Information System (IT) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information System (IT) - Essay Example It serves computer industries dealing with hardware, software and consumer electronics worldwide. Michael Porters value chain framework helps to analyze activities through which creates value and gains competitive advantage. In this case, Delta Airlines applies different secondary and primary activities in realizing its value chain. For instance, the company uses technology (secondary activity) through its company website to enhance flight scheduling for its clients. Another secondary activity used by the company is the procurement of resources such as acquisition of aircraft and their parts. Primary activities of Delta Airlines include marketing of its services to their target audience through different marketing channels such as Internet marketing. Another primary activity is great customer service that is realized through a good company motivational plans. Organizational designs make sure that the rights to make decisions are properly allocated. In hierarchical, a manager is the mediator and oversees information collection from those answerable to him and reports as in is the case in several companies around the globe. Flat structures support information flow all through the firm like in the case of matrix which involves small groups that are interconnected. Some of the technologies that support this organizational structures and designs is the Intranet. Intranet functions just like the Internet, but it’s not available to the out Internet community as it’s solely for a given

Response to Shooting an Elephant Essay Example for Free

Response to Shooting an Elephant Essay George Orwell, one of the most famous English authors, was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, in 1903. His father was a colonial official for the British and his mother’s family also had colonial ties. In 1922, Orwell worked as a British imperial policeman in Burma for five years but he finally returned to England again because he recognized the injustices of the British imperial rule in Burma and could not suffer the guilt of oppressing the Burmese anymore. Later, Orwell spent the next twenty years as a writer; the essay â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† set in the Burma of the 1920s and written in 1936, is one of his most famous works. In the early twentieth century, Burma was still a colony of Britain but anti-imperialism protests and social movements developed very fast, causing â€Å"great tension between Burmese, Indians and English, between civilians and police† (Meyers 56). Orwell’s essay â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† is based on this historical tension. In this essay, Orwell depicts an older narrator recounting his imperial policeman’s experience of killing an escaped elephant that destroyed a market and killed an Indian man in Burma. Throughout the story, Orwell chooses language carefully to develop his narration so as to help the readers explore a young imperial officer’s emotional struggle. First, Orwell begins his story with frequent use of carefully-chosen diction to indicate the young policeman’s hatred and also sympathy toward the Burmese. When he describes he was always â€Å"an obvious target† to those Burmese who hated the British Empire, he writes: When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, then the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. (Orwell 94) Using the strong emotional words â€Å"hideous,† â€Å"sneering yellow faces,† and â€Å"hooted† indicates the young officer’s disgust toward those Burmese. But in the following paragraph his emotions are suddenly described in a more complex way; the narrator says, â€Å"All this was perplexing and upsetting† (Orwell 94), which is opposite to the anger and bitterness that are suggested by the diction used before. By using these two words, Orwell changes the young policeman’s emotional voice to the older narrator’s more intellectual voice to suggests a more complex feeling about what the young imperial policeman experienced because of his job. In the next sentence, Orwell uses a series of strong phrases to describe what the young police officer observes in his â€Å"dirty work†: â€Å"The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos—all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt† (Orwell 91). From this specific and graphic description of the prison, readers can perceive the young officer’s sympathy and guilt toward the suffering Burmese. It makes them realize that the young imperial officer is not totally inhumane. In short, Orwell uses careful diction to create the first emotional struggle of the young officer within his policing duties under imperialism. In the essay, Orwell also uses repetition to show the young narrator’s complex emotions. For example, after the young officer sees the destruction caused by the elephant and finally finds his target on the paddy field, he mentions more than three times that he is not willing to shoot the elephant. When he sees the crowd following him, he reports, â€Å"I had no intention of shooting the elephant—I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary†(Orwell 