Problem identification Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Problem identification - Case Study Example is the lack of access to cost effective health care, particularly to the uninsured and the underinsured (Greenwald, 2010). Access to quality and cost-effective health care is a key challenge, which is often faced by the health care system. This is mainly because, more often than not, the health care centers and services are highly expensive and time consuming. This in turn, leads to a series of problems, such as lack of availability of prompt medical assistance, thus putting the patients at a higher health risk. Furthermore, it has also been observed that seeking self-referrals for acute illnesses is a tedious task, thus further limiting and / or restricting the access to basic / primary health care. Most of the professional health care practitioners in the U.S., often seek a referrals from physicians, rather than acknowledging self-referrals. Such a practice delays the treatment to critical diseases and postpones the availability of prompt and urgent medical assistance (Hammaker, Tomlinson, 2010). The above mentioned hassles may not be bothersome to the economically well off individuals, or those who a re aptly covered by a health care insurance, however in case of an average citizen or a commoner, i.e. those who are uninsured and / or underinsured, such setbacks play a huge role in influencing their decision and restricting their access to cheaper, better and effective health care. According to statistics approximately 50.7 million people in the U.S. are currently uninsured, which is estimated to be at a record high and reflects the magnitude of health crisis that has befallen the average American citizen in present times (msnbc, 2010). The percentage of those who are under-insured too has risen over the years. According to available statistics, there has been a whopping 60 per cent rise in the number of people who are under-insured in less than four years, and is

Just Us! Cafe: Business Analysis

Just Us! Cafe: Business Analysis Just Us! Cafes is the company specialise in food and service industry consist of wholesaler and retailer in Nova Scotia, Canada, and United States. Just Us cafes vision is to be a leading Fair Trade business that builds on quality, professionalism and innovation for the benefit of all their stakeholders. Their core product is certified Fair trade, organic products and local products which is high quality and social and environmental responsibility. Just Us! Coffees focus on nique market of promoting fair trade. The Moores have maintained a strong commitment to educating consumers while building strong brand identity and upholding constant growth. The main distribution channel of Just Us are in grocery stores, four cafà ©s (two each in Wolfville and Halifax) and distributed products on university campuses. In current situation, the prevailing economic climate and increasing competition has been issues to the founders. In addition, Just Us! Coffee goal to expand their business, consequently, the new challenges arise from having compete with several big brands for example Starbuck, Mcdonald, Kraft who also introduce the FairTrade certified coffees, or Rainforest Alliances certified coffees and small coffee shops and new entrants to retain its brand recognition of its customers. There are several possible answer to those problem such as: Increase power of branding to make it difficult for new entrants and create the different with existing rivals. Using Joint venture, franchising as an option to expand into new market Using new media to increase marketing and customer service. 4 Current Situation Analysis Positioning is the art of designing the companys offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market. (Kotler, 2003, pg 308). 4.1 External Analysis: In order to develop effective strategies Just Us Cafà ©s are required to examine the external environment in which they operate. I have carried out the following analyses: Pest Analysis Porters 5 Forces Competitor Analysis 4.1.1 PEST analysis Political As highlighted throughout the case, a huge political factor involved in the industry was the certified recognition of actual fair trade and the whole process. Economic The economic environment is constantly changing and as we can see from the case, some competitors are providing partially organic ranges as well as mainstream organic coffees. JU pricing is at a slight premium and in the current environment; disposable income of consumers can play a large role in choosing a product. JU must be aware that a consumers feeling toward one product may be influenced by their income, regardless of how strong they feel about fair trade. Social As mentioned in the case, the overall coffee experience seems to be a large part of the attractiveness of JU and competitors. Any future strategy must be designed with this experience in mind rather than expanding rapidly and diminishing the experience factor. Technology Technology is constantly evolving and JU can seize a significant advantage by utilizing technology more. JU needs to examine the improvements technology can make in the manufacturing process and in their advertising. Environment The issues of carbon footprint means there are more incentives to buy from local supply rather than international import. Legislation There is no specific legal requirement for fairtrade or coffee in general. 4.1.2 PORTERS FIVE FORCES Threat of New Entrants: Threat of New Entrants is high within the market as there are very few barriers to entry and fair trade coffee trends are extremely popular so it is an attractive industry. Buyer Power: Buyers threaten an industry by forcing down prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing competitors against each other (Dess et al 2004:53). As mentioned in Appendix B-PEST, the customers income plays a huge role in selecting a product therefore if they decide to bypass fair trade products because of the premium price they can hold allot of buyer power, thus making buyer power in the industry high. Threat of Substitutes: There are various substitutes for fair trade coffee in the industry such as regular coffee, tea etc but not only coffees but in the general beverages market e.g. Coca Cola, Water etc. As a result of this there is a very high threat of substitutes. Supplier Power: Supplier power is relatively low as the industry is fair trade coffee. From previous knowledge, coffee suppliers were being exploited and continued to produce. It is simply because of the willingness to partake in fair trade that they have gained power. However I still believe that due to the underdevelopment of the producing countries allot of the power still lies with the buyers. Competitive Rivalry: Competitive rivalry is relatively high as seen in previous competitor analysis. There are many competitors in the local market and on the shelf within the mainstream markets. 