Benefits For Company Of Upgrading To Microsoft Office 2010 Essay

Benefits For Company Of Upgrading To Microsoft Office 2010 - Essay Example In the details, it talks about the essential features of the MS Office 2010. And the last part of the report tells about the summary and the action that will be made. The purpose of this report is to change the software package the Encoder Power Plus Company (EPPC) is using and introduce the newest software package to help the workers work more productive and more effective. Encoder Power Plus Company is one of the famous encoder companies that accepts encoding and grammar checking jobs of different paper works. Most of their customers are students and workers. One of the major technologies the workers are using is the computer and one of the major software packages they are using is the Microsoft Office 2007. Recently, orders were rapidly increasing. Despite the fact that 200 workers are in the company, some orders are still not completed in time. It has been discovered from the personal interviews done and from the general discussion between the workers and the employers that due to the incomplete features of the MS Office 2007, these lead the workers to do some orders manually. The reason behind this is that some important features that are very useful and important to the encoding jobs aren’t included and are limited in the software package MS Office 2007. Due to these problems that have been discovered, it is essential to change the current MS Office 2007 to the newest one that will have the answers to the problems encountered, the MS Office 2010. The MS Office 2010 has the following features that will best help the workers: Basing from the information gathered, in order to change the currently used MS office, we need to upgrade the supported operating system. I used the internet and the Microsoft Corporation to gather the information about the cost of the product and the other essential features of the recommended package. The estimation of the cost of the product and the upgrading of the OS is about $50,000.

Untouchability Practice Essay Example for Free

Untouchability Practice Essay Untouchability is a form of discrimination, the social-religious practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. It is a menace and social evil associated with traditional Hindu society. The term is used in India to talk about the public treatment of especially the Dalit communities, who face work and descent-based discrimination at the hands of the dominant Hindu castes. . It is being practiced since times immemorial and despite various efforts made by social reformers such as Dr. B. R. Ambedkar; and despite there being provision on abolition of untouchability in our Constitution under Article 17, the evil is still in practice in our country. Although untouchability has been made illegal in post-independence India, prejudice against them are seen in the society, especially in rural areas. Definition of Untouchability Untouchablity in simple terms can be understood as a practice whereby a particular class or caste of persons are discriminated with on the ground of their being born in that particular caste or on the ground of their being members of those social groups involved in menial jobs. The discrimination can be in the form of physical or social boycott from the society. For instance: the members of so-called higher castes such as Brahmin, Kshatriyas etc would not dine or sit with a person of Bhangi class. It was believed that people of higher castes could become impure even if a shadow of an untouchable person touches him and to re-gain his purity he had to take a dip into holy waters of the Ganga. Who Are Untouchables? According to traditional Hindu ‘Varna System’, a person is born into one of the four castes based on karma and ‘purity’. Those born as Brahmans are priests and teachers; Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers; Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras are laborers. Untouchables are literally outcastes. They do not directly figure into any of the traditional ‘Varna System’ of Hindus. According to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, untouchables form an entirely new class i.e. the fifth varna apart from the existing four varnas. Thus, untouchables are not even recognized under the caste system of Hindus. However, historically persons born in lowest castes and classes of persons  doing menial jobs, criminals, persons suffering from contagious diseases and tribals living outside the so-called civilized world were considered as unto uchables. Their exclusion from the mainstream society was based on the belief that they are impure and harmful and it was necessary to ostracized them for the overall benefit of the society. Untouchability was also practiced as a form of punishment to the law-breakers and criminals; they were socially boycotted for their misdeeds. Who Are Dalits? Untouchables are also known as depressed classes, harijans etc; but today they are more frequently referred to as ‘Dalits’. In modern times, ‘Dalit’ refers to one’s caste rather than class; it applies to members of those so-called menial castes which are born with the stigma of â€Å"untouchability† because of the extreme impurity and pollution connected with their traditional occupations. They are considered impure and polluting and are therefore physically and socially excluded and isolated from the rest of society. Today members of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes (SC/ST) are considered as ‘Dalits’ and they are subjected to various forms of discrimination in the society. Especially, Schedule Castes such as Chamars, Passi, Bhangis and Doms etc are known as ‘Dalits’; these people are generally associated with menial jobs such as tanning, skinning of hides, works on leather goods, sweeping, scavenging etc. Forms of Discrimination against Untochables or Dalits According to National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), there are various forms of discriminations being practiced against Dalits in India, these are: Prohibited from eating with other caste members, Prohibited from marrying with other caste members, Separate glasses for Dalits in village tea stalls, Discriminatory seating arrangements and separate utensils in restaurants, Segregation in seating and food arrangements in village functions and festivals, Prohibited from entering into village temples, Prohibited from wearing sandals or holding umbrellas in front of dominant caste members, Prohibited from using common village pat, Separate burial grounds, No access to village’s common/public properties and resources (wells, ponds, temples, etc.), Segregation (separate seating area) of Dalit children in schools, Bonded Labor, Face social boycotts by dominant castes for refusing to perform their â€Å"duties† Abolition of Untochability under Indian Constitution India got Independence on 15th of August, 1947 after long and painful struggle of more than one hundred years. The struggle was not only against the foreign rule of British but it was also against the social evils such as untouchability prevailing from centuries. After Independence when great leaders of freedom struggle agreed to make our own Constitution, it was decided that there must be provisions under the Constitution regarding the abolition of social evils and upliftment of down-trodden castes and social groups etc. In view of this objective Article 17 was added to the Constitution; Article 17 reads as follows: â€Å"Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of â€Å"Untouchability† shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.