The Supreme Court on ‘Hazelwood’ Essay Example for Free

The Supreme Court on ‘Hazelwood’ Essay Both judges and school officials have been thinking about and dealing with the nature of students’ rights to free speech through the 1970s and 1980s, since Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School Dist., the 1969 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that acknowledged student rights. Stating that students do not â€Å"shed their constitutional rights . . . at the schoolhouse gate† (393 U.S. at 506), the Court upheld the right of three Des Moines high school students to wear black armbands as a peaceful symbol of opposition to the Vietnam war. . . . The Court’s ruling and reasoning subsequently were applied to student expression other than the wearing of armbands, from theater productions to art shows, from school assemblies to student publications. . . . The Supreme Court, balancing students’ constitutional freedoms and administrators’ traditional responsibilities, said in Tinker that school officials could not stop expression simply because they disliked it. . . . Student journalists’ efforts to gain press freedom experienced a major setback on January 13, 1988, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier that school administrators could censor a school-sponsored newspaper. Just as Tinker had started an era of expanded student rights, so Hazelwood signals a departure that could lead toward more restriction of students’ expression. The Hazelwood principal believed that the stories he censored—accounts of unnamed, pregnant students and a report on the impact of parental divorce on students—were unfair and inappropriate for teenagers. He was concerned that the â€Å"anonymous† students could be identified, that the school would appear to be condoning teenage pregnancy, and that divorced parents criticized should be consulted prior to publication. . . . Instead of ruling narrowly on student newspapers, the Court in Hazelwood gave discretion to school officials to: 1. Serve as publisher. . . . 2. Censor, if there is a â€Å"reasonable† educational justification, any expression that does not properly reflect the school’s educational mission. The Court called it reasonable to censor a newspaper story that school officials believe is not â€Å"fair,† expression that deals with â€Å"sensitive topics,† and content that is â€Å"ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences.† 3. Use this power to control expression through any school-sponsored activity. Legal distinctions between class-produced and extra-curricular publications disappeared. Theater production, art shows, debates, and pep rallies are just some of the schoolsponsored activities now under tighter control. . . . 4. Review student expression in advance, even when no guidelines define what will or will not be censored. Constitution of the United States, Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Business Applications Of Information Systems Information Technology Essay

Business Applications Of Information Systems Information Technology Essay Introduction Information System handles the flow and maintenance of information that supports a business or some other operation. Information is derived from meaningful interpretation of data. Data consists of the raw facts representing events occurring in the environment. An Information System can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. Using information systems effectively requires an understanding of the organization, management, and information technology shaping the systems. All information systems can be described as organizational and management solutions to challenges posed by the environment. An understanding of the effective and responsible use and management of information systems and technologies is important for managers, business professionals, and other knowledge workers in todays internetworked enterprises. Information systems play a vital role in the e-business and e-commerce operations, enterprise collaboration and management, and strategic success of businesses that must operate in an internetworked global environment. Thus, the field of information systems has become a major functional area of business administration. Business Applications of Information Systems Information systems perform three vital roles in business firms. Business applications of IS support an organizations business processes and operations, business decision-making, and strategic competitive advantage. Major application categories of information systems include operations support systems, such as transaction processing systems, process control systems, and enterprise collaboration systems, and management support systems, such as management information systems, decision support systems, and executive information systems. Other major categories are expert systems, knowledge management systems, strategic information systems, and functional business systems. However, in the real world most application categories are combined into cross-functional information systems that provide information and support for decision-making and also perform operational information processing activities. An information system (IS) can be any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, and data resources that collect, transforms, and disseminate information in an organization. Information Technologies:Business professionals rely on many types of information systems that use a variety of information technologies. For example: Types of IS- Manual (paper-and-pencil) information systems- Informal (word-of-mouth) information systems- Formal (written procedures) information systems- Computer-based information systems Computer-based information systems (IS) use hardware, software, the Internet, and other telecommunications networks, computer-based data resource management techniques, and other forms of information technologies (IT) to transform data resources into a variety of information products for consumers and business professionals. The role of Information System in an Organisation Information systems perform three vital roles in any type of organization. That is, they support an organizations: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Business processes and operations à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Decision making by employees and managers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Strategies for competitive advantage Analysing Royal Caribbean International We can learn a lot about the challenges of revitalizing and redirecting information technology in a company from the Real World Case of Royal Caribbean International. Take a few minutes to read it, and we will discuss it (See Royal Caribbean International: Renewing and Realigning IT with Business in Section IX). The Major Roles of IS: Examples [Figure 1.9] Three major roles of the business applications of information systems include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Support Business Processes involves dealing with information systems that support the business processes and operations in a business. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Support Decision Making help decision makers to make better decisions and attempt to gain a competitive advantage. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Support Competitive Advantage help decision makers to gain a strategic advantage over competitors requires innovative use of information technology. Information System Implementation New information technologies offer scholarly publishers an historic opportunity to increase speed and efficiency of production, add convenience for contributors, and enhance value for readers. The implementation of these systems, however, involves substantial risk. Information technology (IT) projects can and often do fall short of their objectives for a variety of reasons, including cost overruns, resistance from staff or external users, and failure of the technology to perform as expected Elements of complete IS implementation 1 . Development of computer applications for business transactions, such as production, marketing, selling, etc. 2 . Development of management information systems for effective business control 3 . Planned introduction and use of computers and telecommunications 4. Creation of an overall systems and standards architecture for technology, applications and data 5. Development of information systems for business planning 6. Improved productivity in information systems and computing 7. Development of appropriate staff resources 8. Development of internal support systems (payroll, personnel, pensions, etc.) Information System Implementation Success Implementing systems such as the electronic medical record and computerized physician order entry is a complex and difficult organizational undertaking. These implementations require political mobilization of the medical and nursing staffs, reengineering of clinical processes, significant capital commitments, management of large-scale projects and major changes to the IT infrastructure. The magnitude of this undertaking leads to a high failure rate, which some estimate to be as high as 50 percent. Still, some organizations have succeeded thanks to a combination of clear goals, partnership and implementation skills: Strong organizational vision and strategy. Successful organizations have developed a vision of patient care and a strategy to achieve that vision that is compelling, clear and understood by the members of the organization. This vision describes the critical need for excellence in care delivery and points to clinical systems as essential, strategic contributions to the vision. Most information systems initiatives do not require the bedrock of a compelling organizational vision, but clinical information system implementations do. These systems require the commitment and efforts of virtually all staff. They require deep change in operational and clinical processes. And, they require that other investment opportunities be put off, often for several years. For information system implementations of this significance to succeed, the organization must understand why it is doing so and believe that success is essential. Talented and committed leadership. Systems implementation and the related changes in the organization must be guided by senior leadership. This leadership must come from the board and all senior members of the administrative and medical staffs. These leaders must have the ability to inspire and mobilize others to get things done. They must actively engage in changing the organization, and once committed, they must have the strength to thoughtfully stay the course. These leaders must ask hard questions about the systems and their implementation. And they must be pragmaticsuperb practitioners of the art of the possible. A partnership between the clinical, administrative and information technology staffs. Across the strata of the organization, many effective, multidisciplinary teams will be needed. These teams will design information systems, develop new ways to do the work, revise policies and procedures, craft implementation steps, develop training materials and create approaches to resolving inevitable problems. Team members must view their efforts as a partnership. They must illustrate the attributes of high performance teams: skilled, honest, dedicated, willing to compromise and focused on the overall goal. Excellent implementation skills. The implementation of complex information systems requires deep skill. These skills need to occur in two critical areas: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Project management is needed to define, manage and monitor the large number of tasks, staff and resources that are being brought to the implementation. Good project management requires clear definitions of scope, well-reasoned delineation of tasks, astute assignment of accountability for task performance, flexibility in addressing problems and necessary changes in direction, and the ability to identify and resolve problems. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Support is the set of activities that causes an application to stick, that is, to become an integral part of the fabric of practice. Support includes training, responsive enhancements, ongoing communication, discussion of status and problems, and crafting the evolution of clinical policies and procedures. Good to excellent IT. No information system is perfect, and users will find limitations in any clinical information system. Nonetheless, the applications need to be good enough to support the work that needs to be done. These systems must be able to handle critical changes in functionality that are required to address desired workflow and reporting needs. These systems should improve the work lives of providers rather than hinder them. Types of implementation plans Three general tactical implementation plans: The process of putting the new information system online and retiring the old system is known as system changeover. There are four changeover methods which are: > Direct cutover: The direct cutover approach causes the changeover from the old system to the new system to occur immediately when the new system becomes operational. It is the least expensive but involves more risks than other changeover methods. Advantage As we know health centre does not have enough funds for implementing the new system so it would be easier to implement direct cutover method in the health centre. Disadvantage This method of system changeover involves more risks of total system failure and it is preferred for commercial software packages. So if there is a system failure in health centre then it will be difficult to store information of child who visits health centre. And if there is no proper storage then there will be incorrect reports and monitoring of childs health will not be properly done. > Parallel operation: The parallel operation changeover method requires that both the old and the new information systems operate fully for a specified period. Data is input to both systems and output generated by the new system is compared with the equivalent output from the old system. When users, management, and IT group are satisfied that the new system operates correctly then the old system is terminated. It is the most costly changeover method and involves lower risks. Advantage The advantage of parallel system is lower risk of system failure so all the tasks can be done properly at health centre. If the new system does not work properly, the health centre can use the old manual system as a backup until appropriate changes are made. Disadvantage As we know parallel system is the most costly changeover method as both old and new systems operate fully for specified period and we also know that the budget of health centre is also low so it will be difficult for health centre to follow this changeover process. > Pilot operation: The pilot changeover method involves implementing the complete new system at a selected location of a company. Direct cutover method and operating both systems for only the pilot site. The group that uses the new system first is called the pilot site. By restricting the implementation to a pilot site reduces the risk of system failure as compared with is less expensive than a parallel system. Advantages Pilot operation is combination of both direct cutover and parallel operation, which restricts the implementation to a pilot site and reduces risk of system failure as compared with a direct cutover