Film Theory and Criticism Essay

Maya Deren is known as one of those in Hollywood who spoke to everything that was not Hollywood. A film scholar and movie producer, in addition to other things, Maya Deren was conceived as Eleanora Derenkowsky in Kiev, Ukraine. She was naturally introduced to the film making industry, named after an Italian on-screen character. Subsequent to moving to Syracuse, New York, it was here where she started her enthusiasm for the communist development. It was likewise this move which affected a lot of her life and her heading in films. Maya Deren started her conventional training at Syracuse University where she was a functioning individual from the Trotskyist Young People’s Socialist League. She in the end proceeded to work with Katherine Dunham where she got her opportunity to work in Hollywood. Utilizing the legacy she got from her dad, Maya Deren bought a second hand 16mm Bolex camera with which she made what is maybe considered as one of best movies, Meshes of the Afternoon. This was perceived as one of the primary fundamental American vanguard films during the time. It was initially a quiet film that highlighted no discourse, notwithstanding, in 1957 a soundtrack was included by Teiji Ito. By 1943, she changed her name to Maya Deren. This was a direct result of her convictions around then and mirrored her political belief systems also. At this point, she had just extended her group of friends inside Hollywood to incorporate such others like Andre Breton, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and Anais Nin. After a year, she began her subsequent film, At Land, and different movies, for example, A Study in Choreography for the Camera in 1945 and Ritual in Transfigured Time, which was made in 1946, which investigated the dread of dismissal and the opportunity of articulation in surrendering custom. Her endeavors didn't go unrecognized as in 1946 she was granted with the Guggenheim Fellowship for â€Å"Creative Work in the Field of Motion Pictures. † While not the best of her honors, she was likewise given the Grand Prix Internationale for her trial film Meshes of the Afternoon at the Cannes Film Festival. Her other incredible works remember Meditation for Violence, which was made in 1948. This film depicted the qualification among savagery and excellence and is acted in by Chao Li Chi. Beside her profession in the film business, Deren additionally dispersed her movies and gave special visits everywhere throughout the world. During her vocation, she not just highlighted screenings in the United States, Canada and Cuba yet she likewise addressed widely in movie form hypothesis and vodoun. This, in any case, didn't prevent her from working up her movie profession and she proceeded to compose, immediate and even star in the vast majority of her movies. This was showed during her time making â€Å"New American Cinema† which gave recognition to the trial underground film of the United States. The heritage that Maya Deren left was something beyond through the works that she made for the cinema. In 1986, the American Film Institute regarded her accomplishments by making the Maya Deren Award for autonomous film making. There have likewise been various records of tribute being paid to her accomplishments, for example, the visit by the Horse and Bamboo Theater of the United Kingdom which made the Dance of White Darkness which is the tale of Deren’s visits to Haiti. The latest motion pictures made in her respect incorporate the film by Martina Kudlacek entitled In the Mirror of Maya Deren which highlighted the music of John Zorn. There was additionally a commemoration that was composed by Robert Stone to commend the accomplishments that Maya Deren had on the music business as well as to expressions of the human experience. While the impact of Maya Deren will unquestionably be recollected in her works, there is no other clear demonstration of her effect on the business as is appeared by the tribute that she is ceaselessly allowed right up 'til the present time. Catalog: Deren, M(Orig. distributed 1963) Cinema: The Creative Use of Actuality in Mast, G and Cohen. M eds. (1985) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings Oxford University Press, Oxford. Supplicate, M(2007) Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions Wallflower, London. Sitney, A(1979) Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943-78 second Edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford

Google and its Evil Face Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Google and its Evil Face - Essay Example The world announces the web crawler as a dig for data, however neglects to take a gander at the drawback to it since in actuality Google is a debasement of the world comparable to data, protection and security. Google expresses its strategic the association of the world’s data with the goal that it very well may be reached by anybody on the planet. Be that as it may, in any event, when it gives a lot of data to the peruser, this internet searcher is the most exceedingly terrible thing to have happened to our general public comparable to exacerbating of peoples’ understanding propensities, where there is no all the more perusing in books. This is influencing perception of substance procured from understanding books and read from Google indexed lists. Google is an extraordinary instrument to get any type of data; in any case, it is making negative inclinations in our general public. This is concerning Google clients getting indiscreet on the data they scan for and the sec urity worries on protection (Staff and Agencies). Consequently, scanning for data on Google ought to include distribution of enough time so as to look for sufficient data and assets, while placing into thought protection and security concerns. Actually, what society gets by utilizing Google is amount data, and not quality, which is the thing that individuals intuitively need. Thusly, general society gets into a safe place, which it doesn't expect to leave because of the simplicity of activity for people in that level. For example, on a five-year research program the British Library and one by a U.K. instructive consortium, they discovered that individuals get fixated on searching for data once they sign on (Carr). In such cases, the clients scan for articles and diaries that they don't really peruse or expect to peruse, yet rather continue looking. After this, the center lies in skimming through the articles without setting aside the effort to comprehend the idea. Therefore, individ uals don't go to libraries to discover data in books or from the periodicals rooms. Accordingly, Google is influencing the general public through giving them amount and by that, individuals quit perusing books on the grounds that; with just composing in Google search what they need, it would be a moment when they find the solutions and all the important data mentioned. Google as some other informal community needs to control what the clients do. In this way, they would not proceed to join other web crawlers, which give email and the area where they are. Google is controlling the clients by purchasing new markets and extending in new territories, they get new highlights, a quicker hunt and there is nobody that can contend with this web crawler (Rooketix Ltd). Likewise, bringing of Chrome for Android into the market has uncovered how Google is capability of recalling all our perusing history and their ability to move it into the cloud (Moreni). In this manner, in the event that anybod y is signed into a Google account, it is expressed in the Google protection strategy that any help utilized will have the option to follow all around by utilizing the email address and your present area. Besides, they can follow all that you scan for, and as long as you search for that equivalent subject over and over, notices will begin to show up on the sides as per the most ebb and flow points each client look (Davies). Google dependent on its statement of purpose has gone similarly as endeavoring to gather as much data as possible. This is according to making a type of online stockpiling the archives and different documents that individuals have. Following the statement of purpose of Google, it tries to make a database of all the information that exists on the planet and spot it in a focal spot for all to get to for nothing out of pocket. Considering this, Google has concocted Google Drive, which sets aside to five gigabytes of client records;

