Computer science coursework Merit Essay Essay Example for Free

Computer science coursework Merit Essay Essay Record shops, cinemas, radio stations, video rental stores and even libraries are losing customers to the global trend that is OIS (Online Information Sharing the official MPAA and RIAA term for internet piracy). It once used to be a common sight to see small record shops filled with teens picking their favourite artists new records from the well stacked shelves, paying at the desk, discussing music with others and making new discoveries. It was not uncommon for people to buy or rent VHS tapes or sit at home listening to the radio. Piracy of course was alive here, the market for pirate radio, pirate tapes and pirated videos was enormous, the difference between then and today? Equipment. Nearly every person below 40 has a computer in MEDCs and also has the knowledge to share everything they want from their media collection with others. The most significant difference between the days of pirate radio and the days of worldwide networking is that you no longer need to know how it works to do it; millions of parents mindlessly expose their young kids to P2P networks such as KaZaA and LimeWire which are full of adult content, viruses and include open chat programs which might allow sexual predators access to their children. The first consumer P2P (peer-to-peer) network of note (others such as MC2 , Direct Connect and TinyP2P had existed before but were not widely adopted by the average user) called Napster allowed only for the sharing of music files such as WAVE and . mp3 (leading to MPEG 3 becoming the most popular music format in years to come). This was the most organised piracy or the time among teenagers and young adults through the internet but had problems in terms of the danger that faced the user (being caught) in that the centralized nature of the service meant that the server not only listed the files bring shared by members but all of the files passed through it in an effort to prevent the proliferation of malicious programs. This was extremely bad news for the user as Napster now had the IP address of each and every user, an integral flaw which would come back to bite the company and its user base later on before it could change its process and remove the evidence from its servers. Napster had finally made stealing music easy but was considered flawed by many in the IT community who wanted easier methods of sharing software, video and text files and a safer method of sharing music. Audiogalaxy was the first mainstream centralized P2P client that was capable (although not by design) of sharing any kind of file whatsoever, it gained popularity after the downfall of Napster and was the first time that the MPAA took note of file sharing software as connections became more capable of allowing fast download of high quality video. Audiogalaxy only indexed *. mp3 files, the obvious way round this limitation was found quickly: by (for example) naming a *. exe piece of software from tree. exe to tree exe . mp3. This made AG extremely useful for illegal distribution of both legally and illegally purchased data between users with experience in CGI and Batch (CGI parameters had to be edited to share non mp3 files) but was not as popular as eDonkey2000 (another P2P later to become known as eMule) program which did not have the security limitations of previous P2P clients as it was much faster to decentralize and allow open sharing and indexing. Especially in the case of Napster, facilitating thousands of minor crimes led to a series of lawsuits launched by musicians against the company (Metallica, Dr.Dre, Madonna) but received praise from other artists (Radiohead, Dispatch, Editors) for allowing distribution of singles prior to an albums release. Eventually a larger lawsuit was filed against the company which eventually resulted in bankruptcy after a lawsuit (which inadvertently increased the services user numbers) filed by the RIAA resulting in Napster closing down their network and being blocked from selling the company without liquidating assets under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Act meaning that the company was forced to close. The name was later sold to Swedish pornography company PMG who run it as a paid for service using similar looking software. AudioGalaxy was also sued and shut down as its out of court settlement rendered the service effectively useless and resulted in the services user base abandoning it en masse as a result AG too, opened a pay service to distribute music. In efforts to decentralize and avoid federal prosecution, modern networks designed for file sharing are de-centralized, often encrypted and use proxies to disguise IP addresses, for these reasons modern networks make it much less likely for a user to be discovered and served with a court order or other legal reprimand. A de-centralized system does not have a server which holds the files but instead a server that indexes a list of all available