method. Operating system only at pilot site is less expensive than parallel operation for entire health centre and all health centers. If we use parallel approach to complete the implementation then the changeover period can be much shorter if system proves successful at the pilot site so a lot of time will be consumed at health centre in implementing the new system. Disadvantage This method is also costly as compared to the direct cutover. > Phased operation: The phased operation changeover method involves implementing the new system in stages, or modules. We can implement each subsystem by using any of the other three changeover methods. In this approach risk of errors or failures is limited to the implemented module only as well as it is less expensive than the full parallel operation. For implementing child health information system we can use above methods but there are some advantages as well disadvantages of using these systems, which are explained below: Advantages As we know in this method we have to implement the new system in stages, or modules, which is less prone to risk of system failure or errors at health centers, as failure is limited to the implemented module only. It is also less expensive than parallel system because we have to work only with one part of system at a time. Disadvantage As the system, which we are implementing, involves various phased operation like treatment, measuring weight, registration, vaccination etc so it can cost more than the pilot approach. Recommendation As we can determine from above information that pilot approach is the best approach where we can see the combination of less risks as well as less implementation cost because. There are many health centers so we can implement the new system only at any one of the health centers to check whether it is working appropriately or not. And this method is also cheaper than all other metho

The Online Reservation Systems Computer Science Essay

The Online Reservation Systems Computer Science Essay The literature review phase is the one of the main stage that we need to focus on, so far the stage explains the main aims of the system and how the system is going to operate and the benefit of the system over environment. Firstly, Travel agent hotel suppliers will have way in to the travel agent extranet system to load room rates and allotments, instead of keeping rate and allotment contract manually. The travel agency application system is an online system that which let customers to make their reservation comfortably from anywhere. Thats All customers should be able to way in the agency services information 24 hours a day. Because of the rapid spread of the internet, the hotel adopted a reservation system that is a powerful factor to gain new sales. The travel agency began to present their own on-line reservation system. The travel agency gived some hotel with reservation systems that will normally liked to the various programs and special offers which adds to their ability to capture the travel and leisure market. These are some plan that the online travel agencies and travel agents cannot achieve because of the limitation in their services. However, this system also feels drawbacks. Most of the hotel sites do not allow for easy price comparison, some will only book reservations on the hotel which have the site. (Kearney Robinson, 2004). 2.3 Why online reservation system As a commercial medium, the Web offers a number of advantages for all the customer and companies. From the customer point of view, using the web instead of a traditional approach call for tickets or go to a travel agency means way in to a greater amount of information and also more flexibility in choosing, analyzing and comparing the offers. Having more choices with just a click away helps customers find a better deal, in possible less time. For the companies, the use of Web means decrease costs for information processing, reduced costs to suppliers, the possibility of building stronger customer relationships by having customers interact directly with the web site, the possibility of creating user profiles to be used in marketing development and also an easy way of information partnership, involving the cooperation between different companies. Travel Agent Reservation System to enhance  effectiveness in keeping hotel contracting room and allotment updated in real-time manner. 2.4 Online Travel Agency There are many traditional travel agencies that are operating on-line, but only insufficient are known by the passengers. The transaction between the travel agents and hotels is through the commission base. However, because of the direct booking of other passengers the commission basis is slow diminishing and they have to rate the customers for the service fee. The usual offers they give be contingent on their strategy and advertisement and not part of the hotels (Kearney Robinson, 2004). 2.5 Guda Travel Agency Application System Services The travel agency online application service will need the users city of destination, desired hotel quality, check-in date, and check-out date. It will departure the hotels that match the criteria, and also return the hotel name, address, check-in time, check-out time, cost per night, and total cost of the length of stay. Travel Simplified has its own database with the hotels and charge. It also has a Java application to have the hotels and rates. The Web service will need to use the tools in Application Developer Integration Edition to create a service from the application so that users can search hotels for their travels whenever they want. 2.6 Reservation systems analysis Internet presence and online application are the two business models most frequently used by the travel reservation systems we studied. The services offered in the two models are related: in Internet presence, the customers find information about the service; some examples are check hotel in Internet presence and book hotel. There are also two different services, information about special offers in Internet presence and the possibility to save the itineraries already defined in online store an itinerary consists of a hotel, usually round trip and possibly of a reserved room in one or more hotels. 2.7 User value model of a Guda Travel Agency Application System Landvogt (2004) explained online booking engines as tools to store, publish and update the dynamic data availability and prices, and moreover provide the users with a regular reservation process. A specific characteristic of the guda travel agency application system is that users can make and see the changes in reservation status online. But users can only see descriptions and pictures of hotels, sometimes rates but they could not check availability and make bookings online. This means that all business models which provide the possibility for an online  booking electronic booking service, electronic travel agent, electronic market place, and flexible comparison shopping services are compatible with above mentioned definition of website quality. 