† Thus, Article 17 abolishes and forbids untouchability in any form. At the same time, it also makes it an offence punishable as per the law made by the Parliament. In order to fulfill the mandate of Article 17 of the Constitution, the Parliament enacted the Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955. It made several discriminatioray practices punishable as offences, although the punishment provided were rather mild and in their actual application even milder. Several lacunae and loopholes were found in the working of the Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 which compelled the Government to bring about a drastic amendment in the Act in 1976. The Act was revamped as the Protection of Civil Rights Act. However, the menace of untouchability continued and ‘dalits’ were still being treated in a discriminatory way, their socio-economic conditions remained vulnerable, they are denied a number of civil rights and were subjected to various offences, indignities and humiliations. Therefore, to counter theses atrocities meted out to so-called ‘Dalits’ section of society, the Parliament passed ‘Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Attrocities) Act, 1989. The Act provided more comprehensive and punitive measures to deal with and to prevent discrimination and atrocities against  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœdalits’. The ultimate objective of the Act was to help the social inclusion of Untouchables/Dalits into the mainstream Indian society. These above mentioned Acts were made with good intention and with positive objective of removing discriminatory practices against untouchables/dalits but in actual practice, these Acts have failed to live upto their expectations. Untouchability: Present Scenario In our society there still exist feeling of superiority of caste and birth. We can experience the practice of untouchability in everyday life around us, especially in rural and semi-urban areas of the country. Also, in big metro cities, the inhuman practice of manual scavenging is still there. According to a news report of Press Trust of India (PTI), on January 3, 2014, four tea shop vendors were arrested by the Police in Karnataka for practicing untouchability while selling tea- they were serving tea in different types of cups to caste Hindus and SC/STs. The incidence shows that the evil practice is so deep rooted in Hindu society that even after 67 years of Independence is continuing in one form or other. However, it can be said that things are slowly changing; the mind set of modern generation is also changing. Today’s youth with modern education and globalized outlook are viewing the social order from different perspective of equality and impartiality and not from the religious or traditional point of view. Hopefully, the wicked practice of untouchability would be removed from the society sooner rather than later and our country would usher into a new era of social equality and brotherhood which will be the true India of Gandhi and Ambedkar. What is â€Å"Untouchability†? India’s Constitution abolished â€Å"untouchability,† meaning that the dominant castes could no longer legally force Dalits to perform any â€Å"polluting† occupation. Yet sweeping, scavenging, and leatherwork are still the monopoly of the scheduled castes, whose members are threatened with physical abuse and social boycotts for refusing to perform demeaning tasks. Migration and the anonymity of the urban environment have in some cases resulted in upward occupational mobility among Dalits, but the majority continue to perform their traditional functions. A lack of training and education, as well as  discrimination in seeking other forms of employment, has kept these traditions and their hereditary nature alive. Prevalence of Untouchability Practices Discrimination These statistics are taken from a survey of practices of untouchability undertaken in 565 villages in 11 major states of India. They clearly demonstrate that the inhumane and illegal practice of untouchability is still commonplace in contemporary India: In as many as 38% of government schools, Dalit children are made to sit separately while eating. In 20 percent schools, Dalits children are not even permitted to drink water from the same source. A shocking 27.6% of Dalits were prevented from entering police stations and 25.7% from entering ration shops. 33% of public health workers refused to visit Dalit homes, and 23.5% of Dalits still do not get letters delivered in their homes. Segregated seating for Dalits was found in 30.8% of self-help groups and cooperatives, and 29.6% of panchayat offices. In 14.4% of villages, Dalits were not permitted even to enter the panchayat building. In 12% of villages surveyed, Dalits were denied access to polling booths, or forced to form a separate line. In 48.4% of surveyed villages, Dalits were denied access to common water sources. In 35.8%, Dalits were denied entry into village shops. They had to wait at some distance from the shop, the shopkeepers kept the goods they bought on the ground, and accepted their money similarly without direct contact. In teashops, again in about one-third of the villages, Dalits were denied seating and had to use separate cups. In as many as 73% of the villages, Dalits were not permitted to enter non-Dalit homes, and in 70% of villages non-Dalits would not eat together with Dalits. In more than 47% villages, bans operated on wedding processions on public (arrogated as upper-caste) roads. In 10 to 20% of villages, Dalits were not allowed even to wear clean, bright or fashionable clothes or sunglasses. They could not ride their bicycles, unfurl their umbrellas, wear sandals on public roads, smoke or even stand without head bowed. Restrictions on temple entry by Dalits average as high as 64%, ranging from 47 % in UP to 94% in Karnataka. In 48.9% of the surveyed villages, Dalits were barred from access to cremation grounds. In 25% of the villages, Dalits were paid lower wages than other workers. They were also subjected to much longer working hours,  delayed wages, verbal and even physical abuse, not just in ‘feudal’ states like Bihar but also notably in Punjab. In 37% of the villages, Dalit workers were paid wages from a distance, to avoid physical contact. In 35% of villages, Dalit producers were barred from selling their produce in local markets. Instead they were forced to sell in the anonymity of distant urban markets where caste identities blur, imposing additional burdens of costs and time, and reducing their profit margin and competitiveness.

