Saturday, October 5, 2019
Write a paragraph Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Write a paragraph - Essay Example Nash equilibrium has its implications both positive and negative. Positively, each player has the advantage of getting the expected payoff given what the opponent plays. Negatively, this strategy is not applicable in all cases. This is because there can be pure strategy normative expectations equilibria which are not Nash equilibria. The prisoner’s dilemma is an example of such a case scenario (Julian & Wolfgang, 2000). Nash equilibrium may not be Nash equilibrium at all in the event that one would like to have a little bit of extra credit. This is based on the fact that it places one in compromising scenarios in which it leaves the player with no option other than not opting for not being part of the whole process. In a bar, the goods and services on sale are not returnable and so once consumed it is as good as gone. This will constantly leave the owner of the bar at a loss since there is no positive payoff in the sense that he will always stand a chance of losing in all the possible outcomes (Julian & Wolfgang,
Friday, October 4, 2019
The European Union Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
The European Union - Essay Example The European countries have a historic distaste for Americans and therefore, the nations do not want to do business with the superpower. The European need to safeguard their national and cultural boundaries compelled them to form a coalition that goes by the name of European Union. The member nations are having a common currency that they are using to fight the supremacy of American dollar. The origins of European Union are stemming from the prehistoric grudge which is present in Americans and Europeans for ages. The nation of England refused to join EU because of its close and friendly ties with America but presently, the nation is going through the rough times as it is alone in the international community of nations. The functions of European Union include facilitation of trade activities and mitigating national level disputes within member nations. The holistic purpose of the body is to help the region in becoming self sufficient and free from influence of America. The economic development and growth are the names of forces that can assist any nation or group of nations in the process of upholding their cultural and societal values. Rest of the world is busy in adapting their values in order to reflect more degree of Americanization. The nations of Europe are not willing to do that and because of this reason, they have created the featured institution. The European Union also governs defense agreements and renders help to distressed nations as well. The structure of the EU is not solid in nature and its offices are scattered across various cities in the European sector. The strategic leadership and direction is provided by the committees of European parliament. Nevertheless, the European parliament has been developed with the help of providing adequate representation to each and every member nation. The idea of EU is a practical application of pooling all resources and building synergetic relations and linkages. The European Union is a
Thursday, October 3, 2019
The New Rule Essay Example for Free
The New Rule Essay Judging by the numbers has been an integral way of assessing the success or failure of a company or a CEO from then and even until present. The influence of this method has been augmented by the advocacy by â€Å"successful†executives through their published and mediated ideas. But even with the prevailing numerically-dependent idea on success, it seems that globalization has paved way for people to rethink and reconsider other â€Å"rules†that must have been missed out before. Fortune senior writer Betsy Morris wrote an article about â€Å"New Rules†that, as it is implied in the text, should replace the Wallstreet-pressured old ones. The question is: Is there really a necessity to replace the old rules with new ones?            The old rules are easier to manage and apply compared to the new ones. The old rules focus merely on raising the numbers; everything is judged based on the numerical values. Theoretically, there are no people to please, and not much effort on creative thinking is necessary. All that has to be done is to follow proven formulas of success, that is, as dictated by the experiences of â€Å"successful†businessmen and executives. The only goal is to be on top and it was believed that that goal can be easily attained with linear progression as long as the â€Å"book†was followed.            To exemplify this, there is this old rule about big dogs owning the street (Morris, 2006). Based on this old rule, the greatest benefits and rewards in the industry are reaped by the biggest player or by the economies of scale. This old rule is relatively easy to manage compared to its counterpart in the â€Å"new rules,†that is to be agile. Although being big is not as easy as what might have been implied, this old rule is considered one because based on what is implied in the rule, just being big allows the player to take advantage of whatever resource in the industry or to take huge profits from a specific market without much effort and simply just by being â€Å"big.†As it is with their status, the natural laws of economics come to play under normal circumstances, that is, the economies of scale could naturally spread their fixed costs and thus acquire larger revenues (Morris, 2006).            This is not the case with its counterpart â€Å"new rule.†Based on the new rule, the player must be agile because being big can actually bring harm (Morris, 2006). This rule implies more than the requirement of a player to simply be agile. It implies the necessity of a certain ability that is, to properly observe the direction of the market and be able to apply this gained knowledge to the needs of the company.            The new rules, thus, require more than the ability to follow rules. It requires that the leader or executive is able to have the wisdom to realize the need to acquire knowledge and be able to use the gained knowledge (particularly the needs of the market) to direct the company towards adapting to these needs and continuously make the company flexible afterwards. The ease in managing the old rules is dependent on its nature which is based on â€Å"following,†while the new rules are mainly based on â€Å"skill and creativity†.            