Who Needs Credit?: Poverty and Finance in Bangladesh

Book Description

In recent years Micro-credit, the loan of small sums to people excluded from normal banking processes, has emerged as an important and growing issue in Development Policy. The result of disillusionment with the ability of either government agencies or international aid programmes to change the situation of the poor, Micro-credit has proved very successful. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh alone lends to two million people. By reviewing the experience of Bangladesh, the country most closely associated with pioneering Micro-credit programmes, the book asks critical questions potentially overlooked in the rush to repeat the success of these ventures in other countries.

Who needs credit?: Poverty and finance in Bangladesh

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Who needs credit?: Poverty and finance in Bangladesh

Manufacturer: University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

The Internet and Java have galvanized the world of middleware, by making it part of the e-commerce revolution. Middleware is a layer of software that lets business applications inter-operate, easing the problem of constructing complex applications, (which can include market places, CRM and Internet access).
Middleware and Enterprise Application Integration is a practical introduction to the different forms of middleware (RPC, message queues, hub and spoke, CORBA and Java) and how they can be combined to produce complex architectures that are suited to business needs.
This book is aimed at consultants, managers and designers of complex business software for e-commerce, and shows how the new technologies can be made to meet new demands from business, without going into technical details.
"This book should to be read by everyone working in the IT industry that is involved in the design, coding or integration of applications. Practitioners are faced with a multitude of technology choices for middleware and integration, this work provides comprehensive discussion of the available technologies and will help in the decision making process.
For anyone who wishes to broaden their understanding of today's middleware technologies it's hard to find a better starting point, all IT Managers in need of more technical knowledge should read this book. For students it is an excellent general text covering the issues of middleware and integration.
Buy this book and read it, I'm sure you'll learn much of worth!"
(Dr Dave Watson, Program Director, Hursley Services & Technology, UK)

Customer Reviews:

Hardly Worth the Money.......2003-10-21

After I decided to shell out 65 bucks for a book of only 280 pages I was disappointed that the page count included filler chapters such as "Introduction to the Internet" and "Introduction to Object Technology". The remainder is primarily an overview of different distributed technologies, e.g. COM, CORBA etc.
If you are interested in a good overview over EAI, I recommend to get for Fred Cummins' and / or Chris Britton's books instead (about the same price for both of them).

Great content, translation needs work.......2003-10-02

This book is a nice overview at a high level and not tied to a particular implementation. However, some of the sentence translations are difficult to read. For example, "a second possibility is to decompose an application into a set of elements that are connected by this relation." Overall, very good book.

E-Commerce Systems Architecture and Applications

Average customer rating:

A Comprehensive Treatment of the Subject
A great review and reference for e-commerce

E-Commerce Systems Architecture and Applications
Wasim Rajput
Manufacturer: Artech House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World

ASIN: 1580530850

Customer Reviews:

A Comprehensive Treatment of the Subject.......2000-08-07

I have read this book and find it to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. It develops the subject very gradually and provides solid material instead of mere verbosity. It can very well be used as a text book. I recommend it as the first reading on the subject to technical as well as non-technical readers.

I wish this book had a Web site where the information was available live and up to date. I will recommend the author to attempt this.

A great review and reference for e-commerce.......2000-07-25

Great book of reviewing e-commerce systems, architecture, and applications. Can be used as a reference.

PeCAN: An architecture for users' privacy-aware electronic commerce contexts on the semantic web [An article from: Information Systems]

