Effect of Sporting Activities on Teenagers - 1088 Words

Teens participating in sport activities have become more active, however, this does not prevent them from staying out of trouble. These activities require lots of training and contain many games in the season. During the ages of thirteen to seventeen, many teens develop changes in their behavior and dreams of having their freedom. Teens who have behavior problems are affected the most and they would do drastic and dramatic things in these years. How does this relate to the argument that teens participating in sports still create trouble? Teens are unstable and unpredictable, which they may do unexpected things based on influences, emotions, and stress that surrounds them. For years, high schools have always had sports for teens to stay†¦show more content†¦This can cause some of the teens to breakdown or suffer from depression, causing them to become rash and do everything instinctively. Some of them who go through this phase tend to take a couple of drugs or try a little al cohol, hoping that it would calm them down and make them forget what happened the whole day. Based on Derek Kreager’s research, he stated that most teens who play â€Å"high-contact, physical sports† are more likely to get into fights and have violent behaviors (Peterson 1). The source provides information that most teens playing sports tend to create violence more than non-athletic teens. Many athletic teens are very dedicated to their sport and it could lead them to taking performance-enhancing drugs so it can improve their strength in that sport. Although high schools take cautious measure by having them get drug tested, it does not change their minds from taking drugs. Instead, it makes teens understand that they can’t use drugs near drug test dates. A supplement that works like a steroid is creatine, which helps one gain more energy, muscles, and train longer. About 74 percent of the teens taking creatine (Dreyfuss 1) could experience the side effects of ma jor weight gain, nausea, muscle cramps, or kidney damage (Performance-enhancing Drugs and Teen Athletes† 1). This supports my argument because it indicates that there is a large amount of teens most likely to be playing a sport in high school that uses performance-enhancing drugs toShow MoreRelatedBeat the Binge1327 Words   |  6 Pagesprogram to reduce binge drinking in teenagers† UTS BEAT THE BINGE â€Å"A national program to reduce binge drinking in teenagers† UTS Beat the Binge â€Å"A national program to reduce binge drinking in teenagers.† Synopsis Alcohol Abuse in Australian teenagers has become an ever-growing epidemic nationwide, in particular teens aged between 14 and 17 years of age. 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Pros and Cons Erp Free Essays

