Night Hawks Tapes

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

• Unprecedented social issues are beginning to arise, potentially causing massive trauma and conflict.
As we stand on the frontier of the new economy, we can also see the beginnings of a new political economy that will raise far-reaching questions about power, privacy, access, equity, quality of work life, quality of life in general, and the future of the democratic process itself. As tectonic shifts in most aspects of human existence clash with old cultures, significant social conflict will tear at the fabric of structures and institutions.
New social dialectics—the juxtaposition or interaction of conflicting ideas—are emerging.’6 Hegel developed the concept of conflicting forces leading to a synthesis of something new. Man applied the notion to a view of the evolution of societies called dialectical materialism, but history did not evolve as Man had planned. The new economy demands that the notion of dialectic forces be revisited. For example, there are strong pressures for the dispersion of economic and political power. These pressures conflict with old structures that seek to centralize economic and political power.
The nature of work and the requirements of the workforce in the digital economy are fundamentally different. The concept of labor is undergoing a radical redefinition. Just as the percentage of the workforce in agriculture has been declining since the turn of the century, the number of workers involved in the production of goods (the old economy) has been falling for a decade. The new economy is bringing high-paid, high-value jobs, but there is little job mobility between old and new. How will such a huge reorganization of the labor force and its skills occur?
There is a concurrent trend toward self-employment and the creation of small knowledge-based industries providing work on a contract basis. In the digital economy, as intellectual capital becomes the most valuable resource, the means of production shifts from the plant floor into the innovative minds of knowledge workers—those who create value. Compare their emerging power to that of the industrial worker, who could withhold labor by going on strike. Similarly, employers could lock out workers and deny them access to the means of production. Knowledge workers can exert their power in infinitely more complex and effective ways. Bosses can’t deny them access to their own brains. If they are unhappy or feel unwanted, they are likely to set up their own business, as millions have done in the last half decade. A good brain, a telephone, a modem, and a PC are all that’s required to produce. As Miller puts it, “Bosses can’t say I want x tonnes of innovative ideas out of this group, as he used to do with steel.” Knowledge workers require motivation and trusting team relationships to be effective. They have emerging power far beyond anything Marx ever imagined. These owners of the new means of production will be better positioned than ever to share in the bounty. Yet this growing power conflicts with traditional ownership and power structures, which are based on ownership of industrial age assets, specifically capital.
In the new economy, those workers with access to the new infrastructure can participate fully in social and commercial life. Those without access, knowledge, and motivation will tend to fall behind. If not managed properly, this will increase social stratification severely, creating a new underclass. The have-nots will become confronted with the contradiction between the magnificent potential of the new technology on the one hand and their declining quality of life on the other.
In the new economy, learning will more and more be provided by the private sector. This will come about not out of social responsibility but, rather, because working and learning are becoming the same activity for a majority of the workforce and because knowledge is becoming an important part of products. Moreover, the traditional educational institutions are failing to meet the needs of the economy, and there are huge and growing opportunities for learning products and services. This places a greater responsibility on individuals (those who can afford it) to achieve lifelong learning—potentially increasing social chasms. Furthermore, teachers and their unions need to participate and lead in the transformation of education if the old industrial-age type of schools are to have a hope of transforming themselves and surviving. But increasingly, learning can be done without formal institutions, and learning in schools can be done through technology, requiring fewer teachers. This leaves teachers in a Catch-22 situation—become irrelevant by resisting change or possibly become irrelevant by leading it.