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PeCAN: An architecture for users' privacy-aware electronic commerce contexts on the semantic web [An article from: Information Systems]
D.N. Jutla , P. Bodorik , and Y. Zhang
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Information Systems, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Supporting e-Commerce on the Semantic Web implies more sophisticated integration of Web services, agent interaction, domain ontologies, and data markup languages than is being done on today's Web. We explore user e-commerce, trust, and privacy scenarios and provide a vision for future e-commerce interactions with a more informed and in-control user. We present the Personal Context Agent Networking (PeCAN) knowledge architecture consisting of client-side and web-side architectural data components and services which inform the user of online privacy and trust within e-commerce tasks. A novel organization scheme and the composition of user contexts in this environment are proposed. Client-side ontologies and data structures for representing user contexts are introduced. For proof of concept, we describe a data belief ontology and illustrate PeCAN's compliance to the P3P privacy data schema. We use OWL as an implementation basis for maintaining privacy-aware e-commerce contextual knowledge for effective agent action in the PeCAN environment. Categories and Subject Descriptors: Semantic Web Application Architecture, Web Information Systems Applications, Electronic Privacy, Decision Support System Application

ubiES: Applying ubiquitous computing technologies to an expert system for context-aware proactive services [An article from: Electronic Commerce Research and Applications]

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ubiES: Applying ubiquitous computing technologies to an expert system for context-aware proactive services [An article from: Electronic Commerce Research and Applications]
O. Kwon , K. Yoo , and E. Suh
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Expert systems are originally designed to generate feasible alternatives in an automated manner. Users expect these systems to help them proactively and intelligently make decisions by automatically detecting users' various context data. However, conventional expert systems seldom automatically refer to context data, which is indispensable for proactive and intelligent problem solving. Therefore, this paper proposes a method to automatically detect and utilize users' context data for expert systems using ubiquitous computing technologies. To do so, we propose an amended expert systems paradigm, context-knowledge-dialogue-data (CKDD). Under the CKDD paradigm, we construct the framework of a ubiquitous computing technology-based expert system (ubiES), with the description of the subsystems within. To show the feasibility of the ubiES framework proposed in this paper, a prototype system, context-aware multi-agent system-my optimization (CAMA-myOpt), has been implemented in PDA-based proactive services area such as context-aware comparative shopping.

Book Description

Moonlighting examines your dreams and helps you determine what type of home business will work best for you based on your interests, schedule, and enjoyment. Written for the person who is starting a part-time home-based business, this book leads the reader through every aspect of business startup with special emphasis given to the difficulties associated with operating a business in addition to a full-time job. The author helps the reader assess personal experiences, hobbies, and hidden talents and convert them into marketable skills. This book is especially easy to read and employs a conversational style as well as worksheets, tables and charts to painlessly impart a wealth of information.

Moonlighting grew out of the realization that there is virtually nothing on the market today that specifically addresses starting a part-time home-based business as a second income. There are more than 25 million home-based businesses today with thousands of new startups each year. Many of these businesses will endure as commerce increasingly migrates to micro-businesses.

Moonlighting: Earn A Second Income At Home speaks directly to this growing niche of home-workers and guides them step-by-step through the process of establishing a part-time business at home without quitting their full-time jobs. The author has keenly identified a growing trend and provided the definitive guide to successfully enter the field of home-based moonlighting. This book will help you choose everything from the form your business can take to how to pursue funding and maintain bookkeeping records.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful info, but a bit dated.......2004-10-01

I picked this book up at my local bookstore the other day. I have been very frustrated with the lack of books that address the challenges of moonlighting. Most books that deal with home- based business assume that you will be working full- time, not doing side work to supplement your income from a primary job. For me, this book has been a valuable resource that speaks to my need to hold on to my full time job while branching out and starting another business (that hopefully will become my full- time job).

My impressions about the book, taken part by part:

Part One: Selecting the Right Business

This section (in particular, chapter 2) can be skimmed over if you already have a type of business already in mind. Having said that, I am going into freelance writing, and I was VERY thrilled to see that Jo- Frohbieter- Mueller addressed this career in her book. Her advice on promoting your work as a writer gave me some additional information that I haven't even read in other books on freelancing. And her advice on visually mapping out how many hours of each day in the week you'll want to devote to your moonlighting work was helpful.

Part Two: Now is the Time To Ask Questions.

This is a short section, and for readers with little knowledge of partnerships, sole proprietorships, or S corporations, this will give a good overview of what the different types of organizations for businesses. I especially found Chapter 5 "Determine Goals and Write a Business Plan" to be helpful in organizing my business and putting it down on paper.

