Existentialism in Waiting for Godot Essay

Existentialism is a philosophy that repudiates the idea of religion or any ‘supreme’ being bringing meaning to life, and advocates the idea that individuals are instrumental in finding a purpose to life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. Hence in Samuel Becket’s existentialist play Waiting For Godot, he puts forth an idea that all of humanity is wasting their lives in inaction- waiting for the salvation of a deity, when that divine being may or may not even exist. As inferred from the phrase â€Å"existence precedes essence†, there is no pre-existent spirituality or soul; no god, Christian or otherwise; no cosmic compassion for human life; no salvation in heaven and damnation in hell; neither preset destiny nor inevitable fate; and nor is there the transcendence of our worldly existence. Everyone must bear the responsibility for their own existence, since it is not predetermined or shaped by any external force; a subsequent anxiety is one of the aspects of human nature. Nevertheless, the burdens of anxiety and responsibility are often too heavy to bear, and we often seek to shift them on certain individuals, institutions, religions, or even on a ‘Godot’. Existentialism manifests itself in Waiting for Godot through its motifs of despair, absurdity, alienation, and boredom. One of the most prevalent themes is that of loneliness as a consequence of godlessness. In a blank futile universe devoid of purpose, design or care – represented by the featureless Beckettian landscape, human beings are alone, and condemned to be free. Afraid of this isolation Estragon and Vladimir cling together despite their quarrels, and Pozzo and Lucky do not untie themselves. This futility leads to another characteristic of existentialism: despair. Since there is no preset will, Existentialism preaches the individual freedom of choice. Estragon and Vladimir have made the choice of waiting, without any instruction as Vladimir says that Godot â€Å"didn’t say for sure he’d come†. Yet they wait to know exactly how they stand. The boredom of waiting prompts them to ponder over their identity, as inactivity leads the individual to think. Estragon remarks: â€Å"We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression that we exist? It is learnt that man needs a rational basis for existence but fails to find one, making his life no better than a wasted passion. The two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir vainly attempt to put order in their lives by waiting for Godot who never arrives, and reiterate that â€Å"Nothing is to be done. † This inaction further questions their very entities, and Estragon anxiously doubts: â€Å"Where do we come in? † Whenever Estragon and Vladimir make a decision, the stage directions dictate that â€Å"They do not move. † and continue to show passivity. Therefore, even their resolution to go is not strong enough to produce action. Many times Estragon says â€Å"Let’s go†, but Vladimir always reminds him that they can’t as they are â€Å"waiting for Godot. †This inability to act renders Vladimir and Estragon unable to determine their own fates. Instead of acting, they can only wait for someone or something to act upon them- referring to the existentialist argument of man’s desperate need to establish his own purpose and meaning to life. Furthermore, Vladimir and Estragon ponder suicide by hanging themselves from the tree, but once again their anxiety stops them, as the latter remarks: â€Å"Don’t let’s do anything. It’s safer. † Kierkegaard’s notion of ‘Dread’ or ‘Angst’ includes ideas of existentialism which talk about a state in which the individual’s freedom of choice places him in a state of anxiety, as he is surrounded by almost infinite possibilities. This could explain the inactivity of both the tramps. They are aware of the different choices they can make but are hesitant, just as they decide to leave at the end of the act but remain motionless. Thus, the end of act 1 firmly asserts the characters’ hopelessness. Beckett infers that people pass time with habits to cope with the existentialist dilemma of the dread or anxiety of their existence. Estragon and Vladimir idly pass their time to escape the pain of waiting and even thinking. Vladimir expresses this idea at the end of the play: â€Å"Habit is a great deadener. † All the events narrated through the course of the play – the Crucifixion story, the suicide plan, playing talk – seem nothing more than silly pastimes. Once during the Pozzo-Lucky encounter, the tramps behave as if they are in a theatre; Vladimir even asks Estragon to keep his seat while going off to the urinal at â€Å"The end of the corridor, on the left. † Pozzo and Lucky’s coming can also well be interpreted as an act to entertain Vladimir and Estragon; a way in which Becket questions whether life itself is just a mere source of entertainment to pass the time while waiting for salvation. However, the distractions end sometime or the other, leaving them again with their futile inaction: â€Å"The essential doesn’t change. † This once again echoes the existentialist theory that life will end in nothingness as it has begun, reducing all of man’s achievements and accomplishments to nothing. Time has little significance in this futile lifecycle. The past often becomes misty to Estragon as he often asks questions like â€Å"What did we do yesterday? † He does not remember Pozzo and Lucky and even the place in Act Two, and shortly, Pozzo fails to recognize the tramps (Estragon and Vladimir) too. The mysterious boy returns with the same message; Godot never comes and tomorrow never seems to arrive. Vladimir, therefore, is right to say that â€Å"time has stopped. † Estragon conveys the horror of this uneventful repetitive existence in â€Å"Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful! â€Å".

Information Technology Dissertations - Internet Media - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 25 Words: 7527 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Internet Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction Multimedia streaming over internet is getting its revolutionary in the communication, entertainment and interactive game industries. The web now becomes a popular medium for video streaming since the user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video or hearing the sound. Instead, the media is sent in a continuous stream and is played as it arrives. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Information Technology Dissertations Internet Media" essay for you Create order It can integrate all other media formats such as text, video, audio, images and even live radio and TV broadcasts can all be integrated and delivered through a single medium. These applications may require in terms of bandwidth, latency and reliability than traditional data applications to support the growth of multimedia technology in the future [1]. The transportation of multimedia traffic over networks become more complicated because multimedia is becoming cheaper and cheaper and therefore used more and more. Problems with bearing multimedia flows on networks are mainly related to the bandwidth they require and to the strict maximum delay requirements that must be met [2]. This is important when multimedia applications have to provide users with real-time interaction. Because of the rapid growth of Internet usage and the requirement of different applications, the IPv4 is no more relevant to support the future networks. Many new devices, such as mobile phones, require an IP a ddress to connect to the Internet. Thus, there is a need for a new protocol that would provide new services. To overcome to these problems, a new version of Internet Protocol has been introduced. This is called Internet Protocol next generation (IPng or IPv6), which is designed by the IETF [3] to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 is designed to solve the problems of IPv4. It does so by creating a new version of the protocol which serves the function of IPv4, but without the same limitations of IPv4. IPv6 is not totally different from IPv4. The differences between IPv6 and IPv4 are including in five major areas which is addressing, routing, security, configuration and support for mobile devices [4]. Like all the development and new inventions, the problems of current Internet Protocol made researcher to develop some new techniques to solve these problems. Even they have tried to make some changes on the current protocol, these changes still didn t help a much. So, at the end the way came to development of a new protocol which is known as IPv6 or IPng. 2.2 OSI 7 Layer Computer networks are complex dynamic systems and difficult task to understand, design, and implement a computer network. Networking protocols need to be established for low level computer communication up to how application programs communicate. Each step in this protocol is called a layer and divided into several layers simplifies the solution. The main idea behind layering is that each layer is responsible for different tasks. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model defines seven layers [5]. 1. Physical Layer. This layer deals, for instance, with conversion of bits to electrical signals, bit level synchronization. 2. Data Link Layer. It is responsible for transmitting information across a link, detecting data corruption, and addressing. 3. Network Layer. The layer enables any party in the network to communicate with each other. 4. Transport Layer. It establishes reliable communication between a pair in the system, deals with lost and duplicated packets. 5. Session Layer. This layer is responsible for dialogue control and changing. 6. Presentation Layer. The main task of this layer is to represent data in a way convenient for the user. 7. Application Layer. Applications in this case include Web browsing, file transferring, etc. The Network Layer is the layer that is the most interesting in the context of this project. The following section gives a better view of this layer. 2.3 Network Layer As was mentioned before, this layer is responsible for enabling the communication between any party. The most used method for transporting data within and between communications networks is the Internet Protocol (IP). 2.3.1 Internet Protocol IP is a protocol that provides a connectionless, unreliable, and best-efforts packet delivery system. More details on these network service types are given below [5]. In a connectionless model the data packets are transferred independently from all others and containing full source and the destination address. It is worth mentioning that another type is the connection oriented model. However, the connection-oriented model and its details are beyond the scope of this project and thus will not be pursued in this report. The reader can consult [5] for further information on this type of service. Unreliable delivery means that packets may be lost, delayed, duplicated, delivered non-consecutively (in an order other than that in which they were sent), or damaged in transmission. 