Business Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Business Decision Making - Essay Example The data is about the education level of the selected population. There are seven sub-categories in which the data is distributed. It explains the different levels of educational qualification for the population. Classification into seven categories is too detailed and is not relevant for the company's marketing strategies. The Company is engaged in the business of snack foods, an item that is favored by almost all sections of the society. Moreover some category contains data that are too small to be of significance. Hence the numbers of categories have been reduced to three. The methodology used was to aggregate all data that showed a value of less than 10%. Only Bachelor's Degree (44.9%) and Graduate Degree (33.99%) have been shown separately. All the rest of the categories have been shown under the heading "Others'. The table indicates that out of every 100 persons, about 44 people are having qualified with a Bachelors Degree and almost 40 persons have a Graduate Degree. The category others include persons holding other degrees, undergraduates, those who have attended college but do not possess any degrees (probably because they dropped out) and those who have attended school. It can be assumed that targeting those with degrees could be more rewarding since they are in a position to earn better salaries. Snack foods do not come under the category of necessities and hence people with more income tend to spend more on such items. So the last category can be given the least importance. Data has not been reduced, only aggregated. Since the data is given in percentages and adds up to 100, the value of 21.82% pertaining to "Others' was obtained through simple addition of values of the individual categories included there. Census Trend 1980 to 2000 Summary Report - Basic Variables: The table shows the increase in population starting form 1980 to 2000. 1980 1990 2000 Total Population: Male + Female 57,441 61,469 64,637 Male Only 29410 31964 33030 Female only 28031 29505 31607 It can be seen that the number of males and females are almost equal and hence both of them should be given importance when formulating marketing strategies. There is a small growth in population to the tune of 7% in 1990 and 5% in 2000. Average number of persons living in a house is low. This indicates that there is a large number of people living alone. Data has been reduced as well as aggregated. The point has been put across sufficiently with the data in the above table. Occupation and Employment Summary Report - Means of Transportation to Work: This indicates the different modes of transport used by people going for work. This is relevant since people could eat snack food during time spent in traveling. Those driving alone are not in a position to do this and they are not included here. So the table has been prepared according to the possibility of eating while traveling. Mode Percentage Time Taken (In Minutes) Possibility Subway 22.6 45 - 59 Yes - Has most time and high numbers Bus or Trolley 15.5 5 - 9 Yes - Less time Carpooled 7.0 10 - 14 Yes - More time, but less chance Walked 6.0 90 or more Yes - Low numbers, highest time Worked at home 4.3 Work at home Yes - High chance but low numbers Taxi 2.4 60 - 89 Yes - High Chance but low numbers Others who can eat 0.9 35 - 44 Yes- High chance but

The Future Or Moores Law Philosophy Essay

The Future Or Moores Law Philosophy Essay Moores law is named after Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation. He first published what later became known as Moores Law in a 1965 Electronics Magazine article called Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. The Law states that computer manufactures will increase the number of transistors to be placed on an integrated circuit, exponentially by a factor of 2, in every 18 to 24 months. The steady growth of the Law, has held true for decades, and while scientists have had to resort to ever more creative methods to keep it going, Intel has proven that such exponential growth will last for at least for a few more years. It seems that, while Gordon Moore was arguably the first to note the exponential growth in computing power, this exponential trend has been a part of technological progress for much longer than was originally thought. According to futurist Kurzweil, Moores law of Integrated Circuits was not the first, but the fifth paradigm to forecast accelerating price-performance ratios. Computing devices have been consistently multiplying in power (per unit of time) from the mechanical calculating devices used in the 1890 U.S. Census, to [Newmans] relay-based [Heath] Robinson machine that cracked the Nazi [Lorenz cipher], to the CBS vacuum tube computer that predicted the election of Eisenhower, to the transistor-based machines used in the first space launches, to the integrated-circuit-based personal computer. This is illustrated in the chart below. What is technology singularity? This idea was first proposed by the mathematician Vernor Vinge who defined Technological Singularity as a time at which the rate of accelerating change increases to a point where it becomes human surpassing.   