Langston Hughes, Prolific Writer Of Black Pride During The Harlem Renai

During a time where racism was at its height in America, Jim Crow laws separated blacks from mainstream white society. Where the notion of â€Å"separate but equal† was widely accepted in America, blacks were faced with adversity that they had to overcome in a race intolerant society. They were forced to face a system that compromised their freedom and rights. Blacks knew that equal was never equal and separate was definitely separate (George 8-9). Blacks had to fight for their rights because it wasn’t handed to them. Racism manifested itself on many levels and had to be fought on many levels. This gave rise to influential black leaders in the fight for civil rights. Langston Hughes was one of those black leaders who arose during the Harlem Renaissance. He gave his people a voice and encouraged pride and hope through his literary work, to overcome racial discrimination. Langston Hughes lived during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, an African American cultural movement of the early 1920s and 1930s that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. It also came to be known as the New Negro movement, marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature seriously and that African American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation at large. Although it was primarily a literary movement, it was closely related to developments in African American music, theater, art, and politics. This was also the time of the â€Å"Great Migration†, where more blacks were migrating from the rural South to the urban North, to seek better jobs and lives for their families (George 62). This new identity blacks to gain a new social consciousness and opportunity that was not available ... ...a fifty seven story famous historic landmark building in New York. â€Å"I’ve been a singer: All the way from Africa to Georgia I carried my sorrow songs.† There have been many famous black singers who have made a name for themselves. Singing songs of the blues, gospel etc. telling their stories through melodies and soul. â€Å"I’ve been a victim: The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo. They lynch me still in Mississippi.† Here Hughes shows that blacks have been objects of violent hate. But at the end of the poem Hughes repeats â€Å"I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, black like the depths of my Africa.† This shows that although blacks have been treated in ways in which no human should be treated. We still kept moving forward never giving up hope and faith, that a change would come. We have accomplished many things in our past and we can use this to motivate our future.

The Problem of Population Growth and the Solution of Population Plannin

The Problem of Population Growth and the Solution of Population Planning INTRODUCTION Human population growth, overpopulation, and earth’s biological carrying capacity have been concerns of scientists for many years. In 1679 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek estimated that the maximum number of people Earth can support is 13.4 billion and estimates have continued to vary drastically since then (Cohen, 1995). There are many ecological indicators, including desertification and water problems, which point to the likelihood that we are approaching our limit. There are many sub issues within this overall problem that must be addressed in order to work towards solving this problem, including sustainable living, water shortages, etc. However, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the idea of population control as one possible starting point for a solution. CARRYING CAPACITY It is important to remember that carrying capacity can change with new technology, different use of resources and better resource management. Carrying capacity can also change in the opposite direction due to a catastrophic event or overexploitation of resources. As was mentioned previously, there have been many estimates made on Earth’s carrying capacity since 1679. Estimates have varied greatly, ranging from 1000 billion. Currently the UN’s projection is that Earth can support around 9 billion people (www.prb.org). It is expected that the human population will reach that size by 2050. The current world population is around 6.3 billion. So, many believe that this is becoming, and has been, an imminent problem. According to Cohen, there have been six different methods that have been used to estimate Earth’s human carrying capacity.... ...eved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org. Haub, C. & Herstad, B., (July, 2002). Sterilization World’s #1 Contraceptive Method. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org. Meulenberg, C., (Sept./Oct. 2004). {Definitely}Probably One: A Generation Comes of Age Under China’s One-Child Policy. World Watch, 17, 31. Roudi-Fahimi, F., & Moghadam, V.M., (November, 2003). Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau. www.prb.org. UNFPA, (2004). State of the World Population: The Cairo Consensus at Ten: Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: www.unfpa.org. Zi, L., (2004, July 8). Population Planning Paradox. Beijing Review, 47, 22. The Problem of Population Growth and the Solution of Population Plannin The Problem of Population Growth and the Solution of Population Planning INTRODUCTION Human population growth, overpopulation, and earth’s biological carrying capacity have been concerns of scientists for many years. In 1679 Antoni van Leeuwenhoek estimated that the maximum number of people Earth can support is 13.4 billion and estimates have continued to vary drastically since then (Cohen, 1995). There are many ecological indicators, including desertification and water problems, which point to the likelihood that we are approaching our limit. There are many sub issues within this overall problem that must be addressed in order to work towards solving this problem, including sustainable living, water shortages, etc. However, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the idea of population control as one possible starting point for a solution. CARRYING CAPACITY It is important to remember that carrying capacity can change with new technology, different use of resources and better resource management. Carrying capacity can also change in the opposite direction due to a catastrophic event or overexploitation of resources. As was mentioned previously, there have been many estimates made on Earth’s carrying capacity since 1679. Estimates have varied greatly, ranging from 1000 billion. Currently the UN’s projection is that Earth can support around 9 billion people (www.prb.org). It is expected that the human population will reach that size by 2050. The current world population is around 6.3 billion. So, many believe that this is becoming, and has been, an imminent problem. According to Cohen, there have been six different methods that have been used to estimate Earth’s human carrying capacity.... ...eved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org. Haub, C. & Herstad, B., (July, 2002). Sterilization World’s #1 Contraceptive Method. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org. Meulenberg, C., (Sept./Oct. 2004). {Definitely}Probably One: A Generation Comes of Age Under China’s One-Child Policy. World Watch, 17, 31. Roudi-Fahimi, F., & Moghadam, V.M., (November, 2003). Empowering Women, Developing Society: Female Education in the Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: Population Reference Bureau. www.prb.org. UNFPA, (2004). State of the World Population: The Cairo Consensus at Ten: Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty. Retrieved October 31, 2004 from: www.unfpa.org. Zi, L., (2004, July 8). Population Planning Paradox. Beijing Review, 47, 22.

