Competative Analysis: Puma, Reebok, Adidas and Nike Essay

Analyzing the prices of Puma and comparing with its competitor prices was discovered, that all of them are more or less on the same price levels – medium to high. Although, Nike and Adidas products are mostly expensive, while Puma is providing products for affordable prices. Today’s Puma is not only sport clothing and equipment, but also accessories. Puma nail polish, deodorant, shower gels and perfume are easy to find not only in Puma stores, but also in department stores. The other advantage of Puma’s prices could be its discount system – with the appearance of new collections, older ones are given good discounts. Promotion Puma is making a big effort on promoting themselves in many different ways. Nowadays it is hard to imagine a successful company without an official internet page, so one of Puma’s advantages is the fact that it not only has one, but also gives its customers to view and purchase their products online. Puma is also very keen on online customer service – delivery time is 2-7 days and has a 40 day return right. Products on discount are also available. A huge effort is made on organizing events not only for young people. The purpose of these events is simple – combining leisure time with sports: from most simple like ping-pong and darts to football, basketball, volleyball and golf. As its competitors, Puma is not lagging behind on organizing charity events and donating money in Children funds. Puma is also working together with United for Africa and Soles4Soles funds. Going eco-friendly is also one of Puma’s advantages. In order to reduce the environmental impact, Puma is dependent on the cooperation of other industry players. To tackle this issue, Puma has already started to gain support from national governments, environmental organizations, and representatives of science and industry to push for a shift in the current business paradigm towards a more sustainable approach. Puma has demonstrated that accounting for the environment is no longer a ‘holy grail’ objective, but simply makes good business sense. Image/Brand In the recent years the Puma brand has become a synonym of style, fashion and sport. Puma has elevated their brand image so that they now compete with fashion brands as well as their traditional sportswear. To extend their brand Puma has created concept retail stores that enable people to experience the brand in engaging and compelling ways. Adidas brand communicates the company’s goal of fusing sport performance and style competing very closely with Nike’s value proposition. â€Å"Sport performance†, â€Å"sport heritage† and â€Å"sport style† are the three different areas that Adidas has chosen to compete with the value propositions of their traditional competitors. Nike has developed a brand that has global reach trying to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world. They has partnered with the world’s most famous athletes to build their recognition and reach, perfectly demonstrating the power of image marketing. As well as Puma, Nike has extended their brand by creating concept retail stores. Nike differentiates themselves from Puma by focusing on â€Å"performance driven style†, whereas Puma focus on â€Å"lifestyle driven style†. Adidas tries to improve their performance through technological innovation similar to Nike’s brand. Through the years Reebok has developed a brand that focuses on the lifestyle as well as â€Å"having fun staying in shape†. Reebok is fresh brand, but not as trendy as Nike and Adidas. Like most of the other brands Reebok tries to promote themselves through famous athletes as well. They gain ground across all sports against its competitors. In recent years Reebok invested in innovative designs to make their sports footwear much more comfortable. Design Puma is a well-known brand, but, unfortunately, not one of the most preferred. To analyze consumer’s opinion about Puma and its products, a survey was made. Through interviews of 20 young people – age range 16-30 – who were asked to tell what they thought about Puma as a brand, their design and price of their products in comparison to their competitors, and their promotion effort. Looking at the answers separately, can be concluded that they are almost alike, but there are still a few outliers. Furthermore, customers were asked to advice what Puma should do to become more attractive. It was found out that most of the customers would recommend Puma to focus more on design and making the brand more competitive and visually recognized. The main â€Å"issue† for Puma when looking at the answers was that the customers prefer other alternatives, such as Nike and Adidas. This was mainly because of better and trendier design, which is targeting the â€Å"youngerà ¢â‚¬  target group better. Product The main products of Puma are sportswear, sport shoes and accessorize. Puma divides their products into 2 main categories: sports and lifestyle. Sports field includes clothing for sports such as: football, running, sailing, golf, motorsport and rugby. Lifestyle part includes: timepieces and body wear product collections, providing Urban Mobility. The main product of Puma – casual footwear is very different from their competitors: Puma shoes are more fashionable shoes, than athletic shoes. Furthermore, Puma has an Urban Mobility collection cooperating with world-renowned fashion designer Hussein Chalayan. These unique designed footwear, apparel, and accessories will help Puma to create a utility fashion sportswear, offering for the Mobile lifestyle. This look gives the advantage to their products to become more fashionable and trendy. Mission/Vision Puma cooperates with their main competitors – Adidas and Nike in order to achieve their mission for a better world for the generations to come, leaving behind Reebok. Puma’s mission and vision is to work in ways that contribute to the world by supporting creativity, sustainability and peace and by staying true to the values of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative in decisions made and actions taken. According to the aim they will keep on making the products for their customers to love, and at the same time bring that vision of a better world a little closer every day.

