Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress Essay -- Poem Poet Coy Mistress M

Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress Andrew Marvell writes an elaborate poem that not only speaks to his coy mistress but also to the reader. He suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably ticking and that he (the speaker) wishes for her to act upon his wish and have a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggest to the reader that he/she must act upon their desires, to hesitate no longer and  ³seize the moment?before time expires. Marvell uses a dramatic sense of imagery and exaggeration in order to relay his message to the reader and to his coy mistress. The very first two lines of the poem suggest that it would be fine for him and his mistress to have a slow and absorbing relationship but there simply isn ¹t enough time. He uses exaggerations such as  ³Love you ten years before the Flood?and  ³An hundred years should go to praise?  ³Two hundred to adore each breast; But thirty thousand to the rest.? These exaggerations imply that the speaker would wait many many years until his coy mistress was ready, but there isn ¹t enough time. The reader can also visualize the deep love the speaker contains for his coy mistress through the imagery. For example, the speaker suggests that his vegetable love should grow, and vegetables only get larger and more ripe as they grow, analogous to his love, but vegetables grow very slow. His love is so great that it would grow  ³vaster than empires, and more slow? meaning that if there was enough time, his love for her would be i...

Essay --

This book honestly kind of is kind of weird. The reason behind this is the fact that the novel is really instable and its theme and setting, because at one point where one point in time in a certain setting, and it literally the blink of an eye you are another in time and in another setting. Basically the first part of the novel is talking about how fond good got the idea of writing this book that we are about to read. And it talks about his education and his time in Dresden as a prisoner of war. We realize that it's taken him long time to come up with this book because of all of the imagery that he can't seem to portray his writing. Spurts I missed of the story is Billy Pilgrim, here is an optometrist who was later drafted into world war two. Before Billy shipped overseas, his dad dies in a hunting accident. He begins his war career in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, where he is immediately taken prisoner behind German lines. Just before he is captured, he experiences what he calls â€Å"time shifting† and he sees his entire life from beginning to end, all in one big sweep. The lead is then sent through aware railway car to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Billy has a breakdown and is sent into his time shifting again. He and the other prisoners of war are sent to the city of Dresden, and their Presentment is one of the former slaughterhouses. Then the firestorm of Dresden begins when the allies carpet bomb the city of Dresden with incendiary bombs. This caused most buildings to be caught on fire and all of the oxygen sucked out into the fire's that were blazing. This caused about 130,000 people to be suffocated to death. The only way that Billy and the other prisoners of war survived is by hiding in an airtight meat locker i... ...p of what I was reading. He is a very different kind of author and it's hard to explain but I just really feel like I wouldn't want to read another one of his books. 19. As I stressed throughout these multiple questions I feel like the most important phrase that he has said in the book is â€Å"so it goes†. The reason why I feel as if it is most important is because it explains his life out of how dying is a fact of life and we can't do anything to stop it. This really asked the entire gloominess of the novel because we realize his indifference to death. If I had to make a T-shirt slogan for this book I think you have to be 99 problems but, so it goes. My reason behind this is that there is a popular song out there were talks about he has 99 problems but a cheating girlfriend is not one of them, I added the fact that even if you have 99 problems that's just the way life Essay -- This book honestly kind of is kind of weird. The reason behind this is the fact that the novel is really instable and its theme and setting, because at one point where one point in time in a certain setting, and it literally the blink of an eye you are another in time and in another setting. Basically the first part of the novel is talking about how fond good got the idea of writing this book that we are about to read. And it talks about his education and his time in Dresden as a prisoner of war. We realize that it's taken him long time to come up with this book because of all of the imagery that he can't seem to portray his writing. Spurts I missed of the story is Billy Pilgrim, here is an optometrist who was later drafted into world war two. Before Billy shipped overseas, his dad dies in a hunting accident. He begins his war career in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, where he is immediately taken prisoner behind German lines. Just before he is captured, he experiences what he calls â€Å"time shifting† and he sees his entire life from beginning to end, all in one big sweep. The lead is then sent through aware railway car to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Billy has a breakdown and is sent into his time shifting again. He and the other prisoners of war are sent to the city of Dresden, and their Presentment is one of the former slaughterhouses. Then the firestorm of Dresden begins when the allies carpet bomb the city of Dresden with incendiary bombs. This caused most buildings to be caught on fire and all of the oxygen sucked out into the fire's that were blazing. This caused about 130,000 people to be suffocated to death. The only way that Billy and the other prisoners of war survived is by hiding in an airtight meat locker i... ...p of what I was reading. He is a very different kind of author and it's hard to explain but I just really feel like I wouldn't want to read another one of his books. 19. As I stressed throughout these multiple questions I feel like the most important phrase that he has said in the book is â€Å"so it goes†. The reason why I feel as if it is most important is because it explains his life out of how dying is a fact of life and we can't do anything to stop it. This really asked the entire gloominess of the novel because we realize his indifference to death. If I had to make a T-shirt slogan for this book I think you have to be 99 problems but, so it goes. My reason behind this is that there is a popular song out there were talks about he has 99 problems but a cheating girlfriend is not one of them, I added the fact that even if you have 99 problems that's just the way life

Cell Phones in the Hands of Drivers: a Risk or Benefit? Essay

Cell Phones in the Hands of Drivers A Risk or a Benefit Ariana Laguna English 102 Professor Barnes/Walter 10 December 2012 Outline THESIS: Unless the risks of cell phones are shown to outweigh the benefits, we should not restrict their use in moving vehicles: instead, we should educate the public about the dangers of driving while phoning and prosecute irresponsible phone users under laws on negligent and reckless driving. I. Scientific studies haven’t proved a link between use of cell phones and traffic accidents. A. A study by Redelmeier and Tibshirani was not conclusive, as the researchers themselves have admitted. B. Most states do not keep records on accidents caused by driver distractions. C. In a survey of research on cell phones and driving. Cain and Burris report that results so far have been inconclusive. II. The Risks of using cell phones while driving should be weighed against the benefits. A. At the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, researchers found that the risks of driving while phoning were small compared with other driving risks. B. There are safety, business, and personal benefits to using cell phones on the road. III. We need to educate drivers on using cell phone responsibly and enforce laws on negligent and reckless driving. A. Educating drivers can work B. It is possible to enforce laws against negligent and reckless driving; in states that do not do an adequate job of enforcement, the pueblo can lobby for improvement. Cell Phones in the Hands of Drivers: A Risk or Benefit? As of 2000, there were about ninety million cell phone users in the United States, with 85% of them using their phones while on the Road (Sundeen !). Because of evidence that cell phones impair drivers by distraction them, some states have considered laws restricting their use in moving vehicles. Proponents of legislation correctly point out those using phones while driving can be dangerous. The extent of the danger, however, is a matter of debate, and the benefits may outweigh the risks. Unless the risks of cell phones are shown to outweigh the benefits, we should not restrict their use in moving vehicles. Instead, we should educate the public about the dangers of driving while phoning and prosecute irresponsible phone seers under the laws on negligent and reckless driving. Assessing the risks We have all heard horror stories about distracted drivers chatting on their cell phone. For example, in a letter to the editor, Anthony Ambrose describes being passed by another driver â€Å"who was holding a Styrofoam cup and a cigarette in one hand, and a cellular telephone in the other, and who had what appeared to be a newspaper balanced on the steering wheel- all at approximately 70 miles per hour† (128). Another driver, Peter Cohen, says that after he was rear-ended, the guilty party emerged from his vehicle still talking on the phone (127). Admittedly, some drivers do use their cell phones irresponsibly. The dangers are real, but how extensive are they? To date there have been a few scientific reports on the relation between cell phone use and traffic accidents. In 1997, Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani studied 699 drivers who owned mobile phones and had been in accidents. The drivers, who volunteered for the study, gave the researchers detailed billing records of their phone calls. With these data, the researchers found that â€Å"the risk of a collision when using a cellular telephone was not being used† (433). Although the conclusion sounds dramatic, Redlemeier and Tibshirani caution against reading too much into it: Our study indicates an association but not necessarily a causal relation between the use of cellular telephones while driving and a subsequent motor vehicle collision†¦.In addition, our study did not include serious injuries†¦.Finally, the data do not indicate that drivers were at fault in the collisions; it may be that cellular telephones merely decrease a driver’s ability to avoid a collision caused by someone else. (457) Pointing out that cell phones have benefits as well as risks, the authors do not recommend restrictions on their use while driving. Unfortunately, most states do not keep adequate records on the number of times phones are a factor in accidents. As of December 2000, only ten states were trying to keep such records (Sundeen 2). In addition, currently there is little scientific evidence comparing the use of cell phones with other driver distractions: fiddling with the radio, smoking, eating, putting on makeup, shaving, and so on. Alasdair Cain and Mark Burries of the Center Urban Transportation Research surgery research on the cell phone issue as of 1999 and concluded that there is â€Å"no nationally-accredited document to prove the connection between mobile phone use and traffic accidents.