94). After he sees the elephant, he comments, â€Å"I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him† (Orwell 94). Then, he starts saying that the elephant was â€Å"a huge and costly piece of machinery† (Orwell 95) and the elephant seemed harmless right now. The young officer continues claiming,â€Å"I did not in the least want to shoot him† (Orwell 95). These all shows the young man’s sympathy toward the elephant, but more importantly Orwell builds up a tension here by using three different versions of repetition to show how the young officer was wavering in his position. For the first quote, â€Å"no intention† somehow indicates the young narrator’s thinking: he seems to be saying, â€Å"I have no purpose to do that and I am not going to do it. † But then in the second quote, he says â€Å"ought not to† instead of â€Å"no intension of,† which contains much more certainty of not killing the elephant. It shows that the young officer knew he should not shoot the elephant, but he certainly felt a lot of pressure and his mind was not as firm as in the last statement. In the third statement, the young officer’s tone is obviously weaker than the last two; â€Å"I did not in the least want†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this tone sounds just like a prisoner talking about how he does not want to commit a murder, finishes it saying â€Å"I didn’t want to kill that person. † The young officer’s mind was wavering and he was taking a step forward toward killing the elephant everytime he introduces his different expressions of unwilling to kill the elephant. Orwell uses this repetition not only to show the young officer’s internal conflict, but also to imply, as a possible result, that the young officer will change his mind from not shooting the elephant to actually doing that. However, under the crowd’s pressure and his position as an imperial officer, the young police officer has to kill the elephant in order to maintain his master figure. Orwell uses the change from the first person to the third person to comment on the young man’s revelation. When the young man sees that the Burmese watch him excitedly, he suddenly feels that he should shoot the elephant after all. And it is because â€Å"their two thousand wills [were] pressing me forward, irresistibly†¦[that] I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib† (Orwell 95). The narration shifts from the first person â€Å"I† to the third person â€Å"he,† indicating not only Orwell’s comment upon this decision of the young person, but also Orwell’s main argument in the essay: as a imperial officer, a person needs to betray his own good nature in order to maintain his superiority toward the colonized. Then, Orwell uses strong terms again to replay the emergency and tension that the young officer encountered earlier: A white man mustn’t be frightened in front of ‘natives’; and so, in general, he isn’t frightened. The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like the Indian up the hill. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do. (Orwell 96) Here, words like â€Å"sole thought,† â€Å"trampled,† â€Å"reduced to a grinning corpse† are used to emphasize the young man’s anxiety in shooting the elephant, for he does not want to lose face in front of the natives. This is the remaining emotion occupying his mind at that time; even though he still has sympathy toward the elephant, as a imperial officer, he will kill the elephant to protect his â€Å"conventionalized figure of a sahib. † By way of these specific word choices, Orwell describes vividly how the young imperial officer’s pride finally defeats his good nature so that he can maintain his superior figure. Finally, Orwell ends the story using the young officer’s naive voice as opposed to the older narrator’s voice mentioned before to make his narration more believable: â€Å"I was very glad that the coolie [which is the Indian killed by the elephant] had been killed†¦it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant† (Orwell 99). Readers may feel sympathetic that the young man does not feel guilty but happy that he is not responsible for killing the elephant and saving his face or â€Å"avoiding looking a fool† in front of the natives. They may feel pity that the young man is likely to learn nothing from this incident and even to feel lucky that someone’s death can free him of responsibility for killing the elephant. But this naive voice can increase the old narrator’s credibility because readers can feel his sincerity; he is willing to admit that his younger self really felt a bit lucky that he was out of punishment because of the elephant killing an Indian man at that time. It convinces the reader to believe what the narrator argues at last: as an imperial officer, he has to do what the natives expect of him in order to conform to his â€Å"conventionalized figure of the sahib†(Orwell 95), which is â€Å"to avoid looking a fool†(Orwell 99) in front of the natives. Overall, in this essay, Orwell uses effective language to make his narration of the story more impressive and thoughtful, and to explore an imperial officer’s struggle between his good nature and his imperial role.