4.1.3 Competitor Analysis Competitor Channels Locations No. Shops Kicking Horse Coffee Shops, Gourmet West Coast, Canada N/A Stores, Restaurants Quebec Ontario Kraft Foods Stores, Universities United States Mainstream PG Millstone Mainstream Canada United States Mainstream Nestle Mainstream Canada United States Mainstream Lowblaws Private Label Lowblaws Stores Canada Mainstream Just Us! Coffee Shops, Universities, Gourmet Stores, Nova Scotia, Quebec 4 Coffee Shops On The Supermarkets Ontario Shelf Trident Bookseller Cafe Coffee Shop Halifax, Nova Scotia 1 coffe shop Java Factory Coffee Shop Nova Scotia-Halifax, 3 Coffee Shops Darthmouth, Upper Tantallon Tim Hortens Restaurant Nova Scotia General-Wolfville(2), Halifax(21) 170 Second Cup Coffee Shop Retailer Canada General, Nova 360 Scotia(6)-Halifax(5) 4.2 Internal Analysis 4.2.1 Core Competence The Value Chain is a method that can be used to analyze JUs internal environment. Porter (1980) created a generic value chain model which listed activities that could be found in most firms. These activities can be divided into primary and support activities, which aim to create value for customers, whilst exceeding the cost of such activities. 4.2.2 Financial Analysis 4.2.3 Value chain 4.2.4 Geography focus 4.3 Evaluation SWOT ANALYSIS Strength Just Us! Coffee Roasters brand equity is what drives the company forward. Customers base their decision to purchase coffee from Just Us! Coffee Roasters are a symbol of their own personal beliefs, demanding ethical business practices and quality of product. Just Us! Coffee Roasters image also attracts a passionate following. Weakness Just Us! Coffee Roasters operates as a co-operative. Not only must they operate to fulfill shareholders expectations, but they also must operate in a manner that is expected of the values that the company had initial0ly set out with. Jeff and Debra Moore, are bound to creating a profit while maintaining the appropriate image and practiced that they initially based their company on. Upon entering the next phase of the companys life cycle, Jeff and Debra must maintain operations under strict control of their original company values as they compete against competition that does not share the same values. Opportunity New Fair trade products: With more and more fair trade products becoming readily available a huge opportunity to increase the product portfolio is on the horizon for JU Social Media/Online: The online environment presents JU with a huge opportunity to increase brand awareness, engagement and utilize its loyal customers feedback at a very low cost. Threat Clarity on Fair Trade: An issue highlighted in the case was that of clarity and regulation on fair trade. It is to be seen that the fair trade term is been thrown around too commonly and applied to every product, thus potentially reducing effect of one of JUs key USPs. Clouded Focus: At the moment JU are using multiple channels of distribution, however with various challenges on the horizon a decision needs to be made on a strategy. Operating and managing two separate strategies can create a clouded vision within the company and a decision needs to be made on prioritization. 4.4 Ethical issues Ethics are the moral principles or values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group (Gresham 1985)  [1]  . Ethical principle has been used as guidelines of business activities and justification of action. The table below 2 The part JU focus on in this diagram is ethical and legal which make them more expensive than others. The reason for that is they promoting Fairtrade to pay more for suppliers, therefore, the cost of it will be higher than competitors who are currently not in fairtrade segment. Secondly, as the case study mention, they couldnt use licensing method since they dont trust the agency who selling JU product would comply with JU ethical principle. It may damage their reputation as well as losing customers. 5 Memo to juliet 5.1 BCG Matrix As JU provide various organic products it is important to examine the more profitable ones and not so profitable in order to either focus marketing effort on weaker products or discontinue them. The revenue from coffee and drink has the highest percentage in the trade figures of Just Us! Cafe while in the Fairtrade market there is significant growth rates in volume in both coffee and tea over a four year period. Perhaps JU should look at the profitability of the market for others (vouchers) and consider placing less emphasis on it. Since it contributed lowest proportion to the total revenue and even loss in one store. However, the gift cards, gift basket and event tickets in this category may promote all Just Us products. Benefits of BCG Matrix The BCG matrix help managers in resource allocation among various units. The managers can compare several business units which company offer. This method simplified the analysis of the product and market by using the market share and growth rate of products. BCG has been well known world wide and used for quick respond to the industry. The BCG allows for the making of comparisons so as to measure the growth and development rate of a company against the average growth rate in that specific industry. In addition, this particular matrix is also enjoyable to use, encouraging better decision making. Large organizations that are normally in need of effective decision making can benefit a lot from using BCG matrix, especially those seeking better resource management. Limitations of BCG Matrix High market share does not always leads to high profits. There are high costs also involved with high market share. Growth rate and relative market share are not the only indicators of profitability. This model ignores and overlooks other indicators of profitability. At times, dogs may help other businesses in gaining competitive advantage. They can earn even more than cash cows sometimes. To sum up, it can be seen that even though BCG matrix has many benefits, it may not applied to JU since they offer Fairtrade products, therefore, the cost is relatively high as well. In other words, high market share and high growth rate may not give them high profit. Moreover, the dog products seem to have lower revenue may due to high profit margin and has been used to promote others products. 5.2 Product Life Cycle Using product life cycle to find the stage of products could help to understand the profit of the products offered. Rather than compare the market share and growth rate, JU can use product life cycle to understand their products. Coffee and drinks still on the growing trend, it shows that these products is on the growth stage which need to increase differentiation, improve the products and services while gaining the market shares. The JU products and Bodum, Lunches, Bakery has been put in maturity stage since the revenue of those are expected to increase slighty compare with Coffee and Drinks. The other products of JU complied of gift card, event tickets has low profit and even loss due to introduction stage. Therefore, it should not be removed from the products range. 5.3 Financial Analysis Appendix 5.4 Geography Concentrated Appendix 6 Retail Customer loyalty strategy INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION The concept of IMC has been defined in three ways: a one-voice view in which there is one theme and one image, a perspective which suggests that product, image and consumer behaviour should be considered simultaneously and a perspective which focuses on the integration of communications disciplines.