Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Arthur Eisenberg and Cap Pannell

Arthur Eisenberg and Cap Pannell seemed to have the perfect partnership. They achieved huge success due to their individual skills. They created a successful firm called Eisenberg/Pannell/St. George. Sales began to soar; revenues rose 50 % in 2 years, pushing the two million dollars mark; a national magazine praised their work. However beside the scene resentment was building between Arthur & Cap. The two partners had never really discussed what each wanted from their business venture. Arthur was dedicated to his work on the other hand Cap was pretty much family centered. Arthur wanted Cap to work all night long. But Arthur refused as he had a baby. Cap and his wife started coming office with their baby Ben. This incident make Arthur furious but he didn’t discuss it with them instead he complained to other employees. The crisis occurred when cap and his wife return from a vacation. Arthur asked them into his office and told them that he would like to discontinue the relationship. Cap left the office in silence and collected his belonging. Cap still bitter, says , â€Å"The business always did well. I don’t even know the real reason we split up. I really can’t forgive him right now in my heart. † For this part, Arthur insists, â€Å" If Cap & I were at a party, we would shake hands, and talk about old times†¦.. I think Cap was as unhappy I was. He probably out of the situation, too†¦ I wish I knew what he felt. † The communication barriers that Arthur Eisenberg & Cap Pannell faces in this situation are such as difference in perception, differing emotional states, lack of commitment etc. When they were working together the communication barriers that we are talking about wasn’t there but after pending some time they realized that they had different ideas about themselves. They were totally different from each other & that’s where the communication problem occurred. Arthur was a work loving person. He always committed to work for the organization. On the other hand, Cap Pannell was more family-centered person who had to give enough time to his family. He wasn’t ready to sacrifice his time with his family members due to excessive work load. Family comes first to him. The two guys have different perception about their work. So clearly there is a communication gap between Arthur & Cap.  We also have noticed that they both have different emotion towards their family members as well. Cap possess more emotion towards his family than Arthur. He had wife & a baby. So of course he will be more family centered. On the other hand, Arthur was more work oriented person. Difference in this can create communication between the two. Lack of commitment showed by Cap is also responsible for creating communication gap. As Cap refused to work longer hours at night as well as taking frequent business tours, Arthur was very anger towards Cap. He showed his anger not to Cap but other employees of the company. Arthur was so committed to his work while Cap wasn’t. that’s where the communication gap had actually occurred. There were so many differences between the two people that had created a problem resulting communication problem. Even they don’t discuss what they were going to achieve from doing business together, what were they expecting from each other & so on so. Unless they discuss this sort of things they were always in trouble & that has happened. We have some suggestion about overcoming communication between the two. Perception cannot be changed, but they can set aside their individual perception when they come to work. They should understand each other better if they set themselves in each other’s position. Personal life is important but that should not be mixed with professional life. Personal life is different from professional life & we should build ourselves in such a way that has a firm balance between our personal life & professional life. As we see from Cap’s perspectives, we should always be committed to our work which Cap wasn’t. Communication barriers will no longer present if we compromise as much as possible when we are working together, meaning we have to sacrifice something in order to achieve something. Arthur & Cap should communicate with each other in order to achieve certain objectives which they had & try to minimize the difference between them. The best option could be know what they are expecting from each other that will make them understand each other better when they are communicating. They have to avoid those things which create misunderstanding & have a different in point of view.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

How Does Steinbeck Portray The Harsh Lives Of The Workers Of the Great Depresion Essay

I hope this essay will show you how the workers of the American Great depression of 1937 struggled to survive in the harsh environment that was their work place. Many people from the cities of America had to give up their lives and start again in the country working on ranches shifting corn and grain getting paid very little. Workers of the Great Depression had few possessions. Many only had blanket rolls, wash kit, a small amount of tinned food and what little money they could earn. They had few possessions for two reasons; one, because they couldn’t afford many possessions and also because they found it easier because they are constantly on the move. This represents there harsh life because it illustrates that they have no were to call home. Many workers spent their money fast during the weekends by drinking, gambling or in the â€Å"Cat House†. In the novel men view the women as a thing you buy like drink so women didn’t have proper rights. Similarly Crooks the black cripple, has little or no rights. In Steinbeck’s book Curley’s wife is not given a real name she is simply referred to as â€Å"slut,† â€Å"whore,† or simply â€Å"Curley’s wife.† This can implies that she is a position of her husband it implies a harsh and limited existence and how badly the poor women of 1930’s America were treated in society. Prejudice plays a significant part in John Steinbeck’s novel â€Å"Of Mice and Men† and is seen with some characters like Crooks, Candy and Lennie. All have some kind of disability. Crooks is crippled because he was kick by a horse this is made worse by the fact that he’s black so he is racially abused as well. The boss â€Å"Gave the stable buck hell† when George and Lennie were late arriving at the ranch. He knew that Crooks couldn’t complain because he has no rights. This shows how he is blamed for anything and can’t defend him self this show the harsh life of his. Candy is crippled because he lost his hand to a machine, so he can do little work and he is old. This sets him apart form the others and they see him as the old outcast. Lennie is mentally handicapped, he has a child’s mind so he isn’t very clever and he likes soft things like mice and puppies. This gets him into trouble in the novel. Firstly he stroked a woman’s red dress, she got confused and screams he got scared and holds on to the dress and wont let go. This led him to being accused of raping her so Lennie and George had to run away. Secondly Curley’s wife lets him stroke her hair because it’s soft, after a while she tries to pull away but he holds on and he ends up breaking her neck. For this Lennie has to run away. He is also really strong and this contributes to him getting in trouble because he doesn’t know his own strength, he kills many mice because he pets them to hard and he kills a puppy as well as Curley’s wife. Many, if not all the characters in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† are lonely because they move from ranch to ranch making new friends and leaving old ones behind. Candy has an old dog that is his only companion. He has had him since he was a pup and is much attached to him. However some of the workers persuade him to shoot the old dog and by doing this he looses his only true friend. This contributes to the theme of harshness; I believe that many of the workers were jealous of candy and his dog and envy him so they force him to put it down. This is also the same as George because he kills his only true friend and companion by shooting. Curley’s wife is also lonely, being the only woman on the ranch and Curley forbids her from talking to the workers. She breaks this by talking to the workers in doorways which gives her the reputation of a â€Å"slut.† Many of the workers dream the American dream of having their own land. George and Lennie have a dream that they will own little plot of land with rabbits and fields and if it’s miserable weather they will light a fire and sit around it not working, â€Å"Guys like us†¦.. an’ listen to the rain coming’ down on the roof.† When Candy’s dog is shot he try’s to muscle in on their dream. Many of them have dreams so that they can be distracted from the harsh lives of reality. In conclusion, the title of this book tells the reader about the novel in a few words. The title of this book is taken from an Irish poem by Alfred Burns; â€Å"The best laid plans of mice and men always go wrong†. I believe that this is a good choice of title for the book because it shows how Steinbeck has used this to portray the harsh lives of the workers of the book and the dreams are what should happen in a fair world when it really all goes wrong.