Why The Vegetarian Diet Is Best Essay -- Healthy Lifestyle Essay

Why the Vegetarian Diet is Best The vegetarian diet is becoming increasingly popular all the time. Is the vegetarian or meat diet better? A decade ago and earlier, the impression was that a vegetarian diet was lacking in the nutrients found in meat products. Today though, through research and nutritional science, it has been proven that all the nutrients found in meat can also be found in the correct vegetarian diet. Some may argue that by only consuming meat that is low in fat, meat and vegetarian diets have identical benefits. This is true only if one eats only very low fat meat. The lack of meat is not necessarily the main benefit of to the vegetarian. Vegetarians tend to eat more fruits, vegetables and grains that the meat eater. They also tend not to use tobacco and excessive alcohol. In addition, vegetarians tend to get more exercise. The term vegetarian can be misleading. This diet can take on many different variations. A fruitarian eats only fruits, seeds and nuts while the vegan eats these and vegetables, grains and legumes. A lacto vegetarian consumes the same as a vegan as well as dairy products. A lacto-ovo vegetarian follows after the lacto vegetarian but also includes eggs while the ovo vegetarian excludes dairy products. Finally, the partial vegetarian eats anything except red meat, or at least strictly limits it. Because the term vegetarian is used to cover all facets and variations, it is difficult to identify health benefits resulting from th...

Inventory and Alliance Supermarkets

Alliance Supermarkets has been using a point-of-sale (POS) system for some time to track its inventory. The system uses a laser scanner to read the universal product code (UPC) on each item at the checkout container. The UPC is a number that uniquely identifies the product on which it appears. Currently, Alliance is using the UPC information to update inventory records for each item. Although the system has greatly improved the company’s ability to replenish inventory promptly, the company still has some problems.For example, sudden changes in demand for a particular item can catch the company by surprise as it bases inventory replenishment on historical demand patterns. Further, demand patterns and preferences may vary from one store to another depending on the customers served by each, but the inventory system groups all demand information together and treats each store equally. Finally, the manufacturers that make the products stocked by Alliance Supermarkets are always pre ssuring Alliance to help them target appropriate customers for special promotions and sales.The chief information officer (CIO) of Alliance realizes that much more could probably be done with the data collected from its POS system. For example, the company could analyze the relationship between each product’s sales and weather patterns. It is even possible to analyze an individual customer’s buying habits and identify instances when a customer may be persuaded to try a different brand of a certain product. Suppose you have been asked to study this situation and suggest possible new and innovative uses for the information generated by the POS system.Ideally, these ideas should help Alliance better serve its customers by ensuring that adequate quantities of each item are available, that costs are kept low, and that customers are made aware of new products that may interest them. 1. What information may help Alliance reduce costs while providing better service? 2. If purc hase information can be obtained on individual customers, what new approach could be used by Alliance?Your paper should be in paragraph form (avoid the use of bullet points), and supported with the concepts outlined in your text. Do not include the original questions of the assignment in the paper. Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment. Alliance Analysis The CIO for Alliance Supermarkets desires to make better use of the volume of data retrieved with each sale via the Point of Sale (POS) software that documents the sale of each product as it is bar coded.There are three key issues which the CIO wishes to address: 1) be able to respond to sudden, unanticipated inventory demand; 2) identify demand patterns that vary from store to store; 3) assist the manufacturers to better target customers for special promotions and sales. With the use of POS, Alliance Supermarkets have the ability to track sales of products and reorder the m automatically. With this type of information, the manufacturers have ready access to what products have been sold as they are scanned.Scanning the bar code for each product sends a signal to the manufacturers documenting the sale of each item in inventory as the sale occurs. When predetermined levels are reached, an order is placed with the manufacturer to replenish the inventory. The POS information can also help manufacturers â€Å"analyze an individual customer's buying habits and