Jan Northcutt, owner of Northcutt Bikes, started business in 1995. She notices the quality of bikes she purchased for sale in her bike shop declining while the prices went up. She also found it more difficult to obtain the features she wanted on ordered bikes without waiting for months. Her frustration turned to a determination to build her own bikes to her particular customer specifications.

She began by buying all the necessary parts (frames, seats, tires, etc.) and assembling them in a rented garage using two helpers. As the word spread about her shop’s responsiveness to options, delivery, and quality, however, the individual customer base grew to include other bike shops in the area. As her business grew and demanded more of her attention, she soon found it necessary to sell the bike shop itself and concentrate on the production of bikes from a fairly large leased factory space.

As the business continued to grow, she backward integrated more and more processes into her operation, so that now she purchases less than 50% of the component value of the manufactured bikes. This not only improves her control of production quality but also helps her control the costs of production and makes the final product more cost attractive to her customers.

The Current Situation

Jan considers herself a hands-on manager and has typically used her intuition and her knowledge of the market to anticipate production needs. Since one of her founding principles was rapid and reliable delivery to customer specification, she felt she needed to begin production of the basic parts for each particular style of bike well in advance of demand. In that way she could have the basic frame, wheels, and standard accessories started in production prior to the recognition of actual demand, leaving only the optional add-ons to assemble once the order came in. Her turnaround time for an order of less than half the industry average is considered a major strategic advantage, and she feels it is vital for her to maintain or even improve on response time if she is to maintain her successful operation.

As the customer base have grown, however, the number of customers Jan knows personally has shrunk significantly as a percentage of the total customer base for Northcutt Bikes, and many of these new customers are expecting or even demanding very short response times, as that is what attracted them to Northcutt Bikes in the first place. This condition, in addition to the volatility of overall demand, has put a strain on capacity planning. She finds that at times there is a lot of idle time (adding significantly to costs), whereas at other times the demand exceeds capacity and hurts customer response time. The production facility has therefore turned to trying to project demand for certain models, and actually building a finished goods inventory of those models. This has not proven to be too satisfactory, as it has actually hurt costs and some response times. Reasons include the following:

• The finished goods inventory is often not the “right” inventory, meaning shortages for some goods and excessive inventory of others. This condition both hurts responsiveness and increases inventory costs.
• Often, to help maintain responsiveness, inventory is withdrawn from finished goods and reworked, adding to product cost.
• Reworking inventory uses valuable capacity for other customer orders, again resulting in poorer response times and/or increased costs due to expediting. Existing production orders and rework orders are both competing for vital equipment and resources during times of high demand, and scheduling has become a nightmare.

The inventory problem has grown to the point that additional storage space is needed, and that is a cost that Jan would like to avoid if possible.

Another problem that Jan faces is the volatility of demand for bikes. Since she is worried about unproductive idle time and yet does not wish to lay off her workers during times of low demand, she has allowed them to continue to work steadily and build finished goods. This makes the problem of building the “right” finished goods even more important, especially given the tight availability of storage space.

Past Demand

The following shows the monthly demand for one major product line: the standard 26-inch 10-speed street bike. Although it is only one of Jan’s products, it is representative of most of the major product lines currently being produced by Northcutt Bikes. If Jan can find a way to sue this data to more constructively understand her demand, she feels she can probably use the same methodologies to project demand for other major product families. Such knowledge can allow her, she feels, to plan more effectively and continue to be responsive while still controlling costs.

Questions and assignment:

1. Plot the data and describe what you see. What does it mean and how would you use the information from the plot to help you develop a forecast?
2. Use at least two different methodologies to develop as accurate a forecast as possible for the demand. Use each of those methods to project the next four months demand.
3. Which method from question 2 is “better”? How do you know that?
4. How, if at all, could we use Jan’s knowledge of the market to improve the forecast? Would it be better to forecast in quarterly increments instead of monthly? Why or why not?
5. Are there other possible approaches that might improve Jan’s operation and situation? What would they be and how could they help?