Christmas, my favorite holiday Essay

Hello, my name is Marycarmen Rivas, before I get down to my presentation I want to introduce myself better and tell you a little bit about me: I was born on a beautiful Monday on March the 26th of 1984 here in the city of Puebla. I live with my mom, sister, and my handsome one year old son. I’m a single mother trying to do the best I can for my son, however, I get a lot of help from my family, especially from my mom. I also have a boyfriend, we love each other very much and plan to get married in the near future; He is always there for me as I’m always there for him too, and I think that’s what makes our relationship so especial, even if we’re far away from each other we both know we can count on one another. Respect and trust are the main aspects for us, but isn’t always easy, especially when you live in different places. He’s very protective of me, and gets jealous very easily, but it always comes to the bottom part, which is how much we love each other. We call and write each other everyday; because he’s in college outside the country, we only get to see each other on vacations and some holidays. I love holidays, as I’m sure many people do, but my favorite one has to be Christmas†¦which is what I’ve decided to make my presentation about. Christmas to me is a celebration, which includes spending quality time with my family and loved ones, decorating the entire house, inside and out, and shopping for the people I love. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me. Spending Christmas with my family is very important to me. We usually gather and celebrate at my grandparent’s house. We spend the day cooking, baking cookies, and preparing a big Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. Decorating for Christmas is so much fun. My grandfather always draws a new background scenery, for the Nativity scene, that he displays every year. He, my uncles, brother-in-law and my boyfriend start with the decorations for the outside of the house. Every year, my grandparents add a little more to the outside decorations. My mom, grandmother, aunts, sister, the children  and myself decorate the inside of the house. My grandmother has so many indoor decorations that they can not all possibly be displayed. We try to change the decorations, which we put out every year. The men finish up just about the same time as we women and then it is time to decorate the tree together. This is the part I love the most. The tree is always real, and always decorated with as many lights as possible. Most of the ornaments have been collected over the years and are very old. They have become real family treasures. We all have a favorite one that we each put on the tree. I am not usually a shopper, but during the Christmas season, I actually enjoy shopping. I rarely go into department stores, but during the Christmas season, I love to shop. The stores are so beautifully decorated and very festive. I can easily get carried away, with spending so much money. I must admit the thought of spending too much money hardly comes to mind. I can just picture of look on the faces, of my family and that brings me so much joy. Some, gifts I have picked out and purchased months ahead of time, either through catalogs, or shopping a little early, when stores have sales. Others, I struggle to decide what gift to purchase, even up to the very last minute possible. One thing is for certain, by the time my shopping is done, I am exhausted, but happy and excited, about Christmas. I feel so fortunate, to have my family throughout the year, but especially, at Christmas time. When showing, my family and the people who is close to me just how much I love them and what exactly they mean to me. That is so very important to me. Christmas, for me is about being with my loved ones, sharing a day loving each other and showing each other exactly how we all feel.

