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Posts Tagged ‘Type’

Business Communications

Business Communication: Communicationused to promote a product, service, or organization; relay information within the business; or deal with legal and similar issues. It is also a means of relaying between a supply chain, for example the consumer and manufacturer.

Business Communication is known simply as “Communications.” It encompasses a variety of topics, including Marketing, Branding, Customer relations, Consumer behavior, Advertising, Public relations, Corporate communication, Community engagement, Research & Measurement, Reputation management, Interpersonal communication, Employee engagement, Online communication, and Event management. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication.

Characteristics of Communication

Communication is Inevitable (unavoidable)

Communication Operates at Two Levels (content and relational)

Communication is Irreversible

Communication is a Process

Communication is not a (panacea) Cure-all (a remedy for all ills)

In Communication Everything Effects Everything Else   

Types of communication

Non-verbal communication

Non Verbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols, as well as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication .Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections.

Non-verbal communication into four broad categories

Physical:This is the personal type of communication. It includes facial expressions, tone of voice, sense of touch, sense of smell, and body motions.

Aesthetic:This is the type of communication that takes place through creative expressions: playing instrumental music, dancing, painting and sculpturing

Signs:This is the mechanical type of communication, which includes the use of signal flags, the 21-gun salute, horns, and sirens

Symbolic:This is the type of communication that makes use of religious, status, or ego-building symbols

Static features of Non Verbal Communications

Distance.The distance one stands from another frequently conveys a non-verbal message. In some cultures it is a sign of attraction, while in others it may reflect status or the intensity of the exchange.

Orientation.People may present themselves in various ways: face-to-face, side-to-side, or even back-to-back. For example, cooperating people are likely to sit side-by-side while competitors frequently face one another.

Posture.Obviously one can be lying down, seated, or standing. These are not the elements of posture that convey messages. Are our legs crossed or our arms folded ? Such postures convey a degree of formality and the degree of relaxation in the communication exchange.

Physical Contact. Shaking hands, touching, holding, embracing, pushing, or patting on the back all convey messages. They reflect an element of intimacy or a feeling of (or lack of) attraction.

Dynamic features of Non Verbal Communications

Facial Expressions.A smile, frown, raised eyebrow, yawn, and sneer all convey information. Facial expressions continually change during interaction and are monitored constantly by the recipient. There is evidence that the meaning of these expressions may be similar across cultures.

Gestures.One of the most frequently observed, but least understood, cues is a hand movement. Most people use hand movements regularly when talking. While some gestures (e.g., a clenched fist) have universal meanings, most of the others are individually learned.

Business Communications

Business Communication: Communicationused to promote a product, service, or organization; relay information within the business; or deal with legal and similar issues. It is also a means of relaying between a supply chain, for example the consumer and manufacturer.

Business Communication is known simply as “Communications.” It encompasses a variety of topics, including Marketing, Branding, Customer relations, Consumer behavior, Advertising, Public relations, Corporate communication, Community engagement, Research & Measurement, Reputation management, Interpersonal communication, Employee engagement, Online communication, and Event management. It is closely related to the fields of professional communication and technical communication.

Characteristics of Communication

Communication is Inevitable (unavoidable)

Communication Operates at Two Levels (content and relational)

Communication is Irreversible

Communication is a Process

Communication is not a (panacea) Cure-all (a remedy for all ills)

In Communication Everything Effects Everything Else   

Types of communication

Non-verbal communication

Non Verbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols, as well as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication .Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections.

Non-verbal communication into four broad categories

Physical:This is the personal type of communication. It includes facial expressions, tone of voice, sense of touch, sense of smell, and body motions.

Aesthetic:This is the type of communication that takes place through creative expressions: playing instrumental music, dancing, painting and sculpturing

Signs:This is the mechanical type of communication, which includes the use of signal flags, the 21-gun salute, horns, and sirens

Symbolic:This is the type of communication that makes use of religious, status, or ego-building symbols

Static features of Non Verbal Communications

Distance.The distance one stands from another frequently conveys a non-verbal message. In some cultures it is a sign of attraction, while in others it may reflect status or the intensity of the exchange.