Analysis Paper: Zinsser’s Book on Writing Essay

In what capacity can I, as an author, balance composing for myself and for my perusers without yielding the other? That is the issue I was hit with while perusing Zinsser’s book On Writing Well, and one he presents.In his book, authors are urged to embrace a style that is fitting of themselves, yet catch and keep up the consideration of perusers. Imagine a scenario where my style doesn't catch perusers. Imagine a scenario in which what catches the consideration of perusers doesn't do likewise for me as I compose. Am I stuck wrestling between this conundrum of vulnerability or is there an exit plan? Note to self: NOT composing isn't a choice. Fortunately, Zinsser, who is an essayist, supervisor and instructor, offers arrangements in parts four, five, and nine that I discovered extremely accommodating and will fill in as a guide in future composing assignments. He exhorts that I dispense with any superfluous words and keep my language straightforward. This won’t detract from my style, yet upgrade it by evacuating the â€Å"excess or dimness [that] has crawled into [my] style† and impedes the message I am attempting to pass on to perusers. Style is something that each essayist has and makes him/her similarly remarkable. Along these lines, the initial phase in catching my crowd while composing for myself is to unwind and act naturally. Zinsser expresses: The peruser will see on the off chance that you are acting better than everyone else. Perusers need the individual who is conversing with them to sound authentic. Along these lines a basic guideline is: act naturally (19). Prior to composing, I ought to calm my self of any strain to write such that feels unnatural, produce an amazing paper that will shake everyone’s socks off, or meet a specific page length. Simply plunk down, put stock in my own personality and sentiments, and compose! Beside acting naturally, the subsequent advance is to decide the crowd of my paper. A writers’ crowd will most importantly be him/herself. Zinsser keeps on repeating this purpose of genuineness by saying, â€Å"Don’t attempt to imagine the incredible mass crowd. There is no such crowd †each peruser is an alternate person†¦You are composing fundamentally to satisfy yourself, and in the event that you go about it with happiness you will likewise engage the perusers who merit composing for (24).† In many cases, I disregard myself when writing with an end goal to finish the task and give the instructor what I think he/she might be anticipating from somebody at my instructive level. Those assignments have been the ones I least appreciated composition as well as have been told was feeling the loss of my voice. By writing thusly, I have been playing out a gigantic damage to my crowd by not giving them what they need: me. I am sorry! Alongside communicating my character, I ought not disregard my art. There is no reason, as Zinsser states, for messy workmanship. I should regard my crowd enough to give close consideration to specialized subtleties and guarantee that their perusing procedure is one of clearness then masterfulness. Third and last, I should begin and end the entirety of my composing assignments with â€Å"freshness, or oddity, or mystery, or silliness, or shock, or with a bizarre thought, or a fascinating truth, or a question† that will catch my perusers (55). Zinsser says that the most significant sentence in any article is the first. In the event that the peruser has not been pulled in to my subject through that sentence then there are no odds the peruser will need to peruse further. Alongside inventively starting and closure my composing task, the data I present must give the peruser a feeling of direction while perusing. Perusers need to know why I have picked my point, why they should understand it, and be given enough data that leaves them feeling very much educated. As I keep on sharpening my composing abilities and further create them in different understudies, I need to convey Zinsser’s focal message of validness with me. Composing at its best is one of a kind, enlightening, and â€Å"an close exchange between two individuals, led on paper, and it will work out positively to the degree that it holds its humanity† (20). I need to encourage my understudies to always remember the most fundamental piece in their compositions: themselves. On the off chance that that is overlooked, at that point the â€Å"intimate transaction† that is required among them and their crowd will be inaccessible and insufficient.

Alienation in All Quiet on the Western Front :: All Quiet on the Western Front Essays

Distance in All Quiet on the Western Front   â â â â â â According to the Webster's New World College Dictionary, distance is 1. Division, revultion, aberration.â 2.â Estrangement or detachment.â 3.  Mental disturbance; madness.   â â â â â â The topic of All Quiet on the Western Front is about how World War I obliterated an age of youngsters. It has taken from them the remainder of their youth years, it has decimated their confidence in their older folks, it has shown them an individual life is good for nothing - and all it has yielded return is the capacity to acknowledge fundamental physical delights. As per Paul, however, the men haven't totally lost human affectability: they're most certainly not as insensitive as they showed up in Chapter 1, wolfing down their dead allies' proportions. It's simply that they should claim to overlook the dead; else they would go frantic.   â â â â â â Remarque incorporates conversations among Paul's gathering, and Paul's own considerations while he watches Russian detainees of war (Chapters 3, 8, 9) to show that no conventional individuals profit by a war. Regardless of what side a man is on, he is murdering other men simply such as himself, individuals with whom he may indeed, even be companions at some other point.   â â â â â â But Remarque doesn't simply reveal to us war is unpleasant. He likewise shows us that war is horrendous past anything we could envision. Every one of our faculties are attacked: we see recently dead warriors and long-dead bodies hurled up together in a burial ground (Chapter 4); we hear the absurd shouting of the injured ponies (Chapter 4); we see and smell three layers of bodies, expanding and burping gases, dumped into a colossal shell opening (Chapter 6); what's more, we can nearly contact the exposed bodies hanging in trees and the appendages lying around the combat zone (Chapter 9).   â â â â â â The crying of the ponies is particularly horrible. Ponies have nothing to do with making war. Their bodies sparkle perfectly as they march along- - until the shells strike them. To Paul, their withering cries speak to all of nature blaming Man, the incredible destroyer.   â â â â â â In later parts Paul no longer notices nature as an informer yet implies that nature is just there- - moving consistently on through the seasons, giving no consideration to the urgent brutalities of men to each other. This, as well, shows the ghastliness of war, that it is totally unnatural

Energy Management Case Study Siemens Free Essays

