Information Systems Grad School

My information system classes just started again and I’m
actually enjoying Decision Support
Systems. For the most part, the textbooks, (which cost more used at the GWU Bookstore than new
on Amazon), are excellent standards of
information systems. However, when they go off-topic or try to predict trends,
they start to, well, go off a bit. 

George Marakas’ Decision Support Systems In the 21^st Century is good from what I can tell after chapters 1, 2 and 13, but chapter 13, “The Systems Perspective of a DSS,” has some funny statements: “Because the World Wide Web can be easily eaccessed via any type of available hardware, end users having Windows, MAC-OS, LINIX [sic], UNIX, or even a home television Web service can easily share and access the DSS application.”

If you’re going to publish a textbook on DSS and get a
university to charge me outrageous sums for it, you could at least spell Linux
correctly. It makes me doubt the accuracy of the entire chapter.

Also, read this: “The current
standard for Web-base applications is JAVA.  Although showing great promise, JAVA is not
yet capable of providing fast, reliable performance in complex application
environments, primarily because it is interpreted, rather than compiled into
machine code.” Personally, I would disagree with the statement on several
levels. Java is a standard, but not the standard. Most languages used to
process web requests, like ASP, PHP, Perl, Python, are interpreted, and can run
on several platforms. I believe interpreted languages are far more common for web
applications than compiled languages, like C or C++.

I
would agree with the second sentence, but not the first. Bluetooth is used to
synchronize mobile devices with your laptop or desktop, or to print wirelessly, not so much to connect
to the Internet. That would be Wifi, WiMax, CDPD, CDMA, GSM,  TDMA, FLEX, Mobitex, etc., but not so much
Bluetooth. I am nitpicking, but for the cost of grad school and textbooks, you’d think they would get it right, even when they go
off-topic. The authors would be better sticking to what they know, but who
knows, I could be wrong. What do you think?