Questões de Concurso Comentadas sobre verbos | verbs em inglês

                                                          Information Systems
Information Systems (IS) is concerned with the information that computer systems can provide to aid a company, non-profit or governmental organization in defining and achieving its goals. It is also concerned with the processes that an enterprise can implement and improve using information technology. IS professionals must understand both technical and organizational factors , 5 and must be able to help an organization determine how information and technology-enabled business processes can provide a foundation for superior organizational performance. They serve as a bridge between the technical and management communities within an organization. What information does the enterprise need? How is that information generated? Is it delivered to the people who need it? Is it presented to them in ways that permit them to use it readily? 10 Is the organization structured to be able to use technology effectively? Are the business processes of the organization well designed? Do they use the opportunities created by information technology fully? Does the organization use the communication and collaboration capabilities of information technologies appropriately? Is the organization capable of adapting quickly enough to changing external circumstances? These are the important issues that businesses rely on IS people to 15 address. A majority of IS programs are located in business schools; however, they may have different names such as management information systems, computer information systems, or business information systems. All IS degrees combine business and computing topics, but the emphasis between technical and organizational issues varies among programs. For example, 20 programs differ substantially in the amount of programming required. Traditionally, many graduates of IS programs have functioned in roles that are similar to the roles for which IT programs explicitly prepare their students. Information systems graduates continue to fill these roles, but the new programs in information technology offer an alternative path to these positions. INFORMATION Systems. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 03 jan. 2011. 

Read text II and answer questions 34 to 40.
Meet the new neighbours

DIRECTIONS: Choose the CORRECT alternative to
answer questions 16 to 25.
Questions 16 to 20: Choose the CORRECT alternative to
answer questions 16 to 20, according to TEXT 01.

Model copes with chaos to deliver relief Computer program helps responders transport supplies in tough conditions
By Rachel Ehrenberg Science News, Web edition: Monday, February 21st, 2011
WASHINGTON — Getting blood or other perishable supplies to an area that’s been struck by an earthquake or hurricane isn’t as simple as asking what brown can do for you. But a new model quickly determines the best routes and means for delivering humanitarian aid, even in situations where bridges are out or airport tarmacs are clogged with planes.
The research, presented February 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, could help get supplies to areas which have experienced natural disasters or help prepare for efficient distribution of vaccines when the flu hits.
Efficient supply chains have long been a goal of manufacturers, but transport in fragile networks — where supply, demand and delivery routes may be in extremely rapid flux — requires a different approach, said Anna Nagurney of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who presented the new work. Rather than considering the shortest path from one place to another to maximize profit, her system aims for the cleanest path at minimum cost, while capturing factors such as the perishability of the product and the uncertainty of supply routes. ‘You don’t know where demand is, so it’s tricky,’ said Nagurney. ‘It’s a multicriteria decision-making problem.’
By calculating the total cost associated with each link in a network, accounting for congestion and incorporating penalties for time and products that are lost, the computer model calculates the best supply chain in situations where standard routes may be disrupted.
‘Mathematical tools are essential to develop formal means to predict, and to respond to, such critical perturbations,’ said Iain Couzin of Princeton University, who uses similar computational tools to study collective animal behavior. ‘This is particularly important where response must be rapid and effective, such as during disaster scenarios … or during epidemics or breaches of national security.
’ The work can be applied to immediate, pressing situations, such as getting blood, food or medication to a disaster site, or to longer-term problems such as determining the best locations for manufacturing flu vaccines. . Retrieved April 7th, 2011.

