Perfectly competitive market

A perfectly competitive market is one that has free movement of information. In addition, it has many buyers and sellers ready and willing to sell and buy after considering various market prices (Schwartz 2010). Competitive markets are guided by the free flow of information on the pricing of goods and services.

Prices of basic commodities tend to change with the market information at a particular time. Given that the number of buyers increases, demand for goods and services increases. On the other hand, given a pumper harvest, supply will increase. Increase in the supply of goods and services will relatively decrease the prices in the market.

 The aforementioned factors affect the market equilibrium. Market equilibrium is the intersection points of supply and demand curves. This is a region where the seller and buyer settle on the quantity and price of a good or service. The forces of demand and supply affect market equilibrium. They may either cause a shift of the curves (both supply and demand) or cause a movement along them. 

Cellular Network Security

Network limitations of cellular networks present a number of security issues. As cellular networked are scaled up in their capacity, they become more complex and deplorers need to be extra careful while fixing security loopholes so as not to create others. Networks function well when all users can be authenticated. Cellular networks face a burden of authenticating a large number of users. Batch authentication of users is not yet possible and each user is authenticated individually every time they access the network. In addition, of authenticating every point of instance, wireless cellular networks have to be interconnected to other cellular networks to facilitate communication across borders. The requirement brings up additional authentication tasks that require a very robust and powerful system. Failure to ensure that the system is robust and well guarded allows attacker to have anonymous access. In the event of a network compromise, network administrators are unable to verify the source of attack. Authentication problems also become national security issues when they face a national wireless network. Such a network carries a considerable number of important information such as financial transactions and national security sensitive information.

 

Cellular networks offer a variety of services. Network subscribers expect that their messages get to their intended recipients without any non-agreed alteration. When there are errors in the network because of interference or non-authorized access, the integrity of the information passing through the network is questioned. Cellular networks must be secure to ensure that conversations are confidential. Eavesdropping abilities should only be conferred to authorized agents in accordance with the law. Cellular devices are now common tools of conversation; as a result, cellular networks handle a lot of sensitive information that should not be allowed to fall in the hands of unintended persons. Such persons might use the information to conduct criminal offences such as blackmailing the conversing parties (Vacca, 2009).

 

Cellular networks are accessed by cellular devices. The devices are supposed to be restricted on the amount of data they can submit or extract from the system. In addition to authentication, devices have to be restricted to the levels they can access within the system. Such restriction may be realized through used of different technologies or cryptography software. It is important that even with proper expertise, devices failing to meet a certain technological requirement are unable to access certain limits in a system. Proper access control ensures that the cellular network system is secure (Bragg, Rodhes-Ousley & Strassberg, 2004).

 

Individual cellular devices are the Achilles’ feet in the network. Vulnerability of one device may compromise the whole network. Cellular phones and other mobile devices such as netbooks and pads that access cellular networks have powerful operating systems. The processing power of such devices now matches that of desktop systems. Previously, such devices only handled end user processing task. With the increased processing power, these devices are able to handle stand-alone processing tasks that cannot be regulated by the network system. The devices use Java Based systems or run their own operating systems. In the event that these systems are compromised, for example being attacked by computer Viruses and Trojans, then they are able to send malicious data into the network system or anonymously obtain sensitive data from the network. Such vulnerabilities when exploited by attackers may be disastrous to cellular networks companies and can destroy a whole network system (Xu, Wood, Trappe & Zhang, 2004).

 

In addition to the vulnerabilities presented by powerful devices, cellular networks use and offer Web Services to their subscribers.  Web Service as a component provides functions that subscriber’s access via the web. Use of the web in accessing these services opens up the network to security threats associated with the standard HTTP protocol. These threats include denial of service attacks and viruses. Cellular networks are now advancing to use their system available resources more efficiently. The network companies are also facing completion pressure to become more innovative in their product offerings. To avoid business extinction, companies are moving their cellular networks to become Internet Protocol (IP) based. IP based systems allocate addresses to each access point in the network. A user’s location therefore becomes searchable since the user is associated with the access point they use to access the system. Such a possibility of locating a cellular device compromises user location privacy (Maxim & Pollino, 2002).

