Following is exactly what to use and what should be done. Please email me and let me know if this can be done.
Thanks

Standardized Reading Test Assignment

Visit the website, www.alfiekohn.com. Click on Articles under Teaching. Scroll down and read the articles: Fighting the tests: A practical guide to rescuing our schools, and Standardized testing and its victims. These articles will give you more insight into what you will discover in your own research about norm-referenced tests.

Visit the SDEs website (www.alsde.edu) to analyze the latest year SAT 10 reading scores. Once you enter the site, go to Reports on the left side and click on By Schools. Select a school system and go to the latest year scores and select SAT 10.

1. Latest Year
2. Stanford Achievement
3. Select a system
4. (Entire System)
5. Grade 4
6. Reading

Select categories: Special Ed, General Ed, Male, Female, Black, Hispanic, White, Limited English, Non Limited English, Free lunch, Reduced Lunch, Fully-paid Lunch. Then click on Get Report.

Select 5 school districts from diverse economic regions. Include your own district if you teach or live in Alabama. Print out the five reports so that you can compare and contrast. Analyze the results and determine which categories seem to have the greatest impact on test scores. In other words, which categories seem to correlate with higher test scores, and which categories seem to correlate with lower test scores? Now rank these categories. Which ones seem to have the greatest influence on percentile scores? Look hard at the top 3 influences on test scores. Now ask yourself: Is there anything I as a teacher can do? Is there anything the student can do? Are there other categories that you might be able to impact?

Thoroughly answer the questions above and weave what you garnered from the articles you read into your paper also. This should be a 3-page paper.

Short Description

"Art and Culture on the Internet" is an intensive study of key art and cultural institutions using the internet for research and seminar dialogue. We use the internet to study how the internet is influencing art and culture. We will see the ways art and culture intersect on the internet by studying MOMA, MET, MTV, PBS, and many other conventional and alternative sites. Through forum dialogue, individual and group assignments, and a final project students will have an intensive experience of contemporary art and culture in order to better understanding their impact on wider social issues.

Course Description

Art and Culture converge in the world of museums, galleries, film festivals, and related television award programs.(For instance, online Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Leo Castelli, Mary Boone, Gagosian Gallery, Rhizome, Turbulence, and Artnet, PBS, MTV and BBC, NPR, CNN, And Pacific Radio Networks, etc.) We will attempt to answer the following questions- What is the difference between art and culture? When does art become culture? What is the impact of culture on wider society? How has the internet changed the creation, dissemination, and selling of art and culture? To do this we will study how museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions are using the internet to present the Institution and collections to the wider public. We will then visit some of the galleries and museums in New York metropolitan region that are studied online. We will also study alternative structures often developed by artist collectives. The goal is to quickly learn about trends in contemporary art and culture while considering how the internet changes the commercial, aesthetic, and conceptual structure for both.

Course Objectives

Students will use online resources to study the intersections of art, culture, and the internet in relationship to contemporary society. Students will learn communication skills required for effective postings to forum, creation of online power point presentations. They will learn about the recent history of ways that art and culture have blurred in American society. Students will also research international art sites that might present other ways to think about local issues. Through extensive study of major museum, gallery, film festival and other websites students will become aware of current trends that can be analyzed in relationship to changes in cultural attitudes and values. By considering the financial and commercial structures for art and cultural industries, students will become more familiar with economic realities and philosophical imperatives facing both fields.

The project must based on the above themes.


There are faxes for this order.

Read the CASE #2, Hals Hardware Inc. (HHI). Using the information in the case and independent research, conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT). Be sure to create a values diagram (with pics).
Based on your SWOT analysis, develop an APA formatted 2 to 3 page paper detailing your recommendations for HHI. Your recommendations should be specific and should include:

a. HHI Web site content.
b. How might HHI overcome threats/weaknesses?
c. Should the site be internally managed? Why or why not?
d. Should there be an extranet? Why or why not?
e. What are some of the legal issues HHI might face, given their interstate commerce?
f. What concerns do you see in terms of HHIs tool demonstrations, if any? What do you recommend?

***DO NOT REPEAT THE ABOVE ELEMENTS (Questions) IN YOUR PAPER! Instead, weave your responses into your paper. Remember, it is to be a research paper, in APA format; that means, it is to be formatted appropriately and it should look professional and academic. There is no room in APA for any sort of color or bordering or any other fancy graphics

Profile and research the WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals). Be sure to include some key things such as: their Mission statement; product and services of this organization; their public relations problem; their key publics, history of this organization and how it came to be what it is today; who funds this organization and how; what they spend their money on, and other important items you find.

I will attach a powerpoint I did on this exact subject so all of the information in the slides should be incorporated into the paper and expanded upon through further research.

much of the information needed for this paper will come from their website: www.wspa-usa.org

The essay is about Freight forwarding company, that provides services in the United states. services provided by Air, Truck, and rails. the following has to be included in the Market Plan essay.

1- Executive Summery
2- Services description and situational analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Oportunities, and Threats) " SWOT" analysis
3- Target Market
4-Competitors and Substitutes
5- Pricing
6-Channels od Distribution
7-Promotion ( promotion budget)
8-Conclusion

you can use www.southlandcargo.com. website as the company we are writing about.

Assignment 3: Research Your Favorite Instrument On The Web
A. Task
To find and submit ten (10) Web sites related to ONE instrument you choose to research. You may choose from any of the instruments mentioned in the course (Please chose from valid intruments are, therefore, the oboe, the mezzo-soprano voice, or the guitar).

Your assignment submission needs to include:

Two sites for each one of the categories listed below, and
3-5 pages double spaced presenting a summary of the research in each category.


The categories are:

History and/or Manufacturers:
Information about well-known makers and the instrument's history. If you choose the voice, you can obviously skip the manufacturers, and concentrate on the history.

Famous Performers:
This one is quite self evident. You are not restricted to any particular period or style. For example, if you favorite instrument is guitar, you can choose Eric Clapton and John Williams.

Famous composers:
Another self evident one. Again, you are not restricted to any particular period or style. One example from the class is the Leonard Bernstein site at the Library of Congress. Did Bernstein, for example, write any pieces for your favorite instrument?

Repertoire:
What are the most famous pieces written for your chosen instrument? Submit a list of five famous pieces written for the instrument, and two (2) sites that were sources for the information. Here's a site that might help: www.naxos.com

Famous Orchestras:
Your favorite instrument will likely, but not necessarily, be part of a traditional symphony orchestra like the one you studied in the Orchestral Timbres class. You should submit and comment on two (2) orchestra websites.



B. Process
Decide which instrument you are going to research. The choice of an instrument should be made AS SOON AS POSSIBLE in order to allow the most time for research.
Do research on the selected instrument: Research two (2) sites in each of the five categories in (A) above.
Submit the 10 sites you have come up with in your research, along with a paragraph for each category summarizing their content and why they were chosen.

****PLEASE FOLLOW ALL THESE INSTRUCTIONS****


Address the controversial topic on the freedom of speech listed below:

?social trading sites, such as Craig?s list, that allow people to advertise prostitution of under-age girls

Go over the following bullet points, but DO NOT write the essay with sub-headings. Incorporate the below points into the essay.

? What does the issue say about our social and cultural values?
? How has the nature of the topic changed over time?
? What may this topic portray about American culture to the global community?

Think about if sites like Craig?s list should or should not censure what people ?sell.?

Use articles from newspapers and magazines as well as University websites for the sources.

Make sure that a sound warrant is established and backing and rebuttals are adequate for an academic audience.

Have a unifying and ?closed? thesis, that expresses a definite position on the topic, and follow it by solid topic sentences

Be sure to end the essay with a satisfying conclusion. Avoid simply summarizing your main points.

****PLEASE FOLLOW ALL THESE INSTRUCTIONS****

E-commerce is the trend that most companies are going toward now a days. You are to select one
business that does not already employ e-commerce and develop an Internet strategy for it. Most of the big corporations already use the Internet for business so you may have to think of something on a smaller scale, for example a local bike store by your house. Use the Internet and the library to
research and analyze markets and competitors.

After selecting a business, you will need to answer the following questions:

1. What Internet business model would be appropriate for the company to follow in creating a Web
site and why?
2. In what ways can the company benefit from a Web site? What functions should it perform for
the company (i.e., marketing, sales, customer support, internal communications, etc.)?
3. In what other ways might the company use the Internet for its own benefit?
4. Prepare functional specifications for the company's use of the Web and the Internet. Include
links to and from other sites in your design.
5. Prepare a list of technological specifications for implementation (i.e., what hardware and
software are necessary to support your design)?

Resume versus Website: An unusual Comparison

Call me crazy, I tend to like practical sorts of things. This may seem funny since I am trained as a philosopher. People often think of philosophers as esoteric, impractical, ivory tower sorts of people. And, well, in the main, I suppose this is true. But philosophers, at least those in the Anglo-American tradition, tend to put a premium on clarity and practicality in writing. In that vein I present to you an assignment, the likes of which you will never see in another English composition course.

As a vehicle for developing good sentence structure I would ask you to write two very different paragraphs, and then comment on the difference in presentation and sentence structure.

Paragraph One: the Resume Statement

Write a one paragraph resume statement. This is the paragraph that might go at the top of your resume - the paragraph that convinces the human resource officer to take your application seriously. It must be persuasive and run for about five sentences.

Paragraph Two: The Website Summary

You are a web site designer. You need to write the website summary. This is the first thing that a potential customer sees. When your site comes up in a search, a one paragraph statement of your product is presented. Make up a product; it can be anything. Then write the one paragraph statement that would come up when it gets a search hit. It should be at least five sentences.

Once you have written these paragraphs, write another paragraph explaining the difference in the sentences you used. In each paragraph you need to persuade. Did you use the same kind of sentences to persuade - in terms of length, language, style?

EXPECTATIONS:

Make some observations on how you approached the writing of each paragraph.

Research how VF?s strategy is progressing by reviewing the content available on VF?s website (http://www.vfc.com/) and through other Internet sources. Write a (one page synopsis) predicting if your research indicates that VF?s strategy is a success or a failure, or if it is still too early to tell. Support your argument by comparing and contrasting the success or lack of success of VF with competitors.

