Anti-Trust Legislation Essays - Software, Computing, Business

Anti-Trust Legislation As many people have noticed, recently there has been a huge focus in the media on Bill Gates, and his huge Microsoft Corporation. This past Friday, May 22, 1998, a federal judge combined two lawsuits and set a trial date for September 8, 1998. This trial date will address a government request for a preliminary injunction concerning Windows 98 as well as broader issues. The Sherman Anti-trust Act was passed in 1890. Then in 1914 the Clayton Act was passed to help with Anti-trust Cases. Anti-trust Lawsuits are few and far between, but recently cases against Microsoft are stacking up all around the world. In 1890 the Sherman Anti-trust Act was passed, but it was not until much later that it was enforced. The Act stated "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations." The Sherman Anti-trust act was too vague and too difficult to enforce. The Clayton Act of 1914 helped this problem by making a more specific attack on monopolies. Things like predatory price-cutting, price discrimination, and acquisition of stock in a competing company with intent to destroy competition all became illegal. John D. Rockefeller is a prime example of monopolies in US History. By buying out competitors, or driving them out of business he obtained nearly 100 percent of the market in oil refining. The Standard Oil Company was eventually forced to dissolve into smaller companies after the case Standard Oil Company vs. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911). Before this case the Anti-trust Laws had not been put to much use, which was not to the benefit of consumers. Now the spotlight is on Microsoft Corporation, and their apparent attempt to take over the Internet browser market. Concerns aroused recently because of the expected release of Windows 98, which uses Microsoft Internet Explorer in almost every application it runs. The US government has seemingly acknowledged Microsoft's monopoly of operating systems and let it go by because of lack of competition in the market. But now new issues are at stake, should Microsoft be allowed to expand its already almost monopoly into yet another field in the computer industry? With the incorporation of Microsoft Internet Explorer into the Microsoft operating system Windows 98, Netscape Communications Corporation felt vulnerable, and filed complaints with the Justice Department. Once the investigations were initiated, it seemed flocks of people jumped the bandwagon to attack the alleged Microsoft Corporation Monopoly. 20 State Attorney Generals and the District of Columbia, along with the Justice Department have filed against Microsoft Corporation. Japan has also filed an Antitrust Lawsuit against Microsoft. It seems that everywhere Microsoft is, there looms a bit of concern for the consumers and their futures. Currently 90 percent of the world's personal computers run on Microsoft operating systems. The remaining ten percent of the industry is divided between Apple's Macintosh, IBM's OS/2, and Unix. The federal and state antitrust regulators are arguing that Microsoft has illegally used the popularity of its operating systems to eliminate its competition in the software industry. Many economists feel that these lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation could be as revolutionary as those against Bell Telephone in 1984 and John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company in 1911. Microsoft Corporation however, disagrees, arguing that the changes being demanded by federal and state government will take months to perform and would cause the software to be useless. Microsoft clings strongly to their beliefs that Windows 98 cannot succeed without Internet Explorer. "Such an operating system - which would take many months (if not years) to develop and test - would bear little, if any, resemblance to Windows 98 because Internet Explorer technologies are such a critical element of that product," Microsoft wrote. Although it may be true that Windows 98 is based around Internet Explorer, should the government allow Microsoft to sell its product and gain more market share? One option that federal and state governments gave Microsoft was to have the Windows 98 package be sold with the Netscape Navigator Browser, Microsoft's main competitor. This request was seen as ridiculous by Mark Murray, a spokesman at Microsoft headquarters, who has been quoted as saying, "that's like the government forcing Coke to put two cans of Pepsi in every six-pack." The only choices being offered to Microsoft at this point are to "unbundle" Windows 98 and Internet Explorer, or to add in the Netscape Navigator Browser. The unbundling process is what Microsoft Corporation says will take seven months to handle, and therefore had asked