 

Other than becoming threats indirectly, malware and viruses also offer direct security threats. The wireless networks system is structured in a similar way as other computer system. Increased processing capacity also increases the artificial intelligence level of the system. As the system become more intelligent, they are relied upon to make automatic decisions based on the given parameters. Corrupt system software results to errors across the network. Network wide errors, resulting from malfunctioning, caused by viruses or malware cause unimaginable problems. For example, they can arise to a large-scale denial of service attack; secondly, they can affect the billing system of the cellular network resulting to losses or loss of subscribers because of overbilling.

 

Web services allow subscribers to download content from the web and such downloads are sometimes infected with spyware and adware. These compromised downloads bring up a security issue since they enhance the other security issues aforementioned. Other than acting as vulnerability points, download services raise copyright issues on digital files. Download and upload services offered by cellular networks allow subscribers to upload and download digital files in any format such as images, music, games and books. Users might download or upload unauthorized copies therefore committing the unlawful act of piracy.

 

There is need to ensure that only device owners use the devices to access the network. Devices are uniquely identified and in the case of phone, each subscriber is assigned a unique number. When other persons other than the device owner use the device to access the network, then the device owner is charged for a service not personally used. In addition to unwanted charges, unauthorized device use may bring about criminal liabilities when the unauthorized user engages in unlawful acts such as spamming and stalking. Therefore, cellular networks need to be able to disable devices remotely when owners loose them. Other than unauthorized access to the network, unauthorized users of devices get access to personal information like emails, phone numbers and other documents. The remote disabling should be able to make the device deny access to such personal information (Bragg, Rodhes-Ousley & Strassberg, 2004).

LISTENING EFFECTIVENESS

Analyzing Your Listening Effectiveness Study

The listening process involves a lot more than just hearing and includes being aware of the speaker, actively focusing on the present moment by blocking any internal or external distractions, having an objective of hearing the speaker and analysing words delivered by the speaker and how they are delivered. My listening effectiveness depends on a number of factors that are in my control or are beyond my control (Battell, 2006).

 

I have strengths that contribute to making me an effective information listener. The strengths include being attentive to the listener as they speak. Secondly, I have an ability to maintain my focus on a speaker by blocking any thought digression and ignoring any external disruption to my attention. Thirdly, I consider the delivery of the message by the speaker in terms of their mood, composure and emphasis. This enables me to get not only the spoken words, but the speakers feelings about the words and their expectations on my response (Woods, 2010).

 

Unfortunately, I mostly find myself listening defensively, as I take in most personal references as criticism. Sometimes because of listening defensively, I get a very wrong meaning of what has been said and end up with the wrong impression of the speaker. Another weakness is that i become selective at what I listen to, choosing only what interests me in a conversation. While listening to non-interesting parts of a conversation, I internally question the relevancy of the conversation instead of paying attention. As a result, am unable to recall a conversation after a moment. When conversing with people whom I find uninteresting, I use my interest prejudice as a reason to bias their speech as uninteresting. In such cases I completely ignore the body language of the speaker and only take in their words at face value. This makes it difficult to remember their words later because I have nothing to associate with the words (Woods, 2010).

 

I would like to improve my listening attention to all speakers irrespective of my prejudices. In order to accomplish this task, I shall ensure that I pause at what I was doing and pay attention to the speaker instead of listening while still performing other tasks. Secondly, I shall practice the affirmation that while listening, the delivery of words is the most important aspect to consider other than the words spoken. This affirmation will assist me in demonstrating appropriate feedback to the speaker that will enable them to appreciate my attention. Finally, I will seek to understand the speaker’s words in a non-biased way after the realization that prejudiced listening hinders me from getting the overall context of a conversation. While listening, I will not to judge the speaker before they are done speaking. Instead, I will respond appropriately such as using eye contact and nodding (Woods, 2010).