Importance Of The Performance Appraisal Business Essay

Importance Of The Performance Appraisal Business Essay Q3. Critically assess the importance of the Performance Appraisal as a function of human resource management in either a private or a public sector organization. Use a relevant case study discussed in the seminars to illustrate the importance of the above in relation to the strategic business objective of the organization. Introduction The Human Resources Management (HRM) is rational allocation of human resources in planned way based on the requirements of development strategy of organizations, which ensure the corporate strategic objectives. The HRM is a series of corporate policies in human resources affairs and relevant management activities. A diversity of functions are included in the HRM, and the key is to determine the employment needs of an organization and whether to outsource or hire staffs to fill these vacancies, recruiting, training, evaluating performance, and guaranteeing the personnel and management performs conform to numerous rules. Performance appraisal is one of the key functions of the HRM, it has a largely effect on the success of the organizations HRM, thus, it is no need to say that performance appraisal plays an important role in either private or public sector organizations. However, due to the complicated relationship within the organizations and the difficulties in designing appraisal system, performance appraisal cannot always be effective and useful. In this paper, some basic concept of performance appraisal will be discussed at the very beginning, the importance of performance appraisal will be discussed after that, issues which leads to ineffective of appraisal will be indicated and a case will also be used to illustrate the importance of performance appraisal. The Role and Purpose of Performance Appraisal The performance appraisal is one of the most important parts of HRM system. Performance appraisal is the method of obtaining, analyzing, and recording evidence about the relative value of a staff to the organization. It is an analysis of a staffs recent performance, advantages and disadvantages, and suitability for training or promotion in the future. Besides rewards allocation, organizations also use appraisals to offer growing advice to employees, as well as to know their perspectives about their positions, departments, supervisors and organizations (Walsh and Fisher, 2005). Generally speaking, the processes of performance appraisal are in six following steps: 1. discussing and establishing standards of performance with employees; 2. setting assessable targets; 3. measuring real performance; 4. comparing real performance with the employee; 5. discussing the evaluation with employee; 6. initiating corrective action when it is necessary. As a crucial function of HRM, although there is no consensus on the purpose of performance appraisal, the purpose of performance appraisal is generally identified as to improve current performance, provide feedback, increase motivation, identify training needs, identify potential, let individuals know what is expected of them, focus on career development, award salary increases and solve job problems (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2002). Performance appraisal plays a verity of roles in the HRM: it encourages supervisor and staff have regular and organized dialogue, makes the provision of feedback to the employee being assessed comprehensively; it enables to evaluate past and current performance, aims to find out the possibility for improvement and how to achieve it; it identifies the needs of training and individual or professional developmental; it gives advice for promotion and secondment; it is used to decide the performance-based payment. The Importance of Performance Appraisal in Organizations It is clearly that the HRM makes a great contribution for either private or public sector organizations to achieve organization goals, therefore, as an important function of HRM, the performance appraisal has significant importance in organizations. If there is no performance appraisal system, an organization can hardly have a clear understanding of its current situation, therefore it cannot get the direction and goals for improvement for future, the situation of the organization will be dangerous. If the performance appraisal system is full of deviation or even error, it can possibly lead the organization into a wrong direction of resource inputting, thus the organization will lose its long-term competitiveness. On the contrary, an effective performance appraisal system can ensure resources of the organization invested into the most critical processes, which can improve competitive advantage of organization. Generally speaking, the importance of performance appraisal to organization is mainly reflected in three aspects: 1. Affecting the productivity and competitiveness of organization. Performance of employees has a huge effect on productivity and competitiveness of the organization. Performance can be measured from work results, work action and work attitude of employees; 2. Performance appraisal result is an important indicator of personnel decisions. Performance evaluation offers important reference when organization making personnel decisions, such as promotion or demotion, secondment, salary adjustment and so on; 3. Effectively performance appraisal leads to better staff management. It means that an organization can make better evaluation of staff performance, which results in more reasonable remuneration and incentive. It also means that an organization will be able to offer more help to employees self-development since performance evaluation can explore the potential of employees and help them know clearly about what they should do to meet expectations better. Besides, it will help to achieve better communication between superiors and staffs, which promote greater unity of purpose. It is no doubt to say that strategic control plays an important role in meeting strategic business objective of the organizations. Strategy implementation is best accomplished through high-performing people (Michlitsch, 2000), that is to say, the HRM functions are important strategic control measurements. The ability of the organization to obtain a benefit from the professional