The Philippines During 1946 1986 History Essay

The Philippines During 1946 1986 History Essay This essay uses the Dependency theory on how the economy of the Philippines fared out during the 1946-1986 period. This will also discuss facts on how the Marcos regime made the country surge into large international debts and why even though our country has a lot of natural resources cannot join the league of developed nations. The reason maybe that the post-colonial culture that our colonizers left us. There are so many assumptions on why our country is still behind. This essay will view the economy during the post colonial to martial law era to post martial law era. That particular period of time may have given the people the power to say what they wanted to (but there are some articles that indicates the the so called people power was not really a people power but of the Imperial Manila. As what Amando Doronila said in his feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer People power movements have been an Imperial Manila phenomenon. Their playing field is EDSA. They have exclude d the provincianos from their movement with their insufferable arrogance and snobbery   ignoring the existence of the toiling masses and peasants in agrarian Philippines.) With that observation that has been taken to account, the essay will include some insights on why do we seen stuck to this. Why do the country that has so much potential has been left behind even though we are thought to be one of the countries that will boom after the decolonization? Officially classed as developing country, the Philippines was once the second largest economy in Asia. In 1970 however, a path of loans and heavy borrowing was taken. This swelled the debt from of the country to much larger sums. The decline of Philippines exports, the corruption and economic mismanagement of the Marcos regime followed by the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 all contributed to the breakdown of the economy. In September 1972, Marcos declared martial law, claiming that the country was faced with revolutions from both the left and the right. He gathered around him a group of businessmen, used presidential decrees and letters of instruction to provide them with monopoly positions within the economy, and began channeling resources to himself and his associates, instituting what came to be called crony capitalism. By the time Marcos fled the Philippines in February 1986, monopolization and corruption had severely crippled the economy. In the beginning, this tendency was not so obvious. Marcoss efforts to create a New Society were supported widely by the business community, both Filipino and foreign, by Washington, and, de facto, by the multilateral institutions. Foreign investment was encouraged: an export-processing zone was opened; a range of additional investment incentives was created, and the Philippines projected itself onto the world economy as a country of low wages and industrial peace. The inflow of international capital increased dramatically. The Philippines defaulted on its debt 1983 1984 with the economy undergoing significantly negative growth in 1984 and 1985. Since the downfall of Marcos in 1986, administrations have opened up the economy to foreign investment but the privatization of the economy has been too slow. A trade deficit is the result of heavily importing goods while exporting very little. To make matters worse, government expenditures exceed government revenues. The Philippines found itself in an economic crisis in early 1970, in large part the consequence of the profligate spending of government funds by President Marcos in his reelection bid. The government, unable to meet payments on its international debt, worked out a standby credit arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that involved renegotiating the countrys external debt and devaluing the Philippine currency to the United States dollar. The government, unwilling and unable to take the necessary steps to deal with economic difficulties on its own, submitted to the external dictates of the IMF. It was a pattern that would be repeated with increasing frequency in the next years. Despite once being the second largest economy in Asia (after Japan), the country is now relatively poor. The economy is agricultural, lightly industrial and service orientated. Economic growth is much weaker due to enormous debt. Much government money goes towards payments of the debt leaving very little money remaining for improving infrastructure. Since 1986, efforts have been made to open up the economy to foreign investment but the privatization of the economy has been just too slow    After WWII, the Philippine economy was in bad shape. During the term of President Quirino, the economy began a phase of rapid growth. The economic growth slowed over time but by 1965, the Philippine economy was the second largest in Asia. This was largely due to the enormous spending of government funds by President Marcos. Arrangements were made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and so began the period in which the Philippine economy would be propped up with loans from the World Bank and IMF and heavy borrowing from banks and organizations. The economy of the Marcos regime can be described as debt driven. However, the economy continued to grow during the Marcos regime, even throughout martial law. In the 1980s, the economy started to falter due to a number of reasons. World demand for Philippine exports went into decline, corruption and economic mismanagement from the Marcos regime and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 shattered investment confidence in the country. Economic growth was significantly negative in 1984 and 1985. As a result of a shrinking economy and enormous debt, the Philippines defaulted on its foreign debt payments 1983 1984. In the following Aquino years, the economic issues remained. It wasnt until the Ramos administration that the economy began to significantly grow. The Philippine economy was also hit by the 1998 Asian financial although not as much as some of the neighboring Asian states, partly due to remittances from overseas Filipino workers.    