Ikons Attempt at Erp Essays

Ikons Attempt at Erp Essays Ikons Attempt at Erp Essay Ikons Attempt at Erp Essay Ikons Attempt at ERP Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and ERP Ikon Office Solutions is the world’s largest independent office technology company, with revenues approaching $5 billion and operations in the U. S. , Canada, Mexico, the United King-dom, France, Germany, and Denmark. Ikon is pursing a growth strategy to move from what was more than 80 individually operating copier dealers to an integrated solutions company. Its goal is to provide total office technology solutions, ranging from copiers, digital printers, and docu-ment management services to systems integration, training, and other network technology ser-vices. The company has rapidly expanded its service capability with an aggressive acquisition effort that has included technology services and document management companies. Given these objectives, the company seemed to need ERP software. A few years ago, it be-gan a pilot project in the Northern California district to assess the possibility of using SAP’s en-terprise software applications companywide. Chief Information Officer David Gadra, who joined Ikon about a month after the pilot system was turned on, however, decided not to roll it out. Ikon will take a $25 million write-off on the cost of the pilot. â€Å"There were a number of factors that made us decide this project was more challenging than beneficial for us,† says Gadra. â€Å"When we added everything up- human factors, functionality gaps, and costs incurred- we decided our environment is ill defined for SAP. † Instead, Ikon is bringing all 13 of its regional operations onto a home-grown application system. â€Å"I don’t blame the consultants or SAP,† he says. â€Å"We made errors on our side in estimating the amount of business change we’d have to make as part of this implementation. The vast majority of the $25 million loss represents consultant fees; less than 10% went to pay for the software itself. At any given point in the project, Ikon was paying 40 to 50 outside consultants $300 an hour. Ikon budgeted $12 million to get the system running. That cost came in at over $14 million, including $8 million paid to IBM for con sulting. A major reason the company decided to drop SAP was its conclusion that the software didn’t sufficiently address the needs of a service company like Ikon, as opposed to those of manufac-turers. For example, SAP didn’t have an adequate feature for tracking service calls. Ikon also had great difficulty assembling an internal team of SAP experts. Ikon’s costs were high because the firm relied heavily on consultants. â€Å"I am extremely disappointed by Ikon’s announcement,† says SAP America president Jeremy Coote, describing Ikon’s earlier pilot as on time and â€Å"extremely successful. † Coote calls Ikon’s decision to scrap the project â€Å"an example of what happens when you don’t sell at the corporate level† as well as the divisional level. A newer version of SAP is to include a service management module. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS What are the information needs at Ikon and what alternatives does Ikon have to meet these needs? What are the advantages and disadvantages of ERP software in meeting these needs? What risks did the company take in selecting SAP software for evaluation? Why did Ikon cancel the SAP project? Sources: Ikon Annual Reports; Information Week (April 1997): 25; and J. R. Gordon and S. R. Gordon, Information Systems: A Management Approach, 3rd ed. (New York: Wiley, 2003).