knowledge and employees vision will be limited if there is an invaluable link between human resources functions and strategic plans of organization (Humphreys, 2005), so the link between the HRM and strategic objective is so important. As one of the core functions of the HRM, performance appraisal has purpose on administration and motivation, it provides important information and feedback for the HRM, so it is necessary for leaders of organizations to understand and create accomplished performance appraisal and feedback systems, which can link human resource management activities with the strategic needs of th e business (Schuler, Fulkerson and Dowling, 1991). On the other hand, according to the research of Walsh and Fisher (2005), organizations performance appraisal processes operate in ways that are less than ideal. Performance appraisal may be leaded to useless and inaccurate situation by many factors such as time pressures, complicated forms and psychological defense. Whats more, the appraisal process may become unclear and incoherent since employees and organizations try to meet different needs by performance appraisal. That is why most organizations agree that performance appraisal is important and must be executed, but only a few organizations can execute it continuously, usefully and effectively. Besides, a performance appraisal system should build clarity and reinforce a strategic corporate mission/direction (Chadwick, 1991), different parts of the organization will make effort to achieve the objectives in their one-sided view if a performance appraisal system didnt build clarity and strengthen strategic organization objective, th is may lead to sabotaging to overall organization goal. If things come to this situation, performance appraisal cannot act as an important and useful role in the HRM, let alone in strategic control. A Case Study of Rother Homes Effective performance appraisal systems do make important contribution for either private or public sector organizations. One of the evidence is from the experience of Rother Homes, which included in the case studies we had discussed in the seminars. The strategic business objective of Rother Homes was to reorganize its top two management tiers, which needed help in plan of succession and in-house development of managers. Rother Homes wanted to create an organization capable of grasping the opportunities which independence allowed (Analoui, 2007). After preliminary restructuring, a brand new performance appraisal system was in great need and conducted gradually. According to well-planned process and customized, well designed feedback questionnaire, Rother Homes benefited from 360-degree feedback not only for their new performance appraisal system but also their program of management development. Ten-month management-development program was conducted on the base of new performance app raisal system, the program made employees expanding and applying knowledge and views better, it also made participants doing better in teamwork. This program got very positive feedback from managers. Finally, under the help of more suitable and supportive performance appraisal system, Rother Homes successfully reorganized its management tiers, whats more, they got a more cohesive and enthusiastic management group (Analoui, 2007), well met the strategic business objective. This example well illustrated the importance of performance appraisal in relation to the strategic business objective of the organization. Conclusion As one of the most important functions of the HRM, performance appraisal plays a big role in the success of the organizations HRM. Performance appraisal affects the productivity and competitiveness of organization, the results of performance appraisal is an important indicator of personnel decisions and effectively performance appraisal leads to better staff management. Performance appraisal has a big importance to either private or public sector organizations and an effectively performance appraisal system does offers great help for either private or public sector organizations to achieve strategic goals. However, since the complicated relationship within the organizations and the complications in establishing well-designed appraisal system, performance appraisal cannot always be effective and useful as we expected it. In one word, establishing an effective appraisal system is not an easy task and it can never be completed overnight (Caruth and Humphreys, 2008). The only way to deve lop a useful and effective performance appraisal system is to work hard, think carefully, plan seriously and design accurately as what Rother Homes has done, it is not easy but is definitely worth to do.

Depiction Of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby Essay -- The Great

As children, we have all dreamt of money, being rich; owning an extravagant mansion, magnificent cars, and being married to a prince or princess. Basically, we dream of the perfect life, with the perfect spouse. Generally, this dream is known as the American Dream, which is the belief that if one works hard, that person will succeed by becoming rich. The topic of the American Dream can be found throughout The Great Gatsby, the most prime example of this is the dream of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s dream is to work hard to get rich in order to win the love of Daisy Buchanan, his long lost love. Despite these beliefs, the American Dream, in it’s modern form, generally fails to make that person happy. As for Gatsby’s dream to win Daisy’s love with elaborate material possessions, his attempts eventually lead to his death. Both the noble intentions and the resulting failures of the American Dream resemble the intentions and corruption of Jay Gatsby in the novel, The Gr eat Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  F. Scott Fitzgerald included many examples of the American Dream in the novel. Myrtle Wilson is an example of this. Myrtle, who was married to George Wilson, a low income mechanic, desired money and a higher social status. This desire, which is equivalent to the desire for money in the American Dream, eventually led to the death of Myrtle. Myrtle was having an affair with Tom Buchanan in spite of the fact that he was awful to her, for example, â€Å"†¦Tom Buchanan broke her nose with hi...