(Nowak, et al, 1994) CONSISTENCY IMC planners, focus their attention in two types of consistency, one voice one look and strategic consistency. For instance one voice one look, delivers a campaign in which all advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship, publicity and direct response and package for the two different products have the same appearance and feel. All the media messages reinforce one and the other. (Duncan, 2003) Renovation of coffee shops into uniformed unit could show customer the consistency of the business. Increase the customer service performance JU cafe can improve the customer service such as the expert suggestion or customer related services. The good customer service could improve the performance and increase turnover. Improve customer awareness Events and exhibitions to keep the customer aware and informed about fair trade and Just Us products. By provide the chance for customer to understand JU nature as well as fairtrade, customer can feel more comfortable to come to the coffee shop. Loyal customer base Promotions such as giving free cup of coffee for return customers. Loyalty cards for existing customer to collect points to exchange for gifts or products. Customer relationships such as email of new products or service or simply the news on Fairtrade. 7 STP analysis and the marketing mix Market MARKET SEGMENTATION AND TARGETING Segmentation and targeting seek to determine who companies want to reach in order to build brand relationship. Marketing today is in the name of efficiency and effectiveness, becoming more focused on smaller but more profitable segments of the market. (Duncan, 2003) Just us cafe currently focus on the young people 18-30 who concern about the ethical issues and interested in Fairtrade. However, that is only the niche market where the number of customer is small compare to JU competitors. In order to increase sales, JU need to expand it own segmentation. In other words, JU need to enter new segment in order to get more customers. For example, JU offer to fashion industry such as giving coffee for catwalk show or JU coffee could offer delivery to office for white collar people. JU coffee would increase the target since more and more people outside their age focus interested in drink coffee and ethical issues. POSITIONING The positioning of the JU coffee need to be uniformed. At the moment, there are 4 different location which offer different products and service which make JU too diversified. If new customer come to the coffee bar they may expected the same service, therefore, JU coffee should be made as uniform service. Strategic Marketing Options: Ansoffs Matrix In the market JU has their existing menu as the existing products which other competitor also provide the same kind of products and services. The market is existing. Therefore, JU cafe have 3 option they could adopted. Market penetration: JU can improve their customer service, renovate the current location and training employees to increase and improve the customer experience. Moreover, they can use new media to promote the brand. Product development: JU can come up with new products which may benefits their current customers such as new formular for coffee, additional art on coffee cream or the new food in their menu. Market development: JU can use Joint Venture to expand their market and sharing the risk of investment. Evaluation of Options: SAF Option 1: Market penetration Suitable In the current situation, Just Us cafe can use this to improve their market share Yes Acceptable This method is acceptable since JU has the experience in premium service. Yes Feasible The fund required is lower than the other methods The experience available Yes Option 2: Product development Suitable In the current situation, Just Us cafe can use this to improve their customers experience. Yes Acceptable The new products cannot be launched immediately since they need to research and development. No Feasible The fund required is high and there is need for expertise. May be Option 3: Market development Suitable In the current situation, Just Us cafe can use this to improve their market share Yes Acceptable This method make JU lose part of their control in new shops. May be Feasible The fund required is medium since it can be share with other venture and the risk is shared as well Yes 8 Implementation a. Strategic and Marketing Objectives b. Marketing Strategy and Marketing Mix Advertising POP materials Direct Marketing Web Site Personal Selling Exhibitions and Events Packaging Sales Promotion Trade Promotion Product Placement Field Marketing c. Responsibilitiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ d. Time Period for Implementationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ e. Monitoring and Controlà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ f. Return on Investmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ 9 Conclusion Just us cafe can offer the option 3 or option 1 since all of the option require sufficient fund to launched. The option 3 seem to be more suitable since JU want to expand the market. Using Joint Venture, they can create the alliance with other rival to protect themselves as well as increase the power over new entrant and stronger competitors. However, they can increase their channel for supply and B2B market as well as B2C. Besides, JU can also use new media such as online business or online network to promote their brand with low cost of maintainance since WWW become more and more wellknown.

Essay --

Introduction Cost accounting can be defined as evaluating data relating to cost in order for management to regulate actions and strategize for the future (Vanderbeck, E., 2013). Financial information is crucial in order for an organization to manage its expenses and for budgeting reasons. There are a few types of cost accounting that an organization can use in order to analyze financial information. Each method is unique and considers different variables when analyzing monetary data. It is dependent on the leaders of the organization to determine what cost accounting system would be best suited for their financial operations. Although there are numerous of methods for costing, this paper will particularly concentrate on activity based costing within the healthcare field. Activity based costing within a healthcare system As mentioned earlier, costing systems vary and use different variables when determining or analyzing monetary information. Activity based costing (also known as ABC) as defined by Gapenski (2012) identifies the different steps necessary to produce a good or service, approximates and totals the costs of those steps. It is an upstream approach and recognizes all cost drivers (steps, procedures) within the organization into creating that product or service (Gapenski, L.C., 2012). One might ask, well how can this system be significant to a healthcare facility? There are actually numerous activities that go on when a person decides to visit his/her physician or during emergency health situations. Let’s take an emergency situation for example. A football player receives a helmet to helmet hit, loses consciousness and has to be carted off the field. He is then taken by the ambulance to the nearest hospital w... ...is data can be signified as if the organization were to consider saving more money by reducing staff numbers, they would be able to do so without compromising quality. Conclusion As mentioned earlier, costing systems vary and consider different factors when evaluating financial information. It is vital for supervising personnel and leaders to consider which costing system would best suit the organization’s needs. The activity based method is an effective tool when used properly. But of course, all tools have their highs and lows. The ABC method can project a more accurate tale of the organization’s financial strengths and weaknesses. But keep in mind, it requires a significant amount of time and each cost driver is to be carefully considered. Regardless of the costing system used, proper analysis of financial data is crucial to the future of the organization.