2.4 Internet Protocol Version 4 As we know, IPv4 is the current protocol for communication on the Internet. It is the protocol that underlies most communication on networks today, such as TCP/IP and UDP/IP. The largest weakness of IPv4 is its address space [7]. Each IPv4 address only have 32 bits and consists of two parts, defined as network identifier and host identifier [5]. A standard method of displaying an IPv4 address is as decimal value of four octets, each separated a period, for example: 192.168.2.5. Traditionally [6], IP addresses are presented by classfull addressing. 5 classes of address were created, which is A to E. Class A consists of 16,777,214 hosts while class B consists of 65,534 hosts and class C consists of 254 hosts. Class D is reserved for use with multicasting and class E is a block of IP addresses reserved for future use [7]. The class D and E addresses are not used to address public host, so this leaves the rest of the entire range of IP addresses carved up into classes A C. As soon as a site is connected to the Internet, it needs to be given an entire class C. Assuming that many sites only need one or two addresses then this waste over 200 addresses. Once a site reaches over 254 full addressable machines it would need an entire class B, which would waste over 65,000 addresses and so on. This allocation system is obviously insufficient and wastes much of a limited resource. 2.4.1 Header Header is a part of the IP packet[5]. There is a number of fields in an IPv4 header. Below are the some explanations for each field. 2.4.2.1 Version This field (4-bit long) is used to determine the version of IP datagram that is considered. For IPv4 it is set to 4. 2.4.2.12 Internet Header Length (IHL) The Internet Header Length is the length of the header. 2.4.2.3 Type of Service Theoretically, this field (1 octet long) should indicate something special about the protocol. However, it has never really been used. 2.4.2.4 Total Length Total is the le ngth of data in the fragment plus the header. 2.4.2.5 Identification This field is useful for fragmentation only. Its purpose is to enable the destination node to perform reassembly. This implies that the destination node must know which fragments belong to each other, i.e. the source, destination, and protocol fields should match. 2.4.2.6 Offset Offset indicates the point at which this fragment belongs in the reassembly packet. The field is related to fragmentation mechanism and has similar vulnerabilities as the identification field. 2.4.2.7 Time to Live TTL measures the time duration of the datagram presence in a network. This guarantees that no datagram exists forever in the network. 2.4.2.8 Protocol This field identifies the transport protocols, for example UDP or TCP. Since the field contains an arbitrary value that indicates some protocol, encapsulation of one datagram into another (IP tunneling) is possible. 2.4.2.9 Header Checksum The checksum is used to detect transmission errors. However, this field was removed in IPv6. 2.4.2.10 Source Address. This field specifies the source address. 2.4.2.11 Destination Address The destination address (4 octets long) is specified in this field. No attacks related to this field are known. 2.4.2.12 Options The field (variable size) was designed to improve the IP communication. There are several options defined for this field. Among them are: security, source routing, and route recording. 2.4.2.13 Padding The field (variable size) is used to fill the IP header with zeros if the header length is less than 32 bits. 2.5 Internet Protocol Version 6 IPv6 is a new version that is specified in RFC2460 [5] to overcome the weakness of the current protocol in certain aspect. It uses a 128 bit long address field which is 4 times longer than Ipv4 addresses. This size of address space removes one of the worst issues with IPv4 and IPv6 doesnt have classes of addresses. In general, IPv4 and IPv6 have a similar in their basic framework and also many differences. At a first view, there are obviously differences in the addresses between IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6 addresses range from 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000 to ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff. In addition to this preferred format, IPv6 addresses may be specified in two other shortened formats: Omit leading zeros Specify IPv6 addresses by omitting leading zeros. For example, IPv6 address 1050:0000:0000:0000:0005:0600:300c:326b may be written as 1050:0:0:0:5:600:300c:326b. Double colon Specify IPv6 addresses by using double colons (::) in place of a series of zeros. For example, IPv6 address ff06:0:0:0:0:0:0:c3 may be written as ff06::c3. Double colons may be used only once in an IP address. The IPv6 addresses are similar to IPv4 except that they are 16 octets long. A critical fact to be observed is that the present 32-bit IP addresses may be accommodated in IPv6 as a special case of IPv6 addressing. The standard representation of IPv6 addresses is a hexadecimal value of 16-bit each separated by a colon. Not only does IPv6 have different address representation, but it also discards the previous concept of network classes. The 6-byte addresses are very popular in the 802 LANs. The next generation of LANs will use 8-byte address space specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) [9]. Thus, the IPv6 addresses should be 8 bytes long. 2.5.1 IPv6Header Some of  IPv4 header fields excluded in IPv6, and some of  them has been made optional. As a result of this the packet processing time and packet header size is reduced. The header consists of two parts, which are: the basic IPng header and IPng extension headers. 2.5.2.1 Version Th is field (4-bit long), same as in IPv4 case, is used to determine the version of IP datagram and is set to 6 in the present case. This field is the same in both versions. The reasoning for this is that these two protocols should coexist during the transition period. 2.5.2.2 Flow Label This field is 20 bits long and, as yet, there is no specific functionality assigned to it. 2.5.2.3 Payload Length Only IPv6 has this field. Since the header length is constant in IPv6, just one field is needed. This field replaces IHL and Total Length fields in IPv4. It carries information about the length of data (the headers are not included). 2.5.2.4 Next Header Next Header field replaces the Protocol field in the IPv4 header. 2.5.2.5 Hops limit This field is a hop count that decrements. This field redefines the Time to Life field present in IPv4. 2.5.2.6 Source Address The source address is indicated by this field (16 octets long). No attacks related to this field have been experienced. 2.5.2.7 Destination Address This field (16 octets long) specifies the destination address. No attacks related to this field are known. IPv6 brings major changes to the IP header. IPv6s header is far more flexible and contains fewer fields, with the number of fields dropping from 13 to 8. Fewer header fields result in a cleaner header format and Quality of Service (QoS) that was not present in IPv4. IP option fields in headers have been replaced by a set of optional extensions. The efficiency of IPv6s header can be seen by comparing the address to header size. Even though the IPv6 address is four times as large as the IPv4 address, the header is only twice as large. Priority traffic, such as real time audio or video, can be distinguished from lower priority traffic through a priority field [8]. Based on the [27] experiment, it clearly show the brake-down of the various headers in both IPv4 and IPv6, it is evident that the overhead incurred is minimal be tween IPv4 and IPv6. In theory, the performance overhead between these two protocols is so minimal that the benefits of IPv6 should quickly overshadow the negatives. Table 1: Packet breakdown and overhead incurred by header information 2.6 Streaming Overview In recent years, there has been major increasing in multimedia streaming application such as audio and video broadcast over internet. The increasing number of internet subscribers with broadband access from both work and home enables multimedia applications with high quality can be delivered to the user. However, since the best effort internet is unreliable with a high packet lost and inconsistency in packet arrival, it does not provide any QoS control. This is a crucial part when dealing with real-time multimedia traffic. The multimedia streaming is a real-time application includes audio and video which is stored in stream server and streamed its content to client upon request. The example includes continuous media server, digital library, and shopping and entertainment services. Prior to streaming, video was usually downloaded. Since, it took a long time to download video files, streaming was invented with the intention of avoiding download delays and enhancing user experience . In streaming, video content is played as it arrives over the network, in the sense that there is no wait period for a complete download. Real-time streaming has a timing constraint such that the data are played continuously. If the packet data are not arrive in time, the playback is paused and will cause the in smoothness in multimedia presentation and its definitely annoying to the user. Because of this factor, multimedia streaming require isochronous processing and QoS [10] from end to end view. The lack of QoS has not prevented the rapid growth of real-time streaming application and this growth is expected to continue and multimedia traffic will form a higher portion of of the internet load. Thus, the overall behavior of these applications will have a significant impact on the other internet traffic. 