• The new economy is a global economy.
According to MIT professor Paul Krugman, author of Peddling Prosperity, there’s nothing more to the global economy than trade in goods, services, capital, labor, and information. “That’s it,” he says. “There is no more mystical sense in which we have a global economy. We are living in a world which is about as integrated, give or take a few measures, as the world of the 19th century.”
Mr. Krugman, I beg to differ. The new economy is as different from the old economy as a Sea-Doo is from a penny farthing bicycle or e-mail is from the Pony Express.
Just as the bipolar geopolitical world has disintegrated, giving way to a new, dynamic, and volatile global environment, economic walls are falling as well. This phenomenon is related to rise of the new economy. As Peter Drucker says, “Knowledge knows no boundaries.” There is no domestic knowledge and no international knowledge. With knowledge becoming the key resource, there is only a world economy, even though the individual organization operates in a national, regional, or local setting.
Linked to this, and despite the efforts of old paradigm warriors fighting for protectionism, free trade zones are growing in North America and the Pacific Rim. Global customers demand global products. Work is performed globally by exploiting cost advantages of traditional input factors such as labor and raw materials. New economic and political regions and structures (such as the European Union) are leading to a decline in the importance of the nation-state.
As the world economy continues to globalize, the need for stay-ahead management becomes even more crucial. Ad hoc alliances, strategic partnering, and, above all, information technology will be vital for the future. Collaboration is going beyond the old boundaries. “Collaboration in business is no longer confined to conventional two-company alliances, such as joint ventures or marketing accords,” says Benjamin Gomes-Casseres, associate professor at the Harvard Business School. “Today we see groups of companies linking themselves together for a common purpose. Consequently, a new form of competition is spreading across global markets: group versus group.”
Globalization is both chicken and egg. It is driven by and driving the new technology that enables global action. Computer networks allow companies to provide 24-hour service as customer requests are transferred from one time zone to another without the customer ever being aware that the work is being done on the far side of the world. Networks enable smaller fIrms to collaborate in achieving economies of scale. Software development can be conducted on networks, independent of location. The office is no longer a place, it is a global system. Technology is eliminating the “place” in workplace. Home may be where the heart is, but increasingly the office is anywhere the head can be connected.
“These connections will empower us and enhance freedom and democracy. Citizens will be able to communicate—both send and receive information—on a previously unimaginable scale,” said Anne Bingaman, assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice. “When you think about this, recall scenes from Nazi-occupied Europe of women and men crouched around the wireless, desperate to learn and tell the truth. Or think of citizens behind the iron curtain, searching the short-wave bands for Radio Free Europe or the BBC. And imagine how much more difficult an oppressor’s job is when people yearning for freedom have access to digital computer networks.”
There are few better descriptions on how the new economy is a global one than that cited by former Citicorp chairman Walter Wriston. He’s seen it all. As late as the 1960s, communications between bank staff in New York and their colleagues in Brazil were akin to an adventure. There were so few international lines that once they’d got one, they’d hang onto it even if there were nothing to say, so that when the time came to exchange information, they had an established connection. In Wriston’s words, what happens today is “global conversation.” More than 100 million telephone calls are completed every hour, using 300 million access lines the world over, and the number of calls will triple by 2000. “The entire globe is now tied together in a single electronic market moving at the speed of light,” says Vriston. “There is no place to hide.”

• In an economy based on bits, immediacy becomes a key driver and variable in economic activity and business success.
Product life cycles are cratering. In 1990, automobiles took six years from concept to production. Today they take two years. Hewlett-Packard’s Computer Systems Organization chief Wim Roelandts says that these days most of HP’s revenues come from products that didn’t exist a year ago. In the old economy, an invention (like the Polaroid camera, xerography) ensured a revenue stream for decades. Today, consumer electronics products have a typical lifespan of two months
The new enterprise is a real time enterprise, which is continuously and immediately adjusting to changing business conditions through information immediacy. Goods are received from suppliers and products shipped to customers “just in time,” thus reducing or eliminating the warehousing function and allowing enterprises to shift from mass production to custom on-line production. Customer orders arrive electronically and are instantly processed; corresponding invoices are sent electronically and databases are updated Enterprises seek to “compete in time” effectively.
Electronic data interchange (EDt) is a powerful, if badly misunderstood, example of how the I-Way is creating information immediacy.’1 Advocates of EDI argue that by linking computer systems between suppliers and their customers for purchase orders, invoices, billing, and record keeping, companies can save considerably over manual (nondigital) methods. In fact, EDI goes well beyond those possibilities. It’s just the first splash in a tidal wave of electronic commerce that will shift the metabolism of business to real time and in so doing forever change the relationship between companies.

Working at a hospital opened up my eyes on how really hard it was to become a physician.  Aside from going through medical school, there were also a lot of obstacles to overcome before becoming a licensed physician.  And when someone becomes a licensed physician, it doesn’t stop  there, the desire to excel and become a consultant comes next.

Becoming a medical consultant requires special skills and training, and you can only achieve through medical teaching courses and a medical management course.   A medical management course for doctors, will prepare an aspiring resident doctor to become a consultant.  He will learn important skills and values, such as performance management of a team and Leadership, when he will take the spr medical management course for doctors.  And  for handling students, the teach the teacher course for doctors, will help a consultant become the best teacher for his medical residents.  It is not easy to become a teacher, if not properly trained, a consultant will  not be able to effectively convey his thought  to his student.  In my experience, aspiring medical residents should first and foremost, undergo the proper and right training before taking that medical consultant’s interview.

Communication is very important for every people. Over the past years and ages, many have been invented so many things and ways in order to get in touch with their families and friends who are far away from them. Letters has been the most romantic and special way in doing so. Sending one has been considered the sincerest method in telling anything we wanted to say despite of the distance.

However, today we are living in a world where telecommunications such as the internet have advanced in fast pace. The web has been replacing the conventional and traditional posting method. It will not be surprising if our next generation may not know that in the past there were objects seen along the streets called Mailboxes. Nevertheless, having a mailbox has still been very popular in sending letters for many people despite of the latest technology. Because they are more durable, persistent and most of all they can stand for centuries through strong winds, violent storms and heavy rainfalls. The reason why, a lot of people are actually get fond and collecting them for themselves. Every mail boxes comes in different shapes, designs, colors such as wall mount mailbox and even stories. About their Mailbox stories are just as many as those of the stamps. Many people who are getting interested about their stories are never discouraged to have more of them.

Have you ever tried to go on a vacation unlike the ones you had? Going somewhere others will never thought about going to? Well, why not try to go on an adventure trip to the geographic north pole or to the Russian territory. These are only two vacation trips that are far different from your usual beach resort and mountain side vacation. Going on a Russian trip require a visa, and a russian visa application is difficult to accomplish for amateurs.