Akhilesh Nair Deepesh Chatterjee Mithun Vishnu Nikhil Kumar OPEN SOURCE ERP PROS and CONS Contents Introduction3 Commercial and Open Source ERP Software6 Open Source ERP Solution Pros8 Open Source ERP Solution Cons10 Open Source ERP Success Story11 Company Overview11 Issue At Hand11 The Solution11 Results12 The Bottom Line12 Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for13 ?Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps13 ?Latest Developments13 ?GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software14 Introduction Open source ERP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system whose  source code  is made publicly available. The  open source  model allows companies to access the ERP system’s code and customize it using their own IT department instead of paying extra for vendor customization services and licensing, as is typically the case with closed source programs. Open source ERP can be particularly attractive to small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to upgrade or customize their ERP systems without paying large licensing and support fees. We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Cons Erp or any similar topic only for you Order Now Open source brings an alternative which addresses many of the key problems of both custom and commercial enterprise software. It begins by offering the user a freely available code base as a starting point. The user can try it for free to see if it meets his needs. There is no risk of upfront licensing fees for software that may not work. If no modifications are required, open source software can be implemented with the same rapid time-to-market as commercial packages. If customizations are required, the user has a head start with an existing code base. Furthermore, he can leverage the expertise of both in-house and open source community developers. An open source project brings with it the domain knowledge and business requirements of many contributing organizations, significantly reducing the specification risk typical of custom software. Open source communities also offer user-developers collaborative help in developing and debugging of his software. The net result is better software in less time. Longer term, open source offers the user the control of custom software and the external resources previously available only with commercial software. With the source code in hand, the user can decide on future support and upgrades. There is no one to â€Å"discontinue† the software for him. At the same time, because the software shares the common roots with open source, he can obtain support and upgrades from the open source community or purchase professional-quality support from a range of vendors in the community. Thus, the risks of becoming â€Å"stranded† due to the loss of vendor support or key employees are significantly reduced with open source. Selection of ERP system Ease/Speed  of  Implementation There exist a sentiment that implementation takes too long. It is hard to state whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are faster and easier to implement. On one hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly. On the other hand, ERP vendors (or their partners) implement proprietary ERPs, so there is no clear need for them to make ERP systems easy to install. However, it can be stated that if the ERP system is easier to implement then it would be possible for the ERP vendor to sell more licenses, since it can be assumed that there is a lack of  implementing consultants. Moreover, ease and speed of implementation does not depend only on the graphical user interface and number of settings one needs to select from but  mainly on the amount of required customizations. Further development does not depend only programmer’s speed of writing code but also on requirements collection, their analysis and correct understanding Price Unless the company has the capabilities to implement an open source ERP system and program all the necessary customizations, open source ERP is not really for free. Consultants for open source ERP systems may charge significantly more than e. g. consultants for MS EPR systems, since there are rather only a few of them. On the other hand, an open source ERP system can be a perfect solution for a starting company, which has no established business processes – the company can adapt to the system, i. e. it does not require customization, so consultants need to be hired only to install the system. Another advantage is that an open source ERP system can be adjusted directly to the intended business processes in case at least one of the employees has a good  computer science background Vendor  Support Though this criterion seems to be more important for proprietary ERP systems, since it is customers of proprietary ERP systems, who are locked in with the vendors but on the other hand, they have security that the support exists. In the open source world, this criterion can be interpreted as having a large enough community, which could support the organization implementing a particular open source ERP system. Reliability Vendors providing proprietary ERP systems try to achieve as high reliability as possible but community using an open source ERP system might be able to find errors faster, since it is larger in numbers and each of them tries to make sense of code. While in proprietary ERP system vendor organization, it is always the same people looking into the code, so it is much harder for them to spot a mistake, especially in the code, which was written by them. Ease  of  Use It is unclear whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are easier to use. On one hand, ERP system vendors try to achieve competitive advantage providing ERP systems that are easier to use. On the other hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly [51, 52]. But the community of users (with programming skills) is likely to improve the system to the level that is more-or-less acceptable for most of the users. Customization Proprietary ERP systems are often programmed in vendor-specific languages. Companies can be sure that vendors (or their partners) will customize and set up their ERP systems. But it also means that they are locked to the vendor (or its partners). Since open source ERP systems are programmed in widely known programming languages, there is a greater pool of potential programmers, who can do it. Openness of code is not a domain of OSS ERPs anymore. E. g. MS Dynamics AX allows users to change a significant percentage of the code. Integration Customers are often searching for means of integration of their systems/data. Many proprietary ERP systems inherently allow for usage of data warehouses. It is possible that there fewer proprietary than open source ERP systems, which allow for communication to other systems through API. On the other hand, this communication can be solved even by less standard means (through customization). Organizational  Fit Existing ERP systems try to focus on business processes, however it can be suggested that they do not explicitly describe the business processes that are supported. Besides that, ERP systems are not easily adjustable to changes in business processes. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a problem of both open source and proprietary ERP systems. Flexibility Flexibility is required because of rapidly changing environment, which is likely to lead to new business models, which need to be supported without disturbing the end-users and on-going business. This requires an ERP system to have a robust architecture, which would allow for these requirements. Many existing proprietary ERP systems arose from MRP systems through small iterations. So systems, which were created more recently and do not carry this burden, are more likely to be more flexible, which could be the case ith open source ERP systems. Training First, it can be said that the amount of training required depends on the ERP systems  Ã¢â‚¬â€œhow self-explanatory it is and how many functions it offers. Secondly, users of  proprietary ERP systems are more-or-less dependent on the vendor or partner’s related to the specific ERP system. On  the other hand, users of open source ERP  systems may have a hard time to find a consultancy company offering training for a particular system. Latest  Technologies There is no reason why proprietary ERP systems should be better in using latest technology but it is mostly vendors of proprietary ERP systems, who claim that their competitive advance (over other (regardless whether open source or proprietary) ERP systems) is usage of latest technology. Proprietary vendors may promote them more but similar solutions may exist  in the open source world. OpenERP is a full suite of business software, including the following modules: Accounting: Record your operations in a few clicks and manage all your financial activities in one place. Application Builder:   The OpenERP application builder lets you customize every module of OpenERP directly from the web interface without any development required. CRM: Track leads and opportunities customized your sales cycle, controls statistics and forecasts and marketing campaign automation to improve your sales performance. Human Resources:   The module is for personnel information management, leave, time tracking, attendance‚ expenses, payroll, periodic evaluations and recruitment. Invoicing:  Create and supervise your entire supplier and customer invoices. Manufacturing:  Plan and control your supply chain through different applications in the Manufacturing module. Marketing:  Marketing campaigns can help you automate email and email sending, qualify leads and encourage customers to contact the right department. Point of Sale:  The OpenERP touch screen point of sale allows you to manage your shop sales. It’s fully web-based so you don’t need to install or deploy any software. Project Management: Keep track and manage your projects using tasks for short term project execution or plan phases for long term planning. Purchase:  Create and track your purchase orders, manage your suppliers’ info, control your products reception process and check suppliers’ invoices. Warehouse Management:  An inventory management system to easily manage complex needs: tracking stocks of suppliers/customers, full traceability, accounting links, and more. OpenERP supports multi-warehouse management based on hierarchical location structure. Because OpenERP is open source and backed by a large community, you can take advantage of more than 700 OpenERP modules on the  OpenERP Apps website. These applications extend functionality of the ERP software and provide more business apps for things like manufacturing, localization, project management and more. The other benefit to users is that you do not need to use all the business apps. You can choose only the modules that you need for your business from the suite (e. g. just CRM or CRM and invoicing). This keeps your OpenERP tidy and less overwhelming if you do not need all the business apps. You can add additional modules (at no cost) as you need them. Architecture Compiere and ERP5 are two of the top notch open source ERP systems that are widely accepted and implemented. The architecture of an Open Source ERP can be explained using the structured architectural design of compere and a comparison with ERP5. ERP5 offers powerful ERP solution for small businesses. ERP5 was originally developed as apparel industry solution for an organization with more than 300 employees on 5 internationally distributed sites. The special requirements of the apparel industry are mass customization of products and hence the need for handling unstructured and multimedia data. Mass customization means that many variants of a product are possible. The original modules are now generalized as business templates. It has the exact features that include customer relationship management (CRM), production management (MRP), supply chain management (SCM), product design management (PDM), accounting, human resources and e-commerce. For the small businesses, ERP5 has an Express edition which integrates ERP, CRM and KM funtionality. ERP5 uses the open source Python based ZOPE (Z Object Publishing Environment) application server and content management framework as its foundation. The web based Zope Management Interface is used as IDE for developing ERP5 modules. The application server also supports multiple languages, provides a security model, object persistence, and remote object access trough HTTP, XML-RPC and SOAP. ERP5 uses, extends or provides 5 important Zope components: Page Templates implement the web user interface and presentation logic. Workflows are used for the development of various types of decision workflows ERP5Form49 is used for web form development. XMLObjects add synchronization capabilities and autonomous activity (timed, pre- and postcondition triggers) to ERP5- Zope objects. The synchronization of distributed sites is carried out through XML export and import and also supports unreliable communication channels, which are allowed to fail. The duplication of reporting data to a relational database allows simple SQL querying. Compiere is uniquely designed to avoid the duplication of information and the need for synchronization. The design of Compiere allows customization of the application done easily. Modules in compiere include CRM, Quote to Cash, Requisition-to-Pay, Partner Relations Management, Warehouse, Supply Chain Management, Performance Analysis, Double-entry Book-keeping, Work-flow-Management and Web Store. Compiere’s architecture uses a fat Java Client (Java Webstart). The accounting engine is on the application server (JBOSS J2EE container). Thin Web clients are used for web store and some CRM functionality. There is also a beta thin client serving all forms, but it needs further work to be equivalent to the fat client. The used application server supports clustering. No cluster installation is documented. Emails can be sent and files can be attached to documents. Compiere has a built-in reporting engine. A Sourceforge side project provides Jasper Report77 integration. CSV export and import of data is provided by the commercially available migration tool. Other interfaces can be developed in Java using the briefly (Javadoc) documented APIs (application programming interfaces). The database abstraction layer is SQL-centric which was initially developed for Oracle. Commercial and Open Source ERP Software Pricing: – Most open source software is freely distributed with no up-front licensing fees. Further savings come from ease of deployment, training and integration. Companies that implement open source ERP solutions often report a 50% savings over proprietary systems. With free systematic  open source ERP training methodology like SOSE! Site you can own your software for no cost. Commercial ERP is an expensive package and suitable only for bigger corporations. The prices do vary significantly but according to the size of the company and volume of business. In any cases they have been found to be extremely costly irrespective of the quantum in which they are purchased. These packages are not subject to flexibility and molding. Their usage modalities are rarely liberal and cause troubles when they are modified. Hence the deployments also turn out to be costly and inconvenient due to the procedures involved, in the future. Another major allegation against the package is that they consist of lot of  hidden costs. Flexibility: – When you compare commercial and open source ERP, commercial systems are not flexible in nature. They let business with no other choice but to change their way of business. However when it comes to open source ERP everything was decided by the code . Therefore companies can do the necessary modifications in code and without much support from the vendor. Another advantage of open source is that it does not interfere with the regular schedule of the company during the implementation stage. This is a major difference between commercial and open source ERP applications. You should use business software for your needs, you should not change the way of your business to fit into software needs. Duration:- When you study commercial and open source ERP,The time allotted for implementing open source ERP is very less when compared with commercial ERP. The innumerable number of complexions in commercial ERP calls for longer time span. It consumes a lot of time not only during implementation but in every stage of ERP process due to the nature of work involved. With use of SITE  ERP implementation methodology  you can reduce time required for open source ERP to the minimum. Dependence: – When it comes to the question of relying on the vendor the open source ERP owners enjoys a considerable edge than the commercial ERP. Since open source are license free users having full freedom for taking care of needs by themselves. The productivity is also high in open source ERP systems and the failure rates are very low. Results: – Success rate of open source ERP are considerably more compare to proprietary ERP software’s. Read  open source ERP success stories  for more details. Training: – Lots of training is required for using commercial ERP. It calls for lots of investments in terms of time and money. If they don’t give the necessary impetus the results will be poor. Similarly validity of training sessions designed and handled exclusively by the ERP vendor is also debatable. On the other hand Open Source ERP does not require much training. The results are also bound to be effective because the user gets to learn through the process of self training. The company need not spend much on training and makes a minimal utilization of the resources. This is another way of reducing the level of dependence on the ERP vendor. You can get free  online ERP training  with SOSE!. Security: – On comparing commercial and open source ERP applications, Commercial ERP systems are less secure. They are by and large prone to the traps and pitfalls of hackers. Even though