Postscript Adobe Product

Postscript Adobe Product Adobes first product, Postscript ®, was a driving force behind the desktop publishing revolution of the mid 1980s. Postscript provided an interface between computer program and an output device such as a printer. It comprised of three parts; a page description language which was open, documented and free, an interpreter which was licensed to output device manufacturers, and fonts which were sold to end customers such as graphic artists. The first postscript products were introduced in 1985 through a strategic alliance among four firms: Adobe, Apple, Aldus, and Linotype. The combination of products from these firms sparked the desktop users could create news letters and other documents that had a professional look and feel: documents could integrate graphics and text using professional quality fonts. The result was accomplished through a system of products. Aldus PageMaker software, which ran on Apple Macintosh, enabled the creation of documents that integrated text and graphics, PageMaker required a postscript device for printing. The Apple Laser writer was the first postscript printer and incorporated a postscript interpreter licensed from Adobe. Finally, professional looking documents only required high quality fonts such as Times Roman or Palatino, which typically were only available to professional publishers. Linotype, a firm with over 100 years of experiences in the typesetter industry, licensed a set of its most popular fonts to Adobe so that Adobe could offer them in postscript format. The Laser Writer came with 35 postscript fonts build in Linotype also introduced a high-end postscript image setter so that PageMaker documents could be used in professional publishing. By 1989, postscript had become the defacto standard for printing in the graphic arts and publishing industries. A most 100% of high-end image setters on the market incorporated postscript, while penetration in the general laser printer market reached only about 25%, penetration of Postscript in laser printers used by graphic artists was closer to 100%. Adobe also leveraged the underlying graphics technology of postscripts in applications software for the graphic arts community. The first end-user application, Adobe illustrator, was introduced in March 1987 and gained wide acceptance among graphic artists. Illustrator created output Postscript output and helped to create demand for Postscript printers. Adobe also acquired a number of software products including Photostop for digital image editing in 1989, and Aldus PageMaker in 1993. These products were extremely successful, with Photostop capturing over 90% of the market for photo-editing software. Ownership and leveraging of the Postscript standard had reaped huge rewards for Adobe; between 1984 and 1995, revenue had grown from $2.2 million to $762 million- a compound annual growth; rate of 70%. Adobes share price growth had been equally impressive, increasing at an average rate of29% between 1986, when the firm went public and 1995. In order to create PDF documents users had to purchase either Acrobat  ® Exchange for $195, or a more sophisticated product, Acrobat  ® Distiller for $695. As with the Postscript standard, the specification for PDF was open. By using documentation from Adobe, other firms could create files PDF format. Sales of Acrobat however were originally quite disappointing and reached only about $25 million in 1993. Given the advent of the internet, Adobe modified its Acrobat strategy. Instead of focusing exclusively on document exchange among workers within a corporation, Adobe also targeted internet users. The goal I was to make PDF the de facto standard for posting and exchanging documents on the internet. Question 2. In order to encourage software developers to use the Postscript language, Adobe made it open to anyone for free. The language was meticulously documented in what programmers fondly called â€Å"The Red Book†, and strong technical support was provided to third party developers working with the language. As a result, the number of applications supporting Postscript increased from 180 in 1986 to over 5,000 by 1991. To accelerate the diffusion of Postscript output devices, Adobe developed a boilerplate controller design based on the Motorola G8000 chip. Printer manufacturers interested in licensing Postscript had free access to this design, thus accelerating the development time for Postscript products. In addition, Adobe engineers often worked on joint product development teams with customers in order to help with the design of customized Postscript interpreters. The number of Postscript licenses increased from just one, Apple in 1985 to 60 by 1994. Adobe invested a large amount in creasing its own library of Postscript fonts. In 1986, Adobe invested 16% of sales in font development, and dollar investment continued to increase from 1985 through 1992. The number of Postscript fonts in the Adobe collection increased from 35 in 1985 to 2000 in 1994. These fonts were valued most highly by graphic artists designing pages for professional publishing. Adobe encouraged adoption of the Acrobat Reader by changing its previous policy of charging $50. The Acrobat Reader became widely available for free. In 1994, an alliance was made with AOL made the Acrobat Reader available to all AOL users. Adobe also established relationships with a number of computer vendors