Sense and Nonsense

Sense and Nonsense Sense and Nonsense Sense and Nonsense By Maeve Maddox A reader who heard a doctor describe a patient as â€Å"fluent and sensicle† has asked if sensicle is a word. Sensicle (more often spelled sensical) is a word in the sense that couth is a word, or combobulate or ept. Humorists have long delighted in making comical back-formations of unpaired words like nonsensical, discombobulate, and inept. unpaired word: a word that appears to have a related word that does not in fact exist in contemporary usage. Such words may have a prefix or suffix that implies an antonym that replicates the word minus the supposed affix. Nowadays, when so many native English speakers are lightly educated in the mother tongue, what begins as a witticism may be taken seriously by readers or listeners who lack the information necessary to understand the joke. For example, the following statements are not intended to be funny: I think the real issue that most people take with Iraq was simply that it  wasnt sensicle.   Their recommendation to remove that foam piece  wasnt sensicle  to me.   [Sufferers of] Brocas aphasia cant produce  fluent,  sensical speech. In terms of tax dollars, the Court found that to continue to waste dollars during the appeal  wasnt sensical. The ban to serve sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in restaurants proved [to be a] law that just  wasnt sensical  enough to pass. Nonsensical is a â€Å"real† word. It means, â€Å"making no sense, absurd.† The -ical ending also appears in the unwieldy but acceptable adjective for the term common sense: commonsensical. Used alone, sensical is nonstandard usage. The frequently seen use of sensical in a medical context may derive from statements like this in texts about aphasia: In 1874, Carl Wernicke reported patients with a different type of difficulty: fluent but often non-sensical speech. Hyphenating the word nonsensical contributes to the notion that sensical is detachable. The notion of â€Å"non-sensical† is that the speech of the afflicted person â€Å"makes no sense.† The noun for that kind of speech is nonsense. The adjective is nonsensical without a hyphen. Another possibility is: incoherent (adjective): without logical connection or natural sequence of ideas; inconsistent, rambling, disjointed. Here are suggested corrections for the above examples: I think the real issue that most people take with Iraq was simply that it  wasnt sensible.   Their recommendation to remove that foam piece  didn’t make sense to me.   [Sufferers of] Brocas aphasia cant produce  fluent,  coherent speech. In terms of tax dollars, the Court found that to continue to waste dollars during the appeal  wasnt reasonable. The ban to serve sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in restaurants proved [to be a] law that just  wasnt practical enough to pass. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know3 Cases of Complicated HyphenationContinue and "Continue on"

Management versus leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management versus leadership - Essay Example Leaders play a critical role in group and organizational effectiveness. Leaders can exert influence and direct task-related activities of other group members. They require motivational skills, exceptional people skills and flexibility. They also require courage of conviction and the foresight to stand by their pioneering and sometimes, even risky choices. What is surprising, however, is that leaders can be found at all levels of an organization. Although, many leaders are not necessarily managers, their abilities can be studied in ‘leaderless’ situations where they stand out by helping to keep clear goals and meeting targets. Management refers to the practice of granting a person formal authority to be in charge of an organization or its subunits (Coffey, Cook, & Hunsaker, 1994). Managers are responsible for maintaining a smooth flow of work for optimum productivity and profitability and hence are given authority according to their organizational hierarchy. Managers perform many functions on the basis of their position of authority. However, much of the work relies on following protocol and ensuring compliance. Leadership, on the other hand, entails a certain degree of imagination and risk, and good leaders are those who learn from mistakes and lead by example as stated in The Leadership Challenge (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2010). Leadership refers to the process of developing ideas and a vision, taking measured steps to fulfil that vision and influencing others to adopt them in their lives. This depends on the ability to change mind sets and no longer rely on command and control alone. According to Hellriegel and Slocum (2010), leader is one who exhibits these key attributes of leadership- ideas, vision, values, and the ability to influence others and make tough decisions. Management is a process that is used to accomplish organizational goals (Bohoris, & Vorria, 2009). The focus of management is generally on improving the present conditions, like