Thursday, November 28, 2019

History Of Computing Devices (computers) Essays - Office Equipment

History of Computing Devices (computers) By:Daniel Habay In order to see why we invented computers we must look at how they WERE used and how they ARE used today. One of the first major uses of computers was to aid mathematical pursuits. As computers went along they added to the fields of science and literature. Computers also filled a need, the need to be lazy. It was once said that the perfect combination was laziness and intelligence. I believe in that because you can see how computers are being used today. We use them in Auto factories, basic cleaning, and other menial tasks. I will show you how computers have progressed along and today how they are used to the benefit of everyone in pursuits of math, literature, and science. The first computing device was a digital one. I am speaking of the human hand. Fingers being Digits, thus into the digital computer. This type of computing device was easily accessible but was limited in the sense that it could not go beyond 10. Later on someone came up with the brilliant idea of using smooth pebbles in a container or notches on a sick or bone. A while after that someone came up with the idea to use compressed plant fibers and burnt wood and in doing so they created a familiar counting device all by themselves, they had created the paper and pencil combination that is still used today. A while after that a clay table with grooves in it was used as a calculating device. Smooth pebbles, stones, or clay marbles were placed in the grooves and rolled from one side of the groove to the other to simulate movement of the numbers. A while after that someone came up with the idea of drilling holes or using beads along a string to simulate the movement of numbers. A long time l ater after a stagnation of about 2000 years, a device known as "Napier's bones" was invented by John Napier, the creator of logarithms. These devices aided calculation tremendously as they turned multiplication and division into simple addition and subtraction. A while after that a man by the name of Blaise Pascal invented his "calculating machine". This machine was limited to only addition and subtraction.