files rather than storing them. Most modern p2p systems also use (as mentioned previously) a process of encryption and proxy servers to make them untraceable. The servers often do not ask uploaders and downloaders of content to register accounts as they have previously done, this prevents user name linking: a process that the CIA reportedly used wherein they would search a napster username through a series of websites trying to gain personal data on a pirate in order to find and prosecute them. Another security feature of modern P2P protocols is the streaming swarm structure which works on a rarest first basis, splitting files into multiple parts and downloading these parts (to be reconstructed into a usable file on the leech (downloading) computer) rather than an actual file. As none of these individual parts is usable as the intended finished product on its own Swedish law allows the redistribution under its own piracy laws for this reason, the most prolific pirating groups are based in the country. One such group is the Swedish pirate political party called Piratbyran, the Piratbyran, (whose motto Pirate and Proud has itself caused problems for the group) this organised group has demanded that (along with the Pirates website piratgruppen. org) pirates be treated fairly by the law of the world as they believe they have the right to appraise things and decide if they are worth purchasing before doing so. For this reason, Piratbyran have set up Kopimi, a copywright alternative (said copyme) which declares others right to use your work as they see fit (this being a more extreme version of many other previously concocted alternatives like creative commons which permit a user the right to use works for non commercial reasons of their choice) for anything at all. The group also used Bram Cohens bit torrent protocol and created the worlds largest tracker a website that indexes all of the files available through the protocol which is called ThePirateBay. com (a. k. a. TPB), this site is distributed in over 20 languages and is currently the most popular tracker for the most advanced, secure and efficient protocol that is commercially available at this time. They are however intending to create their own protocol to remove their reliance in Bram Cohen (the creator) who has recently cut distribution deals with Hollywood film studios and is believed to be considering taking the protocol commercial. Governments across the world are certainly taking note, shown in hundreds of adverts which have only proven ineffective thus far. In the USA and the UK the governments have been running multiple adverts against piracy on legally purchased DVD videos and Blu ray / High Definition DVDs which are fairly useless: the advert assumes You wouldnt steal and lists a series of items before telling you piracy is a crime and showing w young girl getting up from her computer where she is downloading a film and walking out of the door. Most people tend to be offended at the fact that, after legally paying for something, they are forced to watch an advert telling them not to steal. This string of adverts alone has caused a series of parody adverts which take off the script of the original You might steal a book and even inspired a film called Steal this movie. Of course there are also positive sides to the increase in stealing and sharing among internet users, the little guy for example is heard far more than the major executive, companies are embracing the freedom culture and popular bands are pre releasing their albums for free to gain fan support. Sharing is even curing cancer! A largely adopted project ([emailprotected]) launched by a US university is folding protein strings over a massive decentralized network in an effort to discover a cancer cure or prevention in lieu of the supercomputer they would normally require. Those passing records about in the early days probably never saw that coming when they connected their first networks! Back in the early 1980s, piracy (albeit not online) was rife amongst office workers and the computer competent, these early criminals would exchange software through floppy disk and share records between each other. As the 90s started and the first networks were being created within offices, the stealing only increased as files could be copied between computer terminals via cable rather than by hand. Now, with the age of the internet: it is estimated that over 300 million of the worlds population routinely steal information and data over the internet with millions more borrowing DVDs and books from each other, whether or not these people are stealing more or less because of the internet is unquestionable, with our ability to access millions and millions of people we are able to share and steal far more than we previously could have done and this only provides incentive to give and take more than we would normally have done in a spirit of world community that is evoked by groups that exist in this sphere such as piratgruppen and the piratbyran.

