Duane Reade lays plans to create a profit hub with central-fill facilities

As an international student, at the very beginning of the last class when I heard something about Duane Reade, I did not know what it was. After class, I learned that Duane Reade is the largest drug store in New York. Founded in 1960, the chain started with three stores, named after the location of the company's warehouse between Duane and Reade Streets on Broadway in lower Manhanttan. It completed its initial public offering (IPO) on February 10, 1998. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DRD until August 2, 2004, when it was acquired by Oak Hill Capital Partners and taken private.
I have searched some articles about Duane Reade. “Duane Reade lays plans to create a profit hub with central-fill facilities” is a very meaningful one. Duane Reade has expended or initiated several programs designed to enhance the profitability of the pharmacy and to make the practice of pharmacy more satisfying to its pharmacists. The central-fill is set up so that some of the work flow for processing and filling scripts can be routed to select remote stores in an integrated system. Duane Reade hopes to have transformed other select stores, primarily low volume sores that have not reached peak capacity, into central-fill/ central-processing hubs that can handle stores in other Duance Reade markets. This system will make Duance Reade working more effective.
I think that some stock buyers and shareholders will be very interested in this article because it’s talking about the stock price.

Reference:
Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3374/is_11_23/ai_77579198
Author: Liz Parks

Learn How To Maximize Profits at Online Auctions

Auction is the most interesting thing I learned from last class. Professor has mentioned there are kinds of auction style, which are English acution, Dutch auction, Sealed-bid-first-priceauction, and All-pay acution. We tried to use it to earn profit during the class time. I was thinking how to get a considerable profit when you do an auction. I search some article about this question. “Learn How To Maximize Profits at Online Auctions” is an article which introduces several steps to get profit. I totally agree with it.
I believe that selling information products on the Internet must be the easiest business in the world. Hardly any product or delivery costs and practically 100% profit on any sale. In fact you would think it is the kind of business you could not fail in, but thousands of people do. Why? Perhaps it appears so simple that people do not think there is any need to do any preparation or gain any knowledge. As someone who has been selling information online for quite a few years now let me tell you that if you take this attitude then you are wrong. The more you know about the business before you start, the fewer mistakes you will make and the more likely you are to become a successful information seller.
This article is very good for those people who are selling items in eBay or other websites. Also is good for the buyers.

Reference:
Link: http://www.auctionessentials4u.com/MaxProfit.htm

The differences between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence

According to definition, artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. For example, a simple computer program for solving mate-in-one chess problems might try moves at random until mate is found. The program might then store the solution with the position so that the next time the computer encountered the same position it would recall the solution.
What are the differences between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence (HI)? The success of AI so far has only been in the simulation of intelligence; not the creation of true intelligence. And to that extent, AI is somewhat incorrect, since the people who are developing a true intelligent system are yet far from the real thing. The difference appears to arise because in AI there is only a simulating system, which seems to resemble some characteristics of intelligence.
The question is how to scientifically approach AI in order to be able to come very close to HI. For this, it is important to the human brain and how intelligence works in the brain. These show up as intellectual functions that have to be performed in order to complete a task.
Since any scientific thoughts must first be theorized, those attempting to mimic HI must first create a theory about the phenomena of the brain. This would certainly make the starting point adventitious. Intelligence is only a functional capability of the brain. What about other things like emotion, pain, dreams, extra sensory perception, which are also functional capabilities of the brain? To predict a function is to be able to produce the function by other mimicking it. The theory to explain how humans perform their tasks will be a system for performing a task intelligently. The phenomena are functional capabilities, from realizing to exploring knowledge. So, the system will predict that humans exhibit these phenomena by themselves exhibiting them. The development of artificial intelligence has begun to explore the wide nature of intelligence. However, a theory that only highlights functional capabilities of intelligence will not serve the purpose. It should also conform to human intelligence. Definitely not in ways that are far from human intelligence, yet call it intelligence.





Reference:
Link: http://www.origins.org/articles/mellichamp_artificialintelligence.html http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9009711/artificial-intelligence

SupplySolution and Covisint

Last class, the professor mentioned about Covisint. Through the class, I was very interested about this company. “Real-Time Software Drives Covisint's Supply Chain” discusses that the relationship between this company and SupplySolution Inc., a supply-chain software vendor whose customers include 10 of the largest automotive-industry suppliers and more than 700 smaller ones.
SupplySolution and Covisint will jointly develop supply-chain execution applications that may include real-time ordering, planning, and logistics software. Under the agreement, SupplySolution's i-Supply Service, i-GetIt, and Global Infrastructure products will be used to create an integration infrastructure, or hub, that will let suppliers and automakers use their existing supply-chain management, customer-relationship management, and enterprise resource planning applications to do real-time business with one another via Covisint.
SupplySolution's offerings will be available immediately to all Covisint customers on a subscription basis. Pricing was not disclosed.
I think this article is very useful for those automakers because it is showing the supply chain management of Covisint or Supplysolution will be stronger than they use to be. Therefore, they will increase production and potential marketplace for those automakers.