1. Find the appropriate measure of center. Discuss why the chosen measure is most appropriate. Why did you decide against other possible measures of center? 2. Find the appropriate measure of variation. The measure of variation chosen here should match the measure of center chosen in Part 1. 3. Find the graph(s) needed to appropriately describe the data. These may be done by hand and inserted into the Word document. You can also use Excel or a Web Applet to create a Histogram of the chosen data. Graphs can be copied and pasting onto the template. 4. Define the random variable (X) so that your chosen data set represents values of X. 5. Is your chosen random variable discrete or continuous? Explain how you know. 6. Would the Normal or Binomial distribution be a good fit for the underlying sample distribution of X? If one of them is a good fit, state how you would approximate the distribution parameters (Use the mean and standard deviation of the data chosen) 7. If you selected column D, calculate the probability that a flight will depart early or on-time. If you selected column E, calculate the probability that a flight will arrive early or on time using the empirical definition of probability. 8. If you selected column D, calculate the probability that a flight will depart late. If you selected column E, calculate the probability that a flight will arrive late using the empirical definition of probability. 9. For those that selected column D, assume now that the random variable X = Departure Time is exactly normally distributed with mean m= -2.5 and standard deviation s= 23. Compute the probability of a flight arriving late based on this new information. For those that selected column E, assume now that the random variable X = Arrival Time is exactly normally distributed with mean m= -2.5 and standard deviation s= 23. Does this contradict your answer from Part 8? Data: 0 -3 0 -7 8 -1 3 11 -6 -5 -8 -4 -13 -13 -11 -14 -16 -14 -18 -18 -23 -23 2 1 -4 -6 7 -8 -8 -4 -4 -5 -13 -9 -12 -7 -12 1 4 -19 -13 -19 3 12 13 2 0 0 4 -7 8 9 -1 -10 -6 -12 -14 -13 9 -15 -13 -14 20 -16 11 -14 18 -19 -3 -4 0 -3 2 6 6 -6 1 11 -7 -10 -13 9 -13 -18 -17 -11 -20 -18 8 0 -20 -3 1 -1 -4 -6 -5 -8 -10 -9 -6 8 -9 -12 -15 -14 -9 -17 -13 -17 2 -18 -18 -16 1 -4 0 -5 7 -7 -7 -5 0 5 -6 -12 1 6 -10 -15 -18 -16 -17 0 -21 -18 5 1 3 -2 -1 -2 -3 4 3 -11 9 -11 -11 0 -11 17 -10 -11 0 -19 -18 0 8 -23 3 -3 -4 -6 0 2 -1 -9 -9 4 1 -9 -12 0 0 -11 -14 -19 -17 -13 23 8 21 3 4 -2 1 6 7 -9 -3 1 -9 -5 -11 -6 -6 -10 -13 -9 -17 -6 -20 1 -21 -22 -2 0 -4 -3 3 -5 -6 -3 -5 -8 -12 -10 -7 -16 1 -14 -14 -16 -7 13 -17 -16 7 0 1 1 4 1 -8 -5 -9 0 -4 8 -7 -14 7 -8 5 4 8 21 3 11 2 -23 0 4 3 2 0 -1 -7 5 3 8 12 -12 -15 -11 -7 17 -15 -13 -17 -21 4 -19 -24 3 0 4 0 -2 -8 -5 6 5 1 -12 -14 7 8 -16 -11 -17 -20 10 4 -14 -22 -22 -3 -4 2 -4 -2 0 6 -6 2 -9 -3 -10 -13 7 -10 -12 -13 -16 -20 1 -14 -21 -17 3 -1 -1 0 -2 -7 -4 0 11 3 -11 -12 -11 -8 -13 -16 -16 7 2 -21 3 9 0 3 0 -5 -3 -3 -3 -3 -4 9 0 -8 -10 12 5 -16 -16 -13 -13 3 -19 0 -20 2 -3 -2 3 5 -1 -8 -3 -7 -11 -7 -10 12 -12 -8 17 -9 -18 -17 -14 1 -13 -21 -22 -2 -3 3 -3 -2 -7 -5 -10 -8 -6 -13 11 -11 -16 -9 -13 -12 -13 -16 -10 -20 -19 -22 -1 -4 2 4 -3 -8 4 -3 -7 -11 -13 2 -13 -12 -15 3 -17 -10 3 0 -19 -20 -20 0 0 -5 -4 -3 -5 -1 -8 -7 -2 13 11 -10 -12 -15 -14 -17 -18 6 12 6 -19 -20 0 -1 -5 -1 4 6 3 8 0 -11 -8 -14 -13 -11 3 -7 -11 10 -19 -20 -21 0 3 0 -4 0 2 -6 -7 -6 -7 8 -12 -2 -13 -7 9 -15 -14 -14 -17

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Overview

You will take on the role of a senior member of the finance team assigned to lead the investment committee of a medium-sized telecommunications equipment manufacturer. Your team is evaluating a "make-versus-buy" decision that has the potential to improve the company's competitiveness, but which requires a significant capital investment in new equipment. The assignment is organized into two parts:

Part A: Data calculations based on the information in the scenarios

Part B: Recommendations based on the calculations

Opportunity Details The new equipment would allow your company to manufacture a critical component in-house instead of buying it from a supplier. This capability would help you stabilize your supply chain (which has suffered from some irregularities and quality issues in the past). It could also have a positive impact on profitability through the absorption of fixed costs since this new machine will have plenty of excess capacity. There may even be a possibility that the company could leverage this capability to allow new external revenue stream by providing services to other companies.

The company has been growing steadily over the past 5 years, and the financials and future prospects look good. Your CEO has asked you to run the numbers. After doing some digging into the business, you have gathered information on the following:

• The estimated purchase price for the equipment required to move the operation in-house would be $750,000. Additional net working capital to support production (in the form of cash used in Inventory, AR net of AP) would be needed in the amount of $35,000 per year starting in year 0 and through all years of the project to support production as raw materials will be required in year o and all years to run the new equipment and produce components to replace those purchased from the vendor..

• The current spending on this component (i.e. annual spend pool) is $1,200,000. The estimated cash flow savings of bringing the process in-house is 20% or annual savings of $240,000. This includes the additional labor and overhead costs required.

• Finally, the equipment required is anticipated to have a somewhat short useful life, as a new wave of technology is on the horizon. Therefore, it is anticipated that the equipment will be sold after the end of the project (the last year of generated cash flow) for $50,000. (i.e. the terminal value).

