John Arthur: Religion, Morality, and Conscience
What I expect to learn: Learn the differences of morality and religion. How our conscience affects our morality. If religion can co-exist with morality and its guidelines.
Quote: “The practice of morality and religion are thus importantly different. One involves our attitudes toward various forms of behavior, typically express using the notions of rules, rights and obligations. The other, religion, typically involves prayer, worship, beliefs about the supernatural, institutional forms, and authoritative texts.”
The question is how we can cope with the different beliefs of our morals and religion. These have their rules and guidelines. Even if morality and religion are not connected there are times when they show conflict within each other. There will always be consequences in our own actions and this where morality and religion can come to play. Morality can define how we behave in our everyday lives. This is what we believe in and could affect how we see other people. There are times when our religion says no but given the circumstances and situations our morality says yes. We must learn to decide on what is right, as John Arthur thinks that we still depend on our society. We still need other people to survive.
What I have learned:
- We depend on our society
- Religion and Morality is different
James Rachels: Egoism and Moral Scepticism
What I expect to lean: What is egoism, how does it affect our lives, and how does an action become selfish or unselfish.
Quote: “If we describe one person’s action as selfish, and another person’s actions as unselfish, we are overlooking the crucial fact that in both cases, assuming that the action is voluntarily, the agent is merely doing what he most wants to do”.
I guess the real topic on this story is what egoism really is and how it affects us. Egoism explains that “No one is commonly believed, would have such iron strength of mind to stand fast in doing right and keep his hands off other mends goods, when he could go to the marketplace and fearlessly help himself to anything he wanted, enter houses and sleep with any woman he chose, set prisoners free ad kill men at his pleasure, and in a word go about among men with the powers of a god”. It shows that people will only do actions that benefit themselves. Egoism is when we do what we think would be most advantageous for our position. Being moral does not play a role since morals at times disadvantageous. This affects our lives when we think of how we go about our day. This is when we take time to think why or for what reason we should do something. What I have learned: – Not every act is selfish – There are people who prioritize others before themselves – People need other people to survive
Flaw in stolen credit cards exploited.
Conmen abuse web address checks
Loopholes in the way addresses are checked by online stores are helping fraudsters cash in, say experts.
The flaw means goods bought with stolen credit cards do not trigger security systems that check addresses.
Security firm The Third Man said it stumbled over fraudsters committing the crime while overseeing transactions on a retail website.
But the UK’s payments association said it had seen no evidence that the novel crime was being carried out.
Card fraud
“It’s pure chance that we picked this up,” said Andrew Goodwill, director of anti-fraud firm The Third Man.
The scam exploits the mechanics of the Address Verification System (AVS) that many retail sites use to check the address of those using a credit card at an online store.
When carrying out address checks AVS compares the house number of a customer plus the digits in their post code to those input during a transaction.
For instance, if the Prime Minister bought goods at an online store with a credit card, AVS would use numbers in the address – 10 Downing St, SW1A 2AA – to help verify his identity.
In this case AVS would use 1012 as a shorthand ID check.
By finding an alternative address that has the same house number and digits in a very different post code, fraudsters could convince AVS the address was genuine even though it was completely different.
Satisfied that the transaction was safe the shop would then ship the goods to the fraudster’s address.
“Retailers relying on AVS, or where a retailer will only deliver to the billing address, are facing a potentially huge risk,” said Mr Goodwill.
He predicted that if nothing was done to fix the loophole online retailers stood to lose millions.
Figures released by Apacs – the body that represents the UK payments industry – show that in the last year so-called “card not present” fraud totalled £291m.
“While we do completely agree that there’s fraud happening, we and the police, as yet, have not seen any evidence suggesting this is being carried out in the real world at the moment,” said Jemma Smith, a spokeswoman for Apacs.
Mr Goodwill said it knew of one gang in London using this technique and expected others to take up the scam soon.
Ms Smith said fraudsters preferred crimes that were easy to commit in large volumes. By contrast, she said, finding credit cards tied to addresses that match characteristics for places fraudsters have access to seemed very complex.
“Retailers should never be reliant on just address verification,” she said. “They should always be undertaking additional checks particularly if they are a fraud prone retailer.”
“AVS is one piece of the identity jigsaw,” said Andrew McClelland, director of business development at the Interactive Media In Retail Group (IMRG) which represents online stores.