Public Key Cryptography

Abstract- Public-key cryptography is a key technology for e-commerce, intranets, extranets and other web-enabled applications. However, to garner the benefits of public-key cryptography, a supporting infrastructure is needed. The Microsoft ® Windows ® 2000 operating system includes a native public-key infrastructure (PKI) that is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the Windows 2000 security architecture.This paper describes the fundamentals of public-key security systems, including what benefits they offer and what components are required to implement them. It also describes how the Windows 2000 PKI components deliver the needed services while providing interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. I. Overview Public-key cryptography offers significant security benefits when it's properly implemented. Like other enabling technologies, public-key cryptography requires an infrastructure to deliver its benefits.However, the public-key infrastructure, or PKI, isn't a physical object or software process; instead, it's a set of useful services provided by a collection of interconnected components These components work together to provide public-key-based security services to applications and users. This white paper has two goals: to explain public-key technology and its uses, and to describe the features and benefits provided by the native PKI in the Microsoft ® Windows ® 2000 operating system.Understanding both of these topics will help you to decide where you can use PKI technology to improve your business processes and increase your ability to securely handle transactions with others. In this paper, you'll learn what a public key infrastructure is, what desirable benefits it can offer your operations, and how the Windows 2000 PKI delivers interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. II. History During the early history of cryptography, two parties would agree upon a key using a secure, but non-cryptographic, metho d; for example, a face-to-face meeting or an exchange via a trusted courier.This key, which both parties kept absolutely secret, could then be used to exchange encrypted messages. A number of significant practical difficulties arise in this approach to distributing keys. Public-key cryptography addresses these drawbacks so that users can communicate securely over a public channel without having to agree upon a shared key beforehand. In 1874, a book by William Stanley Jevons[1] described the relationship of one-way functions to cryptography and went on to discuss specifically the factorization problem used to create the trapdoor function in theRSA system.Since the 1970s, a large number and variety of encryption, digital signature, key agreement, and other techniques have been developed in the field of public-key cryptography. The ElGamal cryptosystem (invented by Taher ElGamal) relies on the (similar, and related) difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem, as does the closely rela ted DSA developed at the US National Security Agency (NSA) and published by NIST as a proposed standard. The introduction of elliptic curve cryptography by Neal Koblitz and Victor Miller independently and simultaneously in the mid-1980s has yielded new public-key algorithms based on the discrete logarithm problem.Although mathematically more complex, elliptic curves provide smaller key sizes and faster operations for equivalent estimated security. III. What is public key cryptography? When most people hear the words encrypt or cryptography, they immediately think of secret-key cryptography, wherein two parties share a single secret key that's used both to encrypt and decrypt data. Loss or compromise of the secret key makes the data it encrypts vulnerable. By contrast, public-key systems use two keys: a public key, designed to be shared, and a private key, which must be closely held.These keys are complementary: if you encrypt something with the public key, it can only be decrypted w ith the corresponding private key, and vice versa. Public-key systems depend on the mathematical relationship between the public and private keys. It's not feasible to derive one from the other. There are two fundamental operations associated with public key cryptography: encryption and signing. The goal of encryption is to obscure data in such a way that it can only be read by the intended party. In public-key cryptography, if Bob wants to send Alice some private data, he uses her public key to encrypt it, then sends it to her.Upon receiving the encrypted data, Alice uses her private key to decrypt it. The important concept here is that Alice can freely distribute her public key in order to allow anyone in the world to encrypt data that only she can decrypt. If Bob and Chuck both have copies of her public key, and Chuck intercepts an encrypted message from Bob to Alice, he will not be able to decrypt it; only Alice's private key can do that, and she is the only person who holds it. These two operations can be used to provide three capabilities A PrivacyPrivacy is a necessity for businesses of all kinds, but it's of vital importance for ones that use the Internet. The Internet allows anyone in the world to communicate with anyone else, but it doesn't provide security. Even within your company's internal network, if someone can gain physical access to your network media, they can eavesdrop on any data that traverses it. Public-key cryptography provides privacy via data encryption, whether the data is in the form of e-mail messages, credit card numbers sent over the Internet, or network traffic.Because public keys can be posted freely, complete strangers can establish private communications simply by retrieving each other's public keys and encrypting the data. B. Authentication Any transaction involves two parties, whether they're a client and a server or a customer and a vendor. For many transactions, it's desirable for one or both sides to be able to authentic ate, or verify the identity of, the other. For instance, before a customer provides their credit card number to an e-commerce web site, they will want to know that they are not talking to an imposter.One way that a customer can do this is by making the web site prove that it holds the right private key. For example, a web browser might encrypt a piece of information using the site's public key and ask the web server to decrypt it, thereby demonstrating that the server has the right private key, and proving its identity. Authentication can also take the form of assuring your customers that you produced a particular piece of data and that it has not been tampered with. Public-key cryptography enables you to do this by means of a digital signature, a concept which is an extension of the public-key signing operation discussed above.If Bob wants to digitally sign his company's annual report, he first generates a unique