That the â€Å"old rules†are in fact labeled as â€Å"old†does not necessarily mean it should all be replaced with the new ones or worse, eradicated and forgotten. After all, these rules are based on wisdom from past experiences and it is not very difficult to find similarities, no matter how small between past experiences and current ones. The term â€Å"old†may not always be synonymous with â€Å"better†but the same can be said with â€Å"new†. It is actually possible that both are equally important and a fusion of which could create a better â€Å"rule†.            Citing again the example on the old rule of big dogs owning the street and its counterpart new rule, agility is best, it can be said that while the old rule may not necessarily be better than the old rule, being â€Å"not big†does not also guarantee positive effects. Agility and the company’s flexibility, plus, being big, can actually create more advantage for the company. With the big company’s ability to spread its fixed costs and the agile company’s ability to make efficient use of resources, the business can actually reduce its costs and make more revenues.            Similarly, any company can attempt to find a niche or create something new. This is not an easy feat because as it is said, it involves creativity. But a company must not limit itself to just one of two choices. The old and new rules that are presented in the article are not opposites. This means that it is actually feasible for a company to both strive being the best in the market and at the same time, strive to always create something new for their market.            Starbucks may have â€Å"continuous change†as their goal but this goal is only the surface of an underlying goal. Why does Starbucks want to keep moving and evolving? This is to continue their identity, which caters to their market, that keeps their profits and thus keep the enterprise going. Starbucks may not have had being number 1 as their main goal but they were able to be on top by always creating something new for their clients. In the end, it is able to take advantage of its ability to create something new, as well as its being on top. Being on top had become one of the old rules because it had a rationale that is deeper than the â€Å"numbers†. A top business could improve the employees’ morale and could thus make them become better in performing their jobs. This could result in better relationships with clients. The businesses’ rules must not be limited to a choice between the old or the new. Both are not opposites and the instances when both can be done simultaneously to complement the other must be recognized.            While in general, the new rules teach about the importance of flexibility the necessity of the corporate world to be able to adapt and consider the actual needs of its clients, some of the old rules can be truly â€Å"greedy†.            One old rule that represents this is that the shareholders rule. According to a study done by One Bain Co. (Morris, 2006), there is a significant discrepancy about the perceptions of the executives about the quality of their service and the perceptions of the customers themselves. It is said that 80% of the executives perceive themselves as doing a great service and only 8% of the customers agree (Morris, 2006).            This implies that the customers’ needs are not adequately met while the executives consider themselves as being justly compensated for their â€Å"efforts,†and the company being the just recipients of revenues. It may be that any business is made for the sole purpose of profiting. But this does not exempt anyone from disregarding ethical considerations. Simply put, any customer deserves the value of what they pay for.            In addition, the companies, whether profit-centered or otherwise, must realize that the laws of economics would indicate that catering to the customers would actually increase the revenues and considering the new rule (The Customer is King), can be a positive way of gaining profits instead of taking so much effort to decrease their operating costs, which could in almost all cases, also reduce their product’s quality. Considering the clients could only be symbiotic, benefiting both the clients and the business itself. This has been proven by companies like Apple and Genentech (Morris, 2006).            In the rapidly changing times and with globalization, it seems that the â€Å"new rules†are most applicable. This is because these new rules can only be products of observations of the successful companies and CEO’s at the present time. Still, it must be noted that the â€Å"old rules†were what the people considered then as the â€Å"new rules†. This means that rules are created based on what seems appropriate depending on the demands situations and circumstances that happen at a certain period. With this in mind, what is important is not exactly to follow which rule is popular at a certain period but to allow circumstances and the nature of events to become guides in strategizing and decision-making. Truly, following the old rules religiously would be like staying at a certain era and preventing growth. But still, following the â€Å"new rules†by-the-book would be self-contradictory because the principle behind the â€Å"new rules†is to allow constant change and flexibility depending on specific factors involved. Like what the Morris (2006) said about the old rules, the â€Å"new rules†are made to answer specific problems of a specific situation at a specific time. Then, it is only the value of flexibility that must be retained. As it is, the world will always change even with resistance from business players and all that can be done is to allow themselves to be swayed and be creative so that each situation can be used to their competitive advantage. Still, the old rules must not be completely disregarded. These old rules must be seen based on the rationale or wisdom behind. Because such rules, when seen at a less common or different perspective could still apply to a specific present, although not necessarily modern situation. Jack Welch may right when he said that â€Å"If applied correctly†¦ rules can work forever.†(Morris, 2006). The only question that matters then is â€Å"what is correctly?†Again, â€Å"correctly†depends on one’s ability to gain knowledge in situations, be flexible and be creative in using these situations to his or her advantageâ€â€but of course, with all the ethical considerations. Works Cited Morris, B. (2006). The New Rules. Fortune. Retrieved 28 Feb 2007 from http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/10/magazines/fortune/rules.fortune/index.htm.
