Life without computers

Life without computers Nowadays, we cannot imagine our life without computers and the fact is that they have become so important that nothing can replace them. They seem to be everywhere today. Since 1948 when the first real computer has been invented our life has changed so much that we can call it real digital revolution. First computers differed from todays ones. They were so huge that they occupied whole rooms or buildings being relatively slow. They were not faster than modern simple watches or calculators. Nowadays they are also used by scientist and they may also be as huge as the old ones but they are millions times faster. They can perform many complex operations simultaneously and scientist practically cant do without them. Thanks to them people has access to enormous amount of information. Gathering data has never been more simple than now. They are not only used in laboratories but also in factories to control production. Sometimes it is computers who manufacture other computers. But not only in science and industry computers are being used. Thanks to them modern medicine can diagnose diseases faster and more thoroughly. Also in banking system computers have become irreplaceable. They control ATMs, all data is stored on special hard disks and paper isnt used in accountancy any more. Furthermore, architects, designers and engineers cant imagine their work without computers. This machines are really everywhere and we depend on them also in such fields as criminology. They help police to solve crimes and collect evidence. Moreover, computers are wide-spread in education. Except their classic tasks such as administration and accountancy they are used in process of learning. Firstly, they store enormous amount of data which helps students to gain an information. Secondly, thanks to special teaching techniques and programs they improve ours skills of concentration and assimilation of knowledge. They have become so popular that not knowing how to use them means to be illiterate. Of course except this superb features there is also dark side of computer technology because every invention brigs us not only benefits but also threats. HARDWARE Our PC (Personal Computer) is a system, consisting of many components. Some of those components, like Windows and all your other programs, are software. The stuff you can actually see and touch, and would likely break if you threw it out a fifth-story window, is hardware. The system unit is the actual computer; everything else is called a peripheral device. Your computers system unit probably has at least one floppy disk drive, and one CD or DVD drive, into which you can insert floppy disks and CDs. Theres another disk drive, called the hard disk inside the system unit. You cant remove that disk, or even see it. But its there. And everything thats currently in your computer is actually stored on that hard disk. (We know this because there is no place else inside the computer where you can store information). The floppy drive and CD drive are often referred to as drives with removable media or removable drives for short, because you can remove whatever disk is currently in the drive, and replace it with another. Your computers hard disk can store as much information as tens of thousands of floppy disks, so dont worry about running out of space on your hard disk any time soon. As a rule, you want to store everything you create or download on your hard d isk. Use the floppy disks and CDs to send copies of files through the mail, or to make backup copies of important items. RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) Theres too much stuff on your computers hard disk to use it all at the same time. During the average session sitting at the computer, youll probably use only a small amount of all thats available. The stuff youre working with at any given moment is stored in random access memory (often abbreviated RAM, and often called simply memory). The advantage using RAM to store whatever youre working on at the moment is that RAM is very fast. Much faster than any disk. For you, fast translates to less time waiting and more time being productive. So if RAM is so fast, why not put everything in it? Why have a hard disk at all? The answer to that lies in the fact that RAM is volatile. As soon as the computer is shut off, whether intentionally or by an accidental power outage, every thing in RAM disappears, just as quickly as a light bulb goes out when the plug is pulled. So you dont want to rely on RAM to hold everything. A disk, on the other hand, holds its information whether the power is on or off. THE HARD DISC All of the information thats in your computer, so to speak, is stored on your computers hard disk. You never see that actual hard disk because its sealed inside a special housing and needs to stay that way. Unlike RAM, which is volatile, the hard disk can hold information forever with or without electricity. Most modern hard disks have tens of billions of bytes of storage space on them. Which, in English, means that you can create, save, and download files for months or years without using up all the storage space it provides. In the unlikely event that you do manage to fill up your hard disk, Windows will start showing a little message on the screen that reads You are running low on disk space well in advance of any problems. In fact, if that message appears, it wont until youre down to about 800 MB of free space. And 800 MB of empty space is equal to about 600 blank floppy disks. Thats still plenty of room. SCSI SCSI is a type of interface used for computer components such as hard drives, optical drives, scanners and tape drives . It is a competing technology to standard IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). While the less expensive IDE technology is built into motherboards, SCSI is a technology that must be added by purchasing a SCSI controller. The SCSI card fits into an internal PCI slot. SCSI devices are then connected to this card. SCSI devices, particularly hard drives, are designed to be used 24/7 in addressing the needs of the server market. For this reason, SCSI drives are usually made to higher standards and carry longer warranties than IDE drives of comparable capacity. However, the added speed and quality come at a price. SCSI components are significantly more expensive than their IDE cousins. THE MOUSE Obviously you know how to use your mouse, since you must have used it to get here. But lets take a look at the facts and buzzwords anyway. Your mouse probably has at least two buttons on it. The button on the left is called the primary mouse button, the button on the right is called the secondary mouse button or just the right mouse button. Ill just refer to them as the left and right mouse buttons. Many mice have a small wheel between the two mouse buttons. THE KEYBOARD Like the mouse, the keyboard is a means of interacting with your computer. You really only need to use the keyboard when youre typing text. Most of the keys on the keyboard are laid out like the keys on a typewriter. But there are some special keys like Esc (Escape), Ctrl (Control), and Alt (Alternate). There are also some keys across the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3, and so forth. Those are called the function keys, and the exact role they play depends on which program you happen to be using at the moment. Most keyboards also have a numeric keypad with the keys laid out like the keys on a typical adding machine. If youre accustomed to using an adding machine, you might want to use the numeric keypad, rather than the numbers across the top of the keyboard, to type numbers. It doesnt really matter which keys you use. The numeric keypad is just there as a convenience to people who are accustomed to adding machines. Most keyboards also contain a set of navigation keys. You can use the navigation keys to move around around through text on the screen. The navigation keys wont move the mouse pointer. Only the mouse moves the mouse pointer. On smaller keyboards where space is limited, such as on a notebook computer, the navigation keys and numeric keypad might be one in the same. There will be a Num Lock key on the keypad. When the Num Lock key is on, the numeric keypad keys type numbers. When the Num Lock key is off, the navigation keys come into play. The Num Lock key acts as a toggle. Which is to say, when you tap it, it switches to the opposite state. For example, if Num Lock is on, tapping that key turns it off. If Num Lock is off, tapping that key turns Num Lock on. INTERFACE CONTROLLERS Interface controllers (parallel, serial, USB, Firewire) to connect the computer to external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners. GRAFICS Graphics controller that produces the output for the monitor. The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or sound. Today almost every computer can do some graphics, and people have even come to expect to control their computer through icons and pictures rather than just by typing. Computer graphics as drawing pictures on computers, also called rendering. The pictures can be photographs, drawings, movies or simulations pictures of things which do not yet exist and maybe could never exist. Or they may be pictures from places we cannot see directly, such as medical images from inside your body. SOFTWARE Software is a generic term for organized collections of computer data and instructions, often broken into two major categories: system software that provides the basic non-task-specific functions of the computer and application software which is used by users to accomplish specific tasks. System software is responsible for controlling, integrating and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system so that other software and the users of the system see it as a functional unit without having to be concerned with the low-level details such as transferring data from memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display. Generally, system software consists of an operating system and some fundamental utilities such as disk formatters, file managers, display managers, text editors, user authentication (login) and management tools, and networking and device control software. Application software, on the other hand, is used to accomplish specific tasks other than just running the computer system. Application software may consist of a single program, such as an image viewer; a small collection of programs (often called a software package) that work closely together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet or text processing system; a larger collection (often called a software suite) of related but independent programs and packages that have a common user interface or shared data format, such as Microsoft Office, which consists of closely integrated word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc.; or a software system, such as a database management system, which is a collection of fundamental programs that may provide some service to a variety of other independent applications. Software is created with programming languages and related utilities, which may come in several of the above forms: single programs like script interpreters, packages containing a compiler, linker, and other tools; and large suites (often called Integrated Development Environments) that include editors, debuggers, and other tools for multiple languages.