fingerprint of the report using an algorithm called a hash algorithm. Hash algorithms are specially designed to guarantee that even a single changed byte in the document will generate a completely different hash. Next, he encrypts the report and the hash using his private key. Alice (or anyone else) can verify the origin and authenticity of the signed report by first decrypting it using Bob's public key, then calculating her own version of the fingerprint and comparing it to the fingerprint she received.If the two match, it proves two things: that the report has not been tampered with, and it came from Bob. C. Non-repudiation Businesses require the ability to enter into binding agreements, whether in the physical world or on the Internet. Suppliers and buyers need the assurance that if they enter into an agreement, the other party will not be able to repudiate the agreement at some later point. Digital signatures on electronic purchase orders, contracts, and other agreements are legally binding in several countries and in many U.S. states, and legal acceptance is rapidly growing. D. infrastructure Manage keys: a PKI makes it easy to issue new keys, review or revoke existing keys, and manage the trust level attached to keys from different issuers. Publish keys: a PKI offers a well-defined way for clients to locate and retrieve public keys and information about whether a specific key is valid or not. Without the ability to retrieve keys and know that they are valid, your users can't make use of public key services.Use keys: a PKI provides an easy-to-use way for users to use keys—not just by moving keys around where they're needed, but also by providing easy-to-use applications that perform public-key cryptographic operations, making it possible to provide security for e-mail, e-commerce, and networks. E. A capability,not a thing A common misperception is that a PKI is a thing. In fact, it's a capability—the capability to easily publish, manage, and use public keys. Think of a PKI like a municipal water system. A wat er system is made up of purification plants, storage towers, pumps, water mains, and so on, as well as the pipes and faucets in your house.All of the disparate service-providing objects work together to provide a capability for users to obtain water on demand. In a similar way, a PKI consists of a group of discrete components that work together to allow you to use public keys, and public-key cryptography, seamlessly and transparently. The best place to implement a PKI is in the operating system. Operating systems already provide a number of other infrastructures, like the printing infrastructure that moves documents to printers and the file service infrastructure that retrieves files from shared storage.In both cases, the operating system provides a capability to transparently and easily use a network service, just as a PKI does. F. Digital certificates:packaging for public key So far, this paper has mentioned public keys when talking about the objects that a PKI uses. While public keys are required for PKI-based security, they're usually packaged as digital certificates. (It's important to stress that only public keys are packaged into certificates. The private key is never shared, so it doesn't require packaging—it's simply stored securely). The certificate contains the public key and a set of attributes, like the key holder's name.These attributes may be related to the holder's identity, what they're allowed to do, or under what conditions the certificate is valid. The binding between attributes and the public key is present because the certificate is digitally signed by the entity that issued it; the issuer's signature on the certificate vouches for its authenticity and correctness. For a real-world analogy, look in your wallet. If you have a drivers' license, you have the equivalent of a digital certificate. Your license contains a unique key (your license number) and some attributes (an expiration date, your name, address, hair color, and so on).I t's issued by a trusted agency and laminated to prevent it from being tampered with. Anyone who trusts the agency that issued your license and verifies that the lamination is intact can rely on its authenticity. At that point, though, the analogy breaks down—in the real world, only the government can issue a driver's license, so everyone knows that a license issued by Joe's Really Good DMV isn't valid. How do you make the same determination with a digital certificate? The answer lies in the concept of a certificate hierarchy.In a hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1, each issuer, or certificate authority, signs (using its own private key) the certificates it issues. The public half of the CA's keypair is itself packaged in a certificate—one that was issued by a higher-level CA. This pattern can continue through as many levels as desired, with each CA certifying the authenticity of the certificates it has issued. Eventually, though, there must be a top-level CA, called a roo t certificate authority. Since there's nobody above the root CA in the hierarchy, there's nobody to vouch for the authenticity and origin of its certificate.Instead, the root CA signs its own certificate—it simply asserts that it is the root. Figure 1: What a certificate hierarchy looks like Clearly, it's not secure to accept a root CA's assertion of its own identity. To verify a root CA's certificate, a trusted copy of its public key is obtained via an out-of-band method-—that is, it's delivered by a third party instead of over the network—and the key is used to verify that the root certificate is bona fide. Microsoft provides the public keys for many popular root CAs in PK-enabled products like Internet Explorer, allowing users to verify those roots transparently.Root CAs can also provide copies of their public keys for downloading from public web sites. Once the root key has been delivered via an out-of-band means, the user can verify the root certificate, an d hence the entire certificate chain. Even better, because each certificate's digital signature protects it from tampering, certificate chains can be freely passed over insecure media like the Internet. G. Public key enabled application Once your PKI can issue, publish, and control certificates, the next step is to deploy applications that can use them.A well-written application that is tightly integrated with the rest of the PKI can make the use of public-key cryptography all but transparent to the user. The user should not need to know how cryptography works, where certificates are stored, or any of the other details—they should simply indicate what they want done, and leave it to the applications and the PKI to make it happen. Applications can use digital certificates to deliver the benefits of public-key cryptography, and they can combine cryptographic functions like signing and encryption to make possible