Problem Solving Activities
Chapter6 (Q1)
Description:
Assume you are interested in buying a car.You can find information abaout cars at numerous Web sites.Access five of them for information about new and used cars, financing, and insurance. Decide what car u want to buy. Configure your car by going to the car manufacturer's Web site.Finally, try to find the car from www.autobytel.com. What information is most supportive of your desicion-making process? Write a report about your experience.
Report:
First of all, the car that we are searching for is the new Audi R8 Coupe Quattro with the specification:
Color: Brilliant Red
Engine: 8 Cylinder, DOHC, 4.2 Liter
Horsepower: 420 @7800
Torque: 317 @4500 ft-lbs
Weight: 3605 lbs.
Lbs per HP: 8.58
Trans: Manual
Fuel Capacity: 23.80 gallons
Fuel Type: Unleaded
based on our search through the web, we find that different web sites or dealers have their own ways of presenting their products. So they tend to have as many information to gain trust from the users or customers.
We noticed that not all of the web sites have the full information on the car we requested. When we visit the Audi web "www.audi.com" itself, they provide us with a brief description of the car and some pictures with the additional promotional video on what this car are made of and what it can do. Surprisingly it was a superb presentation. Though it is quite simple in a way that we need a more specific information on the car.
While in other web sites such as, Audi Malaysia "www.audi.com.my", "www.autoebid.com", "www.carworld.my", and many other websites, some of it are selling the car and some are not.For example,"www.carworld.my" do have the model that we want which is a second-hand car.We noticed that not much of our dealers in Malaysia have the car that we requested which is the Audi R8.In our point of view, the cause of this car is not widely advertised or sell in Malaysia is that it is still a new car that is fully manufactured in other country. So the cost for importing the car must be high.
Nevertheless, when we visit the site "www.autobytel.com", we can consider it as one of the websites that have much information that we need compare to the other websites.Eventough this is our first time visiting this site, we are quite amazed on the information that it provide us. They have the right specification that we want, they have much description on the new model of the R8, information on the engine itself, and other useful information that we need such as the warranty, pricing, reliability rating, and also vehicles comparation.
Above it all, there are many factors that influenced our decision making process such as the first impression look on the sites itself, the image, the required specifications, the pricing, the guaranty, and our budget itself. Eventhough some of the web does provide us with the best offers, but for us the best thing for us to do is to see the cars and experience it ourselves then we know how impressive it realy is.tQ ^^
Saturday, August 8, 2009
AFI ANWAR (084683) & FAIZAL (084645)
Friday, August 7, 2009
Chapter 7, Problem-Solving Activities #3
Nursihah Bt Amir – 084990
Question #3
Examine how new data capture devices such as RFID tags help organization accurately identify and segment their customers for activities such as targeted marketing. Browse the Web and develop five potential new application for RFID technology not listed in this chapter. What issues would arise if a country's laws mandated that such devices be embedded in everyone's body as a national identification system?
Answer
Other than retrieving and gathering information on product location (Supply Chain) as explained in the book. Other efforts to increase company sales are beginning to emerge in the industry.
Targeted Advertising.
In 2008, marketers started to use targeted advertising. Dunkin' Donuts was one of the first marketer to begin testing the new technology, at two of their stores in New York and Buffalo. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain's hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. At the pick-up counter, customers see ads prompting them to return for a coffee break in the afternoon and try an oven-toasted pizza.
In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group's G2 Network.
Activities such as target marketing and target advertising have helped marketers to increase their sales tremendously. This is because using RFID is capable of personalizing sales.
Patient Tracking System
RFID-based wristband enables the implementation of “patient tracking system”. With this system, hospital staff will have a better way to keep track of wandering Alzheimer and paediatric patients. Real Time Location System (RLTS) that is based on RFID technology can be used to ensure that the patients do not go into unauthorized areas.
Tagging Surgical Instrument
Another approach in improving patient safety is by tagging surgical instrument with RFID. There are a number of advantages of doing this, for example, to minimise the mistake of leaving an item inside a patient. Before a patient is sewn up after an operation, a handheld RFID reader could be used to ensure all surgical items, for example, gauze sponge, is not retained in the patient’s body.