2.7 Downloading Versus Streaming Application Basically downloading applications such as FTP involve downloading a file before it is viewed by a user. The examples of multimedia downloading applications are downloading an MP3 song to an IPod or any portable device, downloading a video file to a computer via P2P application such as BitTorrent. Downloading is usually a simple and easiest way to deliver media to a user. However, downloading has two potentially important disadvantages for multimedia applications. First, a large buffer is required whenever a large media file such as MPEG-4 movie is downloaded. Second, the amount of time required for the download can be relatively large, (depends on the network traffic), thereby requiring the user to wait minutes or even hours before being able to view the content. Thus, while downloading is simple and robust, it provides only limited flexibility both to users and to application designers. In contrast, in the streaming mode actually is by split the media bit stream into separate packet which can be transmitted independently. This enables the receiver to decode and play back the parts of the bit stream that are already received. The transmitter continues to send multimedia data packet while the receiver decodes and simultaneously plays back other, already received parts of the bit stream. This enables low delay between the current data is sent by the transmitter to the moment it is viewed by the user. Low delay is of paramount importance for interactive applications such as video conferencing, but it is also important both for video on demand, where the user may desire to change channels or programs quickly, and for live broadcast, but the delay must be finite. Another advantage of streaming is its relatively low storage requirements and increased flexibility for the user, compared to downloading. However, streaming applications, unlike downloading applications, have deadlines and other timing requirements to ensure continuous real-time media play out. This leads to new challenges for designing communication systems to best support multimedia streaming applications. [12] 2.8 Standard/Protocols for Streaming A good streaming protocol is required to achieve a quality of continuous playback in multimedia streaming over the internet with the short delay when a user downloading a multimedia content over the internet. The streaming protocol provides a service such as transport, and QoS control mechanism including quality adaptation, congestion control and error control. The streaming protocol is built on the top of network level protocol and the transport level protocol. The multimedia streaming protocol is based on IP network and â€Å"User Datagram Protocol† (UDP) is mainly used, despite of some streaming application using TCP. Like TCP, UDP is a transport layer protocol, but UDP is a connectionless transport protocol. UDP does not guarantee a reliable transmission and in order arrival packet. Under UDP also, there is no guarantee that is packet will arrive to its destination [16]. The UDP packet may get lost in the network when there is a lot of network traffic. Therefore, UDP is not suitable for data packet transfer where a guarantee delivery is important.UDP is never used to send important data such as webpage, database information, etc; UDP is commonly used for streaming audio and video. Streaming media such as Windows Media audio files (.WMA), Real Player (.RM), and others format use UDP because it offers speed. The reason UDP is faster than TCP is because there is no form of flow control or error correction. The data sent over the Internet is affected by collisions, and errors will be present. Remember that UDP is only concerned with speed. This is the main reason why streaming media is not high quality. However, UDP is the ideal transport layer protocol for streaming application which the priority is to transfer the packet from the sender to its destination and does not contribute any delay which is the result of the transmission of lost packets. Since UDP does not guarantee in packet delivery, the client needs to rely Real time Transport Protoco l (RTP) [10]. The RTP provides the low-level transport functions suitable for applications transmitting real-time data, such as video or audio, over multicast or unicast services The RTP standard consists of two elementary services, transmitted over two different channels. One of them is the real-time transport protocol which carries the data and the other works as control and monitor channel named RTP control protocol (RTCP) [13]. RTP packets are encapsulated within UDP datagrams. This step incorporates a high throughput and efficient bandwidth usage. The RTP data packets contain a 12 byte header followed by the payload, which can be a video frame, set of audio samples etc. The header includes a payload type indicating the kind of data contained in the packet (e.g. JPEG video, MP3 audio, etc), a timestamp (32 bits), and a sequence number to allow ordering and loss detection of RTP packets [11]. According to the standard [14], the transport of RTP streams can use both UDP and TCP tr ansport protocols, with a strong preference for the datagram oriented support offered by UDP. The primary function of RTCP is to provide feedback on the quality of the data distribution. The feedback may be directly useful for control of adaptive encodings along with fault diagnostics in the transmission. In summary, RTP is a data transfer protocol while RTCP is control protocol. The Real-time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) [25] is a client-server signaling system based on messaging in ASCII format. It establishes procedures and controls, either one or more time-synchronized streams continuous media such as audio and video. The protocol is intentionally similar in syntax and operation to HTTP and therefore hires the option of using proxies, tunnels and caches. RTSP and works well both for large audiences, and single-viewer media-on-demand. RTSP provides control functionality such as pause, fast forward, reverse and absolute positioning and works much like a VCR remote control. The nec essary additional information in the negotiation is conducted in the Session Description Protocol (SDP), sent as an attachment of RTSP appropriate response [13]. The Requirement for Multimedia Application Various multimedia applications have different requirements for QoS describes in the following QoS parameters such as throughput, delay, delay variation (jitter) and packet loss. In most cases, the application of QoS requirements can be determine by the user which are the factors that affect the quality of applications [17]. For example, from experimenting concluded that acceptable quality, one-way delay requirements for interactive voice should be less than 250 ms. This delay includes the value of the delays imposed on all components of the communication channels, as a source of delay, transmission delays, delays in the network and the determination of the delay. There are some factors which affect QoS application requirements such as interactive and noninteractive applications, User/Application characteristics (delay tolerance and intolerance, adaptive and nonadaptive characteristics) and application criticality (Mission-critical and non-mission-critical applications) [15]. The t hree types for this application requirement will be discuss in next section. 2.10.1 Interactive and Noninteractive Applications An interactive application involves some form of between two parties such as people-to-people, people-to-machine or machine-to-machine. An example of interactive applications is: People-to-people application such as IP telephony, interactive voice/video, videoconferencing People-to-machine application such as Video-on-demand (VOD), streaming audio/video Machine-to-machine application: Automatic machine control The time elapsed between interactions is essential to the success of an interactive application. The degree of interactivity determines the level of severity or delay the requirement. For example, interactive voice applications, which involve human interaction (conversation) in real time, are stringent requirements of delay (in order of milliseconds). Streaming (play), video applications involve less interaction and do not require real-time response. Applications streaming, therefore, are more relaxed requirements of delay (in order of seconds). Often applications tolerance delay is determined by users tolerance delay (ie, higher delay tolerance leads to more relaxed delay requirements). Jitter delay is also related to QoS support for interactive tasks. The delay jitter can be corrected by de-jittering techniques buffer. However, the buffer introduces delay in the original signal, which also affects the interactivity of the task. In general, an application with strict requirements delay also has a strict delay jitter requirements [15]. 2.10.2 Tolerance and Intolerance Tolerance and intolerance also one of the key that affect in QoS parameter values require by the user. Latency tolerance and intolerance determines the strictness of the delay requirement. As we already mentioned, streaming multimedia applications are more latency tolerant than interactive multimedia applications. The level of latency tolerance extremely depends based on users satisfaction, expectation, and the urgency of the application such as mission critical. Distortion tolerance to the commitment of the application quality depends on users satisfaction, users expectation, and the application media types. For example, users are more tolerant to video distortion than to audio distortion. In this case, during congestion, the network has to maintain the quality of the audio output over the quality of the video output [15]. 2.10.3 Adaptive and Nonadaptive Characteristics Adaptive and nonadaptive aspects mostly describe the mechanisms invoked by the applications to adapt to QoS degradation and the common adaptive techniques are rate adaptation and delay adaptation. Rate adaptive application can adjust the data rate injected into the network. During network congestion, the applications reduce the data rate by dropping some packets, increasing the codec data compression, or changing the multimedia properties. This technique may cause degradation of the perceived quality but will keep it within acceptable levels. Delay-tolerant adaptive applications are tolerate to a certain level of delay jitter by deploying the de-jittered buffer or adaptive playback technique. Adaptation is trigged by some form of implicit or explicit feedback from the network or end user [15]. 2.10.4 Application Criticality Mission-critical aspects reflect the importance of application usage, which determines the strictness of the QoS requirements and Failing the mission may result in dis astrous consequences. For example: Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs): The Traffic controller is responsible to guide the pilot for direction, takeoff and landing process. Life and death of the pilot and passenger may depend on the promptness and accuracy of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. E Banking system: The failure of this system may lead to the losses to the bank and user is unable to make an online transaction (view account summary, account history, transaction status, manage cheques and transfer funds online) and to make a online payment ( loans, bills, and credit card) and other transaction. 