The deadline for phase II of the E911 service for cell phones is almost here. I do not think there is anything wrong with extending the service to cell phone use as well. Considering that cell phones are intended for mobile use, the caller might not be aware of his or her exact location. Having the location information would help 911 operators to better deal with cell phone calls, and they would be capable of sending help faster. If a person is in a car accident late at night on a seldom used highway, the 911 operator would know exactly where on the road better than the shaken up driver. One should also remember that the FCC stated from the original E911 service that this information is only accessible by 911 agencies. Information is also only gathered when the caller dials 911, and the information 911 services receive is for coordinate information. They would need programs to decode the coordinates to an address and directions that they could use.

However, when the information is gathered and how it is stored is where the problem lies. Even if it is only gathered per each 911 call, police agencies could easily get a court order for such E911 information. When looking for a court order on cell phone surveillance, current law only requires that information requested is relevant to an investigation. It completely disregards a person’s privacy, and in many cases, there does not exist proper probable cause to warrant such surveillance. This could mean that police agencies would feel free to request such information more frequently, and any time they please.

It could be more serious however. There are already many government agencies that have set up plans to be able to track people and information more easily. The question then becomes if those agencies will want to have more control of the E911 infrastructure to be able to track cell phone movements. While still possible, this sort of scenario would require an extensive backend to be able to work. Although I do not agree on what eventually would become government surveillance, the storage needs to keep tracking information for an entire population are enormous. How often would positioning information be taken? How long would that information be stored? How easily should police agencies be able to access that information? Where and who would store that information?

What good would it do to store all this information? If we say that only a small percentage of the population would actually be committing crimes or should be kept tracked of, there would then be heaps of information that would be criminally useless to police over 90% of the time. And, if agencies could access it with a simple court order that only asks for vague information, it could be easy to abuse the system and have police agents that could easily harass or abuse the population. It could also be possible that dedicated hackers could make applications or ask for money from people other then police agencies that would want this sort of information – it could become very easy for stalkers or any angry person find someone and to assault them.

Even when this information would be useful it is still a bad idea. This information would be just another part of the investigative process, which does a pretty good job of correctly determining those responsible. Even when one imagines a case where this information alone would solve a case, would it really be worth it? There are plenty of other ways one can establish his or her alibi.

Keeping this sort of personal information just for the sake of storing it, just for the small possibility that it could be useful in the investigation of a crime is ludicrous. I accept that as is, it could and should be possible for police agencies to be able to get as much information from a 911 call, including location. But storing all that information would make it easy to abuse it. Since it would be an enormous amount, it could also be harder to secure it properly.

When the problem first became evident, the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) thought that it was a hardware problem, a microchip that delivered the position of a turntable in the system. After the first incident in Hamilton, the AECL determined that the way the turntable represented its position could lead the microchip to report ambiguous results. Even if a later problem showed that this incident could have been a software error as well, one has to wonder if there were not many other software/hardware problems. Due to the fact that the THERAC-25 relied more heavily on software for safety measures, there were not many hardware fail safes. Since machinery can have a tendency to break without warning, fail safes should have been put in place to stop the machine should there be any hardware malfunction. Also, the system itself was tested as a whole, and not in smaller modules. They should have taken the time to test the smaller components to see how they were holding up, and not just making sure the machine as a whole worked. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Besides the machine itself (both hardware and software problems), I feel as though fingers should be pointed in other directions. Specifically, they should be pointed at the people behind the machine. The most obvious people the blame are the programmers and the people who built the machines. After all, they are directly responsible for all the malfunctions. Although, if you think about why these people did not work harder on the Therac-25, the answer becomes obvious. The AECL was trying to cut corners and save money. They could have paid more programmers to double or even triple check the code. They could have spent more time testing each machine before sending it out. The simple fact is that they did not, and it all comes down to saving money.

On the other hand, the AECL does not have the final say in whether or not the Therac-25 was a dependable machine. The FDA had to approve it before it could be used on people. Perhaps if they had had more strict guidelines about testing, none of this would have ever happened. Thankfully, this incident has indeed forced the FDA into making more strict guidelines. After all, nothing ever gets fixed until someone realizes that it is broken. Also, I feel a little bit of blame should be placed on the operators of these machines. They are the ones who should have noticed the many errors occurring, and insisted that someone check out the machines.

When it all comes down to it, all the people behind the Therac-25 should share the blame for its many malfunctions. In addition, a machine that can be that dangerous should always have an automatic shutdown if any error occurs. There should be a failsafe in place to make sure that there simply can not be an "accidental" overdose.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) recent decision to allow the .xxx Top Level Domain has stirred up a decent amount of controversy when the US government petitioned to postpone the final decision for a month. The Bush administration made the petition after having received concerns from individuals over what the impact of the domain would be, whether it would legitimize pornography on the internet and/or increase the amount of adult content online. All of the fears held by the administration that have been published are too general and vague to have any real value. When the domain was originally proposed and denied five years ago, politicians were outraged that ICANN had not accepted. The creation of an .xxx domain as a form of self regulation can only be thought of as a good idea, even though it will not be a complete solution to separating general information sites from pornographic ones.

Another concern is that having an .xxx domain will make it easier to find pornography and other adult content on the internet. However, because all websites in the .xxx domain are presumed to be adult content, a parent or organization could easily block all such websites. One could say that any website that chooses to take the .xxx domain is being responsible by making it easier for parents and schools to block out pornography. Since there will be a central registry were all adult sites will be stored, it is easy to filter both by name and IP address. This filtering could be applied with a software tool by a parent or at the ISP level. Some would argue that adding the .xxx domain makes it easier to find porn, and perhaps this might have a bit of truth to it. In reality; however, you can not find a website that does not exist. Someone can not just type in ILoveMiami.xxx and expect to see naked people. Finding adult or pornographic content on an .xxx domain would probably be done the same as finding it on a .com or .net domain – through a search engine. At least if ILoveMiami.xxx exists, it can be easily spotted as pornography. Where as, if an avid traveler gets invited to ILoveMiami.com and has no warning, he or she is going to be very surprised.

Yet another concern is that the xxx would legitimize pornography and adult content. Yet, I fail to understand how it would legitimize this type of content in any other way than it has already been legitimized. There are no shortages of adult book and video stores, lingerie shops, and strip clubs in the world. It might actually be easier for a child to walk into Barnes & Noble and wander into the “Relationship” section while their parents are browsing than to access an adult site from their home computer, especially if those parents can easily filter out .xxx sites. Besides, the .com domain was intended for company usage, but because of a lack of domains adult websites had need for them as well. Perhaps if the .xxx domain had just been established the same time as the .com and .net domain, everyone would have accepted it. People would have been informed that it helps establish that these websites have what some people consider inappropriate content the same way that .museum or .info tell the user that the website is informational.

Although some of the objections come from other governments, CNET reports for example that the Brazilian government feels that ICANN takes these sorts of decisions to lightly (McCullagh). The Brazilian representative to the UN felt there should be more international say in Top Level Domain (TLD) names, because such names could go against the strong believes of certain societies such as the many Catholics all over the world. While it is a good objection that there could be more international action while deciding the new TLD’s, a society’s beliefs should not be the deciding factor on which names become a TLD’s. It should instead lie in the hands of the industries that need them. International abuse of the .xxx could; however, have some bad consequences. McCullagh notes that foreign nations which do not have free speech protections could force some informational websites that focus on sex, homosexuality, or birth control on to the .xxx domain just so it can be filtered easily. Therefore, if you are a person who believes in free speech for all, it will make it easier for governments to keep information from their citizens.

