Thursday, 28 August 2008

Essay on globalisation


‘Summarise the main effects of globalisation and discuss to what extent they are beneficial to global software development.’

It is widely believed that the globalisation has become the most conversed topic nearly by everyone in developed and the countries who are in their development course recently, during the last decade. It is commonly assumed that it has affected the nations of almost more than half of the world in various ways according to their internal and external ethics or precedence.
Before 1960s when someone hardly even knew about it, is now happened to be under the tongue of everyone in the recent years. Nor political neither educational vocalization is deemed to be as much comprehensive without merely at least a smallest indication towards globalisation. It could be known as different terms in different countries as it is likely to be due to the diverse languages but the expression is about the same everywhere.

First of all we need to know actually, what is globalisation? According to Reith Lectures (1999) people have been seen with a variety of completely different estimations about globalisation. A significant number of people claim that globalisation is not more than “just talk”. They argue that the global economy is about the same as it was years ago as we might contract a slight amount in profits through import and export. However, a vast majority of people declare that it can be seen albeit all over the places. In this essay we will carry out two main topics. First we will look on to the main effects of globalisation; secondly we’ll consider pros and cons of this on software development industry.

Globalisation may be affecting almost all of the aspects of the global age around humans such as traditions (Asian traditional dishes could be found widely available in Britain and elsewhere), culture (we normally don’t wear our cultural clothing in the UK), environment (greenhouse gases), economy (some countries are getting more affluent. Conversely, some are getting down-and-out) etc. Reith Lectures (1999), for example, noted:

"When Scots get together to celebrate their national identity, they do so in ways steeped in tradition. Men wear the kilt, with each clan having its own tartan - and their ceremonials are accompanied by the wail of the bagpipes. By means of these symbols, they show their loyalty to ancient rituals - rituals whose origins go far back into antiquity. "

Exemplified by the text above it can be clearly seen how Scots are putting off their minds from their traditional and cultural costumes just due to adopting different origins’ outfits moreover they only have them on when they get in concert to commemorate their ancient identity, which could be argued as one of the enormous losses of so called “globalisation”, as this is a universal truth “You get something, you lose something.”

Another substantial apprehension may be observed as the change in environmental behaviour. Environmental mutation is likely to be a trendy word in scientific questions on long-range structural change in the world’s natural balance. Various researchers have published their ideologies on the relationship of global trade and its effect on environment and a generally perceived idea is that it effects the environment in the same way as the economic growth does, adversely in some stage and favourably in others. As Theodore Panayotou (2000) suggests, globalisation is highly driven and articulated by the free trade, trading liberty and its outcomes. In the modern world these are tend to be the major feed through which globalization collide the natural environment and affects its quality i.e. ‘ozone layer’. The more use of trading channels i.e. shipping, transportation and more pollution as a direct result.

As it was expected, international trading should be used in order to pull off individual aspirations, to pick up standards of living and to improve worth of life. Contrary to expectations, the reality is may be completely poles apart.

Foreign investments are opening new matter of controversy of the effects of globalisation on global economy and this may pick up the pace of the structural change. Thus, shifting or moving industrial structure of the state and consequently resource use from the beginning to the end prologue to foreign investment, results in rise of labour. Globalization may diffuse capital depending on their financial characteristics or circumstances relative to existing assets. The environment may improve or deteriorate but, it can predict the economic growth worldwide and increases overall global output, globalization could implausibly reduce or amplify economic projections in individual countries, sectors and industries, exemplified by China, Uganda, Vietnam and India. Such improvements may restore public’s confidence on the rulers and feel their selves safe and secured in their nation. In opposition, humiliation of economies and people may result in induce poverty and deficiency.

Nowadays, the world we are living in is proposed to be a global village, in which the computer industry has co-operated significantly. For instance, the money can be transferred throughout the planet right away. Similarly, messages can be sent through emails or texts instantaneously across the borders. Previously, it was never thought to be possible unless someone goes personally to deliver. All of these achievements are honoured only owing the radical software development.

Technology is changing on overnight basis relentlessly in the world of machines. As a result of this, soaring dexterities are greeted always by the software development firms. Some of the current pinnacle list of skills are as follows: object-oriented programming (web-based, client-server applications, desktop and mobile applications), graphic and web designing, .NET, Oracle, SQL Server, Java, Flash, Director, Dreamweaver etc. this leads the companies to explore for the endowment broadly with the exceptional aptitude.