At Yum! Brands website (http://www.yum.com/) and through other Internet sources, research how their strategy to become the leading food service brand in China is progressing. Write a (one-page synopsis) predicting, based on your research, if Yum! Brands' strategy is a success or a failure, or if it is still too early to tell. Support your argument by comparing and contrasting the success or lack of success of Yum! Brands with competitors.

Report needs to be in LAB Report style format.
BACKGROUND- North Carolina State University has an Industrial Extension Service (IES) for the purpose of assisting small to medium size manufacturing companies in NC compete and succeed. Specifically, they will assist a company with such things as Energy Surveys and Assessments, Industrial Engineering, ISO Registration, Six Sigma, Just-in-Time, and Lean Implementation Programs. This assistance is coordinated through Industrial Extension Agents, assigned by region, throughout the state. Although not free, this assistance is significantly less expensive than the use of a Manufacturing Consulting firm, and has been very successful. You?re going to investigate and report on some actual case studies IES has been involved with recently.

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT- The intent of this assignment is to demonstrate just how the Quality programs you?ve been studying all semester are actually applied, and, hopefully how you might apply them! You will need to access the Internet to do this assignment. First, go to the NC State Industrial Extension Service website, http://www.ies.ncsu.edu. Take some time to explore this website. There?s a lot of interesting information posted! They, click on ?SUCCESSES? located on the toolbar across the top of the main page. Then, select ?Success Stories?, and scroll through the list of case studies. Look over the case studies and select one of interest to report on. Try to avoid any ?Not for profit? or ?Government? operations. Read about the impact IES has had on these companies. Then, write a report on the case study you?ve chosen, and submit via Blackboard.

REPORT- Your report should be a minimum of two pages, typed, in a ?Lab Report? style format. Start by describing the company, with any facts you might be able to gather (such as location, product line, sales figures, number of employees, etc). If the company has its own website, utilize it as a source. Then describe the situation the company faced, what specific quality program was chosen to implement, the implementation process, successes or failures along the way, and bottom line, the results.

ABC TV series " Lost": (1st episode) Synopis of program- stripped of everthing 48 surviors scavenge what they can from the plane for survival. some panic. some pin their hopes on rescue. A few find inner strength the never new they had. The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain. Intense howl of the msyeterious creatures stalking the jungle fill them all with fear("lost" web site)
Written assignment: "All drama is based on the human condition". prove this by examing "LOST" in terms of its relative place in this period of human history-its external reality. how did all of the factors directly and more likely indirectly this program. Explain program's genre, kernal storyline, narrative structure, key characters, setting/location, style and satellite storylines in the contect of last years' trend in society.(e.g. state of the family, the divorce rate, racial unrest, economy). specifice real-world events(e.g. war terrorism, politics, natural disasters) the over all mood of America. and previous successes in the world of entertainment> Bottom line : Why this program(LOST) in 2003/2004... Apply all of the conclusions you can draw about the real world to the fantasy world of LOST. explain why drama, why these characters, why this location etc. the last paragraph or two should be a summary of conclusions. end paper with a statement that gives s sense of connectedness between this program and world .

the idea behind the response paper is to demonstrate that you know how and why your visual argument is working. You should spend some quality time discussing the different factors that make your image or images an argument. below are some areas that you might want to address in your response paper.
-what is the primary purpose of your argument?
-How is your argument historically, socially, or culturally situated?
-Link emotion, value and your image- why do you think your image works?
-does your images have presence and vividness? point to aspects of the images in support.
-can you explain the semiotic, sign, or intertextual aspects of your image?
-analyze your audience. what are their values or beliefs that your argument addresses?
My images can be found at? http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mttu.com/abort-pics/new-actual-abortion.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mttu.com/abort-pics/&h=293&w=400&sz=26&tbnid=3KUixixGplYJ:&tbnh=87&tbnw=118&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dabortion%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D?
I am arguing for pro life.
Please do not copy and paste, for other websites have.

hi,
My names is john. I am faxing to you two different articles: TITLE FOR THE FIRST ONE IS--EFFECT OF THERAPIST COLOR-BLIND ON EMPATHY AND ATTRIBUTIONS IN CROSS-CULTURAL COUNSELING and the second one is---e-PERCEPTIONS:PERSONALITY IMPRESSIONS BASED ON PERSONAL WEBSITES. They are to be citically analyzed ( two pages each). The pages starts from 387 and 123. PLs separate accordingly. I am going to fax with JNS MEDICAL SUPPLY FAX COVER SHEET.

Thanks,


john
There are faxes for this order.

Connecting With companies to ensure privacy and secutity.
TRUSTe is attempting to do for privacy and security on the internet what the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval did for product reliability and the Underwriter's Laboratoy Seal did for product safety. As e-commerce companies begin to self-regulate privacy issues and data collection, TRUSTe, a not-for-profit organization, is on a mission to build users' trust and confidence in privacy protection on the Intenet. TRUSTe, has become a leader in promoting Web site privacy-policy disclosure, informaed-user consent, and sonsumer education. What does all this mean? A company that achieves the TRUSTe-established privacy principles and to comply with TRUSTe oversight and consumer resolution. The" trustmark" assures Web users that a site will openly disclose what personal information is being gathered, where that information is going, how it will be used, and whether the user has the option to control its dissemination. TRUSTe believes it has a solution to the number one concern of most Internet users-privacy and security.
For Discussion
1. Visit ww.truste.com to learn more about the services TRUSTe provides. What are the advantages for an organization agreeing to self-regulate through TRUSTe? What are the disadvantages? Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Explain.
2. Esamine the various Seal programs offered by TRUSTe. Briefly outline the function of each of these. What additional services do you think TRUSTe should offer?
3. TRUSTe states that consumer education is the number one priority in privacy protection. Do you agree?
4. Use the Search for Seal Program Participants feature. Pick three of the participants and visit their Web sites. Examine the site's privacy statements. What do these statements have in coomon? Comment oh how these firms are trying to " connect" with their consumers.

Students should pick a topic dealing with technology today and its impact on Society. Listed below are topics suitable for an original research paper for this class. Students are not limited to the following topics, but may choose an area in which they have an interest or wish to learn more about. All research paper topics must be approved by professor McNally before any work is attempted by the student.

Students are to write a 5-7 page paper double spaces. Footnotes are required. Students are expected to use multiple sources for their paper. A power point presentation is also required summarizing the paper and its major topics and conclusions. Both the Paper and Power Point will be due Mid Semester, March 16th. Students will then take turns during the second half of the semester presenting their papers to the class. One or two students will be chosen each class day to present. Presentations should last no longer than 10 mins. all works must be cited.
/////
I decided to pick the topic on cookies. I am interested in finding out more on the privacy factors that come into play. I also would like to touch base on the positive and negative effects to your average user that can come into effect with cookies and eCommerce.

Number 4
?When you visit a web site, that site has the capability of recording data, called cookies on your computer indicating that you have visited that site these cookies can then be used to identify return visitors. They also provide a record of the sites you have visited that can be accessed by other sites. Should a web site have such a capability? Should a Web site be allowed to record cookies on your computer without your knowledge? What are possible benefits of cookies? What problems could arise from the use of cookies??

thats that. can you do this quick power point presentation also?

I need a 1 or 2 page summary of the web site . the paper have to be about the purposes, advantages and disadvantages. Would use site again? My personal opinion yes, I will use you can add more if you want is ok with me ; make soun enthusiastic in positive about. I will fax the information.

Lee
There are faxes for this order.

Review http://www.healthypeople.gov & PPT - http://www.healthypeople.gov/About/Slideshow_May_2001_files/frame.htm

Select a Leading Health Indicator (LHI) from the HP 2010 website of interest to you. Review the information on that LHI and find 3 quality, reputable websites for information on how to promote health or prevent consequences related to the LHI. Review the websites and write a synopsis of the information on the site and a description of how you perceive each site addresses reducing the problems associated with the LHI. Your summary should not exceed 2 pages and should include the website and a synopsis. DO NOT simply copy the information from the ?about? page of the site ? this would be considered plagiarism.

This has to be a Research Brief. It must answer these questions
1) What is the ADA (American with Disabilities Act) and why is it important?
2) What is the disability rights movement?
3) What types of issues are important to disability rights activists?

The brief must have a source
1) That explains the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
2) A website about the history of the disability rights movement.
3) A source about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's disability
4) A source about the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon
5) A source about disablility rights activists that protest the Jerry Lewis Telethon
Also, The bibiography has to be annotated!

The instructions for the thesis you are writing is an argumentative paper, so you will need to propose an argument and support it. For example, if I'm interested in recycling, I can't write about methods for recycling. I would have to take a stand, so I may state something like "Every state should enforce laws that mandate require all residents to recycle." If someone can reasonably argue the opposite of your thesis, then you have an argumentative thesis. If, however, you're only stating a fact, then you need to continue working on your thesis.

My proposal is this:
By all means, teenagers should be the best drivers in the world. Their muscles and their reflexes should be quick enough to handle anything. "Yet car crashes kill more of them than any other cause -- a problem, some researchers believe, that is rooted in the adolescent brain" (according to By Elizabeth Williamson Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 1, 2005; Page A01). I believe based on this information that the age for teenagers to receive there drivers license should be at the age of 18.Others argue that no matter what age a person begins to drive that age group will have the largest number of accidents.
Is it safer for children to begin driving when they are older than 16? A teenager?s first 500 miles of driving are the most dangerous. During that time, they?re 10 times more likely to crash than an adult (reported by By Rob Stafford, Dateline NBC). I was reading information from the Washington post and watching a show on Date Line that aired on July 8th made me think that maybe we should raise the age limit. My wife and I have a 13yr old daughter that will soon be driving; although cars kill more teenagers than, guns, drugs or any disease. I also believe a lot of parents now days don't even have a clue what goes on in the car as there kids drive off to school, mall, and to a friends house.
Parents, do you know how well your children drive? Are they wearing seatbelts? Are they distracted by cell phones, friends or loud music? If as parents we knew how our children drove would we allow them to get behind the wheel? 10 teenagers and their parents were given the opportunity to see how safely they drove when a camera was placed inside the car> Even knowing their actions were being recorded, they repeatedly ran stop lights, signs and drove well above the speed limit.

