BY: Aaron Jernigan As society continues to grow, technological advances continue to make our lives easier. Urban Delivery is a fairly new company that launched earlier this year whose sole purpose is to provide convenience. It is an on-demand service app available to IOS and Android devices that, through GPS tracking,allow app users to get any item that can be carried delivered their doorstop quickly. Adrienne Sheares and Morehouse graduate Ron Cade officially launched the company on June 3rd of last year in Washington DC. Due to a very strategic marketing mix and appealing to the peoples needs in a major growing city, Urban Delivery has thrived over the last year and has plan to expanded their service to other cities such as New York, Boston, and Atlanta as early as Spring 2015. Currently, 17 couriers can purchase items up to $150 for customers, with a minimum of 12.99. The purchase will be subjected to a 10% processing fee in addition to 20% gratuity for couriers, which is added to the base rate. Payment for the item can be made via the app or in advance of their purchase. Whether it is dry cleaning, a special delivery of cupcakes Sprinkles, a burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill, or simply a few cold beers, Urban Delivery ensures on-demand, same-hour delivery to residents. Convenience and fast service are the main key components of the company's marketing strategy. This is very appealing in a hectic city full of businessmen and college students who may need some extra help running errands, or might need to have their lunch delivered to the office. Through the app, Urban Delivery also allows customers to see the route and how close the courier/biker is via GPS tracking. In a recent interview with Black Enterprise Magazine, co-founder Ron Cade stated "When the courier takes the order, you get the information of the biker and the biker gets your information, so you see when they get to the store—they alert you when they're at the store—and if something's wrong, or there's an extremely long line at the store, they'll call and communicate that to you." Urban Delivery was featured on Washington Business Journal, Washington Post, and Black Enterprise Magazine.
A lot of apps and services are taking advantage of the booming technology era we are currently in. Many companies such as Uber and Lyft have now implemented GPS- tracking to offer a more convenient component to their apps. The Urban Delivery app displays a GPS map and tracks the bikers route to get the items. The biker can also alert the customer through the app to keep them updated on various things such as traffic. Do you think the Urban Delivery app can succeeds or is something you would possibly use? What do you believe are other components that could be added to the Urban Delivery app to compete with other apps in the market such as Amazon or Ebay?
Carl Benz created the first automobile in 1885, which later went into production during 1886. He created a two-seater vehicle that which consisted of a compact high-speed single cylinder four-stroke engine installed horizontally at the rear of the car. The car used a tubular frame along three wire-spoked wheels. The engine had a maximum output of 0.75 horsepower. Over the last century the list of features automobiles offer has drastically changed. For many years, features such as air-conditioning, power windows and a radio system were viewed as notable features found in vehicles. With technology rapidly changing and improving, options such as voice activation systems and rear-parking assistance have become expected features found in my vehicles throughout the world. But, the team at Mercedes-Benz has decided to push the envelope and shape the future for travel with the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
The creative team at Mercedes-Benz has been hard at work developing new ideas that would not only set the brand apart from their competition, but innovate a new path for technology used for cars driven on the road. Mercedes-Benz calls their innovative feature the "Distronic Plus Assistance System", while others call it the autonomous driving. This new feature in S-Class models is a lane-guidance system, which locks dotted white-lane markings or the car in front on highways at speeds up to 124 miles per hour. The system serves as revolutionary due its abilities of maintaining distance from cars both in front of and behind the vehicle, its ability to break to a complete halt and restart from stationary positions. When this idea was created, the team at Mercedes-Benz headquarters located in Germany wanted to create a self-driving vehicle that would change the driving experience for their customers.
The Distronic Plus Steering system that is used in the S-Class consist of their new 360-dgree sensing system, a stereoscopic camera, 12 ultrasonic sensors, which can detect close objects and four additional cameras all around the body of the car. The stereoscopic camera recognizes the speed and trajectory of moving hazards up to 164 feet away. The system is also able to identify and differentiate humans and animals. Over the years, companies such as Ford and Toyota have both created self-parking cars. But, none have attempted to create self-driving vehicles. Nissan, a Japanese automaker created the self-driving Nissan Leaf, but has yet to put the model on the market for consumers. Many companies fear the possible safety hazards and lawsuits that can arise from selling self-driving vehicles. Mercedes-Benz is aware of the risk for their company but stands confident behind their product.