Monday, November 25, 2019

Lincoln Douglas Debates

Lincoln Douglas Debates Lincoln Douglas debates are those debates between Stephen Douglas, who held the position of a Senator as a Democratic Party candidate, and Abraham Lincoln, who was the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois. These two leaders were contesting for election into the U.S. Senate in 1858. Lincoln was opposing Douglas who wanted to be reelected. The two leaders were competing for control over Illinois legislature. The main topic that was argued in these debates was slavery.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Lincoln Douglas Debates specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Douglas was not popular on one hand while on the other hand Lincoln was popular since he had held campaigns earlier. They held seven main debates in their campaigns. One of the debates was held at Washington Square, Ottawa. They also held another debate in Freeport where more than 15,000 people attended (Lincoln-Douglas Debates 2). Other debates were held at Co les County Fairgrounds, Union County Fairgrounds, Broadway and Market Street, Old Main, and Washington Park. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas believed in opposing ideas. According to Lincoln, freedom and slavery can never be compatible (Murrin et al 549). In other words, Lincoln believed that there is no way we could have freedom and at the same time we have slavery. Each can only prevail at a time. This was the main theme for debates between Douglas and Lincoln in 1858. In his campaigns, Lincoln used a common slogan that â€Å"A house divided against itself cannot stand.† (Murrin et al 549). He was implying that the sitting government could not prevail any longer. In other words, Lincoln argued that since the prevailing government system was half freedom and half slavery, it could not last permanently. It was about to collapse. These two opposing systems are unsustainable within the same government. There was a fraction of the people who were advocating for legalization o f slavery in all the states. On the other hand, the republicans were against slavery since they thought it was not feasible with freedom. They wanted to combat slavery completely. Lincoln commented that their aim was to avoid the growth of slavery as well as placing it in a situation where the public would be free and confident that it would never haunt them once more (Murrin et al 549). In reaction to this, Douglas questioned Lincoln’s argument that slavery cannot coexist with freedom. Douglas commented that he didn’t know the reason which could prevent a country from surviving with both freedom and slavery since the same had already survived for 70years (Murrin et al 549). Douglas explained that Lincoln’s argument was not realistic since it would trigger the Southern people to withdraw from the stable union. He commented that although he was not advocating for slavery, the people from the Southern states opted for it and thus it was their right to have it (Mur rin et al 549).Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In their heated debate, Lincoln questioned Douglas on the legality of his arguments. Lincoln asked Douglas whether there could be any way through which slavery couldn’t exist without violating the then constitution (Nicolay 90). Douglas responded that this could happen. People have a legal right to include or exclude slavery. According to Douglas, slavery could not exist unless supported by the police. In their debates, Douglas argued that freeing of slaves in Illinois imply equality of all the people despite their race. By abolishing slavery, the Negroes would enjoy the rights and privileges of the citizenship. On raising this statement, the crowd showed a lot of opposition to the situation where Negroes would enjoy equal rights with the natives. In response to Douglas’s claims, Lincoln commented that he was neithe r advocating for political nor the social equality of races. He argued that â€Å"ultimate extinction† cannot take place abruptly; slaves have to emigrate from the country† (Murrin et al 549). In their debates, Lincoln and Douglas were differing in their views concerning the blacks who were mostly slaves. Lincoln advocated for the blacks while Douglas was against them. Lincoln argued that the blacks must be allowed to enjoy the natural rights which had been proposed through the declaration of independence. Every person had the right to liberty and slavery was a violation of the black’s liberty. Lincoln thought that there was no way this declaration could be adhered to with prevalence of slavery. Lincoln criticized Douglas for showing less concern on the issue of slavery. In fact, Douglas claimed that he was not looking forward to seeing slavery come to an end. He insisted that this arrangement had to survive for the sake of the southern states. The prevailing sol idarity among the states would be interfered with in case slavery institution was abolished. In conclusion, this discussion has clearly analyzed Lincoln Douglas debates of 1858. The central theme of their debates as already seen was slavery. The two candidates used this as a slogan in their campaigns. Lincoln thought that the prevailing government where Douglas was the leader could not last since it integrated slavery and freedom. On the other hand, Douglas proposed that such a government could continue to survive since it had survived in the previous 70 years. Lincoln-Douglas Debates. â€Å"Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858.† Illinoiscivilwar, 2007. 24 Feb. 2011. illinoiscivilwar.org/debates.htmlAdvertising We will write a custom essay sample on Lincoln Douglas Debates specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Murrin, John et al. Liberty, Equality, Power, a History of the American People. 5th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2007. Nicolay , G. John. Abraham Lincoln: A History, Volume 2. Middlesex: Echo Library, 2007.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Not sure Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Not sure - Research Proposal Example This was a triggering event for me, and I decided to research more. My research gave me a lot of literature about the mechanics of the SLR camera, and its preferred advantages over other forms of camera. I also gained a lot of resource material on the different brands of SLR and digital SLR (DSLR). However, when I was viewing the disadvantages of SLR I found out that one of the disadvantages of the SLR is that the mirror system can cause noise. I researched more on it, but could not get enough information. One of the reasons why noise came into the images was because of the thermal effect. Therefore it struck me if using a sensor cooling system in consumer grade DSLRs can reduce noise. I tried to find more literature if such cooling sensors are being used in consumer grade models. There was some information available on the usage of CCD sensors in DSLR for use in astrophotography; however, there was no literature or trial models in the market which used cooling systems for SLR in consumer grade models. Therefore I decided to base my research on the scope of developing a consumer grade SLR that integrated cooling systems to reduce noise. My research paper reviews the DSLR mechanics, and its merits and demerits over other forms of cameras. In the later part, the paper explores the science behind noise, and how it is overcome. It then goes on to justify that why cooling sensors can decrease noise. The paper outlines an experiment that could be performed in order to assess if cooling sensors can decrease noise. The paper also provides safety precautions that need to be taken and the scope, if the experiment is successful, of such DSLR models in the market for cameras today. As mentioned above, one of the disadvantages of consumer-grade DSLR is that the signal to noise ratio is high. Therefore the experiment is designed to investigate how one a certain type of sensor can reduce this ratio. The first step