Orientation.People may present themselves in various ways: face-to-face, side-to-side, or even back-to-back. For example, cooperating people are likely to sit side-by-side while competitors frequently face one another.

Posture.Obviously one can be lying down, seated, or standing. These are not the elements of posture that convey messages. Are our legs crossed or our arms folded ? Such postures convey a degree of formality and the degree of relaxation in the communication exchange.

Physical Contact. Shaking hands, touching, holding, embracing, pushing, or patting on the back all convey messages. They reflect an element of intimacy or a feeling of (or lack of) attraction.

Dynamic features of Non Verbal Communications

Facial Expressions.A smile, frown, raised eyebrow, yawn, and sneer all convey information. Facial expressions continually change during interaction and are monitored constantly by the recipient. There is evidence that the meaning of these expressions may be similar across cultures.

Gestures.One of the most frequently observed, but least understood, cues is a hand movement. Most people use hand movements regularly when talking. While some gestures (e.g., a clenched fist) have universal meanings, most of the others are individually learned.

part 1

Like any other field in computer science, viruses have evolved -a great deal indeed- over the years. In the series of press releases which start today, I will look at the origins and evolution of malicious code since it first appeared up to the present.

Going back to the origin of viruses, it was in 1949 that Mathematician John Von Neumann described self-replicating programs which could resemble computer viruses as they are known today. However, it was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players’ computers. The creators of this peculiar game also created the first antivirus, an application named Reeper, which could destroy copies created by Core Wars.

However, it was only in 1983 that one of these programmers announced the existence of Core Wars, which was described the following year in a prestigious scientific magazine: this was actually the starting point of what we call computer viruses today.

At that time, a still young MS-DOS was starting to become the preeminent operating system worldwide. This was a system with great prospects, but still many deficiencies as well, which arose from software developments and the lack of many hardware elements known today. Even like this, this new operating system became the target of a virus in 1986: Brain, a malicious code created in Pakistan which infected boot sectors of disks so that their contents could not be accessed. That year also saw the birth of the first Trojan: an application called PC-Write.

Shortly after, virus writers realized that infecting files could be even more harmful to systems. In 1987, a virus called Suriv-02 appeared, which infected COM files and opened the door to the infamous viruses Jerusalem or Viernes 13. However, the worst was still to come: 1988 set the date when the “Morris worm” appeared, infecting 6,000 computers.

From that date up to 1995 the types of malicious codes that are known today started being developed: the first macro viruses appeared, polymorphic viruses … Some of these even triggered epidemics, such as MichaelAngelo. However, there was an event that changed the virus scenario worldwide: the massive use of the Internet and e-mail. Little by little, viruses started adapting to this new situation until the appearance, in 1999, of Melissa, the first malicious code to cause a worldwide epidemic, opening a new era for computer viruses.

part 2

This second installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how malicious code used to spread before use of the Internet and e-mail became as commonplace as it is today, and the main objectives of the creators of those earlier viruses.

Until the worldwide web and e-mail were adopted as a standard means of communication the world over, the main mediums through which viruses spread were floppy disks, removable drives, CDs, etc., containing files that were already infected or with the virus code in an executable boot sector.

When a virus entered a system it could go memory resident, infecting other files as they were opened, or it could start to reproduce immediately, also infecting other files on the system. The virus code could also be triggered by a certain event, for example when the system clock reached a certain date or time.  In this case, the virus creator would calculate the time necessary for the virus to spread and then set a date –often with some particular significance- for the virus to activate. In this way, the virus would have an incubation period during which it didn’t visibly affect computers, but just spread from one system to another waiting for ‘D-day’ to launch its payload. This incubation period would be vital to the virus successfully infecting as many computers as possible.

One classic example of a destructive virus that lay low before releasing its payload was CIH, also known as Chernobyl. The most damaging version of this malicious code activated on April 26, when it would try to overwrite the flash-BIOS, the memory which includes the code needed to control PC devices. This virus, which first appeared in June 1998, had a serious impact for over two years and still continues to infect computers today.

Because of the way in which they propagate, these viruses spread very slowly, especially in comparison to the speed of today’s malicious code. Towards the end of the Eighties, for example, the Friday 13th (or Jerusalem) virus needed a long time to actually spread and continued to infect computers for some years. In contrast, experts reckon that in January 2003, SQLSlammer took just ten minutes to cause global communication problems across the Internet.