Has Mercedes-Benz innovated a new form of travel or simply just perfected the risky idea of other car manufacturers? Will our future consist of self-driving vehicles? How will this shape and change the driving experience for future generations? The new feature does serve as a handy option, but comes a whopping cost. The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class has a starting price of $94,400 and the Distronic Plus Steering system isn't a standard feature. The idea of creating self-driving vehicles has always been idea for future automobiles. But, is it something necessary for the future? There are many factors that will possibly change if other car brands decide to join the bandwagon. This new system does serve up to be innovative, but is it something the world actually needs?
Here are links that provide a better and more in depth description on the self-driving system:
Other than tables and charts, another good way to present data is with maps. To use maps in a presentation, the data needs locational information (for example, state, zipcode, lat/long, street name and/or street numbers).
For this assignment you will need to find some data with locational variables, so fusion tables can geocode each record. Remember each row is a record and each column is a data field. Make sure the data you get has a few numbers-based data fields (example:building size, sales price, land acreage and/or year building was built).
Assignment:Remember to use screencast-o-matic to record the steps below.
1) I recommend going to http://www.netronline.com.
2) Then click Public Records Online from the top menu
3) I have researched the states and counties and I recommend you gather sales date from one of the following: (you can use any other state/county that allows you to download your results in excel)
Georgia/Fulton County
Florida/Duval County
Florida/Orange County The data must include the property (not owner) address with zipcode and/or city and state.
4) Search for property sales using any criteria you want - you need about 200 to 300 records in your results
5) Download the data into excel
6) Clean up the data by eliminating columns you do not need, rows with empty cells (I did this in class)
7) At the end you will need only about 100 records
8) Create the concontenate column (see video below) remember Monday's class
9) Use Save-as to make sure this file is saved as an excel file (.xls)
10) Upload into Google Fusion Tables
11) Map records
12) Change style (see video below)
13) Add Legend to map (see video below)
This Homework #6 is due Sunday November 2, 2014 at midnight.
There is no online exam this time.
Once you finish your Google fusion table, upload your created video and complete the form below, to submit your homework.
Your grade will be based on how well your map looks and the coloring of the location dots based on sales price, city or date.
I will be available for a one-on-one on Skype (username: osistrunk3).
Just text me (4045090533) to set an appointment.
Do not wait until the last minute.
You will need a Google account (Gmail, Drive, Blogger or other). Any account should work. Once you have one Google account, you can add other services. Google fusion tables are on Google Drive. If you do not have a Google account, sign up for free, for Google drive.
What is Google Fusion Tables?
It allows you to visualize data in a map format instead of a table or chart format. You can upload excel data with locational information (Lat/Long, addresses, city and etc.). Once you upload this spreadsheet, you can map each row (record or transaction) to Google map. It allows you to show your data in a map format. Google will map each row. Once mapped, you can use the informational data about each row (the columns) to highlight what is important. For example, your data has addresses. You can map each address and show them on a google map. The you can change to color of each dot based on other information in the spreadsheet, like sales price.
Even though you may make a good amount of money or have a lot of money saved up there's always plenty of more ways to increase your earnings and your savings. A great number of employed people spend about 80% of their income on their bills such as their car note, mortgage/rent, water, gas, etc. because they don't plan their expenses properly. Once you are aware of your income you then need to plan your expenses accordingly, using about 50% of your earnings. While you are saving about 25% of the other 50%, the remaining 25% needs to be put to use such as investing in stocks bonds or any opportunity that comes your way. Another word for this would be making a budget, making a plan of exactly how much you have to spend, how much you don't need to touch at all, and how much are you willing to lose for your investment.
Credit cards are a great way to build your credit score but their also a horrible way to end up in a lot of debt. When working a 9-5 job 5 days out the week its a little easier to keep up with your credit card expenses but as a business owner it can be hard to keep track of when you have to make purchases for your business with your credit card. When you first get a credit card don't be in a rush to sign up for exactly what they tell you too. Don't be afraid to ask what is the minimum limit you can place on your card, its always best to start off small, for example; if you put a $100 limit on your credit card you know you will earn enough money to pay your bill every month. Since you can't use but $100 you'll be increasing your credit while staying out of the way of the jaws of debt. Also when choosing a credit card make sure you know the interest rates behind the card because the higher the interest rate the more money you will owe the credit card companies, and if you have trouble paying them, the more debt you will be in.