Input from Stakeholders

As part of your research, you have sought input from a number of stakeholders. Each has raised important points to consider in your analysis and recommendation. Some of the points and assumptions are purely financial. Others touch on additional concerns and opportunities.

1. Ann, your colleague from Accounting, recommends using the base assumptions above: 5-year project life, flat annual savings, and 10% discount rate. Andrew does not feel the equipment will have any terminal value due to advancements in technology.

2. Steve from Sales is convinced that this capability would create a new revenue stream that could significantly offset operating expenses. He recommends savings that grow each year: 5-year project life, 10% discount rate, and a 10% annual savings growth in years 2 through 5. In other words, instead of assuming savings stay flat, assume that they will grow by 10%% in year 2, and then grow another 10% over year 2 in year 3, and so on. Stanley feels that the stated terminal value is reasonable and used it in his calculations.

3. Ellen from Engineering believes we use a higher Discount Rate because of the risk of this type of project. As such, she is recommending a 5-year project life and flat annual savings. Eva suggests that even though the equipment is brand new, the updated production process could have a negative impact on other parts of the overall manufacturing costs. She argues that, while it is difficult to quantify the potential negative impacts, to account for the risk, a 12% discount rate should be used. Being an engineer, Eva feels that the stated terminal value is low based on her experience, and is recommending a $75,000 terminal value,

4. Peter, the Product Manager, is convinced the new capability will allow better control of quality and on-time delivery, and that it will last longer than 5 years. He recommends using a 7 Year Equipment Life (which means a 7-year project and that savings will continue for 7 years), flat annual savings, and 10% discount rate. In other words, assume that the machine will last 2 more years and deliver 2 more years of savings. Paul also feels the equipment will have an estimated terminal value of $25,000 at the end of its 7- year useful life as it will be utilized longer thus having less value at the end of the project and savings.

5. Owen, the head of Operations, is concerned that instead of stabilizing the supply chain, it will just add another process to be managed, and will distract from the core competencies the company currently has. She feels the company should focus on improving communication and supply chain management with its current vendor, and she feels confident he can negotiate a discount of 4% off of the annual outsourcing cost of $1,200,000 if she lets it be known they are considering taking over this step of the process. As there is little risk associated with Olivia’s proposal due to no upfront capital requirements, a lower risk-free discount rate of 7% would be appropriate. Oliva feels that any price reductions from the current vendor will last for five years. (NOTE: because there is no “investment”, the Payback and IRR metrics are not meaningful. Simply provide the NPV of the Savings cash flows)

PART A: Data Calculations

Using the data presented above (and ignoring the extraneous information), for this profit and supply chain improvement project, calculate each of the following (where applicable):

o  Nominal Payback

o  Discounted Payback

o  Net Present Value

o  Internal Rate of Return

Present your calculations and results either in an Excel Spreadsheet or in Word (using tables and headers to organize the information in a way that is clear and easy to read). Be sure to show your detailed calculations.

1. Which government activity is not an example of fiscal policy( TAXATION & SPENDING)?

a) Collecting unemployment insurance taxes

b) Collecting gasoline taxes

c) Providing solar energy subsidies

d) Buying missiles from defense contractors

e) Regulating natural monopolies

2. Confidence in Keynesian economics:

            a) Diminished in the 1960’s as inflation recurred.

            b) Diminished in the 1960’s as inflation occurred simultaneously with two recessions.

            c) Diminished in the 1960’s as unemployment recurred.

            d) Diminished in the 1970’s with “stagflation”

            e) Flourished through the 1980’s.

3. A change in income will
            a) Affect demand and supply the same.

            b) Affect quantity supplied through the income effect shift supply curve.

            c) Shift the demand curve.

            d) Have no effect since everything is held constant along a demand curve.

            e) Have a different effect on demand depending on equilibrium price.

4. The division of labor refers to:

            a) Having each worker or firm specialize in a separate task.

            b) Separating workers by race.

            c) Letting everyone share in a specific task.

            d) Letting each worker make a separate product from start to finish.

            e) Separating management from workers.

5. A price ceiling imposed by the government result in an:

            a) Excess demand at equilibrium price.

            b) Excess demand at the price ceiling.

            c) Excess supply at the price ceiling.

            d) Excess supply at equilibrium price.

            e) Excess demand at a price above the equilibrium.

6. The circular flow of the economy is primarily used to trace the flow of:

            a) Money through the economy.

            b) Consumer spending through the economy.

            c) Goods through the economy.

            d) Resources, production, and money through the economy.

            e) Resources through the production process.

7. If the price level is above the equilibrium level:

            a) The resulting excess demand will force the price level down.

            b) The resulting excess demand will force the price level up.

            c) The resulting excess supply will force the price level up.

            d) The resulting excess supply will force the price level down.

            e) The resulting unemployment will force the price level up.