Yahoo Corporation is a Technological Company

Yahoo Corporation is a Technological Company Yahoo Corporation is a Technological Company Yahoo Corporation is a technological company involved in innovative technologies to help mobilize resources and create opportunities around the world. It has formed various partnerships and supports a number of projects around the world through training and technological access. It basically deals with web hosting. It earns its profits through advertisements by various companies and providing internet connectivity. The company released its financial statements for the period up to 30th September 2011. These included its balance sheet, income statement and its cash flow statement. Comparing these with the financial statements of the previous financial year (the year ended 30th December 2010); there has been a significant increase in the profit margins and investment levels. The company is in a good liquid position; it is able to meet its short term and long term obligations as and when they fall due. Considering its current ratio which is given by: total current assets divided by its total current liabilities; (3404.59/1201.59 = 2.83), this implies that Yahoos assets of the value $2.83 are being used to meet its $1.00 of its current liabilities. It is in a position to meet quickly its current liabilities at a very comfortable position since it s able to convert its current assets quickly into cash (its quick ratio is given by its total current assets less inventory, divided by total current liabilities). Another evidence of good liquidity position is the, fact that, its debt to equity ratio is not below 1. The company is able to leverage its debt against the capital employed by its owners by ensuring that, the liabilities of the company do not exceed the net worth of the capital employed. This is advantageous to the company as its creditors do not have more stakes in the company than the shareholders. The 0.17 debt to equity ratio implies that $0.17 of debt and $1.00 of equity is being employed to meet its obligations. Altman Z score measures the physical fitness of the company. The Z-score for Microsoft is 2.73 given by: Given the companys Z score to be 2.23, this implies that that company is not on the safe side and should exercise precaution when dealing with debt. It should ensure that the amount of companys debt is kept at very low levels as possible to avoid chances of the company going bankrupt with years of its operation since the last date of preparation of its financial statements The company has made good amounts of profit in the previous financial year Out of the assets employed in its assets employed in its operations it makes a 34% return on the assets. This is given by the net assets divided by average total assets (293.29/857.39). This is an indication that the company is applying its assets to good and productive use. The owners capital invested in the company is applying its assets to good and productive use. The owners capital invested in the company is also being put into good use as there is an increase in its return from 2.67% to 3% in the year up to 30th September, 2011. The company makes $0.34 cents on every $ 1.00 sale they make. This is a good profitability level and the company should stay in business while at the same time looking for the other avenues to increase its profits. Change in strategy through of new products can be considered. Still the company can increase its profitability level by increasing its assets and ensuring they are being used to their maximum capacity. Good maintenance should also be part of i ts strategy to increase profitability. In terms of efficiency, the company can be rated at 7 points given a rating scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most efficient. It has been able to rotate its inventory in sales 6 times in the given fiscal year. This implies that there is high demand of the companys products and ensure that it delivery is made on time to ensure that they retain their customers for the goods sold. 15% of the total cost of goods is being funded by its suppliers. This is the accounts payable to sales ratio which is calculated by dividing the total amount payable in the books by the net sales multiplying by 100% (131.47/857.39). Comparing the above figures to those of the previous financial period (December 2010), there has been an increase in funding from the accounts payable. However, training programs should be devised to ensure an improvement in the efficiency of the companys management. The products should be manufactured only when the customer makes orders as this will help reduce the cost of the sales by eliminating/reducing the storage costs to be incurred by the company. The proportion of the companys debt to its equity is at 0.17 (debt/equity =2067.49/12460.11) this implies that there is $0.17 debt for every $1.00 equity. This amount should be reduces to a lower level to ensure that the share holders have more stakes in the company than its creditors. The company is to apply an approach which reduces the total amount of debt generally and instead fund most of its projects and activities through owners capital. This will reduce the interest expense and will have an incremental effect on the basic earning per share and hence increased rating in the stock exchange mortal. In conclusion, the company generally is at a good financial position It is highly liquid, very profitable and its capital structure is favorable to the shareholders. However this should be improved by reducing the debt to equity ratio. The Z score though indicates that the company is not at a better position, it needs to work on its financing strategies to reduce its chances of going bankrupt in the coming years of operation. It needs to take its Z score value to 3 and above.

Public administration work placement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public administration work placement - Essay Example rrent models of knowledge and models within Public Sector administration are largely considered as robust and effective in terms of helping to achieve the required level of professional practice as well as others. These models and body of knowledge include many important elements such as publicity as the tool to achieve the desired level of accountability and transparency in the public administrative processes can effectively serve as one of the strong knowledge based tools to inform the practioners of public administration and others of the possible outcome of their behaviors while on the job. These models focus on bringing transparency and accountability for those who practice it whereas for others, this may not seem to be the direct purpose of the models and body of knowledge therefore in that sense, public administration models may not inform properly to others especially about how they can produce a reflexive capability to view and inform. Public administration provides many skills and competencies which can be effectively transferred to other in the field. Take an example of Publicity- Nordic countries almost many years ago have initiated the publicity as one of the most effective tools to bring in transparency into the public officials. By openly circulating the details of Parliamentary proceedings, they developed a system where the public administrators were effectively held accountable by the general public regarding their actions. Therefore publicity is one such very important transferable skill and competency within public administration which can help achieve the necessary communication into the academic communication and other fields. It must also be noted that public administration tends to have a beurucratic outlook as it mainly deals with the organizations which are bureactic in nature therefore dissemination of knowledge through effective communication is different from the mainstream administrative models and practices however â€Å"This type of