2.8 Customer needs One of the main importances in developing this application system for Guda Travel Agency application system is to satisfy the customer needs. One must remember that electronic commerce has to compete with the real-life methods of making reservation and completing customer transactions. Customers can choose between different reservations methods electronic or real-life and they will always prefer the one which best gratify their need. 2.8.1 Customer needs presentation In the case of online reservation systems we identified six main important customer needs: Lack of difficulty system status information error tolerance and system stability â‚ ¬Ã‚  query refinement for achieving customers goal â‚ ¬Ã‚  customer profiles 2.8.1.1 Lack of difficulty Lack of difficulties is one of the major problems for customers. The user interface of the online systems should be designed in such a way that all services are easy to understand and use. It can often happen that customers may want to use a service, but they dont know how to do it or the user interface does not allow them to do so. It is the case of the registration process when using online travel reservations. This system Guda Travel Agency Application system allow timetable consultation only after registering which can take quite a lot of time, or they allow consultation but there is no price information before registration. System status information and feed forward The status of the system are accessing database, computing solutions must be always indicated to the customer. Different mechanisms should be employed to give clear feedback to the customer, for error messages, data input required, no solutions found, etc. When possible, the messages should contain explanations and provide suggestions for future actions e.g. no solution was found, customer has to try to enlarge the domains for his travel constraints: dates, hotel, and time. 2.8.1.3 Error tolerance and system stability An easy and efficient way out should be provided in case of errors. This makes customers feel more confident and at ease. In the case of a customer mistake, it is important that the reservation process is restarted from a point close to the one where the mistake was generated, the customer shouldnt be sent back to the beginning. Query refinement for achieving customers goal It often happens that customers are not satisfied with the first solutions they get from the online hotel reservation system. In this case, most of the current systems allow customers to search for hotel next day, or on a newly defined day. If they are still not happy with what they get, they can come back to the query definition and change their input data. This way of interaction is quite heavy and time-consuming, using a lot of the system and customer resources. In the second part of our paper, I propose a new interaction model in which the customers can modify their initial queries directly in the result table. It is easier for customers to find exactly what they want or to find out if what they want exists or not, starting from possible existing solutions. Customer profiles The use of customer profiles in online reservation systems is connected to the registration process. The same question arises, when is the best moment to ask customers to register and/or to create their own profiles. The systems I studied have different approaches, but most of them leave the profile creation at customers control, they can do it when and if they want. The customer profiles are currently used in the same way by all the systems, but each system has its own profile implementation, which makes difficult a possible communication and data interchange. A future improvement in online travel industry would be a standard personalization technique to be adopted by all online systems providing in this way both efficiency and interoperability. 2.9 PROCEDUREs for electronic commerce Commerce in the real world is a very rich set of interaction procedures with a very complex set of constraints. The protocols used in electronic commerce systems must respect at least some of the real world models and add also new interaction techniques. Flexibility combined with ease of use and understandings are primary requirements, as rigid and restricted protocols lead to frustration for both users and developers. 2.10 Customers application PROCEDURE All existing online travel systems offer consumer application procedure. The customer must interact directly with the system in order to receive results for his query. A general model for the protocols offered by the online travel systems for booking hotel is the following: [register] input data (travel constraints) see results evaluate book The registration step can be sometimes avoided customers have the possibility to use the system as guests or to register only if they want to make a booking. Adriana Jurca, Adriana Jurca Dmt-isr 1999 programmings and techniques for developing the system Php is an extensively used general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, php code is embedded direct to the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a php processor module, which generates the web page document. As a specific programming language, php code is processed by an interpreter application in command-line mode performing desired operating system operations and producing program output on its standard output channel. It also function as a graphical application. Php is existing as a processor for most modern web servers and as standalone interpreter on most operating systems and computing platforms. 2.11.1 History of PHP Php was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995  and has been in continuous development ever since. The main implementation of PHP is now produced by the php clicks and serves as the de facto standard for PHP as there is no formal specification. Php is free software released under the php License. In other to used php they is need for basic understanding the following those are bellow: 1. HTML or XHTML 2. Java Scrip 2.11.2 USES of php. Php is a general main scripting language that is especially suited to server-side web development where php generally runs on a web server. Any php code in a requested file is executed by the php runtime, usually to create dynamic web page content. It can also be used for command line scripting and client-side GUI applications. Php can be deployed on most web servers, many operating systems and platforms, and can be used with many relational database management systems. It is available free of charge, and the php clicks provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use. Php primarily present as a filter, taking input from a file or stream containing text and/php instructions and outputs another stream of data; most commonly the output will be html. 2.11.3 FEATURES OF PHP Access Logging With the way in logging capabilities of php, users can maintain their own hit counting and logging. It doesnt use the systems central access log files in any way, and it provides real-time access monitoring. The Log Viewer Script provides a quick summary of the way in to a set of pages owned by an individual user. Access Control A develop in web based configuration screen handles access control configuration. It is possible to create setting rules for some web pages owned by a certain person which place various restrictions on who can view these pages and how they will be viewed. The Pages can be password protected, completely restricted, logging disabled and more based on the clients domain, browser, e-mail address or even the referring document. SQL Support -the php supports embedding SQL queries directly in .html files. File Upload Support -And It lets users upload files to a web server and provides the actual Mime decoding to make this work and also provides the additional framework to do something useful with the uploaded file once it has been received. HTTP based authentication control the php can be used to create customized http based authentication mechanisms for the Apache web server. Variables, Arrays, Associative Arrays -the php supports typed variables, arrays and even Perl-like associative arrays. And with these can all be passed from one web page to another using either GET or POST method forms. Conditionals, While Loops -the php supports a full featured C like scripting language. You can have if/then/elseif/else/endif conditions as well as while loops and switch or case statements to guide the logical flow of how the html page should be displayed. Extended Regular Expressions Regular expressions are freely used for pattern matching, pattern substitutions and general string manipulation. And then the php supports all common regular expression operations. HTTP Header Control The ability to have web pages send customized http headers based on some condition is essential for high-level web site design. A frequently use is to send a Location URL header to redirect the calling client to some other URL. It can also be used to turn off caching or manipulate the last update header of pages. ISP Safe Mode support php supports a unique Safe Mode which makes it safe to have multiple users run php scripts on the same server. 