References:

Reith Lectures (1999: Lecture1), BBC Radio4, ‘RUNAWAY WORLD’, viewed 19/08/08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith1999/lecture1.shtml
Reith Lectures (1999: Lecture3), BBC Radio4, ‘RUNAWAY WORLD’, viewed 21/08/08, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith1999/lecture3.shtml
Theodore Panayotou (2000), Working papers: Centre of International development at Harvard University, ‘Globalisation and Environment’, viewed 25/08/08, http://www.unu.edu/interlink/papers/WG1/Panayotou.pdf

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Opening sentences of the paragraphs


I tried to some sentences about the globalisation which we are going to write this month. I hope these are making some sence.


It is widely believed that the globalisation has become the most conversed topic nearly by everyone...

Before 1960s when someone hardly even knew about it, is now happened to be under the tongue of everyone in the recent years...

First of all we need to know actually, what is globalisation?....

Globalisation may be affecting almost all of the aspects of the global age around humans...

Another substantial apprehension may be observed as the change in environmental behaviour.

As it was expected, international trading should be used in order to pull off individual aspirations....

Foreign investments are opening new matter of controversy of the effects of globalisation on global economy....

Nowadays, the world we are living in is proposed to be a global village, in which the computer industry has co-operated significantly....

Monday, 25 August 2008

My Essay plan


First of all I'll provide a breif overview about the globalisation very generally. I am looking about 2 or 3 paragraphs for introduction pointing out some researchs already done about globalisation. After introduction I'll explicate about the effects of globalisation in different areas of life giving some good examples from some research I've already done. After summarising all of these effects I'll write about the pros and cons of globalisation regarding my subject area which is Software Engineering and then finally I'll try to write a small conclusion about my essay.

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Some stuff for the essay

Very Interesting!!!!

Actually I found this documentary on our great educator's (Steve Wasserman) blog which I found it really nice to prepare us for the main essay for this month, the documentary is called The new rulers of the world, please have a look. And another article I found on the other teacher's blog, who I think hardly stops working for the sake of good grades of his students (Jim) the article can be found here No cheers for globalisation.

So far these both I found really interesting, I'll update my blog very soon if I find some other good stuff :)

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

c'mon Leeds lets attack globalisation, together :)


I heard and read some of these lectures and found some information in some of these related to our main topic globalisation specially in the Lecture 1 which is obviously on globalisation :) please find the links below to jump directly on the lectures.

Lecture 1: Globalisation - London
Lecture 2: Risk - Hong Kong
Lecture 3: Tradition - Delhi
Lecture 4: Family - Washington DC
Lecture 5: Democracy - London

Monday, 18 August 2008

Get ready guys - Too much self study to do this month



hmm... after the class today it seems like we are going to do the self study most of the time this month, so guys please get ready as this is the last month and we need to get most out of this month. We need to help each other as much as we can as it seems we need to do the most of the work by our selves, I am always here by myself if anyone needs me any time just give me a shout and you'll find me just next to you.

At the end...

Best of luck to all of the class.

Here are some answers of the questions raised in the class today.
What is globalisation? - The gaurdian
What is globalisation? - Wikipedia (A very good explanation of globalisation in different ways can be found here)

New Month - Catching the time


Hi guys I hope all of my friends had a good month-ending long weekend :) lets get back to work now please :) I visited some of the links given by Steve in the class on thursday and found them really helpful in writing essays next month. I am pasting these links here for my friends to save the typing time.

University of Essex - Writing
UEFAP - Writing
What makes a good academic writing
University of Essex - Referencing
Constructing the paragraph
Coping with academic writing
Uni Learning - Essay writing
Academic writing module - Paragraphs
Uni Learning - Body of the essay

Some other useful links

How to structure an essay (A good explanation of Horizontal and Vertical patterns)

Try this exercise
Exercise of Topic Sentences (My score was 97% 7 out of 8 at first attempt)

Friday, 8 August 2008

Introduction and one paragraph - Draft



‘Increased use of science and technology to fight crime is an infringement on personal privacy.’ To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

It is widely believed as a whole society that the most encouraging act carried out by the law enforcement agencies is considered to be the prevention of crime. If these agencies deal with the offences before they even take place, the costs we pay in result of the effects of crime may be entirely evaded. Police play a big role in crime deterrence but it doesn’t mean they are the only people to help us fight misdeeds. In this modern era we have different sorts of technologies helping us to tackle the problems we face to make our environment safe and sound. However, according to Barry Steinhardt (1999) Associate Director of The American Civil Liberties Union, CCTVs could be seen as "intrusive" and do not need to have a warrant, a probable cause or individual suspicion to search anyone. In addition, these technologies are considered not to have much effect on the crime rate as previously thought. In this essay we will undertake two main topics. First we will discuss the available technology to help us fight offensive society; secondly we will come across the consequences of this on personal privacy.