The Purpose of Education :: School Learning Educating Essays Papers

The Purpose of Education I suppose the reasons that brought me to St. Olaf in 2003 were shared by many middle to upper class Midwestern kids who had just graduated from high school. We played by the rules and our learning styles fit well into the public education system (and maybe we were fairly smart too), so we had a piece of paper saying that we had a good GPA. Our parents had been grooming us for College ever since we were little, making us fill out practice applications and going out of their way to drive us past the U of M on our way anywhere. We knew the rules: If you don’t get the degree, you’ll end up living in your parent’s basement and cleaning toilets for a living or pregnant (or, GASP, both!!). Those seemed like the only two options at the time sans degree. Plus, at least in my case, I had a big sister at St. Olaf and I liked books and was motivated. All in all, it was just expected of me and I was ok with it. Then, however, the summer after a very experimental and not extremely educational freshman year, I spent a summer working on an organic farm near Stillwater, MN and discovered what it felt like to truly learn. Not just reading some book because I HAD to and then regurgitate the information back out on a test, but questing for information and experiences because plants were FASCINATING and learning to drive a tractor was empowering and farming was complex, elegant, challenging and above all, very very real. For a suburban kid who didn’t know what a tomato plant looked like and never had seen the inside of any machine, learning how to grow food, the most necessary thing in life besides water, was the most relevant experience I’d ever had. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t doing something because I needed the grade or the approval; I was doing it because it interested me. So then I decided I needed to drop out of school. Enough with this book stuff, how does this ever relate to real life? Why do I need to know about Christianity in the 7 th century or the philosophical thoughts of dead white men or about the inner workings of the Krebs cycle I want to dig in the dirt, I want to learn about how to keep squash bugs off my cucurbits, and I want to fix fences and tractors. The Purpose of Education :: School Learning Educating Essays Papers The Purpose of Education I suppose the reasons that brought me to St. Olaf in 2003 were shared by many middle to upper class Midwestern kids who had just graduated from high school. We played by the rules and our learning styles fit well into the public education system (and maybe we were fairly smart too), so we had a piece of paper saying that we had a good GPA. Our parents had been grooming us for College ever since we were little, making us fill out practice applications and going out of their way to drive us past the U of M on our way anywhere. We knew the rules: If you don’t get the degree, you’ll end up living in your parent’s basement and cleaning toilets for a living or pregnant (or, GASP, both!!). Those seemed like the only two options at the time sans degree. Plus, at least in my case, I had a big sister at St. Olaf and I liked books and was motivated. All in all, it was just expected of me and I was ok with it. Then, however, the summer after a very experimental and not extremely educational freshman year, I spent a summer working on an organic farm near Stillwater, MN and discovered what it felt like to truly learn. Not just reading some book because I HAD to and then regurgitate the information back out on a test, but questing for information and experiences because plants were FASCINATING and learning to drive a tractor was empowering and farming was complex, elegant, challenging and above all, very very real. For a suburban kid who didn’t know what a tomato plant looked like and never had seen the inside of any machine, learning how to grow food, the most necessary thing in life besides water, was the most relevant experience I’d ever had. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t doing something because I needed the grade or the approval; I was doing it because it interested me. So then I decided I needed to drop out of school. Enough with this book stuff, how does this ever relate to real life? Why do I need to know about Christianity in the 7 th century or the philosophical thoughts of dead white men or about the inner workings of the Krebs cycle I want to dig in the dirt, I want to learn about how to keep squash bugs off my cucurbits, and I want to fix fences and tractors.

Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a fictional book. which establishes the relationship between the protagonist Katniss, and the protagonist Peeta. Katniss is a 16 year old girl who lives In District twelve, Panem. She Is the sole provider for her family and competes in the Hunger Games, a game where two people from each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight to the death. Peeta is a 16 year old boy who is also from District Twelve who competes in the Hunger Games with Katniss.Throughout the book there s great debate on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not in love. Katniss pretends to be In love with Peeta because It helps her In the Games, and It Is an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand is deeply in love with Katniss. Throughout the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple references back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend for years. She wonders what life would be like with Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta. She sees It as her only way of survival In the Games.When she and Peeta are in an affectionate state, the Capitol audience is ntertained. This results In her and Peeta getting both food and messages from their mentor Haymitch and their sponsors. Luckily, they entertain the audience enough to survive the games but towards the end of the book Peeta says to Katniss, â€Å"It was all for the games, how you acted. † (Pg. 372) This is legitimate proof that Katniss only pretended to be in love with Peeta. Based on much evidence from the book, it