2.11.4 Advantages of php You can develop web applications in php as compile and link is eliminated in php scripting language. The Php applications are very stable and do not depend on the browser technologies unlike JavaScript applications which depend on browsers. Php has excellent database connectivity to all SQL database servers. php has partial support for Object oriented features Php runs on all UNIXs, Linux, Windows 95/NT/2000 and is more powerful than ASP, JSP and others. The Php has a very large user base and developer base. 2.11.4 PHP AND HTML Php and html interact a lot because the php has the ability to generate html and the html has the ability to pass the information to php my sql MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. Advantages of MySQL MySQL is a popular database with Web developers. Its speed and small size make it ideal for a Web site. Its fast. The main aim of the folks who developed MySQL was speed. Thus, the software was designed from the beginning with speed in mind. Its Inexpensive. MySQL is free under the open source GPL license, and the price for a commercial license is reasonable. Its Easy to use. And then you can build and interact with a MySQL database by using a few simple statements in the SQL language, which is the standard language for communicating with RDBMSs. How MySQL and PHP work together 2.12.1 The Main Features of MySQL Is written in C and C++ It easily uses multiple CPUs if they are available. Provides transactional and non transactional storage engines. Relatively easy to add another storage engine. This is useful if you want to add an SQL interface to an in house database. A very fast thread based memory allocation system. Very fast joins using an optimized one-sweep multi join. In memory hash tables which are used as temporary tables. SQL functions are implemented using a highly optimized class library and should be as fast as possible. The server is available as a separate program for use in a client/server networked environment. Tested with a broad range of di ¬Ã¢â€š ¬erent compilers. Works on many deferent platforms 2.13 What Is a Web Server Web server is a software application that listens for client connection a specific network port. When a connection is made, the Web server then waits request from the client application. The client is usually a Web browser, but it could be a Web site indexing utility, or perhaps an interactive telnet  session. The resources request, usually a request to send the contents of a file stored on the server, is a phrased in some version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Although the Web servers primary purpose is to distribute information from a central computer, modern Web servers perform other tasks as well. Before the file transfer, most modern Web servers send descriptive information about the requested resource, instructing the client how to interpret or format the resource. 2.13.1 Features of web sever Many Web servers perform user authentication and data encryption to permit applications like online credit card purchasing. Another common feature of Web servers is that they provide database access on behalf of the client, eliminating the need for the client to use a full-featured database client application. Apache provides all of these features 2.13.2 Apache http sever of this project The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source http server for modern operating systems including Windows 7. The main aim of this project is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides http services in sync with the current http standards. 2.13.3 THE APACHE http server Apache is a powerful, flexible, http compliant web server Its Implements the latest protocols, including http Its highly configurable and extensible with third-party modules It provides full source code and comes with an unrestrictive license It runs on Windows NT/9x, Netware 5.x and above, OS/2, and most versions of Unix, as well as several other operating systems is actively being developed it encourages user feedback through new ideas, bug reports and patches it implements many frequently requested features 2.13.4 Features of apache server DBM databases for authentication: Usually allows you to easily set up password protected pages with enormous numbers of authorized users, without bogging down the server. Customized responses to errors and problems: Allows you to set up files, or even CGI scripts, which are returned by the server in response to errors and problems, e.g. setup a script to intercept  500 Server Errors and it perform on-the-fly diagnostics for both users and yourself. Multiple Directory Index directives Allows you to say  Directory index.html index, which allows the server to either send back  index.html  or run  index when a directory URL is requested, whichever it finds in the directory. Unlimited flexible URL rewriting and aliasing The Apache has no fixed limit on the numbers of Aliases and Redirects which may be declared in the config files. And then In addition, a powerful rewriting engine can be used to solve most URL manipulation problems. Content negotiation the ability to automatically serve clients of varying sophistication and HTML level compliance, with documents which offer the best representation of information that the client is capable of accepting. Virtual Hosts This allows the server to distinguish between requests made to different IP addresses or names mapped to the same machine. And is also offers dynamically configurable mass virtual hosting. Configurable Reliable Piped Logs You can configure Apache to generate logs in the format that you want. Apache can send log files to a pipe, allowing for log rotation, hit filtering, real-time splitting of multiple hosts into separate logs, Tools require for implementing the system Dreamweaver: Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application created by Macromedia, and is now developed by Adobe Systems, which acquired Macromedia in 2005. The Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. The Recent versions have incorporated support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, and various server-side scripting languages and frameworks including ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP. Adobe Flash Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since 1996 flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. The Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page Flash components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications. And the Flash can be manipulated vector and raster graphics, and supports bidirectional streaming of audio and video. And It contains a scripting language called Action Script.   Adobe Photoshop The Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and Published by Adobe System. And it is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation software, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. And It has been described as an industry standard for graphics professionals and was one of the early killer applications on the Macintosh, later also for MS Windows.

