Pirates of Silicon Valley movie

PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY: Not bad for a 12 –year old movie

I found the movie quite ugly. The movie was made 12 years ago. What do you expect? However, the main idea of the movie was quite interesting though. You will see that the ones that have control to computers are the richest in the world. What the movie foresaw is happening today. Bill Gates is the living proof. He may not be the richest but he is one of the most influential people in the world today. Even a kids and old people know about him and his Microsoft. This is what I love the most about this movie. It made me think that the director was good enough to have thought of the possibilities and made something that was most likely what is happening today which was the future that they are speaking of before. If you ask me, don’t watch the movie if you are expecting something like Tron Legacy or ironman because you will be very disappointed. But if you want to be entertained in a manner that new movies can’t do, try this one out and you will see for yourself what I am talking about.

Eagle Eye Movie

EAGLE EYE: No chance of being real?

Eagle eye is such a creative movie. The story was very impressive. It will l always give you something to think about which is one thing that I like in movies. On the other hand, you will continually be guessing just to find out that you are wrong. The movie was so unpredictable that I missed the part that the actor will end up shooting in front of convention. On the other hand, this movie can happen today but I doubt if a computer as powerful that exist now. It is true that super computers nowadays can have enough processing sped to almost do anything in unison but no computer today has the power to decide on their own. If you come to think of it, the computer even controlled cameras and other things that are electronic even though there is no way for it to access them. This is very creepy especially if we think that the computer controlled a vehicle in the part where they are chased by the police. Although this movie can be possible there are some things that will make you think about its possibility to happen in real world. First, the computer is so cool. Nothing can be compared to it now and even for the next years to come. Second, you can see that the bomb used was a crystal that can explode in a certain tone which is something tat is too good to be true. That would be the best bomb if that is true. This technology may be possible but it will be in the form of a mechanical bomb that will explode given a certain pitch or any kind of signal. Lastly, I am also wondering why it is in present setting. It is quite awkward with such advancements in computer and bomb technology that other forms of technology are untouched. Even their cellular phones are just the normal ones. It should be better if some wonderful technologies were also introduced.

I, Robot movie

I ROBOT: Learning for it

This movie is not only good because of its wonderful graphic effects but most importantly the lesson that you can get form it. The scene can be possible in the near future because at present robots are being used by several companies to aid them in manufacturing and even deciding with regards to their business processes. And in no time, there will be some breakthrough in robot technology that will lead us to a world where every family has a robot slave. But this is still unthinkable today because the main component that should be developed first and foremost is the brain which will control the robot. The human brain is sophisticated to even comprehend and copying the logic behind it will be a great challenge for us. It might be possible but it will take some time and I am quite sad I may not be around to witness it. Not only did the movie made some good points about the possible design and function of future robots, it also because am eye-opener to all of us that the greatest threat to man’s extinction is ourselves. We are destroying ourselves. And at some point in the movie, I find the main robot core having some point about what he calculated. The robot had his conclusion based on fact s and you can deny the fact that he is saying truths. We are destroying ourselves as of the moment but then again, there is still hope and as long as we have the right to decide on our won for the better that hope will never fade out.

Wall-E Movie

WALL-E:Robot overload

This is one movie that I am very happy about after watching. This is because I can see the real world turning into this situation centuries form now. People are getting lazier and the movie might exaggerate it but it is more like a wakeup call to use that we should not always place ourselves in too much laziness as we rely on technology to help us in everything that we do. And wall-e is not a complicated robot. He have those tank like wheels that are not that hard to make with our present technology and I can say that a few years from now, men will start developing some robots that can be quite close to wall-e. However, it will take some time for people to make robots think like humans. The brain is so complicated and making a machine think like us is unthinkable. They might decide but how can they feel? Feeling is part of the brains work and even loving a certain person is a hard thing to imagine if we speak of robots doing it like we do. However, the movie entertained me a lot and that is the only thing important now.

Surrogates movie

SURROGATES: Is this the possible future we might be in?

I have see Surrogates just now and I find it quite interesting not because it has an awesome cast or the lighting and other movie factors are good but mainly because of the topic which is very interesting. It is set in world where people are not physically living the world. They will just lie down and let their surrogates do the job for them. It was a good idea and if we speak of security, nothing can beat a clone that will represent you in the real world. You will be away from accidents and you do not need to worry about different kinds of sickness that you might acquire as you go along. It is more like playing an online game where you have full control of your character. However, I do not find it as a future that we will be having in the next century because first and foremost, it is not ideal. You will be very unhealthy if you will lie down for the rest of our life. How can your muscles be strengthened and how can you be in such a good shape without even moving a bit for the rest of your life? I would expect this kind of technology to happen but it will not be applied to all. Maybe these surrogates can be more useful in the military because soldiers need not to die and they will just let their surrogates face all the risks in dangerous place. These surrogates can also be handy if they can use in space and in other places that we failed to explore because of the possible dangers on it.

