An Overview of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

An Overview of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy - Essay Example As a result, Congress recently passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act 2005. This Act makes a number of significant changes to the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy framework (The New Bankruptcy Law: np). One major change is the need for all debtors considering bankruptcy under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 to undergo credit counseling. This counseling is designed to aid debtors in determining whether bankruptcy is truly necessary and how a repayment plan might be worked out. Significantly, debtors must select an approved credit counselor. In addition, an income test is now applied to determine whether filers are eligible for the more popular Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. To this end, a "means test" is employed to evaluate disposable income and to classify debts as secured, unsecured, and the degree of priorities. Another requirement imposes higher ethical duties on bankruptcy lawyers so that the attorneys must personally vouch for the accuracy of all information provided by the debtor. The expected effect is to make it somewhat more difficult and more expensive to retain a bankruptcy lawyer.

The Jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights Case Study

The Jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights - Case Study Example Article 10 was alleged by the applicants as a ground for their action, as a matter of course, in view of the fact that the target of the attack was a media entity. Article 10 lays down the dictum that every person is entitled to the freedom to express or to speak out his mind albeit the same may be restrained according to the limitations which statutes of the Contracting States prescribe. Lastly, Article 13 of the Convention mandates that those whose rights and liberties are violated or encroached upon under the provisions of the Convention must be afforded an effective remedy or relief even if the perpetrators have acted in an official capacity. (European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. COUNCIL OF EUROPE. European Treaties. Press for Change [internet]). The focal issue in this discussion is the statement of the Court which declares that it is the obligation of the Court to consider the special character of the Convention pertaining to its role in the maintenance of European public order for the purpose of protecting persons or individuals. It also points out that the Convention has been covenanted to ensure that the engagements undertaken by the High Contracting Parties, meaning the treaty signatories, are observed. The latter principle is evident in the setting up of the European Commission of Human Rights and of the Court, both specified in Article 19 of the Convention. Since the principal matter which was resolved by the Court refers to the admissibility of the application, the arguments and debate presented in this treatise will center on that question. Some comments and opinions from literary sources will be considered for inclusion here. The Convention It is necessary to have knowledge of the history of the Convention in assessing the case... With all the foregoing backdrops, this essay will proceed to the questions of who are the people covered by the Convention and what cases does it cover. It will finally likewise be queried as to when the Convention applies. In short, there is a need to know what circumstances are embraced under the operation of the Convention. In the legal sense, the inquiry has to be directed into the jurisdiction of the Court which the Convention had created. Stated in another way, it has to be determined when, where and over whom does the Court exercise its judicial powers under the Convention in conjunction with the rules and principles of international law. Article 1 of the Convention is very specific. It provides that the signatories to the treaty are under obligation to secure to all the people within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms enumerated in Section 1 of the Convention. Were the applicants covered as persons within the jurisdiction of the High Contracting Parties when the bombardment of the radio-television network was carried out? The answer is definitely in the negative. They were not. During the time of the bombing of the Radio-Television Serbia headquarters, Bank ović and his co-applicants and their deceased relatives, Serbia was not a member of the Convention and, therefore, they were not within the reach of the jurisdiction of the Court. The bombing party, NATO, was also found by the Court as not having Serbia within its (NATO’s) effective control or that of its members.