Practicing delayed gratification is also the best way to go about spending your money. Don't be too focused to buy something you want soon as you get enough money to purchase it. Focus on buying the things you need in order to survive or to increase your revenue instead of what you need to be cool, flashy or "up to date". When you have enough money to purchase something you want, if you invest your money how your supposed to you will for sure have enough money to buy what you want and still have money left over which is always a better feeling then purchasing something not having any money left over to do what you need to do. You never know when you might need some extra money to pay for something so practicing delayed gratification is usually the best decision in the long run.
Most national and local newspapers have recently taken steps to cut costs and try to increase revenues. The steps include cutting editions and charging for online news. They are just the latest in a series of changes as newspapers all over North America are feeling the pinch. Is it the tough economic times, or is it the fact that there are now so many other ways to get news, including online news sites, social media, RSS feeds, bloggers? With all these new options, people are getting used to not paying for news, and that hits newspapers more than most other sources.
For many decades newspapers have been at the centerof all newsgathering. It was the newspapers who paid for putting reporters' boots on the ground, all of whom fanned out and poked into everything happening in each community. The first serious competition came with the advent of that upstart TV, then of course came live 24 hour cable news, and more recently the Internet. But many online sources still rely on the strength of newspapers. They link to newspaper sites, to stories broken and written by newspaper reporters. And what's the first thing most broadcast news organizations do every morning? They check the newspapers. So, if newspapers are in trouble, what happens to the rest of what has become a multi-faceted news gathering world? Who has the deep pockets to pay for long term stories, investigative work and quality political coverage involving deep knowledge of the history and structure of government? What about the consumers of news? Now that online surfers have become accustomed to getting their news for free, is it possible to erect paywalls and try to get some money out of those same people. Or will they simply move elsewhere?
In a time where every daily activity relies on some sort of technology, we have to wonder what the future holds for humanity. From cell phones that are essentially pocket-sized personal computers to the self-checkout isle at your local Wal-Mart, advantages in technology have made life all the more easy for humans. Groundbreaking advances in digital processing power and automation have almost made the use of manual labor obsolete.
All you have to do is look at the manufacturing floor at a GM facility to see one of the reasons Detroit has one of the highest rates of unemployment. The same jobs that once helped Detroit's economy flourish are now occupied by our robotic counterparts. We may not be riding in hover cars like the Jetsons, but in China the bullet train uses the power of magnetism to float above the track achieving speeds upwards of 200mph. AKA hover-train. I use this as an example to say that whether we wish to acknowledge it or not the tech that we use to dream of is already here. Honestly, it will be no time before children are dropped off at school in a driverless school bus. Now, how do these new advances affect the human existence? Of course activities will be a whole lot less laborious, but is the education system preparing the youth for employment opportunities that will no longer be there? If the overall perception of tech doesn't change, could automation lead to mass unemployment and civil unrest?
The vast majority of jobs in agriculture have already been phased out. We've gone form hundreds of planters and harvesters to basically a few people efficiently getting the job done in machines. Automation and robotics phases out not only the need for human labor but human error as well. Our tech-based counterparts get the job done better than any human at ten times the speed. So the question is no longer how human labor is no longer needed but when. Many argue that as long as there are technological advances there will be jobs to accommodate them. I believe the contrary, in that eventually humans will be obsolete in the workplace. Additionally, I believe that in the future a job will be a foreign concept.
To combat the forces of mass unemployment and unrest a basic income can be administered to the populace. This will ensure that once hard-working Americans can survive in an evolving economy. Some argue that a basic income won't give incentive to honest labor but when there is no need for work why bother. Pretty soon the wealth of an individual won't matter but the wealth of the nation you reside will determine living conditions. I believe an emphasis on scholastic achievement and space exploration will take the place of working to pay a mortgage. Of course my utopian view of the future is theoretical, but the point being that now is the time to prepare for imminent change.
"It's hard to stay on track, if you can't see where you are going"
We are all in a class titled Management Information Systems. The title of this course got me interested in the other various forms of information systems that exist. As we all know, people find any and every way to expand on one idea and create several derivatives of that idea to achieve success. The Housewives Series, the various levels leading up to sports on a professional level (college, little league, etc.). The list goes on and on.
My exploration through these fields, and frustration with Tigernet at a moment in time led me to discover the growing field of Student Information Systems. One evening I asked myself, "Why doesn't Tigernet show me how close I am to graduation and what other majors I should take up in order to strengthen my degree". This led to me visiting the IT department here at the college and finding out about a company called Ellucian.