8. A “laissez-faire” approach to the macroeconomy before the Great Depression influences our government to:

            a) See business downturns as a “serious malady” in a “healthy” system, and therefore take only short-term deficit spending measures to help recovery.

            b) See business downturns as a “serious malady” to an otherwise “healthy system,” and therefore wait for recovery to occur naturally.

            c) See business downturns as a “serious malady” to an otherwise “healthy system,” and therefore work to redesign the system to avoid such failure in the future.

            d) See business downturns as a failure of the type of system Adam Smith envisaged, and thus move toward a modern, more managed economy.

            e) See business downturns as a failure of the current system to be the type that Adam Smith envisaged, and thus move toward less government interference in the macro economy

9. Keynes believed that the Great Depression was caused by:

            a) Unemployment.

            b) Deficit spending by the government.

            c) The tax increases put through by President Herbert Hoover.

            d) The policies of “demand-style” economies.

            e) A fall in aggregate demand.

10. Keynes believed that the best method for ending the Great Depression would be to:

            a) Increase the money supply so that individuals would have more to spend.

            b) Cut government spending and increase taxes to reduce.

            c) Increase government spending and cut taxes so that consumers would spend more.

            d) Cut both government spending and taxes so that government would not be such a large     part of the economy.

            e) Increase both government spending and taxes to increase the role government played     in the economy.

11. Keynes was:

            a) In favor of a federal budget deficit to cure an inflation.

            b) Opposed to a federal budget surplus to cure an inflation.

            c) In favor of a federal budget deficit to cure a recession.

            d) In favor of a federal budget deficit regardless of the state of the economy.

12. Proponents of monetarism:

            a) Feel that fiscal policy of worthless.

            b) View government spending as the most important public policy tool.

            c) View taxation as the most important public policy tool.

            d) Support Keynesian economics.

            e) View the money supply as the most important public policy tool.

13. The word “stagflation” describes a situation in which:

            a) Inflation is stagnated.

            b) Inflation increases with economic growth.

            c) Inflation and unemployment occur at the same time.

            d) Inflation is low enough to grow economic growth.

            e) Inflation is zero.

14. The main difference between economic change before 1970 and after 1970 is that before 1970:

            a) Most macroeconomic instability was caused by simultaneous shifts in aggregate demand and aggregate supply.

            b) Most macroeconomic instability was caused by shifts in aggregate supply.

            c) Most macroeconomic instability was caused by shifts in aggregate demand.

            d) The government assumed no direct responsibility for the level of employment.

            e) The government itself was a much less important player in the macroeconomy.

15. The labor force consists of:

            a) All the people in the economy.

            b) All the people in the economy over 16 years of age.

            c) All the adults in the economy able to work.

            d) All the adults in the economy who hold jobs or are looking for them.

            e) All the adults in the economy qualified to hold a job.

16. Consider an economy with 100 people, 70 of whom hold jobs and 10 of whom are looking. The number of people in the labor force is:

            a) 100

            b) 30

            c) 10

            d) 80

            e) 70

17. Consider an economy with 100 people, 70 of whom hold jobs and 10 of whom are looking. The rate of unemployment is:

            a) 10 percent.

            b) 12.5 percent.

            c) 14.3 percent.

            d) 20 percent.

18. The labor force participation rate for women in the United States has

            a) Stayed the same over the last 30 years      

            b) Increased significantly since the 1950s     

            c) Been influenced by decreasing real wages since 1960     

            d) Trended substantially downward since the 1950s

            e) Increased only very slightly since the 1950s

ITAP1004 Website Development
Assignment











July 2020
Due Date: Session 13
Weightage: 25% (Task 1- 20% and Task 2 -5%)
Individual Assignment
The purpose of assignment is to assess students on the following Learning Outcomes:
LO 1 Explain characteristics of commercial web sites and associated authoring/management issues
LO 2 Analyse the features of a range of software tools used in the development of websites LO 3 Research key features of internet standards and protocols, including World Wide Web standards
LO 4 Develop web pages using standard mark-up and scripting programming languages and models
LO 5 Write program code to produce dynamic database driven web documents
LO 6 Produce design specification documents applicable to a web site authoring task LO 7 Identify and discuss website usability principles and issues

_______________________________________________________________________________ Assignment Description
You are to develop from the beginning a web site about yourself with regards to your course studies and any certifications you have done so far. This web site provides certain required details about your education/studies which you did. You will design and develop your web site with Notepad/Notepad++, HTML, Java Script and CSS.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to build a web site that will contain some details about all of your course degrees you have achieved so far including all the certifications with, e.g., the number of degrees you are holding so far, the number of institutes you enrolled yourself, etc.

This assignment involves creation of three HTML files corresponding to the three pages of your web site and all are connected to an external CSS file. You will need to determine how your site will be designed and then you will develop the pages using HTML, Java Script and CSS.
The pages and CSS file you will develop are explained below.

Home page (.HTML file)
The first page of your site the user sees will be a home page. This page will be a welcome to the site. You will explain to the user what the site is about. The content of the page will include at least two paragraphs. An appropriate heading must be placed at the top of the page indicating what the page or site is about.
The word limit for this page, excluding the heading, is 130 – 150 words. You must keep the number of words within this range.
In the home page, add two links for “Course details” page and “About Me” page.

NOTE: All pages must have links to the other pages.

Past Course details page (.HTML file)
Begin this page with an appropriate heading (as all pages of the site will have) reflecting that this page deals with details about all the unit courses. Do not use “Course details” in the heading but use another title for your heading.

