Informative Essay About My Love For The Outdoors And Canoeing

Riveting Rivers I can recall a memory from my childhood around the age of five or six. In the memory, I am in a yellow lifejacket surrounded by my twin brother and my two cousins. We are all playing and splashing around as we float down the Buffalo River in Arkansas with our family. There is a picture of this sweet moment in one of our photo albums, and every time I look at it, it makes me feel warm and blissful. I would have to say this is the beginning of my love for the outdoors and canoeing. Canoeing is an activity where people sit with two or three people in a long boat. Using a paddle, they have to maneuver their way along the river, encountering rapids, branches, and low water. It is a challenge, but it is the most exhilarating time of my life. Most importantly, canoeing is significant in my life for reminding me of my childhood, allowing me to spend time with the people I love, and enabling me to play a role in my community. It not only is a passion, but a way of living. Canoeing started early in my life because my dad has always had a love for the outdoors, and now we share that quality. Growing up, I received a bright orange kayak for my twelfth birthday. I was in love with that thing, and I still am. After that, a typical day during the summer consisted of making lunches while my dad loaded up his canoe and two kayaks. One for my brother, and one for me. We normally went to a local river or creek to spend the day. The alluring scenery has fascinated me ever

The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX Free Essays

string(28) " a big influence on MS-DOS\." As is suggestive of its name, an operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that operate the personal computer (PC). Its primary purpose is to support programs that actually do the work one is interested in, and to allow competing programs to share the resources of the computer. However, the OS also controls the inner workings of the computer, acting as a traffic manager which controls the flow of data through the system and initiates the starting and stopping processes, and as a means through which software can access the hardware and system software. We will write a custom essay sample on The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX or any similar topic only for you Order Now In addition, it provides routines for device control, provides for the management, scheduling and interaction of tasks, and maintains system integrity. It also provides a facility called the user interface which issues commands to the system software. Utilities are provided for managing files and documents created by users, development of programs and software, communicating between users with other computer systems and managing user requirements for programs, storage space and priority. There are a number of different types of operating systems with varying degrees of complexity. A system such as DOS can be relatively simple and minimalistic, while others, like UNIX, can be somewhat more complicated. Some systems run only a single process at a time (DOS), while other systems run multiple processes at once (UNIX). In reality, it is not possible for a single processor to run multiple processes simultaneously. The processor of the computer runs one process for a short period of time, then is switched to the next process and so on. As the processor executes millions of instructions per second, this gives the appearance of many processes running at once. User programs are usually stored on a hard disk and need to be loaded into memory before being executed. This presents the need for memory management, as the memory of the computer would need to be searched for a free area in which to load a users program. When the user was finished running the program, the memory consumed by it would need to be freed up and made available for another user when required (CIT). Process scheduling and management is also necessary, so that all programs can be executed and run without conflict. Some programs might need to be executed more frequently than others, for example, printing. Conversely, some programs may need to be temporarily halted, then restarted again, so this introduces the need for inter-program communication. In modern operating systems, we speak more of a process (a portion of a program in some stage of execution (CIT, 3)) than a program. This is because only a portion of the program is loaded at any one time. The rest of the program sits waiting on the disk until it is needed, thereby saving memory space. UNIX users speak of the operating system as having three main parts: the kernel, the shell and the file system. While DOS users tend not to use the term kernel and only sometimes use the term shell, the terms remain relevant. The kernel, also known as the â€Å"Real Time Executive†, is the low-level core of the OS and is loaded into memory right after the loading of the BIOS whenever the system is started. The kernel handles the transfer of data among the various parts of the system, such as from hard disk to RAM to CPU. It also assigns memory to the various system-level processes that occur whenever the computer does anything. The kernel is also responsible for scheduling the CPU†s operations and for letting the shell access the CPU (PC Mag, 1). The shell is the visible user interface to the OS and is a program that loads on top of the operating system and offers users commands that lets them access the OS. Strictly speaking, the shell is an input utility that offers access to the operating system. Technically speaking, the shell, being a separate program, is not a part of the OS at all. In the UNIX world a number of shells are available, among them the Korn shell, the C-shell, the Bourne shell and the Bourne Again shell (yes, really). In DOS, the standard shell is COMMAND. COM, again nothing more than a program. As different versions of command. com came with different versions of