The Pearl by John Stienbeck Movie versus Novel Essay -- essays researc

In the novel The Pearl the author, John Steinbeck, writes about a man named Kino who finds a â€Å"Great Pearl† and how greed consumes him and the people around him with murderous feelings towards the beholder of the pearl. A movie was later adapted from the book in 1947 that exhibited many similar characteristics as the book. However, although the book and the movie are very much a like they are also quite different. In the novel, the main character, Kino, goes out to find a pearl in hopes of getting money to pay the doctor to treat Coyotito, his son, who has been bitten by a scorpion. Kino discovers the biggest pearl anyone has ever seen, and believes the pearl will bring nothing but good for him and his family. The pearl does change the lives of Kino, his wife Juana, and Coyotito, but not in the way he had hoped. When the people in La Paz find out about Kino’s pearl, he is visited by a greedy priest and doctor, the deceitful pearl buyers try to scam him into selling it to them for less than it’s worth, and the pearl was almost stolen twice. Kino kills the second thief in self-defense...

Network management and the changing milieu

A ‘network’ can be described as â€Å"a system used to link two or more computers.† [1]There are network connections that are used in the process: (1) the physical connections, which pertain to the medium that are used in sharing files, programs, etc.; and (2) the logical connections, which pertain to the protocols used in sharing files, programs, etc.[2]   However, in order to share and open files, messages, programs, and/or devices, a network needs proper management for its three layers of the application software, network software, and network hardware to work accurately and efficiently.   This paper will revolve around network management, its importance to the society, the state of network management nowadays, and how information systems like networks can be managed more effectively in the future.Network management is â€Å"the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain to the operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networ ked systems.†[3]   There are certain significant functions that are used in managing a particular network, and these should include each of the following: (1) controlling, (2) planning, (3) allocating, (4) deploying, (5) coordinating, and (6) monitoring.[4]There can also be the use of some access methods (e.g., SNMP, CLIs, XML) as well as schemes (e.g., WBEM, CIM), which support the transition of certain mechanisms that are used in network management.   By using the term ‘mechanism’ we refer to the managing of the agents, synthetic monitoring, the logs of activity, as well as the real user monitoring.[5]   Yet Cisco Systems, Inc. has defined network management more specifically as â€Å"a service that employs a variety of tools, applications, and devices to assist human network managers in monitoring and maintaining networks.†[6]Despite the reliability of connecting computer applications and programs nowadays, the functioning of these devices is also being influenced by the characteristics of other protocols, other connections, and other devices, which may not always be perfect.   There are crucial elements that go in between the processing of networking, which may hinder or delay the progression of the activity or service.   For this reason, it is very important that network management is strictly and sufficiently organized, maintained, planned, and monitored, especially that networks are not always perfectly controlled, and that there are reliable as well unreliable networks that influence the transmission of data given a specific environment.Companies in the 21st century usually go for 99.9% availability when it comes to network management.[7]   As stated in the Encarta Encyclopedia, â€Å"Networks are subject to hacking, or illegal access, so shared files and resources must be protected.†[8]   Certain techniques may include data encryption and authentication schemes, especially when dealing with issues that in clude privacy and protection of rights.   Others bend more on the purpose of autopolling network devices or generating certain topology that generates improvement.It is said that the three most important elements of networks should include having â€Å"the lowest latency, highest capacity, and maximum reliability despite intermittent features and limited bandwidth.†[9]   While data is reorganized and transformed into smaller frames, packets, and segments, there are certain significant factors that affect the transmission of the data: first is latency or the time span of delivery; second is packet loss inside the intermediate devices; third is retransmission that leads to delays; fourth and final is throughput or the amount of traffic within a network.[10]   For this, network management appears to be the critical key in making sure that the network functions well despite failures, attacks, and the inconsistencies that are mostly crucial in any type of society or network. Nowadays, network management is set more on the use of certain protocols like the use of ‘Simple Network Management Protocol’ or SNMP, or the use of ‘Common Management Information Protocol’ or CMIP.[11]   Since the 1980s, when there was â€Å"tremendous expansion in the area of network deployment,†[12] and companies went into the trend of building and expanding their networks from different types of network technologies, organizations saw the need for an automated network management that could be functional in diverse situations and environments in certain occasions inside and outside the country.The improved basic structure that has then been used was usually composed of a set of relationships that follow a specific paradigm: end stations or managed devices, which run the specific software, which alerts the staffs (through computers) whenever problems, inconsistencies, or emergencies arise.[13]   It may also include certain end poll stations tha t check other specific variables through automatic or user-initiated polling, and where certain ‘agents’—or managed devices—respond and store data, which the management staff of a network system produces through protocols.   The state of network management revolves in an architecture that links all the computers through a management entity that connects the rest of the agents with the use of a proxy server, in the management database of the device.With all these, James McKeen insisted in his book entitled ‘Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in Managing Information Technology’ that there is a rapid, changing role in the IT milieu: the two forces of relentless business pressures and rapidly evolving technology landscape,[14] which both bring greater risks within a changing technology environment around the globe.   Thus, it is evident that information systems, such as networks, can be managed more effectively in the future by producing better , faster, more agile architectures and functions that can break through beyond these two forces of change.BIBLIOGRAPHYâ€Å"Chapter 6: Network Management Basics.† Internetworking Technology Handbook, no.1-58765-001-3 (2006). Database on-line. Available from Cisco Systems, Inc.McKeen, James D. Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in Managing Information Technology. England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2003.â€Å"Network (computer systems).† Encarta Encyclopedia (2007): 1-2. Database on-line. Available from MSN Encarta.â€Å"Network Management.† Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2008). Database on-line. Available from the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. database.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Network Performance Management.† Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2008). Database on-line. Available from the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. database.[1] â€Å"Network (computer science),† Encarta Encyclopedia (2007) [database on-line]; available from MSN Encarta, p. 1of 2. [2] Ibid. [3] â€Å"Network M anagement,† Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2008) [database on-line]; available from the Wikimedia Foundation, Incorporated database. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] â€Å"Chapter 6: Network Management Basics,† Internetworking Technology Handbook (2006) [database on-line]; available from Cisco Systems, Inc, accession number 1-58765-001-3, p. 1 of 6. [7] Internetworking Technology Handbook, 1. [8] Encarta Encyclopedia, 2. [9] â€Å"Network Performance Management,† Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia (2008) [database on-line]; available from the Wikimedia Foundation, Incorporated database. [10] Ibid. [11] Ibid, 2. [12] Internetworking Technology Handbook, 1. [13] Ibid. [14] James D. McKeen, Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in Managing Information Technology (England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2003), 1.

