Personal Computer and Dell Essay Example for Free

Personal Computer and Dell Essay Synopsis: In 1984 Dell Inc. was founded by University of Texas freshmen, Michael Dell. Dell would buy computers from the excess inventory of local retailers and revamp them to sell out of his trunk. Dell was able to sell his computers at 10%-15% below retail price. After Dell’s freshmen year he dropped out to run his business full time. By 1995 Dell had sales of nearly $3. 5 billion and was one of the top five PC vendors in the world. Dell focused on customer support and service and became the master of process engineering and supply chain management. Dell has faced many challenges including distribution through US retail stores, management changes, and keeping up with its competitors. Since consumers aren’t willing to pay huge amounts of money for computers unless they were unique, Dell is at a crossroads. Which road Dell chooses to follow will determine its future. Resources: Dell Inc. ’s most valuable resource has been Michael Dell and its ability to sell computers at 10-15% below market value. Another huge resource is the executive team that Dell formed for guidance. Capabilities: Dell’s capability at producing products at a lower cost to its consumers is key. By adding services such as laptops, software/peripherals, servers/networking, services, and storage Dell expanded its capabilities. With the added services Dell can keep pace with its competitors. Core Competencies: Dell’s core competencies are the ability to offer quality products at cheaper prices, personalized orders, and the ability to keep their inventory relatively low. These competencies have helped Dell become a leader in the computer industry. Finding of Fact: Dell is currently at a crossroads; the company’s margins aren’t in a favorable position for the company. In 2010 yes their net income rose, but was still only 2. 91% of net revenue. Dell’s consumers are no longer willing to pay top dollar for a computer, unless it was unique. Competitors are selling laptops for around $300. Tablets have pushed Dell’s laptop sales down as well. Many more competitors have stepped into the industry since Dell first was founded. Dell also spends about 1% of its sales on research and development, while other companies spend about 5%. Justified Recommendation: Dell should invest more of its money into research and development for its products. Technology is constantly changing and for Dell to stay ahead or at least at the same pace, research and development is a must. I’m not saying Dell needs to go out and hire some new employees for this team. Dell could use members from each of its sections to help brainstorm and come up with new and innovative ideas. Innovative employees are invaluable to a company. Dell’s management should perform environmental scanning both internally and externally to find Dells SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Once SWOT is determined management could strategically figure out how to move forward. Environmental scanning shouldn’t be done just when a company finds it has â€Å"hit a bump in the road†, but periodically to keep the company innovative and make sure it is on the correct path. Dell should also perform an industry analysis. This analysis will review potential entrants, buyers, substitutes, suppliers, other stakeholders, and competitors. By completing the analysis a company can determine the high and low forces against the company. The low forces could be turned into a possible opportunity or based on the analysis results, the company could switch strategies.

Motivation in the Classroom Essay -- Teaching Education

Motivation in the Classroom Students want and need work that enables them to demonstrate and improve their sense of themselves as competent and successful human beings. This is the drive toward mastery. But success, while highly valued in our society, can be more or less motivational. People who are highly creative, for example, actually experience failure far more often than success. Biehler (p. 225) claims that studies show that when CAI used in conjunction with a teacher's lessons, is particularly beneficial for low-achieving and young students. Before we can use success to motivate our students to produce high-quality work, we must meet three conditions: 1. We must clearly articulate the criteria for success and provide clear, immediate, and constructive feedback. 2. We must show students that the skills they need to be successful are within their grasp by clearly and systematically modeling these skills. 3. We must help them see success as a valuable aspect of their personalities. All this seems obvious enough, but it is remarkable how often we fail to meet these conditions for our students. Take skills. Can you remember any crucial skills that you felt you did not successfully master because they were not clearly taught? Was it finding themes in literature? Reading and interpreting primary texts? Thinking through nonroutine math problems? Typically, skills like these are routinely assigned or assumed, rather than systematically modeled or practiced by teachers. So how can we help students master such skills? When teaching your students to find themes, for example, deliberately model interpretation. Ask your students to give you a poem you have never seen, and then interpret it both for and with them. If they are reading primary texts, use what we call the "main idea" strategy. Teach them how to find the topic (usually a noun or noun phrase), the main idea (a sentence that states the text's position on the topic), and reasons or evidence to support the main idea. If students are concerned about writer's block, remember that perhaps the most difficult task of a teacher is to teach how to think creatively. In regards to behavior modification it's noted in Biehler(p.237), in the case of primary students there is a possibility that some students will come to realize that the teacher rewards them only when they've done what she... ... arouses intense curiosity? By making sure it features two defining characteristics: the information about a topic is fragmentary or contradictory, and the topic relates to students' personal lives. Students then work together in-groups, retracing the steps scientists took in weighing the available evidence to arrive at an explanation. We have seen student’s work diligently for several days dealing with false hypotheses and red herrings, taking great delight when the solutions begin to emerge. As for topics that relate to students' lives, the connection here cannot be superficial; it must involve an issue or idea that is both manageable and unresolved. We must ask, With what issues are adolescents wrestling? How can we connect them to our curriculum? Figure 1 illustrates some possibilities for adolescents. Bibliography: References Snowman, Jack/Biehler, Robert (2000) Psychology Applied to Teaching Houghton Mifflin Co. Colin, Baker (1996) Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Multilingual Matters (pgs 105-143) Cummins, Jim (1996) Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society California Association for Bilingual Education