The .xxx domain only came about from a registry provider that wants to help self regulate the industry. In fact, the recent bid for the .xxx domain by ICM Registry included a plan for a separate not-for profit organization to set rules for the domain. The not-for profit organization would review sites asking for an .xxx domain and keep a set of rules for self regulation. In addition, a certain amount of money from the registration fees would go to this organization to help parents and other groups educate children and families about adult content and pornography on the internet.

Regardless of all the oppositions, I do not think that the addition of an .xxx domain will have any impact on society. It is not as though there are going to be an enormous amount of new websites made because of the .xxx name. If anything, most sites that will get an .xxx domain are current sites that want to be part of a responsible adult community. It will not be any easier to find the content – if anything it will be a helpful guide for those that wish to filter and block this specific content. So, the .xxx should be a Top Level Domain.

Works Cited

McCullagh, Declan. “Bush administration objects to .xxx domains.” CNET News.com. September, 10 2005 < http://news.com.com/Bush+administration+objects+to+.xxx+domains/2100-1028_3-5833764.html >

McCullagh, Declan. “Porn-friendly '.xxx' domains approved.” CNET News.com. September, 10 2005. < http://news.com.com/Porn-friendly+.xxx+domains+approved/2100-1030_3-5728713.html >

What is it? A motherboard

If you ever open up that black box sitting next to you, the first thing you will notice (besides all the wires and dust) is a green or yellow colored electronic board with all sorts of things sticking out of it and plugged into it. This is the motherboard, and it's very intimidating. Some of the things that you will often find plugged to this board are cables, other smaller electronic boards, and a big fan on top of a heat sink (a brick looking object made of metal blades used to dissipate heat) which hides the CPU (they get very hot). If it takes up a lot of space in the box, it must do something important right? What does this board do?

What kind of systems can we see in a motherboard? Most of the important components go straight onto the motherboard: the CPU, RAM, Video, Hard Drives, and input devices like keyboards and mice. There are other components that can be connected to the motherboard, but for simplicity's sake, I will leave those until later. The reason I have noted these important parts is because of the general computer model proposed by the famous computer scientist Von Neumann, who laid down the guidelines for most computational devices we see today. This guideline describes the general computer with 5 components: a computational unit, a control unit, a memory unit, and input and output units. All modern PCs boil down to these basics: the CPU does all the processing, computational, and control work; RAM and Hard Drives are the memory units that store information for short or long term use, and Monitors with keyboards and mice are the inputs and outputs of the system which let a user see and input data. From this perspective, the motherboard is responsible for getting information and data to and from all four parts.

How it works:

It is helpful to keep in mind that all communication that happens in a computer is no more than electrical signals, and that these signals only do any significant work because of the clever arrangement of circuits. So, while realistically a motherboard is just the electronic highways for the electronic currents to get from a component to another component. However, this does not do the motherboard and its parts justice. It is a very complex task to move signals in the right order, and in the right manner, to the right recipient. Also, to complete the job of connecting all these components together, the motherboard includes two special processors that work on controlling the communication of data to and from all the devices in the computer. These chips are called the northbridge (which can communicate with the CPU, RAM and usually Video) and the southbridge (which communicates with all other devices) because of their position on the motherboard (the northbridge is closer to the boards "top" while the south bridge is closer to the "bottom"). Although, not all motherboards work this way; some put the functionality of both chips into one.

These two processors work very much like two middlemen. Since every computer part has a specific way of communicating with the outside world, or what is commonly known as an interface, then these two chips need to know all these different interfaces. In essence, they have to translate one type of request from one component into something the prospective part will understand. To illustrate how this works, remember that processors are always asking for more instructions with which to work. All these requests for information are sent to the northbridge through the FSB, the channel that connects the two chips. The northbridge must now change the request from the processor to a request for memory. It has to do this sort of translation because of the different interfaces and channels by which the processor and memory use. A Pentium 4, for example, can send a request to the northbridge for some specific memory while the northbridge has to be more specific when it relays this request to RAM, specifying which chip, row, and column in the memory is needed (do not worry if you are unaware of what a column and row are when referring to RAM, just know that the northbridge has to be a little more specific).

Technologies: The Northbridge

Since the northbridge is the CPU's connection to the rest of the computer, all devices which the CPU uses often (like memory), or which require quick access to memory or the CPU are the responsibility of the northbridge. As such, you will usually find the interfaces for the CPU, Memory, and video in the northbridge, though new computers have been adding more interfaces in this chip such as Gigabit Networking. I have already spoken a little about the interface of the northbridge to the CPU, the Front Side Bus, in my previous article, so I will only focus on memory and video below.

One of the newer developments in northbridge technology, specifically in RAM interfaces, is dual-channel memory. The difference between dual-channel and the traditional single-channel memory is the addition of an extra memory interface or channel. Typically, one interface can access up to 4 memory modules at a certain speed. Adding a second interface and as such another channel, allows for faster access to memory. Think of these channels as water canals flowing into a lake; two canals flowing into a lake will fill it quicker then a single canal.

3D games and video cards require fast access to the memory and CPU, and they are the reason why there is a dedicated video interface, the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), which is located in the northbridge. This does not mean that this is the only place to add a video card to a computer; video cards traditionally used the PCI interface that is found in the southbridge. Cheaper computers sometimes include the video processor in the northbridge. These included processors, called integrated video solutions, are not very complex and are barely capable of 3D graphics. Although the current standard for video is the AGP interface, within the next year a new interface based on PCI express will be replacing AGP. This new interface, PCI express for graphics or PCI express x16, will not provide any significant performance increases for the moment and is being brought out as a future-proof replacement.

Technologies: The Southbridge

Besides the interfaces for the hard drive, the southbridge also has general interfaces for "add-on" cards and may sometimes include the functionality of some add-ons. For example, just like sometimes computers will advertise integrated video, they might also advertise integrated audio that is found in the southbridge. Some technologies that have been associated with this chip include: PCI, ISA, USB and ATA. These technologies can be divided into motherboard connections, external connections, and hard drive connections.

PCI and ISA along with the new PCI-express (which is a little rare at the moment) are standards for "add-on" cards such as sound cards and networking cards which are plugged onto the motherboard. It is very much like adding to the capabilities of the system. There are many different types of "add-on" cards that you can find, from radio and TV tuners so you can hear the radio or watch TV, to expansion cards that will add extra hard drive or USB connections. PCI is the current standard which replaced ISA several years ago. PCI express is a new standard that was introduced this year and is meant to replace the popular, yet limited PCI.

External connections like USB or FireWire allow printers, scanners, cameras, camcorders and other input devices to hook up to a computer. There are currently two versions of USB which run at different speeds. USB 1.1, which was introduced in the mid 90's, has a max speed of 12 Mbps. Keyboards and mice usually use USB 1.1 since they do not require a high speed access to the computer. Devices like digital camcorders, scanners, or memory sticks do require high speeds, and as such they typically use USB 2 or FireWire connections which have speeds up to 480 Mbps and 400 Mbps respectively.

Hard drives in current computers can connect through two interfaces, the new Serial ATA, and the previous ATA or Parallel ATA. Like the current phase out of the PCI interface, Serial ATA is meant to replace the now limiting Parallel ATA standard. Although the current defining feature between the two standards is speed (max speed of Parallel ATA is 133 Mbps, while Serial ATA has current speeds of 150 Mbps and 300 Mbps), there are other newer additions to Serial ATA that will drastically improve hard drive performance.