identify instances when a customer may be persuaded to try a different brand of a certain product† (Vonderembse & White, 2013).Alliance Supermarkets can better serve its customers by having adequate supplies of inventory based upon the ways that the store tracks its inventory. Not only will regular order replenishment of inventory improve customer satisfaction, but it will have the added effect of improving efficiencies and making the best use of capital resources. A perpetual inventory system of some merchandise such as perishable foods like meat, dairy products, and vegetables can help lower costs through greater efficiencies in processes.By avoiding Stock Outs, customers will have the ability to purchase their desired products without inventory costs. Adding Safety Stock to the inventory control plan can also aid Alliance in flexing up for sudden surge demand. Taking advantage of volume discounts is another way that costs can be controlled more efficiently. There is not always a cost savings in buying in volume. Therefore, using the formula of OP = dL can be used to determine an optimum point to reorder. OP = order point. d= daily use, and L = lead time.This helps determine how much advance notice is needed in order for the store not to run out of inventory. (Vonderembse & White, 2013 p. 10. 4) Alliance can also make use of demographic and purchasing decisions based upon POS transactions. Sorting the data individually by each store will help Alliance identify purchasin g trends. Orders can be placed specific to each stores demographic. A periodic inventory control system of non perishable items such as dairy products, meat and vegetables could be used to help assess the grocery stores replenishment goals without running out of goods.

Canada History Essay

Everywhere you might hear the roll of the drum, and there was no family but had its soldier, and few that did not have their dead. There were a score of thousand British troops in the Northern provinces, and every week brought rumors and alarms, and portents of victory or defeat. The haggard post-rider came galloping in with news from north and west, which the anxious village folks gather to hear. There have been skirmishes, successes, retreats, surprises, massacres, retaliations. In 1867 the Canadian history was the people’s ancestors who become American Indians (North American Indians) that first entered North America from Siberia some time around 14,000–15,000 years ago. A wave of further migrations from Siberia, beginning about 4,000 years ago, brought the Inuit people, who settled across the whole of Arctic North America, from Alaska through Northern Canada to Greenland (Fregault, 1969). The European discovery is where Europeans sight North America were the Vikings in 986. An expedition led by Leif Ericsson sailed from Greenland, visited Baffin Island, and sailed down the Labrador coast to Newfoundland, which was named Vinland. The remains of a Viking settlement have been found on the island, but it would seem that the Viking colony was short†lived. The Viking discovery was forgotten in Europe, and it was 500 years before another European, John Cabot reached the shores of Canada (1497). In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a Frenchman, undertook a voyage of discovery along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, and on his second voyage (1536–37) discovered the St Lawrence River and travelled as far as the Huron capital, Hochelaga (the site of Montreal). Some small settlements were made by the French, but have been abandoned it after two years (Hayes, 2002). The French and British rivalry was until 1608 that Samuel de Champlain, who had visited the country in 1603 and subsequent years, founded the city of Quebec. The St Lawrence region formed a French colony under the name of Canada for the next century and a half. Meanwhile, the English formed the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 and began to trade with the American Indians that is now the Northwest Territories. A French colony, known as Acadia, had also been established in Nova Scotia at the beginning of the 17th century, but the arrival of English and Scottish colonists led to a long†running conflict for possession until the territory came they became under British control by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). Finally, in 1749 the British founded the settlement of Halifax and installed many British colonists, and the following year the French settlers were expelled for refusing to swear loyalty to the British crown. Many of these Acadians subsequently settled in Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns (Eccles,1969). Louis Reil is perhaps the most controversial figure in Canadian historiography. He is a leader of his people in their resistance against the Canadian government in the Canadian Northwest. His life and deeds have spawned a massive and diverse literature. He was born in the Red River Settlement (in what is now Manitoba) in 