 

In some instances, listening attentively is not beneficial, especially when the task is repetitive on same conversations that have no clear benefit. For example talking to strangers whose conversation will not be worthy of remembering later. In such cases, I shall use my pseudolistening skills to pay attention to the speaker and actively be thinking about other things. Practicing pseudo listening will allow me to encourage the speaker to feel comfortable and speak while am able to disregard what they say without showing them that am not interested (Woods, 2010).

References

Battell, C. (2006). Effective listening.  Infoline: Business Skills, (605): ASTD Press

Woods, J. T. (2010). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters, (6^th ed.), Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning

Limitations of Wireless Cellular Networks

A number of issues limit the optimal performance of wireless cellular networks. The limitations make wireless networks less reliable than wired networks. The first limitation is that Wireless cellular networks provide an open access medium. The network operates on a wireless channel and therefore does not have a form of physical barricade. Attackers need no equipment to access the network. Secondly, the networks are able to scale up to a given maximum bandwidth. Wireless networks share the same wireless frequency spectrum and therefore are limited on bandwidth amount they can hold. They are governed by the policy of equitable sharing (Gardezi, 2006).

 

Wirelesses cellular networks are supposed to support mobility. The requirement makes such systems complex and forms one of their limitations. The complexity makes the administration of network security difficult and introduces new loophole that can be exploited by attackers. In order to increase the efficacy of the wireless systems more complexity is added to the system further opening up loopholes. Wireless networks are not connected in a grid structure like wired networks. As a result, each node in the network requires its own power supply. A full-scale deployment of a wireless network therefore consumes more power than a wired network equivalent. In addition to the need for extra power, the functionality of each network node is dependent on its own power supply capacity (Gardezi, 2006).

 

Wireless networks need processors on every device used to send or receive signals. The speed of the network is therefore proportional to the processing power of the devices that make up the network. Even though the processor power of these devices is increasing, it is yet to reach optimal levels required to carry out exhaustive processing tasks. By relying on radio frequencies, wireless networks are prone to interferences from other wireless networks and systems. The signals transfer within the network also suffers in relation to the density of the network and the number of users in the network. When compared to a wired network, a wireless network is more limited in its reliability because of the errors arising out of the aforementioned influences (Gardezi, 2006).

Criminal Acts

Criminal acts are actions that under the United States law cause a threat to injure persons even if the offender is considered unable to commit the crime. Race does not significantly affect the probability of committing criminal acts. Socio-economic factors are majorly responsible for crime prevalence in certain communities. Inadequate Law enforcement can also be the reason for increased criminal acts in a particular area. In this essay evidence is provided to show neutrality of race, and morality of law enforcement is shown to influence the criminal justice system and citizen responsibility to report criminal acts.

Sources used in the research

1. Sampson J. R. and Lauritsen J. L. (1997). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States. Crime and Justice, 21, Ethnicity, Crime and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspective (1997), 311-374.

            The article compares whites and blacks participation in violent crimes and suffering as victims of these crimes. It examines official statistics of arrests, victimization estimates and self-reported offending. Then the theories explaining race differences are examined. The article offers in-depth analysis of data from criminal justice process system as well as previous research into the topic.

2. Bazelon D. L. (1975-2976) The Morality of the criminal law. Southern California Law Review, 49:385

            The article looks at the implications of viewing the law as an internalization of control as well as the implications of viewing the law as an externalization of the law. This article also examines the moral arguments that affect how law is viewed. The author is a judge of the appeal court and has a wealth of experience in the matter.

3. Kaplow, L. and Shavell S. (1994). Optimal Law Enforcement with Self-Reporting of Behaviour. Journal of Political Economy 102(3):583-606. The university of Chicago press. Retrieved from http://www,jstor.org/stable/213864

            This article analyses a model for optimal self-reporting, examining its generalizations and demonstrate that optimal law enforcement schemes that include self-reporting are superior to those that exclude self-reporting. The article also observes that advantages of self-reporting can be greater than those found in the model, depending on the law enforcement method.

Criminal Acts

            According to the United States law, criminal acts are actions that under the United States law cause a threat to injure persons even if the offender is considered unable to commit the crime. Criminal acts are not influenced by race, such that persons of a particular race are prone to commit crime more than those of another race. Criminal acts are influenced by socio economic factors that put minority groups in improvised conditions promoting delinquency. How the law is enforced will affect the extent of prevalence of criminal acts.  In this essay; race is shown to be insignificant, law enforcement is shown to be a moral question and self-reporting policies are seen as a social solution to managing criminal acts.