Microsoft to Offer Free Virus Protection Software for
Windows
By Scott Gilbertson November 19, 2008

Microsoft plans to offer Windows users a new antivirus
package designed to protect the OS from viruses, spyware,
rootkits and trojans. The new software is tentatively code-
named Morro, and will be available for free to Windows XP,
Vista and 7 users sometime in the second half of 2009.
The new software will reportedly use very minimal resources,
which means it should work well with older PCs. If fact,
Microsoft says Morro has been specially designed for older
PCs and low-spec machines popular in developing nations. In
addition to its minimal processor demands, Morro has been
developed to use very little bandwidth,making it ideal for those
without broadband connections.
Morro will replace Microsoft's current, paid service, Windows
Live One Care, which has been available on a subscription
basis for $50 per year.
While a free, antivirus solution that ships with Windows would
be a boon for the average user, it could also mean trouble for
third-party software solutions. Given that a bundled solution
could raise antitrust concerns and would no doubt see
competitors like McAfee and Grisoft reaching for the lawyers
Microsoft will be offering Morro as a separate download.
Assuming Morro can deliver decent security it should be a
welcome free addition to Windows, but we don't suggest
throwing away your third-party software just yet. Antivirus
software suites will likely continue to hold an edge over Morro
by offering additional handy tools like password managers,
identity theft protection and browser-based phishing
protection.
Still, if you've been running Windows with no antivirus software
at all,Morrowill no doubt be better than nothing, and it's hard to
argue with free.

Is Windows 7 Worth It?
Harry McCracken, PC World
Monday, October 19, 2009 10:00 AM PDT

          Reading about a new operating system can tell you only  so much about it: After all, Windows Vista had far more features  than XP, [CONJUNCTION] fell far short of it in the eyes of many  users. To judge an OS accurately, you have to live with it. Over  the past ten months, I've spent a substantial percentage of my  computing life in Windows 7, starting with a preliminary version  and culminating in recent weeks with the final Release to  Manufacturing edition. I've run it on systems ranging from an  underpowered Asus EeePC 1000HE netbook to a potent HP  TouchSmart all-in-one. And I've used it to do real work, not lab  routines. Usually, I've run the OS in multiboot configurations with  Windows Vista and/or XP, so I've had a choice each time I turned the computer on: [MODAL] I opt for Windows 7 or an
older version of the OS? The call has been easy to make, because Win 7 is so pleasant to use.
          So why wouldn't you want to run this operating system?  Concern over its performance is one logical reason, especially  since early versions of Windows Vista managed to turn PCs that  ran XP with ease into lethargic underperformers. The PC World  Test Center's speed benchmarks on five test PCs showed  Windows 7 to be faster than Vista, but only by a little; I've found  it to be reasonably quick on every computer I've used it on - even the Asus netbook, once I upgraded it to 2GB of RAM. (Our  lab tried Win 7 on a Lenovo S10 netbook with 1GB of RAM and  found it to be a shade slower than XP; for details see "Windows 7 Performance Tests.").
           Here's a rule of thumb that errs on the side of caution: If  your PC's specs qualify it to run Vista, get Windows 7; if they  don't, avoid it. Microsoft's official hardware configuration  requirements for Windows 7 are nearly identical to those it  recommends for Windows Vista: a 1-GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM,
16GB of free disk space, and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics  device with a WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. That's for the 32-bit  version of Windows 7; the 64-bit version of the OS requires a  64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 20GB of disk space.
           Fear of incompatible hardware and software is another  understandable reason to be wary of Windows 7. One  unfortunate law of operating-system upgrades - which applies  equally to Macs and to Windows PCs - is that they will break  some systems and applications, especially at first.  
           Under the hood, Windows 7 isn't radically different from  Vista. That's a plus, since it should greatly reduce the volume of  difficulties relating to drivers and apps compared to Vista's  bumpy rollout. I have performed a half-dozen Windows 7  upgrades, and most of them went off without a hitch. The
gnarliest problem arose when I had to track down a graphics  driver for Dell's XPS M1330 laptop on my own - Windows 7  installed a generic VGA driver that couldn't run the Aero user  interface, and as a result failed to support new Windows 7  features such as thumbnail views in the Taskbar.
           The best way to reduce your odds of running into a  showstopping problem with Windows 7 is to bide your time.  When the new operating system arrives on October 22, sit back  and let the earliest adopters discover the worst snafus. Within a few weeks, Microsoft and other software and hardware   companies will have fixed most of them, and your chances of a  happy migration to Win 7 will be much higher. If you want to be really conservative, hold off on moving to Win 7 until you're  ready to buy a PC that's designed to run it well.
           Waiting a bit before making the leap makes sense;  waiting forever does not. Microsoft took far too long to come up  with a satisfactory replacement for Windows XP. But whether  you choose to install Windows 7 on your current systems or get  it on the next new PC you buy, you'll find that it's the  unassuming, thoroughly practical upgrade you've been waiting  for ? flaws and all.