Besides being able to work in the prosperous industry of clothiers, both Pitti and Dati had several experiences in being true merchants (buying merchandise in one area and selling it in another). There were several occurrences in Pitti’s diary where he would buy anything from horses to wine or wool and sell them at a higher price elsewhere (50). While most of Pitti’s merchant ventures involved small amounts of merchandise, there were times when he bought large quantities of things abroad, such as wool, to ship and sell in Florence. Even Dati had set up several partnerships with the sole purpose to move products derived from skilled labor from Florence to Valencia in Spain. Although, sometimes this proves to be a loss seeing as how he unfortunately gets robbed (110). Mediterranean merchants worked mostly with finished goods since there was a greater demand for foreign items than resources, because resources where widely available thanks in part to the “Black Death.”

Merchants in the Atlantic based economy of the early modern period still carried goods from one place to the other. However, instead of carrying small amounts of finished merchandise from around the Mediterranean to inner Europe or other areas of the Mediterranean, merchants would carry a hull full of basic resources from the new world back to Europe. Trading such as this was a big business, exchanging finished products wanted by Africans and the Colonies for the base resources found in those colonies. This was the backbone of the economic system in early modern times. It was such an important process that Defoe wrote of Robinson Crusoe’s first journey out of the British isles on one such trip that was transporting toys and trifles to the Guinea and would return with gold (17). This example also shows how easy it was at that time to start a shipping business with a minimal amount of capital. It was a lucrative, but risky business opportunity for in the next page Defoe tells of Crusoe’s capture by a Muslim ship.

However, if one wished to partake in a more difficult, yet safer venture, there was the opportunity to cross the Atlantic in hopes of starting a plantation as well. Although many people had experimented with plantations during earlier times in Europe, the strict requirements for the proper growth of large quantities of a single plant were unable to be properly met. This is where the newly opened world on the other side of the Atlantic came in as a provider of new business opportunities (Mitchell, Nov. 17). Plantations were great business opportunities because they were an integral part of the Atlantic merchant system, providing the raw resources that Europe required. Therefore, it made sense for Crusoe to set up a plantation once he reached Brazil (Defoe, 34). Also, setting up a plantation proved to be difficult because there is a difference in the resources needed for a single man, or small partnership venture and those needed for a plantation venture. While Pitti and Dati could both easily go into business by themselves making cloths and selling them, plantations require an immense amount of man power to properly maintain, and as such, Crusoe was in great need of extra hands to insure his plantation could produce a profit (Defoe, 39).

Both merchant systems had many new business opportunities, but at the same time both had a very central required business of trading. In fact, it appears as though the Mediterranean based system evolved into the more profitable Atlantic based system. While the Mediterranean based system was more handicraft and finished product based with goods moving within the European continent, the Atlantic based system relied heavily on transportation of both goods and resources in and out of all areas of the Atlantic. Because more resources existed in the Americas, more finished products could be produced back in Europe. This increase in production made it possible for Europe to expand its export business to the Colonies in the Americas, as well as Africa.

Works Cited

Brucker, Gene, ed. Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti & Gregorio Dati. Ed Gene Brucker. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1991

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, etc. Ed. J. Donald Crowley. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Mitchell, Silvia. “Slavery and the Plantation System”. EUH 2021 Lecture Series. Florida International University, Miami. Ryder Business Building. November 17, 2004.

Patrouch, Joseph. EUH 2021 Lecture Series. Florida International University, Miami. Ryder Business Building. September 20, 2004.

The Princess was not the only one to keep up appearances. It was not good for someone to openly court or play in gallantry for a married woman, and the Duke of Nemours had to be careful lest someone find out of his love and tell his rival the Prince of Cleves. He skillfully arranges meetings with the princess, by appearing to be tagging along with other guests. He even manipulates his sister into “[making] the first proposal herself of visiting Madam de Cleves” so that it does not seem as though he was the one who wanted to see her (63). It should be noted that it is unlikely these would be the only two people at the time who are keeping secrets and who must play games in order to keep them. Indeed, playacting must have been integral to the functioning of the entire court.

However, there is one way in which they can express their feelings that seems to be tolerated. The styles of the clothing and the colors one wears expresses one’s intentions, thoughts, and emotions (Patrouch). Many of the combatants of the tournament who are married wore colors not representative of their spouses, but rather colors that represented women whom they favored at one time.

It is said that this story bears some resemblance to, and is a critique of the court which ruled France during the time of de Lafayette. The court of Louis XIV contained plenty of playacting, though not all of it necessarily the same as what de Lafayette presents. The King’s court was one in which the theatre, music, and arts ruled (Patrouch). To have access to the court of Louis XIV one had to be knowledgeable of the arts and attend the many parties, ceremonies, and gatherings which the court held, whether or not one wanted to be there. Much like the Princess in the novel, to have power in Louis’ time was to always be at court, at all the gatherings, which meant that removing oneself from the court was not something to do. Considering how often the members of the court had to be present, it is not too far fetched to assume that some of the members would be forced to feign interest in some of the events of the court.

This was not the only way in which playacting existed in Louis’ court. Louis himself was the biggest actor, playing himself as the “all-powerful” king that he really was not. The chateau at Versailles was the stage in which he played this act, displaying his power and greatness. He depicted himself in war situations as a great warrior, though it was clear to see that he never went to war (Patrouch). Additionally, King Louis had the hall of mirrors made in this castle, showing that he had enough wealth to afford such a rare and expensive luxury. Also, the mirrors faced windows (glass being considered luxurious as well) that had a view over the massive garden which Louis had made. It was the beginning of a time when it was not necessary to regard your military as your only symbol of power. Having the most opulent home, most coveted artwork, and stylish clothing became another way to flaunt one’s power.

There became more of an emphasis on show rather than content. King Louis ruled his country and court through show. He only had to act, or play the part of greatness. He made sure those at the court followed suit and kept up appearances at all times. This is shown in de Lafayette’s novel; while there were many ways in which you could act in private, one must follow the many intricate, social rules that existed while one is in public. The critique that Madam de Lafayette makes is that when the importance of “the show of rule” overrides the importance of “the actual rule,” the country maybe left unprepared when a time of need arises.

Works Cited

Madame de Lafayette. The Princess of Cleves.

Because of its length, the 30 Years’ War involved many large armies, of which some where mercenary armies. These new, roaming armies required an infrastructure that the current society was unable to provide. As professor Patrouch stated, these armies became new social structures where men, women, and children lived and worked (18 October). Women could not just tend to the home; they now had new duties to make up for the loss of their men. Also, women and children had to do extra work to help support the troops. This is where Mother Courage found a niche in which she could survive. Mother courage was a part of these external, army suppliers that helped feed and keep the army moving. She supplied them with boots, belts, and also food. When the Swedish army is holding siege a town in Poland, Mother Courage is seen supplying the commander with fowl as there is no food around the encampment (Brecht, 36). Also, she is seen many times feeding and giving drinks to soldiers. In fact she is even capable of setting up a canteen tent (Brecht, 73).

These episodes show army infrastructure change from centralized government to a more decentralized, capitalist-inspired infrastructure where everyone, men and women, were trying hard to make money from the war as well. So, not only was Mother Courage part the new army structure, but also a venture capitalist trying to make enough money from the war to survive. As professor Patrouch noted in his lectures, theses wars were too costly for a single figure to be able to successfully wage (15 October). The rulers of Germany and other participating territories had better luck outsourcing the job to mercenaries because peasants and constituents were in such a state of flux that taxes and seignurie did not provide a stable income to the nobles and government figures. They feared that any increase in the taxes or seignurie might make peasants run to better places or join the army (15 October). As such, mercenary, capitalistic armies in which anyone could be of service were able to make money. Profiting of the war became the norm at that time. This obvious exploitation of such terrible times did not escape Brecth’s cynicism. As early as the first scene, we can see that everyone at this time, even Courage and the soldiers, knew the importance of such capitalism, yet at the same time, the shameful nature of it as well. As the Sergeant in scene one claims, “you should be ashamed of yourself […] you admit you live off the war” (29). Even as mother courage is providing food for the commander however, she haggles hard over the price of the capon she is trying to sell (34, 35). Being able to keep her supplies, sell, and stay alive is important. In scene 7, she refuses to give some linen to hurt peasants, yet they end up with the linen despite her protests (71). Her altruistic nature usually overrode her capitalistic urges.

