An Article on Facebook from the Times of India Essay Example for Free

An Article on Facebook from the Times of India Essay For once, I was ahead of the curve, and, having rarely been in this exalted place, I can tell you it feels good. The backlash against Facebook, the social networking site, has begun, with rumblings of discontent being heard from distant corners of the globe. Word is going round that it is time-wasting, trivial, and a pathetic substitute for meeting friends in person. This is precisely what I have been saying to my friends all along but they used to recoil in horror as though declining to open a Facebook account was like refusing to bathe. They muttered darkly about certain people being pig-headed. I was reated like a Luddite, vainly holding out against penicillin or the electric kettle. Every time i asked them what exactly was so wonderful about this site, they gave the same feeble answers. Oh, its a great way to keep in touch. You can post your photos on it. Through the links to other peoples pages, you can see what your ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands are up to. Well, according to me, this is a waste of time. I can barely keep in touch with the friends who really matter to me four to five at the most, at any given stage in my life much less maintain an online relationship with old college friends or colleagues from years ago. If one has never bothered to make contact with them in all these years, its because one has never needed or particularly wanted to. It means that they dont matter hugely to me now. They did then, but now im in touch with another set of friends. My life is full enough with them. If one has a spare few hours, one would rather meet a friend over coffee or wine. That real-time, face-to-face conversation is contact, not exchanging trivia online. Why would i want to see a friends holiday snaps when i can barely summon up enough interest in my own to get them developed? Few things, bar waiting for milk to boil, are as boring as other peoples holiday pictures. Much as i love my friends in various parts of the world, im perfectly content with a broad brush update. An occasional e-mail telling me they are fine, their teenage son hasnt become a drug dealer and their dogs arthritis is better is fine with me. Any more detail is redundant. I assume they are equally uninterested in the daily mundaneness of my life and that is exactly as it should be. Even assuming i wanted to sign up, i would never have the time. If i, blessed with two maids and only one child to look after, cannot find the time to go on this site, how do millions of others, particularly those in the West who have many household chores, do so? hurry! No wonder companies are banning this site. God knows what it is doing to global productivity. But even outside work, dont people have to walk the dog? Check up on an elderly aunt? File their tax returns? The Facebook phenomenon has confirmed yet again what we have always known that human beings are sheep. They see someone going off in one direction and they follow blindly for no apparent reason beyond the comfort of numbers. All my efforts at persuading my 12-year-old son not to get onto Facebook failed. I spoke cogently about the charm of being different, of having the moral strength to resist peer pressure, of the infinitely greater pleasures of reading, but my efforts failed. His school friends looked at him as though he had gone soft in the brain. As for twitter, dont even get me started. The very name cutesy and twee irritates the hell out of me. Facebook and twitter are fads. Like all fads, theyll end up in the dustbin, not of history, but of historys footnotes.

Psychological persperctive in health and social care Essay Example for Free

Psychological persperctive in health and social care Essay The behaviourist perspective The behaviourist perspective is an idea that we can understand any type of behaviour by looking at what the person has learned. This includes personality traits such as shyness, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Behaviourist psychologists explain all human behaviour as resulting from experience. Two key psychologists are Pavlov and skinner, although these two theorists believed that different processes were involved, they both explained all types of behaviour as being the result of learning. This is everything from shyness to aggression and happiness to depression. Classical conditioning Classical conditioning was a theory developed by a Russian psychologist called Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). He was working with dogs to investigate their digestive systems. The dogs were attached to a harness and Pavlov attached monitors to their stomachs and mouths so he could measure the rate of salivation. He noticed that the dog began to salivate when someone entered the room with a bowl of food, but before the dog had eaten the food. Since salivation is a reflex response, this seemed unusual. Pavlov decided that the dog was salivating because it had learned to associate the person with food. He then developed a theory. Food automatically led to the salivation response, since this response had not been learned, he called this an unconditioned response, which is a response that regularly occurs when an unconditioned stimulus is presented. As food automatically leads to this response, he called this unconditioned stimulus, which is a stimulus that regularly and consistently leads to an automatic response. Pavlov then presented food at the same time as ringing a bell (neutral stimulus), to see if the dog would learn to associate the bell with food. After several trials, the dog learned that the bell was associated with food and eventually it began to salivate only when the bell was rung and no food was presented. It therefore has learned the conditioned response (CR) of salivation to the conditioned stimulus (CS) of the bell. Operant conditioning This sort of learning is associated with the theories of Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 – 1990). Skinner was an American psychologist who worked  mostly with rats and pigeons, to learn some of the key principles of learning new behaviours. He used a very famous device, called a skinner box. Skinner famous device was a box which contained a lever which, when pressed, releases a food pellet into the box, thus reinforcing lever-pressing behaviour. When the rat is first placed in the box it will run around and sniff the various items in the box and at some point it will press the lever, releasing a food pellet. After a while of the repeated performed action the rat will learn this behaviour (pressing the lever) is automatically followed by the release of a food pellet (the consequence). Because the pellet is experienced as reinforcing (something the rat would like to have more of), this consequence increases the probability of the behaviour being repeated. There are two types of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Skinner investigated negative reinforcement by running a very low electrical current throughout the floor of the Skinner box. The current can be de-activated if the rat pressed the lever. The behaviour of lever pressing was thus negatively reinforcing. For humans, this can be demonstrated by the example of using pain relief. For example, if you have