changing. It is those small percentage changes in stock prices, traders look for so they can make trades to make money.
Being a full-time student, I obviously dont have the time to stay at a computer all throughout market hours (9:30 a.m- 4:00 p.m), so my two investing apps CNBC app and Scotttrade APP assists me with being able to make decisions about picking stocks.
CNBC app: this is to follow market news and keep track of prices of my stock's in my portfolio. The link below will show you detailed features of this app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cnbc-real-time/id334125582?mt=8
Scotttrade app: this is the online stock broker I use to make my trades but just fake money for now.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scottrade-mobile/id445043430?mt=8
In my earlier blogs, I mentioned my career aspiration is to become a wall street trader. So in preparation for that, I currently trade stocks in order to gain experience but being a trader requires you watching the markets at all times and having access to software to make trades. You can loose or make a lot of money in a matter of seconds as stock prices are always changing. It is those small percentage changes in stock prices, traders look for so they can make trades to make money.
Being a full-time student, I obviously dont have the time to stay at a computer all throughout market hours (9:30 a.m- 4:00 p.m), so my two investing apps CNBC app and Scotttrade APP assists me with being able to make decisions about picking stocks.
CNBC app: this is to follow market news and keep track of prices of my stock's in my portfolio. The link below will show you detailed features of this app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cnbc-real-time/id334125582?mt=8
Scotttrade app: this is the online stock broker I use to make my trades but just fake money for now.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scottrade-mobile/id445043430?mt=8
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
TEST QUESTIONS
Back in my country, Sierra Leone, teacher's salaries are relatively low to support the basic standard of living. Therefore teachers seek private lessons of students to obtain additional income. Teachers of private schools benefit more from this practice as they demanded higher lesson fees due to their wealthier clientele of children of wealthy business man, government officials, professional experts (doctors) etc.
I attended one of the best private schools in the country, where my parents hired private tutors for me. The reason for it was to provide extra help with the the London GCE examination (equivalent of SAT). I was fortunate to get the same teachers that taught me in class. So with that said, our class exam questions were always available to me before the exam through my private tutors. I never asked for them, but I believe they did this to ensure I got good grades in the class to show that my parents were getting theirs money worth; therefore not get fired.
Unethical decisions were made on both parties: my tutors providing the questions and me accepting them. At times I thought of stopping it but of course with it, little effort in school was required and I helped my friends greatly with my access to our exam questions most of the time. But, as the school year wounded down and our international exam got nearer, both my tutors and I decided it was best for me not to receive these questions anymore. By doing so, I was able to prepare for the London GCE exam properly, an exam that was not going to be created by my private tutors.
I attended one of the best private schools in the country, where my parents hired private tutors for me. The reason for it was to provide extra help with the the London GCE examination (equivalent of SAT). I was fortunate to get the same teachers that taught me in class. So with that said, our class exam questions were always available to me before the exam through my private tutors. I never asked for them, but I believe they did this to ensure I got good grades in the class to show that my parents were getting theirs money worth; therefore not get fired.
Unethical decisions were made on both parties: my tutors providing the questions and me accepting them. At times I thought of stopping it but of course with it, little effort in school was required and I helped my friends greatly with my access to our exam questions most of the time. But, as the school year wounded down and our international exam got nearer, both my tutors and I decided it was best for me not to receive these questions anymore. By doing so, I was able to prepare for the London GCE exam properly, an exam that was not going to be created by my private tutors.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
UNLIMITED SOCIAL MEDIA ACCESS + STUDENTS = FAILING EDUCATION SYSTEM
Its like a blame game when it comes to the highly discussed topic of America's failing education system. A system once at the top but now ranks 20th in the word. Why?
I simply think it's the unlimited access to social media students have nowadays. After my research, I disagree with claims that the American school system is not teaching its student for a modern world but believe simply that the attention span of students has diminished tremendously.
Today cell phones can do almost everything we had to do at our laptops or desktop computers. So this means 24/7 access to the internet for students. It is this 24/7 access to the internet that disrupts the attention of students in the class room or performing school related tasks; Tex-ting too is another major cause of this. So today American students are mostly distracted in class with their cell phones which results in poor performances in class that makes the American educational system fail.
This link supports my argument showing that teens and college students are the most active cell phone users
How can students perform well in school if their busy texting?
Below the links demonstrate the widespread ban of the use of cell phones in schools:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/12/national/main1616330.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061804420.html
Technology will only get better and better, so it hard to say what will solve the problem of 24/7 access to the internet students have. But, I strongly think, if America can get their students paying attention again then that's one big step to improving a failing educational system.