Retaining Employees in Small Business Essay -- essays research papers

Abstract Retaining employees is a dilemma for small businesses. Large corporations have resources specifically aimed at keeping their employees while smaller ones do not. Using online resources, we examined the issue of employee retention in small business. We found that the problem stems from different areas, lack of resources, few employees, minimal direction from management. While these issues are a problem, they are not insurmountable. Small businesses need to be innovative and creative in finding ways to keep their employees. Retaining Employees Why would a small business see higher turnover than a larger company? In general, small companies have less official company documentation and standardization with regard to job descriptions and responsibilities. Because there is a smaller employee roster, there is less opportunity for specialization. Small business employees often have to be versatile. It is for this reason that small businesses often refrain from being specific in outlining an employee’s duties: The employers themselves may not know ultimately what the expectations are of their own employees. Writes Kickul, â€Å"Instead of having explicit job assignments, job descriptions, and training programs that are traditionally seen within large organizations (Aldrich and Auster 1986; Aldrich and Langton 1997), small firms and their founders may rely on informal techniques to communicate their organizational benefits and rewards to guide and assist employees in understanding their psychological contract with the smal l business. (Kickul, Jill)† Employees often want specific descriptions of their roles and responsibility. This means having written job roles and responsibilities, and having this available to the employee. When an employee has a specific understanding of what is expected of them, they will tend to have an increased sense of job security. As mentioned in the above quote, this scenario is traditionally found in larger companies. An individual going to work for Home Depot or Wal-Mart is going to be given an employee handbook, specific outline and description of job requirements, etc. In the absence of this explicit communication, i.e. in the small business environment, there exists the possibility of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and resentment using these â€Å"informal† techniques, be they verbal, hinted at, indirectly suggested, or otherwis... ... environment that is desirable and unique can help in this process. This includes promoting from within the company and giving employees’ room to grow. Most small businesses will find that these solutions can help when there is a lack of resources. Finally, by getting creative small businesses can find solutions that cost less and will still be effective in retaining employees in the face of larger businesses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   References Daveta, John (2001). Retaining Valued Employees No Small Task For Small Businesses.). Daily Mail.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hayes, Scott. (1999). Payroll-Deduction Plans Help Small Companies Retain Employees. Workforce.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Jones, Alexandra. (2004). Work-Life Balance needs Correcting. Daily Mail.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Kickul, Jill. (2001). Promises made, Promises Broken: An Exploration Of Employee  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Attraction and Retention Practices in Small Business. Journal of Small Business Management. Worden, Vicki, L. (2002). Tips For Keeping Top Performers. Association Management.

How far is it applicable to management and employee motivation in contemporary Chinese organizations? Essay

Critically evaluate McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. How far is it applicable to management and employee motivation in contemporary Chinese organizations? During the 1960s the number of psychologists invented motivational theories, which aimed to increase organizations’ productivity. One of those is McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, in which he claimed that people can be managed in two extremes, based on the grounds of their needs. After publishing his work had a significant impact on management ideas. Head (2011) states, that in present days, his approaches of management can be successfully applied in different countries, as well as in China. However, despite the modernization of modern working environment in China, there are still the number of hardships that make the adaptation of his theories complex and difficult. From the year of publication, McGregor’s work made a significant influence on the management philosophy. Most of the management books include his theory as an example of the substantial step of management insights (Jastolka, 2009). It was stated by Head (2011), that most of the managers prefer to use one of those, instead of other approaches. Later, after McGregor’s publication the contribution for a deeper research of labor’s motivation was made. Also, McGregor’s work persuaded managers to believe that employees’ behavior can be predicted using scientific metho ds. Afterwards the research has been conducted, therefore the deeper understanding of human’s motivation can be gained (Head, 2011). The appliance of both methods can be successful, depending on which sphere the company is specializing in. According to Bobic and Davis (2003), adaptive approach, or Theory X works with highly routine and detailed tasks. Additionally, it is more appropriate for firms with bureaucratic structures (Kirton, 1978; cited in Bobic and Davis, 2003). Such organizations have hierarchical systems with clearly distinguished responsibilities and roles. Regarding to the innovative technique, or Theory Y, it responds more efficiently with complicated tasks that require special skills (Sorensen, 2011). In spite of listed advantages, McGregor’s work was criticized for the number of weaknesses. Firstly, technological development, new forms of businesses and other improvements in the organization of production leaded to the alteration of employees’ responsibilities, and formed new types of jobs. It was claimed by Bobic and Davis (2003), that present workers have different working settings, in the comparison to the working environment in  1960s. Thus, it is fallaciously to regard this theory as a beneficial explanation of contemporary humans’ motivation. Secondly, people have a set of characteristics, which makes every person unique, and it is far too complex to distinguish them between only two groups. For example, Theory X does not take the diversity of individuals into the consideration (Miner, 2002; cited in Jastolka, 2009). Finally, McGregor’s hypothesis is mostly founded on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which validity is criticized (Heylighen, 1992; cited in Bobic and Davis, 2003). Furthermore, Maslow’s work was based on the empirical base of America, and its applicability to other countries has not been successfully proven yet. In case of China, its working environment is slightly becoming similar to Western, because in 1979 Chinese government began to implement economic policies to create an economy with capitalistic features, such as profit orientation, private owning and market forces (Francesco and Gold, 2005). Such changes significantly influenced the way, in which Chinese workers are treated by their managers, forcing them to practice methods that used in Western nations, however despite these changes, implementing of McGregor’s methods is hard for certain reasons. First of all, according to Francesco and Gold (2005), the management style of a country, such as China, with strong traditions and remained patriarchy, is hard to be transformed or altered. For example, Garg and Ma (2005) conducted a research, which shows the difference between frameworks of organizations. The participants of survey were three groups of firms, with different introduction of non-Chinese executives, who use Western management approaches: complete, partial and blank, and result shows a significant difference between these companies in some aspects of working conditions. In organizations with only Chinese executives, most of employees experience an unavailability of managers, lack of encouragement to be innovative and lack of support most of the time. However, it could be argued that the conditions described above could be associated with Theory X. Secondly, Chinese employees in firms function as a group where each member is working for the prosperity of the whole company (Francesco and Gold, 2005). This feature restrains the enthusiasm of workers to be innovative in their job in order to maximize the profit of his/her company, but coerce them to do their tasks conventionally, because employees are anxious to harm their firm, while Theory Y assumes that people must have more freedom. Then,  Tsui et al. (cited in Huang, 2006), argue that communist ideology force Chinese employees to make efforts in their work to the favor of the commune. Finally, due to the listed characteristics most of the Chinese managers use commune-based leadership style. This means that Chinese workers are mostly dependent on their command and thus it is more appropriate to implement the ideas of Theory X in Chinese organizations (Jackson and Bak, 1998; cited in Huang, 2006). However, an interview made by Jamal and Xie (1991), shows that satisfaction and motivation of employees are in direct relationship to managers’ level of participation. To sum up, both Theory X and Theory Y have been successfully adopted in Western and some of the developing countries. With regard to China, which economy type has changed only 30 years before and traditional values of Chinese people remain fundamental, which in turn reduce the probability of prosperous adaptation of McGregor’s ideas. Comparing both theories, Theory X is more applicable to China than Theory Y, because of traditional command-style of leadership. However, in spite of the number of successful implementations of these approaches in completely Chinese organizations, with the goal to maximize the profit of a company, the applying of methods, which reflect the nature of a worker in China, who is different from the Western employee is preferable to McGregor’s work.