            Research findings of Sampson and Lauritsen (1997) conclude that race there is no significant disparity in crime and criminal justice in the U.S. among blacks and whites that are as a result of race. More blacks than whites are arrested and this is attributed to the crime-conducive neighbourhoods that many blacks live in. Blacks are also less likely to self-report crimes they commit because of their prejudice against law enforcement. Whites offend the law less than blacks’ arguably because they enjoy better economic opportunities and success. If the tables were turned, blacks would be less law offenders than whites.  The criminal justice system serves as the main source of research on racial differences. These sources are subject to the question moral concepts that were held at the time of implementation.

            The view that order should be achieved at all costs does not consider social justice. It emphasizes stiff penalties regardless of the social factors of the crime. On the other hand factoring in of the realities of social injustices, law enforcement is viewed as a moral obligation, where people believe it because it is justified. Such diverse views have affected how law enforcement is carried out (Bazelon, 1975-1976). The first view of restoring order at all costs by the criminal justice system is to blame for the majority blacks’ prejudice against law enforcers. Therefore we can argue rightfully that the system is to blame for the biasness in crime records that show prevalence to be high among blacks.

            Embracing the second view of law enforcement as a moral obligation, results to better management of criminal acts in society. Self-reporting by offenders who understand their moral obligation reduces costs associated with investigations, promotes better relationships among citizens and law enforcers, and reduces incidences of mistaken identities and generalizations (Kaplow & Shavell, 1994). It is important to view all criminal acts neutrally without racial bias. Socio-economic factors that affect blacks and other minority communities should be factored in while formulating policies to encourage self-reporting in the management of criminal acts.

References

Bazelon D. L. (1975-1976) The morality of the criminal law. Southern California Law Review, 49:385

Kaplow, L. and Shavell S. (1994). Optimal law enforcement with self-reporting of behaviour. Journal of Political Economy, 102(3):583-606. Retrieved from http://www,jstor.org/stable/213864

Sampson J. R. and Lauritsen J. L. (1997). Racial and ethnic disparities in crime and criminal justice in the United States. Crime and Justice, 21, Ethnicity, Crime and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspective (1997), 311-374.

Reaping the Whirlwind, Technology Challenges for Tomorrow's IT Manager

Information technology managers play a key role in daily operations of a company. Their roles run from supervisory to company security roles (Denardis & Aksoy, 2007). With the ever-changing technology world, it is eminent that these officers are well versed with the daily happenings in the information technology arena. Globalization has made the exchange of vital firm information and data easily. Daily Inventions of business software necessary for firm operations are daily practice, making the already existing outdated instantly (Garson, 1999). Organizations system audit and control is necessary if a firm is too survive in this computer age. This will help ensure that organization vital data is safe and that system access is restricted to only the authorized users. The firm that invests in information technology will have an added advantage in relation to the other organizations. In this paper, I am going to expound some key information system avenues for technological advance. There are a number of emerging technologies expected to change the world. There technological effects will cut across various sectors. Many organizations are keen to making a general overhaul of their existing information systems betting on the new technologies (Denardis & Aksoy, 2007)

            In accordance to a report by market research media, NoSQL is a new technology under development. NoSQL is software used in data mining, military and genome databases. Its attributes are still under development and its transaction consistency is at the rise. There is also the development of Relational Database Management system (RDBMS), whose operations will be realized by 2015.Moreover, there is Cloud computing, a technology which has drawn a lot of interest. This is because is a form of technology which is meant to address the insecurity problems in the 21^st century. Cloud computing is designed to store unique data of a specific organization in a hidden location. The federal government is keen to using the device in their security system to curb hacking and store vital information in the cloud. AWS GoVCloud is the name designated to the USA security system. No company will afford the hacking of its systems and most of them will go an extra mile to acquire suitable software to check this vice(Denardis & Aksoy, 2007). Business empires are requesting developers of these new technologies to devise one for usage in the business day-to-day operations. Although cloud technology is advanced, traditional on-premise backup will be here for an unforeseeable future. These technological innovations are expected to come into operation from 2012 – 2015 (Hall & Singleton, 2004).Information system managers are tasked with consultancy roles to ensure that firms adopt only those technologies that will add to the revenues of these companies. This is because the main aim of business enterprises is to make profit. Other technologies that will advance online business transactions are under development and will come into force in the subsequent years (Hall & Singleton, 2004)..