Log Mgmt

Log Management in the Cloud: A Comparison of In-House versus Cloud-Based Management of Log Data A SANS Whitepapers – October 2008 Written by: Jerry Sheen Sponsored by Alert Logic Basic Practices Questions for the Cloud Provider Considerations for In-House Log Management Executive Summary In the 2008 SANS Log Management Survey, 20 percent of respondents who were satisfied with their log management systems spent more than one week each month on log analysis. Most of those companies were in the Global 2000.The remaining small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and government organizations spent twine a half-day to five days per month on log analysis. The survey also showed that, because of difficulties in setup and integration, most organizations have only achieved partial automation of their log management and reporting processes. These difficulties have organizations, particularly SMB, wondering if they should turn over log management to an in-cloud provider†one that prov ides their log management software and log data storage over the Internet.In January, 2008, Stephen Northup, president of the SANS Technology Institute, wrote that there are pitfalls with putting log management in-the-cloud. On the plus side, he adds, â€Å"you will almost certainly save money. In addition, real experts on log analysis are hard to find†¦ † 1 Recently, vendors began offering log management in-the-cloud (otherwise known as Software as a Service or AAAS), as a way to simplify log management because the provider can dedicate the material resources and retain the talented, focused personnel to do a better Job for less money.This particularly makes sense not only for SMB without the dedicated manpower, but also for enterprises whose IT resources are stretched trying to manage multiple distributed Lana. While IT managers agree that log management is difficult, they are leery about handing over their log data to a third party application provider because the dat a might not be available when they need it, not to mention the sensitive nature of some of the data that shows up in log files.Before deploying or overhauling log management systems, organizations need to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each model in context of their business requirements. To simplify the process, this paper presents some questions to consider when vetting those business needs against each (and in many cases, both) of these log management models. Www. Sans. Du/resources/leadership/log_logic_interview. PH Log Management in the Cloud Basic Practices When looking at both models of log management (internally or in the cloud), begin with the end in mind by clearly laying out the reasons you want to collect log data.The following are some pre-selection tenets to keep in mind when considering both models of log management: Identify Your Goals One of the keys to any successful project deployment is identifying the goals before starting. Log management needs are differen t for each business unit staking a claim in the process. The IT group may be interested in the value of log data for problem solution; the security team may be interested in information management or event management tied into an overall SEEM; and the audit and compliance group is most likely interested in tracking what people are doing in regard to sensitive data.Other possible uses for log data include marketing, forensics and HER accounting. As they identify goals, companies would do well to consider the broader advantages of log management and analysis, and look for systems or services that will allow a migration toward a more complete use of log data in the future. Of importance to all groups is the type of reporting supplied by the service or system. Log management systems often have reporting that is geared toward compliance for PC, SOX, HAIFA and other similar standards.Apart from required reports, log management can generate reports that are helpful for system maintenance, security management and many other purposes. Whether log management is handled in-house or in the cloud, reporting and correlation features should be easy to use and able to meet current and future business goals. Locate Resources Critical to the success of any log management initiative is finding the staff needed to implement, manage and maintain the system. This is particularly difficult for SMB and government agencies that can't afford top dollar for IT talent.Yet, according to a Gardner paper in May of 20082, compliance drivers are pushing organizations with smaller security staffs to acquire log management systems. In these cases, in-cloud services make sense. Larger organizations with dedicated security staffs and advanced log management processes, on the other hand, are more likely to keep log management functions in-house. But even those organizations might use log management services for branches, or as a part of their larger security or network management operations. 2 GO 56945, Mark Nicole and Kelly Savanna's.SANS Analyst Program Try Before You Buy The computer industry is fraught with solutions that don't work nearly as well as they purport. So, testing and trial use is critical to determine whether the system or service suits your needs. Put the search interface through its paces to test for functionality and accuracy. Start off with a few devices sending log data, but also set up as many devices as you are allowed to test during the trial period. Some log management systems work very well for a small amount of data; but as the data feed test larger, the performance goes down quickly†and the systems or services can miss events.A good way to test the system or service is to send some suspicious data to a device that is being monitored. Then go look for that particular data to make sure it's all there in the logs. One way to do this is to use the Kiwi Slog Message Generators to send messages to the target, for example by using an option in the program to send a simple text message followed by a number. This makes it simple to see if any of the test messages have been picked up by the log management system or service and reported upon as required.If there is a security component to the monitoring service (there usually is), try attacking your server and see how the provider responds. The specifics of how you would do this testing will vary with your goals, but logging in as a user and intentionally mistyping the password enough times to lock the account should get a response from the log service or system. I have actively used this testing approach on some appliances that collected security information and never got a response. If you choose to do this kind of testing, start slowly to get an idea of where the response threshold is.In addition to testing for nationality and security, pay attention to the user interface. In most cases, this will be a Web-based front end. Go through all the options and make sure they work. A lso, make sure that responses to the GUI are intuitive. If you have a report that you need regularly, you should be able to get that report reasonably easily, even have it e- mailed to a specified account. Custom reports and specialized reports may be more complicated to receive as a test, but the basic flow of the system should make sense.Finally, make sure that the people who will use the service test the interface before decisions are finalized. Www. Sociology. Com/kiwi-slogged-overview Questions for the Cloud Provider Selecting a log management software service provider is more like cementing a partnership than making a purchase. The service provider will have copies of critical log data†at times they may have the only copies of that data. The table below offers a quick snapshot of what to cover in a Service Level Agreement with a log management cloud service provider.Following that are questions to consider before taking the plunge. AAAS availability No more than 2 minute s of downtime a day