Analysis chinese banking industry systems, processes and products Essay

China’s rapidly developing economy is dependent on a banking industry which is controlled by the state. The four public banks of China and the People’s Bank of China have a strong hold over the country’s financial system. The advent of China in WTO in 2001 and globalization has led to a felt need for transformation in the Chinese economy to integrate it with the global economy. The financial sector will need to support this change. An assessment of the state of the Chinese banking industry at present and its future growth is therefore essential. Ideally this can be achieved by benchmarking a Chinese bank and a European Bank, for which purpose a case study of Bank of China and HSBC, London has been carried out. The aim of the research is therefore to undertake an analysis of the Chinese banking systems, processes and products through a case study of the above mentioned banks while the objectives of the research indicate assessment of the overall state of the Chinese banking industry, evaluate implementation of various processes and systems and highlight the areas for growth. A deductive – inductive approach with emphasis on case study has been adopted for the research. Apart from extensive secondary research through literature survey, a detailed questionnaire has been administered to 40 clients across a wide cross section of personal and corporate customers of Bank of China and HSBC, London which has formed the key primary resource for the research. A review of the research sources and questionnaires has revealed that Bank of China has been able to quickly adapt itself to the changing requirements of a globalised financial environment and is providing both personal as well as business banking services to meet its customer’s requirements. HSBC which considers itself as the World’s local bank is providing a complete package of services to the corporate as well as personal client and has been successful in implementing the same throughout the World. Its initial forays into China have also underlined the success story. The quality of service in both the banks was seen to be similar, however HSBC provided better follow up and also more services on the internet than Bank of China. The growth trajectory of both the banks indicates that, while HSBC is attempting to grow throughout the World; Bank of China is growing primarily within the Chinese banking system. There are a number of areas for improvement identified in the research which could well be undertaken by Bank of China to include greater efficiency and better customer service, improvement in technology and customer follow up and exploitation of niche areas such as credit cards. The entry of foreign banks will see greater competition in the Chinese banking sector. The need for Chinese banks to adopt global practices is also underlined and it is anticipated that the entry of more global banks as HSBC in China will provide the impetus to this growth. ANALYSIS CHINESE BANKING INDUSTRY SYSTEMS, PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS: A CASE STUDY BANK OF CHINA AND HSBC, LONDON Chapter 1 – Introduction China is a rapidly growing economy which is considered as a model for emerging countries all over the World. The dynamism of an economy lies in an efficient and effective financial system led by the banking sector. The impact of the banking sector on economic growth in China and its contribution to public life has been a matter of debate over the years. China has a banking system which is controlled by the State and thus has a very large influence on the economy. Exclusively controlled by the central government, the four state banks and People’s Bank of China have a very strong hold over the financial system both internally and externally. (China’s Economic System, 2004). However the rapid growth of China towards a socialist market economy has been affecting the banking sector in various ways and Chinese banks have undertaken measures to enhance their efficiency and contribute effectively to the economy. China’s entry into the WTO in 2001 has also necessitated adoption of liberalized norms in line with the global banking and financial industry. To what extent China has been able to adapt these new practices and how these are affecting or likely to affect the growth of the Chinese economy is an issue of great relevance. As China’s economy gets increasingly integrated with the global economy, its financial markets will have to support this union. It is therefore essential to assess the state of the Chinese banking industry at present and its trajectory of growth in the future. A case study approach to this issue is considered relevant for which Bank of China and HSBC, London are selected for review of the systems, processes and products to provide an insight of the financial needs and their fulfillment today and tomorrow. Bank of China is one of the principal banks in the country; it is one of the four banks which are owned by the State in China. (About Bank of China,. 2006). It has been a key central bank of China which has carried out international exchange as well as provided funds and been a point for foreign trade in the country over a period. It conducts a wide variety of services including commercial banking, insurance as well as investment banking. It is one of the largest banks in Asia and has been placed at the 18th position by the Banker Magazine in 2005. (About Bank of China,. 2006). It also has a large overseas presence in 27 countries. The systems, processes and practices followed by the Bank of China would be a good indicator of the state of the Chinese banking industry in both its internal and external dimensions. HSBC is an epitome of a modern bank. Based in London, the Bank had its origins in provision of finance for trading with China in the 19th Century. After China adopted a nationalist communist economy and banking system, HSBC’s presence in the country was limited. However the bank has now retuned with a vigor and strives to make inroads in the highly competitive financial sector where banks with a state monopoly are said to enjoy unprecedented advantage. The Bank is also taking benefit of its old legacy and is already earning profits to the tune of $ 161 million for the first half of 2005. (Schuman, 2006). HSBC in some ways can be seen to be a competitor to the Bank of China, though its reach within China is limited to only 20 branches. (Schuman, 2006). The investments made by HSBC in Chinese financial sector are reported to be $ 4 billion and include almost one fifth stake in China’s fifth largest bank, Bank of Communications and its second largest insurance company, Ping An Insurance with which the Bank of China too has many contracts. A comparative analysis of BOC and HSBC would thus provide us an effective understanding of the state of the banking industry in China in all its operational facets. The dynamic nature of the research will entail application of a deductive-inductive approach which in practice is adopted by a number of similar research projects keeping in view the importance of both qualitative and quantitative findings.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Idealism and the power of ideas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Idealism and the power of ideas - Essay Example Notably, Locke was no stranger to France, as he studied Descartes, and came in contact with some of the greatest minds of his age there. It was there that Locke found time to reflect and gain personal development. Locke, greatly inspired, wrote and published some well acknowledged philosophical pieces that have really made him an accomplished man. He had reached heights that other philosophers before him doubted and never even thought possible. He wrote a series of books after that, which continued to make him one of the most influential and men from England in exile. Locke possessed a certain mix of attributes that made him have a permanent influence on politicians and other philosophers around the globe. Locke never married but lived a well balanced life of 72 years, and is fondly remembered. As great thinkers thought about drawing up the US Constitution rights, they kept his philosophical teachings close to heart.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Process Analysis The ABCS of CPR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Process Analysis The ABCS of CPR - Essay Example The three main components of CPR that can save a life include the ABC's, Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. 7 Airway, the A in ABC, begins with checking the airway. Perform the Head tilt chin lift by placing the palm of one hand on the forehead. Put the fingers of the other hand on the bony part of the chin. Push the forehead back to lift the chin. Pull the jaw forward. Then, open the mouth. Look for the chest to rise and fall. Listen close near the victim's mouth for sounds of breathing. Feel the cheek for any breathing movement. Check airway for no more than 5-10 seconds. Do not consider gasps of breath as breathing. These gasps may occur for a few minutes after the heart stops beating. 7 The absences of breathing, is the B in ABC. Pinch the nose of the victim closed. Take in a normal breath. Hold it. Making a good seal, over the victim's mouth, give two breaths for 1 second each. Watch the chest rise and fall during each breath. If no breaths go in, reposition the victim's head. Attempt two more breaths. If breaths still do not go in check for a foreign object in the mouth. Begin CPR to remove the object. If breaths go in and pulse is present, continue with breaths until help arrives or when the victim begins breathing on his own. 9 Circulation represents the C in ABC. Check for circulation by placing two fingers at the carotid pulse below the jaw line at the neck.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Marketing Plan for Victoria's Secret Case Study

Marketing Plan for Victoria's Secret - Case Study Example Other important applications include informing the details of the company to the sales personnel, suppliers and others so that they become aware of company's goals and achievements. Let's look at the essential elements of marketing plan Victoria's secret. The launch proposal for Victoria's secret would be as below mentioned. Feasibility study is an important phase in the Victoria's secret development process. It enables the advertiser to have an assessment of the product being launched. It refers to the feasibility study of the product in this case Victoria's secret in terms of outcomes of the product, operational use and technical support required for implementing it. The best media to promote Victoria's secret would be electronic media like Television and Internet. The below are the feasibility study for the media like electronic and internet. Economic Feasibility: It refers to the benefits or outcomes. We are deriving from the product as compared to the total cost we are spending for developing the product. If the benefits are more or less the same as the older system, then it is not feasible to develop the product. In the present system, the development of the new product greatly enhance the accuracy of the system and cuts short the delay in knowing the brand to the general public as well. The errors can be greatly reduced and at the same time providing great level of security. Hence, we do not need any additional equipment except advertising strategy of required capacity. No need of spending money on Victoria's secret for maintenance because the database used is web enabled database. Operational Feasibility: It refers to the feasibility of the product to be operational. Some products may work very well at design and implementation but may fall in the real time environment. It includes the study of additional human resources required and their technical expertise. Technical Feasibility: It refers to whether the software that is available in the market fully supports the Victoria's secret's advertising. It studies the pros and cons of using particular software for the development of the ad and its feasibility. It also studies the additional training need to be given to the people to make the advertisement.. To stay in the present marketing world a company should have good customer support services. The competition among companies is high and they to stay at the top they are using aggressive marketing strategies. The operational management and the Human Resource (HR) departments have a bigger role to play in the development of the respective companies. The quality of the product should always be of high standard. The service side concentrates mainly on providing knowledge about the brand to the guilible buyers. Buyers care section plays an important role on deciding how good a company and should be taken seriously at all times. To become a multinational company the management has to expand its units across the country. As company and its other units are slowly expanding so does the problems are increasing

Friday, July 26, 2019

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 15

Case study - Essay Example The ability to survive environmental factors will depend on the organizational ability of a given firm. The organizational factor of O.C Tanner transformed and enhanced its growth. The external environment of the organization is based on hierarchy. The management plays an important role in essential decision making process. On the other hand the available 1900 workers develop the internal environment. The effective nature of the internal environment will be evaluated by the amount and quality of output. In this case the nature of Tanner management to organize the sizeable staff and ensure they produce according to their ability. McAuley et al (2007) highlight the essence of post- modernity theory where the output of a given firm determines the nature of organization. In this case the transformational nature of O.C Tanner from a single production line to a multi production company and the growth in terms of labor indicate their successful organization based on the post- modernity organization theory. The levels of output and the efforts inserted by the management indicate how an organization could benefit from a stable internal environment (McAuley et al, 2007) . On the other hand the experience laid down by the owner indicates the ability to use the existing environments to produce best on their ability. The availability of a stable environment implies division of labor along the environment. O.C Tanner based its organization based on managerial and subordinate basis. In this case allowing the management to coordinate the activities of the internal environment and ensure it relates well with the eternal environment. The demand of the external environment is what caused the 10% sales increased. The labor force available divided based on department would indicate the coordination and corporation needed within the environment. According to Daft (2010) the form of organization is based on mechanistic organization system. The structure indicates

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Recent developments in the UK housing market Essay