The positive social effects and negative social and physical effects of alcohol

This essay will review both the positive social effects and negative social and physical effects of alcohol. The debate over alcohol consumption in communities around the world has existed as long as there has been alcohol to drink. Alcohol has improved social functions; community economics through tourism and business and in moderation can enhance many situations in society. Alcohol has been one of the main problems of today’s generation. By contrast if over indulged and abused the same product can also harm societies, families, communities and do physical harm.Do people have drinking problems? Does a person love drinking? How does it make a person feel; good, bad, hyperactive, happy or sad? Are people addicted to drinking? Do people think that drinking is good or bad and what are the benefits of it? Alcohol has played an important role in our lives. Many people and especially teenagers drink a lot. They go to parties with their friends just to drink. They do not know what ar e its benefits and causes they are just going to drink and that drinking makes them feel good and look unique in front of their friends.They drink alcohol as if they are smoking cigarettes. In this essay I shall explain what the positives and negatives points are and also explain how alcohol is affecting our lives and the society. â€Å"Alcohol has played an important role in religion and adulation. Alcohol is a product that has provided a variety of functions for people. Historically, alcoholic beverages have served as sources of needed nutrients and have been widely used for their medicinal, antiseptic, and analgesic properties.The role of such beverages as thirst quenchers is obvious and they play an important role in enhancing the enjoyment and quality of life (David J. n. d. )†. Alcohol can facilitate relaxation, provide pleasure, enjoyment and increase the pleasure of eating and drinking. Alcohol has proven to be beneficial in several society settings. While drinking al cohol many people find it bringing enjoyment especially when drinking and dancing. Alcohol brings enjoyment, relaxing moments, hyperactive, and drinkers sometimes feel a little less than in control while drinking.By comparison some of the negative effects caused by alcohol is a person inability to control the amount a person drinking after starting, a person may have little if no control over the quantity a person drink, no matter how much a person try to limit a themselves from drinking it won’t happen. When a person tries to stop drinking some symptoms may occur to that person’s body after repeated exposure, these may include: racing heart, sweating, lack of proper sleep, inability to drive, anxiety, nausea and more dangerous problems.A person can put a person themselves in dangerous situation when a person drinks a lot this situation such as drinking and driving. Some people develop a lack of social ethics while drinking that their friends find it hard to tolerant. A person may can blackout and have a very bad hangover when a person drink a lot. Hangovers can cause a person to stop working, not concentrate on what a person have and should do. Drinking early or alone can also cause problems because there won’t be anyone to help that person should they falls ill. These are some other negative effects that drinking can lead to (About. om 2013). Underage boys and girls nowadays go out drinking with their friends but most of these children don’t know what problems can cause them later on if they get caught. In some countries in their laws drinking is not acceptable unless a person 21+, because at that age a person are mature enough to understand the causes of drinking and what problems it can lead a person to. For example in the United Arab Emirates, drinking is only acceptable to those who are 21+ and if a person get caught drinking a person get to go to jail and have problems with the law.Many children are arrested each year in the UAE on drinking infractions, 15 years old boys caught drinking in public parks and beaches along the Cornish, caught try to get into bars and drink and their lack of social considerations prevail and they are caught because think that drinking is good for their age and that they want to live their lives as adults. Children with this age do not understand the lasting effects alcohol can cause. The body of a 15 year old teenager cannot tolerate alcohol because it’s very strong and it can cause the stomach problems, blackout, hangovers and many other future mental and physical problems.In other countries it not against the law such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and many others it’s not against the law even if a teenager goes in to a bar to drink its fine they won’t have any problems because it is not against the laws. Some countries it’s against the laws and religion. â€Å"In many Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, a recent study by The Economist shows that alcohol might be an increasingly strong foe. Alcohol sales in the Middle East grew 72 percent between 2001 and 2011, despite the beverage being forbidden in Islam.While some Muslim scholars permit alcohol provided it is not made from grapes or dates, as those are specifically mentioned in the Quran, most do not. Many Muslims countries permit alcohol intake by tourists and non-Muslims, some countries make it legal for everyone and others enforce severe punishments; in Iran, for example, the sentence for Muslims caught imbibing is 80 lashes (Nuqudy 2012)†. These countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan drinking is against the laws and against the religion and its forbidden to drink alcohol and if anyone does they will be punished by the law.The question here was asked should Islam become more tolerant to alcohol. Well this quote explains the question; â€Å"The religion of Islam has long recognized the difference between the  "ideal† and the â€Å"reality†. The â€Å"ideal† is represented in the religious teachings in the Qur’an and the exemplary life of Muhammad (Sunna). The â€Å"reality† is the everyday life of countless Muslims over the last fourteen centuries who met the â€Å"ideal† to a greater or lesser degree, or not at all. There is no â€Å"original sin† in Islam and human beings fail to reach the â€Å"ideal† because of weakness and forgetfulness of Allah (God).Muslims, therefore, as per the examples cited in The Economist's article may well have consumed alcohol down through the centuries and may continue to do so in contemporary Muslim societies but this has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, other than the fact that are engaged in a haram (forbidden) activity (Fairobserver 2013)†. Some countries follow only the law, rules and regulations and some countries follow their religion before there rules and regulations. However in all the countries drinking is forbidden in Ramadan and who is caught drinking in Ramadan will be punished by the laws of the country.In Quran it’s written â€Å"in surah 2, verse 219 of the Quran, it is stated that alcohol, like gambling, can have certain benefits, but â€Å"their sin is greater than their benefit. † In surah 5, verses 90 and 91, drinking is again linked with gambling, and the passages state that Satan uses intoxicants to instill hatred between people and distract them from remembering God. Surah 4, verse 43 also states that it is forbidden to pray while intoxicated (Michael Brenner n. d. ). † In this part it clearly explains that their sins with be greater than their benefits and that drinking is against the religion and linking with gambling. Scientific arguments for prohibition include the links between alcohol abuse and liver disease, cancer and numerous other health problems. The social arguments include the lowering of inhibitions and all the problems that come with it such as domestic violence, the spread of disease and crime (Michael Brenner n. d. )†. As we have said in the paragraph above that Alcohol is illegal in more religiously conformist Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran, but it is legal in other Muslim-majority countries such as Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.However, There are also benefits for women and men who devour a huge amount of alcohol which can include the following: â€Å"Lowers the risk of developing stomach ulcers, because alcohol may destroy Helicobacter pylori infection which causes ulcers, reduces the risk of a female developing heart disease, and leg pains, alcohol raises HDL (good) cholesterol levels which prevents plaques from forming and causing blood clots, possible bone protection, silicon which is found in beer, is associated with an improvement of bone density in males and females, lowers the risk of gallstones, reduces the risk of age-related cognitive decline a nd can reduce plaque build-ups which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, reduces the risk of diabetes, lowers the risk of stroke, and reduces the risk of dying from a heart attack (Fenton 2009)†. These are great benefits of drinking for those women and men who consume larger amounts of alcohol. However drinking for old women and men can cause many bad consequences such as heart attack, stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure and many other problems can be caused for heavy drinkers in this age. â€Å"Over the past ten years, liquor sales in the Middle East have shot up 72% compared to the average global rise of 30%.Statistics indicate a surprising but clear spike in alcohol consumption in the Muslim-dominated region. Between 2001 and 2011, liquor sales there shot up 72%, according to London-based market research company IWSR. This is an astonishing surge, considering that the average global rise during the same period was 30%. Sample these figures: In Abu Dhabi, liquor sales are growing 28% a year, according to the Financial Times (FT). An increase in alcohol purchases has also been noted in Qatar and Lebanon, not to mention ‘party central’ Dubai, which has comfortably returned to its pre-recession annual sales growth of 26%. Sales at the Dubai Airport alone, reports FT, touched a record $1. 4 billion in 2010 (Thomas White 2012)†. The United Arab Emirates, which includes â€Å"party capital of the Arabian Peninsula† Dubai, is returning to its 2006-2008 trend of 26 percent annual growth in booze sales, which dropped off during the 2009 recession. In Emirate city Abu Dhabi, sales are â€Å"growing at 28 per cent a year. † Dubai's airport alone registered a record $1. 4 billion in 2010 sales. Alcohol industry pros also project increases in Qatar and Lebanon. Karr also notes that much of the liquor imported to the Middle East ends up moving to black markets in countries where it is banned. â€Å"Industry insiders esti mate that more than a half of the alcohol sold to traders in these emirates ends up being smuggled into Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. In Saudi Arabia, a â€Å"standard bottle of whiskey† can go for $150. Still, that's better than China, where producers ask up to $2,700 for a fancy bottle of Scotch (Fisher 2011)†. If we count the millions or billions that these countries make out of drinking it won’t be enough because alcohol has become one of the very huge businesses that people can actually work on it and they will get money and be very rich. In Dubai some people deliver alcohol to homes, just call them anytime and tell them what drinks a person want, when and where and they shall delivers it to a person’s home. Rather than going to drink outside and paying more just call these people who deliver drinks and a person will get them on time.Other problems are students drinking alcohol before going to university and some actually drink in university which is a bad behavior and it is a huge problem because these students have no idea what they are causing themselves in many problems. â€Å"The call to consider reducing the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 could spur some valuable discussion, but alone won't solve the college student alcohol problem, According to University Dean of the IU School of Education Gerardo Gonzalez, an internationally recognized expert on alcohol and drug education. More than 100 college and university chancellors and presidents have signed a public statement stating that the current legal drinking age of 21 hasn't worked (NewInfo 2008)†.Teenagers and many boys and girls drink a lot and they think this will make them feel better but it won’t make them feel better forever. Alcohol has become one of the biggest successful businesses all over the world because people will never stop drinking, no matter how much a person does and how many laws there are in place. Drinking is illegal and forbidden in many countries due to the laws and religion and that each country and place differs from one another. In closing and to sum up this essay, the use of alcohol to enhance personal enjoyment and as a method of increasing community revenues make the age old custom of consumption traditionally and fundamentally accepted in many different societies.As such the debate over the use and misuse of alcohol has continued as has it’s stigma as both a sign of maturity and a problem for many sectors of society. Alcohol has effects the society and has affected us in many different ways. This paper has helped establish some of the many arguments for and against the consumption of alcohol; it is up to the reader to determine which side of the argument to champion. Bibliography About. com. 2013. http://adam. about. net/reports/Alcoholism. htm. David J. , Hanson, Ph. D. Alcohol Problems and Solutions. http://www2. potsdam. edu/hansondj/Controversies/1114796842. html. Fairobserver. 2013. http://www. fairobserver. com/article/should-islam-become-more-tolerant-alcohol. Fenton, Dana. Steady Health.December 18, 2009. http://www. steadyhealth. com/articles/Pros_and_Cons_of_Alcohol_Consumption_a1111. html. Fisher, Max. The Atlantic Wire. January 3, 2011. http://www. theatlanticwire. com/global/2011/01/why-are-middle-east-booze-sales-booming/18095/. Michael Brenner, Demand Media. Opposing Views. http://people. opposingviews. com/drinking-islam-3163. html. NewInfo. August 21, 2008. http://newsinfo. iu. edu/news/page/normal/8692. html. Nuqudy. August 19, 2012. http://english. nuqudy. com/Levant/Alcohol_Sales_Incre-2878. Thomas White. September 14, 2012. http://www. thomaswhite. com/explore-the-world/Postcard/2012/middle-east-alcohol-consumption. aspx.

Advantages of Studying Abroad and Being Bilingual Person Essay

Advantages of Studying Abroad and Being Bilingual Person - Essay Example I have noted that learning abroad and being multilingual helps a person in acquiring new contacts. In these days, people are advancing by creating a network of friends and acquaintances. As such, it will be easier to be connected to friends and acquaintances especially when looking for greener pastures (Cressey 127). Similarly, this is an avenue of making lifetime connections with people across the globe. This will be vital in getting updates from all over the world. As such, I will have new experiences in different parts of the world. Studying abroad is an avenue of advancing in academics and education. I have noted that people who have attended school in the world’s renowned institutions have a high quality of education. This is owing to the resources and high quality of tutors in the schools. Apparently, studying abroad is an advantage as most of the learners have all the required pieces of equipment and resources at their exposure. This makes learning easier and effective. Similarly, people that are educated abroad have a higher chance of getting well-paying jobs in the world. Since such people are bilingual, it makes working in different parts of the world easier (Cressey 111). In addition to this, learning abroad is a way of enhancing career development. The diversity of an individual in language and learning is an advantage.  

European Union business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

European Union business law - Essay Example This forms the centrality of the European Union’s rules on the free movement of persons. However, looking at the nature of the creation of the European Union, the laws on the free movement of persons were thought of to be applicable to only persons who moved to other member states to do economic activities like working3. However, in the landmark case of Van Duyn V Home Office4 it was identified that Article 45 of the TFEU had a vertical direct effect and hence, it could be enforced by any citizen of the European Union. It also applies to all legal relationships by members of the European Union5. In the application of sub-section 2 of TFEU Article 45, a â€Å"worker† is a person who performs services of an economic value for and under the direction of another in return for remuneration6. Thus, there is a protection under this provision implies that a worker is protected from all kinds of discrimination that might exist in relation to his stay and continuous provision of services that he provides in another Member State. Unemployed citizens of a Member State can enter another Member State in search of a job under Article 45(3). And to this end, a person could be in another Member State for a reasonable period of time in The State V Royer7 was defined to be a period of up to six months. Family members of a worker in another Member State are also empowered by Article 2(2)(c) of Directive 2004/38 to live with their dependent children under the age of 21 and their dependent spouses who are not working. Article 10 of Regulation 492/2001 provides equal rights to these dependents connected to a person. Article 2 of Regulation 1612/68 which was replaced by Directive 2004/38 guarantees the rights of spouses, registered partners, descendants and ascendants of EU nationals working in another Member State that is not their primary home8. However, they must show that these individuals or persons are their dependents9. From the

Theatre Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Theatre Critique - Essay Example The paper describes the music and the story which blended well together and it did not seem at any point that the music was juxtaposed forcefully within the play. Also the director was able to develop a strong coordination between the actors when no one was impressed with the acting skills of Tommy DeVito and Bob Gaudio since they seemed out of character at different points of the play. This, however, did not majorly impact the pleasurable experience. The paper emphasizes the attention that the director of the play had seemed to put a lot of effort within the play with his focus on detail. It seemed that the director had meticulously planned each part of play and the different part coordinated well in the final piece. In conclusion, the paper says that Jersey Boys is a play worth watching, especially when one wants to develop an understanding of the way successful plays are created. The most remarkable part of the play was the way the different elements of the theatre worked in synergy with each other. The actors completely understood the time era in which they were acting and this was evident in the way they developed stereotypical models of that era. From the lighting to the costumes, the play came together as a convincing performance. Each actor seemed to have a certain musical signature which helped bring out the character of that actor. This was particularly important in a musical play and for me, this attributed to the success of the play. In plays revolving around music, the audience comes to appreciate the music along with the acting. The director also seemed to have a good knowledge of the musical instruments of the pop era and used them sparingly throughout out the play, thus, developing the mood of the music as well as the era.

