Archive for 2010
Essays on Microsoft
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Microsoft’s Failure (s)-essays about Microsoft
Many product development, marketing, and project management programs in the world’s leading universities love to use Microsoft as an example of how not to develop a new product or service and then, subsequently, how not to bring that new product or service to market. While some of Microsoft’s most popular programs such as the Windows operating system and its Microsoft Office suite of business productivity software are extremely successful and extremely profitable, they are increasingly the only areas of the company’s business that are although the Xbox 360 product is somewhat of a success anomaly but only partially so. The fact remains that Microsoft is such a good pinata to use in business schools because it completely fails to understand just how integral a company’s organizational culture is to its creative DNA. For example, product managers and marketing professors love to point out just how much Apple’s success relates to its inherent ability to create and innovate in areas that are increasingly far afield from its original computing platform.
In contrast, Microsoft, which has all the money and capital necessary to create and innovate without equal in the industry continually, fails to do so. The company’s efforts to introduce new products such as the Kin One and Kin Two mobile phones and mobile phone platform which have been recently discontinued after just a few weeks on the market and some 10,000 sold are illustrative of just how much the firm’s executives do not “get it.” This is just a long line of products and services that the firm has thought that it would revolutionize the consumer markets with. For instance, did you know that Microsoft once touted a Smart Watch service it coined SPOT and which would transmit data over FM radio waves to subscribers? Right, I didn’t think so but this product was available on all major online retailing sites such as Amazon.com, among others. Of course you are familiar with Zune, Microsoft’s digital music player, the perennial also-ran in the industry? What about Microsoft Bob which was a program developed in 1995 that was designed to make the Windows platform easier to use for computing novices? Right, customers that wanted a computing platform that was easier to use just bought a Mac and the company’s executives, once again, did get that rather than develop yet another program to interface with a GUI designed to interface with the computer’s underlying OS maybe it should just redesign its GUI—whatever.
Microsoft is the stuff of legend for all the wrong reasons and business school programs love to discuss its market failures like the Playforsure technology that, as it turned out, could not play with anybody’s digital music platform because of the company’s ridiculous digital management software and, in fact, once it was cancelled none of the files could even be played on the company’s new digital music platform which was the Zune. In short, Microsoft seems be mired in endless layers of organizational bureaucracy, be controlled by a top-down mentality, have a product/service development process designed to attempt to manipulate the consumer rather than design based on consumer demand, and to be inordinately focused on maintaining its dominance through proprietary business models.
Tags: amazon, business, business productivity software, capital, computing, computing platform, consumer, contrast, development, development marketing, essays, Failure, industry, Kin, line, microsoft microsoft, microsoft office suite, money, online retailing, organizational culture, phone, pinata, product managers, project management programs, radio waves, software, watch service, windows operating system, Xbox, xbox 360
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iPhone 4 Apps & University Students
Friday, June 25th, 2010
The iPhone and now with the iPhone 4 release, is a ubiquitous device on most college and university campuses. While many might casually assume that college and university students are using their iPhones just for texting, talking and social networking, a quick analysis indicates that college and university students are able to utilize their iPhones in new and unique ways because of the host of iPhone apps that are available and useful to the college student. Below is a list of some of the more popular and effective student oriented iPhone apps:
1) BigWords: this app provides college students the ability to comparison shop college
and university textbooks
2) CliffsNotes: this is a popular application that builds on the utility of the well-known study guides that students have been using for years
3) History: Maps of the World: this really neat application allows users to download and view maps of the world as they would have appeared in different historical eras
4) Pandora Radio: of course college students must have time to relax and increasingly they can accomplish this by listening to their favorite music genres on web-based radio streams through their iPhones
5) Mathematical Formulas: this app preserves the most common algebraic, trigonometry and related mathematical formulas for easy reference
In addition to these popular and useful apps there are a host of others. College and university students can considerably ease their academic and scholarly burdens by making full use of their iPhones in addition to enjoying the everyday utility that the iPhone provides.