and no more than 5 minutes per week. Timeliness of log data showing up in system Individual logged events must be available to a search from the customer portal within 90 seconds of the event. Timeliness of log data analysis Regulatory compliance Alerts must be delivered to the client within 30 minutes of a critical event. The AAAS provider must maintain compliance to changing regulations within 30 days of notification of change.New attack vectors should be applied to the processing system within 24 hours of a new attack being identified. The processing system must be upgraded to support changes and modifications to alerting from supported systems when systems are available for mineral release. Prompt upgrades to support new attack vectors Prompt upgrades to support upgrades to hardware and software 4 When considering cloud-based log management applications, organizations should ask the following questions (most of which can also be applied to in-house log manage ment systems): Is It Safe?Many IT managers are concerned with the safety of their log data, and rightly so: Log data can be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Attackers can get valuable information from reading the logs. For example, they can see if their attacks work, been known to show up in logs). Log data as common as Web or e-mail traffic often contains confidential information. Having control of logs can be useful to attackers who, in some cases, will try to clean the log data to remove any traces of their activity. Therefore, it's important to look at the safety of log data†whether it's stored on- or off-site.If the log data is stored locally, it's often kept on each individual computer producing the data. Larger organizations will have log servers that will store the log data in a centralized attached storage device. Those systems are, in an ideal situation, secured and difficult to break into. In the cloud model, this data storage would be handed off to the c loud provider, which relieves the organization of the hardware, security and HER burdens involved with keeping storage in-house. However, as they lose control of that data, organizations must rely on the cloud service to handle their data securely.The issue of whether a service organization is competent is difficult to determine, and is ultimately based on reputation. Cloud providers must create a trust model as they manage collected log data securely and separately in a multi-tenant environment. This creates the need for additional layers of security to operate multiple tenants from one another on a shared server, while also protecting the data stores from attackers. Firewalls, encryption and data loss prevention are all areas of security that apply to sensitive log data stored in the cloud†a cloud that's increasingly brutalized.Fertilization, in itself, is not necessarily a negative, as long as proper security procedures are followed within the virtual cloud. The same charac teristics of fertilization that make it a concern as a hacking agent also provide a hiding technology that has the potential to make user accounts harder for attackers o access. Already security vendors are developing virtual technologies so that their anti-mallard products can't be detected and overruled by today's kernel boot- level rootlets. 5 How Is It Transported?Ask the cloud provider for specifics about how the data gets transmitted from your systems to their operations center. Is the data encrypted in transit? What type and strength of encryption is used? Is the encryption proprietary? Be wary of providers that claim their encryption information is confidential or proprietary; instead, look for providers that use proven technologies such as SSL or AES. There are numerous examples of companies that have invested vast amounts of money in creating their own encryption technologies only to find out after release that they missed a critical component.How Are Keys Stored? It would be easier for a log management vendor to use the same encryption secrets client, that attacker can access the accounts of all clients. A different key for each customer account would not only offer better protection against customers accessing one another's accounts, but also against an attacker cracking a password and getting the keys to the entire kingdom. Logical separation of key storage is also important for the same reasons. How Often Is The Data Transmitted? Most log management systems send data in batch mode.The collection appliance typically waits for either a specified time or amount of data before transmission. In general, a quicker frequency is better because the data is getting processed faster. More frequent transmission minimizes traffic bursts and gives an attacker less time to interrupt or block the transmission of alerts, a technique attackers use in an attempt to avoid detection. What Is The Level Of Compression and Bandwidth Utilization? Bandwidth utilization is a question that you'll want to keep an eye on as you test your log management service.It is common to get 90 percent compression or better on ASCII (plain text) logs, while binary log compression ratios may be less. If your Internet connection is currently heavily utilized, the log traffic may impede other traffic, and you'll want to plan for this issue ahead of time. One way to monitor the bandwidth is to capture traffic statistics using Net Flows. If you aren't monitoring your overall Internet traffic utilization, it's best to get a handle on that prior to implementing a log management service and use this number as a baseline. What Backup and Redundancy Is Included ? If a cloud provider claims to be set up to handle this type of data correctly, verify that it is, in fact, doing a better Job than you would. The provider should have data stored at multiple locations and secure backups for redundancy. Check, too, with the company that is actually doing storage. In the cloud model, storage could be handed off to another vendor. Ask questions about how stored data is encrypted, how it is transferred, where the tapes or other media are stored, and if there is a process for racking tapes.Find out how long backup data is retained, how it's destroyed, and what happens to the data if the service is terminated. It will probably be impossible to verify most of this, but the cloud provider should be able to answer questions and provide benchmarks, customer references, service agreements and other documentation. What Are The Responding Options? System. These built-in reports typically cover things like regulatory compliance and common performance and security metrics. Verify that the reports your organization needs are included as overbuilt reports, or that they're easy enough to customize.Often, reporting is not as straightforward as people would like it to be. Sometimes, the logging application won't provide the required information directly, but it may be available i ndirectly. For example, a security manager may want to identify invalid session IDs on a Web site because a high frequency of invalid session IDs may point to an attacker trying to guess a session ID and clone or hijack the session. If the log manager doesn't report that information directly, it may be possible to get similar information by tracking the number of connections built from any given IP address. How Much Of The Data Is Actively Searchable?In some cases, the most recent data will be more quickly accessible for searching than data that has been removed from an active state. Moving data out of an active part of the database can make databases faster, so some data may be moved into an area that provides slower access. Ask if there are any special requirements to access archived data or whether the only issue is a performance penalty†and request a demonstration. 