e-commerce, secure network access, or other desirable services.All Microsoft applications that use public-key cryptography are natively public-key enabled. For example, the Microsoft Outlook ® messaging and collaboration client offers built-in signing and encryption support, combined with the ability to use certificate publishers and root certificates from a number of sources. Internet Explorer, Microsoft Money, and Internet Information Server provide the ability to set up encrypted web sessions. PKI-enabled applications can build on industry-standard protocols to speed development and allow easy interoperability with other organizations, too.H. Hardware support The increasing market demand for PKI implementations has spurred hardware vendors to develop cryptographic hardware, including smart cards, PC cards, and PCI cards that offer onboard cryptographic processing. These hardware devices offer a wide range of capabilities. On the low end, smartcards offer limited cryptographic processing combined with secure key storage; on the high end, multi processor crypto-accelerators allow high-volume web services to secure data without suffering from bottlenecks caused by software cryptographic modules.The best thing about PKI hardware devices is that they're optional—if your application requires additional performance or security, you can add hardware to provide it as necessary, but you can still build a completely functional PKI in software. I. Models The standalone CA model The standalone CA model (see Figure 2) is probably familiar to you if you've used SSL-protected web sites. In the standalone model, some third-party entity holds the root key and certificate for your organization, and it issues and revokes all certificates for your users.This third party might be a commercial CA like VeriSign, Thawte, Belsign, or GTE Cybertrust; it could also be a bank, a law firm, a trade association, or any other organization that you trust to issue certificates on your behalf. Figure 2: The standalone CA model This model allows trus t both within and outside your organization, so you can exchange secure e-mail and e-commerce transactions with outsiders. Standalone CAs also free you from the complexities of issuing, revoking, and tracking certificates.However, it requires you to trust some outside entity with your certificate management, and many third-party CAs levy an individual charge for each issued certificate. The enterprise CA model In this model (see Figure 3), your enterprise acts as its own CA, issuing and revoking certificates subject to your business requirements. Because no outsourcing provider is involved, your organization maintains complete control over its PKI. In addition to that control, though, you can guarantee that no one outside the enterprise can obtain a certificate unless you issue it to them.This model works well for controlling access to internal resources, or for generating certificates whose attributes would be meaningless to an outside entity. For example, you could issue certifica tes to managers that would allow them to make electronic travel reservations through the company travel office. Figure 3: The enterprise CA model Enterprise CAs with subordinates You can expand the flexibility of the enterprise CA model by adding subordinate CAs for individual departments, business units, or subdivisions of the organization. Most organizations already delegate some amount of administrative control to their subunits.For example, individual managers at most companies have some level of purchasing authority; higher-ranking managers can write bigger checks. Even though there's a centralized purchasing department that does much of the enterprise-wide buying, individual units still have the ability to perform day-to-day purchasing tasks. Choose your trust model If the choice of a CA model is the most important one you face when implementing a PKI, choosing a trust model comes in a very close second. When you trust a root, you're making an implicit statement that you trust them to be careful about who they issue certificates to.In this case, careful isn't quite the right word; what you're really saying is that you trust them to follow their prescribed policies and procedures to verify the identity of a certificate holder when they issue the certificate. When you choose to trust a root certificate, you're also choosing to trust certificates signed by that root. Depending on the CA model you use, the practical impact of this choice could be large (as when you choose to trust a large, widely used commercial root CA) or small (like deciding to trust your own accounting department).Normally these decisions are made for the enterprise as a whole; however, the Windows 2000 PKI allows individual users (or their administrators) to make their own trust decisions. In addition, administrators may override or augment user trust decisions with group policies. You also have to choose what you trust certificates to be used for. The X. 509 v3 certificate standard all ows you to specify whether certificates can be used for signing, encryption, or both. For example, you might want to give everyone signature certificates but restrict the use of encryption-capable certificates to certain departments or individuals.Microsoft has extended this feature to allow you to specify additional uses, including signing software components, logging on using a smart card, or recovering an encrypted file. When using the Windows 2000 PKI, the issuer has total control over what the certificate can be used for. IV Conclusion Public key cryptography offers critical business advantages, including the ability to conduct e-commerce and normal business operations with increased privacy, security, and assurance. To deliver these benefits, a public-key infrastructure is necessary that makes it easy to manage, publish and use public keys.Windows 2000 offers a PKI that is completely integrated with the operating system and provides flexible, secure, interoperable services tha t are easy to use, easy to deploy, and easy to manage. References N. Ferguson; B. Schneier (2003). Practical Cryptography. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-22357-3. J. Katz; Y. Lindell (2007). Introduction to Modern Cryptography. CRC Press. ISBN 1-58488-551-3. J. Menezes; P. C. van Oorschot; S. A. Vanstone (1997). Handbook of Applied Cryptography. ISBN 0-8493-8523-7. IEEE 1363: Standard Specifications for Public-Key Cryptography Single Sign-On Technology for SAP Enterprises: What does SAP have to say? [1] ^ Ed Gerck, Overview of Certification Systems: x. 509, CA, PGP and SKIP, in The Black Hat Briefings '99, http://www. securitytechnet. com/resource/rsc-center/presentation/black/vegas99/certover. pdf andhttp://mcwg. org/mcg-mirror/cert. htm ^ Stephen Wilson, Dec 2005, â€Å"The importance of PKI today†, China Communications, Retrieved on 2010-12-13 ^ Mark Gasson, Martin Meints, Kevin Warwick (2005), D3. 2: A study on PKI and biometrics, FIDIS deliverable (3)2, July 2005