Notoriety versus stealth

For the most part, in the past, the activation of a malicious code triggered a series of on screen messages or images, or caused sounds to be emitted to catch the user’s attention.  Such was the case with the Ping Pong virus, which displayed a ball bouncing from one side of the screen to another. This kind of elaborate display was used by the creator of the virus to gain as much notoriety as possible. Nowadays however, the opposite is the norm, with virus authors trying to make malicious code as discreet as possible, infecting users’ systems without them noticing that anything is amiss.

Part 3

This third installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how the Internet and e-mail changed the propagation techniques used by computer viruses.

Internet and e-mail revolutionized communications. However, as expected, virus creators didn’t take long to realize that along with this new means of communication, an excellent way of spreading their creations far and wide had also dawned. Therefore, they quickly changed their aim from infecting a few computers while drawing as much attention to themselves as possible, to damaging as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. This change in strategy resulted in the first global virus epidemic, which was caused by the Melissa worm.

With the appearance of Melissa, the economic impact of a virus started to become an issue. As a result, users -above all companies- started to become seriously concerned about the consequences of viruses on the security of their computers. This is how users discovered antivirus programs, which started to be installed widely. However, this also brought about a new challenge for virus writers, how to slip past this protection and how to persuade users to run infected files.

The answer to which of these virus strategies was the most effective came in the form of a new worm: Love Letter, which used a simple but effective ruse that could be considered an early type of social engineering. This strategy involves inserting false messages that trick users into thinking that the message includes anything, except a virus. This worm’s bait was simple; it led users to believe that they had received a love letter.

This technique is still the most widely used. However, it is closely followed by another tactic that has been the center of attention lately: exploiting vulnerabilities in commonly used software. This strategy offers a range of possibilities depending on the security hole exploited. The first malicious code to use this method –and quite successfully- were the BubbleBoy and Kakworm worms. These worms exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer by inserting HTML code in the body of the e-mail message, which allowed them to run automatically, without needing the user to do a thing.

Vulnerabilities allow many different types of actions to be carried out. For example, they allow viruses to be dropped on computers directly from the Internet -such as the Blaster worm-. In fact, the effects of the virus depend on the vulnerability that the virus author tries to exploit.

part 4

In the early days of computers, there were relatively few PCs likely to contain “sensitive” information, such as credit card numbers or other financial data, and these were generally limited to large companies that had already incorporated computers into working processes.

In any event, information stored in computers was not likely to be compromised, unless the computer was connected to a network through which the information could be transmitted. Of course, there were exceptions to this and there were cases in which hackers perpetrated frauds using data stored in IT systems. However, this was achieved through typical hacking activities, with no viruses involved.

The advent of the Internet however caused virus creators to change their objectives, and, from that moment on, they tried to infect as many computers as possible in the shortest time. Also, the introduction of Internet services -like e-banking or online shopping- brought in another change. Some virus creators started writing malicious codes not to infect computers, but, to steal confidential data associated to those services.  Evidently, to achieve this, they needed viruses that could infect many computers silently.

Their malicious labor was finally rewarded with the appearance, in 1986, of a new breed of malicious code generically called “Trojan Horse”, or simply “Trojan”. This first Trojan was called PC-Write and tried to pass itself off as the shareware version of a text processor. When run, the Trojan displayed a functional text processor on screen. The problem was that, while the user wrote, PC-Write deleted and corrupted files

In my article on the title “Collaborative Advantage”, I have suggested a new thinking (or not so new to some of you) that may contradict and general perception about Competitive Advantage. However, I would like to make in clear that this is not about “Collaborative Advantage” vs. “Competitive Advantage”. If you think of it this way, then you are using your competitive mindset. When this happens, we are looking at who will win, and who will be beaten, and then genuine collaboration will not be possible.

Being competitive is a second nature to living beings. Every child going to school for science classes will be able to recognize that. It is a part of our instinct for survival. However, we also know that sometime we need to collaborate with others in order to beat common enemies out there. This type of collaborative behaviour is not permanent. Sometime, our friends become foes, and foes turn to be our friend, depending on the situation. What advantage we can get out of that situation?  Short term advantage, probably yes, but when you are going to have peace in your mind? You will be busy worrying about when your friends are going to turn against you, and you could be losing what you have won. So, this is not the type of collaboration I am talking about. I am talking about collaboration that will bring long lasting peace in our mind.