7 How Much Of The Data Is Stored? If data is moved out of primary storage, is the full log data retained or w ill recovery of data be limited to searchable data fields and metadata?If some detail is eliminated, determine whether this will cause problems with regulatory compliance, forensics processes and other log management and reporting needs required across your organization. If there are processes that automatically eliminate some data, can those processes be suspended for special circumstances, such as litigation requiring the preservation of data? How long does it take to make such changes? What Log Data Will Be Accepted? What specific devices, operating systems and applications are supported?Several operating systems and hundreds of widely used appliances and devices are critical o today's diverse organizational IT infrastructures. The number of applications a log manager may be called upon to understand is staggering. Prioritize on all your critical devices and applications. How are they supported by the service provider, and how thorough is that support? How Are Its Instructions Fo r Setting Up Devices? Log management can become more complicated as the number of log-producing for setting up devices, operating systems and applications that need to be monitored.Often, a company will need to deviate from the normal setup procedure, based on the peculiarities of its business that complicate the log data life cycle. As a result, setup instructions should be termed as guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Rules often must be massaged to work with the varying operating systems and applications (including their versions) that an organization needs coverage for. 8 How Are Alerts Determined? If the cloud provider is offering to send alerts for events of interest, find out how they determine what is of interest and compare that to what is of interest to your organization.Are they looking solely at security events or do they include more routine support and maintenance events? If the events of interest include both types f events, how do they distinguish between the two? H ow much involvement does the log management client have in setting up what alerts are of interest to them? If a drive runs out of space, for example, that can often be Just as big a problem as an attacker compromising a system. Ask, also, if they can correlate related events to give the analysis situational awareness. For example, an administrator logging into a domain controller at 10 a. . And creating a user is quite different from the DNS process starting a command shell and creating a user in the middle of the night. In both cases, a user is being created. In the first instance, the process seems normal; but in the second instance this combination of events could be associated with the RPC DNS exploit as demonstrated in an April, 2007, SANS Webmaster. Cloud (and in- house systems) should, therefore, include situational awareness to understand when creating a user is a normal event and when, as in the second example, it is not normal.In addition to automated monitoring and alerts , it would be ideal if cloud providers could offer human review of logs as an add-on fee for service. Human review is required under some regulations, and is a good basic best practice for organizations to follow because automated systems don't catch everything. How Quickly Does Processing Occur? Timing is an important issue with log management that the cloud model is well- suited to address. One typical problem with in-house log management is that events are often found after a problem is noticed.It is, of course, best to detect log events leading up to a critical event in order to avoid the critical event. The question about processing speed encompasses a number of different issues: Once an event has been logged at the local device, how long does it take for that event to show up in the yester? If that event should trigger an alert, how long will it be before the alert is relayed to the client IT department? Is there an option for the vendor to do more than April 24, 2007 Webmaste r – www. Sans. Org/websites/show. PH? Beastie=90861 9 How Often Are The Alerts Updated? Operating systems and network devices are constantly coming under new and different attacks requiring new responses. The errors from these devices also change with some upgrades, so it is important for the Log Management provider to conduct regular and timely updates to its system, and respond reasonably when errors occur. How Are System Upgrades Handled? In the cloud, upgrades to the log management systems are handled by the provider, thereby relieving the organization from having to maintain these systems in-house.There is a risk, however, that the upgrades may cause outages in coverage by accidentally introducing new compatibility or protocol problems. It would be a good to ask the cloud provider about how upgrades are handled and how clients are protected during the upgrades. By the same token, how would updates to any internal system log-generating devices affect the cloud provider's coverage? 10 Considerations for In-House Log Management Many of the same questions that apply to companies offering log management service in the cloud also apply to internally-managed log management systems.The 2008 SANS Annual Log Management survey indicates it is still incredibly difficult to automate log management systems to the degree organizations need. A recent article by Patrick Mueller in Information Week refers to log management as a â€Å"monster. † Just because it's difficult doesn't mean log management needs to be outsourced. When weighing in-house log management, consider the following factors: Could A Personal Change Ruin Your Log Management Process? Log management is often the pet project of one person while the rest of the IT staff tries not to get involved.If that person leaves the company, it can be difficult for initiatives. Will Your Staff Monitor The Logs Regularly And Maintain Updates? Log management services have requirements built into their contract s for response time and full-time monitoring. Can your staff live up to those same expectations? One of the issues for log management companies is keeping up with updates to applications, operating systems and regulatory issues. Is your staff able to keep up with the changes? As an example, how did your staff do when Windows Server 2008 changed all its event Ids?At the time, most administrators used a collection of scripts; however, all those scripts, which were working, suddenly became broken. Floggers lashed out about it. For a log administrator who finally has everything working, that sort of a situation can be a demoralizing surprise. Maintaining updates and monitoring logs is complicated by the fact that most companies support a diversity of logging devices. To properly support local log management, an IT group will need to work with different vendors ho use different types of log data.At times, it may be necessary to bring in consultants to assist with tracking down specific i ssues. Organizations need to consider the associated costs and frustrations of working with multiple vendors and integrators along with the costs of the initial deployment and ongoing internal staffing requirements. 56 www. Informational. Com/story/charities. Jhtml? Articled=208400730 www. ultimate windows security. Com/wick/WindowsServer2008VistaSecurityLog. Sash 11 Roll Your Own Or Buy An Appliance? A big debate in the log management arena is how to deploy log management tools.According to the SANS Log Management survey, the majority of organizations (38 percent) are building home grown solutions through the use of slog servers, custom scripts and applications. The remaining respondents used a combination of commercial software and appliance-based tools or checked â€Å"other. † In either case, organizations are not happy with their level of automated correlation or system coverage, according to the survey. Coverage, automation, correlation and access must all be addressed, maintained and improved upon as needs dictate, regardless of which option is chosen.