Computer Hacking Essay

Abstract: Recent discussions of computer ‘hacking’ make explicit reference to the disproportionate involvement of juveniles in this form of computer crime. While criminal justice, computer security, public and popular reï ¬â€šections on hacking seldom refer to formal criminological analyses of youth offending, they nonetheless offer a range of explanations for the over-representation of young people amongst computer hackers. Such accounts of hacking can be seen to converge with criminological analyses, by stressing a range of causal factors related to gender psychology, adolescent moral development, family dysfunction and peer-group and subcultural association. The homologies between ‘lay’, ‘administrative’, ‘expert’, ‘popular’ and criminological discourses, it is suggested, offer considerable scope for developing a critical, academically-informed, and policyoriented debate on young people’s participation in computer crim e. It has been noted that ‘youthfulness’ or ‘being a teenager’ appears as ‘a constant source of fascination and concern for politicians, media commentators and academic analysts’ (Muncie 1999, p.2), not least when involvement in supposedly ‘criminal’, ‘deviant’ and ‘anti-social’ activities is concerned. Whenever anxieties erupt about new threats to the moral and social order, ‘youth’ are seldom far away from the line-up of society’s ‘usual suspects’. Society’s perennial fascination with ‘youth and crime’ has itself become the object of sociological and criminological analysis, furnishing numerous explorations of the ways in which young people and their cultural commitments have become the ‘folk devils’ in successive waves of ‘moral panics’ about crime and disorder (Young 1971; Cohen 1972; Hall et al. 1978; Pearson 1983; Hay 1995; Sp ringhall 1998). Since the 1990s, academic commentators have observed how the Internet has emerged as a new locus of criminal activity that has become the object of public and political anxieties, sometimes leading to over-reaction (Thomas and Loader 2000, p.8; Littlewood 2003). Yet again, the category of ‘youth’ has ï ¬ gured centrally in discussions of the threat, especially in relation to ‘computer hacking’, the unauthorised access to and manipulation of computer systems. Politicians, law enforcement ofï ¬ cials, computer security experts and journalists have identiï ¬ ed ‘hacking’ as a form of criminal and deviant behaviour closely associated with ‘teenagers’ (see, inter alia, Bowker 1999; DeMarco 2001; Verton 2002). This association has been cemented in the realm of popular cultural representations, with Hollywood ï ¬ lms such as Wargames (1983) and Hackers (1995) constructing the hacker as a quintessentially teenage miscreant (Levi 2001, pp.46–7). While hacking in general has garnered considerable attention from academics working in the emergent ï ¬ eld of ‘cybercrime’ studies (see Taylor 1999, 2000, 2003; Thomas 2000), and some attention has been given to questions of youth (see Furnell 2002), few connections are made with the rich and extensive criminological literature of delinquency studies. On the other hand, those specialising in the study of youth crime and delinquency have largely neglected this apparently new area of juvenile offending (for an exception, see Fream and Skinner 1997). The aim of this article is not to offer such a new account of hacking as ‘juvenile delinquency’; nor is it to contest or ‘deconstruct’ the public and popular association between youth and computer crime. Rather, the article aims to map out the different modes of reasoning by which the purported involvement of juveniles in hacking is explained across a range of ofï ¬ cial, ‘expert’ and public discourses. In other words, it aims to reconstruct the ‘folk aetiology’ by which different commentators seek to account for youth involvement in hacking. Substantively, I suggest that the kinds of accounts offered in fact map clearly onto the existing explanatory repertoires comprising the criminological canon. Implicit within most non-academic and/or non-criminological accounts of teenage hacking are recognisable criminological assumptions relating, for example, to adolescent psychological disturbance, familial breakdown, peer inï ¬â€šuence and subcultural association. Drawing out the latent or implicit criminological assumptions in these accounts of teenage hacking will help, I suggest, to gain both greater critical purchase upon their claims, and to introduce academic criminology to a set of substantive issues in youth offending that have thus far largely escaped sustained scholarly attention. The article begins with a brief discussion of deï ¬ nitional disputes about computer hacking, arguing in particular that competing constructions can be viewed as part of a process in which deviant labels are applied by authorities and contested by those young people subjected to them. The second section considers the ways in which ‘motivations’ are attributed to hackers by ‘experts’ and the public, and the ways in which young hackers themselves construct alternative narrations of their activities which use common understandings of the problematic and conï ¬â€šict-ridden relationship between youth and society. The third section considers the ways in which discourses of ‘addiction’ are mobilised, and the ways in which they make associations with illicit drug use as a behaviour commonly attributed to young people. The fourth section turns to consider the place attributed to gender in explanations of teenage hacking. The ï ¬ fth part explores the ways in which adolescence is used as an explanatory category, drawing variously upon psychologically and socially oriented understandings of developmental crisis, peer inï ¬â€šuence, and subcultural belonging. In concluding, I suggest that the apparent convergence between ‘lay’ and criminological understandings of the origins of youth offending offer considerable scope for developing a critical, academically-informed debate on young people’s participation in computer crime. Hackers and Hacking: Contested Deï ¬ nitions and the Social Construction of Deviance A few decades ago, the terms ‘hacker’ and ‘hacking’ were known only to a relatively small number of people, mainly those in the technically specialised