open source ERP makes everything transparent and available in the public domain it bring into the notice of user whenever something goes wrong. Visibility: – Few end users change the underlying code of an open source application. But when the need arises, open source provides access to the code to make changes to suit each distributor’s unique business needs. Open source customers enjoy a refreshing level of transparency from their vendors around activities such as bug reporting and fixing and road map planning. Longevity: – Virtually any ERP solution will work well when initially deployed, but time is the true test of every ERP solution and vendor. Unforeseen opportunities will likely drive changes to a business’ objectives and necessitate changes to its ERP solution. Independently, a vendor’s commitment to supporting a solution could change over time. An open source solution with a flexible foundation addresses today’s needs and safeguards the solution’s future. Because the user has the source code, a solution can never be bought or merged out of existence, meaning the investment lasts as long as needed. Independent services for  ERP implementation support  is also available for free with open source ERP. | Conclusion: – Functionality is the top consideration when reviewing ERP solutions, but it should be closely linked with evaluating open source and proprietary options. The demonstrable benefits of open source products reach deep into a company’s infrastructure. You can evaluate and  select business ERP software  which give functionality you need. The differences between  commercial and open source ERP  show the Edge enjoyed by open source ERP players. And independent free ERP trainer likes SOSE! Will help open source ERP to reach people. Open Source ERP Solution Pros * Negligible Investment and Maintenance Costs – Open source ERP solutions hold a big pro in the fact that there are no huge un-front licensing fees, pre-sales cost associated with them, thus, the initial cost of an Open Source ERP solution is usually far less than a comparable proprietary program. There’s minimal dependency on the ERP vendor in most cases. In a study done by Meta Group, where it surveyed 63 companies – including small, medium and large enterprises in a range of industries – it was found that the average cost of implementation of ERP was $15 million, with the highest as $300 million and lowest as $400,000. Commercial ERP also has pre-sales cost associated with them. * Widely customizable – Open Source ERP solutions are highly customizable allowing for companies to mold them to meet specific business process requirements. It is possible because it comes with two versions of code; the compiled version and the un-compiled version. There are a few reasons to do customizations, which are; functionality needed for core competencies, your front or back office systems require the customizations, you want more or less fields, or you have regulatory requirements that require the customization. So, if you need customizations, then by all means you must have them with a clear eye on the who’s who of the support of customizations and financials needed. But, commercial ERP does not provide an easy and inexpensive customization of the ERP software to fit the business model changes whatsoever. Flexibility – Open source ERP gives lots of freedom like free redistribution, freedom to access and modify the source code and freedom for the end user to use it for any purpose they wish to. GPL licensing of Open Source Software enables developer community to rapidly contribute to the software development and enhance features. * Total Cost of Ownership – TCO of Open Source ERP solution may be less given the opti on of virtually free operating systems (Linux)and databases (MySQL) and potentially lower maintenance fees. Independent Integrations – Open Source ERP solutions typically have a wide range of integration formats so that they are employable well with other software components. * Ease of Training – Open source ERP packages come with complete licenses, comprehensive documentation and user manuals, helping the users to learn and understand their usage. No special trainings or consultants may be hired. * Ease with implementation – The implementation can also be carried out separately without disturbing the regular operation of the business. Also, with open source ERP, the customers can do any sort of experimentations even while in production without losing the base or 100% availability. * Shorter implementation timings -The open source ERP packages require considerably shorter implementation time, which is another big positive aspect whereas in case of commercial ERPs , even six months are considered to be short period for implementation * Reduced or no Dependency on ERP Vendor – As the open source ERP packages have proper documentation and user manuals, there is no or reduced dependency on ERP vendor to come and fix the issue. A good programmer can handle the issue in considerably less time. * High Accuracy and Quality – The productivity and accuracy is high in the case of open source ERP systems. Also, the failure rates are often discovered to be on the lower side in comparison to commercial ERP packages. All open software has strong user community which is also very responsive and very knowledgeable. * Open source testing – The open source users in the process of development are able to thoroughly test and 99% of the bugs are reported and highly secure. Except a very few, most of the commercial ERP systems are tested to a decent extent, but still are many security flaws, traps, pitfalls and loop holes, which can be easily harnessed by the hackers. * Handling security – With the ever evolving nature of technology, security has become a problem of the past. And, there are many open source security applications on the market today which can be easily used with open-source ERP, which include; Nessus, Snort, Nagios, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Open SSL, OpenSSH, Nmap, Ossec HIDS, and Wireshark. Open Source ERP Solution Cons * Risk of over-customization – Delivering customized codes could prove troublesome for some organizations just in case you get into over-done customization and you can’t get out of it. Too many customizations can be a definite issue. * Difficulty in finding implementation and support resources – Open Source ERP solutions also calls for the best and finest programmers of open source  ERP solutions on the code. This may be difficult and may cause higher support costs at times. Compatibility Issues with Proprietary Packages – Some of the open source ERP packages are incompatible with the proprietary products of certain corporations like Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM etc (sometime due to variation in platform used for implementation). * Lack of Dedicated Support from a Specific Vendor – Despite all of the benefits of open source ERP packages, the fear of the failure of open source ERP package during crucial stages of a projec t is considerable driving forces for commercial ERPs where vendors provide dedicate support in lieu of big bucks on licensing costs. Unstructured approach to issue resolution – There are no proper defined product roadmaps and time line as most of the enhancements and bug fixes are done by freelancers and independent consulting companies and developers based on their requirements. * Devoid of feature- richness – Proprietary software are feature-lade and have more features that are not found in the case of open source ERP packages mostly and may be cited helpful by commercial ERP vendors as a tool of ease and productivity. Open Source ERP Success Story Open source ERP has had its own share of successful implementations. There is no better argument for the use of an ERP solution than a testimonial by and organization which has used the system and reaped benefits from what the software has to offer. Let us take a look at a successful implementation that happened at a Danish pharmaceutical firm named Pharma Nord. The implementation was done by a firm by the name Compiere Company Overview Denmark-based Pharma Nord is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of preventive dietary supplements and herbal remedies. The 500-person company, founded in 1981, develops, manufactures and markets scientifically well-founded dietary supplements, herbal remedies and medical drugs with optimal bio-availability. Pharma Nord’s products are available in 50 countries throughout Europe, Asia and North America. Issue At Hand Due to market success with its initial line of dietary supplements, Pharma Nord was continually expanding its product line and markets served. Growth in the regulated pharmaceutical industry, however, requires precise inventory management to address business and regulatory complexity. Pharma Nord’s ERP solution requirements extended well beyond the standard set of distribution and accounting functionality that performs at a global scale. They viewed the selection of an ERP solution as having a 15-20 year life. For a solution to succeed for more than 15 years, product licensing, ease of customization and confidence in the vendor were as important as out-of-the-box functionality The Solution Pharma Nord uses Compiere to manage its sales orders, invoicing, cash collections, purchasing and accounting for its sales subsidiaries and also to manage receipts and shipments in its warehouses. Pharma Nord liked what they saw in the earliest versions of Compiere in 2001. Using knowledge gained at a Compiere training class, Jacob Pedersen, Compiere Project Manager, completed an initial Compiere deployment in early 2002 focused on a single subsidiary. â€Å"We did it on the basis that we would probably find things that need to change along the way. And we have. It’s been with us, it’s been upgraded and we’ve changed quite a few things. We’ve been able to migrate to new versions of Compiere all the way from 2002 and now we’re here at 2008. I find that quite impressive. Before selecting an ERP solution, Pharma Nord assessed a number of offerings, notably Compiere and Navision. Midway through the evaluation, Navision was acquired by Microsoft. A few months later, the Linux version of Navision was discontinued. These events were eyeopening for Pharma Nord’s information technology and executive teams. The result was an even stronger requi rement for the kind of open source licensing offered by Compiere to ensure Pharma Nord’s long-term ERP success. Services from the Compiere Partner Network and Compiere helped Pharma Nord succeed. For example, the 2001 version of Compiere lacked support for tracking lot/batch numbers and expiry dates—essential functionality for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma Nord’s sponsorship accelerated the development of this general use functionality. â€Å"We wrote the specification of exactly what the software should be able to do and it was developed by the Compiere team. † – Pedersen Results Seven years after initial deployment, Pharma Nord is still going strong with Compiere. Their database has grown over the years as they’ve added business partners, products and transactions. Having transaction history available for analysis and reporting is a nice benefit from using a single product continuously over time. â€Å"What’s great about Compiere is that everything is stored at the most detailed level,† explained Pedersen. â€Å"So whenever you need to do reporting, you have a number of dimensions to work with. You can combine each product, different sizes, and different countries. All of those will be dimensions. Since you can report and group on these dimensions, you can get the answer you’re looking for by grouping and merging these data afterwards. With its sales and distribution operations productive with Compiere, Pedersen is looking toward the future: â€Å"Pharma Nord is also a manufacturing company. We manufacture all of our products ourselves. We know that Compiere is also working on manufacturing capabilities. † The Bottom Line Several unbelievably productive, efficient and highly secure open source ERP packages are not y et well recognized in the market, most of the customers are still prepared to shell out big bucks on custom commercial ERP packages. This might be due to the credibility that the big ERP producing organizations like SAP and Oracle. In times that are proving increasingly tough for organizations the world over; organizations are taking measures to tighten their operations and keeping stock of each and every penny that is spent; open source ERP packages provide a very robust and cost effective alternative for midsize companies who might not have a big budget allocated to cover their IT requirements. Even the large corporations can cut maintenance costs by making use of these brilliant packages. However, lack of support from a particular vendor is something that the open source ERP packages badly lack, and compatibility issues with other custom third party apps are one of their biggest turn-offs. Open source ERP scores higher than commercial ERP on many aspects. Yet, commercial ERP still have major share in ERP markets. This is because open source products are quite new and people are a bit conservative about choosing ERP software, because if implemented ERP software does not work, then there is serious business trouble. The first adopters of open source ERP were in Latin America, Europe, and Asian countries because of economic reasons. Now, open source ERP is gaining popularity even in US markets and one day, it will be able to challenge the domination of commercial ERP in ERP markets of USA Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for The finance applications, especially the custom ERPs, can be extremely costly and burn big holes in the pockets of business owners, and as such the demand for open source apps in the field of finance has been increasing dramatically. So, let us take a look at the top open source finance applications * Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages Not only do the open source finance packages come totally free of cost, but they are also not dependant on a particular platform. However, the proprietary programs work well on only specific platforms, as they’re designed only for specific needs. As such, even after paying a lot of money on licenses, the proprietary financial packages don’t allow you to work with all platforms and require additional licenses based upon the number of machines on which, the software is used. On the contrary, the open source packages can be used on as many systems as needed, and they work well on all open source platforms like FreeBSD, UNIX, Linux, Solaris etc. * Open Source ERP Packages To cater to the needs of small business owners, countless open source finance packages were developed, such as Adempiere (an ERP Business Suite), GnuCash (a double-entry book-keeping system), ERP5 (a Zope/Python based ERP solution), and the likes of them. Turning the focus towards other popular open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) packages, Compiere, an ERP solution that automates processes like accounting, managing sales orders, inventory, and supply chain is also quite popular, while packages like Grisbi, a single-entry and KMyMoney — a double-entry book-keeping program, have also gained significant levels of popularity. * FriFinans is yet another impressive open source finance application that offers facilities like taking orders, generating invoices, ordering products and doing a lot more. It is still under final stages of development, and isn’t tested completely yet, but even at this stage it looks quite promising. * Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps jFin, JGnash (double-entry book-keeping), JQuantLib (Quantitative Finance API framework), and JStock (stock market software) are some of the popular Java-based open source finance packages that have become extremely popular these days. * Latest Developments Looking at the latest developments,  n21 eBusiness Suite, a web-based ERP/CRM package is quite a powerful open source finance package that has emerged in the market, while  Mifos  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Microfinance Institution management software, Openbravo, and OpenERP have also been recently developed and gained high popularity soon enough. TurboCASH  is a popular double-entry book-keeping for Windows environment, while  GnuCash  is a treat for Linux/Unix/FreeBSD lovers. HomeBank  is an open source application for personal use, and  Marketceterais an open source trading platform for those who’re interested in stock trading, but don’t want to spend any money on using paid tools. Note:  All Linux financial tools are not necessarily free — there are some proprietary packages that require licenses, and don’t come under the GNU/GPL free distribution license, but majority of Linux/UNIX based finance packages are totally free for personal and commercial usage. GnuCash: The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software Primarily coded in C,  GnuCash  is a free open source accounting software, and happens to be a part of the GNU Project. It runs on platforms such as OpenBSD, Solaris, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and the likes of them. Looking at the features of GnuCash, you’ll discover that the package allows you to perform double-entry bookkeeping, maintenance of Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios, Scheduled Transact ions, and Mortgage and Loan Repayment Druid. It also offers support to HBCI and Multi-Currency Transaction Handling. GnuCash also comes with Transaction-Import Matching Support, OFX, QIF Import facilities, Small Business Accounting Features and even Multi-User SQL Support, making it an extensive open source finance application. What’s more, GnuCash can also export data to TXF format and can be used in tandem with the tax preparation programs with great ease. You can virtually perform all kinds of finance related tasks with the help of GnuCash. How to cite Pros and Cons Erp, Papers