Reference:
Link: http://www.informationweek.com/830/covisint.htm
Author: Steve Konicki

Virtual reality

The most interesting thing that I learned from last class this week was Virtual reality (VR). VR is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one.
“Is Virtual Life Better than Reality?” is a very interesting article which indicates VR has a big influence right now. It gives evidence that proves how people use second life to chase their dreams. However, I think VR has caught the eye of the general public for more reasons. If people use it correctly, VR will aid society in many ways. In the past, virtual reality has been nothing more than a small step beyond video games. However, it is now apparent that this technology can be used for more practical purposes. These purposes include national defense, surgical procedures and various other applications. Society has not fully acknowledged the benefits of virtual reality because it is still under development. The reason for virtual reality remaining in its development for so long is mainly due to its complexity. The hardware that has developed so far is unable to make the large calculations required by a virtual reality based machine. However, as apparent in recent years, technology is advancing at an extreme rate. This is another reason why society's hopes for virtual reality have and still should remain steady.

Reference：
Article: Is Virtual Life Better than Reality?
Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/31/eveningnews/main1852600.shtml

News From My Homeland China(Assignment 5)

Last class, the professor mentioned Customer Relationship Management (CRM). I searched some articles about this topic. “China Telecom (Jiangsu) Selects PacificNet Epro for CRM Telemarketing Services” was one of them. Since China is my homeland, I was very interested in this article. China continues to be the world's fastest growing economy at 11% annual growth with the largest consumer population, the largest population of mobile phone users with over 400 million, and the second largest Internet- enabled population with over 120 million online, so I think China Telecom really needs a mature CRM system to improve their service and marketing.
Through a CRM system and the availability of customer data, marketers can finally see clearly who their customers are, what they are purchasing when they are purchasing it, and where it is being purchased. Marketers can apply statistical analysis to predict future purchase behavior. CRM systems also calculate the lifetime value of customers, which can allow marketers to categorize customers and pursue the high-value segment.
Through CRM systems, marketers can better understand and shape the customer experience in all phases of the relationship, from leads to prospects to customers to (worst case) former customers. Marketing and CRM work so well together because they basically have the same mission: to identify, acquire, foster and retain loyal, profitable customers.
Through CRM, the company will know more about what the customer might be interested in and will send specific offers only to those with the highest possible interest and readiness to buy.

Reference
Article: China Telecom (Jiangsu) Selects PacificNet Epro for CRM Telemarketing Services
Link: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-china-telecom-jiangsu-selects-pacificnet-epro-crm-telemarketing-/2007/10/08/2997645.htm

How do you secure your wireless network?(Assignment 4b)

Because of the convenience of a wireless network, people using wireless to access the internet is now very popular and advantageous. However, beginner computer users usually do not understand how to secure their wireless networks. It is not very hard to eaves drop a wireless network if the owner of the wireless network does not set a password or other identification.
There are several ways to secure your wireless network all of which can be done together to prevent unauthorized network access:
1. Turn off broadcasting of your Service Set Identifier (SSID). The SSID is a broadcast message notifying every device within range of your network’s presence. Most wireless routers have the option to turn off broadcasting your SSID. This is by far the easiest way to prevent hackers from accessing your network.
2. Change the default settings of your router’s Web-based administration. Changing your admin login won’t stop anyone from intercepting your wireless traffic, but it will prevent them from changing your settings. Most wireless routers allow you to change your admin name and password. While you’re at it, change the name of the SSID. If someone detects your SSID as being named “Linksys,” they can assume that your default username is “admin” and your default password is “admin” because that is the factory setting.
3. Enable WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) or WPA (Wireless Protected Access) encryption. WEP and WPA are ways of forcing users to enter a password, which is encrypted, before they can access a wireless network. WEP is the most commonly used, but some experienced hackers can still break the protection after a while. WPA is so far not crackable and is offered on the latest WiFi devices.
4. Allow access based on MAC (Machine Access Code) address. A MAC address is a unique number that every network-enabled device can be identified by, such as a fingerprint. Most wireless routers will allow you to set up access based on MAC addresses, allowing access to only the computers or devices which you have entered into the table. This can be more time-consuming but will certainly prevent all but the best equipped crackers from accessing your network. These four ways are powerful and effective ways to solve the problem, and are totally free. Everyone could just do it easily by themselves.