Effect of Technology on Public Transportation

Effect of Technology on Public Transportation What evidence of the social shaping of technology, if any, is provided by the history of public transport in London Paris (1820-1990)? The following will discuss the evidence or otherwise of the social shaping of technology with regard to public transport in London and Paris between 1820 and 1990. During this period technological advances in public transport were pronounced and whether they shaped social changes will be outlined below. London and Paris are apt examples to use as they developed rapidly during the 19th Century and had continued to change until the end of the period. In 1820 both London and Paris were expanding cities yet their transport systems with the exception of canals to London had hardly changed at all in hundreds of years. However, the impact of industrialisation and urbanisation would mean that London and Paris would need the improvements in public transport to get their populations to work, school and home again. These advances in technology in turn would bolster the social and economic changes that had fostered them in the first place. The British population increased from 10 million in 1800 to 36 million in 1990 whilst that of France went from 27 million to 40 million (Roberts, 1996, p.322). In the same period the population of London went from 900,000 to 4.7 million whilst that of Paris went from 600,000 to 3.6 million. Most of the rise in the London and Paris populations resulted from the increased migration promoted by public transport (Roberts, 1996, p.322). The term ‘commuter’ came into everyday use during the 1850s to describe the people that travelled into and around London daily to work. These commuters travelled by train and in any of the 800 horse drawn bus services. After 1862 commuters could travel on the first complete section of the underground from Paddington to Farrington Street. The underground was developed and built by partners including the City of London and Great Western Railway. The construction of such systems in London and Paris showed great engineering skills not least because of the need to tunnel or bridge the Thames and the Seine respectively (Evans, 2000, p.101). The Paris metro was opened on July 19 1900 when it only went from Porte de Vincennes to Porte Mailliat. Like the London underground the metro was extended much further than the original line. Line 1 for example now runs from Chateau de Vincent to La Defense. The Paris metro gained a reputation for not only being more efficient that the London underground but also more elegant. The metro resulted from the engine ering know how of Fulgence Bienvenue and the architectural elegance of Hector Guimard. The metro has 211 kilometres or 130 miles of track that serves 380 stations that means that any within Paris is merely 500 metres away from the nearest station. The metro is slightly bigger than half of the London underground yet has a hundred stations more (Mills, 1997-2005). Improvements in technology meant that more people travelled to London and Paris to live and work, thus more of them could travel within and beyond the city limits. That was due to the increase in the provision of public transport. In the early part of the period 1820 to 1990 was the advent of the railways. The first successful rail service between Stockton and Darlington was developed by George Stephenson provided the impetus for a great expansion of railways (Hobsbawm, 1962, p.187). As respective capital cities London and Paris were logically at the centre of their national rail networks. Technically speaking, although the train services into, from and in London were providing a public service they were privately owned until after 1945. Britain had a head start over France when it came to the amount and density or rail and track not only in the capital but nationally as well, over 750 kilometres squared compared to between 250-499 kilometres squared for France (Hobsbawm, 1975, p.310 ). The advent of the railways meant that the Londoners and Parisians could have better links to the provinces, also cities such as Newcastle and Marseilles were easier to reach. The railways also meant that other parts of their cities were easier to get to (Hobsbawm, 1975, p.56). Southern Railway that ran the majority of train services in and around London was the only private rail operator (before nationalisation) that was regularly in profit (Black, 2000, p.89). Linked to the spread of the railways was the adoption of underground – systems in both London and Paris. The underground and metro systems offered the capacity and ability to carry millions of commuters daily without causing as much disruption as having all the rail tracks above ground. London expanded its operative underground -system in 1890 and Paris alongside other cities followed within a decade. The London underground is roughly double the size of the Paris metro since the completion of its last extension in 1999 with 392 kilometres or 244 miles of track with 280 stations (Crystal, 2003, p.950). In contrast to the railways the London underground continued to expand during the 1960s and beyond. The new Victoria Line of the 1960s was followed by the Jubilee Line and the extension of the system to Heathrow Airport in the 1970s (Black, 2000, p. 91). The underground systems gave the advantage of transporting more people with greater speed than other forms of both private and public transport. At that point cars and buses were barely in existence. Even