In June 2009, Siemens required its exertion in sun oriented and wind to the following level by driving the Deserted activity. This cross-country venture intends to create sun based force in North Africa, where it is generally bounteous, and afterward transport it to Europe. The venture fits especially well with Siemens since it requires not just involvement with the essential breeze and sunlight based innovation yet in addition in the integral advancements, for example, power frameworks and switchboard. We will compose a custom article test on Vitality Management Case Study: Siemens or on the other hand any comparable point just for you Request Now Which have generally been solid business field for the organization. Atomic vitality: 1. Atomic reactors are the most grounded power plants conceivable and the most financially achievable 2. As of late Siemens has taking up its atomic exercises over again and is using to get engaged with worldwide understandings. With Siemens turning into a potential new accomplice in the Russian market that holds dozen of new parts and china that have plans to have 100 new reactors in activity or under development by 2020 Hydrophone: 1. Tackling the intensity of sea waves has pulled in noteworthy consideration since sea spread 71% of the earth surface. 2. US division of vitality set up the hydrophone program, intended to lead RD that will improve the specialized, cultural and natural advantages of hydrophone and give cost serious advances. Geothermal force: 1. This innovation has a significant favorable position that it tends to be introduced any place vitality is really required. Geothermal plants require insignificant new water and outside fuel students, and because of their format are exceptionally adaptable. Brilliant networks: 2. Shrewd matrix innovation is by all accounts a characteristic open door for Siemens, in view of the company’s long history with electronic innovation and items. Wolfgang Then accepts that the market for keen networks will increment because of environmental change and financial improvement programs. 4) Threats: 1) Carbon-based fuel add up to 39% of Siemens benefits, confronting the truth that petroleum derivative are limited, supplies will in the end run out, it Just a matter of when. The risk is that Siemens emergency course of action in sustainable power source comprise of 11% of its benefit. ) Alternative vitality: Most elective vitality creation strategies have one significant downside: they can produce vitality just in places were natures give the necessary vitality input. Wind vitality The size of the breeze turbine isn't adaptable because of innovative limitations. To expand limit, numerous breeze turbines there for must be spread out over huge good ways from each other. Thickly populated urban regions don't have satisfactory space to house wind parks, and provincial regions have communicated inconvenience with the examples and agribusiness productivities. Wind turbines have restricted proficiency. Wind turbines require enormous and exceptionally particular get together offices. The first since forever coast turbines fundamental concerns are the sturdiness and support of the gear against forceful ecological condition adrift. Siemens is thinking about to use its size, possibility, competency, and bleeding edge innovation to additionally build its piece of the pie and worldwide impression in wind vitality. The inquiry is whether wind vitality will end up being the main elective innovation, and on the off chance that it does, regardless of whether wind advances alone can produce enough benefit to keep Siemens up high. Sun powered vitality Like breeze vitality sun oriented force most be separated were it happens normally. Sunlight based boards have a low proficiency. Arriving at just about 25% under ideal research center conditions. Sunlight based boards due too China has become the pioneer producer of minimal effort Combination of modest work and accessible modern framework; it drove costs Down by nearly The strategy for discarding atomic waste in old surrenders and salt brain isn't 100% safe, what's more there has been reports of expanded leukemia rates in territories near atomic reactors, changes in the micrometer because of the huge measure of steam discharged into the air. Hydrophone: For the innovation to work, the beach should be level with just a slight incline, and requires significant lots of littoral waters. Additionally tide turbines are limited to uninhabited sea shores, since moving parts under the water surface, can make dangers for swimmers, water sports, and beach front boats. A few disadvantages to wave power incorporate the effectiveness of ebb and flow application vital obstruction against threatening condition (tempests and salt water consumption), cost of power, conceivable effect on marine life, and perils to delivery. ) Candidates, for example, geothermal vitality and hydra power, also cutting edge atomic reactor have developed quickly as of late and appear to be ready to represent a genuine risk to wind and sun powered applications, Siemens most depended upon elective vitality source. 4) Siemens is thinking about different alternatives as its portal from the issue and needs to put down some noteworthy wagers. In the event that Sieme ns wagers seriously, the organization dangers being consigned to the sidelines as more up to date, more trend-setter firms press more slow moving occupants out of the market. Sick) PEST Analysts: 1) Political/Regulatory/Legal: l. Government official from the US and Germany 2 of the greatest industrialized nations on the planet are supporting the advancement of elective vitality. II. A gathering of 20 Coos proposals to 68 pioneers in their 2008 atmosphere approach: A change in perspective to low mechanical development, this will open the entryway for new vitality organizations to enter the market Ill. Joined with a developing worldwide consciousness of the effect of green-house gases on environmental change just as expanded concerns in regards to vitality security. Vitality issues are currently getting reestablished enthusiasm from government and partnership the same. IV. President Obama visited the breeze turbine cutting edge plant in Fort Medicine, Iowa to show his help accepting bringing in political acknowledgment. V. Creating modern call wind turbines requires enormous and exceptionally particular gathering offices. The section level hindrances are high. VI. The exertion of Siemens inquire about in atomic vitality were required to be postponed in the backtalk when the German government passed a law that would bit by bit pull back the nation from atomic force age. Anyway Germany is reexamining this choice. The German parliamentary political decision 2009 brought forth new expectations that the German atomic industry may be revalidated. VI’. Russia, China and the US are in the market delivering and permitting numerous new atomic reactor (12, 100, 35 individually) . VIII. Siemens was as of late tormented by a pay off outrage and in light of the fact that the US and the EX. Have lows that make such business practice unlawful, Siemens was condemned to 1. 6 billion in finds by the German and the US specialists. Anyway pay off is typical in nations, for example, Nigeria, Russia and China. ) Economic: l. The costs of oil have been drifting upward in late decades. Unrefined petroleum costs spiked at a bygone era high of $145. 15 for every barrel on July 3 2008(up from $50 just multi month sooner). II. Sunlight based boards have arrived at a creation cost of under $1 per k yield. Sick. US are Jumping the fleeting trend incompletely in light of t he fact that they accept that a large number of new green Jobs may assist with decreasing high joblessness. ‘V. Chinese organizations are entering firmly to the breeze vitality and sun oriented market because of a mix of modest work and accessible modern framework. China drove costs of sun powered boards somewhere near practically half from 2008 to 2009. V. The Obama organization set a side financing to construct shrewd network advancements as a major aspect of its ongoing monetary upgrade plan. 3) Social/Cultural: l. Social familiarity with the effect of green-house gases on environmental change just as expanded concerns in regards to vitality security. II. Consuming of non-renewable energy source discharges carbon dioxide(CO into the air, which has connected to a worldwide temperature alteration. What's more numerous urban communities have gotten sullied by smoke and individuals are enduring medical issues brought about by expanded contamination. Sick. US government accepts that putting resources into elective vitality will make a huge number of new green Jobs. IV. Country zones have communicated disturbance of the sound made by wind turbines just as their impedance with natural life transient examples and agrarian profitability. V. Atomic force has genuine constraints issues incorporate atomic mishaps like Coherently and Fuchsia and how to store atomic items which can be destructive to any living life form. L. New options vitality advances are Wing to supplant carbon-based petroleum products. II. Better materials have empowered particular organizations to fabricate ever-bigger breeze turbines and new improved sun powered boards however expanding proficiency and diminishing expense. (model: the 3. 