Child, Dead in the Rose Garden free essay sample

HouseIn the story Child, Dead in the Rose Garden by E. L Doctorrow, the character of Chrissie Stevens believed that the government always won. Chrissie meant that the United States government is corruptive and doesn’t care for what the people have to say. Chrissie thought that they did whatever they wanted just because they were the government and they abused their power. Chrissie tried to fight the pollution going on in Texas, which affected the people around. Roberto Guzman was a victim of the pollution caused by Utilicon, Chrissie’s fathers company. Roberto Guzman was Chrissie’s only hope of letting the government know what was going on in the state of Texas. With the help of Chrissie’s boyfriend, the body of Roberto Guzman was buried in the White House rose garden. Chrissie’s protest against Utilicon and the environmental pollution failed, and like they always do, the government had won once again. We will write a custom essay sample on Child, Dead in the Rose Garden or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Instead of listening to what Chrissie had to say, the government only cared for what could had happen if the people found out about the situation. The selfish government of the United States only thought of themselves, and of protecting their image. On the other hand, Chrissie’s message did get to agent Molloy, he finally saw the governments true colors, he notices how corrupted they were by ignoring a case and how they abused their power by threading a family of immigrants and deporting them. Doctorow also wrote about the corruption in the American government and the oppression against immigrants in his novel Ragtime. The fact that the firehouse chief which was a symbol of authority had destroyed Coalhouse’s car shows the corruption in government, the abuse of power and the oppression against immigrants. The authority, they are the ones to do the right thing and the ones to help the people, but that’s not actually how reality was. That was E. L. Doctorow’s job to show the people what reality really was, and to show the readers how the government used their power in a cruel and unjust manner, to harm those of different ethnicity and of lower class. Through Chrissie, E. L. Doctorow showed his beliefs of America having a corrupted government who always win against the average people.