Part 3: Money Matters

This section leads you through the ways to establish credit for yourself and your potential clients. Chapter 7, "Pricing for Profit" provided me with a good formula to determine how much to charge my clients.

Part 4: Getting Started

Mueller provides a checklist for the typical workspace and equipment needed for home businesses. I found her suggestions on getting an 800 number to be helpful. Chapter 11, "Simple Bookkeeping Procedures" has invaluable advice, but I wish it were longer.

Part 5: Getting and Keeping Customers

This section of the book was most helpful to me. In this section, I got advice from Mueller that I haven't gotten from other sources. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think of joining my local Chamber of Commerce until reading this book! I also got valuable advice on advertising via print, TV and radio ads. This section is where the book is most dated, however. Mueller, writing at the beginning of the e-mail era, briefly touches on the usefulness of e-mail and gives no advice on the value of running your own website. And with the recent anti- spam laws, readers should be careful to "cold call" via e-mail and be seen as spam messages.

I really wish the publisher would provide an updated edition of this book, one that incorporates the usefulness of the Internet as a marketing tool. If anything, this omission is the only weakness in the book. A simple updated version would clear up this problem.

Part 6: Tending to Taxes, Insurance, and Benefits

I've found the advice that Mueller gives here to be sound and in line with anything else I've learned in dealing with the IRS and deductions for home- based businesses. Of course, readers should be sure to check up on the latest IRS laws concerning taxes and follow them.

Part 7: Taking Control of Your Life and Business

This final section offers tips on maintaining a healthy balance between your primary job, home, family and friends. It is short and easily read through. The Appendix that follows offers about 500 occupations that can be developed into home businesses (especially good for the undecided) and short bibliographies for readers wanting to know more about each occupation.

Overall, I think that this is a wonderful guide to anyone who is considering a move to moonlighting to supplement income or change jobs. My only criticism is that the book is dated without information that addresses the Internet and its importance in self- promotion.

Average customer rating:

A Long Review, but it's Thorough

Some good ideas but be careful in following advice

Not worth the Money

Highly recommended

Comments from a second level career hunter

Break The Rules And Get A Great Job
William A. Cohen
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Job Hunting | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 073520201X

Book Description

In this fast-paced, high-tech era, job-hopping has become a job in itself and the competition is fierce. To be successful, job seekers need a strategy that makes them stand out. In this revolutionary book, Dr. William Cohen presents the techniques to gain an upper-hand in the market and find not just a good job, but a great one. Turning conventional advice on its head, and following the notion that “rules are made to be broken,” this unique guide lists every important rule of job hunting one must break in order to land a top-notch job. For example, rarely send a resume, always disregard the instructions in want ads, and, by all means, completely bypass the Human Resources department. Job seekers will learn how to: * Get high quality interviews without a resume
* Get simultaneous offers from several companies
* Control and direct interviews
* Use the Internet without posting a resume anywhere
* Negotiate the best offers
* Beat psychological tests

Based on his experience as a corporate executive, college professor, and headhunter, Dr. Cohen provides professional techniques that apply to anyone entering the job market for the first time, or job-hopping very early on in his/her career.

Customer Reviews:

A Long Review, but it's Thorough.......2007-08-07

ÿÿThere are several "rules" that job hunters are called upon to follow when searching for their dream job; traditions handed down to them by parents, guidance counselors, and human resource departments. The job market is a highly competitive field, and Cohen rightly asks, "If you want to leap out of the pack of job hunters lining up to take your dream job, why are you
doing what everyone else is doing?" Cohen the proceeds to list sixteen rules and the reasons to break each one of them. Along with that he provides the `why' and `how to' and ends each chapter with a brief listing of the main points. Such concise writing makes the book an easy read and removes a bit of the intimidation factor that goes with finding a job.

Of course, breaking rules carries with it some intimidations of its own. Cohen calls on the reader to ignore or out right defy what even one's potential employer (a term Cohen uses often) might ask of him, some of which seems as though it should have been instinctual all along. For example, Cohen says that the job hunter must prepare for his next job hunt all the time, not just when he needs a job. One will wish to present to his potential employer evidence of his knowledge and contacts, his reputation and accomplishments. "To acquire all this takes time. Therefore, begin to prepare for your next job campaign on the day you go to work in your new job."