6 mm wind turbine, first-consistently gliding breeze turbine, cost effective Chinese sun based board, turnkey innovative sun powered plants). Sick. R in different organizations has prodded colossal endeavors to discover ideal ways to catch as well as to store and circulate vitality produced from normal assets. IV. US branch of vitality as of late reported 40 million dollar in establishing to help structure and arranging work for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NSP). V. Saddling the intensity of the sea waves has pulled in huge consideration since seas spread 71% of the earth surface. Moreover the US division of vitality built up the hydrophone program intended to convey R that will improve the specialized, cultural and ecological advantages of hydrophone and give cost serious advancements. VI. The new brilliant matrix innovation incorporate self-observing ND conceivably self-fixing abilities, savvy sensors and meters, and a correspondence organize like the web. V) Competitive Analysis: 1) New Market Entrants: l. A change in outlook to low carbon economy by 2050 can possibly drive forward the following section of mechanical development, this will open the entryway for new vitality organizations to enter the market. II. Since the market of wind

BloomReach

BloomReach INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in  Mountain View  with BloomReach. Ashu, who are you and what do you do?Ashutosh: Im the CTO and co-founder of BloomReach.Martin: When did you start this company and what was the reason for starting it?Ashutosh: So we started BloomReach in late 2008 early 2009. The vision of the company was to actually make the web a lot more relevant and personalized to the people. So like, over the last 10 to 15 years, the amount content of the web has grown by leaps and bounds. The amount of content that is available is huge.And while Google and Facebook after all are trying to make it easy for people to navigate some of that web, what happens is once you leave these portals and land on an international website, whether its Walmart.com or eBay, or Amazon, or even New York Times, finding the content on these websites are huge challenge. The amount of content that exist in any of these websites is more than the entire web, what the entire web was in 1998. So na vigating to that piece of content is really-really hard. What we want to do is to make it very easy for people to find and discover what they are looking for. So we started the company with that vision in mind.Martin: So, Google would be the entry point, and then once people are on the websites automaticallyAshutosh: It could be anything. Today if you look at any,  to build a website, right. very small portion of the people, like 5 10% come directly, and the rest of the people will come either through a social network, through an email, through an affiliate campaign, through Google, through page search campaign, or any other channel.So, people are going to land from where ever, whatever channel they picked. So its not that much about, like what channel they are picking, right. But they are coming from outside, they may land on any individual page of the website and not necessarily the homepage. So, what can you do, what can you do, all you know about that person, from where theyre coming, how they are coming, why theyre coming, and from their past behavior, and you use all that information to see what on your website is the most relevant piece of content for that user at that time and the name of that whole thing.Martin: Understood. So what enabled yourself to start this company based on your professional background?Ashutosh: So what does it take to make this thing happen?One is, like, being at Google, like, they found out how people are navigating the web, what are the challenges that they are running into, what are the struggles they have, right. So that was one big area of pain thing for me.The second is, working at a company like Google, I had access to lots of data, allowed to their systems, so became an expert in that system.And third is, my PhD was in Machine Learning and Data Mining.So, at some level all these things came together, where I could process a large amount of data, to make sense of that data and then present it to the people.Martin: Okay. Great!BUSINESS MODEL OF BLOOMREACHMartin: Lets talk about the business model of BloomReach. As you said, the users come through different channels to the website and then what happens next?Ashutosh: So if you take any website, right, what you want to do is you want to bring people in, you want to keep the people in over there and you want them to come again. So, bring the people in, that is marketing, right.So one focus is, how can you make your marketing a lot more effective bringing more people in.The second, so what have done is, we work at the website to understand how they organize their content. Is their content getting crawled easily or not, is this content in the same language as how people are looking for that content. So for example, the way people will describe a product in Europe is different from the way the will describe it in the  US.But, now if youre reading the content for European audience but launching it in the  US, that wont work or vice versa, right. So you nee d to make sure that language is the same with how people are describing it. So we do a number of things to analyze content to make sure that it is really accessible by various, like either to social networks or search engines or anyone. So that is one focus on the marketing side.And the second thing is, that once you are on the website, the way you navigate the website, you use the navigation search for the website, you go look at it, you go to search pages over there. So we provide a SNAP solution which is Search Navigation and Personalization.And actually, our third product now which is on analytics. What it does is, it helps analyze all the content of a website and the user behavior and it will see whats working and whats not working and what you can do to improve it.So the business model for different products is different. It is the combination of the usage and the performance, like how much customers are using it and what theyre getting out of it.Martin: I totally understood t hat you have this kind of recommendation engine that youre trying to sell and then the analytical part.  Regarding the recommendation, is it that you have some kind of snippets that you just enter or you totally rearrange the whole website and categories, etc.?Ashutosh: It can be both. So depending upon the authentification and what our customers want and will they see the maximum value, it could be a small widget on their website or could be an entire landing page or a combination of both.Martin: And how did you find the first customer?Ashutosh: The initial first few customers are always these early adapters, and either through family and friends. So working with our investors, their relationships, through our personal relationships we found some customers. One of the questions that their value proposition has to be strong enough that even though they understand that a startup is a risky value proposition, but by working with a startup their value is going to be so large if it work s, then Im willing to give it a try.Martin: Can you tell us a little bit more on how the technology behind this works, especially  in terms of the recommendation? So what type of data sets are you taking into account?Ashutosh: Yes, absolutely. As I said, right. Theres a lot of data. So for the data, we look at 3 key sources of a data.One is, any customers that youre working with, we Google and crawl and mine all the data that exist on their website.Second, that is crucial about the data is that broader web. Just to give you a context of why that matters is, if you look at any product as an example, you call a product a certain thing because everyone else calls it that. But any name is meaningless. It is the context of the rest of the web that name become meaningful.  