You have been appointed as the new planning officer at a district assembly. The DCE has asked you to produce a five page report(reference if possible) outlining the environmental services that would be required in a small town with population of 6000 for the next 10 years.
1. List and explain at least 6 environmental services (or infrastructure) that you would recommend for the settlement
a. Just the environmental implications or contribution of each of these services that you have outlined to the overall development of that small town
b. Explain the methods you are likely to use to arrive at the projected population and how you will carry out your needs assessment

A new waste treatment plant has been planned to replace an existing small aging plant for your home town. Discuss the MOEs for (i)the overall system, (ii)each phase of the overall system development,and (iii)the operations phase of any of the plant’s processes.

Microsoft in 2005

As their 2005 fiscal year came to a close, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer could reflect on the last year as well as the previous five years—with mixed emotions. Microsoft had slowed down after two decades of spectacular growth in revenues, profits, and stock price (see Exhibits 1, 2, and 3). Although Microsoft remained one of the most valuable and profitable companies in the world, its two core products, Windows and Office, had been experiencing anemic growth in revenues and profits. Moreover, competing software, such as the Linux operating system, and the rising popularity of search engines like Google, were posing new threats to Microsoft’s franchise.

On the positive side, Microsoft had the strongest balance sheet of any company in the world. Management was committed to aggressive reinforcement of its core businesses, including significant investments in new operating systems and Web services, as well as ongoing investments in new businesses, ranging from Xbox to Business Solutions. Perhaps most importantly, Microsoft had settled many of its public and private lawsuits on reasonably favorable terms by 2005 (see Exhibit 4).

One of the most daunting challenges was how to reposition Microsoft for modern times. When Gates started the company in 1975, he proclaimed that the mission of Microsoft was “to place a PC running Microsoft software on every desk and in every home.” When Gates reflected on Microsoft strategy with the casewriters in the mid-1990s, he further articulated this view:

We look for opportunities with network externalities—where there are advantages to the vast majority of consumers to share a common standard. We look for businesses where we can garner large market shares, not just 30%–35%. But at the same time, we are not a software conglomerate. The key to our business is building annuities, by tapping into the broad revenue streams that will rely on our software expertise.1[A1]

In 2005, 30 years after Microsoft was founded, the company had a new vision statement: to be “the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.” Gates remained the company visionary as well as its chairman and chief software architect. However, it was CEO Ballmer, Gates’s friend from his freshman days at Harvard, who was now leading the charge. While Ballmer was forcefully driving the company forward, the big question remained: Would these efforts allow Microsoft to repeat its previous spectacular successes, or would the future belong to a new generation of leaders?[A2]

The Early Microsoft Years (1975–1990)

Gates and his high school friend, Paul Allen, founded Microsoft in 1975, and the company’s first product was a condensed version of the BASIC programming language for the first personal computer (PC). Over the next few years, Microsoft developed numerous versions of other programming languages, becoming the leading distributor of software development tools. But Microsoft’s big break came in 1980, when IBM asked Gates to provide the operating system (OS) for its new PC. Rather than develop an OS from scratch, Gates bought an existing OS from a local programmer for $50,000 and tailored his new product, called MS-DOS, to work exclusively with Intel microprocessors—the “brains” of the IBM PC. By 1984, MS-DOS had achieved an 85% market share, pushing Microsoft sales over $100 million. When Gates took the company public in 1986, the stock price tripled within a year, making Gates a billionaire at the age of 31.

During the 1980s, Microsoft was already trying to expand beyond MS-DOS. As early as 1981, Microsoft began work on a graphical user interface (GUI) called Windows, shipping version 1.0 in 1985. At the same time, Microsoft worked with IBM to develop a totally new OS called OS/2. The first “killer apps” in the software industry—applications that everyone wanted—came from two of the larger independent software vendors (ISVs), Lotus and WordPerfect. Microsoft was originally seen as an imitator with second-rate products. Early releases were especially derided. Industry pundits joked about never buying a Microsoft product called “1.0.”