Routing Protocol Security Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Routing Protocol Security - Dissertation Example The Pervasive nature of the existing information infrastructure when coupled with cyber terrorism related threats makes the security of the network infrastructure an area of interest for network or computer security researchers. While a significant amount of research has been done on the content of security information, and software development, securing of the network infrastructure has increasingly become an issue of concern over the years.   The key critical infrastructure security entails securing of the routing infrastructure. According to Jones & Moigne   (2006) abuse of routine protocol and mechanism is perhaps the simplest available protocol-based attack. Recently, the emergence response team highlighted the imminent need for ensuring that routing infrastructure becomes secured (Yasser, 2007). According to Russell (2003) routers are widely used by intruders as common platforms for activity scanning. They are also reported to be less protected by the security policy (Tanen baum,   2003). For purposes of routing, the infrastructure is often categorized into two domains. These are inter-domain and intra-domain (IETF, John & Moy, 1998). Generally, the whole routing infrastructure entails a collection of the intra-domain routing regions often connected through the inter-domain functionality (John, 2005). An intra-domain routing environment, which is commonly referred to as the Autonomous System, is often administered using an administrative authority (John, 2005). As often is the case, this authority owns routers.... These are inter-domain and intra-domain (IETF, John & Moy, 1998). Generally, the whole routing infrastructure entails a collection of the intra-domain routing regions often connected through the inter-domain functionality (John, 2005). An intra-domain routing environment, which is commonly referred to as the Autonomous System, is often administered using an administrative authority (John, 2005). As often is the case, this authority owns routers within its domain although this does not necessarily include all the links that connect all the intra-domain routers. Within an automated system, the routing protocols that are most commonly deployed in Autonomous System, are the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) alongside the Intermediate-System-to-Intermediate System routing protocols. The two protocols are based upon the link-state routing OSPF v2 Routing protocol, which is a link-state routing protocol that was developed purposely for the internet Protocol networks. OSPF is often based upon the relative cost of transferring the information between hops such as the networks and routers. This protocol is, most often than not, categorized into an interior-Gateway protocol with an intension of running it internally in the AS (Cisco Systems Inc, 2009). This protocol is mostly distributed in the AS amongst various routers and it provides an allowance for building similar representation of the network topology belonging to AS. This is often realized through publishing (LSAs) or Link state Advertisement by routers (Cisco Systems Inc, 2009). The routers then construct a tree of shortest-path to various destinations maintaining itself as a root. It then routes the IP packets via the internet basing on the IP addresses. If a topological change

Early years child care Essay Example for Free

Early years child care Essay Being able to motivate members of staff is a progression towards this. As Mayo found with his workforce, if the staff felt valued, they were more willing to work harder and longer for their manager. Motivating the staff is by no means a simple task, as it means utilising a balance of both people and interpersonal skills. These skills can be grouped into various management styles and each member of staff will require the manager to adapt the style according to their own personality. The setting, which is the subject of this work, provides a good example of the various styles of management needed in order to supervise the workforce. One member of staff is very carefree and relaxed in her work and therefore needs an autocratic, or coercive management style. She is, however, always willing to do as she is told and thrives on carrying out instructions as they are given. Were the manager to employ a laissez-faire approach here, the jobs allocated to this member of staff would not get done. To examine this in more detail, just one of the managers duties is to ensure that craft supplies are adequately stocked. As with many of the managers tasks, this is one that can be delegated to another member of staff. This particular worker is given this task to do and due it being given to her as a direct instruction, she is happy to proceed with enthusiasm and little procrastination. If, however a more laissez-faire approach were used, she could feel that the task was not important and may leave it until such a time as she chose to do it. These skills and qualities of the manager are familiar with Herzbergs (1968) two factor theory of motivation. He recognised that offering staff the opportunity of achievement, recognition, involvement, responsibility and empowerment, is the path to true motivation (Dale, 1992). This is the opinion of Ridderstrale and Nordstrom. In early years leadership it is particularly important. The manager constantly has to implement change, often following government legislation. It is the role of the manager, as the leader to ensure all staff members can adjust to these new implementations, instead of clinging on to methods previously followed. The manager of the chosen nursery has an effective method of executing change. If the change has occurred at nursery level, the chances are it has arisen and been discussed during a staff meeting. If the changes come from elsewhere, for example, a government paper, the manager would first address the urgency of the change, before deciding on a course of action. The agenda for meetings is always displayed onto a notice board for all the staff to view. If the change is one that does not require immediate action, it will be added to the board, next to the agenda. However, should it be necessary to act immediately, then a meeting will be called, either with all the staff, or with individual members accordingly.

