Month: November 2013

When it comes to whether or not private schools are better than public schools to cultivate teenagers’ entrepreneurial skill, different people have different opinions. Some people hold the view that private schools provide better facilities than public schools; however, others maintain that public schools are funded by the government, thus those certified teachers consider more about how to educate their students in a proper way.

It is obvious that private schools are not subject to budget limitations imposed by the government, so they have the freedom to develop their own curricula. For instance, they provide interest groups, performing arts, all kinds of clubs, which helps to build their learning skills as well as social networking. Teachers are also required to be involved by coaching a sport. Because sports and extracurricular activities are such an integral part of a private school program.

Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled. Private schools have smaller class sizes, thus it is possible for teenagers to develop their skills, because they own more precious opportunities to merge themselves to variety of clubs and activities.

Recently, I have read the article (Tmall) that was written by Cindy, one of my best friends. And I agree with her points for the following reasons.

Not surprisingly, China’s largest e-commerce company, breaks one-day sales record by more that 80 percent as it heads toward an IPO( Initial Public Offering) that may be valued higher than Facebook Inc (“Alibaba breaks sales,” 2013). Tmall and Taobao are two main platforms of Alibaba, one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, topped 35 billion Yuan ($5.75 billion) in the 24-hour period on China’s Singles’ Day, a local twist on Valentine’s Day.

For example, as for me, an international student from China, I also asked my mom to buy me a pair of shoes online on November 11. This is a stunning example, but it is common because incomes rise across China, and the popularity in China is extremely huge.

Recently, it has been valued by analysts at as much as $190 billion, compared with Facebook’s $104 billion valuation after its market debut.

The company is moving toward an IPO in the United States, which means the shares of stock in the company are sold to the general public for the first time. There are lots of advantages of IPO, for instance, raising expansion capital, monetizing the investments of early private investors, etc. In my opinion, it will be a potential market for Chinese customers, because shopping online is so convenient compared to shopping in a departmental store.

Reference:

Alibaba breaks sales record amid china singles-day rebate. (2013, November 12). Bloomberg. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-11/alibaba-breaks-sales-record-on-china-singles-day-amid-discounts.html

https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhujunye/

http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/13/chinese-online-mall-taobao-reports-3b-yes-billion-in-sales-in-one-day-infographic-in-chinese/

Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. (wikipedia). Shopping for Christmas presents is extremely popular on that day annually.

Metropolis at Metro town, Vancouver will open their doors at 7:00AM for their first ever Black Friday Sale. As far as I am concerned, it will be like a mini Boxing Day (Thomas, 2012). The information has already been released now. The most appealing thing is that they are going to offer amazing deals for a whole weekend and those people who are the first 250 in line will also receive a Metropolis gift card that could be worth up to $500. It is clear that Canadian business, as the point in the year begin to profit, putting them in the black, instead of red.

Though it will be good news for the customers in Vancouver, however, it is not for those workers. Workers are latest to join the strike wave, with weeks to go before a Black Friday showdown. This mainly because Black Friday will be the busiest shopping day and consider equivalent of Boxing Day.

 In my opinion, managers should give incentives to those workers who work on Black Friday. For instance, giving extra “holiday pay” for their sacrifices, as well as getting a 25% discount off one purchase, regardless of how many items they buy at that time(Vieira, 2013). Those reward systems can motivate their employees to a great extent.

Reference:

Thomas, S. (2012, November 15). Vancouver stores fight back against black Friday sales . Vancouvercourier. Retrieved from http://www.vancourier.com/news/vancouver-stores-fight-back-against-black-friday-sales-1.385912

 Vieira, D. (2013, November 12). Wal-Mart to give black Friday workers thanksgiving dinner, extra holiday pa.examiner. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/walmart-to-give-black-friday-workers-thanksgiving-dinner-extra-holiday-pay

With the development of modern technology, more and more advanced spy devices are being invented. As a result, the use of spyware has been understood differently by people. Some people use it to hack other people’s computers or to invade their privacy. I strong disagree with this practice for the following reasons.

Recently, Anonymous hackers have secretly accessed U.S. government computers in multiple agencies and stolen sensitive information, then left “black doors” to return to many of the machines as recently as last month. It is widely believed that attempting access to someone’s computer without their concerns knowledge is illegal. However, spyware creators remain largely untouched because of the way which finds itself on people’s computers. For instance, spyware usually come with the software that people download and it is normally mentioned in the license agreement that users must click consent before installation. However, most users ignore this agreement and just click “Yes” or “Agree” to proceed, which remains a problem for their lives in the future.

Personally, I dislike putting spyware into people’s computer is that such practice is immoral. People have their own secrets which they do not want to tell anyone in their entire lives. However, a hacker can easily obtain people’s private information by setting spywares on their computers. This allows him to obtain a chance to see everything that is contained in their victim’s computer.

There are several cases after putting spyware on computers. Some business information and important documents even be stolen by the hackers. We do need to live professionally and morally.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec/2013/11/16/fbi-warns-of-u-s-government-breaches-by-anonymous-hackers/