aches and pains and you take a painkiller, which results in the aches and pains going away, you are negatively reinforced for taking a painkiller. Punishment occurs only when behaviour is followed by a consequence that is experienced as unpleasant. Skinner investigated this by giving the rat a small electric shock when the rat pressed the lever. The consequence of the lever pressing (the electric shock) was experienced as unpleasant, so the rat learned to stop pressing the lever. Social learning theory The effects of other individuals on behaviour There are many influences on our behaviour, for example peers, siblings, parents, television, media, sports personalities and other celebrities. Well according to social learning theory, role models are very important. While we may learn new behaviours from anyone, the likelihood of imitating behaviours is strongly influenced by the way we perceive the person performing the behaviour (the model). If we observe someone we admire behaving in a particular way, we may be more likely to imitate such behaviour. If, for example The effects of groups on behaviour Our behaviour is strongly influenced by the presence of others, however much we believe ourselves to be truly individuals in our beliefs and behaviour. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the experiments conducted in the 1950’s by social psychologist Solomon Asch. He was interested in a concept called majority influence. This is when the presence of other people causes us to change our public behaviour or opinions because we do not want to stand out from the crowd (be different). We have a powerful desire to belong and will ‘go along’ with what others in our group say, think and do in order to FIT IN. This is what he did to test this idea. A group of six of the experimenter (people who were play-acting according to instructions) were joined by a naive participant (a genuine participant who knew nothing about the nature of the experiment) in a task that supposedly tested visual perception. The experimenter explained that the task involved stating whet her a target line. The effects of culture and society on behaviour The term culture refers to the shared values, norms, language, customs and practices of a group. Most of us tend to think of culture as being specific to different countries. It is important to understand how culture affects our behaviour in order to gain a full understanding of people we come across and those we work with. The self-fulfilling prophecy This part is an important concept in psychology that plays a big role on the way we behave towards others and expect them to behave towards us. If we believe ourselves to be worthy, pleasant and likeable then we will most definitely be polite and cheerful towards those we meet and this will create a favourable impression. In response to those who may come into contact with us view us favourably and behave in a positive way towards us, with the result that our own positive self-beliefs are confirmed. To put it another way, we are angry, full of resentment, believe the world is against us and more, then we are likely to behave in a more aggressive, confrontational or argumentative way, in which case that is how we will be viewed, which will confirm our views of ourselves and the world. Role theory Between role theory and the self-fulfilling prophecy there is a similarity, in that role theory comments that because we live within a particular culture, society and social group, we are influenced by other people. This influence helps lead us to taking up certain roles and trying to live up to the expectations that go with that role. Albert Bandura Social learning theory explains behaviour as the result of learning from people we are exposed to in our environment. We can also learn new behaviours from people we observe, either in real life or in the media. This is known as observational learning and this theory was developed by the American psychologist, Albert Bandura. The person we learn from is known as a role model, and the process of imitating is called modelling. However, we do not imitate all behaviour we observe and remember. Whether or not it is in our interests to imitate particular behaviour is influenced by characteristics of the model. If we see a model being punished for certain behaviour, we are less likely to imitate it than if we see him or her being positively reinforced. The psychodynamic approach The importance of the unconscious mind: Sigmund Freud Freud was one of the earliest thinkers to bring to public attention the idea that we are not always aware of all aspects of ourselves. He suggested that what we are aware of is represented in our conscious mind but many of our memories, feelings and past experiences are locked up in a part of our mind he called ‘unconscious’. We cannot access the contents of our unconscious, but they often ‘leak out’ in dreams and slips of the tongue. Freud believed that the conscious mind was like the tip of an iceberg – only a small part being available to awareness. Part of the unconscious that we can easily access he called the pre-conscious. This contains information not yet in consciousness but that can easily be retrieved (e.g. the name of your friends dog). The rest, well under the surface, consisted of the unconscious. Importance of early experiences The importance of early experience in determining later behaviours is clearly  illustrated by Freud’s developmental theory of psychosexual stages. He believed that we all go through several stages of psychosexual development. At every stage, the individual’s libido (energy) is focused on a part of the body that is particularly relevant at that stage. If the needs of the developing child are met at each stage, it moves on to the next developmental stage. If however, there is struggle or conflict or some unsatisfactory experience, the individual becomes ‘fixated’ (stuck) at this stage. This results in certain ways of being, or personality traits, which are carried through into adulthood and which can explain behaviour later in life. The earliest stage is the ‘oral stage’. The focus here is on the mouth and activities such as sucking, biting and licking. (You will probably have noticed that young babies seem to put everything in their mouths.) Freud believed that there could be two reasons for fixation. If the infant was weaned too early, it would feel forever under-gratified and unsatisfied and would develop into a pessimistic, sarcastic person. If, on the other hand, it was over- gratified (weaned too late) the individual would develop a gullible personality, naively trusting in others and with a tendency to ‘swallow anything’. This stage lasts from birth to roughly 18 months. If the infant successfully passes through the oral stage without becoming fixated, the next stage is the ‘anal stage’, which lasts from approximately one to three years. Here the libido is focused on aspects to do with potty training. If there is a battle with parents about potty training with the child feeling forced to use the potty before they are r eady, or feeling over – controlled in various areas, they may rebel by retaining their faeces: the child refuses to ‘go’, thus holding on to control and withholding satisfaction from the parent. This type of fixation is called ‘anally retentive’ and is associated with