Recent developments in the UK housing market - Essay Example In general house prices must behave in a similar manner as that of inflation rates prevailing in an economy. However, if we consider the recent boom in housing prices in the UK since the year 1998, it can be observed that the housing prices behaved in an opposite direction to that of the general inflation rate of the UK’s economy. It implies that there has been a significant rise in the overall house prices of UK since 1998 but the general inflation was on the lower side and did not rise that significantly as compared to the house prices. Next, if we look at the relation between the house prices and income of the households in the UK it can be observed that the house prices increased at a greater rate than the income of the households during the period of the recent housing boom. If we look at the current affordability of the houses in the UK it can conclude that the house properties are less affordable because of the high house price to income ratio at present. It implies that the UK households do not have enough income to be able to buy houses which are of high prices. Moreover, the house prices are directly linked to the changes in income levels of households because most of the houses are bought through mortgage services offered by financial institutions. Hence it is very unlikely to get loans to buy houses with lower income levels. This is how the house properties became less affordable for people who were having a comparatively lesser rise in income levels as compared to the rise in house prices in the UK. ... implies that there has been a significant rise in the overall house prices of UK since 1998 but the general inflation was on the lower side and did not rise that significantly as compared to the house prices. It means that although the house prices rose significantly the prices of other goods and services did not rise that much. Next if we look at the relation between the house prices and income of the households in UK it can be observed that the house prices increased at a greater rate than the income of the households during the period of recent housing boom. If we look at the current affordability of the houses in UK it can concluded that the house properties are less affordable because of the high house price to income ratio at present. It implies that the UK households do not have enough income to be able to buy houses which are of high prices. Moreover the house prices are directly linked with the changes in income levels of households because most of the houses are bought thro ugh mortgage services offered by financial institutions. Hence it is very unlikely to get loans to buy houses with lower income levels. This is how the house properties became less affordable for people who were having comparatively lesser rise in income levels as compared to the rise in house prices in UK. Answer 3 There has been a significant rise in the demand of houses in UK during the period of 1998 to 2007. There are various factors which led to this increase in housing demand like increase in disposable income, lower interest rates, and increased availability of mortgage finance. The wages have increased at a faster rate than inflation from 1998 to 2007. Now since the households have the tendency to spend a certain proportion of their income levels on housing, the demand for housing

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Critical Thinking Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Critical Thinking - Article Example Since they are humans, they have the constitutional right to express themselves sexually (Higgins, 2008). Unfortunately, their disabled state puts them in great dangers as they often fall victim of sexual abuse and exploitation. Efforts by caregivers to protect them from such abuses could easily be misinterpreted as denying the disabled the right to sexual lives. This is in fact the conflicting part of their caregivers’ responsibility to the disabled. However, Bernert (2011) submit that care giving may be conducted in search a manner that guarantees maximum protection of the person with disability. For instance, such a person should be educated on matters pertaining to sex depending on their state. They should further be provided with equipment such as wheelchairs and allowed access to contraceptives. In addition, they can be helped foster good relationships that not only take note of their state, but that which is informed with the needs of such a person. It is only through this that the right of the persona with the disability can be guaranteed without the caregiver feeling like they are in a

A written strategic analysis report (strategic management Essay

A written strategic analysis report (strategic management - Essay Example Apart from these food services, they also sell coffee-related accessories and equipment. Starbucks offer and sell all these products and services primarily through its own retail stores, and also offer its trademarked products through other channels like licensed retail stores. Along with these coffee-centric services, Starbucks also has an entertainment division and Hear Music brand, through which it markets media content like music, film as well as books. Importantly, they also pepped up the ambience of its stores to provide the customers a wholesome experience for socializing, which came to be known as Starbucks experience. Schultz always viewed the employees as the company’s â€Å"partners†, and optimally involved them in various processes, thus eliciting good productivity from them, which also elevated Starbucks’ performance. With this diverse portfolio, extensive reach and effective functioning, Starbucks became one of the well-known American brands, also a chieving good financial figures. However, with the onset of economic downturn in 2008, its financial figures started showing negatively, with its revenues as well as stock prices dwindling. In addition, the strong strategies and performance put forward by its competitors like McDonald, Dunkins Donuts and other area centric coffee chains also ‘ate’ into Starbucks’ customer base. With certain operational inefficiencies also creeping and negatively impacting the sales, its founder Howard Schultz brought himself in. That is, Schultz after running Starbucks since its founding, as its CEO and President, took an hiatus in 2001 and he was succeeded first by Orin C Smith and then by Jim Donald. With sales and financial figures in the red, Starbucks took over the positions of CEO and President in 2008 and initiated a series of strategies mainly focusing on optimizing operational efficiencies and also Starbucks brand and ethical image, through a series of Corporate Social R esponsibility (CSR) initiatives. Although, Schultz was able to salvage Starbucks sizably, there is still room for further improvements in the future. Starbucks Story Starbucks Coffee or Corporation was actually founded by three persons Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker in 1971. In the initial stages, they sold coffee beans and other coffee related tools or equipments. Howard Schultz joined as an employee in Starbucks at its coffee shop in Seattle. Due to his optimum involvement and hard work, he was given a sort of leadership role and asked to go to Milan, Italy to study and understand the coffee market there. There â€Å"he discovered "the romance of the Italian coffee bar" and recognized the opportunity for Starbucks to be a place where people would come to share the experience of drinking great coffee rather than to simply buy coffee beans.† (Grant 2010). Finding that such type of coffeehouses, which not only offered services but also facilitated social experienc e, were non-existent in United States, Schultz advised the Starbucks management to sell coffee and espresso drinks along with the beans, seeing the potential to develop a similar coffeehouse culture in Seattle (starbucks.com 2008). However, the management team completely rejected his idea with a reason that entering the

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Advanced Strategic Management- International Airline Industry Essay

Advanced Strategic Management- International Airline Industry - Essay Example This is to prevent the loss of current business and attract new customers ones at a minimal cost.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study explores the relationship between customer service, customer satisfaction and the factors that encourage customers to choose and remain with specific airlines. In particular, this study evaluates the customer satisfaction among North American airline passengers and the quality of customer service of corresponding airlines.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A survey was used to gather the feedback of XYZ airline passengers at NYC airport. The survey items focused on the eight factors designated as independent variables. The independent variables considered were X1 – Delays (external forces such as weather), X2 – Culture (company), X3 – Prices/Frequent Flyer Programs, X4– Flexibility, X5 – Schedule, X6 – Employees, X7 – Quality of Product/Services (comfort), and X8 – Security.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The importance of customer service and the corresponding customer satisfaction cannot be undermined. Ventures can succeed only if there are customers. Since they are the ones who keep businesses running by bringing in profit and supplying feedbacks, it is essential to keep them satisfied. Customer satisfaction, also called user satisfaction, is defined simply as â€Å"a qualitative measure of performance as defined by customers, which meet their basic requirements and standards† (TechTarget, 2007). This definition has two main implications. First, customer satisfaction is dependent on the performance of the product or service. Second, measuring customer satisfaction involves knowledge of the basic requirements and standards of the customers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In relation to customer satisfaction, customer service is a term that characterizes what happens when the customer encounters the business (The Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008). Good customer service is significant because gaining a new customer can cost as much as five

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Corporate Communication Strategy