DOS, each added new commands and new things that could be done by the user. For example, DOS 4†³s COMMAND. COM added theP switch to DEL to verify each deletion, and DOS 5†³s COMMAND. COM provided the ability to sort the output of the DIR command. An acronym for disk operating system, the term DOS can refer to any operating system, but is most often used as shorthand for MS-DOS. Originally developed by Microsoft for IBM, MS-DOS was the standard operating system for IBM-compatible computers. The initial version of DOS was somewhat uncomplicated and resembled another operating system called CP/M. Subsequent versions have become increasingly sophisticated, however DOS remains a 16-bit operating system without support for multiple users or multitasking. The earliest forms of DOS were crude and utilized only a few commands, but as computers became more advanced, so did DOS. By keeping up with technology, DOS was implemented into more â€Å"user friendly† operating systems. However, as more sophisticated operating systems were released, DOS became less important. Today, cyberpunks involved with the latest OS trends joke that DOS stands for ‘Dad†s Operating System†Ã¢â‚¬  (Comerford, 23). In 1980, IBM asked the Microsoft Corporation to produce the operating system for its first personal computer, the IBM PC. Prior to this, a company called Seattle Computer Products had sold an operating system called 86-DOS to Microsoft. Microsoft hired the author of 86-DOS, Tim Paterson, in April of 1981 to modify the system, and renaming it MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), it was released with the IBM PC. Thereafter, most manufacturers of personal computers licensed MS-DOS as their operating system (Brittanica, 1). Limitations of the early PC†s hardware were a big influence on MS-DOS. You read "The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX" in category "Essay examples" Although the 8088 model computer had a 1Mb address space, IBM decided to allocate the first 640K of this to RAM, and the rest to ROMs, video boards and other things. Consequently, MS-DOS was set up to support programs whose maximum size was 640K. Version 1. 0 of DOS was released along with the IBM PC in August 1981. It occupied 12K of the systems 640K of memory, was somewhat compatible with CP/M and, much like CP/M, supported only a single directory. By contrast, even the first version of UNIX had a full hierarchical file system. In addition, Version 1. 0 supported only a 160K single sided 51/4-inch floppy diskette. Version 1. 1 was released by Microsoft in October 1982 and supported double sided 320K diskettes. Aside from fixing some bugs, this release was similar to Version 1. 0. Releases such as 1. 1, in which the number to the left of the decimal point is the same as the previous version depict relatively minor changes from the previous release. By contrast, Version 2. 0 was largely a new system. In March 1983, IBM introduced the PC/XT, its first personal computer with a hard disk. It came with a new variant of MS-DOS, Version 2. 0. In this version, Microsoft incorporated many ideas from the UNIX system for which it was also a vendor. For example, incorporating minor changes, the MS-DOS file system was taken largely from UNIX. In addition, the shell was improved, and Version 2. 0 supported a new floppy diskette format, the 360K as well as user installable device drivers, print spooling, system configuration and memory management. At this point, MS-DOS was established as the dominant operating system in PC market. In August 1984, IBM released its first 286 chip based PC, the PC/AT. The PC/AT supported memory up to 16 Mb and had the ability to run multiple programs at once. However, the version of MS-DOS that shipped with the PC/AT was 3. 0, which supported neither of these. Rather, it ran the PC/AT in a mode that simulated the 8088, only faster. Since the PC/AT came with a 1. 2Mb disk drive, battery backup clock, and configuration information in the CMOS, support for these devices was added. What’s more, hard disks larger that 10Mb were now supported. In addition, the command processor (shell) was removed from the operating system and made into a separate program. In November 1984, 3. 0 was replace by 3. 1 which provided the first support for networking. In 1987, IBM came out with the PS/2 line of PC which shipped with MS-DOS 3. 3, providing support for both 720K and 1. 44Mb 31/3 floppy disk drives. With Version 4. 0, Microsoft added the DOS shell, a menu driven shell rather than the previous keyboard driven ones. In addition, it now provided support for hard drives larger than 32 Mb. A major new release, MS-DOS Version 5. 0 was shipped in April 1991. Although this was the first version that made any serious use of the extended memory, it still had the restrictions that programs could not exceed 640K. However, it had the ability to locate most of MS-DOS itself in extended memory, so about 600K of the lower 640K was now available for user programs. Version 5. 0 also came with a useful HELP utility, to aid new users. For the first time, MS-DOS was sold in stores to the public (previous versions were only sold to computer vendors who delivered them with their machines) (CIT, 1-3). The MS-DOS 6 family provided more memory management for applications such as Microsoft Windows. In addition, newer utilities were provided for disk-defragmentation, file compression, file backups and anti-virus checking. Other variations of MS-DOS exist, such as PC-DOS by IBM, DOS-V, Dr. DOS and others. There is even a FREE DOS available on the Internet as an MS-DOS clone. Although it can still be found on many computers, MS-DOS is technically an obsolete operating system, being replaced by Microsoft Windows. For personal computers, MS-DOS is a single user, single tasking operating system. Single user means only one person uses the computer at a time. Single tasking means that it essentially runs one application program at a time, and has no inherent support for running more than one application program simultaneously (CIT, 2). If we want to look at the basic DOS operating system itself, there is no need to look further than three system files, command. com, Io. sys and (in DOS6. x and earlier) Msdos. sys. These files are crucial in DOS versions up to 6. 