Main websites I used and can include in bibliography:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8501174/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8501438/

http://www.iihs.org/safety_facts/qanda/teens.htm

http://web12.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+CB826D89%2DD3CC%2D4CF1%2DB251%2DC46F58F40470%40sessionmgr3+dbs+aph+cp+1+5C6F&_us=frn+1+hd+False+hs+True+cst+0%3B1%3B2%3B3+or+Date+fh+False+ss+SO+sm+ES+sl+0+dstb+ES+mh+1+ri+KAAACBUB00050375+833B&_uso=tg%5B2+%2D+tg%5B1+%2D+tg%5B0+%2D+db%5B0+%2Daph+hd+False+op%5B2+%2DAnd+op%5B1+%2DAnd+op%5B0+%2D+st%5B2+%2D+st%5B1+%2D+st%5B0+%2Dteenage++drivers+ex%5B1+%2Dthesaurus+ex%5B0+%2Dfulltext+mdb%5B0+%2Dimh+0256&fn=1&rn=1

http://web12.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+CB826D89%2DD3CC%2D4CF1%2DB251%2DC46F58F40470%40sessionmgr3+dbs+aph+cp+1+5C6F&_us=frn+1+hd+False+hs+True+cst+0%3B1%3B2%3B3+or+Date+fh+False+ss+SO+sm+ES+sl+0+dstb+ES+mh+1+ri+KAAACBUB00050375+833B&_uso=tg%5B2+%2D+tg%5B1+%2D+tg%5B0+%2D+db%5B0+%2Daph+hd+False+op%5B2+%2DAnd+op%5B1+%2DAnd+op%5B0+%2D+st%5B2+%2D+st%5B1+%2D+st%5B0+%2Dteenage++drivers+ex%5B1+%2Dthesaurus+ex%5B0+%2Dfulltext+mdb%5B0+%2Dimh+0256&cf=1&fn=1&rn=10

Could I have WRITERGIRL or C.R. complete this assignment?

NOTE: There needs to be a citation in EVERY paragraph of this assignment

Over the past three weeks, you and your colleagues each have developed most of the components of a Strategic Marketing plan. Now it is time to put the pieces together. Your 7-8 page paper MUST should include:
? Objectives & Mission Statement (from #2 below)
? Customer Targets (from #5)
? Competitor Targets (from #5)
? Product/Service Features (from #1 below)
? Core Strategy (from #3 below)
? Marketing Mix:
o Communications & Promotion (from #6 below)
o Pricing (from #4 below)
? Product Policy
? Channels of Distribution
? Customer Relationship Management


References: Winer, R.S. (2004). Marketing management, 2nd edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, Inc.

1. Marketing Conference: Idea and Proposal - Merab Morgan Diet Plan

One problem currently faced by the fast food industry, and by McDonald?s in particular, is that the fast food purveyor is perceived as marketing an unhealthy product that is harmful to consumers. It is in the industry?s interest to encourage people to eat more of its product, which is largely high-calorie and low in essential fruits, vegetables, and grains, all at the base of the FDA food pyramid. Also, to live a healthy lifestyle Americans, as a whole, must weigh less, and thus eat less calorie-dense food, as well as exercise. The popularity of such films as ?Supersize Me,? have only contributed to the decline of McDonald?s stock, and created a rejection of its formerly family-friendly image (Bauman, 2005).

However, one woman recently lost 37 pounds on a McDonald?s diet, just as Morgan Spurlock, the director of ?Supersize Me,? gained weight and lost overall bodily fitness on the diet. The real-life examples of these two individuals show that they simply made different choices at the same establishment. Bauman?s selection of ?a combo consisting of a quarter-pounder, side salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and large unsweetened iced tea,? with less than 500 calories and roughly 20 grams of fat,? stands in stark contrast to Spurock?s choices (Bauman, 2005).

Thus, merely eating at a McDonald?s will not cause a decline in health. My proposal is to improve McDonald?s company image for the future. I propose that we recruit Merab Morgan, an ordinary housewife, to be the new spokeswoman for McDonald?s, and to market her McDonald?s diet in a series of commercials titled ?The McDonalds Weight Loss Challenge?.

Taking the McDonald?s weight loss challenge could be one way to counteract the perception that McDonald?s is not inherently unhealthy. In addition to using Morgan in commercials, McDonald?s could also incorporate a promotional game, as it has in the past with promotional games such as its Monopoly scratch off, only rather than merely playing a fun game, in this game customers could answer scratch-off informational questions about the nutrition in various products (McDonald?s, 2005).

Also, McDonald?s, instead of focusing on volume in individual meals, could offer coupons to consumers, encouraging more immediate, moderate consumption, but ?return trips? to the restaurant, to buy its smaller burgers, salads, and healthier options.

Today, there is a growing awareness that the food we eat affects our health and our whole life. However, Americans today do not want to sacrifice taste to eat right. Rather, they want to enjoy their favorite fast foods in a way that combines the basic tenets of a healthy diet: balance, variety and moderation. In my proposal, people can continue to eat their favorite fast foods, even if they are high in fat, salt or sugars, by moderating their portion size and frequency. With Merab Morgan as living proof of the results, consumers? interest in a fast food diet and health should garner a fairly high level of interest.


References

Bauman, Valerie. (11 Aug 2005) ?People try to lose weight at McDonalds.? AP Wire. Accessed on AOL on 22 Aug 2005 at http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050811163009990002

McDonald?s (2005) Official Website. Retrieved 22 Aug 2005 at
http://www.mcdonalds.com/

2. The McDonald?s ?Diet Plan? Marketing Strategy: Second Week Comprehensive Strategic Marketing Plan

The objectives of the new McDonald?s ?Merab Morgan? Diet are to increase revenue for the company in the short term, and in the long term undue the damage done to the company by the negative press generated by the success of the film ?Supersize Me.? Over the course of the year, McDonald?s wishes to gain a greater percentage of the revenue of the fast food market than its most prominent competitors of Wendy?s and Burger King. It also wishes to gain some of the type of positive media as the chain Subway did during its advocacy of the Subway Diet.

The Mission Statement is simple?eat right, eat well at McDonald?s. The measurable success of the short-term campaign can be seen in the participation of the component games, whereby consumers will answer nutritional questions about McDonald?s foods and other food questions, in return for winning free foods the next time they visit the restaurant.

Also, the company throughout the course of the year will give coupons for return visits, rather than stress larger and larger meals during singular visits. This is a realistic goal, given that it satisfies customer?s desires for value in a positive fashion. It is attainable, given that customers still love McDonald?s food, and that McDonald?s will continue to provide value and service to its customers. Also, it is well timed, given that consumers are working more hours, are increasingly beset by high expenses by the price of fuel, and are eating more meals outside the home.

The product is innovative, because it shows that with the correct management, even food we do like can be healthy. It adapts portion control strategies of other diets, such as Weight Watchers, into a McDonald?s ?fun? format that makes dieting seem almost fun. Like Jenny Craig, it stresses the value of prepackaged food for convenience and portion control, but not food that is self-consciously diet food.

Rather than sell fruit and salads and veggie burgers like its competitors Burger King and Wendy?s, which tends to cause consumers to ask ?can?t I cut up an apple at home for less money than 4.99 for a salad,? McDonald?s stress on portion control and return customers who can still diet beneath the Golden Arches stresses that it provides a unique service, that of burgers, but through its new promotional strategy that de-emphasizes big meals and stresses return foot traffic, does so in a healthy and portion controlled way. ?What is the right strategy to follow in a highly competitive market in which demand is relatively flat?? stated one executive recently. ?The answer for us is to identify what our niche is in the market. For us, it is producing?hamburgers." Healthy hamburgers (Collins, 2002). Stressing return traffic for those hamburgers is an acknowledgement that McDonald?s ?fries and soda are where the fat [profit] margins really lie,? for fast food companies ? but that does not have to mean fat consumers! (Munarriz, 2003)



References

Collins, Luke. (2002) ?Chips are down for Burger Giants? MCD: McDonald?s Corporation News and Articles. Retrieved 27 Aug 2005 at http://www.licenseenews.com/news/news134.html

Munarriz, Eric. ?Burger Wars.? (2003) The Motley Fool.com Retrieved 27 Aug 2005 at http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary030407ram.htm

3. The McDonald?s ?Diet Plan? Marketing Strategy: Third Week Core Strategy

Americans love to eat. Americans love burgers and fries. But Americans also, by and large, want and need to lose weight to improve their health and appearance. Eating McDonald?s food in reasonable portions will allow them to accomplish both objectives. They will look better, feel better, and still be able to eat convenient and tasty food.

A value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using a company?s products and services (Konrath, 2005). McDonald?s has always offered its customers financial value, in the form of cheap, tasty food. But now the value will be given to the customer in a way that is better for the customer?s physical as well as financial health.

This new key is portion control, as exemplified by the real-life example of a woman who lost weight eating nothing but food from McDonald?s. This example shows the value of eating McDonald?s food. A new promotional campaign that gives rewards for the next visit, rather than super-sizing current food portions also underlines the financial value as well the value of eating normal size portions. It also shows McDonald?s takes an interest in its consumer?s health.

This will be complimented by a game that encourages consumers to learn more about nutrition, and the nutritional content of McDonald?s food. By collecting scratch-off game pieces with the correct answer to different nutrition questions, return business to that increases financial revenue for the company will also be encouraged in a healthy manner.

Lastly, Merab Morgan, the woman who lost weight on the diet will be featured in a series of advertisements, stressing that real people can lose weight on McDonald?s. Her life as a busy soccer mom will also come into sharp focus?the consumer will gain the added value of time and money, without sacrificing health

McDonald?s thus can reposition itself in the fast food market once again against competitors such as salad-selling Wendy?s or Burger King?s new veggie options. It can show that it is still a caring, family friendly company that brings families closer together and gives them more time to spend together, time not spent over a hot stove, in a healthy way.

