That's Our Bad

Following Team 5’s presentation on Chapter 11’s focus on Enterprise Architecture, which used JetBlue as an example of why a company could benefit from such an investment, another article caught my eye. Ironically, much like JetBlue CEO David Neeleman did following thousands of cancelled flights, it involved a CEO issuing an apology.

Nintendo, who released a portable game player called the 3DS earlier this year, has drastically reduced the system’s price in a very short period following it’s initial release. Starting August 12, the 3DS will sell in the U.S. for $169.99 as opposed to its initial price of $249.99; a reduction of one-third. Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata issued a public apology to buyers who purchased the system in its’ beginning stages, stating that he understands those who feel “betrayed” by their decision to lower the price.

 The method behind the madness, however, lies strongly an IT-rooted issue. Nintendo’s decision to drastically cut the 3ds system’s price is meant to reassure both software creators and those who sell the game player that the 3DS is in fact superior to their previous effort, the Nintendo DS, and will achieve a similarly wide user base.

Those who purchased the system early, however, are not going away empty handed. If customers who have already purchased a Nintendo 3DS log onto the eShop before the product’s price drops on August 12, they will receive 20 free games, including titles like Super Mario Bros. and Wario. For iPhone users, this particular situation may ring a bell, as Apple offered a $100 store credit for original iPhone buyers who purchased the device before its price dropped $200 only a few months after its launch.

A drastic move perhaps, even more-so in wake of so-called “early adopters” who jumped at the new technology all too quickly. Nonetheless, Nintendo did what it could to save face: offer free goodies and a good ol’ fashioned “we’re sorry”.

Here’s a quick response, to both Nintendo and companies-with-unresolved-serious-issues-that-could-be-avoided alike:  Lock it up.

IT is "All That"

I, along with many of my friends and acquaintances, continuously drop one-liners and jokes based on things we grew up on: Pogs, Fireball yo-yo’s, professional wrestling, etc.

One of the most pertinent subjects of discussion for many of those from my generation revolved around the “golden age” of Nickelodeon, a programming channel that used to air shows such as the young adult sketch comedy program “All That”, cartoons like “Doug” and even competition shows like “GUTS” and “Legends of the Hidden Temple”. We always used to say how we knew what it was like to “feel old” because programming for kids was nothing like it used to be. In fact, I even joined a FaceBook page that lampooned more recent shows aired by Nickelodeon titled “When I was your age, we had Kenan and Kel. Not Drake and Josh”.

Now, thanks to social media and high demand, my favorite shows are back.

A new block of programming called “The 90’s Are All That” features old school Nickelodeon shows form the 1990’s, airing nightly on the company’s TeenNick network between midnight and 4AM. This resurgence was caused mainly by the vast amount of fans of the old programming on FaceBook and other social media sites; close to 15 million people craved their favorite shows returning, according to executives. In fact, Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami has gone on record as saying that the network will rely on social media feedback solely to make future decisions about rotating programming.

Though the rise in IT has caused many people to rely on the Internet for their entertainment fix, it is uncertain if sites like Hulu will stream the line-up for those who do not have TeenNick. With networks like CNN moving towards the digital side of broadcasting by making their programming available on the iPad and other mobile devices, it would certainly bode well for Nickelodeon to invest in doing something similar. Besides, they already own rights to the shows they’ve been begged to bring back, so providing a wider range of accessibility for such in-demand TV can only help their viewership.

Who loves IT? Nick loves IT. Is IT true? Mhmmm. I do, I do, I do-ooooo.

New Text Message: "Watch Your Back"

My house phone just rang, and though my first inclination was to hang up when I realized that it was an automated recording, thoughts brought about by this class prompted me to stay on the line. Because the caller ID said “Emergency contact”, I felt compelled to answer in case perhaps something had happened to a family member, but the message delivered by the recording was very interesting, especially due to our discussions involving IT.

Though I was assured that “there is no emergency at this time”, the recording told me that the Plymouth Country Sheriff’s Department was testing out it’s new emergency contact system that is used whenever there is an issue in my area (the South Shore). The message directed me to the Sheriff’s Department’s website, where I was told I could register my mobile device for CodeRED updates from the department, in addition to following them on Twitter.

 It reminded me that public safety, which is always a top concern for citizens everywhere, is now becoming more reliant on IT. The biggest example of this could perhaps be the “Amber Alerts” put out by law-enforcement in relation to child abductions, which we see very often on the news and oddly enough, the highway. So many times I can remember driving and noticing the giant electronic boards that are sometimes used for informing drivers of road work, instead issuing out Amber Alerts. Similarly, UMass Amherst instituted a program much like the Plymouth Country Sheriff’s Department while I attended there as an undergrad, though it was not relegated just towards safety but also for major announcements involving the university, weather related issues, etc.