Australian Criminal Justice System, the Belief in Justice, an Independ Essay

Australian Criminal Justice System, the Belief in Justice, an Independent Judiciary and the Rule of Law - Essay Example For any criminal justice system to be accepted by everyone, it must not discriminate against the people of a certain race, ethnic background or social class. The legal system can only be fair if the necessary procedures that guarantee a fair trial are in place. Similarly, there must be a system of law for the purpose of fairness in the society or simply the Law of Equity. The society will continue to trust the legal system if justice is not only done but perceived to be done. The entire society more so the witnesses and victims should be made aware of steps that are made to ensure that those who are involved in criminal activities are arrested and prosecuted. Furthermore, the public should be able to witness, by the means of the criminal justice system, the law bringing about accountability. The legal system comprises some basic elements of justice which include unbiased judges, jury trials that are just and the provision of security to the witnesses whenever it is called for. The Australian Justice system is based on the belief in justice, an independent judiciary and the rule of law (Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2008). The people, in disregard of race and whether or not they are citizens, are given similar treatment before the law. The law also safeguards and ensures that the people are given fair treatment by officials and governments. There are some principles which are fundamental to the Australian legal system. These include the separation of powers, judicial precedent and procedural fairness. The Australian jurisprudence is based on the United Kingdom common law system. This law shows a great variation from the other civil law systems operating in Japan, South America and Europe that originated from Roman law (Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2008). The major feature of the common law is that cases that have been settled previously act as a precedent to the pending  cases.

International business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 8

International business - Essay Example For example it was the company that dictated for the international market, what it needed to buy from Apple. Again, the international market did not have much choice in becoming the first users to new types of products. That is, Apple used the international market of offload most of its older products so that it could make way for new products to be introduced into the American market (Robertson, 2011). With the coming of Steve Jobs however, this approach changed as the international market was actually put at the centre of the company’s inventions and innovations. That is, instead of giving the international market what the company wanted to offer, there was enough research to know and understand the needs of the international market together with what the American market wanted. This way, the inventions that were made such as the iPod were made to meet the international demands. It is not surprising that with Steve Jobs at Apple, the company could now boast of a global marke t, where it is reported that nearly twice as many people outside the U.S were employed when the iPod was invested as those employed in the U.S (Freeland, 2011). In essence, the company positioned itself to take advantage of globalization. Once the global positioning was guaranteed through the approach to innovation which was research-led, Apple started developing very quickly. More to the company’s own approach to innovation was the technology based platform that Apple was offered as part of globalization to enhance its business growth. For example Bhagwati (2004) reported that the advent of electronic commerce (e-commerce) peaked around the early 2000s, making it easier for the company to be connected to the international market through the internet. As the elements of e-commerce provide, the company did not necessarily have to have a lot of offices across the globe before it could sell to the international market. Rather, a

Pseudocode Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pseudocode Standards - Essay Example Every ‘Store’ object would comprise of the store id, name, its location, phone number, distance from the current station.   The ‘Stores’ array at each station would already be sorted according to the lowest distance. Every ‘Store’ object would comprise of the store id, name, its location, phone number, distance from the current station.   The ‘Stores’ array at each station would already be sorted according to the lowest distance. In order to avoid invalid entry by a customer, the station would present the customer with a fixed list of categories to choose the item from. When the customer selects an item from the list, a local search is conducted within the array ‘Items’ of the local database. In case of a match and if the available quantity is greater than 0, the information is presented to the customer. In case no match is found, the item is searched in the ‘Items’ array of the nearest remote store loc ation i.e. on the server of the first store in the ‘Stores’ array. The search continues for all the stores in the array. Information is presented only if the item exists in a particular store. A while loop is used to traverse through all records of items and stores, while the matching conditions are checked through the if-statements. Step 1: Display MenuStep 2: Get Item Name from CustomerStep 3: Match Item name with Items in Local StoreStep 4: In case Item available  Step 5: Print Message â€Å"Available†Step 6: Print Quantity of Item AvailableStep 7: In case Item unavailable at Local Store Step 8: Match Item Name with Items in Nearest Store Step 9: In case Item Available Step 10: Print Message â€Å"Available†.

United Farm Workers and Mexican Americans Essay Example for Free

United Farm Workers and Mexican Americans Essay The 1960s was a turbulent decade in the American history, filled with conflict over issues brought up by many different minority groups to form the various Civil Rights Movements. In this decade, the Chicano Movement started to gain a mass following and became a dynamic force of social change. Similar to blacks, Mexican Americans were plagued by police brutality, poverty, and inequality. In the pursuit of tackling these problems, the history of Chicanos in California consisted of the convergence of multiple movements: A youth movement represented in the struggle against discrimination in schools; the farm workers movement; and the movement for political empowerment, most notably in the formation of La Raza Unida Party1. The organizing efforts and achievements in California had major impact on the fate of Mexican Americans. Improvements in barrios, farm-labor camps, school districts and politic representation, led other states to sought reform. Education has long been a primary target of Mexican American activists and reformers. The Mexican American community had the highest high school dropout rate and lowest college attendance amongst all ethnic groups. As a result of the constant underestimation of students as well as the failure to upkeep facilities, a hostile learning environment was manifested. Their goals included bilingual, bicultural education, Latino teachers and administrators, smaller class sizes, better facilities and the revision of the text books to incorporate Mexican American history. In turn, Chicano students and activists decided to make their struggle public in order to pressure school boards into compliance of their demands for education reforms. In March of 1968, thousands of students walked out of their high school in L. A. protesting racial inequality among their school district. Their effects were not wasted, as the school board recognized their efforts by recruiting and hiring more Chicano teachers and administrators2. Ultimately, this inspired high school protest across the nation. College campuses also formed groups, like the United Mexican American Students, with the purposes to enforce for more Chicano study programs, financial aid, and Mexican faculty. Activists fought for bilingual educational programs and in schools and won in 1976, their hard work created more than 50 Chicano studies program in colleges. 3 Changes were not immediately apparent in high schools; however a significant change occurred in the college recruitment of Latinos and educational programs. Though most of the demands were not met, the walkouts unified and empowered the Chicano community, which in the process became a political force. Another focus of the Chicanos had been politics. Their goals encompassed the increase of Chicano candidates in the political arena, convincing non-Chicano candidates to commit themselves to the need of Mexican American community, conducting broad-scale voter registration and community organization drives, and for more Chicanos in government offices. 4 Rather than representation within the two major political parties—democrat and republic—activists established an organization dedicated to their empowerment, the El Partido de la Raza Unida. Found in 1970 by Jose Angel Gutierrez and Mario Compean, the party became active in community organizing and electoral politics statewide, campaigned for better housing, work, and educational opportunities5. The changes they fought for was made possible by combining mass action: firing of racist teachers, protecting high school student rights, and taking advantage of federal government monies they were entitled to, but was not utilized by the previous city government. Police polices were modified as well to benefit Chicano communities. The La Raza Unida Party leaders also worked to raise the wages of school and city workers to encourage unionization6. Though La Raza Unida is no longer a registered political party in the United States, its legacy is still very much alive, affecting the lives of Mexican Americans today. One aspect of the Chicano movement highlighted the rights of the workers in the fields of California. In order to fight against harsh working conditions, low wages and discrimination of Mexican farm workers, the United Farmworkers Union Organizing Committee was established. Led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the UFWOC accomplished its greatest victory when their strikes, boycotts, convinced the largest table grape grower, John Guimara Sr. , to only hire workers represented by the union. Despite their victory, union leaders struggled to create a union to represent all agricultural workers; As a result a three-month strike by grape workers in California began. Due to the efforts of Chavez and his union in 1975, California passed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act; which guaranteed farm workers’ rights to organize. 71 Although seen as an accomplishment, more restrictions were placed on the actions of unions. Today, agricultural workers in California are still being exploited, working in poor conditions with little pay and limited representation. Chicanos in California have played no small role in the social, economic, and political development of California. Not only is California home to majority of the Mexican Americans population in the United States, but also it is the scene of Chicano cultural Renaissance and has contributed to Hispanic cultural renaissance in the United States. California has also been the home of Chicano publication—including magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. 7 Although much of the problems faced by Chicanos in the 20th century had been resolved through reforms during the Civil Rights Era, many Mexican Americans are still being marked by oppression and exploitation. Not only in the field, but industries as well. They are often found working at wage jobs and poor conditions. Over the next few decades, other social reforms for Mexican Americans can be expected. Almost six decades after it began, the Chicano Movement still holds a visible impact on California. As a result of activism in politics, education, and farm work, much of the hardship faced by Chicanos in the early history of California have been resolved. The most prominent outcome of the Chicano Movement are still within academia, with the formation of numerous student centers at college campuses across the nation that aims to students of color as well as the establishment of Chicano Studies Departments and so on. The Literary and art movements of the 1970s also left an enduring mark on the Chicano community. The impact of Chicanos in California gave rise to countless Chicano communities where none existed before. Although activists today are still working on the struggles faced by Chicanos today in various fields, such as farm work, their movement in the 1960s has surely impacted California social, economic and political standing.