Ironically, Microsoft’s greatest success in the 1980s outside of its OS came from recognizing the potential of the Apple Macintosh and choosing to write applications for the Apple OS. While major ISVs largely ignored the Mac, Microsoft became the dominant supplier of Macintosh word processing and spreadsheet software. Microsoft’s familiarity with developing applications for the Macintosh helped it develop Windows, which used a Mac-like GUI that took the market by storm.

Application Software

Application software had a very different business model from that of OSes. While OSes were sold mainly through hardware OEMs, applications were sold through a myriad of channels, including computer companies, corporate site licenses, various retail channels, and after the mid- 1990s the Internet. The key for successful OS vendors was to build close relationships with ISVs to produce as many applications as possible on their OS. Though ISVs did not have access to the proprietary source code for the Microsoft OS, they did have access to “hooks,” called application program interfaces (APIs), by which they could take advantage of various OS features. Successful ISVs, in turn, competed on software features, customer service, shelf space/availability, and price. Since 1990, most PC application programs, which previously sold for hundreds of dollars, had by 2005 dropped to an average of less than $40.

Until the advent of Windows, customers would typically choose a software application and then stick with it. Training workers to use a new spreadsheet or word processor once cost up to five times as much as the program itself. For productivity application vendors, such as Lotus and WordPerfect, their large customer base and high switching costs led to very profitable operations. Over the 1990s, however, Lotus, WordPerfect, Borland, and others found their businesses under pressure. First, the cost of producing a major software program grew from a few hundred thousand dollars to more than

$10 million. Second, by providing standard interfaces and file formats, Windows reduced customers’ switching costs from five times to roughly twice the cost of the application. And third, after Windows took off, Microsoft itself became the world’s largest PC application vendor.

Microsoft’s success in PC applications began in the late 1980s when it pursued a new paradigm. To induce customers to switch from their favorite applications, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft was the first to offer a bundle, or suite, of applications at a discounted price. Microsoft also began offering “competitive upgrades,” a sales program whereby Lotus 1-2-3 or WordPerfect customers could switch to Microsoft for a significantly discounted price.7 Part of Microsoft’s success with Windows applications was the result of competitors’ mistakes. While Lotus and WordPerfect matched Microsoft’s competitive upgrade pricing, they were initially reluctant to write for Windows and even slower to create their own bundles. As a result, Word and Excel were the best products on the Windows platform, and by the mid-1990s, Excel was outselling Lotus by 2 to 1 and Word soon dominated WordPerfect.8 Furthermore, as competitors played catch-up by increasing their Windows development efforts, they furthered the success of Microsoft’s Windows operating system. By 1995, many ISVs, except for Microsoft, had completely abandoned Macintosh development.

Microsoft’s stand-alone products ranged from Money (financial management) and Project (project management) to Flight Simulator (a popular computer game). However, specialized ISVs were able to dominate most of the niche application markets. For example, Intuit was the dominant provider of financial management and tax software, Adobe’s PageMaker was preeminent in desktop publishing, and Autodesk’s AutoCAD was the lead vendor in computer-aided design (CAD).

Applications software accounted for about one-third of Microsoft’s total sales in 2005, after peaking at around 60% in the mid-1990s. Microsoft had captured 90% of the market for productivity software applications in 1995. Its market share then rose to around 95% by 1998, with Corel’s WordPerfect Suite and IBM’s Lotus Suite carving up the remaining scraps. Yet despite Microsoft’s great success, application revenues were under pressure. Revenue from stand-alone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint had been in a steady decline since around 1995 as the Office Suite gradually absorbed each of these individual markets. Microsoft acknowledged that this trend exerted a steady downward pressure on prices because Office sold for less than the sum of the individual programs. Second, upgrades (rather than new sales) were taking a larger share of revenue, and upgrades had lower margins than new products.9 Moreover, industry wisdom held that 80% of customers used less than 20% of the features.

USE THE ABOVE SCENARIO TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

How did Microsoft use bundling to price discriminate? Use specific cited examples. How did Microsoft build revenues so fast? Be specific in your details. What are three big threats to Microsoft's success? Be specific and explain the details and impacts of each threat.