22. Io. sys represents the lowest level of the interface and contains the routines necessary for interfacing the OS with the system†s BIOS. It implements MS-DOS as seen by the hardware and has default drivers for console display and keyboard, printer, serial communications, clock, and a boot disk drive. Msdos. sys handles the higher-level routines such as converting commands from applications into instructions for Io. sys. It implements MS-DOS as seen by application programs. It supports file and record management, memory management, character device input and output, execution of other programs, and access to a real-time clock (CIT, 3). Both of these files are in the root directory, and both are hidden from view by default. The idea is that you are not suppose to see them, so that you don†t do anything destructive to them (such as deleting them). They are also read-only so that they can†t be deleted accidentally. Command. com is the shell program which interprets user commands, presents the shell prompt, and contains a set of internal commands. The rest of MS-DOS consists of a number of utility programs. Although DOS had cornered the PC market, UNIX was still dominant on the larger workstations. The birth of UNIX in 1969 provided the world with its first modern operating system. An interactive multi-user operating system, UNIX was initially developed by programmers for their own use. Working for Bell Laboratories, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie created UNIX as an operating system for the PDP-7 computer. Designed as a simplification of an operating system named Multics, UNIX was developed in Assembly language, a primitive computer language specific to one type of machine (Osiris, 1). However, Thompson developed a new programming language â€Å"B† which Ritchie enhanced to â€Å"C†, and in 1973 this was used to rewrite UNIX which lended the OS portability (Linux Intl. , 1). The original design philosophy for UNIX was to distribute functionality into small parts, the programs (Theochem, 1). In this way, functionality could be achieved by combining the small parts (programs) in new ways. Moreover, if a new program were to appear, it could be integrated into the system. UNIX was slow to catch on outside of academic institutions but soon was popular with businesses as well. The first five versions were part of an internal research effort of Bell Labs, and it was not until the sixth version, called UNIX Timesharing Sixth Edition V, that UNIX was widely distributed (Osiris, 1). Relatively recent developments are graphical interfaces (GUI) such as MOTIF, X Windows and Open View. UNIX has two major versions. One, jointly developed by UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL) and by ATT researchers together with Bell Labs, generically known as System V, is the commercial version and is the most widely distributed by major manufacturers. The second, developed by the University of Berkley and Berkley Software Distribution (BSD), is the educational version and is completely focused on research. The USL version is now on its fourth release, or SVR4, while BSD†s latest version is 4. However, there are many different versions of UNIX besides these two. The operating system has been licensed to several manufacturers who in turn developed their own versions of UNIX, based on System V or BSD, but adding new characteristics. Most versions of UNIX developed by software companies are derived from one of the two groupings and, recent versions of UNIX actually incorporate features from both of them. However, UNIX has had an unregulated history with over 200 versions (Berson, 16) existing today. The UNIX system is made up of three primary components, the kernel, the shell, and the utilities (which includes the file system). The central part of the OS, the kernel is the first program to start when the system is turned on and the last program to do anything when the system is halted. In addition to scheduling tasks, it manages data/file access and storage, enforces security mechanisms and performs all hardware access. The name â€Å"KERNEL† represents the fact that it is a program designed as a central nucleus, around which other functions of the system were added. The heart of the operating system, it not only interacts directly with the system†s hardware, but presents each user with a prompt, interprets commands typed by a user, executes user commands and supports a custom environment for each user. The two most common shells are the Bourne shell, default for the System V, and the C-shell used mainly with the BSD version (Osiris, 1). The utilities consist of file management (rm, cat, ls, rmdir, mkdir), user management (passwd, chmod, chgrp), process management (kill, ps) and printing (lp, troff, pr). How to cite The Compare and Contrast Microsoft DOS with UNIX, Essay examples

Romeo and Juliet charts Juliets journey from subservient daughter to passionate lover Essay Example For Students