2.10.6 Examples of Application Requirements Video applications can be classified into two groups: interactive video (i.e., video conferencing, long-distance learning, remote surgery) and streaming video (i.e., RealVideo, Microsoft ASF, QuickTime, Video on Demand, HDTV). As shown in table 2, video applications bandwidth requirements are relatively high depending on the video codec. Video codec Bandwidth Requirement Uncompressed HDTV 1.5 Gbps HDTV 360 Mbps Standard definition TV (SDTV) 270Mbps Compressed MPEG2 25-60 Mbps Broadcast quality HDTV 19.4 Mbps MPEG 2 SDTV 6 Mbps MPEG 1 1.5 Mbps MPEG 4 5 kbps 4 Mbps H.323 (h.263) 28 kbps 1 Mbps Table 2 : Video Codec Bandwidth Requirement [15] 2.11 Packet Delay Delay has a direct impact on users satisfaction. Real-time media applications require the delivery of information from the source to the destination within a certain period of time. Long delays may cause incidents such as data missing the playback point, which can degrade the quality of service of the application. Moreover, it can cause user frustration during interactive tasks. For example, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) considers network delay for voice applications in Recommendation G.114 and defines three bands of one-way delay as shown in table 2. Range in Millisecond (ms) Description 0 150 Acceptable for most user application. 150 400 Acceptable provided that administrators are aware of the transmission time and the impact it has on the transmission quality of user applications. 400 Unacceptable for general. However in certain cases this limit exceeds. Table 3: Standard for delay limit for voice In the data transmission process, each packet is moving from its source to its destination. The process of data transmission usually starts with a packet from a host (source), passes through a several series of routers, and reaches at another host (destination). The packet usually may expose from several different types of delay at each node along the path while it is traveling form one node (host or router) to another node (host or router). The most important of these delays are the nodal processing delay, queuing delay, transmission delay, and propagation delay; together these delays accumulate to give the total nodal delay [18]. 2.11.1 Types Of delay As a part of end -to-end route between source and destination, packet is sent from upstream node through router A to router B. When the packet arrives at router A , router A examines the packets header in order to place it in appropriate link. Then router A directs it to that pa rticular link. Processing Delay: This delay requires time to consider the package of header and to determine the direction of the packet is part of the processing delay. Processing delays may include other factors such as the time needed to check for errors in the bit level package that occurred in the transmission of the packet of bits from upstream unit to router A. delays in processing high-speed routers are usually in the order of microseconds or less. Then nodal processing, router directs the packet that precedes a link to router B. Queuing Delay (buffering): On the queue, a packet experience queue delay, as it waits to be transferred to the link. The queue delay of a package, will depend on the number of previously-arriving packets are pending and awaiting transfer to the link. The delay of a certain packets can vary greatly from the packet to the packet. If the queue is empty, and no other packets are being transferred, then the packet, the queue delay is zero. On the o ther hand, if the traffic is heavy and many other packages are also ready to be transferred row will be a long delay. In queue delays may be on the order of microseconds to milliseconds in practice. Transmission Delay: Assuming that packets are transmitted in first-come-first served (FIFO) manner, as is common in packet-switched networks, our packet can be transmitted only after all before the packets are sent. Denote the length of the packet by L bits, and denote the transmission rate of the link from router A to router B by R bits/sec. The rate R is determined by the transmission rate of the link to router B. For example, for a 10 Mbps Ethernet link, the rate is R = 10 Mbps; for a 100 Mbps Ethernet link, the rate is R = 100 Mbps. The transmission delay (also called the store-and-forward delay, is L/R. This is the amount of time to push (that is, transfer) all the packets of bits into the link. Transmission delay, typically on the order of microseconds to milliseconds in practic e. Propagation Delay: Once a bit is pushed into the connection, it needs to spread the router B. The time required to propagate from the beginning of connection to the router B is the propagation delay. A bit propagates the speed of propagation of the link. The propagation speed depends on the physical link (ie, fiber optic, twisted pair of copper wires, and so on) and is in the range of 2 †¢ 108 meters/sec to 3 †¢ 108 meters/sec which is equal to, or slightly less, the speed of light. The propagation delay is the distance between two routers divided by the propagation speed. That is, the propagation delay is d/s, where d is the distance between router A and router B and s is the propagation speed of the link. Once the last bit of the packet propagates to node B, it and all the preceding bits of the packet are stored in router B. The whole process then continues with router B now performing the forwarding. In wide-area networks, propagation delays are on the order of milliseconds. If we let dproc, dqueue, dtrans, and dprop denote the processing, queuing, transmission, and propagation delays, then the total nodal delay is given by dnodal = dproc+ dqueue + dtrans + dprop. The contribution of these delay components can vary significantly. 2.11.2 End to end delay Multimedia streaming require bound to bound delay so that multimedia data packet can arrive at the client in time to be decode and played. The definition of end to end delay for a streaming system. Ti is the transmission time of packet i from the server. PLi is the play out time of packet i in the player. Ai is the arrival time of packet i. If packet i arrive in time, it is used for the playback. However if packet i does not arrive in time, it cannot used for the playback and will cause a multimedia dropout problem. The outcome of the multimedia dropout is a deprivation of the multimedia playback because the streaming buffer does not have enough playtimes in which the conten t can be played. Furthermore, if the multimedia packet arrives too slowly and beyond a delay bound, then it will not be used in real time playback. As a result, such a packet are rendered useless even though they have successfully arrived at the client and such multimedia data packets are waste of network resources, and create a congested network traffic [10]. 2.11.3 Delay Jitter Multimedia streaming require a bound end to end delay in order to provide a continuous and smooth multimedia playback to users. However, the end to end delay may varies with the network condition. Therefore it is unpredictable and difficult to control. If the end to end delay is not bounded, it will causes a delay jitter problem. Figure 9 above shows the packet arrival time in the client buffer. PLi is the layout time of packet i while Ai is the arrival time of packet i to the client buffer. EAi is the expected arrival time of packet i. This is related to the end to end delay of a streaming packet tra nsferred from the server to the client. The delay can be defined as the difference between the arrival time Ai and expected arrival time EAi, i.e. Ji = |Ai EAi| The delay jitter problem complicated the synchronization problem between packets from a single media stream, or between packet from a different media stream. When there is too much delay jitter when streamed over the network renders the stream is useless when received by the client and this leads to degradation in the QoS. This is because it is difficult to re-adjust the timing relationship between multimedia packets from the same/several media stream so as to ensure a synchronized playback of information. The conflicting goals in minimizing delay and removing delay jitter have engendered various scheme capable of adapting a delay jitter buffer size that match the time varying requirement of the network delay jitter removal [10]. There are several techniques to deal with with delay jitter at the receiver end [12]. As shown in Figure 10, the packets travel through the network and experience different end-to-end delays, reaching the destination with timing distortions (incomplete or delayed signal) relative to the original traffic. For example, in technique A, the receiver playbacks the signal as soon as the packets arrive. The playback point is changed from the original timing reference. This introduces distortion in the playback signal. In technique B, the receiver playbacks the signal based on the original timing reference. The late packets that miss the playback point will be ignored. This also introduces distortion. In technique C a de-jittered buffer is used. All packets will be stored in the buffer and held for some time (offset delay) before they are retrieved by the receiver with the original timing reference. The reliability of the signal will be maintained as long as there are packets available in the buffer. Large delay jitter requires large buffer space to hold the packets and smoo th out the jitter. A large buffer may lead to large delays, which will be eventually constrained by the application delay requirement. In summary, there is a tradeoff between the following three factors: de-jittered buffer space, delay requirement, and fidelity of the playback signal. The other alternative is by using gateway and data method for minimizing the increase of delay by dejitterizing [20]. A gateway for interconnecting two network, may comprised: a receiver for receiving from a first network a plurality of data units in at least one form; a controller for temporary storing the data units received by the receiver and for outputting the data units on the basis of the dejitterizing capability of destination terminal served by a second network, thereby reducing jitter among delays of the data units; and transmitter for sending data units to the output by the controller to the destination terminal through the second network. 