                                                 (Adapted                    from  http://www.pcworld.com/article/172602/windows_7_revi...)

GadgetDesigners Push the Limits of Size, Safety
By Brian X. Chen, August 28, 2008

Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering
dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that
larger, deskbound computers can't reach. But as they shrink,
these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too,
such as efficiently dissipating heat.

The recent example of Apple's first-generation iPod nanos
causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether
increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on
safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as
devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at
EndpointTechnologies.

"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult,
the balance becomes more critical and there's less room for
error," Kay said. "I'm not surprised it's happening to the nano
because that's the small one. You're asking it to do a lot in a
very, very small package and that's pushing the envelope.”

There's no question that industrial designers' jobs have
become much more difficult as the industry demands ever
more powerful and smaller gadgets. With paper-thin
subnotebooks, ultrasmall MP3 players, and pinkie finger-
sized Bluetooth headsets becoming increasingly popular, it's
questionable where exactly designers draw the line between
innovation and safety.

Microsoft to Offer Free Virus Protection Software for
Windows
By ScottGilbertsonNovember 19, 2008

Microsoft plans to offer Windows users a new antivirus
package designed to protect the OS from viruses, spyware,
rootkits and trojans. The new software is tentatively code-
named Morro, and will be available for free to Windows XP,
Vista and 7 users sometime in the second half of 2009.
The new software will reportedly use very minimal resources,
which means it should work well with older PCs. If fact,
Microsoft says Morro has been specially designed for older
PCs and low-spec machines popular in developing nations. In
addition to its minimal processor demands, Morro has been
developed to use very little bandwidth,making it ideal for those
without broadband connections.
Morro will replace Microsoft's current, paid service, Windows
Live OneCare, which has been available on a subscription
basis for $50 per year.
While a free, antivirus solution that ships withWindows would
be a boon for the average user, it could also mean trouble for
third-party software solutions. Given that a bundled solution
could raise antitrust concerns -and would no doubt see
competitors likeMcAfee and Grisoft reaching for the lawyers-
Microsoftwill be offeringMorro as a separate download.
Assuming Morro can deliver decent security it should be a
welcome free addition to Windows, but we don't suggest
throwing away your third-party software just yet. Antivirus
software suites will likely continue to hold an edge over Morro
by offering additional handy tools - like passwordmanagers,
identity theft protection and browser-based phishing
protection.
Still, if you've been runningWindowswith no antivirus software
at all,Morrowill no doubt be better than nothing, and it's hard to
arguewith free.

GadgetDesigners Push the Limits of Size, Safety
By Brian X. Chen, August 28, 2008

Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering
dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that
larger, deskbound computers can't reach. But as they shrink,
these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too,
such as efficiently dissipating heat.

The recent example of Apple's first-generation iPod nanos
causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether
increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on
safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as
devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at
EndpointTechnologies.

"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult,
the balance becomes more critical and there's less room for
error," Kay said. "I'm not surprised it's happening to the nano
because that's the small one. You're asking it to do a lot in a
very, very small package and that's pushing the envelope.”

There's no question that industrial designers' jobs have
become much more difficult as the industry demands ever
more powerful and smaller gadgets. With paper-thin
subnotebooks, ultrasmall MP3 players, and pinkie finger-
sized Bluetooth headsets becoming increasingly popular, it's
questionable where exactly designers draw the line between
innovation and safety.