So by crawling the web, were able to understand and associate what each word means or each entity means. And then were able to relate the content of the website.And the third thing that we look at is the users behavior. That ultimately if you’re trying to satisfy the users, you really need to see whether they like certain things or they’re not liking it.And by bringing these 3 things together, the content of a website, understanding of that, understanding of the users behavior, understanding of the product, and then picking the right machine learning algorythms to learn on top of it and collaborative conditions, search and that allows the data processing.Martin: Regarding the analytics product that you are selling, what type of actionable advice can you give your customers based on these insights?Ashutosh: So if you take any website, I mean you guys have one for yourselves.One thing you decide is what to write.The second, once youve written it, have you written it correctly or not. Are you missing things or not, right.Once youve done that, then how you are organizing the content on the website? Are you getting the right users behavior from that or not, right. Are there gaps in the content that youve written?So, we actually give advice on all these things. What to write, how to write it, who to go after, how to lay out everything, so it really fits.What is the purpose of a website or any of these things is connecting the right user to the right piece of content. Its not about, shall I go with email or shall I go with SEO, shall I go with SEM, shall I do page search, shall I build the website, do I do that traffic, no. Our business, in your case, it is a set of articles, for a retailer a set of products, any of those things, right. First is you need to sort out your entry, so we can tell you what is performing, what is not performing, how you should go  sorting  it.Second is, we see youre writing an article. First I tell you, you should write on security, then within security what people are concerned about, how you should be describing that, then how should you be laying it out, to what audience you should be reaching out to, should you be reaching out to the people in a certain age group, certain demographics, or certain psychographics,  what will work, what works? And once youve done all that, what work, what tends to, and help you to predict whats going to happen tomorrow. So we do all of it.Martin: Can you tell us how the revenue model works?Ashutosh: For this product?Martin: For analytics and for the recommendation.Ashutosh: On analytics, it is a function of the amount of the content that people are searching and the amount of the users that we are processing. So, if a website has a large amount of content and a large amount of user base which are a lot more than, because the amount of processing that we have to do and analyze and storage and everything, is a function of that system.Around the recommendation and personalization, on that its a function of the usage, like how much are users getting, are they putting a lot of, are they putting on a few pages. Based on that I mean, it costs us percent to work there. And theres an element of how muc h value they are taking out of it as well.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Lets talk about corporate strategies. What competitive advantage do you perceive of BloomReach over other companies?Ashutosh: So, I think I will expand that slightly more and I say that, as a startup, what is a competitive advantage and how do you build that over them. And theres number of things that you can do. One is when youre starting on day one, it is clearly technology and product. Your product that no one else has, so that is your competitive advantage. All your piece of technology that no one else has.So BloomReach, what we have done is a kind of tools with algorithms that are very-very unique. There are very-very few companies with a handful of people in the world who can do this kind of things. So that is one advantage that we have, that no one else has.The second thing is that, over time the amount of data that we have collected is unique to us. So the customer that we are working with, we have collected their data for the last one year or last 2 years, right. So we know a lot about whats going on. Our starting point is much better than anyone else. The network effect now that we are working with so many retailers as an example, our performance with the next retailer is so much better than it was with the first retailer, the first time. So big data advantage, network effect advantage.And third is, we have a large customer base that gives us the responsibility so that becomes a huge advantage. So you just have a huge footprint and now you can upsell more profitable thing to your customer base.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: In terms of market development, one part of your business is related to SEO and SEM. Can you tell us a little bit more, what implications that your business model have on the total market of SEO and SEM because there are so many SEO agencies out there consulting websites how they should optimize the website and youre doing this somehow automized?Ashutosh: So what peopl e are doing is manually looking at small pieces of content and seeing what can be done over there. Now in that case, most of the time, because like how we can get around and get more traffic. As against as looking at like, why something needs to be done for SEO as an example. So if you have a website, but if you build it in a way that it can not be crawled, I mean that is a fundamental limitation of the way the content is consumed by different web search. So it is not really about SEO, its more around like the basic structure of the website. A simple way, say you have 5 pages, say you have 10 pages on your website. I can come with a link structure, and it will take 9  jumps  to get to the last page. Or if you have a website of a million pages, I can build a link structure with just empty links on our page so that we can get from any page to any page within like 5  jumps.Now, in a crawler based world, you need to make sure that the content is organized properly. Actually fundamental thing that has happened over the last 15 years is, if you go with any standard text book on marketing, it would be about how do you differentiate yourself, how do you stand out in the crowd. Make sense. But in a search based world, you need to me more part of the crowd than the stand out of the crowd. You can define everything that youre doing in a way that is different from how everyone else is calling. But guess what, people are searching based on how everyone else is calling and not how you are calling it. So you want to show up over there. So you need to be as similar to the crowd as possible as against as different from the crowd.So thats the opposite how marketing was in the past. So we are trying to solve those basic problems, which require a lot more data analysis and everything. So its neither competing with the agencies, so I mean, they have their place and they are doing a lot and they are helping. So if you are like, Okay this is the 5 categories that Im worried about, s hare it with the agencies, but if its more around like I want a website and make sure that is working well right over a million pages, no one can do it manually. That is where you need tools. And we have, thats where BloomReach come into place.Martin: Understood. So in terms of market development, you work at Google, what happens if Google enters a similar market like you do, because in addition to your data set, they have all the SEO or search engine data?  