Operation Managements in Nokia Company

Introduction Operation management refers to a field of management that oversees, designs and redesigns organizational operations in productions of goods and/services (Bicheno Elliot 1997). The field has the responsibilities of ensuring that organization operations are efficient in reference to the resources needed to meet customers’ requirements (Matthew Tan 2009).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Operation Managements in Nokia Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is concerned with management of the processes that transform or converts the inputs to outputs such as the conversion of raw materials, labor, and energy to goods and services (Bicheno Elliot 2009). The field ensures that an organization maximizes its profits while undergoing the minimum cost of production possible (Bicheno Elliot 2009). In operation management, both long and short-term business strategies begin with high-level departm ents. They â€Å"are based on careful and sound projection of demand for the product or service (Shim Siegel 1999 p2).† Operating strategies and plans start with derivation of short-term and long-term procedures in production that transform later into purchasing plans (Shim Siegel 1999). All this plans and strategies should focus on maximizing the profits and minimizing the cost of production. During formulation of the plans and strategies, the decision-makers should concentrate on the issues that focus on competitive advantage, as this will give the organization the advantage to maximizing its profits (Sheik 2003). An organization thus focuses on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, the threats associated with its production, markets, and the finances generated (Sheik 2003). An organization must therefore focus and evaluate its decision-making tools and methodologies in order to generate plans and strategies that will enhance its achievement of the goals (Garg Venkit akrishnan 2003). In operation management, the decisions made on the order winners and qualifiers affect an organization. This paper focuses on the order winners and qualifiers of Nokia Company, evaluation of means of delivery, improvement and the potential implications of the improved orders and qualifiers. Orders Winners and Qualifiers Nokia Company deals with the production of mobile phones and their parts. In the recent years, the industry of mobile phone and their parts production has relatively grown thus increasing the competition in the market. The company has therefore focused on evaluating its order winners and qualifiers.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The company gears towards achieving a competitive advantage over its competitors while minimizing its cost, maximizing its flexibility and maximizing the profits (Slack 1999). Order winners refer to those character istics that give Nokia products a competitive advantage over its competitors’ products. Order winners refer to the characteristics that persuade a customer to buy Nokia phones or parts over those of other mobile phone production companies. The order winners focus on the price or cost, quality, flexibility, product design, image, delivery reliability and speed, and after-service market (Barney 1991). On the other hand, order qualifiers refer to the aspects of competitiveness that Nokia operations management has over a particular level that customers consider (Barney 1986). Qualifiers thus give Nokia Company a name depending with the level of their performance over what the costumers consider. Similarly, Nokia Company order winning factors implicitly define its operations contributions (Barney 1991). Increase in the performance of the order winning factors increases the chances for more business while the converse results to reduced amount of business (Khanna 2007). The paper w ill focus on five order winners and qualifiers used by Nokia Company. Customer service: Nokia Company customer service provides a real time services to its customers. They handle all the customers’ queries and needs with immediate response. The company customer service gives the customers the first priority. They emphasize on treating their customers fairly as the customers are their main concern (Ake Hakan 1997). They fully understand that customers are of great importance to their company and without them, they cannot operate. The company emphasizes on honesty and treats the customers’ information with confidentiality (Ake Hakan1997). They further have a well-established database system that helps them to store their customers’ data that help them to revisit the customers’ information to clarify whether the answer they responded to the customers was right.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Operation Managements in Nokia Company s pecifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company customer service further believes on the minimizing the cost of their operation by ensuring that complains and queries from their customers are minimal by offering high quality services and easily understood instructions (Ake Hakan 1997). Quality: For Nokia Company to ensure it has a competitive advantage; it concentrates on the production of high quality products (Hill 2000). Nokia Company products are competitive in the market due to their high quality. They give a wide range of products that are of high quality that persuade many customers to purchase them. Further, most of their products have the qualities that the customers seek when purchasing their mobile phones. The Nokia Company also concentrates on the quality of these features to ensure that they have a competitive advantage over the competitors’ features. For instance, regarding their mobile phones with a camera and an in ternet connection, the Nokia Company concentrates on improving the quality of the camera and the speed of internet connections. In addition, in terms of durability, Nokia products last longer than their competitors’ products. They produce mobile phones and parts that give their customers’ service for a long time. Further, their products are mainly default free and give a 100% tolerance to faults. Delivery speed: This refers to the time taken for the Nokia Company to respond and deliver the orders once placed (Hill 2000). Since Nokia Company uses the made-to-stock products operations strategy that allows them to produce their products in bulk through maintenance of an inventory record of the finished products, they are able to give response to orders in the right time (Khanna 2007). However, even though the company has the products ready, they give respect to the customers’ orders and they cannot deliver them so earlier than the customer expects (Khanna 2007). Ab ility of the company to make deliveries at the right time gives the company a competitive advantage over their competitors.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Furthermore, due to their effective customer care service, the company is able to receive the order placements in the shortest time possible. The company through their technologically improved operations allows the customers to place orders online that ensures that orders are received as soon as possible. They further encourage communication on the issues related to orders to ensure that they are meeting the customers’ needs. The company also ensures that their delivery is reliable. The company does this by ensuring that it has the maximum number of days that the delivery should take. Further, they ensure that the means of delivery that they use are reliable and cannot cause delay in the delivery of the products to the customers (Hill 2005). This gives the customers the confidence with the company that result in more business opportunities. Flexibility: Flexibility refers to the ability of the company to change easily from the production of one item to a substitution product, easily customize an output to meet a certain customer specification or requirements and the ability of the company to change its production to meet the customer demands (Hill 2005). In substitution production, Nokia Company ensures that they produce a variety of products that can substitute each other. They ensure that every product they introduce to the market has its substitution. This helps the company to have a competitive advantage as their customers always have a substitution from the company rather than purchasing substitute products from other companies. In terms of customizing the output to meet the customers’ requirement, Nokia Company similarly ensures it has a vast range of products that the customers can choose. They ensure that they have more than five products that have almost the same features but different shapes, image, color and model. This gives the customers the right to choose their favorite depending on their taste. In reference to meeting the market d emand, Nokia Company has been and is able to respond to the market changes. The company is able to produce in bulk during high demand and in less bulk during low demands. Price and cost: Nokia Company concentrates on reduction of cost of production. The company ensures that there is elimination of waste materials, labor, and facilities (Barney 1986). The reduction of production cost helps the company to offer better prices for their products. However, Nokia products are more expensive than most of its competitor’s products but the customers consider them genuine when they consider the quality of the products. In addition, the company produces in bulk that gives the company the advantage of economy of scales (Garg Venkitakrishnan 2003). This further helps the company in offering better prices to its customers. Improvement of the Order Winners and Qualifiers As mentioned earlier, the order winners and qualifiers highly predict the business of an organization. Similarly, in Nok ia Company the order winners and qualifiers predict the market and the business. The company has therefore embarked on the improvement of its order winners and qualifiers in order to have a better competitive advantage and withstand the rising competition from other upcoming competitors. In customer service, the company has started on projects to improve their customer management. The company in their research has realized that their customer service turn-around time is not as minimal as the company may opt to achieve (Barney 1991). To solve this problem, the company is working on improvement of the customers’ service by updating their database capacity, increasing the number of customer service agents and use of reliable means of communication. On the quality of the products, the company has focused on improvement of the features of the products and durability. The company looks forward to production that will meet all the customers’ needs through update of the featur es. The company focuses on the production of mobile phones that will give its customers the ability to perform all the tasks that a computer can perform. In addition, the company seeks to ensure that durability of these products is high to win confidence of the customers. The company further concentrates on simplifying its products usability to ensure that they match all market needs (Hill 2000). This is through making their products instructions precise and easy to understand that will assist all their products users. In delivery time, the company objective is to make the customers more satisfied with the company deliveries. The company has stressed on its operation strategy and is keen in the production in bulky prior to the placement of the orders to ensure they respond to the orders immediately. The company has recommended improvement of the inventory technology that will help it in bulky production. In addition, the company seeks to ensure in future that there is no even a sing le delay in the delivery of the products to customers. The effort of the company is to ensure that customers are satisfied with the delivery of the products to the market (Slack 1999). This also involves the reliability of the channels used in the delivery of the products to customers. In flexibility, though the company has been able to adapt to the changes in the market, the company objective is to produce more substitute products and introduce them to the market. This will give the customers a variety to choose from that will ensure the company ability to sustain its customers. This will further ensure that Nokia Company is able to compete with other mobile phone production companies that produce products that would substitute their products. In addition, the company is looking forward to the improvement of the methods used to collect customer requirements rather than only depending on their customer service. This aims at achieving a more elaborate customer requirement through mar ket researches that will help them to focus on the customer needs (Barney 1986). This will strengthen the company and customer relationship as the customers will have a feeling of a company that cares for their needs. After the collection of this data, the company will concentrate on transforming the customers’ requirements into products. In pricing, the company’s objective is to offer prices that match the customer ability. To respond to their normally more expensive prices, the company has concentrated on reduction of production cost and production in bulk. The reduction on production cost will consequently lower the products price in the market (Barney 1991). In addition, the company has focused on introduction of more products with different pricing in the market. The price differences will help customers to purchase the products that best suit their ability. Potential Implications of Improved Order Winner/Qualifiers Order winners and qualifiers affect the performa nce of the business. An improvement in the order winners and qualifiers will have an improvement in the business performance. The improvement of Nokia order winners and qualifiers similarly will have an impact on the organization supply chains. Supply chain refers to the channels and processes used in transferring products from the producer to the customers (Rangaraj 2009). This may include the people, activities, organization, resources, and activities involved in transferring the products from the producer to customers (Rangaraj 2009). An improvement in the order winners and qualifiers results to an increase in the number of customers, which consequently affects the chain supply. The increase in customers means that the supply chains must be able to meet the customer demand (Seuring 2003). This causes an increase in the supply chains, the level of their profit margins increases and their management becomes more complicated as they work towards meeting the customer demands. They th erefore work on sustaining the delivery of products in the market through improvement in the management and operations. The improvement in order winner and qualifiers further affects the supply chains in the sense that the supply chain has to improve to meet the needs of the market. The improvements in supply chain must address the strategic supply chain, supply chain planning, logistics, management of product lifecycle, applications of enterprise chain supply, procurement and asset management meant to match the changes in order winners and qualifiers (Seuring 2003). The failure to have a well-planned improvement in the supply chains management will consequently affect the delivery of products to the customers. Conversely, lack of improvement in order winners and qualifiers has impacts on supply chains. Lack of improvement in order winners and qualifiers means less business for the Nokia company products. It consequently affects the supply chains, as the market opportunities are few . This causes collapse of some of the chains, failure in management due to lack of resources, shift of the market to the competitors and poor profits margins due to lack of market for the Nokia company products (Rangaraj 2009). Conclusion In any organization, operation management is very crucial. The decisions made by the managers and the people in this field or department might affect the operations of a whole organization positively or negatively. The department is concerned with the production, the conversion of the labor, materials, and energy into finished products. In addition, the department is concerned with the minimization of production cost and the maximization of profits and flexibility. The department focuses on decisions for improving the order winners and qualifiers that really affect the performance of the business. The failure of the decision, plans, and strategies made by this department means the failure of an organization. It is therefore important for every orga nization to hire competent personnel to run the department. Evaluation and validation of decision-making tools related to this department is of great important before the application. References Ake, H Hakan, Y 1997, The firm’s and its customers’ views on order-winning criteria, International Journal of Operations and Production Management vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 1006–1019. Barney, J 1986, Organizational culture: Can it be a source of sustained competitive advantage? Academy of Management Review 11: pp. 656–65. Barney, J 1991, Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management 17: 99–120. Bicheno, J. Elliot, B 1997, Operations management: An active learning approach. Blackwell Publishers Inc, Malden, USA. Garg, V Venkitakrishnan, N 2003, Enterprise resource planning: Concepts and practice, Prentice-Hall of India Private limited, New Delhi. Hill, T 2000, Manufacturing strategy: Text and cases. 3rd ed, Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston . Hill, T 2005, Operations management strategic context and managerial analysis, Second Edition, Palgrav, USA. Khanna, R 2007, Production and operation management, PHI Learning Private Limited, New Delhi. Matthew, R Tan, K 2009, Operations strategy in action: A guide to the theory and practice of implementation, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Rangaraj, N 2009, Supply chain management for competitive advantage, McGraw-Hill Companies Inc, New York. Seuring, S 2003, Strategy and organization in supply chains, Physica-Verlag Heidelberg, New York. Sheik, K, 2003, Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II): With introduction to ERP, SCM, and CRM, McGraw-Hill companies Inc, New York. Shim, J Siegel, J 1999, Operations management, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc, New York. Slack, N 1999, The Blackwell encyclopedic dictionary of operations management, Blackwell publishing Inc, Malden. This report on Operation Managements in Nokia Company was written and submitted by user Barbara Berry to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