Tags: analysis, BigWords, CliffsNotes, College, course, download, eras, everyday utility, history maps, iphone, iphone apps, iphones, Maps, maps of the world, mathematical formulas, music genres, neat application, Pandora, pandora radio, radio streams, shop, social networking, student, study, trigonometry, University, university campuses, university textbooks, use
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Foreclosures & Mortgage Fraud Essays
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Mortgage fraud, foreclosures and home lending have been extremely popular topics for essays, thesis topics and dissertations over the past several years. For example, the FBI has noted that there has been more than $1.5 billion in financial losses due to mortgage fraud during 2009 with this year likely to equal or surpass 2009. Many academic programs in finance, accounting and criminal justice find mortgage fraud and home lending issues, such as consumer credit counseling, to be quite useful topics to study and to assign for research papers. This is because consumer credit counseling that purports to guide consumers through improving their credit, easing consumer debt such as credit card debt and in negotiating better mortgage repayment terms, have been yet another source of financially oriented criminal activity because many of the firms in this industry are themselves fraudulent. Finally, finance, accounting and criminal justice programs as well as economics classes like to monitor the foreclosure crisis in the United States because it is a key metric in determining the fundamental health of the national economy but is also indicative of how long the economy will continue to suffer. In fact, recent data indicates that in April of this year, the number of homes that were actually taken over by banks rose by 35% over the previous year which itself had increased substantially. Nationally, the estimates indicate that almost 1 million homes are involved in some stage of delinquency or foreclosure and this number is rising. Producing academic research and essays on these topics is a useful way to train and educate future economists, financial advisors and criminal investigators alike.
Tags: academic research, accounting, card, consumer, consumer credit counseling, consumer debt, credit, credit card debt, criminal investigators, criminal justice programs, crisis, delinquency, essays, financial advisors, financial losses, foreclosure, fundamental health, home, industry, justice, Mortgage, mortgage fraud, mortgage repayment, national economy, Nationally, repayment terms, stage, thesis topics, way, year
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iPad Apps for Students
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
The amount of and variety of technology available today is incredible. Certainly the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad have changed the way college students and university students communicate and work in order to be successful in school. Of course everyone is aware of Apple’s applications or “apps” as they have come to be referred to but not everyone is aware that there are a few apps that are great tools for college and university students. We have identified the 10 best apps for college and university students available from the iTunes store below:
1) Numbers—this app costs $9.99 and it is a spreadsheet program useful because its data is compatible with Numbers for the Mac, Microsoft’s Excel and even converts into PDF format for Adobe’s products
2) Pages—this app costs $9.99 and it is a word processing program that contains templates, tools, and a host of touch commands. Pages is simple to utilize for students and is compatible with Pages for the Mac, Microsoft Word as well as PDF reliant programs
3) Things for iPad—this app is expensive at $19.99 and it is a great time management program that allows improved scheduling with a nice user interface and is designed for the iPad’s larger screen
4) Articles for iPad—this app is $0.99 which makes it a nice and easy addition to a college student’s set of software tools. This app has a nice interface and provides direct access to Wikipedia which may not be accepted by college professors as a credible source but which is largely viewed by all others as a constantly accessible easy and reliable quick reference database
5) Dictionary.com—this is a free and includes access to the site’s database of more than 1,000,000 unique words and also includes access to the site’s thesaurus functionality as well
6) IM+–this app is $9.99 and is an effective way to gather all your IM channels into a single app. This app integrates Twitter, Skype Chat, Google Talk, Facebook, Yahoo, MSN/Live, AIM/iChat, ICQ as well as several others
7) Scrabble for iPad—this app is $9.99 and provides a nice, useful game to break up the monotony of your classes or unforeseen downtime and, even better, it also integrates with Facebook to enable game sharing as well as wireless interactivity with other iPad or iPod users
Instapaper Pro—this app is $4.99 is essentially collects articles and web pages that you like while you have wifi access for later viewing and reading when wifi may not be available
9) Netflix—this app is free but requires that you already have an online Netflix account. This app allows you to view all your Netflix movies from the iPad or iPhone/iPod and we all know that Netflix now has a host of movies available for immediate viewing with a simple membership plan
10) The Elements: A Visual Exploration—this app is $13.99 and if you are a science major or interested in science then it is a must have. This app provides background information and graphics on each element listed in the periodic table of the elements
These top ten iPad apps for students in school can make your life a lot easier and if you need help with school like writing a term paper then place us on your favorites in your web browser. Sorry, we don’t have an app for that but for custom writing services you won’t find a service any better or responsive than ours and we can free up your time for the other important aspects of your college or university life.