The Corporate Communication Strategy This report aims to critically evaluate and analyse the corporate communication strategy, framework and main issues influencing a corporation. The company that I have chosen to examine and apply the knowledge of corporate communication is Microsoft Corporation. Communication strategy of Microsoft Corporation applies or follows which enabled it to expand and grow its business with such an immense efficiency. How does the organisation incorporates main issues of corporate communication; such as, communicating with external and internal stakeholders, maintaining its identity, image and reputation to reflect its organisational behaviour, the organisations attitude towards cultural influence, the role and impact of technology, and lastly, the role of Human Resource Management in contribution of its effective communication and overall performance in global context. (Cornelissen J, 2004) states that corporate communication is a function of corporate identity, corporate image, corporate brand and corporate reputation for the goodwill of the organization and its ongoing concern which is making profit. Corporate communication is a modern term of Public Relations. The term corporate communication is increasingly being used in practice to describe the management function that is still referred to as public relations in academic literature (Groenewald, 1998). According to surveys, over half of the heads of corporate communication departments administer communication functions. They are as follows; External and internal communications Managing corporate reputation and brand Recruiting and retaining Product launches Developing company strategy Corporate social responsibility Boosting investor or analyst perception Managing crises Corporate communication is simply the process of exchanging information within and outside of any organisation with concern of the above mentioned functions to run it effectively and efficiently. It is taken as an important aspect for any organisation to develop and flourish its capability at its best. However, it is more crucial to organisations that operate globally. Most of the successful organisation has used corporate communication as the means of success because it helps to formulate their distinctiveness, their status and mark their existence in the mind of their customers. Background of the organisation: Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in USA. It is a multinational company with headquarter in Redmond, WA, United States, and its subsidiaries in 110 countries. With 182,884 employees in USA and worldwide and annual revenue of USD 62.48 billion, it can be said that it is one of the worlds largest and dominant software companies. It provides software, services and solutions to people and businesses world-wide. The company focuses on research and developing, manufacturing, licensing, and supporting wide range of software products and services for various types of computing devices. The major software products and services it provides are; operating systems for servers, personal computers, and intelligent devices, different types of personal and business applications, software development tools, online services platform, and games; taking into consideration and benefiting all range of people from business, students, workforce to households. *According to the Microsoft Corporation, The Microsoft mission is to help people and businesses around the world realize their full potential. We work to accomplish this mission through the development of innovative products and services that help people harness the power, opportunities, and benefits of technology. http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/our-commitments/reporting/about-microsoft/ The communication strategy and its framework in the organisation: An effective corporate communication strategy is very important for any organisation to overpower todays highly competitive and information driven business environment. It protects an organisation from negative publicities and limits misleading steps of the corporate. Strategy requires choices deciding what particular kind of value an organisation wants to deliver and to whom (Porter, in Gibson, 1997). Implementation of proper and practical strategies can bring equal opportunity to people; resulting in distribution of innovative information, resolution of conflict and coordination in organisation. X-Border communication strategy issues include; degree of adaptation and standardisation, consistency, internal vs external, corporate identity and reputation, costs, role of technology. As a multinational organisation, Microsoft Corporation adapts almost all of the x-border communication strategy to stay on top of the market. (see Appendix) Steve A. Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corporation, states that they see their citizenship strategies and business strategies as complementary, creating shared value for Microsoft shareholders, employees, stakeholders, and society. http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/our-commitments/reporting/ceo-intro-letter/ Neil Holloway, President of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), focused on the balanced objectives of driving customer satisfaction, improving integration across Microsoft business units, addressing the unique technology needs of diverse markets, and growing the software business in the region. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/neilho/default.mspx The statement of Neil Holloway and Steve A. Ballmer clearly implements the communication model (shown below) in Microsoft. Keeping in mind of their identity and image, they deliver messages to their shareholders, employees, stakeholders, and society by the use of Management communication, Organisational communication, and Marketing communication. (see Appendix 1) Figure 1: Communication model, Strategy of the organisation (M. Welch and P. Jackson, 2007) Communication framework In all organisations, communication flows vertically and horizontally, internally and externally, formally and informally linking employees internally to each other and to various layers of management, and to the many external resource holder of the organisation (Fombrun and Riel, 2006). There are three main types of structures of the company and they are as follows; Functional Matrix Project Microsoft follows the matrix structure to perform communication (see Appendix 3). It has horizontal divisions for international operations and vertical divisions for product groups. Mike Love, senior director of corporate communications at Microsoft EMEA says that Microsofts matrix of management decision-making and the challenge to communicate through this matrix is very complex. He also adds that Internal and External communicators each have geographical, functional and product-area responsibilities as their direct focus (see Figure 2, below). http://www.melcrum.com/articles/clutter_at_microsoft.shtml Figure 2: Areas of responsibility at Microsoft Microsofts governing body is the Annual Meeting of Shareholders and the executive body is the Board of Directors (see Appendix 4). Microsoft adapts a centralized and functional area accompanied by a network of decentralized structure for adapting the function to the special needs of the independent business units. The main issues relating to corporate communication External and Internal communication External communication: External communication refers to communicating with external parties of an organisation which includes customers and business partners, suppliers, media, and competitors. Communication with customers: Customers are the most influential part for any organisation to exist in business environment. Microsoft claims that the success of their company is based on their ability to listen and respond to customer feedback about their products, programs, and services, and to increase customer satisfaction with all of the possible ways. They continually engage with their customers and partners through third-party surveys and feedback mechanisms within their products, and community-based websites (see Appendix). However, Microsoft has not institutionalised engagement of external stakeholders in corporate decision-making. Their customer and partner experience (CPE) strategy is sponsored by their chief operating officer and president of the Microsoft Business Division. Communication with media: Media is one of the most powerful and critical areas of any corporate communication function. According to Argenti (2009), the media are both a constituency and a conduit through which investors, employees, and consumers receive information about and form images of a company. It has the ability to turn a business up or down in a matter of seconds. It is very essential for corporation to understand this matter and have a good relationship with media. Microsoft has good understanding on this matter. Hence, they have included media as one of the areas of responsibilities (see Figure 2). They have a separate section in their company site called Microsoft News Center where it provides latest updates and information on company. For media, it has a section called Press Tools with Press Releases, Analyst Reports and many more. It has also established number of air-traffic control tools to avoid misleading and misinterpreting messages to media (see Appendix). Communication with competitors: The main competitors of Microsoft are Google, Apple, VMware, Oracle, and Open source (Linux and Firefox). However, Google is seen to be the prior competitor of Microsoft. Microsoft keeps up-to-date information about its competitors. Microsoft had some problem with its competitors in past and was accused for its unhealthy competition (see Appendix). This had a negative impact on the reputation and image of Microsoft. Since then, Microsoft has been keeping healthy relationship and healthy competition with its competitors through changes in its products and services, filtering words when having conversation on their competitors. http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/208984.asp Communication with Government: Government is involved in all stages of business development. As Microsoft operates in various regions and areas globally, it makes sure to follow the national, regional, and local bylaws and legislation of the country. Microsoft also sense importance of collaboration among the internationally recognized groups. Its Citizenship and reporting strategies are guided by those laid out in the Global Reporting Initiative, the Global Network Initiative the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and the Carbon Disclosure Project. Communication with shareholders: However, the company does not provide training to staff on stakeholder engagement, nor do they disseminate the principles through more than one medium or translate them into other languages. Microsoft has also not institutionalised external stakeholder engagement in corporate decision-making.**** Internal communication: Strong internal communications- fostering increased workforce loyalty and productivity will thus continue to play a pivotal role in a companys employee relation and overall success (Argenti, 2009). Microsoft fully realise the role of employees and vendors for its overall success. It is also aware that with change in culture and business environment, employees and their attitudes, beliefs are changing and they need to be treated in different ways. To understand the values and attitudes of employees to gain their loyalty and productivity, effective communication among and with employees is very crucial. Communication with employees: One of their most important developments during the past year has been the establishment of an Internal Communicator Community (see Appendix). They have also developed a new approach to the annual planning process by creating a forum for sharing internal and external communication plans across all business disciplines to build a one company approach. They have also established a regular quarterly meeting and monthly Live Meeting1/conference call for all Public Relations leads in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regardless of their areas of responsibility. This has become a clearing house for communication plans and has helped establish the discipline of air-traffic control. Communication with vendors: http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/microsoft-adds-human-element-to-corporate-communications/110453 Identity, Image, and Reputation The concept of corporate identity is traced by organisations marks or logos, name, motto, products, services, and any other possessions of the organisation that is visible and tangible to differentiate themselves from their competitors and print their image in the minds of consumers (Argenti, 2009). Image is shaped by the identity of an organisation, it is the way internal and external constituents perceive the organisations identity get fulfilled. Finally, strong reputation of an organisation is achieved when identity and image align with each other. Microsofts identity is majorly reflected by its name, products and services, market capitalisation, market capture, and Bill Gates, former CEO, Microsoft Corporation (see Appendix). Microsofts image has been problematic since its establishment. It has been accused Microsofts holds a highly valued reputation Read more: Corporate Identity http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Con-Cos/Corporate-Identity.html#ixzz18qO7ytiL Corporate Identity Names, Brands, Symbols, Self-presentation is perceived by à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Employee Image Investor Image Community Image Customer Image The sum of their Corporate Reputation perceptions equals à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Figure 3: Reputation Framework (Argenti, 2009) Culture and its influence in corporate communication Any organisations culture is reflected by the behaviours, attitudes, beliefs, norms and values of its employee working with each other towards attaining a common goal. It has become a serious issue with prevalence of globalisation (see Appendix). Hofstede (1980, 1982, 1987) has outlined five dimensions of cultural impact in an organisation. They are as follows; Power distance Individualism Vs Collectivism Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity or Feminity Long term or Short term Microsoft believes that the following listed values guide their behaviours and it is reflected in their employees in their interaction with each other and their stakeholders. Integrity and honesty Passion for customers, partners, and technology Open and respectful with others and dedicated to making them better Willingness to take on big challenges and see them through Self-critical, questioning, and committed to personal excellence and self-improvement Accountable for commitments, results, and quality to customers, shareholders, partners, and employees (see Appendix 5) The above statements by Microsoft shows that it follows collectivism idea, there is no power distance as employees believe in open and respectful relation with each other. They believe in one company approach. We should communicate with and not at our internal audiences, engaging in a dialogue not a monologue. Such an approach fits well with Microsofts corporate culture, which strives to be devoid of hierarchy. http://www.melcrum.com/articles/clutter_at_microsoft.shtml The role of technology The role of technology in carrying on communication effectively has been immense. With rapid development of technologies nowadays, it is almost impossible to have a thought of communication without technologies. Microsoft Corporation itself is a leader in developing and distributing innovative technologies world-wide. There are numerous software products and services produced by Microsoft for communication use. However, technologies that they use for internal and external communication are; e-mails, video conferencing, teleconferencing, telephones, webcasts, podcasts, blogs, internal intranet site, air-traffic control tools, and integrated communication planning. The role of Human Resource in corporate communication HRM is a strategic and coherent approach to the managers of the organisation. The most valued assets, the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievements of its objectives. (Armstrong, 2003). According to Ulrich (1997), there are four roles of Human Resource Management in an organisation. They are as follows; Administrative expert Employee champion Change agent Strategic partner http://www.stw.de/typo3temp/pics/c98097d6bc.jpg Figure 4: The HR Business Partner (based on an idea by Dave Ulrich, 1997) Conclusion and recommendation In conclusion, Microsoft practices a very good and practical corporate communication strategy and framework. Microsoft follows the matrix structure with strongly centralized and wholly decentralized framework for communication. They understand the importance of effective communication between their internal and external stakeholders for their success. Microsoft has implemented various communication tools and plans, such as, air-traffic control tools and integrated communication planning specially for effective communication with employees and media. The use of technologies for communication are; e-mails, telephones, video conferencing, blogs, webcasts, podcasts, Annual Report, Press Releases, internal intranet site. Their identity is basically its name, products and services, and Bill Gates, former Chairman of Microsoft who is known as one of the wealthiest people alive. Their image and reputation were frequently in stake and problematic with different kinds of accuses. However, they are doing their best in overcoming and maintaining a superior image. Microsoft practices open and respectful culture with equal opportunities for all employees. They practices This invariably means they work within communication silos roles rather than taking a broader view of the company as a whole.