Terrorism: Guantanamo Bay Detention Center Essay -- Guantanamo Bay, Cu

Detainees held in Guantanamo Bay Detention Center located in Cuba are not only potential terrorists, but are also potential threats to our country, families, and loved ones. Detainees have been stricken of their rights to due process and a fair trial in compliance to George Bush enacting the USA PATRIOT Act, after the September 11th bombings. Guantanamo bay should not be shut down, because the detention center allows us to prevent future attacks to the country, question and gain high value intelligence from terror suspects, and also the island naval base houses some of the most lethal terror threats to the United States. Studies conducted by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation in â€Å"Leaving Guantanamo, Policies, Pressures, And Detainees Returning To The Fight† show that after September 2011, the U.S. government believes that at least 27 percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees were confirmed or suspected to or have been engaged in terrorist activities (Leaving Guantanamo). The detainees are very dangerous and with the increased hatred for the U.S. as a result of the detention of terror group members, the U.S. cannot afford to give up such high value intelligence. Edwin Meese from CNN.com in his article titled: â€Å"Guantanamo Bay prison is necessary†, puts the value of some detainees into perspective; detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the architect of the September 11th bombings, is housed in solitary confinement and is under questioning (Meese 1). Not only are the detainees dangerous, but also they are insurgents with an increased awareness of our detention center, and terror group activities have risen in groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Scholar Yin Tung Of Harvard Journ... ...ism Increases | Washington Free Beacon." Washington Free Beacon Number of Released Gitmo Detainees Returning to Terrorism Increases Comments. N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. III, Edwin Meese. "Guantanamo Bay Prison Is Necessary." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Seligson, Susan. "BU Today." BU Today RSS. N.p., 28 May 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. Seyn, Johan. "Cambridge Journals Online - International & Comparative Law Quarterly - Abstract - Guantanamo Bay: The Legal Black Hole." Cambridge Journals Online - International & Comparative Law Quarterly - Abstract - Guantanamo Bay: The Legal Black Hole. N.p., 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2014 29 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 158 (2005-2006) Ending the War on Terrorism One Terrorist at a Time: A Noncriminal Detention Model for Holding and Releasing Guantanamo Bay Detainees; Yin, Tung

Comparing Red Badge of Courage and Great Expectations :: comparison compare contrast essays

Red Badge of Courage and Great Expectations The hero of The Red Badge of Courage, which was written by Stephen Crane in the late 1800s, was a young private named Henry Fleming, who was fighting for the North in the American Civil War. Like Pip, in Great Expectations, Henry was a commoner. He was new to the Army and few people knew his name. The main difference between Henry and the earlier heroes is that Henry was not born with leadership qualities or traits like bravery. In fact, in the first battle he fought, he proved himself to be a coward by running from it. Henry's flaws were very similar to those of Pip and the Greek heroes. Arrogance was a flaw that many Greek mortal heroes, especially Odysseus and Oedipus, had. When Henry realized that none of his fellow soldiers were aware that he had run from the first battle, he regained his self-pride and self-confidence. Before long, he had convinced himself that he was "chosen of the gods and doomed to greatness." At first, Pip believed that status and wealth determined the "goodness" of a person. Henry had similar illusions. He believed that a war hero was a person who could manage to escape every tight situation he got into, and also a godly figure people looked up to and were fascinated by. His other illusions were that the only the best could survive against the hideous "dragons" of war, and that the enemy was a machine that never tired or lost will to fight. An important difference between Henry and the Greek heroes was that Henry's flaws were recognized by the people of Crane's day, whereas the Greeks did not see any flaws in their heroes, like Odysseus (they thought traits like arrogance were cool). Another difference between Henry and the Greek heroes can be seen in their heroic acts. Greek war heroes were praised for their outward bravery and military genius (how many enemy soldiers they killed, or how they were able to trick the enemy). Near the end, Henry was a war hero in the eyes of his fellow soldiers and commanding officers (he fought fearlessly and led charges), but what was truly heroic about Henry was the way he changed and developed.

Ethics in Today’s Organizations Case Study

Beyond Petroleum (BP) is a British oil company that was founded over a century ago by an affluent business man, William D’Arcy. D’Arcy put all of his money into searching for oil in the Middle East; a decision that nearly bankrupted him, because it took six years before any oil could be tapped. It is important to note that locating the oil was not the only problem BP, or Anglo-Persian Oil Company at that time, faced; moving the oils was just of a difficult task to maneuver. They decided to build a pipeline across the region – an undertaking that lasted more than two years. (Ferrell et al., 2011, p. 432)By the early 1900s BP was again running out of money, until Winston Churchill convinced parliament to allow BP to supply the navy’s fuel. It was a British company, after all, so it would support Britain’s interests. Britain then became one of the company’s biggest shareholders. This is significant because this instance helped spark the debate o ver politics and governments’ investments in oil companies –a topic that is still debated today. (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 432) After the mid-twentieth century oil was in high demand due to automobiles being mass produced.However in the mid 1970s, political turmoil in the Middle East caused oil production there to fall from 140 million to 500 barrels (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 432). With the demand for oil still high and the supply low, BP was forced to find other untapped oil supplies. BP found some oil fields in places such as Alaska and off the coast of Scotland. These isolated locations for drilling again forced hoisted creativity of BP engineers, and they began to innovate new ways to tap and transport the oil. One of these ideas was the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline, â€Å"the largest civil engineering project in  North America, measuring 