2.12 Quality Of service (QoS) And Technical Issues in Multimedia Networks QoS is used to describe overall experience an application or a user will receive over network and usually referring to network operator or Internet service provider (ISP) commitment in providing and maintaining acceptable value of parameter or characteristic of user application requirement and user expectation [16]. Providing QoS guarantee sometimes can be difficult in networks that offer best effort service such as internet. IP does not guarantee about when data will arrive, or how much data it can deliver. â€Å"According the recommendation of the Telecommunication standardization sector of International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T), Quality of Service is defined as â€Å"the collective effect of service performance which determines the degree of satisfaction of a user of that serviceâ€Å"[21]. QoS has become an issue when designing multimedia streaming system. QoS parameters have to be presented in all components in such systems, from an application to a communication lev el in order to insure a certain level of QoS to a user. An element of a generalized QoS framework have been identified such as OoS principles, QoS specification which is capturing applications QoS requirements, and QoS mechanisms which provide desired end-to-end QoS. As we already mentioned, a different system such as application and network is formulated in different parameter. Thus it is a crucial to interpret user/application QoS into network. Like in video streaming, it has different bit rates and a relation between bit rate of a stream and required bandwidth to carry the stream is obvious e.g. the higher bit rate, the higher bandwidth is needed. These applications have tight resource requirements and can benefit from non-interference to provide forms of progress guarantees. Video stream places high demands for QoS, performance, and reliability on storage servers and communication networks. The necessary traffic management components to support QoS are [22]: Admission control: The admission control component takes into account resource reservation requests and the available capacity to determine whether to accept a new request with its QoS requirements. Scheduling: The scheduling component provides QoS by allocating resources depending on the service requirements. This requires mapping the user-defined QoS requirement to resource allocations for providing the service. Resource management: QoS can be provided using over-provisioning of a network, which increases the cost incurred by the provider. Efficient resource management is a cost-effective solution for the provider and it ensures that applications will get the specified QoS during the course of its execution. Congestion control: Congestion control is required to avoid anything bad from happening inside a network domain. Some applications may not follow the standard protocol description and try to steal resources, thereby deteriorating the QoS of other applications. Mechanisms are needed to recover from congestion and control flows accordingly. Policing/Shaping: Users might send traffic at a rate higher than the agreement. Policing is necessary to monitor these situations, and shaping makes the traffic smooth and reduces its variations over time IP version 6 also includes QoS measures which were developed for IP version 4 but the principles are most the same. QoS makes use of both the Traffic Class and Flow Label headers to categorize network traffic into different priority groups [29]. The Flow Label header is used to uniquely identify a â€Å"flow† of IP packets, such as those belonging to a specific connection. Each flow label is unique per Source and Destination address pair. This allows QoS levels to be requested on a per-flow basis, rather than per individual packet, giving the potential for the sender to request special handling for time-critical data [28]. 2.12.1 End To End QoS Service Level Service levels refer to the end-to-end QoS capabilities, which means that the ability of a network for providing specific services required by the traffic on the network end or alongside. The services vary in their level of quality of service discipline, which describes how the service can be bound by specific ban dwidth, delay, jitter and loss characteristics. There are three levels of QoS services and can be categorize as follows [15] [23]: 2.12.1.1 Quantitative (Guaranteed Services/IntServ) Quantitative (guaranteed) services also call hard QoS, ensure the provision of the quantitative application requirements. The main protocol that works with this architecture is the Reservation Protocol (RSVP) which has a complicated operation and also inserts significant network overhead [26]. This is an absolute the reservation of network resource for specific traffic. The services guaranteed to ensure the performance of network (i.e. bandwidth, delay, delay jitter), in statistical terms or deterministic. For example, networks to guarantee the minimum bandwidth provided to guarantee an application or bound to delay the delivery of packages within a certain value and suitable for applications that guarantee overall performance as mission critical and interactive applications [15]. 2.12.1.12 Qua litative (Differentiated Services/DiffServ) Qualitative (differentiated) services, also called as soft QoS, provide statistical preference not a hard and fast guarantee. DiffServ architecture is more flexible and efficient as it tries to provide Quality of Service via a different approach [26]. Some traffic is treated better delay to one class of applications than to another class of applications. An application that belongs to a higher priority class will receive service before applications that belong to a lower priority class. 2.12.1.13 Best Effort Services (Lack of QoS Service) Make the greatest efforts to provide network services, without any guarantees of performance. All traffic treated equally. Service is adequate for data traffic such as FTP, e-mail and web pages. It does not require a minimum bandwidth or time delivery. 2.13 QoS Parameter Certain applications can tolerate some degree of traffic loss while others cannot. All these requirements are expressed using QOS parameters which are usually grouped according to several criteria. The Qos parameter below may relevant in multimedia application: Throughput (bandwidth) Delay Delay variation (jitter) Packetloss 2.13.1 Throughput (Bandwidth) From the application point of view, throughput or bandwidth basically refers to the data rate (bits per second) generated by the application. Throughput is measured in the number of bits per second. Bandwidth is considered to be the network resource that needs to be properly managed and allocated to applications. The throughput required by an application depends on the application characteristics. For example, in a streaming video application, different video properties generate different throughput (see table 1). A user can select the video quality by varying the following video properties such as frame size (pixel), frame rate (number of frame per second), colour depth (possible colors represented by a pixel) and compression (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4) [15]. 2.13.2 Delay As we already discuss in section 2.11, Delay has a direct impact on users satisfaction. Real-time media applications require the delivery of information from the source to the des tination within a certain period of time. Long delays may cause incidents such as data missing the playback point, which can degrade the quality of service of the application. The delay consists of four types which is processing delay, queuing delay, transmission delay and propagation delay (refer to section 2.11.1 for explanation). 2.13.3. Delay Variation (jitter) As we already covered about this subtopic, refer to section 2.11.3 for explanation. 2.13.4 Packet Loss Packet loss has directly impact the overall quality of the application. It undermines the reliability of data or disrupts the service. At the network level, packet loss can be caused by network congestion, which results in data packets. Another cause of the loss is caused by bit errors that occur because of a communication channel noise such as in a wireless medium channel. There are several techniques identify to recover from packet loss or error such as retransmission packages, the correction of errors in t he physical layer, or codec to the application layer, which may offset or conceal the loss [15]. 2.14 Congestion-Management Congestion management use marking on each packet to determine in which queue to place packets, mechanisms queuing algorithms each interface must have a queuing mechanism to prioritize transmission of packets.â€Å"Queuing algorithms take effect when congestion is experienced. By definition, if the link is not congested, then there is no need to queue packets. In the absence of congestion, all packets are delivered directly to the interface† [23]. Congestion may occur at any point where there re-points of speed mismatches, aggregation or confluence, queuing manages congestion to provide bandwidth and delay guarantees. Congestion management is sophisticated queuing technology, there are algorithms of queuing or congestion management QoS features: FIFO (first in, first out) PQ (priority queuing) WFQ (weighted fair queuing) WRR(weight round robin) 2.14.1 FIFO (First-in-First-Out) First-in-First-Out (FIFO) is probably the simplest queuing strategy: all packets are stored in a single queue in the order of their arrival and are served sequentially, regardless which QoS requirements they have. FIFO provides best effort service [15] and there is no service differentiation is possible and, therefore, no advantage can be taken from the lower QoS demand of tolerant traffic in order to increase the link utilization [24]. 2.14.2 PQ (priority queuing) PQ ensures that important traffic gets the fastest handling at each point where it is used. It was designed to give strict priority to important traffic. In PQ, each packet is placed in one of four queues—high, medium, normal, or low—based on an assigned priority. Packets that are not classified by this priority list mechanism fall into the normal queue [23]. The queues with higher priorities are served exhaustively before queues with lower priority. In particular, the tail of the waiting time distribution can be non-exponential because a majority of high priority traffic can delay low priority traffic extensively [24]. 2.14.3 WFQ (weighted fair queuing) Weight Fair Queue schedules packets based on the weight ratio of each queue [15]. â€Å"WFQ is one of Ciscos premier queuing techniques†. It is a flow-based queuing algorithm that creates bit-wise fairness by allowing each queue to be serviced fairly in terms of byte count. For example, if queue 1 has 100-byte packets and queue 2 has 50-byte packets, the WFQ algorithm will take two packets from queue 2 for every one packet from queue 1. This makes service fair for each queue: 100 bytes each time the queue is serviced [23]. WFQ ensures that queues do not starve for bandwidth and that traffic gets predictable service. Low-volume traffic streams which comprise the majority of traffic receive increased service, transmitting the same number of bytes as high-volume streams. WFQ is d esigned to minimize configuration effort, and it automatically adapts to changing network traffic conditions. [23]. 2.13.4 WRR (weight round robin) Round Robin (RR) takes turns for servicing its queues and every queue receives the same share of bandwidth. With WRR, weights are assigned to the queues and some queues can be served more frequently by prescribing. a serving cycle. The network capacity is shared among queues 0 and 1 with a ratio of 2:1 by using the serving cycle 0-0-1. If a queue has nothing to send, the next queue in the cycle is served [24].