There are certain documents that are needed before a Russian embassy will issue you a visa. One of these documents is the invitation letter. Invitation letters are sent by juridical persons that are strictly regulated and official, and if you are inexperienced, you will not be able to carry this out on your own. This is why it is necessary to deal only with professionals who execute invitation letters every day. And once your visa is properly taken care of, you can now sit back and think about all the delicious russian food and delicacies you’ll eat.

It is common in our lives that we sometimes fall short of our budget due to some inevitable circumstances.  These may include paying our monthly water and electric bills, education for our children, unexpected medical expenses and regular checkup for our health, immediate car repair and much more. Although we are good enough in budgeting, but still sometimes as I said it is not enough to satisfied these all needs.

When this instances that we need to overcome occurs, we then now need the help of getting our payday advance which is the easiest and simplest way of getting money. Many companies offer this kind of loan services and even on the the net you can find sites where you can apply for an overnight cash advance so that you will not get hard to find any other alternative solution for this problem. This is just by simply filling up the necessary information needed, then you can have the cash deposit directly to your bank account once you approved.

Like many young men, Jeremy Cole is no stranger to empty pockets. But this 25-year-old California outdoorsman hasn’t let his personal budget shortfalls keep him from pursuing his outdoor passions. Lately, this passion has fueled the desire to own his first 4)4. “The idea he said, “is to use the truck to get a little farther in. Then I can hike to spots beyond the reach of most fishermen:’
Cole realized that a new 4)4 was out of the question. But he was surprised to learn just how expensive the best of the used 4)4s (vehicles three to five years old) have become. “I couldn’t believe the prices I saw when I visited a local dealer,” he said. “There wasn’t anything that I could afford.”
Cole’s slicker shock is fallout from the unprecedented popularity of four-wheel-drive vehicles these days. As the prices for new 4)4s skyrocket in response to the demand, the prices for used models are also pulled upward. Unfortunately, this trend leaves outdoorsmen on tight budgets out in the cold.
But Cole was resolute, and his resolve started him down a different road. Once he decided to abandon the safety net (such as it is) of a dealership—which usually offers a limited warranty on what it sells—he realized that his truck was probably within reach. It’s a risky road that often requires an investment in sweat equity, but it can lead to a big payoff—as long as you proceed cautiously.

“I started looking through one of those ‘auto shoppers’ that I found at the 7-1 1,’ he said. “The first thing I realized was that I would have to settle for a vehicle far older than what I wanted originally.”
In Cole’s case, his budget commanded him to look at high- mileage models. When he got to ten-year-old trucks, he started to see prices he could afford.
Cole then checked out government, business, and commercial auctions. (If you go this route, be forewarned: You can get a great deal, but you can also end up with a useless heap. It’s strictly caveat emptor) Then he browsed the Yellow Pages. Under “Trucks and Equipment,” he struck pay dirt when he found a local dealer who specialized in brokering used equipment for large companies and public utilities.
Cole stopped by and saw a truck with promise: a 1986 GMC S-15 4×4 pickup with just under 100,000 miles. “It had the 2.8-liter V6 and an automatic transmission,” he said. “When I first saw it, it had a pretty ugly ding on the rear panel, rust in the bed, and the shadow of ‘So Cal Edison’ was still visible where the utility’s logo used to be-The interior was worn but undamaged. Overall, it seemed in decent mechanical shape, but it really needed a facelift.The paint had turned to chalk in the hot California sun.”
The price was right—$5,000, as is. But before he plunked down his cash, Cole had an expert look over the vehicle for serious mechanical defects.
After the truck passed inspection, Cole began the job of turning the truck into a hunting/fishing machine. His first job: an affordable body and paint restoration.

If the truck makes it this far, arrange to have a professional 4×4 mechanic (one whom you trust) put the truck on a lift and go over it again. (if the owner hesitates or balks at your request, take it as a sign that something, somewhere, is” real bad wrong” with the truck. Go elsewhere.) Make sure the mechanic checks the front and rear differentials, wheel bearings, U-joints, and axles for signs of damage. Have him prepare a written estimate for any repairs.That way, you’ll have some leverage when haggling.
Assuming the truck clears this hurdle, you’re ready to make an offer. Prices vary by region and season. You’ll probably pay more if you live near a big city, less in a rural area. The old rule was that prices rise in the summer and drop in the winter. Given the current
popularity of 4WD trucks in suburban areas, you very well may see prices rise in the Ml as bad weather sets in. Some models also hold their value much better than others.The Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com) can help give you an idea of what the avenge retail price for the vehicle you’re interested in is.
The preceding mainly applies to vehicles that are three to five years old. if your budget requires you to shop for vehicles older than that, you can still follow the basic outline, but obviously you will see many more signs of wear and tear. (Some sportsmen may be looking at vehicles as old as ten years. if that’s the case, read on.)
Plain and simple, the whole process—particularly the persistent attention to detail—can wear you out. Here, it helps to be able to summon the exasperating wariness of a big brown trout. Do that and you won’t buy someone else’s trouble.