Analysing operational inefficiency
Movement of drugs, medical equipments, patients and personnel can be tracked using RFID. Data gathered from those movements can be recorded and analysed for finding inefficiency of the current process and procedures. From the analysis, the overall operation can be improved.
Managing surgical instruments
Operational efficiency in hospitals can be increased by improving management of medical instruments and other assets. High cost medical instruments require high level of traceability. This is to ensure the availability of the instruments when needed and to reduce the cost of purchasing the same instruments unnecessarily. Tagging these medical instruments with RFID will enable better tracking of the items, their status and help to determine whether the items need servicing.
Heart Hospital Bayloo Plano implemented automatic tracking and cataloging most expensive medical instruments using RFID. Implementation advantages include streamlining inventory, making it easier for recalls and cutting cost. The hospital uses RFID-enabled storage cabinets to store the expensive medical instruments. When the instruments are brought in or out, the cabinets scan the RFID tag attached to the instruments and record the necessary information. Integration of this information with hospital information system enables an effective inventory management, thus improving operational efficiency [RFID tracks hospital’s devices, 2007].
Proper tracking of medical assets gives medical staff ability to identify, track and locate medical instruments faster and easier. This will help the medical staff to ensure that the right equipment is available for the right procedure in a timely manner. A proper record of physical location of the assets and their actual numbers helps to prevent over-purchasing, under utilising and lost of equipment.
Security of newborn
Other applications of RFID to improve patient safety include the tagging on newborn babies to prevent baby-mother mismatch and increase the security of newborns. Mersey General Hospital, UK, has implemented this approach to increase the security of newborns in the nursery [RFID in Healthcare 2005, 2005]. Signal or alarm will be triggered when a newborn is removed from the nursery without proper procedure. This concept has also been implemented at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California [Crounse,2005].
Human RFID implant.
The issue of human RFID implants has been debated over for many years now, ever since the first reported experiment with an RFID implant was carried out in 1998 by the British scientist Kevin Warwick. As a test, his implant was used to open doors, switch on lights, and cause verbal output within a building. Although there are a handful of people in this world, who are willing to sign up for RFID implants. It can't be helped to wonder why they are willing to do so.
If the RFID implants were to be mandated in a certain country many issues would arise. As the implants are not secured. A third party with a RFID scanner can easily gain access and manipulate private data in the chip. This, without a doubt would make the citizen of the country go ballistic.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Chapter 5, Problem Solving Activities Q#2
Group members:
MOHD HAKIM bin MOHD AZMI (084602)
AHMAD SHAIRAZIN bin BUNSU(084772)
Visit Web sites of companies that manufacture telepresence products for the Internet. Prepare a report. Differentiate between telepresence products and videoconferencing products.
Telepresence product is a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location. Telepresence requires that the senses of the user, or users, are provided with such stimuli as to give the feeling of being in that other location."Life-sized images, eye contact, and spatial sound are examples of the "stimuli" that a telepresence system delivers.
Providing telepresence "stimuli" requires a permanent, dedicated installation. A typical telepresence installation is more of a studio than it is a conference room. Cameras must be positioned in such a way as to present life-sized images of people, while establishing full eye contact between remote participants. Each studio is custom tailored to reduce each video conferencing camera gaze angle. The position of the meeting participants must be precise. It also limits the number of participants physically located in a room.
One of the most important components of a telepresence system is bandwidth. Telepresence requires substantial bandwidth, a minimum of 2 to 3 mbps of up and downlink bandwidth per screen is required for the full immersive effect. Virtually all telepresence studios us dedicated Internet access as any drop below the minimum will result in audio jitter and latency destroying the immersive experience.
Many organizations are intrigued by the capabilities of telepresence systems. However, the initial cost of the conferencing studio and the recurring network fees put these systems out of the reach of all but the largest and wealthiest companies. There are also organizations that do not have the space to dedicate an entire room to telepresence. Or, if they have the space, the rooms may lack the required dimensions.
In terms of actual technology, there are very few differences between a telepresence system and traditional video conferencing. Both systems utilize the same compression, network, echo cancellation and optical technologies. The primary difference between a telepresence system and a traditional video conferencing system is in how the systems are installed and configured.
Telepresence – the new high end
* Description: fixed-Site, complete audio/video studio build-out, requires dedicated, high-bandwidth network routes (DS3+)
* Pricing: extreme, easily $100,000/site and up
* Pros: immersive quality, ideal for specialty, cost-is-no-object applications
* Cons: studio-to-studio only, no ad hoc conferencing
* Examples: Cisco HD Telepresence, HP Halo, LifeSize, and other competitors
Boardroom video conferencing hardware
* Description: fixed site, video conferencing hardware, dedicated network routes
* Pricing: complex, generally $50,000 and up including video MCUs/MUXs and all hardware components required
* Pros: ideal for boardroom video conferencing
* Cons: cost, complexity, conferencing limited to like facilities
* Examples: Tandberg, Polycom, and other alternatives
IP-Based Video Conferencing Software and Online Services
* Description: desktop IP-based video conferencing software
and software-as-a-service
* Pricing: depends on vendor
* Pros: ideal for desktop video conferencing, low cost, uses browsers, desktop PCs and depending on vendor, proprietary or PC-based audio/video peripherals
* Cons: depends on existing networks for video quality; products with peer-to-peer, classroom, and local area network legacy struggle with firewall/proxy traversal (e.g., NetMeeting)
* Examples: Nefsis, see below, others
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
jjj
name :
wan adibah hanis binti wan aziz ( 084656 )
nur syafiqah binti abu zarin ( 084641 )
chapter 6 web activities question 5
question
Enter www.dell.com, go to 'desktops', and configure a system. register to "my cart" ( no obligation ).what calculators are used there?what are the advantages of this process as compared with buying a computer in a physical store?what are the disadvantages?
answers
we choose desktop inspiron 546 the price before customize :
AMD Phenom X4 9750 ( 2.4 GHz, 1066 MHz, 4MB )
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1, 64 bit
No Monitor
16X DVD+/-RW drive
4 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz-4DIMMs
500GB serial ATA hard drive ( 7200 RPM ) w/data burst cache
intergrated ATI radeon HD3200 graphics
intergrated 5.1 channel audio
1 Yr LTD hardware warranty, in home service after remote diagnosis
save $60 off this inspirion desktop
Free 3-5 day shipping
Limited time offer free 4 GB memory upgrade
Starting price $564
subtotal $429
The price calculation after customization :
CART SUMMARY
inspirion 546 configuration :
inspirion 546 $1131
QTY : 1
San disk sansa fuze $80
QTY : 1
8GB cruzer micro USB $40
Flash drive
QTY : 1
Web root spysweeper $30
SUBTOTAL $1281
Total Discounts -$175
Subtotal $1106
Shipping and Handling $69.99
Tax ---
Total ---
Dell prefered account $36/month*4
ADVANTAGES
Being able to access a vast number of product and services, around the clock.
Provide information for free.
Can use an e-payment system to pay for goods and services electronically.
Save time and energy to go to the physical store.
Can choose our design of goods by ourselves rather than have someone talk too much about the design.
We can get the exact list of price of the product compared to physical store, we do not get the detail of the price.
DISADVANTAGES
Unresolves legal issues.
Unsecured transaction e-payment.
No expert people that can consult to us about the best goods that we want to buy. We have to know better about the goods that we want to buy such as computer. Consider people that do not know much about computer.
Sometimes the product that we purchased do not exactly the same as we ordered.
Goods or items have the fee for the shipping delivery and high pay taxes that cost of the product become more higher.
Chapter 5, Web Activities Question no. 2
TEAM MEMBER:
Muhammad Haiqal Bin Nordin (081847)
Muhammad Hussaini Bin Mazlan Zulkifli (081901)
QUESTION:
Visit www.cdt.org . Find out what technologies are available to track users’ activities on the Internet. (Chapter 5, Web Activities Question no. 2)
REPORT:
Based on Center for Democracy & Technology website (www.cdt.org), there are several technologies that can track users’ activities on the Internet. One of the common technologies is “cookie”. An Internet “cookie” is a unique piece of text that a Web site, through Internet browser, saves on user computer's hard drive and retrieves when user revisit that Web site. Cookies may contain information such as login or registration data, online "shopping cart" selections, user preferences, and Web sites that user have visited. They have legitimate purposes, but they are used far too often and serve a tracking role with implications for privacy.
In addition to cookies, Web sites can use other forms of data, generally called “objects” to track user online. Basically, an "object" is any kind of content that Internet browser receives - everything from basic text and images to style sheets, scripts, "Flash cookies" and more. Some of these objects are not even visible to user on Internet browser window. When the same object is delivered to user repeatedly across different sites, it could potentially be used to track user.
Other technology that can track users’ activities on the Internet is spyware. These programs, which can be installed on users’ computer without their knowledge, may deliver obnoxious pop-up ads and otherwise affect how users’ computer operates. The worst forms of spyware collect personal or sensitive information and transmit it to fraudsters.
Other than that, technology that can be use on tracking users’ activities on the Internet is keystroke logging. In fact, this technology is being used in some country by their government; it is called government spyware by them. This technology captures every keystrokes enters into a computer. However, some third party uses this technology to gain users’ personal information on the internet for their own purpose such as identity theft.
Once installed, this keystroke logging enables the third party to record information entered into a computer within the sanctity on one’s home and to access a person’s most private matters that contain in that computer whether conveyed to another party or not. In some ways, keystroke logging is more dangerous and intrusive rather than the interception of a phone call or email communication.
Aida + Sumaiyah
Sheilazatul Aida bt Saleh 084752
Siti Sumaiyah bt Yahya 084333
Chapter 6, Web Activities, Question 4
Question:
Enter www.alibaba.com. Identify the site's capabilities. Look at the site's private trading room. Write a report. How can such a site help a person who is making a purchase?
Answer:
www.alibaba.com is the world's largest online Business to Business (B2B) marketplace with almost a million registered users in its international marketplace. The B2B means that the buyers and sellers are business organizations. The major B2B applications are selling from catalogs and by forward auctions (the sell-side marketplace), buying in reverse auctions and in group and desktop purchasing (the buy-side market), and trading in electronic exchanges and hubs.
This website provides many types of of products and services from all over the world. It also provides useful advices and also chatting room for buyers and suppliers sharing their ideas and opinions. Most information provided by this website are up-to-date and true. Alibaba.com also provides Safe trading Tips, Trade Guide, Market Data and Security Bulletin. These features ease users on making transactions.
But online transactions is not always perfect. There are some disadvantages when doing business throug online. Some informations about products and services are not always true. When we already paid for products that we want to purchase, sometimes the products are not being delivered or sent to us.
In conclusion, this website helps users a lot.
ASSG
AHNAF AZIZI RAZALI 080267
MUHAMMAD HELMI ABDULLAH 084443
Chapter 6 Question 4
Access www.espn.com. Identify at least 5 different ways it generates revenues.
REPORT/FINDING
ESPN.com is a website about sport worldwide. 5 ways it generates revenue are:
1. Advertising/Media Kit
As it is a website with a huge number of hits, we can expect the main revenue generated by espn.com is by advertising. There are two ways to advertise in this website. Organisation can choose budget higher or lower than 3000$. But other larger companies prefer to make partnership with espn.com to save cost and time.
22. ESPN Shop
However, there are several other ways a customer can place order. These methods could also be used by International customers.
- Phone Orders
- Fax Orders
- Mail Orders
3. ESPN Insider Magazine
This the magazine for the avid sports fan produced by espn.com. Customers who subscribe this will receive the ESPN magazine as well as exclusive live content that could only be viewed by subscribers. But customers must register with ESPN.com first before they are allowed to subscribe this magazine. The exclusive online content enables the subscribers to view previous match and can manipulate the viewing mode at will (record, rewind, playback, etc.)
4. ESPN Books
This is where ESPN.com sells books with the major interest in sports. The books range from biographies, heart-warming stories about sport personnel’s, interviews of major sports stars, health books, knowledge books, and many more. These books are available via online purchase and as always users must register first at espn.com before purchasing. This is to make deliveries and confirmation of private information easier.
This service is one of the best services offered by espn.com. By subscribing high speed internet
connection from affiliates of ESPN.com, customers can view sports event across the world live during the enjoy matches or sports games from the comfort of home without the hassle of buffering or loading as it is broadcasted in a high speed internet connection with the cost of a low payment. But in order to subscribe to this function, they must be using internet service providers that are affiliated by ESPN.com. It can also be viewed using mobile phones.