† Because research results have been so inconclusive, it makes sense to wait before passing laws that might well be unnecessary. Weighting risks and benefits In 2000, researchers at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis found that the risk of driving while phoning were small compared with other driving risks. Whereas the cell phone user’s chance of dying are about 6 in a million per year, someone not wearing a seat belt has a risk of 49.3 per million, and someone driving a small car has a risk of 14.5 per million (3). Because of this comparatively small risk regulation of phones may not be worth the coast of the legislation as well as the additional burden such legislation would put on law enforcement officers. In addition to the risks, there are benefits to using phones on the road. Matt Sundeen reports that drivers with cell phones place an estimated 98,000 emergency calls each day and that the phones â€Å"often reduce emergency response times and actually save lives.† (1). The phones have business benefits too. According to transportation engineer Richard Retting, â€Å"Commuter time is no longer just for driving. As the comforts of home and the efficiency of the office creep into the automobile, it is becoming increasingly attractive as a work space† (in Kilgannon A23). Car phones also have personal benefits. A mother coming home late from work can check in with her children, a partygoer lost in a strange neighborhood can call for directions, or a teenager whose car breaks down can phone home. Unless or until there is clear evidence of a direct link between cell phone use and traffic accidents, the government should not regulate use of cell phones while driving. A better approach is to educate the public to the dangers of driving while distracted and to enforce laws on negligent and reckless driving. Educating drivers and enforcing laws Educational efforts can work. In the last twenty years, government and private groups have managed to change the driving habits of Americans. Seat belts are now regularly worn, people commonly appoint designated drivers when a group is drinking, small children are almost always put in safety seats, and most drivers turn on their headlights in rainy weather. Enforcing laws against negligent and reckless driving can also work. Even groups concerned with safety support this view. For instance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advises states to enforce their reckless and negligent driving laws and, where necessary, to strengthen those laws; it does not call for restrictions on use of the phones (United States, Dept. of Transportation). The California Highway Patrol opposed, restricting use of phones while driving, claiming that distracted drivers can already be prosecuted (Jacobs). It is possible, of course, that some states do not enforce their laws to the extent necessary. In such instances, citizens should pressure on highway patrols to step up enforcement, for without fear of prosecution many drivers will not change their behavior. The use of cell phones while driving is probable here to stay, despite the risks, unless future studies prove that the risks clearly outweigh the benefits. However, public safety concerns are real. To dares those concerns, we should mount a major educations campaign to educate drivers about that dangers of driving while distracted and insist that laws on negligent and reckless driving be enfaced as vigorously as possible. Works Cited Ambros, Anthony. Letter. New England Journal of Medicine 337.2 (1997): 128. Print. Cain, Alasdair, and Mark Burris. â€Å"Investigation of the Use of Mobile Phones while Driving.† Center for Urban Transportation Research. Coll. of Engineering, U of South Florida, Apr. 1999. Cohen, Peter J. Letter. New England Journal of Medicine 337.2 (1997): 127. Print. Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. â€Å"Cellular Phones and Driving: Weighing the Risks and Benefits. â€Å"Risk Perspective. President and Fellows of Harvard Coll.,July 2000. Web. 15 Mar. 2001. Jacobs, Annette. â€Å"guest Opinion: No News Laws Needed for Driver Distractions. â€Å"Wireless Week. Advantage Business Media, 24 May 1999. Web. 12 Mar. 2001. Kilgannon, Corey. â€Å"Road Warriors with Laptops.† New York Times 15 Aug. 2000: A23. Print. Redelmeier, Donald A., and Robert J. Tibshirani. â€Å"Association between Cellular-Telephone Calls and Motor Vehicle Collisions. â€Å"New England Journal of Medicine 33 6.7 (1997): 453-58. Print. Sundeen, Matt. â€Å"Cell Phones and Highway Safety: 2000 State Legislative Update. â€Å"National Conference of State Legislatures. Natl. Conf. of State Legislatures, Dec. 2000. Web. 11 Mar. 2001. United States of Transportation. Natl. Highway Traffic Safety Administration. â€Å"An Investigation of the Safety Implications of Wireless Communication in Vehicles.† NHTSA. Natl. Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nov. 1997. Web. 12 Mar. 2001.

Is Oracle Dying

Oracle Corporation was founded in Jun 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, Ed Oates. Over the years, it has risen to become almost indisputable leader of the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) market with 44% (Source: IDC 2009) – at least, for now, though, no one is sure how long that numero uno position will last. There were heady days of 1996-2008 or so when Oracle ruled the world of RDBMS. It was unchallenged crown king that could do no wrong. Hundreds of thousands of Database engineers, architects, administrators spoke of Oracle as if it was actually the famed â€Å"Oracle of Delphi†.Conference passes to Oracle Open World were so coveted that it was distributed to star employees in any company using Oracle Products. However, after 2008, the downward spiral has been very perceptible to the database communities. The hush-hush talks could now be heard very loud and clear. Only that Oracle was perhaps hearing but valiantly choosing not to listen. It continued to maintain the arrogance of a star past its prime – denying that it was aging, claiming that the talent would always trump the age.I think the Oracle Goliath had forgotten that for every arrogant Goliath, there is a David that is bound to introduce it to its nemesis. But my guess this downward spiral perhaps set into motion long before 2008 or so when world started noticing it. Time machine Let us trace Oracle Journey through its very meager beginnings and how it lost its course along the way. The chronological sequence of this journey could be roughly as I have shown below:- 1977   SDL (Oracle's predecessor) founded 1978    Oracle Version 1 developed 1979    First commercial SQL RDBMS 983  Ã‚   Oracle Version 3, first RDBMS developed to run on mainframes, PC, minicomputers, VMS 1984  Ã‚   first RDBMS to offer read-consistency 1985    Released of Oracle Version 5, first RDBMS in client/server environments 1986  Ã‚   Oracle IPO (NASDAQ) 1987  Ã‚   Rises to numbe r one in the world for RDBMS, Oracle gets into building enterprise applications 1988  Ã‚   Oracle Version 6 with several new features: PL/SQL, Row-level locking 1989  Ã‚   Oracle provides DB support for OLTP and moves its HQ to Redwood Shores, California 1990  Ã‚   Launches Oracle Applications Release 8 992  Ã‚   Launched Oracle 7, offers full applications implementation methodology 1993  Ã‚   Client/server environments enhancements 1994  Ã‚   Oracle receives the industry’s first security clearance 1995    Debuts first 64-bit RDBMS 1996  Ã‚   Releases feature rich 7. 3, with different types of data types – text, maps, audio, video, or images, develops an open standards-based, web-enabled architecture 1998  Ã‚   Oracle8 Database ; Oracle Applications 10. 7 – first enterprise computing company to use Java 1999  Ã‚   Offers its first DBMS with XML support 2000  Ã‚   Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i 001  Ã‚   Oracle9i Database with Oracle RAC,   first RDBMS to complete 3 terabyte TPC-H record 2002   Oracle RDBMS passes 15 industry standard security evaluations – first RDBMS to achieve this 2003   Oracle debuts Oracle Database 10g, more robust clustering software 2004   Declares Oracle â€Å"the Information Company† and spreads into many other areas 2005   Acquires rival PeopleSoft, releases first free database, Oracle 10g XE 2006  Ã‚   Declares a 30-year commitment for open standards computing, giving customers â€Å"Unbreakable Linux† 2008   HP Oracle Database Machine/Exadata storage 009  Ã‚  Gets into too many things – including BEA products, launch of Oracle Fusion Middleware, 11g advance Oracle 2010  Ã‚   Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems, announces Sun based Exadata/Exalogic machines 2011  Ã‚   Keeps adding bells and whistles to same Exadata/Exalogic machines 2012  Ã‚   Announces initiative focused on Cloud Rise of Oracle Most of the engineers in software industry were not even born when in late seventies, it struck young Larry Ellison, after reading paper written by Dr Edgar F.Codd (1970) on relational database management systems titled â€Å"A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks†, that a software could be designed that could follow the principles of relational databases. His belief was reinforced when he read another article, published in the IBM Research Journal, and authored by Ed Oates (IBM) about the IBM System R database. System R itself was based on Codd's theories. In 1977, Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL) and in 1979, SDL was rechristened as Relational Software, Inc. nly to change its name again in 1982 to Oracle Systems Corporation. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation. From 1979 through 1992, Oracle primarily focused its attention on making its flagship product, Oracle RDBMS, strong . Oracle was getting complacent after version 5 and then it came out with version 6 – this was huge fiasco product and it was nightmare for customer support and Oracle support. Corporate customers were threatening to pull off Oracle.Version 6 was quickly followed up by version 7 which saved the day for Oracle. 7. 34 turned out to be very stable product. Version 8i, 9i and 10g added to Oracle RDBMS core competence. These versions by themselves attracted customers to Oracle. If everything was so good, continues to be good then why do I particularly feel that Oracle could be dying as a company? Lack of Level 5 leadership Oracle has been led by Larry Ellison all these years. Larry is a level 4 leader – wish he was level 5.Under his leadership, Oracle has always focused on â€Å"what† should be done and â€Å"how† will it be done. Level 5 CEOs first focus on â€Å"who† and then on â€Å"what† and â€Å"how†. People part of the equation rem ains very flaky, to say the least, with Oracle. It has been notoriously uncaring about exodus of top talent. Many ex-Oracle top performers have gone on to form companies, rise to be C staff, unleash innovations but Oracle didn’t really do anything specific to stop the fleeing top talent.Also, like many other celebrity CEOs, Ellison is getting two distracted by things that his company should not be focusing on – example, Oracle’s American Cup sponsorship, Ellison’s many prime properties, Ellison’s unflinching support for former ousted HP CEO and great friend Mark Hurd, Ellison’s purchasing Lanai Island. All these have direct impact on Oracle’s future – why? Because all these are issues that distract the CEO. Same thing happened with Lee Iacocca – once he turned around Chrysler, he focused more on politics, image building, helping White House ith many initiatives which distracted him from his duties as CEO. And Chrysler sl id back into the mess that it had recovered from. Mark’s hiring into Oracle forced Ellison to send Charles Phillips off. Charles was a great executive and leader recognized for his talent in and outside Oracle. Letting a great leader go in favor of a friend whose moral ethics are somewhat doubtful never went well with the employees. Also, Oracle doesn’t have conversations like â€Å"what can we do to stop you from leaving† with most of their top talent attritions. 5 Phases of a perilous corporationAny company going through the general growth, if not managed in a disciplined manner, can hurtle itself into peril. Jim Collins brings this out very succinctly in his book â€Å"How the Mighty Fall – any why some companies never give in†. The 5 stages of this journey from greatness to perish are very perceptible when they happen. The Path to Destruction I suspect Oracle’s downward spiral started after 2001-2002 (or at least sometime during that per iod). It could not come to terms with the ever high stock price of more than $45 and started becoming greedy.Perhaps under some implicit or explicit mandate from Uncle Larry, the sales people were sent marching to see how much more they could milk out of their unsuspecting and totally Oracle dependent customers. And perhaps the sales people came back with the message that customers would not mind paying more for the crown jewel product – core RDBMS as well as Oracle ERP Suite – 11i. Oracle (read, Larry Ellison) could not stand competition – especially those then started looking at how to kill rivals – hostile and non-hostile acquisitions of rival JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel.Every growing company reaches a point where growth starts flattening – happened with Apple, happened with Google and will happen with next big shinning company as well – Oracle was not particularly immune to it so in an attempt to resuscitate its flattening growth, largely due to its flagship core RDBMS product, Oracle started developing another front that it could open – this was business of application servers – an exploding market back in the day.An application server is packaged software that developers use to write and deploy web specific applications. The market had exploded past decade or so since many application server vendors were trying to build dynamic applications for the web and mobile devices. For Oracle the lure was that the market had the potential to perhaps become as lucrative as their core database market.Oracle was very late entrant into this market but it quickly acquired BEA Software (leader in the space at that point) and started competing neck to neck with IBM WebSphere. Within Oracle, Application Server business is viewed as â€Å"third business† besides core RDBMS and ERP. Oracle built its business around data bases and from the very beginning it has dominated the database market, providing the d ata stores and central repositories to store critical business information that businesses must maintain, use and safeguard to complete transactions.This has given it almost a monopoly and a very superior position when negotiating with customers. Oracle’s sales team that is always scavenging to find new sources of revenues, capitalizes on such an edge and leverages it to squeeze every dollar out of the customers – rightfully earning a fearsome reputation of being â€Å"hard-line negotiators† – and they are squeezing where it hurts the customers most – at their licensing and support costs.However, like it had opened a third front by getting into Application Servers market, it has since then opened many more such fronts via its acquisition spree – Oracle has expanded well beyond just the databases and application servers and entered the business software domain as well, acquiring leader companies in domains related to technology infrastructure , sales, employees, inventory and customers. People typically use products from these acquired companies to track information related to these important entities. Undisciplined growth In their pursuit to keep up with their YoY growth, Oracle has descended into a very undisciplined growth.There was also very unreasonable desire to grow into every domain. While growing via acquisitions, Oracle Executive Management has forgotten that it is not simply enough to acquire good companies, it takes good and dedicated diligence to grow them into great companies. Some of the companies Oracle acquired are as under (source – http://www. oracle. com):- 2013 Feb-13Acme PacketNetworking hardware for telecommunications service providers 2012 Dec-12Eloqua Marketing Automation platform for managing sales and marketing leads across an enterprise.Dec-12DataRakerCloud based Analytic platform to transform meter, customer, network and asset Big Data into actionable business intelligence. Nov-12Insta ntisCloud and premises-based PPM – Project Portfolio Management applications. Sep-12SelectMindsCloud-based social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management application Jul-12Xsigo SystemsProvider of network virtualization technology that simplifies cloud infrastructure and operations Jul-12SkireSolutions provider for managing capital projects, facilities and real estate Jul-12InvolverSocial media development platformJun-12Collective IntellectCloud-based social intelligence solutions May-12VitrueSocial Marketing Platform provider Mar-12ClearTrialCloud-based Clinical Trial Operations and Analytics products Feb-12TaleoTalent Management Software 2011 Oct-11RightNow TechnologiesCloud-based CRM Oct-11EndecaE-commerce & Business Intelligence Sep-11GoAHead Service Availability and Management Software Jul-11InQuiraService Knowledge Management Software Jul-11KspliceRebootless Linux kernel updates Jun-11 FatWire Software Web Content and Web Experience Management (WCM and WEM) Soft ware Jun-11Pillar Data Systems Storage systemsApr-11Datanomic Data Quality Software Feb-11Ndevr – Select IP only Environmental Reporting and Business Intelligence 2010 Nov-10 Art Technology GroupEcommerce software vendor May-10 Pre-Paid Software Payment Solutions May-10 Market2LeadApplications May-10 Secerno Data protection hardware and software Apr-10Phase Forward Applications for life sciences companies and healthcare providers Feb-10AmberPoint Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) management Feb-10Convergin Telecom Service BrokerJan-10Sun Microsystems Computer servers, storage, networks, Java, MySQL, software, and services Jan-10Silver Creek SystemsProduct Data Quality Solutions for connecting Enterprise Systems, Customers, Suppliers and Partners. 2009 Oct-09SOPHOI Intellectual property management for Media & Entertainment Industry Sep-09HyperRoll Financials, software and IT services Jun-09Conformia Product Lifecycle Management May-09Virtual Iron Software Server Virtualizati on Management Software Mar-09Relsys International Drug Safety and Risk Management 2008Oct-08Haley (RuleBurst Holdings) Natural Language Business Rules / Policy Automation Oct-08Advanced Visual Technology Retail Space Planning Oct-08Primavera Project Portfolio Management Jun-08Skywire Software Document Management May-08AdminServer Insurance Policy Administration Jan-08BEA Systems Enterprise Software 2007 Dec-07MoniforceReal User Experience Monitoring Sep-07BridgestreamEnterprise Role Management software Jul-07Bharosa, IncOnline Identity Theft and Fraud Detection May-07Agile Software CorporationProduct Lifecycle Management Apr-07Lodestar CorporationUtilities Application SoftwareMar-07Hyperion CorporationEnterprise Performance Management Mar-07Tangosol IncDatagrid Software 2006 Nov-06Stellent Inc. Universal Content Management, Digital Rights Management Nov-06SPL WorldGroupUtility Billing and Customer Service Systems Oct-06SunopsisETL, Data Integration Oct-06MetaSolvOSS service activati on Jun-06DemantraDemand-Driven Planning Solution [email  protected] IP-based Contact Center Solution Apr-06Portal Software Billing and Revenue Management solutions for communications and media industry Feb-06HotSipCommunications infrastructure solutionsFeb-06Sleepycat Software Open-source database software for embedded applications Jan-06360CommerceRetail Industry Solutions Jan-06Siebel SystemsCustomer relationship management 2005 Dec-05Temposoft Workforce Management Applications sam organization Nov-05OctetString Virtual Directory Solutions Nov-05Thor Technologies Enterprise-wide User Provisioning Solutions. Oct-05Innobase Discrete Transactional Open Source Database Technology