such as Compaq, Dell, and Sony to preload the Acrobat Reader on Personal Computers they sold. In 1995 free downloads of the Acrobat Reader were made available from the Adobe website. When users visited a site with PDF content they were instructed to click on a link to Adobe.com to get the free Acrobat Reader. Downloads of the Acrobat Readers explored starting in 1997, and by July 2000 over 197 million Acrobat Readers had been downloaded, with ongoing downloads of about 6 million more each month. Traffic to the Adobe site was also significant with about 11 million unique visitors a month. Downloads also drove sales of the full Acrobat product, needed for PDF creation. Adobe mark et research indicated that 88% of full Acrobat purchasers had used the Acrobat Reader prior to buying the full product. Question 3. Standard wars and battles for dominance in the market between incompatible technologies are products of the information age. Adobe announced it would release the entire PDF specification (current version 1.7) to the International Standards Organization. PDF has reached a point in its maturity cycle where maintaining it in an open standards manner is the next logical step in evolution. Not only does this reinforce Adobes commitment to open standards, but it demonstrates that open standards and open source strategies are really becoming a mainstream concept in the software industry. PDF will go from being an open standard/specification and de facto standard to a full blown dejure standard. (http://www.ameinfo.com/40724.html) Adobe has found that with Postscript and PDF, publishing the specifications, making them open but not open standards is the right path. This is because once something becomes a standard driven by a standards body, it moves to a glacial place Ad innovation slows down significantly because everybody has to agree and compromise. If it is made a totally open source, they do not get a return on investment. They believe that by opening up the specification, they allow other people to take advantage of it. However, they still own the source and get to innovate around that standard more quickly. (http://www.ameinfo.com/40724.html) Uncertainty about the market of e-Books hinged on a number of factors. One of the major impediments to adoption of E-Books was on-screen readability. Anti-aliasing technology had been developed by both Adobe (Cool Type) and Microsoft (Clear Type), improving text resolution by up to 300% e-Book resolution, however, was still not close to matching the quality of paper. So far the place of e-Books was similar or higher than that of print books, constraining demand. In addition, dedicated e-Books reading devices had been relatively expensive, costing a minimum of $250. Finally, the selection of e-Books was still quite limited and e-Books formatted for one device could generally not be used on another. Depending upon their assumptions about pricing and standards, analysts had different perspectives on the potential of the market. After the well publicised battle between VHS and Beta formats in the VCR industry, both produces and consumers were wary of standards war. No consumer wanted to be stuck with the equivalent of Betamax CVR, an orphan product with no tapes to play on it. Likewise, producers did not to be on the losing end of a standards war. It was unclear how standards in the e-Book market would evolve. While Microsoft had changed head on into the consumer it is wondered whether Adobe should instead focus elsewhere. Other segments, such as professional and technical users, while similar than the general consumer market, seemed to place more value on what e-Books had to offer and were leading in their adoption. In addition, Adobes superior graphics capability was more highly valued by the professional market. Adobe can win the standards war by creating alliances with other software companies. A good company is Google. Relative market caps show Adobe at $24 billion, Google at $148 billion and Microsoft at $296 billion. Google needs something like Adobe and Microsoft does not have the same perspective. This could be a strategic relationship to help Adobe win formats/standards war against Microsoft. Adobe may already own the market for electronic documents thanks to PDF, but the company knows that Microsoft has a habit of showing up late to a party and stealing the crown. In turn Adobe is beta testing a new project it calls â€Å"mars† which is an answer to Microsofts new XPS format. (http://www.inforules.com/summaries.htm) Negotiations over standardization and interconnection and standardization are critical once a network has been launched Adobe can explore seven key assets that show its ability to successfully wage a standards war. These are; intellectual property rights, control over an installed base of users, ability to innovate, manufacturing abilities, first mover advantages, strength in complements and brand name reputation. The standard wars are especially bitter and crucial to business success in markets with string network effects that cause consumers to play high value on compatibility. (http://www.inforules.com/summaries.htm) Pre-emption is one of the two crucial market place tactics that Adobe can use in its standards battle. The logic of pre-emption is straight forward: build an early lead so positive feedback works for you and against your rival. The same principle implies in markets with learning