Describing the Social and Cultural Dimensions in My Organization Essay Example for Free

Describing the Social and Cultural Dimensions in My Organization Essay Social and cultural theories strive to explain how people relate to each other and/or the surrounding environment. Organizational culture represents a common perception held by the organization’s member. This was made explicit when we defined culture as a system of shared meaning. Therefore, those individuals with different backgrounds or at different levels in the organization will tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms. Most large organizations have a dominant culture and numerous sets of subcultures. A dominant culture expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization’s members. When we talk about an organization’s culture, we are referring to its dominant culture. It is this macro view of culture that gives an organization its distinct personality. Subcultures tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations, or experiences that members face. These subcultures are likely to be defined by department designations and geographical separation. The purchasing department, for example, can have a subculture that is uniquely shared by members of that department. It will include the core values of the dominant culture plus additional values unique to members of the purchasing department. Similarly, an office or unit of the organization that is physically separated from the organization’s main operations may take on a different personality. Again, the core values are essentially retained but modified to reflect the separated unit’s distinct situation. If organizations had no dominant culture and were composed only of numerous subcultures, the value of organizational culture as an independent variable would be significantly lessened because there would be no uniformity in the interpretation of the values that represented appropriate and inappropriate behavior. It is the â€Å"shared meaning† aspect of culture that makes it such a potent device for guiding and shaping values in the cultural behavior. But it is not to be ignored that the reality which many organizations contained also has subcultures that can influence the behavior of their members. The field of sociology focuses on cultures that are ethnically or geographically defined. However, the study of any culture is referred to as â€Å"a group of people who work (or play) together and journey towards a shared meaning and assumption†(Griswold, p.133). Griswold (1994) also shared that â€Å"culture† is one of those words that people use all the time but have trouble defining. Peterson (1979) states that when sociologists talk about culture, they usually mean one of four things: norms, values, beliefs, or expressive symbols. Norms are the way people behave in a given society; values are what people hold dear; beliefs are how people think the universe operates and expressive symbols are representations of the culture. Moreover, Lincoln and Kalleberg (1990) hold that â€Å"the quality of relationships between workers and their co-workers is positively associated with commitment and satisfaction.† If the people within a school do not connect and work together toward a common goal or passion, the culture is said to be stagnant or unproductive. Lincoln and Kalleberg provide three models of organizations. The consensus model holds shared goals and values within an organization that are the norm and dissidence is a problem requiring correction. The cleavage model has distinct groups within an organization that have different interests, especially fault lines that exist between job levels. The fragmentation model shows that are riddled with ambiguity where people hold multiple perspectives. It is plausible that most working environment can fall under all three models or have factions of each model within one department. I am now attached with SMK (P) Methodist, Pulau Pinang as an operational clerk. My services here include the basic operation of the school administration and also involved accounting for the staff and stock inventories in the school. I am under the Ministry of Education and the Jabatan Pelajaran Pulau Pinang. My school consists of 42 academic staff, 8 non-academic staff and 640 students. We have a unique ethnic diversity whereby most of the teachers are Chinese, four Indians and ten Malays. The students are also diversified into the three main ethnicity in Malaysia with minimal number of mixed ethnic students. My Principal is a Chinese lady. Her name is Wong Soon Kee. She is a very fierce and strict head of department. I do not have a very close rapport with her. She does not have very much concern for the teachers as well. It has been a very stressful environment for me and most of the staff here. But, the teachers have been very helpful and understanding to me. They are very friendly and accommodative towards me. At the office, there is a typist and a general worker to assist with my work here. This really helps ease my work and release my pressure of working here. My works is about service conformation of the teachers and support workers, prepare salary and pension worksheets and do the necessaries if there is any changes. My work also involved accounting such as preparing the accounts, paying bills, and bookkeeping. Every month, I have to settle the bill and make orders for items needed by the school. Any bills that I received will have to be settled in 2 weeks time which is a very short dateline for me. However, it is the ethics of the Jabatan Pelajaran Pulau Pinang. We have to abide by the rules set by the upper hands. If I have any meeting by the JPN, I will meet up with my friends from other schools. During this time, we will exchange our experiences about work and how to handle certain situations that arise. It is very useful and helped me a lot to improve my performance to do better than before. Every year, auditors from Jabatan Audit Sekolah will come to school to do auditing on the school accounts. They will take a week to check the accounts and identify whether all the transactions are according to the rules or not. Nevertheless, there will never be a session where they had never found any errors. If we had done a lot of errors, our school will be categorized under â€Å"Audit Bersyarat† and the JPN will send us for a course on how to improve our accounting skills to upgrade our performance. With the teachers’ high spirit and determination to guide the students, the PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah/Lower Secondary Assessment) and the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia/Malaysian Certificate of Education) results are very encouraging. Most of the students show fortitude and willpower be it in their academic or co-curricular activities. All these achievements had helped them to be successful and quite a number of them had furthered their studies abroad. As a conclusion, a social and cultural dimension in an organization is important. It is because, it portrays the relationship between employees in completing their daily tasks and ensuring that the tasks are done well with high quality. Culture Beginnings and the Impact of Founders as Leaders spring from three sources: 1. beliefs, values, and assumptions of founders