Perhaps the one thing that ties the social and economical consequences of war together is death. The death of the young men in a war leaves wives without husbands, mothers and fathers without sons, and children without fathers. In addition to the soldiers, many casualties occurred among women and children as a result of the war. With such an unusual amount of death, a cloud of depression surely overwhelmed the war-torn area. Death can also be financially devastating. Wives have no husbands to help support their families, jobs have no workers, and no one has any money to help keep the economy stable. Making a profit from the war was the best way to survive, but perhaps few people realized how difficult it would all be when the dust finally settled.

Works Cited

Brecht, Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children. Ed Eric Bentley. New York, New York: Grove Press, 1991

Patrouch, Joseph. EUH 2021 Class Lectures. Ryder Business Building – FIU University Parl, Miami, FL. 15 October 2004, 18 October 2004.

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The letters of Perchta and Anezka Rozmberk, two noble women in the fifteenth century, demonstrate the different roles of which they were expected to play in medieval, Bohemian society. Even though women did not enjoy equal rights, they did have limited rights including rights to own property. For example, a family’s patrimony was divided between all children, but sisters received a smaller inheritance than their brothers (Klassen, 20)...

darksama The letters of Perchta and Anezka Rozmberk, two noble women in the fifteenth century, demonstrate the different roles of which they were expected to play in medieval, Bohemian society. Even though women did not enjoy equal rights, they did have limited rights including rights to own property. For example, a family’s patrimony was divided between all children, but sisters received a smaller inheritance than their brothers (Klassen, 20). Because of this, there was a big difference between the way married women like Perchta and unmarried women like Anezka were able to handle their property. Marriage in medieval Europe was not simply a union of a man and a woman, and not always for love. Because these women were tied to property (which they were not fully able to control), marriage could be seen as a property bound contract.

]]> The movement of property was an important aspect of marriage in medieval Europe. Dowries and marriage gifts were meant to help the husband’s family with the costs of adding a new member, as well as to ensure security for the wife should her husband die (Klassen, 20). However, this poses a problem to both families. As Klassen notes, property purchased by dowry money can be highly contested (22). The dowry money was often put into property for the husband and wife. If the husband died before the wife, his family had the right to buy the property from her and she could be forced to relocate. This was the reality of marriage in medieval bohemia, and it is certainly something of which Perchta knows. The movement of property was of great importance in a marriage contract since once married, it was the husband’s right to make choices regarding her wives dowry.

Perchta’s problem was this exactly. Her father’s decision on her husband was purely a political one; Ulrich hoped that Lichtenstejn’s backing would be very helpful. This did not mean that Perchta had no voice; however, having come from a powerful family, she expected certain things as Lichtenstjn’s wife, and these are the exact things that she writes about in her letters to her many kinsmen. Perchta’s dilemma was not that she was a bad wife, rather she was distressed because she expected to run her husband’s household. She states in a letter to her father that “[she is] a vertible beggar of that lady [her mother in law] and have to wait for everything from her hands” (Kalssen, 35). Perchta expected to have control, although it was something that was clearly kept from her. She was even kept from moving about freely and not allowed to go to her family’s castle for a celebration, “I over heard someone criticised him for not letting me go” (Klassen, 54).

The lack of respect, or at least care for Perchta in Lichtenstejn Manor was due in part because her family was late in paying her dowry. She sent numerous letters to her brothers, Henry and John, hoping that they could solve the problem with the dowry and perhaps her life might become easier. There were times when Perchta’s position in her husband’s castle was even questioned by the servants, she beseeched her brother to, “bring the letter which was prepared for me for the dowry […] to have the letter read their older servants and before one other good person” (Klassen, 53). She was also irked by the fact her dowry contract stated she was to receive an allowance, yet her husband refused to give it until the dowry was received. Her problems with her new family and an inability to get anything done left her restless and discontent in her new life, especially since she knew she was entitled to more.

On the other hand, her unmarried sister, Anezka, was well off and had no monetary problems. While her sister Perchta complains about her oppressed life, Anezka is free to live as she pleases and has no husband to whom she needs to answer. She even takes part in hunts for deer – in a letter to her brother John, she tells of her chance to catch deer on her way home (Klassen, 81). Also, Anezka exercised more power and control at her own castle in Trebon than Perchta could as an intruder in her husband’s home. In Anezka’s writings, she asked officials for a contingency of knights to ride with her on trips (Klassen, 72). In contrast, Perchta was saddled to her husbands debts and was forced to run through towns selling her jewels to help her husband with a bond. Anezka exercised her independence in her ability to make business contracts: buying fish from the local nobility (Klassen, 68,73). Indeed, there were fewer of Anezka’s letters then Perchta, but from those few letter many include mention of business contracts and her carefree life. She did not have to worry about a family that wanted nothing to do with her.

Anezka’s and Perchta’s roles in fifteenth century bohemia were not normal for their times. Anezka wielded a great amount of power while looking over her family’s property, more specifically the castle of Trebon. Unfortunately, Perchta’s marriage was not a normal one for her times; women and their property were thoroughly protected by law and custom (Klassen, 22,23). Their roles as women were closely tied to their property, their ability to control it, and their rights over it. Yet, because Anezka never married, she enjoyed a great amount of flexibility and control over her part of the patrimony. Perchta, on the other hand, never had a say in her new house due to her family’s delay of her dowry. Women were an important part of marriage in the fifteenth century, as this was an economic and political contract for the aristocrats. Also, even though there was a great amount of exchange between families that occurred in every marriage, it was expect that while the bride always answered to her husband, yet she still was able to control the property she brought into the marriage. It appears that Perchta and Anezka existed at opposite extremes of a woman’s sphere in medieval Bohemia: Perchta denied the little power married women were allowed, Anezka given more power than people believed a spinster should have. It is likely most other women fell somewhere in the middle.

Works Cited

Klassen, John M., ed. The Letters of the Rozmberk Sisters: Noblewomen in Fifteenth-Century Bohemia. Ed John M. Klassen. Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 2001.

Klassen, John M. “Introduction: The Rozmberk Family in Fifteenth-Century Bohemia”. Klassen 1-26.

Rozmberk, Anezka et al. “The Correspondance of Perchta and Anezka of Rozmberk ca. 1448-1488”. Klassen 27-98.

]]> tag:www.darksama.com,2004:/works//2.147 2004-09-28T05:00:00Z 2005-09-21T00:25:15Z

This article will be the first in a series of informative articles on the fundamentals of computers. I know that it sounds a little intimidating, "fundamentals of computers", but I'll be trying my best to make to topic easy to understand. Each article in the series will focus on one or two parts of a computer. I'll be looking at how these parts work, what do the numbers attached to these parts mean...

darksama This article will be the first in a series of informative articles on the fundamentals of computers. I know that it sounds a little intimidating, "fundamentals of computers", but I'll be trying my best to make to topic easy to understand. Each article in the series will focus on one or two parts of a computer. I'll be looking at how these parts work, what do the numbers attached to these parts mean. Additionally I'll be giving some buying tips, what to look for when buying these parts, and how to add them to your computer systems. Please, don't let the last sentence scare you; my main intent on these articles is just to give you a little bit more knowledge about these magical "black boxes" so the next time you have a problem, or are out getting a new one because the old one just doesn't work anymore, you can take a step back, and realize that the computer does not control you.