by doing: the first firm to gain significant experience will have lower costs and can pull even further ahead. (Shapiro, Varian 1999) Expectations management is the second by tactic in standard wars. Expectations are a major factor in consumer decisions about whether or not to purchase a new technology. Just as incumbents will vary to knock down the viability of new technologies that emerge, so will those very entrants strive to establish credibility. (Shapiro, Varian 1999) Reference: Carlo Shapiro, Hal R. Varian. Information Rules. A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. Retrieved from http://www.ameinfo.com/40724.html on 5th March 2008 Carlo Shapiro, Hal R. Varian. The Arts of Standard Wars, California Management Review, Vol.41, No.2 1999. http://www.inforules.com/summaries.htm http://www.business.ualberta.ca/mlounsbury/ORG658/readings/standard%20wars.pdf

Change and Culture Essay

A merger is the combining of two or more corporate entities to create one new organization with one licensure and one provider number for reimbursement purposes (Lielber & McConnell, 2008). Mergers occur for the following reasons; a desire to increase size to gain clout for negotiations with managed care providers, the desire to penetrate new markets to attract additional customers, the need for improved efficiencies resulting from centralized administrative practices, and the desire to express overall value of promoting readily available comprehensive care (Lielber & McConnell, 2008). Mergers occur on a daily. Mergers are a type of horizontal integration. Horizontal integration combines two or more corporations together through mergers and acquisitions (Borkowski, 2005). Horizontal integration increases the merged organization market base (Cai & Obara, 2009). Competition plays a huge role in business. In each industry, organizations compete against one another to get a foothold in the market. Competition can be beneficial and detrimental to the success of organizations. Competition benefits organizations in that it keeps organizations current on the latest trends in technology and equipment. It can be detrimental in that it can cause organizations to take shortcuts in procedures that can be harmful to patients and consumers. Competition can cause management to only focus on being number one and maintaining that spot at whatever cost. Customers are left holding the bag when and suffer when organizations focus solely on competition instead of focusing meeting the needs of the customer. Some organizations and industries strive on competition. Their goal is to be the best in their field and industry. In the health care industry, competition can be beneficial if organizations maintain their focus on providing quality patient care. This paper will focus on the effects of merging a healthcare organization with a competitor. Discussions will focus on the impact the sale will have on the culture of the new organization, what I can do as a middle manager to ensure the combined staff will work together to provide quality care without taking on a competitive stance, and describing what the organization will look like in terms of systems and shape. I will begin by looking at the organization in terms of systems and shape. Description of the Organization When merging organizations, the systems and shape of the organization will change to reflect the combining of the organizations. When merging organizations you have to create a perfect blend of the two organizations to create the new organizations. The best qualities of the organizations need to be combined to make the new organization a success. The goal of a merger is to â€Å"achieve mutual benefits through synergies of mission, strategies, operations, and ultimately competitive and financial position† (Kaufman & Grube, p. 46, 2009). The new organization will combine the best assets of both organizations. Services not previously offered at one or the other organization will be offered at the new organization as a result of the change. The new inpatient and outpatient services offered will increase our patient base. Although we will be offering new services, we will also have to eliminate some services offered that are not used on a consistent basis. We will have to make cuts that will help sustain the new organization. We will also make cuts to staff. When combining organizations, some departments will have to be downsized and combined to meet the needs of the new organizations. The new organization will be structured in a way that we provide efficient quality care to our patients. Providing Quality Care â€Å"Mergers require a significant commitment on the part of leadership to understanding and addressing the challenges and potential risks inherent in such an undertaking—to both the acquiring entity and the acquired/partner-seeking organization† (Kaufman & Grube, p. 46, 2009). We have to work to find a balance between providing the new inpatient and outpatient services, while maintaining quality care. Management has to review the strengths and weaknesses of both organizations and apply the strengths to the new organization. As a middle manager, it is my job to ensure that the combined staff works well together. It is my job to listen to any concerns that staff may have about the merger and answer their questions to the best of my ability. I think the key to getting the combined staff to work together without taking a