math essays

math essays 1. How is math used in your every day job duties? Math is used frequently, If I had to estimate I would say all day. 2. What math classes do you recommend for someone interested in your position? Well when you finish your high schools math classes I suggest you take as many math classes as you can, try to take 1 every semester. 3. What type of degree is necessary for your type of work? 4. How has technology changed the type of math that you used in your job? Well now most of the computers do all the work but keep in mind you still have to know what your doing. 6. Has math help you a lot in your type of work? Yes math has help me tremendously in my line of work. 1. How is math used in your every day job duties? 2. What math classes do you recommend for someone interested in your position? 3. What type of degree is necessary for your type of work? You have to be great with geometry. 4. How has technology changed the type of math that you used in your job? It has made it easier with many kinds of machines that we didn't used to have. 6. Has math help you a lot in your type of work? Indeed it has it has help me allot. 1. How is math used in your every day job duties? 2. What math classes do you recommend for someone interested in your position? Make sure you are good at geometry and pass all your math classes. 3. What type of degree is necessary for your type of work? 4. How has technology changed the type of math that you used in your job? Many great equipment has come in wich helps us a lot and makes working faster. ...

Case Studies Of Companies Supply Chain Management

Case Studies Of Companies Supply Chain Management Dell was incorporated in 1994 by Michael Dell while he was a student at University of Texas, Austin. From its very first initiatives, direct selling model was adopted. In the beginning PC’s were sold over the phone and they were customized according to customers’ specifications. Dell returned to its direct selling model after using the retail channel from 1990 to 1994. In mid 1990’s, the company grew rapidly, thus becoming number one PC seller in the US and number two worldwide in 1999. Dell’s success continued over the following years, but it was not able to avoid the crisis in PC industry in the new millennium. Dell’s growth rate fell, resulting in the fall of its stock price. However, over the time, Dell managed to remain a highly successful company, and its growth rate continued to outperform the industry as a whole. Dell’s strategic choices and ways of realizing those choices have played an effective role in story Dell’s success. The supply chain management of the company is the key element in its successful business model. The core element of the company’s business model is its direct sales model, referred as ‘direct mode’, with the build to order strategy. In this work we have a look at an organisation with its sheer strategy and competitive view of the future created a giant in the industry. It has developed a business model which has a very little requirement of controlling variables, but with few efficient and critical models it has created an industry leader. It shows how Dell Inc has changed the dynamics of the industry and how it has helped in evolved with the industry. It is an $80 billion company which is created in just in time frame of 23 years. The strategy was to bypass the dealers in the field of personal computers and sell directly to the consumers. What will urge customers to buy online? The answer to these is to make the product build to order and provide them customiza tion. This business model gave Dell some great cost advantage over it peers. This strategy has given Dell- Information about the customer we can just buy and collaborate as per our requirement. This view gave them flexibility and coupled with the excellent supply chain that they created- they became what they are. In this model there are fewer things which can go wrong because there are only fewer things which can go wrong. There is no drag effect of 50000 people working with you.

Powerpoint is Evil Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Powerpoint is Evil - Assignment Example PowerPoint, just like any other piece of technology, helps enhance learning and how students relate with their teachers and interact with content. Teacher-centered uses of technology are not as effective as student-centered ones. Student centered technology allows students to be more creative and view content in new ways. For example, in the NPR program, one of the teachers notes that PowerPoint has enabled her students to retell the story in new perspectives. With teacher-centered technology, the teacher is still in charge of learning, and this does not really change it from the traditional teacher-centric classroom. One of the most important aspects of the student-centered uses of technology is that it allows the learner to organize his activities, thereby making the student responsible for his own learning. PowerPoint, for instance, can help students organize their information in new and exciting ways that are appreciated by both the student himself and the teacher. Through student-centered technology, learners will be in a position to build connections with the various materials that have been covered in class. As noted in the NPR program for instance, PowerPoint allows students to bring together information from a variety of sources. Student-centered use of technology is thus

Chicano studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chicano studies - Essay Example This is because circumstances forced them to isolate themselves from the mainstream Americans especially after the end of the Mexican American war. The geographical distance made it difficult for them to interact with the Native Americans and as a result most of them maintained their culture unpolluted. A good number of them adopted some aspects of the culture of the Americans and consequently brought confusion on the identity question. The culture of the Hispanics was mixed and up to today most of them portray aspects of the two cultures hence most of them lack a clear perception of their identity. The Hispanics have for long time been treated as second-class citizens as evidenced in the oppression and discrimination they have experienced especially economically. This discrimination has led to existence of a deep division among the communities with foreign origin and the natives. Consequently, this has fueled the rise of land activists groups among others in a bid to fight for their rights. Colonization is creating a colony where one group of people moves to a foreign land and dominates the local residents whereas decolonization is the withdrawal of the foreign dominance where the colony attains independence. The colonization of the Spanish Northern Frontier involves three major events where the New Mexico is first invaded and later a new conquest, which ultimately led to attainment of independence. The colonization of the Pueblo Indians involved a lot of violence, as villages were burnt, sacred places destroyed, murder of people especially the leaders and indoctrination of children. Colonization led to a lot of injustice on the colonies and it resulted to colonization of the mind where the Pueblo Indians could not make free decisions uninfluenced by the colonizers. The colonization of mind is the worst level of any form of colonization as it denies one the natural gift of free will that