Large debt is a major factor in the hindrance of the Philippine economy. During the Marcos years, loans and heavy borrowing were used keep the economy propped up. The decline in demand for Philippine exports, the uncontrolled and unrestrained corruption of the Marcos administration and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino took its toll. The government defaulted on debt payments 1983 1984 and the economy underwent a period of significant contraction in 1984 and 1985. In 1986, after the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos, the debt was at US$28 billion with the country in a bankrupt state. In more recent times, the public debt is just over three-quarters of the Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) and a large trade deficit has grown from the heavy importing of goods combined with a weak export growth. Given this situation, much of government funds is being used to pay off the debt (or probably more accurately, the interest on the debt) this leaves little money for the government to develop infrastructu re. The lack of infrastructure in turn has resulted in much lower growth in various economic sectors. Since 1986, administrations have gradually opened up more of the economy to foreign investment. However, the privatization of the economy is currently just too slow. The corruption of the government and tax evasion tactics by big businessmen has also robbed the government of funds. The situation has been described as a fiscal crisis and on the current course, it is expected the Philippines will default on its debt in the next few years.    The Philippines is essentially an agricultural area but in more recent years other sectors have developed. Although greatly potential in the agricultural sector, the lack of infrastructure and finance combined with government policy have limited the success of this sector. The rural economy is largely based on agriculture, forestry and fishing. Years of uncontrolled logging are having an impact on forestry and fishing may have its days numbered due to the expense of equipments. The country has numerous natural resources including deposits of copper, chrome, nickel, gold, silver, coal, sulphur, gypsum, limestone, marble, phosphate, silica, clay and natural gas. Problems from the energy sector also contribute to economic woes. Electricity is relatively expensive and is subject to government red tape, preventing unprofitable public sector electricity companies from raising rates to raise money to develop and improve services.   A general rise in world raw material prices in the early 1970s helped boost the performance of the economy; real GNP grew at an average of almost 7 percent per year in the five years after the declaration of martial law, as compared with approximately 5 percent annually in the five preceding years. Agriculture performed better that it did in the 1960s. New rice technologies introduced in the late 1960s were widely adopted. Manufacturing was able to maintain the 6 percent growth rate it achieved in the late 1960s, a rate, however, that was below that of the economy as a whole. Manufactured exports, on the other hand, did quite well, growing at a rate twice that of the countrys traditional agricultural exports. The public sector played a much larger role in the 1970s, with the extent of government expenditures in GNP rising by 40 percent in the decade after 1972. To finance the boom, the government extensively resorted to international debt, hence the characterization of the economy of the Marcos era as debt driven. In the latter half of the 1970s, heavy borrowing from transnational commercial banks, multilateral organizations, and the United States and other countries masked problems that had begun to appear on the economic horizon with the slowdown of the world economy. By 1976 the Philippines was among the top 100 recipients of loans from the World Bank and was considered a country of concentration. Its balance of payments problem was solved and growth facilitated, at least temporarily, but at the cost of having to service an external debt that rose from US$2.3 billion in 1970 to more than US$17.2 billion in 1980. It was in this environment in August 1983 that President Marcoss foremost critic, former Senator Benigno Aquino, returned from exile and was assassinated. The country was thrown into an economic and political crisis that resulted eventually, in February 1986, in the ending of Marcoss twenty-one-year rule and his flight from the Philippines. In the meantime, debt repayment had ceased . Real GNP fell more than 11 percent before turning back up in 1986, and real GNP per capita fell 17 percent from its high point in 1981. In 1990 per capita real GNP was still 7 percent below the 1981 level. Industry has grown over the past few years but only in the urban areas. The industrial sector includes textiles, food and beverage processing, pharmaceuticals and chemical products, such as paints and fertilizers, and also electronics. In 2005, the Philippines began exporting cars in significant quantities. Electronic based companies such as Intel have been in the Philippines for many years too. The services sector is a big player in the economy and one of the more recent booms is the establishment or transferring of call centers in the Philippines for many large and in some cases multinational and international companies. Setting up call centers in the Philippines is ideal because of much lower costs than in the developed countries of origin and cheaper labor. A major advantage the Philippines have over other countries is the significance and usage of the English language within the country. The continuous growth of the outsourcing companies has led us to our current