Creating an immersive video game environment Essay

People play video games for a wide variety of reasons today. They are fun, exciting, and challenging. They are also extremely popular among the generation of digital natives. Digital natives today rely heavily on electronics and computer devices to keep them entertained and interactive. So as a game developer, how do you create an immersive video game environment that is invigorating, interactive, and unique? There are tons of different types of video games out there, which appeal to different age groups, genders, hobbies and interests. Games designed today should feature a number of effects that would rank the particular game high on the recommendations and most played lists. Video games today should feature transformations on 3D models, striking visual effects, and should incorporate all of the newest technologies in order to create some of the best and most unique effects that appeal to all, regardless of the kind of video game, or the target age audience. Many would argue that video games are considered works of art. One would agree that there are various interpretations of what is considered â€Å"art†. However, despite popular belief, an extensive amount of technical knowledge and graphic design experience and knowledge goes on behind video game development. If this wasn’t true, video games wouldn’t become the industry that we all know it as today. As a result, the knowledge of color schemes and visual effects is extremely necessary and essential. In fact, many screenshots of video games today can appear as individual works of art. Of course there is also a great deal of technical knowledge involved, particular in the programming area – such as HTML or JavaScript, and even coding in some cases – but all in all, graphic design and art are underlying areas of video game creation and development. All in all, video games should be exciting experiences that are both stimulating and interactive and with the right amount of adventure and challenge tied into them. Video games should enhance the adventures and capabilities that one wish he or she could experience in real life. Sometimes when we are stuck in traffic or stuck at a traffic light, we sometimes envision ourselves monster trucking the other cars, or in any scenario where we wish we had the powers of a super hero, or that we could fight our enemies in battles and almost always win. Therefore, creating an immersive video game environment truly is a spectacular feat. This is the opportunity for video game designers – whether you are advanced or a beginner – to truly create the ultimate universe where anything and anything is possible. It takes an artistic and creative mind to be able to really create the desired immersive video game environment. However, diving into the world of video games gives us the power to be a part of a world that isn’t reality but perhaps is our dream worlds, where we become a version of our character that we wish we could be. That is the true art, and the true immersive experience.

Marx And Weber Essays - Marxian Economics, Social Philosophy

Marx And Weber Essays - Marxian Economics, Social Philosophy Marx And Weber Both Carl Marx and Max Weber wrote extensively on capitalism, its origins, and its future. Although, they agreed on a few very small points, for the main part, they strongly disagreed. Only through the analysis of their main differences in the two ideologies can a stronger and broader understanding of capitalism be reached. Marx believed strongly in what he called dialectical materialism, that is, that everything is material and that change takes place through the struggle between classes. He believed that men make their own history and transform their natural habitat to fit their changing needs. Men begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence. . . In producing their means of subsistence men indirectly produce their actually material life. Throughout history men transform nature to make it better serve their own purposes. According to Marx, all societies go through five stages of history and capitalism is simply a necessary stage between feudalism and the final step of communism. The way in which men create their social organization is based on modes of production. Changes within these societies occur because as the mode of production changes, it no longer fits the present social organization (p. 157). Therefore, a new class and hence a new form of society emerges. During Feudalism merchants were inferior. Nevertheless, as cities grew the number of merchants grew as well. With their increase in number came an increase in economic power. When the state was unwilling to change to their needs, they formed a revolution resulting in capitalism. Weber has a different perspective on why and how capitalism came about. Rather than just focusing on how capitalism came about, he focuses on finding an answer to the question of why capitalism happened where and when it did. When he looked for differences in the capitalist cultures and non-capitalist cultures at the time he found that capitalism occurred at the same time as the Protestant reformation. The obvious next question for Weber was why was it the Protestant culture that led to capitalism. He found a large explanation within the difference between Protestants and Catholics. For Catholics, priests had the power to forgive you of your sins. Therefore, all that was necessary for you to do to get absolution was to confess your sins. For Protestants this was much more difficult. Because Protestant priests were only teachers, they did not have the luxury of simply confessing their sins. Protestants also believed that their souls were predestined to go to either heaven or hell. Nonetheless, Protestants felt that they could determine the status of their souls through their calling. As Weber describes on page 80, The only way of living acceptably to God was. . . solely though the fulfillment of the obligations imposed on the individual by his position in the world. This was his calling. As Protestants worked in their callings, their God given field of study in which to work, the amount of success that they achieved was a sign from God as to the predestination of their souls (p. 162). For this reason, Protestants developed a wonderful work ethic. However, they were not allowed to spend the money that they earned. Instead they saved and invested it. Weber found this to be strong evidence that, Ones duty in a calling is what is most characteristic of the social ethic of capitalistic culture, and is in a sense the fundamental basis of it (p. 54). Weber also found that this work ethic was strong throughout all economic classes no matter what their individual callings were (p. 40). He found the division of labor that came naturally through capitalism to be a good thing. It did not lead to the separating of society into two very different and conflicting classes. Instead, it formed a number of different classes that were related to each mans life style and calling. Each mans God given calling was different from that of his fellow man because God intended it to be so. The division of labor led to the specialization of occupations and increased development of skills, which in turn caused an improvement in production. The division of labor therefore serves the common good (p. 161). Marx