Representation of Photos in the Media

Representation of Photos in the Media Introduction to Media and Media Studies, Writing and the Media, Reading the Media Question 1 For the representation in the media, we can relate to radio, television, cinema, internet such as social media, news and so on. Through them, we receive different information and entertainment, mostly for young people who grew up in modern world and society. Media representation is how media portray particular groups, ideas or topics in the world to another perspective how we see it. Let me take Twitter, for an example. Twitter is social media that have over 1 billion users monthly and 313 million monthly active users. (Twitter usage/Company facts, 2016.) Twitter is one of the social media where people post their opinions about recent events, what is currently happening in their lives, who did something that was not impropriate or who is in a relationship with whom. Some of the companies or/and celebrities are trying to interact with their followers and fans. Those fans can see their inspirations the way they look like, their behavior and not experiencing it in reality. In the interpretation, OShaughnessy and Stadler (2016:35) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦media first gives us information and only after the explanationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ On the way media are teaching people how to make a change in the world and how they see the world around them. Let me take travel blog as an example. For the last few years more and more people are traveling around the world taking photographs, learning about new cultures, new countries, mostly difference between people. Only after they write about it and that is how they teach other people. Personally, I think that is the best way to meet surroundings, to be filled with experience and knowledge. Figure 1: Lin, E. 2013. 7 TIPS TO TRAVEL SMART IN THE SUMMER Summer time is here! It is the perfect time for traveling and exploring the world. (The Lab, 2013) TAKE ANOTHER ONE When we talk about evolution media, they give us the information about some issues or just how to understand genders, religions, cultures or races. They want to teach us how to be normal, basically creating stereotypes and making people being judgmental, how we see the world and the way we are going to treat each other if they are not the same as we are (OShaughnessy Stadler, 2016). Perfect example is with the biggest YouTube star Felix Kjellberg or his channel name PewDiePie and biggest business journal, The Wall Street Journal. Felix is a web-based comedian and video producer whose job is to make people laugh. As PewDiePie/Felix says in the video à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦old school media doesnt like Internet personalities, because they are afraid of us. We have so much influence and such a large voice and they dont understand that (see My Response- PewDiePie, 2017). Even if he did an interview in 2013 with The Wall Street Journal they would only focus how much he earns as the tittle says YouTubes Biggest Draw Plays Games, Earns $4 million a Year (The Wall Street Journal, 2014.) Also the media would only acknowledge him for earning money by playing games as a hobby, spending money on cars and luxuries, but they do not show that he donates millions to charities. But because he was so successful in his career, he wanted to be funnier than usual.   In one of his YouTube videos he went just a bit far with paying two men that were holding a sign saying Death to all Jews after he apologized to everyone saying that he did not expect their response (see My Response PewDiePie, 2017). In the videos he made before, he would wear a uniform, taking Adolf Hitler as a reference to make people laugh, but the words Adolf Hitler was saying had Nazi messages. As The Wall Street Journal (2017:1) says Disney Servers Ties With YouTube Star PewDiePie After Anti-Semitic Posts. After that incident happened Disney canceled his show saying people Jewish religion were offended. PewDiePie automatically responded and apologized to his fans and people all over the world saying he didnt want to offend anyone and that his job is to make people laugh. Other you-tubers are standing with PewDiePie, even his friend whose religion is Jewish. Felix friend Ethan Hakmon or his channel name h3h3Productions, states that Disney and WSJ didnt ask people Jewish religion did they actually got offended or not, because he isnt. (see Is PewDiePie Racist h3h3Productions, 2017). Representation, interpretation and evaluation in media are creating the world as a single community because they are giving their opinions on certain topics. The problem is they have a huge influence on the world and people. People are becoming stereotypes and do not have their own opinion. Question 2 One of the roles in the media is to inform. Media inform us about our surroundings, we can easily find out what is happening in our country or on the other side of the world. For an example Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Oliver Laurent (2015) states On Jan 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck Haiti, killing more than 160,000 and displacing close to 1.5 million people. Five years later, the scars of the tragedy remain in Port-au-Prince,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ We chose Haiti as information media because it was terrible for people whose families were on the island on that devastating and sad day. A lot of lives were lost and they are still battling with a lot of different sicknesses and people who are still trying to find them members of families. The second role of in the media is to educate. Media educate us about possible diseases, technology, undiscovered places and different cultures. As an example Elon Musk, who created SolarCity. Musk believes that in 20-30 years majority of the planet will use solar energy system. (see The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ½Elon Musk TED talks, 2013). SolarCity creates roofs who are invisible but cells are exposed to the sun. A roof with hidden solar tiles that powers your home with clean, renewable energy (SolarCity, 2017). Basically, Elon Musk is teaching us how to save the environment around us and use it in a good way, but also how to save our money and time. The third role of the media is to entertain. It contains of film, television, radio and internet. They are providing us with a lot of different content wanting to people to have fun, relax with their family and friends or just socialize. The Walt Disney Company, for example. They are cartoon creation company, film company and music record label. They are also producing clothes and toys (About The Walt Disney Company, 2017). We chose The Walt Disney Company as an entertainment as an example because of their offers and there is something for people in every age. Question 3 Figure 2: Hutchings, M. 2015. Protest on the Ramp: South African Designer Isabelle Lotter Joins #FeesMustFall Movement. (Ramp1885.com, 2015) According to the BuzzFeedNews (2015) #Fees Must Fall Movement is student protest that began mid-October in 2015 and still going in South Africa. Universities wanted to raise costs by 10.5 percent. First protest was on the campus of the University of Witwatersrand and it was spread to other universities in the country. Figure 3: CityogJoburgZA, 2016. South Africa: Flash floods kill six people in Johannesburg. (Africanews.com., 2016) Africanews.com (2016) reports the storm was bad and it was raining a lot on 9th of November 2016. International airport O.R. Tambo was flooded, not only the airport but streets also. Water was everywhere and ended with disaster. People were dying and a lot of the infrastructure was ruined.    Figure 4: Independent.co.uk. 2016. Barack Obama tells Latin America: Dont assume the worst about Donald Trump (Independent.co.uk., 2016) On this picture we can see Barack Obama (right on the picture) who was United States President before Donald Trump (left on the picture) on November 10, 2016. where they discussed about foreign and domestic policy (US Weekly, 2016). The picture was taken after the election at the White House in Washington D.C. (US Weekly, 2016). Question 4 Our analysis of photograph that Sabelo Mlangeni was taking a series of photographs of people who African people are ignoring their existence. JRDIJKSTRA (2014) states in one of his articles that people are judged for things they do and for who they are. They are just trying to find themselves, it is not their fault that they were born in different bodies and different mind. But again, people are going to look at you and point fingers at you just because you do not look like they do. On the provided photographs we can see men who are wearing womans clothes and who represent their selves as women and women who are described as ghost.   JRDIJKSTRA (2014) is asking himself Why then do we hate these boys when they have grown up to be men who dress as women? Why do we turn and call them names, pretending that weve never seen it? The first thing that strikes us is their fashion. Because the way persons hair is done, the way they are dressed and the way they are proud who they are. You cannot really see that often with other people, but again, it is their fashion and this is how they feel and are. Also images are black and white which is unusual for 21 century. Central issue or concern would be how men are dressed in reality and the way they are not afraid to show who and what they are. Also, women on the street are like ghost what actually shows us how we do not realize what is happening around us and who is doing their job. Medium of the photographs are 10241024 and they are all black and white. They give us feeling how was in the past but in present. With his images he reflects on his countrys past, while at the same time looking forward into the future and how life has changed. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡History forms an important part of my work, he explains, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡especially in my own country where its just two decades ago that Apartheid was abolished (JRDIJKSTRA, 2014). So many things changed through past in South Africa. We think he wants to show people that difference between race and LGBTI people is not that different. It affects everyone around us and there is no rights of free speech and them coming out as different is brave no matter what other people are saying. Mlangeni wants to show us they existed before, not just in newer era. Sabelo Mlangeni is not relevant in South Africa because LGBTI is not a big topic at the moment the way is in countries overseas. The problem is that our country focuses more on corruption and finance rather than LGBTI. Maybe that is the reason they get more judged here in South Africa or African continent than in Europe, US or Australia.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Question 5 In South African movies such as District 9 and Tsotsi we can see a lot of crimes and how people are treating each other. Firstly, let me discuss about District 9. Xenophobia is one of the main problems in this movie. Xenophobia is a fear or dislike against people from other countries. (Dictonary.com, s.a.). Also in the movie they are referring to aliens as shrimps. I would say it is a racist thing to say. People from Johannesburg see aliens as people who steal all the time, they are uneducated or just doing illegal things. Tension of the crime is massive. The main character is Wikus van de Merwe, who is a very naive and he only thinks about himself, he also treats aliens like they are nothing. After he sprays a fluid in his face, he starts turning into one of them or into a shrimp. His father-in-law tries to convince his daughter to move on, because he does not like him that is why he even gave him a promotion in the company called MNU. Nigerian people were shown as War Lords because they were selling cat food to aliens as a scam, they would trade cat food for alien weapon. The problem was that the wea pon works only with alien identity, so the boss of Nigerians wanted to cut Wikus hand off. Muti is a term for a witch doctor that Nigerians believed in, they would kill aliens and eat their parts hoping they will get their powers to use their weapon. Another problem is that the media would show everything what is happening. At one point when the explosion happened, they said it was a terrorist attack, which was a lie. Also, when Wikus body started to change, people would see him on the news or hear on the radio and they would run away from him. Nobody wanted to listen to him and hear what he has to say, people only believed in mass media. At the end they were all judgmental to each other, because they were not the same (District 9, 2009). And Tsotsi (2005) is a movie about stealing from people, killing and running away from reality. One of the problems is how those people live. Their houses are not in proper conditions, there are a lot of diseases that can be spread around them. The second problem was that the main character did not know how to communicate without using his gun, he would have disrespectful behavior and he did not have mercy for anyone.   The third problem is that most of the children from the street are on the street because they dont have families or their families are just ruined. The main characters mom was sick and she died when he was little and his dad was alcoholic, so he basically did not have anyone to raise him on the way he can have an education or love. He would steal more and more from people who would look better looking, fights and killing others were the answer for everything. The only reason for changing his mind from all the crime was the baby from the car he stole. At the end he returns baby home after trying to take care of him, realizing it is very hard to take care of kids if you dont have money and safe area to live. Also, he took responsibilities for his actions. Question 6 6.1. Vodacom Summer 2015 Advert caption does not have anything with the provided link. However, advert that was on offer on provided link was a Blue Ribbon Bread (My Mom Is So Cool, 2015). The advert is way too long and it loses the whole point of the advert. We also decided to find Vodacom Summer 2015 Advert (Vodacom Summer 2015, 2015). From the begging we can see it that advert is about Vodacom. We think they tried to show their consumers and future consumers that they can stay in touch and stay connected no matter in which situation they are or where ever they are. 6.2. Chicken Licken Advert (Inner peace, 2015) tries to show us how their master is going to do everything and anything to get chicken pieces and just because he is eating their chicken he is so good in karate. 6.3. KFC (Emzini Wezinsizwa KFC South Africa advert, 2015) advert shows us that family or group of five can share one meal for a good price. The quality of the food is excellent because they would do anything for it. Also main characters in the advert according to the SABC1 (2017), were from the highly popular African sitcom Emzini Wezinsizwa. Bibliography/Reference list: Twitter usage/Company facts. 2017. Its whats happening, 30 June 2016. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at: https://about.twitter.com/company à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 03.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . OShaughnessy, M. and Stadler, J. 2016. Media and society. 5th ed. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Oxford University press. Lin, E. 2013. 7 tips to travel smart in the summer, The Lab!, 2 July 2013 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºBlogà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at: http://blog.kdanmobile.com/2013/07/02/7-tips-to-travel-smart-in-the-summer/ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 03.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . OShaughnessy, M. and Stadler, J. 2016. Media and Society. 5th ed. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Oxford University press. My Response PewDiePie. 2017. YouTube video, added by PewDiePie à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwk1DogcPmU à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 03.04.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . My Response PewDiePie. 2017. YouTube video, added by PewDiePie à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwk1DogcPmU à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 03.04.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Grundberg, S. and Hansegards, J. 2014. Youtubes biggest draw plays games, earns 4$ million a year. Cussing, Comic Videogame Reviwer PewDiePIe has 27 Million Subscribers. The Wall Street Journal. 1. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-star-plays-videogames-earns-4-million-a-year-1402939896 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed: 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Winkler, R., Nicas, J. and Fritz, B. 2017. Disney Servers Ties With YouTube Star PewDiePie After Anti-Semitic Posts. Move came after the Journal asked about videos in which he included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery. The Wall Street Journal. 1. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-severs-ties-with-youtube-star-pewdiepie-after-anti-semitic-posts-1487034533 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Is PewDiePie Racist? h3h3Productions. 2017. YouTube video, added by h3h3Productions à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLNSiFrS3n4 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Laurent, O. 2016. Haiti Earthquake Five Years Later. Time.com, 21 January 2015 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at:   http://time.com/3662225/haiti-earthquake-five-year-after/ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ½Elon Musk TED talks. 2017. YouTube video, added by TED à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKWPdJWuBQ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . SolarCity. 2017. Solar roof. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºn.d.à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚  2017. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at: http://www.solarcity.com/residential/solar-roof à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . The Walt Disney Company. 2017. About The Walt Disney Company, 2017. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Available at: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/   à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Ramp1885.com. 2015. Protest on the Ramp: South African Designer Isabelle Lotter Joins #FeesMustFall Movement. [Online]. Available at: http://ramp1885.com/protest-on-the-ramp-south-african-designer-isabelle-lotter-joins-feesmustfall-movement/ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Africanews.com. 2016. South Africa: Flash floods kill six people in Johannesburg. [Online]. Available at: http://www.africanews.com/2016/11/10/south-africa-flash-floods-kill-six-people-in-johannesburg/ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Africanews.com. 2016. South Africa:Flash floods kill six people in Johannesburg. [Online]. Available at: http://www.africanews.com/2016/11/10/south-africa-flash-floods-kill-six-people-in-johannesburg/ à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Independent.co.uk. 2016. Barack Obama tells Latin America: Dont assume the worst about Donald Trump. [Online]. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-donald-trump-latinamerica-president-elect-dont-assume-worst-tpp-trade-a7427986.html à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . US Weekly. 2016. President Obama, Michelle Obama Welcome Donald Trump, Melania to White House, 10 November 2016 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/president-obama-donald-trump-meet-at-white-house-post-election-w449671 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . US Weekly. 2016. President Obama, Michelle Obama Welcome Donald Trump, Melania to White House, 10 November 2016 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/president-obama-donald-trump-meet-at-white-house-post-election-w449671 à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . JRDIJKSTRA. 2014. Jorrit R Dijkstra. My photographs dont belong in a drawer. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://jorritdijkstra.nl/?tag=sabelo-mlangeni à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . JRDIJKSTRA. 2014. Jorrit R Dijkstra. My photographs dont belong in a drawer. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://jorritdijkstra.nl/?tag=sabelo-mlangeni à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Dictonary.com s.a. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://www.dictionary.com/browse/xenophobia?s=t à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 04.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . District 9. 2009. Directed by Neil Blompkamp, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºFilmà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . South Africa, New Zealand, United States: TriStar Pictures. Tsotsi. 2005. Directed by Gavin Hood, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºFilmà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . South Africa: Ster-Kinekor Pictures and Miramax Films. My Mom Is So Cool Blue Ribbon Bread. 2015., added by Blue Ribbon Bread, 19 Feb 2014. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºBrand videoà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW4WfO0LMnw à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Vodacom Summer 2015 MyBroadband. 2016. YouTube video, added by MyBroadband à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iBZpTdDNTs à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . Inner peace Chicken Licken Advert. 2015., Agency Net#work BBDO Johannesburg, South Africa, 5 Nov 2015.   à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºBrand videoà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMctGA8CzQE   à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . SABC 1. 2017. About Emzini Wezinsizwa, à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºn.dà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚  2017. à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºOnlineà ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . http://www.sabc1.co.za/sabc/home/sabc1/schedule/details?id=63154728-3583-4156-a34b-f080985d6811title=Emzini%20Wezinsizwa à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ºAccessed 07.03.2017à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ . In the List of Figures: Figure 5: Lin, E. 2013. 7 TIPS TO TRAVEL SMART IN THE SUMMER: Summer time is here! It is the perfect time for traveling and exploring the world. Figure 6: Hutchings, M. 2015. Protest on the Ramp: South African Designer Isabelle Lotter Joins #FeesMustFall Movement. Figure 7: CityogJoburgZA, 2016. South Africa: Flash floods kill six people in Johannesburg. Figure 8: Independent.co.uk. 2016. Barack Obama tells Latin America: Dont assume the worst about Donald Trump.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Fast Food Workers Need Higher Wages Essay -- Raise the Minimum Wage, F