Violence on Television Essay -- Violent TV T.V. Effect Children media

Violence on Television Today’s society is heavily influenced by television. The violence disrupts a child’s learning process and can alter the moral beliefs that an older person has. Children view more violence on Saturday mornings than any other time. The cartoons aimed at little children influence youngsters to mimic violent acts because their parents do not fully explain the effects of the stunts. It is pathetic that in such a technology based society, such a simple thing as television can have a negative effect on people. Before Television, Americans followed simple laws, believed heavily in God, were honest, and never locked their doors because they felt safe and were happy to help someone in need. TV gradually turned us into the society we have today. We break laws as if there are no consequences, many people don’t believe in God, or even attend a religious service. We lock our houses, cars, and anything worth money, because we are scared of theft. We leave people in trouble to fend for themselves, we do not have the common courtesy to help anyone. (Wheeler 84) Liquor, drugs, sex, and suicide prematurely dazzle millions of people as they see it on TV. (Wheeler 23) Violence has been entering Prime Time TV. John Grisham’s â€Å"The Client† as shown on CBS shows two corpses and two murders in on the first 15 minutes. (Silver 2) This goes to show that the average American child will have watched 8000 depictions of murder by the time they finish 6th grade. (Abelard 1) Abelard goes on to say, If you think wall to wall violence on TV has no effect, then why would manufacturers purchase 30 second blocks to advertise their products? (2) Mark Silver says â€Å"Raunchy family fare is nothing new.†(2) He also reports that sex is gingerly mentioned in the media. There is soap-opera sex, talk-show sex subjects, and many more sex crimes on the news. Children ages 10 to 16 were polled and say that the television is the true sex educator in our day. As many as six out of ten agree that sex on television urges peers their age to have sex at a younger age. (2) Vulgarity also rules prime time. Many shows depict sexual situations and innuendoes throughout the whole show. Sexually frank programs such as â€Å"Beverly Hills 90210†, â€Å"Roseanne† and â€Å"Ellen† are targeted to adults, but are viewed by children. A Solution to this problem would be to shift their plots to being more ... ... there. No other thing in history has had such a great influence on children, teens and adults. The generation now, compared to the one 50 years ago, has changed just from the technology presented to us. It is hard to imagine what the future will hold with such technological advances on equal to that of the TV. Works Cited Abelard. Children and Television Violence. 23 Oct 2000 < http://www.abelard.org/tv/tv.htm > Children and TV Violence. 23 Oct 2000 Facts about Media Violence and Effects on the American Family. 18 Oct 2000 Media Watch Online- Killer Entertainment. 18 Oct 2000 < http://www.mediawatch.com/dukenuken.html > Silver, Marc. Sex and Violence on TV. 22 Oct 2000 Swenson, Gena. Violence on television: A class project surprised sociology student. 18 Oct 2000 < http:// www.cyfc.umn.edu/ Media/tvviol.html> Wheeler, Joe L. Remote Controlled. Hagerstown: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1993. Winn, Marie. The Plug-In Drug. New York: Viking Penguin Inc, 1985.