746 miles long† (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 433).BP made honest efforts to ensure the environment around drilling projects w ould be preserved. However, sometimes these efforts were thwarted, which has become one of the central ethical issues for BP, among other things, including charges of death and fraud. (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 433-434). BP has recently sought to enhance their sustainability. In an effort to repair its image and seize an opportunity to invest in future capital, BP has invested in developing other energy sources, such as wind, solar, and biofuels.BP has also has committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lessening their contribution to global warming, by creating the aforementioned energies as wall as investing in practices like carbon sequestration and storage (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 435-436). Analysis What is the single most important ethical issue presented in the case, how has the issue affected specific stakeholders? I think the single most important issue presented in the case is a lack of environmental responsibility.BP poorly maintain their oil drilling and transporting equipment, and these â€Å"non-actions† contribute to the numerous oil spills over the years which destroy the environment – killing plants and animals, as well as the explosions which are responsible for claiming several human lives. These issues garner the most media coverage, as well as probing by environmentalists and other special interest groups. These secondary stakeholders influence the courts and governments to penalize companies like BP for this kind of irresponsible behavior.The negative reports discourage shareholders and employees. Unfortunately, I think the most customers, care more about the price of gas than which company they are purchasing it from. What has the company done to address their ethical issues, what could they do differently to avoid future ethical issues? BP has tried to address environmental issues by a) simply acknowledging that climate change is happening and it is a man-mad problem, and b) investing approximately $1. 4 bi llion in creating supplies of renewable energy (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 434).In 2005 BP also published a code of conduct, in it highlighting the company’s legal and ethical obligations. This document was titled â€Å"Our Commitment to Integrity†. (Ferrell et al. , 2011, p. 438) I feel that the company could have better inspections and maintenance on their rigs and pipelines, and publicize their findings, whether that facility is in perfect working order or needs to be closed down for repairs. Giving the stakeholders more transparency forces ethical behavior and a real commitment to integrity. Based on the company’s ethics would you: Work for the company?I would not work for BP, especially if they do not seriously address the maintenance of their facilities. I feel that even though BP is at least heading in the right direction by investing in renewable energy, its main product and biggest earner is still oil – the most common source of the companyâ€℠¢s ethical problems. Buy their products? I have tried not to purchase BP fuel since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happened. However, since gas prices have soared recently, if gas is less expensive at a BP service station, I will buy it there.Personal thriftiness does not contradict my  ethics, I just do not think makes sense to give even more money to the oil industry as a whole than what is already necessary. Invest in their stock? I would not invest in their stock right now because BP’s main product is fuel; and even though I have to use it, it is detrimental to the environment. Of course, it is doing well in the stock markets right now, but it is unsteady and influenced by other factors happening in the world, and I would rather invest in something is both sustainable and fiscally stable. Also, I do view BP as a trustworthy company, and I want to support their underhandedness.Invite them to be part of the community in which you live? I would invite BP to be a part of my community because jobs are always needed here. Additionally, their function in my community would not have to include an oil rig or pipeline, it could be a solar panel plant, or a turbine factory. Those things would have positive impacts on several communities besides my own. Updates Since this case was studied in the text a lot has happened to BP, one major event that should be mentioned is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.This explosion killed 11 people and gushed oil into the ocean for three months. It was the largest oil spill in history. While BP claims the explosion was caused by many factors, including blaming Transocean and Halliburton, providers of some of the rig’s equipment (BP, 2010), BP still estimates its overall cost for the spill to be roughly $40 billion, half of which is pledged to actual victims of the spill (Skoloff & Wardell, 2010). As of February, 2011 only $3. 54 billion had been spent on clean up and compensation to victims.T his deviates significantly from BP’s original scheduled disbursements of that fund, and yet the company agrees to still payout dividend to shareholders (usatoday. com, 2011). I am not saying whether it is or is not ethical to pay shareholder dividends during a crisis such as this, what I do find unethical is the lack of integrity. Not only has BP slowed compensations payment, but they had previously announced that they would not pay dividends after the spill, and then negated. Concept I feel that the central concept from this Case-Study is the idea of integrity.Over the span of more than 100 years, the company has come up with new ingenious way to reach and transport previously unattainable oil, but they still use a version of oils spill clean up technology circa 1960. BP develops wind and solar energy technologies, but I see more BP service stations popping up more frequently than their wind turbines. Also, BP announced they were going to halt dividend checks to shareholders after the oils spill in the gulf. However, after the issue has been out of the spotlight for a while they slow the compensation benefits to the gulf, and continue to pay their shareholders anyway.BP’s own code of conduct is titled â€Å"Our Commitment to Integrity†, and they’ve shown over and over how they just are not reliable. Application One thing that I can and do apply to my life personally is the idea of integrity, being reliable, and doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Integrity is important character facet to have professionally as well. My major is Human Resources Development –a field that I hope to work in one day. In an HR position I want to help my organization, by developing the employees, supporting fairness and equality, and helping to instill and positive and ethical culture.