]]> The Processor/CPU : What is this thing?

When most people think of processors they think of Intel, and Gigahertz; and that it's best to have higher numbers of the Intel kind. But that's very deceiving. Let's start with what's a Gigahertz? That would be 1,000 million cycles per second. Now if you had a car engine that ran at 1,000 million rpm I'm sure it would be pretty loud, but as you can tell sitting next to your computer that little box is barely making any noise. So what cycles are we talking about then? Electronic cycles - waves of electricity run through the CPU, another name for processors, at the rate of 1,000 million per second or more! That's it. And this is supposed to make computers faster?

Let's think of this realistically. Electricity alone is not going to do any fancy thinking for you. Behind the scenes of processors are some very abstract concepts and notions, which I'm not going to talk about here, that transfer electricity to useful processor instructions. Processor instructions are the building blocks for any other complex action that happens in a computer, it takes hundreds of these basic instructions just to draw the desktop, and the programs you are running, one time. Every new cycle the processor gets new instructions and runs them through the processor's "assembly line", where the processor executes the instruction.

So, if electricity is flowing faster through the CPU, then more instructions are fed to CPU per second, getting more work done. Simply stated, bigger numbers do make computers run faster, but it's still not that easy. Take for example the difference between gasoline and diesel engines. Both can make a car go relatively fast, say 100km/h, but both work at different RPMs, diesels run in the hundreds while gasoline engines run more rapidly at thousands of RPMs. It's the same with processors.

Like I said earlier, processors get work done by executing the processor instructions. Processors with slower cycles per seconds are still capable of getting as much work done as those with 1,000 million Hertz. This is because every processor has a base number of instructions it can completely execute per cycle. That means that a processor that did 4 IPC (instructions per cycle) and ran at 8 Hz, will do as much work in the end then a processor that did 1 IPC but ran at 32 Hz. The actual power of both of these processors would be 32 instructions per seconds (or the IPC x Hz). Regrettably, because processors and programs are incredibly complex, it is very difficult to obtain a processor's exact IPC number, and furthermore processors rarely ever work at a constant IPC.

What you need to know when looking at sales tags

Now, having gone through a general description on processors and how they work lets see how it stands up to what you'll find at the local electronics store. When looking at the numbers for a computer sitting in an isle on a shelf, one of the first points on the label will be something akin to:

"Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, 1MB Cache, 800MHz FSB"

Look at all those numbers and acronyms. Having already read up to this point, we can definitely say that this processor is fast, to the tune of 3.2GHz. What can that do for you though?

The first thing you may have noticed in the processor name example was "Intel Pentium". These are names that everyone seems to throw around without really knowing what they mean. It's a lot like saying Dodge Hemi, really. The Hemi engine powers many of Dodge's as well as other car company's cars and comes in different shapes, sizes, versions, types, and so forth. As such, the words Intel Pentium don't say a lot about the processor, other than the great amount of branding Intel has done. What's really important in the example above is "Pentium 4" as this actually describes what type of processor it is.

Like I pointed out earlier, processing power is not necessarily derived from MHz or GHz, but rather a combination of speed and instruction computing. Processors can either excel in one or the other, but not both. Each type of processor has a different design, or architecture. Think of these architectures as the designs of a factory with actual assembly line, as that is what they emulate. Small manufacturing companies have small assembly lines, but each step in the assembly line does more work on the object then longer assembly lines. Factories can also have several assembly lines. When talking about why there are different processors, such as Pentium 4, or Pentium III, or Athlon, it is because each of these processor types have different a different design in their assembly lines.

These architectures try to get the best balance of speed and instructions. The Intel Pentium III and AMD Athlon processors are designed to do more work per cycle, while the Intel Pentium 4 processor was designed to run faster. Because of this, a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz is actually comparable to an AMD Athlon XP running at 1.8GHz. Knowing the processor type, will let you know the difference in styles which guides how important speed is to that processor.

What about the other numbers and acronyms in the example though: 1MB Cache, 800MHz FSB? The Cache and Front Side Bus (FSB) are very important to the total performance of processor, which is why you'll see these numbers on labels. The Cache of a processor is the size of the memory that is resident in the processor. This isn't regular RAM or Hard disk memory though; these small little pieces of memory, which are anywhere from 128KB to 1MB or more, is strictly used to store processor instructions or data for these instructions. It is a small reserve that runs at or close to the speed of the processor and can be accessed almost instantly, as opposed to RAM and hard disk memory which takes a lot of time to retrieve from. Like the general consensus, more cache memory tends to increase general performance up to a point. Unfortunately, doubling the cache, does not mean a doubling in performance, it's actually close to 5%-10%.
A Small processor compared to a penny

The front side bus, or FSB, is the connection the processor has to the rest of the computer. While this is very dependant on the processor type, while the AMD Athlon processor ran fine at 333MHz FSB, the Pentium 4 was originally offered at 400 MHz FSB. The FSB speed is there to help you determine a faster processor within the same family.

Taking a look at the following processor descriptions:

Intel® Celeron® D Processor 330 (2.66 GHz, 533 FSB)
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533 FSB)

You can now make a more in depth analysis of the difference between the two. Starting off, we can tell that they are different families; one is a Celeron D while the other is a Pentium 4. One is faster than the other, though marginally so, and both have similar FSB speeds. The best way to decide the better processor from the two is by knowing the difference between Celeron's and Pentium's. This particular Celeron, the Celeron D, is identical to Pentium 4's except that they have half the cache that a Pentium 4 would have. Which is the better processor?

Consumer Processors

The following is a list of the current consumer processors, with some details on their architecture and features.

AMD Athlon, Athlon XP

The original athlon was an equal performer to the Pentium III, while it has gone through some revisions, the Athlon processor was designed to do more work per clock cycle. It is a versatile processor that handles all tasks equally well.

AMD Athlon 64

The Athlon 64 is almost identical in design as the Athlon. Major changes include added instructions for security and multimedia, as well as the ability to run 64bit programs.

AMD Duron, AMD Sempron

Duron was the original value processor for AMD. The main difference between a Duron and an Athlon, include halved cache size, and only a 200MHz FSB. The Sempron is AMD's new value processor, which follows after the Athlon 64 design, except with only 256KB of cache and no ability to run 64 bit programs.

Intel Pentium I, II, and III

The design of the first three Pentiums was very similar. Each new version included more cache and a set of new instructions to help in multimedia programs - this was the original Pentium's low point.

Intel Celeron A, B, C

A "crippled" version of the Pentium II and III models. The Celeron has been considered a crippled version in that it contained half the cache as the Pentium models it was designed after.

Intel Pentium 4

Designed to run at extremely high speeds, the Pentium 4 was originally released at 1.4 Ghz. Unfortunately, its design at this speed made it less powerful then a Pentium III or Athlon running at 1GHz. The Pentium 4 has gone through several revisions so far, that have made the design more efficient. It is greatly suited for several multimedia programs.

Intel Celeron D

A crippled version of the Pentium 4.

Intel Pentium M

Intel designed this processor to be run in portable computers and laptops. With this in mind, the Pentium M gives laptops running it longer battery life than most other Mobile processors, at least 25% more battery life. While it does have many power saving features, it runs at slower speeds than the Pentium 4. Still, a 1.6 Ghz Pentium M is comparable to a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 while yielding better battery life.