later personality characteristics such as obstinacy, miserliness and obsessive traits. The alternative scenario is that the child is not given enough boundaries over potty training so they take excessive pleasure in excretion and become a messy, creative, disorganised sort of person. During the ages of four to five the child passes through the ‘phallic stage’. Fixation at this stage is associated with anxiety and guilty feelings about sex and fear of castration for males. If this stage is not resolved, the theory suggests that a boy may become homosexual and a girl may become a lesbian. Freud thought these were  abnormal fixations; however most people today would not view them in this way. Between the ages of five to seven and the onset of puberty, the child enters the ‘latency stage’, which is not strictly speaking a developmental phase but a time when the focus is on s ocial pursuits such as sport, academic excellence and the development of friendships. The final psychosexual stage is the ‘genital stage’, which begins at puberty. Freud believed that the less fixated the individual has become during the earlier stages, the more easily this stage will be negotiated, resulting in the ability to form strong heterosexual relationships with an ability to be warm and loving as well as to receive love in a new, mature fashion. A second important feature of early experience is the development of ego defence mechanisms. The use of a defence mechanism allows us to block out events that threaten to overwhelm us. A final influence is that of the mind. Freud suggested that the mind (which he called the psyche) is divided into three dynamic parts. The id is a part of the mind which is totally unconscious and which exists at birth. It is focused on getting what it wants and consists of aggressive, sexual and loving instincts. It is the part of us that says ‘i want it now!’ The superego is formed as a result of socialisation and consists of all instructions, morals and values that are repeatedly enforced as we ar e growing up. It takes on the form of a conscience and also represents our view of our ideal self. The main role of the superego is to try to subdue the activity of the id. The ego tries to balance the demands of the id and the superego. It is the rational part of the mind, always seeking to do what is most helpful to the individual. Different behaviours can be understood by trying to infer which part of the psyche is dominant at any time. A person who is very submissive, guilty and always wanting to please may have a very strong superego. A person who is impulsive, careless of other people’s feelings, doesn’t think through the consequences of their actions and is perhaps inclined to aggression, either verbal or physical, probably has a dominant id. A person who can be submissive and assertive when necessary, who is bale to think about other people’s feelings but also consider and value their own needs, has probably got a strong enough ego to balance the demands of the id and the superego. They are likely to have quite a rational and realistic outlook on life. Erik Erikson Erik Erikson was a psychologist who agreed with much of Freud’s theory in so far as he thought that we developed through a series of stages. However, he thought that these continued throughout our lifetime and were essentially social in nature. He also believed that Freud put too much emphasis on our desire for individual gratification and not enough on our need to be accepted by society and lead a meaningful life. Erikson suggested that we move through a series of psychosocial crises with a different social focus at each stage. For example between birth and the age of one, the life crisis concerns developing trust or mistrust in self and others. The social focus at this stage is the mother. The humanistic perspective Human psychology looks at human experience from the viewpoint of the individual. It focuses on the idea of free will and the belief that we are all capable of making choices for ourselves. Two psychologists associated with this approach are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Abraham Maslow Maslow (1908-1970) was an American psychologist who believed that we are all seeking to become the best that we can possibly can- spiritually, physically, emotionally and intellectually. He called this Self-actualisation. He constructed a theory known as the hierarchy of needs, in which he explained that every human being requires certain basic needs to be met before they can approach the next level. Maslow believed that until our basic psychological needs are met, we will focus all our energies on getting them met and not be able to progress further. When people are well-housed, well-fed and comfortable physically, we begin to focus on our emotional needs, like the need to belong and be loved and to feel self-esteem. When our lives are such that these needs are also met, we strive to self-actualise. As Maslow said ‘A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if that person is to be ultimately at peace with their self’. What a person can be, they must be. This need we call self-actualisation. Carl Rogers Rogers (1902-1987) was particularly interested in the concept of self. There are many aspects of the self but two are especially important here. Self-concept refers to the way in which we view ourselves. This includes  physical, biological attributes like being male or female, blonde or brunette, short or tall, as well as personality traits like being kind, humble, assertive and hard working. The self -concept is formed from an early age and young children internalise other people’s judgements of them, which then become a part of their self –concept. If a child is told their silly, naughty apart of self-concept will contain these aspects. Another way of looking at it is a child is praised, encouraged to succeed and told they are valued; they will have a positive self-concept and see themselves as someone who is worthwhile and competent. Rogers believed that we also hold a concept of self, called the ideal self. This holds a view of ourselves as we feel we should be an d as we would like to be. When there is a mismatch between our actual self and our ideal self we become troubled and unhappy. The cognitive/information processing perspective This psychological perspective has gained enormous ground since the 1960’s, when the influence of behaviourism began to happen. With the development of computers came the idea that brain activity was like the operation of a computer. A great deal of research had been devoted to understanding cognitive processes such as attention, memory, perception, information processing, problem solving, thought language and other aspects of cognition. A way to understand this perspective is it relates to health and social care, we are going to concentrate on just two theorists: Jean Piaget and George Kelly. Jean Piaget Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss psychologist who initially worked on measuring intelligence. During his research he noticed children of the same age made the same mistakes in logic, however bright they were. He came to the conclusion that cognition develops through a series of stages, each new stage building on the previous one. George Kelly George Kelly (1905-1966) developed a unique psychological theory known