Fast-food workers have been protesting for a minimum wage of $15 dollars an hour and the freedom to unionize. The workers have organized numerous protests this year. During the protests they have walked out and chanted slogans regarding their pay. The main fast-food companies that are effected is McDonald's and Burger King. They both have stated that they will not press charges and indeed are allowing the workers to return. These workers that are participating in the strike doesn’t represent the majority of the fast-food employees. The people participating in the strike are not only youths but adults and elders as well. Due to the countries low employment rate many of these workers are supporting a family or other dependents. This is where most of the fast-food workers are getting their motivation to protest this industry. Unfortunately, many Americans are questioning the negative economic effects of their proposed wage and their lack of worthiness to receive that big of a pa y raise. However, I believe that with some adjustment and research we can find a way to make everyone happy. My solution advises that we support Obama’s nine dollars an hour minimum wage proposal. It will give the fast-food workers financial support, release the burden of the taxpayer’s assistance, and keep inflation balanced. Educated Americans and researchers biggest concern is that their minimum wage proposal is going to negatively affect our economy. For example, they predict that their wage is part of the labor cycle and if it increases it will raise prices for customers. In Brian Jencunas article, he expresses that, â€Å"Virtually anyone can do these jobs with very little training. This means the supply of potential labor exceeds the demand, making sala... ...ish Fast-Food Strikes | National Review Online." National Review Online. National Review Online, 5 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Murray, Matt. "SIEU President Mary Kay Henry Goes On The Colbert Report." NH Labor News. NH Labor News, 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Preston, Bryan. "PJ Media." The PJ Tatler RSS. PJ Media, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Sheasley, Chelsea B. "'Super-size' Strike: Why Fast-food Workers Walked out for Higher Wages." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. Traub, Amy, and Catherine Ruetschlin. "Ten Reasons Why Fast Food Workers Deserve A Raise | Common Dreams." Common Dreams. Common Dreams, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Wong, Venessa. "This Is What Would Happen If Fast-Food Workers Got Raises." BloomBerg Business Week. Bloomberg L.P, 2 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