Sep-05G-LogTransportation Management Solutions Aug-05i-flexBanking Industry Solutions Jul-05Context MediaEnterprise Content IntegrationJul-05ProfitLogicRetail Industry Solutions Jun-05TimesTenReal-time Enterprise Solutions Jun-05TripleHopContext-sensitive Enterprise Search Apr-05RetekRetail Industry Solutio ns Mar-05OblixIdentity Management Solutions Jan-05PeopleSoftEnterprise Software 2004 Jun-04CollaxaBusiness process management May-04 PhaosIdentity management Jan-04SiteWorks Solutions Clinical trials management 2003 Jun-03ReliatyEnterprise data protection Jun-03FileFishEnterprise content management 2002 Jun-02SteltorEnterprise calendaring system Jan-02NetForce Adverse event reporting systemJan-02Indicast Voice portals Jan-02TopLink Object-relation mapping technology 1999 Jun-99Thinking Machines Corporation datamining technology 1995 Aug-95IRI Software OLAP products 1994 Oct-94Rdb (A division of DEC) Relational database The early acquisitions show Oracle focus on growing its databases market but acquisitions of past few years including very surprising $5 Billion acquisition of Sun MicroSystems do not give us good sense of where Oracle’s focus is. The strategic theme in Oracle’s acquisition spree is missing and seems more like reactions of leadership focusing only on â⠂¬Å"growth†.Take a look at spread of Oracle into sectors and even a layman would agree that it is stretching itself far too thin. If people outside of Oracle can’t understand why Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the confusion is equally evident inside Oracle as well. No one can put a figure on if Oracle acquired Sun for hardware market entry point or MySQL or Sun Solaris OS or was it a combination of all these and then some. Oracle has come out with an integrated ERP product suite – Fusion. The sales teams do not fully comprehend how to package Fusion compared to Oracle 12 version.As such Fusion itself is at least four years too late. In its attempt to create a unified platform for ERP software, it has managed to successfully scare customer who want just a small focused set of modules – like AR and GL or Manufacturing. There was Steve Jobs who made the famous statement that â€Å"†¦we tell customers what they want†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Larry Ellison can ma ke the same claim – but to be successful at doing that, you have to be a visionary and not be distracted so hopelessly as Ellison currently is. And, customers seem to be last thing that Oracle considers while deciding these moves.For example, many of Sun’s largest former customers were large Wall Street financial institutions, and they were really miffed last year when Oracle wanted to restrict their server and operating system choices to only Sun technologies. They relentlessly pushed back and Oracle had to ultimately give in to their defiance, reaffirming deals that would let companies like HP and Dell offer Sun software on their respective hardware. â€Å"Customers will always gripe about giving too much control to any one company,† said Israel Hernandez, director of software research at Barclays Capital.Larry Ellison runs Oracle likes his personal fiefdom. The Oracle Board of Directors is merely a formality that is maintained to satisfy the Wall Street and S EC. Most decisions are taken unilaterally by Ellison and his leadership team. For example the 2010 hiring of ex-HP CEO, Mark Hurd, as a co-president after Hurd was fired by HP board due to sexual harassment allegations. Analysts viewed the hiring as a positive outcome for Oracle as it looked to expand. However, Mr. Hurd’s arrival was quickly followed by departure of one ofOracle long-timer, Charles Phillips. At one time, Charles was touted as Ellison’s protege and likely successor. Oracle customers are worried about putting all their eggs in one basket. Almost every company that they tend to do business is being bought by Oracle – much to customers’ dislike. And for hosts of Oracle’s Annual Open World program, San Francisco city officials are running into dilemma of saying â€Å"No† to Oracle at some point for hosting the event, simply because it is unlikely that city could survive the demands of an Oracle four times its current size.A look at its portfolio will tell you more about scary reach and disappointing and unfocused spread that Oracle has now – 110 product lines spread across 14 different domains. (source – http://www. oracle. com):- DATABASE DataScaler (October 2010) e-Test (acquired from Empirix) (March 2008) Innobase (October 2005) Moniforce (December 2007) mValent (February 2009) Secerno (May 2010) Sleepycat (February 2006) TimesTen (June 2005) TripleHop (June 2005) MIDDLEWARE AmberPoint (February 2010) BEA (January 2008) Bharosa (July 2007) Bridgestream (September 2007) Captovation (January 2008)ClearApp (September 2008) Context Media (July 2005) Datanomic (April 2011) FatWire (June 2011) HyperRoll (September 2009) GoldenGate (July 2009) Java (April 2009) Oblix (March 2005) OctetString (November 2005) Passlogix (October 2010) Sigma Dynamics (August 2006) Silver Creek Systems (January 2010) Stellent (November 2006) Sunopsis (October 2006) Tacit Software (November 2008) Tangosol (March 2007) T hor Technologies (November 2005) APPLICATIONS AppForge (April 2007) Collective Intellect (June 2012) Eloqua (December 2012) Haley (October 2008) InQuira (July 2011) Interlace Systems (October 2007)Involver (July 2012) LogicalApps (October 2007) Market2Lead (May 2010) Ndevr (February 2011) RightNow (October 2011) SelectMinds (September 2012) Taleo (February 2012) TempoSoft (December 2005) Vitrue (May 2012) PRODUCT LINES Agile (May 2007) ATG (November 2010) Endeca (October 2011) Hyperion (March 2007) PeopleSoft (January 2005) Primavera (October 2008) Siebel (January 2006) [email  protected] (June 2006) IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION TOOLS Global Knowledge Software (GKS) (July 2008) SERVERS, STORAGE, AND NETWORKING Ksplice (July 2011) Pillar Data Systems (June 2011Sun (April 2009) Xsigo Systems (July 2012) Virtual Iron (May 2009) INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA Acme Packet (February 2013) (pending) Convergin (February 2010) eServGlobal's Universal Service Platform (USP) ( May 2010) GoAhead (September 2011) HotSip (February 2006) MetaSolv Software (October 2006) Net4Call (April 2006) Netsure Telecom Limited (September 2007) Portal Software (April 2006) Sophoi (October 2009) ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION Instantis (November 2012) Primavera (October 2008) Skire (July 2012) FINANCIAL SERVICES i-flex (August 2005)HEALTH SCIENCES ClearTrial (March 2012) Phase Forward (April 2010) Relsys (March 2009) INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING Agile (May 2007) Conformia Software (June 2009) Demantra (June 2006) G-Log (September 2005) INSURANCE AdminServer (May 2008) Skywire Software (June 2008) RETAIL 360Commerce (January 2006) Advanced Visual Technology (AVT) (October 2008) ProfitLogic (July 2005) Retek (April 2005) UTILITIES DataRaker (December 2012) SPL WorldGroup (November 2006) LODESTAR (April 2007) Failure to Admit Reality It is also felt that Oracle executive management is out of touch with reality.The typical strategy is to first make fun of competitors, then ridicule them and finally scare the wits out of the customers who were even thinking of adopting competitors’ products. If the competition still survives all this and continues to grow then Oracle does one of the two things – either it buys the competition or simply buys the number two in that space. They did this for Sun, HP, NetApp, EMC, VMWare, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Salesforce, Microsoft (for MS SQL Server). Most of the times, customers can see through this and continue their adaptation of new products from customers.Most recent examples are Oracle’s taking potshots for two consecutive years in Oracle Open World 2010 and 2011 at Salesforce. com and then when it couldn’t wean away customers from Salesforce. com or slow down the ramp up, it launched its own versions of cloud offerings in 2012 Open World. Sun MicroSystems â€Å"Millstone† Around the Neck Whatever be the underlying rationale for purchase of Sun MicroSystems, Oracle is now challenged to make th e whole acquisition viable. It now finds itself in the territory of hardware market that its sales team is so ill-equipped to sell.The only option it had was to turn the Sun hardware into Exadata, Exalogic and Exalytic Servers and try to hoodwink the customers into buying this â€Å"supreme† computing machines. Much to its chagrin, not many customers are biting this new set of baits. Dark â€Å"Cloud† Space For a long time – almost three years – Oracle made fun of Salesforce. com, Amazon and Microsoft – specifically for their cloud services. It positioned the Exadata and Exalogic servers as new cloud servers that could provide as much computing power as tens of commodity hosts from these vendors cloud offerings.However, around late 2011-2012, it became very clear to Oracle that Cloud hosting and cloud based multi-tenancy software are the future and it scrambled to buy as many Cloud services based companies as it could – examples are RightNow , Taleo, Virtue – all acquired within months of each other in 2011-12. Oracle needs to realize that just acquisition of a company by and in itself doesn’t position Oracle as a leader in that space – acquisition is just the start – Oracle thereafter needs to retain the talent in that company, invest and grow the company, integrate it seamlessly within Oracle’s other relevant product lines.Unfortunately for Oracle, these are also the areas where it has failed most of the times in the past. Grasping for straws Good news first, Oracle has not yet reached this stage yet – in this stage, very perceptible symptoms are – changing CEOs and executive staff in quick rotation and changing the product directions every so often. However, there is bound to be a moment, not in very distant future, when we will find that eople will become so weary of Oracle products that Ellison will be either dislodged by a hostile board or will leave on his own. He has essentially no succession plan in place except bunch of execs like Thomas Kurian or Mark Hurd who can stake their claim to the crown. Thomas is well respected within the company but lacks charisma and chutzpah of Ellison. Mark may not be as respected but has good experience of cutting costs – like he did at HP. Death KnellIn this stage, a company either slowly vanishes into irrelevance or is acquired or merged into another competitor or goes belly up. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of professionals using, preaching and earning their bread from Oracle Technologies, I just hope Oracle never reaches that stage. Out of hundreds of companies that passed through this stage and vanished into oblivion, only two companies have thus far ever recovered from this stage – Xerox and Apple. Once again, I am sincerely hoping that Oracle never reaches this stage.Will it be able to recover from this downward spiral? Oracle can arrest this dance towards its vanishing into obli vion – question that really begs for an answer is – will it have the honesty to first admit and then stop this march? First of all, Oracle should focus and determine its core strength and then focus on building up on those. There is no prudence demonstrated in draining money on acquisitions and then selling those companies at markdown, or worst, writing off the charge as a loss.It is about time Oracle give up its greed on squeezing more money out of its customer and first create products and value that customers will willingly play obscene amount of money for. References: http://finance. yahoo. com http://www. oracle. com http://www. nytimes. com/2010/09/22/technology/22oracle. html? _r=0 http://www. forbes. com/2001/10/29/1029orcl. html http://www. zdnet. com/oracles-customers-a-bit-baffled-by-fusion-strategy-says-report-7000011143/ http://www. networkworld. com/news/2013/011713-oracle-cloud-265922. html How the Mighty Fall: And why some companies never give in â€⠀œ by Jim Collins, Is Oracle Dying Oracle Corporation was founded in Jun 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, Ed Oates. Over the years, it has risen to become almost indisputable leader of the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) market with 44% (Source: IDC 2009) – at least, for now, though, no one is sure how long that numero uno position will last. There were heady days of 1996-2008 or so when Oracle ruled the world of RDBMS. It was unchallenged crown king that could do no wrong. Hundreds of thousands of Database engineers, architects, administrators spoke of Oracle as if it was actually the famed â€Å"Oracle of Delphi†.Conference passes to Oracle Open World were so coveted that it was distributed to star employees in any company using Oracle Products. However, after 2008, the downward spiral has been very perceptible to the database communities. The hush-hush talks could now be heard very loud and clear. Only that Oracle was perhaps hearing but valiantly choosing not to listen. It continued to maintain the arrogance of a star past its prime – denying that it was aging, claiming that the talent would always trump the age.I think the Oracle Goliath had forgotten that for every arrogant Goliath, there is a David that is bound to introduce it to its nemesis. But my guess this downward spiral perhaps set into motion long before 2008 or so when world started noticing it. Time machine Let us trace Oracle Journey through its very meager beginnings and how it lost its course along the way. The chronological sequence of this journey could be roughly as I have shown below:- 1977   SDL (Oracle's predecessor) founded 1978    Oracle Version 1 developed 1979    First commercial SQL RDBMS 983  Ã‚   Oracle Version 3, first RDBMS developed to run on mainframes, PC, minicomputers, VMS 1984  Ã‚   first RDBMS to offer read-consistency 1985    Released of Oracle Version 5, first RDBMS in client/server environments 1986  Ã‚   Oracle IPO (NASDAQ) 1987  Ã‚   Rises to numbe r one in the world for RDBMS, Oracle gets into building enterprise applications 1988  Ã‚   Oracle Version 6 with several new features: PL/SQL, Row-level locking 1989  Ã‚   Oracle provides DB support for OLTP and moves its HQ to Redwood Shores, California 1990  Ã‚   Launches Oracle Applications Release 8 992  Ã‚   Launched Oracle 7, offers full applications implementation methodology 1993  Ã‚   Client/server environments enhancements 1994  Ã‚   Oracle receives the industry’s first security clearance 1995    Debuts first 64-bit RDBMS 1996  Ã‚   Releases feature rich 7. 3, with different types of data types – text, maps, audio, video, or images, develops an open standards-based, web-enabled architecture 1998  Ã‚   Oracle8 Database ; Oracle Applications 10. 7 – first enterprise computing company to use Java 1999  Ã‚   Offers its first DBMS with XML support 2000  Ã‚   Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i 001  Ã‚   Oracle9i Database with Oracle RAC,   first RDBMS to complete 3 terabyte TPC-H record 2002   Oracle RDBMS passes 15 industry standard security evaluations – first RDBMS to achieve this 2003   Oracle debuts Oracle Database 10g, more robust clustering software 2004   Declares Oracle â€Å"the Information Company† and spreads into many other areas 2005   Acquires rival PeopleSoft, releases first free database, Oracle 10g XE 2006  Ã‚   Declares a 30-year commitment for open standards computing, giving customers â€Å"Unbreakable Linux† 2008   HP Oracle Database Machine/Exadata storage 009  Ã‚  Gets into too many things – including BEA products, launch of Oracle Fusion Middleware, 11g advance Oracle 2010  Ã‚   Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems, announces Sun based Exadata/Exalogic machines 2011  Ã‚   Keeps adding bells and whistles to same Exadata/Exalogic machines 2012  Ã‚   Announces initiative focused on Cloud Rise of Oracle Most of the engineers in software industry were not even born when in late seventies, it struck young Larry Ellison, after reading paper written by Dr Edgar F.Codd (1970) on relational database management systems titled â€Å"A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks†, that a software could be designed that could follow the principles of relational databases. His belief was reinforced when he read another article, published in the IBM Research Journal, and authored by Ed Oates (IBM) about the IBM System R database. System R itself was based on Codd's theories. In 1977, Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL) and in 1979, SDL was rechristened as Relational Software, Inc. nly to change its name again in 1982 to Oracle Systems Corporation. In 1995, Oracle Systems Corporation changed its name to Oracle Corporation. From 1979 through 1992, Oracle primarily focused its attention on making its flagship product, Oracle RDBMS, strong . Oracle was getting complacent after version 5 and then it came out with version 6 – this was huge fiasco product and it was nightmare for customer support and Oracle support. Corporate customers were threatening to pull off Oracle.Version 6 was quickly followed up by version 7 which saved the day for Oracle. 7. 34 turned out to be very stable product. Version 8i, 9i and 10g added to Oracle RDBMS core competence. These versions by themselves attracted customers to Oracle. If everything was so good, continues to be good then why do I particularly feel that Oracle could be dying as a company? Lack of Level 5 leadership Oracle has been led by Larry Ellison all these years. Larry is a level 4 leader – wish he was level 5.Under his leadership, Oracle has always focused on â€Å"what† should be done and â€Å"how† will it be done. Level 5 CEOs first focus on â€Å"who† and then on â€Å"what† and â€Å"how†. People part of the equation rem ains very flaky, to say the least, with Oracle. It has been notoriously uncaring about exodus of top talent. Many ex-Oracle top performers have gone on to form companies, rise to be C staff, unleash innovations but Oracle didn’t really do anything specific to stop the fleeing top talent.Also, like many other celebrity CEOs, Ellison is getting two distracted by things that his company should not be focusing on – example, Oracle’s American Cup sponsorship, Ellison’s many prime properties, Ellison’s unflinching support for former ousted HP CEO and great friend Mark Hurd, Ellison’s purchasing Lanai Island. All these have direct impact on Oracle’s future – why? Because all these are issues that distract the CEO. Same thing happened with Lee Iacocca – once he turned around Chrysler, he focused more on politics, image building, helping White House ith many initiatives which distracted him from his duties as CEO. And Chrysler sl id back into the mess that it had recovered from. Mark’s hiring into Oracle forced Ellison to send Charles Phillips off. Charles was a great executive and leader recognized for his talent in and outside Oracle. Letting a great leader go in favor of a friend whose moral ethics are somewhat doubtful never went well with the employees. Also, Oracle doesn’t have conversations like â€Å"what can we do to stop you from leaving† with most of their top talent attritions. 5 Phases of a perilous corporationAny company going through the general growth, if not managed in a disciplined manner, can hurtle itself into peril. Jim Collins brings this out very succinctly in his book â€Å"How the Mighty Fall – any why some companies never give in†. The 5 stages of this journey from greatness to perish are very perceptible when they happen. The Path to Destruction I suspect Oracle’s downward spiral started after 2001-2002 (or at least sometime during that per iod). It could not come to terms with the ever high stock price of more than $45 and started becoming greedy.Perhaps under some implicit or explicit mandate from Uncle Larry, the sales people were sent marching to see how much more they could milk out of their unsuspecting and totally Oracle dependent customers. And perhaps the sales people came back with the message that customers would not mind paying more for the crown jewel product – core RDBMS as well as Oracle ERP Suite – 11i. Oracle (read, Larry Ellison) could not stand competition – especially those then started looking at how to kill rivals – hostile and non-hostile acquisitions of rival JD Edwards, PeopleSoft and Siebel.Every growing company reaches a point where growth starts flattening – happened with Apple, happened with Google and will happen with next big shinning company as well – Oracle was not particularly immune to it so in an attempt to resuscitate its flattening growth, largely due to its flagship core RDBMS product, Oracle started developing another front that it could open – this was business of application servers – an exploding market back in the day.An application server is packaged software that developers use to write and deploy web specific applications. The market had exploded past decade or so since many application server vendors were trying to build dynamic applications for the web and mobile devices. For Oracle the lure was that the market had the potential to perhaps become as lucrative as their core database market.Oracle was very late