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Principles of Employment Relations in Australia Essay

Principles of Employment Relations in Australia - Essay Example Over the past about twenty years, many nations have experienced a wide spread change and as such, the current theories are not a clear conceptual lens of understanding these changes. Australia has also experienced these changes since 1983. Industrial relations researchers have been doing a wonderful job in this sector, making critical observation like the transformation that has been experienced over the past 20 years or so. The theories of the Industrial relations are connected to the real world as they attempt to find logic from the natural human social behaviour and help to comprehend the consistent human real life activities (Allan et al 2008). Each human activity is identified in terms of theory, social context, experience and practice. Theories are perceived differently in the real life situation implying that these could be very different circumstances for instance the work of a shop Stewart and a human resource manager. Basically there are five main theories of industrial relations that have been explained by Industrial relations researchers (Allan et al 2008). These theories include Unitary, Conflict, Systems, and social action. Under this theory, an organization or a firm is v... The organizations management team and the workforce work together to meet the same goals and mutual respect and cooperation are emphasized here (Allan et al 2008). The main feature of this theory is the common purpose that the management and staff work to meet and the mutual cooperation that is emphasised in meeting these objectives. The stronghold of this theory is the fact that the trade union can be rendered useless as the organization has already established loyalty between workers and itself and this relationship is mutually exclusive. The whole industry is visualised as one and not as two sides where any conflict is treated as a disruptive and a consequence of agitators, poor communication and interpersonal problems. The organization is integrated in one harmonious firm and each worker identifies with the common organizational goal. There is not conflict of interest as the owners of capital are partners for effective production, good salaries and wages and good profits as well (Alexander et al 2008) Such kinds of operations have weaknesses in that, the workforce cannot challenge the managers' decision and trade unions are perceived as intruders to the existing unity and organizational structure. The existing trade unions become competitors to the workers loyalty. Unitary theory does not appreciate conflict as this is perceived as interpersonal friction, incitation, failure to understand communality and faulty communication (Allan et al 2008). Neo unitarism is a variant of the unitary theory (unitarism); this theory gets the workers to provide better production by human resource management tactics. Conflict Theory Many scholars believe that the theory of conflict bases its roots on the beliefs of Karl Marx and his Marxism theory. This theory

Monday, November 18, 2019

Monopoly and Microsoft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Monopoly and Microsoft - Essay Example As will be demonstrated in this brief analytical response, it is the belief of this author that an monopoly, regardless of its shape, size, or form, is ultimately destructive to the market and harmful to the end consumer (Kapoor, 2009). As such, the case of Microsoft and a discussion of economic theory, as well as the behavior that Microsoft has indicated over the past several decades, will be engaged as a means of understanding this particular approach. Furthermore, it is the hope of this author that the reader will come to a more profound level of understanding with respect to the fact that monopolies are ultimately harmful and do not represent a net benefit to the society as a whole (figures 1 and 2 within the appendix of this brief work demonstrate the harm that a monopoly can have with regards to increased prices paid by the end consumer). Monopoly and Microsoft: In understanding the monopoly that Windows has on the user experience of operating a PC, one should not only look to the way in which the firm dominates the operating system itself. Instead, a quick consideration of recent history reveals that Microsoft has long cultivated the monopoly that it now holds (Ohlhausen, 2004). For instance, Microsoft purposefully packaged Internet Explorer within Windows 95 and after as a means of decreasing the market presence and overall level of profitability that Netscape could have in the market (Gisser, 2011). As this was an effective tool towards decreasing competition, and Microsoft soon learned the benefit of packaged software’s ability to further define the market that it had already captured, much the same technique was employed with regards to the audio/video player of Windows Media Player (Vogelstein, 2004). Realizing the a litany of different startups were threatening to take market share from Microsoft, the same strategy of packaging Windows Media Player into the operating system as a means of integrating the product with what can only be describe d as a captive market (Greene et al. ,2004). As can be firmly noted, the monopolistic model of competition is ultimately harmful to the market and to the consumer. The only entity that benefits from such a model is obviously the producer. As figure 1 and figure 2 both denote, a certain level of deadweight loss is portended by the monopoly. As a graphical representation helps the reader to understand, this deadweight loss is actually stolen from the equilibrium price and demand; thereby making the good under monopolistic competition greatly higher priced than it would be in normal competition. As previously denoted, this in and of itself is engaged by the monopoly seller as a means of incurring further profits. Figure 1: Figure 2: Microsoft’s Approach to Profitability and the Engagement of the Monopoly as a Function of Capitalist Drive Likewise, in seeking to understand the approach that Microsoft has engaged, it can only be defined as one that is bounded by rational self inte rest in the sense of continuing to accrue further levels of profitability and continue to integrate into further markets (Cohen et al., 1999). Even a cursory review into the current time does not reveal a Microsoft that allows its fate to be pinned upon the success or failure of an operating system; rather, when one looks at the face of Microsoft, one can see a firm that has recently expanded to purchase a controlling