The Culture at Starbucks

Organizational culture refers to â€Å"a system of shared meaning held by members [of an organization] that distinguishes [it] from other organizations† (Robbins, 2005). In other words, organizational culture is the collection of characteristics and qualities which the employees of an organizations or the organization as a whole, values and consequently seeks to preserve. Robbins 92005) put forward seven basic characteristics which make up an organizational culture. The first of these characteristics is innovation and risk taking which refers to how management allows their employees to take some amount of risk in order to introduce new approaches and methods of work.Second is attention to detail – which means that a company requires its workers to give their full attention to specifics and the fine points of their jobs, so to speak. The third characteristic of organizational culture is outcome orientation, which indicates that management is not very much into rules and procedures as long as the desired results are accomplished, followed by people orientation which refers to management’s concern with how managerial decisions affect their employees or even their customers base.This could be taken to mean that no matter how beneficial a decision might be for the organization if such a decision could prove harmful to its employees, it is most likely to be shelved. The fifth characteristic is team orientation – by this Robbins refers to how the organization organizes its activities around work teams instead of encouraging individualism among its employees.Aggressiveness, the sixth characteristic, on the other hand, means that management wants its employees to show aggressiveness because it gives premium to competition. Finally, the last characteristic of organizational culture is stability. Robbins uses this term to refer to the preference of management to keep things secure and steady, thereby sustaining the existing state of affairs as long as the organization is profitable. This is resorted to by companies who do not want to go all out for growth and expansion.The cultural characteristic at Starbucks which best appeals to me is the aggressiveness encouraged by management. For a growth-oriented individual, Starbucks is an attractive company to work for because undoubtedly it gives value to employee aggressiveness because it is essentially a growth company. As a matter of fact, aside from being the â€Å"first specialty coffee retailer† in the world, Starbucks has more than 8500 branches and franchises in 25 countries around the world (Tripp, L., Siwapiragam, V., Rahim, N., & Horton, E. (2005).Innovation and risk taking, team orientation, and attention to detail are the other characteristics that make the company appealing. The culture at Starbucks is customer-responsive. It hires service-oriented and friendly employees who are not bound by rigid customer relation rules. The low level of formalization observ ed by the company allows its employees to adjust to different kinds of customers who come from all walks of life.This practice could be called empowerment, permitting employees to do what they deem necessary in order to satisfy customer needs. In its customer-responsive culture, Starbucks employees are clearly conscientious in pleasing their customers and are willing to go out of their way just to satisfy the needs of their customers. (Robbins, 2005)Employees of Starbucks know just what is expected of them. The company wants them to satisfy their customers from the quality of their coffee and other products to the services that they provide. They are committed to this expectation and focus all their efforts in achieving it. This shows that the culture in the company is strong as it is characterized by a â€Å"high degree of sharedness and intensity creates an internal climate of high behavioral control.† This expectation, therefore, effectively shapes the behavior of Starbuck s employees. (Robbins, 2005)The Customer Base of StarbucksThe customer base of Starbucks could be described as people who go out to have their snacks or take a cup of coffee outside their homes for different reasons. They could generally be classified into two categories: those who usually hang out with friends to socialize over cups of coffee and slices of sandwiches and those who go out to celebrate special occasions or to treat their visitors and friends to something special. Notwithstanding their category, however, the customers of Starbucks value their money and would want to have their money’s worth – in terms of quality, cleanliness, and satisfactory customer service. It is the company’s primary objective, therefore, to meet all of these customer requirements.Customer Service Standards for StarbucksPeople who are going out for their favorite blend of coffee whether habitually or occasionally expect not only excellent coffee but commendable service in retu rn for their money. For Starbucks, therefore, customer service starts with its product. For this reason, the first concern that should be addressed by the company is product quality, specifically its coffee. It should therefore exert every effort to achieve the highest possible product quality at all times. Management could make this possible by exercising due diligence in ensuring that only excellent coffee beans are brewed. This is the only way to ensure that their customers keep coming back.After product quality, the company should take into account the problem of cleanliness and sanitation. The dining room, rest rooms, and kitchen should be immaculately clean. Customers should be fully convinced that they are being served with clean food prepared in a sanitary manner and handled only by sterile workers. To this end, it would be very effective if customers are allowed to observe how their coffee and sandwiches are being prepared by clean-cut and healthy-looking personnel. Custome rs also prefer to eat in clean surroundings. Starbucks management should therefore see to it that every item in the dining room – from the furniture to the tableware and cutlery – are spotlessly clean with no insects buzzing around while they eat.The final customer service concern should be the quality of service. The sales staff, the food servers, and the