Another excellent piece of advice is refraining from presenting a résumé until after the interview has taken place. Doing so allows one to tailor the résumé to the job he is applying for, being sure to extrapolate on what seems relevant and leave out the rest. In its place, Cohen
recommends the sending of a "personal sales letter" directly to the potential employer. "Done right, these will consistently get interviews that lead to job offers....you will be invited in for interviews regardless of the present state of the economy and regardless of your past lack of success in generating interviews." Cohen goes on to describe how such a letter should be arranged, included attention getters, listing accomplishments and avoiding "knock-out factors."

Cohen receives some criticism for setting forth the idea of a personal sales letter, some argue that this is nothing more than a cover letter for a résumé. So what? If it is just another term for a cover letter than Cohen explains an excellent way to write a cover letter, and the main
point is still to send this ahead of the résumé directly to the potential employer.

The author presents several other good ideas as well, such as waiting to present references until one actually knows his potential employer is interested (keeps the references enthusiastic) and waiting until the end of the process to talk about salary (a better position to bargain from). His advice to prepare and prepare some more for the interview, including the preparation of a positive outlook is especially valuable. Also, it would be wise to pay attention to what the Cohen says about after-interview thank you letters; they do indeed seem a little silly
now after having read that section.

Cohen's job campaign plan, which he outlines well, would prove extremely time consuming-perhaps too much so if one still attends to be a good parent and/or spouse, not to mention a decent employee at the current job. Also, applying directly to the potential employer, that is, the one who will do the actual hiring, and bypassing HR altogether is easier said than
done. While Cohen admits that it can be a challenge and presents several capers for achieving this goal, he more or less assumes that one will be able to do this in the end, but what if this is not the case? Cohen does not dedicate many words to this, nor to what to do if you are successful and all it does is annoy the future boss.

There are certain elements of the book that might lead some readers to conclude that the author has an unethical, or at least a sneaky side to him. For example, Cohen guides the reader to approach any psychological tests "as if you were an average, middle-class person. Respond the way you think this average person would answer, not you.....If you are going to lie on a test, make certain you do so consistently." Cohen also suggests some rather deceptive ways of gaining the full name the potential employer, possibly setting up the receptionist or secretary for an unpleasant encounter with the boss later on. Further, the author suggests and presents sample dialog surrounding a made-up offer with another company in order to gain a higher salary. With the exception of his suggestions of how to beat a psychological test (it's harder than he thinks)these suggestions might get the results desired, but it hardly serves to set up a positive relationship between employer and employee; the fact is most of the book assumes an adversarial relationship between the reader and his potential employer.

Break the Rules appears to be written primarily to those seeking to enter the world of sales and marketing and the various offshoots thereof. For those seeking to enter other fields, such as the helping professions, the book will offer some good insights but such a reader will still feel left out a good part of the time. This is likewise true for someone entering the job force for the first time, such as a recent college graduate; while Cohen addresses these readers and much of the work is applicable to them, they will still discover that they are not the primary audience for this book.

Overall, this is a worthwhile book. While the reader may find that some of the ideas are unappealing or that the campaign Cohen outlines will not work for him, there are still elements which, even if utilized away from the whole, will be of benefit. Cohen has substantial credentials to back up his claims and they are worth exploring.

Some good ideas but be careful in following advice.......2002-09-14

There is two useful ideas in the book: not giving out references until there is an actual job offer and how to handle salary negotiations. Other than that, the Personal Sales Letter is just a cover letter (Read "The Overnight Job Change Letter" for a better way to write cover letters) and targeting the decision maker comes straight out of "What Color is Your Parachute?". His chapter on telephoning for a job suggests some sneaky ways to get to the hiring authority that in reality, would turn most bosses off. Basically, there is nothing really new in this book that hasn't been covered in other job hunting books and, in my experience, refusing to send in a resume until after the interview is just not viable in most cases.