competitive stance is communication. To eliminate the competitive stance, I would hold a meeting with the new staff and give them an opportunity to discuss their concerns about working together. I would also have training seminars to make sure everyone is working to the best of their abilities and providing quality care. By realizing that there will be some minor hiccups caused the by the change, I am better prepared to handle the problems. When implementing a change to any aspect of the daily functioning of an organization it is important to realize that there will be some degree of uncertainty with the effectiveness of the change. This degree of uncertainty will be caused by the newness of the change and getting use to retiring the old operating standard (Hauptman & Tyre, 1992). It is important to face these uncertainties head-on in order to implement the change successfully. The competitive stance is caused by the degree of uncertainty, employees are unsure of how the merger will affect their job. They are afraid that the new staff will come in and take pushing them out of the way. I have to ensure the staff that we are a team and that we are all working toward the same goal of providing quality care to our patients. Providing quality care is the goal of the healthcare organization, the needs of the patients has to come first. Although healthcare organizations are a business and it is important that the business aspects of the organization are met, patient care is the main goal of healthcare organizations. The focus has to be on what is best for the patient, not how much business or publicity the organization will receive from being competitive. The merger will change every aspect of the organization; it is my job to bring unity to the new organization. The Culture of the New Organization The sale will have a huge impact on the new combined organization. Changes have to be implemented to support the new organization. Staffing and budget cuts have to be made in order to make the merger a success. The new organization has to combine the best aspects of both organizations to fill the void of what each organization was lacking. The new organization will focus on providing efficient quality services to their patients. The new organization will provide a competitive edge to the organization while maintaining quality care. The new organization will provide more services to patients that each organization could not previously provide. The combined organization will be able to create a stronger brand and reach more people. The new organization will be able to reach a larger patient base. More revenue will be gained by combining both organizations. The new organization will be able to provide care to more people in the community and surrounding communities. Conclusion In conclusion combining health care organizations will affect a larger number of people. Mergers require a commitment from both the acquiring organization and the acquired organization to work together to mutual benefits. Each organization enters into the merger to receive benefits they were not able to receive by themselves. Whether it is for financial reasons or to gain a competitive advantage, mergers are necessary for healthcare organizations to survive in today’s industry. â€Å"The healthcare industry has started to experience a musical chair situation. When the music stops, certain hospitals are going to find themselves without a chair† (Kaufman & Grube, p. 50, 2009). The hospitals without chairs have to merge in order to stay in the game. When merging, it is important to analyze the risks and benefits to ensure the success of the merger. To ensure success, the merger has to be mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

University Study Skills

Students need to make a number of adjustments when starting university. Critically discuss some of these adjustments in terms of skills brought with them, and new skills that must be developed. Draw on relevant SSK12 material in your essay. ————————————————- In this essay it will be argued that even though students may bring with them such skills as competence in writing secondary school essays and reports, good comprehension and grammar and motivation to succeed with them to university, there are other skills they will need to develop as well as refine those they already possess.The main skills which any new student will need to develop in order to succeed at university are critical thinking, which also includes critical reading, reflective thinking, learning independently and adjusting to the concept of the university culture which has its own languages and behaviours. Ne w students are likely to experience a cultural clash as university possesses its own culture, and sub-cultures. Adjustments will have to be made with students needing to develop bicultural habits. As Kolb asserts, students entering higher education will have to engage in ‘learning how to learn’ (Kolb 1981).The lead-up to the first study period, as well as the first study period itself, of a student’s beginning in university can be a massive culture shock. Some students may develop the feeling of uncertainty as to whether they have made the right choice about pursuing higher education and whether they are even likely to succeed. This can be observed by reading some of the student comments on the SSK12 Facebook page during the first weeks of the first study period. In other