situation right now. Because of the limited availability of the jobs for the newly graduates, they resort to taking call center jobs wherein they could earn a decent income but doesnt level to their core competence. The decent income that they are receiving covers up to the companys main motive which is to exploit us. Our country may have benefited well to the boom of this sector but it exploits us in a sense that they are taking advantage of our resources but for the less cost. We are one of the countries that the other advance country exploits. Another example of the countries that were being exploit are India and China but to be fair with them, they are taking it as a challenge to grow more in terms of economic, and self improvement. Some may argue that they were racing to the bottom but they were not because they were racing to be on top. The Philippines does it the other way. We have the resources, the vast number of educated people but we are not improving. It may be blamed to the culture that we grew up in and the decision making of the leader. The loans that the country had during the time of Martial Law hit to its lowest and brought us to much more inescapable debt to which led us to borrow more to the predatory shark, the IMF. We have been dependent to them expecting that we would be out of this huge foreign debt but we only led to more debt that makes the Filipino people responsible for paying those huge sums of money. Only an irresponsible leader could only lead us to this state. The economy reached its lowest point and now the people are paying for this. The country may have achieved its democratic status but are we really free? Or are still heavily influenced by our former colonizers? The answer could be is that it depends on how we take it all in. We are still heavily influenced by our former colonizers from the music that we listen, to the clothes that we wear and to the culture that we are trying to fit in. But it seems that it boils down to how we respond to it. The state wherein our country is in right now may have been better than to what it has experienced before with the colonizers and the Martial law. The economy seems to be stable but its still not enough to sustain the growing economy of our country. A lot of people die out of hunger, the population has been multiplying every year and the education system in our country has not helped us to bail out from this system. The Philippines is a beautiful country with lots of things to offer. Sadly, the country today seem to be in lost on how to go on after to what had happened after the pos-colonial and martial law era. The country has been lost and still looking for the way out for this misery. Sure former President Fidel V. Ramos made the economy slightly back on track but we are now down again. Our country has been waiting for the promises of the politicians to come true to save us from this misery but again, it boils down to how we handle things and how we adapt from it. We could have been doing well if only we had retain the positive things that our colonizers left us. They may have invaded our country but it lead to some transition but we took it and applied it on the wrong way. We are still dependent to our past may it be the post colonial era or it may be the post Martial Law era. We cannot run from it. 2,540 words

Technology in Mathematics :: Education School

There are many different ideas as to how technology should be used in the mathematical classroom of today. There are those who believe that students will not learn as much if they use technology such as computers and calculators, and there are still others that believe this technology can benefit students if used in the proper way. After reading many articles on the use of technology in the mathematical classroom, I have to agree with NCTM’s Technology Principle, which states that â€Å"technology is essential in teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathematics that is taught and enhances students’ learning† (Principles 24). What the Technology Principle is not saying that some may interpret is that students will not have to learn how to solve problems on their own. The way I see it, the principle is telling us the very opposite of this. We all know as future teachers and current students ourselves, that we must understand the applications and why we do them to really understand mathematics. In other words, we cannot just memorize the steps of application and plug it into our calculator, but rather we must understand why the steps were done and what our results mean. After the students have shown that they understand the material and applications, the teacher may allow his or her students to use the calculator once the applications have become tedious for the students. For example, if we asked a group of Calculus students to find the maximum of a line, we would not expect them to graph the function by hand and try to guess where the point is, we would instead promote them to use their calculators to find the best estimate of the point. So, even in cases such as this, technology can be used to further demonstrate the reasoning behind a problem. It may be the case that we want our students to work on the application, and then again it may be the case that we want our students to be able to see what they are doing the application for. The only thing we really have to be careful of is not to let technology replace the â€Å"basic understandings and intuitions† (Principles 25). Technology can be a great tool for teaching mathematics because we can show and manipulate visual form with such programs as The Geometer’s Sketchpad and many others. Programs such as these help students to visualize problems, and can also help teachers better explain the mathematical concepts. One of the questions we hear a lot in mathematics is â€Å"why?† I can even remember teachers struggling to answer these questions with their crude drawings on the board or their wordy explanations.