I simply think it's the unlimited access to social media students have nowadays. After my research, I disagree with claims that the American school system is not teaching its student for a modern world but believe simply that the attention span of students has diminished tremendously.
Today cell phones can do almost everything we had to do at our laptops or desktop computers. So this means 24/7 access to the internet for students. It is this 24/7 access to the internet that disrupts the attention of students in the class room or performing school related tasks; Tex-ting too is another major cause of this. So today American students are mostly distracted in class with their cell phones which results in poor performances in class that makes the American educational system fail.
This link supports my argument showing that teens and college students are the most active cell phone users
How can students perform well in school if their busy texting?
Below the links demonstrate the widespread ban of the use of cell phones in schools:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/12/national/main1616330.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061804420.html
Technology will only get better and better, so it hard to say what will solve the problem of 24/7 access to the internet students have. But, I strongly think, if America can get their students paying attention again then that's one big step to improving a failing educational system.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
STUDENT LIFE: TECHNOLOGY USAGE
I've come to the realization that in order to better oneself in the world we live today, the use of technology is a must! I've always been old fashion, but that has changed especially with the ever changing landscape of the modern day college student.
SKYPE: Probably one of the most frequently tools used by me, both for educational and personal use. I have close group of best friends where we all happen to be business majors and take or have taken the same classes even though we all attend different schools. Through skype we can send files of data readily, so with that we all can have the same work in front of us in a conference call and it aids in helping each other out on whatever work it is. For example, my friend going to school in New Jersey is an accounting major, so if I were having problem creating a cash flow statement, I'll just send him the excel file and he can walk me through it, explaining where each item goes. Your probably asking why not ask someone in your class? But my study and doing assignment work hours are generally different from others. I work better late at night meaning 1 a.m- 6am, so this is where skype comes to use by being able to get help with the person not being there physically.
WIKIPEDIA: Most teachers prohibit the use of wiki but lets be honest with ourselves, Wikipedia is the first place you search something nowadays. I use wiki to get a basic understanding of whatever i'm searching whether its a word, person, event, thing etc. Its a great reference tool but should be used carefully as anyone can input in wiki.
VIDEO: Visual learner? Yes that's me! Learning anything through visuals is a great asset for me as I am able to understand concepts better. YouTube is definitely the number one source when it comes to my video learning. You can find informational videos about anything. For example, I was watching a documentary for my history class which is based off the same book we have to read. With this documentary it has save me time that I would've used to read the book in order to write the book report.
Technology in a classroom supports the lecturing in a classroom but at the same time can be a distraction in the classroom. At the end of the day, it depends on the technology being used. For example, an arranged Skype video call with an official from the US embassy in China about foreign policy in a political class can be very resourceful. Whiles the use of personal laptops by every student in a class can cause distraction through the use of social websites like Facebook, twitter etc.
SKYPE: Probably one of the most frequently tools used by me, both for educational and personal use. I have close group of best friends where we all happen to be business majors and take or have taken the same classes even though we all attend different schools. Through skype we can send files of data readily, so with that we all can have the same work in front of us in a conference call and it aids in helping each other out on whatever work it is. For example, my friend going to school in New Jersey is an accounting major, so if I were having problem creating a cash flow statement, I'll just send him the excel file and he can walk me through it, explaining where each item goes. Your probably asking why not ask someone in your class? But my study and doing assignment work hours are generally different from others. I work better late at night meaning 1 a.m- 6am, so this is where skype comes to use by being able to get help with the person not being there physically.
WIKIPEDIA: Most teachers prohibit the use of wiki but lets be honest with ourselves, Wikipedia is the first place you search something nowadays. I use wiki to get a basic understanding of whatever i'm searching whether its a word, person, event, thing etc. Its a great reference tool but should be used carefully as anyone can input in wiki.
VIDEO: Visual learner? Yes that's me! Learning anything through visuals is a great asset for me as I am able to understand concepts better. YouTube is definitely the number one source when it comes to my video learning. You can find informational videos about anything. For example, I was watching a documentary for my history class which is based off the same book we have to read. With this documentary it has save me time that I would've used to read the book in order to write the book report.
Technology in a classroom supports the lecturing in a classroom but at the same time can be a distraction in the classroom. At the end of the day, it depends on the technology being used. For example, an arranged Skype video call with an official from the US embassy in China about foreign policy in a political class can be very resourceful. Whiles the use of personal laptops by every student in a class can cause distraction through the use of social websites like Facebook, twitter etc.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Investment and Technology
As a finance major, my desire career path is either in the investment banking or hedge fund industry.
But, in this blog, I will simply discuss how the role of technology is vital to the business of investment banking where hundreds of millions of dollars are at risk everyday. With that said, the video contained within the blog discusses how leading investment bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, is educating the investment banking technology industry of India of the importance of market connectivity, algorithm engines (mathematical software programs) and risk analysis software tools to an investment bank.