cases we may see students that take on a particular discipline and after a period of time find that they no longer have a desire to pursue that discipline.There may be few opportunities for stud ents in these positions to change disciplines. This is primarily due to the fact each discipline has its own sub-culture within the greater university culture. As Kolb has discussed, there are many faculties within the university, each have their own conventions that are unique to themselves such as language, values, ideas and norms (Kolb 1981). This impending transition may be too much for a student who has already had to become acculturated and has potentially experienced a culture shock.The average individual can be affected by several cultures, for example and not necessarily restricted to, culture of family, culture of the workplace and culture of religion. The culture of university is but one of the cultures that can make a big impact on the individual. Students are faced with a new workload that may come with a pace of instruction that is probably faster and more intense than what they may be used to. There is a potential to feel overwhelmed at first and ways to overcome this may be to develop habits of early preparation, prioritising and time management.There is an expectation that students need to be self-motivated and independent. There will be some guidance available but the general expectation is that the individual should know their own deadlines and the amount of study that is required. This may take some adjustment for individuals as they may be reeling from the cultural demands that university has already begun to place upon them. If they are studying more than one subject in their first study period they will have already potentially experienced the distinction in sub-cultures.For example, Ballard and Clanchy have noted that each sub-culture will have its own language and values and the new student will have to navigate themselves through an unsteady transition between cultures (Ballard and Clanchy 1988). Individuals also need to develop critical thinking as it is a cornerstone of university studies. Warren contends that critical thinking is n ecessary to university studies as an individual cannot â€Å"process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, or articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking† (Warren 1995, 4).I can support this through my own experience as critical thinking has been an important component of my university studies to date. One may see, however, that some individuals may have difficulties bringing themselves around to this mode of thinking as critical thinking involves developing an impersonal approach and attempting to put aside any biases that the individual may possess about particular subjects. Critical thinking may also involve critical reading and this may also be a foreign concept to the new student.One needs to get into the habit of identifying theses in readings rather than just ‘reading’ – ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’, as it were. Once the thesis has been identified the argument then needs to be ana lysed and criticised. Any evidence within the reading needs to be assessed. Any conclusions reached need to be examined as well as whether they are supported by evidence. Any other alternatives also need to be considered. In short, the individual will need to read more widely than what they may be used to and in a more analytical fashion. Reflective thinking is another skill that students must develop as it is a valuable tool.Reflection is integral to learning and assists in critical thinking as it starts with being self-critical in order to learn and improve. As Marshall and Rowland assert, ‘thinking about your own thinking, or metacognition, will give you insights into how you go about your learning, and is important if you want to change or adapt study behaviours’ (Marshall and Rowland 2006 9). Warren further asserts that ‘critical thinking is necessary to learning. One cannot process information, form reasoned opinions, evaluate beliefs, construct positions, o r articulate a thesis without the use of critical thinking.As such, the critical self is integral to learning itself’ (Warren 1995). Reflective thinking makes the individual ask themselves what may be working, what is not working and what may require improvement. Some students may already bring a form of this skill with them to university. I can support this through my personal experience in this area. I served in the police force for thirty years and the procedure in the police force was to conduct ‘debriefs’ of incidents that we were involved in. The police debrief was always framed in the format of discussing what went well and what could be done better.Every individual involved in that particular incident was expected to contribute. The expectation was that this process would lead to constant improvement in performance. It is a very similar process to reflection within university learning. One method of reflective thinking that students may learn a great deal from is through the keeping of a reflective journal, also known as a learning log. Pavlovich asserts that reflective journals are an invaluable aid in the development of self-awareness and inner leadership (Pavlovich 2007).The use of a reflective journal aids in developing the individual as a critical thinker as the very nature of its use forces