The Four Contexts of Motivation

Malcolm Knowles’ research in adult motivational learning produced four â€Å"distinct contexts†; Practical, Personal, Experiential, and Idealistic. The Practical context is motivated by a direct desired benefit result received from the learning such as a specific employment position, for financial wisdom and gain, or to apply the learning towards greater competency and confidence in making life decisions in situations anywhere from family to work, or even building that dream house that may have previously thought to be unattainable.The Personal context involves motivation directed by self fulfillment goals to overall better oneself and therein the quality of life. An adult student may for example want to learn in this context to increase self worth. Experiential learning differs from the other contexts in that one draws from real-life and past experiences motivated by a desire for renewal by consolidating with more current and forward ideas with the goal of improving an d refreshing their experience.The final Idealistic context motivation attracts those who just desire to continuously learn for the sake of the ongoing discovery of knowledge and new ideas throughout their lifespan. Learning wine tasting may be a venture for this type of learner. My learning motivation is Experiential. Professionally I have experienced a long career in the Human Resources field and held BA degree positions despite the fact that I did not have one. I do have my PHR but have learned mostly in a hands-on context. I have experienced both successful and unsuccessful situations during my career.I started my college education years ago and have procrastinated about returning for many years. I finally came to the realization that I need that degree and everything it offers in order to become more competent and confident in my business decisions. The unsuccessful situations I have experienced were due to my lack of a solid educational background. When I lacked the educational background to perform some of the tasks I was assigned I became panicked, stressed and found it necessary to be reactive.My motto during those times became ‘‘fake it until you make it! †. That attitude eventually caught up with me and forced me to face what I was missing. It took my losing a couple of positions to overcome the denial I was in. I know that I need this degree to enhance my performance and definitely for organizational development. I am know on a serious mission to complete this goal and believe attending Ashford University will give me the competency, knowledge and confidence I need to be successful resulting in a much happier and less stressful lifestyle.

Leadership Case Study: Steve Jobs Essay

1. Steve Jobs had an extremely high interest in being in charge, so to start off with his leader-follower element, he most definitely settles in better on the leader end of the spectrum. Jobs was so far in the leadership end of the spectrum that he had actually been removed from his CEO position in 1985 for being unmanageable. Being one of the most charismatic leaders in the industry has helped him develop his leadership traits through his time with Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. He has always been determined even when Apple took him out of the equation, where he went off to make some of our childhood staples such as Toy Story and gained an enormous share of stock with Disney, which was actually more than he ever owned with Apple. His influence spans across five different industries, which is more than almost any CEO can say that they have done in their entire life. His influence spanned across the computer industry, Hollywood and the movie industry, the wireless phone industry with the IPh one, the retailing industry, and my personal favorite being the music industry where ITunes has innovated the very distribution of music itself. To the point, Steve always seemed to get what he wanted when it came to influencing these many industries. As for organizational objectives, Jobs always wanted to create a product that the customer wanted but almost didn’t even know they wanted or conceive the product in a thought, the IPod being a prime example of this. If Jobs didn’t like the outcome of a product, he sent it back to the drawing board. Jobs and his members shared the goals to create new things they wanted, in the hopes that the customer would too. Change is a huge aspect of the way Jobs leads, all he wants to do is create technologically changing products that he and his customers really want. The constantly updating technology, yet always user friendly interface is Apples motto now a days. Steve’s people skills were apparently not the greatest, but as long as a subordinate shared in his vision of wanting to create and innovate like he did, then Apple would succeed. His people tended to respect him for the way he went about inventing new products and never wanting to fall short on anything. 2. The leadership skills that Steve Jobs possessed that made himself as well as his companies so successful were due his combination of the technical, interpersonal, and decision-making skills he possessed. Keeping up with the  latest technology in the tech industry is an absolute necessity, and Steve and Apple not only kept up with the industry but innovated it every step of the way, so his technical skills were very important. Steve’s interpersonal skills were not conventional in the regular sense of the meaning, but he had his own way of developing relationships and gaining the respect of his subordinates who wished to share in his vision of giving people products that they didn’t even know they wanted. He was sure to consistently communicate this point to his employees, and motivating was one of his key qualities, such as in his key note speeches to his customers to unveil new products every year. Lastly, and what I believe to be his most important skill that he possesses, is his decision-making skills. Jobs was able to come back to Apple and make the necessary decisions to bring it out of bankruptcy by changing the corporate culture back to an entrepreneurial environment to be the innovative company it once was. Critical thinking was a big part of his life, and Steve was known to take walks alone in an almost trance like state where he would be identifying problems and changes in the industry, know where opportunities lied, and would critically think to come up with creative ideas to be the leader and innovator in so many industries. 3. Under the interpersonal managerial leadership roles section, I believe that Steve fell under the category of figurehead and leader roles in this section. Steve was the go to speaker at the key note speeches of unveiling products, and he always had a sense of spirit about him that really made the customer believe in how much he loves the product they just unveiled, and how much Steve believed that the customer would love the product. Steve also continuously performed the leader role by giving instructions of the creation of products, why the company should head in a certain direction, or evaluating performance of research and development of new products. If Steve didn’t want to personally use it, chances are it was thrown in the trash and it was back to the drawing board. As far as the informational role category, I believe that Steve was in the monitor role as well as the spokesperson role. Steve was constantly gathering information and attending meetings in and out of the organization to create new and innovative products. As for the spokesperson role, as I have stated previously, he was the charismatic leader that was the face and spirit of what Apple was all about, and he had  the customer falling in love with a completely innovative product before they had seen anything like it before. As far as his decisional role, he was the company’s main entrepreneur as well as the main disturbance handler when Apple came to him on the verge of bankruptcy. New and improved products and services is Apple’s core belief thanks to Jobs, and his combination of these two roles saved the company single handed thanks to Steve’s enthusiasm and passion of innovation. His decisional roles that he played were by far his most important contributions since he not only saved the company from bankruptcy but also made it the innovative leader in technology for the last 20 years. 4. The primary level of analysis that this case focuses on is the organizational level of analysis. The focus is on how Steve Jobs can influence the entire organization of people to get on top of their game and to constantly be looking for change to innovate new products. He influenced the behaviors, work ethic, and productivity of all of his employees. He individually was able to completely turn the company around from bankruptcy because of the tactics he would use to influence perfection. His mind set was one way, always towards the next best product, and if he didn’t like it then the idea was scrapped. While some of his employees did not quite agree with the angry fits that Steve would have, even the employees that ended up quitting still said there was a sense of respect for what Steve was doing and his passion for it. Steve’s passion resonated throughout the entire organization, and the simple fact that his views of how the innovation culture at the workplace helpe d save it from bankruptcy shows his abilities. Saving Apple was not an easy task, but he was able to accomplish it. 5. The four leadership theory classifications that apply to this case are trait, behavior, contingency, and integrative. Steve’s trait paradigm involves how he acts in the environment of the organization, which included high energy levels at work whether it was anger or passion. It also included his appearance, which he appeared as an angry guy who wanted nothing but perfection, but also showed passion through it all. He was always able to persuade in his own ways, and he always showed his dominance in the workplace, which unfortunately ended up in his initial removal from Apple,  but proved extremely useful in his later years. The behavior paradigm applied in the way that Steve was extremely focused on certain tasks at hand, and the way he is always the biggest critic of any and all products being proposed or worked on in the company. The way that Steve Jobs contributed behaviorally in this case was by controlling his subordinates and demanding perfection every step of the way. The contingency paradigm shows that leadership style is situational, and even though people tended to dislike the way Jobs lead, he ran the organization into its most successful and profitable years, saving it from demise. The most relevant paradigm in my opinion is the integrative paradigm. Since it incorporates portions from the other three theories, I believe that it can be used to describe the charismatic, passion filled leadership qualities that Jobs possessed. He was able to inspire his employees and everyone was always enthusiastic once the levels of productivity they had put in resulted in a noteworthy product everyone will love. 6. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, this seems to be a question that is on everyone’s mind, from employee to shareholder to customer. While it is a scary thought, something tells me that the passion and vision that Jobs was able to give to the organization in the last decade he worked their contributed to the current mentality of a lot of the current top level managers still working there. It has become an atmosphere at Apple that they should only create products that would be worthy of a Jobs stamp of approval, and I personally do not think the organizational paradigm would shift after such an influential human being has put so much effort and soul into a company as Steve has done for Apple. Apple is the leading household name for so many different technologies, they have changed the music industry forever, and have an absolutely absurd amount of cash on hand to fund whatever types of projects they need to be sure they are constantly on top of the industry. While the technolo gy industry is one of the most fast paced changing industries with constant improvements in hardware and software, I do not see Apple falling behind to the point that they will not recover again.