Is this some kind of viable threat that you are feeling or not?Ashutosh: I mean, Google has like 20 thousand engineers, sure they can do everything. And so, it is the case with any other company. But the customers that we involved are with, one is we know a lot more about them than anyone else would ever.So, this is a simple thing about, you don’t know what you don’t know. If theres a page that is not getting crawled, you just dont know that, theres nothing you can do about it. I mean, in our case, because we work very close ly with these enterprises, we know about that and we can work surfacing it.  So the amount of data and understanding that there is so much more the than anyone else.But then, if someone wants to get in this space, sure they can and then. But I think the competitive advantage that we have built over them, now we know, for example my customer. We know what has been going on on their website for the last 1.5 years, no one else does. So we will have that big advantage. So the starting point for anyone else would be much lower than ours.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM ASHUTOSH GARG In Mountain View, we meet CTO Cofounder of BloomReach, Ashutosh Garg. He shares his story of how he cofounded this startup and how the current business model works, as well as what the current plans are for near future, and some advice for young entrepreneurs.The transcription of the interview is uploaded below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi. Today we are in  Mountain View  with BloomReach. Ashu, who are you and what do you do?Ashutosh: Im the CTO and co-founder of BloomReach.Martin: When did you start this company and what was the reason for starting it?Ashutosh: So we started BloomReach in late 2008 early 2009. The vision of the company was to actually make the web a lot more relevant and personalized to the people. So like, over the last 10 to 15 years, the amount content of the web has grown by leaps and bounds. The amount of content that is available is huge.And while Google and Facebook after all are trying to make it easy for people to navigate some of that web, what happens is once you leave these portals and land on an international website, whether its Walmart.com or eBay, or Amazon, or even New York Times, finding the content on these websites are huge challenge. The amount of content that exist in any of these websites is more than the entire web, what the entire web was in 1998. So navigating to that piece of content is really-really hard. What we want to do is to make it very easy for people to find and discover what they are looking for. So we started the company with that vision in mind.Martin: So, Google would be the entry point, and then once people are on the websites automaticallyAshutosh: It could be anything. Today if you look at any,  to build a website, right. very small portion of the people, like 5 10% come directly, and the rest of the people will come either through a social network, through an email, through an affiliate campaign, through Google, through page search campaign, or any other channel.So, people are going to land from where e ver, whatever channel they picked. So its not that much about, like what channel they are picking, right. But they are coming from outside, they may land on any individual page of the website and not necessarily the homepage. So, what can you do, what can you do, all you know about that person, from where theyre coming, how they are coming, why theyre coming, and from their past behavior, and you use all that information to see what on your website is the most relevant piece of content for that user at that time and the name of that whole thing.Martin: Understood. So what enabled yourself to start this company based on your professional background?Ashutosh: So what does it take to make this thing happen?One is, like, being at Google, like, they found out how people are navigating the web, what are the challenges that they are running into, what are the struggles they have, right. So that was one big area of pain thing for me.The second is, working at a company like Google, I had acc ess to lots of data, allowed to their systems, so became an expert in that system.And third is, my PhD was in Machine Learning and Data Mining.So, at some level all these things came together, where I could process a large amount of data, to make sense of that data and then present it to the people.Martin: Okay. Great!BUSINESS MODEL OF BLOOMREACHMartin: Lets talk about the business model of BloomReach. As you said, the users come through different channels to the website and then what happens next?Ashutosh: So if you take any website, right, what you want to do is you want to bring people in, you want to keep the people in over there and you want them to come again. So, bring the people in, that is marketing, right.So one focus is, how can you make your marketing a lot more effective bringing more people in.The second, so what have done is, we work at the website to understand how they organize their content. Is their content getting crawled easily or not, is this content in the sam e language as how people are looking for that content. So for example, the way people will describe a product in Europe is different from the way the will describe it in the  US.But, now if youre reading the content for European audience but launching it in the  US, that wont work or vice versa, right. So you need to make sure that language is the same with how people are describing it. So we do a number of things to analyze content to make sure that it is really accessible by various, like either to social networks or search engines or anyone. So that is one focus on the marketing side.And the second thing is, that once you are on the website, the way you navigate the website, you use the navigation search for the website, you go look at it, you go to search pages over there. So we provide a SNAP solution which is Search Navigation and Personalization.And actually, our third product now which is on analytics. What it does is, it helps analyze all the content of a website and the us er behavior and it will see whats working and whats not working and what you can do to improve it.So the business model for different products is different. It is the combination of the usage and the performance, like how much customers are using it and what theyre getting out of it.Martin: I totally understood that you have this kind of recommendation engine that youre trying to sell and then the analytical part.  Regarding the recommendation, is it that you have some kind of snippets that you just enter or you totally rearrange the whole website and categories, etc.?Ashutosh: It can be both. So depending upon the authentification and what our customers want and will they see the maximum value, it could be a small widget on their website or could be an entire landing page or a combination of both.Martin: And how did you find the first customer?Ashutosh: The initial first few customers are always these early adapters, and either through family and friends. So working with our invest ors, their relationships, through our personal relationships we found some customers. One of the questions that their value proposition has to be strong enough that even though they understand that a startup is a risky value proposition, but by working with a startup their value is going to be so large if it works, then Im willing to give it a try.Martin: Can you tell us a little bit more on how the technology behind this works, especially  in terms of the recommendation? So what type of data sets are you taking into account?Ashutosh: Yes, absolutely. As I said, right. Theres a lot of data. So for the data, we look at 3 key sources of a data.One is, any customers that youre working with, we Google and crawl and mine all the data that exist on their website.Second, that is crucial about the data is that broader web. Just to give you a context of why that matters is, if you look at any product as an example, you call a product a certain thing because everyone else calls it that. But a ny name is meaningless. It is the context of the rest of the web that name become meaningful.  