Beazer Homes Case Essay

Investors were lead to believe that the company financials were healthier than they actually were, as evidenced by the changes noted when the financial statements had to be restated. As a result of doing this, investors who were under the impression of a healthier position, continued to invest in an organization that was essentially doing nothing more than stealing their money; money which could have been invested into a different enterprise rather than padding the pockets of executives that didn’t earn it. As a result of having to restate financial statements, the per share price of Beazer Homes dropped from the $35/share price level in may, to approximately $11/share by the end of July. This is a significant loss in wealth for investors. In addition to the allegations against Mr. Rand for possible accounting fraud, allegations were also brought against Beazer Homes for mortgage fraud. To address the question as to which is a more serious offense, it would be our opinion that both would carry an equal weight of seriousness. On the one hand, investors were misled, as noted above, and this led to a significant loss of wealth for many, especially those individuals and/or institutions that may have held a large position. On the other hand, to address the issue of mortgage fraud, new homeowners were oftentimes cheated out of money that they paid to Beazer Homes. A example of this is when Beazer Homes would require purchasers to pay a fee for â€Å"interest discount points† at closing. Then Beazer Homes would keep the cash received and not lower the interest rate. This is just one example, but it can be an extremely costly one when you look at how much a . 25 percent or . 5 percent reduction in an interest rate can be over the life of a 20 or 30 year fixed rate mortgage; that’s if Beazer Homes wasn’t trying to convince people that an adjustable rate or hybrid mortgage would be better for their situation. Additionally, Beazer Homes ignored income requirements when making loans to unqualified purchasers, which not only put the purchaser in jeopardy of having the income needed to make their ayments, but in the event of default or foreclosure, it can have a significant impact on the home values of the neighborhood. As a result of these legal issues with Beazer Homes, the SEC issued a notice to the Beazer Homes CEO called the Wells notice. The Wells notice was created under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which states that if a firm has to restate their financial statements, the SEC can require the CEO and CFO to return any and all bo nuses that were received during the period of restated financial statements. Additionally, the CEO and CFO do not need to have any knowledge of errors. The SEC issued the Wells notice to the Beazer Homes CEO, Ian J. McCarthy, on 13 November 2009, indicating that the SEC would be brining a civil case against him to collect incentive compensation. In the notice issued to the CEO, there was no indication or allegations of cover-up, or misconduct, on the part of Mr. McCarthy with respect to the financial statements or other disclosures that were published during the period in question.