as the psychology of Personal Constructs. He saw the individual as a scientist, making predictions about the future, testing them and, if necessary, revising them according to new evidence. A construct is a way of construing (interpreting and making sense of) reality and the environment. For example if an individual develops The biological perspective Maturational theory The theory of maturation holds that the effects of the environment are minimal. The child is born with a set of genetic instructions passed down from its parents, and its cognitive, physical and other developmental processes merely unfold over time, rather than being dependent upon the environment to mature. It is, in effect, a theory which states that development is due to nature not nurture. This is quite a contrast to the learning theory or humanistic theory, where the effects of nurture are paramount. Gesell’s theory of maturation Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) believed that development occurred according to a sequence of maturational processes. For example, development in the womb follows a fixed set of stages: the heart begins to form first, along with the rudimentary nervous system. Bones and muscles develop next and over time the organism develops into a fully functioning human being, ready to be born. As the child develops from birth onwards, its genes allow it to flower gradually into the person he or she is meant to be. The environment should provide support for this unfolding of talents, skills, personality and interests but the main thing driving this development is the maturational process. Genetic influences on behaviour Genes can affect behaviour in many ways. Some disorders, like Huntington’s disease, are caused by a single dominant gene, which either parent can pass on to their child. Others, like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia, are caused when both parents pass on the gene for the disorder. Disorders that occur regardless of the environmental influences, such as those listed above, are genetically determined disorders. This means that the individual who inherits the gene or genes is certain to develop the disorder, regardless of the environmental factors. An example of this is Huntington’s disease. This disorder usually begins to show when the individual is aged between 30 and 50 years. Symptoms of dementia appear and the individual is likely to die about 15 years after the onset. Some of the changes in  behaviour are listed below, though this list is not comprehensive: Hallucinations and delusions Severe confusion Progressive memory less Inappropriate speech; use of jargon or wrong words Personality changes including anxiety and depression, withdrawal from social interaction, decreased ability to care for oneself and inability to maintain employment. Disorders that are not genetically determined, but where an individual’s genes may leave them with a vulnerability to developing the disorder, are far more common. A classic way of measuring the contribution of genes to any type of behaviour is through twin studies. There are two types of twins. Monozygotic or identical, twins share 100 percent of their genetic material since they are formed from only one fertilised egg, which has divided into two. Dizygotic or (fraternal) twins share only 50 per cent of genetic material since they occur when two eggs are fertilised by different sperm at the same time. If, the reasoning goes, one of a pair of monozygotic twins has a disorder, it would be expected that, if genes are the only influence, the second twin must also have the disorder. The influence of the nervous and endocrine systems on behaviour The autonomic nervous system produces its effects through activation of nerve fibres throughout the nervous system, brain and body or by stimulating the release of hormones from the endocrine glands (such as the adrenal and pineal glands). Hormones are biochemical substances that are released into the bloodstream and have a profound effect on target organs and on behaviour. They are present in very small quantities and individual molecules have a very short life, so their effects quickly disappear if they are not secreted continuously. There are a large number of hormones including: Melatonin, which is released by the pineal gland and acts on the brainstem sleep mechanisms to help synchronise the phases of sleep and activity. Testosterone, which is released in the testicles and may influence aggressiveness. Oxytocin, which is released by the pituitary gland and stimulates milk production and female orgasms. Some hormones are released as a response to external stimuli. For example, the pineal gland responds to  reduced daylight by increasing production of melatonin. Other hormones follow a circadian rhythm, with one peak and one trough every 24 hours. (Circadian means ‘about a day’ and refers to a 24 hour rhythm). For instance, levels of cortisol rise about an hour before you wake up and contribute to your feelings of wakefulness or arousal.

US Justice Departments Case Against Microsoft

US Justice Departments Case Against Microsoft Explain how economic theories and evidence can help in understanding the US Justice Departments recent case against Microsoft, and in Microsofts defense against the accusations. The continuing legal case against Microsoft began initially in September 1996 when the Department of Justice claimed that Microsoft forced computer makers to take Internet Explorer. By January 1997, Microsoft controlled 85% of the operating systems market. By August 1997 Microsoft and Apple Computers had agreed to a $250 million collaboration over various products and programs including most definitively making Internet Explorer bundled with Apple computers as its default browser. Within the next two months the Department of Justice created a suit claiming that Microsoft violated its 1995 consent decree, disallowing Windows operating system to be tied to any other products. Thus beginning a four year roller coaster of trial and appeals leading to presumed wins and losses for both sides, concluding with a November 1, 2002 settlement, finally approved on June 30, 2004 in a U.S. appeals court, citing it is in the public’s interests. Throughout this case in many courtrooms and in front of numerous trial lawyers and judges a number of economic theories have been introduced and cited in the rulings for and against Microsoft. Beginning in December 1997 when Department of Justice Thomas Penfield Jackson, whom later was targeted as bias against Microsoft, stopped Microsoft from requiring the distribution of Internet Explorer with Windows 95 claiming theories of market â€Å"lock-in†, a spoke in the wheel of â€Å"path dependence†. Judge Jackson disputed that Microsoft Windows operating system owes the bulk of its market success to the high number of applications written for it. Also claiming â€Å"lock-in† theory in that Microsoft was barring applicants to enter the market despite the fact that consumer and product tests and reviews showed Windows continuously beating out IBM’s OS 2, which ironically was compatible with Windows and yes came with a browser and had numerous applications writt en for it. Jackson pushed to label Microsoft as going against the Sherman anti-trust laws by reducing Netscape’s market share to create a monopoly over the operating system markets claiming a viable case of â€Å"path dependence.