The Chief Information Officer stresses on how an investment bank's success (making money) relies on the quality and efficiency of a bank's technology. So as a fiance major and an aspiring trader, obtaining the expertise of the use and creation of these software programs that are vital to investment banks can make me an indispensable resource.
Knowing these investment bank technology can make me a better trader in analyzing investments and also if I could venture in the art of creating these technology, then there will be a reduced need and cost for my investment bank to go out and purchase these software programs as most investment banks purchase these technology rather than creating it themselves.
But, in this blog, I will simply discuss how the role of technology is vital to the business of investment banking where hundreds of millions of dollars are at risk everyday. With that said, the video contained within the blog discusses how leading investment bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, is educating the investment banking technology industry of India of the importance of market connectivity, algorithm engines (mathematical software programs) and risk analysis software tools to an investment bank.
The Chief Information Officer stresses on how an investment bank's success (making money) relies on the quality and efficiency of a bank's technology. So as a fiance major and an aspiring trader, obtaining the expertise of the use and creation of these software programs that are vital to investment banks can make me an indispensable resource.
Knowing these investment bank technology can make me a better trader in analyzing investments and also if I could venture in the art of creating these technology, then there will be a reduced need and cost for my investment bank to go out and purchase these software programs as most investment banks purchase these technology rather than creating it themselves.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Favorite Website
You want to stay updated with all the soccer affairs around the world? Look no Further!
http://www.goal.com/en/ is a premium international soccer website for all soccer fans that want to be updated at all times with not only their teams but all soccer leagues, tournaments and transfer rumors/gossip in the world of soccer.
There are so many soccer websites, but this is my favorite because of the international focus it has. The sport analysts are former players, coaches, team owners and well renowned soccer journalists and editors. It is translated in 22 different languages that consist of English, Arabic, Chinese etc. Also apart from 24/7 updates it provides, there in depth analysis of preview of upcoming matches, debates of certain topics like "Messi: is he really better than the great Diego Maradonna", online match betting, exclusive interviews (video or written quotes) and live scores of all matches happening in leagues all over the world.
Lastly, it has an efficient user-friendly app located in the iTunes app store that keeps me updated on the move, as a busy student I am.
So for those of you who are soccer fans, goal.com is a great way to stay updated with soccer affairs all over the world. Also, for those non-soccer fans, goal.com is a great source for you to obtain information about soccer related events if you were asked to write a paper on the sport or background information on certain players,coaches etc...
http://www.goal.com/en/ is a premium international soccer website for all soccer fans that want to be updated at all times with not only their teams but all soccer leagues, tournaments and transfer rumors/gossip in the world of soccer.
There are so many soccer websites, but this is my favorite because of the international focus it has. The sport analysts are former players, coaches, team owners and well renowned soccer journalists and editors. It is translated in 22 different languages that consist of English, Arabic, Chinese etc. Also apart from 24/7 updates it provides, there in depth analysis of preview of upcoming matches, debates of certain topics like "Messi: is he really better than the great Diego Maradonna", online match betting, exclusive interviews (video or written quotes) and live scores of all matches happening in leagues all over the world.
Lastly, it has an efficient user-friendly app located in the iTunes app store that keeps me updated on the move, as a busy student I am.
So for those of you who are soccer fans, goal.com is a great way to stay updated with soccer affairs all over the world. Also, for those non-soccer fans, goal.com is a great source for you to obtain information about soccer related events if you were asked to write a paper on the sport or background information on certain players,coaches etc...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
My Introduction to INFO 211 Class
Hello Professor and fellow classmates!
I'm John Karimu, an international student from Sierra Leone, located in West Africa. I transferred from Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland after completing my associates degree in business. I'm a junior now, majoring in finance with the investment track.
As you can see from my company name, I am a soccer fanatic! When I'm not playing or watching soccer, I'm researching stocks or trading stocks on simulation platforms.
Honestly, I don't know specifically what I want to get out of the class, but hope what ever we learn can be of great use in my future career (hopefully as a wall street trader) and personal interests.
See you all soon!
I'm John Karimu, an international student from Sierra Leone, located in West Africa. I transferred from Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland after completing my associates degree in business. I'm a junior now, majoring in finance with the investment track.
As you can see from my company name, I am a soccer fanatic! When I'm not playing or watching soccer, I'm researching stocks or trading stocks on simulation platforms.
Honestly, I don't know specifically what I want to get out of the class, but hope what ever we learn can be of great use in my future career (hopefully as a wall street trader) and personal interests.
See you all soon!
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