world of computing. Today they have become ‘common knowledge’, something with which most people are familiar, if only through hearsay and exposure to mass media and popular cultural accounts. Current discussion has coalesced around a relatively clear-cut deï ¬ nition, which understands hacking as: ‘the unauthorised access and subsequent use of other people’s computer systems’ (Taylor 1999, p.xi). It is this widely accepted sense of hacking as ‘computer break-in’, and of its perpetrators as ‘break-in artists’ and ‘intruders’, that structures most media, political and criminal justice responses. However, the term has in fact undergone a series of changes in meaning over the years, and continues to be deeply contested, not least amongst those within the computing community. The term ‘hacker’ originated in the world of computer programming in the 1960s, where it was a positive label used to describe someone who was highly skilled in developing creative, elegant and effective solutions to computing problems. A ‘hack’ was, correspondingly, an innovative use of technology (especially the production of computer code or programmes) that yielded positive results and beneï ¬ ts. On this understanding, the pioneers of the Internet, those who brought computing to ‘the masses’, and the developers of new and exciting computer applications (such as video gaming), were all considered to be ‘hackers’ par excellence, the brave new pioneers of the ‘computer revolution’ (Levy 1984; Naughton 2000, p.313). These hackers were said to form a community with its own clearly deï ¬ ned ‘ethic’, one closely associated with the social and political values of the 1960s and 1970s ‘counter-culture’ and protest movements (movements themselves closely associated with youth rebellion and resistance – Muncie (1999, pp.178– 83)). Their ethic emphasised, amongst other things, the right to freely access and exchange knowledge and information; a belief in the capacity of science and technology (especially computing) to enhance individuals’ lives; a distrust of political, military and corporate authorities; and a resistance to ‘conventional’ and ‘mainstream’ lifestyles, attitudes and social hierarchies (Taylor 1999, pp.24–6; Thomas 2002). While such hackers would often engage in ‘exploration’ of others’ computer systems, they purported to do so out of curiosity, a desire to learn and discover, and to free ly share what they had found with others; damaging those systems while ‘exploring’, intentionally or otherwise, was considered both incompetent and unethical. This earlier understanding of hacking and its ethos has since largely been over-ridden by its more negative counterpart, with its stress upon intrusion, violation, theft and sabotage. Hackers of the ‘old school’ angrily refute their depiction in such terms, and use the term ‘cracker’ to distinguish the malicious type of computer enthusiast from hackers proper. Interestingly, this conï ¬â€šict between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ is often presented in inter-generational terms, with the ‘old school’ lamenting the ways in which today’s ‘youngsters’ have lost touch with the more principled and idealistic motivations of their predecessors (Taylor 1999, p.26). Some have suggested that these differences are of little more than historical interest, and insist that the current, ‘negative’ and ‘criminal’ deï ¬ nition of hacking and hackers should be adopted, since this is the dominant way in which the terms are now understood and used (Twist 2003). There is considerable value to this pragmatic approach, and through the rest of this article the terms ‘hackingâ€℠¢ and ‘hackers’ will be used to denote those illegal activities associated with computer intrusion and manipulation, and to denote those persons who engage in such activities. The contested nature of the terms is, however, worth bearing in mind, for a good criminological reason. It shows how hacking, as a form of criminal activity, is actively constructed by governments, law enforcement, the computer security industry, businesses, and media; and how the equation of such activities with ‘crime’ and ‘criminality’ is both embraced and challenged by those who engage in them. In other words, the contest over characterising hackers and hacking is a prime example of what sociologists such as Becker (1963) identify as the ‘labelling process’, the process by which categories of criminal/deviant activity and identity are socially produced. Reactions to hacking and hackers cannot be understood independently from how their meanings are socially created, negotiated and resisted. Criminal justice and other agents propagate, disseminate and utilise negative constructions of hacking as part of the ‘war on computer crime’ . Those who ï ¬ nd themselves so positioned may reject the label, insisting that they are misunderstood, and try to persuade others that they are not ‘criminals’; alternatively, they may seek out and embrace the label, and act accordingly, thereby setting in motion a process of ‘deviance ampliï ¬ cation’ (Young 1971) which ends up producing the very behaviour that the forces of ‘law and order’ are seeking to prevent. In extremis, such constructions can be seen to make hackers into ‘folk devils’ (Cohen 1972), an apparently urgent threat to society which fuels the kinds of ‘moral panic’ about computer crime alluded to in the introduction. As we shall see, such processes of labelling, negotiation and resistance are a central feature of ongoing social contestation about young people’s involvement in hacking. Hacker Motivations: ‘Insider’ and ‘Outsider’ Accounts Inquiries into crime have long dwelt on the causes and motivations behind offending behaviour – in the words of Hirschi (1969), one of the most frequently asked questions is: ‘why do they do it?’