Free Essays on Aspirations To Get Ahead

The American Dream is based on independence the â€Å"Declaration of Independence†. We believe that all people are born with these rights, freedom to achieve the American Dream. In â€Å"The Death of a Salesman†, by Arthur Miller and â€Å"A Doll’s House†, by Henrik Ibsen both portray two people who realized their independence when they were at the end of their rope. Most of Miller’s play is directly or indirectly about the American Dream, because, ultimately this dream wasn’t going to succeed as lots of people wished. Death of a Salesman is a moving destruction of the whole myth. To be hard working, honest and have ambition were the ways of the American Dream. This will only lead to success, wealth and in due time – power. But the dream for everyone developed and encouraged greed, selfish behavior, pride and rivalry between one another. Willie Loman, in â€Å"Death of a Salesman†, has lived his life in pursuit of the American dream. Traditionally the American dream meant opportunity and freedom for all, and Willie believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything that he wanted or thought he deserved. In order to obtain the American Dream and himself he had to accumulate wealth and objects. The consumer oriented society in which Willy’s life will not allow him to live the American Dream. In â€Å"A Doll’s House† Nora’s husband treats her like a child. And in turn she acts somewhat like a child, innocent and naà ¯ve. She’s has three children, but they are not being raised by her. No one really takes her seriously, because she walks around as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. All this changes once Krogstad threatens to tell Nora’s husband her secret she becomes fearful and fears her whole peaceful life is about to come to end. Drastically she thinks of ways to resolve the problem. She contemplated leaving her husband, children or committing suicide, but she could never kill herself. ... Free Essays on Aspirations To Get Ahead Free Essays on Aspirations To Get Ahead The American Dream is based on independence the â€Å"Declaration of Independence†. We believe that all people are born with these rights, freedom to achieve the American Dream. In â€Å"The Death of a Salesman†, by Arthur Miller and â€Å"A Doll’s House†, by Henrik Ibsen both portray two people who realized their independence when they were at the end of their rope. Most of Miller’s play is directly or indirectly about the American Dream, because, ultimately this dream wasn’t going to succeed as lots of people wished. Death of a Salesman is a moving destruction of the whole myth. To be hard working, honest and have ambition were the ways of the American Dream. This will only lead to success, wealth and in due time – power. But the dream for everyone developed and encouraged greed, selfish behavior, pride and rivalry between one another. Willie Loman, in â€Å"Death of a Salesman†, has lived his life in pursuit of the American dream. Traditionally the American dream meant opportunity and freedom for all, and Willie believed that. However, hard work could not earn him everything that he wanted or thought he deserved. In order to obtain the American Dream and himself he had to accumulate wealth and objects. The consumer oriented society in which Willy’s life will not allow him to live the American Dream. In â€Å"A Doll’s House† Nora’s husband treats her like a child. And in turn she acts somewhat like a child, innocent and naà ¯ve. She’s has three children, but they are not being raised by her. No one really takes her seriously, because she walks around as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. All this changes once Krogstad threatens to tell Nora’s husband her secret she becomes fearful and fears her whole peaceful life is about to come to end. Drastically she thinks of ways to resolve the problem. She contemplated leaving her husband, children or committing suicide, but she could never kill herself. ...