Getting in to the modern age provides us with the whole lot of extraordinary opportunities, as we can communicate around the globe in several ways using the fastest ways ever invented by the human minds in the history so far such as email, mobile phones etc. We probably fall into the most sophisticated age bracket technologically, while speaking in the favour of the other side of the argument. Even this cosmopolitan style of civilization doesn’t help lessen crime ratio. According to the Kervin Harry (2008) the percentage of crime we face now is less than it was 30 years ago but, it is still not acceptable. Thus, here we need to receive the help from up to date technology to experience living in a better environment.







Bibliography:



Harry, K. Net News (2008), ‘Letter: The recent murder and crime in St Vincent’, 25/07/08, viewed 07/08/2008, http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-9374--7-7--.html

Steinhardt, B. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (1999), ‘Law Enforcement Should Support Privacy Laws for Public Video Surveillance’ 04/08/1999, viewed 06/08/2008, http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/16782res19990408.html

Note: Due to some restriction of HTML these links are not appearing in less than "<" and greater than ">" tags for this reason just typing them as it is.

Thursday, 7 August 2008

Practising arguments and counter arguments

The following examples show one side of the argument only. Continue the sentences with a counter argument.

1. It is often said that the paparazzi are too intrusive when pursuing famous people for front page photographs, and to a certain extent this is true. However, a significant number of people believe that this type of behaviour is in their own favour, to keep them in the public’s eyes.
2. Some people consider that murderers face capital punishment rather than imprisonment, and in some ways it may be possible to argue this case. However, in the developed countries like Britain this sort of punishment is considered to be a breach of human rights.
3. It is generally agreed that youth crime is rising and that the police need to take action of some kind to tackle the problem. Nevertheless, it could be handled by educating the youngsters through the different kind of teaching activities interesting enough for them to acquire their attention easily.
4. A common viewpoint is that young people are eating increasingly unhealthy diet ant that schools should therefore take measures such as banning junk food from their canteen menus. Whilst this may be a sensible idea in some ways, we should not forget that the fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King contribute a big role in the economy and the job market.
5. It is widely believed that education is a universal right and that universities should therefore be open to all those who wish to undertake higher education studies. On the other hand, this seems not to be possible because of the high fees, which is directly connected to the educators’ salaries and the government might not possibly be able to afford their wages.
6. Recent research has suggested that the planet is heating up at a faster than expected rate and there have been calls for politicians to do more to address the problem. We should, however, bear in mind that we cannot leave all of the responsibility to the politicians only. We as a responsible citizen should take our part to undertake the problem standing side by side to the rulers.
7. It is often argued that ‘a glass ceiling’ makes it more difficult for women to have the same opportunities and rewards in business as their male counterparts. This may be true in some ways, but
8. Although many people say that there are risks involved in using the internet, because each and every information is available not only to the adolescents but to the kids as well whatever they want to look for. However, it all depends on individuals what type of information they need to take out of this striving technology. Whether they want to go for the good purpose or the bad reason.

Steve's Homework - 05/08/08

The following paragraphs are all mixed up see if you can put them together.

TS = Topic Sentence
SS = Supporting Sentences

Paragraph1
A. SS1
B. SS3
C. TS
D. SS2

Paragraph 2
A. SS2
B. TS
C. SS4
D. SS3
E. SS5
F. SS1

Paragraph 3
A. SS3
B. SS2
C. SS5
D. TS
E. SS1
F. SS4

Paragraph 3
A. SS5
B. TS
C. SS4
D. SS6
E. SS2
F. SS3
G. SS7

Monday, 4 August 2008

Reflections on Seminar


Had I done enough research and preparation?

I think yes I had done enough preparation to participate in the seminar. Because it is clearly shown through my blog posts the links I posted for the articles I read and the documentries I watched.

Did I speak enough during the seminar?

Actually I spoke enough during the seminar and I tried to involve all of the members into the seminar by asking them their opinion.

Was I a good listener?

I tried to listen every one very attentively when the other members were speaking and tried to took some notes for myself to help me to in writing the introduction.

Did I argue my opinion clearly?

I tried to make some very clear arguments by explaining them through the help of different examples.

Did I give reasons, examples and evidence to support my opinions?

I tried to provide different examples and evidences to support my dialogues according to my preparation for the seminar.

Did I ask relevant questions to other people?

To some extent, yes I did ask a few members a few questions by picking up some points from their part of speech.

Was the language I used accurate?

Somewhere it was accurate but somewhere as I think I mumbled but I asked the other participants if they were unclear about anything, I could explain that again.

Had I prepared the language I needed before the seminar?

