Rajeev Karki

Leonardo Da Vinci is considered to be one of the most talented men to have ever lived. He was a scientist, engineer, mathematician, poet, writer, sculptor, botanist, musician and an amazing painter. His curiosity and his powers for invention lead him conceive things that were well ahead of his time.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a product of the European Renaissance. He was born in Florence, Italy, the city considered to be the birthplace of the European Renaissance, on April 15, 1452. Little is known about the childhood of Leonardo. By the age of fourteen, Leonardo was already apprenticing under one of the most successful artist of that time, Andrea di Cione, who produced great talents such as Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. During this apprenticeship, in addition to learning the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modeling, Leonardo was also exposed to the details of drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, plaster casting, and leather working.

One of Leondardo Da Vinci's most well known artworks is his painting of The Last Supper. The painting depicts the last meal shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion. He is equally famous for his painting of the Mona Lisa with her elusive smile that has amazed people for centuries.

Leonardo kept journals during his lifetime, and filled over 13,000 pages with notes on his scientific work. He was very interested in anatomy and did drawings of muscles, skeletons, and organs. He was one of the first people to do a scientific drawing of a human fetus in utero. Da Vinci's notebooks also included ideas for many inventions. He was interested in the idea of flight, and made plans for various flying machines including a helicopter and a hang glider. Many of his ideas were thought impossible at the time. However, today many of his ideas have actually been found to be more feasible than they were thought to be during his own time, and have been influential in the designs and plans of engineers and scientists even today.

Wikipedia (n.d.). Leonardo da Vinci. Retrieved Novenber 29, 2007 from
, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As more and more web pages start implementing Web 2.0 on their sites, it becomes increasingly important to also keep the performance of the website as efficient as possible. When we are stuck with slow loading pages, the first thing we think about is faster dedicated servers that can serve the pages a lot faster. Although, this may improve the responsiveness of a website, the true problem lies somewhere else.

It will probably be a surprise to most of us to find out that only 20% of a total page load time is actually spent on fetching the HTML document from the web server. The remaining 80% of the time is actually spent on the front end, downloading all the components required for the page. This includes images, css, Flash, scripts etc. Focusing on the hardware is solving only 20% of the problem.

The engineers at Yahoo did some extensive research and came up with a list of Best Practices to use to speed up your website:

1. Make fewer HTTP requests
2. Use content delivery network
3, Add an expires header
4. Gzip components
5, Put stylesheets on the top
6. Put scripts at the bottom
7 Avoid CSS expressions
8, Make JavaScript and CSS external
9. Reduce DNS lookups
10. Minify JavaScripts
11. Avoid redirects
12. Remove Duplicate Scripts
13. Configure Etags
14 Make Ajax cacheable.

Yahoo has also released an add-on called YSlow for Firefox that helps developers monitor the performance of their website and make changes to speend them up.

I personally have found these best practices very helpful. EVen though it is hard to implement all the best practices, just even a few changes has drastically changed the performance of some of the websites tha I have worked on. I would recommend YSlow to anyone who builds a website as a hobby or a profession.

Yahoo (n.d.). Exceptional Performance : Best Practices for Speeding
Up Your Web Site. Retrieved Novenber 29, 2007 from , Web site:
http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The internet has revolutionized the way we retrieve information. From news, music, and weather to banking, research, shopping, and more, the internet is the place to find pretty much any information that you are looking for.

It is hard to remember the not so distant days when we had to wait for the evening news to find out what the next day’s weather would be. It is hard to imagine that we used to have to wait for the newspaper to arrive to get results of elections or late breaking news. Now, with the internet, so much information is available so quickly.

The way that we do research has been totally revolutionized. Students used to have to use annually published encyclopedias along with whatever books were available through their local library and inter-library loan to do their research. Needless to say, searching card catalogs, filling out book loan requests, and getting the resources that were needed was a very time consuming process. Now the internet is able to provide students access to the catalogs of many libraries within minutes. Students are also able to access many documents and sources online without having to check them out. Newspaper archives are readily available, making it unnecessary to search through boxes of microfilm and microfiche. Changes such as these save not only time, but also money, because of reduced printing and storing costs.