The Concepts of Limit and Predatory Pricing - 1927 Words

Discuss the concepts of limit and predatory pricing. Explain how imperfect knowledge of other firms’ costs or financial conditions can lead to limit or predatory pricing. Limit pricing is when an incumbent firm sets a â€Å"low price with the purpose of deterring entry†. Predatory pricing is when an incumbent sets an â€Å"‘irrationally’ low price [possibly below cost] so other firms can’t compete† forcing existing firms to exit the market. Both pricing strategies require at least two periods: the first to deter entry/force exit of a rival; the second to reap the benefits of lower competition. Although both are examples of illegal anti-competitive behaviour, only the latter is usually pursued with litigation. In order to engage in limit pricing, an†¦show more content†¦In the first period Indep sets the price. Pevin observes this, then decides whether to enter in the second period. Indep knows its own cost function, but Pevin does not know Indep’s. Furthermore, both firms know this. Although Pevin does not know whether Indep has a high or low unit cost, it does know the probability that Indep is a high-cost (inefficient) and low-cost (efficient) type. In the first period there are three possible scenarios: * Indep is efficient and sets a low monopoly price – earning  £100m * Indep is inefficient and sets a high monopoly price – earning  £60m * Indep is inefficient and sets a low monopoly price – earning  £40m In the second period, if Pevin abstains from entry, Indep sets the optimal price for its type earning  £100m (efficient) or  £60m (inefficient). Pevin earns zero profit. But, if Pevin enters, Indep earns  £50m (efficient) or  £20m (inefficient). Moreover, Pevin earns  £20m if Indep is inefficient and loses  £20m if Indep is efficient. Although it may seem irrational for an inefficient Indep to set a low first period price, it may do so to influence Pevin’s entry strategy. For, if Pevin believes that Indep’s low price is an indication of low-cost type and abstains from entry, then Indep earns  £100m overall ( £40m period 1 +  £60m period 2). This is higher than the  £80m ( £60m period 1 +  £20m period 2) it would earn if it set a high price in both periods. Similarly, ifShow MoreRelatedEconomic Analysis of an Oligopoly Market Structure1715 Words   |  7 Pagesas they encourage competitive pricing, albeit predatory pricing, it is clear that Woolworths and Coles control the supermarket industry in Australia, in the formation of a duopoly. It is evident that Woolworths and Coles engage in predatory pricing in an attempt to eliminate independent retailers from the market. 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Management - 7125 Words

BSTR/294 IBS Center for Management Research MTV Networks: The Arabian Challenge This case was written by Debapratim Purkayastha, IBS Center for Management Research. It was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. 2008, IBS Center for Management Research. All rights reserved. To order copies, call +91-8417-236667/68 or write to IBS Center for Management Research (ICMR), IFHE Campus, Donthanapally, Sankarapally Road, Hyderabad 501 504, Andhra Pradesh, India or email: info@icmrindia.org www.icmrindia.org BSTR/294 MTV Networks: The Arabian Challenge â€Å"[†¦] MTV has a penchant for†¦show more content†¦While launching MTV Arabia, William H. Roedy (Roedy), Vice Chairman for MTV Networks and President of MTVI, said, â€Å"Tonight‟s [November 16, 2007] MTV Arabia launch show celebrates one of the most important landmarks in MTV‟s 25-year history. 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Week 3 Bis/320 Weekly Reflection Outline Free Essays

University of Phoenix Material Applying Information Security and SDLC to Business Your team has been researching and discussing three bookstores throughout the course to apply the concepts presented. For this assignment, you will continue to apply those concepts in a final paper. Write a paper of no more than 3,000 words in which you discuss one of the bookstores, use the SDLC method to implement a new technology into the bookstore, and detail a disaster recovery plan for the bookstore. We will write a custom essay sample on Week 3 Bis/320 Weekly Reflection Outline or any similar topic only for you Order Now Discuss one of the three bookstores based on the research and evaluation in your Learning Team. Introduce your selected bookstore. oWho and what is the bookstore? What is their mission? oWhat products do they sell? oWho are their customers? oExplain their website. †¢Color †¢Navigation †¢Ease of using the tools; for example, using credit cards for purchases †¢Discuss your selected bookstore. oInclude terms such as hardware, software, databases, data communications, Internet technologies, collaboration tools, and security. oInclude how they use hardware and software components. oDiscuss the types of database information used by the bookstore based on what you see on their website. Identify any additional information the bookstore could have added to enhance their database. oIdentify their data communication technologies. oDiscuss how they address security issues. †¢Address the following questions in your analysis. oWhat hardware, software, networks, and data does the organization have? oWho manages it? oWho uses it? oWho owns it? oWhere is it located? oWhere is it used? oDoes the technology fulfill the business objectives? Use the SDLC method to implement a new technology into your selected bookstore. Examples include a collaboration tool or the use of cloud computing. †¢Research SDLC methodology. †¢Include the below five phases of the SDLC method: oSystem definition oRequirements analysis oComponent design oImplementation oMaintenance Detail a disaster recovery plan for your selected bookstore and include the following: †¢Types of disasters and threats †¢People involved and their roles †¢Assets to protect including information †¢Data policy definitions †¢Necessary response plans in case of a disaster Cite at least five references in your paper. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines How to cite Week 3 Bis/320 Weekly Reflection Outline, Papers

Ethical Issues in IT

Question: Discuss about theEthical Issues in IT. Answer: Introduction The Maters Home Improvement was a well known business organisation that had managed to provide hardware services at very low cost to the customers in more than 20 locations all over United Kingdom. Different kinds of hardware were installed by the company at very low cost along with there were options of online service booking or delivery for small jobs that cost less than $1000. The time between order and delivery of services were also reduced and the installation of the hardware components was also satisfactory and efficient. One the other hand, the other business organisation named Mitre 9 was another hardware servicing store which had provided services in over 23 locations all over Australia (AO'Brien et al, 2006). The company had also provided world class high quality services to people which had satisfied their customers to a large extent. The workers of the company were skillful and knowledge as a result of which the services delivery were also done timely and appropriately. T he store also did possess good lighting and music had been played within the store. A big plasma TV screen was also set up along with displays of multimedia sales and mannequins that further improved the decoration of the store. The report mainly illustrated about the merging of these two hardware companies for providing excellence to its services delivered to the customers (Applegate et al, 2007). Main Body Management processes and involvement in planning for information systems and information technology in an organisation The senior management decided to name the merged companies as Hardware-r-us. The new company would retain all the workers who previously worked in the two companies and also all the hardware equipments would be restored. As Mitre9s system was becoming old fashioned so it would be replaced with the new and improved system and it would also provide good quality and wide range of hardware servicing at very low prices. The bookings of orders could be done online as well in case of small jibs that cost less than $1000. A service charge of 15 percent would be placed though. With the merging of the two companies, the Hardware-r-us would also implement newer and advanced information systems and information technology so as to provide assistance to customer that would not only influence them to make choices regarding purchase from the company but would also set up a good brand image (Baskerville Wood-Harper, 2016). So, proper processes of management and planning were essential so as to set u p the information systems and technology in order to become successful within the business environment. The information systems would be implemented within Hardware-r-us which is an essential component for achieving success in business. It could help in administration and management within the business environment as well as serve as an effective tool for ensuring successful business operations and processes. The information system included all the organisational workers and staffs, hardware and software components, networks used as well as data sources that were used for collecting, exchanging and distributing of information to the client regarding the services provided by the company (Bhatt et al, 2005). The information system could be formal, informal, manual or computer based information systems. On the other hand, the information technology was mainly implemented so as to change the resources of data into various information and data about the services provided to the customers . The information technology systems also supported major business operations that helped Hardware-r-us to track the orders placed by customers as well as services wanted by them online. The services would be provided along with customer assistance 24*7 which provided ease to gather as well as integrate data and information. The customers would also be acknowledged with answers regarding any sort of issues that they faced. The information systems also supported decision making abilities by managers that further helped them to understand the business outcomes (Blumenthal, 2009). The IT systems helped the managers to analyse the present market conditions and then make decisions quickly and effectively. The company would also be able to gain competitive advantage in business with performing some activity that could be of value to the customers and also might be better than other companies. The management of information system would also be essential for understanding the nature of anal ysis as well as determine the availability of data and information based on its frequency and demand. The quantity of information as well as its appropriateness and reliability along with securing those would also be possible with the help of information technology system within Hardware-r-us (Boudreau Robey, 2005). Application of Information Technology Systems The information systems mainly dealt with the computer systems usage and technological implementation within Hardware-r-us for providing continuous support to people as well as provide good quality hardware services to people and also ensure that they could book or order online too with much ease and effectiveness. In case of information systems, the computer systems, both hardware and software components as well as staffs were combined as an unit so as to develop, store, modify and also distribute data and information in an effective manner. As it could be seen from the case study, that both the companies Maters Home Improvement and Mitre 9 were merged, so it