1. There is a claim that the average weight of 10 years old girls is different from 70.5 Ib. A sample of 20 10 years old girls were selected with the mean 0f 68.4 Ib and standard deviation 0f 4.8 Ib. Given that a = 0.01. what is the p-value?

2. There is a claim that the average weight of 10 years old girls is different from 70.5 Ib. A sample of 20 10 years old girls were selected with the mean 0f 68.4 Ib and standard deviation 0f 4.8 Ib. Given that a = 0.01. What is the correct conclusion?

3.A researcher claims that a person uses less than 65 tissues during a cold. Suppose a sample of 50 people was selected with a mean of 60 tissues and a standard deviation of 16 tissues during a cold. Given that a=0.01. Is there sufficient evidence to indicate that a person uses less than 65 tissues during a cold?

QUESTION 25

1. During the first division of meiosis (meiosis I):

2 points   

QUESTION 26

1. Green plants are considered:

2 points   

QUESTION 27

1. Traits like height or intelligence are polygenic. Polygenic means they:

2 points   

QUESTION 28

1. Hemophilia type A is caused by a recessive allele. We see the disease phenotype almost exclusively in boys. The gene for this blood clotting factor (factor VIII) is probably:

2 points   

QUESTION 29

1. Water is less dense as a solid than as a liquid, so ice floats. This unusual phenomenon is caused by:

2 points   

QUESTION 30

1. A double-blind experiment is when:

2 points   

QUESTION 31

1. Before meiosis, human cells are:

2 points   

QUESTION 32

1. Organic molecules always contain:

2 points   

QUESTION 33

1. A recessive disease allele that is found on one of the autosomal chromosomes will affect:

QUESTION 35

1. Adult dogs are diploid with 78 chromosomes. After meiosis, how many chromosomes are in each dog egg or sperm cell?

2 points   

QUESTION 36

1. We expect identical twins to have all the same alleles because:

2 points   

QUESTION 37

1. What is another way to describe an H+ ion?

2 points   

QUESTION 38

1. Which is a correct difference between Mitosis and Meiosis?

2 points   

QUESTION 39

1. For the first billion years of life on earth, only one type of life form is seen in the fossil record:

2 points   

QUESTION 40

1. The monomers that make up an RNA molecule are:

Describe any two of the three major characteristics of the fifth merger wave of the 1990s.

How do you evaluate the intensified battle between Liberalism and Conservatism in the 1990s?

What were the trade barriers in the 1990s?

What were the pros and cons of these barriers?

7. Problems and Applications Q7

Two towns, each with three members, are deciding whether to put on a fireworks display to celebrate the New Year. Fireworks cost $300. In each town, some people enjoy fireworks more than others.

In the town of Bayport, each of the residents values the public good as follows:

The total benefit of the fireworks display to the town of Bayport is ($ ).

Therefore, fireworks (would/would not) pass the cost-benefit analysis in the town of Bayport.

The mayor of Bayport proposes to decide by majority rule and, if the fireworks referendum passes, to split the cost equally among all residents.

Who would vote in favor of the fireworks referendum? Check all that apply.

Darnell

Eleanor

Jacques

The vote (would/would not) yield the same answer as the cost-benefit analysis.

In the town of River Heights, each of the residents values the public good as follows:

The total benefit of the fireworks display to the town of River Heights is ($ ).

Therefore, fireworks (would/would not)   pass the cost-benefit analysis in the town of River Heights.

The mayor of River Heights also proposes to decide by majority rule and, if the fireworks referendum passes, to split the cost equally among all residents.

Who would vote in favor of the fireworks referendum? Check all that apply.

Kyoko

Musashi

Rina

The vote (would/would not) yield the same answer as the cost-benefit analysis.

Which of the following statements is correct about the provision of public goods? Check all that apply.

Majority rule is the most efficient way to determine the amount of public goods a society should produce.

It is hard for the government to decide the appropriate amount of public goods to produce because people have differing preferences regarding such goods.

The government always provides the exact types of public goods that everyone in the society wants.