Why do We Need to Study Technology

We are at the age were technology is the one spinning the world. All of the things that makes our lives comfortable nowadays; from the tiniest microscopic robot doctors to enormous space shuttles going to the unknown space in search for information are made through technology. Technology is science is the application of the sciences. Centuries of researches and countless ideas made every technology that we are enjoying today.

We need to study technology mainly because of the important role that it plays in our lives. Without it we would still be living in the Stone Age. Without it centuries of hard work and enormous research activities done by several intellectual men and women will be put to waste because as we all know facts and theories alone will not directly be of help to us. Technology plays a vital role in almost every aspect in the society. It gave birth to cellular phones, telephones and other ways of making communication a lot easier; thus making distance not a hindrance in business and trades. Medical milestones were also achieved through the use of technologies like powerful microscopes, scanners and robotic equipments that made procedures impossible to men not long ago doable today. The computer and its various types that are everyone’s best friend nowadays are also one of the greatest children of technology. Computers not only boosted the business process but also mobile. You can do business almost anywhere as long as you have your laptop at your side. Computers were made to be very versatile and can be of use from gaming, sports, sea navigation, simulations, and other things beyond your wildest imagination. Technology also gave breakthroughs in building and road constructions. The development of high grade cements made it possible to make skyscrapers and bridges that literally crossed oceans. To sum it all, technology is like a virus that infected our society. But unlike typical viruses, this virus is not harmful unless used in wrong ways.

It has been said by some analyst that men will destroy themselves in the future. That the genius minds behind the different technologies that we are having today will soon create a community that will destroy themselves in search for power and greed. In my opinion technology will have a great role in the continuing existence or the destruction of men. If technology will be used properly, our society will benefit from it and man will continue to exist and face the challenges that time brings but if technology will be abused then we are like making the sharpest knife just to stab our own heart.

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan? note: you are required to interview an IS professional/s for your answer ...(at least 3000 words)


On this matter we interviewed Mr. Nilo Ricafort, MIS Manager in EMCOR Davao, Bajada Branch. He gave brief but precise answers. He said that these two would definitely be misconceptions about IS effects in the users’ point of view and misunderstanding between the users’ needs and the developers’ knowledge on how things must be done in standard.

Moreover, I'll discuss the two causes of frustrations:


Misconceptions about IS effects

Misconceptions arise in the part of the users because unlike the developers usually users do not have enough knowledge about how these systems are developed and what are its possible effects. And because of these misconceptions, users tend to expect more from the system and later on they will be frustrated if the effects that the system cause where less than what they have expected. On the other hand, if the systems effect will also be too good, the users will also be overwhelmed and will be start to be conscious about their capabilities to support and use a very good system which may also lead to poor performance in their case. There a re a lot of misconceptions about IS and these are some of them:

--> Implementation of IS will speed up the process

A lot of people think that if we speak of IS implementation or improvement it means a lot of process will speed up instantly. But if we come to think of it, definitely the positive effects of the said actions will not be seen or felt in an instant. And there are a lot of possible reasons behind the delay of the effects that an IS may bring upon a company. And I found this article that gave some of the examples and also discuss some ways to give it some remedy.
IT professionals face unique challenges when it comes to managing their problems. They know that when hardware/software/client interface produces problems, dynamics are set in motion that can quickly cascade into nightmare proportions:
• Pressure to immediately reestablish service to the customer
• An already existing backlog of trouble tickets
• A relentless daily flow of in-coming trouble tickets
• A reality that sees a problem quickly affect thousands of clients

--> Users are not involved in IS development

Unlike what they think, users need to be involved in the process of IS development. The IS that will be done must be incorporated with what the users are complaining about there previous system or process. With the help of the users negative or positive feedback about there experience in using their previous system, the developers will be aware on what to areas change or to improve. Moreover, I found an article discussing how the users take a vital role in IS development.
The importance of involving users of enabling technology in all phases of the development and provision of these aids has gradually been focused, and eventually become established, during the last few years. It is, however, far from self evident how to make these ideas and ambitions really come true in the hectic daily activities of Research and Resource Centre, especially when it comes to more profoundly and multiply impaired users. Thus a very small number of such users are actually involved in any long term perspective. Apart from the lingering lack of awareness of needs and possibilities several other factors can be identified, such as:
• A lack of suitable organizational and work settings, flexible enough to offer realistic conditions for multiply disabled to participate and develop together with professionals in this field.
• Lacking working life experience, social networks and self confidence, and a related need for continuous educational programs, among the potential interested users.