The Biometric Technology For Effective Payroll System
The Biometric Technology For Effective Payroll System Payroll is one of a series of accounting transactions, dealing with the process of paying employees for services rendered, it is electronic software, where all the employees information is recorded and captured. Companys experiences a lot of payroll fraudulent occurring by utilizing this payroll software which affects the companys capital due to a high increased payroll cost. Background and Motivation Money being a valuable asset to the company, I have chosen to research more on payroll and how can the effective security level be implemented to enhance the security on payroll by the use of biometrics, as I believe in Physical Attributes identification like finger prints, palm prints, and facial. To solve the security risks, biometrics technology (implemented in the ReCon Biometrics Keyless Identification Security System) uses physical attributes to identify an individual. This solution is ideal because biometrics authentication does not require the user to have any physical access objects present or remember any passwords. With ReCon Biometricss advanced facial recognition technology, we can now overcome many problems that other systems have encountered in the past (Rogan, 2002). Rather than using personal identification because, as (Rogan, 2002) stated that in personal identification A Personal Identification Number (PIN) is another widely adopted means of authentication, and is a standard example that uses memorized passwords or pass codes. The advantage to this approach is that no physical means are required for authentication. However, this method still suffers from security risks if an unauthorized individual gains access to an authorized users PIN. Further complications can arise when authorized users forget or misplace a PIN. Turner, a payroll specialist for a large Florida nonprofit organization, was a sick man. Most employees who steal do so out of greed, but Turner had a different motive-he was HIV-positive and needed expensive drugs to control the disease. Turners duties included posting time and attendance information to the computer system preparing payroll disbursement summaries. Adding and deleting employee master records were separate tasks, performed by another staff member. As an additional safeguard, a supervisor approved all payroll disbursements, and the company deposited them directly into employees personal bank accounts. When the coworker who added and deleted master records logged onto the system, Turner peeked over her shoulder and noted her user ID and password. This enabled him to add fake master records-for ghost employees to the system (Wells and Joseph, 2002). Where there is money to be made, dishonest and unscrupulous individuals can find ways to bilk the system (Michaels, 1998). As with any financial instrument, the key to success is prevention, and FIS continues to create new fraud prevention and monitoring tools as new trends develop (Mccann, 2008). A lot of money becomes missing and records being edited because of unauthorized users who hack the payroll system or being able to retrieve the passwords into accessing the payroll system, so the purpose of this research is to investigate the roots of hacking in the payroll so as to find a lasting solution to it and eliminate ghost employees. It is intended that in this research a suitable biometric system will be introduced providing greater reliability and accountability, in order to enhance the security level of The INNOVATIONHUBS VIP payroll and the staff. 1.2 Problem statement Payroll encompasses every employee of a company who receives a regular wage or other compensation. Some employees may be paid a steady salary while others are paid for hours worked or the number of items produced. All of these different payment methods are calculated by a payroll specialist utilizing a payroll system, and the appropriate paychecks are issued. So for an employee to get their paycheck a time sheet is submitted so that the payroll specialist can capture the data on the time sheet example number of hours worked, and then compute the salary for the employee, so companies often use objective measuring tools such as timecards or timesheets completed by supervisors to determine the total amount of payroll due each pay period. Payroll system is an electronically software that calculates employees salary. The problem is that when employees fill in their time sheets or timecards, they easily forge their attendance of being present at work or working overtime knowing they did not, they do what is called buddy punching which is when an employee punches a time card for another person. This is done by employees reason being earning more money, or earning money even though they did not work for it, because we all want to get our hands on money this affects the companys productivity and payroll cost. However payroll specialists easily get away with fraud because, usual solutions to the problem of enhancing security is identity involve using systems that rely on what a legitimate user knows example, passwords or personal identification numbers or what a legitimate user possesses example , ID cards or keys. However, these methods are susceptible to fraud and security threats as they do not identify the person but simply identify the information that is provided by that person (Gupta, 2008). Companies need to have an absolute trust in the identity of their employees, customers, and partners that is, they are really who they say they are. Taylor Farm, a processing plant for bagging produce, was incurring 20 percent of payroll cost due to buddy punching (Gupta, 2008). Kahn et al (2002:57) found that the System provides an automated, centralized back end payroll service with a full-featured web-based payroll system. Both aspects of the system have access to a central database, which includes, for example: profile information on employers and employees; timesheet, salary and hourly wage data; employee benefit data and information regarding third-party providers and miscellaneous payee. According to Krons (2010:109), the YMCA was committed to keeping its payroll in-house and was looking for a flexible and configurable system that would enable it to do so efficiently. With Kronos, they have been able to cut payroll processing