Friday, November 15, 2019

Impact of Icebreaker Tasks on ESL Speaking Ability

Impact of Icebreaker Tasks on ESL Speaking Ability CHAPTERÂ   Background and Purpose Introduction Speaking is the most demanding skill among English learners and over the past decades, increasing interest in different aspects of improving speaking ability has triggered a variety of investigations, and theoretical discussions that have shed light on improving this ability. Icebreakers will be used in this study to improve speaking ability in adult upper-intermediate EFL learners. Ice breaking means breaking the ice between learners and using ice breakers to encourage students to interact all together. Statement of Problem The lack of proper speaking activities to improve oral production in adult EFL students of upper-intermediate level, results in a poor performance when speaking. This project expects to find valuable information that contributes to overcome the problems adult EFL students of upper-intermediate level face when speaking in the target language in the classroom. Theoretical Framework Speaking skill is as crucial as any other language skills. Shumin (1997) states that learning to speak a foreign language requires more than knowing its grammar and vocabulary. Learners should acquire the skill through interaction with each other. However, it is difficult for EFL learners to speak appropriate English in the classroom because of the limited language use in their real lives. Ice breakers are discussion questions or interaction activities used to help participants relax and ease in learning situation (Dover, 2004). The primary goal for an ice breaker is the development of an environment that is anxiety reducing and, which allows individuals to break the ice or get acquainted with having fun. Pillai (2007) mentions the purpose of ice breakers as helping new and shy students strike a conversation, developing communication skills and team building, breaking cultural barriers among students, promoting a sense of trust and friendship between students, encouraging students, and preparing them to learn by stimulating their minds and/or their bodies. Forbes-Greene (1984) defines icebreakers as tools that enable students to foster interaction, encourage creative thinking, challenge basic assumptions, explain new concepts, and introduce specific material. According to Varvel (2002) ice breaker is an activity used to help individual ease into the group setting. Also, Wright (1999) defines ice breaker as opening communication among students as between teacher and students. Jenkins (2011) argues that ice breaker should be dynamic and simple so as to satisfy students need to establish an appropriate social relationship with other students and teachers and also preview the style and content of the classroom event. According to Sapp (2007) principles of successful ice breakers are as follows: Simple Non-threatening Open ended Relevant Energizing Witkowski (2000) states that some elements should be considered in designing an appropriate ice breaker in the classroom. He listed these elements as follow: Objective Audience Time management Control As a matter of fact, we can say that how well students do in class depends mostly on how well teacher breaks the ice between them. From this point of view, English teachers should reconsider the methodology they can apply in their classes and try to improve their teaching ability. Purpose of the Study In terms of skills, producing a coherent and fluent piece of speech is probably the most important thing there is to do between EFL learners. The present study investigates ice breaking tasks as activities that presumed to play a role in EFL speaking classes. The first question this study tries to answer is whether or not providing students with ice braking tasks as their classroom activities will exert any impact on their speaking skill. According to Peterson (2010), beginning your lesson plans with a five-minute ice breaker can serve to focus your students on the topic, open up creative thinking and help them to apply the learning in new ways. According to Leblanc (2011) ice breaking activities will help students to turn off the outside world and focus on the task at hand. By the end of the ice breaking activity, every student will be ready to learn and being able to focus on their language lesson. Then, a teacher will reach every student and will help their students achieve their language goals. In any classroom, there always are students who are more reticent and are willing to let others do all the participating. By engaging students to take part in a low-risk, ice-breaking activity, teachers will reach every student and will help their students achieve their language goals. Based on the problems and purpose of study, the following research questions were proposed: Does providing students with ice- breaking tasks have any effect on their speaking ability? To what extent ice-breakers improve speaking? What factors can be considered in testing speaking ability of EFL learners? What is the effect of using ice-breakers in improving every factor that considered in testing learners speaking ability? What is the correlation between using ice-breaker activities and students gender? When teachers use ice- breaking as a strategy to improve oral ability in English classrooms? 