A Comparison Between Chesapeake And New England History Essay

A Comparison Between Chesapeake And New England History Essay During the period between the later parts of 16th century and early 17th century, most to the European nations were so eager to continue in their current state of colonizing different states within the newly found Americas. One particular European nation that had a clearly mapped out strategy and so clearly sent out many groups to most of the parts of eastern coast especially two parts known as Chesapeake and New England is England. It is worth noting that there was a scramble and a rush in a bid to conquer as many nations as possible due to the benefits that would result in the process. As a result in the late 1700s the two nations that were conquered by England later joined up to become one nation. However, it should be noted that from the onset, the two nations were unique and their own unique identities. The differences that existed between these two nations actually illustrate the main reason why England decided to colonize them at that time. This article brings out the major di fferences that existed between Chesapeake and New England in terms of their English Colonies. Land use is the first variation that existed between Chesapeake and New England. It is important to note that the New England had interests in terms of land use that was basically distinct from Chesapeake. In terms of Chesapeake, the major interest was basically in the large land coverage that included Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New Haven and Connecticut. These locations represented a massive amount of land that Chesapeake was basically interested in. The English settlers around this region were mainly interested in mining activities which included the mining of gold as well as silver. They were hoped to find these minerals to help them in their trading activities. In addition they were also in the land to find a northwest link to Asia so that they would expand their trading activities. It is also worth noting that the quest to find a cure the syphilis disease was also part of their mission in the land. This can also be combined with the quest to find any meani ngful valuable that they could carry for trade back in Europe. On the other hand, the New England settler had a different motive concerning their settlement on the land. They were majorly concerned about the artisan industries that were comprised of printing, carpentry and shipbuilding. As a result their major mission was to find materials in the land that could help them in terms of expanding their mission in the land which was mainly comprised of expanding the artisan industry. Labor also characterized the mission of the Chesapeake and New England settlers in North America. Chesapeake region was mainly swampy and not suitable for typical crop growing activities. However 5 years after their arrival in the land saw the discovery of tobacco which actually did well. In this regard, it is important to note that due to the tobacco growing in the land, Chesapeake settler used and employed cheap labor in their fields. As a matter of fact, they developed an indentured servitude system in which individuals who desired free passage to America had offer their services in terms of labor for some years before being allowed to enter into America. On the other hand, New England region was not characterized of large farms and so most of them basically depended on small farms and other home-based type of industries such as carpentry and printing. Due to the home-based industry businesses, the New England settlers did not need to hire labor as their families were enough to pr ovide the needed labor force for their work. As a result, it is worth noting that slavery never developed much in the northern part as compared to the southern. Religion also formed a major difference between the Chesapeake and New England settlers in America. It is worth noting that most of the New Englanders majorly composed of the Puritan Separatists who were in the quest for freedom in religion. This came at a time the Church of England actually separated from the Catholicism which was the major religion at that time during the reign of Henry VIII. As a result, the major religion of this land was largely composed of Protestantism. It should, however, be noted that a given group with the protestants actually wanted a complete separation from Catholicism. As a result, they went ahead to establish the Anglican Church. However, it should be noted that this only became a reality after 1692. The religious tone of the region was low as many people never really had interest in the England church. On the other hand, the New Englander had claims that they were actually more godly in comparison to any other group of colonialists. This region was ma inly composed of a section of settlers who were escaping persecution due to their religious faith. As a result, the region became extremely religious-based and actually had claims that they were far more godly than all other colonists  [1]  . Social composition between Chesapeake and New England settlers was also different. As a matter of fact, it is worth noting that Chesapeake region was categorically set apart for male settlement which was first composed of businessmen as well as adventure seekers. Later on, there was the introduction of the indentured slaves and servants who were actually willing to seek opportunity for work in the new country. Diseases and difficulty of work due to the conditions in the place at that time actually led to most of them being widely spread in the entire region. As a result, their life expectancy levels went lower as compared to their New England counterparts. In addition, the disease condition as well as the difficult labor condition made the families to stay apart in the quest for better environment free from sickness. This led to so much instability in the region in terms of social organization  [2]  . There were people who were constantly being shipped into the region for the pur poses of making the region well balanced socially. The social rungs were also characterized by major gaps as only plantation owners were at the top, a very small group of small scale farmers at the middle section, and the indentured slaves combined with the servants at the bottom part of the grid. This created such a major imbalance in the social balance of this region since the shortages were being felt in almost all the spheres of social networks of this particular side. On the other hand, the social composition as well as the demographic mix of New England was highly different. This is because this particular region was mainly composed of colonialists having their towns as well as families which move together. Their level of prosperity, therefore, grew further since they were always together. As a result of the unity, this society was well balanced socially and even economically. Religion and family also prospered due to stability in the social composition. This was highly contri buted to by the fact that they were constantly together. It can, therefore, be noted that New England provided a healthy society in which individuals colonialists developed socially and spiritually  [3]  . In conclusion, it is important to note that in as much as both Chesapeake and New England settlers had a common goal of looking for better territories which could provide them with more economic, social and religious freedom, there were various differences that actually existed between them. The differences were majorly in terms of the land use which saw both settlers having different purposes for the land they had acquired; religion whereby the colonialists had different spiritual needs and agenda in the lands in which they settled; social composition whereby both Chesapeake and New England colonial settlers had different social needs, challenges which influenced their prosperity and religious practice in their lands of settlement; economic achievements were also different as the level of economic growth of the settlers differed majorly due to the extent of trading activities as well as availability of market for their commodities. It can therefore be noted that New England and Ches apeake were similar in terms of their mission but different in terms of activities that there involved with in the land in which they settled.