time by 50 percent largely due to the automation of payroll data from the time and attendance system into payroll. With more than 1,800 full- and part-time employees at 12 facilities across Ohio, many employees often perform multiple jobs in the same pay period. With Kronos, the YMCA is able to keep track of position management and ensure that payment is applied correctly. After implementing a new time and attendance system for its labor intensive operation, Fantasy Cookie Co. has realized a 90% reduction in payroll errors and return on investment of one year (Hitchcock, 1993:70). Some of the motivations to change payroll frequencies include best practice or industry standards, possible future sale or acquisition, cost savings, union contract requirements, or even employee requests (2010:8). My intention is to find a way by means of biometrics systems to enhance the security level on VIP payroll at The Innovation Hub and monitoring employees presence at work. 1.3.1 Goal The primary goal of this study is to introduce Biometrics System for the security of VIP payroll at The Innovation Hub. 1.3.2. Objectives To investigate the security problems being encountered at the payroll and monitoring employees timesheet or timecards of the Innovation Hub To find out what is the security system applied in the payroll of the Innovation Hub. To explore the use of Biometric technology as a security system in this company to solve the security problems discovered. 1.3.3 Research questions What are the security problems being encountered at the payroll of the Innovation Hub? What is the security system applied in the payroll of this organization? How does Biometric system can be applied to solve the security problems identified? 1.3 Scope There are three types of payroll systems the first being the manual payroll system typically serves small medium and macro enterprise (SMME), and all this is done by hand with a manual payroll system. Secondly being the In-house Payroll a company with up to 60 employees can benefit from a computerized in-house payroll system. Thirdly is the external Service (outsourcing) company with more than 60 employees usually hiring an external payroll service. They are a separate firm that specializes in payroll processing. The basis of the definition supplied by Justice Buckley is that in order for a fraud to exist a lie must be told and something tangible obtained by virtue of the operation of that lie on the mind of the person receiving the information. That premise has been extended through common usage and the media so that now fraud is referred to as the obtaining of property through any dishonest means. Those means do not necessarily include the telling of a lie and can include what is considered corrupt activity by a person in authority (Jarrod 2006). There is no easy fix for Social Security. No silver bullet or miracle accounting will painlessly fix the problem posed by our 70-year-old national retirement system. At a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., the ABA Government Relations Council reaffirmed a strategy first advocated by ABA in 1999. It calls for ABA to act as industry spokesman for reform, work with Congress on a bipartisan basis and support the creation of personal retirement accounts those special accounts that would allow younger workers to place a portion of their payroll taxes in private retirement accounts they manage themselves (Duke 2005:20). Swart (2002:5-15) found that the payroll systems are cumbersome and problematic, they require the use of a middleman payroll service to either send or calculate and send the employees net pay data to the bank, which increases costs to the employer. These cost are ultimately passed on to the employees and public, such systems also take significant amounts of time to acquire, transfer, translate and process all of the data required to determine and distribute net pay to the employee, and employees are therefore forced to wait one or two weeks before even receiving their paychecks another disadvantage of the prior art payroll system is the use of centralized data processing for calculation of net pay, such as used by ADP. The allegations ranged from accepting kickbacks, committing bank larceny against the Orleans Parish Credit Union, and forging and passing bad checks, to theft, income tax violations, insurance and mail fraud, as well as extortion.6 With encouragement from State Superintendent Picard, the New York-based firm of Alvarez Marsal was selected in July 2005, by the Orleans Parish School Board and the Louisiana Department of Education, to address and resolve the districts numerous systemic financial improprieties.7 Employees of Alvarez Marsal immediately found significant payroll discrepancies estimated to cost the district approximately $12 million per year (Pamela Frazier 2008). Systems that lack a secured authorization detector can end up being history to the owners and costly. HIGH-PROFILE payroll problems have plagued a $25 million PeopleSoft ERP implementation in the Palm Beach County School District in Florida after just five months of operation.Since the Oracle Corp. software went live in July, there have been numerous instances of employees being underpaid or not paid at all, said Mike Guay, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based consultant hired in early September to help fix the problems. In many cases, the payroll errors have caused significant hardship to workers, added Sharon Barmory-Munley, president of thse local office of the National Conference of Firemen Oilers, a union representing more than 4,000 school district employees.In September, payroll problems prompted some 300 bus drivers to picket the school board. Other employees have complained to the U.S. Department of Labor, said Barmory-Munley (Barton, 1992). Its horrible, she said. Some people cant pay their bills, mortgage payments are late, and theyve ruined their credit. This is disastrous (Marc, 2006), this report shows how serious and harmful the system can get if not resolved in time. Payroll Express Corp., a company that provided paycheck cashing services for about 100 corporate clients, has gone bankrupt, and owner Robert Felzenberg has been accused of diverting customers funds to its own uses. Payroll Express bank, United Jersey Bank (Hackensack, NJ), is being sued by some Payroll