:: MIS Insights ::

Wikimedia is addicting. I just installed it in my laptop and I’ve been using it whenever I get the free time.

With the huge amount of information that I have had to digest lately, Wikimedia is a godsend for me. You see, I like taking notes (ya rly!). Unfortunately, there are times when I can be disorganized with my notes. I tend to write things down wherever I can - my “official” notebook, “unofficial” notebook, laptop notepad, desktop notepad, google notepad, email, pieces of paper, etc.

With such decentralized data, it can take some time for me to get the data that I need - if I ever find it. Wikimedia helps me by storing all my notes in one storage location. So what’s the difference between noting it in Wikimedia and writing it down in Microsoft Word / Open Office Writer / a single Notebook? Personally, the main selling point of Wikipedia is its ability to expose and organize unstructured data.

You can be organized at the atomic (article) level and leave it there to organize itself. Using links and references between articles, data organization will take care of itself. If you forgot where you placed your articles, you can use the search function which provides results that have relevance ratings. You can use tags and keywords to classify data. These metadata are the building blocks that business intelligence tools use to expose gathered data. In addition to that, data can also be accessed via networks - sharing the good stuff to others.

For people conscious with the concept of Knowledge Management Systems, knowledge captured in distributable media is like a Christmas Bonus multiplied by ten.

Businesses have always had to deal with system upgrade decisions - whether it be in the realm of hardware or software. In the world of constantly evolving information systems, developments proceed in a yin and yang process. At one side, power-hungry and information-crunching software creates the demand for monster hardware. On the other side, overqualified hardware with its abundant computing power allows the improvement of complex software.

Upgrading is a balancing act between cost and risk. As Michael Hillenbrand puts it, managers want to know how much will it cost if I upgrade (cost) and what can happen if I don’t upgrade (risk)?

Many decision-makers (read: managers and accountants) are put off by the cost involved with upgrades:

• Licensing Costs (per machine, per account, per head, per processor, etc.)
• Training (new way of doing things might mean re-training existing users)
• Interruption to Business (installation of hardware and software might cause some downtime during deployment)
• Actual Costs (Planning, Implementation, Support for new system and process)

However, for some, upgrading can address several business concerns too:

• Support (When is the End-of-Life product support of the software? Is the hardware still available? Some legacy software are machine-dependent)
• Compliance (Is our software compliant with our third party supporting software? Will our existing systems pass security and functionality audits?)
• Competitive advantage (Actual benefits that we get from using the new software or hardware [less effort or time needed to provide same or better quality of work] )

With the high impact of software and hardware that we use in our work, knowing the reasons why and why not to upgrade is essential in keeping your business profitable.

A recent article from CNN talks about uber-rich people buying submarines:

In a world of $100-million mega yachts, luxury submarines attract the ultra rich for one of two reasons. Some buyers are just looking for another realm they can conquer with their checkbooks. But many are genuine undersea enthusiasts.

If I had a billion dollars, I’d probably get a private submarine too. After setting up schools, hospitals and buying a region of the Philippines, I’d go diving in the Marianas Trench and look for the fabled 80-foot squids and other sea monsters! People might have conquered Mt Everest and outer space, so I’ll just be the first person to touchdown at the deepest part of the world.

What about you? How would you spend your billion dollars?

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about the history of the Hard Drives that went through my life. Reading through the post made me realize that it’s been two years since I bought an internal hard drive [160gigs] and a year since I acquired an external hard drive [200gigs]. This year, I’d like to introduce a new member to my data storage family: A 320 Gigabyte Internal Seagate SATA hard drive

320 Gigabytes?! What the hell are you going to do with all that space?

• Pictures. I take around 4 gigabytes worth of pictures every month. You can double that amount once I do some post-processing.
• Anime. When you don’t have time to sit down in front of a television on a regular basis, downloading shows can be the next best thing to a Two-Piece Crispy Chicken Joy with Extra Rice during Saturday lunch time.
• Ego. I’m going to brag about it. My Hard Drive is bigger than yours.

Installation Notes for those who want to join in with the fun

• Cables - when you buy your hard drive, make sure you go home with a SATA HD power cable and a SATA data cable (sometimes, you have to buy this too ~ doesn’t make sense why it isn’t bundled right away)
• BIOS - make sure that your SATA is enabled in your BIOS settings. Otherwise, it won’t get detected.
• Windows Detection - if you can see your hard drive during startup but can’t see your hard drive in windows, check out Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management (Local) and make sure your drive is active, formatted and healthy.
• IDE - if you have to run your SATA HD alongside an IDE HD, experiment where your IDE HD is plugged in the IDE cable.

And yes. After just five days, it’s half-full already.