Sunday, March 31, 2013

Journal 5- A new Phone?


The reason Nokia decided to develop Mobile TV is because the revenues for other technological development such as voice call  ceased to amuse. Therefore, the company had to look into other fields where it is possible for expansion. 
The reason that cell phone producers include so many functions into the individual cell phones is probably because they hope that the convincer or at least one of the unique features of the cellphone will outshine their competitors and ultimately attract a lot of customers. As the cell phone market becomes more and more competetive, this trend should be here to stay. 
The manufactures are more likely to offer ifferentiated products in the new market because the new market is more flexible to bend whereas the old market is more accustomed to a certain type of way of living. For example, the older generation could barely text while the younger generatio demanded a phone that have voice options. 
I think what would make a cell phone useful is extremely subjective to personal opinion. To me, what would make a cell phone useful is the ability to call and take calls. To other people, not necessarily so. Features that to me would be useful but is nto currently available might be an automatic message chair that can pop out of my cell phone at my request. Of course, this example is just to demonstrate my point on how subjective this matter is. My perfect cell phone would probably have everything that the current market has developed: voice command, camera...etc. EVERYTHING. The features owuldbe ifferent from other phones because it has EVERYTHING, therefore, containing functuons that other phones don’t have. These features would appeal to users because it would be extremely convinenet. 

Topic 7: Change the Future

  Growing up I have gone through many changes. In first grade my family first moved to livein Jupai instead of in downtown Hsinchu. My brother and I had to adapt to a whole new neighborhood and make new friends. At sixth grade I transferred from a local school to PAS, which is an american school. I again, had to adapt to the new environment , culture, and language. Then on to high school, I adapted to increasing pressure and workload. 
  Many more changes await me. Graduating high school and going on to college will be a huge change. I will have to leave my native homeland and go to another country as a foreigner and strive my very best to adapt to America. After I graduate from college I would have to get used to becoming totally independent and accept the fact that I am no longer a student and needed to support myself all on my own. I would need to find a job and I would need to take on many responsibilities that I can only imagine at my current age. There should be many works available in the future after I graduate from college, many requiring a large amount of creativity and less of physical capacity. The future employment environment I predict will be more comfortable then today because as youngsters we grew up under an education system that teaches advocacy of the mind. I am sure that no employee in the future will hold back their thoughts on how to improve their working conditions and wages, therefore, making the working environment more comfortable. 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Topic 6: Who's Running the Show?

  I think PAS is a partnership. Although Ms. Pamela is the headmistress of our school, she still has a board of directors whose legal rights match hers.
  PAS was created by Ms. Pamela, quite obviously, and the original funding came from Ms. Pamela herself along with her board of directors . Together, they created Pacific American School and established it on the third floor of a Guangfu building. The decision making process is relatively simple as Ms. Pamela made most of the decisions but she does respect the opinions of her other board members. Together, they are the decision makers. Despite PAS was a school in name, it has a limited life because Ms. Pamela was the sole reason that a lot of the students chose to come to this school( like how people bought apple products because they knew Steve Jobs produced them) . The liability, however, rests on Ms. Pamela and her board directors, not Ms. Pamela alone. I do not know what happens to the profits the school earns, but I am guessing that Ms. Pamela will spilt it with her board members.
  I chose partnership because Ms. Pamela did not run the school alone. Rather, she had a grou pof board members who are less visible to the public eye but still important nothing less. The avantages are 1) freedom, 2) less start-up costs. The disadvantage is possible conflicts.
  If I were to start a school, it would probably be a partnership too because it gives me a certain amount of freedom without it being too much.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Topic 4: Ripple Effects and Elasticity

 One of the fundamental economic ideas is that choices have secondary, or "ripple" effects. Imagine throwing a stone into a still pond. The primary effect is the splash it makes, but it also sends out ripples that spread out over the surface of the pond which bounce off of other objects making further ripples. The ripples going in different directions and bump into each other, creating patterns that are difficult to predict. For this journal entry, write about how the ripple effects of a change (up or down) in the price of oil affects the various markets that make up the economy. How does it affect you and your family? At first you might think, "Not at all," but when you think about it more deeply, it is clear that because of oil's importance in the production of every good and service that is produced, a change in its price effects everyone (albeit differently). What other goods and services can you think of that have such an int
 Oil, over the past century, has become an important and irreplaceable( at this moment) energy source. The twenty-first century runs on OIL. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that a shift in oil price will affect many if not all goods one way or the other. An example would be the cost of vegetables in the supermarket, something a normal person might have thought had NOTHING to do with oil., but in fact does very much. Obviously, the farmer of the vegetables produce everything on his/her own, he or she is going to have to purchase materials or factors of production from elsewhere. To get these supplies fro m there and back to their farm is going to cost oil money, and if oil money rose, so does the farmer's fixed costs.
  After the farmers having planted and harvested their vegetables, these vegetables are again going to have to be transported to the super market who purchased these goods. Since automobiles run mostly on oil, if the oil price goes up, the super market owner is going to have to pay more. In order to sell the vegetables for a profit, the owner of the supermarket is going to have to increase the price of the vegetables by adding on the price of the increased oil fee. This is going to cause a rise in price of the vegetables on sale for sure.
  Vegetable prices is among only one of the examples exhibiting the ripple effect. Anything that requires any sort of transportation in the making would be affected by a rise of oil price.
  The rise in oil price also affected me as it will now take more money to buy the same quantity of a certain product.
  There are many other goods and services with similar impact on the economy as oil- the basic resources such as steel, silver, metal, wood...etc. These resources are irreplaceable and make up the foundation of many industries. A slight shift in price for any of these basic resources will, therefore, lead to drastic changes in the price of other products.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Topic 3: Where Choices Lead

 A number of very specific choices have led you to be in this particular class in this particular school. Each choice represents not only what was gained, but what was foregone in order to get you here. What was forgone is defined as the opportunity cost of what was gained. In your opinion, what have been some of the opportunity costs of getting you into PAS in general and this class in particular? Keep in mind that money is only one kind of cost--there are many more things that make up opportunity cost, both tangible and intangible. Considering that you most likely had little control over many of the decisions that got you here, do you think the decisions that were made were rational? In other words, if you analyze the costs and benefits, do the benefits outweigh the costs? Why or why not? If you had been in total control of your life, would you have made the same decisions? Explain.

 Setting the money factor aside, there are still things that was sacrificed in order for me to attend Pacific American School. I had to quit local school and say goodbye to my friends and everything I knew so well to be a part of a new environment that does not speak my native language. I also had to give up my chinese abilities in order to persue english improvements. Another oppurtunity cost is perhaps the other american schools in Hsinchu that I could not attend. The things I have sacrificed in order to get into the Economics class are less dramatic. The only oppurtunity cost would probably be Modern China, a class that I was going to take before I kenw about the opening of this Economics Class.
  I thought the decisions made for me attending Pacific American School was perfectly rational on my parent's part. I have demonstrated through time too what they believed - I do better in a more creative atmosphere. The american-styled education gives me room to expand my creativty and I love being able to do that. At the same time, PAS is also very strict about the acadamics so I will not slack off and can build up a very solid foundation. With that being said, I do believe that the benefits of attending PAS outweigh the costs. If I have been in total control of my life, I would probably have made the same decision because the benefits really do outweigh the cost.
  The decision for attending this economics class was also rational. I have always been interested in Economics and Economics class in school is the perfect oppurtunity for me to absorb. The benefits of attending Economics now do outweigh the cost of forgoing attending Modern China however by a little less then that of my decision to attend PAS. This is because the classes we take each year are flexible and I probably can still take modern China next year if I chose to take Economics this year and vice versa. Therefore, it can almost be viewed as a prelongation rather then  a sacrifice. Regardless, if I have been in total control of my life, I would have made the same decision because again, the benefits of learning economics do at the moment, outweigh the cost.