† Path dependency is an argument that presumes that technology markets involve a danger of being â€Å"locked-in† to an inferior technology when subject to changes in the network as the better product is not always the winner and in fact winning and losing is highly based on sheer luck and past historical events. Once â€Å"locked-in† there is little opportunity to switch to the superior of the products as the costs of changing are made very high to protect the monopolistic company. There are many opponents to the theory of â€Å"path dependence† created by Brian W. Arthur. The major point of discrepancy is that Windows dominance throughout the operating system market was created by its economic efficiency and its position can be quickly eliminated with the introduction of system of better quality. Claims also include the caution that if â€Å"lock-in† theories are generally accepted the number of suits filed will increase drastically as many markets are subject to market effects and high seller concentration. This ultimately can be detrimental to the entire marketplace, damaging industry growth creating unsure investors with the inability to seek refuge within productivity effects on a scale base. According to the U.S. courts, Microsoft was establishing â€Å"barriers to entry† and therefore in need of priority anti-trust intervention. The fear being that regardless if a new entry to the market had a superior product to the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft would still ultimately dominate the marketplace as the costs to switch would be tremendous, lying entirely in the hands of the consumer, as all of Windows and each of its compatible applications would be rendered useless, thus creating a â€Å"lock-in† for Microsoft despite its inefficient capabilities. The example disputed throughout numerous debates was that of Macintosh would have been the better solution, however Linux despite being superior would be unable to overcome its â€Å"lock-in† position. The concluding solution: Judge Jackson rules on June 7, 2000, ordering Microsoft to break up and form two separate companies, one producing Windows operating system and the other to handle software app lications, including a barring from uniting for up to ten years. Again opponents to the â€Å"path dependence† claim that Microsoft’s dominance was in fact due to its superior products and a break up of the company would create a detrimental effect to welfare of technology, hampering innovation for years ahead. Bill Gates stated the break up would set Microsoft back some ten years. Also that the anti-trust laws cannot hold the same conditioning they did one hundred years ago over markets such as soy bean production as today’s high-tech markets are subject to rapid innovation and change that promotes aggressive behavior within the industry to stay ahead. This was the basis for the June 14, 2000 appeal by Microsoft over the District Court’s judgment. The appeals court ruled in favor of resisting Microsoft’s need to split into two companies but sided with the District Court in that Microsoft continually abused its monopoly standing within the software business. The major point in fact is that both courts presumably agreed that Microsoft’s success was largely attributed to luck and the â€Å"lock-in† effect coupled with switching costs stifling consumers, rather than pointing to its efficiency contributing to its success. The contradiction that was introduced by the appeals courts against the â€Å"lock-in† theory is that under the â€Å"lock-in† theory only a monopolistic break up could disrupt the network effect cycle and restore the deteriorated competition as cited by the district court. But if this â€Å"lock-in† theory were to hold strong then the appeals court decision to not separate Microsoft would ultimately contribute to its dominance. According to the Justice Department’s economic experts, the break up of Microsoft would create higher prices to accommodate both of the companies that would be trying to maximize profits by creating products that are complementary instead of the current production of a single product. In a surprise turn of events the ruling was turned in favor of Microsoft, claiming, as stated earlier, Jackson’s previous statements to journalists were sufficient evidence of his bias against Microsoft. The Supreme Court, on August 7, 2001, reversed the ruling that Microsoft was an illegal monopoly. On September 6, 2001 the Department of Justice states that it no longer seeks to pursue either the break up of Microsoft or the bundling issue at the center of the case. The next month followed with an approved settlement between the Department of Justice and Microsoft over anti-trust charges, however nine states still sought stricter infractions against Microsoft, seeking to have Internet Explorer placed within the public domain, along with other commitments including the ability of computer makers to remove some Windows features. Following lawsuits have followed, including suits by AOL Time Warner and Sun Microsystems, Inc., both settled through monetary resolve. Finally, on Jun e 30, 2004, the U.S. appeals court approved Microsoft’s settlement with the Justice Department, saying it is in the public’s interest. As the above stated is the path Microsoft has traveled to continue it process of continuing software market innovation, it is necessary to look at what allowed many companies and the justice system to confront and challenge Microsoft’s work ethic and productivity. To speak from the side of Microsoft, Microsoft dominates in software markets where reviews and evaluations show they have the best products and do not in markets where other products are superior. Also, under monopolistic practices traditional views of economics suggest that prices are maximized to maximize profits, however within all the markets where Microsoft has a substantial holding prices have fallen dramatically. Also, the â€Å"lock-in† theory stresses that technology industries get stuck with low quality products, but history shows that in high-tech markets, superior products eliminate inferior ones, as was the case with the superior Excel over Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Word over the inferior WordPerf ect. Reviews are the main contributor to the success of these products. Reviews gave landslide wins to both Excel and Word, where Microsoft Money was the inferior product to Quicken it failed. According to the Justice system these products carried â€Å"path dependence† that â€Å"locked-in† the inferior products (from which of these products the statement is directed is unclear) and therefore â€Å"locked-out† innovative newcomers. Examples of â€Å"lock-in† are products that become highly publicly used such as the telephone or VCR become the norm and consumers will relinquish from trying others products that vary from the standard. The antagonist to this is that the high-tech market changes so rapidly that competitive advantages have a short lifespan. Also, that consumers are able to handle the concept that if everyone knew another product was better and more efficient would not someone find a way to cut the costs to switch to the superior product. Evid ence clearly suggests that yes a single product leading to increasing returns for the company