was necessary to allow for advanced information systems that could improve the organizational workforce structure that could lead to enhanced support and deliver excellent services to people (Buhalis Law, 2008). The information systems would help to record and store information and also utilize technology based and non-technol ogical tools and techniques so as to enable continuous support and assistance to people and also monitor the records and orders made by them on a consistent basis. The information technology is a major aspect of the information systems and has very little differences between the two. It basically included the ways by which the designing, implementation and management of the computer based information systems so as to manage proper communication and also make the tasks of people easier for the merged companies. The information technology was applied within the organisational workforce so as to manage the networks as well as hardware and software components by managing data and information and also keep those secure in a digitized manner (Chaudhry et al, 2006). It also support telecommunication systems through which people could communicate among themselves, as a result of which the clients would be contacted easily by the workers of Hardware-r-us easily too. The technological aspects would be managed easily, thereby helping to improve the process of information technology implementation and also achieve the goals and objectives of the organisati on easily. The information technology utilization within Hardware-r-us would also help to provide cyber security as well as prevent unauthorized access to data and information as well (Davenport, 2013). The data base would be managed properly along with proper management of infrastructure and network, which would further be beneficial for proper resource planning and development of software. The information technology would include various computer programming languages that would help in developing useful software as well as carry put computer forensics so as to prevent any kinds of theft or frauds related to the computer database system. Thus it could be clearly understood that the combining of information systems and technology would help the merged companies to become high-tech connected, as a result of which the choices and decisions of customers would also be influenced. This would further promote a positive brand image among their minds and would help in ensuring increase in sales and profit in business (Dumas et al, 2005). Identify and Co Relate Emerging Technology Issues in Management and Provide a Short Balanced Analysis Report There could be a number of issues of technology during the management processes involving the planning of information technology systems. As it could be seen that the two companies had been merged so as to improve the organisational processes and also make sure that the services delivered to customers were also of good quality. The new company named Hardware-r-us managed to replace the traditional old system with new and innovative computerized system as a result of which the management of business operations and processes was much easier and effective than before. Few of the technological issues that emerged before the two companies were merged included problem to communicate with the clients and discussing with them about the problems that they faced regarding the hardware servicing (Fitzsimmons Fitzsimmons, 2013). The time taken between the placing of orders and providing services was much more as a result of which quite a lot of customers were unsatisfied and took the help of ot her hardware servicing companies. Due to the absence of new and improved information systems, the costs of servicing was somewhat greater and there was also reduced number of visits at home for measuring and quoting the problems related to hardware servicing. With time, the company decided that it was high time to manage improvements and make sure that information systems and information technology within the organisation must be planned so as to attract more customers as well as influence them to make purchases from the company rather than from any other companies in the competitive business environment (Jasperson et al, 2005). Previously few of the other emerging issues were lack of proper communication between the workers too, which hindered successful services delivery to the clients. As the two companies merged, the previous systems were all replaced by new ones though all the products, supplies and workers were all retained. The services were also subjected to change and impro ve, due to which those were available at low cost and the company also provided tips for the clients so that they could use those themselves. The orders could also be made online by the customers now with the implementation of information systems that helped in customers support as well as online services delivery. The booking of orders could be made for the jobs that cost less than $1000 with a very less amount of service charge, i.e., only 15 percent (Mell Grance, 2011). It could be clearly seen that with the proper planning of information systems and technology, it was implemented within the merged company Hardware-r us. This definitely helped to enhance the quality of services provided as a result of which the customers were quite sure about making the right choices of getting hardware servicing from the company rather than from any other company (Leidner Kayworth, 2006). The customer services were also improved, as a result of which customers could get 24 hours services and h eld desk support talk throughout the whole week. This had also spread a positive brand image among the customers, which had results in trust and loyalty among them too. With the implementation of information technology systems, the company also managed to advertise and promote their company and its wide range of products and services through television, magazines as well as internet. This attracted large number of customers as well as retained the existing customers who previously used to make purchases from the two companies earlier before merging. International business was also one the focus of the company in the upcoming years, which would give rise to newer opportunities like trade services that would further ensure growth and development of the company as well in the future (Melville, 2010). Conclusion The current topic illustrated about how the two hardware servicing companies merged together so as to provide improved hardware servicing and installation services delivery to people all over Australia and also reduce the ethical issues of information technology management systems. This had not only attracted new customers but also retained the existing customers, thereby created a positive brand image too (Mun et al, 2006). The senior management made a number of decisions, as a result of which the existing staffs, products and services provided by the company remained intact and the services were also available online within a very reasonable cost too. The old system of Mitre 9 was replaced with the new and improved systems of Mater Home improvement. Though the information systems and information technology were implemented for the benefit of the company, still I personally would prefer some other improvements as well within the new merged company Hardware-r-us (O'Brien Marakas, 20 05). Recommendations It is recommended that the information technology system must be used for sharing and exchanging information with other companies and also establishes a global business presence, which would incur more profit in business and also ensure business growth and expansion as a whole (Peffers et al, 2007). The advertising and promotional activities must be done with the help of information systems which could attract as well as retain more potential and existing customers towards the company. The 24*7 customer services support would be recommended as well for providing assistance to the customers regarding any problems that they might face. A documentation of communication plan would be recommended as well for including communication about projects and also discuss about the cost of expenditures (Turban et al, 2008). The new technologies are always beneficial, though there might be chances of risks and issues when the data and information are not kept secured. The database must be managed properly so as to keep and store the data and information safe, thereby preventing any sort of unauthorized access as well (Venkatesh et al, 2012). The encryption must be embedded for different types of products that could ensure both privacy and security. It is also recommended to protect the copyright as well as maintain integrity of data. References AO'Brien, J., Marakas, G. M., Hills, T. M. G., Lalit, M. R. (2006). Management information systems. Applegate, L. M., Austin, R. D., McFarlan, F. W. (2007).Corporate information strategy and management: text and cases. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Baskerville, R. L., Wood-Harper, A. T. (2016). A critical perspective on action research as a method for information systems research. InEnacting Research Methods in Information Systems: Volume 2(pp. 169-190). Springer International Publishing. Bhatt, G. D., Grover, V., GROVER, V. (2005). Types of information technology capabilities and their role in competitive advantage: An empirical study.Journal of management information systems,22(2), 253-277. Blumenthal, D. (2009). Stimulating the adoption of health information technology.New England journal of medicine,360(15), 1477-1479. Boudreau, M. C., Robey, D. (2005). Enacting integrated information technology: A human agency perspective.Organization science,16(1), 3-18. Buhalis, D., Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the InternetThe state of eTourism research.Tourism management,29(4), 609-623. Chaudhry, B., Wang, J., Wu, S., Maglione, M., Mojica, W., Roth, E., ... Shekelle, P. G. (2006). Systematic review: impact of health information technology on quality, efficiency, and costs of medical care.Annals of internal medicine,144(10), 742-752. Davenport, T. H. (2013).Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press. Dumas, M., Van der Aalst, W. M., Ter Hofstede, A. H. (2005).Process-aware information systems: bridging people and software through process technology. John Wiley Sons. Fitzsimmons, J., Fitzsimmons, M. (2013).Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Jasperson, J. S., Carter, P. E., Zmud, R. W. (2005). A comprehensive conceptualization of post-adoptive behaviors associated with information technology enabled work systems.Mis Quarterly,29(3), 525-557. Leidner, D. E., Kayworth, T. (2006). Review: a review of culture in information systems research: toward a theory of information technology culture conflict.MIS quarterly,30(2), 357-399. Mell, P., Grance, T. (2011). The NIST definition of cloud computing. Melville, N. P. (2010). Information systems innovation for environmental sustainability.Mis Quarterly,34(1), 1-21. Mun, Y. Y., Jackson, J. D., Park, J. S., Probst, J. C. (2006). Understanding information technology acceptance by individual professionals: Toward an integrative view.Information Management,43(3), 350-363. O'Brien, J. A., Marakas, G. (2005).Introduction to information systems. McGraw-Hill, Inc.. Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M. A., Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research.Journal of management information systems,24(3), 45-77. Turban, E., Leidner, D., McLean, E., Wetherbe, J. (2008).Information Technology for management, (With CD). John Wiley Sons. Venkatesh, V., Thong, J. Y., Xu, X. (2012). Consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology.MIS quarterly,36(1), 157-178.