Lord of the Flies - novel by William Golding (1954) Essay Example for Free

Lord of the Flies novel by William Golding (1954) Essay In this essay I will be comparing the three approaches to the incident of Piggys death. This is a very significant moment in the Lord of the Flies and symbolises how outcasts are treated in a broken down society. I will be comparing the novel by William Golding, with the film by Peter Brook and the film by Harry Hook. The original book was written directly after World War 2, which had a great influence on how Golding decided to plan and write his book. The original book is the true Lord of the Flies, and the films are adaptations of the original novel. The film that was made in 1961 by Peter Brook was a very close interpretation of the original novel. The characters are the same, the setting is same, and the whole story loosely follows the same pattern as the book. Brook used thirty boys, aged eight to fourteen with non-acting backgrounds, as they all came from a randomly picked London school. He took them to an island off Puerto Rico for 3 months, in which time he filmed this masterpiece, which was ground breaking at the time and closely followed the book. It was original and daring, and was filmed in black and white with restricted amount of equipment. In contrast, the second film produced by Harry Hook in 1994, which was based on the same idea, but was set in different situations. The audience he was attracting needed much more action and adventure, which the old version doesnt show and would probably be laughed at by Hooks audience. The film needed to be original, which it was to his audience, but he cleverly used the book and the other film as a basis on which to build his ideas. The film, Lord of the Flies by Harry Hook was filmed in colour, with American actors playing as army cadets with mod cons such as army knives and watches. Changes such as including adults in the story and use of strong language add a twist to the original novel, and which isnt portrayed in the 1961 version. It moves completely away from Goldings original narrative, and his initial intentions. The opening shot is similar in the three versions of Lord of the Flies, but also has differences. The differences between the two films become evident at the opening of the scene. As the thundering waves are hurled against the sharp, jagged rocks with the darkness and savagery within them, the scene becomes clear. Brook turns to the boys walking along, you just know that something is going to happen. In the Peter Brook film, the coastline is the main feature, with the boys looking small, walking along. The faces of the boys are not so easy to depict until they get close enough. Ralph, Piggy and SamnEric, are looked down on by the camera, with the commanding rocks and the roaring sea all around. However, the boys dont seem to be put off by this and look positive and intentional in their visit. In comparison, the Hook film shows the shot to be not so dark and suspicious, but more religious and sacrificial. The background noise of the crashing waves is substituted with choral singing. This time, we only see Ralph and Piggy approaching the rocks. Piggy is wearing full cadet uniform and appears not to be having problems with his sight. The boys are at the same level, and the darkness and savagery seems to be lost from this film. Both films have followed the idea of the book, Hooks version more loosely than Brooks film. Neither mentioned how much Ralph was injured or his ragged appearance as in the novel, Ralph went first, limping a little, a spear carried over one shoulder. The films left this out because it may well have not appealed to their audiences, as the hero doesnt look perfect, especially with the later film. Hook also left out SamnEric in the advancing bunch. Golding, who wrote the original Lord of the Flies, starts this scene by retelling some of the plot. He reminds the reader how such a beautiful island has been effected by society, and how individuals can ruin things for everyone. The sky and the mountain were at an immense distance, shimmering in the heat; and the reef was lifted by mirage, floating in a kind of silver pool half-way up the sky. This little interlude reflects on the past, and will maybe add more impact to the incidents to come. Golding also mentions fire, which reminds the reader of how Jack stole the glasses off helpless Piggy, to use for their own comfort and as a aid for a cooking fire. The first sign of conflict between Jack and Ralph is when they meet. They start to argue and quarrel, and tension is built up within this period. This is the same with all three texts. Ralph intentions are clear as he approaches, but Jack wants none of it. In the novel, Golding has built up the tension with words he uses, Ralphs temper blazed out. The sentences are short, and not very descriptive. The main feature of the scene, the fight, is portrayed similarly in all three texts. They attack each other vigorously, and the real conflict and anger between the two groups is apparent. In the film, by Brook, the camera can be used to aid the build up of tension as well as the dialogue. The short camera angles used reflect Goldings staccato language. The camera looks up to Jack, and down to Ralph. He appears in a definite commanding position. The camera follows Jacks face, which appears dark against the rock, and is hidden whenever Ralph speaks to hide his thoughts. He wears a mask to hide his face, which is savage and evil. Prior to the fight, the camera sways to Jacks barbarous face, with him holding his spear, with only the point showing. This shows the wildness and spite within Jack. This is shown similarly in the Hook film, but Jack doesnt wear a mask, so we see more of his face. However, Hook has decided to use stronger language to convey the anger between the two boys. Hook chose similar camera movements and patterns to Brooks film, as they seemed to show the positions of the characters well and would appeal to his modern audience. Ralph and his gang are portrayed as the lower, weaker force, and Jacks rabble are shown as being in control. The main feature, the fight, is depicted equally in the three texts. Both sides seem angered, and in Hooks film, the loss of society is also shown. Ralph, usually the well-balanced, even-tempered individual, is lowered to such means as fighting. On the other hand, that is Jacks usual way of settling things. Roger has a strong influence on Piggys death and plays a significant role, in all three interpretations of the Lord of the Flies. Roger is first introduced into the scene in the novel, when he starts to toss rocks at Ralph. His physical appearance is kept a secret and is only released when he pushes the lever, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever. Roger is introduced earlier on in Brooks film. What we see of Roger is a godly figure, with his face outlined to the sky. Hook shows us a close up of Rogers face from below. He is painted with black paint around the eyes and mouth, which looks like deep hollows in which evil is to be found. He is a symbol of evil and power and as a slight grimace creeps along his face, the audience is shocked by this terrifying image. His intentions become clearer as the scene advances. A longer period of time is spent on him, so does the amount we see of him. When the camera shows us his hand going towards the lever, the anticipation is built up, with the climax of him releasing it with great force, pounding down onto Piggys head. Roger is not so well shown in Hooks film. Most of the time he is hidden by the cliff edge and the other savages, but once the stone is released, Rogers face is no longer mysterious, but is clear. This makes the audience feel suspicion and fear towards Roger. Piggy is the main character in the scene, and is based on the character first developed in Goldings novel in both the book and the films. Piggy has similarities and differences in the films, but the main feeling of Piggys character is conveyed quite well. In Peter Brooks film, Piggy is uneasy about the situation, poised on the steep rocks which seem to fall into hell. He is wearing full uniform, showing his intentions to keep rules. The camera is overhead, and makes us feel pity for Piggy who is helpless. In the build up to the death, the camera focuses on short close-up shots of Piggys face to show his hopelessness and anxiety. Piggys voice is blurred by the natural sounds of the roaring of the sea crashing against the rocks. Ralph forgets what he came for, and Piggy knows this. This has an effect on the audience to feel empathy for Piggy. Harry Hook has changed Piggys character, to fit his wants and his audiences wants. He doesnt make Piggy as disabled as Brook does in his film. He allows Piggy to be able to see fairly well and able him to stand on the same level platform as Ralph. Piggy isnt left out or forgotten during the fight, and can be seen in the shots of the fight, standing in the background. In the book, Piggy seems extremely scared and worried of what was about to happen as he clings onto the steep sided rock face. Am I safe? quavered Piggy. I feel awful-. Brooks film is better on picking up on the idea that Piggy is supposed to be very disadvantaged. Piggys emotions are shown well in all three texts, as a close up in the film, or as strong description in the novel. The murder is the main feature in the scene we are studying. It has a strong impact on the audience in all of the texts and is transmitted differently in each. In the novel, Piggys death is compared to a pig after his death, which is rather ironic, Piggys arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pigs after it has been killed. The language used here is very severe and looks as thought Golding doesnt really care about what has just happened to Piggy. After this there is a silence all around, until it is disturbed by a little speech between Jack and Ralph, followed by Jack throwing his spear at Ralph, which then leads him to run away, with spears coming at him from all directions. This isnt shown in either of the films, and in Brooks film, nothing is said, and Ralph just flees. Brook has a lengthy build up to his death scene in his film. Hints are dropped all the time, with the camera continually looking at the rough sea and jagged rocks, then at Piggys confused face. Brook supports Goldings language, with only a few minor changes. In the build up to the climax, the camera continually switches between Piggy and Roger, with longer shots to Roger as we get ever closer to the climax. Also, the noise of the jeering boys gets louder, and sounds more and more like air raid sirens, which adds to the effect of anticipation. This is obviously significant because it indicates the society the boys have just left, and shows the links to situations of which Golding has just witnessed before he wrote his novel, and of the tragedy of war. However, this is something that Brooks audience may not clearly remember so wouldnt be so obvious in his film. The final shot of Roger is of him pushing down on the lever as with Goldings novel. The face looks emotionless until the rock is released, when a wide, evil smirk smears across his face. The camera stays still to make Roger look as though he is pushing harder, as he moves out of the shot. We see the rock rolling down, and then we see Piggys viewpoint of the rock above, coming straight, bang down onto his head. Immediately as the rock hits Piggy, the jeering comes to a halt, and all is left is the roaring sounds of nature. All, including Jack seem shocked, but Roger is not. The camera switches between the characters showing their disbelief of that which Roger had just done. To end the lengthy scene, Brook has a shot of Ralph looking in commiseration down to Piggy. The camera is then just left still as Ralph scurries over the rocks. Harry Hook has changed the death scene in his film to suit his modern audience. Brook has kept close to the language with Piggys speech, and has only changed a few parts to suit more to his audience. In the shot where Roger releases the rock, the director shows the shot from Ralphs point of view. As the rock falls, Ralph shouts NO! in a slow motion speech. Piggy is oblivious to the situation due to his eyesight. He says nothing, and just falls flat onto the rock and lies there in a pool of blood. This loosely follows the original text by Golding. Golding described how Piggy was knocked into the water and got washed away, whereas there was no sight of this in Hooks film. Youre not gonna get away with this says Ralph after the death. Jack thinks logically and says that Ralph was on his own, which he most definitely was. The speaking is then terminated by the boys throwing stones at Ralph as he speeds away along the beach. All three versions of the Lord of the Flies are interpreted differently, but use the same original story line written by William Golding. All are effective, but some are more so than the others. Personally, I think that Peter Brook directed the best film. This is because it was more appealing to the audience at that time, it was more successful and it follows the book much closer than the other film, which was directed by Harry Hook. However, I do like the book for the detail and originality within it. To me the text vividly describes the sights of horror and the dramatic feelings of loss and grief felt by the societies at this particular time of World War 2. At the time the book was written, which was just after the war, total communities had witnessed such devastation as was described in the book. They could relate directly to the savagery and the way the murder was committed in cold blood. I feel the book also cleverly puts the characters into stereotypes of the time, showing how certain communities and their structures can be so easily destroyed.