Using the Comma in Spanish

Using the Comma in Spanish Most of the time, the comma in Spanish is used much like the comma in English. However, there are some differences, particularly in numbers and in comments that are inserted within sentences. Using Commas to Separate Items in a Series Unlike in English, where the Oxford comma  is optionally  used before the final item in a series, a comma is not used before the final item of a series when it follows the conjunction e, o, ni, u or y. El libro explicaba de una forma concisa, sencilla y profunda la crisis financiera. The book explained the financial crisis in a concise, simple and profound way. (In English, a comma could optionally be added after simple.)Mezcle bien con las papas, los huevos y las remolachas. (Mix well with the potatoes, eggs, and beets.) ¿Quieres tres, dos o una? (Do you want three, two, or one?) If an item in a series has a comma within it, you should use a  semicolon. Using Commas for  Explanatory Phrases and Apposition The rule on explanatory phrases is much the same as it is in English. If a phrase is used to explain what something is like, it is set off by commas. If it is used to define which something is being referred to, it is not. For example, in the sentence El coche que est en el garaje es rojo (The car that is in the garage is red), commas are not needed because the explanatory phrase (que est en el garaje/that is in the garage) is telling the reader which car is being discussed. But punctuated differently, the sentence el coche, que est en el garaje, es rojo (the car, which is in the garage, is red) uses the phrase not to tell the reader which car is being discussed but to describe where it is. An overlapping concept is that of apposition, in which a phrase or word (usually a noun) is immediately followed by another phrase or word that in the context means the same thing,  is similarly punctuated much as in English. El hombre, quien tiene hambre, quiere verte. (The man, who is hungry, wants to see you. The phrase quien  tiene hambre is being used to describe the man, not to define which man is being talked about.)El hombre en el cuarto quiere verte. (The man in the room wants to see you. No comma is needed because en el cuarto is being used to say which man is being talked about.)Amo a mi hermano, Roberto. I love my brother, Roberto. (I have one brother, and he is named Roberto.)Amo a mi hermano Roberto. I love my brother Roberto. (I have more than one brother, and I love Roberto.)Conozco a Julio Iglesias, cantante famoso. (I know Julio Iglesias, the famous singer.)Conozco al cantante famoso  Julio Iglesias. (I know the famous singer Julio Iglesias. The speaker is assuming that the listener doesnt know who Iglesias is.) Using Commas to Set Off Quotes When quotation marks are used, the comma goes outside the quotation marks, unlike in American English. Los familiares no comprendieron la ley, aclarà ³ el abogado. (The family members did not understand the law, the lawyer clarified.)Muchos no saben distinguir las dos cosas, dijo lvarez. (Many do not know how to distinguish the two things, Alvarez said.) Using Commas With Exclamations Commas can be used to set off exclamations that are inserted within a sentence. In English, the equivalent would normally be accomplished with long dashes. El nuevo presidente,  ¡no lo creo!, es oriundo  de Nueva York. The new president - I cant believe it! - is a native of New York. Using Commas Before Some Conjunctions A comma should precede conjunctions that mean except.  These words are excepto, salvo and menos: Nada hay que temer, excepto el miedo. (There is nothing to fear except fear.)Recibà ­ felicitaciones de todos, salvo de mi jefe. (I was congratulated by everyone except for my boss.)Fueron aceptados por todas las autoridades, excepto el vice presidente.  (They were accepted by all the authorities, except the vice president.) Using Commas After Some Adverbs A comma should separate adverbs or adverbial phrases that affect the meaning of the entire sentence from the rest of the sentence.  Such words and phrases often come at the beginning of a sentence, although they can also be inserted. Por supuesto, no puedo comprenderlo. (Of course, I cant understand it.)Por lo contrario, la realidad argentina no difiere de la dominicana.  (To the contrary, the Argentine reality doesnt differ from the Dominican reality.)Naturalmente, gana mucho dinero. Naturally, he earns a lot of money. (Without the comma, the Spanish sentence would become the equivalent of He naturally earns a lot of money, so that naturalmente would describe just the word gana rather than the entire sentence.)Sin embargo, pienso que eres muy talentosa.  (Nevertheless, I think youre very talented.)El trfico de bebà ©s, desgraciadamente, es una realidad.  (The trafficking of babies, unfortunately, is a reality.) Using Commas in Compound Sentences It is not unusual to join two sentences into one, often with y in Spanish or and in English. A comma should also be used before the conjunction. Roma es el centro espiritual del catolicismo, y su centro ha sido declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por UNESCO.  (Rome is the spiritual center of Catholicism, and its center has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)Muchos lagos se forman por la obstruccià ³n de valles debido a avalanchas, y tambià ©n se puede formar un lago artificialmente por la construccià ³n de una presa.  (Many lakes are formed by the obstruction of valleys due to avalanches, and a lake also can be formed artificially by the construction of a dam.) If a compound sentence is very short, the comma can be omitted: Te amo y la amo. (I love you and I love her.) Using the Decimal Comma In Spain, South America and parts of Central America, the comma and period are used in long numbers in the opposite way that they are in American English. Thus 123,456,789.01 in English becomes  123.456.789,01  in most areas where Spanish is used. However, in Mexico, Puerto Rico and parts of Central America, the convention used in American English is followed. When Not to Use the Comma Perhaps one of the most common misuses of the comma in Spanish by English speakers is its use in salutations in  letters. In Spanish, the salutation should be followed by a  colon. Thus letters should begin, for example, with Querido Juan: rather than following  Juan  with a comma. Also, as a general rule, as in English, a comma should not be used to separate the subject of a sentence from the main verb unless necessary to separate words of apposition or intervening phrases. Correct: El aà ±o pasado era muy difà ­cil. (The past year was very difficult.)Incorrect: El aà ±o pasado, era muy difà ­cil. (The past year, was very difficult.)