References
Konrath, Jill. (2005) ?How to Write a Strong Value Proposition.? Sideroad. Retrieved 2 Sept 2005 at http://www.sideroad.com/Sales/value_proposition.html


4. The McDonald?s Diet Plan Pricing Strategy

McDonald?s previous pricing strategy was that of a purely, famously value-based strategy (Marketing Teacher, 2005). The company?s aim was to attract a high volume of customers. McDonald?s maximized its revenue by encouraging customers to produce a large amount of inexpensive goods, such as starches and sugars, for a lower price than its competitors. This is called the ?maximize quantity pricing strategy? (Net MBA, 2005). However, this purely value-driven philosophy for one-time customer visits has turned public opinion and even the food industry against McDonald?s, because of its stress on volume. Once, people came to McDonalds for value from the brand, now the brand has lost its cache, even while the pricing remains low in relation to competitors.
For starters, the new diet plan will feature products that are lower or on par with the prices charged by the competition, like Wendy?s, Burger King, and Subway. But I?m not trying to compete with them purely by selling a cheaper product; my aim is to shift the focus of the company from a stress on cheap quantities of food given to the customer on single visits to a stress on giving consumer value on return-visit basis. From ?target return? pricing, whereby a certain return profit on a single good is expected the company must stress a more subtle form of ?value based? pricing with additional psychological elements of pricing. In the new promotion of the McDonald?s diet, coupons are bestowed upon a customer?s first visit in a way that gives them value for volume by offering them a discount on their next meal, switching from a cumulative quantity discount overall, where a consumer gains value from buying in immediate bulk, to a longer term quantity strategy (Net MBA, 2005). Also, the consumer gains the psychological value of being on a diet, yet still eating fast food. The aim of bringing them into the restaurant is achieved.
This new pricing emphasis stresses continued McDonald?s of regular consumers, but consumption over an extended period, thus stretching the customer?s calorie needs over a larger period than a day?a strategy of smaller portions employed by the first independent designer of the diet herself, Merab Morgan. Also, the creation of a game whereby individuals answer questions about McDonald?s food?s nutritional contents will create an added psychological incentive to return to the fast food establishment, so as to continue to play the game, make money. The company gains the long-term psychological advantage of showing that McDonald?s is upfront with its product?s ingredients and cares about the value its food can give to its customers, by decreasing bundle or bulk based consumption on single visits, but making up for the lost volume of additionally purchased goods with higher rates of return traffic into its stores.


References

?Pricing? (2005) Marketing Teacher. Retrieved 8 Se3pt 2005 at http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_pricing.htm

?Pricing Strategy.? (2005) Net MBA. Retrieved 7 Sept 2005 at http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing/



5. Consumer Needs and Marketing Efforts

A need is defined as ?a state of felt deprivation in a person? (Kotler, Chandler, Gibbs, & McColl 1999, p. 4). The most basic human needs are those for food, clothing, warmth, and safety. There are also needs that are more psychological, such as the need to feel loved, to feel successful, or to feel a sense of belonging. A more thorough explanation of needs can be found by considering Abraham Maslow?s hierarchy of needs theory.
Maslow?s hierarchy of needs theory describes five levels of need that exist in a hierarchical order. In order from highest to lowest, these needs are: physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization (Daft 1997, p. 530). The physiological need refers to the basic human needs for food and water. These are essentially the basic things that every individual needs to physically survive. The safety need refers to the need to feel safe, secure, and free from threats. Depending on individual circumstances, this could refer to a need to feel financially secure, including having job security, or it could refer to a need to feel free from threats of violence. It could also refer to a need to feel emotionally secure, including feeling secure in family relationships. The third need is belongingness. This refers to the need for social acceptance, which includes the need to be accepted by peers and can include the need to be accepted by a partner. The fourth need is esteem. This refers to ?the desire for a positive self-image and to receive attention, recognition, and appreciation from others? (Daft 1997, p. 530).
The final need is self-actualization. This refers to the need to reach one?s potential and feel self-fulfillment. This consideration of Maslow?s hierarchy of needs shows that physical needs are only a small portion of all needs, with psychological needs making up the three highest categories. The other important point relates to the way the needs are organized in a hierarchy. This means that the needs have an order of priority, where the lowest needs take priority first. However, this lowest need only takes priority when it is unfilled. That is, once a person has fulfilled their physiological needs, the second level of safety needs will then become the priority. In turn, once an individual has fulfilled both their physiological needs and their safety needs, belongingness needs will then become the priority. This means that the actual need a person is motivated to fulfill is dependent on their current level on the hierarchy.
The next important point is that a need refers to a general desire a person has and does not refer to a specific product. A want is more specific and is defined as ?the form taken by human needs as they are shaped by culture and individual experience? (Kotler, Armstrong, Brown, & Adam 1998, p. 6). For example, a person may need clothing. The specific type and brand of clothing they purchase will be shaped by their culture and by their own experiences and preferences. The next important term is demands. This is defined as ?human wants that are backed by buying power? (Kotler, Armstrong, Brown, & Adam 1998, p. 6). For example, an individual may want a convertible sports car and may have a specific product in mind. However, if they do not have the buying power to actually purchase the sports car, it remains a want and not a demand. These terms related to needs are all important to the consumer behavior model.
Consumer Needs and the Consumer Behavior Model
The central component of the consumer behavior model is that consumers recognize or become aware of a need or want. The need or want recognized is influenced both by the individual?s internal psychological factors and by external or social influences. The internal or psychological factors include: motivation, learning, attitude, personality (Perreault & McCarthy 2000, p. 123). Motivation is closely linked to need because an unsatisfied need is what motivates an individual to take action. This was described in the discussion on Maslow?s hierarchy of needs, with it especially significant that the unfulfilled need is what will take priority at any given time. Learning is closely linked to the process of needs becoming wants because it helps determine the form that the need takes. For example, consider that an individual needs a new vehicle. They have previously owned a Ford and a Honda. With the Honda, they had constant mechanical problems and found that repairs and servicing were expensive. With the Ford, they had few mechanical problems and found that servicing was inexpensive.
From this past experience, the individual has learned that Ford vehicles are reliable and inexpensive to run, while Honda vehicles are unreliable and expensive to run. Based on this, the individual who needs a vehicle is most likely to want a Ford vehicle, not a Honda vehicle. This illustrates how past experience influences an individual as their need become wants, either by making them want a certain product type or by making them not want a certain product type. This example also illustrates how attitudes influence the form that the need takes. In the example, the individual has developed a positive attitude about Ford and a negative attitude about Honda. These attitudes have then influenced the specific product that the individual desires. This process can also occur based on factors other than the individual?s personal experience with products. For example, another individual may have the attitude that Ford vehicles are for the average consumer and that Mercedes vehicles are for the elite buyer. If this individual considers himself as one of the elite, he may reject purchasing a Ford vehicle based on this perception. One of the important points is that the attitude is not based on the individual?s own experience with the product. Instead, it is based on their perception of the brand.
Attitudes can also be influenced by advertisements, other people?s opinions, and general opinion on the company that produces the products. The final psychological factor is personality and this may also affect the specific form the need takes. The other factors are the external factors and social influences. This includes the individual?s family situation. For example, a single individual seeking a vehicle will most likely have different wants than an individual who is married with four children. This is not only because the use of the product will change based on the individual?s family status, but also because priorities will differ. For example, in the case of the single individual, they may be focused primarily on themselves and the current time, and so choose to purchase an expensive and exclusive vehicle.
The married individual with four children may be more concerned about the future and may factor in the other people in the family that need to be cared for. In this case, the desire for an elite vehicle may be overwhelmed by the need to do what is best for the entire family. For these reasons, the want may be a small second-hand vehicle. Other factors that influence the form the need takes include social status and culture. Another important consideration is reference groups, with these having the potential to influence both needs and wants. For example, a teenager may develop a need to own a certain brand of item because their social group accepts that item. This analysis shows the aspects that influence the development of needs and wants. The next part of the consumer behavior model refers to what consumers do about these recognized needs and wants.
The first important point is that the individual will only take action on the need or want if they have purchasing power. When this happens, the need or want becomes a demand the individual starts the buying process. The first part of this process is a search for information. In some cases, the individual will already have developed a specific want and will seek information on a specific product. In other cases, the individual will only have identified a general need and will seek specific products that can provide for that need. In either case, the individual will search for information, compare available products, select the best solution, and purchase the product that represents the best solution. However, it is also important to note that this process is not necessarily an extensive one. In fact, one source notes that ?most consumer problems and the resulting decisions involve very little effort on the part of the consumer? (Neal, Quester, & Hawkins 1999, p. 1.15). This means that individuals will often not select the best possible solution, but will instead select the first solution that meets basic needs.
Application to Marketing
Now that needs and the consumer process have been described, it is important to consider how it can be applied to product marketing. The first important point is that a product needs to meet needs and wants. Perreault and McCarthy (2000, p. 111) note that trying to get consumers to act against their will is usually a waste of time, while trying to provide a product that consumers already have a need for is a much more effective strategy. This means that for any given product, it is necessary to know the need or want that the product is meeting. This information can then be used to design an effective marketing and promotional strategy.
It is also important to understand the underlying needs that a product is providing for and what factors determine the form that the need takes and the final purchase decision made. This includes considering what factors consumers consider as they make a purchase decision, what information consumers seek, and why consumers make a final purchase decision. Belch & Belch (1999, p. 118) note that consumers make purchase decisions based on ?a matching of purchase motives with attributes or characteristics of brands under consideration.? This makes it important for marketers to understand what characteristics consumers are seeking, so these characteristics can either be included in products, or made apparent to consumers if they are already present.


References
Belch, G.E., & Belch, M.A. (1999). Advertising and Promotion. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Daft, R.L. (1997). Management. Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press.

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Brown, L, & Adam, S. (1998). Marketing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P., Chandler, P., Gibbs, R., & McColl, R. (1999). Marketing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Neal, C., Quester, P., & Hawkins, D. (1999). Consumer Behavior: Implications for Marketing Strategy. Boston, MA: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Perreault, W.D., & McCarthy, E.J. (2000). Essentials of Marketing: A Global-Managerial Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.