Actually I prepared the vocabulary for the seminar because I found that necessary while I tried to use seminar language somewhere, where ever I thought it is needed.

Did I direct the discussion or help keep the discussion moving in the right direction?

At some points yes, when I realized the discussion is going somewhere else instead of the actual topic, I tried to turn the other members’ attention very politely towards the topic we were discussing.

Could other people clearly understand what I was saying?

Yes of course, because when I saw some blank faces I immediately stoped my self there and asked them as if they were getting my point of view or not.

Did I work well with the other people in my group?

Yes I think because I tried many times to get every member attending the seminar involved in the discussion, just to let them express their ideas.



At the end I would like to say this seminar was much better than the previous one because everyone performed so well and at some points I experienced as if we were going to have a fight with each other and on the other hand the environment was really friendly sometimes. The arguments were strong and argumentative.

That’s all your honour

wi-fi CCTV on its way


Another interseting article was found on the BBC News website in which they claim it as a solution for the cables all around for the CCTV cameras. Westminister council has installed these cameras in Soho Square on experiment basis and plans to extend in near future.

Sunday, 3 August 2008

Suspect Nation - The loop holes of surveillance age


Preparation for the seminar

Very informative documentary about the surveillance cameras and other technologies monitoring us all the times as if we are living in a suspect nation. Good to watch you’ll learn many things regarding the seminar on Monday. The major questions I got in my mind after watching this documentary are, are they trying to fight with the criminals using these advanced technologies or are they trying to make their nation suspect? And the most surprising thing in the documentary was, the representative of Channel 4 who is presenting the documentary was bugged. Even the secure means of determining identity what they call is RFID so called revolutionary chip could be cloned. This is the same technology which is going to be used in upcoming British passports and British ID cards, not really secure.

I found it originally on Jim’s blog but copying it here for my friends who visit my blog. Please click the link below to access the documentary.

Please feel free to leave me some comments if you like it. :)

Saturday, 2 August 2008

Fighting crime with science seminar - Preparation


DNA - Genetic material contained in every cell and unique to the individual
DNA profiling - Identifying people by visual representations of unique regions of their DNA
Frye standard of admissibility - Scientific evidence may only be considered in court if the type of evidence is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Gel electrophoresis - Technique used to separate pieces of DNA by size
Multiplication rule - Method used to obtain likelihood of more than one event occurring simultaneously
Restriction enzyme - Protein that cuts DNA at specific base sequences


-This is an exercise on crime vocabulary with answers but, please do the exercise first before checking the answers.

Crime vocabulary exercise


-I read this article and found very interesting about the CCTV systems at present and some future plans expected to be implemented in near future to cut the crime rate and help police to do their job as its best.

CCTV System in use and some future plans

Wednesday, 30 July 2008

Finally, First piece of Introduction


‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?


A common viewpoint in our society is that the media presents harmful stereotypes to us in several ways every day. Different kinds of media exist which manipulate all of us. News papers, TV, Radio etc. are the prominent media at present. However, this also has the power to educate people through documentaries, visuals, news papers, and movies. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge to us. Looking at the other side of the picture spending too much time on TV or playing games leads us to develop indolence, violent behaviour and unhealthy diet. In recent years when media and technology are surrounding all over we have started relying on media more than it deserves. Commercials these days don’t even attempt to inform about the product and instead rely entirely on gimmicks. Truthfully, it all depends on individuals how they react against what they see or hear on TV, news papers, magazines or radio. According to Joan Langham and Warren Stewart (1981), children who were found with more aggression in their nature were more likely to watch really different variety of programs to non-aggressive children. Their priority was to focus their attention more towards violent stereotypes and characters, and they had the extensive choice of TV channels. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is influenced by the media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Word count 235


References:

Langham, J. and Stewart, W. 1981 ‘Television viewing habits, and other characteristics of normally aggressive and non-aggressive children’ Australian Psychologist, viewed 30th July 2008,

First four sentences of Introduction

'We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.' To what extent do you agree with the statement.

  1. Different kinds of Media are there which manipulate common people, News paper, T.V, Radio etc are the prominent Media at present.
  2. The propagation of ideas become very easy since it directly induces comprehensive knowledge in common people.
  3. Certainly, media have the power to educate people through advertisement, visuals, clippings and film slides.
  4. The news paper is useful only to literate people whereas T.V and radio covers all the human flock irrespective of literate or illiterate. This essay will examine that to what extent our society is prejudiced by media specifically whether this consequence is constructive or destructive.

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

Phrasal verbs in academic English

An exercise of Phrasal verbs and one-word synonyms....