often dominates markets such as software markets, however its replacement often happens at a record speed when a product comes along that is clearly superior. Think of game play consoles; Nintendo GameCube was almost placed into extinction with the introduction of Playstation 2 and Microsoft Xbox, whose prominence will not be countered with the introduction of Xbox 360 and soon Playstation 3. To counter the anti -trust issue against Microsoft, economists have argued that Microsoft has neither raised its prices nor restricted the output of its products, both traditional elements within a monopoly. Microsoft, on the other hand, offers good quality products at prices that are attractive to consumers and this has lead to Microsoft’s large market share. The problem that lingers is why has a company that has made good products at good prices been placed under such large scrutiny. Three ideals that have allowed firms to be exposed are arbitrary law, perfect competition, and economic versus political power. The antitrust laws rely heavily on arbitrary language that reflects the arbitrary rulings within perfect competition. Consider pricing, if one sets its prices above it competitors it can be seen as trying to monopolize, setting prices below can reflect unfair competition or restraining trade and if prices are similar to that of competitors the charge can be a scheme to fix prices. Therefore regardless of any price you set you are in violation of the anti-trust laws. Who is prosecuted is ultimately up to the prosecutors and whom they see as firms that hold large market share or whom is enjoying large profits. Also under the anti-trust laws, the â€Å"essential services† doctrine states that ‘a product or service that becomes widely used and relied upon loses it private character and effectively becomes private property, to be shared with rivals and the government.’ Presumably the Windows operating system became a red mark under this doctrine. The unfortunate factor is that firms are penalized for making great products that are successful. Also, consider the charge that Microsoft held a monopolizing market share. This definition is subjective to the prosecutor as well. Microsoft holds approximately 5% of the worldwide market share, but has 50% of the PC software market and 80% of the software for Intel based PCs. What is the determining factor to decide where a Monopoly is created? The result is that Microsoft has been forced to self-regulate to avoid constant prosecution, and this is the path to slower innovation. Perfect competition is the ideal theory not on how competition actually works but instead on how it should work. Ideally every market should be saturated with a great number of firms and impending newcomers to the market, with each firm holding a small share of the market. Entrance into the market should be cost-free and no firm can change its pricing to change its market share and products should be indistinguishable. Under such profits are rendered non-existent as any profit would be considered an imperfect market and after covering costs the ideal situation is a firm showing a loss. This is in theory but in reality there is no industry that is like this as all of the entrants would decease due to a lack of the ability to survive. This ideal of perfect competition was one of the theories used to combat Microsoft. The concept of economic power versus political power is the ideal that many suits brought up as antitrust suits are contrived as revengeful plot to gain back market share that has been taken from the initiating party. Instead of creating products that are more efficient and more able to compete. The difference between economic and political power is that economic power is the power to create and produce using intellectual capability to achieve no successes, trading voluntarily to the advantage of all parties. While political power is power used to force and punish, involving physical aggrandizement used to overpower other parties. Microsoft is a leading cooperative producer flaunting only economic power. The powers that restrain them are not consumers, for which profit from Microsoft creating economical and efficient products, but instead the rivals bring suit not in the interest of the overall market but only in fear of losing even more share of the market. Traditional economic theory promotes that economic efficiency is derived from price and quality, which determine the outcome within the market. Though the court doesn’t mention the theory of path dependence explicitly, the evidence provided by the plaintiffs strictly resembles the elements enlisted under the Arthur theory. ‘The argument is that a positive feedback loop due to static economies of scale and demand-side network effects led to the so-called intractable ‘chicken-and-egg’ problem, which caused a ‘Microsoft-winner-take-all’ and a ‘Mac-OS/2-Linux-loser-gets-nothing’ solution. Microsoft is also blamed for being an inferior lock-in standard today due to positive feedback. There is no statement claiming that Microsoft gained its dominant market position simply by chance and was able to out do Apple in the battle for the predominance in the OS market in the mid 1980s. There’s also no explicit statement that Microsoft would have been an inferior technology inspired by early luck in comparison with its early competitors in the mid 1980s. Concerning the early technology selection problem during the standard battle between Microsoft and Apple, there’s no link with ARTHUR’s theory within the court’s argumentation. As a result, Microsoft is not explicitly blamed for having been an inferior solution in the past. But Microsoft is implicitly blamed for being an inferior lock-in standard today who gained its dominant market position in the past by positive feedback and whose predominance is protected by the applications barrier to entry. The court claims that Apple Macintosh, OS/2 and Linux haven’t been able to overcome the applications barrier to entry which implies that these alternative OSs are thought to be at least of the same or even of better quality than Windows because no competitor with worse quality could compete effectively with the incumbent. In this respe ct, the court argues completely according to ARTHUR’s theory that there’s almost no possibility to ‘unlock’ the Microsoft monopoly. The judge doesn’t mention explicitly the term ‘inferior lock-in monopoly’ but also demonstrates that Microsoft isn’t believed to survive due to superior product quality but simply by anti-competitive means, which protect and enhance the applications barrier to entry.’ (1a.) Fortunately, for the future innovations within the software market and the constant advance, Microsoft is free to create new efficient products at reasonable products for the future to come. That arbitrary economic theory almost crushed this opportunity and stalemated the innovation process speaks volumes about the need to produce legislation that can be accurately held accountable to guide all firms. Whether there need be strict rules to account for different markets and product types to discern between never changing marketplaces to industries that turnover a week at a time is left unclear. Regardless, Microsoft is not evil for creating a profit on an increasing returns agenda, that is what is available in markets that hold market share and volume advantages. References: JACKSON (1999), U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust-Division, p. 6. Ohios sad legacy of antitrust: John Sherman to Betty Montgomery By James A. Damaskweb, July 1998 Law and Economics of Microsoft vs. U.S. Department of Justice: New Paradigm for Antitrust in Network Markets or Inefficient Lock-In of Antitrust Policy? By Marc-Peter Radke Stuttgart-Hohenheim ISSN 1618-5358, 2001 www.findlaw.com Wired magazine issue 3.10: The More you Sell, the More you Sell. Law and Economics of Microsoft vs. U.S. Department of Justice New Paradigm for Antitrust in Network Markets or Inefficient Lock-In of Antitrust Policy? By Marc-Peter Radke, Nov. 2001 www.cnn.com