6. Marketing Mix
An integrated marketing communications, or IMC approach, involves ?coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm?s customers? (Belch & Belch 1999, p. 8). The most significant point is that all communication and promotional activities should be integrated so that a clear and consistent message is communicated to customers. This involves clearly defining the message, considering the various ways that it will be communicated, and considering the promotional activities that will help to communicate the message.
Before the communication and promotional strategies can be considered, it is first necessary to define the actual message. The first consideration is that the business environment is rapidly changing and is increasingly competitive. With this in mind, organizations need to ensure the best use of every dollar spent, including money spent on promotional efforts. For these promotional dollars to achieve the most value, they need to be aimed at long-term success, rather than short-term sales. A related consideration is that rapid change means that even the latest products and benefits can quickly become dated. Therefore, if a company selects this strategy and focuses on promoting specific benefits of a certain product, this benefits highlighted may only be significant to consumers for a short time. The company will then constantly be trying to find new ways to benefit the consumer, with this an ongoing exercise that will be costly both in terms of the money spent advertising, as well as time and resources utilized in constant research.
The alternative to this approach is to focus on communicating a message that represents the organization overall and will expand to cover more than one product and will be expansive enough to cover products as they evolve. This strategy will be one of branding, where the company name will be promoted as a brand that represents general qualities important to consumers. King (1991, p. 4) describes the effectiveness of this strategy where he notes that it is becoming especially difficult for organizations to gain a real and sustainable advantage over competitors, with the best way to gain a long-term advantage being to position the company as a positive brand in the minds of consumers. For these reasons, the IMC approach will be designed to provide a consistent message about the company, rather than a message about a specific product.
The specific message that will be communicated to consumers is that the company understands consumers and is there specifically for the consumer. This message has been selected based on the observation that consumers are becoming increasingly demanding. This message has also been selected based on the observation that consumers have more and more options in the marketplace and so can often afford to be selective and only purchase products that meet their specific needs. This makes it necessary for the company to focus on customer needs when developing products. The strategy communicating loyalty to the customer will help to ensure that the efforts have ongoing positive results by creating a strong link between the company and the consumer. This is intended to create a high level of customer equity. One source states that ?marketing strategy should focus on extending loyal customer lifetime value,? with brand management serving as a major marketing tool? (Kotler, Armstrong, Brown, & Adam, p. 359). This is the approach that will be taken, with the message intended to build the brand name and produce loyal customers. As customers remain loyal, the company will be able to understand their needs even better and continue to adapt products to meet their needs. This will create an effective long-term strategy and provide an ongoing competitive advantage that competitors will find difficult to duplicate.
The next consideration is how the message will be communicated. One of the most important points in this case is that the message will be communicated by what is done as much as by what is said. For example, there is little point advertising that the organization cares about its customers and wants to be there for them if it is difficult for customers to contact the organization. This is especially true in cases where the customer has problems or complaints. This makes it important for the organization to consider its policies and ensure that they are consistent with the message being delivered to customers. Kotler, Chandler, Gibbs, & McColl (1999, p. 507) note the importance of consistency between how an organization acts and what it claims about itself, emphasizing that the consumer will generally develop perceptions based on actions rather than claims. For this reason, the organization will need to consider all interactions with consumers and work to make sure they are consistent with what consumers want. This will involve considering all aspects of the marketing mix including product, pricing, and place. For example, the product should be available at the place most convenient for consumers, have pricing terms best suited to consumers, and have features suited to consumers.
The next consideration is the promotion strategy for the product, taking into account that it needs to support the message that the company understands consumers and is there specifically for the consumer. One method that will be used is personal selling because it promotes the message being communicated and will also help ensure that the company can continue to meet consumer needs. Personal selling promotes the message because a one-on-one relationship between the company and the consumer reinforces that the company is there for the consumer. This is preferred to other methods where the consumer is not able to develop a personal relationship with the company. Perreault & McCarthy (2000, p. 297) note that this method allows salespeople to adapt because they receive immediate feedback from consumers. This ability to adapt to the consumers needs will help to communicate the message. In addition, salespeople will gain feedback and develop an understanding of customers. This information can then be used to develop products and services to meet the consumer needs and preferences identified.
While personal selling has many benefits, it must also be noted that it is an expensive promotional method. Perreault & McCarthy (2000, p. 297) note that for this reason, personal selling is typically combined with other promotional methods, especially mass selling. This approach will be used in the promotional strategy, with the information gained in personal selling used to develop advertising strategies that appeal to specific segments of the market. To promote the idea that the company is there for consumers, it is important that the advertisements are not mass advertisements designed to appeal to a wide, but non-specific section of the population. Instead, the advertisements should be targeted to appeal directly to targeted consumers. This will involve promoting the benefits specific to the targeted consumers, while showing that the company understands the needs of the targeted market. Another important consideration is the media used for advertising. This will utilize direct-mail advertising since this is the most effective way to reach small, defined target markets. This approach will also help to create a relationship between the consumer and the company. Even though this is not a person-to-person relationship, it is a one-on-one relationship in that the consumer is receiving advertising specifically to them.
Public relations will be another important component of the promotions plan. Belch & Belch (1999, p. 516) describe the functions of public relations as including: raising awareness; informing and educating; gaining understanding; and building trust. These will all be important aspects in communicating the overall message. Raising awareness can help to establish that the company is one that cares for its customers. Informing and educating will play an important role because it is a way that the company can add value for consumers. This can occur because the company can offer its knowledge to consumers. This will provide a benefit to consumers, while also reinforcing that the company understands its products and its customers. Public relations can also help the consumer gain understanding of the company and its message. This is especially important because there is a limit to the believability of advertising messages, with most consumers natural skeptical of anything stated in an advertisement. Effective public relations can overcome this hurdle because the message is not presented in an advertising format and will not be perceived as trying to indicate any specific message. In this way, an overall message about the company can be communicate, but in a subtle way where the consumer is able to come to their own conclusion. Finally, an effective public relations strategy will help to build trust in the company. This will be important in developing a strong relationship with the consumer.
The final consideration is how to measure the effectiveness of the integrated marketing communication strategy. Since the strategy is aimed at building relationships with customers and gaining customer loyalty, the main measurement will involve determining the customer return rates. With personal selling providing direct contact with customers, this will be able to be measured and reported by sales staff without the requirement for complicated research activities. It will also be important to utilize concept testing, which is used to ?explore the targeted consumer?s response to a potential ad or campaign? (Belch & Belch 1999, p. 292). Concept testing will be utilized via focus groups to determine the response of consumers and to ensure that the advertisements and public relations activities communicate the desired message. Finally, surveys of individuals in the target group will be completed periodically to determine how the company is perceived by the target market.













References

Belch, G.E., & Belch, M.A. (1999). Advertising and Promotion. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

King, S. (1991). Brand-building in the 1990?s. Journal of Marketing Management, 7, pp. 3-13.

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Brown, L, & Adam, S. (1998). Marketing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P., Chandler, P., Gibbs, R., & McColl, R. (1999). Marketing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Perreault, W.D., & McCarthy, E.J. (2000). Essentials of Marketing: A Global-Managerial Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.

This Wikipedia article below will serve as my case study for my paper. For supplementary material, please read Wikipedia entries on computer viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, and computer insecurity. I have attached all this info below for you and will also email the same info. You may also want to conduct a search for additional material.

I need the paper to be at least 1,500 word analysis of the malware case. APA style.

In your analysis, explain how the problem of malware qualifies as a problem of "many rules" and how it qualifies as a problem of "many hands". What moral principles, values, or rules should have been considered by the people involved? Who should be held responsible for the perpetuation of malware? What rules, regulations or procedures can you recommend so that similar incidents can be avoided in the future? You should make use of the malware case materials, other course readings from Weeks Three and Four. Please make sure that you fully acknowledge all sources.