Current Course details page (.HTML file)
This page conveys certain aspects about all the unit course details.
Like the previous page, show a heading at the top of the page. Do not use “Current course details” in the heading text but use some other title.

Cascading Style Sheet
Use CSS file for formatting used for all web pages.

Ensure that you use appropriate names for all files of the site. Avoid file names that reflect that they are about a university assignment, but instead reflect what their purpose is in the site.
Also ensure that file contents are laid out properly and neatly and that all code is indented consistently and properly.
Task 1: Develop a web site about yourself with regards to your course studies and any certifications you have done so far. This web site provides certain required details about your education/studies which you did. You will design and develop your web site with Notepad/Notepad++, HTML, Java Script and CSS. Mention the website usability issues based on the website you have developed.  

Task 2: After developing the website, explain the characteristics of that website and associated authoring/management issues.

Submission Guidelines:

The report should have a consistent, professional, and well-organized appearance.
1. This assessment item requires you to work individually.
2. Late penalty applies on late submission, 10% per day would be deducted.
3. Do not include any images in your site. Using images from other sites where permission is not granted will violate copyright associated with those images. No marks are being awarded for use of images so there is no benefit in including images.
4. It is without a doubt that students could be able copy text or other material from the other sites and include it, as it is, in their own sites. This would be a clear case of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty that in this case would involve theft of material, and this would result in penalization of the student.
5. All content that is used in the student’s site must be totally written in their own words.
6. Students carry out the assignment individually. Students must not share any part of their work with each other.


Marking Guide: 100 Marks
Task Description Marks
Home Page Content 10
Page Viewable (i.e. actually works) in browser 10

Course Details Page Introductory Paragraph 10
Table 10
Page Viewable (i.e. actually works) in browser 5
Current Course Details Page Introductory Paragraph
10
Numbered List
5
Page Viewable (i.e. actually works) in browser
5
CSS One external CSS applied to all pages 10
Other Heading on every page
5
Relevant naming of all files used in site
10
Layout of and indentation within files
10
Total Page Viewable (i.e. actually works) in browser 100

Summarize the article and answer the following questions in your answer:

1. What specific metrics are being used?

2. What value is the company getting from using this data?

Was this similar to what the Obama campaign did on Facebook?

Sort of. The Obama campaign did collect a similar level of data from its app, which includes both your information and your friend's information.

But as Politifact notes, users were willingly giving up that information and knew it was going to a political campaign. The Obama campaign used your friend's data to figure out who may or may not be willing to vote for him, and sent messages to users to persuade their friends.

That's different from the Cambridge Analytica situation, since most users taking the digital life quiz had no idea that the data would be used for political purposes.

What's Facebook doing about this?

After five long days, Zuckerberg broke his silence on March 21 with a nearly 1,000-word post on his Facebook page. (C'mon, did you really expect it to show up on Twitter?) The post was his first since since March 2, when he shared a photo of his family celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim.

Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook had made mistakes with users' information. "We have a responsibility to protect your data," he wrote. "And if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you."

He's since sat down for several media interviews, and on April 4, held an hour-long conference call with journalists. "Life is learning from mistakes," Zuckerberg said. "At the end of the day, this is my responsibility. I started this place, I run it, I'm responsible."

The company, he said, is now facing two central questions: "Can we get our systems under control and second, can we make sure that our systems aren't used to undermine democracy," Zuckerberg said.

"It's not enough to give people a voice, we have to make sure that people are not using that voice to spread disinformation," he added.

And, specifically, he acknowledged that Facebook has "to ensure that everyone in our ecosystem protects people's information."

We have a responsibility to protect your data. And if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

He's promised to investigate apps that had access to "large amounts of information" before the company made changes to how much information third-party apps could access in 2018. Facebook will conduct a full audit of apps that exhibit suspicious behavior and bar developers who don't agree to audits.

On April 6, Facebook said it was banning AggregateIQ, another political analytics firm that's reportedly tied to Cambridge Analytica's parent company, SCL. (Aggregate IQ denies this connection.) Facebook said it instituted the ban out of concern that AggregateIQ may have improperly received Facebook user data as well.

Facebook's public missteps have brought up other concerns about Facebook too. One example is a memo leaked to BuzzFeed penned by Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, a top Facebook executive. The 2016 memo advocates growth above everything else, regardless of whether people use Facebook to bully and harass one another.

"The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good," he wrote at the time. He's since said he was trying to stir debate, and didn't agree with what he'd written.

Facebook is also planning to restrict how much access developers have to your information, limiting the information it gives apps to your name, photo and email address. It'll also revoke an app's access to your data if you haven't used it for three months.

The company is also planning to further restrict political advertising, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, said in an interview with Bloomberg. "If you were using hate-based language in ads for elections, we're drawing those lines much tighter and applying them uniformly," she said.

Last, Facebook will begin displaying a gauge at the top of your News Feed that lets you know which apps you've used and let you revoke their permissions.

Are people bailing from Facebook?

They are, though it's still too early to know if that'll have a substantial effect on Facebook's gargantuan user numbers. Right off the bat, the hashtag #DeleteFacebook flared up on Twitter -- backed by, notably, Brian Acton, WhatsApp's co-founder who sold the messaging service to Facebook for $19 billion.