Down with Downloading Essay -- Music Downloads Technology Essays

Down with Downloading Throughout the whole time when you were able to gain access to free downloadable music, you have been able to by pass the purchasing of music, but has it been morally right? People always insist that download is great, but are you thinking of who you’re talking it from. The artists are the ones losing there money as well as positive recognition. Musicians should obviously get a cut as should small record stores who are obviously going to lose out when the big chains all get together on this (newsfactor.com). Also, the factor that you have to pay for theses programs, you mine as well go to the store and but them yourself. Everyone likes to download, but sometime you can only get one song, what if you want the whole album. And lately there have been numerous viruses, and programs that have been affected from using these downloading sites. Bugs in software are common and most can be fixed with patches, but peer-to-peer technology can be riskier (http://www.ecommercetimes.com/pe rl/story/11667.html). After, reading several studies on the downloading process, many artists have been affected in the past. Madonna, Elton John, Eminem, Brittany Spears, Nelly, India Arie, Ludacris and Sheryl Crow among them -- in an upcoming TV ad campaign to persuade young people to stop downloading music from the Internet (http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/music/0902/27piracy.html) They have clearly been hurt financially, even though they are financially stable. It is the honor system, and also the freedom of giving access to your music. A huge percentage of the artists make money through selling the CD’s and selling music memorabilia. If we were taking away from this, more and more people will take the free music ... ... published for this agenda. If I had just a little bit more time, I believe that is paper could indeed be a little bit better, also if I did surveys and things of that nature I could find the real peoples perspective. Overall, this paper seemed to be not as stressful as the first because the first paper lacked information and quotes. â€Å"Celebrity TV ads will fight music downloading" ajc.com. 9-27-02 http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/music/0902/27piracy.html â€Å"Bad News Keeps on Coming for Napster Users† By Tim McDonald. Part of the News Factor Network. June 29, 2001 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/11667.html www.musicunited.com â€Å"Celebrity TV ads will fight music downloading" ajc.com. 9-27-02 http://www.accessatlanta.com Dewalt, Mike ed. Through internet downloading, Microsoft Encyclopedia 2002 CD-ROM. New York, New York

Pelayo and Elisenda were dazed

One of the popular works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez which used the principle of Magical Realism was the short story entitled A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. In magical realism, the merging of myth and reality can be seen.Marquez, in his stories, used magical realism to describe certain realities. For this particular short story, he was trying to state realities about Catholicism.Pelayo and Elisenda were dazed when they saw the rubbish, old man on their courtyard. Pelayo even thought he was in a nightmare. However, when they saw the man’s wings, he instantly became â€Å"familiar† to them. Angels were always portrayed by the Church as someone who has wings.The wings would look like from a hawk or a dove. If the wings were similar to a bat’s, he could be perceived as the Devil himself. This occurrence of having an angel on earth did not appear to cause panic in the story. Like the stories in the Bible, miracles, visions of angels or symbols from God seem to happ en naturally without question.Unlike an angel which the Church would describe as young, innocent and magnificently dressed in white clothes, the man in the courtyard was, as Marquez illustrated, â€Å"like a ragpicker†.He was a very old man lying face down on the mud and his wings all dirty and half-plucked (Marquez 1). This not so angelic stature was reason enough for the neighbor to conclude that he was a â€Å"fugitive† from heaven and Pelayo should club him to death.The suggestion as to how the angel should die was very cruel especially for someone who was once worthy to stand before God and be His messenger. The Church teaches the same fate for all sinners. They are said to be banished from Heaven and will forever suffer in the fires of Hell.Pelayo was not able to bring himself to kill him. He, instead, dragged him to the chicken coop. If he looked like someone as majestic as an angel, many would not settle him along with the hens. Some would offer him the entire house with the softest pillows and warm mattresses. The Church may even build an altar or a church for him.In the morning, the newborn child who had been feverish before the angel came was well and eating. Pelayo and Elisenda decided to dispose the angel by placing him on a raft with three-day supply of fresh water and provisions. It may have occurred to