Security Issues Associated With Mobile Commerce Information Technology Essay

Security Issues Associated With Mobile Commerce Information Technology Essay The report investigates the current state of the Mobile-commerce based on its security and examines the predicted future developments of the system. A brief background of the M-commerce and its applications is initially outlined. The discussion will then focus on the security issues and solutions based on the five security objectives (standards): Confidentiality, Authentication, Authorisation, Integrity and Non-repudiation. The applications of these security standards will then be applied on two M-commerce applications, both involving mobile transaction: Mobile-Payment and Mobile-Banking. It is concluded that further technological development in M-commerce system will be required, in order to improve the quality of service and ensure the user that such a system is safe to use. Nestor Mfuamba Introduction The term M-commerce (mobile-commerce) derives from E-commerce (e-commerce) which denotes business transactions over the internet. The transactions could be buying and selling goods/services by accessing the internet. Both M-commerce and E-commerce are part of two districts business markets: B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer), the two distinct from dealing with business for the first and dealing end consumer for the last. From these business concepts, we can see that a B2B market, is more like E-commerce, where a business / user, accessing the internet for business transactions from an unstated devices. The technology used for this system could either be wireline (home PC, end user devices) or wireless (via mobile phones, PDAs, end user devices). In fact the term M-commerce, is all about a wireless E-commerce that is where a mobile device is used to access the internet for business transactions either in B2B or B2C markets. With the ubiquitous availability of mobile phones (other end user devices), M-commerce services have a promising future, especially in the B2C market. Future development applications include buying over the phone, purchase and redemption of tickets and reward schemes, travel and weather information, and writing contracts on the move. However, the success of M-commerce today, very much depends on the security of the underlying technologies. For example, credit card charges for transactions on the internet are 15%, versus 1% for POS (Point-of-Sales) credit card transactions. The chargeback rates grow to 30% digital product are sold. For M-commerce to take off, fraud rates have to be reduced to an acceptable level. As much security can be regarded as an enabling factor for the success of M-commerce applications. In this report, I discuss the security issues associated with M-commerce and their solutions based on two existing M-commerce applications, namely: Mobile Payment Systems: business transactions on the internet require the payments of either goods or services. M-payment systems have different requirements and characteristics than E-payment systems (electronic-payment). Mobile-Banking Systems: types of execution of financial services in the course of which within an electronic procedure the consumer uses mobile communication techniques in conjunction with mobile devices for banking transactions. M-commerce Definition The term m-commerce can be defined in many ways. From own experience and research, m-commerce is just an electronic commerce system that is accessed from mobile phones. Both e-commerce and m-commerce are B2C (Business to Consumer) systems. According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development), e-commerce follows two criteria that are: Automation of transaction Spatial separation of transactions and delivery By definition m-commerce is a business commerce system using mobile device for business transactions performed over a mobile telecommunication network, possibly involving the transfer of money. Based on research done by Kalkota Ravi and Robinson Maria, they have actually divided m-commerce into five descriptive phases: Messaging m-commerce (SMS)-based m-commerce) Info connectivity m-commerce (web based m-commerce) Transactions m-commerce (strategy for organisations in order to evolve revenue generating mcommerce) Transformation m-commerce (m-commerce is interconnected and implemented into business processes within and between organisations) Infusion -m-commerce (and m-commerce is a normal way to do business this means a culture change from one, in which technology is occasionally handed over to the other one where technology is an accepted part) Technology and Applications The technology of M-commerce is built on several key technologies. They distinguish by their common uses. Mobile phones have developed gradually, making significant changes to their standards, starting from the first generation (analogue phones) to the third generation (3G): first-generation or analogue phones good for voice calls second-generation phones use digital technology and are typical of the average phone in use today 2.5G digital phones support the transmission of data using general packet radio service (GPRS) third generation (3G) digital phones support voice and data transmission at greatly increased speeds 3G supports services that were not possible with earlier technologies: video calls can be made and received from other 3G users video and other types of media can be downloaded to play on your phone 3G phones often have cameras, so you can take and transmit digital pictures location-based services can be accessed in order to see a map of where you are, or find out the nearest garage, restaurant, bank, etc M-commerce developments are focused very strongly on the use of 3G phone technology. Wireless application protocol (WAP) enables mobile devices to browse the internet because the web browsers built into these devices support hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML) the key languages used for internet content. WAP-enabled devices run microbrowsers. These are applications that suit the: small screen and small memory size of handheld devices low bandwidths that are a feature of wireless networks for handheld devices Another important m-commerce technology is short message service (SMS), also known as texting. This popular service allows short text messages of up to 160 characters to be sent from and to mobile devices at a low cost. This has a wide application in m-commerce technology. Improvements to the service, such as T9 predictive text to help you type faster, have helped to improve the service, and a number of enhancements such as enhanced messaging (EMS) led to multimedia messaging service (MMS) messaging. With an MMS-enabled phone, you can: take digital photographs and store photographs on the internet send and receive full color pictures add a text message to your picture send and receive voice clips purchase pictures and sounds from the internet have enhanced polyphonic ringtones Mobile Application Types Communications: E-mail Clients IM Clients Mobile Web and Internet Browsers News/Information Clients On-Device Portals (Java Portals) Social Network Clients Games: Puzzle/Strategy (e.g., Tetris, Sudoku, Mah-jong, Chess, Board Games) Cards/Casino (e.g., Solitaire, Blackjack, Roulette, Poker) Action/Adventure (e.g., Doom, Pirates of the Caribbean, Role-Playing Games) Sports (e.g., Football, Soccer, Tennis, Basketball, Racing, Boxing, Skiing) Leisure Sports (e.g., Bowling, Pool, Darts, Fishing, Air Hockey) Multimedia: Graphics/Image Viewers Presentation Viewers Video Players Audio Players Streaming Players (Audio/Video) Productivity: Calendars Calculators Diary Notepad/Memo/Word Processors Spreadsheets Directory Services (e.g., yellow pages) Banking/Finance Travel: City Guides Currency Converters Translators GPS/Maps Itineraries/Schedules Weather Mobile System Architecture The figure bellow shows the architecture of an m-commerce system: from the design, we can clearly see that a user/client access the web via an xml server connected to a database. Figure1. Proposed M-commerce system architecture Mobile devices The applications of M-commerce can be implemented on different kinds of end user devices other than only mobile phones: Mobile phones PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) Smart phone the smart phone combines mobile phone and PDA technology into one device Laptop Earpiece device such as Bluetooth (as part of a Personal Area Network) The choice of devices in M-commerce is mainly based on the device features, and network technology used for transmission, the last allows the bandwidth capacity to vary and influence the kind of services the end user is able to receive. In mobile phones, the technology differs from other end user devices by their ability to have internal smart cards that determine their memory capacities. Nowadays, three solutions exist: Single SIM widely used around the world and confidential user information is stored one smart card. Dual Chip, means two smart cards in one mobile phone, as one used for user authentication to the network operator as the other, is used for value-added services such as m-payment or digital signature. Dual Slot, this type of mobile phones, has a SIM card and card slot for fully-sized external smart card. This solutions consists on using different cards one after the other. e.g. POS and ATM terminals. M-commerce vs. E-commerce This part of the report doesnt compare the two business systems. However, present advantages and disadvantages of M-commerce system over and E-commerce system. As defined in part 1.1., M-commerce is subset of the E-commerce but using end user devices as transaction platforms. The following list summarises, the advantages: Accessibility accessibility is related to ubiquity and means that the end user is accessible anywhere at any time. Accessibility is probably the major advantage by comparison with E-commerce applications involving a wired end user device. Ubiquity the end user device is mobile, that is, the user can access M-commerce applications in real time at any place. Security depending on the specific end user device, the device offers a certain level of inherent security. For example, the SIM card commonly employed in mobile phones is a smart card that stores confidential user information, such as the users secret authentication key. As such, the mobile phone can be regarded as a smart card reader with smart card. Localisation a network operator can localise registered users by using a positioning systems, such as GPS, or via GSM or UMTS network technology, and offer location- dependent services. Those services include local information services about hotels, restaurants, and amenities, travel information, emergency calls, and mobile office facilities. Personalisation mobile devices are usually not shared between users. This makes it possible to adjust a mobile device to the users needs and wishes (starting with the mobile phone housing and ringtones). On the other hand, a mobile operator can offer personalised services to its users, depending on specified user characteristics (e.g. a user may prefer Italian food) and the users location (see above). Convenience the size and weight of mobile devices and their ubiquity and accessibility makes them an ideal tool for performing personal tasks. Along with these advantages, we also have disadvantages, the following list summarises, the facts: Mobile devices offer limited capabilities between mobile devices these capabilities vary so much that end user services will need to be customised accordingly. The heterogeneity of devices, operating systems, and network technologies is a challenge for a uniform end user platform. For this reason, standardisation bodies consisting of telecommunication companies, device manufacturers, and value-added service providers integrate their work (see Section 4.5). For example, many current mobile devices implement an IP stack to provide standard network connectivity. At the application level, the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) offers a standardized application platform for heterogeneous devices. Mobile devices are more prone to theft and destruction. According to a government report, more than 700000 mobile phones are stolen in the UK each year [12]. Since mobile phones are highly personalised and contain confidential user information, they need to be protected according to the highest security standards. The communication over the air interface between mobile device and network introduces additional security threats (e.g. eavesdropping, winds etc †¦). Security Concept and Challenges The concept of security in M-commerce is the most important aspect of a business that a mobile-system should respond to. There is no need to implement, such system without securing its environment, especially where transactions involve monetary value. Different views from participants in an M-commerce scenario, percept, security and privacy as major factors for markets breakthrough of the according system. Moving from participants point of views, I have defined five security objectives / standards that a system should respond to: Confidentiality: ensure privacy, the content of the transaction cannot be viewed by unauthorised persons and enables encryption. Authentication: ensure that the content of the transaction originates from the presumed sender/partner. Integrity: ensure that the content of transaction is not modified during the delivery and cannot be altered at any time. The technique used is called digital signatures. Authorisation: ensure that anyone involved in the transaction must be recognize and verified in order to authorize/allow the transaction to take place. It is more like digital certificates. Non-repudiation: no-one should be able to claim that any transaction on his/her behalf was made without their knowledge. The concept of digital signatures is applied. This standards dont just apply to end user devices, but to the whole systems involving device users, network (e.g. WAP, WEP), financial and administrative institutions (e.g. banks, governments etc.). I have identified, few security challenges related to the system: The mobile device confidential user data on the mobile device as well as the device itself should be protected from unauthorised use. The security mechanisms employed here include user authentication (e.g. PIN or password authentication), secure storage of confidential data (e.g. SIM card in mobile phones) and security of the operating system. The radio interface access to a telecommunication network requires the protection of transmitted data in terms of confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity. In particular, the users personal data should be protected from eavesdropping. Different security mechanisms for different mobile network technologies (i.e. in 2G, 3G, and other systems) were explained in part 2.2 The network operator infrastructure security mechanisms for the end user often terminate in the access network. This raises questions regarding the security of the users data within and beyond the access network. Moreover, the user receives certain services