We're also starting to see some action that could hit Facebook in the wallet. Within days of the scandal erupting, Firefox maker Mozilla said it would no longer advertise on Facebook because of data privacy concerns, and it launched a petition to ask the social network to improve its privacy settings. Meanwhile, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken a different kind of stand. Prompted by an inquiry from a Twitter user, he quickly deleted both companies' Facebook pages. So did Playboy, for what it's worth.

Beyond those high profile moves, a recent survey from the anonymous employee social network Blind found that 31 percent of tech workers plan to delete Facebook too. Coverage of Facebook has turned negative too, a survey by BuzzFeed found.

Still, Zuckerberg said in a call on April 4 that the larger #DeleteFacebook campaign hasn't had a noticeable effect on its active user counts.

Ultimately, reform is what's needed, said former Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser. "For many years, I never questioned it," Kaiser said. "That's the way that the political system works. That's the way that advertising works. That's the way that every single industry that exists in the entire basis of digital communications works. I do really understand the industry, and I have the ability to be a voice for change."

Correct this essay...

The tragedy of Syrian Refugees’ Children

In order to gain money for his family, a child has to wake up early and go directly to work for long hours, often in hazardous conditions, using dangerous machinery in factories, getting abused by employers, and spending the whole day under the hot sun. After an exhausting day like that, the one thing that the child will do when he returns home is to fall asleep, but unfortunately, that was also not enough simple for him. Hence, every night the same nightmare will come chasing him and a scene of a terrified child trying to run away from the bombs that a warplane is dropping next to him will be played. He wishes he could bring a psychological to address every emotional wound he is suffering from or just go to school and play with children from his age. He just wishes an ordinary life; a life that a child should have to grow in. That wish was from a Syrian refugee child, but in fact, about 5 million child share the same dream and hope to be a student that is building his future. Therefore, these children should be afforded with education to erase the bleak image that is stored in their eyes and to not lose a generation of talent and mind.

            To begin, many Syrian refugees are finding difficulties affording their children education fees following the hard situation they live in, losing all their goods in their homeland and desperate to find a good earning job . The crisis of Syrian refugees affected the children’s education negatively. Recent statistics studies show that the number of refugees between the age of 3 and 18 is approximately 500 000, with only 150 000 of them getting educated due to the lack of funds some Syrian refugees suffer from (World Bank, 2016, 1:06). On the same matter, the lack of funds leads most refugees over the age of 18 to be unable to continue their higher education. According to Martin Trow, almost two percent of the capable age series have entered universities in Africa (as cited in Peterson, 2010, p.11). In order to solve these problems, NGOs offered free non formal education schools next to camps in order to help those unable to attend schools get a primary education (World Bank, 2016, 1:34). Solutions as these could give hope to refugees, motivating them to work harder in order to educate themselves.

Furthermore, many young Syrian refugees are obliged to work in risky places with acceptance of low wage salaries. The children’s parents are in a financial crisis and they are always wandering and searching for an income that can only satisfy their primary needs. In addition, legal standards are too tough for the Syrian youngsters to handle. For example, if a Syrian child wants to access the school, he/she must have an ID that reveals who they are and where they come from, but most of these refugees lost their ID in their hometown during war. This can be an enormous problem that these poor young-Syrian refugees might face. In the magazine” The Importance of Education for Refugees “(2017), it was reported that refugee students that are accessing schools are quitting because legal standards are tough for them because some things can not be provided or adapted. Since they are not allowed to work, all members of the family must work with low budgets in order to live or survive (para.6). Moreover, young Syrian boys are seen weak and many people think that they are able to handle abuse and violence so many work places demand them to work in their work place with very low income that can make the parents accept the offer.

The third reason is there are some refugees suffer from lack of English language. Almost all countries in the world use the English language in teaching their students while in Syria the government uses Arabic language in their curriculum. In addition, each day the number of Syrian refugees increases due to the unstoppable war in Syria which leads to raise the problem of language. For example, in Lebanon, the government use the English language in their curriculum to teach students which affect directly the achievements of refugees and may cause to have uneducated children due to the difficulties of language. For confirmation, according to a recent statistics, almost 2% of the capable age series have entered universities in Africa due to the difficulties that face them in school (as cited in Peterson, 2010, p.11). Therefore, as a solution, the governments should either insure new schools especially for Syrian refugees or make a second shift in one school with a Syrian teachers. For confirmation, “it is possible to assist teachers in developing strategies that incorporate the background knowledge of their refugee children” (“The importance of education for refugees”, 2017, para.6).

Syrian refugees face many issues in host countries, their lives became hard and in risky conditions. Recent statistics showed that the number of refugees that are enrolled in schools are 150000 students, and these students need help an support as they live in poor health conditions. Many of the Syrian refugees live in cold situations, for example in Bekaa the temperature is too low, and some refugee schools have no heating tools. In addition, many of the diseases they suffer of appear in schools and camps Syrian refugees live in and without undergoing any treatment (Word bank,2016,1:06).