Friday, July 19, 2019

A Knowledge Entry System for Subject Matter Experts :: essays research papers

The High Performance Knowledge Bases (HPKB) project demonstrated that the teams of knowledge engineers working together could create knowledge bases (KBs) roughly at the rate of 10K axioms/year for a pre-specified task and evaluation criteria. The HPKB effort showed that it is possible to create KBs by reusing the content of knowledge libraries, and it demonstrated reuse rates ranging from 25% to 100%, depending on the application and the knowledge engineer. It was acknowledged that the ability of a subject matter expert (SME) to directly enter knowledge is essential to improve the KB construction rates. The SRI team is developing a system for direct knowledge entry by SMEs as an integrated team of technology developers. The SRI team includes Boeing, Information Sciences Institute (ISI) at University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Pacific Sierra Research (PSR), Stanford University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Texas at Austin, and University of West Florida. Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford, Pragati Systems, and Massachusetts Insititute of Technology joined the team after the contract award. The claim of this effort is that SMEs, unassisted by AI technologists, can assemble models of mechanisms and processes from components. These models are both declarative and executable, so questions about the mechanisms and processes can be answered by conventional inference methods (for example, theorem proving and taxonomic inference) and by various task-specific methods (for example, simulation, analogical reasoning, and problem-solving methods). A related claim is that relatively few components, perhaps a few thousand, are sufficient for SMEs to assemble models of virtually any mechanism or process. We claim that these components are independent of domain, and that assembly from components instantiated to a domain is a natural way for SMEs to create KB content. The research in this project exploits and extends previous work in the HPKB project, as well as work in process description languages, qualitative physics, systems dynamics, and simulation. One scientific innovation, and the principal extension to Cyc and the "HPKB standard" of knowledge bases, is the idea of declarative and executable models (DEMs) assembled from components. The declarative aspect of DEMs supports conventional inference, whereas the executable aspect supports reasoning by simulation. For example, the declarative part of a model of aerosols is sufficient to answer questions like, "Will a 5-micron filter afford protection against this aerosol?" while the executable part is necessary to model the dispersal pattern of the aerosol.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Android Essay