. In this respect, deliberations on computer crime are no different, with a range of actors such as journalists, academics, politicians, law enforcement operatives, and members of the public all indicating what they perceive to be the factors underlying hackers’ dedication to computer crime. Many commentators focus upon ‘motivations’, effectively viewing hackers as ‘rational actors’ (Clarke and Felson 1993) who consciously choose to engage in their illicit activities in expectation of some kind of reward or satisfaction. The motivations variously attributed to hackers are wide-ranging and often contradictory. Amongst those concerned with combating hacking activity, there is a tendency to emphasise maliciousness, vandalism, and the desire to commit wanton destruction (Kovacich 1999); attribution of such motivations from law enforcement and computer security agencies is unsurprising, as it offers the most clear-cut way of denying hacking any socially recognised legitimacy. Amongst a wider public, hackers are perceived to act on motivations ranging from self-assertion, curiosity, and thrill seeking, to greed and hooliganism (Dowland et al. 1999, p.720; Voiskounsky, Babeva and Smyslova 2000, p.71). Noteworthy here is the convergence between motives attributed for involvement in hacking and those commonly attributed to youth delinquency in general – the framing of hacking in terms of ‘vandalism’, ‘hooliganism’, ‘curiosity’ and ‘thrill seeking’ clearly references socially available constructions of juvenile offending and offenders (on à ¢â‚¬Ëœhooliganism’ see Pearson (1983); on ‘thrill seeking’ see Katz (1988); Presdee (2000)). One way in which commentators have attempted to reï ¬ ne their understandings of hacker motivations is to elicit from hackers themselves their reasons for engaging in computer crimes. There now exist a number of studies, both ‘popular’ and ‘scholarly’ in which (primarily young) hackers have been interviewed about their illicit activities (for example, Clough and Mungo 1992; Taylor 1999; Verton 2002). In addition, hackers themselves have authored texts and documents in which they elaborate upon their ethos and aims (see, for example, Dr K 2004). Such ‘insider’ accounts cite motivations very different from those cited by ‘outsiders’. In fact, they consistently invoke a rationale for hacking that explicitly mobilises the ‘hacker ethic’ of an earlier generation of computer enthusiasts. In hackers’ self-presentations, they are motivated by factors such as intellectual curiosity, the desire for expanding the boundaries of knowledge, a commitment to the free ï ¬â€šow and exchange of information, resistance to political authoritarianism and corporate domination, and the aim of improving computer security by exposing the laxity and ineptitude of those charged with safeguarding socially sensitive data. However, such accounts ‘straight from the horse’s mouth’ do not necessarily furnish insights into hacker motivations that are any more objectively true than those attributed by outside observers. As Taylor (1999) notes: ‘it is difï ¬ cult . . . to separate cleanly the ex ante motivations of hackers from their ex post justiï ¬ cations’ (p.44, italics in original). In other words, such self-attributed motivations may well be rhetorical devices mobilised by hackers to justify their law-breaking and defend themselves against accusat ions of criminality and deviance. Viewed in this way, hackers’ accounts can be seen as part of what criminologists Sykes and Matza (1957) call ‘techniques of neutralisation’. According to Sykes and Matza, ‘delinquents’ will make recourse to such techniques as a way of overcoming the inhibitions or guilt they may otherwise feel when embarking upon law-breaking activity. These techniques include strategies such as ‘denial of injury’, ‘denial of the victim’, ‘condemnation of the condemners’ and ‘appeal to higher loyalties’. The view of hackers’ self-narrations as instances of such techniques can be supported if we examine hacker accounts. A clear illustration is provided by a now famous (or infamous) document called The Conscience of a Hacker authored by ‘The Mentor’ in 1986, now better know as The Hacker’s Manifesto. In the Manifesto, its author explains hackers’ motivations by citing factors such as: the boredom experienced by ‘smart kids’ at the mercy of incompetent school teachers and ‘sadists’; the experience of being constantly dismissed by teachers and parents as ‘damn kids’ who are ‘all alike’; the desire to access a service that ‘could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by proï ¬ teering gluttons’; the desire to explore and learn which is denied by ‘you’ who ‘build atomic bombs, [. . .] wage wars, [. . .] murder, cheat and lie’ (The Mentor 1986). Such reasoning clearly justiï ¬ es hacking activities by re-labelling ‘harm’ as ‘curiosity’, by suggesting that victims are in some sense ‘getting what they deserve’ as a consequence of their greed, and turning tables on accusers by claiming the ‘moral high ground’ through a citation of †˜real’ crimes committed by the legitimate political and economic establishment. Again, we see an inter-generational dimension that references commonplace understandings of ‘misunderstood youth’ and the corrupt and neglectful nature of the ‘adult world’. Thus young hackers themselves invest in and mobilise a perennial, socially available discourse about the ‘gulf ’ between ‘society’ and its ‘youth’. Discourses of Addiction: Computers, Drugs and the ‘Slippery Slope’ A second strand of thinking about hacking downplays ‘motivations’ and ‘choices’, and emphasises instead the psychological and/or social factors that seemingly dispose certain individuals or groups toward law-breaking behaviour. In such accounts, ‘free choice’ is sidelined in favour of a view of human actions as fundamentally caused by forces acting within or upon the offender. From an individualistic perspective, some psychologists have attempted to explain hacking by viewing it as an extension of compulsive computer use over which the actor has limited control. So-called ‘Internet Addiction Disorder’ is viewed as an addiction akin to alcoholism and narcotic dependence, in which the sufferer loses the capacity to exercise restraint over his or her own habituated desire (Young 1998; Young, Pistner and O’Mara 1999). Some accounts of teenage hacking draw explicit parallels with drug addiction, going so far as to suggest that engagement in relatively innocuous hacking activities can lead to more serious infractions, just as use of ‘soft’ drugs like marijuana is commonly claimed to constitute a ‘slippery slope’ leading to the use of ‘hard’ drugs like crack cocaine and heroin (Verton 2002, pp.35, 39, 41, 51).