With my town recently being put under the microscope due to a tragic murder not far from my home, it is somewhat soothing to know that steps are being taken in every aspect to try and improve the safety of residents on the South Shore.

IT Keeps Going, And Goi-Hey, Where'd IT Go?

One of the biggest questions I get regarding my iPhone 4 is that of its’ battery life, and how it compares to other models and other phones. Too often, cell phone users have complained that by the middle of the day their phone’s battery is drained, often times followed by comments that they “hate this #^*!$&@ phone!” With a convenient percentage located in the top right corner, iPhone users are able to know just exactly how much juice they’ve got left, but some still complain that it’s not enough.

                                      (It ain't that easy anymore, folks)

Perhaps the best way to improve battery life is simple, yet often overlooked or ignored: Don’t use your phone so much. If constant texting, calls, and utilization of apps like YouTube or FaceBook are what keep you occupied for most of the day, then maybe you ought to dial it back (pun intended). Keeping the screen’s brightness to a minimum is also extremely helpful, which I found out after realizing that for the first few months I had kept my phone almost at 100%. In reality, less than 50% brightness is more than enough, and a lot easier on the eyes as it turns out.

However, Apple is still looking to “sweeten” their products’ battery life, including the iPad and portable Mac computers in addition to the iPhone, by utilizing “jelly rolls” in the future. Also knows as Swiss rolls, they are usually found in rechargeable AA, AAA and D batteries , with Apple now looking to include them in lithium batteries according to a new patent application from the company.

The proposed idea, which would include a set of jelly rolls in a foil pouch as opposed to just one, would still include a divided cathode and anode as found in a rechargeable AA, with an emphasis on conductive tabs found inside the battery that would connect them. This, according to the application, could potentially “allow the creation of a custom battery cell that maximizes the use of free space within a portable electronic device and provides greater capacity, packing efficiency, and/or voltage than battery cells that contain only one jelly roll per pouch”.

The idea certainly seems plausible, as Apple has always looked to improve their products without giving up their continuous decreases in size. Though perhaps less explored than the battery life of the iPhone, laptop battery life is also a factor I’ve seen many have issues with, though not regularly with Macbooks. I personally used a Dell during my four years undergraduate and have been amazed at how much better the overall life of the Macbook is compared to any PC’s, including my own. Bringing my computer to an hour long class used to be a stretch due to it’s propensity to die in the middle of my note-taking, but with my current Macbook, graduate courses approaching three hours in length do not even drain my battery entirely.

The idea is good, but seeing it carried out will be even better.

Digital Delivery

From the presentation given by Heather, Jen and Maureen yesterday that centered around Papa Gino’s, and earned my teammate John a free lunch, I was reminded of advances that another pizza company has taken in their approach to IT and conducting business: Dominos Pizza.

While I was an undergrad at UMass Amherst, Dominos made a killing due to both the high number of students in the surrounding Five Colleges (UMass, Amherst College, Hampshire, Smith and Mt. Holyoke) and the fact that they were open until 4AM, which was the latest of any restaurant in the area. Since I indulged myself in their food, I stumbled upon their “Order Online” option and frequently used it in place of making an actual phone call in the morning’s wee hours. However, it was not until after I had earned my Bachelor’s and began pursuing my MSM at Bridgewater that I realized how Dominos was beginning to progress their business with the use of IT.

With just a few clicks of a mouse, a customer can add toppings, side orders, drinks or whatever else they choose to a personalized online order payable by either cash or credit card. With phone calls rapidly taking a back seat to an influx of text messaging and BBM’ing alike, it seems clear that online orders could soon take over for food services as well. Plus, unlike an actual phone call with an employee who may estimate that your order could take “about 30 minutes”, online ordering for Dominos does not end once an order is placed. A timeline that starts when an employee begins prepping your order, to when it enters the oven, to when it is packaged and the delivery man/woman leaves the store with your order is available for all online orders, keeping the customer in the loop of exactly when to expect that doorbell to ring.

                                               (screen shot of Domino's Pizza Tracker)

IT is beginning to make strides in the food industry, as seen by a 51% increase in online sales for Dominos Pizza in the UK, making online orders responsible for 42% of overall UK sales according to CEO Chris Moore. In addition, an app for the Apple iPad will soon join Dominos’ iPhone and Android apps, which currently account for 4% of all online sales. And if all goes according to Moore’s plan, by 2015 two-thirds of all Dominos sales will occur through one of their online platforms.

The world, like its’ pizza, is certainly becoming more flat as Thomas Friedman, who made note of an electronic ordering system for McDonalds at his MIT lecture might say. Now it’s just a question of how long it’ll be before glitches in the system bring you a pasta bowl instead of buffalo wings.

IT's Impact on Impact

In sports, athletes taking a beating both mentally and physically isn’t very far gone from being an everyday occurrence, especially in combat sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts. As a Celtics fan, looking back on the history of their run during the 1980’s and early 1990’s is astounding when you consider the level of pain Larry Bird had in his back.