as cars became more common they remained out of the price range of many Londoners and Parisians until the 1950s. Using public transport had the advantage of being cheaper without the need to worry about parking or having to stay stuck in traffic jams (Black, 2000, p.86). Another way that public transport has made on the social shaping of technology in London and Paris was the role of buses. Prior to the invention of the internal combustion engine there had been the horse driven bus. However, the buses driven by petrol or diesel engines were able to carry more passengers further than their horse driven predecessors. Buses could pick passengers up from places where the train and the underground did not go. Buses were introduced into London and other British cities from 1898 (Black, 2000, p.87). Buses tended to operate later services than the trains did in London. Within London and outside it, train companies before the Second World War often ran bus services. The Second World War led to London’s travel infrastructure been badly damaged whilst Paris had escaped heavy bombing although other parts of the French rail and roads had been destroyed (Black, 2000, p.88). In most respects the coming of railways amply demonstrated the social shaping of technology. It helped to speed the movement of people from the smaller towns and villages to major cities such as London and Paris. The railways allowed goods or people to travel much faster and also generated great wealth for their investors. Such wealth was shown in the elegant stations such as King’s Cross and Paris du Nord. The railways employed thousands directly or indirectly whilst transporting millions more (Hobsbawm, 1987, p.27). France had been slower in building railways than Britain yet managed to double the amount of track it had between 1880 and 1913 (Hobsbawm, 1987, p.52). The railway workers and other transport workers shaped society in ways linked to technology or in times of industrial disputes the refusal to use that technology. Both the British and French transport workers had a reputation for their radical trade unionism. In the British General strike of May 1926 support among st London’s transport workers was solid and not a bus, train or underground train ran for nine days (Brendon, 2000, pp 46-47). France tended to be more prone to strikes than Britain. In the summer of 1936, Paris and the rest of the country came to a halt after a series of strikes spread to the transport workers after starting at Renault (Brendon, 2000, p. 296). Even in more recent times strikes on the metro are frequent, especially if the French trade unions are unhappy with their government. Unlike their counterparts in London most Parisians can walk to work if that happens (Mills, 1997-2005). There was another development in public transport that allowed some social shaping due to technology, the aircraft. At first air travel was restricted to the rich, the military and cargo carriers. However the increasing cheapness of flights and the opening of airports such as Charles de Gaulle and Heathrow near Paris and London respectively made package holidays and internal business flights easier (Hobsbawm, 1994, p. 15). It was in the production of the supersonic airliner Concorde that both countries collaborated to show how technologically advanced they were. Concorde would allow people to travel to and from London and Paris in luxury as well as been good for national prestige (Crystal, 2003, p. 214). Whilst the French have made efforts to maintain and modernise their rail network in Paris and nationally the decline in the British railways has been marked. The total mileage of track halved between 1945 and 1992 whilst the number of car owners increased twenty fold in the same peri od. That meant that public transport was taken more seriously in Paris than London (Black, 2000, pp. 90-92). Therefore, it can be argued that social shaping technology was evidenced by public transport in London and Paris between 1820 and 1990. It was the development and expansion of the railways that greatly contributed to the expansion of London and Paris during the 19th Century. The railways generated wealth and trade as well as bringing people and jobs to both London and Paris. The development of underground-systems also contributed to social shaping and more and more people were able to commute to work and school. Public transport was further enhanced with the introduction of powered buses whilst the availability of cycles and later cars meant that not everybody had to rely on public transport. Whilst the greater availability of public transport had made social shaping changes the wider availability of cars led to more people moving out of the cities centres in to the suburbs. Public transport still remains vital for millions of Londoners and Parisians and commuters that travel from fu rther afield to go about their everyday business in London or Paris. Bibliography Black, J (2000) Modern British History since 1900, Macmillan Foundations, Macmillan, London Brendon, P (2000) The Dark Valley – A Panorama of the 1930s, Jonathan Cape, London Crystal, D (2003) The Penguin Concise Encyclopaedia, Penguin Group, London Hobsbawm, E (1962) The Age of Revolution 1789-1848, Weidenfeld Nicholson, London Hobsbawm, E (1975) The Age of Capital 1848-1875, Weidenfeld Nicholson, London Hobsbawm, E (1994) The Age of Extremes – the short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, London Mills, I C (1997-2005) The Paris metro www.discoverfrance (Barry Vale)

