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INDEX:
My Writing 1 -> Immortal Beloved (Music Essay)
My Writing 2 -> Feminism in the Western Music World (Music Assignment)
My Writing 3 -> Network Protocols (Computer Essay)
My Writing 4 -> Transit-supportive land use planning (Planning in Canada - Geography Resource Paper)

Danny's Writing 1:

      Immortal Beloved, written and directed by Bernard Rose, is a film with more fantasy than fact. It is a romanticized love story which not only tries to solve the mysterious identity of who Beethoven's "immortal beloved" is, but also captures some ideas of early nineteenth century romanticism. Like Amadeus, Immortal Beloved chronicles a period of the life of one of the greatest composers. With the setting of some of Beethoven's greatest music that reflects in the film, Rose attempts to reveal to us what Beethoven had in mind when he composed his pieces. At the same time, he also wants to emphasize in his film that Beethoven's music might have been influenced by the problems that Beethoven faced as a composer and a lover. In fact, what the director tries to do is to tie in various aspects of Beethoven's life, of which many are tragic. One of the important aspects of this film is to let the audience understand how Beethoven's music was affected by his tragic ordeals and suffering, especially some of his finest works, such as the Fifth Symphony, the Ninth Symphony and the Moonlight Sonata.

      Beethoven was a talented composer who is recognised as the bridge between the eighteenth century classicism and the nineteenth century romanticism. Actually, his romantic desire was created with depth, contrary to the mechanical format usually used by the eighteenth century composers. Throughout this film, the director portrays Beethoven as a romantic who desires to express himself creatively through his music. However. the entire film uses Beethoven himself to explain the meaning of his music. Beethoven used his music to get directly into people's hearts as well as to win the affection of his lover. He wrote a letter which was found after his death to show the relationships between himself and his beloved and unidentified woman, to whom he poured out his heart. Unfortunately, his courtship to this woman was unsuccessful which made him suffer very much. He felt that his fate was not in favour of him. This may be one of the elements of Beethoven's tragic life. In fact, the love letter addressed to the "Immortal Beloved" is only the vehicle to bring the audience into the troubled time of the composer's life.

      As mentioned above, many of the aspects of Beethoven's life are tragic. One of them is the influence of his suffering from his deafness which brought him serious problems, such as making him impossible to conduct or perform his music. Although Rose understates this point, he subtly makes Beethoven reveal his shame at being deaf. As Beethoven tried to conceal his deafness from the public, he suffered even more. Some of the scenes in the film give us a clear sense that Beethoven's life had filled with sadness, tragedies and craziness. For instance, Beethoven threw a chair through a window. This shows his madness, as well as his craziness. We know that Beethoven alienated himself from the rest of the world because of his painfulness, fearfulness and insecurity, as his live was shaken by his frustration and disappointments, including his failure in love and deafness. There is a scene showing that Beethoven sits down at the keyboard and hammers out several shocking of dissonant chords. This suggests that his hearing was oblivious and his emotions were deep and melancholic. But, it also reveals that Beethoven was the Romantic composer who refused to give up anything, even though he suffered from the spiritual as well as emotional torture that the Romantic artists must go through.

      Indeed, the tragedies of Beethoven's life influenced some of his finest works. For example, several of Beethoven's pieces used in the film, such as the Fifth Symphony, the Ninth Symphony, and the Moonlight Sonata, are influenced by Beethoven's tragic life. His Fifth Symphony which is also called "Fate", can be indicated as the symbolic of his struggle against his fate (deafness) and his flaws. The blaze of triumph at the end of this symphony symbolizes the end of Beethoven's life. The other piece of music chosen in the film is the Ninth Symphony which was composed when Beethoven was completely deaf. In this part of the film, Rose presents the life of Beethoven's childhood, showing him staring at the night sky from his bedroom. At this moment, his drunken father comes home. Fearing the beating of his father. he escapes to a dark lake immediately. He floats in the lake. Then his figure spins away into the starry heavens as the choir sings exaltedly. This symbolizes his spiritual deliverance from his physical pain. Actually, the 'Ody to Joy' theme of this symphony is a piece to deliver his pain through sheer joy, evoking the deepest feelings of mankind through the human voice. His Ninth Symphony which is his last symphony, not only affirms his faith in himself or love he held for humanity, but also the overwhelming love he held for those he was in conflict with, and for lovers to understand the essence of love. Another masterpiece of Beethoven chosen in the film is the famous Moonlight Sonata. As we hear the melancholic strains of this sonata, we see Beethoven closing his eyes with his ear pressed on the piano and playing the beautiful music. From his emotion, we realize that he had to struggle with so much in his heart while he composed, as he could not hear what he was playing nor composing.