for which he/she has to pay. This often involves the network operator and he/she will want to be assured about correct charging and billing. The kind of M-commerce application m-commerce applications, especially those involving payment, need to be secured to assure customers, merchants, and network operators. For example, in a payment scenario both sides will want to authenticate each other before committing to a payment. Also, the customer will want assurance about the delivery of goods or services. In addition to the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of sent payment information, non-repudiation is important. Threats scenarios In this part, I am going to present major threats to security based on the M-commerce security standards and address ideal scenarios, observed during each methods. The following list shows the threats: Money thefts: as long as, m-commerce involves transaction, driven by monetary values. The system will always attract hackers, crackers and anyone with the knowledge of exploiting and abusing the system. They often set fake websites, in order to extract customers personal data, credit card details etc. Threats to the system: mobile devices are not spared from those deceptive methods of stealing information. Viruses, Trojans, Worms are often planted by individuals for reasons known best to them alone, in order to compromise the credibility of all m-commerce system. Threats observed during authentication: Observation: An adversary can download the client on a laptop/desktop and use its insecurities for malicious purposes. An adversary can obtain the user credentials stored on the mobile phone by transferring the contents to pc/laptop from the phone or memory card. An adversary can register with valid details of a valid bank account holder and access his/her account details or make transactions. An adversary can access user credentials directly from the phones folders or from phones memory card. An adversary can obtain the new PIN for transacting using the weak forgot password feature or an adversary can change the password/PIN of a valid user without authentication/authorization. An adversary can use the auto-complete feature to access a valid users account. An adversary can guess weak passwords/PIN to retrieve customer information. Ideal scenario: An adversary can download the client on laptop/desktop and use its insecurities for malicious purposes. An adversary can use the auto-complete feature to access a valid users account. The customer has to first register with the bank. Customer details like full name, postal address, e-mail address, bank account details and mobile phone number should be provided. The bank would inform the vendor to push the mobile client application to the mobile number provided by the customer. This can be done through a system which communicates between the server at vendor end and bank end. The vendor enters the mobile number of the customer and the client application is pushed to it. This ensures that the client is not downloaded to a pc or laptop and misused. In case the push is not possible, the customer has to be informed and the client application installed by the vendor. The application has to ensure that during installation a few checks are done Transfer the banks and vendors public key for encryption purposes. There can be two keys generated for the vendor; one for storage and one for data transmission. The client files/folders are installed on the phone and not in the memory card. The files and folders should be restricted from being transferred to a memory card or pc/laptop. The access to these files should only be through the executable and not directly. The installer should be removed after installation. Application should not allow auto-complete feature. Threats observed during transactions Observation: Based on the services provided to the customer the following threats can be observed: An adversary can sniff the contents of transaction and obtain confidential information. An adversary can bypass authentication controls. An adversary can make bogus shopping or purchase transactions for another valid customer. An adversary can view the account details of another user. An adversary can modify the from account and amount field during a fund transfer process. An adversary can predict the session id and perform transactions as a valid user. An adversary can access a valid account using an active session which has not been terminated after a long time of inactivity. An adversary can login using his credentials and view/modify the details of another valid customer. Illegal/Invalid transactions can be performed without continuous authentication process for each transaction. Ideal scenario An adversary can sniff the contents of transaction and obtain confidential information. All transactions should be through a secured connection. Data transmitted between the client application and the vendor server should be through HTTPS or another secured channel and also encrypted through the vendors transport public key. The data flowing back from vendor sever to the client should be through HTTPS or a secured channel. The data flowing between the vendor server and bank server should be through HTTPS. Also the customer details, which are not required by the vendor, should be encrypted using the banks public key. The return should be through HTTPS. Any data flowing between bank/vendor to other third parties or merchants like for mobile shopping should be through a secured payment gateway. An adversary can bypass authentication controls, Illegal/Invalid transactions can be performed without continuous authentication process for each transaction and view the account details of another user. Each transaction or operation should be authenticated either using a single layer or a dual layer. The vendor side application should authenticate the customer using the PIN for non-critical operations. Validation checks should be in place to ensure that this authentication control is not bypassed. For critical transactions, there can be dual authentication mechanism, one using the PIN at the vendor and other using the Internet banking ID at the bank side. Validation checks should be in place to ensure that this authentication control is not bypassed. An adversary can make bogus shopping or purchase transactions for another valid customer. An adversary can modify the from account and amount field during a fund transfer process. For example, in a fund transfer operation the bank should ask for the Internet banking credentials from the customer for authentication and verification. Also checks need to be in place to ensure that the from account field cannot be modified or the amount field is not negative. An adversary can predict the session id and perform transactions as a valid user. For example, an adversary can access a valid account using an active session which has not been terminated after a long time of inactivity and login using his credentials and view/modify the details of another valid customer.In mobile shopping operation, the payment should be through a secured payment gateway. Ideally, the vendor should not store the details of the shopping done by the customer. In case the vendor performs the payment for the customer for his/her purchases, then only the details need to be stored at the vendor. Then the customer authorizes the bank to transfer the amount to the vendors account for making the payment to the merchant for his/her item. Having a good session management mechanism ensures that attackers dont use a valid session id for login purposes. Also the application should ensure that users are not able to change the data and view another customers details. Other possible threats: An adversary can upload malicious files to the server/application. Ideally, a mobile banking scenario would not require a customer to upload files to the server. Hence the same can be disabled for customers. An adversary can obtain the confidential customer data and source code from the server. All customer data and application source code at the vendor server should be protected not only from the outside attackers, but from internal users/developers also. Malicious activities are undetected. Audit trails and logging need to be maintained for the application which mentions the customer name, bank details and transaction performed with time and date for future reference. An adversary can obtain the details of the server or error messages provide information for the adversary to perform specific attacks. The application should ensure no messages are provided to the outside world which would reveal information about the system. An adversary can obtain the vendor private key from the server to perform man-in-the-middle attacks. The private keys should be stored securely and access should only be given to the application to use the keys during any kind of operations. Security Technology This part of my report focuses on the network technologies, which are relevant to a secure M-commerce system. The security itself focuses on three aspects, studied in the IST SHAMAN project: M-commerce network security, Transport layer security and Service security. The IST SHAMAN has studied the security architecture of current and potential future mobile systems. Here, they are discussed: M-commerce Network Security GSM (General System for Mobile Communication): established in the early 1990s, the GSM is the first generation mobile phones and major device for M-commerce. The devices presented strong limitations with respect to their capabilities other than telephony. In term of data service, the dial-in data sessions over circuit switched connections were possible but relatively slow, at 9, 6 Kbits/s and required a separate device such a computer, which reduced its mobility. As the GSM core network extended, a number of data services where established such as: The Short Message Service (SMS) The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) allowing internet access The High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) providing higher data rates The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) extends GSM with packet oriented services The figure, below shows an architecture of GSM, including GPRS, IN (Intelligent Network) and SMS. Figure 2: GSM Architecture What is the scenario in this architecture and what does the GSM provides as security features? The mobile station communicates over the wireless interface with a base transceiver station (BTS) which is part of a base station subsystem (BSS). The base station controller (BSC) is connected with a MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) and a SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node). The latter two are the central switching components for circuit and packet switched data. When a customer subscribes, the GSM home network assigns the mobile station a unique identifier, the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), and an authentication key Ki. The IMSI and the secret authentication key Ki of the mobile station (MS) are stored in the SIM (subscriber identity module), which is assumed to be tamper proof. On the network side, the IMSI, Ki and other information are stored in the HLR (Home Location Register) and AuC (Authentication Centre). GSM provides the following security features for the link between the mobile station and the network: †¢ IMSI confidentiality †¢ IMSI authentication †¢ User data confidentiality on physical connections †¢ Connectionless user data confidentiality †¢ Signaling information element confidentiality In general, the security architecture of GSM, presents basic security mechanisms for M-commerce systems. The authentication towards the network, from a mobile customer is based on a secret ki that will derive to a symmetric key, used to encrypt the link between the mobile station and the BTS. The secret key ki is never sent over the network. From there, we can say that GSM presents two weaknesses, Authentication and Encryption as it is optional. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System): the security architecture of UMTS is designed to fix the security weaknesses of GMS. In UMTS, authentication is mutual, and encryption is mandatory unless the mobile station and the network agree on an unciphered connection. In addition, integrity protection is always mandatory and protects against replay or modification of signaling messages. UMTS introduces new cipher algorithms and longer encryption keys. Thus, UMTS doesnt seem to have any security weaknesses. The architecture of this technology is depicted below: Figure 3  : UTRAN system WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network): The IEEE standard 802.11 specifies families of WLANs which operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band. The standards specify the physical layer (PHY) and the medium access control layer (MAC). When operated in the infrastructure mode, the mobile station attaches to an AP which provides connectivity to fixed net IP networks (e.g. the internet) or to other mobile stations. While, in the default mode, WLAN is not secured, this means: there is a possibility of an eavesdrop attack. In order to provide a measure of security, the IEEE and IETF, have defined the WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) and the VPN (Virtual Privacy Network). WEP was designed to provide: Authentication to protect the association to an AP Integrity protection on MAC frames Confidentiality on MAC frames In comparison to other network technologies, the WEP is insecure. Based on its secret key, that serves as input for the RC4 stream cipher, the authentication and integrity protection is completely insecure and encryption at least partly insecure. There is a possibility for an attacker to intercept a single successful authentication transaction between a mobile station and the AP and be able to authenticate without knowing the secret keys. Furthermore, since a CRC checksum is used for integrity protection, an attacker can modify the data and adapt the checksum accordingly. For example, if the position of commercially sensitive information (e.g. an amount) within a datagram is known, the corresponding bits can be ex-ored with any value. With a large number of intercepted frames, the WEP keys can even be recovered, breaking the encryption. Furthermore, since the WEP keys are network keys, preserving their secrecy is difficult for private networks and impossible for public WLAN hotspots. In recent work of the IEEE Task group on security (TgI), the new security standard IEEE 802.1X has been adopted. 802.1X is a framework for authentication and key management which employs the Extensible Authentication Protocol for a variety of authentication mechanisms, e.g. certificate based TLS. But the weaknesses of WEP cannot be remedied by the new authentication and key management schemes in 802.1X. The IEEE is currently working towards a new standard (WEP2), and a number of proposals are in circulation. VPN: the technology is employ to particular IPsec, in order to establish network layer security. The IPsec protocol (or more specifically the ESP Tunnel protocol) is an internet s

Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson Essay -- Biography Robinson Baseball

Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson He was the first black person to ever be at bat in the Major Leagues, and made his name famous. But now, everyone seems to have forgotten this great legend. So I hope that this will refresh your memory, had if you’ve never heard of him this is what happened in his life: Born on January 31 1919 in Cairo Ga., Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson, he was raised on the Sasser Plantation. He grew up without a father who left for Florida with another mans wife, leaving his real wife (Mallie Robinson) to raise five kids: Mack, Jack, Edgar, Willa Mae, and Franck, on her own. After his father left Jack’s family became poor and had to live in a cabin. Soon after that, in 1920, Mallie sold a few of her family’s things and the family boarded a train to California. They bought a house on Pepper Street in Pasadena. As child, Jackie enjoyed sports as much as the next kid did. Just before he started school, he became ill with Diphtheria and almost died! He was an average student at his school, in the playground he realized that his amazing talent in sports made him stand made him stand out. More than once he came home with a pocket full of change or an extra lunch, because the kids bribed him into playing on their team. But his childhood wasn’t all-good, because all of his friendships ended after each game. Lucky for him he had four siblings to spend time with, who were all great athletes, including Willa Mae who was amazing at basketball. He also had some immigrant friends who called themselves "The Pepper Street Gang". Together they challenged white groups in sports for money. Jack’s skills bloomed all the way through grade school and into high school. At Washington Junior High Scholl, he played basketball, baseball, football, and track, leading his team for each sport. They made it to many of the championships to. Jack’s significant Atlanta exploded when he entered Muir Technical High School. He excelled at every thing. He became faster, and more agile making the football, baseball, basketball, and track teams. As for baseball, Jackie played catcher, even earned a spot on the state All Star team. Despite all that, baseball was his least favorite sport, and which gave him the most difficulty later on. During his senior years at Muir, Jack’s life wasn’t the best. At his last football game he was injur... ...Jack’s hard work, dedication, and love for the sport paid of when he won the MVP and "Rookie of the year" award with a batting average of .297, 125 and a record setting 29 stolen bases. That year he made the black people proud, and paved the way for current stars like Michael Jordan, Joe Carter, and others. Soon Jackie got married to Rachel Isum (whom he met at UCLA and by 1950 they had 2 kids Jackie Jr., and Sharon.) Jackie was soon the target of most commercial offers. He had his own game, stared in the movie, "The Jackie Robinson Story", and even had his own 15minute TV show, "Jackie Robinson’s Sports Classroom." He continued his career, and won many awards like the silver bat or the golden shoe award for best athlete. He ended his career in1956 with a batting average of .311 and by all. He made many public appearances, including his last one on October 15 1972. Jackie Robinson died 12 days later on October 27 1972. He won many awards and still had to put up with lots of abuse. But he was the best he could be. In conclusion I would like to quote Jackie by saying: "I was a black man in a white mans world. I never had it made."

Medical Beneifits Of Animal Testing :: essays research papers

Argument Essay Where would we be Without Animal Testing? Is the use of animals in research justified? Should animal experimentation be permitted? Should these animals be liberated? A logical person would say the benefits justify the research. Without animal testing, products would be based on theory. No one would want to use something, which may damage eyes, be poisonous, cancerous, and cause birth defects. Animals used in testing are not from the endangered species list; also many of the types of animals used are killed each year by rat or mouse traps, animal control, exterminators, and animal shelters. Animal testing reaps great benefits such as finding effective drugs to combat disease, improve surgical procedures, and make products safe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When someone goes to the store and buys a product, or is prescribed medication, they don’t have to worry if the product is safe to use nor should they. The entire human race benefits from animal research. â€Å"Without animal research, medical science would come to a total standstill†(O’Neil 210). It is not as if Scientist and researchers just sit in their labs all day and torture animals for fun. Not to mention animal use is being reduced as much as possible, â€Å"most scientist are glad to use alternative test because they are usually faster and cheaper than test on animals†(Yount 72). However, â€Å"you cannot study kidney transplantation or diarrhea or high bloodpressure on a computer screen†(O’Neil 212). Besides, â€Å"Animal research has led to vaccines against diptheria, rabies, tuberculosis, polio, measles, mumps, cholera, whooping cough, and rubella. It has meant eradication of smallpox, effective treatment for diabetes and control of infection with powerful antibiotics. The cardiac pacemaker, microsurgery to reattach severed limbs, and heart, kidney, lung, liver and other transplants are all possible because of animal research†(O’Neil 210).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In short animal testing saves lives. Animal testing helps find causes, and cures of disease, genetic defects, birth defects, and abnormalities.

Kids’ Shoes

Have your children's feet measured when buying shoes, since what might seem comfortable to them for a minute or two in the store is very different from what will be comfortable after a day of playing. Feet should be measured while standing, and always have both feet measured. Since one foot is usually larger than the other, buy shoes to accommodate the larger of the two feet.When your child is wearing the shoes, and their feet are fully extended (watch for toe crunching!), there should be a bit of room between the edge of the shoe toe and the edge of your child's toes – about a half inch.With the rate children outgrow shoes, it's probably tempting to buy shoes that are too big, but you should never buy shoes that are more than one size  too large for your child. Shoes that are too big can cause a child to trip and develop foot problems while trying to walk in shoes that are too large.Obviously a shoe that has too tight of a heel will cause discomfort, but having shoes that a re too loose is also very problematic. The heel of the shoes should rest snugly but not tightly around your the back of the child's heel.As adults, we often say we're â€Å"breaking in† a pair of shoes – this is really a bad idea for anyone, but particularly for kids. Shoes need to be immediately comfortable – don't allow for a breaking in period or expect shoes to get more comfortable over time – they need to fit and feel good now. Children's shoes should have laces, velcro or some other fastening system. As a general rule, avoid backless or slip-on shoes for kids.Look for shoes made from breathable materials, such such as canvas or leather. In addition to being more durable, they will help to keep the child's foot cooler and dryer, helping to prevent blisters, discomfort, and smelly shoes.While they may look cute, always avoid heels on children's shoes. Not only is it difficult for kids to walk in heels, they are particularly bad for proper foot develop ment. When it comes to children's shoes, stick with flats and even soles.Look for a pattern or textured sole, as this will provide traction and help prevent your child from easily slipping on slick surfaces.Soles should be sturdy and thick enough to protect the feet from pain and injury, but the sole also needs to be flexible too so that it will bend with the foot.Once you've found shoes that fit and are appropriately designed for a child's feet, allow your children some input as to which shoes they prefer. It's bound to make for a better shopping experience if they get to choose a color or design they like from shoes that fit well and are appropriate for growing feet.