Imagine that whenever you meet a potential competitor, i.e. a person who is doing the same thing as you are doing, and probably does it better than you, and instead of figuring out how to beat him or her, why don’t you work together to do even better? This applies to individuals as well as organizations. In collaborative mode, we are trying to build long-term relationships through genuine collaborative attitude. It is when you collaborate to bring values to yourself and others without sacrificing anybody else, and then you know you are in a real collaborative mode.

At this moment, I am not going to drill into the business theories about competitive advantage, comparative advantage and so on, not that I have much knowledge about them. All I am saying is that competitions are hurting our efforts to bring progress to the world, let’s try to do something about it, and I am suggesting that we try to be collaborative.

However, we need to beware of our own competitive nature, which will turn our collaborative efforts into a competition. A genuine collaborative mode will cultivate long-term relationships and bring peace in our minds. That is that benefit of collaboration that all of us should look forward to.

Basics of ActivePerl – Part 7

Introduction
This is part 7 of my series, Basics of ActivePerl. In this part of the series, we talk about some common ActivePerl Operators. We have seen the logical operators. We have also seen the assignment and equal operators. In this part we look at comparison and arithmetic operators.

Note: If you cannot see the code or if you think anything is missing (broken link, image absent), just contact me at forchatrans@yahoo.com. That is, contact me for the slightest problem you have about what you are reading.

Operand
An Operand is a variable or a literal (value) associated with an operator. Consider,

    $ myVar = 30;

$ myVar is a left operand and 30 is a right operand. = is the assignment operator, not the equal operator. The equal operator is, == when dealing with numbers and eq when dealing with strings; and is used only in conditions.

Consider:

      $ myVar && $ hisVar && $ herVar

There are three operands in the above expression. So, you can talk of the first, second and third operand.

Comparison Operators
A comparison operator compares the operands on its sides and returns a logical value (true or false) depending on whether the comparison is correct or wrong. If the comparison is correct a logical value of true is returned. If it is wrong, a logical value of false is returned. Another name for Boolean Value is Logical Value, which is either true or false.

The Equal Operator for Numbers
It is ==, typed as a double assignment operator. The equal operator returns true if operands (numbers) are equal, otherwise it returns false.

The Not Equal Operator for Numbers
The Not Equal operator is the opposite of the Equal Operator. The Not Equal operator is, != . It returns true if the operands are not equal, otherwise it returns false. Let us look at some examples:

Read and try the following code:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ myVar = 25;
my $ hisVar = 30;
if ($ myVar != $ hisVar)
    {
        print ‘The values of the two variables are not equal.’;
    }

$ myVar is 25, $ hisVar is 30. The condition is read like this: If $ myVar is not equal to $ hisVar, then the if-block will be executed. Since the values of the variables are not equal,  ($ myVar != $ hisVar) returns true.

In the following code, the values of the two variables are equal, so the condition returns false and the if-block is not executed.

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ myVar = 50;
my $ hisVar = 50;
if ($ myVar != $ hisVar)
    {
        print ‘The values of the two variables are not equal.’;
    }

Note: The letter O and the digit zero are not the same things. If you type the letter O in place of zero (0) you will not have the right results. The digit zero is found in the number keypad of your keyboard. The letter O is found in the main keyboard area.

The Equal Operator for Strings
It is eq, meaning, equal. The equal operator returns true if operands (strings) are equal, otherwise it returns false. We have seen examples of this.

The Not Equal Operator for Strings
The Not Equal operator is the opposite of the Equal Operator. The Not Equal operator for strings is, ne . It returns true if the operands are not equal, otherwise it returns false. Read and try the following code to illustrate this:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

if (“one” ne “two”)
    {
        print “The strings are not equal.”;
    }

The Greater Than Operator
The Greater Than operator is, > . It returns true if the left operand is greater than the right operand. In the following example, the left operand is greater than the right operand. So the if-block is executed:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ variab1 = 60;
my $ variab2 = 70;
if ($ variab2 > $ variab1)
    {
        print ‘The value of variab2 is greater than the value of variab1.’;
    }

Read and try the above code.