Romeo and Juliet charts Juliets journey from subservient daughter to passionate lover Essay Romeo and Juliet is a play based on a romantic tragedy, written by William Shakespeare. The play is about two star- crossed lovers who are each from two rival families who are in a civil war against each other in the Italian city of Verona. The play charts the journey of many characters whose experiences change them forever and make them different people. So in love are the lovers, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, who also marry without the consent of their parents, that they actually end up killing themselves thinking it better not living then living separately. The play is based at a time when society was very patriarchal. This meant that men were seen as the heads of the family and the providers, whereas women were expected to cook and look after the house and have children. This is why the situation of Romeo and Juliet being married without their parents knowing, Capulet (Juliets father) wanting her to marry the county Paris, Romeo being banished for killing the Capulets kinsman and Juliets cousin Tybalt so much more difficult for Juliet to handle. Her status in society as a woman is mirrored by her status in her family. Capulet and Lady Capulet see Juliet more of a possession which will eventually work in their advantage when they will want to marry her off to someone rich (Paris). We see this lack of respect for Juliet in Act 3 Scene 5 when Capulet says Ill give you to my friend. Its like he doesnt even care what she wants just what he wants matters and he treats her more like his possession then a daughter. This whole experience of fal ling in love with Romeo, marrying him, losing him, changes Juliet dramatically through the play. The first time we see Juliet in the play is in Act 1 Scene 3. Juliet is alone in her room when Nurse and Juliets mother enter. From our first impression of Juliet we get to see this subservient obeying daughter, Madam, I am here, what is your will? This shows that Juliet and her mother dont exactly have a very close relationship but one where Juliet does all her mother asks and is obedient. Juliet is then asked by her mother whether she will marry Paris. This is a quite a strange question for Juliet as it is out of the blue. She replies It is an honour I dream not of. This is almost a way of letting her mother down in an easy way. This shows she does not want to disappoint her mother. She is simply not ready to get married. She is being cautious because of her inexperience. We then see Juliet in Act 1 Scene 5. This is when she first meets Romeo at the Capulet party. She falls in love with him at first sight which is a new experience for her. She keeps her cool though and engages in a short romantic conversation in which she automatically connects with Romeo. You kiss by th book is Juliets response to Romeos kiss. As the audience we know this is probably Juliets first experience of kissing a member of the opposite sex. This shows Juliet is maybe a bit desperate to make herself look more experienced then she really is. This however already gives a hint of her passion to the audience as oppose to this obedient, well brought up girl we see just a couple of scenes prior. In Act 2 Scene 2 we have the balcony scene. This is a very key part of the story. Romeo climbs into the Capulet courtyard after the party because he wants to see Juliet again risking his own life in the process. Then Juliet appears on a balcony and begins to speak but is not yet aware that Romeo is there listening. Juliet then says O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And Ill no longer be a Capulet. Juliet is wondering why his name must be Romeo and why he must be a Montague. She also says that Romeo should not acknowledge his father but if he cannot then Juliet will refuse to be a Capulet. She is already in love with Romeo and is cursing her luck. However although her head is perhaps in the clouds a bit by saying my love is deep , at such an early stage in their relationship, she does seem to be the more mature of the two. Romeo is trying to hint that hed like to enter Juliets room but Juliet is not allowing him, keeping her sexual frustrations under control. She is however very keen on marrying Romeo when it was less than a day ago that she rejected Paris offer claiming she is not ready. Not only does she accept Romeos proposal but she is the one trying to make it as soon as possible, Thy purpose of marriage, send me word tomorrow, where and what time wilt thou perform the rite. She shows her susceptibility to falling in love which shows this vulnerable side of hers. Romeo And Juliet (637 words) EssayThe next day, Act 4 Scene 1, Juliet visits the Friar and complains to him and get to the stage where she is ready to kill herself, Do thou but call my resolution wise, And with this knife Ill help it presently.. Friar Lawrence is now very desperate to come up with something to help Juliet. He gives Juliet a drinking potion which he claims will make Juliet seem dead for about 42 hours so her family will think she is dead. For Juliet to accept this, it directly emphasises her anxiousness. The next key scene is Act 4 Scene 3 where Juliet has her soliloquy before she takes the potion. She is afraid of what will happen if it does not work and if it kills her. She thinks this might be Friars plan as he does not want to marry Juliet to Paris. What if the poison which the Friar Subtly hath ministerd to have me dead. She then begins to panic and wonder what will happen if she wakes before Romeo comes and is locked in a shrine with her ancestors. How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo come to redeem me? This is a very worried Juliet who does not know what to do. But it is her love for Romeo which gives her hope that it could work. She eventually takes the potion and falls asleep. The potion does work and Juliet escapes marrying Paris and is given a funeral and left in a tomb. Romeo however does not hear word of the plan and when he hears Juliet is dead, he buys some poison and takes it by Juliets body and dies. When Juliet does wake she is shocked that Romeo is dead. Out of her love for Romeo she cannot stand living without him so she picks up a knife and finishes herself of alone. O happy dagger, This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. She kills herself, proving her undying love for Romeo. As a conclusion I will just add that Juliets character has changed dramatically and she has most certainly become a passionate lover as she has actually killed herself in preference to living without Romeo. Her passion however does show courage, bravery, determination but above all love and devotion, to her husband, Romeo.