I say the term “Merchant” because both men bought and sold for profit of coin or gold. Pitti describes many such transactions in his memoirs, as there are numerous accounts of him buying horses and wine only to sell them later if he could make some profit. However, Pitti made these dealings regardless of where he was (partly because he was a gambler) and although there is not a single account of any loss in his abridged writings, there is a good example of an unsafe investment in which he comes out on top:

“I found a Burgundy wine merchant from whom I bought 110 casks […] for which I gave 400 in cash and the Duke of Burgundy’s letter of credit for 600 francs. […] I had the wine put in two cellars and, as no one would offer me more than 500 francs for it, left it there and told the steward not to sell it for less than 1000. [… ] [O]ne night in late April, the vines in the area were all nipped by frost. […] When I got back to Paris I sold 100 casks at 14 francs cash apiece. I made 400 gold francs on the transaction […]. Thus I was lucky with two of the chanciest of all commodities: horses and wine” (49-50).

But wine and horses were not the only ventures on which Pitti embarked. On a trip to England, Pitti had bought some wool which he claims he “had made 1,000 gold florins on the venture” after the “wool was sold and the money collected” (47). Pitti’s diary records many such events, so one could classify him as trader or a wholesale merchant.

Dati, on the other hand, was more of a retail merchant. The accounts in his diaries tend more on the partnerships and ventures he went on with other people. This is mostly because unlike Pitti, Dati’s first commercial contract, he starts indebted, “I am to invest 300 gold florins which I have not, being actually in debt to the business” (108). For Dati, profit was only made after his partnerships were dissolved; in one such enterprise Dati’s earnings was “reckoned as 1,416 florins” (109). He seems to prize himself on his individual endeavor in the middle of the 1390’s where he ended up with 600 florins because of the selling and buying of goods from Valencia and other places (111). It is important to note, however; that Dati was also a part of the Wool Guild, and made Guild Consul several times (108,128).

Being part of guilds was an important portion of Florentine society and economics. As noted in professor Patrouch’s class, the patrician oligarchy, which ruled Florence in the 14th and 15th centuries, was influenced greatly by the guilds (20 September). Furthermore, with regards to Prof. Patrouch’s lecture that day, besides the importance of guilds in the city, patricians could only be elected to positions in the city if they own property in the city. Even though Dati’s businesses never made much profit through dowries and smart investments, he had several properties in Florence (Brucker, 16, 123). Pitti also had many farms and properties; at one point he counted putting 2,500 florins into upkeep for one of his properties (47).

Because of each man’s achievement, they were both able to be elected once to Florence’s highest post: the Standard Bearer of Justice (15). Pitti served in 1422 while Dati served in office in 1429 (105,137). Here the guilds and Florence’s economic system played a great role, and it is this particularly that had an effect in the city’s circumstances. While its reliance on trade and merchants helped it prosper, Florence had some hard economic times, but the same merchant economy allowed new people to come in and help out in these tough times. With the help of guilds, it was easy to climb up the ranks as Prof. Patrouch explained in his lectures (20 September). This upward mobility changed Florence into a dynamic society with a smarter and self governing people. There were now a higher percentage of people that had easy accessibility to economic means not only for supporting themselves, but they were also able to gain more wealth, and prosperity.

There were many resources available, and Florence at this time, as seen through these two men, was a society that was moving forward. The changing economics can be seen in the people of Florence, and also can be seen as somewhat inspirational to people today. Here is the start of society and the economy as we know today, an economy filled with merchants that go into enterprises and who are able to rule themselves. Although both Pitti and Dati talk about Kings and Emperors, and it is clear to see that both still honor the idea of “nobility.” They plainly have disdain toward Kings and Emperors who have a direct say in their City’s affairs. Pitti and Dati’s ability to freely come in and out of merchant enterprises alludes to the free political and economic structure that it seems Florence is trying to build at this time.

Works Cited

Brucker, Gene, ed. Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti & Gregorio Dati. Ed Gene Brucker. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1991

Brucker, Gene. “Introduction: Florentine Diaries and Diarists.” Brucker 9-18.

Dati, Gregorio. “The Diary of Gregorio Dati.” Brucker 107-141.

Patrouch, Joseph. EUH 2021 Class Lectures. Ryder Business Building - FIU University Park, Miami FL. 20 September 2004.

Pitti, Buonaccorso. “The Diary of Buonaccorso Pitti.” Brucker 19-106.

In the first issue of First Risk I gave a brief explanation of spam and some hints on how to bring down number of spam that arrives in your inbox. But what about this worm menace? This is something that is very interesting as many people believe that modern virus writers work for spammers (people that send spam). In fact, many worm programs send email addresses gathered from the infected computer to some place on the internet. Many of these worms also have another secret payload that let them send emails from the infected computer. But what are all these things anyways, aren't they all just a Computer Virus?

People many times attribute problems with their computers to viruses, so any program that does anything bad also tends to be called "virus". Strictly speaking however, a virus is a piece of programming code only does two things: it executes, and it copies itself. Like the namesake of the code's real life counterpart, a virus program tries to replicate itself throughout the system it resides. Viruses copy themselves only to certain file types (a virus found in a word document tends to only copy itself into other word documents). Any file that a virus copies itself into becomes "infected" with the virus and will execute the program whenever that file is opened or executed. Whenever they are executed, besides trying to replicate, there are many things a virus can do. There are some benign viruses that only make messages or symbols pop up on the screen, most viruses however, tend to harm other files by deleting or corrupting them.

As bad as viruses can be however, they are becoming less popular throughout the years. It is the strict definition of a virus that is their biggest constriction. Viruses must execute themselves to propagate, and because they propagate only though files they tend to stay within infected systems. This is unlike what has been happening in the past year which has seen programs infecting systems, worming their way through networks. The two biggest attacks this year alone come from two such programs: Sasser and Netsky.

Both of these programs are worms. The main difference between worms and viruses is that worms do not infect files. Worms are self-sufficient programs that copy themselves to different computer systems. Usually only one worm can reside within a computer. While some spread with emails as attachments (that must be executed for the system to be infected), there are some that use security holes in windows and other programs. These new worms don't need a user to open a program; instead they automatically infect systems that have the security holes open.

After infecting a computer, most worms "set-up shop"; that is to say that they install themselves in the computer, and tell Windows to run them every time Windows starts. Once running, these worms open certain communication ports in your computer to listen for any new instructions, send sensitive and personal information along with email address to certain computer on the internet, and are also capable of sending massive amounts of email. Thanks in part to recent worms Comcast estimates that 33% of its customer's computers have been infected by worms that constantly send out spam.

These programs are very dangerous to your computer system and private data. Most of these programs, viruses and worms, rely on bugs and security holes inside programs like Outlook and Windows to be able to infect systems. The recent worm Netsky, was able to bypass the Microsoft Outlook XP defense against executable attachments (By default Outlook XP denies access to files with certain extensions) with a link that would make the program run regardless. Even more concerning is that the emails with which these worms send out look like plausible emails sent out by network administrators.

One has to take much caution when a strange unidentifiable email arrives in their inbox. Besides exercising caution, there are several pieces of software that are invaluable in helping you be protected against spam, worms and viruses. Always run only one Anti-virus program. Besides slowing down your system, anti-virus programs don't play nice and may raise false alarms; I recommend Norton Antivirus. Install a firewall. Firewalls protect your computer from network attacks both from your computer and from outside. Most firewalls ask you when programs access the internet, here you can allow or deny access to only certain programs; I recommend Norton Internet Firewall, or the free Zone Alarm.