Communication Direction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Communication Direction - Essay Example Take an example where a criminal described his case to an advocate who intern advices the subject on what to say in court or what to leave out. The convict may also query the advocate awaiting response on a certain issue. This form of communication always has feedback as one of its entities unlike its counterpart, from both the recipient to the sender and letting the sender understand that the message was received accurately. A restricted two-way communication involves oral response without the use of target language. Nonverbal responses such as nodding may also be seen here. For instance, the judge may ask the convict, ‘nod if you understand †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ A full-two-way restricted communication, the respondent uses the target language. Both parties are involved in verbal messages. The following comparison and contrast of both the one and two-way communications are backed by several empirical research, urging emphasis on the benefits of accepting one-way is crucial in startin g a conversation before realization of a two-way communication producing the target language just before this introduction (Rai, 2009). The benefits of one way communication is that where the sender is not bothered, both can continue with their task without fear of failure. As for its disadvantage, the one-way communication is that the receiving parties cannot air their opinion (Rai & Rai, 2009). The one way communication does not offer room for expression. It is somehow meant to deliver information rather than attain a response. The entities here are the sender and the receiver only, leaving a weak room for feedback. There are disadvantages around the two-way communication, the sender encounters constant bothers and is required to entirely focus on the recipients’ needs over their own (Agarwal, 2010). This is termed as a bother to most senders, engulfed in this study of the corrections department, given that different individuals have

High Aspect Ratio Photolithography for MEMS Application Article

High Aspect Ratio Photolithography for MEMS Application - Article Example Review There are several methods that have been used in photolithography and fabrication of molds for use in metal microstructures. LIGA is one of the most common methods that have been previously used for this purpose; this approach has some advantages in that it can be used with tall microstructures that ranged from 100Â µm to 1mm. The effectiveness of this method is that it has no effect on the lateral dimensional accuracy of the long microstructures making it a versatile method, and this explains why it is popular among other photolithographic methods. The limitation of this method is that fabrication of LIGA involves a considerably high cost, and lack of an x-ray synchronized source that would give hard x-rays of high intensity and with low divergent properties. Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) s another method that involves polyamide, which is sued to fabricate low cost high aspect ratio structures as compared to LIGA above. With this process, a thickness of 100Â µm is achieved wit h the aspect ratio being 10. The limitation of this process is the tediousness of modifying the RIE machine. In addition to these approaches, there are several other methods that have been used for this purpose and include the high aspect commercial photolithography with photoresists and a UV light source, and the use of a photosensitive polyamide with a UV exposure in fabricating metal molds. The research by Miyajima & Mehregany (1995) involved integrating the above methods in previous studies, and solving the limitations of the studies to achieve low cost high-aspect-ration structures in photolithography. To achieve this, commercially available positive photoresists and UV exposure increasing molds were used together with electroless nickel plating. In the research, a 2-3Â µm line width was maintained and increasing the photoresists thickness, that the above LIGA approach in photolithography lacked. The research used electrostatic actuator micro machined at 1.5Â µ active gaps wi th a polysilicon of up to 5Â µm. The difference in this approach was that instead of increasing the gap height, the gap side was increased. This resulted to reduced use of high aspect ratio structures due to reduced force/torque. This is the main difference comparing this approach and the previous approaches in photolithography. Coating speed was very important in the cause of this research. A lower speed of 1000 rpm portrayed rough surfaces in the photoresists and mask-wafer spacing was small to result to a high resolution pattern. The optimum speed for high resolution was set at 2000rpm and a uniform coating, thickness and a smooth final surface was achieved after the final layer. The prebake temperatures were essential in that an extended prebake time resulted to high-resolution with diluted developer and standard exposure. The prebake temperature ranged between 95 and105 oC, with the optimum temperature being set at 100oC. After each layer, prebake was done at the same temperat ure to enhance drying. This was because, prebake after applying the second layer was observed to result to cracking mainly due to uneven heating in the two layers that resulted to stresses, and eventually cracking. The optimum prebake temperature of 100oC at 30 min was selected as the optimum prebake conditions after each layer. This time was important in that a short prebake time could have resulted to defects caused by the remaining solvent in the photoresis