NGN Migration

There is an urgent need that telecommunication services that are converged and qualitative be offered as this will pave way for the Next Generation Networks focusing on reducing the existing digital divide. NGN migration involves the process of changing the dormant cabinets to being active. This requires very accurate information on the local loop connectivity enabling the existing pairs to be rapidly copied from the existing frame to a new one and without erring. (Michael, 2001) Once the migration is completed without any service interruption any information concerning the quality of the pairs is very important in supplying the high-bandwidth services. Most carriers and service providers are looking for an aggressive improvement of their services and their migration to the New Generation Services Network. There is an intense competition which is continually eroding the profitability of most of the service providers majority of whom are transiting to IP.The NGN service providers thus need more inventive   joint infrastructures  Ã‚   that will improve the current services delivery. They should also provide a framework for solutions in the intelligence of the greater network. (Lee, Deborah, Kevin, and Sally, 2000) The carriers will not only have a short term relief through flexibility and incorporation but also their position in seizing other new market opportunities will be expanded. The solutions which are part and parcel of the Cisco IP NGN objectives encompass a wider transformation of both the entire businesses and the service providers. The IP NGN sanctions the service providers to meet all the customers’ needs more efficiently while providing a basis for delivering profit sustaining applications. Cisco IP NGM has created an intelligent infrastructure that opens opportunities for service providers so that they can offer more advanced and personalized media services over any other form of connection. Cisco strongly supports the NGN transition in relation to its conceptual planning and the network design. It also serves as a business partner supporting the service providers on the NGN migration. Cisco on the other hand assists the service providers in transforming their businesses and their networks. The transformation offers new value added services that help them increase their profitability and achieve greater efficiency. The IP NGM cannot be bought by the service providers since it evolves constantly adapting to its customers demands and opportunities in the new technology. However it is possible to still give speculations about the transformation. The NGM encompasses the service provider’s current and future services realizing the fact that the largest part of the growth will be in data and video services. Voice services will initially be significant in the service portfolio giving way to richer media services inclusive of video, voice and data. (Larry & Bruce, 2000) The shift towards NGN entails the service provider’s network as a whole since it not only concerns itself with bandwidth in network access but also in the delivery of an excellence bandwidth in the entire network. IP NGM is more about making significant changes to an individual network thus creating a single network for service deliveries. A regulators global symposium held in February 2007 laid down guidelines for NGNs migration with a goal of promoting frameworks that promote innovation, and a reasonably priced access to NGN.This took place in a three day meeting in Dubai during which   Ã‚  guidelines for telecommunications migration were laid down. The regulators designed a roadmap that would encourage frameworks that are regulated .The International Engineering Consortium experts gave an NGN definition as the blend between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the public switched data network (PSDN) as it also creates a multi service single network. An explanation was given that the switch infrastructures proprietary owned, the architecture for NGNs pushes for a central office functions to the network edge. The results are a network infrastructure that is well distributed leveraging open and new technologies therefore reducing the market entry cost and increasing flexibility as well as accommodate the packet-switched data and the circuit-switched data. (Ericsson, 2001) Other scholars similarly defined it as the future networks stimulated by the need to transport data and multimedia services through the same network having very flexible deployment and the capability to change various models in the economy for the best results. The telecommunications regulatory department globally that is in charge of the standardization also defined NGN as a network that is packet based with the potential to provide various telecommunication services and simultaneously making use of the multiple broadband. Practically speaking the NGN involves architectural changes which include the core network through the PSTN design and the cable and wire access.NGN encompasses transport networks as a core network with each built for a totally different service to become a single transport network which is oftenly based on either internet protocol (IP) or Ethernet. There is a specific definition between the network services running on the transports top and the connectivity ratio of the network. This indicates that when a new service is to be enabled by a provider this could be done by first directly defining the service layer without the consideration of the transport layer. Here the services are independent of any details pertaining transport thus increasing the applications that are independent of the network access through delayering of the application and the networks. The global symposium for the regulators was initiated in the year 2000with participants from all over the world as this year they centered on the NGNs migration. It focused on the roadmap to next generation’s networks and how they could achieve success at the same time promoting investment. The meeting also fully did an examination on the regulatory issues that are very urgent such as the NGNs interconnection, competition, universal access, consumer protection, investment and the global interconnection of the internet. According to the regulators secretary general the best practices were to be adopted offering a possible way of providing benefits to both the consumers and the service providers through reduced costs. They would also offer new and innovative services to the consumers. The guidelines also called upon the regulators to adopt regimes that can be subjected to regular checkups ensuring that competition barriers are eliminated. They were to ensure that both the users and the providers can easily migrate to other networks in the future when all the required market conditions are met. (Bennett, 2001) The regulators were ready to tailor the adopted practices in the world market as they were also urged in adopting flexible interconnection models that would allow a very smooth transition to the NGNs.They were also urged to maintain a playing field that is leveled thus protecting the interests of the consumers. The participants made an agreement that various steps were to be taken that the market did not suffer any form of competition distortion especially in the issue of convergence. There was also a risk that the providers of the NGN and the operators also were in a position to regulate the competition at the service level to their own advantage. The regulators were also cautioned to be on the look out monitoring any incidents requiring a regulatory response (Erick, 2001) The ITU director also gave an explanation that NGN was placed in-between thee internet and the telecom worlds thus bringing out a variety of issues to be handled by the regulators themselves. They were also encouraged to clearly define policies that would allow the IP networks and the legacy to co-exist offering a voice together. There should be a consideration put in place while making the obligations applicable to the providers and the operators of the telephony services not considering the service delivery to the consumers (Anders 2000) The issues pertaining the process of the NGNs migration are to be addressed with urgency for the formation of a high level co-coordinating committee consisting of the major key players in the industry. These key people are to all the issues relevant so that there is a there is a systematic and smooth transition from the existing networks to the NGNs.Various issues are to be handled by the committee formed so that they can create awareness for the NGNs building programme.They are also expected to put up a timetable for the NGN migration world wide.    References Anders A. (2000):   Capacital study of statistical multiplexing for IP telephony. Technical Report T2000:03, SICS. P 78-105 Bennett, J.   (2001): Voice over packet reliability issues for next generation net- Works. In IEEE International Conference on Communications, volume 1, ICC, June 2001. P 142–145. Eirik, H. (2001):   Planning for migration to a next generation network. Master’s thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, September 2001 p 89-99 Ericsson, O. (2001):   The migration story: Different highways to a multi-service net- Work. White Paper, October 2001. p 85 Larry L. & Bruce S. (2000):   Computer Networks, a Systems Approach. Morgan Kaufmann, second edition. P 45-66 Lee B., Deborah E., Kevin, F., and Sally F. (2000): Advances in network simulation. IEEE Computer, 33(5), 78-84 Michael, D. (2001):   Evolving the next generation network. Technical Report PR 109 NPD 01, Eircom, March 2001.p 56-89