Fdi Walmart-Asda

Foreign Direct Investment Wal-Mart – ASDA Wal-Mart is an American company, based in Arkansas, USA that runs large discount department stores. The company was started in 1945 when Sam Walton open a store in Arkansas, the premise behind the company was to slightly undercut its competitors while still making a profit. This idea proved a large success. In 1962 the name Wal-Mart was established when Walton open ‘Wal-Mart Discount City’ store by the time the company was incorporated in 1969 it had expanded 38 stores spread over 3 states, again operating under the same premise of marking up slightly less than the competitors. ASDAs life began in 1965 with the merger of Asquith supermarkets and Associated Dairies, the name ASDA is an abbreviation of the two names ASquith Dairies. In 1968 ASDA bought two large stores from Government Exchange Mart (G. E. M) that were failing and in the first week of trading by ASDA the sales grow from ? 6,000 a week under G. E. M to ? 30,000. The space given by the size of the stores allowed ASDA to create its own range of goods, which is considered to be on of the reasons behind the company’s early growth. By 1981 ASDA had expanded out of its northern home south with a total of 80 stores. Unfortunately this time also seen the managing director leave the company to be replaced by John Fletcher whose ideas to improve profitability was to increase profit margin on branded items, this increased profits in the short term but lowered the companies price competitiveness, straying away from the company’s founding principals. This led to decline in customer numbers and Fletcher left the company just 3 years later. By the beginning of the 1990’s ASDA was falling apart it had bought a chain stores know as Gateway for a high price and was struggling due to it, and ASDA entered in a doomed loop of increasing prices and loosing customers. Archie Norman took over the company as CEO after the share holders revolted. Made some radical changes to the company, completely changing it management style and returning back to the companies base ‘ASDA price – Pocket the Difference’ In the 1980’s Wal-Mart continued to expand in to southern United States states and by 1987 had 1198 stores. The 1990’s saw continued growth it to other United States states such as New York and by 1993 the company had managed to reach one billion dollars worth of sales in one week. By 1995 Wal-Mart were well on there way in to foreign markets with 276 international stores, by the time Wal-Mart looked in to purchasing ASDA in 1999 it was the world’s largest private employer. After ASDAs struggling period in the early 1990s, its future was looking up towards the end of the 1990s. 1999 saw a large discussion about a ? 18 billion merger between ASDA and kingfisher, but this was no more than just a ruse to cover what was really happening to ASDA. The kingfisher merger was days away when Wal-Mart made a ? 6. 7 billion offer the ASDA could not refuse. Both ASDA and Wal-Mart had very similar ideas about management style and, giving the customer what they wanted, cheap goods. In addition both had spread out from just groceries in to other areas, such as ASDA’s George Clothing range. The Asda acquisition thrusts Wal-Mart into the midst of a government inquiry of supermarket pricing A regal entrance into the U. K. Chain Store Age, 10870601, Dec99, Vol. 75, Issue 13 The Time that Wal-Mart purchased ASDA may also cause them problems; in 1999 the office of fair trading asked the competition commission to look it to the possibility that supermarkets were bullying suppliers. Wal-Mart are an international brand they would have intended to use this to there advantage and ‘shop around’ for the cheapest goods, this investigation would have caused them to look closely at how they source there suppliers to ensure that they are not caught up in the inquiry. If it wasn’t for the kingfisher merger possibility Wal-Mart may have waited until the air had cleared over the investigation before attempting a purchase. Britain was always a big target for Wal-Mart to step in to, the United Kingdom shopping culture has always been very similar to the United States, ith the tendency to buy everything from one shop. But Britain was always Wal-Mart's great hope. Here was a country with an established supermarket culture. The natives shopped in similar ways to Americans (who tend to prefer large, one-stop excursions, unlike Germans, for example, who buy their ham from one store, their toilet paper from another) A long, long way from Bentonville. Economist, 00130613, 9/30/2006, Vol. 380, Issue 8497 The Asda acquisition provides Wal-Mart with a foothold in the U. K. , where it previously had no retail presence Knestout, Brian P. Wal-Mart Buys Britain! Eyebrows Arch! , Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, 1056697X, Sep99, Vol. 53, Issue 9 ASDA would have been considered a good step by the American giants Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart previously did not have a big grocery stronghold, where as with ASDAs backing there power would be increased. Where as Wal-Mart will give ASDA big purchasing power to enable cheaper purchases and therefore lower cost to the consumer. This was expected to cause a price drop industry wide in order for the other supermarkets to attempt to compete with ASDA / Wal-Mart. Much has been written about the good cultural fit between Wal-Mart and Asda†¦ Wal-Mart should also be able to improve Asda’s buying terms in both foods and non-foods. The result will be sharper prices and reduced margins that will progressively spread throughout British retailing. Asda’s expertise in grocery and petrol retailing may be helpful to Wal-Mart†¦ Rogers, David S, Possible Consequences of Wal-Mart's Acquisition of ASDA, European Retail Digest; Sep99 Issue 23, p51, 2p Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions are very useful when looking at how similar/different two countries are from one and other. The following graphs show both the UKs and the USAs scores relating to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimentions. As you can see from the chart both countries are very similar in each area, I will briefly explain what each category is and how it relates to Wal-mart / ASDA Power Distance Index (PDI), Looks at how business in the country are affected by the small members over the managerial positions. Wal-mart has always pushed its self in this area saying that every staff member is of equal importance, which would imply a low PDI. Which is what both the USA and the UK show, this means there is a large amount of equality between societal levels. Individualism (IDV), Looks at how an individual lives, either by his/her self in small family groups or in larger community based groups, where everyone helps each other. Again both countries are very close to each other, and both with very high scores, implying that both countries are very individualist. There are only 7 countries in the world according to Hofstede that have Individualism as there highest value the USA, Australia and the UK being the top 3. Masculinity (MAS), Refers to how the country is ran, a score around 50 implies that the country is very diverse in sexuality with equal opportunities for both man and women. Both the USA and the UK have scores of around 60 showing that each country is reasonably diverse even if slightly male lead. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Shows how much a country avoids new things and new ideas, until it is certain they good. The UKs uncertainty avoidance index is low, lower than the USAs and low over all, meaning that a new company entering the county is likely to be accepted, where as the USA is higher meaning they are untrusting of new companies, luckily for Wal-Mart they were investing in to the UK meaning a low UAI was good for them, but to avoid any problems the continued to trade under the know name of ASDA. Long-Term Orientation (LTO), examines the culture of the country. A county with a low Long-Term Orientation score tends to prefer to stick to traditional values, and doing as the society expects, where as countries with high long-term orientation scores look more to the future rather than sticking to historical values. Again both countries are very similarly rate but both are very low this was probably one of the reasons Wal-Mart continued to trade under ASDA in the UK so the traditionalist can continue to do there local shopping in the place they are se to under the name they are use to. One of the big problems facing Wal-Mart is that the supermarket industry in the United Kingdom is highly concentrated, and will face a larger amount of competition in a smaller area than they would in the United States. As well as a land issue, Wal-Mart had a tendency to build large stores on unoccupied land, where as in the United Kingdom spare land is scares and local governments are reluctant to allow the building of large American style retail outlets. In the United Kingdom, Wal-Mart will have to deal with a supermarket industry that is more highly concentrated than in the United States, a government probe on pricing as well as resistance by some local governments to the construction of American-style big box retail stores. A regal entrance into the U. K. Chain Store Age, 10870601, Dec99, Vol. 75, Issue 13 Wal-Mart made a very risky decision investing in ASDA when they did, considering ASDAs poor performance in the decade prior to the purchase. Their timing was probably slightly hastier than they would have liked, but die the kingfisher deal being imminent Wal-Marts directors had to make some quick decisions. As to not open rumours of the purchase to some other competitors the directors visited the ASDA stores as though they were the public to see if they believed that ASDA was a viable purchase and that they could make the company work for them. Wal-Mart and ASDA were built on similar core principals, cheaper prices for the consumers, and during the ASDA re-growth prior to the purchase ASDAs management style changed to one which put the store staff in a better place, similar to the way that Wal-Mart encourages. This meant that a purchase from Wal-Mart would have very little effect on ASDA in the short run which is good for the consumers and hence good for the business. The shopping culture in the United Kingdom was very similar to the United States with UK shoppers tending to buy all there goods from one place. However expansion may have been a problem for them and a large change from what they were use to in the United States but ASDA gave Wal-Mart a good step in to the European market. Bibliography A long, long way from Bentonville. Economist, 00130613, 9/30/2006, Vol. 380, Issue 8497 A regal entrance into the U. K. Chain Store Age, 10870601, Dec99, Vol. 75, Issue 13 About ASDA – History, http://www. asda-corporate. com/about-asda/history. asp (Accessed 10/02/2007) Frank, T. A. â€Å"A Brief History of Wal-Mart. The Washington Monthly. April 1, 2006 Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions, http://www. geert-hofstede. com/hofstede_dimensions. php (accessed 22/08/2008) Knestout, Brian P. , Wal-Mart Buys Britain! Eyebrows Arch! Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, 1056697X, Sep99, Vol. 53, Issue 9 Rogers, David S, Possible Consequences of Wal-Mart's Acquisition of ASDA, European Retail Digest; Sep99 Issue 23, p51, 2p Teena Lyons, Competition Commission inquiry into supermarkets, guardia n. co. uk, Wednesday October 31 2007

I Was Helping My Mother When Suddenly… Essay

I was helping my mother in the kitchen when suddenly an ear-piercing sound struck from above.I dashed to the upper floor to check out what was happened. ‘Oh god.What is this?’I wondered while pointing at a footprint. I knew something weird was happened.The footprint was familiar.I ignored it.Instead,to make my mother calm,I said that was nothing occurred as she is suffering from cardio-illness,a common disease suffered by the Malaysian. ‘What’s happening?’ my mother asked me.’Nothing,just the sound of lightning.We better close the windows.Maybe rain will pour down,’ I showed a relaxing expression as there was nothing happened,relax.. not at all.I thought back about the footprint.That footprint was so familiar,but I seem could not remember where I found that. ‘David,can you help me to take the cooking pot in the attic?’my mother requested.’Oh,please!I am afraid of the dark.’I said. My mother then mumbled and said that I was like my late father,an achluophobia man.Oh,you want to know what was happened to my father?Actually,he was an engineer,to be specific,engineer in oil derrick.Last month,he went to the oil platform in the middle of the sea at Jertih,Terengganu. He said he went there for only 4 days,but he still not went back after 2 weeks.My mother called the management office in Jertih.They said that he was gone while in his way to the seashore. ‘I missed your father,David’my mother said to me. Back to the main point.I investigated the footprint in my room.And I looked up,the window was opened.I walked towards it,scouted outside.There was nothing there.I closed the window and laid down onto my bed. ‘Ouch!What is this?’I asked myself. There was a small box on my bed.I wondered what was inside it.I opened the brown box.There was a necklace,made up of pure gold.Why there was a gold necklace in my room? Suddenly,my room became dark. ‘No!Not this time!Argghh!’I expressed my dissatisfaction. I ran to my mother’s room.My terrible fear towards the darkness was to the limit,especially when it happened all of a sudden.I hid under my mother’s blanket. ‘David!Why are you being like this?There’s nothing to be afraid of,’My mother quipped me. Suddenly,my house bell rang.My mother asked me to open the door to check out who is coming.To be a good son,I braved myself to open the door.I paced to the door and opened it.The creaking sound of the door enhanced my fear up.I was already trepidated.I looked up and I could see an apparition of a tall creature.It was so dark that I could not see it clearly. ‘Damn!What is this?’I whispered. I grabbed a torchlight to see what was the object in front of my house door.I Found out that was the man I knew, Mr.David Chelshire.He was my father! I was flabbergasted. ‘Is this a dream?’I asked myself. I was confused.My father was believed to be gone on his way to the seashore from the oil platform last month. ‘This is me,David!This is me!’He said. I shouted and called my mum down.She was shocked and nearly fainted when she saw my father. ‘Actually,I planned this thing with the workers in the management office.I knew that your mother would call them.And my plan to be back in our Anniversary Day Became true.’He added. He asked me to take the gold necklace he left in my room.I took the necklace and gave to him.Then,he gave to my mum. ‘Happy Anniversary Day,my dear!’my father said to my mother. My mother cried. Now,all mysteries solved.That was the reality.About the footprint,it was the footprint of a pair of shoes I bought for my father for his birthday.And believe me,it was the sweetest Anniversary Day for them,perhaps.