1844. He is a promising student and was sent to Montreal to train for the priesthood, but he never graduated. An attempt at training as a lawyer, and by 1868 Riel was back in the Red River area. Ambitious, well educated and bilingual, Riel quickly emerged as a leader among the Metis of the Red River. In 1869-1870 he headed a provisional government, which would eventually negotiate the Manitoba Act with the Canadian government. The Act established Manitoba as a province and provided some protection for French language rights. Riel’s leadership in the agitation, especially his decision to execute a Canadian named Thomas Scott, anti-Catholic and anti-French sentiment in Ontario. Although chosen for a seat in the House of Commons on three occasions, he was unable to take his seat in the house. In 1875, Riel’s role in the death of Scott resulted in his exile from Canada. These years in exile would include stays in two Quebec asylums and the growing belief in Riel that he had a religious mission to lead the Metis people of the Canadian northwest (Chartrand, 1999). Riel was the undisputed spiritual and political head of the short-lived 1885 Rebellion. He never carried arms and hindered the work of his military head, Gabriel Dumont. Riel was increasingly influenced by his belief that he was chosen to lead the Metis people. On May 15, shortly after the fall of Batoche, Riel surrendered to Canadian forces and was taken to Regina to stand trial for reason (Lloyd, 1959). At his trial, Riel gave two long speeches which demonstrated his powerful rhetorical abilities. He personally rejected attempts by his defense counsel to prove he was not guilty by reason of insanity. On 1 August 1885, a jury of six English-speaking Protestants found Riel guilty but recommended mercy. Judge Hugh Richardson sentenced him to death. Attempted appeals were dismissed and a special re-examination of Riel’s mental state by government appointed doctors found him sane. He was hanged in Regina on 16 November, 1885. His execution was widely opposed in Quebec and had lasting political ramifications (Lee, 1986). While in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, this was also known as the Battle of Quebec, this was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years War (referred to as French and Indian War in the United States). The confrontation, which began on 12 September 1759, fought between the British Army and Navy, and the French Army, on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec City (Stuart, 2003). The battle involved fewer than 10,000 troops between both sides, but proved to be in the conflict between France and Britain over the fate of New France, influencing the later creation of Canada (Casgrain, 1964). The culmination of a three-month siege by the British, the battle lasted less than an hour. British troops commanded by General James Wolfe successfully resisted the column advance of French troops and Canadian militia under Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm (Hibbert, 1959). The two generals were mortally wounded during the battle, Wolfe died on the field and Montcalm passed away the next morning. In the wake of the battle, France’s remaining military force in Canada and the rest of North America came under increasing pressure from British forces. Within four years, nearly all of France’s possessions in eastern North America would be ceded to Great Britain (Anderson, 2000). The battle itself has bind Montcalm and Wolfe. Montcalm has been treated leniently by history he was indeed a brilliant and heroic soldier, and he had the crowning honor of dying bravely at Quebec, but he cannot be held blameless in this affair. He had taught the Indians that he was as one of themselves, had omitted no means of securing their amity had danced and sung with them and smiled approvingly and he had no right to imagine that they would believe him sincere in his promise to spare the prisoners. The two military leaders of the French and British fought the battle as the most promising event in their lives. The two generals leave a legacy to the Plains of Abraham. Bibliography Anderson, Fred. 2000. Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York. Casgrain, H.R. 1964. Wolfe and Montcalm. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Chartrand, Rene. 1999. Quebec 1759. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. Eccles, W.J. 1760. The Canadian Frontier. New York: Holt. Fregault, Guy. 1969. Canada: The war of the Conquest. Toronto Oxford: University Press. Hayes, Derek. 2002. Historical Atlas of Canada. Vancouver: Douglas & Mc Intyre Ltd. Hibbert, Christopher. 1959. Wolfe at Quebec. New York: The World Publishing Company. Lee , Kenneth. 1986. The French armies in the seven years war. University Press. Lloyd, Christopher.1959. The Capture of Quebec. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd. Reid, Stuart. 2003. The Battle that Won Canada. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.