1.5. Significance of the Study In the age of internet and information technology, speaking English has become so important and many EFL instructors and supervisors understand the essence of the speaking process. Learning to speak English fluently is important to most of the students. Thus, helping students to develop speaking skills is a demanding enterprise for teachers. Using a good ice breaker is important to an English language lesson, as it sets the students up for success on many different levels. According to Flanigan (2011) performing ice breaking activities in English class will help students be in the right frame of mind to learn. Also proper ice breaking activities ensure that students will get the most from their class and they will have fun. 1.6. Research Design and Methodology 1.6.1. Research Design Since real random selection of the subjects is impossible, the researcher made use of intact groups based on the results of students previous general English test scores. Therefore the design which can fit this study is the quasi-experimental design with the pre-test, post-test pattern. In the current study ice breakers are the independent variable and speaking is the dependent variable. Thus the effectiveness of ice breakers, the amount of improvement, factors that can be considered in testing speaking ability, and effect of using icebreakers in every factor will be analyzed quantitatively by data analysis of pre-test and post-test, and qualitatively by analyzing teachers view point about the usefulness of ice-breakers. 1.6.2. Setting and Participants After administering the sample speaking IELTS test, on the basis of the result, 100 students, whose homogeneities is confirmed-will be selected and divided into two groups ,one as the control group and the other one as the experimental group. Coming from different departments such as Science, History, Literature, Computer Science and Civil Engineering, Both groups will attend English classes two times a week throughout the semester (about 18 sessions, 3hours each session). 1.6.3. Data Collection Instruments For collecting data, two instruments have been used in this study. The first ones are different kind of ice breakers that have been gathered from related standard sources. The second instrument is interview with teachers. As we will explain latter, it will elaborate in order to identify some aspects related to the teachers’ point of view about the usefulness of ice-breakers in upper-mediate level, and the students reaction to these kinds of activities. 1.6.4. Data Analysis As it was mentioned earlier, there is a six fold purpose that will promote the present study. This research is mainly an attempt (a) to examine the probable effect of ice breakers on the speaking ability of EFL students at upper-intermediate language proficiency level, (b) to investigate the amount of ice breakers effect, (c) to investigate factors that are considered in testing speaking (d) study the effect of using ice-breakers in improving every factor,(e) measure the correlation between using ice-breaker activities and students gender,and (f) the conditions in which the teachers use ice breakers to cope with reticence in oral English language classrooms. Data for this study obtained from pre-test, post-test, and interview with teachers. Then in order to do statistical analysis, the SPSS software is used. 1.7. Limitation and Delimitations of the Study 1.7.1. Limitations As many other studies, this study suffers from some limitations, those conditions beyond the control of the researcher that may place restrictions on the conclusions of the study and their application to other situations (Best Kahn, 1989, p.38). It seems that the following factors have limited this study in one way or another: 1. As a matter of fact, in order to give every single member of a population an equal chance to be included in the sample, random sampling is needed. Yet the type of sampling, which was employed in this study was the available group selection, i.e. instead of individual subject selection, there was group selection. 2. Subjects social classes were certainly ignored as well. 3. Teachers age, gender, and social class were ignored, too. 4. The number of subjects was limited to 100 and the extension of the experiment was limited to one term. 5. The generalizability to other language proficiency levels needs further research. 1.7.2. Delimitation In order to meet the criterion of manageability and to permit a satisfactory analysis of the results, narrowing down and delimiting the problems in any study have proved to be inevitable. This study is no exception; therefore, through a number of delimitations, the researcher tried to set the boundaries of this study: 1. What this study aims to investigate is the impact of ice-breakers on speaking ability of EFL Turkish students, not on any other aspect of their proficiency. 2. The participants were chosen from amongst the male and female undergraduate Turkish learners who are improving their English level in the American Culture Institute in Erzurum. 3. To reduce the subject anxiety during the speaking, the examiner was the students own teacher. 1.8. Outline of the Study Chapter one provides a general introduction to the study. In this chapter the purpose of the study, research questions, hypotheses, and limitations of the study were discussed and key terms were defined. In chapter two, the researcher reviews the literature related to the theoretical and empirical background to speaking, ice-breakers, and their effects and functions. Chapter three deals with methodological issues such as participants, data collection, procedures, research questions and hypotheses, etc. Chapter four is concerned with data analysis and discussion of the results. In the final chapter, we draw some conclusions from our analysis, discuss conclusive results, and provide implications for further research.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal Essay -- Mexican Culture Catholicism

Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal The 1959 novel, Pocho, by Josà © Antonio Villarreal is an insightful cultural exposition told primarily from the vantage point of Richard Rubio, the coming-of-age son of immigrant Mexican parents who eventually settle in Santa Clara, California, after many seasons of migrant farm work. Although fiction, the story likely mirrors some of the experiences of the author who was born to migrant laborers in Los Angeles in 1924 and was himself a "pocho" - a child of the depression era Mexican-American transition. ("I am a Pocho," he said, "and we speak like this because here in California we make Castilian words out of English words." p 165) Such a journey was a difficult one ("...for the transition from the culture of the old world to that of the new world should never have been attempted in one generation." p 135), and Villarreal nicely employs a cross cultural bildungsroman to explore a diversity of related themes. Among the most prominent are strains of racism/classism, belonging and dislocation, death and meaning and self-identity, and sexual awakening. In a slim 187 pages the author competently weaves social commentary (via the seemingly innocent adolescent perspective) into a moving narrative that only occasionally veers toward the pedantic. Richard's father, Juan Rubio, is proud to be a Mexican and resents the Spanish people, whom he identifies as oppressors (although Juan is clearly of Spanish descent since he had "fair skin" and "blue-gray eyes" - p 1). He explains to his son, who exclaims in response to his father's prejudice, "But all your friends are Spanish!" (p 99): "That is all there is here," said Juan Rubio, "but these people are different - they are also from the lower class... ...s parents. Second, one should not, on penalty of going to Hell, discuss religion with the priests. And, last, one should not ask questions on history of the teachers, or one will be kept in after school," he said. "I do not find it in me to understand why it is this way." (p 85, 86) Author Josà © Antonio Villarreal has a dry sense of humor and, as mentioned above, does a marvelous job weaving bits of wry commentary throughout the novel. Another fun quote is when Richard's sister, Luz, demonstrates her own prejudice for the newly arrived, and darker skinned, Mexicans: "Well, they ain't got nuthin' and they don't even talk good English." (p 148) Now, 50 years after the novel was first written, the story is still relevant. It's an intriguing narrative and helpful in capturing the "double consciousness" that many Mexican-American's lived with as a matter of course.