USS Leyte (CV-32) - Korean War Aircraft Carrier

USS Leyte (CV-32) - Korean War Aircraft Carrier USS Leyte (CV-32) - Overview: Nation:  United States Type:  Aircraft Carrier Shipyard:  Newport News Shipbuilding Laid Down:  February 21, 1944 Launched:  August 23, 1945 Commissioned: April 11, 1946 Fate:  Sold for scrap, 1970 USS Leyte (CV-32) - Specifications: Displacement:  27,100 tons Length:  888 ft. Beam: 93 ft. (waterline) Draft:  28 ft., 7 in. Propulsion:  8 Ãâ€" boilers, 4 Ãâ€" Westinghouse geared steam turbines, 4 Ãâ€" shafts Speed:  33 knots Complement: 3,448 men USS Leyte (CV-32) - Armament: 4 Ãâ€" twin 5 inch 38 caliber guns4 Ãâ€" single 5 inch 38 caliber guns8 Ãâ€" quadruple 40 mm 56 caliber guns46 Ãâ€" single 20 mm 78 caliber guns Aircraft: 90-100 aircraft USS Leyte (CV-32) - A New Design: Designed in the 1920s and early 1930s, the US Navys  Lexington- and  Yorktown-class aircraft carriers were planned to fit within the restrictions set forth by the  Washington Naval Treaty. This placed limitations on the tonnage of different types of warships as well as capped each signatory’s total tonnage. These types of rules were furthered by the 1930 London Naval Treaty. As world tensions increased, Japan and Italy left the treaty structure in 1936. Upon the collapse of this system, the US Navy began work on a design for a new, larger class of aircraft carrier and one which utilized the lessons learned from the  Yorktown-class. The resulting design was longer and wider as well as incorporated a deck-edge elevator system. This had been used earlier on  USS  Wasp  (CV-7). In addition to carrying a more sizable air group, the new class mounted a greatly enlarged anti-aircraft armament. Work began on the lead ship,  USS  Essex  (CV-9) on April 28, 1941. With the US entrance into  World War II after the  attack on Pearl Harbor, the  Essex-class rapidly became the US Navys standard design for fleet carriers. The first four ships after  Essex  followed the types original design. In early 1943, the US Navy made multiple changes to improve future vessels. The most noticeable of these alterations was the lengthening the bow to a clipper design which allowed the addition of two quadruple 40 mm mounts. Other changes included moving the combat information center below the armored deck, improved aviation fuel and ventilation systems, a second catapult on the flight deck, and an additional fire control director. Though known as the long-hull  Essex-class or  Ticonderoga-class by some, the US Navy made no distinction between these and the earlier  Essex-class ships. USS Leyte (CV-32) - Construction: The first ship to move forward with the revised  Essex-class design was USS  Hancock  (CV-14) which was later re-dubbed Ticonderoga.   It was followed by additional vessels including USS Leyte (CV-32).   Laid down on February 21, 1944, work on Leyte began at Newport News Shipbuilding.   Named for the recently fought Battle of Leyte Gulf, the new carrier slid down the ways on August 23, 1945.   Despite the end of the war, construction continued and Leyte entered commission on April 11, 1946, with Captain Henry F. MacComsey in command.   Completing sea trails and shakedown operations, the new carrier joined the fleet later that year. USS Leyte (CV-32) - Early Service: In the fall of 1946, Leyte steamed south in consort with the battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) for a goodwill tour of South America.   Visiting ports along the continents western coast, the carrier then returned to the Caribbean in November for additional shakedown and training operations.   In 1948, Leyte received a compliment of new Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopters before moving to the North Atlantic for Operation Frigid.   Over the next two years it participated in several fleet maneuvers as well as mounted an air power demonstration over Lebanon to help deter a growing Communist presence in the region.   Returning to Norfolk in August 1950, Leyte quickly replenished and received orders to move to the Pacific due to the beginning of the Korean War. USS Leyte (CV-32) - Korean War: Arriving at Sasebo, Japan on October 8, Leyte completed combat preparations before joining Task Force 77 off the Korean coast.   Over the next three months, the carriers air group flew  3,933 sorties and struck a variety of targets on the peninsula.   Among those operating from Leytes deck was Ensign Jesse L. Brown, the US Navys first African American aviator.   Flying a Chance Vought F4U Corsair, Brown was killed in action on December 4 while supporting troops during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.   Departing in January 1951, Leyte returned to Norfolk for an overhaul.   Later that year, the carrier began the first of a series of deployments with the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.    USS Leyte (CV-32) - Later Service: Re-designated an attack carrier (CVA-32) in October 1952, Leyte remained in the Mediterranean until early 1953 when it returned to Boston.   Though initially selected for deactivation, the carrier received a reprieve on August 8 when it was selected to serve as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS-32).   While undergoing conversion to this new role, Leyte suffered an explosion in its port catapult machinery room on October 16.   This and the resulting fire killed 37 and injured 28 before it was extinguished.   After undergoing repairs from the accident, work on Leyte moved forward and was completed on January 4, 1945.    Operating from Quonset Point in Rhode Island, Leyte commenced anti-submarine warfare activities in the North Atlantic and Caribbean.   Serving as flagship of Carrier Division 18, it remained active in this role for the next five years.   In January 1959, Leyte steamed for New York to begin an inactivation overhaul.   As it had not undergone the major upgrades, such as SCB-27A or SCB-125, that many other Essex-class ships had received it was deemed surplus to the fleets needs.   Re-designated as an aircraft transport (AVT-10), it was decommissioned on May 15, 1959.   Moved to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Philadelphia, it remained there until being sold for scrap in September 1970.   Selected Sources DANFS: USS Leyte (CV-32)NavSource: USS Leyte (CV-32)Hull Number: USS Leyte (CV-32)