Free College Essays - The Role Model in Huckleberry Finn :: Adventures Huckleberry Huck Finn Essays

Huckleberry Finn: His Role Model Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written from the view point of the boy Huckleberry Finn. He tells about the adventures he is having on the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, whose name is Jim. It becomes apparent early in the book that there are a couple of people who play major roles in Huck's life. One is Jim and the other is Tom Sawyer, the person Huck wishes he could be like. Tom Sawyer is a leader to Huck from the very beginning of the book, when Huck is living with the Widow Douglas. She is raising Huck because his father is a drunk and is not in the area. Huck is doing fine living with the Widow Douglas for awhile, but he soon tires of her way of life. Huck does not like having to stay clean all the time and having to wear neat clothes. He also doesn't appreciate her attempting to civilize him, so he puts on his old rags and leaves. Tom Sawyer is the one who is able to convince Huck to come back to the widow and "be respectable" (p. 1). Huck wants to be a part of Tom's gang, so he agrees to go back. It takes a certain type of person to make Huck willing to go home because it is a lifestyle he really doesn't like. Tom has that kind of control over Huck's decisions. Another reason that Huck looks up to Tom as a role model is that Huck feels Tom is more intelligent than himself. Huck is amazed by how brilliant Tom is. "What a head for just a boy to have! If I had Tom Sawyer's head I wouldn't trade it off to be a duke, nor mate of a steamboat, nor clown in a circus, nor nothing I can think of" (p. 236). It isn't simply that Tom is smarter. It is that Tom often makes Huck feel he isn't as smart. One example is when the two boys are trying to free Jim. Huck doesn't understand why they have to do things the hard way. That is when Tom says, "Oh, shucks, Huck Finn, if I was as ignorant as you I'd keep still" (p. 243). Tom also says, "Why, hain't you ever read any books at all?" (p. 242). It is true that Tom has more schooling than Huck, and this also plays a role into Huck's belief that Tom is smarter.

Do you agree? Essay

Both tasks the two men set out to achieve are things never done before and include overcoming the power of nature. Victor, challenges death, trying to create a new being, and Walton tries to challenge the elements to reach to pole. Victor finds first, that doing this can only bring destruction, ‘the ever varied powers of nature’, a warning that it is too powerful to challenge. This warning, he then passes onto Walton who realises the peril he faces, and abandons his exploration. The â€Å"Ancient Mariner† was a poem written around this time by Coleridge. Coleridge was a Romantic, as was Shelley’s husband, and poems like this one were popular as this portrayed the types of things people were thinking about around that time. Mary Shelley may have been influenced by this poem about the theme of challenging nature as the poem also talks of this. It also included a ‘frightful fiend’ similar to the Frankenstein’s creature. Nature is also linked into another theme of loneliness both of the monster and Victor. The creature tries to tell Victor how he has been rejected and is totally alone saying things such as ‘I see bliss from which I alone am irrevocably excluded’ and ‘alone miserably’. The creature’s isolation could be found as a reason for his crimes as he never had anyone who he could interact with so he has never learnt how to do it, the creature’s isolation therefore leads to destruction. Every time the creature tries to make friends he is pushed further and further into isolation until he is in the most isolated place on earth, the North Pole. Using the vast open snowy mountains as the creature inhabits allows the feeling of only him being there and no one else being anywhere near as the monster describes to his creator that, ‘dreary glaciers are my refuge’. Arguably, Mary Shelley might have been inspired, as she wrote ‘Frankenstein’, while staying in Italy in a remote place in the mountains. Shelley also shows the isolation that Victor forced onto himself, rejecting company. This means there is no one there to make him do the right thing so he continues to make horrific mistakes. The monster and Victor are isolated together at the end and only have each other. When Victor dies, his creation kills himself as the last person who could accept him and give him reason for his existence has died, and he no longer wishes to be lonely. The reason for this loneliness is simply because of the way that he looks, that people are ‘prejudiced against’ him and only ‘behold a detestable monster’. Mary Shelley uses this to make the audience feel sorry for him and to show the reader that he has emotions just like a human. Much of this book criticises man for judging on appearance and shows that appearance and reality can be very different. The creature is ugly and deformed making him seem frightening to people where as all that he really wants is a friend and someone to love him like he describes to the blind man he has ‘no relation or friend upon earth’. On the complete opposite to this Victor Frankenstein is seen as a rational scientist but turns out to be an irrational obsessive. Mary Shelley is trying to get the point across that things are not always as they seem. Another important theme is that of the horror of child birth. In chapter five when Frankenstein gives birth to the creature, he immediately rejects it and is in a sense rejecting his â€Å"baby†. The monster in a sense has lost his â€Å"mother† at child birth and so is lonely. This was a very personal subject that Shelley decided to include within the book as she must have felt similar feeling to the creature after losing her own mother at child birth. She is showing through the creature how lonely it feels not to be loved by a creator or mother. Through the chapters when the monster is recounting his story to his creator he is trying to get Victor to take his responsibilities of creator and love his creation calling Victor his ‘natural lord and king’ The monster also shows the similarities between Victor and God being the creators and himself and Adam the first creations trying to explain this to Frankenstein saying to him, ‘I ought to be thy Adam’ At this point Victor believes in the total opposite, and wants nothing to do with his creation that he now regrets, trying to rid the monster telling him ‘there can be no community between you and me’ ‘we are enemies’ it is only later on when he starts to listen and feel for his creation that he ‘felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were’ and that he ‘ought to render him’. I think that to many people Frankenstein is one of the most well known horror stories including all of the ingredie nts to frighten the audience. To me, I believe that Frankenstein is much less a horror story as it is a novel that questions our society and the people living in it. The old man tells the monster ‘the hearts of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity’. Throughout this book this quote is proved untrue. That people are always kind and giving when it does not interfere with their own interests, is shown as wrong. This book criticizes society and man, how prejudiced we are and the greed for fame. Although this book was written nearly 200 years ago the same messages still apply to today’s modern society. By Amy Smith MiDr Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section.

Assess the View That Traditional Class Identities

Assess the view that traditional class identities are no longer important. Social class refers to the divisions within society. Each group shares the same characteristics, for example they may work within the same type of occupation, therefore meaning they share the same economic status. These groups are the working class, middle class and upper class. However now some believe there isn’t this social class division within society and that everyone is equal. People that would agree traditional class identities are no longer important are postmodernists.These have the view that class no longer really matters in modern Britain and that now people no longer identify themselves according to their class background. Clarke and Saunders (1991) would agree with the view of postmodernists. They suggest that classes have become fragmented into many different groups and now they have been replaced with other influences such as gender and lifestyles. Although they is some evidence which su ggests these ideas are exaggerated.Marshall’s survey into how people view themselves showed people still see social class as a source of identity. The traditional working class was a group of people that was developed after the industrialisation when they were need for large amounts of manual workers. This group formed a strong sense on culture and identity. These were strong moral values, having men as the breadwinner and women as housewives and believing getting a job is more important than having an education.The traditional working class also saw the labour party as the party for the working class as it represented their interests, as pointed out in item B. Although now many people in the working class vote for different parties as they don’t all agree on what is important now in society, supporting the idea that traditional class identities are no longer important. Now also the manufacturing business as changed a lot, this means now they aren’t the same job s available as they would have been before as they have been replaced with things such as machines that can do a faster and cheaper job.Therefore the working class has had to change the sort of jobs they do over time which may be a reason for the change in characteristics, and therefore making the traditional class identities now no longer important. Diamond and Giddens agree with this as they argue that the working class is no longer important because of the change in the economy that as lead to the decline of manual labour jobs, and that the working class isn’t now the only class which experiences economic and social eprivation. The new working class is now seen to have little loyalty to others within the same class, more emphasis on customer goods, high levels of home ownership, and women likely to be employed. There is also now a larger section of the working class, this may be down to some working class jobs now becoming more skilful therefore getting higher pay, which o thers become less skilful and get lower pay, meaning people in the same class may identify themselves every differently.However there are sociologists that believe traditional class identities are still very important, for example Marxists. They believe social class is still hugely influential in shaping our identities. They also believe social class is identified by your income, and that leisure wouldn’t define your identity as you would need the disposable income to afford it. The British Attitudes Survey supported this idea, because in 2007 it found still 94% of people still identified themselves with a social class, whereas only 6% didn’t.Overall the importance of traditional class identities are seen every differently by different people. Views which agree and disagree to the importance of traditional class identities still being important have both positives and negatives so it’s hard to just believe one view point is the truth and the other doesn’t matter. Therefore I believe both viewpoints have sufficient evidence and that traditional class identities are still important to an extent, however now there is also other factors that can make up our identity other than just our social class.