self assurance essays

self assurance essays Who Am I? Who Does The World Believe I am? Who Am I? Who does the world believe I am? These are some of the questions faced by many of the citizens in todays society. Status plays a key role in a persons developmental stages starting from birth and continues on throughout life until death. There are many key factors that contribute to a persons development of their self concept, with interpersonal and intrapersonal roles playing an important part. Self concept is a dynamic and unique outline reflecting a persons interaction with the larger social community as well as intrapersonal characteristics. It helps people experience who they are capable of becoming physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually in a community with others. Arnold. Boggs. Self concept is a continual process, rangely changing and getting more difficult as the child gets older. Throughout the childs life, he or she may have general aspects of ones self such as, I am shy or I am good at sports. Consequently these ideas become more complex as ones self is introduced to new challenges in life. Self concept allows roles to change as maturity takes place. The self concept of a child broadens through social interactions. Later these social interactions become the self-concept of that of an adult, marriage partner, or parent. Self concept is unique to each person. Individual physiological features and inborn personality traits digger, as do ethnic and cultural heritages. Life experiences are both qualitatively and quantitatively different, even for two individuals living together within the same family environment. Position in the family, encounters with neighbors, physical makeup, basic preferences, and amount of social support are variables that account for differences in experience. One can think of the self concept as being the response ...

Multi-threading in C# With Tasks

Multi-threading in C# With Tasks The computer programming term thread is short for  thread  of execution, in which a processor follows a specified path through your code. The concept of following more than one thread at a time introduces the subject of multi-tasking and multi-threading. An application has one or more processes in it. Think of a process as a program running on your computer. Now each process has one or more threads. A game application might have a thread to load resources from disk, another to do AI, and another to run the game as a server. In .NET/Windows,  the operating system allocates processor time to a thread. Each thread keeps track of exception handlers and the priority at which it runs, and it has somewhere to save the thread context until it runs. Thread context is the information that the thread needs to resume. Multi-Tasking With Threads Threads take up a bit of memory and creating them takes a little time, so usually, you dont want to use many. Remember, they compete for processor time. If your computer has multiple CPUs, then Windows or .NET might run each thread on a different CPU, but if several threads run on the same CPU, then only one can be active at a time and switching threads takes time. The CPU runs a thread for a few million instructions, and then it switches to another thread. All of the CPU registers, current program execution point and stack have to be saved somewhere for the first thread and then restored from somewhere else for the next thread. Creating a Thread In the namespace System.Threading, youll find the thread type. The constructor thread  (ThreadStart) creates an instance of a thread. However, in recent C# code, its more likely to pass in a lambda expression that calls the method with any parameters. If youre unsure about lambda expressions, it might be worth checking out LINQ. Here is an example of a thread that is created and started: using System; using System.Threading;namespace ex1{class Program{public static void Write1(){Console.Write(1) ;Thread.Sleep(500) ;}static void Main(string[] args){var task new Thread(Write1) ;task.Start() ;for (var i 0; i 10; i){Console.Write(0) ;Console.Write (task.IsAlive ? A : D) ;Thread.Sleep(150) ;}Console.ReadKey() ;}}} All this example does is write 1 to the console. The main thread writes a 0 to the console 10 times, each time followed by an A or D depending on whether the other thread is still Alive or Dead. The other thread only runs once and writes a 1. After the half-second delay in the Write1() thread, the thread finishes, and the Task.IsAlive in the main loop now returns D. Thread Pool and Task Parallel Library Instead of creating your own thread, unless you really need to do it, make use of a Thread Pool. From .NET 4.0, we have access to the Task Parallel Library (TPL). As  in the previous example, again we need a bit of LINQ, and yes, its all lambda expressions. Tasks uses the Thread Pool behind the scenes  but make  better use of the threads depending on the number in use. The main object in the TPL is a Task. This is a class that represents an asynchronous operation. The commonest way to start things running is with the Task.Factory.StartNew as in: Task.Factory.StartNew(() DoSomething()); Where DoSomething() is the method that is run. Its possible to create a task and not have it run immediately. In that case, just use Task like this: var t new Task(() Console.WriteLine(Hello));...t.Start(); That doesnt start the thread until the .Start() is called. In the example below, are five tasks. using System;using System.Threading;using System.Threading.Tasks;namespace ex1{class Program{public static void Write1(int i){Console.Write(i) ;Thread.Sleep(50) ;}static void Main(string[] args){for (var i 0; i 5; i){var value i;var runningTask Task.Factory.StartNew(()Write1(value)) ;}Console.ReadKey() ;}}} Run that and you  get the digits 0 through 4 output in some random order such as 03214. Thats because the order of task execution is determined by .NET. You might be wondering why the var value i is needed. Try removing it and calling Write(i), and youll see something unexpected like 55555. Why is this? Its because the task shows the value of i at the time that the task is executed, not when the task was created. By creating a new variable each time in the loop, each of the five values is correctly stored and picked up.