Express customers for not monitoring the business more closely and for allegedly ignoring and glossing over Payroll Express troubles. The bank says the charges are without merit (Barton, 1992). Not all of the IT specialist do the right job or what they are suppose to do, you find IT hackers who can do anything to get their hands on money, money being an object that everyone wants to get their hands on. A large local employer in a small town had its office burglarized. Nothing appeared to be taken but there was some vandalism. The company assumed it was just some kids. A few days later, on a late Friday afternoon, a group of about 20 people with heavy accents came into the local bank and cashed payroll checks drawn on the local employer. On Saturday, the same 20 people went back to each of the bank branches again cashing more checks. It was then discovered that these checks were forged. The blank checks had been stolen during the break-in. Encouraging or requiring businesses to use a Positive Pay System will prevent these losses. When using Positive Pay, the business customer provides the banks computer with check numbers and amounts before providing the checks to recipients (Towle, 2010:17). There is no end to Queenslands payroll debacle with a report finding it will take another six months to make critical fixes to the system and 18 months for it to be fully re-implemented.Queensland nurses and midwives were waiting for a formal response from the states health department after a report recommended sticking with the flawed system (2010-2011:15). No matter what industry an organization serves, there is one common element the customer. That customer can be external or internal. The key focus in having quality be part of everyones job is to make sure customer value is the primary purpose of the organization. Everyone in the organization should know the customers and what they consider important. All functions accounting, payroll, information systems, engineering, sales play a role in how these customers view the work. Tools such as customer survey analysis, best practice studies and publisher customer audits are used to determine what customers really want, as are graphs of customer complaints over a specific time period (Whitarcre, 2001). 1.4 Significant This study is very significant in the sense that there is a serious implication of financial security to the survival of any organization especially the InnovationHub. Electronic security has also become a global issue in the discourse of a virile Information System, while the biometric system is a current security application of IT in the security system. The report of this work will also add to literature on the state of the art applications of IT study while the solution can be applied in all payroll systems. 1.5 Key words Payroll, System, Access, Security, Biometric Literature review Companies need to able to have absolute trust in the identity of the employees, that they are really who they say they are. Fraud can occur in the payroll department in many ways. These can include (Journal of Trade, 2010): phantom employees being paid; fraudulent additions to approved time records; increases in hourly rates; payments of commissions, bonuses, or incentives that are added to an employees normal paycheck; deduction reversals that add to an employees net pay; illegal advanced earned income credit payments; and Child support garnishments that are mailed to a custodial parent but never deducted from a paycheck. Identification is a one-to-many matching process that ascertains the existence of an individual in a database. This process merely determines that the person exists. If access control is predicated only on the existence of an individual, then the individual is given access to the system when the required identifier is found to exist in the access database. There is no confirmation or proof that the person who is given access is indeed the person who initiated the access procedure (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Everyone is a potential fraud, and only careful hiring and strong internal control are effective in preventing fraudulent to the organization (Seidman, 1985). Payroll accounting shows another area where authentication issues assume importance. The importance for effective authentication exists in at least three processes: time-keeping and attendance records, pick-up of paychecks, and linking employees to specific tasks in the organization. Three broad categories of factors that organizations use for automated authentication-possession, knowledge, and biometrics. Authentication can be predicated on a single factor (e.g., a password, a PIN, or a picture ID) or on multiple factors (e.g., password and picture ID, or PIN and picture ID). Vertical movements within the pyramid are associated with increases in the strength and focused nature of the authentication process. The likelihood that the verified identity is not that of the true owner also decreases with vertical movements in the pyramid (Chandra Calderon, 2003). The user must present a physical possession (such as a token or a key) to be authenticated. Though visible and usually portable, possessions can be lost, stolen, shared, duplicated, forgotten, or destroyed. Possession-based authentication factors provide assurance that a user presents a valid token or card. Within the context of an automated authentication process, these factors do not provide direct assurance that a user who is allowed access into an information system is indeed the person he or she claims to be. In the second category, the user provides information about his/her knowledge (such as, password, or passphrase). Passwords and other knowledge authentication factors are highly portable, invisible (unless written down), can be changed often, and can be designed to be relatively secure. However, they can be forgotten, reused, stolen, guessed, or shared. Passwords offer assurance that the person at the keyboard knows the password. They do not offer assurance that the person at the keyboard is indeed the person he/she purports to be (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Fraud in payrolls always involves over statement of the total of the payroll, and usually involves either (1986): Padding the payroll by including names of new employees before they started to work, or names