Spotify The Way Forward Information Technology Essay

Spotify The Way Forward Information Technology Essay Peer-to-peer file swapping websites are becoming increasingly popular across the world as the next generation of the music sharing industry is developed. Peer-to-peer networking allows users to connect with each other to search for and share information. This information is decentralized, it does not require a central database server to search for locations of music files, it requires the use of peer-to-peer client software. The client software needs to be installed on users local machines (nodes), which then gather information on media files available for sharing and stores the information into a catalogue. When the user searches for media files the client software connects to other nodes across the networks (called hops) which search their catalogues, and this process continues. If a positive result occurs the client software connects directly with the peer that has the file and the media will be transferred. Users of the network can be both a supplier (information provider) and a consumer (information requester), the user can connect with multiple users all with the required resource, as the files transfer they can also be forwarded onto further users requesting the same files, saving time. Advantages of peer-to-peer include the ease of setting up, the speed of transfer of information, large numbers of peers can be contacted quickly, the network is not vulnerable to failure as there is such a wide spread of data not reliant on one centralized source. However disadvantages can include the potential for bugs and viruss during installation of client software, data is less secure, the provider may not be reliable and you may be breaching copyright and licensing laws. Peer-to-peer can be inefficient as its unknown which peers have the required information, a large number of hops can occur in a short space of time, potentially clogging the networks, but they will not be indefinite as a time to live countdown is in place which decreases with each hop until reaching zero at which point the search will end. A new internet music website is taking the industry by storm called Spotify, the site differs to normal peer-to-peer sites, you cant buy (or download) free music, but you can create a playlist or collection of your favourite songs to listen to just as you would on a radio station. Also there is an option to create or join collaborative playlists that are independent from the site and shared via websites, these can be added to by individual users. The tracks come with some advertisements between songs. A daily advert free listening package is an option for a small fee, or by subscribing monthly it can be entirely free of advertisements. Because there is no downloading of files Spotify is fast to use. It has a vast collection of songs, artists and albums. This is makes it very popular, however it has recently been forced to remove thousands of songs by the record labels who maintain control of what can be played where. Spotify argue that because tracks are only being listened to this could reduce the desire to illegally download and limit piracy. Spotify has recently released an Application Programing Interface (API) which it hopes will spread through other media devices such as gaming consoles, mobile phones and other media devices. An API is a way for website or service to talk to another website or service. APIs let you mix information and media from other services into your own site or application. (Wibbels 2009) The API is a set of predefined programming behaviour that Spotify have developed, which they can release to programmers to enable them to develop their own products to incorporate Spotify. This enables the company to reach out to many new users with a broad range of devices, for example an Apple iphone user may discover an application for Spotify to download to his device, having not previously heard of the service. In recent months a mobile device HTC Hero has become available with Spotify included. The Spotify subscription is paid in with the device contract, effectively seeming that the mobile device is giving free access to songs. With around 40,000 new users a day signing up to Spotify, there is no doubting its popularity, however does this imply that if free music is available then users will not need to make a music purchase again? There are mixed reviews, some alleged music pirates say they dont need to download illegally now, Spotify meets all their needs, other users are saying they will never buy music again. On the other hand some people are using Spotify to listen to music before going to purchase, on a try before you buy basis. It seems that Spotify is proving very useful for a wide spread of users. I think the release of the API will, as in the case of the HTC Hero device, spread the word of Spotify even further, however because of the ongoing problems with the music industry and copyright and licensing issues potential manufacturers of new devices need to move with caution, if licensing laws were favourable to the music industry and caused the demise of Spotify, with no API a lot of devices could potentially be useless. To conclude, I think that Spotify could be very successful in the future, the main barrier being its lack of support from the music industry. If more support, trust and guidance was provided by record and marketing companies then perhaps we would see developments of a more secure data transfer system, removing the chances of bugs and viruss for the users. The programing and network system on which it is based could prove to be the future of all online music sharing. I believe that this approach to the industry is a way forward, however I believe the software developers have a responsibility to behave ethically and responsibly so not to infringe the rights of all involved in the music industry. [989 words] Bibliography Spotify Ltd (2007 2010) About Spotify Available from http://www.spotify.com/uk/about/what/ Accessed 7th May 2010 Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia (9th May 2010) Peer-to-Peer Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer Accessed 12th May 2010 Kayne (2010) What is P2P? Available from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-p2p.htm Accessed 12th May 2010 uCertify (2008) What are the advantages and disadvantages of a peer-to-peer network? Available from http://www.ucertify.com/article/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-a-peer-to-peer-network.html Accessed 17th May 2010 Johnson B and Arthur C (2009) Spotify opens doors to UK as record industry slams them shut. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/11/digitalmusic-downloads Accessed 23rd May 2010 Johnson (2009) Spotify plots launch of new API. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/apr/06/spotify-to-launch-api Accessed 23rd May 2010

Theme In The Gift Of The Magi English Literature Essay

Theme In The Gift Of The Magi English Literature Essay The story The Gift of the Magi which is written by O. Henry follows a young married couple who sacrifice their most prized possessions to buy a Christmas gift for one another. Though the story tells the tale of two people, a large portion of the story involves following Della on her quest to find a gift for Jim. The worry and unease that Della shows toward buying a gift is not caused by wanting to show love to her husband but fear of rejection. Della fears that by breaking tradition she will also break Jims heart, severing his love for her. Jim and Dellas main conflict is money. While Jim is introduced to the story early on and does not make an appearance until later it can be implied that his external conflict is money. Jim now faces the internal conflict of thinking of how he can support his family on his reduced income. As a man who has the task of supporting his family he experiences a guilt for not being able to provide his loving wife with the luxuries she so deserves. Della must face the fact that even though she has saved, her penny pinching was simply not enough for the amount she needed. Della then faces internal conflict as she tries to come up with ways to get more money. The money that presents an external conflict has Della retreat inside of her mind to face her internal conflict. Her first thought to get money by cutting her hair was a reference to not only tradition but of feminine roles. Della rapidly pulls down her hair(160) so when she visits Madame Sofronie to have it cut it is not questioned, becaus e women made sacrifices for their husbands and it was accepted. Della offering her most precious possession sees it as the only way she can say to her husband that she is truly grateful. Della runs and ransacks stores looking for the gift that she wanted for her husband. Her ransacking of the stores symbolizes and can be compared to Jim who, can be safely said, ransacked his brain on what the next option he was to take after the pay cut. She eventually is able to find a gift and hurries home. The next scene when Della arrives home and takes the moment to fix her hair up before her husband arrives home symbolizes her ability to imitate her husband and turn a bad situation into a good situation. This is most relevant to say that Della and her husband are equally matched in how they make decisions and in explaining in how both could give up their most precious possessions in thought of one another. Thinking of the other person is what causes the story to reveal situational irony in its ending. Della and Jim Dillingham have met the result of the actions and that is Della has cut and sold her hair to receive a gift of hair clips and Jim has sold his watch to receive a watch chain. The fact that Jim has sold the watch which has been in his family for years and chose to sacrifice the tradition of passing along the watch is ironic. Jim has broken one tradition to enter into another one, the tradition of making hard sacrifices for those you love. Della who is unaware of the sacrifice that was made on her behalf is also unaware that the tradition that she wanted to avoid breaking was broken by her husband. Della confirms that the tradition of exchanging gifts is broken when her husband says lets put our Christmas presents away and keep them awhile (162), but is reassured that tradition is still present when they spend Christmas enjoying each others company. O. Henrys Gift of the Magi was a story not only about the sacrifices made in love but the fear of breaking tradition. Della Dillingham sacrificed her hair to buy a gift of appreciation for the loving husband who provided for her. James Dillingham sacrificed tradition when he sold his watch to buy a present for his beloved wife only to return to tradition by making such a sacrifice fueled by the love he had for her. The story of the Dillinghams ended ironically when their gifts canceled each others out but the gift of love that was shown by embracing the tradition that comes with true Christmas spirit will last a lifetime.

Immigration :: essays research papers

Should immigration into the United States be limited? Immigrants are a large and growing factor in the stubborn level of poverty seen in the United States over the past two decades because newcomers to the country are more likely to be poor and to remain so longer than in the past, according to a new study. The report, to be released today by the Center for Immigration Studies, says the number of impoverished people in the nation's immigrant-headed households nearly tripled from 2.7 million in 1979 to 7.7 million in 1997. During that same period, the number of poor households headed by immigrants increased by 123 percent while the number of immigrant households increased by 68 percent, according to the study. The share of immigrants living in poverty rose from 15.5 percent to 21.8 percent, the report notes, a change that some analysts say holds troubling implications for the nation's future. About 12 percent of the nation's native-born population lives in poverty, a figure that has hardly changed in 20 years. "Each successive wave of immigrants is doing worse and worse," said Steven A. Camarota, the report's author. "Each wave of immigrants has a higher poverty rate, and a much larger share of their children will grow up in poverty." The report by the center, a Washington-based research group that advocates reduced immigration, uses information compiled in the 1980 and 1990 censuses, as well as information contained in the March 1998 Current Population Survey, to make its case that poverty in the United States is increasingly being driven by the nation's immigration policy. The report says immigrants are more likely to be poor because they have higher levels of unemployment, have lower education levels and have larger families than native-born families. And much of their economic slide has come despite the fact that the nation's economy has been in good shape for much of the past 20 years, the report notes. The report is rekindling the sharp-edged debate over whether high levels of immigration benefit the nation. The number of immigrants living in the United States has almost tripled since 1970, dramatically altering the nation's demographic and social mix because the vast majority of current immigrants are either Hispanic or Asian. Overall, immigrants now account for nearly 10 percent of the nation's residents, the highest level since the 1920s. About one in four Californians and one in three residents of New York are foreign-born.

Raymond Carvers Cathedral Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As with many short stories, Raymond Carver’s â€Å"Cathedral† only has a few pages to develop his main character and create a scenario he or she must learn from or achieve something from or change because of. In such a short amount of space, word choice is integral in constructing a solid impression of the characters and their personalities in the reader’s mind. Carver’s simple use of language and sentence structure combined with his choice for point of view creates an intriguing tone and believable character interaction.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This story, written as the thoughts of the narrator, is about an old blind friend of his wife’s coming to visit for the first time. The story focuses on the narrator’s cynicism toward the blind man and the way his wife seems to look up to him. Through out the visit there is halting interaction between the blind man and the narrator, however in the end the narrator experiences something he never could have imagined. Through the eyes of a blind man, he gains a better understanding of who he could be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most striking aspect of Carver’s â€Å"Cathedral† is the fact that the story is written from the point of view of a man not initially involved in the set up of the story at all. The narrator relays to the reader stories he has learned from his wife about her past before relaying what is happening in the present. He tells her history as if he were speaking to himself in an interio...

A study of Shakespeares presentation of women in Macbeth. Essay

A study of Shakespeare's presentation of women in Macbeth. Shakespeare has portrayed women to be mentally strong to the extent that they are able to speak their minds and show that they have aspirations. In my opinion women are shown with an inner strength that men lack as well as a connection to the dark and evil side of life. What should mainly be taken into consideration is the fact that this play is set in a world mainly dominated by masculine characters. Women were seen very differently to how they are in the present day. Men and women had different roles; this is shown by the fact that all the important people such as the thanes and the King were male. The King was said to be chosen by God. The Queen of Witchcraft was Hecate, who is obviously a female character and was most probably chosen by the devil. This shows a contrast. Lady Macbeth being the main female character in the play gives us an idea of Shakespeare's personal thoughts and views of women. She is seen to be the 'strong woman behind a great leader'. She makes decisions on behalf of Macbeth and plants ideas in his head. "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." (1.5 ll.38-40) This shows her calling evil spirits to help her with a plan to murder Duncan. This was done without consulting Macbeth, which shows that she has a lot of power in their relationship. The fact that she even calls evil spirits portrays her as a follower of witchcraft or another sinuous way of life. These were very much frowned upon during the period the play was set in aswel as during the reign of James I. Lady Macbeth asks to be 'unsexed' which could be interpreted as her having feelings that weren't meant to be experienced by women. ... ... idea about what sort of person or being Hecate is. Lady Macduff is shown as a strong-minded female character. She has a good relationship with her son as they have a conversation after Macduff's departure. Macduff's son shows her affection by adding humour in a tense situation as in Act 4 Scene 2. Later on in Act 4 Scene 3 after being warned of danger a murderer appears in Macduff's castle. The murderer fails to intimidate Lady Macduff as she keeps her head up by answering the murderer back. She and her son are then murdered. Women are shown to be strong-minded and to have connections with the other side of life, which was not thought highly of. These women are able to manipulate people in their own way. The witches trigger Macbeth to commit murder and Lady Macbeth masterminds the whole murder and reassures Macbeth that the murder is for the best.

Proportion of Work Demands and Level of Education

School plays an important role in our life. Many of us will spend more than fifteen years at school in order to get the qualifications that are required to work in a specific field. Of course, those years are broken down into several levels, some of them being more liked than others. Two important steps that we go through are high school and college. Even though some people would think they are almost similar, yet there are significant differences between them. The cost of high school education is not the same as the cost of college education. Also, some differences apply from an academic point of view. Typically, the social environment also differs from high school to college, a fact that can be related to the question of freedom versus responsibility. It is true to say that college is more expensive than high school. Of course, it provides a higher level of education, but by having so high fees it does not give a chance to them coming from a family with a low income. Also, at college you have to buy your own books whereas in high school you borrow them from the school for a year. As they do for high schools, the government should pay for the books and then borrow them to students, as they do in high schools. Paying for the education you get is expensive, but many people have to pay even more. Many cities do not have colleges, so students who want to get a higher education have to move away to another city where they will be provided the education they need. This often involves paying for an apartment and for food, and sometimes for the bus , which is not, unlike high school, free. As you can see, college is a lot more expensive than high school. However, the cost is not the only think to consider when comparing high school and college, the relation between teachers and students are also different. At high school, they see their students lower than them., not as equals. To tell the truth, it is very hard for high school students to become friends with them because of the fact that they are seen as simple students who have nothing to learn to their teachers. However, at college, it is easy to have a friendly relation with a teacher because their students as equals. As college provides a higher level of education, the amount of work you have to do at home is a lot greater. At high school, where we get a more general education the time spent home doing homework is a lot smaller. This does not mean that you do not work at high school but it does mean that it is easier in that sense. Moreover, a big advantage of college, from an academic point of view, is that you have more choices. You can choose a lot of subjects related or not to your field of studies whereas at high school you cannot. There are also some differences between the social environment of students at high school and students at college. Since college students have more work to do at home, they have a limited freedom out of school and this makes it harder for them to see their friends during the week. However, at high school they have known their friends for a while whereas at college they often have to make new friends, because many of theirs have moved away to another city. This can be really hard for some people, but for other people this is a good opportunity to meet a lot of new people, which means a lot of new experiences to benefit of. Before concluding, it would be important to mention that often college students have a whole new set of responsibilities to deal with. Since many moves away from home, they have to live in an apartment, pay their bills, buy their own food, make their own meals, clean up their apartment themselves, etc. For most of them, this is something new and they have to learn how to deal with it and this normally takes a while. Compared to them, high school students have almost nothing to care about except for school, because they live at home with their parents, who do most of those things for them. It is obvious from what has been said that college and high school both have their advantages and their inconveniences. Attending the former is more expensive than attending the latter. Then, at college, you are considered to be more like adults whereas at high school you are looked upon as simple students of a lower class. Also, high school students do have fewer homework and more free times, but at school they are not really free in many ways. Finally, attending college engages being a lot responsible, because you have a lot of things to care about. As you can see they differ a lot but have at least two things in common: they are both there to give students a good education and they both represent many years they will never forget.

Pepcid Ac Analysis

The problem Pepcid AC faced in its initial entry into the market was direct competition from competing products that, together, took almost all market share. Pepcid AC positioned itself as three important things: providing lasting relief from GERD and gastrointestinal upset by means of the fewest pills possible and providing not only relief but prevention. Tegamet already had an established marketing base that consisted of customers who knew the brand name and were weary to switch to another product.The main point of entry for Pepcid AC would be educating the public on the H2-receptor antagonist prescription drugs, the reduced number of pills needed, and the difference between market-standard Tegamet and new Pepcid AC. My recommendation would be to consider TV advertising as a main means of communicating the product offering of Pepcid AC and essentially â€Å"spreading the word† on how the product differentiates itself.Product endorsement from a physician would be beneficial t o push the product into the hands of weary consumers. Finding a series of doctors who would be able to push the product is the largest problem. Doctors were finding that traditional antacids were easier to sell because they already had an established reputation in the household. By finding a few key doctors who have a lot of influence in the community such as a â€Å"Dr. Phill† or a â€Å"Dr.Oz,† and offering the product as free samples to the doctors and their patients, it would help get the brand name into the mouths of mothers around the country. Endorsement for the product by a few key doctors who are respected in the community, combined with the doctors using and recommending the product to some of their own personal patients, would increase the strength of the brand name and help foster word-of-mouth, an essentially low-cost form of marketing.