them that the angel was sent by God for a purpose.He may have been sent to heal the child or to take the child’s soul and end his suffering. But now that the child had recovered completely, they did not see the use of the angel anymore. This is common for some religious people.They only seek divine guidance when in dire need of something. If an intense obstacle comes their way, they pray fervently or go to church often. Some also go to the church just to show to people that they are indeed religious. But when all is well, some tend to forget or do not see it necessary to pray or to go to church.The plan of disposing the angel forever did not push through after seeing the whole neighborhood gathered in front of the chicken coop, amused with the angel. More were coming every day.Elisenda decided to take advantage of the many curious people coming to see the angel. She began charging five cents for anybody who would like to view the angel.This is a similar reality in the Church. When apparitions or miracles are reported to happen in a certain location, there are some people who take advantage by soliciting financial donations or by distributing money envelopes through which donors are promised to be included in the prayers and will consequently be blessed.Most of the people who came to the courtyard wanted to verify the rumor about an angel. Upon seeing him as not meeting their physical expectations of an angel, they started to provoke him to prove himself that he does pass the standards of an angel. He was, however, non-responsive.He did not take offense of the things that were thrown to him. He only reac ted once teary-eyed when people burned his side with an iron for branding steers. He was not able to communicate with the people as he spoke in a language that they did not understand. The people, on the other hand, did not care to find any other means to communicate with him.They continued to be rude and started giving him names. If something appears to be out of the norms of the society like in how they dress or behave, they are most likely to experience maltreatment. The Church in the olden times displayed such behavior.For individuals who strayed away from the beliefs of the Church or who attempted to defy them, they were declared as excommunicates. Excommunicates were treated like people of lower stature, as outcasts or as criminals.A representative of the Church, Father Gonzaga, tried to identify him if he was really an angel. He tried to speak to him in Latin, the official language of God. But the angel did not seem to understand and spoke in a different dialect.Father Gonzag a instantly suspected an impostor upon noticing that he did not speak and understand Latin. Up close, he also saw him as much more human-like. He had the outdoor smell and his wings had been infested with parasites. He did not see him as an angel at all. Instead he said to the people, this may be a trick from the Devil.This, again, refers to the standard description of the Church on how a heavenly being was supposed to be. Just because the angel was not able to comprehend the so-called official language of God, he was concluded as not a person coming from God. He was instead declared to possibly come from somewhere else. There was no deeper investigation initiated as to what kind of dialect he was using.He was also judged based on how he smelled and his physical appearance. For someone who had been living with the chickens, there was no doubt as to how he could have acquired such characteristics. Anybody would not be able to maintain his magnificence under such conditions.To prove i f the angel was an impostor or not, Father Gonzaga had to write a letter to his bishop who would, in turn, write a letter to the Supreme Pontiff then the verdict will be obtained from the higher courts (Marquez 1). This set-up indicates that those from the lower ladder like Father Gonzaga do not have the power to judge what is religiously true as the ones above him.He would have to seek for the judgment elsewhere, perhaps from a place far away from where he was. Not being in the proximity of the event in question, there is a possibility for facts to be distorted or to be judged subjectively.The exchange of letters asking verifying questions would take time and not much urgency will come out from it. The answers given for these questions may be subjective or opinionated and may affect the final verdict altogether.As an angel, he was expected to have healing powers. A number of invalids and people who had health problems came to the courtyard. But the outcome became a comedy and peopl e branded the angel as someone with a mental disorder.A blind man seeking for sight grew three new teeth, a paralytic wanting to walk almost won the lottery and a leper sprouted sunflowers instead of sores (Marquez 1).Adding to the many other disproving evidence, Father Gonzaga and the people had finally settled to the fact that they have an impostor not an angel. He was then abandoned and forgotten entirely. The woman in the carnival who turned into a tarantula became more interesting and more worthy of their attention.Though nobody seemed to have gained interest anymore with the angel, Pelayo and Elisenda benefited so much from the admission fees they had collected. They were able to rebuild their house and bought new clothes. Though the angel had brought them so much, he was still left to live in the pen. Some people, though declaring themselves as religious, do not always return to others the blessings they had received.The angel became more of a nuisance. It was only the child who seemed to understand him and played with him. They did not realize or even cared that he was running a fever at night and singing chants under the stars. When he left, all they felt was relief that he was gone.  