the user to be critical of themselves and lead to change and improvement. Students will also need to develop the skill of speaking and writing in academic English. This is part of the acculturation to the university culture of which language is a major part. Students will have to learn very quickly to become bicultural. In their written work they will have to learn to avoid contractions and develop the passive voice over the active voice.Academic English is specific whereas informal English, that the student may be used, to is rather vague. Academic English is also often structured in a cautious manner whereas informal English is often stru ctured in a more definite manner. Using my own personal experience to add support to this, I thought I had a reasonable grasp of formal English having come from the police force where, for example, great care goes into compilation of files for the prosecutors to proceed with, but I have also had to make adjustments and become bicultural through working on my own understanding and application of academic English.The new student may bring skills with them to university but they will be confronted with the need to refine these skills and indeed develop new skills in order to survive at university. Skills that will need to be developed will include the need for critical and reflective thinking, critical reading and adjustment to independent learning. Students will also have to become acculturated to university which possesses its own culture and sub-cultures which are separate to what they may be used to. REFERENCES Avruch, Kevin. 2002. Culture and Conflict Resolution.Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press. Ballard, Brigid, and John Clanchy. 1988. Literacy in the university: An ‘anthropological’ approach. In Literacy by Degrees, ed G. Taylor, et al. , 7-23. Milton Keynes: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Beasley, Colin. 2012. Communicating at University. Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. Bizzell, Patricia. 1986. What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College? College Composition and Communication. 37(3). Grant, Barbara. 1997.Disciplining Students: the construction of student subjectivities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 18(1): 101-114. Hobson, Julia. 1996. â€Å"Concepts of the self: Different ways of knowing about the self†. SSK12 lecture transcript. Ed. Lorraine Marshall. Perth: Murdoch University. Kolb, David A. 1981. â€Å"Learning styles and disciplinary differences. † In The Modern American College. Ed. A. W. Chickerine & Associates, 232-235 and 251-252. S an Francisco: Jossey Bass. Marshall, Lorraine, and Frances Rowland. 2006. A guide to learning independently. th ed. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia. Pavlovich, Kathryn. 2007. The development of reflective practice through student journals. Higher Education Research and Development 26 (3): 281-295. Samovar, Larry A. , and Richard E. Porter. 2004. Communication Between Cultures. 5th ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Vivekananda, Kitty, and Penny Shores. 1996. Uni is Easier When You Know How: Success Stories, Study Secrets, Strategies. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger. Warren, Karen. 1995. ‘The critical self’. Perth: Murdoch University.

Secularism v. Spirituality in the Second Nuns Tale Essay

Secularism v. Spirituality in the Second Nuns Tale In the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes the men and women of the Church in extreme forms; most of these holy pilgrims, such as the Monk, the Friar, and Pardoner, are caricatures of objectionable parts of Catholic society. At a time when the power-hungry Catholic Church used the misery of peasants in order to obtain wealth, it is no wonder that one of the greatest writers of the Middle Ages used his works to comment on the religious politics of the day. Yet not all of Chaucers religious characters are failures in spirituality. His description of the Second Nun is of a truly pious woman who spends her life in the service of†¦show more content†¦Chaucer does not only the tale to show off his writing abilities -- it is not simply a display of his incredible versatility as an author. Chaucer uses this tale to contrast his anti-church sentiments within the Canterbury Tales; it shows his great respect for spiritual beliefs and benefits him in making his argument against the Church. In essence, Chaucer is clearly defending his anti-secular position by showing his reverence and devotion to spirituality; his problems lie with the Church, not the faith. While very well known for his sardonic criticism of the Church, he is less often acknowledged for his appreciation and respect for the religion itself. Judith A. Weise puts forth one of the more shocking theories concerning the Second Nuns Tale in her essay Chaucers Tell-Tale Lexicon: Romancing Seinte Cecyle. Weise argues that Chaucers purpose for writing the saints tale as a self-imposed literary penance for the raptus of Cecilia Chaumpaigne. She posits: Chaucer began translating the lyf in the wake of Cecilias release to deflect negative reactions by his family... Is it just a stunning coincidence that the one saints life Chaucer writes concerns a virgin martyr with the same name? (1) Why not? Perhaps Chaucer, like many other writers, uses his writing as some form of psychological and spiritual cleansing;