Super Shampoo Case - 3507 Words

TABLE OF CONTENT Question 1: What are the category beliefs among the non-users of shampoo? 1 Category Beliefs 1 Question 2: What are the cognitive beliefs on the three brands of shampoos? (What are those advertising elements that, match with the cognitive beliefs?) 2 CLINIC PLUS 2 CHIK 4 HEAD AND SHOULDERS 4 Question 3: What are the affective aspects reflected by advertisements of the three brands of shampoo? (What are those advertising elements that match with the affective aspects?) 5 Clinic Plus 5 Head and Shoulders 6 Chik Satin 6 Question 4: How can the â€Å"theory of reasoned action† model be applied to each brand? Are there gaps that can be found with regard to each brand? 7 Limitations to the TRA Model 8 Question 5: Based†¦show more content†¦None of the respondents had ever heard about, seen an advertisement or used the Rejoice, Nyle, Ayur, Vatika or Dove shampoo brands. Of those who have used shampoo to wash their hair, almost all respondents (99%) used shampoo sachets as opposed to purchasing a bottle of shampoo a direct indication of the socio-economic climate of the rural India community and their overall views about shampoo and the available alternatives. Category Beliefs A likert scale was used to measure respondent’s category beliefs ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. There is sufficient evidence to conclude that non-users of shampoo believe that using shampoo will make their hair healthy and strong. It is also believed that shampoo should only be used on occasion to wash oil from the hair as it cleans the hair better than soap. Appearance is also a key factor for the Indian consumer as it is believed that there is a boost in confidence whenever the hair has been washed with shampoo as opposed to using any of the alternative products. Despite these beliefs, the Indian mass-market displays a general unwillingness to purchase large amounts of this product at any one time and have only purchased shampoo sachets. It was found that these purchase patterns are not directly related to the somewhat adverse socio-economic conditions of the Indian mass-market, as the price for shampoo does not influence its purchase or frequency of use; it is not believed that shampoo isShow MoreRelatedSuper Shampoo1233 Words   |  5 PagesJhalani 2011233 Yugmala Singh 2011238 Aditya Vikram 2011248 [SUPER SHAMPOO] Formulating an effective value delivery process to tap into an existing and prospective consumer market. Introduction The case analyzes the response of the non-users of shampoo in an emerging environment, India. The non-users belong to the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum and they respond with their perceptions about the category of shampoo and well-known brands. 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