Posts Tagged ‘development’
A Short History of Systems Development
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Memory on November 27th, 2010
“If they do not have an appreciation of whence we came, I doubt
they will have an appreciation of where we should be going.”
- Bryce’s Law
INTRODUCTION
I always find it amusing when I tell a young person in this industry that I
worked with punch cards and plastic templates years ago. Its kind of the
same dumbfounded look I get from my kids when I tell them we used to
watch black and white television with three channels, no remote control,
and station signoffs at midnight. It has been my observation that our younger
workers do not have a sense of history; this is particularly apparent in the
systems world. If they do not have an appreciation of whence we came,
I doubt they will have an appreciation of where we should be going. Consequently,
I have assembled the following chronology of events in the hopes this will provide
some insight as to how the systems industry has evolved to its current state.
I’m sure I could turn this into a lengthy dissertation but, instead, I will try
to be brief and to the point. Further, the following will have little concern
for academic developments but rather how systems have been implemented
in practice in the corporate world.
PRE-1950′S – “SYSTEMS AND PROCEDURES”
Perhaps the biggest revelation to our younger readers regarding this period
will be that there was any form of systems prior to the advent of the
computer. In fact, “Systems and Procedures” Departments predated the
computer by several years. Such departments would be concerned with the
design of major business processes using “work measurement” and “work
simplification” techniques as derived from Industrial Engineering. Such
processes were carefully designed using grid diagrams and flowcharts. There
was great precision in the design of forms to record data, filing systems to
manage paperwork, and the use of summary reports to act as control
points in systems. For example, spreadsheets have been extensively used
for many years prior to the introduction of Lotus 1-2-3 or MS Excel. There was
also considerable attention given to human behavior during the business
process (the precursor to “ergonomics”).
Systems were initially implemented by paper and pencil using ledgers, journals
(logs), indexes, and spreadsheets. We have always had some interesting filing
systems, everything from cards and folders, to storage cabinets.
Perhaps the earliest mechanical device was the ancient abacus used for simple
math (which is still used even to this day). The late 1800’s saw the advent of cash
registers and adding machines as popularized by such companies as NCR in
Dayton, Ohio under John Patterson who also introduced sweeping changes in
terms of dress and business conduct. This was adopted by Thomas Watson, Sr.
who worked for many years at NCR and carried forward these practices to IBM
and the rest of the corporate world. Also, Burroughs was a major player in
the early adding machine industry.
The first typewriters were also introduced in the late 1800’s which had a tremendous
effect on correspondence and order processing. This was led primarily by Remington
Arms (later to become Remington Rand).
In the early 1900’s, tabulating equipment was introduced to support such things
as census counting. This was then widely adopted by corporate America. Occasionally
you will run into old-timers who can describe how they could program such machines
using plug boards. Punch card sorters were added as an adjunct to tabulating
equipment.
As a footnote, most of what IBM’s Watson learned about business was from
his early days at NCR. However, he had a falling out with Patterson who fired
him. As a small bit of trivia, after Watson died, he was buried in Dayton on a
hilltop overlooking NCR headquarters, the company he couldn’t conquer.
During World War II, both the U.S. military and industrial complex relied heavily
on manually implemented systems. We did it so well that many people, including
the Japanese, contend it gave the Allies a competitive edge during the war.
The lesson here, therefore, is that manually implemented
General Memory Development
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Business on August 15th, 2010
Many a times you read a book and when you close the book and try to recollect what you have read, you are blank. Therefore, you need to know the capacity of your working memory, strategies, metamemory, and content. One can have memory problems like infantile amnesia or eyewitness testimony. It improves with growing age, throughout the entire childhood.
Working memory is the thing that remains for a short period of time and allows the information to process while it is still in being stored. There is a general improvement in the memory working up to the age of 45 years. Memory development of children is a result of increased capacity and not efficiency. One can easily notice the differences from the performance. Changes in the capacity of working play an important factor of cognitive development.
Strategies
Researchers have found that there are various strategies that would assist memory. These strategies would not only help children but also adults. Even in 18 months old, strategies are obvious. Rehearsal is found in the older children to the younger ones. So also categorization is used by more of older children to younger ones. Changes in the strategies could help it with age.
Metamemory
Metamemory is all about having your won memory-skills. As compared to the older groups, the preschool tend to overestimate their memories. However, their knowledge does not reflect their performance, is also found by the researchers by investigations. Metamemory improves in a person with age. However it is not necessary that it would lead to better performance.
Conclusion
As the child grows older, the increasing knowledge would help in developing it for better. In some areas, children have knowledge equal to adults. In case of chess, memory of a child is just like the adult. It is found that in 21-23 years olds, script knowledge is more evident. Children tend to remember common sequences of events very well. Most commonly schema knowledge is also found in children. Thus, increasing knowledge about script, and schema would help a child to develop his or her own. Improvement in a child could lead to its development. Its development mostly is a result of improved capacity, content, and strategies. However, evidence regarding metamemory is not completely clear.
Changes in nature of Memory
Memory is explicit as it depends on the amount of conscious recollection or could be implicit, not consciously recalled. Implicit-memory generally is better with children of about age 5 years also with adults. However, explicit is comparatively poor in children to the explicit . Children’s memory differs from one to another. Only few types of memories are poor while the rest are good. Children may suffer from a certain problem that may be different from the problems with adults. The amount and type of memory differs from children to adults. In order to assist cognitive development, one needs to overcome the limitations that are influenced by strategies, content, and metamemory. Problems On this like infantile amnesia and suggestibility could be easily reduced. Appropriate social interactions would certainly help one to develop one’s memory.
Stephen C Campbell (Master NLP Practitioner) has published more information on Developing Memory and mastering your life at
http://www.memorydevelopmentmastery.com
Memory Development Techniques
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Business on July 22nd, 2010
Science has developed by leaps and bounds lately and almost all forms of science have become very advanced because of the research and develop being conducted in their respective fields. The only science which is still under great controversy in the science based on the brains power, the mental domain and the memory speculation which is other wise called as neurosciences or neuropsychology.
Mind is an amazing thing conceptualized by god. Its power and capacity knows no boundaries and man is yet to tap this power fully. It is said that man only uses a fragment of his mental capacity. Researches are always been done to increase this power or in the field of memory development. Memories are recorded events in the mental domain it is just like the computer encoding. Everything that happens is recorded in the brain and whenever need the information is retrieved.
But how is it that we can retrieve only certain events or information and not all what we see? All the sensory organs work together when we perceive something. For example let us we are in a pizza corner and placed before us is a beautifully decorated and mouth watering pizza. Our eyes see it, mouth tastes and we feel the texture too. This experience while eating a pizza is recorded in the memory. When you go back home you explain about the whole incident with every minute details as if you had a photographic memory.
How could you do this, when you even forget what you ate for dinner last night? Your full attention and all your sensory organs were focused on the pizza and so it was easy to retrieve the data stored, but last night your full focus and attention was on T.V rather than the food you ate. So memory encoding and retrieval highly depends on the attention it is given. In many cases trauma, accidents or depression might cause temporary memory loss which mostly is curable. Memory plays a vital role in the overall development of a person. His intelligence is judged by his memory retention capacity.
Without memory nobody can function normally because it creates an identity. Memory capacity thus depends on the attention and the sensory perceptions. People suffering from memory loss are thus given methods or exercises for memory development. Students usually forget things easily before of the attention deficit as they are distracted by so many other things. When they know the memory development techniques then they can memorize and study much better. Usually children easily remember things which they like, so it is natural that they don’t give a damn about things or subjects which they hate.
Memory development is a new concept these days and everyone wants a sharper memory. No doubt many new age gurus and institutions have already cashed in on this sudden demand. When you open the paper or browse through the internet there are so many sites and ads which allure people of high mental power and strong memory development courses and techniques. People who are really affected because of memory loss are mostly students and elderly people.
Everyone possesses a memory capacity and even overloaded this capacity might also be cause for memory loss. But then human beings cannot remember almost everything around them. Then there will only be chaos and confusion. Many people will always be depressed or will be affected by anxiety. It is good to forget at least the bad things in life. Leave alone this life what will happen if we were to remember and have memories of all our past lives if at all it is true. What a great confusion it will and nearly all human being will definitely become insane.
Thus memory development should be focused to increase the general working capacity to aid our normal functioning. Students weak in studies can use this memory development tools to enhance their capacity. Even elderly people or business associates can learn this memory development to brush up and know how exactly they can remember imperative things that needs to be stored as memory. Actually positive people learn from their memories. Therefore memory development should lead to human advancement and better functioning rather than for any other reason.
Stephen C Campbell (Master NLP Practitioner) has published more information on Developing Memory and mastering your life at
http://www.memorydevelopmentmastery.com