Marquez had left the interpretation of his use of magical realism to his readers. The story may look like a story for children but looking deeply, he was actually portraying reality.References:Marquez, Gabriel, Garcia. â€Å"A Very Old Man with Enromous Wings.† Short Story Classics. 2004. 29 March 2008. http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/garciamarquezoldman.html.Moore, Lindsay. â€Å"Magical Realism.† 1998. 29 March 2008. http://english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html.

Selecting a suitable computer system

Task: Find three computer systems which are currently for sale and evaluate their specifications and select the one which you think is most suitable for Ben and Jerry. Write a detailed report to the family identifying the computers you have selected and explaining which computer that you consider to be the most suitable, justifying your choice. (Distinction Criteria) Dear Andrew, I received your letter regarding a new computer for your children and I looked up several computers matching the criteria you provided. I trimmed the list to just three computers and I gave you my honest thoughts about them including a critical, technical analysis of each computer. I hope you find my advice helpful. The first computer I wanted you to look at was the Apple Mac Pro which at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5691 is a high end, top of the line PC that is very expensive but very powerful nonetheless. The Mac Pro has a powerful quad core processor with two dual core processors capable of 16 GB of SDRAM. To have 16 GBs is unheard of in the computing world so Ben should find that whatever demanding application he uses, the computer still handles smoothly. At 2 TB it has a huge hard disk space that dwarfs other mainstream hard drive sizes. Having this amount of space would allow Ben to store as many games as he wants without worrying about the size of it. The graphics card is the impressive 512MB nVidia Quadro FX 4500 that has a 128 bit memory interface when most these days only have 64 bit. This graphics card however seems more appropriate for casual gamer, and those who are not in the market for the latest graphics card. I'm unsure that Ben is just a casual gamer or if he's a games enthusiast who is very interested in his gaming. Nonetheless, this graphics card is not only supportive of the latest graphics but it also possesses enough processing power to generate smooth gaming with out any noticeable lagging. The Mac Pro comes with one of the best professional video editing software programmes that's used by many Hollywood movie editors. Final Cut Pro is one of the leading video editing applications with thousands of effects and although, it looks complicated to begin with, eventually it does become much easier to use. Its image editing package is impressive as well with Adobe Fireworks, Illustrator and Photoshop available for Jerry to play around with. Illustrator is a vector based image editor and Photoshop is simply the best application for the editing of digital images.Windows 7 Check Your Understanding One mustn't discount the Photobooth feature which uses its webcam to take pictures and videos. It has a range of standard effects such as sepia tone, black and white, thermal camera, X ray, comic, mirror etc. There are range of backdrops like clouds, colour dots and rollercoaster available. This would please Jerry since he preferred a PC with a webcam to record. The price includes an Apple DVI to Video adaptor to connect the PC to your Television in order to view the movies you downloaded. An excellent aspect of this PC is the operating system it uses. The Mac OS snow leopard is a far more efficient OS when compared to Windows due to the fact that it's not susceptible to viruses and its stunning user interface. Every button has a glassy feel and all applications are organised very well. The finder application searches through the hard drive at incredible speeds to look for a document or another application. It has a futuristic feel that Windows Vista and 7 have recently tried to emulate, however, the original is always the best. It was largely well received by many critics and was referred to as the most advanced OS in the world. Apple Macs are reputed to have excellent screen quality and its 23 inch screen is suitable for gaming and having such a wide screen would