Defination:
Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system, without the owner's informed consent. There are disagreements about the etymology of the term itself, the primary uncertainty being whether it is a portmanteau word (of "malicious" and "software") or simply composed of the prefix "mal-" and the morpheme "ware". Malware references the intent of the creator, rather than any particular features. It includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, and other malicious and unwanted software. In law, malware is sometimes known as a computer contaminant, for instance in the legal codes of California, West Virginia, and several other U.S. states [1].
Malware should not be confused with defective software, that is, software which has a legitimate purpose but contains harmful bugs.
In computer security, computer virus is a self-replicating computer program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an "infection", and the infected file, or executable code that is not part of a file, is called a "host". Viruses are one of the several types of malicious software or malware. In common parlance, the term virus is often extended to refer to worms, trojan horses and other sorts of malware; viruses in the narrow sense of the word are less common than they used to be, compared to other forms of malware.
While viruses can be intentionally destructive, for example, by destroying data, many other viruses are fairly benign or merely annoying. Some viruses have a delayed payload, which is sometimes called a bomb. For example, a virus might display a message on a specific day or wait until it has infected a certain number of hosts. A time bomb occurs during a particular date or time, and a logic bomb occurs when the user of a computer takes an action that triggers the bomb. The predominant negative effect of viruses is their uncontrolled self-reproduction, which wastes or overwhelms computer resources.
Today, viruses are somewhat less common than network-borne worms, due to the popularity of the Internet. Anti-virus software, originally designed to protect computers from viruses, has in turn expanded to cover worms and other threats such as spyware, identity theft and adware. Included in the many types of viruses are:
Trojan horses
A Trojan horse is just a computer program. The program pretends to do one thing (like claim to be a picture) but actually does damage when one starts it (it can completely erase one's files). Trojan horses cannot replicate automatically.
Worms
A worm is a piece of software that uses computer networks and security flaws to create copies of itself. A copy of the worm will scan the network for any other machine that has a specific security flaw. It replicates itself to the new machine using the security flaw, and then begins scanning and replicating anew.
E-mail viruses
An e-mail virus will use an e-mail message as a mode of transport, and usually will copy itself by automatically mailing itself to hundreds of people in the victim's address book.
A computer virus will pass from one computer to another like a real life biological virus passes from person to person. For example, it is estimated by experts that the Mydoom worm infected a quarter-million computers in a single day in January of 2004. In March of 1999, the Melissa virus spread so rapidly that it forced Microsoft and a number of other very large companies to completely turn off their e-mail systems until the virus could be dealt with. Another example is the ILOVEYOU virus which occurred in 2000 and had a similarly disastrous effect.
A computer virus is a small program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. A virus must meet two criteria:
In the field of computing, the term spyware refers to a broad category of malicious software designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the informed consent of that machine's owner or legitimate user. While the term taken literally suggests software that surreptitiously monitors the user, it has come to refer more broadly to software that subverts the computer's operation for the benefit of a third party.
In simpler terms, spyware is a type of program that watches what users do with their computer and then sends that information over the internet. Spyware can collect many different types of information about a user. More benign programs can attempt to track what types of websites a user visits and send this information to an advertisement agency. More malicious versions can try to record what a user types to try to intercept passwords or credit card numbers. Yet other versions simply launch popup advertisements.
This article is about computer system security. For Odysseus' subterfuge in the Trojan War, see Trojan Horse.
In the context of computer software, a Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as or embedded within legitimate software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse. They may look useful or interesting (or at the very least harmless) to an unsuspecting user, but are actually harmful when executed.
Often the term is shortened to simply trojan, even though this turns the adjective into a noun, reversing the myth (Greeks, not Trojans, were gaining malicious access).
There are two common types of Trojan horses. One, is otherwise useful software that has been corrupted by a cracker inserting malicious code that executes while the program is used. Examples include various implementations of weather alerting programs, computer clock setting software, and peer to peer file sharing utilities. The other type is a standalone program that masquerades as something else, like a game or image file, in order to trick the user into some misdirected complicity that is needed to carry out the program's objectives.
Trojan horse programs cannot operate autonomously, in contrast to some other types of malware, like viruses or worms. Just as the Greeks needed the Trojans to bring the horse inside for their plan to work, Trojan horse programs depend on actions by the intended victims. As such, if trojans replicate and even distribute themselves, each new victim must run the program/trojan. Therefore their virulence is of a different nature, depending on successful implementation of social engineering concepts rather than flaws in a computer system's security design or configuration.
Example of a simple Trojan horse
A simple example of a trojan horse would be a program named "waterfalls.scr.exe" claiming to be a free waterfall screensaver which, when run, instead begins erasing all the files on the computer.
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Example of a somewhat advanced Trojan horse
On the Microsoft Windows platform, an attacker might attach a Trojan horse with an innocent-looking filename to an email message which entices the recipient into opening the file. The Trojan horse itself would typically be a Windows executable program file, and thus must have an executable filename extension such as .exe, .com, .scr, .bat, or .pif. Since Windows is configured by default to hide filename extensions from a user, the Trojan horse is an extension that might be "masked" by giving it a name such as 'Readme.txt.exe'. With file extensions hidden, the user would only see 'Readme.txt' and could mistake it for a harmless text file. Icons can also be chosen to imitate the icon associated with a different and benign program, or file type.
When the recipient double-clicks on the attachment, the Trojan horse might superficially do what the user expects it to do (open a text file, for example), so as to keep the victim unaware of its real, concealed, objectives. Meanwhile, it might discreetly modify or delete files, change the configuration of the computer, or even use the computer as a base from which to attack local or other networks - possibly joining many other similarly infected computers as part of a distributed denial-of-service attack. The Sony/BMG rootkit mentioned above both installed a vulnerability on victim computers, but also acted as spyware, reporting back to a central server from time to time, when any of the music CDs carrying it were played on a Windows computer system.
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Types of Trojan horses
Trojan horses are almost always designed to do various harmful things, but could be harmless. They are broken down in classification based on how they breach systems and the damage they cause. The seven main types of Trojan horses are:
? Remote Access Trojans
? Data Sending Trojans
? Destructive Trojans
? Proxy Trojans
? FTP Trojans
? security software disabler Trojans
? denial-of-service attack (DoS) Trojans
Some examples are:
? erasing or overwriting data on a computer.
? encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack.
? corrupting files in a subtle way.
? upload and download files.
? allowing remote access to the victim's computer. This is called a RAT. (remote administration tool)
? spreading other malware, such as viruses. In this case the Trojan horse is called a 'dropper' or 'vector'.
? setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
? spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware).
? make screenshots.
? logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers (also known as a keylogger).
? phish for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities.
? installing a backdoor on a computer system.
? opening and closing CD-ROM tray.
? harvest e-mail addresses and use them for spam.
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Time bombs and logic bombs
"Time bombs" and "logic bombs" are types of trojan horses.
"Time bombs" activate on particular dates and/or times. "Logic bombs" activate on certain conditions met by the computer.
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Droppers
Droppers perform two tasks at once. A dropper performs a legitimate task but also installs a computer virus or a computer worm on a system or disk at the same time.
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Precautions against Trojan horses
Trojan horses can be protected against through end-user awareness. Trojan Horse viruses can cause a great deal of damage to a personal computer but even more damage to a business, particularly a small business that usually does not have the same virus protection capabilities as a large business. Since a Trojan Horse virus is hidden, it is harder to protect yourself or your company from it, but there are things that you can do.
Trojan Horses are most commonly spread through an e-mail, much like other types of common viruses. The only difference being of course is that a Trojan Horse is hidden. The best ways to protect yourself and your company from Trojan Horses are as follows:
1. If you receive e-mail from someone that you do not know or you receive an unknown attachment, never open it right away. As an e-mail user you should confirm the source. Some hackers have the ability to steal address books, so if you see e-mail from someone you know, it is not necessarily safe.
2. When setting up your e-mail client, make sure that you have the settings so that attachments do not open automatically. Some e-mail clients come ready with an anti-virus program that scans any attachments before they are opened. If your client does not come with this, it would be best to purchase one or download one for free.
3. Make sure your computer has an anti-virus program on it and update it regularly. If you have an auto-update option included in your anti-virus program you should turn it on; that way if you forget to update your software you can still be protected from threats
4. Operating systems offer patches to protect their users from certain threats and viruses, including Trojan Horses. Software developers like Microsoft offer patches that in a sense "close the hole" that the Trojan horse or other virus would use to get through to your system. If you keep your system updated with these patches, your computer is kept much safer.
5. Avoid using peer-to-peer or P2P sharing networks like Kazaa , Limewire, Ares, or Gnutella because they are generally unprotected from viruses and Trojan Horse viruses spread through them especially easily. Some of these programs do offer some virus protection, but this is often not strong enough.
Besides these sensible precautions, one can also install anti-trojan software, some of which is offered free.
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Methods of Infection
The majority of trojan horse infections occur because the user was tricked into running an infected program. This is why you're not supposed to open unexpected attachments on emails -- the program is often a cute animation or a sexy picture, but behind the scenes it infects the computer with a trojan or worm. The infected program doesn't have to arrive via email, though; it can be sent to you in an Instant Message, downloaded from a Web site or by FTP, or even delivered on a CD or floppy disk. (Physical delivery is uncommon, but if you were the specific target of an attack, it would be a fairly reliable way to infect your computer.) Furthermore, an infected program could come from someone who sits down at your computer and loads it manually.
Websites: You can be infected by visiting a rogue website. Internet Explorer is most often targeted by makers of trojans and other pests, because it contains numerous bugs, some of which improperly handle data (such as HTML or images) by executing it as a legitimate program. (Attackers who find such vulnerabilities can then specially craft a bit of malformed data so that it contains a valid program to do their bidding.) The more "features" a web browser has (for example ActiveX objects, and some older versions of Flash or Java), the higher your risk of having security holes that can be exploited by a trojan horse.
Email: If you use Microsoft Outlook, you're vulnerable to many of the same problems that Internet Explorer has, even if you don't use IE directly. The same vulnerabilities exist since Outlook allows email to contain HTML and images (and actually uses much of the same code to process these as Internet Explorer). Furthermore, an infected file can be included as an attachment. In some cases, an infected email will infect your system the moment it is opened in Outlook -- you don't even have to run the infected attachment.
For this reason, using Outlook lowers your security substantially.
Open ports: Computers running their own servers (HTTP, FTP, or SMTP, for example), allowing Windows file sharing, or running programs that provide filesharing capabilities such as Instant Messengers (AOL's AIM, MSN Messenger, etc.) may have vulnerabilities similar to those described above. These programs and services may open a network port giving attackers a means for interacting with these programs from anywhere on the Internet. Vulnerabilities allowing unauthorized remote entry are regularly found in such programs, so they should be avoided or properly secured.
A firewall may be used to limit access to open ports. Firewalls are widely used in practice, and they help to mitigate the problem of remote trojan insertion via open ports, but they are not a totally impenetrable solution, either.
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Well-known trojan horses
? Back Orifice
? Back Orifice 2000
? Beast Trojan
? NetBus
? SubSeven
? Downloader-EV
Many current computer systems have only limited security precautions in place. This computer insecurity article describes the current battlefield of computer security exploits and defenses. Please see the computer security article for an alternative approach, based on security engineering principles.
Contents
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Security and systems design
Most current real-world computer security efforts focus on external threats, and generally treat the computer system itself as a trusted system. Some knowledgeable observers consider this to be a disastrous mistake, and point out that this distinction is the cause of much of the insecurity of current computer systems - once an attacker has subverted one part of a system without fine-grained security, he or she usually has access to most or all of the features of that system. [citation needed] Because computer systems can be very complex, and cannot be guaranteed to be free of defects, this security stance tends to produce insecure systems.