of employees who have left, or names of men who are simply non-existent, or who exist but do not work for the company. Overstating payroll footings, carry forwards etc Failure to account for unclaimed wages, overpayments. Etc. One private sector problem is what is called buddy punching which is when an employee punches a time card for another person. Taylor Farm, a processing plant for bagging produce, was incurring 20 percent of payroll cost due to buddy punching. (Gupta, 2008). People are our business and managing such a large workforce that operates on diverse client sites is a challenge. We recognized that a standard time and attendance system that could provide as many access methods for clocking on as possible biometric, internet, proximity, telephone yet could be managed both centrally and remotely, was an essential requirement for our business (Pollitt, 2008). The real cushion against fraud, however, is in the type of individual employed. This means concern not so much with an applicants technical background, as with human background. Things like his mode of living , his social habits, his family troubles, his financial stresses and strains all of these are vital in the fraud potential (Seidman, 1985). The construction foreman of a large chemical company is responsible for a maintenance crew of about fifty employees who include tradesmen and labourers. He is also responsible for the deployment of a large amount of tools and equipment for the repair and maintenance of the plant. The employees are permitted to work overtime. The foreman started his own handyman/small construction company specializing in week end work. To carry out this work he utilized the tools and equipment of his employer and the time for the labour of the employees engaged in this nefarious activity was paid for by the employer by way of overtime for working on the weekend. The foreman authorized their overtime cards, certifying they had worked the overtime for the company. Employees were paid for their work, but the foreman, who charged his private clients, did not have to pay any costs of the construction whatsoever. The foremans behaviour was such that he obtained a financial advantage because hedid not have to pay for the labour of his workers or the tools and equipment he used onhis jobs. He was convicted of deceiving his employer into paying for the labour cost (Bowditch, 2006). The paymaster of a large technical company on the north shore was a trusted and valued employee until a co worker saw him driving a brand new Porsche on the week end. An investigation revealed that he had been systematically paying himself overtime at the rate of five times his regular salary. No subterfuge, he was just authorizing the payment to himself of more hours overtime than there are hours in the week. The fact that he could have got away with this brazen fraud for over twelve months showed a lack of any sort of control by management in the running of the company, and certainly no thought to fraud control (Bowditch, 2006). The state sales manager for a leading liquor distributor was offering the clients on his run a special discount for cash. He was fulfilling the orders and obtaining the cash and writing an invoice and receipt from a loop he had installed in the company computer which had a program to generating the invoices, receipts and stock upgrades. He got away with hundreds of thousands of dollars until a physical reconciliation was done between the stock and sales figures and the crime discovered (Bowditch, 2006). American businesses lose nearly $12 billion a year to check fraud, and small businesses are frequent victims of fraud artists, who consider them easy prey (Blackwood, 1998). Dont trust any person with money, always check on them and then check more. 3. Theoretical frame work Using Autopoietic theory as a framework for biometrics Autopoiesis is a pseudo Greek word coined from ÃŽÂ ±Ãƒ †¦Ãƒ „à ³ (auto) for self and à ₠¬Ãƒ ³Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ±ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ·Ãƒ Æ’ÃŽÂ ¹Ãƒ ‚ (poiesis) for creation, production or forming that was first introduced by the Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela in 1973 to denote the type of phenomenon they had identified as a characteristic that distinguishes living systems from other types of systems. They claimed that living systems are autonomous entities that reproduce all their properties through their internal processes. Later on this term was introduced into social theory as well as formal organization theory by Niklas Luhmann who claimed that social systems are systems of communication that emerge whenever an autopoietic communication cycle comes into being that is able to filter itself out of a complex environment (Schatten, 2008). Luhman argues that there are three types of social systems: societal, interactional as well as organizational. Any social system has its respective information subsystem described through their communicative processes. Systems that are not autopoietic (systems that produce something other than themselves) are considered to be allopoietic (technical) systems (Schatten, 2008). This is how the theory of Autopoietic will be applied to my research, the theory which represents a framework for describing complex non-linear and especially living systems is described in a context of biometric characteristics. It is argued that any living system by performing an internal process of reproducing its structural components yields physical biometric characteristics. Likewise any living system when structurally coupling to another (eventually allopoietic) system yields a behavioral or psychological characteristic of the living system (Schatten, 2008). It is revealed that a system that can be considered as autopoietic can potentially be measured, authenticated and or identified using biometric method, and thus biometrics is appropriate to any autopoietic system it can be people, social systems, organizations as well as information systems. So biometric is a method of series, steps or activities conducted to practice biometric samples of some biometric feature usually to find the biometric features holder or a special feature of the biometric sample. A biometric template or extracted structure is a quantity or set of quantities acquired by a conscious application of a biometric feature extraction or preprocessing method on a biometric sample. These templates are usually stored in a biometric database and used for reference during the recognition, training or enrolment processes of a biometric system (Schatten, 2008). The diagram below illustrates how the biometric technology will be intergrated with the payroll system, and this is how the autopoietic theory will be applied to my study. Diagram of payroll system integrated with iris biometric device Back up a data center The time sheet detail is captured in the payroll system. Time sheet (time in and out) about the employee is recorded. Employee scans his or her Iris in the iris scan device. The payroll specialist forwards the employees paycheck, using timesheet information from the captured payroll. Paycheck is transferred by the finance department to the employees accounts. 