allow Jerry to have a spacious desktop and to work freely when editing his images or videos. The next computer that maybe worth a look in is the Dell XPS 430 Desktop which at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½670 is very much cheaper than the Apple Mac Pro; in truth this is a very competitive price for a powerful machine such as this. In addition to this, Dell is market leader manufacturing high quality PCs with a glowing worldwide reputation. Most of the features match up to your criteria. For example, you said that Jerry has an interest in photo editing. The XPS 430 has the latest Adobe Elements package including Photoshop which is tailored for a person like Jerry. Adobe Photoshop is industry standard editing software that has a plethora of editing effects and capabilities and I assure you that it's perfect for an image editing enthusiast like Jerry. Granted Adobe Premiere elements is a scaled down version of the industry standard Adobe Premier Pro, however, it's still the best selling consumer video editing software because it has a range of advantages over its competitors. Features like real time rendering would help Jerry to immediately preview his edits to the timeline. This machine also has a deck-top docking area to conveniently dock, charge and cable route for portable devices – such as digital camera, in the case of Jerry. This undoubtedly makes things much easier where all Jerry would have to do is to doc k the camera and then edit straight from there! In addition to this, the XPS is a self-titled gaming computer which is perfect for Ben. By using ATI2 and NVIDIA2 graphic solutions, the XPS 430 is capable of delivering high end multimedia features including next generation graphics and HD quality video. Most impressive of all, the machine's processor is a top of the line Intel Quad Core 2 processor that was specifically built to handle the most demanding games. High detailed games are rendered by four hardware threads, which in turn distribute the AI and physics evenly. This powerful processor is tailor made for Ben who thrives on the latest games. Nowadays, many games take up several GB's of space meaning smaller hard drives would struggle. The XPS 430 has 2 TB's (that's a 2000 GB) of hard drive space which is more than three times the size of a hard drive on normal computer. Plus, there are plenty of USB ports (5 internal, 7 external to be precise) in case Ben wants to plug in a games controller or joystick. The speaker that come s with the package is the Bose Companion 3 Series II which is a multimedia speaker system that is unlike any other conventional speaker in the sense that it delivers crisp sound and stunning ambience that creates a life like atmosphere, be it playing games or watching a HD movie. Also, since the computer has a Blu-Ray disk drive, it has the ability to play games or watch films in true high definition. I'm also impressed with the Dell Ultrasharp widescreen display that completes the High definition capability of the PC. Since the monitor's widescreen, you get the sense that it's almost a widescreen television not a PC monitor. Its operating system Windows Vista is reputed to be a media centric OS so Jerry and Ben would enjoy using its 3D user interface which has an Apple Mac feel. The XPS 430's RAM is well above average too with 8GB. Most computers have 2, maybe 3 GB because that's an acceptable amount. RAM is a good indicator of how good a computer is because it shows how many programmes a machine can run without having to slow down. So the more RAM on store, the more programmes you can run without worrying about it slowing things down. Finally, we mustn't ignore the digital video capture capability in this PC. It has a built in 2.0 mega pixel camera which is capable of taking pictures, record videos and it's perfect when added with VOIP(Voice over Internet Protocol) software such as Skype. The XPS 430 also has 1 VGA and HDMI output to connect the PC to your TV, allowing you to watch downloaded films on your TV; This PC certainly ticks all your boxes. The last PC I picked out was the HP Pavilion Elite which is nearly twice as expensive as the Dell at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1279. The feature you immediately notice is the processor which is twice as capable as the Intel Quad Core 2 processor that was in the Dell XPS 430. The Intel Core i7-860 Processor is a processor that was specifically designed for multi-tasking purposes. That's why unlike the Intel Quad Core 2 it has 8 threads to share the workload. One of its features, Intel Smart Cache, was optimized to deliver a higher quality gaming performance with an improved capable cache system. In addition to this, other features like HD Boost and Turbo Boost technology handle the most demanding programmes maximising the performance leading to an overall improvement of a plethora of multimedia and computer intensive programmes. Its clock speed of 2.8 GHz is also marginally better than the Quad Core 2 Processor (2.66 GHz) – the clock speed measures how fast a PC can complete basic calculations