He said computers within a decade of our current era will be more powerful than the human brain. The machines will rapidly become much smarter than the humans who initially created them. This will cause a convergence of all technologies, until humans became totally embedded and submerged into a virtual world. This singularity is a state in which humans will be components of a cybernetic social network of such complexity that no one person will be able to understand more than a tiny fraction of the whole. As much as Singularitarians rely upon Moores Law to fuel our visions of the future, its not some inescapable truth of the universe. Producing ever smaller transistors is a job for thousands of engineers around the world, spending billions of dollars in research. Each step towards increasing computer processor performance per dollar requires innovation, and those innovations take time and effort to perfect. TriGate is a great example millions of dollars and a decade of preparation for its eventual launch. If you were to chart the evolution of the computer in terms of processing power, you would see that progress has been exponential and Moores Law seems to be self- fulfilling prophecy than a mere law or observation. But will technology singularity sustain of completely wipe off Moores Law? According to Moores Law, the progress of computational power on computers seems to have an exponential growth; whilst the futurist claim that technology singularity will accelerate at rate that no human brain can comprehend, as computers will achieve human-level intelligence and will be an infusion of different technologies embedded together and the growth will not be exponential. Moores Law may continue indefinitely, but it will rely upon the creativity and resilience of many developers at the top of their game. Can they keep it up? Can we keep pushing computers to become faster, better, and more efficient so they double in performance every two years? But on the contrary to support Moores Law, Intel, commercialized the worlds first 3D transistor, known as TriGate. The 22nm transistor performs better and uses less energy than the current cutting edge 32nm transistor. Computers can already perform individual operations orders of magnitude faster than humans can, Farmer said; meanwhile, the human brain remains far superior at parallel processing, or performing multiple operations at once. For most of the past half-century, engineers made computers faster by increasing the number of transistors in their processors, but they only recently began parallelizing computer processors. To work around the fact that individual processors cant be packed with extra transistors, engineers have begun upping computing power by building multi-core processors, or systems of chips that perform calculations in parallel.This controls the heat problem, because you can slow down the clock, Denning explained. Imagine that every time the processors clock ticks, the transistors fire. So instead of trying to speed up the clock to run all these transistors at faster rates, you can keep the clock slow and have parallel activity on all the chips. He says Moores law will probably continue because the number of cores in computer processors will go on doubling every two years. According to a research team at the Georgia Institute of Technologys Microsystems Packaging Research Center, they demonstrated a new technology called system-on-package (SOP). It addresses the other90 percent of the electronic system and paves the way for mega-function systems.In contrast to Moores Law, which addresses 10 percent of system integration at the IC- or device-level only -called the First Law SOP addresses the system integration problem, leading to the Second Law of Electronics. SOP combines nanoscale ICs with newly developed micro- to nanoscale, thin-film versions of discrete and other components. It embeds both of these components in a new type of package so small that it eventually will transform handhelds into multi- or mega-function systems. SOP technology represents a radically different approach to electronic and bio-electronic systems. It shrinks bulky circuit boards with their many components and makes them nearly disappear, leading to package-sized systems hen ce the name system-on-package. In effect, SOP sets up a new law for system integration. It holds that as the components shrink from milli- to micro- to nanoscale, component density will double every few years, leading to an exponential increase in the number of system functions packaged in a device the size of todays cell phones. Whether we attain the levels and surpass singularity still remains a fierce subject of speculation among the scientist and futurists. Below are excerpts of opponents of singularity, who forecast the phasing out of Moores Law. According to Peter Denning, distinguished professor of computer science at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on innovation, he says that By 2030 whatever technology were using will be sufficiently small that we can fit all the computing power thats in a human brain into a physical volume the size of a brain, after all this has been said, there will be the evolution of a super intelligent machine that will surpass human understanding. The British mathematician I.J. Good hypothesized that ultra intelligent machines, once created, could design even better machines. There would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultra intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, Others argue that Moores law will soon start to break down, or that it has already. The argument stems from the fact that engineers cant miniaturize transistors much more than they already have, because theyre already pushing atomic limits. When