Last but not least, the schools that are afforded for Syrian refugees are not formal departments which end up not rewarding these children with their right to own a certificate. A statistical report stated that the number of refugees between the age of 3 and 18 is approximately 500,000, with only 150,000 of them getting educated (World Bank, 2016, 1:06). For example, in Bekaa, a non formal school was established for Syrian children next to the refugee’s camp. Teachers were dealing with war children that are negatively affected with every hazardous situation they went through which are somehow hard to deal with accepting the fact of dead uneducated minds. So, it was a challenge for these teachers to bring children back to their normal life. Moreover, teachers are waiting for somebody to answer their call on finding a solution to insure refugee’s right of quality education by giving these children certificates helping them achieve their bright goal in an appropriate way ( hawerunesco, 2016, 3:50).  

To sum up, education will solve the problems that Syrian refugees are suffering from which consist of high fees, labor, English language problems, unhealthy environment, and no quality education. These children are waiting for an open door that will be opened by achieving the solutions stated above.

Wall Street Journal

- July 11, 2011

By

ALEXANDRA BERZON

"Red Carpet for the Chinese - Hotels Add Menu Items, Translators, Other Services for

Growing Travel Segment"

The traditional Chinese rice porridge, called congee, will soon become a staple of hotel

breakfast buffets in America and abroad as U.S.-based hotel chains compete for

growing numbers of Chinese travelers.

The Chinese dish is part of a set of broader initiatives to attract Chinese travelers at

hotel giants Hilton Worldwide Inc. and

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

. This summer, both hotel companies are rolling out hospitality standards centered on items

that cater to Chinese guests in hotels across the world

Congee breakfast is among the Chinese-style

amenities at the Hilton in San Francisco's

financial district.

Starwood plans to announce a program

Monday called "Starwood Personalized

Travel," which will require the company's

1,051 hotels—including the Sheraton, Westin

and W chains—to offer a set of specific

services for Chinese travelers, including in-room tea kettles, slippers and translation

services, in addition to new menu items.

The program will start at 19 hotels in cities such as New York, London, Mexico City,

Seoul and San Francisco, where Chinese business is rapidly growing. The program will

cover all Starwood hotels by the end of next year, the company said.

Hilton on Monday plans to announce a program for its Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand

called "Hilton Huanying"—from the Chinese word for "welcome." Hilton hotels can opt

into the program. Those that do—30 so far—must provide a front desk worker fluent in

Mandarin and a Chinese television station, as well as a full Chinese breakfast including

dim sum, congee and fried dough fritters, among other items. It will begin in August.

"Chinese travel is going to provide one of the great opportunities that we'll ever see in

the business," said Hilton Chief Executive Chris Nassetta.

Marriott International

Inc., meanwhile, is planning a new Chinese breakfast program in

the U.S. this fall that will include information for hotels on how to create a Chinese

breakfast.

Chinese foreign travel is still a small segment of overall global travel. But these moves

by hotel companies signal the growing importance that Chinese travelers are expected

to have in the coming years for the travel industry. They reflect both the leap in China's

economy and the loosening of restrictions on travel since as recently as a decade ago,

when Chinese were not allowed by their government to visit most countries.

"Outbound travel from Chinese is the next wave," said Starwood CEO

Frits van

Paasschen

.

The changes in part follow a script from the 1980s. As Japan's economy boomed, hotels

in many cities in the U.S. and around the world added Japanese breakfast items such

as rice, dried seaweed, pickled vegetables and miso soup to their menus.

The Starwood and Hilton Chinese programs are more formal and reach across their

portfolio of hotels. Attracting the new travelers is also urgent priority as growth in travel

dollars from many markets softens.

Global hotel brands have seen significant pick-up this year following deep declines

during the downturn. However the boost has been far greater in Asia than other regions,

reflecting in large part the growth of travel among Chinese.

In the first quarter of 2011, for example, Marriott saw revenue per available room in Asia

increase 17.2% compared to 5.8% in North America.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, 802,000 mainland Chinese residents visited

the U.S. in 2010, a 53% increase over the prior year. In 2005 just 270,000 Chinese

people visited the U.S. The Department of Commerce expects those numbers to reach

994,000 in 2011. The U.S. received $5 billion from Chinese visitors, according to the

Association, a 40% increase over 2009.

Japanese visitation in 2010 was much larger—around 3.1 million. Yet the trends are

divergent. From 2006 through 2009 travel from Japan declined each year, finally in

2009 reaching the lowest point since 1988, according to the Travel Association.

After Starwood executives noticed an enormous recent jump in the number of Chinese

subscribing to Starwood's loyalty program, a team led by Matt Gaghen, Starwood's vice

president of brand management, spent the last year researching the Chinese market

and discovered that language and food were two of the most important issues for

Chinese travelers.

As such, all Starwood hotels are to beginning efforts to hire at least one person on staff

who speaks a Chinese language. Chinese guests will receive a note from the general

manager translated into Chinese that offers the amenities available to them, such as tea

kettles, razors, toothbrushes and combs.

Since Starwood generally doesn't own hotels but sets standards for them, the changes

could mean a cost increase for hotel owners in some places that don't yet see many

Chinese travelers.

"We're planning and investing in this to get ahead and to appeal to Chinese at the

outset," Mr. Gaghen said.

Questions

25 possible points, 5 points per question.

1.

What services are hotel chains adding to cater to Chinese travelers? Identify 2-3

services that you can think of that are not mentioned in the article.

2.

What types of marketing research would you recommend to hotel chains to better

understand the services that Chinese travelers will want and expect?