entrant into this market but it quickly acquired BEA Software (leader in the space at that point) and started competing neck to neck with IBM WebSphere. Within Oracle, Application Server business is viewed as â€Å"third business† besides core RDBMS and ERP. Oracle built its business around data bases and from the very beginning it has dominated the database market, providing the d ata stores and central repositories to store critical business information that businesses must maintain, use and safeguard to complete transactions.This has given it almost a monopoly and a very superior position when negotiating with customers. Oracle’s sales team that is always scavenging to find new sources of revenues, capitalizes on such an edge and leverages it to squeeze every dollar out of the customers – rightfully earning a fearsome reputation of being â€Å"hard-line negotiators† – and they are squeezing where it hurts the customers most – at their licensing and support costs.However, like it had opened a third front by getting into Application Servers market, it has since then opened many more such fronts via its acquisition spree – Oracle has expanded well beyond just the databases and application servers and entered the business software domain as well, acquiring leader companies in domains related to technology infrastructure , sales, employees, inventory and customers. People typically use products from these acquired companies to track information related to these important entities. Undisciplined growth In their pursuit to keep up with their YoY growth, Oracle has descended into a very undisciplined growth.There was also very unreasonable desire to grow into every domain. While growing via acquisitions, Oracle Executive Management has forgotten that it is not simply enough to acquire good companies, it takes good and dedicated diligence to grow them into great companies. Some of the companies Oracle acquired are as under (source – http://www. oracle. com):- 2013 Feb-13Acme PacketNetworking hardware for telecommunications service providers 2012 Dec-12Eloqua Marketing Automation platform for managing sales and marketing leads across an enterprise.Dec-12DataRakerCloud based Analytic platform to transform meter, customer, network and asset Big Data into actionable business intelligence. Nov-12Insta ntisCloud and premises-based PPM – Project Portfolio Management applications. Sep-12SelectMindsCloud-based social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management application Jul-12Xsigo SystemsProvider of network virtualization technology that simplifies cloud infrastructure and operations Jul-12SkireSolutions provider for managing capital projects, facilities and real estate Jul-12InvolverSocial media development platformJun-12Collective IntellectCloud-based social intelligence solutions May-12VitrueSocial Marketing Platform provider Mar-12ClearTrialCloud-based Clinical Trial Operations and Analytics products Feb-12TaleoTalent Management Software 2011 Oct-11RightNow TechnologiesCloud-based CRM Oct-11EndecaE-commerce & Business Intelligence Sep-11GoAHead Service Availability and Management Software Jul-11InQuiraService Knowledge Management Software Jul-11KspliceRebootless Linux kernel updates Jun-11 FatWire Software Web Content and Web Experience Management (WCM and WEM) Soft ware Jun-11Pillar Data Systems Storage systemsApr-11Datanomic Data Quality Software Feb-11Ndevr – Select IP only Environmental Reporting and Business Intelligence 2010 Nov-10 Art Technology GroupEcommerce software vendor May-10 Pre-Paid Software Payment Solutions May-10 Market2LeadApplications May-10 Secerno Data protection hardware and software Apr-10Phase Forward Applications for life sciences companies and healthcare providers Feb-10AmberPoint Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) management Feb-10Convergin Telecom Service BrokerJan-10Sun Microsystems Computer servers, storage, networks, Java, MySQL, software, and services Jan-10Silver Creek SystemsProduct Data Quality Solutions for connecting Enterprise Systems, Customers, Suppliers and Partners. 2009 Oct-09SOPHOI Intellectual property management for Media & Entertainment Industry Sep-09HyperRoll Financials, software and IT services Jun-09Conformia Product Lifecycle Management May-09Virtual Iron Software Server Virtualizati on Management Software Mar-09Relsys International Drug Safety and Risk Management 2008Oct-08Haley (RuleBurst Holdings) Natural Language Business Rules / Policy Automation Oct-08Advanced Visual Technology Retail Space Planning Oct-08Primavera Project Portfolio Management Jun-08Skywire Software Document Management May-08AdminServer Insurance Policy Administration Jan-08BEA Systems Enterprise Software 2007 Dec-07MoniforceReal User Experience Monitoring Sep-07BridgestreamEnterprise Role Management software Jul-07Bharosa, IncOnline Identity Theft and Fraud Detection May-07Agile Software CorporationProduct Lifecycle Management Apr-07Lodestar CorporationUtilities Application SoftwareMar-07Hyperion CorporationEnterprise Performance Management Mar-07Tangosol IncDatagrid Software 2006 Nov-06Stellent Inc. Universal Content Management, Digital Rights Management Nov-06SPL WorldGroupUtility Billing and Customer Service Systems Oct-06SunopsisETL, Data Integration Oct-06MetaSolvOSS service activati on Jun-06DemantraDemand-Driven Planning Solution [email  protected] IP-based Contact Center Solution Apr-06Portal Software Billing and Revenue Management solutions for communications and media industry Feb-06HotSipCommunications infrastructure solutionsFeb-06Sleepycat Software Open-source database software for embedded applications Jan-06360CommerceRetail Industry Solutions Jan-06Siebel SystemsCustomer relationship management 2005 Dec-05Temposoft Workforce Management Applications sam organization Nov-05OctetString Virtual Directory Solutions Nov-05Thor Technologies Enterprise-wide User Provisioning Solutions. Oct-05Innobase Discrete Transactional Open Source Database Technology Sep-05G-LogTransportation Management Solutions Aug-05i-flexBanking Industry Solutions Jul-05Context MediaEnterprise Content IntegrationJul-05ProfitLogicRetail Industry Solutions Jun-05TimesTenReal-time Enterprise Solutions Jun-05TripleHopContext-sensitive Enterprise Search Apr-05RetekRetail Industry Solutio ns Mar-05OblixIdentity Management Solutions Jan-05PeopleSoftEnterprise Software 2004 Jun-04CollaxaBusiness process management May-04 PhaosIdentity management Jan-04SiteWorks Solutions Clinical trials management 2003 Jun-03ReliatyEnterprise data protection Jun-03FileFishEnterprise content management 2002 Jun-02SteltorEnterprise calendaring system Jan-02NetForce Adverse event reporting systemJan-02Indicast Voice portals Jan-02TopLink Object-relation mapping technology 1999 Jun-99Thinking Machines Corporation datamining technology 1995 Aug-95IRI Software OLAP products 1994 Oct-94Rdb (A division of DEC) Relational database The early acquisitions show Oracle focus on growing its databases market but acquisitions of past few years including very surprising $5 Billion acquisition of Sun MicroSystems do not give us good sense of where Oracle’s focus is. The strategic theme in Oracle’s acquisition spree is missing and seems more like reactions of leadership focusing only on â⠂¬Å"growth†.Take a look at spread of Oracle into sectors and even a layman would agree that it is stretching itself far too thin. If people outside of Oracle can’t understand why Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the confusion is equally evident inside Oracle as well. No one can put a figure on if Oracle acquired Sun for hardware market entry point or MySQL or Sun Solaris OS or was it a combination of all these and then some. Oracle has come out with an integrated ERP product suite – Fusion. The sales teams do not fully comprehend how to package Fusion compared to Oracle 12 version.As such Fusion itself is at least four years too late. In its attempt to create a unified platform for ERP software, it has managed to successfully scare customer who want just a small focused set of modules – like AR and GL or Manufacturing. There was Steve Jobs who made the famous statement that â€Å"†¦we tell customers what they want†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Larry Ellison can ma ke the same claim – but to be successful at doing that, you have to be a visionary and not be distracted so hopelessly as Ellison currently is. And, customers seem to be last thing that Oracle considers while deciding these moves.For example, many of Sun’s largest former customers were large Wall Street financial institutions, and they were really miffed last year when Oracle wanted to restrict their server and operating system choices to only Sun technologies. They relentlessly pushed back and Oracle had to ultimately give in to their defiance, reaffirming deals that would let companies like HP and Dell offer Sun software on their respective hardware. â€Å"Customers will always gripe about giving too much control to any one company,† said Israel Hernandez, director of software research at Barclays Capital.Larry Ellison runs Oracle likes his personal fiefdom. The Oracle Board of Directors is merely a formality that is maintained to satisfy the Wall Street and S EC. Most decisions are taken unilaterally by Ellison and his leadership team. For example the 2010 hiring of ex-HP CEO, Mark Hurd, as a co-president after Hurd was fired by HP board due to sexual harassment allegations. Analysts viewed the hiring as a positive outcome for Oracle as it looked to expand. However, Mr. Hurd’s arrival was quickly followed by departure of one ofOracle long-timer, Charles Phillips. At one time, Charles was touted as Ellison’s protege and likely successor. Oracle customers are worried about putting all their eggs in one basket. Almost every company that they tend to do business is being bought by Oracle – much to customers’ dislike. And for hosts of Oracle’s Annual Open World program, San Francisco city officials are running into dilemma of saying â€Å"No† to Oracle at some point for hosting the event, simply because it is unlikely that city could survive the demands of an Oracle four times its current size.A look at its portfolio will tell you more about scary reach and disappointing and unfocused spread that Oracle has now – 110 product lines spread across 14 different domains. (source – http://www. oracle. com):- DATABASE DataScaler (October 2010) e-Test (acquired from Empirix) (March 2008) Innobase (October 2005) Moniforce (December 2007) mValent (February 2009) Secerno (May 2010) Sleepycat (February 2006) TimesTen (June 2005) TripleHop (June 2005) MIDDLEWARE