The 'trusted systems' approach has been predominant in the design of many Microsoft software products, due to the long-standing Microsoft policy of emphasizing functionality and 'ease of use' over security. [citation needed] Since Microsoft products currently dominate the desktop and home computing markets, this has led to unfortunate effects. However, the problems described here derive from the security stance taken by software and hardware vendors generally, rather than the failing of a single vendor. Microsoft is not out of line in this respect, just far more prominent with respect to its consumer marketshare.
It should be noted that the Windows NT line of operating systems from Microsoft contained mechanisms to limit this, such as services that ran under dedicated user accounts, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with user/group rights, but the Windows 95 line of products lacked most of these functions. Before the release of Windows 2003 Microsoft has changed their official stance, taking a more locked down approach. On 15 January 2002, Bill Gates sent out a memo on Trustworthy Computing, marking the official change in company stance. Regardless, Microsoft's latest operating system Windows XP is still plagued by complaints about lack of local security and inability to use the fine-grained user access controls together with certain software (esp. certain popular computer games).
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Financial cost
Serious financial damage has been caused by computer security breaches, but reliably estimating costs is quite difficult. Figures in the billions of dollars have been quoted in relation to the damage caused by malware such as computer worms like the Code Red worm, but such estimates may be exaggerated. However, other losses, such as those caused by the compromise of credit card information, can be more easily determined, and they have been substantial, as measured by millions of individual victims of identity theft each year in each of several nations, and the severe hardship imposed on each victim, that can wipe out all of their finances, prevent them from getting a job, plus be treated as if they were the criminal. Volumes of victims of phishing and other scams may not be known.
Individuals who have been infected with spyware or malware likely go through a costly and time-consuming process of having their computer cleaned. Spyware and malware is considered to be a problem specific to the various Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, however this can be explained somewhat by the fact that Microsoft controls a major share of the PC market and thus represent the most prominent target.
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Reasons
There are many similarities (yet many fundamental differences) between computer and physical security. Just like real-world security, the motivations for breaches of computer security vary between attackers, sometimes called hackers or crackers. Some are teenage thrill-seekers or vandals (the kind often responsible for defacing web sites); similarly, some web site defacements are done to make political statements. However, some attackers are highly skilled and motivated with the goal of compromising computers for financial gain or espionage. An example of the latter is Markus Hess who spied for the KGB and was ultimately caught because of the efforts of Clifford Stoll, who wrote an amusing and accurate book, The Cuckoo's Egg, about his experiences. For those seeking to prevent security breaches, the first step is usually to attempt to identify what might motivate an attack on the system, how much the continued operation and information security of the system are worth, and who might be motivated to breach it. The precautions required for a home PC are very different for those of banks' Internet banking system, and different again for a classified military network. Other computer security writers suggest that, since an attacker using a network need know nothing about you or what you have on your computer, attacker motivation is inherently impossible to determine beyond guessing. If true, blocking all possible attacks is the only plausible action to take.
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Vulnerabilities
To understand the techniques for securing a computer system, it is important to first understand the various types of "attacks" that can be made against it. These threats can typically be classified into one of these seven categories:
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Exploits
Software flaws, especially buffer overflows, are often exploited to gain control of a computer, or to cause it to operate in an unexpected manner. Many development methodologies rely on testing to ensure the quality of any code released; this process often fails to discover extremely unusual potential exploits. The term "exploit" generally refers to small programs designed to take advantage of a software flaw that has been discovered, either remote or local. The code from the exploit program is frequently reused in trojan horses and computer viruses. In some cases, a vulnerability can lie in a certain programs processing of a specific file type, such as a non-executable media file.
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Eavesdropping
Any data that is transmitted over a network is at some risk of being eavesdropped, or even modified by a malicious person. Even machines that operate as a closed system (ie, with no contact to the outside world) can be eavesdropped upon via monitoring the faint electro-magnetic transmissions generated by the hardware such as TEMPEST. The FBI's proposed Carnivore program was intended to act as a system of eavesdropping protocols built into the systems of internet service providers.
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Social engineering and human error
A computer system is no more secure than the human systems responsible for its operation. Malicious individuals have regularly penetrated well-designed, secure computer systems by taking advantage of the carelessness of trusted individuals, or by deliberately deceiving them, for example sending messages that they are the system administrator and asking for passwords. This deception is known as Social engineering.
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Denial of service attacks
Denial of service attacks differ slightly from those listed above, in that they are not primarily a means to gain unauthorized access or control of a system. They are instead designed to overload the capabilities of a machine or network, and thereby render it unusable. This type of attack is, in practice, very hard to prevent, because the behavior of whole networks needs to be analyzed, not only of small pieces of code. Distributed denial of service attacks are common, where a large number of compromised hosts (commonly referred to as "zombie computers") are used to flood a target system with network requests, thus attempting to render it unusable through resource exhaustion. There are also commonly vulnerabilities in applications that cannot be used to take control over a computer, but merely make the target application malfunction or crash. This is known as a denial-of-service exploit.
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Indirect attacks
Attacks in which one or more of the attack types above are launched from a third party computer which has been taken over remotely. By using someone else's computer to launch an attack, it becomes far more difficult to track down the actual attacker. There have also been cases where attackers took advantage of public anonymizing systems, such as the tor onion router system.
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Backdoors
Methods of bypassing normal authentication or giving remote access to a computer to somebody who knows about the backdoor, while intended to remain hidden to casual inspection. The backdoor may take the form of an installed program (e.g., Back Orifice) or could be in the form of an existing "legitimate" program, or executable file. A specific form of backdoors are rootkits, which replaces system binaries and/or hooks into the function calls of the operating system to hide the prescense of other programs, users, services and open ports. It may also fake information about disk and memory usage.
Someone gaining physical access to a computer can install all manner of devices to compromise security, including operating system modifications, software worms, keyboard loggers, and covert listening devices. The attacker can also easily download large quantities of data onto backup media, for instance CD-R/DVD-R, tape; or portable devices such as keydrives, digital cameras or digital audio players. Another common technique is to boot an operating system contained on a CD-ROM or other bootable media and read the data from the harddrive(s) this way. The only way to defeat this is to encrypt the storage media and store the key separate from the system.
See also: Category:Cryptographic attacks
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Reducing vulnerabilities
Computer code is regarded by some as just a form of mathematics. It is theoretically possible to prove the correctness of computer programs (within very limited circumstances) though the likelihood of actually achieving this in large-scale practical systems is regarded as unlikely in the extreme by most with practical experience in the industry -- see Bruce Schneier et al.
It's also possible to protect messages in transit (ie, communications) by means of cryptography. One method of encryption ?the one-time pad ?has been proven to be unbreakable when correctly used. This method was used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, though flaws in their implementation allowed some cryptanalysis (See Venona Project). The method uses a matching pair of key-codes, securely distributed, which are used once-and-only-once to encode and decode a single message. For transmitted computer encryption this method is difficult to use properly (securely), and highly inconvenient as well. Other methods of encryption, while breakable in theory, are often virtually impossible to directly break by any means publicly known today. Breaking them requires some non-cryptographic input, such as a stolen key, stolen plaintext (at either end of the transmission), or some other extra cryptanalytic information.
Social engineering and direct computer access (physical) attacks can only be prevented by non-computer means, which can be difficult to enforce, relative to the sensitivity of the information. Even in a highly disciplined environment, such as in military organizations, social engineering attacks can still be difficult to foresee and prevent.
In practice, only a small fraction of computer program code is mathematically proven, or even goes through comprehensive information technology audits or inexpensive but extremely valuable computer security audits, so it's usually possible for a determined cracker to read, copy, alter or destroy data in well secured computers, albeit at the cost of great time and resources. Extremely few, if any, attackers would audit applications for vulnerabilities just to attack a single specific system. You can reduce a cracker's chances by keeping your systems up to date, using a security scanner or/and hiring competent people responsible for security. The effects of data loss/damage can be reduced by careful backing up and insurance.
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Security measures
A state of computer "security" is the conceptual ideal, attained by the use of the three processes:
1. Prevention,
2. Detection, and
3. Response.
? User account access controls and cryptography can protect systems files and data, respectively.
? Firewalls are by far the most common prevention systems from a network security perspective as they can (if properly configured) shield access to internal network services, and block certain kinds of attacks through packet filtering.
? Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS's) are designed to detect network attacks in progress and assist in post-attack forensics, while audit trails and logs serve a similar function for individual systems.
? "Response" is necessarily defined by the assessed security requirements of an individual system and may cover the range from simple upgrade of protections to notification of legal authorities, counter-attacks, and the like. In some special cases, a complete destruction of the compromised system is favored.
Today, computer security comprises mainly "preventive" measures, like firewalls or an Exit Procedure. A firewall can be defined as a way of filtering network data between a host or a network and another network, such as the Internet, and is normally implemented as software running on the machine, hooking into the network stack (or, in the case of most UNIX-based operating systems such as Linux, built into the operating system kernel) to provide realtime filtering and blocking. Another implementation is a so called physical firewall which consists of a separate machine filtering network traffic. Firewalls are common amongst machines that are permanently connected to the Internet (though not universal, as demonstrated by the large numbers of machines "cracked" by worms like the Code Red worm which would have been protected by a properly-configured firewall). However, relatively few organisations maintain computer systems with effective detection systems, and fewer still have organised response mechanisms in place.
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Difficulty with response
Responding forcefully to attempted security breaches (in the manner that one would for attempted physical security breaches) is often very difficult for a variety of reasons:
? Identifying attackers is difficult, as they are often in a different jurisdiction to the systems they attempt to breach, and operate through proxies, temporary anonymous dial-up accounts, wireless connections, and other anonymising procedures which make backtracing difficult and are often located in yet another jurisdiction. If they successfully breach security, they are often able to delete logs to cover their tracks.
? The sheer number of attempted attacks is so large that organisations cannot spend time pursuing each attacker (a typical home user with a permanent (eg, cable modem) connection will be attacked at least several times per day, so more attractive targets could be presumed to see many more). Note however, that most of the sheer bulk of these attacks are made by automated vulnerability scanners and computer worms.
? Law enforcement officers are often unfamiliar with information technology, and so lack the skills and interest in pursuing attackers. There are also budgetary constraints. It has been argued that the high cost of technology, such as DNA testing, and improved forensics mean less money for other kinds of law enforcement, so the overall rate of criminals not getting dealt with goes up as the cost of the technology increases.
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Further reading
There are operating systems designed specifically with security in mind, such as the operating system OpenBSD, which is widely considered one of the most heavily code-audited operating systems available.
There is an extensive culture associated with electronic security; see electronic underground community.
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See also
? Computer forensics
? Computing
? Cryptography (aka cryptology)
? Data remanence
? Defensive programming
? Full disclosure
? Hacking
? Protection ring
? Physical security
? RISKS Digest
? Security engineering
? Software Security Assurance
? Data recovery
? Microreboot
? Restartability
? Crash-only software
? Antivirus software
? OpenAntivirus
? Computer virus
? Spyware
? Adware
? Worms
? Trojan horse
? Malware
? virus hoax
? List of computer viruses
? List of computer virus hoaxes
? List of trojan horses
? Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms
? Turing completeness
? Black hat
? Security through obscurity
? Spam
? Melissa worm, ILOVEYOU
? Category:Spyware removal ? Programs that find and remove spyware
? Palm OS Viruses