      Generally speaking, Immortal Beloved gives us a lot of senses dealing with Beethoven's life and his music. By means of portraying Beethoven's passions, pain, fears and suffering which were expressed in Beethoven's music, Bernard Rose tried to convince his audience that Beethoven's compositions were affected by his tragic life, such as the failure of his courtship to his "immortal beloved", as well as his struggling in his heart, especially in the late period of his lifetime. Moreover, Beethoven wrote his most influential music after his deafness. Undoubtedly, he deserves to be respected as a great and genius composer.

Danny's Writing 2:

      As from the past few centuries, feminism has been one of the most essential issues of women in the Western music world. In the past, many women musicians faced the problem of sexism, for many people adhered to distinct gender bias. As a matter of fact, there has been a clear sense of gender discrimination against women composers and musicians since the seventeenth century. Women had traditionally been forbidden to publish their musical compositions and to participate in Western music, which gives us an idea that it is a disadvantage to be a woman in the music business. Even though women had the potential and ability to play the music, they never got support from others, and they were even not allowed to be educated. There were papal edicts proscribing women's musical education during the seventeenth century. In fact, "women are discouraged through more subtle means for considering themselves as potential musicians" (McClary, Susan). What we can realise is that women were basically discriminated against and that there was no opportunity given to women in music. No doubt, Felix Mendelssohn, a composer in the nineteenth century, did not like women participating in the music world. He did not persuade his sister, Fanny, to publish the compositions, because he recognized that the publication of a work was a serious matter, and his sister had "neither inclination nor vocation for authorship." As well his sister had to perform her housework which affected her publications. In fact these reasons are the excuses for his discriminations against women participating in the music world. Moreover, some musicians also had gender bias. Ernst Rudorff, a deputy director, pointed out that women should not take part in orchestra performances and orchestra classes. He also urged that women should not be trained to become orchestra players and to play with men in the future. This reveals why there were very few women to be leading performers at that time. But in the twentieth century, although the gender discrimination was still continued that women were still in severe criticism, woman musicians had been hired in large numbers. People started hiring them as participants of particular music positions, such as drummer and saxophonist. In fact, the history of the few centuries proves conclusively that women composers could not improve the situation for women musicians until the twentieth century. Undoubtedly, discrimination against women in music definitely limits the potential success and impact of every woman musician.

Danny's Writing 3:

      Network Protocols are software drivers, rules and standards that computers will use to be able to communicate with each other across the network. If a person needs to exchange ideas with the other and they both communicate using the same language, they will be able to understand each other very well indeed. Just as two humans need to understand the same language in order to communicate effectively, computers too need the appropriates rules and procedures for communicating effectively with each other as little error as possible. These rules and procedures are known as protocols. However, protocol is a format set of conventions controlling the transmission of data as well as governing the formatting and relative timing of message exchange between two communicating systems.

      Today, there are many different network layer protocols which provide basic communications. Each protocol performs essentially different functions and purposes. To transfer data, the data is broken down into several systematic steps. Protocols are then followed at each and every step, as each step has rules and procedures governing it. However, protocols serve in the different layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, which handles data routing and addressing. The protocols in the OSI model can be mainly divided into three layers: Network protocols, Transport protocols and Application protocols. Many of the error-checking, addressing and acknowledgement services commonly associated with networking take place at the Network and Transport. On the other hand, protocol suites are usually referred to by the Suite's Network protocols, which are rules for communicating in a particular network environment and Transport protocols, which ensures that the data is properly delivered between computers.

      There are four commonly used network protocols. They are TCP/IP, ISDN, BISDN and ATM. For instance in TCP/IP, TCP is an example of Transport layer protocol and IP is a Network layer protocol.

      The first most commonly used network protocol is Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). TCP/IP is a set of rules and protocols developed that enables cooperating computers to share resources across a network. To start with the background of TCP/IP, we have to know that TCP/IP was originally developed by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) research project for computers using the UNIX operating systems, and to connect a number different networks designed by different vendors into a network of networks; the Internet; the worldwide consortium of computer networks. For example, as of June, 1987, at least one hundred and thirty different vendors had products that support TCP/IP, and thousands of networks use it. However, the layers TCP/IP composed are IP and TCP. Basically, IP defines how data are divided into chunks, called packets, for transmission and determines the path each packet takes between computers. IP is also responsible for moving packet of data from mode to mode, and forwards each packet based on a four byte destination address - the IP number. In addition, IP can operate on gateway machines that move from department to organization to region and around the world. Another protocol, TCP, defines how data are transferred across the Internet to their destination. Basically, TCP is responsible for verifying the correct delivery of data from client to server. TCP can also add support to detect lost data or errors and to trigger retransmission until the data is completely and correctly received.