Family or Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Family or Art - Essay Example The law and politics, human emotions, failings and desires, as well as survival and reproductive success in the biological sense all contribute to the notion of ‘family’ as we know it today. There are also fine and subtle variations determined by location (and dislocation, such as is caused by migration), race, religion, and a host of other complications devised, and brought about unwittingly, by humankind. In this family portrait the most important aspects are composition and palette. Prominence is given to the pet in the foreground. The color scheme also shows that the bespectacled boy, drawn in red, seems to have preference over the shadowy presence of sister, mom and dad. All are unsmiling: this could have a number of reasons. Is the pet being given away? Is the boy in trouble? Are boy and dog ganging up on the rest of the family? The three heads in the background could be snipped off at the corner, leaving boy and dog, who occupy most of the frame. This possibility gives this family a fault-line. All is not as happy as it looks on first look. The monotone color choice for this picture is deceptive, suggesting less happiness and unity than is visible on closer inspection. A mother and daughter are occupied in a yoga exercise that unites them in shape, concentration and harmony. They are almost one shape, so they make a family: they are dressed similarly, and only a singular purpose could keep a person in that pose. They both want to do this very much. They like to be together: are all families like this? This picture looks old-fashioned, like a woodcut, but its premise is contemporary. A single mother can bring up her daughter alone and they can enjoy harmony. The Gravenor family looks very correct, contained and harmonious, thanks to the artist’s composition and choices of color. Father, mother and two daughters? Or father, wife, daughter and grandmother? From this