Symantec – network security software company

Symantec, one of the world’s leading network security software company is facing many managerial obstacles In today’s global market place, where customer expectation and continuously emerging global competitors have drastically shorted the product lifecycle. Symantec is facing over 20,000 virus samples each month, not all of which are unique, stand-alone viruses. On top of that, dealing with this critical and time sensitive challenges, requires exceptional talented employee’s that is Symantec’s divers response team spread out in outsourced groups all over the world.Managers for a company such as Symantec needs to keep the professionals excited about work, even though it is a routine, standardized and chaotic environment they work within. To manage this, they need to use their technical, human and conceptual skills. Conceptual skill is the availability to visualize the organization as a whole. Symantec is spread out throughout the whole world, so the manage rs need to keep track of different time zones so that they have people working 24/7 in case unpredictable viruses would show up.Symantec, as said before, is one of the world’s leading network security company and it is hard for the managers to motivate each employee, and make them feel special. That is where the human relation skills is necessary from the managers within the company. Since new viruses are popping up randomly without preparation, the managers should let the professional employee’s try to work as self-independent as possible, so that they don’t have any guide lines to keep track of since all virus cases are different.In addition, the managers need technical skills. They need to be educated with the equipment that is being used within the company, so when distractions or problems show up, they are prepared and experienced with it, and can deal with it fast so not valuable time goes to waste. The operation manager Patrick Fitzgerald needs to play di fferent kind of management roles in different kind of cases. When Mr. Fitzgerald has weekly security briefing conference calls with coworkers around the globe, he needs to play a so called Liaison Role.This means that he will be a manager that serves as a connecting link between his coworkers and take in information he gets from coworkers on other location throughout the world. When he is assessed the feasibility of adding a new network security consulting service, He needs to be informed by the different possible outcomes, he needs to be prepared for what can go wrong. He needs to have information and be sure that it the intended effect of the new investment is profitable and not something wasteful. A management role such as leader is necessary when he needs to keep his employees focused on the company’s’ commitments to customer.The leader is responsible for deligating tasks and making sure that each task is done properly and reported to the next person in the chain o f management. The information of the Company Symantec we can find on their website, about its emphasis on customer service and innovation is that they are very determined to provide high security for the customers and their computers. They empower their employees by educating them so they can take more decisions on their own without having to go to a higher instance.Conclusion Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help the customers. It is a global company with employees outsourced all over the world which makes the manager’s work even harder. In addition to that, it is a chaotic business with issues and problems popping up such as viruses without be able to prepare for it. Their main focus is to empower their professional employees to think on their own and work independent without take the issue to higher instances.