4. Methodology This is an exploratory research because it is the goal of formulating problems more precisely, clarifying concepts, gathering explanations, gaining insight, eliminating impractical ideas, and forming hypotheses. The method of data collection that I will use is qualitative method as it is used when a question needs to be described and investigation in some depth, or examining the meaning of an experience (Shields and Twycross). How I will compile my research I will seek to interview those who are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the payroll system and monitoring of time sheets to verify employees presence at work. I will interview 20% of the staff members and all the staff at the finance department and the payroll specialist, I will use audio tapes for recording my interviews and a method of transcripts of conversation. Some of the questions Ill ask the staff members: Do you use any type of access to enter into your office or the building of the company? What monitors your presence at work? Do you submit weekly or monthly time sheet? Who witness the time sheet? Some of the questions Ill ask the payroll department: What attributes or information do you need to capture for a new employee? How do you handle information of ex employee? When do you do roll over of the payroll? How are different leaves captured? Some of the questions Ill ask the finance department: When do the employees receive their pay check? How do you monitor costs of payroll, after how long? Im going to carry out my research at The Innovation Hub focusing on their VIP payroll system, time sheets and the clocking in and clocking out of work method used. This is a brief introduction of my solution framework Biometrics refers to the process of automatically recognizing a living person using his or her distinguishing, measurable traits. Biometric systems identify the person rather that what the person has (like ID cards) or what they remember (like passwords). The term biometric refers to the statistical analysis of biological phenomena and measurements and has been widely used to describe technologies used for personal identity management (Gupta, 2008). Biometrics technology uses unique, measureable, human characteristics to automatically recognize and verify an individuals identity. Biometrics can measure both physiological and behavioural characteristics. Physiological biometrics is based on precise and accurate measurements of unique features of the human body, and includes: Finger scan which matches the minutiae, pattern, ultrasonic or moirà © fringe imprint, most common of all devices (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Facial scan is designed primarily to find close matches of particular facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, cheekbones, chin, and forehead against a database of static facial images (Clodfelter, 2010). Iris scan technology relies on the distinctly colored ring that surrounds the pupil of the eye. Irises have approximately 266 distinctive characteristics, including a trabecular meshwork, striations, rings, furrows, a corona, and freckles. Typically, about 173 of these distinctive characteristics are used in creating the template. Irises form during the eighth month of pregnancy and are thought to remain stable throughout an individuals life, barring injury (Rosenzweig, 2004). Retina scan a digital image of the retina of the eye is created to match the pattern against a live sample, scanning done by low-intensity light via an optical coupler (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Hand geometry relies on measurements of the width, height, and length of the fingers, distances between joints, and the shape of knuckles (Rosenzweig, 2004). Behavioral biometrics (based on measurements and data derived from an action) include: Voice recognition measures the wavelengths and frequencies of the voice (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Signature recognition traditional device, a behavioural device, it checks the way a person signs his or her name, and writes letters (Chandra Calderon, 2003). Keystroke recognition a behaviourable biometric device, it measures the force applied and the pattern used to push keys on a keyboard (Chandra Calderon, 2003). I will be utilizing the iris biometric system because: Iris recognition technology is relatively easy to use and can process large numbers of people quickly. The iris is the most unique identifier on the human body. It is the most reliable form of biometrics. Iris patterns are unique and stable, even over a long period of time. Furthermore, iris scanning and recognition systems are very user-friendly. Less intrusive than retina scan, higher matching performance, works well with glasses, across ethnic groups. Biometrics
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Internet Censorship Essay - Internet AccessShould be Restricted to Prot