Ellucian is the technological provide for various higher education institutions worldwide. They provide information systems that help simplify processes from the student registration aspects of a college all the way to creating an organized system for financial aid to be facilitated and distributed to those students. Currently Morehouse is a consumer of the Banner system that is operated by Ellucian. Other versions of these systems are Colleague and PowerCampus, which as you can assume cost much more than the Banner program.
Colleges such as the University of Nebraska Omaha have already fully integrated the Ellucian methodologies and systems into their daily operations. Students are able to track where they are, what they have left to complete, and what else they can complete based on these facts. Ellucian has an analytics program similar to that of Google Analytics that takes the data gathered from all students and uses that information to provide statistics on how nay students are on track for graduation and what can be done to assist those who are in danger of being side tracked.
All in all, this field of Information systems was something I considered a half baked idea at the time when I was frustrated about having to calculate by hand the total number of credits I have as I approach graduation. However this field is extensive and Ellucian is the leading provider of such services.
Here is the case study for the University of Nebraaska Omaha:
Take quick test at classmarker.com (Thursday Oct 23, 2014 thru Sunday Oct 26, 2014 at midnight)
Today we will discuss Voice Over Internet Protocol. Digitizing telecommunications by moving it to the Internet.
By moving telecommunications from analog (phone company) to digital (internet) our telecommunication services are cheaper with better service and more productive tools.
Prerecodered Class
Below are a list of web sites we will discuss in the prerecorded class.
Your Excel HW #5 is to create a Youtube video that shows you creating your excel charts. I got this idea from last semester. So as I stated in our last traditional class, your excel homework assignments for HW#5, #6 and #7 will be recorded by you and placed in your Youtube account. There will be no Classmarker exam for these three assignments. I will grade each of your videos.
DIRECTIONS:
Watch my video - Homework requirement within this video
Every day, technology plays a major role in our lives. Technology is so important today, that we can't live without it tomorrow. Since the establishment of the industrial revolution, technology has gradually developed and played a major role in economies all over the world. We can definitely say that without technology, the world would not be the world it is today. Technology has made production way more efficient and easier. As we can see, more jobs today require knowledge of technology. For example, instant access to data or related information is very significant to some professions. Without technology, acquiring this information would be very tough. However, with the help of technology, we have success in acquiring information through the internet by using data bases or information services such as Google, Yahoo, etc. Overall, technology saves us time and resources. Technology will definitely play a significant role for the future.
Below, we can take a look on how the future of technology has changed over a century:
The future of technology today deals with continued innovations through technology. Below, we can take a look at some articles/vidoes on innovative methods available to our economy through the use of technology.
Reverse vending machines are devices that allow you to receive reimbursement for your recycled goods. These machines receive, sort, and dispose of recyclable materials, and give users credit based on the amount of material turned in. The first patent for a "Bottle Return and Handling Machine" was filed in 1920, but only since the turn of the century have modern versions of these technologies been created. Since then, more viable options for alternative recycling have emerged.
Reverse vending machines are so innovative because of the way they solve two important issues simultaneously; they encourage recycling and at the same time make people want to do it. Apathy about recycling has long been a problem for Americans, who view the process to be tedious and time consuming. Each person generates about 4.5 pounds of trash a day, and 74% of the materials are recyclable. Unfortunately only a meager 30% of the materials reach the recycling bin. This statistic is appalling in light of the pollution problems that our country is currently suffering from, our waste sites pile up with millions of tons of materials that could easily be reused and turned into new products. Some western states like California have become aware of this fact, and have started incentive programs that pay citizens money for bringing their recyclable waste to gas stations for proper disposal. However, this service is only in operation in a few states, leaving the majority of us with very little to gain from the process.
If you pay close attention to the video, you will notice that the person using this device is an American, and this video takes place in New York. What makes this interesting is that the majority of Americans are not offered access to this service, much less even know what a reverse vending machine is. The reluctance of the American market to embrace these technologies may have something to do with the technical difficulties that can occur, much like those shown in this video. Americans are known for being generally lazy, and will not participate in processes that slow down or add more burdens to their lives, even for beneficial deeds like recycling. In order for reverse vending machines to reach the mainstream, strides will have to be made in streamlining the reverse vending process to make the process faster. Once that happens, reverse vending will be the vanguard for modern recycling.