The internet itself is going through a revolutionary period. Instead of just providing static information for users to read, it is becoming more interactive. We see more and more websites providing applications on the web using Web 2.0 technology that is replacing desktop applications and electronic gadgets. We can now create and save documents, print and share photos, download music, upload videos, keep track of banking records, listen to voicemail, and print fax documents - all on the internet.

But this is just the beginning of a era in the information and communication world. We are truly living in the Information Renaissance.

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After some extensive research on the web, we were able to narrow down the choices to three major companies that offer event management software that would meet the needs of Cornerstone Center for the Arts. These include EmergingSoft’s Meeting Planner , NetSimplicity’s Meeting Room Manager , and Dean Evans and Associates Inc.’s line of EMS software . It appears that the EMS Lite solution that Cornerstone has chosen for managing their room schedules is still a leading provider of event management software. Dean Evans and Associates Inc., the manufacturer of EMS Lite, offers the software in three different versions: EMS Lite, EMS Professional, and EMS Enterprise. It also offers numerous optional modules that extend the functionality of the base EMS product .

So, while Cornerstone is facing some difficulties with the current setup for managing their scheduled events, the problem is not a case of using bad software. Instead, the source of the difficulties that Cornerstone is facing in maintaining the schedules seems to be threefold:

(i) Using the wrong version of the EMS software
(ii) Lack of sufficient training
(iii) Lack of appropriate technology

Many of Cornerstone’s problems have come about due to the use of the wrong version of the EMS software. Though EMS is capable of doing many things that Cornerstone would like to do, the EMS Lite software that they are currently using lacks many of these capabilities. Cornerstone would like to be able to be more selective in choosing which items in the calendar are published to their website. Currently, it is an all or nothing situation. They can publish the entire calendar, including details such as who is working at the front desk, or publish none of the events in the calendar. The current calendar also lacks the ability to search for a particular event or filter the results by event type, room, or other parameters. Some of these advanced features actually exist in other EMS software. For example, the ability to filter the event pages in Virtual EMS appears to be available in the EMS Professional and EMS Enterprise versions. In addition, the new versions of EMS Lite (and higher) feature capabilities that allow searching by both categories and keywords.

Another problem that Cornerstone faces lies in integrating Microsoft Outlook with EMS Lite. EMS provides an optional module that integrates its event scheduling features directly into Microsoft Outlook. This can be added on to the current software to completely eliminate this problem.

Currently, there is a large amount of manual work that must be done in order to make Cornerstone’s schedule available on the web. According to their documentation and features list, EMS actually has the capability to reduce some of this time consuming manual work. EMS offers regularly scheduled free training sessions and web seminars (“webinars”) which can be an extremely valuable and low-cost or even no-cost method for updating users on using EMS effectively. By offering this training to Cornerstone’s staff members, it is quite likely that their use of the EMS software would be more efficient, saving them a good deal of both time and energy.

Another challenge that is currently keeping Cornerstone’s scheduling from operating more smoothly is the lack of appropriate technology. Because each staff member has Outlook installed on his or her individual computer, there is no way for the staff to share their various calendars, contacts, and tasks. If Cornerstone would setup a Microsoft Exchange server, they could eliminate this lack of integration. Rather than having to maintain their own hardware and software, Cornerstone could make use of a hosted Exchange server. This would allow them to avoid the need for extra IT personnel.

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Cornerstone Center for the Arts makes it one of their goals to offer a large variety of classes that will appeal to a wide range of people. Students are able to participate in visual arts, drama, music, dance, martial arts and more. Both individual and group classes are offered, depending on the class type and subject. Classes are offered in 12 week sessions in the spring and fall, and in 6 week sessions during the summer. During any given semester, between thirty five to forty different classes may be offered. Class size varies depending on the subject, but group classes require that at least 5-7 students be enrolled in order to continue. Classes are taught by over 20 local artists and teachers, who have been trained in various fields and are able to bring their specialized talents and expertise to the Cornerstone classrooms.

Hundreds of people participate in Cornerstone’s arts classes each and every week, but the activity does not stop there. Cornerstone is also a much sought after location for events of all types, including weddings, receptions, banquets, concerts, meetings, and more. Cornerstone has several venues available for rent, including the Colonnade Room Banquet Hall, the Edmund Burke Ball Auditorium, the Great Room, and the Theater Room. These rooms have various capabilities and can accommodate anywhere from 250 to 1000 people.