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead :: essays research papers, shakespeare, hamlet

Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The play Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard is a focus on two of the minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Stoppard’s work is completely ingenious and thus requires that the reader have extensive knowledge of Hamlet. Many snippets of actual dialogue from Hamlet can be found in Stoppard’s play. This dialogue rarely is featured as the main goings on at time but it serves as a guide to understanding just some of Stoppard’s many metaphysical themes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are unimportant servants to King Claudius in Hamlet. They keep their same roles in R & G Are Dead but are instead completely spotlighted. Stoppard follows them through their actions, which are often nothing more than lengthy discussions portraying their lack of knowledge about their identities and their existence. They can barely remember their own names as is showed when characters of Hamlet cannot discern which is which.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stoppard’s main use of the play Hamlet is to have it represent the actions of one’s life. Stoppard’s goal in this work is to show life as a quick journey through the unknown and to show death as an inevitable and final end to this journey. Hamlet, in this play, truly stands as a mini human life. This representation is completely essential to grasping Stoppard’s theme. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern know nothing of their creation or why they are truly here. They stand for all of humanity, which knows nothing of what life truly is or why they are here.

Cultural Shift through the Eyes of Ginsberg and Kerouac :: Allen Ginsberg

Cultural Shift through the Eyes of Ginsberg and Kerouac    Brothers of the San Francisco Beat scene, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg lived in the midst of a consumer cultural revolution, patriots of a forgotten mindset. While the regional characters of the nation were quickly being homogenized by television, Kerouac and Ginsberg wrote poetry and prose that both captured and contemplated the moment. They were contemporaries, sharing the same circle of friends and drawing from the same influences but produced works seeking divergent means to the same conceptual end. Kerouac wrote with an enlightened nostalgia, fascinated with preserving a form of the pioneer spirit of individuals and tall tales in the midst of cultural change, while Ginsberg's poetry directly criticized the shortcomings and decay of society; neither author completing the picture or the message, leaving something for the other. American culture of the mid nineteen fifties and early sixties is described with disgust and rejection in both Kerouac's and Ginsberg's works. They bore witness to and documented a rich, variant culture homogenized and sterilized by Dial television ads and The Saturday Evening Post. Beat calls to rebellion and cancerous grey images show America on the decline and readying for revolution. In Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums, Japhy's ideal revolutionary rejects the new developments of American culture, " refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production, and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn't really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume..."(97). Their America was a land of mass-marketed uselessness. At a time when st ores across the nation carried identical products, and everybody saw the same three channels of television, the sparkle of regional character started to evaporate. Kerouac paints his Dharma Bums as the heirs of Whitman, poetic thoughtful wanderers. Ginsberg also used Whitman to link the past to the present in the poem "A Supermarket in California", asking the bard "Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely. / Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

As I look back upon the past four years, in some ways it seems like my time at Kiper has been a lot like a day at the Magic Kingdom. From the moment I heard about Disneyland, I knew that I wanted to go. I counted the days until I got there, much the way that I counted the days until I left Harbour Pointe to migrate over to Kiper. Time passed so slowly because I was anticipating the great times ahead. At the end of middle school, my classmates and I thought we were so cool because we got to make that trip to someplace fun and exciting. On the first day of high school, we got up early like eager kids ready for a day of play. At Disneyland, people line up early to get their tickets and begin their enchanted day. As freshmen, we lined up early to get our class list, incredibly thrilled to finally be here. Our heads were full of the stories we had heard about how exciting it would be. Little did we know what awaited us. With our admission pass, commonly known as the schedule, we too got a map. Like Disneyland's, ours had pictures of the paths to take, leading to our varied destinations. Some thoughtful senior had actually color-coded mine, so I knew which direction to go. Our maps led to the science hall, the English hall and the Performing Arts Center, while Disneyland's led to Adventure Land, Toon Town and Main Street. Their map listed various places to grab sustenance like the Rainforest Cafe, Mickey's Kitchen and Rocket Pizza, while our map boasted four: the Commons, the East Campus Cafeteria, the Student Store and, God help us, the vending machines. With 10 minutes to go, the class of 2003 hurled themselves into the crowd of hustling students. Some of the freshmen were simply so glad to be there that the mod didn't... ... as a freshman and stared up at the brick edifice known as Kiper. It is incomprehensible that we have grown up so quickly and are about to leave forever. Never again will we all be in the same place in time. All good things must eventually end, but the wisdom, the friends and the experiences that have changed us will remain a part of us forever. It is unbelievable that the admission pass has expired and the gates are about to close. It is time that we leap out of a storybook fantasy and into the real world. Four years later, as graduating seniors and young adults, it is time to stow the baggage we collected, climb back into the car and drive down the road to the future, never looking back. It is time to journey out into the world, to make our places as individuals, a group no longer and to make our own unique mark upon the world. Congratulations, Class of 2003!