Dubliners & stories Essay

James Joyce’s book, â€Å"Dubliners† offers a variety of stories about the city of Dublin. James wrote the collection of short fifteen stories where each story adds to the wonderful completion of the book. Each story was so different from the previous and it was very interesting to read various tales that took place in Dublin where each of the stories were kept interested and ready to read the next short story about a great love for the country and you could easily see the disappointment the writer held for some of the country people and the way they lived. I found myself glued to the pages while reading most of the stories and I would be eager to get to the next short story, and occasionally the next wasn’t quite as good, but I continued in my reading and I was never fully disappointed. Some of the stories were better than others, but as a whole, I would have to say that the book, â€Å"Dublin† was well worth the extra time I spent reading it, and I would recommend that others read the book, as well. Reading Joyce’s book is a wonderful way of learning about the country of Dublin and viewing how people live in the country. It was interesting to tour the country using a mental image that guided me along with Joyce’s words. Joyce used impressive and descriptive words to describe the surroundings in Dublin, such as â€Å"glow of a late autumn sunset† which gave me a feeling of serenity and full color description. Joyce used the color gold more than once in her writing, which I assumed was a color that she closely associated with the country of Dublin. In one of Joyce’s short stories, I found it very interesting when she told about Gallaher, from the title, â€Å"A Little Cloud† and told about the man returning from London and she had a way of clearly describing the man as dirty and dear. Gallaher brought interesting light to the short stories because he was able to bring in a different perspective of Dublin, because he wasn’t one that resided in the country. Joyce, in my opinion, possessed a love and hate relationship with Dublin. The author would tell stories of the country which left you feeling as if you never wanted to go there, but would then he would leave you feeling as if you had a deep respect for the country and the people who lived there. In the short story, â€Å"The Dead† Joyce talks about a marriage that was all wrong and failed because the relationship was full of deception and lies. The secrets destroyed the marriage, but at the same time, I liked and appreciated how the author was still able to show the love that was in the failing relationship. Joyce was able to teach me that it’s okay to still love someone, even though there are problems. I was able to see that you can still love someone, even though they are not perfect. The story made me think of unconditional love. In some of the stories, the author was able to come across strongly when she told about alcoholism and how it effected the lives of those who lived in Dublin. I was also able to feel sorry for the poor residents. It was sad how some of the Dublin citizens tried to escape the country only to end up in prison. It took some of the hope away that you had previously wished for and left a stagnant impression of Dublin. In the story, â€Å"Mother†, I found that it was depression that was the main theme of and I found it to be, less than entertaining. It was interesting to see how the author was able to move the story from ones youth to that of an adult. The author brought the words of the stories with anger at times and then gentleness with others. Joyce was able to display both good and bad emotions, from love to hate, and from depression to hope. The young characters in the story made me want to reach out to them. They seemed to be starving for affection and looked so helplessly for a means to escape from the country of Dublin. It was sad to see that hope diminish with the turning of the pages and watch as the young characters grew up to be defeated in their possibilities of escaping. The author spoke with an artistic ability with the words he chose for the story. He spoke in rhythm and it was easy to follow his writing. He had a remarkable way of describing the characters in his short stories and a means to help me closely identify with the characters. â€Å"His eyes burned with anguish and anger† was a line at the end of one story that was more frightening than entertaining. The author spoke bluntly about what he was saying I could clearly see the rage in the eyes of the person. The character, Farrington is such an angry individual in the story â€Å"Counterparts† and you can sense a hatred in his character. You had to wonder if Dublin brought out the worst in everybody. Dublin is a country that I see as oppressed through the authors writing and I don’t feel that I’d enjoy visiting the country, in fear that some of the anger and depression may rub off on me. I sense too much struggle in the daily lives of Dubliners, some which manage to survive with some hope and other characters that I just saw no hope for their eventual happiness. Joyce seemed cold and agitated in his writing when he talked about Dublin as if he had some type of hate for the country. But, in the end you have to ask yourself if he really did hate the place as much as he tried to make you believe he did. His writing was extremely creative and interesting and I’m happy that I read each of the short stories because I did learn so much the people who lived in Dublin. Their lives seemed so dull and full of despair which reminded be how fortunate I am to be able to live in a great country like The United States of America. The author very successful at opening up my imagination and I felt like I was in Dublin with the characters. I would have like to been capable of intervening for many of the characters, which is why I feel that â€Å"Dubliner† was a book that made me feel and react with several emotions. â€Å"Dubliners† by James Joyce is a story that I will always remember, but not with fondness. I will never forget the characters or the country of Dublin. I didn’t realize how old the book truly was, and I found it very impressive to read about the stories of Dublin in the early years. Joyce, James, 1914, â€Å"Dubliners† Penguin Group