Not worth the Money.......2002-04-26

I must say I was disappointed in purchasing this book what a waste of money.

The main premise of this book is to create a customized sales letter (a fancy word for Cover Letter)and mail it to executives and hiring managers. But this book like many others I have read on job hunting leaves out a glaring ommission. "How on earth do you get the hiring manager's phone number in the first place?"

The book starts off with some mental exercises such as using NLP and some other gimmiky positive attitude building exercises and then it talks about sending off sales letters to hiring managers. Cohen also discusses using AIDA, a[bad]marketing tool to build a persuasive sales letter. The book is peppered with highly questionable anecdotes and very little practical job hunting strategy at all.

"Break the Rules", is a highly subjective book written from the experiences of the author. He claims to be a PhD but I did'nt see a single footnote or reference in that book.

The only thing that even gave this book any stars were some parts of this book: such as prepping for interviews, how to promote yourself while your employed and salary negotation. But me believe that is no reason to run out and buy this book.

Highly recommended.......2002-04-01

Cohen, a former recruiter and corporate executive has written a clear and concise book that is a must read for job seekers. He outlines steps to take whether you are out of work or currently employed but looking, emphasizing the importance of both internal and external preparation. He believes that your attitude is as important as your skills and addresses the emotional issues related to losing a job with clarity and without getting too "touchy feely".

Break the Rules is aptly titled. Each chapter addresses a rule: "Emphasize your Experience", and a rule buster: "Emphasize your Accomplishments". Other chapters such as "How to Shamelessly Advertise and Promote Yourself", and "How
to Organize your Accomplishments for Maximum Impact in Compelling Sales Letters" are among the other gems packed into this very empowering book.

Cohen includes a 10-week plan, sample interview getting letters, analysis of employer responses, and numerous examples and illustrations.

We recommend it to all our candidates.

Comments from a second level career hunter.......2001-11-13

The reason for the five stars is because of the amount of work that the author has put forth in this book. The reason for the comments is because of career hunting in this day and age.

There were a few pondering doubts about the 'sales letter' approach; how would this differentiate between a pure commodity, marketing or sales oriented advertisement via fax, email or mail.

I've also fortunately(unfortunately)seen and studied a few publicly available human resources websites. This is why hr/personnel excel at what they do. They are psychologists, sociologists, humanitarians and delegators. They also have very thorough methods of communications with employees and potential employees. Not only with discrepancies, but also in maximizing a company's bottom line within all business functions.

All in all, I applaud the author's endeavor writing this book, as I am using several of the techniques with incremental successes.

Book Description

Laid-off, let go, downsized, canned-no matter how you slice it, you've been fired, my friend. And unless you plan on marrying a millionaire or winning the lottery, you've got to figure out what you're going to do for cash before the next round of bills arrives. But don't worry because, believe it or not, getting fired is a good thing 99 percent of the time. That's been the experience of entrepreneur Andy Kane, who has gone through more business cards than most people have teeth. Written with Kane's trademark irreverent humor, this guide to surviving today's economy offers practical, inventive, sure-fire advice on everything you'll need to do to get back on top. You'll learn how to get your foot in the door, create a résumé that will get noticed, evaluate job offers (and scams), network, turn a hobby into a career, start your own business, and more. If you're out of work now or think a pink slip might be in your future, this book is required reading.

Book Description

When famed whiz kid Charles Bates "Tex" Thornton bought a small microwave tube company from Charles Litton in 1953, few people could have foreseen that it would evolve into a $5.5 billion global high-tech enterprise with leading positions in ship-building, information technology, and defense and commercial electronics.

The Legend of Litton Industries recounts the ingenuity, determination and corporate strategy of its leaders and dedicated personnel. Carefully researched and lavishly illustrated, this comprehensive history captures the essence of what it takes to succeed in the global, high-tech marketplace.

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The Legend of Litton Industries
Jeffrey L. Rodengen
Manufacturer: Write Stuff Publ.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQH36A

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