Mobile Phones Essay

â€Å"Cell Phone† redirects here. For the film, see Cell Phone (film). For the Handphone film, see Handphone (film). The Qualcomm QCP-2700, a mid-1990s candybar style phone, and an iPhone 5, a current production smartphone. A mobile phone is a device that can make and receive telephone calls over aradio link while moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator, allowing access to the public telephone network. By contrast, a cordless telephone is used only within the short range of a single, private base station. In addition to telephony, modern mobile phones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging, MMS, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications, business applications, gaming and photography. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones. The first hand-held mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell[1][2][3] and Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing around 2.2 pounds (1 kg).[4] In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. From 1990 to 2011, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid. ————————————————- History Main article: History of mobile phones An evolution of mobile phones Before the devices that are now referred to as mobile phones existed, there were some precursors. The development of mobile telephony began in 1918 with tests of wireless telephony on military trains between Berlin – Zossen.[9] In 1924 public trials started with telephone connection on trains between Berlin – Hamburg.[9] In 1925 Zugtelephonie A. G. is founded to supply train telephony equipment[9] and in 1926 telephone service in trains of theDeutsche Reichsbahn and imperial post on the route between Hamburg and Berlin is approved and used.[9] This phone service was only offered to 1st class travelers, but in 1918, some 5 years after the invention of Meissnerischen tube based transmitters, the German Reichsbahn in Berlin led experiments with telephony via radio. [10] The first mobile telephone calls were made from automobiles in 1946. The Bell System’s – Mobile Telephone Service – inaugural call was made on 17 June of that year in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by Illinois Bell Telephone Company’s car radiotelephone service in Chicago on 2 October. [11] The MTS phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and weighed over 80 pounds (36 kg).[12][13] There were initially only 3 channels for all the users in the metropolitan area, increasing later to 32 channels across 3 bands. This service continued into the 1980s in large portions of North America. Due to the small number of radio frequencies available, the service quickly reached capacity. In 1956, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was introduced in Sweden. John F. Mitchell, Motorola’s chief of portable communication products in 1973, played a key role in advancing the development of handheld mobile telephone equipment. Mitchell successfully pushed Motorola to develop wireless communication products that would be small enough to use anywhere and participated in the design of the cellular phone.[14][15] Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, was the key researcher on Mitchell’steam that developed the first hand-held mobile telephone for use on a cellular network.[16] Using a somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on 3 April 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.[17][18] As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren’t cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life. —Martin Cooper, [19] The new invention sold for $3,995 and weighed two pounds, leading to the nickname â€Å"the brick†. The world’s first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.[20] Several countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by Ameritech. It cost $100m to develop, and took over a decade to reach the market.[21] The phone had a talk time of just half an hour and took ten hours to charge. Consumer demand was strong despite the battery life, weight, and low talk time, and waiting lists were in the thousands.[22][23] In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard, which sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. Ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.[24] This was followed by 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on thehigh-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming media.[25] Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized 4th-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. The first two commercially available technologies billed as 4G were the WiMAX standard (offered in the U.S. by Sprint) and the LTE standard, first offered in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera. ————————————————- Read more:  Uses and Abuses of Mobile Phone Essay Features Main article: Mobile phone features See also: Smartphone A printed circuit board inside a Nokia 3210 All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the past 20 years. The common components found on all phones are: * A battery, providing the power source for the phone functions. * An input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the phone. The most common input mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high-end smartphones. * Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages. * All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be swapped among devices. Some CDMA devices also have a similar card called a R-UIM. Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone devices are uniquely identified by an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications became known as smartphones. Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the Sony-Ericsson ‘Walkman’ series of music/phones and ‘Cybershot’ series of camera/phones; the Nokia Nseries of multimedia phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iPhone. Text messaging Main article: SMS The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging. The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000, and subsequently many organizations provided â€Å"on-demand† and â€Å"instant† news services by SMS. SIM card Main articles: Subscriber Identity Module and Removable User Identity Module Typical mobile phone SIM card GSM feature phones require a small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) and the Ki used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone. The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operatorRadiolinja.