Labor law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Labor law - Essay Example plementation of this Railway Labor Act was to ensure that the railways continued to provide its services and the obstacles in the deliverance of services caused due to differences between the employees and employers were removed. This was an essential step for the sustainability of the reputation of the railway industry. This law provided the privilege of freedom to the railway employees to organize their own unions independently. Authority was given to both management and labor and none were bounded by the domination of one another; Often rail laborers had to agree on working terms that later gave rise to disappointment. Different laborers had different and colliding views about the prevailing working environment that caused conflicts. This law served as a rapid solution for all disputes of the rail industry. The Railway Labor Act (RLA) has a positive impact on the organizations because due to the enactment of this law the disputes that took place between the railway organizations and their employees started solving in a timely manner. Due to this the productivity of the organizations was not damaged as a result of the protests. The provision of development of a National Mediation board helped in ensuring that the disputes that were not being solved by the unions and organizations started being solved with the indulgence of a third party. This even ensured that the organizations were not able to manipulate the union leaders into working for the interest of the owners of the organization instead of working for the employees they represented. This Act clarified that yellow- dog agreement made between the laborer of a certain industry and its management as a condition for becoming an employee, was strictly unacceptable by the Federal Court (Cihon, 2011, p.342). Any such contract, which forbids the laborer to join a labor union, has no claimable existence in the Federal Court. This law of United States was established for the protection of the rights of the

Summary chp.25-emergence of the us-american history Term Paper

Summary chp.25-emergence of the us-american history - Term Paper Example But he could not keep up with this policy and soon sent a special envoy, Sumner Welles, to encourage Machado, the oppressive president of Cuba, to resign in 1933. Machado was replaced by Ramon Grau and later by Colonel Fulgencio Batista. His regime was immediately accepted by America leading to favorable trade agreement. In 1939 Mexico nationalize all foreign owned oil companies. This infuriated the American oil interest and demanded them back asking Roosevelt to use military force if necessary. In 1941 the issue was solved when Mexico and America agreed on a fixed amount of compensation. While the relations with Latin America remained agreeable, the same was not true for Asia. In September 1931, the Japanese army stationed in Manchuria seized control of it. Following Japan’s success, America invoked the Stimson Doctrine. The idea of Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity sphere was also generated by Japan. A similar idea was also circulating in Europe, Germany, and Italy. Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 based on the promise to improve the economy of Germany and to increase its role in the world. Benito Mussolini of Italy also expressed his wish to expand Italy. In response to the increased tension in the world, in August 1935 the congress passed the Neutrality act of 1935 which prohibited the sales of arms and munitions to any nation at war. On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. Roosevelt announced America’s neutrality on the issue and denied the sale of war supplies to either side. However, the non-war trade continued between Italy and America. On May 9, 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia. In March 1936, Germany occupied Rhineland and in July a civil war broke out in Spain. Roosevelt again proclaimed America’s neutrality on the issue. Congress passed the Second Neutrality Act forbidding loans to countries at war. Roosevelt easily defeated Landon