and operations. This processor would be incredibly useful for both your children as it's perfect for high detail HD gaming and image editing which would need multiple applications to be open. The OS system Microsoft 7 Home premium is the latest OS from windows and has a range of multimedia applications that would satisfy both Ben and Jerry. The latest Windows media centre can act as a hub for all your children's multimedia needs. Here they can watch videos, photos and even play games! Applications that are included with the OS under Microsoft like Movie Maker, DVD Maker and photo gallery are standard multimedia programmes that are still competent in helping the user to maximise their multimedia experience. The graphics card would no doubt excite Ben who I understand is a games enthusiast. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 is a graphics card with Purevideo HD technology which like the graphics card in the XPS 430 allows the user to immerse themselves in true high definition gaming. Another added benefit to gaming, is the â€Å"7.1 HD audio support† that would undoubtedly create a unique gaming atmosphere. The disk drive size of 1.5 TB is enormous even though it's not as much the XPS 430 (2 TB in size) and it would mean that both your children can store plenty of games, videos and images without worrying about how big they are. It has an equal RAM capability to the XPS 430 at 8 GB, allowing the computer to run many programmes at the same time without worrying about it slowing things down. This is ideal for Jerry in particular who would be using multiple, highly demanding applications to edit his videos and images. This particular PC comes with a HP games console that has hours of free gameplay that would certainly entertain Ben. The fact that it has 10 external USB ports is useful if he were to plug in his joystick or games controller. This PC may however disappoint Jerry due to the fact that it doesn't have an image editing software included. However, it does have one of the world's best video editing software in Cyberlink DVDSuite. This application is not as competent as Adobe Premiere Elements but I still feel that it's an excellent video editing software that is suited for an amateur video editing enthusiast. This machine also doesn't have a webcam which is a downside but it does have a VGA and a HDMI port to plug the PC on to your television. In conclusion, the HP pavilion would not be recommended by me due to the absence of an image editing software. I feel for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1279 it doesn't suit the criteria and so would be a waste of money. It doesn't have a webcam either further deteriorating its credibility. However, this PC is very suited for Ben because of the quality of the graphics card, the audio support and the free HP games console that's included and not to forget the brilliant PC monitor. On the other extreme, the Apple Mac Pro is nearly à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½6000 and for that money you're getting the best OS in the world, superb image editing software and a world class video editing application in Final Cut pro. Its Imagebooth applications boast the ability to take pictures and videos and have a range of effects. This makes it perfect for Jerry who loves editing videos and images. However, I don't believe it's suitable for Ben as the graphics card is a just a mainstream graphics card that may struggle with certain demanding games. The fact that it doesn't have a blu-ray disc drive is a negative as well as it would be unable to play HD games. For the amount of money, you'd expect this PC to be perfect but it's far from it. That leaves me with the Dell XPS 430 which I reckon is the most suitable PC as it satisfies the needs of both Jerry and Ben equally well. Its graphics card is incredibly powerful and the RAM it possesses is enough to handle the most highly detailed games. It even has a blu-ray disc drive to play HD games and its quad core 2 processor is one of the best for gaming. Ben is sure to be impressed with these specifications. Jerry on the other hand will be excited to have Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere which are excellent programmes for image and video editing. The XPS 430 even has deck-top docking area to conveniently dock portable devices like a digital camera. This would without doubt be convenient for Jerry as he can simply plug in his camera and get editing without wasting much time. It has a VGA and HDMI output to connect to the television and watch movies and its sound system gives an incredible atmosphere. Whether it's watching videos or playing games this sound system would simply maximise the viewing experience. One mustn't forget that it also has a 2.0 mega pixel camera that records and takes pictures and is suitable for applications like Skype. The icing on the cake without doubt has to be the fact that it's the cheapest PC from the ones I've listed at à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½670 and that's why I recommend that you purchase the Dell XPS 430.