Spyware and Adware

Unsolicited email is not the only way to infect your computer with evasive and untrustworthy programs. Many commercial applications sometimes are bundled with other applications that spy on your computer habits or simply display ads. These applications are known as spyware and adware respectively.
computer attack

Adware, while not intrinsically terrible, is usually found in free and reduced packages of commercial software. It allows the developer to release a version for free, but still receive payment. It may seem like a decent compromise to use a product for free, but the fact is that most adware companies use dishonest tactics and policies. Once installed, adware products cannot be removed, even after removal of the accompanied software. Adware programs are also very similar to spyware programs as they tract your web traffic to show you targeted advertisements.

Spyware programs, go further into what they tract about your habits and information. Such programs can record personal as well as sensitive information such as credit card numbers, and passwords. This information is stored on your computer before being sent to a computer on the internet. You can unintentionally download a spyware program by innocently "surfing" on the Internet and clicking yes on a pop-up dialog.

There are dedicated programs, like Ad-aware, that find and remove both adware and spyware programs.

Phishing

Phishing is a type of email scam that's a very popular way of trying to "fish" for identity information. Usually you receive and email that is very important from a commercial site you may do business with, like PayPal, eBay, or Amazon.com. The messages claim that your data has been lost, or that they want you to update your information. A link in the message takes you to page that looks like the organization and shows a form for you to put all your personal information and password, including credit card and social security numbers. However, this page is not from the organization it claims to be, and the information you give it is used for identity theft.

Be very careful with the information you give out on the internet. Read the policies of all websites that you do business with. If you receive an email that claims to be from an organization that isn't a response to a query initiated by you, be wary; most companies like eBay and amazon.com will not send you any messages that pertain to your account unless it was as a response by an action you started - like buying something on the website.

Always practice carefulness when confronted with anything unexpected in your computer, email, or the internet. If you're surprised by what you see proceed cautiously, every one of these programs and scams discussed in this article try to get themselves into the door by startling you.

Calendar

If you click on Calendar, everything to the right of the Outlook bar will change to look like a paper Organizer Calendar. It'll show the current 5-Day work week with any appointments you've made. Appointments show up as blocks during in the day at the time the appointment is. You can add new appointments easily, just click on the "New" button in the toolbar. In the window that pop-ups you can enter information about the appointment, start-time, end-time, place and any description. You can even set a reminder so you won't forget to go. Click the "Save and Close" button on the toolbar to save the appointment when you're done. You can also set up reoccurring appointments by pressing the "reoccurrence" button in the Appointment window. You can choose what type of reoccurrence and an end date.

Like I said earlier, Outlook tries to make it easy to find any information stored with in it and one way it accomplishes this is by having many "views". A View in Outlook is a way of displaying information; there are different views depending on what you want to look at, email items are displayed differently then appointments and contacts. The View menu in Outlook shows you the "views" available for the particular information you are working with at the moment. For the calendar, you can view it on a per day basis or in a 5-Day or 7-Day week or as a Monthly view. These options are visible in the View menu or on the Toolbar when you are in the Calendar. There are also more advanced views that show information in Tables in the "Current View" option of the "View" Menu. Outlook also has many Printable Views for your Calendar. When in the Calendar, try to Print, and the print dialog shows a list of choices - from daily to weekly - of which you can chose to print out your digital calendar to paper.

There are more interactive things that you can do with the calendar, like set meetings with several people and view other's calendars, but this requires you to have outlook running in a special network mode.

Contacts

The Contacts portion of outlook functions very much like what its image implies: a Rolodex. It's nothing more then a fancy digital way of storing all your contacts. The default view for contacts is "Address Cards". In this view you'll see all your contacts as cards you would find on a rolodex, with an overview of information (name, address and some phone numbers) that actual contact can store. What makes Contacts efficient is that you can store much more data then the "Address Cards" view shows. A "card" can store 3 mail addresses, 3 email addresses, 19 telephone numbers, and even personal information like anniversary dates. Additionally, if you open a contact, the "Activities" tab will show you all the outlook items which that contact is associated with - including all email communication. This list might take a little time to fill up as Outlook searches through all of its storage every time you open this tab.

Tasks and notes

Both tasks and notes Outlook tools are very simple. "Tasks" is a list of to-do items while notes can be viewed as yellow stickies Notes like the image implies. What make these tools useful is that they are fully integrated with the rest of outlook. You can assign a task to someone (if they have Outlook), or email a task report. So it's good for managers that like assigning tasks and getting daily status reports.

Sorting your emails

If your inbox is just filled with emails and you're always trying to find one in the long list what are you going to do? If you're looking for an email that came in within the past week, you can probably start by changing the view to "Last Seven Days". This View is available in the "Current View" option in the "View" menu. In this View you'll only see emails from the last seven days. Don't worry your other emails haven't been deleted, they just aren't shown in this view. If this still gives you a long list, you can always click on the many other Column headings - like "From" or "Subject" - to change the listing order to ascending or descending on that specific column. That will make it easier to search for emails that came from a specific person for example if you sort by "From", as all the emails are clumped by who sent them.

Another way to search for emails from a specific sender is by using the "By Sender" View. This will group all your emails by who sent them. Instead of seeing emails you'll see rows of all the senders, to view the emails just click on the "+" button to the left of the sender's name. If a sender still has a long list of emails, don't forget you can always change the sorting. To go back to the default View chose the "Messages" View.

The magic about formulas is that you can mix and match and make some complicated formulas. Say you have a table of objects, customers number of objects sold to that customer. If you want to find out how many of a specific product a customer bought you would need to do a conditional sum. Using the SUM and IF functions you can make a conditional sum like so:

=SUM(IF($A$3:$A$11="Sofa", $C$3:$C$11, 0) )

Just remember to press Ctrl + Shift when pressing enter or else Excel will complain about incorrect values. Conditional Sum Example.

The SUM function will add all the values that the inside function IF returns. The IF function is divided with comas into three parts, and the logic is simple enough: if the first part is true then do the second part, else do the third part. So the first part is what we are checking, in this example we want to test if the cells in the range A3-A11 have the word "Sofa". We then add the range C3-C11 because if the adjacent cell in A has a sofa, then we want to know how many sells there were. And in the last part we just return 0 because if there was no sofa in A, we aren't very interested in adding the amount sold. It should be noted that in the second and third part, we can instead return expressions instead of the constant values or values of cells.

In this matter, you can make many formulas to do some very complicated things in Excel. But there are other things in Excel to make your life easier, Excel 2002 has an extensive collection of shortcuts to help you navigate and fill out cells. Type a number in a cell, and then move your cursor to the lower right hand corner of the cell and the pointer will change to a black cross. Left click and hold as you move your mouse down. When you have the range that you want, let go, and all those cells will now have the number you typed. The button that appears on the lower right of the selection will let you change the selection to fill in the series of numbers. You can use this with other cells too, not just number cells.

The following are some Excel Shortcuts

General Windows Shortcuts

General Application Shortcuts (found in most programs)

Internet Explorer Shortcuts

In the following pages an overview of value will be introduced. I will be looking at Cohen’s essay on value and exploitation to find why the labour theory feels like a vague theory as well. I will continue and form my own view (if perhaps flawed and unformed) on how commodities can be equated. Finally, I will finish with the question, is capitalism still exploitative? With out the labour theory of value, is this still a valid question to ask.

The Question of Value

The most controversial of Marx’ theories is the labour theory of value. It is a theory that uses two theses, the proper thesis and a popular conception of the proper thesis, which are contradictory. ^[2] The proper thesis is a market driven (socially necessary labour creates value) from the popular conception (labour and only labour creates value). While a popular theory with famous early economists, Smith and Ricardo, they both experienced problems when trying to relate their conceptions of capitalism to their respective labour theories. Smith even adjusted his original thesis labour theory (a popular conception) to one that was more acceptable in markets (similar to Marx’ proper thesis). My study is an amateurs look at how Marx came about to create value from labour, looking at a possible alternative, and finishing with an overview of Cohen’s argument against the labour theory of value.