there are only a few atoms in a transistor, you can no longer guarantee that a few atoms behave as theyre supposed to, Denning explained. On the atomic scale, bizarre quantum effects set in. Transistors no longer maintain a single state represented by a 1 or a 0, but instead vacillate unpredictably between the two states, rendering circuits and data storage unreliable. The other limiting factor, Denning says, is that transistors give off heat when they switch between states, and when too many transistors, regardless of their size, are crammed together onto a single silicon chip, the heat they collectively emit melts the chip. Some scientists say computing power is approaching its zenith. Already we see a slowing down of Moores law, the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku said in a Big Think lecture. He says that Computer power simply cannot maintain its rapid exponential rise using standard silicon technology.   He claims that Intel Corporation has admitted this company is now going to three-dimensional chips, chips that compute not just flatly in two dimensions but in the third dimension.   The problem is that a Pentium chip today has a layer almost down to 20 atoms across, 20 atoms across.   When that layer gets down to about 5 atoms across, its all over.   You have two basic problems are heat (the heat generated will be so intense that the chip will melt and disintegrate) and leakage.  (You dont know where the electron is anymore.) Thats the reason why the age of silicon will eventually come to a close. The quantum theory takes over. Kurzweil (1999; 2001) has proposed that technical progress can be characterized as accelerating exponential development. According to Kurzweils law of accelerating returns, technical change is generated in an evolutionary process where the outputs of the process are used as inputs in the next phase of the development. This leads to exponential growth. Kurzweil maintains that the rate of exponential growth itself increases. When a particular evolutionary process becomes more effective than its alternatives, greater resources are deployed for the further progress of the effective process. As a result, the rate of exponential growth itself grows exponentially. Evolution, and technology-evolution continued by other means-therefore is a process that leads to accelerating change. Using his observations as a basis, Kurzweil argues that technical development will rapidly lead to computational devices that are more intelligent than humans. The increasing capabilities of computers will further accelerate the speed of technological progress and, at least from our limited perspective, lead to an apparently infinite speed of change. Kurzweil calls this approaching point of extremely rapid change Singularity. Kurzweils hypothesis of approaching Singularity therefore consists of four major claims. One is the empirical claim that technical developments in computing show exponential growth and that the growth speed has increased over time. Another claim is that this process is generated by a law of accelerated returns which feeds back resources to those areas of technology development that grow rapidly. The third claim is that technology creation can be understood as an evolutionary process. The fourth claim is that the speed of change will soon reach levels where the human intelligence, at least in its current forms, perceive infinite pace of change and that this will lead to major changes in the society and in individual lives.

Rosa Parks :: Essays Papers

Rosa Parks Rosa Parks is famous for a lot of things. But, she is best known for her civil rights action. This happen in December 1,1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus system. She refused to give up her sit to a white passenger on the bus. She was arrested for violating a law that whites and blacks sit in separate sit in separate rows. She refused to give up her sit when a white man wished to sit there. The front was for whites only. The law says that blacks have to leave there sits in the next when all seats in the front were taken and whites still wanted seats. Before Rosa Parks was arrest, Montgomery’s black leaders had been discussing about the city bus. Parks allowed the leaders to use her arrest to speak a boycott of the bus system. Martin Luther king ,Jr. then was a Baptist minister in Montgomery, then was chosen as president. For 382 days, from 12/5/1955 to 12/20/1956 thousands of blacks refused to ride the buses. The boycott ended when the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated seating on the city’s buses unconstitutional. The success encouraged other mass protests demanding civil rights for blacks. Rosa Parks held a variety of jobs and, in 1943. She became one of the first woman to join the Advancement of Colored People(NNCP). She severed as the organizations secretary from 1943 to 1956. Parks lost her job as a seamstress as a result of the Montgomery boycott. She and her family moved to Detroit in 1957. Where she worked for many years for Congressman John Conyers. She founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to offer guidance to young African Americans in preparation for leader ship and careers. 1979, she won a Medal for her work in civil rights. She wrote an autobiography. Today, most of the people know her as a civil right action leader but, there is more then that one thing that she accomplished. Also, there is a Boulevard name after her in Detroit, it says "ROSA PARKS BLVD.