[citation needed] In general Mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants 1997–2007 A cellphone repair kiosk in Mumbai, India Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, including keeping in touch with family members, conducting business, and having access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one cell phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may also be used to take advantage of the benefits of different calling plans—a particular plan might provide cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming. The mobile phone has also been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society, for example: * A study by Motorola found that one in ten cell phone subscribers have a second phone that often is kept secret from other family members. These phones may be used to engage in activities including extramarital affairs or clandestine business dealings.[38] * Some organizations assist victims of domestic violence by providing mobile phones for use in emergencies. They are often refurbished phones.[39] * The advent of widespread text messaging has resulted in the cell phone novel; the first literary genre to emerge from the cellular age via text messaging to a website that collects the novels as a whole.[40] * Mobile telephony also facilitates activism and public journalism being explored by Reuters and Yahoo![41] and small independent news companies such as Jasmine New in Sri Lanka. * The United Nations reported that mobile phones have spread faster than any other technology and can improve the livelihood of the poorest people in developing countries by providing access to information in places where landlines or the Internet are not available, especially in the least developed countries. Use of mobile phones also spawns a wealth of micro-enterprises, by providing work, such as selling airtime on the streets and repairing or refurbishing handsets.[42] * In Mali and other African countries, people used to travel from village to village to let friends and relatives know about weddings, births and other events, which are now avoided within mobile phone coverage areas, which is usually greater than land line penetration. * The TV industry has recently started using mobile phones to drive live TV viewing through mobile apps, advertising, social tv, and mobile TV.[43] 86% of Americans use their mobile phone while watching TV. * In parts of the world, mobile phone sharing is common. It is prevalent in urban India, as families and groups of friends often share one or more mobiles among their members. There are obvious economic benefits, but often familial customs and traditional gender roles play a part.[44] It is common for a village to have access to only one mobile phone, perhaps owned by a teacher or missionary, but available to all members of the village for necessary calls.[45] While driving Main article: Mobile phones and driving safety Texting in stop-and-go traffic in New York City Mobile phone use while driving is common but controversial. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accident. Because of this, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of mobile phones while driving. Egypt, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore ban both handheld and hands-free use of a mobile phone; others —including the UK, France, and many U.S. states—ban handheld phone use only, allowing hands-free use. Due to the increasing complexity of mobile phones, they are often more like mobile computers in their available uses. This has introduced additional difficulties for law enforcement officials in distinguishing one usage from another as drivers use their devices. This is more apparent in those countries which ban both handheld and hands-free usage, rather than those who have banned handheld use only, as officials cannot easily tell which function of the mobile phone is being used simply by looking at the driver. This can lead to drivers being stopped for using their device illegally on a phone call when, in fact, they were using the device for a legal purpose such as the phone’s incorporated controls for car stereo or satnav. A recently published study has reviewed the incidence of mobile phone use while cycling and its effects on behaviour and safety.[48] In schools Some schools limit or restrict the use of mobile phones. Schools have set restrictions because of the use of cell phones for cheating on tests, harassment and bullying, threats to the school’s security, distraction of students, and the facilitating of gossip and other social activity at school. Many mobile phones are banned in school locker room facilities, public restrooms and swimming pools due to the built-in cameras that most phones now feature. Mobile banking and payments Main articles: Mobile banking and Mobile payment See also: Branchless banking and Contactless payment In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include the ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya’s M-PESA mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash may be deposited or withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country, and may be transferred electronically from person to person as well as used to pay bills to companies. Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and Philippines. A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank Bank Mandiri.[49] Another application of mobile banking technology is Zidisha, a US-based nonprofit microlending platform that allows residents of developing countries to raise small business loans from web users worldwide. Zidisha uses mobile banking for loan disbursements and repayments, transferring funds from lenders in the United States to the borrowers in rural Africa using the internet and mobile phones.[50] Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually, the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Some mobile phone can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes or through contactless payments if the phone and point of sale support near field communication (NFC).