Sunday, October 30, 2011

Week 8

As you can see, the Body Temperature Suit is designed to maintain constant temperature between the inside and outside of the body to allow people to perform sports/exercise for a long period of time. While the BTS monitors the surrounding temperature, it instinctively changes the surrounding temperature to a comfortable atmosphere when it feels needed to balance the temperature of the body. This will allow continual activity without feeling weakness, lightheaded, or nausea.
Throughout the past eight weeks, I have learned a lot about starting my own company. It has made me recognize areas that I would not have thought about before, including many of the technological aspects. While considering the technical aspect of the BTS itself is important, it also made me realize what I need to think about in terms of advertisement and the background logistics. Using websites as a form of marketing would be significant while thinking about the type of operating systems that are best suitable for my employees is important as well. Overall, starting this BTS was not as simple as I originally thought with all of these other factors to think about.
            This blogging experience was pretty interesting considering that I have never used one before. I thought this was an effective way of starting an entrepreneurial idea because I got some feedback from people about where I can improve. They also brought up views that I would not have thought of. However, I think that by starting off with a blog is risky since it opens up the idea to the public. It gives anyone access to steal the idea and start it before the originator if they had all the appropriate resources. Yet, I think utilizing my online resources will help me in the long run as long as I am smart about it.



Comments on Peers:

Erin Rose

Alex Rajaniemi

Jacob Higgins

Monday, October 24, 2011

Week 7

            Working in a large company that deals with technology and using the Internet requires the understanding of packets and protocols. Essentially, the knowledge of both of these terms will be important for the communication through networks, since the BTS will be using it as a form of communication with consumers.  Communication through networks work similarly to mailing a letter through the post office. It is broken up into pieces called packets that are then reassembled at the destination. Each of these pieces of a packet become vital parts of getting the message across, like the to and from address of a letter.
 To know where the information needs to be sent on a network, IP addresses are used in every node. This is like the specific home addresses that each person has. However, we would not refer to our website as a string of numbers in IP addresses. Rather, we would assign domain names to those IP address so that it will be easier for customers to remember us. In order for us to be easily recognized and not confused with other companies, we would need to make sure that our domain name is the only one that pops up when searched in a search engine. Because this would be an expensive investment, we would need to work on this throughout a span on time since it would take time for the BTS to grow in society.  
            Moreover, the BTS would be one of several billion websites out there on the Internet. However, to start, we would need to understand how we can form this website. We will need to understand the several types of rules of communications, otherwise known as protocols. The most commonly used is the web protocol (http). I believe this would be where the BTS website would begin with in terms of types of protocols. This hypertext transfer protocol is a 4-step process between client and web servers. Furthermore, we would use other protocols, such as Internet Message Access Protocol and Simple Mail Transfer Protocols to communication with our customers to know what type of BTS they want or would be appropriate for them.  When it comes to the checkout area, we would need to enforce a safety aspect like using https so ensure customers that their personal information will be secure.
            Overall, this would become another department in the BTS company so that we will have someone always managing the website. Part of this department would entail the knowledge of all of the listed items. 

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Week 6

            As I have mentioned in the past blog, selecting the proper type of computer is important for a company. Along with that selection process, companies have to choose the right type of operating system since it manages many aspects of a computer, including CPU, process, memory, file system, device, and user. Different types of Operating System comprises of Multi-user versus Single-user or Multi-tasking versus Single-tasking.
            For companies like the BTS, we understand the different types of operating systems by the popular names, like Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Unix, and Linux. Of course, we need to take into consideration the price and what each Operating System is most known for as well. While Windows is a more user-friendly system due to the graphical user interface, Unix and Linux is more command line based, which servers often use because it is an open source that can be copied, modified, and redistributed without paying fees. However, in the case of this company, user-friendly systems would be more appropriate for the BTS working environment since many people may not be familiar with command lines.
            In addition to understanding Operating Systems, the BTS company would need employees who are familiar with a building website. Part of this job would involve understand components like hexadecimal color. In order for technicians to build the website, they need to understand how to display colors on the website for visual appeal and to offer different color selections of the BTS. These employees would be dealing a lot with graphic interface so with that in mind, would you say that selecting a Windows Operating System be the best fit for the BTS Company? I would say so.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Week 5

Many people and companies are exposing themselves into the blogging world of technology.  They use this form of technology as another way to grab attention. For many companies, they have a tab for blogging under their website to give customers the inside scoop. Take Extreme Endurance for example, which is a company that produces products to improve athletic performance. (http://xendurance.com/blog/)
On their website, they include different details about the company, including the products, the science behind it, and the athletes involved. However, one component that allows customers to feel extra connected is through the blog that is set up by their athletic admins. Through this page, the athletes are able to share their experiences in Ironman, marathons, etc. Particularly, athlete Tam did a blog on her first Ironman and explained where she ran into troubles, including with her equipment and physical abilities. It also shared photos and personal insights.
Although this blog is aimed more towards personal experiences over the actual product, I think having this option for customers will really help them relate to whether or not the product will be suitable for them. The blog puts this in real perspective rather than just information that customer’s may be skeptical about. This blog also provides a lot of supporting evidence and elaborate details for customers since they want them to believe their stories are real and not just made up. This way it makes them very creditable and reliable.
In general, this is a great perspective for a new starting company idea like myself because it allows me to know see it from the customers side – what I would want to see from a reliable company. This blog that Extreme Endurance sets up a relatable and trustworthy connection with their customers, which is what I will want to be looking for. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Week 4

Technology today has evolved tremendously since it was first discovered. We have gone from manually taking record of inventory to RFID technology and traditional home landlines to cell phones that now serve as multiple functions.  Both RFID technology and the new Google wallet will be beneficial for many corporations out there, including the BTS.

Radio Frequency Identification will be a pretty effective way of replacing barcodes because of its ability to count inventor quickly and more accurately. That way if we had a large batch of the BTS, we would not need to spend all our time and effort counting and scanning each suite. Moreover, RFID is capable of storing data, in comparison to a barcode that only works as a meaningless code. Since temperature is an important factor to this suite, using the RFID in the same concept as The Pill that is used in sports, this will allow us to monitor the athlete’s temperature. A downfall to following the concept of The Pill is the price of the entire recorder and monitoring system. While if I stick with using Passive RFID tags, it would be more cost efficient, Active RFID tags would be more useful in this instance. Choices would need to be compromised and decided upon when considering the RFID.

The Google wallet would also be a good attribute to invest on because I believe many customers would be into this technology since it is convenient and secure. In order to accommodate the customers, I would need to follow up with this technology and get the appropriate transaction machines and work with the appropriate banks that accept this. But whether I am investing in the RFID or the Google wallet, technology will continue to grow and we will continue to follow these trends as a company aiming for success.