Wednesday, 8 October 2008

Piracy Video

After our class discussion about video piracy, I had a browse on the internet to see other people opinions and views, while doing so I came accross a video.

In the video there are two opposing parties, one for the illegal downloading of movies and videos and another company against the illegal download of movies.

I think that it summarises the points very well.
Definatly worth a look

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=77bbfd92-657e-411e-a864-7eff3ffe37b9

Pirate

An advantage of paying for music from a company such as apple is that you can avoid legal complications. Instead of downloading 20 tracks and getting caught on the 21st and facing imprisonment, it’s far better to purchase 20 tracks from a legitimate website and knowing that you are protected.

A disadvantage of buying pirated DVD’s from market stands is that you will more then likely be purchasing poor quality. If the DVD is poor quality, you cannot return it as it is stolen goods. Essentially, you are paying £5 for a poor quality rip of a DVD that may not even function in the DVD player.

A disadvantage of buying the latest blockbuster release before the U.K release date is that some movies rely heavily on special effects. The quality of the movie will tend to be poor, so the film itself will appear poor.

Using an illicit music download site is bad as the website itself can log a users IP address and track them down. This means that users will suffer massive legal issues and even face prison.

Illicit music sites affect the music industry and their willingness to sign new artists and bands. The music industry relies solely on the sales of records, so if everyone starts downloading the music tracks for free then the industry wont make any money, so will not be able to afford to sign new talent.

louis, out.

Pirate

An advantage of paying for music from a company such as apple is that you can avoid legal complications. Instead of downloading 20 tracks and getting caught on the 21st and facing imprisonment, it’s far better to purchase 20 tracks from a legitimate website and knowing that you are protected.

A disadvantage of buying pirated DVD’s from market stands is that you will more then likely be purchasing poor quality. If the DVD is poor quality, you cannot return it as it is stolen goods. Essentially, you are paying £5 for a poor quality rip of a DVD that may not even function in the DVD player.

A disadvantage of buying the latest blockbuster release before the U.K release date is that some movies rely heavily on special effects. The quality of the movie will tend to be poor, so the film itself will appear poor.

Using an illicit music download site is bad as the website itself can log a users IP address and track them down. This means that users will suffer massive legal issues and even face prison.

Illicit music sites affect the music industry and their willingness to sign new artists and bands. The music industry relies solely on the sales of records, so if everyone starts downloading the music tracks for free then the industry wont make any money, so will not be able to afford to sign new talent.

louis, out.

Monday, 6 October 2008

One office application that the small business could use may be Microsoft Excel. This would mean that the business would have all their information stored on one computer, thus minimizing space and increasing efficiency. It would be better suited over Access as it is easier to use so everyone should have the ability to use it. Another application could be Microsoft Access. The software works in the same way as Excel however it can store data more efficiently but would require good knowledge of how to operate the application.

Secretaries and typists were affected in the fact that their jobs were cut. With the introduction of these packages, there were no need to employ and pay for typists and there number of secretaries was reduced as well because of the computer based system.

However, many jobs in ICT were opened up in order to maintain and run the systems. This was a major advantage as with the ICT staff came many new prospects for the company’s access to ICT. This could increase publicity and efficiency dramatically.

Even Granny says YES TO THE FUTURE

Friday, 3 October 2008

Tool Man

Tool Man

An advantage of using PDA and GPS systems is that they are small and light weight. They often have an easy user interface and can be updated regularly. The PDA will offer appointment updates and reminders for important meetings, this will be useful when going to important deals to close the sale. The GPS system will assist John with finding the locations of his meetings and clients, ensuring that he will not get lost on the way or not know where he is.

A laptop would perhaps cut the most out of his load that he requires to carry. The information such as the contents of the catalogue, and the order forms can be set up, ready to fill out on his laptop.

If John were to take out a contract mobile phone, he could always be prepared to make and take calls in order to give more of a professional feel to his job. This would ensure that he is always able to be gotten a hold of and could inform people that he is stuck in traffic, instead of arriving late with no warning.

The internet could play a vital role in the endorsing and sale of his products. John could set up a website for his company and display the contents of the catalogue online. This means that he would not have to travel to a destination just to show people what the product is, they can view it online and possibly purchase it.

Friday, 26 September 2008

Online Banking

Today i looked at online banking to see how it works, and if it is faster and easier than going into an actual bank.

I have looked at 2 websites for banks,

The Abbey National - http://www.abbey.com/csgs/Satellite?pagename=Abbey/GSDistribuidora/GS_Home

NatWest - http://www.natwest.com/personal.ashx

The purpose of Online banking is to save the customers time, if they need to pay bills etc they can log onto their computer and pay then quickly rather than talking to someone on a phone for 20 minutes or going into the actual bank and quueing up for ages.

There are security risks involved with online banking, a keylogger could pick up your card details, card holder name etc. Also the website could be a fake, made to look the same as your banks website but when you enter your details the fraudulant webites owner will recive your details.

The target audiences of Online banking, i believe, are students and young adults, people who have beenn brought up using the internet. Also Businessmen who do not have the time to spare going into banks all the time can quickly and effeciantly do their banking in their office, without moving from their chair.

NatWest fufills its purpose of their target audiences because as seen on their home page, they offer free rail cards for students wgo apply for a student account. This will draw more students to the bank as they will be able to travel cheaply on trains back to their family / university when they please.

NatWest also have a page specificly for Businesses: http://www.natwest.com/business.ashx

This shows that NatWest also cater for their second target market by offering a service dedicated to Businesses and their finances.

Abbey on the other hand doesnt seem to offer much, just the standard banking. This shows that Abbey targets civilians and the general population rather than certain minorities. But still this attracts a lot of people who just want simple banking without all the extra accounts etc.

Benefits of online banking are that it is easily accessable to anyone with interenet acesss, and people who dont have interent at home can go to the local library and use their computers, most of the time for free. It is quick and easy and means that less people are travelling to their local bank, thus saving fuel and helping the ecomonmy.

Disadvantages are, as stated before, that not everyone has internet acess and may have to travel to use the internet, which means why may as well just travel to their local bank. There is also a lot of information to remember, i.e logins / passwords / secret questions and answers. If the user writes this infomation down and then it gets lost / stolen they cannot acess their online account and someone may use it to acess their bank online.

Online banking could improve in the future by being more secure, the major issue is identity fraud. Most people are worried that their information can be tracked on the internet and someone will gain use of their personal account and this money. Going into a real bank with ID and credit cards is a more sure way of identifying somone than having to trust that the person hasn't just found out someone elses's details to log into the online account.

APart from security issues and lack of internet to some people, Online banking is a useful and acessable tool avalible to anyone who has a bank account and the interent.

Monday, 22 September 2008

Irish EBay...

So yeah, once again, the blockers are in the way. I'm going to have to wait untill I get home to purchase my book of teachers address's and paintaball gun... Damn!

EBay’s target audience is the general public. EBay Offer bargain prices on people’s second hand items (electronics, clothes, food, things touched by celebrities)

The auction process works like this - a user chooses an item from a list of search results and they place a bid, if they are successful in their bid then they win the item. The user selling the item is then responsible for sending them their newly purchased Taiwanese wife. The user who receives the item then has to give feedback on the item and user.

It fulfils these purposes by offering customers an open forum to sell and buy items that interest that particular group or individual. There are a lot of search criteria in order to make the searches exact. This assists users in their search to find that bargain deal on a pair of shoes or fake Ipudge.

Louis, Out.