|Google Android |November 15 | | |2011 | |An operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Developed by the Open |Operating System | |Handset Alliance led by Google. | | Table of Contents Introduction3 About 4 Architecture7 System Threading11 CPU Scheduling 12 Process States14 Memory Management18 Synchronization Techniques19 Event Handling 20 Security21 Networking22 Evaluation23 Bibliography24 Introduction Since its initial launch on the T-Mobile G1 in October of 2008, Google's Android operating system has evolved rapidly, perhaps more rapidly than any other operating system in recent memory, to become one of the most important and prolific smartphone platforms in the market today. The Android OS is the name of the Linux based operating system owned by Google and supported by the Open Handset Alliance. Android is used as an operating system for devices such as cell phones, tablets and netbooks. Google bought the original developer of the software, Android Inc. , in 2005. Android's kernel (core of the OS) was derived from Linux but has been modified by Google developers. Android is also open source, which means developers can customize the OS for different phones and applications. This is why different phones may have different looking graphical interfaces and features even though they are running the same OS. Android OS is completely open source, which means that developers can use the core OS functions to develop applications, unlike iphone OS which is a closed system. About The version history of the Android operating system began with the release of version 1. 0 in September 2008. Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. Android has seen a number of updates since its original release. These updates to the base operating system typically fix bugs and add new features. Generally, each version is developed under a code name based on a dessert item. The code names were released in alphabetic order: Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich. Like Apple's Appstore, Google opened its Android market, allowing the apps developers to publish their apps without any restrictions. Unlike Apple's Appstore, Google Android market does not have any restrictions for third party development and will not run an apps approval system. Android is an open source platform. The entire stack, from low-level Linux modules all the way to native libraries, and from the application framework to complete applications, is totally open. More so, Android is licensed under business-friendly licenses (Apache/MIT) so that others can freely extend it and use it for variety of purposes. Even some third-party open source libraries that were brought into the Android stack were rewritten under new license terms. Therefore, every developer has access to the entire platform source code. There are several advantages of the Android OS for developers, besides the fact that it’s completely open source, let’s mention a few: Advantages [pic] †¢ The entire Application framework can be reused and replaced by selective components Wi-Fi network applications support (Depends on hardware) †¢ Dalvik[1] virtual machine enhances the power management systems †¢ Supports 2D and 3D graphics †¢ Supports common media file formats †¢ Reliable and enhanced data storage using SQLite framework[2] †¢ Open source Web-Kit Engine-based web-browser †¢ GPS, Navigational compass, Touch-Unlock, and acceleromet er applications support †¢ Androids development environment includes a device emulator, debugger, performance profiling tool, and an Eclipse IDE plug-in [pic] Logo of Android OS Architecture [pic] The main components of the Android architecture: 1. Applications: These are applications written in Java. Some of basic applications include a calendar, email client, SMS program, maps, making phone calls, accessing the Web browser, accessing your contacts list and others. [pic] 2. Application Framework: This is the skeleton or framework which all android developers has to follow. The developers can access all framework APIs an manage phone’s basic functions like resource allocation, switching between processes or programs, telephone applications, and keeping track of the phone’s physical location. The architecture is well designed to simplify the reuse of components. Think of the application framework as a set of basic tools with which a developer can build much more complex tools. [pic] 3. Libraries: This layer consists of Android libraries written in C, C++, and used by various systems. These libraries tell the device how to handle different kinds of data and are exposed to Android developers via Android Application framework. Some of these libraries include media , graphics, 3D, SQLite, web browser library etc. The Android runtime layer which includes set of core java libraries and DVM (Dalvik Virtual Machine) is also located in same layer. [pic] 4. Runtime Android: This layer includes set of base libraries that are required for java libraries. Every Android application gets its own instance of Dalvik virtual machine. Dalvik has been written so that a device can run multiple VMs efficiently and it executes files in executable (. Dex) optimized for minimum memory. [pic] 5. Kernel – Linux: This layer includes Android’s memory management programs, security settings, power management software and several drivers for hardware, file system access, networking and inter-process-communication. The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between hardware and the rest of the software stack. pic] The basics of the Android kernel are just like any other monolithic architecture, all services (file system, VFS, device drivers, etc. ) as well as core functionality (scheduling, memory allocation, etc) are a tight knit group sharing the same space. The kernel of this system is both a hybrid and a monolithic modular design. It is br oken down into five major subsystems: †¢ Process Scheduler: (SCHED) responsible for controlling process access to the CPU. The scheduler enforces a policy that ensures that processes will have fair access to the CPU, while ensuring that necessary hardware actions are performed by the kernel on time. Memory Manager: (MM) permits multiple processes to securely share the machine's main memory system. In addition, the memory manager supports virtual memory that allows Linux to support processes that use more memory than is available in the system. Unused memory is swapped out to persistent storage using the file system then swapped back in when it is needed. †¢ Virtual File System: (VFS) abstracts the details of the variety of hardware devices by presenting a common file interface to all devices. In addition, the VFS supports several file system formats that are compatible with other operating systems. Network Interface: (NET) provides access to several networking standards an d a variety of network hardware. †¢ Inter-Process Communication: (IPC) subsystem supports several mechanisms for process-to-process communication on a single Linux system. System Threading By default, an Android application runs on a single thread[3]. Single-threaded applications run all commands serially, meaning the next command is not completed until the previous one is done. Another way of saying this is that each call is blocking. This single thread is also known as the UI thread because it’s the thread that processes all the user interface commands as well. The UI thread is responsible for drawing all the elements on the screen as well as processing all the user events, such as touches on the screen, clicks of the button, and so on. Threads may suspend themselves or be suspended either by the Garbage Collector (GC), debugger or the signal monitor thread. The VM controls all the threads through the use of a internal structure where all the created threads are mapped. The GC will only run when all the threads referring to a single process are suspended, in order to avoid inconsistent states. CPU Scheduling The Linux kernel uses the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS), which has the objective of providing balance between tasks assigned to a processor and applies fairness in the way that CPU time is assigned to tasks. This balance guarantees that all the tasks will have the same CPU share and that, each time that unfairness is verified, the algorithm assures that task rebalancing is performed. Although fairness is guaranteed, this algorithm does not provide any temporal guarantees to tasks, and therefore, neither Android does it, as its scheduling operations are delegated to the Linux kernel. Android uses its own VM named Dalvik (see footnote 2), which was specifically developed for mobile devices and considers memory optimization, battery power saving and low frequency CPU. It relies on the Linux kernel for the core operating system features such as memory management and scheduling and, thus, also presents the drawback of not taking any temporal guarantees into consideration. [pic] In terms of execution, the algorithm works as follows: the tasks with lower virtual runtime are placed on the left side of the tree, and the tasks with the higher virtual runtime are placed on the right. This means that the tasks with the highest need for the processor will always be stored on the left side of the tree. Then, the scheduler picks the left-most node of the tree to be scheduled. Each task is responsible for accounting the CPU time taken during execution and adding this value to the previous virtual runtime value. Then, it is inserted back into the tree, if it has not finished yet. With this pattern of execution, it is guaranteed that the tasks contend the CPU time in a fair manner. Another aspect of the fairness of the algorithm is the adjustments that it performs when the tasks are waiting for an I/O device. In this case, the tasks are compensated with the amount of time taken to receive the information they needed to complete its objective. [pic] Since the introduction of the CFS, the concept of scheduling classes was also introduced. Basically, these classes provide the connection between the main generic scheduler functionalities and the specific scheduler classes that implement the scheduling algorithms. This concept allows several tasks to be scheduled differently by using different algorithms for this purpose. Regarding the main scheduler, it is periodic and preemptive. Its periodicity is activated by the frequency of the CPU clock. It allows preemption either when a high priority task needs CPU time or when an interrupt exists. As for task priorities, these can be dynamically modified with the nice command and currently the kernel supports 140 priorities, where the values ranging from 0 to 99 are reserved for real-time processes and the values ranging from 100 to 139 are reserved for normal processes. Process States The order in which processes are killed to reclaim resources is determined by the priority of the hosted applications. An application’s priority is equal to its highest-priority component. Where two applications have the same priority, the process that has been at a lower priority longest will be killed first. Process priority is also affected by interprocess dependencies; if an application has a dependency on a Service or Content Provider supplied by a second application, the secondary application will have at least as high a priority as the application it supports. All Android applications will remain running and in memory until the system needs its resources for other applications. A process has five different states. [pic] †¢ Active Processes Active (foreground) processes are those hosting applications with components currently interacting with the user. These are the processes Android is trying to keep responsive by reclaiming resources. There are generally very few of these processes, and they will be killed only as a last resort. Active processes include: o Activities in an â€Å"active† state; that is, they are in the foreground and responding to user events. You will explore Activity states in greater detail later in this chapter. Activities, Services, or Broadcast Receivers that are currently executing an onReceive event handler. o Services that are executing an onStart, onCreate, or onDestroy event handler. †¢ Visible Processes Visible, but inactive processes are those hosting â€Å"visible† Activities. As the name suggests, visible Activities are visible, but they aren’t in the foreground or responding to user events. Thi s happens when an Activity is only partially obscured (by a non-full-screen or transparent Activity). There are generally very few visible processes, and they’ll only be killed in extreme circumstances to allow active processes to continue. Started Service Processes Processes hosting Services that have been started. Services support ongoing processing that should continue without a visible interface. Because Services don’t interact directly with the user, they receive a slightly lower priority than visible Activities. They are still considered to be foreground processes and won’t be killed unless resources are needed for active or visible processes. †¢ Background Processes Processes hosting Activities that aren’t visible and that don’t have any Services that have been started are considered background processes. There will generally be a large number of background processes that Android will kill using a last-seen-first-killed pat- tern to obtain resources for foreground processes. †¢ Empty Processes To improve overall system performance, Android often retains applications in memory after they have reached the end of their lifetimes. Android maintains this cache to improve the start-up time of applications when they’re re-launched. These processes are routinely killed as required. State Diagram [pic] Memory Management Android’s process and memory management is a little unusual. Like Java and . NET, Android uses its own run time and virtual machine to manage application memory. Unlike either of these frameworks, the Android run time also manages the process lifetimes. Android ensures application responsiveness by stopping and killing processes as necessary to free resources for higher-priority applications. Each Android application runs in a separate process within its own Dalvik instance, relinquishing all responsibility for memory and process management to the Android run time, which stops and kills processes as necessary to manage resources. Dalvik and the Android run time sit on top of a Linux kernel that handles low-level hardware interaction including drivers and memory management, while a set of APIs provides access to all of the under- lying services, features, and hardware. Synchronization Techniques Regarding synchronization, Android uses its own implementation of libc – named bionic. Bionic has its own implementation of the pthread library and it does not support process-shared mutexes and condition variables. However, thread mutexing and thread condition variables are supported in a limited manner. Currently, inter-process communication is handled by Open-Binder. In terms of real-time limitations, the mechanisms provided by the architecture do not solve the old problems related with priority inversion. Therefore, synchronization protocols such as priority ceiling and inheritance are not implemented. Event Handling In terms of interrupt/event handling, these are performed by the kernel via device drivers. Afterwards, the kernel is notified and then is responsible for notifying the application waiting for that specific interrupt/event. None of the parts involved in the handling has a notion of the time restrictions available to perform its operations. This behavior becomes more serious when considering interrupts. In Linux the interrupts are the highest priority tasks, and therefore, this means that a high priority task can be interrupted by the arrival of an interrupt. This is considered a big drawback, as it is not possible to make the system totally predictable. Security Android has a unique security model, which focuses on putting the user in control of the device. Android devices however, don’t all come from one place, the open nature of the platform allows for proprietary extensions and changes. These extensions can help or could interfere with security, being able to analyze a distribution of Android is therefore an important step in protecting information on that system. Android applications run in a sandbox, an isolated area of the operating system that does not have access to the rest of the system's resources, unless access permissions are granted by the user when the application is installed. Before installing an application, Android Market displays all required permissions. A game may need to enable vibration, for example, but should not need to read messages or access the phonebook. After reviewing these permissions, the user can decide whether to install the application. Networking Android supports connectivity technologies including Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)[4], Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE)[5], Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (IDEN)[6], Code division multiple access (CDMA)[7], Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO)[8], Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)[9], Bluetooth[10], Wi-Fi[11], LTE[12], (Near field communication) NFC[13] and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)[14]. Evaluation Mobile software development has evolved incredibly over time, giving us the power of not having to carry our laptop everywhere, or waiting to get home to access our networks or documents, 3G and 4G speeds directly on our phones give us that power, making mobile devices the most popular way to stay connected, as speeds are comparable to standard net speeds. Android has emerged as a new mobile development platform, building on past successes and avoiding past failures of other platforms. The android OS is an open source, meaning that is freely available to anyone who wishes to learn it. Google has opened up the software to creativity, because now we all have access to learning the development process. Hackers, coders, and all techy gurus have created a plethora of net-libraries ranging from support groups, forums and websites to further help newbies in the process. Android was designed to empower developers to think creatively by giving them almost absolute power over creating innovative applications. Bibliography Android Developers. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. . Burnette, Ed. Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform. Raleigh, NC: Pragmatic helf, 2010. Print. Burns, Jesse. â€Å"DEVELOPING SECURE MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR ANDROID. † DEVELOPING SECURE MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR ANDROID (2008). Print. Linux. com | The Source for Linux Information. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. . Maia, Claudio, Luis Nogueira, and Luis Pinho. â€Å"Evaluating Android OS for Embedded Real-Time Systems. † Print. â€Å"Memory Management in Android  « Welcome to Mobile World !!! † Welcome to Mobile World !!! Web. 11 Nov. 2011. . Shevchenko, Aleksey. â€Å"Application Handling of Database Timeouts and Deadlocks – Developer. om. † Developer. com: Your Home for Java and Open Source Development Knowledge. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. . â€Å"White Paper Android by 2012, Android OS, Android SDK. † Upload & Share PowerPoint Presentations and Documents. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. . ———————– [1]A Java interpreter machine, completely optimized for Android platform a nd which is developed to run on low-end memory mobile devices. One of the prominent aspects in Dalvik is its capability to run along an application compilation enhancing the runtime performance of the applications. Dalvik is not exactly, a Java machine, because Dalvik could not read Java code, but consists its own byte code called â€Å"dex† and so the executable files compacted using Dalvik holds the file type name ‘. dex'. Google states that the credit for Androids successful development goes to Dalvik VM, because this type of virtual machine, delivers a good performance over various stages of an application runtime environment, conserving more battery-power during long run of an application. [2] An embedded relational database management system contained in a elatively small (~275 kB) C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain. [3] Processing of one command at a time [4] A standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe technologies for second generation (or â€Å"2G†) digital cellular networks [5] A digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-com patible extension of GSM. [6] A mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a trunked radio and a cellular telephone 7] A channel access method used by various radio communication technologies [8] A telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access [9] A third generation mobile cellular technology for networks based on the GSM standard [10] Technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400-2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with high levels of security 11] A mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices [12] A preliminary mobile communication standard, formally submitted as a candidate 4G system [13] NFC allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to e ach other, usually by no more than a few centimeters [14] A communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas