The Cradle :: essays research papers

THE CRADLE My book is called The Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke. The setting of this book takes place in sunny West Keys in Florida. The main characters in this book are Carol Dawson who is a Miami photojournalist. She takes pictures and writes stories about the pictures and sells them to the local news and newspaper. Nick Williams is a woman-hating Ivy League drop out who captains a boat for his own scuba diving company. Troy Jefferson is Nick’s trusty crewman who aids Nick in the epic story. This also is Non-Fiction. To begin the book Carol travels to the West Keys to cover a whale beaching. She meets Nick and Troy who take her out further into the sea to cover the whale beaching. Carol and Nick decide to dive where some dolphins are swimming. Everything goes good until they stumble upon a golden trident. Little did they know what it was and what power it possessed and what trouble came with it? They have several encounters with mobsters who thought it was a buried treasure, and the Navy who recently lost a new test missile around the area Nick and Carol found the golden trident. Nick, Carol, and Troy return to the spot where they found the golden troublemaker too look for any other secrets. Unfortunately they are caught in space ship which has settled there. Confused, Nick and Carol wonder around the unknown in search of answers. They found more than they bargained for. They found the secrets of the world, but worse of all; they found the fate of man kind and everything around it. After several cliffhangers Nick and Carol meet the actual aliens themselves. After showing them what is going to happen to world in a few years Nick and Carol ask them to keep the trident. The aliens wager a deal with them. Nick and Carol full fill the deal but the aliens don’t full theirs. The disappointed Nick and Carol hide the trident in a spot on the space ship, hoping that the aliens won’t find it. Nick and Carol are successful in their attempts to save man kind, and the world lives as it would today. The good points about the book were that it always left you hanging. At the end of every page it left you wondering about what will happen on the next page. It had a very good story if you like the kind of story it is.

A Defense of an Uncensored Worldwide Web

The fight for an uncensored worldwide web is, of course, characterized with conflicting principles and values.Although this can be resolved by the courts and other government agencies, there is no doubt that such resolution would not in any way mitigate or stop the struggle. It should be noted that values are not deterministic (behaving in pattern) or located in single set of arguments. They are defined by intensity and of course necessity. There are people who want to abolish the internet in some countries (the president and the imam of Iran for example). There are those who want to regulate the internet; that is, setting up limitations on internet access.And there are those who view the internet as an avenue for articulation (creativity); where intellectual, emotional, and psychological growth could be achieved.One of the most known cases involving the unlimited access to the internet occurred in the Alameda County on January 14, 1999.[1] The county court dismissed a lawsuit that s eeks to require the Livermore Library to censor the use of internet at the library. It was the second time that the request had been denied by the court.The plaintiff argued that the unlimited internet access at the library â€Å"constituted a public nuisance.† [2] She also argued that she had a constitutional right to force the library to discontinue its open access policy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California though in a statement argued that such demonizing of the library also constitutes public nuisance.Not only that the civil liberty to inform was affected, but also the â€Å"right of the public to be informed† (the policy rests on the First Amendment values). [3] The same organization also noted that the internet use at the Livermore Public Library informed its patrons over its material content, and that the primary responsibility of supervising the use of internet for children belongs solely to their parents.The same organization noted that â€Å"it enables each family to be sure that its children use the Internet in a manner that is consistent with its own values without imposing those values on other families.†[4] After all the arguments and evidences had been examined, the court decided in favor of the defendant (Livermore Library); that is, for unlimited internet access.Here what one sees is a conflict of values: 1) individual freedom vs. order, 2) right to be informed vs. right to be protected from obscene materials, and 3) individual happiness vs. freedom of conscience. Such conflicts though should not be viewed with rigidity. They are conflicts that cannot be reconciled or settled. In this paper, we shall present evidences and arguments that favorably seeks unlimited internet access; that is, a defense of an uncensored worldwide web. The first part begins with a staunch defense from a normative view, that is, hedonism.[1] Court Upholds Livermore Library’s Uncensored Internet Access Policy. (Califor nia: ACLU of Northern California, January 14, 1999). URL http://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases court_upholds_livermore_library's_uncensored_internet_access_policy.shtml. Retrieved October 1, 2007.  [2] Ibid [3] Ibid [4] Court Upholds Livermore Library’s Uncensored Internet Access Policy. (California: ACLU of Northern California, January 14, 1999). URL http://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases/court_upholds_livermore_library's_uncensored_internet_access_policy.shtml. Retrieved October 1, 2007.   

The History of the Disk Operating System (DOS) - 998 Words

The History of the Disk Operating System (DOS) At the outset, before the advent of user friendly operating systems, computers were run using the operating system CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers). The program itself looked simple, but the complexity of its use meant that not many fully understood how to use it. As the program was also limited in use, since it was designed for 8-bit systems, a new operating system was needed when 16-bit IBM systems came out. IBM tried to purchase CP/M from its inventor Gary Kildall, but he proved to be elusive and refused to sell. IBM through Microsoft and owner Bill Gates, acquired and licensed a similar program, the Q-DOS program. The first commercially available operating system,†¦show more content†¦Some say that MS-DOS was a more skillful piece of programming. (Ceruzzi, 271) Since the first release of MS-DOS, Microsoft has produced and released many more versions. Windows 3.1 used DOS as the operating system, but had a gr aphical user interface between the user and the operating system. Significant improvements in 1988 with version 4.0 were a graphical/mouse interface and in 1991 with version 5.0 Microsoft added a full-screen editor, utilities to undelete and unformat, and task swapping. Also Qbasic was introduced. A final version of DOS was released in 1995 by IBM called PC-DOS 7 and by Microsoft called MS DOS 7.0. In August of 1995, Microsoft introduces a new graphical user interface called Windows 95 and DOS is only used as part of the underlying operating system. (DOS (Disk Operating System)) Conclusion Microsoft is a company that came to dominate the home and business computer market, by capitalizing on the need for software that was user friendly. Today, Microsoft software is used by almost every corporation in America. References Bellis, M. (n.d.). Putting Microsoft on the map: History of the MS-DOS Operating Systems, IBM Microsoft. In About.com Inventors. Retrieved January 14, 2012, from http://inventors.about.com/od/computersoftware/a/Putting-Microsoft-On-The-Map.htm Ceruzzi, P. E. (1998). A history of modern computing (pp. 270-272). London,Show MoreRelatedUses Of In Operating Systems1564 Words   |  7 PagesUses of Virtualisation in Operating Systems Virtualisation in operating systems is a wide ranging subject relating to many topics within operating systems. Waldspurger and Rosenblum define virtualisation in their article I/O virtualization as â€Å"decoupling the logical from the physical, introducing a level of indirection between the abstract and the concrete.† [1] In this essay I will briefly outline some of the many types of Virtualisation as well as talk about benefits and limitations virtualisationRead MoreComputer Software : Operating System Software1158 Words   |  5 Pagessearch anything on the internet. 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