Phrasal Verb

Synonym

Example

put forward (an idea/view/opinion)

Present

In her latest article Kaufmann puts forward a theory which is likely to prove controversial.

carry out ( an experiment/research)

Conduct

I intend to carry out a series of experiments.

make up

Constitute

Children under the age of 15 make up nearly half of the country’s population.

be made up of

Consist of

Parliament is made up of two houses.

point out

Observe

Grenne points out that the increase in life expectancy has led to some economic problems.

point up

Highlight

The study points up the weaknesses in the current school system.

set out (to do something)

Aim

In his article Losanov sets out to prove that...

go into

Discuss

In this book Sergeant goes into the causes of the Civil War in some depth

Go/Look back over

Revise, review

Please go/look back over this term’s notes.

Monday, 28 July 2008

A Chapter from a book connected to my course

I managed to find a book in the library connected directly to my subject. The book's name is "ASP.NET in VB.NET". I read few chapters from the book and found them quite interesting and useful in future for me. Here I am writing the summary of the chapter I liked most so far.


The Evolution of VB.NET


Traditional ASP development was restricted to the VBScript programming language, which was first developed as a basic scripting language for writing macros and other simple code that would be used by another application. VBScript was never intended for sophisticated, interactive web applications and for that reason expert programmers had to strain the language to its limit to create first-rate ASP pages. To get around many limitations in VBScript, advanced pages needed to rely on separate components written in other languages, which generally had to be installed and configured separately on the web server. In the end even though VBScript was intended to be easier to use than ordinary Visual Basic writing advanced ASP pages actually became much more complicated because of the additional effort needed to circumvent VBScript’s limitations.

Just replacing VBScript with Visual Basic would have been a significant advantage. Some of the features Visual Basic 6 offers that VBScript lacks include the following.

· Access to the platform services: VBScript on the other hand is automatically isolated by the scripting host and has many security-related restrictions.
· Typed programming. VBScript doesn’t allow us to strict control over data types, and works with special ‘variant’ variables instead. Which are supposed to be easier to use. Unfortunately, they also introduce data type conversion problems and difficult-to-detect errors.
· Event-driven programming. Unlike Visual Basic, VBScript is notoriously disorganized and has little flexibility to group or organize code so that code can be easily debugged and reused.
· Support for objects. Visual Basic doesn’t have perfect object-oriented features, but they are still light years over what VBScript can accomplish.

However, ASP.NET has completely skipped over this stage in evolution and moved directly to the advanced capabilities of Visual Bacis.NET. This latest version of Visual Basic is a complete redesign that answers years of unmet complaints and extends the VB Language into new territory. Some of the new features include the following.

· Structured error handling. The end of the aggravating “On Error Goto” construct has finally arrived. VB.NET introduces .NET’s new standard: clean, concise, structured exception handling. We can see in chapter 11
· Language refinements. Every aspect of the VB language has been tweaked and refined. We can now overload functions, declare and assign variables on the same line, and use shortened assignment syntax.
· Strong typing. Even Visual Basic 6 performed some automatic variable conversions that could cause unusual bugs. VB.NET allows us to rein in our program and prevent possible errors with strict type checking
· True object-oriented programming. Inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism, constructors, shared members and abstract classes and the list goes on, and Visual Basic.NET integrates them all into the one language.

The list of new words

Strain
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: filter, puree, screen, separate, sieve, sift

First-rate
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: a-one, classy, dandy, excellent, first-class, super, topnotch, tops

Circumvent
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, balk, bypass, cheat, check, deceive, defraud, detour, dupe, elude, encompass, entrap, evade, foil, fool, frustrate, mislead

Isolated
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: alone, apart, hidden, insular, insulated, lone, lonely, private, random

Notorious
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Known widely and unfavorably.
Synonyms: common, infamous

MSc Software Engineering


I found this link on the London Met website for my postgraduation MSc. Software Engineering which is I am going to start studying in September 2008/09 session. This course is really useful for me because first of all this is related to my previous studies and secondly I would love to study this course actually I really love this profession and want to play with these tiny machines in various ways. This course consists of 2 semesters of six months each and a dissertation containing 12-15K words as a final written assignment. In each semester I'll have to study 3 courses in which 2 are core modules and 1 is optional means I can select from 2 or 3 different courses. The primary aim of the course is to produce graduates who are equipped to both work in the software industry and pursue research in Software Engineering. Applying concepts from the capability curriculum to the disciplines concerned facilitates these aims. Particular aims include: a) To provide an understanding and role of Software Engineering in IT dependent operations. b) To develop and enhance students’ capabilities in the analysis, evaluation and implementation of Software Engineering principles in IT system development.