Tags: 3 things, Adobe, amount, College, college professors, course, credible source, google, great tools, ipad, iphone, life, microsoft word, order, processing, scheduling, science, spreadsheet program, technology, thesaurus functionality, time, time management program, today, university students, user interface, way, wikipedia, word processing program
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Tony Hayward is a Bitch
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, is a whiny little bitch. Certainly I’d like to be more sophisticated than that but there’s just no other way to explain it. Tony’s company is responsible for what is likely going to turn out to be the worst oil spill in history and all he can do publicly is infer what an inconvenience the entire ordeal has been on his life. Certainly his life seems to be more important to him than the 11 people that were killed on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig that blew up because BP’s engineers were cutting safety corners in the interest of profit, ROI and scheduling. But his life of luxury is definitely more important to him than the countless millions of people along the gulf coast in the US whose lives are almost certainly wrecked. So I encourage the boycott BP campaigns but I do so because I too want Tony to get his life back. This BP oil spill is a national catastrophe of global proportions and the idiots still can’t seem to come up with a clear solution or strategy to address the problem. Currently, there are solutions being thrown around outside of BP to lower high explosives to collapse the wellhead and even a nuclear device which would, because of the extremely high heat it generates, seal the wellhead completely. Feasible or not this is the type of creative solution that this type of singular problem requires. Rather than persisting in following protocols for sealing wellheads on the surface, BP and the government must begin to examine innovative, creative and singular strategies that have not been tried previously because these are the types of solutions that will solve this type of unfamiliar problem. Furthermore, BP continues to attempt to downplay and minimize the breadth and scale of the catastrophe and won’t even admit to the existence of the underwater oil plumes which three independent scientific teams have verified—instead Tony personally and BP officially continue to argue that these do not exist. Right, Tony says, “trust us.” Okay, Tony, the American public trusts what you say because you have our interests at heart because we all know you want your life back. BP and the government absolutely cannot let that wellhead leak until August when the relief well will be completed. Do something-anything but start by coming up with original solutions for what amounts to a never before seen problem so that whiney little bitch can get his life back!
Tags: Bitch, bp oil spill, breadth, clear solution, Coast, countless millions, creative solution, Deepwater, existence, global proportions, heat, high explosives, high heat, Horizon, horizon oil, infer, life, little bitch, national catastrophe, nuclear device, oil, oil rig, scale, scheduling, solution, surface, type, way, wellhead, wellheads
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McPhoenix University by The Apollo Group
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
The University of Phoenix is one of the most unethical companies in corporate America, and that is saying something considering that ethics and business seem to be mutually incompatible these days. The University of Phoenix is an online university whose programs have been the subject of much ridicule over the past several years as the university has focused almost purely on enrolment numbers rather than educational delivery. This has led to the University of Phoenix being referred to as the McDonald’s of higher education and an internationally horrible reputation. Because the University of Phoenix is a for-profit institution, it is clear that the ultimate mandate is in generating profits rather than delivering quality education with lasting impact. That the university adheres to this mandate is evident by the number and type of lawsuits that have been filed by the university’s parent corporation, The Apollo Group, such as its recent settlement in which it paid 10s of millions of dollars in order to settle financial aid fraud issues with the Department of Education and the Justice Department. While the settlement allows the University of Phoenix to state that the settlement in no way implies that the company defrauded students and the government by compensating enrollment counselors on a performance basis, among other nefarious practices, no company pays millions of dollars just to placate a few disgruntled students and a government investigation. Simply put, while the University of Phoenix does allow students to obtain degrees, the quality of these degrees conferred by online universities that are purely for-profit enterprises begs the question, just where do students fit into the institutions’ profit equation? The Apollo Group derives the vast majority of its revenues from the U.S. Department of Education’s various financial aid programs and thus this is a company that depends on generating as much student churn as it can in order to constantly renew its revenue stream as students apply for and obtain financial aid and, conveniently enough, the majority of which is retained by the University of Phoenix as revenue. Even from an investment perspective, The Apollo Group is suspect because of the way it books these revenues and its ongoing business practices. The best advise if you have not yet succumbed to the University of Phoenix’ marketing efforts is to pursue your education with a local community college or university that offers a mix of online and on-ground classes. If you are a University of Phoenix student, the best advice is to withdraw and ensure that it does not attempt to bill you for unpaid tuition which it will most likely attempt to do.