3.

Besides hotels, what other firms could benefit from the increase in Chinese

travelers, and how should they tailor their services for this market?

4.

If your future employer is a firm that targets Chinese consumers, what skills and

experience will you need to contribute to your employer's efforts?

5.

Which aspect(s) of the business environment (economic, technological,

sociocultural, political/legal) are being affected the most in this article? Provide

specific examples.

Hello! I'm trying to write a code that will either encrypt/decrypt a message from an inputed text. I'm having the absolute hardest time getting stared and figuring out how to identify in the code if the input needs to be encrypted/decrypted and identifying the string to encrypt/decrypt with. These are the instructions:

Objectives

• Command line input
• File input and output
• Rethrowing exceptions

Program Description

Gaius Julius Caesar encoded his battle messages so that the opponent could not read them should they intercept them. The cipher required that both Caesar and the recipient knew the key to the cipher.

You are to write a program that reads in a message from a text file, encodes the message with a Caesar cipher, and then outputs the message to another file. Your program should also be able to read in an encoded message and decode it.

1. Define What this program must do. We did this in class. Check your class notes!

2. Outline How this program will accomplish the task. Your solution should be modularized.

Specifications

Input

The program should read, in order, command line arguments.
- The filename of the text file to open
- The cipher key for encryption/decryption
- A digit: 1 to encode or 2 to decode

*Using an IDE, look for "Run configurations" to set arguments. The IDE arguments needed are only the filename, cipher key, and encode/decode digit. You don't need the "java Cipher" portion that would be required if truly running from the command line.

Example of full command line input to encrypt:

 java Cipher messageFile secretword 1    
 The result is a new encoded file called "messageFile.coded"  

Example of full command line input to decrypt:

 java Cipher messageFile.coded secretword 2  
 The result is a new decoded file called "messageFile.decoded"

Note that the decoded message in "messgeFile.decoded" should be identical to the original file "messageFile"

Errors and Exception handling

• If the file does not exist, or the user somehow provides bad input data, the program should "crash", that is, rethrow the error to allow the default handler take care of it. (In the second version, this program will handle the errors with try/catch constructs.)
• Only the digit 1 or 2 is allowed. Any other integer value will result in an error message and the program will terminate. For example, if the arguments are messageFile secretword 3, the error message will be:
  Option 3 is not valid
• You may assume the cipher key is a single word of alphabet characters only.
• You may assume the text in the message file has alphabetic characters and punctuation characters (spaces, exclamation points, periods) only.

Encryption and Decryption

• To encrypt a message, each letter in the message is shifted right by a number corresponding to the distance of the cipher key letter from the first letter in the alphabet. The cipher key is reused over and over until the message is encrypted. Punctuation and spaces are not encrypted but still appear in the encoded message. Uppercase should be converted to lowercase. Letters "wrap" around from 'z' to 'a'.

• Message: the ships sail
  Cipher key: swiftly
  Output: ldm lsgho xttj wb wluf

Other examples:

• Message: the ships sail at dawn
  Cipher key: secretword
  Output: llg waedj kekc tp udor

• Message: the ships sail at dawn
  Cipher key: aaa
  Output: the ships sail at dawn

Output

• Output is written to a text file which is named same as the input file plus the extension:
  .coded if being encrypted or
  .decoded if being decrypted .

Helper Methods

You will want to add methods to shift up and down.

And this is the template provided:

/*
* Fix me
*/
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Cipher {

   public static final int NUM_LETTERS = 26;
   public static final int ENCODE = 1;
   public static final int DECODE = 2;

   public static void main(String[] args) /* FIX ME */ {

// letters
String alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";
  
// Check args length, if error, print usage message and exit
if (args.length...

// Extract input args to variables
       String inputFilename =
       String key =
       int action =
       String outputFilename = getOutputFilename(inputFilename, action);
       Scanner input = openInput(inputFilename);
       PrintWriter output = openOutput(outputFilename);

// Read in data and output to file
// Convert all letters to lowercase for output

       // Close streams

   }

   /**
   * Open input for reading
   *
   * @param filename
   * @return Scanner
   * @throws FileNotFoundException
   */

  
   /**
   * Open output for writing
   *
   * @param filename
   * @return PrintWriter
   * @throws FileNotFoundException
   */

/**
* Encode letter by some offset d
*
* @param c input character
* @param offset amount to shift character value
* @return char encoded character
*/
   public static char shiftUpByK(char c, int distance) {
       if ('a' <= c && c <= 'z')
           return (char) ('a' + (c - 'a' + distance) % NUM_LETTERS);
       if ('A' <= c && c <= 'Z')
           return (char) ('A' + (c - 'A' + distance) % NUM_LETTERS);
       return c; // don't encrypt if not an ic character
   }
  
   /**
* Decode letter by some offset d
*
* @param c input character
* @param offset amount to shift character value
* @return char decoded character
*/

   /**
   * Changes file extension to ".coded" or ".decoded"
   *
   * @param filename
   * @return String new filename or null if action is illegal
   */

   public String getInfo() {
       return "Program 3, Student's name here";
   }

}

If someone could please help and use the template to code this in JAVA in the next couple of days it would be greatly appreciated, thank you!!!