Rain Water Harvesting: A Solution To Water Crisis

Water is an essential resource. No one can live and survive without water. Hence, we should not let the source of the life waste, instead we must store it. We can do so by the methods of Rainwater Harvesting. Rainwater Harvesting refers to the process of collecting and storing of rainwater. Rainwater harvesting helps in providing drinking water, water for irrigation, agricultural purposes or for groundwater recharge. It is one of the best solutions to water problem in the areas having inadequate water resources. Rainwater systems are simple to construct. Usually, rainwater is either harvested from the ground or from a roof. During the rainy seasons, the rain water can be collected and stored in the tanks. There are many methods to harvest the rainwater. Usually, the methods used are: Catchments Areas i. e. the areas which receive rainfall directly. In this, paved areas like roof of a building or unpaved area such as open ground or lawns can be used for the catchment areas. Ground catchment techniques has more chances of collecting water from the larger surface areas. Storage system: It is designed according to the amount of water that is needed to be stored. Storage system must be sealed and does not leak. Chlorine must be put from time to time to keep the water clean. Conveyance systems which transfer the rainwater collected on the rooftops to the storage tanks and that is done by making connections to one or more down-pipes connected to the rooftop gutters or pipes. The gutters must be made as such that if it rain starts,the dirt will be washed into the down-pipe and clean water comes out. Advantages/Benefits of Rain water Harvesting: It is one of the best solutions to water problem in the areas having inadequate water resources Reduction of soil Erosion. Improved quality of ground water. Raising of water level in wells and borewells. Reduction in the choking of storm water drains and flooding of the roads. Rain water flows down the hills in the form of small streams which join together to form rivers and lakes. And this is the important and the natural source of water for the living beings. Some of the rain water percolates down the earth until it reaches the hard surface. There it collects to form a large underground water reservoir. Such water is obtained on digging wells and it is called sub-soil water or ground water. Thus, there are three important natural sources of water besides abundantly available sea water. The sea water being saline can not be sued as such either for industries or for domestic consumption. (a) Rain water or snow water. (b) Surface water (river, lakes, streams, canals, ponds, etc. ) (c) Ground water or sub-soil water wells and springs. Rainwater Harvesting In urban areas, the construction of houses, footpaths and roads has left little exposed kuchha earth for water to soak in. In parts of the rural areas of India, flood water quickly flows to the rivers, which then dry up soon after the rains stop. If this water can be held back by storage or by reducing speed of flow, it can seep into the ground and recharge the ground water supply. This has become a very popular method of conserving water especially in the urban areas. Rainwater harvesting essentially means collecting rainwater on the roofs of building and storing it underground for later use. Not only does this recharging arrest ground water depletion, it also raises the declining water table and can help augment water supply. Rainwater harvesting and artificial recharging are becoming very important methods. It is essential to stop the decline in ground water levels, arrest sea-water ingress, i. e. , prevent sea-water from moving landward and conserve surface water run-off during the rainy season. Town planners and civic authority in many cities in India are introducing by-laws making rainwater harvesting compulsory in all new structures. No water or sewage connection would be given, if a new building did not have provisions for rainwater harvesting. Such rules should also be implemented in all the other cities to ensure a rise in the groundwater level. Realizing the importance of recharging ground water, the CGWB (Central Ground Water Board) is taking steps to encourage it through rainwater harvesting in the capital and elsewhere. A number of Government buildings have been asked to adopt water harvesting in Delhi and other cities of India. All you need for a water harvesting system is rain, and a place to collect it. Typically, rain is collected on rooftops and other surfaces, and the water is carried down to where it can be used immediately or stored. You can direct water run-off from this surface to plants, trees or lawns or even to the aquifer. Some of the benefits of rainwater harvesting are as follows: I. Increases water availability II. Checks the declining water table III. Is environmentally friendly IV. Imporves the quality of ground water through the dilution of fluoride, nitrate, and salinity V. Prevents soil erosion and flooding, especially in urban areas

A Critical Study of William Faulkner by Irving Howe

As one of the most important figures in 20th-century American literature,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹William Faulkners works include The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), and Absalom, Absalom (1936). Taking into consideration Faulkners greatest works and thematic development, Irving Howe writes, The scheme of my book is simple. He wanted to explore the social and moral themes in Faulkners books, and then he provides an analysis of Faulkners important works. Search for Meaning: Moral and Social Themes Faulkners writings often deal with the search for meaning, racism, the connection between past and present, and with social and moral burdens. Much of his writing was drawn from the history of the South and of his family. He was born and raised in Mississippi, so the stories of the South were ingrained into him, and he used this material in his greatest novels. Unlike earlier American writers, like  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Melville and  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Whitman, Faulkner wasnt writing about an established American myth. He was writing about the decayed fragments of myth, with the Civil War, slavery and so many other events hanging in the background. Irving explains that this dramatically different backdrop is one reason his language is so often tortured, forced and even incoherent. Faulkner was searching for a way to make sense of it all. Failure: A Unique Contribution Faulkners first two books were failures, but then he created The Sound and the Fury, a work for which he would become famous. Howe writes, the extraordinary growth of the books to come will arise from his discovery of his native insight: the Southern memory, the Southern myth, the Southern reality. Faulkner was, after all, unique. There has been no other quite like him. He seemed to see the world in a new way forever, as Howe points out. Never satisfied with the familiar and well-worn, Howe writes that Faulkner did something that no other writer except James Joyce has been able to do when he exploited the stream-of-consciousness technique. But, Faulkners approach to literature was tragic, as he explored the cost and heavy the weight of human existence. Sacrifice may be the key to salvation for those who stand ready to bear the cost and suffer the weight. Perhaps, it was only that Faulkner was able to see true cost.