Access to the Internet Should be Restricted to Protect Children     We are now entering an age of computers where people have almost unlimited access to information. There are entire books and encyclopedias that can be purchased for use on personal computers. Information such as stock prices to computer-aided design programs to entire business operations is being used and accessed through the power of the computer. This information is obtained through the thousands of computer programs out on the market, but most importantly, it is obtained by access to what is called the "Internet." The Internet is the term for the ten thousand plus interconnected computer networks throughout the world that enable us to gather and dispense any type of information almost instantly. For the 1.5 million computers and the 10 million plus users, the Internet gathers information easily and quickly by means of messages, newsgroups, discussion groups, and conferences (rmuir, '94). Anyone who owns a computer and has the necessary software and hardware can have a ccess to this infinite amount of information.  This, of course, can include children. Right now children at the age of seven are speeeding down the "information superhighway," accessing an almost unlimited amount of information. In fact, there are schools on the Internet with their own World Wide Web homepages already. Unfortunately, some of this information isn't geared for children and can even be strictly for adults. Just as inappropriate material in books and magazines is regulated, there too should be some form of Internet regulation and ethics because children of secondary schools have access to any and all information including that information which is objectionable and ev... ...p://www.eff.org:80/CAF/cafuiuc.html rmuir@chs.cusd.claremont.edu FYI, RFC#1578 -Schools and Internet, February 22,1994, http://chs.cusd.claremont.edu:80/www/people/rmuir/rfc1578.html Abrahams, Janice. Janice's k12 Cyberspace OUTPOST. October 1,1994. http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/schools.html, http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/menu.html The Family Resource Center in Santa Clara, California, Parents Helping Parents. October 25, 1994, http://www.portal.com:80/~cbntmkr/php.html Gore, Albert. Speech at Royce Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA. January 11, 1994. http://sunsite.unc.edu:80/icky/speech2.html Morrison, Michael. Computer Writing and Research Center. University of Texas at Austin. Personal Interview. December 3,1994. Hoker, Delia. Computer Writing and Research Center. University of Texas at Austin. Personal Interview. December 3,1994. Â
Tribalism :: Personal Narrative Papers
Tribalism I. My sister recently put a map of the world in her bedroom, where she dreams always of being chased. Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis of life and death, the Tao of survival and extinction. It must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed. If you want to succeed in battle, act as if deranged. 1 I overheard two women arguing. One of them was me, in a later life. The other was God. My sister pushes her dream away and we'll call her a mystic; her lived reality defers to the visions, and details of where we'll live, how we'll earn a living, or who is at the door sink into the background. If creatures are helpless in a world of flags and fairies, we can break tyrants with our fists. Why wake up from that vision? If I could remember, I would never return to sunburn, rental cars, boy scout leaders, garbage, greasy hair, no water in the desert, cold nights of sweat and gleaning. Trust me. Spring the trap - a package with an umbilical cord, ties straining. Mourning doves and the sound of birds and rapids. The wind pushes the river backwards, completing the cycle. Before night fell into your lap you stared blankly at the traffic light on the corner wondering, why consult the Book of Changes? Every sign you need is right here: fire trucks a staple on brook street, power lines buzzing overhead like soldiers of fortune. The planets align in your seventh house, poking feebly at an electromagnetic field. So if I ever say anything I'm lying to you. Feel better or worse, see if I care. March toward madness, in the evening we swore up and down to stay alive. Foundry the boundary down to the last gravedigger. Morning or evening times are unimportant; don't live to compete, but fight when you must for a better world. We are all singers and mad and we make less and less money every year. Perhaps you care about all this loss, heaped onto your plate like steaming eggs on an English. Further along and we come to a crossing, where I found you waiting for me and left. Pretend you have come to a crossing. Not a fork in the yellow wood but a good city intersection, with traffic and manholes and strangers not particularly watching.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Cultural Influences on Social Cognition and Behavior Essay
There was once a time when I met a Filipino family in the park. The most famous hospitality of Filipinos was showed to me. They have invited me to join them for snacks  something that a typical American would not do even to fellow American. However, these people became friendly to me even though they know that I am not among their own race. I was able to identify with them because I have experienced the real essence of having a family, something I am not seeing in most American families. With that encounter, they have thought me to also be concern with other people. More than that, they have showed me that we can unite amid cultural differences and that we can trust people even at the first meeting; and through that we can have connections. I found this influences to easy come to my senses and being because I have been observing families in my own community and I have not found anyone or family as hospitable as them. That is because I was able to identify with them. I was vulnerable because it was my first time to experience such hospitability from other people who possess different culture other than what I have been practicing. Americans have become very individualistic and have failed to show such culture to other people even in our own kind. I was able to process my thoughts and feelings in terms of dealing with other cultures because I have experienced another culture first hand, more than what I can read from books and periodicals. What I have experienced and learned through the encounter is definitely a positive influence. Because their culture has encouraged me to learn more about other cultures and practices of other people and they have helped me understand the differences of cultures. Reference Huitt, W. (2006). Social cognition. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved May 13, 2008 from http://chiron. valdosta. edu/whuitt/col/soccog/soccog. html.
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