[51] This requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators and retail merchants to enable contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones.[52][53][54] Tracking and privacy See also: Mobile phone tracking Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not), using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their government. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked.[55] China has proposed using this technology to track commuting patterns of Beijing city residents.[57] In the UK and US, law enforcement and intelligence services use mobiles to perform surveillance. They possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely in order to listen to conversations that take place near the phone. [58][59] Thefts According to the Federal Communications Commission, one out of three robberies involved the theft of a cellular phone. Police data in San Francisco showed that one-half of all robberies in 2012 were thefts of cellular phones. An online petition on Change.org called Secure our Smartphones urged smartphone manuacturers to install kill switches in their devices to make them unusable in case of theft. The petition is part of a joint effort by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and was directed to the CEOs of the major smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication carriers. [60] On Monday, June 10, 2013, Apple announced it would install a kill switch on its next iPhone operating system, due to debut in October 2013. [61] ————————————————- Health effects Main article: Mobile phone radiation and health Further information: Mobile phones on aircraft The effect mobile phone radiation has on human health is the subject of recent interest and study, as a result of the enormous increase in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, which some believe may be harmful to human health. A large body of research exists, both epidemiological and experimental, innon-human animals and in humans, of which the majority shows no definite causative relationship between exposure to mobile phones and harmful biological effects in humans. This is often paraphrased simply as the balance of evidence showing no harm to humans from mobile phones, although a significant number of individual studies do suggest such a relationship, or are inconclusive. Other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation. On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization stated that mobile phone use may possibly represent a long-term health risk,[62][63] classifying mobile phone radiation as â€Å"possibly carcinogenic to humans† after a team of scientists reviewed studies on cell phone safety.[64] Mobile phones are in category 2B, which ranks it alongside Coffee and other possibly carcinogenic substances.[65][66] At least some recent studies have found an association between cell phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed journals concluded that cell phone usage for at least ten years â€Å"approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same (‘ipsilateral’) side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use.† [67] One study of past cell phone use cited in the report showed a â€Å"40% increased risk for gliomas (brain cancer) in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10†year period).†[68] This is a reversal from their prior position that cancer was unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations and that reviews had found no convincing evidence for other health effects.[63][69] Certain countries, including France, have warned against the use of cell phones especially by minors due to health risk uncertainties.[70] However, a study published 24 March 2012 in the British Medical Journal questioned these estimates, because the increase in brain cancers has not paralleled the increase in mobile phone use. Dis-advantages : * Some people (especially teens) get so much addicted to cell phones for talking, video, messaging, games, etc that they forget the real purpose of the phone and waste large part of their time in unnecessary interaction over their cell phones. * Nothing more can be a distraction for a teached in the classroom, when a student’s phone rings. Cell phones are increasingly becoming a problem for the schools during classroom hours and are becoming a means of cheating during examinations and other kinds of ability tests. All this is really bad and does hurt the future of the student, who doesn’t realize that he/she is him/her-self responsible for it. * Health of those living in the vicinity of cell phone towers is becoming a growing concern. Towers result into an area with concrete development along with destruction of natural features (vegetation etc) around the place. The towers also emit strong electromagnetic signals, which can be health hazard for those living nearby and who are getting exposed to strong radiations continuously during a good span of their lives. * While remaining in touch is good thing but sometimes it becomes annoying to have to deal with continuous incoming phone calls. You are on a vacation and your boss calls up, how does that sound! * Cell phone monthly bills are usually more than a landline bill. Sometimes, we may not require to have a cell phone but we still buy one and start paying monthly bills; so it increases our monthly/recurring expenses. * Use of hands-free (wired/blue-tooth) can at times pass on loud sounds to our ears which can result in weakening of ear-drums. Nowadays, one can download lot’s of songs, so keeping the hands-free glued inside your ears for long hours can really affect the sensitivity of ears in the long run of life. * There have been cases of cell phone blasts, due to the excessive heating up of it’s battery. This can be a fatal issue; although rare. * No joke, the surface of a cell phone has millions of bacteria and virus on it and that can be a strong reason of immediate skin p roblem on face or can result into other internal infections wherein the microbes creep inside the body through mouth or other openings. * Some use the keypad excessively; due to size restrictions the