Past readings and links, if they can fit into this paper:

Introduction

During this unit we will begin to consider some of the moral dilemmas encountered in the realm of computing by computer technology and content creators, computer technology and content users, public officials, and ordinary citizens. None of the issues that we discuss will be easy -- if they were easy, they would not be dilemmas.
We cannot expect to know what is right and wrong in the world of computing (or any other realm of human activity) if we do not possess a capacity for moral reasoning, a kind of activity which can be usefully distinguished from moral knowledge or, simply, "morality."

Very briefly, morality is the basic content of our moral beliefs (for instance, the idea that killing and theft are wrong). There are many sources of moral beliefs, including religious teachings, social norms, secular traditions, negotiated settlements, etc. Sometimes moral knowledge is "sanctified" in a moral code. The Ten Commandments is one example of one such code. It has been argued that the Bill of Rights is another such code.

Moral reasoning, in contrast, is the process of examining and justifying moral beliefs (for instance, explaining WHY theft and killing are wrong, whether they are ALWAYS wrong, and whether they are sometimes morally OBLIGATORY -- such as stealing to feed starving children or killing in self-defense). There are at least three different aspects to moral reasoning:

First, moral reasoning entails the study and development of one's ethical standards. Common sources of moral beliefs, including emotions, laws, and social norms, can deviate from what is truly ethical. Therefore, it is necessary to examine periodically one's ethical standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded.

Second, moral reasoning also involves studying our personal conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to moral standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

And, third, moral reasoning encompasses the ability to offer moral reasons to others, justifying one?s behavior and the policies that one supports, as well as the ability to examine critically justifications given by others for their behavior and the policies they support. From this point of view, moral reasoning is a social activity -- not one that individuals practice in solitude.

We will be relying on five different moral theories to help us resolve morally problematic situations involving computer and computer network technology:

1) Deontology is a theory of rights -- according to this theory, certain actions (like murder and torture) are prohibited because they violate rights.

2) Utilitarianism (or consequentialism) is a theory of outcomes -- according to this theory, no action (even murder and torture) can be automatically rejected because they may in certain situations enable us to produce good results.

3) Fairness (or justice) is a theory that says we should treat people as they deserve, which places a presumption upon equality -- unless there is a valid reason for treating people unequally. There are many different kinds of equality -- including economic, social, and political.

4) Virtue is a theory that asks us to live according to the best/most noble human qualities, i.e., courage, generosity, tolerance, self-control, etc. Of course different cultures view different qualities to be best and most noble.

5) Common Good is a theory that asks is to consider the general welfare of the entire community, rather than our own self-interest. Of course, there are different ways to define and delineate community (e.g., local, national, global, virtual) and most people belong to more than one community.

If you have already taken either The Global Challenge or The Life of the Mind, you will hopefully recognize some of these concepts. However, no one should panic or feel discouraged if these are new ideas. We will be spending Weeks Three and Four reviewing these moral theories and applying them to some relatively simple case studies. In future weeks, we will use these theories to delve into a variety of more complicated economic, social, political, global, and educational issues related to the use of computers and computer networks.


3.2 Critical Questions
This week we will consider several important questions different moral theories and the applicability to moral dilemmas in computing. Please keep these questions in mind as you complete the required readings and prepare to participate in class discussion.
? What is utilitarianism? How do utilitarians resolve moral dilemmas? What are the main strengths and limitations of utilitarian arguments?

? What is deontology? How do deontologists resolve moral dilemmas? What are the main strengths and limitations of deontological arguments.

? What is virtue ethics? How do virtue ethicists resolve moral dilemmas? What are the main strengths and limitations of virtue-based arguments?

? What is the common good? How do we determine the common good? How do we decide whose good "counts"?

? What is fairness? How do we decide what is fair in different cases?


3.3 Required Readings

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "A Framework for Thinking Ethically": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "Calculating Consequences": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/calculating.html

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "Rights": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/rights.html

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "Ethics and Virtue": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/ethicsandvirtue.html

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "Justice and Fairness": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/justice.html

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, "The Common Good": http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/commongood.html

These excellent "mini-essays" do a fine job of introducing the these major ethical theories. Please read each of them carefully and post questions and requests for clarification on the discussion board.



Case: MP3s on Campus
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/resources/cases/Detail.asp?tfm_order=ASC&tfm_orderby=Category&ID=35

Case: Unauthorized Downloads
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/resources/cases/Detail.asp?tfm_order=ASC&tfm_orderby=Category&ID=95





There are faxes for this order.

Please answer the following questions. Some of the activities will require you to make multiple observations of the sun, moon, and stars. (But 90% of this can be done if you know that math, the norms, and the cycle) most of these answers can be found just by knowing the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars.

For these activities, you may need to access simple items such as-but if you know the cycles and where to look for the answer you may not need any of this.
a ruler (marked in centimeters)
a broom handle (or mop handle or long, straight piece of wood of similar dimensions)
a couple of envelopes
a red-light flashlight (you could also tape a piece of red cellophane or plastic over a white-light flashlight a regular white-light flashlight will interfere with your night vision)

Obviously some of these results you can figure out without actually doing anything- all you would need to do is find out when the sun goes down etc

Part 1

1. Data and results from your diameter of the sun activity:

Image diameter: _______ cm
Distance from pin-hole to image: _______ cm
Calculated diameter of the sun: _______ km

How does your calculated value for the diameter of the sun compare with its actual value? If the values are different, describe possible reasons for the difference. Can you think of any improvements that could be made to the procedure?

2. Kepler's third law, P2 = a3, applies to any object orbiting the sun. Newton was able to derive Kepler's third law using his law of gravity. Newton's version includes the mass of both objects, P2 = a3 / (M1 + M2), and can be used for any object that orbits any astronomical body. In this formula, the masses are measured in special units called solar mass units. The mass of the sun is equal to one solar mass unit.
A. If the mass of the second object is very small compared with the first mass, then, to a good approximation, P2 = a3 / M1. Solving for the mass, we get M1 = p2 / a3. Use this mass formula to determine the mass of Jupiter using data from its moon Sinope: period of orbit is 2.075 years, average orbital distance is 0.158 astronomical units.

B. calculated mass of Jupiter: _______ solar mass units

C. You can convert your result above into kilograms by multiplying it by the mass of the sun in kilograms: 2.00 ??" 10 30 kg.

D. calculated mass of Jupiter: _______ kg

E. Compare your calculated mass of Jupiter (kg) to the actual value. How close did you get? Explain any difference.

3. Research Mauna Kea Observatories -What type of telescope is used? What is the size of its mirror or radio dish? What specific wavelengths of light can be studied using this device? Why would these wavelengths of light be useful to astronomers?



Part 2

1. Data and results from your sun position activity: (you can also find this out from sources on astronomy daily updates websites)

Location of observations: _______________________________________________

Observation (1) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (2) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (3) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (4) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (5) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (6) date ____________________time __________ p.m.

During the course of your observations, what was the general direction of movement of the sun's position at sunset? Did the sun's position ever reverse direction? Using the methods laid out for the sun position activity, estimate the total amount of angular change in the sun's position at sunset over the course of your observations. What is this amount?

2. Data and results from your moon observation activity:

Location of observations: _______________________________________________

Observation (1) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (2) date ____________________time __________ p.m.
Observation (3) date ____________________time __________ p.m.

Describe any changes in the moon's appearance from observation to observation. Describe any change in the moon's position in the sky from observation to observation. Using the methods laid out for the moon observation activity, estimate the daily amount of angular change in the moon's position. What is this estimate?


4. Radioactive decay is one of the sources of the heat that drives Earth's geologic activity. Radioactive decay also enables us to date rocks and to determine the age of Earth and other solar system bodies.

In this activity, you will simulate the radioactive decay of 36 atoms of a rare isotope of uranium, U-235. U-235 has a half-life of 700 million years. Gather 36 coins and arrange them in a 6 ??" 6 grid with all of the coins facing heads-up.
Flip each coin once and place it back in its original location. This represents the passage of one half-life (700 million years, for this example). The coins that come up heads represent atoms that have not yet decayed; the coins that come up tails represent atoms that have decayed. Record the number of heads below.

Next, flip each of the remaining heads-up coins once and place it back in its original location. 1.4 billion years have now passed (2 ??" 700 million). Record the number of remaining heads below. Repeat this process until all coins are tails-up.

_______ Original number of U-235 atoms
_______ Remaining number U-235 atoms after first flip
_______ Remaining number U-235 atoms after second flip

Add additional lines as needed.

How many half-lives did it take for all of the atoms to decay? To how many years does that equate? Do you think everyone in class will get the same answer? Why or why not?



Stage 3

1. Data and results from your star count activity:

Location of observation (1): ____________________________________________

Date ____________________time __________ p.m.

Calculated number of visible stars ___________


Location of observation (2): ____________________________________________

Date ____________________time __________ p.m.

Calculated number of visible stars ___________


Location of observation (3): ____________________________________________

Date ____________________time __________ p.m.

Calculated number of visible stars ___________

In which of your three locations were you able to see the most stars? Explain (in some detail) why you were able to see the most stars there.

2. Exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, are planets that orbit stars other than the sun. Do a web search on exoplanets. How many of these planets are thought to have been detected? How were they detected? Do any of these planets orbit stars similar to the sun? Are any of these planets similar to Earth in terms of size and mass?

List some of the issues that make human space travel within the solar system difficult. What are the factors that make human interstellar space travel unlikely even for the distant future? What implications does the difficulty of interstellar space travel have for contact between advanced civilizations in the universe (if these exist)?

Please write about a modern invention between 1900-1950 that revolutionized American society from a cultural perspective. Please follow the following requirements:

1) Do not write about the Internet, car, computer or other extremely common examples everyone knows about. Please be creative.
2) Please come up with 6 ideas. Write a short 1/2 page outline for each.
3) Please cite 2 primary and 2 secondary sources for each of the three topics (24 altogether). *Please use real sources of high quality, not website sources.
4) I need this within 12 hours please!

A good job will result in award the writer with a 25-page research paper on one of the above topics.

Search for an all inclusive resort located in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The assignment should be double spaced contain a minimum of 2,000 words and a minimum of 6 references. This assignment must be completed using APA format.


Conduct a marketing analysis on all inclusive resort that you chose to use. Then make recommendations for changes to their marketing in the final section of the paper.

These are the areas you should focus on:

Importance of tourism in the area
Nature of the business
Current situation
Marketing strategies
Target markets
Market segments
Goals, missions and objectives of the resort
Marketing Mix (four P?s)
Public Relations & sales promotions
7 C?s of effective web site design