Gender Differences in Discourse Essay

The ability to communicate with our fellow human beings makes us distinct from other living beings. The chapter has made it very clear that speaking is not conversation. Conversation is a collaborative effort by both the speaker and the listener. Our success much depends on how well we can interact with people around us. It much depends upon understanding certain factors called ‘social dynamics’ in conversation. In the essay â€Å"Women Talk Too Much† Janet Holmes makes it very clear that it is a wrong notion to think that women talk more than men. She says it is an assumption based on stereotypes. On the other hand, she says that it is men who talk more. There is no proof to say that men are biologically programmed to talk more than women. It is just the social conditions that promoted the wrong notion that boys are more active than girls and they talk more. She says it is entirely disagreeable. I find quite interesting to know that it is boys who interact more in the class rooms than the girls. Then, the author claims, how it can be said that women talk more than men In the second essay of the chapter, Tony Kornheiser makes a distinction in the communication style of women and that of men. He feels that women are very particular about everything and they have more to say than men have. He makes a point saying that women do not think life is as simple as men believe it to be. A conversation that turns into a lecture is definitely boring as Deborah Tannen points out in the essay â€Å"I’ll Explain It to You†. The most frustrating experience for anyone is when a conversation turns into a lecture. I feel it is not only boring to women but also equally tedious to men. There has been much literature on gender biased language and there is a gradual change in the use of language to sound neutral. Ronald Macaulay also agrees with Janet Holmes and says that many of the notions are myth and they have no validity scientifically speaking. It is rather social conditioning that has played a key role in imparting opinions that have no basis. Clive Thompson’s essay on how computer software can identify accurately whether the writer is a man or woman is quite interesting, His questions the many of the commonly held ideas about the differences between the two sexes. (407 words) Chapter6: Media Speak. What we know about the world is from media only. Our perception of the world is influenced by the media which presents it. The billions of dollars spent on TV ads clearly indicate the power that the media enjoys. Undoubtedly, the advertisements that come on television and newspapers and magazines have tremendous influence on us. Within a span of a century there is a great change in the media. Now the world is increasingly dependent on oral media where as it was mostly written word in the beginning of the last century. With the aim of reaching more number of audiences, the quality of language used in TV news and shows has become very low. Neil Postman and Steve Powers, rightly point out that the dependence on the image has made a great shift in news making. The highly quality visuals have replaced good language with low level popular language. They argue that it is not just language but also our views and opinions about the world are getting corrupted. The general saying is â€Å"a picture is worth a thousand words† but in the present days when news is re-created or re-presented, it is equally true to say that â€Å"one word is worth a thousand pictures. † There is little doubt that the language used by the media is aimed at creating sensations to attract more audience. Then, I do believe that it is not exactly what happened i. e. news. The article ‘All the World in Pictures’ is very interesting and thought provoking. It has clearly explained how the language is used in mass media. It is aptly said that ‘Advertising is the driving force of consumer economy’. The world is filled with advertisements. Wherever there are people, there are advertisements. They appeal to all our weakness creating a world of fancy with eternal youth, power, enriched beauty, immediate happiness, and fulfillment of our inner needs. I feel the use of language in creating such emotional appeals is quite amazing. Advertising plays much on the psychology of people. A small fifteen second ad can effectively tempt the people appealing to their emotions by making fantastic appeals and promises. The article â€Å"With these Words, I can Sell You Anything† is very enlightening. It has made it clear how they twist the language to send their message effectively. It is a finely engineered language that creates strong images on the minds of audience. I have found it very exciting to know the how the advertisers play on the people with their language. (419 words) Chapter7: Censorship and Free Speech Freedom of speech is fundamental to American democracy. It enables every American to freely express his ideas, opinions and beliefs. Any limits to the freedom of speech are seen as a threat to the rights of Americans. It is interesting to note that the discussion lays emphasis on the equality in enjoying one’s rights. No man or woman has the right to hurt the feelings or sentiments of others. It is by respecting others rights that we can enjoy our rights well. The censorship is against the rights given in the constitution. However, it is required in some areas. The censorship and books, biased language and hate speech and certain limits on campus speech have lead to interesting debate. The first amendment has not only given the right to express ideas freely but it also has given the right to know others’ ideas. The censorship on books has been a much debated issue with different opinions. It is beyond my understanding why some books are banned totally and some are censored. When a book raises questions that lead to controversy and debate, it will help people to know what exactly the truth is. Banning is not the solution for it. The controversy over Harry Potter books, which have attracted millions of children all over the world, seems