So by crawling the web, were able to understand and associate what each word means or each entity means. And then were able to relate the content of the website.And the third thing that we look at is the users behavior. That ultimately if you’re trying to satisfy the users, you really need to see whether they like certain things or they’re not liking it.And by bringing these 3 things together, the content of a website, understanding of that, understanding of the users behavior, understanding of the product, and then picking the right machine learning algorythms to learn on top of it and collaborative conditions, search and that allows the data processing.Martin: Regarding the analytics product that you are selling, what type of actionable advice can you give your customers based on these insights?Ashutosh: So if you take any website, I mean you guys have one for yourselves.One thing yo u decide is what to write.The second, once youve written it, have you written it correctly or not. Are you missing things or not, right.Once youve done that, then how you are organizing the content on the website? Are you getting the right users behavior from that or not, right. Are there gaps in the content that youve written?So, we actually give advice on all these things. What to write, how to write it, who to go after, how to lay out everything, so it really fits.What is the purpose of a website or any of these things is connecting the right user to the right piece of content. Its not about, shall I go with email or shall I go with SEO, shall I go with SEM, shall I do page search, shall I build the website, do I do that traffic, no. Our business, in your case, it is a set of articles, for a retailer a set of products, any of those things, right. First is you need to sort out your entry, so we can tell you what is performing, what is not performing, how you should go  sorting  it .Second is, we see youre writing an article. First I tell you, you should write on security, then within security what people are concerned about, how you should be describing that, then how should you be laying it out, to what audience you should be reaching out to, should you be reaching out to the people in a certain age group, certain demographics, or certain psychographics,  what will work, what works? And once youve done all that, what work, what tends to, and help you to predict whats going to happen tomorrow. So we do all of it.Martin: Can you tell us how the revenue model works?Ashutosh: For this product?Martin: For analytics and for the recommendation.Ashutosh: On analytics, it is a function of the amount of the content that people are searching and the amount of the users that we are processing. So, if a website has a large amount of content and a large amount of user base which are a lot more than, because the amount of processing that we have to do and analyze and stora ge and everything, is a function of that system.Around the recommendation and personalization, on that its a function of the usage, like how much are users getting, are they putting a lot of, are they putting on a few pages. Based on that I mean, it costs us percent to work there. And theres an element of how much value they are taking out of it as well.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: Lets talk about corporate strategies. What competitive advantage do you perceive of BloomReach over other companies?Ashutosh: So, I think I will expand that slightly more and I say that, as a startup, what is a competitive advantage and how do you build that over them. And theres number of things that you can do. One is when youre starting on day one, it is clearly technology and product. Your product that no one else has, so that is your competitive advantage. All your piece of technology that no one else has.So BloomReach, what we have done is a kind of tools with algorithms that are very-very unique. Ther e are very-very few companies with a handful of people in the world who can do this kind of things. So that is one advantage that we have, that no one else has.The second thing is that, over time the amount of data that we have collected is unique to us. So the customer that we are working with, we have collected their data for the last one year or last 2 years, right. So we know a lot about whats going on. Our starting point is much better than anyone else. The network effect now that we are working with so many retailers as an example, our performance with the next retailer is so much better than it was with the first retailer, the first time. So big data advantage, network effect advantage.And third is, we have a large customer base that gives us the responsibility so that becomes a huge advantage. So you just have a huge footprint and now you can upsell more profitable thing to your customer base.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: In terms of market development, one part of your business is related to SEO and SEM. Can you tell us a little bit more, what implications that your business model have on the total market of SEO and SEM because there are so many SEO agencies out there consulting websites how they should optimize the website and youre doing this somehow automized?Ashutosh: So what people are doing is manually looking at small pieces of content and seeing what can be done over there. Now in that case, most of the time, because like how we can get around and get more traffic. As against as looking at like, why something needs to be done for SEO as an example. So if you have a website, but if you build it in a way that it can not be crawled, I mean that is a fundamental limitation of the way the content is consumed by different web search. So it is not really about SEO, its more around like the basic structure of the website. A simple way, say you have 5 pages, say you have 10 pages on your website. I can come with a link structure, and it will take 9  jumps  to get to the last page. Or if you have a website of a million pages, I can build a link structure with just empty links on our page so that we can get from any page to any page within like 5  jumps.Now, in a crawler based world, you need to make sure that the content is organized properly. Actually fundamental thing that has happened over the last 15 years is, if you go with any standard text book on marketing, it would be about how do you differentiate yourself, how do you stand out in the crowd. Make sense. But in a search based world, you need to me more part of the crowd than the stand out of the crowd. You can define everything that youre doing in a way that is different from how everyone else is calling. But guess what, people are searching based on how everyone else is calling and not how you are calling it. So you want to show up over there. So you need to be as similar to the crowd as possible as against as different from the crowd.So thats the opposite how marketing was in the past. So we are trying to solve those basic problems, which require a lot more data analysis and everything. So its neither competing with the agencies, so I mean, they have their place and they are doing a lot and they are helping. So if you are like, Okay this is the 5 categories that Im worried about, share it with the agencies, but if its more around like I want a website and make sure that is working well right over a million pages, no one can do it manually. That is where you need tools. And we have, thats where BloomReach come into place.Martin: Understood. So in terms of market development, you work at Google, what happens if Google enters a similar market like you do, because in addition to your data set, they have all the SEO or search engine data?  Is this some kind of viable threat that you are feeling or not?Ashutosh: I mean, Google has like 20 thousand engineers, sure they can do everything. And so, it is the case with any other company. But the customers that w e involved are with, one is we know a lot more about them than anyone else would ever.So, this is a simple thing about, you don’t know what you don’t know. If theres a page that is not getting crawled, you just dont know that, theres nothing you can do about it. I mean, in our case, because we work very closely with these enterprises, we know about that and we can work surfacing it.  