--> IS improvement means job loss

There a re a lot of people who thinks that a conversion from an old system to a more IT involved system would definitely mean job loss. This may be true on some cases but this happens rarely. But because of this misconception, users tend to be passive and will not likely give their full support on the development of the new IS. They tend to hinder the developers from crucial information that would build up the success of the new system. They are thinking that if the new system fails then the old system will be retained and they will still have their jobs. They do not realize that IS development does not always mean job loss. This is because it is more convenient for most of the companies to train their old employees for the new system rather than hire new ones. The reason behind this is that companies will not take the risk in giving up on their trusted and proven employees for the sake of hiring new ones that may have the qualities for the new system. Training the present employees will also be less expensive than hiring new ones. If the companies opted to hire new employees they will face the burdens of advertising, interviews and other personality checks and backfires that the new employees may bring because of their need to adopt in the working environment.

Misunderstanding between the users’ needs and the developers’ knowledge on how things must be done in standard

This problem depends on the type of software development that developers choose. I’ll give some examples about the different ways of software development and on what strategies this problem can be seen.

--> Interactive and Incremental Development

The basic idea behind iterative enhancement is to develop a software system incrementally, allowing the developer to take advantage of what was being learned during the development of earlier, incremental, deliverable versions of the system. Learning comes from both the development and use of the system, where possible key steps in the process are to start with a simple implementation of a subset of the software requirements and iteratively enhance the evolving sequence of versions until the full system is implemented. At each iteration, design modifications are made and new functional capabilities are added.

The procedure itself consists of the initialization step, the iteration step, and the Project Control List. The initialization step creates a base version of the system. The goal for this initial implementation is to create a product to which the user can react. It should offer a sampling of the key aspects of the problem and provide a solution that is simple enough to understand and implement easily. To guide the iteration process, a project control list is created that contains a record of all tasks that need to be performed. It includes such items as new features to be implemented and areas of redesign of the existing solution. The control list is constantly being revised as a result of the analysis phase.

The iteration involves the redesign and implementation of a task from the project control list, and the analysis of the current version of the system. The goal for the design and implementation of any iteration is to be simple, straightforward, and modular, supporting redesign at that stage or as a task added to the project control list. The level of design detail is not dictated by the interactive approach. In a light-weight iterative project the code may represent the major source of documentation of the system; however, in a mission-critical iterative project a forma lSoftware Design Document may be used. The analysis of iteration is based upon user feedback, and the program analysis facilities available. It involves analysis of the structure, modularity, usability, reliability, efficiency, & achievement of goals. The project control list is modified in light of the analysis results.
This method of software development also provides the user the opportunity to participate in the evaluation of the system. But then again, the process is very time consuming because of a lot of iterations and would cause backfires due to the delay in the making of the system.

--> Adaptive Software Development

Adaptive Software Development is a software development process that grew out of rapid application development work by Jim Highsmith and Sam Bayer. ASD embodies the principle that continuous adaptation of the process to the work at hand is the normal state of affairs.
ASD replaces the traditional waterfall cycle with a repeating series of speculate, collaborate, and learn cycles. This dynamic cycle provides for continuous learning and adaptation to the emergent state of the project. The characteristics of an ASD life cycle are that it is mission focused, feature based, iterative, time boxed, risk driven, and change tolerant.

The word “speculate” refers to the paradox of planning – it is more likely to assume that all stakeholders are comparably wrong for certain aspects of the project’s mission, while trying to define it. Collaboration refers to the efforts for balancing the work based on predictable parts of the environment (planning and guiding them) and adapting to the uncertain surrounding mix of changes caused by various factors – technology, requirements, stakeholders, software vendors, etc. The learning cycles, challenging all stakeholders, are based on the short iterations with design, build and testing. During these iterations the knowledge is gathered by making small mistakes based on false assumptions and correcting those mistakes, thus leading to greater experience and eventually mastery in the problem domain.

This type of software development is very good in having the users cooperate with the development process. This is because the development process will adopt on what the situation is. The users may also be a factor on these situations; thus the system development will also adapt to what the users want.

Overall this frustration depends on the method that the developer will use in software development. It is up to the developers correct planning and assessment on the companies’ situation to ensure that the product system will comply on the standards that the users and the company want.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Software_Development
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative_and_incremental_development