Value starts off rather simply as the study of commodities. Commodities, however, being things outside of us, are a subset of objects – the things outside us. Objects can be said to be small, big, pretty, colorful; in fact they can be said to be many things, all of which are the objects properties. All of these properties are both quantitative and qualitative, but are also so diverse. Marx suggests that along with extreme diversity of objects a standard of measuring objects is needed; this is where value comes along. ^[3] However, not all objects include a general value; rather they all hold use-values. Use-values represent human materialistic wants of a thing, specifically any object existing outside us. Therefore, one could claim that a thing has use-value if and only if the object can be used by anyone for any reason. A simple statement that may or may not be true, but that will suffice for this study. Considering this to be true, one can now say the following objects have both properties and use-values.

So, we have now created a world where objects have properties, be it physical or abstract, and a use-value. In this world, a society could exist where objects are related to each other by this use-value.

Following with Marxist thought; commodities are the unit of which the capitalist mode of production is set upon and as objects have both use-value and properties but also have an extra value: exchange value. Not all objects have exchange-value, but all commodities have use-value. The exchange-value of a thing is the value which allows a commodity to be exchanged for other commodities. However, commodities have a great many exchange values, or rates of exchange, at which the commodity can be traded, “since x blackling, y silk, z gold, etc., each represent the exchange value of one quarter wheat, x blackling, y silk, z gold, etc., must, as exchange-value, be replaceable by each other, or equal to each other.” ^[4]

Taking a look at our current set up, commodities are things traded and exchanged by their exchange-value, which are themselves objects with properties and use-value. While there seems to be no inherent problem, there is something in Marx that is a little hard to follow. As stated above, since commodities exchange against each other and are therefore replaceable and equal, then the following equation is possible: “1 quarter corn = x cwt. iron.” ^[5] While there is a subsequent explanation that there is something common in both, a third also exists, to which their respective exchange-values are reducible to, the speculation that this third is labour is hard to comprehend. ^[6]

As stated before, Marx was not the only person trying to come to grips with looking at value as the creation of labour. While it makes sense for Marx to use this popular theory to explain why the capitalist system is exploitative, the proper theory of value only implies that the popular theory is false. ^[7] G.A Cohen does a great job invalidating Marx’ value theory. I will examine this further in order to figure out how labour can create value.

While the labour theory of value does not claim that “labour and labour alone creates value,” this statement is inferred from the theory. The theory which as Cohen explains can be summed down to three statements:

1. Socially necessary labour time determines value.
2. Value determines equilibrium price.
3. Socially necessary labour time determines equilibrium prices. ^[8]

One could infer from statement 1 that labour creates value. This statement, used in Marxian Arguments for the justification of capitalist exploitation, is false by the labour theory of value. ^[9] Considering the labour theory implies that only current socially necessary labour is taken into consideration to determine the value of a commodity, socially necessary implying in the most efficient manner available to a society, then any previous labour done, or any labour “congealed” into a commodity before the time of exchanged is not considered for the determination of value. ^[10] Also, any labour done above the necessary labour time for that given commodity is not considered. Therefore, by the labour theory of value, the popular theory that labour and only labour creates value is false, for past actual labour is irrelevant and only conceptual labour is relevant. ^[11]

It is rather silly that proper theory, evolved from a more popular theory, only contradicts the latter. How can one continue to say that any type of labour creates value if it is false that labour creates value? However, Cohen continues and invalidates the proper theory by identifying premise 3 to be false. He notes a counter-example to 3, which implies that a pattern of ownership of means of production can also determine equilibrium price. Given a monopoly, the equilibrium price of a commodity made by a monopoly will be higher. ^[12] Therefore, considering that statement 3 is false, and that statement 1 and statement 2 entail statement 3, then statement 1 or statement 2 are false. More over, Cohen treats statement 2 as true by definition, therefore he says that statement 1 is false and “the labour theory of value is sunk.” ^[13] It is almost an anti-climatic end to a troubled theory. However, if labour does not create value, what of prices and exchange-values? Is there such a thing as ‘value’ to begin with that is a property of commodities?

While Cohen unarguably denies labour the ability to create value and therefore allows for the exchange of commodities in a Marxist view of capitalism, I would still like to know how commodities can be said to be equal or for that matter be exchanged? I have noted that there seems to be market based labour theories, based on socially necessary labour. Perhaps there is a more simplistic approach to the matter, even when using Marxist conceptions of commodities. By eliminating general value all together and looking more deeply at use-value, one can arrive at exchange-value, or rather price. Commodities do not need to have exact value to be exchanged, nor do they need some specific third to be considered equal. In fact, as long their exchange-values are equal, commodities are considered equal.

In trying to understand this problem, Marx attempts to eliminate that use-value plays any role in exchange-value by wrongly stating and simplifying the abstraction of use-values. While people could say that “A hundred pounds’ worth of lead or iron is of as great value as one hundred pounds worth of silver or gold,” that is only implying that in a market society, one could trade what wares he has for any other ware of equal exchange-value. ^[14] This is to say that the use-value of all commodities is its tradability. However, this is only true if there is a market for a given ware. How would one go about and exchange one hundred pounds worth of silver if there were no market for it, or rather any social institution for average social use-value of commodities? Therefore, one could say that silver as a commodity would have no use-value, for no one would trade for this commodity. One could argue then that if it does not have a use-value, then how can it continue to be a commodity? The prerequisite to being a commodity is having an exchange-value, and it is common for commodities in modern society to be produced that fall out of a market because of too high an exchange value – does this commodity fail to become a commodity? Yes, for it still has an exchange-value; therefore the simplified abstraction that the use-value of a commodity is mere tradability is wrong. But, what is important to note here is that we see Marx using market properties and applying them to a definition of value that is not market defined.

It is here that I will diverge on my separate path of development. I would like to propose another theory of value, one that uses the market forces of supply in demand as well as the use-value of commodities to find the exchange-value. Consider a world where 1 and 2 are true, and assume a simple barter economy with no money exists. Use-values of objects in this world are individually assigned by each person. So, if an object will not be traded, there is no need for it to be assigned general social use-values. However, since commodities are always in the realm of social relation, the use-values of commodities change to an average social use-value. This specific use-value abstracted by the forces of supply and demand determines exchange-value.

If there where no market for a given commodity, either by there being no way for the society to express the want of a commodity or because its supply is so limited that society can live without it, then the use-value of that commodity will be almost nonexistent. One could also say that a commodity is extremely useful because of its appropriate market. The average want of society for that commodity is great; therefore, its use-value would also be great. The relation between the use-value of a commodity and the average social want of the commodity is proportional. This is the demand relation between a commodity and its market. This relation affects exchange-value proportionally; commodities are capable of trading at high exchange-value only if they also have high use-value. This can be illustrated with water, a commodity with high use-value that can trade higher then many other commodities if it is scarce enough. However, how does water in most places have a relatively low exchange value?

Consequently, there is another relation between the commodity and markets which affect exchange-value, that of supply. This relation is inversely proportional, as the supply of a commodity increases, so does its ultimate exchange-value decrease. If the supply of the commodity then decreases and becomes scarce, then the ultimate exchange-value will rise. Therefore, while water has a high use-value, its relative abundance keeps its exchange value low.

Continuing with the assumption of a barter economy, commodities in th