“It should not be relied on by itself,” he said. “It’s part of building up a picture of information and level of certainty a retailer has about a transaction.”
My Words:
A flaw in in stolen credit cars all retail markets should keep an eye on. This exploits a flaw in stolen cards that uses the mechanics of the Address Verification System. The mechanics is really simple using the personal address as a basis of proof. A good example such as posted in the blog uses the numbers in your address. By find identical numbers with a different addresses the conmen were able to convince the AVS to agree with the transaction.
Android’s presence looms over iPhone.
Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst with research firm Gartner, said he believes the iPhone will maintain its No. 3 overall smartphone position. But the current second-place platform from Research in Motion will lose more than 7 percent total market share, while he expects Android to grow in leaps and bounds and take that spot. Symbian OS from Nokia is expected to stay on top.
The forecast is part of a presentation Dulaney is scheduled to give at Gartner’s Symposium ITxpo, which runs Oct. 18 through 22 in Orlando. The data is based on an estimated 522 million smartphones to be shipped during the period.
“All players in smartphones should see good growth at the expense of the next category down, feature phones which are in turn moving down into the category that used to be called basic phones,” Dulaney told AppleInsider.
Apple currently has a 10.8 percent share of the smartphone market, which is predicted to grow to 13.7 percent by 2012, with sales of 71.5 million units. And even though Symbian and Nokia are predicted to lose 10 percent of the market, the platform’s massive lead keeps it well ahead of competitors with 39 percent in 2012.
Dulaney said he believes Android will surpass the iPhone in market share because many handset makers are “betting their future” on Google’s Android platform, while Apple is only one company.
“Android rises to number two simply because, unlike Apple, they license their OS to multiple OEMs,” Dulaney said. “They have the number 2 OEM, Samsung, and strong players like LG, Motorola, HTC and now Dell. There are others in the works. Apple will still likely have the top of mind in the marketplace with probably the most purely defined consumer product.”
Dulaney’s forecast is lower than an August prediction by Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets. He believes that total iPhone shipments will hit 82.1 million in 2012, good for a 16.3 percent share of the smartphone market.
My Words:
The presence of Android phones is rocketing the leader board of the smart phone market. Multiple manufacturers and handsome interfaces makes it a great hit to the buyers. Some of the major brands are now using the Mobile OS for their smart phones. Everyone knows the Windows Mobile OS loads as quick as paint dries. As for the present market, the most popular smart phone for the youth would be the iPhone yet they seem to be having quite a problem with their new firmware. As for Nokia’s Symbian OS, it exhibits features and specs not as updated as the current market is. Still, Nokia holds the largest share of the market with their cheap and easy to use phones. Now as the Android OS emerges from the deep well of developers Google has, the OS showed very promising features that makes techies and all consumers alike drool. Updated phone, updated specs and updated features makes brands GOLD.
Virtual Shopping, Real Results
Despite the flash-in-the-pan success of virtual reality mediums like Second Life, marketers are flocking to VR—for research purposes.
Computerized store simulations—in which consumers “shop” in on-screen environments that look very close to the real thing—are now standard for the larger packaged goods firms like Procter & Gamble, Frito-Lay, ConAgra and Intel, which have been using them for years.
But now there are several factors speeding the adoption of VR shopping research among other, smaller players including better technology, lower prices, the expanded use of brainwave and EKG measurements on consumers to hone results, more emphasis on shopper marketing and the ubiquity of broadband.
While firms like P&G tend to do such simulations in-house, IRI, the Chicago-based market research firm, began offering the program to clients about a year or so ago. Earlier this month, Staci Covkin, vp of consumer and shopper insights at IRI, gave a presentation on the subject at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:think conference in New York.
IRI’s simulation program, which uses software from Vision Critical, presents a close approximation of the interior of a Wal-Mart as well as the prepared foods aisle of a supermarket, among other locales. IRI taps its base of 60,000 or so consumers to virtually shop such locales to see what pops on shelf and what doesn’t.
“We instruct respondents to shop as they normally would and ask them which displays capture the most attention,” said Covkin. “Because it’s virtual, you can change things on the fly.”
Testing new products in a real store environment would be too expensive and time-consuming, Covkin said. “In the perfect world, we’d be testing everything in a real store environment. However, due to the time it takes to implement an effective test and get compliance with retailers, the cost is enormous.”