More recently, however, IT has made strides toward understanding the repercussions of physical injuries that can, and are, sustained in sports. One interesting article I came across from the South Bend Tribune made note of the fact that Notre Dame, along with Washington and Stanford, will be testing out “intelligent mouthguards” for their football players this season. Developed by Seattle-based company X2IMPACT, the 22 custom-fit mouthguards will use acceleration and rotation sensors to monitor contact in measurements of “g-force”. Records of the impact will be recorded on the sidelines, with the results making progress towards developing ways to improve safety not only for college athletes, but for all athletes.

You may have noticed a segment entitled “Sports Science” where IT’s innovative techniques toward understanding how athletes function and perform bring you to the forefront of how statistics can be measured in 2011. A consistent theme of the show is that of force, and how it is measured, which can be seen below in a clip pitting the impact of two sumo wrestlers colliding against the force of a punch from Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, a current stand-out in the mixed martial arts organization the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division.

Because impact is such a factor in combat sports, new technology can and should be used to try and understand exactly how damage to a fighter can be reduced in the long term, though taking consecutive blows to the head and body isn’t exactly the best way to ensure a hazard-free bill of health. However, tools such as CompuBox and CompuStrike have been used to record numbers of blows thrown and landed during fights, with HBO’s Boxing team taking it up a notch with PunchZone statistics that show exactly where, and how many, punches landed on fighters during their bouts. Hopefully, this could lead to strides being made in IT towards protecting athletes so that another tragic story like Gerald McClellan’s does not happen again.

Cars Don't Fly...Yet

After seeing the movie “Horrible Bosses” a few weeks ago in addition to the brief clip on outsourcing in class, where various receptionists for various companies answer questions from India, a certain part of the movie popped back into my head. The three main characters rely on their car’s built-in voice-assisted navigation system on more than one occasion, with Jason Sudekis’ character consistently asking the live representative why he refers to himself as a token American name, though he flubs pronouncing the man’s actual name more often than not. Sound familiar?

In the film, the car is manually shut down by their live representative due to the characters’ insistence that they are being pursued by police. Eventually, the characters are saved from probable jail time for a crime they did not commit when the car’s system records their conversation and plays it back for law enforcement. At the time, I simply thought “how convenient, the car saves the day.” But since MGMT 581 has begun, the idea that a car and its’ features could potentially save the day, or your life, is pretty realistic.

With driver-assist technologies making an impact more and more, it seems like going green and running you car on French fry grease isn’t the only way to enhance the way you drive. Mercedes Benz’ new ideas behind “smart stop technology”, a wireless safety system that communicates with “smart intersections” to ensure that drivers stop at red lights, is yet another step towards automatically taking away bad driving habits that may still exist.

The Jetsons would be proud. Them and their robot servant.

CD's: The New Frisbees?

From the discussion we had in class last week regarding Borders closing all of it’s locations, which can be attributed not only to their competitors’ leg-up but also the turn being made towards personal readers such as the Kindle, I was reminded of yet another genre taking a hit in the “digital age”: Music.

Not long ago as I walked through a local mall in Braintree, MA, I noticed that FYE, short for “For Your Entertainment”, was closing. Though not all locations are closing/have closed, it was certainly an eerie reminder of just how much the landscape of the music industry has changed since Napster took to brave new territory in the late 1990’s. Not only were digital downloads the hottest topic at the time (so much so that if Twitter had existed, it no doubt would be trending), but still today the same stipulations that made Napster so frightening for artists exists in a different sense: If people download music online, they’ll no longer buy CD’s.

In a recent article from the Washington Post via the Daily Herald, it is said that just because a band attains the #1 spot atop the Billboard 200 chart does not mean they are necessarily the most popular or successful. Rock band the Decemberists’ album “The King is Dead” reached that spot by selling 94,000 copies in its’ opening week; a strong number for the millions relegated to posting their music on YouTube to gain popularity, but not for what was once considered a somewhat sacred achievement for musicians. It is fair to say that if one were to look back at the iTunes Top 10 digital albums for that week, the Decemberists would most likely not be in the number one spot, perhaps not even in the top 10 at all. With rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye West making their long-anticipated “Watch the Throne” LP available for purchase through iTunes before it is released in stores, millions of copies could be sold, yet they would fail to even break the Billboard 200 list at all.

So then, with Kindles replacing books and online newspapers rapidly trouncing sales of print newspapers, how long is the shelf life (no pun intended) for compact discs? Not long, it seems, especially if people take the same stance as my friend Ryan that CD’s are worthless once they’ve been copied onto your iPod. But hey, someday maybe that limited edition, Best Buy exclusive version of your favorite artists’ newest work will sell for list price on eBay…you hope.