Tags: aid, apollo group, basis, business, corporate america, corporation, delivering quality education, education, educational delivery, enrollment counselors, enrolment, enrolment numbers, fraud, fraud issues, government investigation, Group, mandate, McDonald, nefarious practices, performance basis, Phoenix, profit institution, stream, subject, type, u s department of education, U.S. Department, unethical companies, university of phoenix, way
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The BP Oil Spill largest Ever!
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
British Petroleum or BP as the company has now officially changed its name to, is responsible for the worst spill in history. History, not just in the United States. While there are other supposedly larger spills that have occurred in the past such as the Ixtoc I oil spill in Mexico which spewed some 3,000,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a 9 month period. That’s right, while some government estimates and certainly BP’s attempt to lie to and mislead the public by stating that its well was only spewing an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, in fact the total was and is still much higher.
Even at lower government estimates of 19,000 barrels a day, at 40 days the BP oil spill would total some 760,000 barrels of oil and it is still spewing oil. Other official scientific estimates place the amount much higher at an estimated 25,000 barrels of oil a day which at 40 days would be about 1,000,000 barrels of oil have leaked into the gulf thus far—BP’s oil spill will become the worst in history and the consequences are certain to be tragic on a global scale.
The travesty with this disaster, besides the fact that it happened, is that it was not an accident. Certainly BP did not intend to blow up its own well but the company was pushing to get the project back on schedule and took a series of shortcuts that undermined safety procedures and practices in the drilling industry such as using a weaker casing material design and not testing at appropriate times for back pressure among other breakdowns in safety protocol. These conscious decisions to forego safety practices mean that the BP oil spill is not an accident.
Furthermore, and perhaps even more ludicrous, is that the company has spent an enormous amount of money on high dollar public relations firms, television and radio commercials, and other public relations messages and efforts in an attempt to protect its brand—not to mention the fake workers that the company hired and bused in during President Obama’s visit to the region. Rather than paying for Washington lobbies, high cost public relations firms and marketing and advertising efforts BP should just starting paying local groups in the region to help with the clean-up effort. Additionally, and even more of a travesty, the company wasted the first three weeks of the spill attempting to capture the oil coming out of BP’s underwater oil spill rather than attempting to shut the well down completely.
The economic implications and stimulus to do so are clear. It is certain that BP was attempting to salvage not only some revenue from its blowout well but to also keep some of the well structure intact so that it could go back and re-monetize its operations once it got the oil spill back under control. BP is one of the most unethical and dishonest corporations currently in existence considering its long history of safety violations that have already killed other people such as the Texas BP Refinery explosion. And the oil is still leaking.