Research Process and Terminology Essay

The purpose for this document is to speak of my description of the research process and these documents will also contain new vocabulary retrieved from this week’s readings. In fact, this document will speak of how this new vocabulary and information applies to a career in criminal justice. In addition, this document will speak of how not knowing the correct vocabulary changes as I conduct the criminal justice research. Furthermore, this document will speak of how knowing the new vocabulary can be an asset to me when evaluating and examining research studies or data. Research Process Research includes a precise method that centers on impartial and collecting a great number of data for showing the results of an examination so that the collector of information can come to an outcome. The method used in the collection of information and evaluation plans regardless if the inquiry and examination process. In fact, the process focuses on testing feelings or concepts. In addition, any new information done without proof or support of the careful examination will not let others look over the study and process the outcome (White, 2013). New Terminology and how it applies to a career in Criminal Justice Replication is the recurrence of controlled procedures or investigations using the same methods (Hagan, 2010). Replication can be used in the career of the criminal justice system by aiding in the DNA process to prove if a person is innocent or guilty of a crime that he or she was been convicted of. In fact, by using the replication process many times will allow the analysis to get the correct results (White, 2013). Verification is proof or exact findings or accomplishments of great certitude in conclusions through extra observation (Hagan, 2010). Verification by law enforcement officers checking and double checking that he or she has the correct information obtained before turning in his or her reports for example, traffic violations (White, 2013). Pure (basic) research is concerned with the acquisition of new data for the sake of science or the development of the field (Hagan, 2010). Scientist in the criminal justice field retrieving new information can aid him or her in any developments that science needs to improve on from prior data (White, 2013). Applied research is practical research concerned with explaining the policy problems (Hagan, 2010). In applied research it helps law enforcement figure out why the old policies are not working and what can be done to improve the policies compared to the past policies (White, 2013). Crime analysis is the systematic, analytic methods directed at supplying useful information related to illegal patterns (Ibid, nd). Crime analysis in the criminal justice field can aid in the career of scientists because he or she uses examinations, violation representations, violation programs, arrest records, law enforcements calls as well as additional means to show applicable data (Wilson, 2013). In fact, crime analysis in criminal justice careers uses identification guides, violation prognosis, target profile analysis, requirements of investigative leads, and requirements to aid data to neighborhood policing and crime prevention programs. An example of a crime prevention program is the Drug Abuse Awar eness Education (DARE) (Gottlieb, Sheldon, & Raj, 1994). Intelligences agencies assist the act of coming to a decision of who is doing what with whom by its focus of the relationship between illegal – and unusual activities for example, narcotics, trafficking, prostitution rings, organized crime, gangs, and terrorists (Gottlieb, Sheldon, & Raj, 1994). Intelligences agencies in the criminal justice system as a career for example, the narcotics division can aid in bringing down individuals dealing in narcotics. Individuals who are assigned to this specific area in law enforcement can gain important information from confidential informants (if any) to help in bringing down the individual or individuals involved in narcotics for example, marijuana, crack cocaine, and heroin. In addition, to the narcotics division there is the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) supplies other law enforcement agencies with services for example, finger print identification (â€Å"Criminal Justice Data Improvement,† 2013). Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and interpreting data (Bennett, Briggs, & Triola, 2009). Statistics as a career in the criminal justice field can help scientists organize, collect, and interpret the information needed to for cases for example, by summarizing the information instead of doing each of the experiments separately and easier to gather the information then put it into a summary (White, 2013). How not knowing the correct vocabulary changes as Dena conducts research in criminal justice. When doing research in criminal justice if Dena does not know the correct meanings of the new terms it can lead to wrong and inaccurate information that goes into her documentation. An example of this would be if Dena were writing information for both applied and pure research she could misinterpret the meanings for both of the new terms and when doing her documentation to be presented. The documents that Dena has provided will be wrong and will not give the right outcome therefore, the reports that she turns into her boss will let he or she know that Dena is not as familiar with the new terminology (White, 2013). How knowing the right terminology can be an asset to Dena when evaluating research and information. When looking over the documentation and definitions of each new vocabulary term knowing the right terms will aid in the research Dena will be able to show any mistakes (if any). In fact, if Dena knows the definitions and how each functions then she will be able to continue he r research and find any misspelled vocabulary terms. Knowing the differences between the right and wrong new vocabulary can make a difference when doing a document that has to be presented (White, 2013). In conclusion, learning new vocabulary terms in the criminal justice field aids in the research process. Knowing both of the definitions and what each means will aid in the process for research. In fact, by not knowing the differences Dena can misinterpret one definition for another for example, pure research, and applied research. Statics in the criminal justice field can be beneficial to the scientist because he or she can put the information into a computer and summarize the facts. Summarizing the facts makes it easier on the scientist or analyst because he or she does not have to do each experiment separately. References Criminal Justice Data Improvement (2013). Program Summary, (), . Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?=tp&tid=4 Gottlieb, S., Sheldon, A., & Raj, S. (1994), Crime Analysis: From First Report to Final Arrest. Crime Analysis: From First Report to Final Arrest. , (), Hagan, F.E. (2010). Research methods in criminal justice and criminology (8th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Ibid (no date) R Wilson (personal communication, July 20, 2013)