Summary Blog- Blog #8

After I went over all my blogs today, i can see my idea has gotten much better throughout these days. From the first blog I talked about my rough idea of a parking spot navigation system to the 7^th blog which I settled down all the flying ideas in mind and made a final decision of how my system would work, the idea is now more realistic and practicable.

The knowledge I learned from the lectures are definitely useful and helpful in the way they help me solved most of my technological problems. They helped me gain a better understanding of computing technologies as well as networking technologies; they also gave me lot of insights of how to design my device. For example, in one of the lectures, we talked about RFIDs, which I had never heard of before, and I found it’s amazingly what I want to incorporate in my device!! Before I learned about RFID, I was always seeking something that would allow cars to warn each other in a near field, and I soon found that RFID is what I was looking for!! Another thing I learned in the class is the social medias, I was surprised to find out that the social medias are so powerful; the amount of information flow in social medias are tremendous and the speed of informational transmission  in social medias are amazingly fast.  So I decided to utilize this powerful social media network, and incorporate my operating system with the social media network. These are only two examples of how I integrate the knowledge I learned from the class with my idea and make it better.  

One thing I think I have to share here is that, after I read the comments on my idea from classmates, I learned to look at my idea at other perspectives. The comments, including GA’s , are really helpful in the way that they help me see the weakness of my ideas and give me advise to improve it. So I wanna thank all the people who had comment on my blog! Thank You! In addition, the review of the professional blog is really helpful too, I don’t know you guys notice or not, I think my blog become stylish after review some professional blogs. Overall, I learn a lot form this project and have become more technology savvy, and the most important thing I gain from this project is the ability to develop an idea.

Below are the URLs of the bolgs  I have commented on:

1.Gaeun Oh http://gaeunoh.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-1.html?showComment=1319514646105#c7335773468926413775
2.Amy Feng http://amy-feng.blogspot.com/2011/09/week2-social-media.html?showComment=1319515369999#c4994203136605082005
3.Elizabeth Ching http://metro-mental.blogspot.com/2011/09/public-transit-is-often-central-means.html?showComment=1319517458811#c3356510289832097374

Blog#7 Operating Systems, digital images and hexadecimal

In last week’s class, we discussed different kinds of operating system and how they work differently. One thing I found interesting is that, even though all the operating systems have similar functions, the way they were built was totally different. Therefore the applications for different systems are different as well, for example an application that can run on Windows can’t run on Linux or iOS.

                These basic ideas of operation systems make me think about how my app would be like. There are two options of how my actual customer-terminal device would work. One idea is that I can build an app and simply allow customers to download to their smartphones; another option is to build my own device which only provides parking navigating services.

                Considering the high starting capital of the second option, I think it would be a better idea to just build an app that would run on smartphone operating systems. The app would integrate with the Google map app and the GPS system, and it would be available on its website for customers to download. Customers would need to register before they can download the app, and along with the app, customer would need to purchase a RFID.

                Since there are so many operating systems, my app would not only run on certain operating system. The app would basically compatible with iOS, Android and other mobile phone operating systems. However, since Windows occupied about 80% percent of the operating system market, we would not limit our app to mobile phones; we would definitely build a Windows version app for the PC users to expand our market.  Moreover, to enhance the functions of the app, I would make my app an open source like Linux and android, just like them I would allow program writers to modify the app to make it more fit the customers need.

Blog#6 Professional Blog Review

The Professional Blog I chose to review is called “TechCrunch”. TechCrunch is not a personal blog, but a professional technology blog that employed many writers. I chose to review writer Devin Coldewey’s section.

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. His blogs are mostly focus on the newest technologies and electronic devices, however the topic of his posters highly diverse. One think I like about his blogs is that, he attached pictures on almost every blog he posted on TechCrunch. I think by attaching pictures he is able to make his blogs more interesting and eye-catching.  For example, on the day the iphone 4s was released, he wrote a blog about teardown an iphone 4s and accompany with that he posted a picture of a disassembled iphone.  I learned that if I am to make a successful blog, attaching pictures would be one thing I will do.

Another thing I found interesting about his blog is that, he talked about similar things that we discussed in class.  For example, he talked about computer components, pixels, and different operation systems which I also discussed in my blogs.  However, Clodewey’s posts are much more comprehensive compare to mine (of course!! He is a professional writer), but my point is that, different purposes of blog may shape how the blog looks like and the way bloggers address a same topic. This observation gives me an insight that, the format/style of a blog is equaled important to its contents. A uniformed and clear style sometimes can help the writer express his/her idea more clearly. I think if I am to make a good blog, I would create a theme for my blog at the very beginning to keep all my posts organized and consisting.

Blog URL:

http://techcrunch.com/author/devin-coldewey/

Blog#5 Bits & Bytes

After we talked about the concept of bits and bytes, I have a better idea of how different format of file can have different sizes. The example of WAV and MP3 is a great demonstration of how we can maintain a same quality of a file while significantly reduce the size of the file, it a smart idea to compress the file by discard the parts that we don’t need.

I think this idea can be used in other fields as well than the music products. For my system, I think the information that is being transmitted in the system can be compressed before the distributions. We can just keep the basic data and discard the extra or attached information, this would highly reduce the bits of information running on the system network and this would significantly increase the efficiency of the system.  Efficiency is the key for this Urban parking navigation system because the purpose of this system is to reduce the city traffic and increase efficiency of the urban transportation system.  I would definitely integrate this way of filtering information and increase efficiency.

Blog#4 Input & Output

The RFID we talked about in class this week gives me a new insight about how my device would work. As mentioned before, the urban parking navigation system is working based on the user updates, and the users get the information about where the free parking spot is from the cloud.  Chances are that, two drivers might get the same information and heading to the same parking spot, and this would cause more troubles for the drivers because they might fight for the spot or one of them would have to find a new spot and thus waste more gas and produce more pollution. So, to solve this problem we should have be able to notify drivers there are other drivers nearby before they are heading to the same spot, and the RFID would be the solution.

You might ask, why not notify the drivers online by telling them there are certain cars are heading to certain area beforehand so that they can make adjustments? It’s possible, but the information might not be accurate because it takes time for the information to travel to the drivers. On the other hand, it would be so difficult to organize and keep track of so many users on the streets and notify the users at the same time.

The RFID solves all the potential problems mentioned above. RFIDs are not connected to any networks, so they would work independently in each car and Since RFID uses “near filed” technology, their working ranges are limited. With these features, the RFID is perfect for the warning between cars when they are heading to the same spot, and with limited signal range only the cars in certain area would receive the warning from the car that is nearby the available spot and make adjustment as soon as possible. The RFID used in the devices would be passive with the controlling of signal ranges and RFID readers would be built in the devices as well.