maintenance people should be in clean uniform and should convey an image of clean living and over-all health. It would not be advisable for management to employ people who look as if they are indulging in substance abuse during their spare time. Employees should likewise be courteous and polite at all times, making it mandatory for management to focus employee selection on these aspects.These standards are meant to capture customer confidence and establish a management-customer relationship based on trust. If customers are satisfied that management is doing everything in order to safeguard their health and well-being by preparing the food carefully and in a sanitary manner, providing them with a sterile dining area, manned by neat and courteous employees who see to their every need while dining, then the company should have achieved a good foundation for a profitable business.ReferenceRobbins, S.P. (2005). Organizational Behavior, Eleventh Edition. Prentice-Hall.Tripp, L., Siwapiragam, V., Rahim, N., & Horton, E. (2005). Project V – Industrial toInformation Model of an Enterprise. Retrieved September 7, 2007, from

Genre Conversation Essay

Although genre is commonly regarded as a tool for conventional assortment, it is necessary to recognize that a genre is not defined by its formal features, but by its situational factors. The contextual identification of a genre is highlighted by Carolyn Miller, who describes genres as the â€Å"typified rhetorical ways of acting in recurring situations† (qtd. in Bawarshi 7). The word â€Å"situation† is crucial in her definition because writing results from situational demands. Such situational nature of writing is emphasized by many scholars including Amy Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Stanley Fish. Synthesizing the works of these authors, we can derive that genre unites writing and context. Thus instead of focusing on formal features, a genre should be acknowledged as a publicly established form identified by its contextual features, in which writers and readers are socially connected. Since genre is socially defined, it can only function when there is a rhetorical situation that calls for a response. Returning to Miller’s definition, genres are responses to recurring situations. Because similar situations trigger similar rhetorical responses, these responses develop into a default ways of answering a particular type of situation (Bitzer 13). Nonetheless, not all situations stimulate responses; only situations in which one or more exigences exit trigger production. According to Lloyd Bitzer, an exigence is an â€Å"imperfection marked by urgency† (6). Writers are only motivated to write due to the presence of such imperfection. Since a rhetorical writing is invented to address an exigence, the purpose of such writing is therefore to modify the situation and so to alleviate the presented problem. Such contextual dependency of writing is highlighted when Bawarshi connects writer’s purpose and situation, indicating that writing â€Å"begins and takes place within the social and rhetorical conditions constituted by genres† (11). In other words, genres situate and motivate writers to write for a practical reason. For example, an advertisement article serves to encourage purchasing when a company tries to sell a product, while a science report serves to communicate lab results when researchers wish to publish their findings. In short, genres are responses to situations, thus what classifies a text into a genre is primarily the pragmatic purpose of the text in relation to the given situation. Furthermore, situations does not merely create genres, they also shape genres. Consider the rhetorical situation in which a letter is written: there are some physical distances between the writer and receiver, there is a close relationship between the writer and receiver, there is something the writer wants to communicate†¦Given such situation, there are many constraints that dictate the formal features of writing. These constraints give a genre its formal features. Thus genre simplifies the formal decisions writers need to make by â€Å"organiz[ing] the conditions of production as well as generat[ing] the rhetorical articulation of these conditions† (Bawarshi 9). With genre, writers are provided with writing frameworks that allow them to echo the demands of the given situation. Again, these writing frameworks are â€Å"rhetorical forms† that â€Å"comes to have a power of [their] own† as they are primarily responses to recurring situations (Bitzer 13). This implies that genres are shaped by situational specificity, thus particular social demands give birth to particular genres as different situations emphasize different values. Therefore â€Å"keep[ing] form and generic contexts united† is essential for a genre to work and hence for us to communicate as genres are shaped by contexts (Devitt 200). Although situation suggests appropriate forms to allow effective communication, it is crucial to acknowledge that formal features do not define genres. Formal feature can vary significantly within a genre, and such â€Å"inherent variation within all genres† is â€Å"essential to keeping genres alive and functioning† (Devitt 212). For instance, an advertisement can attract customers with striking pictures, yet it can also sell a product using persuasive statistics. No matter what formal features a text possesses, that text belongs to the advertisement genre as long as it is written to encourage consumption. This example illustrates that although context writing set constraints to promote appropriate formal features, yet the writer’s purpose is what ultimately defines a genre. Apart from contextualizing writing, genre socially connects writers and readers. On the conveying side, writers participate in discourse communities, which are â€Å"social and rhetorical environment[s] within which cognitive habits, goals, assumptions, and values are shared by participants† (Bawarshi 5). Writers in the same discourse community tend to employ same or similar genres. This is because the social contexts they write in, as well as the ideologies they wish to convey, are both shared within the community. Therefore, if a writer chooses to communicate with a genre commonly used by a discourse