The aforementioned advanced technologies affect the operations of firms in a big way. They cover all the stages of productions and guide operations in relation to data inputted (Hall & Singleton, 2004). Information managers therefore need to go an extra mile to ensure that they are well informed to assist them give a sound advice to their company management and to help companies recruit individuals who are well informed about daily developments in the information field. In addition, government ought to chip in and sponsor technological research. This can be a joint initiative with the private sector. Having a research team and tough brains will enhance response to technological threats and these elites will advance more innovations.

References

Denardis, L., &  Aksoy,P . 2007. Information Technology in Theory. New York:  Course Technology PTR.

Garson, D. (1999).  Information Technology and Computer Applications in Public Administration.NY: Issues and Trends, Idea Group Pub

Hall, J.,  & Singleton,T. (2004). Information Technology Auditing and Assurance. New York: South-Western Pub.

Industrial revolution

Industrial revolution is a gradual development process which led to the transformation of early mans’ way of living through sound innovation in various sectors of the economy (Ashton, 1948). Industrial revolution totally transformed not only the way things are done but also the way man operates. Agrarian revolution changed the lifestyle of humankind. Prior to 18^th century, the early man used to survive on hunting and gathering, more often using crude weapons in his day-to-day activities (Eric,2009). The practice of hunting and gathering was tedious and time consuming as individuals had to cater for their daily needs and those of their immediate families. Industrial revolution totally alienated individuals from their traditional working modes. This has largely transformed the agrarian society in a number of ways. First, there was mitigation of time wastage as persons worked on the fields to produce their products that they were sure of harvesting, this replaced the uncertainty of capturing something to eat. Early man used to cover a wide area hunting but with revolution he was able to operate in a small location which increasing his output.

Textile manufacturing was in small scale before the revolution; it was termed as cottage industry (Clark, 2007). This mostly was done by individual workers and missing on innovation and division of labor. The mode of transportation could only accommodate the small-scale production. With the wave of revolution, textile industry had a massive shift into large-scale production (Clark, 2007). However, at the beginning the working conditions at the ginneries were not human. Dim lighting and working for long hours were problems that were realized at the early stages. Child labor was also a common issue during this progress.

Industrial revolution led to the development of advanced machines, which replaced human activities in many aspects (Eric, 2009).With the help of these machines, production was always on the rise although less labor was in operation. The transformation of labor from man to machine power necessitated other invention to allow massive transportation of these products to the market. Bernal (2006), pointed out that spinning jenny and the flying shuttle that were later replaced by spinning mule were the first innovations that transformed the textile industry. Some expertise on the how to run these machines was required, this additional training increased the efficiency hence increased production. These developments changed how work was being done as it accommodated increased number of individuals it also advocated for division of labor. Moreover, iron folding and steam power are other 18^th century sectors that transformed the agrarian life. The early man through these sectors was able to develop advanced weapons that were used for various purposes (Ashton, 1948).

According to Bernal (2006), industrial revolution was a blessing to the early man; this is because the daily dues from wages and salaries outweigh the struggles of hunting and gathering. In addition, working in these firms is dignifying enough. Moreover, the source of food in the industrial generation was more stable as individuals could work more efficiently in one location and produce surplus to help sustain them.

References

Ashton, T. S. (1948). The Industrial Revolution (1760-1830).UK: Oxford University Press.

Bernal, J. D. (2006). Science and Industry in the Nineteenth Century. London: Routledge,

Clark, G. (2007). A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. New Jersey :Princeton University Press,

Eric, H,(2009).The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848.United Kingdom :Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd