POS 355 Complete Course

Week 1

Discussion Questions

What are some of the many considerations in selecting the correct information system to use for trading futures and stocks?

Is Service Oriented Architecture a new solution to information technology, or is it a new name for the rehash of providing the user with what the user wants? Explain.

Based on the article by Zhu, Ding, Li and Kemp (2009), what components or modules of a standard electronic computer system might be engineered into a bio-chip? What problem in the development of future electronic computer does the developing bio-chip technology address?

Based on the article by Pronk, Pimentel, Roos and Breit (2007), especially Figure 1, what are the general functions of processors, software and networks? What is the classical (von Neumann) architecture of a computer system?

Week 2

Individual Assignment: Huffman Trucking Paper

Write a 3-5 page paper in APA format describing the operating systems used by Huffman Trucking. Why do you think these operating systems were chosen? What are the implications of the operating systems that are in use by Huffman Trucking? You can access the Huffman Trucking Web site from the Virtual Organizations Portal. (Hint: Look at network diagrams.)

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Project (Due Week Five)

Begin work on the Operating System Analysis.

o Outline the important features of Windows XP.

Discussion Questions

Do you agree or disagree that throughput and capacity are determining factors for effectiveness of a system more so than processor speed? Why or why not?

What security issues must be resolved now that cannot wait for the next version of Windows to arrive? Are we looking at a patch or a work-around to solve the present issues?

Based on Ornes (2009) article, what are the improvements that a memristor might have over current physical and electronic storage devices? Is a memristor a green technology?

Based on the article by Polakovic and Stefani (2008), what are the main requirements to reconfigure software on-the-fly? How do the authors define a computer component?

Week 3

Individual Assignment: PC/Mainframe Paper

Write a 3-5 page paper in APA format comparing and contrasting PCs and mainframes. It will be necessary to research this topic outside your course readings.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Project (Due Week Five)

Continue work on the Operating System Analysis.

o Outline the important features of Windows 2003.

Discussion Questions

Based on Eleraths (2009) article, what are the two main categories of hard disk drive failure? How does SMART technology work and what does it mean when limits are exceeded?

Based on Thibodeaus (2008) article, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the use of mainframes?

Find a recent article about the use of mainframes in today's IT world, review it for the class and include the link to the article.

Week 4

Individual Assignment: Operating Systems Analysis Paper

Write a 3-5 page paper describing operating systems that are common on the Internet. It is necessary to research this topic outside your course readings.

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Project (Due Week Five)

Continue work on the Operating System Analysis.

o Outline the important features of Linux.

o Begin work on the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Discussion Questions

Does a new software product always provide a fundamental improvement to the system where we install the new software product? What could some of the gains include?

Based on the article by Jason Brooks (2009), what capability will XP Mode in the Windows7 operating system add to PCs? What computer system hardware resource(s) may need to be enhanced to use this capability?

Based on the article by Michael Vizard (2009), why is the Hyper-V virtualization technology available in Windows Server 2008 an important resource for many business IT environments? What role does the SUSE version of Linux play?

What question would you ask about a topic you would like to talk about relating to operating systems that has not been touched on thus far in the course.

Week 5

Learning Team Assignment: Learning Team Project

Complete work on the Operating System Analysis.

o Complete and submit the 8-12 page paper that compares and contrasts Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Linux.

o Complete and submit the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.