AmberPoint (February 2010) BEA (January 2008) Bharosa (July 2007) Bridgestream (September 2007) Captovation (January 2008)ClearApp (September 2008) Context Media (July 2005) Datanomic (April 2011) FatWire (June 2011) HyperRoll (September 2009) GoldenGate (July 2009) Java (April 2009) Oblix (March 2005) OctetString (November 2005) Passlogix (October 2010) Sigma Dynamics (August 2006) Silver Creek Systems (January 2010) Stellent (November 2006) Sunopsis (October 2006) Tacit Software (November 2008) Tangosol (March 2007) T hor Technologies (November 2005) APPLICATIONS AppForge (April 2007) Collective Intellect (June 2012) Eloqua (December 2012) Haley (October 2008) InQuira (July 2011) Interlace Systems (October 2007)Involver (July 2012) LogicalApps (October 2007) Market2Lead (May 2010) Ndevr (February 2011) RightNow (October 2011) SelectMinds (September 2012) Taleo (February 2012) TempoSoft (December 2005) Vitrue (May 2012) PRODUCT LINES Agile (May 2007) ATG (November 2010) Endeca (October 2011) Hyperion (March 2007) PeopleSoft (January 2005) Primavera (October 2008) Siebel (January 2006) [email  protected] (June 2006) IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION TOOLS Global Knowledge Software (GKS) (July 2008) SERVERS, STORAGE, AND NETWORKING Ksplice (July 2011) Pillar Data Systems (June 2011Sun (April 2009) Xsigo Systems (July 2012) Virtual Iron (May 2009) INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA Acme Packet (February 2013) (pending) Convergin (February 2010) eServGlobal's Universal Service Platform (USP) ( May 2010) GoAhead (September 2011) HotSip (February 2006) MetaSolv Software (October 2006) Net4Call (April 2006) Netsure Telecom Limited (September 2007) Portal Software (April 2006) Sophoi (October 2009) ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION Instantis (November 2012) Primavera (October 2008) Skire (July 2012) FINANCIAL SERVICES i-flex (August 2005)HEALTH SCIENCES ClearTrial (March 2012) Phase Forward (April 2010) Relsys (March 2009) INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING Agile (May 2007) Conformia Software (June 2009) Demantra (June 2006) G-Log (September 2005) INSURANCE AdminServer (May 2008) Skywire Software (June 2008) RETAIL 360Commerce (January 2006) Advanced Visual Technology (AVT) (October 2008) ProfitLogic (July 2005) Retek (April 2005) UTILITIES DataRaker (December 2012) SPL WorldGroup (November 2006) LODESTAR (April 2007) Failure to Admit Reality It is also felt that Oracle executive management is out of touch with reality.The typical strategy is to first make fun of competitors, then ridicule them and finally scare the wits out of the customers who were even thinking of adopting competitors’ products. If the competition still survives all this and continues to grow then Oracle does one of the two things – either it buys the competition or simply buys the number two in that space. They did this for Sun, HP, NetApp, EMC, VMWare, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Salesforce, Microsoft (for MS SQL Server). Most of the times, customers can see through this and continue their adaptation of new products from customers.Most recent examples are Oracle’s taking potshots for two consecutive years in Oracle Open World 2010 and 2011 at Salesforce. com and then when it couldn’t wean away customers from Salesforce. com or slow down the ramp up, it launched its own versions of cloud offerings in 2012 Open World. Sun MicroSystems â€Å"Millstone† Around the Neck Whatever be the underlying rationale for purchase of Sun MicroSystems, Oracle is now challenged to make th e whole acquisition viable. It now finds itself in the territory of hardware market that its sales team is so ill-equipped to sell.The only option it had was to turn the Sun hardware into Exadata, Exalogic and Exalytic Servers and try to hoodwink the customers into buying this â€Å"supreme† computing machines. Much to its chagrin, not many customers are biting this new set of baits. Dark â€Å"Cloud† Space For a long time – almost three years – Oracle made fun of Salesforce. com, Amazon and Microsoft – specifically for their cloud services. It positioned the Exadata and Exalogic servers as new cloud servers that could provide as much computing power as tens of commodity hosts from these vendors cloud offerings.However, around late 2011-2012, it became very clear to Oracle that Cloud hosting and cloud based multi-tenancy software are the future and it scrambled to buy as many Cloud services based companies as it could – examples are RightNow , Taleo, Virtue – all acquired within months of each other in 2011-12. Oracle needs to realize that just acquisition of a company by and in itself doesn’t position Oracle as a leader in that space – acquisition is just the start – Oracle thereafter needs to retain the talent in that company, invest and grow the company, integrate it seamlessly within Oracle’s other relevant product lines.Unfortunately for Oracle, these are also the areas where it has failed most of the times in the past. Grasping for straws Good news first, Oracle has not yet reached this stage yet – in this stage, very perceptible symptoms are – changing CEOs and executive staff in quick rotation and changing the product directions every so often. However, there is bound to be a moment, not in very distant future, when we will find that eople will become so weary of Oracle products that Ellison will be either dislodged by a hostile board or will leave on his own. He has essentially no succession plan in place except bunch of execs like Thomas Kurian or Mark Hurd who can stake their claim to the crown. Thomas is well respected within the company but lacks charisma and chutzpah of Ellison. Mark may not be as respected but has good experience of cutting costs – like he did at HP. Death KnellIn this stage, a company either slowly vanishes into irrelevance or is acquired or merged into another competitor or goes belly up. For the sake of hundreds of thousands of professionals using, preaching and earning their bread from Oracle Technologies, I just hope Oracle never reaches that stage. Out of hundreds of companies that passed through this stage and vanished into oblivion, only two companies have thus far ever recovered from this stage – Xerox and Apple. Once again, I am sincerely hoping that Oracle never reaches this stage.Will it be able to recover from this downward spiral? Oracle can arrest this dance towards its vanishing into obli vion – question that really begs for an answer is – will it have the honesty to first admit and then stop this march? First of all, Oracle should focus and determine its core strength and then focus on building up on those. There is no prudence demonstrated in draining money on acquisitions and then selling those companies at markdown, or worst, writing off the charge as a loss.It is about time Oracle give up its greed on squeezing more money out of its customer and first create products and value that customers will willingly play obscene amount of money for. References: http://finance. yahoo. com http://www. oracle. com http://www. nytimes. com/2010/09/22/technology/22oracle. html? _r=0 http://www. forbes. com/2001/10/29/1029orcl. html http://www. zdnet. com/oracles-customers-a-bit-baffled-by-fusion-strategy-says-report-7000011143/ http://www. networkworld. com/news/2013/011713-oracle-cloud-265922. html How the Mighty Fall: And why some companies never give in â€⠀œ by Jim Collins,

How Language Shapes Thought

Shaped by Language: What Comes First the Thought or the Language Language, due to its specific properties, is one aspect that makes human beings unique in comparison to other animals and species. The fact that different languages can alter the way we perceive the world, and objects we view. From the perception of space, time and even nouns, languages changes the way we think. Countless studies show that linguistic processes effect even down to the most fundamental thought processes, which unconsciously shapes our brain altering perception.Language is important to how we deal with experience with each other and how we view the world. Consequently, some cognitive psychologists believe that language may influence thought processes. Because of changing unpredictable of human’s thinking in different cultures, it is difficult to define effects of a particular language on a particular thought pattern. The question of language and thought has been debated constantly similar to the age -old question of what came first the chicken or the egg. Drawing on our experiences we must contemplate the original theory that language shapes thought.The hypothesis introduced by Benjamin Whorf, which is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or linguistic determination has stood the test of time and is a beginning to any debate about language and thought. He believed that our thoughts are completely limited by our language. A strong quote by Benjamin Whorf suggests that, â€Å"We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way–an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language† (Whorf 213-14).This allows me to believe language is basically the need for a given group of people to communicate with each other. Another question to ask when thinking about language is what came first, man or language? The size of oneâ⠂¬â„¢s world can shape the size of their vocabulary. Given that man preceded language, every culture shaped different languages according to their specific environments and needs. Resulting in that language is a human cultural that as a nation one helps to make evolve.Not only does their own language shape the culture, but also the interaction with other cultures. Language is a force that allows humans to create ties that bind into a community, providing them social, individual, or cultural identification. In James Baldwin text, â€Å"If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is,† he refers language to being an unparalleled power by stating, â€Å"Language is also a political instrument, means and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity† (242).Baldwin draws points of language’s importance to the experience of the African slaves. Having no common language, the slaves were unable to communicate with one another. They evol ved a language, which they used to articulate their familiar experience and shaped their own community. The African Americans evolved a dialect of English that enabled them to describe their reality and establish their own distinct cultural identity. It is controversial how the humans think by figures or by concepts.In general, it is clear that thinking happens via ideas and