Greater Than Or Equal – Operator
The Greater Than or Equal operator is, >= (it is the math greater than sign followed by the math equal sign). It returns true if the left operand is greater than or equal to the right operand.

The Less Than Operator
The Less Than Operator is < .It returns true if the left operand is less than the right operand.  

The Less Than or Equal – Operator
The Less than or Equal operator is, <= . It returns true if the left operand is less than or equal to the right operand.

Arithmetic Operators
An Arithmetic operator takes one or two numbers as operands (either literals or variables) and returns the answer, similar to what happens in arithmetic.

The standard arithmetic operators are addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and division (/). To save time explaining these four operators, just read and try the following examples:

Addition Operator
Code example:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 20;
my $ var2 = 30;
   
my $ var3 = $ var2 + $ var1;
print $ var3;

Subtraction Operator
Code example:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 20;
my $ var2 = 30;
    
my $ var3 = $ var2 – $ var1;
print $ var3;

Multiplication Operator
Code example:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 20;
my $ var2 = 30;
   
my $ var3 = $ var2 * $ var1;
print $ var3;

Note that the multiplication operator is * and not X.

Division Operator
Code example:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 20;
my $ var2 = 30;

my $ var3 = $ var2 / $ var1;
print $ var3;

Note that the division operator is, / .

Other operators are the Modulus (%), Increment (++), Decrement (–), and the Negation operators. You have to learn the particular way in which each of these operators behaves (see below).

Modulus Operator
The modulus operator divides the first operand by the second operand and returns the remainder. Read and try the following code:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 17;
my $ var2 = 12;
   
my $ var3 = $ var1 % $ var2;
print $ var3;

The Modulus operator is the percentage sign.

Increment Operator
The Increment Operator is, ++. It works with one operand, not two as the others. The operand has to be a number. When it is placed in front (prefix) of the operand, it behaves in one way. When it is placed after (postfix) the operand it behaves in another way.

Prefix: When it is prefix, it adds 1 to the operand and returns the incremented operand. Read and try the following code:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 10.5;
   
my $ var2 = ++$ var1;
print $ var2;

In the code, initially, 10.5 is assigned to var1. Then we have a statement. In the statement you have a new variable, $ var2, the assignment operator and then “++$ var1″. What interest us here is “++$ var1″, where the increment operator is in front of the variable. The value the increment operator returns is assigned to $ var2. If you have tried the code, you would have noticed that the value of $ var2 is 11.5. This means, if used prefix, it increments the operand and then returns the incremented operand. Note: in the above code, the final value for $ var1 is 11.5 and not 10.5.

Postfix: When it is postfix, it returns the operand before adding 1 to it. The returned value is the original value of the operand. The increased value is the new value of the operand, which is not returned. Read and try the following code.

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 10.5;
   
my $ var2 = $ var1++;
print $ var2; print ‘<br ‘;
print $ var1;

If you have tried the above code, you would have noticed that the value for $ var2 is 10.5 and the final value for $ var1 is 11.5, confirming that the incrementing took place after the value was returned. The “print ‘<br ‘;” sends a line break HTML element to the browser so that the next result should be displayed one line below the previous one. In ActivePerl, you can have more than one statement in one line, such as in, “print $ var2; print ‘<br ‘;”.

Decrement Operator
The Decrement operator, — , behaves like the increment operator with the difference that it subtracts 1 instead of adding.

Negation Operator
This operator is the negative sign, – . It works with one operand (on its right); it negates the operand just like in math. Read and try the following:

use strict;

print “Content-Type: text/html\n\n”;

my $ var1 = 25;
   
my $ var2 = -$ var1;
print $ var2;

We have come to the end of this part of the series. Do not forget that the all what we learn in this series is applicable to traditional Perl. You can try the code with traditional Perl (in their operating systems). If you want to try a code sample with traditional Perl, just precede it with something like, #!/usr/bin/perl (see the corresponding Perl documentation).

Let us stop here. Rendezvous in the next part of the series.

Chrys

To arrive at any