So the amount of data and understanding that there is so much more the than anyone else.But then, if someone wants to get in this space, sure they can and then. But I think the competitive advantage that we have built over them, now we know, for example my customer. We know what has been going on on their website for the last 1.5 years, no one else does. So we will have that big advantage. So the starting point for anyone else would be much lower than ours.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM ASHUTOSH GARGMartin: Imagine your little brother comes to you and says, Ashu I want to start a company. Maybe he liv es in  India. What would you recommend him? What should he do and what he shouldnt do?Ashutosh: Do it because youre passionate about something, don’t do it for money or dont do it for a quick outcome. I mean you are an entrepreneur yourself right? Im sure you guys have heard of a startup is a roller coaster ride.Martin: We also have written a post about that.Ashutosh: A startup being a roller coaster ride? And actually a startup is anything but a roller coaster ride. Its not a roller coaster ride. Working in a big company is a roller coaster ride. And let me explain what I mean by that.When you are in a roller coaster, you might be going at 50 miles an hour, 70 miles an hour in that roller coaster for 5 minutes. You know that at the end of 5 minutes the roller caster will stop. Youll be exactly where you sat, you have a harness around you, nothing is going to happen to you, you will get all the jerks, but youll be where you are. Nothing will change. The world will still be the sam e for you, right. Become me, you’ll be thrown around from one project to another, by the end of the month you will get a fat paycheck, thats it. Your check won’t go by more than 10 20 % next year. Thats it.A startup is like driving, you’re in the Bay area, like driving on a 101 and 150 miles an hour. Either youll be the first to reach your destination or you will die, nothing in between. Theres no harness, you dont control anything else on the road. If you succeed, you are the fastest one, youre just not there yet. That is what a startup is. So if you are ready for it.The other thing is that most people, I mean, I meet so many entrepreneurs, they are like, So what are you trying to do? Heres a good idea so Im working on it. Why? Because I want to build WhatsApp for this thing, I want to build Uber for this thing. Are you passionate about it? No, no, but this will have a huge market and customers want this. What are you passionate about? No, but I can make money through this t hing and the VCs are saying that this is a good idea. But have you give it a thought to what you want to do in life?And I think people missed out on that aspect. So you should have a reason why you want to do it, you should have passion behind it. Thats the key thing.Martin: When did you know that your passion is big data, machine learning and maybe search?Ashutosh: I have been doing this for the last 15 18 years. My PhD was in that, my undergrad thesis was in that, my master was in that. So it has been just over time. But the key passion is, how you make life easier for people. Thats starting way to go. And all these are different ways and baby steps you can take.Martin: What other advice would you give your little brother?Ashutosh: I mean this is tough work. You have to be ready to do everything. Like we were discussing earlier right, its not only about like, I like this piece of work or I don’t like this piece of work.You will have to do whatever is needed for you. You are the master in the office but you are also the janitor of the office. You just do everything. So thats one thing.Its a long journey.  You may have an exit in a year, you maybe successful right. You will die with that. And for the next 25 years right. So make sure that youre ready to make that commitment.Other thing is you need to make sure that you have enough support from your family, because in this race, for doing things and achieving our vision sometimes our family has to pay the price. And are they ready for it or not? Because once you are in, theres no looking back. You will have good days, you will have bad days. Are you ready for that?Martin: How did your family support you?Ashutosh: I was on vacation actually last weekend, which was probably the first vacation I took in 2 years. So that is one part of how they have to suffer from this.Martin: Not seeing you.Ashutosh: Not seeing you and youre not being there. But more importantly even when you are there, my wife kept asking me, so what are you thinking right now on the beach and not enjoying it. Do you mind if I quickly go and respond to that email or answer this thing. I mean, its a huge sacrifice. You are just not there for them.Martin: Ashu, thank you very much for your time! And next time you are thinking about starting a company, pick some idea that you are very passionate about. Thank you very much. Great! Thank you very much, Ashu.

Existentialism in Heart of Darkness - Free Essay Example

In the novel Heart of Darkness, Conrad explores existential nihilism, which is the belief that the world is without meaning or purpose. Through the protagonist Marlow, Conrad introduces the story of those on board the steamship Nellie that are unaware of their own meaninglessness. Their voyage through the African Congo depicts the absurdity of mans existence and the decay of human ideals in the chaos of the Belgian Congo. Any attempt at avoiding the darkness that exists in the chaotic unorganized natural world is futile. Those that demonstrate restraint only emphasize existential nihilism as their actions ultimately result in meaninglessness. Through the characterization of Kurtz, the reader can witness a man who lacks restraint due to his acknowledgment of purposelessness. Marlows search for such a man is the ultimate goal of the novel. It is then Conrads goal to lead the reader through vagueness and pessimism to a conclusive void. The novels conclusion ultimately portrays existential nihilism, where Kurtzs last words confirm the worlds meaninglessness and Marlow becomes more like the pessimistic Kurtz due to the lie told to Kurtzs Intended. Although Conrad himself may not essentially be nihilistic, his novel contains a dark nihilistic truth: the world is without meaning or purpose. The antagonist Kurtz is an example of existential loneliness because he becomes alienated from civilized society. He intentionally avoids returning to England because he is no longer able to endure the constraints that the civilized society is trying to impose upon him. Being in the Belgian Congo with the power to carry out and whims and act on all of his desire causes Kurtzrs slow decay into savagery. For Kurtz, the misplaced authenticity of his actions, along with the unrestrained environment of the Congo proves too great a temptation for constructive engagement with the African people. The laissez-faire capitalismwhich becomes associated with power in Kurtzrs mindfostered by an imperialistic Europe leads Kurtz to become defined by materialism the appetite for more ivory had got the better of the-what shall I say? less material aspirations (Conrad 96). This materialistic inauthenticity, in turn, creates a need to gain more, and is responsible for Kurtzrs inevitable fall from existe ntial grace and resulting a subsequent godlike position amongst his natives. The protagonist Marlow is a recently appointed captain of the steamship Nellie the story being from Marlows point of view, gives a glimpse from the outside of what has changed Kurtz so irrevocably from the European man of sophistication to something far more frightening. As if to demonstrate this, Conrad depicts Kurtz on his deathbed. In the final moments of his life, Kurtz seems to see something that we cannot. Staring within himself he can only mutter, The horror! The horror! Marlow realizes that his reality is a horror, that nothing really exists but at the same time, everything does, especially when he encounters death because everything is connected.