Artistic Behavior in the Human Female Essay Example for Free

Artistic Behavior in the Human Female Essay The passage above comes from the article, â€Å"Artistic Behavior in the Human Female,† by Jean Robertson (2003, p. 24). Robertson (2003) argued that female artists define and interpret female sexuality in diverse and conflicting ways, and by using different artistic strategies. Robertson makes assumptions about the woman’s body as a contested terrain, wherein being a woman continues to be a subject of heated debate. For him, how female artists view themselves as women, and as artists, shape their depiction of â€Å"femininity† and â€Å"female sexuality† in their artworks. One of the quotes that Robertson mentioned in his text comes from Simon de Beauvoir. In her seminal book, â€Å"The Second Sex,† she stressed that: â€Å"One is not born a woman, but, rather, becomes one. † I want to reflect on de Beauvoir’s statement and Robertson’s belief about the woman’s body. I agree with de Beauvoir that social experiences and political conditions impact the construction of â€Å"being a woman. † Society shapes how women and men see femininity and gender roles through establishing gender roles and expectations. An example is when a girl is â€Å"conditioned† by her mother to be a â€Å"woman,† by telling her how she should act as a â€Å"woman. This includes educating her about the toys she can and cannot use, and the games she can and cannot play. The girl learns that she should act and think a certain way, in order to be â€Å"feminine. † She learns that she cannot be boisterous or get involved in sports, because that would be too â€Å"manly† for her. This girl is the perfect example of â€Å"becoming† a woman. On the other hand, I also agree that being a woman is a biological and individual construct. A woman is a product of her biology, whether she likes it or not. This is why women are also defined by their sexual organs. Their biology also determines their sex, as well as their gender. Furthermore, being a woman is a product of individual desires and needs. Any woman can define her womanhood the way she also wants it to. Robertson indicated the existence of the pluralities of femininity. It is true that a woman’s body is a contested terrain, and for me, what is wrong with that? Is it not also possible to have multiple femininities, instead of having only one approach to define and to interpret what it means to be a woman? There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, of having different ways of being a woman, because to deny one approach to womanhood undermines the very essence of being a free woman. Journal entry 2 In â€Å"A conversation about race and class,† Childers and Hooks (1990) argued that gender should be expanded to include issues of race and class. They said that: â€Å"†¦we should begin by talking about how we experienced the struggle to challenge and expand the category of gender† (pp. 61-62). For them, people cannot understand gender in its whole sense, if racial and class issues are overlooked in gender analysis. This reading challenged my view of gender, by asking me to see gender through a much broader lens. I have not considered that gender issues also intersect racial and class issues. On the other hand, Childers and Hooks (1990) compelled me to think about the politics of gender. This is related to our discussions about gender as a political object. The politics of gender demonstrate that there are hierarchies to the feminine gender that are experienced by many women. Power is also affected by one’s class and race. If white female women feel that there is a glass ceiling at the workplace, lower-class black and Hispanic women face a greater and heavier glass ceiling in society. Because of their class and race, they feel and experience multiple glass ceilings- the ceiling of racial discrimination, the ceiling of class discrimination, and the ceiling of gender discrimination. These ceilings, on top of one another, represent something more than just a hindrance to economic development, but resemble ceilings that are directly pressed on these women’s bodies. They could hardly breathe, because there are just too many ceilings that make it difficult for them to even survive. Now, I look gender as an amalgam of issues that women bring to gender discourse. As a result, race and issue not only expand gender discourse, but considering them has also broadened my understanding of gender and its diverse conflicts. Journal entry 3 When feminists speak about feminism, they mostly see the opposition between the feminine and the masculine- the yin and the yang. We also discussed the binary opposition in class, which heightened my knowledge of how women are reduced to the lower spectrum of the opposition. The binary opposition also exists in differentiating mothers from fathers. Mothers are put in pedestals, while fathers are forgotten and scorned. Laqueur (1990) complained about this binary opposition in â€Å"The Facts of Fatherhood. † This is an interesting article that argued about the repression of the history of fatherhood. Laqueur (1990) posited that while women enjoyed being the â€Å"natural† parent, fathers were regarded as mere providers, or even as a backdrop to the family. He stressed that it is time for fathers to reclaim their right to be part of the parenting history, wherein their contributions to the formation of society are recognized and respected. This polemical article amuses and interests me significantly. It amuses me because at the back of my mind, I felt gender discrimination in reverse. I believe that mothers have specials bonds with their children, but this belief, however, is marked by sexism. Do not fathers also share special bonds with their children? Laqueur (1990) challenged the notion of motherhood, because it undermined the importance of fatherhood. In my mind, it is better to not differentiate mothers from fathers, which is the same as stopping ourselves from differentiating women and men. Women and men have their own strengths and weaknesses and none is more superior. In the same line of thought, mothers and fathers are also equal. Let us just call motherhood and fatherhood as parenthood and give fathers their rightful place in the history and the practice of nurturing human society. Furthermore, this is also an interesting article, because it challenged me to talk about being a woman in relation to being a man. Being a woman has its multiplicities, and now, being a man has its pluralism too. For me, these multiplicities, acknowledged as part of gender analysis, render two steps forward for true gender equality. Journal entry 4 In â€Å"Criticizing Feminist Criticism,† Gallop, Hirsch, and Miller (1990) debated on the purposes and development of feminine criticism. Their main point is that feminist criticism writers have gone to the extreme, by pulverizing each other’s feminist views. They believe that this process is futile in understanding and improving the development of gender discourse and feminism. They asserted that feminism can be criticized in a more comprehensive manner, wherein there is no right or wrong feminism. I chose this article because it threads on sensitive issues, wherein the personal versus the collective idea of feminism clashes. Feminists have different worldviews about gender roles, sexuality, and femininity, and they criticize each other in different ways. I have never thought that feminist criticism has become too unconstructive. This is not my idea of criticism at all. I think about my own criticism of feminist criticism and I cannot help but agree that criticism is not about â€Å"thrashing† feminist theories (p. 350). Criticism is also about adding something to existing theories, in ways that can benefit the understanding of what it means to be a woman and how different understandings contribute to a wide range of feminism discourse. I earnestly believe also that feminists cannot define feminism in one way or several ways alone. Feminism should be viewed as a huge mess of ideas and values, different and special to women and groups, who fight for and because of different issues. Yes, it is a mess alright, because being a woman is a dynamic process that is also a part of being an individual and being a member of one’s race, class, and so on. Being a woman cannot ever be a tidy place, wherein women think the same and act the same. I would rather have it as a mess- wherein women are free to think and re-think feminism, in relation to their personal experiences and values. References Childers, M. Hooks, B. (1990). A conversation about race and class. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 60-81). New York, NY: Routledge. Gallop, J. , Hirsch, M. , Miller, N. K. (1990). Criticizing feminist criticism. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 349-369). New York, NY: Routledge. Laqueur, T. W. (1990). The facts of fatherhood. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 205-221). New York, NY: Routledge. Robertson, J. (2003). Artistic behavior in the human female. In B. Stirratt C. Johnson (Eds. ), Feminine persuasion: art and essays on sexuality (pp. 23-38). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