Additionally, a number of resident organizations call Cornerstone their home. Current residents include the Community Center for Vital Aging, ECI Chamber Orchestra, Magic City Music Men, Masterworks Chorale, Muncie Ballet Studio, Muncie Masonic Association, and Third Age Theatre. For these organizations, Cornerstone Center for the Arts serves as a meeting place, rehearsal space, office, and home.

With its many classes, rentals, and resident organizations, Cornerstone is an extremely active and busy place. During the interview it became even more apparent that scheduling rooms and meeting places for all of these events is a huge challenge for Cornerstone and its directors. Currently, Cornerstone manages its schedule and room reservations using EMS Lite. EMS Lite is a desktop application that allows a reservationist to manage meetings and events that take place in a facility. At Cornerstone, a room reservation request can come from many different sources. A person could call in or send an email to reserve a room. A room request could also come from a staff member desiring to use the space for a meeting, class or extracurricular activity. A lot of times, there is a gap between when the reservation request is made and when it is entered into EMS Lite. This has caused the rooms to be overbooked, creating tensions both internally and with the clients.

Cornerstone also uses an add-on interface called Virtual EMS to publish the events calendar on its website. Currently, this is a manual process for Cornerstone which requires the records from EMS Lite to be exported to Virtual EMS by the administrator. Administrators seem to have very little control over what records are exported to the web. This causes unnecessary details to be published on Cornerstone’s online calendar.

Cornerstone’s staff heavily relies on Microsoft Outlook for communication both internally and externally. Outlook is installed as a standalone program on individual staff computers without an Exchange Server, making it impossible for the staff to share their calendar, contacts, and tasks. The fact that information cannot be easily shared seems to be one of the main reasons why some of the staff members have not adopted the use of Outlook for their managing their meetings and schedules. The other reason that some of the staff members do not use Microsoft Outlook Calendar is due to the lack of integration of EMS Lite with Outlook. They do not want to maintain their calendar in two different systems.

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 09:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most modern scholars consider the period between 1300 and 1600 in European History to be the Renaissance period. The Renaissance period was a time of exploration and learning. People started venturing outside their comfort zone making new discoveries and inventions. This was also the period of learning in which new schools and colleges became more common. Oxford and Cambridge were established during this period.

In French, Renaissance means rebirth. The Renaissance is believed to have started in the rich cities such as Florence, Milan and Venice in Italy, and from there to have spread to the rest of Europe. “It encompassed the revival of learning based on classical sources, the rise of courtly and papal patronage, the development of perspective in painting, and advancements in science.”

One very important invention during the Renaissance was the printing press. Johann Gutenberg is credited with the invention of the printing press. The printing press made it possible to reproduce books much more easily and quickly than handwritten manuscripts. This resulted in books becoming less expensive and more accessible for common people. Literacy became much more widespread during this time. The development of the printing press also contributed to the establishment of scholarly journals which allowed scientists to share their discoveries with others in their fields. This, in turn, led to a scientific revolution. People no longer simply trusted the church to explain everything for them. Instead they began to place increased value on experimentation and scientific proof. It was during this period that people favored the scientific method as the process of discovery. Empirical evidence based on scientific observation and mathematics was favored over Aristotelian principles. This new scientific method led to advancements in the fields of astronomy, physics, anatomy and biology.

The Renaissance period gave birth to geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who made tremendous contributions in the fields of art and science. Artists such as these began “making observational drawings of anatomy and nature.” The art of this time featured new levels of realism, especially in regard to perspective.

The Renaissance period was also a time for new ideas on religion. With greater interest in science, along with increased literacy, people were no longer limited to following the thinking of what the church leaders told them. Humanism, which affirms “the dignity and worth of all people” was very popular and influential as well. It affected people’s view of the relationship between God and man. It also influenced theologians of the time, including Martin Luther, whose 95 Theses challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and led to the Reformation.

Cyber Essays (n.d.). The European Renaissance. Retrieved
Novenber 20, 2007 from , Web site:
http://www.cyberessays.com/History/24.htm

Wikipedia (n.d.). Renaissance. Retrieved Novenber 20, 2007 from
, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

Wikipedia (n.d.). Humanism. Retrieved Novenber 20, 2007 from
, Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism

Posted by Rajeev Karki at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)