is revealed that Peeta is deeply in love with Katniss.Prior to the beginning of the Games, both Katniss and Peeta had to take art In a pre-game Interview. In Peeta's Interview. he tells the audience how winning the games would not help his situation because he is deeply in love with Katniss. Katniss was not happy with Peeta's statement, but later In the book calmly asks him, â€Å"Peeta, you said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever. When did forever start? † ( Pg. 300) Peeta responded, â€Å"Oh let's see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair†¦ it was in two braids Instead of one.My father pointed your out. (Pg. 300) This is the most heart-felt moment between the two; however Katniss only asked Peeta the question because she knew she had to keep entertaining the audience. Her strategy to manipulate Peeta's emotions was a great advantage to her game. Katniss often makes references back to her friend Gale, her long time best friend that Is back home In District Twelve. She has mixed feelings about him because when Katniss was about to leave for the games, Gale was saying good bye to Katniss and was cut short with the slamming of a door.There are many misinterpretations about what Gale was trying to say to Katniss. Most people, Including Katniss, think that he ‘OF2 was aoout to say â€Å"l love you Inls unnnlsnea sentence OlsturDs Katnlss aurlng tne games when she has mixed fee lings about Peeta. Katniss thinks to herself, â€Å"Gale's not my boyfriend, but would he be, if I opened that door? † (Pg. 280) Any person who is truly in love would not be thinking about other men in this way. Throughout the Hunger Games there is great talk on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not.Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta because it helps her in the Games, and she uses it as an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand, is deeply in love with Katniss. During the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple mentions back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend and hunting buddy for years. She wonders what life would be like if she was with him. Too conclude, Katniss and Peeta are not meant to be. They have completely different individualities and although it may seem that their pretend love is mutual, it is not. Hunger Games The Hunger Games is a fictional book. which establishes the relationship between the protagonist Katniss, and the protagonist Peeta. Katniss is a 16 year old girl who lives In District twelve, Panem. She Is the sole provider for her family and competes in the Hunger Games, a game where two people from each of the twelve districts are chosen to fight to the death. Peeta is a 16 year old boy who is also from District Twelve who competes in the Hunger Games with Katniss.Throughout the book there s great debate on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not in love. Katniss pretends to be In love with Peeta because It helps her In the Games, and It Is an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand is deeply in love with Katniss. Throughout the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple references back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend for years. She wonders what life would be like with Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta. She sees It as her only way of survival In the Games.When she and Peeta are in an affectionate state, the Capitol audience is ntertained. This results In her and Peeta getting both food and messages from their mentor Haymitch and their sponsors. Luckily, they entertain the audience enough to survive the games but towards the end of the book Peeta says to Katniss, â€Å"It was all for the games, how you acted. † (Pg. 372) This is legitimate proof that Katniss only pretended to be in love with Peeta. Based on much evidence from the book, it is revealed that Peeta is deeply in love with Katniss.Prior to the beginning of the Games, both Katniss and Peeta had to take art In a pre-game Interview. In Peeta's Interview. he tells the audience how winning the games would not help his situation because he is deeply in love with Katniss. Katniss was not happy with Peeta's statement, but later In the book calmly asks him, â€Å"Peeta, you said at the interview you'd had a crush on me forever. When did forever start? † ( Pg. 300) Peeta responded, â€Å"Oh let's see. I guess the first day of school. We were five. You had on a red plaid dress and your hair†¦ it was in two braids Instead of one.My father pointed your out. (Pg. 300) This is the most heart-felt moment between the two; however Katniss only asked Peeta the question because she knew she had to keep entertaining the audience. Her strategy to manipulate Peeta's emotions was a great advantage to her game. Katniss often makes references back to her friend Gale, her long time best friend that Is back home In District Twelve. She has mixed feelings about him because when Katniss was about to leave for the games, Gale was saying good bye to Katniss and was cut short with the slamming of a door.There are many misinterpretations about what Gale was trying to say to Katniss. Most people, Including Katniss, think that he ‘OF2 was aoout to say â€Å"l love you Inls unnnlsnea sentence OlsturDs Katnlss aurlng tne games when she has mixed fee lings about Peeta. Katniss thinks to herself, â€Å"Gale's not my boyfriend, but would he be, if I opened that door? † (Pg. 280) Any person who is truly in love would not be thinking about other men in this way. Throughout the Hunger Games there is great talk on whether Katniss and Peeta are in love, or not.Katniss pretends to be in love with Peeta because it helps her in the Games, and she uses it as an act of survival. Peeta on the other hand, is deeply in love with Katniss. During the book Katniss often finds herself making multiple mentions back to her friend, Gale, who has been her best friend and hunting buddy for years. She wonders what life would be like if she was with him. Too conclude, Katniss and Peeta are not meant to be. They have completely different individualities and although it may seem that their pretend love is mutual, it is not.