BinOptics Corporation :: essays research papers

The Company BinOptics Corporation is a privately held high tech start up company located in Cornell’s Business and Technology Park in Ithaca, NY. BinOptics, the company, was based on key technological inventions made at Cornell University. CEO and co-founder, Alex Behfar, worked on the proprietary technology under Professor Valentine during his student tenure at Cornell, while earning his PhD in Electrical Engineering. In November 2000 CEO, Alex Behfar and President, Darius Forghani founded BinOptics. BinOptics received its first round of venture capital funding in January 2001 for an undisclosed amount. Currently, BinOptics houses over twenty employees and they hope to grow to forty by the end of the fiscal year. BinOptics is now in its fourth year of operation and will amassed $2 million in annual revenue. So what does BinOptics produce? BinOptics designs, develops, and manufactures monolithically integrated optoelectronic components based on the proprietary technology developed at Cornell University. It also produces integrated photonic components, which include its lasers. These components can be integrated into indium phosphide and other semiconductor materials, which give BinOptics a competitive advantage. This unique platform allows the company to meet commercial requirements with higher reproducibility, more elasticity for product innovation, considerably lower costs, and higher performance than alternative processes. BinOptics’ products address high growth datacom applications, parallel optical interconnects, PON and CWDM (Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing), as well as advanced non-telecom applications. Its products are sold to technology companies in the tele-communications and data-communications industry. BinOptics does not disclose its customer list but two of its customers are Agilent Technologies and Cisco Systems. What does this mean? In the simplest way, BinOptics produces lasers. These tiny lasers, some the size of a grain of salt, transfer enormous amounts of information to another source immediately. The integrated laser chips are the key part of optical transceivers and transponders. BinOptics’ edge-emitting laser consists of a two-inch wafer that has 20,000 lasers on it. Strategic Investors BinOptics success can be measured by the strength of its strategic investors. These investors facilitate BinOptics path to success and its ability to raise equity. After receiving its initial first round of funding in January 2001 BinOptics was able to receive additional venture capital funding in May 2002, March 2003, and February 2005. The strategic investors include: Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Cayuga Venture Fund II, FA Technology Ventures, and ArrowPath Venture Capital and Stanford University. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading venture capital firm out of Silicon Valley, CA. BinOptics Corporation :: essays research papers The Company BinOptics Corporation is a privately held high tech start up company located in Cornell’s Business and Technology Park in Ithaca, NY. BinOptics, the company, was based on key technological inventions made at Cornell University. CEO and co-founder, Alex Behfar, worked on the proprietary technology under Professor Valentine during his student tenure at Cornell, while earning his PhD in Electrical Engineering. In November 2000 CEO, Alex Behfar and President, Darius Forghani founded BinOptics. BinOptics received its first round of venture capital funding in January 2001 for an undisclosed amount. Currently, BinOptics houses over twenty employees and they hope to grow to forty by the end of the fiscal year. BinOptics is now in its fourth year of operation and will amassed $2 million in annual revenue. So what does BinOptics produce? BinOptics designs, develops, and manufactures monolithically integrated optoelectronic components based on the proprietary technology developed at Cornell University. It also produces integrated photonic components, which include its lasers. These components can be integrated into indium phosphide and other semiconductor materials, which give BinOptics a competitive advantage. This unique platform allows the company to meet commercial requirements with higher reproducibility, more elasticity for product innovation, considerably lower costs, and higher performance than alternative processes. BinOptics’ products address high growth datacom applications, parallel optical interconnects, PON and CWDM (Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing), as well as advanced non-telecom applications. Its products are sold to technology companies in the tele-communications and data-communications industry. BinOptics does not disclose its customer list but two of its customers are Agilent Technologies and Cisco Systems. What does this mean? In the simplest way, BinOptics produces lasers. These tiny lasers, some the size of a grain of salt, transfer enormous amounts of information to another source immediately. The integrated laser chips are the key part of optical transceivers and transponders. BinOptics’ edge-emitting laser consists of a two-inch wafer that has 20,000 lasers on it. Strategic Investors BinOptics success can be measured by the strength of its strategic investors. These investors facilitate BinOptics path to success and its ability to raise equity. After receiving its initial first round of funding in January 2001 BinOptics was able to receive additional venture capital funding in May 2002, March 2003, and February 2005. The strategic investors include: Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Cayuga Venture Fund II, FA Technology Ventures, and ArrowPath Venture Capital and Stanford University. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a leading venture capital firm out of Silicon Valley, CA.