Progression of Humans

The Dawn of A New Day Preface The creation of man begins with † In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth†. One sentence that if proven correct, depicts that a certain scientific theory taught generation after generation is completely and indefinitely ludicrous. If this sentence is wrong, various religions cease to exist. Ah, but does Christianity need to be proven? In our minds, the correct answer to this question is no, to believe is to see. But as human beings, sinners in the eye of God, to see is to believe.Now stay tit me here. As the mundane world revolves around the simplistic idea that happiness can be achieved by buying the world, certain people rise among the filth. Go-getters. Transcendentalists, if you may. These people are the true â€Å"Hipsters† among the conforming young generation set upon being differently the same. They are the people who pay little or no attention to the world of Consumerism evolving around them. They may be differ ent; hell they might even be bizarre. The point is that these are the people who change lives.They are the people that can truly make difference in this god-forsaken planet we call home. They may not be of faith, but they can be compared to the disciples of Jesus Christ. Now back in the day, the disciples weren't some group of â€Å"religious freaks†. They were not celebrities. They weren't even liked. These disciples were the people who stood up for what they believed in, facing both death and the fate of being cast away as outsiders. You see, it doesn't take much for change to occur. It Just takes a person who has the courage to partake in disorder.There are four point two babies born per second. One point seven deaths per second. As life goes on, 27 phones are sold per second. One point six cars produced per second, and 168 tons of foods are produced per second. Life goes by in seconds. Every minute you are aging. Day by day you are changing. An hour passes by, how many pe ople have died in that hour? The point of this crazy numbering is to show you how fast moments of your life pass you by. There is no way of knowing the exact moment of when your life will come to an abrupt stop. You will cease to exist.Life will end, as you know it. Will you be remembered? Will the memories your loved ones have from you be worth remembrance? The days you spend locked away from the majestic wonders of the world are limited. Live your life the way you want to live it. You only live one life, so you better make it worth living. The harsh reality of our situation on this planet is that one day it will be your time to go. Will you make a difference? As generations pass by, the improvements we make to society are crucial to the progression of humans.

Practice in Identifying Adjectives

This exercise will give you practice in recognizing adjectives--the part of speech that modifies (or qualifies the meaning of) nouns. To learn more about adjectives in English, see: Adding Adjectives and Adverbs to the Basic Sentence UnitPractice in Turning Adjectives Into AdverbsSentence Building with Adjectives and AdverbsSentence Combining With Adjectives and Adverbs Instructions The sentences in this exercise have been adapted from those in two paragraphs of E.L. Doctorows novel Worlds Fair (1985). (To read Doctorows original sentences, go to Ritual in Doctorows Worlds Fair.) See if you can identify all the adjectives in these 12 sentences. When youre done, compare your responses with the answers on page two. Grandmas room I regarded as a dark den of primitive rites and practices.She had two wobbly old candlesticks.Grandma lit the white candles and waved her hands over the flames.Grandma kept her room clean and tidy.She had a very impressive hope chest covered with a shawl and on her dresser a hairbrush and comb.There was a plain rocking chair under a lamp so she could read her prayer book.And on an end table beside the chair was a flat box packed with a medicinal leaf that was shredded like tobacco.This was the centerpiece of her most consistent and mysterious ritual.She removed the lid from this blue box and turned it on its back and used it to burn a pinch of the leaf.It made tiny pops and hisses as it burned.She turned her chair toward it and sat inhaling the thin wisps of smoke.The smell was pungent, as if from the underworld. Here are the answers to the  Exercise in Identifying Adjectives. Adjectives are in bold print. Grandmas room I regarded as a  dark  den of  primitive  rites and practices.She had  two wobbly old  candlesticks.Grandma lit the  white  candles and waved her hands over the flames.Grandma kept her room  clean  and  tidy.She had a very  impressive  hope chest covered with a  shawl  and on her dresser a hairbrush and comb.There was a  plain  rocking chair under a lamp so she could read her prayer book.And on an end table beside the chair was a  flat  box packed with a  medicinal  leaf that was shredded like tobacco.This was the centerpiece of her most  consistent  and  mysterious  ritual.She removed the lid from this  blue  box and turned it on its back and used it to burn a pinch of the leaf.It made  tiny  pops and hisses as it burned.She turned her chair toward it and sat inhaling the  thin  wisps of smoke.The smell was  pungent, as if from the underworld. See also:  Exercise in Identifying Adverbs