In contrast, Covkin said the range of pricing for a VR store similation runs from about $30,000 to more than $1 million.
Meanwhile, the quality of such simulations is much better than even a couple of years ago, said Raymond Burke, a marketing professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. “The quality is getting so close that you couldn’t tell diff between it and a photograph, except when they put people in—they can’t do them that well yet,” Burke said.
Burke, who has been studying VR shopping technology since early ’90s, said that such environments offer the best simulation possible to real shopping, except for one area: “If the product relies on a tactile experience—like how heavy it is—it won’t be that accurate.”
As a tradeoff, Burke envisions a day not too far away in which VR shopping technology will redefine shopper marketing and create tenets of conventional wisdom (like, segment products on shelf by category, not brand) that will increase its efficacy. “We could better learn how to turn demand into purchase, which is the whole point,” he said.
This is to help the development of retail marketing. Like said in the article, “Because it’s virtual, you can change things on the fly”, the computer can easily adapt to the changes at any given time. Unlike in the real life, when changes are to be made there will be a lot of tedious work. A good example would be rearranging the shelves. Virtual reality could do this task in a matter of seconds while physically it would take hours. This technology was developed to further develop the progress of retail technology.
Improving the customer experience is key to surviving the downturn
A new research report from SAP and the British Retail Consortium has identified the customer experience as the key to successfully riding out the recession, and found there are no signs of retailers slowing down on planning for the future
A new survey conducted by ERP specialist SAP in conjunction with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has found that the majority of retailers are continuing to invest in their future development, despite the recession.
More than half (51%) of respondents are looking at different channels as a way to increase revenue and 54% of respondents to the survey believe that focusing on improving the customer experience will be the key to surviving the downturn.
“Retailers understand that they must respond to the fall in consumer spending now, and get closer to their customers,” say the authors. “Retailers now have the systems and technology in place to be able to understand what data they own on their customers, where and how they are spending and understand their needs. Almost a quarter of people surveyed believe that marketing correctly to existing customers will enable them to ride the storm.”
“Retailers want to understand their customers better and don’t think loyalty cards are the answer,” the authors continue. “They believe technology will however play a critical role in reaching these goals, particularly in the areas of inventory management, customer analytics, labour and task management, online shopping, merchandising and helping to improve the customer experience.”
“Retailers are also looking at staff as a way to improve customer service,” says Richard Mills, retail industry principal at SAP UK. “The survey showed that 35% of retailers are using technology to automate processes, not to reduce the number of staff, but to allocate their time to serving customers.”
“The recession will drive some players out of the market, but those that capitalise on their investments and opportunities have a chance of coming out of the recession stronger than they ever were,” he added.
Some people finally understood that it’s the people who make them the profits and not the money. Despite the recession we still strive to make a better living for everyone. Everyone wants to succeed and everyone wants to develop and thrive in jobs we all have. A good start would be to communicate with the customers, and let them know you take top priority in their needs.
Microsoft Tag – Endless possibilities for Retailers
In the recently conducted Consumer Electronic Show, Microsoft launched Microsoft Tag, real innovative concept to connect mobile barcodes (or tags) on physical objects to online content (opening mobile content, videos, music, contact information, promotions etc). The tag appears as shown below (this one will tag you to my blog, Retail Technology Blog).
From Microsoft Tag website: http://www.microsoft.com/tag/content/download/
Microsoft Tag creates unlimited possibilities for making interactive communications an instant, entertaining part of life. They tranform physical media (print advertising, billboards,product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images)—into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.
With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no browsers to launch!
The sophisticated technology powering Microsoft Tag, High Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs), was invented by Microsoft Research. It was designed from the ground up for maximum performance with the limited cameras on most mobile phones. Advanced image-processing techniques decode even out-of-focus barcode images, which means Microsoft Tag works with the fixed-focus camera lenses common in most mobile devices.
The advanced computer imaging of HCCBs employs different symbol shapes in geometric patterns and multiple colors to provide more information in less space.
I find this technology amazing with its potential. The mobile barcode gives the customers a sense of security knowing each of the items they bought are recognized by the app. Another feature is once you scan your item a list of potential add-ons and price comparisons to help you decide better.
Source: http://retail-tech.blogspot.com/2009/01/microsoft-tag-endless-possibilities-for.html
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