imagination, which are expressed by words, and organized in speech. Sciences claim that thinking and language are so related, that changes in languages can organize thoughts, ideas, imaginations and human actions. The word â€Å"macho† shows the difference between thought and the language spoken in both English and Spanish. The essay â€Å"Americanization Is Tough on ‘Macho’† written by Rose Del Castillo Guibault examines the cultural differences behind one certain word.When referring to a Hispanic who is â€Å"macho† resembles that he is a responsible, hardworking man in charge . Even though the language and the word is the same the thought is different in English. The American macho has a negative reference meaning to the word such as: brute, uncouth, loud, abrasive, and a chauvinist (238). When language is used in the normal way, the speaker has a thought with certain content and chooses words such that on the basis of those words the listener will be able to recognize that the speaker has a thought with that content.This example reiterates that once words and phrases supporting particular notions and thinking have been formed, they have the effect of embedding those notions and thoughts firmly and therefore becoming cultural norms. Accepting the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in its â€Å"strong† form that language completely determines thought can be hard for any individual. Taking in the opposing views can show other avenues of the language and thought theory. Just as the chicken and egg question we as humans cannot know everything, or should know ever ything. Some things are left open for interpretation and personal views.So a more limited Whorfianism, that states that â€Å"the ways in which we see the world may be ‘influenced’ rather than completely determined by the kind of language we use, in particular our language can affect that we remember and what we find it easy to pay attention to† (Chandler). As humans continue to grow on this earth our environment shape languages and languages shapes you as your instrument for thought. Work Cited Baldwin, James C. (1979). â€Å"If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is? † The New York Times, July 29, 1979 by the New York Times Company Chandler, David. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. † The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. N. p. , 18 Sept. 1995. Web. 20 Oct. 2012. . Guilbault, Rose Del Castillo. â€Å"Americanization Is Tough on ‘Macho’† About Language: A Reader for Writers. 5th Ed. Eds. William H. Roberts and Gregoire Turge on. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 238-39. Whorf, B. L. (1940): ‘Science and Linguistics', Technology Review 42(6): 229-31, 247-8. Also in B. L. Whorf (1956): Language, Thought and Reality (ed. J. B. Carroll). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Genetic Engineering Tutorial

Chapter 14 Genetic Engineering Choose the best answer for each question. 1. Using this key, put the phrases in the correct order to form a plasmid carrying the recombinant DNA. Key: 1) use restriction enzymes 2) Use DNA ligase 3) Remove plasmid from parent bacterium 4) Introduce plasmid into new host bacterium. A. 1, 2, 3, 4C. 3, 1, 2, 4 B. 4, 3, 2,1 D. 2, 3, 1, 4 2. Which is not a clone? A. a colony of identical bacterial cells B. identical quintuplets C. a forest of identical trees D. eggs produced by oogenesis E. copies of a gene through PCR 3.Restriction enzymes found in bacterial cells are ordinarily used A. during DNA replication B. to degrade the bacterial cell’s DNA C. to degrade viral DNA that enters the cell D. to attach pieces of DNA together 4. Recombinant DNA technology is used A. for gene therapy B. to clone a gene C. to make a particular protein D. to clone a specific piece of DNA E. All of these are correct 5. In order for bacterial cells to express human genes , A. the recombinant DNA must not contain introns. B. reverse transcriptase is sometimes used to make complementary DNA from an mRNA molecule.C. bacterial regulatory genes must be included. D. All of these are correct. 6. The polymerase chain reaction A. utilizes RNA polymerase B. takes place in huge bioreactors C. utilizes temperature insensitive enzyme D. makes lots of nonidentical copies of DNA E. All of these are correct 7. DNA fingerprinting can be used for which of these? A. identifying human remains B. identifying infectious diseases C. finding evolutionary links between organisms D. solving crimes E. All of these are correct 8. DNA amplified by PCR and then used for fingerprinting could come from A. ny diploid or haploid cell B. only white blood cells that have been karyotyped C. only skin cells after they are dead D. only purified animal cells E. both B and D are correct 9. Which of these pairs is incorrectly matched? A. DNA ligase – DNA fingerprint B. Restriction en zymes – Cloning C. DNA fragments – DNA fingerprinting D. DNA polymerase – PCR 10. Which of these is an incorrect statement? A. bacteria secrete the biotechnology product into the medium B. plants are being engineered to have human proteins in their seeds. C. nimals are engineered to have a human protein in their milk. D. animals can be cloned, but plants and bacteria cannot. 11. Which of these is not needed in order to clone an animal? A. sperm from a donor animal B. nucleus from an adult animal cell C. enucleated egg from a donor animal D. host female to develop the embryo E. All of these are needed 12. Because the human genome Project, we know or will know the A. sequence of the base pairs of our DNA B. sequence of genes along the human chromosomes C. mutations that lead to genetic disorders D.All of these are correct 13. The restriction enzyme called EcoRI has cut double stranded DNA in the following manner. The piece of foreign DNA to be inserted has what ba ses from the left and from the right? 14. Which of these is a true statement? A. Plasmids can serve as vectors B. Plasmids are linear DNA found in viruses C. Plasmids can replicate in the host cell D. Both A and C are correct 15. Which of these is a benefit of having insulin produced by biotechnology? A. It is just as effective B. It can be mass produced C. It is less expensive D. All of the above

Agriculture in Scandinavia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Agriculture in Scandinavia - Essay Example Agriculture in Scandinavia and the rest of Europe is known to have arrived from South West Asia in pre-historic times in the form of foreign colonists and their domesticated animals, seeds, and potted plants.Study of transition in Southern Scandinavia became easier and more exciting as the region proved to be a laboratory of human prehistory.There are evidences that the early cultures in Middle East around 8000 BC used wild cereals for food which led to cultivated wheat, use of pottery With the fantastic archeological sources and research combined with impressive chronology, Northern Europe, Denmark and southern Scandinavia are a mine of anthropological information today. Study of transition in Southern Scandinavia became easier and more exciting as the region proved to be a laboratory of human prehistory. There are evidences that the early cultures in Middle East around 8000 BC used wild cereals for food which led to cultivated wheat, use of pottery, grains, and this is believed to have spread farming across Neolithic Europe.It is also argued that the farming revolution reached Scandinavia only around 4000 or 3800 BC, according to pottery and winding coils of clay found in the region. This assumption and belief that lasted all these years has been questioned by recent anthropologists, who claim that the farming was not borrowed, but was indigenized and Price is one among them. "Given current archaeological and anthropological evidence, the consensus among Scandinavian archaeologists today is that the introduction of agriculture was largely the result of indigenous adoption" (Price). World agriculture itself is as recent as around 10,000 years. Around 25,000 BC, hunter gatherer communities ventured beyond the arctic circle into Russia and Siberia. This area was colonized by humans only after the retreat of Pleistocene ice around 14,000 years ago. The key events of human history, pertaining to the development of agriculture, include stone tools of 7500 BC, copper and painted pottery of 4500 BC, carved rock faces of Norway with animal subjects of 4000 BC, Ertebelle culture with pointed-bottomed pots and oval bowls. Also, complex wickerwork of 3600 BC, passage tombs, dolmens of megalith, stone blocks of 3500-2500 BC that show organized endeavors, hand formed decorated pottery and year-round settlements of 2800 BC, artisan work of 2500-2000 BC and the burial mounds of elite households of 2200-1600 BC etc. The forest farmers initially seem to have ventured into agriculture and livestock husbandry, which has been evidenced in Central Sweden, South Norway where the Pitted Ware (hunter-gatherer with some agriculture) started and believed to have spread into southern Sweden and parts of Denmark from 5,900 BC onwards. From 4,800 BC onwards, Late Neolithic Farmers and Stock Herders appeared on the scene combined with Corded Ware traditi on, marking the changes in agricultural societies of Scandinavia with small, rather isolated settlements of indefinable groups of agriculturists. From 4,500 BC onwards, independent agriculture started and 3,800 BC onwards the Bronze Age dawned in Norway and Sweden, giving way to technologically advanced agricultural tools. Eastern Europe seems to have continued with part time farming supported by seasonal dwelling practices and a hunters' way of life for a long time. The Linearbandkeramic farming culture spread across Central Europe, but agricultural foodstuffs were introduced in the late Mesolithic and the delay is attributed to flourishing fishing and hunting which avoided the dire need for agricultural products. Later, there is an abundance proof to show that differentiation in status, class and trade held sway over agriculture in these parts as the burial mounds show. Even though Price agrees with most of the above arguments, some of his claims are rather unprecedented. He says by middle Neolithic period, wheat was 96% of the cereals and barley was 22% at later Funnelbeaker sites. In this period, cattle were becoming indispensable representing 80% of the animal husbandry. Technology was slowly being introduced into the agriculture, pottery and weapons. "The common anthropological background of the dualist society tradition, as it originates from Durkheimian sociology, is mirrored in the separation of peasant society from tribal