pointless. Censorship on books is dangerous as it blocks all new creative and original ideas. Censorship on biased language and hate speech is quite useful as it raises many questions in the practical use of language. It is very difficult and almost impossible to classify what makes a hate speech and biased language. I feel it is highly impossible to make a law in the absence of any valid principles regarding what comes under biased language and hate speech. Sometimes, the words may be good but the tone in which they are delivered could be full of hatred. Censorship on free speech on the campus has some good in it, as it reduces misunderstanding among the students who come different parts of the world. The campus is a place where tolerance is mostly needed. The rules prohibiting certain speech acts is good for the minority students. But it does not guarantee that no racist speech is ever heard on the campuses. (378 words) Chapter -8 The English Language Debate The debate whether English should be made official language of the US or not, is very interesting bringing out valid arguments on both the sides. The United States, the nation of immigrants, respects cultural differences of people coming from different countries. Respecting other languages, the US has not declared English as the official language. I find it very great quality of the American people for their respect other cultures. It shows their multi cultural tolerance and national unity. The unity of American people has come more from their like mindedness in political and social values and self respect than from having one language. The discussion on what is Standard English has made it clear how different forces work on language. Robert MacNeil has explored well what makes American English and what exactly it is. The argument for Standard English has its own merits with clear focus on clarity in thinking and what we are saying. It argues for care and caution in the use of language as it is central for identifying an individual. If a person neglects his language and uses it causally, it will not help him or her in the long run. As the author has rightly put it â€Å"casualization† everything in culture has led to casual attitude to language use as well. The ‘growing informality’ of language is one of the major concerns of linguists. The scholars and grammarians who prescribe rules on how language should be used are rightly called â€Å"Prescriptivists. † Especially, John Simon, who is called the Prince of Prescriptivists, holds the view that the present day language is poor, unhealthy and hopeless. He represents those who argue for perfect use of language as it helps you to communicate clearly what you are. It is with the use of language only that a person can show his distinction. If the distinction is lost, he or she will be among many who can not say clearly what they mean. It becomes a serious challenge. I feel there should be certain principles which can not be sacrificed in the use of language. The â€Å"Descriptivists†, on the other hand, just describe how the language is used by people. They do not dictate any rules regarding how English should be used. They are permissive and tolerate the new expressions and the informality in expressions. They argue that a language is called a living language only when it is spoken. When it is spoken it is natural to have changes in the language as no two people can pronounce the same word in the same way. They are free to allow new words into English as change the law of life and of language. It shows tolerance towards people who speak the same language with some regional differences. There are many examples when the language of the Black people is accepted by the grammarians and included in the dictionaries. It helps the language to grow and reflect the present day culture. The fears about what will happen to American English seem justified, but nobody can stop the changes that take place in society. I feel the changes in English are an indication of changes in society, and language is just reflecting the same. (534 words)

As technology advances, humans are becoming redundant. Essay

The development of technology is unstoppable and it shouldn’t be. There are the fans of innovations and people who prefer the traditional way of every factor of life. But in my opinion we should remember that technology is made by us, by people and it is created to make our lives easier, but not to make our lives useless. That’s why I do not agree with the thesis that as technology advances, humans are becoming redundant. In the movie â€Å"Walle† there was presented a vision of a generation so dependent on technology, that their lives were mostly based on eating, sleeping and procrastinating. Every person that I asked about this movie reacted the same. This vision horrified everyone. I think it had such a huge impact on receivers, because it makes us realize that we don’t want to end up like this. We don’t really want to sit and do nothing, despite the fact that sometimes this sounds like the best idea in the world. I like to assume that we all have some goal we want to achieve and our lives are the story of how we are getting there, to the final point. So even if the technology will be improve to the point where our every day responsibilities will be taken over, we will still find something that keeps us busy. This is how life works. Even, when somebody is rich enough to afford everything and don’t need to do absolutely anything, still he finds some passion or job, another goal. Although technology is very helpful, I do think that it is not completely unerring. If the internet would broke, the whole world would stop to function properly. Most of money, documents, contacts, programs, from Facebook to the Governmental data base, or banks accounts we have online. Everything would disappear. We cannot rely only on technology. We have to collaborate with it. Use it for help, but remember about that nothing is unfailing. There is no way to leave technology all by itself. It was created by humans, so it have to be lead and operated by humans.