Tags: accident, amount, attempt, bp, bp lies, bp oil spill, bp's oil spill, British, british petroleum, business ethics, company, conscious decisions, crisis management, day, deepwater horizon, drilling industry, fact, global scale, government, government estimates, gulf of mexico, history, ixtoc, largest oil spill, material design, Mexico, oil, oil industry, paper on bp, petroleum industry, President Obama, public relations firms, public relations messages, radio commercials, region, risk management, safety, safety practices, safety procedures, safety protocol, spill, the bp spill, the Gulf, travesty, United States, Washington, well, worst oil spill
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Petroleum Industry Papers
Monday, April 26th, 2010
The petroleum industry is rife with instances of corruption, mismanagement and unsafe practices in the field. The recent oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is a good case in point. The Coast Guard and other officials do not yet know why the oil rig, The Deepwater Horizon, exploded but, interestingly enough it was operated by British Petroleum or BP which was also responsible for the refinery in Texas City, Texas in 2005. While these are clearly two separate and unique incidents they are indicative of both the inherent danger in the petroleum industry as well as the hubris that can seep into large conglomerates and their operations in the industry. The topic of BP’s oil rig explosion, sinking, and subsequent drill leakage is one that many business programs will assign for project management courses, operations classes, ethics classes, as well as crisis management programs for their research papers, essays, and dissertations.
Tags: bp, british petroleum, business programs, business schools, Case, case in point, City, Coast, conglomerates, corruption, crisis management, crisis management essays, Deepwater, essays and dissertations, ethics papers, explosion, field, Guard, gulf of mexico, Horizon, hubris, industry, management, management programs, Mexico, mismanagement, oil, oil rig, oil rig explosion, operations, petroleum, petroleum industry, point, project management, project management courses, project management term papers, research papers essays, rig, safety, Texas, texas oil refinery explosion, the Gulf, unsafe practices
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Using PayPal for Payment Security
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Numerous custom writing companies engage in credit card fraud and clients are constantly worried about whether they will actually get their projects after making payment. Companies in both India and China abound that do nothing but create churn by culling the internet for clients, charging a fee and then failing to deliver a project. Clients have little recourse when this happens but still must find a way to produce an essay, term paper, research project, thesis or dissertation on time. We utilize PayPal for all or most of our transactions because it protects us and the client. For example, if you order a paper and do not receive it you can apply to PayPal to have the money refunded. If we cannot show that we emailed you your paper then you get your refund. But if we show PayPal that we emailed you your project then there is no refund. Everyone wins because you are protected and we can offer you a great deal of peace of mind knowing that you will receive a quality essay, thesis or dissertation on time.
Tags: card, china, credit, credit card fraud, CUSTOM, custom writing, custom writing services, dissertation, dissertations, ESSAY, essays, fraud, India, Internet, mind knowing that, money, nothing, online payment, paper, paying for a dissertation, paying for an essay, paying for school, paying online, payment, payment security online, PayPal, paypal security, peace of mind, project, project clients, project thesis, recourse, refund, refunds, term paper research, thesis, time
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Catholic Church & Priest Sex Abuse
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
The Catholic Church has been mired in a sex abuse scandal for years. Until recently, the largest perhaps was the wave of priest abuses of altar boys across the US for years that went unnoticed by the public but was brushed under the carpet by the Church hierarchy. In the US the Catholic Church’s leadership simply moved abusive priests around from one market to another never warning new dioceses of the danger their children faced. This is a travesty. Presently, the sex scandal within the Church has now enveloped Ireland and Europe where the same series of events has been found to have occurred. In fact, even the Pope is now subject to claims that he personally assisted in ignoring, hiding, and covering up these abuses. My types of college and university courses are now utilizing these events within the Catholic Church for material in their classes. Courses on religion and theology, philosophy as well as crisis management are using the Catholic Church’s sex scandal to assign essays, term papers, thesis projects and dissertations and it is producing a mass wave of new research on the subject. We have writers available who have developed a deep knowledge of the Catholic Church sex scandal ready to assist you.
Tags: abuse, abuse by the church, abuse scandal, abusive priests, altar, altar boys, carpet, Catholic, catholic church, catholic church sex scandal, Church, church hierarchy, cover up, crisis management, danger, dioceses, dissertations, Europe, hierarchy, homosexual, homosexual behavior, Ireland, leadership, market, philosophy, pope, priest, priest abuse, priest sex abuse, priests, public, reassign priests, scandal, sex, sex abuse, sex scandal, sex scandal essay, sex scandal research, sex scandal term paper, sexual abuse, term papers, the papacy, the pope, theology, thesis projects, travesty, US, wave
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