community, that writer will be identified as a member of community. What is the significance of discussing discourse communities? This answer relates back to the situational nature of writing – the concept of discourse community highlights the social purposes of genre by â€Å"locate[ing] a writer’s motives to act within typified rhetorical and social conditions† (Bawarshi 11). Members of different discourse communities tend to express using different strategies because they write for difference purposes and respond to different situations. Thus â€Å"writers will use different language in different genres† to properly address the presented exigence (Devitt 213). All in all, genre socially connects writers by situating them in discourse communities within which participants are motivated to produce by the same type of situation. Writers are not the only ones involved in the social context of writing, a text is given meaning by its readers as it means whatever the readers interpret it to mean. This suggests that a genre is identified as that genre when the readers perceive so. Fish describes interpretation as â€Å"the art of construction† (361); instead of finding what is in a text, readers create what is in the text through interpretation. These interpretations are shared â€Å"social and cultural patterns of thought† that result from experiences of acting within the social environment (Fish 364). Therefore, genres are â€Å"embedded within their social and cultural ideologies† so that they trigger appropriate interpretations (Devitt 191). Genre’s situational embedment underscores that writing is â€Å"dynamic, changing over time as the assumptions, values, and practices of writers and readers change† (Rounsaville 70) because the â€Å"social and rhetorical conditions are constantly being reproduced and transformed† as writers and readers act within them (Bawarshi 9). In sum, writing changes because context change. Hence, writing is a  social action defined and shaped by the social conditions that guide production and interpretation. Socially shared ideologies give birth to textual conventions, which are â€Å"agreements between writers and readers about how to construct and interpret texts† (Rounsaville 69). Genres associate writers and readers by suggesting textual conventions. Because these conventions are shared agreements between writers and readers, they enable writers to construct writing in a manner that directs readers’ interpretation so the text conveys its intended message. Therefore, successful communication results when writers follow text conventions when inventing and readers use these same conventions when reading. In conclusion, genre is constituted by social conditions in which writers and readers act within. Such situational dependency of writing is reflected in the works of the three authors referenced above. Amy Devitt’s text underscores the importance of understanding genre through its rhetorical purpose instead of through its form. She opposes the use of writing models, arguing that although learning formal features is an easier approach, yet the understanding of how genre actually functions is more practical when writers encounter new situations in specific disciplines. Similarly, Bawarshi relates text and context by defining writing as a social action. He reveals that inventions always depart from preceding productions, hence highlighting the importance of applying previously established forms to answer situational demands. Lastly, Fish’s chapter underlines the necessity of responding to an audience. After all, writing is a form of communication that involves not just the writer but also the reader, therefore writers should always be aware of how their readers might interpret their invention. In sum, the main take away point from these authors’ works is that effective writings are those that echo situational conditions. Works Cited Bawarshi. Anis. Genre and the Invention of the Writer: Reconsidering the Place of Invention in Composition. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2004. Devitt, Amy â€Å"A Proposal for Teaching Genre Awareness and Antecedent Genres. † Writing Genres. Carbondale: Southern Illinoise University Press, 2004. Ede, Lisa. â€Å"Writing for Rhetorical Situations†. Rounsaville, Angela, et al. , eds, Situated Inquiry. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. Fish, Stanley E. â€Å"How to Recognize a Poem When You See One†. Rounsaville, Angela, et al. , eds, Situated Inquiry. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.

Measures and Scale Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Measures and Scale - Statistics Project Example Various tests have been employed to determine if the regression model is satisfactory. The model is said to be satisfactory, if the estimated regression equation can predict the value of the dependent variable given values for the independent variables. The relationship between these two measures is that they analyze the extent to which variables are related. However, these two do not assess cause and effect. Stress is part of normal life though too much stress can cause emotional, psychological and physical problems such as heart disease, irregular heart, chest pains and high blood pressure (Quinn & Keough, 2002). Our main concern is to study the relationship between stress and high blood pressure. We want to ascertain whether medical researchers are right with regard to stress causing high blood pressure. Let us determine the relationship of these two by using a sample of 20 patients who had their stress test score and blood readings taken. Regression and correlation is used in ascertaining the relationship as shown below: From the above workings in the table, the correlation coefficient is one. Therefore, the relationship between stress and blood pressure is a linear one. This simply means that when stress levels increase, the blood pressure also increases. The regression model is determined is fit as we were able to predict the values of blood pressure at given levels of stress. The correlation is +1, therefore a relationship which is linear exists between BMI and birth weight. Using regression analysis, it will be not possible to predict the birth weight given the BMI because the model is Ã… · =