The Union The Business Behind Getting High

Introduction Review of the film The Union: the Business behind Getting High film by Brett Harvey is one of the most excellent documentaries of modern times covering the issue of marijuana. It is indeed a movie that everyone in the united stated should be interested to watch. The Union: The Business behind Getting high is a Canadian documentary that largely focuses on the Canadian flaws in their policy on drugs.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Union: The Business Behind Getting High — 2007 (The Drug War/Marijuana Legalization) specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Nevertheless, the highlighted defects of drug policy are not only applicable to Canada but also to the drug policy of the United States that is very flawed. It is worth noting that the drug policies applicable in Mexico, Canada, and also in the United States are essentially intertwined in the sense that it would be practically be impossible to disc uss one of the aforementioned country’s policy while excluding the rest. This documentary makes a good attempt to be all inclusive (Pua 1). The Canadian documentary focuses generally on decriminalization verses legalization, an issue that has been a center of heated debate both in the United States and Canada. According to the movie, there are a number of reasons that are advanced in support of legalization of marijuana. The most important reason for legalizing marijuana is that the government would be able to collect a very huge sum of money considering the proceeds that accrue from organized crimes such as drug cartels. Some other reasons advanced by the documentary include the ability of the government to control the sale of such drugs to minors and also collection of tax revenue. The reasons in support of legalizing marijuana as advanced by Harvey in the documentary are indeed convincing. The documentary is nonetheless incomparable to other movies because of the contribut ion made in it by experts in this aspect. Uncommon in other movies regarding the issue of marijuana, the Union documentary contains interviews conducted amongst high ranking government officials and politicians from Canada such as Seattle’s former chief of police, mayors, as well as senator. The documentary also includes experts such as biologists, WA, chemists, and Harvard medical doctors. This is a clear indication that the documentary by Harvey presents testimony from genuine experts, for purposes of giving an explanation and supporting why it would be more appropriate than not to legalize marijuana (YouTube). Discussion The documentary opens the curtains with a famous football player O.J. Simpson who is indicted and found not guilty of the offence of murdering his wife together with a waiter allegedly because of a pair of glasses. According to the medical evidence, the DNA sample got from the scene of crime matched that of O.J. Simpson; nevertheless, the glove did not fit .Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This turn of evidence changed the whole turn of events. The documentary further develop a number of issues, it works to blow up some myths and finally concluded that marijuana would be much worthwhile legalized notwithstanding the minor impacts it would have. The documentary is assembled in a synergistic manner at about 105 minute. It includes fascination stories, taking head interviews and archival footage which are arranged in clips that are entertaining and fast. The documentary clips cover the incognito growers, the obvious suspects, Tommy Chong and dealers as well as clips from other sources such as Joe Rogan and former police chiefs. All this individuals are very much willing to give their opinion about marijuana which views indicate that criminalizing cannabis is an irrational status. Their narrations, status, and interviews are intertwined wi th trenchant or highly entertaining clips highlight carefully every aspect that is being affirmed. There are clips from the reefer madness to those from ancient footage involving farmers gathering hemp, with stops for clips which are related to the previous footage circumstantially. The events that unfold in the documentary are covered so well by the director in that for about thirty five minutes the move has not yet began to scrutinize the business of getting high. In the first 35 minutes, the movie outlines the foundation of the director’s claims to the effect that marijuana is an affordable and an extremely versatile commodity regrettably criminalized by poor legal framework that are geared towards eradication the icky sticky (Pua 1). The documentary further maintain that most of the claims of marijuana being harmful are founded on unauthentic findings such as marijuana kills the cells of the brain is just but a misplaced myth. The movie depict that illegalizing marijuana would instead increase the preference of use. According to the movie during the prohibition of alcohol consumption, the rates of boozing increase tremendously not to mention the increase in the organized crime aimed at getting alcohol for the people. The documentary further makes a comparison between the number of individuals killed by consumption of either tobacco or alcohol per annum and the statistics of deaths cause by marijuana consumption. It is established that cigarettes and alcohol causes hundreds of thousands of people while there has not been direct deaths related to consumption of marijuana.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Union: The Business Behind Getting High — 2007 (The Drug War/Marijuana Legalization) specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The documentary is founded on the reality that the illegal status of marijuana in both Canada and the United States could be reversed if the policy maker s could show an open mind to facts that are scientifically proven and also some tolerance. The illegal status of marijuana allows the sellers and growers to charge more. If the rules are changed and marijuana become legal, the cartels will obviously lose a lot of money which will in turn acts as another edition of prohibition (YouTube). The movie is professionally directed in that it does not veer the audience into accepting the theory. Harvey allows the interviews and research do the talking the research and interview shows that in 104 individuals who uses marijuana, only one individual uses cocaine an almost none of them uses heroine. From the study conducted by UCLA shows that marijuana does not cause cancer. By using research and interviews is a brilliant idea since the audiences are offered an opportunity to get different facts as well as common sense. There is only one issue about the movie that may be criticized which is that fact that the documentary does not cover the other side of the coin particularly, it does not address the views of law enforcement agencies, politicians and individuals who do not approve of legalizing marijuana. The Union: The Business behind Getting High documentary is about the cannabis industry in British Colombia, the movie also depicts the stigma associated with marijuana in the western society particularly in America. In documentary uses the term union in the title perhaps because the term is frequently used to refer to the individuals as well as groups which in real life situation take part in illegal marijuana industry in British Colombia. The documentary is a fantastic eye opener and it should be kept on the supplemental film list. This is because there are very few people who may be aware of the fact that marijuana is not as bad as it seems to be portrayed; the documentary seek to disapprove the negative attitude held by majority of people in the western society about marijuana. The documentary through expert opinion pro ves that nobody has ever died from consumption of marijuana which is ironically illegal , while the drugs that are legalized such as tobacco and alcohol have caused hundreds of thousands deaths. Analysis and conclusion Basically the message that can be construed from the documentary is that cannabis is not actually harmful in any way like the pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, coffee, or even tobacco, and unlike these legalized and harmful drugs, cannabis is harmless with both commercial and medical benefits. Ironically, the two attributes of marijuana are surprisingly the reason behind its prohibition which is quite irrational.Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This goes to confirm that most companies manufacturing drugs may not approve of a plant which grow naturally with so many benefits since such a plant would naturally put such companies out of business of manufacturing other drugs (Pua 1). The documentary shows that due to the understanding of the benefits associated with marijuana, the plant was legal and actually, some government used to encourage its growth before the twentieth century. The prohibition of marijuana particularly in the United States is also related to the fact that the government used the plant as a justification of effecting arrests for political, profiteering and war. The documentary makes an attempt to explain the reason as to why prohibition of marijuana never works. In an effort to explain the situation, the documentary use statistics and research about past prohibition of alcohol which brought about more consumption of alcohol and more organized crimes to bring it to the market. It therefore goes without sayi ng that there is no substantial and rational reason that has been advanced to suggest why cannabis is prohibited and treated with a lot of stigma in the western society. Surprisingly the plant is treated with more seriousness then even hard drugs for instance heroin and cocaine or even the other legalized drugs which are harmful to human health. The documentary is indeed one of a kind as the information presented therein is confirmed and approved by real scholars, doctors, former politicians, former law enforcement agencies, and biochemists, not to mention the various scientific studies. From all the interviews and study conducted are in agreement with the fact that cannabis does not pose any kind of harm except the stigma created by its prohibition. In the documentary, Harvey tries to focus on the Canadian flaws in their policy on drugs. Nonetheless, the highlighted shortcomings of drug policy are not only observable in the Canadian legal system, but also to the drug policy of the United States that is very flawed. The documentary espouses a number of reasons that are advanced even by experts in support of legalization of marijuana. The main argument in support of legalizing cannabis being that the government would be able to collect a very huge sum of money which flow in industry. Some other arguments advanced by the documentary include the fact that legalizing marijuana would enable the government to control the sale of such drugs to minors and also collection of tax revenue. Works Cited Pua, Adrian. A Review of The Union: The Business Behind Getting High. 2007. Web. http://headlessreviews.blogspot.com/2007/10/union-business-behind-getting-high.html YouTube. The Union: The Business Behind Getting High — 2007 (The Drug War/Marijuana Legalization) Directed by Lucy Walker. 2007. Web. This essay on The Union: The Business Behind Getting High — 2007 (The Drug War/Marijuana Legalization) was written and submitted by user Alanna Bates to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.