buttons and keypad of the cell phone are not natural for human hands; so excessive and prolonged typing can be an issue for fingers and finger joints. * The continuous exposure of signal to and from our cell phone can be a cancer concern, although to a meagre amount- research is still going on. However, the mobile phone industry has long resisted any suggestion of a link to cancer, though it accepts that mobile phone radiation does affect the electrical activity in the brain. * The battery parts and other electonic parts of a cell phone can be environmental hazard if not disposed off properly through approved means. * A cell phone can be helpful while driving and talking in case of urgent matters but increasingly it is becoming cause of accidents because it deviates the attention of a driver; human brain can do only one thing at a time (however small span of time it may be). * It can be a big time distraction and nuisance in calm and silent places like libraries, cinemas, restaruants, etc. Some cell phone users lose the sense of deciding when and where they can talk on the cell phone and where they can’t, without slightest consideration for the fellow beings around. * The mobile phone advertisements through messages are becoming a pain for the cell phone users. * Your SIM can be exploited as tracking device and if you’re an important person then that can be a big concern for you. Advantages : * The more you talk, the more you know how to talk and the better your communication skills become. This is applicable if you’re a sensible person and keep note of your interacting habits over the phone. It can be a communication tutorial! * Nothing more than a cell phone comes to great help in emergency. You are driving by the freeway and the vehicle jams and cell phone comes to your rescue. You are stuck in a lone place, again call somebody and ask for directions. * Parents can be a little less worried about their kids by being in constant touch with them. * If you’re a net-savvy, you can have Internet handy all the time and anywhere the signal of your cell phone provider can reach. * Trendy and stylish cell phones can be used as a bait to receive attention. It can be part of fashion and styling. * From the industy and economy point of view, cell phone companies (communication industry) is flourishing with market capital in billions. This is a good thing for the economy to be smooth and healthy. * Companies find it yet another medium to advertise their products; so another medium to reach the consumers. * Nowadays, cell phones are not just phone calls; they’re about messaging, video, songs, games, alarm clock, notes, calendar, reminder, etc. So one equipment, lots’ of uses! * Although cell phone use can be dangerous while driving but sometimes it can be a time-saver – you are driving and simultaneously discussing some urgent matter as well. A sensible and only urgent usage during driving can be a great help at times.

Who Is the Inventor of Auto-Tune Pitch-Correcting Software

Dr. Andy Hildebrand is the inventor of the voice pitch-correcting software called Auto-Tune. The first song published using Auto-Tune on the vocals was the 1998 song Believe by Cher. Auto-Tune and the Death of Music When he was asked why so many musicians have accused Auto-Tune of ruining music, Hildebrand replied that Auto-Tunes was designed to be used discretely and that no one needed to know that any software correction had been applied to vocal tracks. Hildebrand pointed out that there is an extreme setting available in Auto-Tune called the zero setting. That setting is extremely popular and noticeable. Hildebrand was all about giving Auto-Tune users choices and was surprised himself at the use of very noticeable Auto-Tune effects. In an interview with Nova, Andy Hildebrand was asked if he thought that recording artists from the era before digital recording techniques like Auto-Tune were available were more talented because they had to know how to sing in tune. Hildebrand commented that (So-called) cheating in the old days used endless retakes to get a final result. Its easier now with Auto-Tune. Is the actor who plays Batman cheating because he cant really fly? Harold Hildebrand Today, Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor manufactured by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. From 1976 through 1989, Andy Hildebrand was a research scientist in the geophysical industry, working for Exxon Production Research and Landmark Graphics, a company he co-founded to create the worlds first stand-alone seismic data interpretation workstation. Hildebrand specialized in a field called seismic data exploration, he worked in signal processing, using audio to map below the earth’s surface. In laymans terms, sound waves were used to find oil below the earths surface. After leaving Landmark in 1989, Hildebrand began studying music composition at the Shepard School of Music at Rice University. As an inventor, Hildebrand set out to improve the process of digital sampling in music. He used the then cutting-edge digital signal processing (DSP) technology that he brought over from the geophysical industry and invented a new looping technique for digital samples. He formed Jupiter Systems in 1990 to market his first software product (called Infinity) for music. Jupiter Systems was later renamed Antares Audio Technologies. Hildebrand then developed and introduced MDT (Multiband Dynamics Tool), one of the first successful Pro Tools plug-ins. This was followed by JVP (Jupiter Voice Processor), SST (Spectral Shaping Tool), and the 1997 Auto-Tune. Antares Audio Technologies Antares Audio Technologies incorporated in May 1998, and in January 1999 acquired Cameo International, their former distributor. In 1997 after the success of the software version of Auto-Tune, Antares moved into the hardware DSP effects processor market with the ATR-1, a rack-mount version of Auto-Tune. In 1999, Antares invented an innovative plug-in, the Antares Microphone Modeler that allowed one microphone to imitate the sound of a wide variety of other microphones. The Modeler was awarded the TEC Award as the years (2000) Outstanding Achievement in Signal Processing Software. A hardware version of the Modeler, the AMM-1 was released a year later.