post #10- keeping secrets

This weeks lecture on cryptography and its technological applications presented itself with endless possibilities for my business. It also appealed to my inner conspiracy theorist. what if one of my clients turns out to be a spy?

Although, to the layman, using these techniques may seem absurd, one can never be too careful. My business is revolutionary. It's going to change the face of productivity as we know it, and there are countless of less honorable businessmen out there who just might try and get their hands on my ideas tucked away in my computer.

Thus, I will institute data encryption. That is, to wit, I will include a cipher as part of my hiring package with which my employees will know just how much I transposed the names of thier clients and addresses, thereby confusing the hell out of them, but gaining the peace of mind that their source of well being (i.e., me) will not be usurped by another sneaky company.

week 9- keeping it all together

The effectiveness of any business is determined in a large part by how its data its managed and analyzed. clientele, finances, and other records should be centralized, accessible, and easy to work with. This weeks lectures on databases showed just how to go about that.

Through a program like access, or Microsoft SQL, I can keep all my clients, and thier accounts, on file and record and be able to easily keep them all up to date. It's infinitely better than paper files, and data redundancy is avoided thanks to the cascading nature of the data in the programs.

Also with a database program I'll be able to generate reports and actually make use of the data I'm collecting. That way, I can see what clients make the most use of my business, and perhaps come up with better marketing tactics to reach those who i'm not getting.

week 5- big brother

This weeks lecture on input systems got me thinking to myself: "self, just how can I use RFID tags to better my PPA business?" After some time contemplating I'm still not sure. After all, I'm not necessarily selling or taking in any real physical product. Theoretically I could use them for payroll, giving my PPAs RFID badges and a reader to each client. That way we have an exact measure of the time for which my employees would be paid. But I can't help but think such a system could easily be fudged. Unfortunately, tech like RFID doesn't seem efficient in a service business like mine. At least, not yet. So for the meantime, I'll stick with GPS.

week 4- OK Computer

This weeks lecture mainly dealt with the components of a computer, and each parts various functions. Unfortunately, I cannot think of three complete paragraphs as to how I would apply this to my PPA business. So, to my chagrin, a few of these sentences are going to be filler.

Kind of like these last two.

The primary application of this weeks material to my business, is essentially the same application it has to me as a consumer. being knowledgeable helps to save me money; instead of going to say, Dell, and buying computers (because computers, like thneeds, are something everyone needs) I could build one.

The other benefit (I forgot to mention that it was twofold) is a logical progression of the first: If I build it, I can fix it. Or maybe even upgrade it, to increase the longevity of my initial investment. Both save me, and my business, money.

Week 3- Spreadsheets and Me

So, Now that I have this great business idea, it's time to get organized. This weeks lecture spent alot of time on the uses for excel, and its various functions. Functions that I would need to use extensively for my business to run smoothly, or run at all.

First and foremost, I would use Excel to manage the finances of my PPA business. Clients, employees, payroll, expenses, all would have to find its way into their own spreadsheet. this way, I will amass all the data necessary for the running of my business in one place (although on several different worksheets).

With all the data in the spreadsheet program, I would then be able to easily manage my business. I could get a snapshot of the current state of affairs by using them to create reports, or i could see the possible implications of a new purchase or pay raise with conditional formulas and the like. It allows me to neatly have the entirety of my business on paper. That's handy.

Week 1- the idea

So we now live in a"plugged in" digital society. Multitasking is the norm. But the truth is, multitasking sucks. We've become so much more harried, have to remember so much more, and in a weird twist, the ability to accomplish more at once has naturally led to more stuff that we can potentially forget, like our girlfriends or familes.

Naturally the way to get around this is to become more organized. And the tools are there. Super-smart genius robot phones that will probably take over the world are rising in popularity. PDAs are the new pagers. All tools to help us stay organized. But still, I believe that these tools lack something: humanity.

Hence, I propose the Personal Physical Assistant (PPA, patent pending). My business will offer its own army of caffeine imbued high-strung people to live your digital life for you. Your facebook, twitter, and myspace pages are their first priority, and they will multitask so you dont have to. As for competition, I'm creating a whole new service sector. Secretaries will be jealous, but not replaced, and travel agents annoyed, but still employed. Everybody wins.