Simple Conjugations for the French Verb, Ouvrir, Meaning to Open

The French verb  ouvrir  means to open. It is  an  irregular  -ir  verb. Conjugating irregular French verbs can difficult for most students, but there is some good news: There are distinct patterns in the conjugations of  irregular -ir verbs, which French grammarians have anointed  le troisià ¨me groupe  (the third group).  So while  there are roughly 50 irregular French  -ir  verbs,  these shared patterns mean that you will only have to learn about 16 conjugations. Conjugating Irregular -ir verbs There are three groups of irregular  -ir  verbs. The verb  ouvrir falls into the second group, which  consists of verbs that end in  -llir,  -frir, or -vrir. Almost all are conjugated like  regular French  -er  verbs. In addition to ouvrir, this group includes the following verbs, plus their derivatives: Couvrir  Ã‚  to cover  Cueillir  Ã‚  to pick  Ã‚  Dà ©couvrir   to discoverEntrouvrir  Ã‚  to half-openOffrir  Ã‚  to offer  Recueillir   to collectRecouvrir   to recover, concealRouvrir   to reopen  Souffrir  Ã‚  to suffer Conjugating Ouvrir With regular  -ir  verb conjugations, the stem remains intact; in irregular  -ir  verb conjugations, by contrast, the stem does not remain intact throughout. The conjugations below include the  passà © composà ©, meaning the  perfect tense, and the  passà © simple, the simple past. The  passà © composà ©Ã‚  is the most common French past tense, often used in conjunction with the  imperfect. The  passà © simple, which can also be translated into English as the preterite,  is also used alongside the  imperfect.  You will probably never need to use the  passà © simple, but it is important to recognize it, especially if you read many French  fiction or nonfiction works. Present Future Imperfect Present participle j ouvre ouvrirai ouvrais ouvrant tu ouvres ouvriras ouvrais il ouvre ouvrira ouvrait nous ouvrons ouvrirons ouvrions vous ouvrez ouvrirez ouvriez ils ouvrent ouvriront ouvraient Pass compos Auxiliary verb avoir Past participle ouvert Subjunctive Conditional Pass simple Imperfect subjunctive j ouvre ouvrirais ouvris ouvrisse tu ouvres ouvrirais ouvris ouvrisses il ouvre ouvrirait ouvrit ouvrt nous ouvrions ouvririons ouvrmes ouvrissions vous ouvriez ouvririez ouvrtes ouvrissiez ils ouvrent ouvriraient ouvrirent ouvrissent Imperative (tu) ouvre (nous) ouvrons (vous) ouvrez Verb conjugation pattern  Ouvrir is an irregular verb All French verbs that end in -frir or -vrir are conjugatedthis way. Using Ouvrir There is probably no better use for the word  ouvrir than during the holidays, especially at  Christmastime. Just as in the United States, Christmas is an important holiday in France, and the thought of opening presents brings great excitement. A common way to describe the festive time might be: Comme dans le reste du monde, les Franà §ais se rà ©unissent en famille autour du sapin de Noà «l, et souvent dune petite crà ¨che, et les enfants attendent que le Pà ¨re Noà «l soit passà © pour ouvrir les cadeaux le 25 au matin. This translates as: As in the rest of the world, the French gather around the Christmas tree, and often a little manger, and the children wait for Santa Claus to pass by so they can open presents on the morning of the 25th. Learning to use the verb  ouvrir, then, can help open doors to you as you discuss and take part in many French cultural discussions and celebrations.