      Today, TCP/IP is used by every computer, regardless of operating system on the Internet and becomes the standard for internetworking. Besides of that, it provides a routable, enterprise networking protocol and access to the Internet. As Charles K. Davis, a computer journalist once states that "The Internet is a major face, and the recent move by corporate America toward the adoption of Internet protocols such as TCP/IP for use within private corporate networks has spawned many advantages." (Davis, Charles K.), we know that nowadays, TCP/IP becomes important as it is the protocol that holds the Internet together, which can also find in most internal company networks.

      The second most commonly used network protocol is Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). In simple terms, as ISDN is a set of standards for high-speed digital telecommunications lines that can transmit both circuit-switched voice and digital network services over a regular phone line. Moreover, it can also carry fax, computer data and video. In technical terms, as ISDN is a digital network that integrates many disparate systems, including public telephone networks, cable television and packet switching networks, into a standard set of user interfaces. In fact, ISDN provides packet-switches TCP/IP networks, and uses a more complex architecture than most networks, replacing gateways and routers with terminal adapters and ISDN nodes. These perform the equivalent functions, but have a more complex and rigid internal architecture.

      As a matter of fact, the idea of ISDN has existed for many years, but it was not actually exploited for most of that time. And nowadays, ISDN service is gaining in popularity. For example, ISDN lines are being heavily promoted in Germany nowadays, and in the USA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation campaigned strongly for the full exploitation of ISDO as a part of an information infrastructure in 1993. The reason of IDSN service becomes popular is because there are many advantages with ISDN. Before discussing about its advantages, we need to know that there are two types of ISDN lines. They are Basic Rate Interface (BRI) ISDN line, which is designed for small business and residential customers, and Primary Rate (PRI) ISDN line, which is designed for larger business. However, there are many advantages with each type of ISDN lines.

      The main advantage with ISDN is that its speed. ISDN is fast. It uses digital technology to allow users to get more information at significantly higher speeds than traditional analog lines. For example, a BRI ISDN line and a PRI ISDN line can transfer data at speed of up to 128 kilobytes per second and 1.5 megabytes per sound. Essentially, ISDN allows computers faster access to the Internet as well as other online services. For instance, in illustration of the time difference involved between analog lines and digital lines, as large novel can be transmitted in approximately four minutes with a fast analog modem or in one minute using a ISDN connection. Besides of that, there are many other advantages with ISDN such as reliability and cost. Unlike analog telephone lines, which are easily influenced by line noise and poor connections, ISDN is able to eliminate these problems and providing reliable connections all the time. In terms of cost, ISDN service is cheaper than two analog lines, which provides an economical way to connect a personal computer or small local area network to the Internet with up to 128 kilobytes per second of bandwidth.

      The third and fourth most commonly used network protocol is Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (BISDN) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), which are the two new protocols for high-speed networks becoming popular. For BISDN and ATM, the router gateway or other device that accesses the high-speed network is more complex. However, BISDN is the next generation of ISDN, which is a high-speed telecommunications service which is intended to transmit multimedia over the phone line. Basically, it uses fiberoptic cable and synchronous transfer mode. The main advantage with BISDN is that the speed of it is very fast. BISDN is faster than narrowband ISDN, that BISDN can offer speeds from 150 megabytes per sound to 600 megabytes per sound. Furthermore, BISDN can be used for many purposes, such as data, voice, fax, e-mail, full motion video as well as video conferencing. Another protocol, ATM, is the foundation technology and a proposed telecommunications standard for BISDN, which is primarily driven by telecommunications companies. It is a multiplexing and switching technology used to transport small fixed length packets and data units called cells. On the other hand, it was originally conceived as a high-speed transfer technology for data, voice and video over public networks and functions similarly over both local area and wide area networks. The main advantages with ATM are that "ATM networks provide high data rates, low data loss and low transfer delay, and can transmit all kinds of data via the same protocol. With these excellent characteristics, ATM is a reliable and attractive technology for broadband multimedia networks. (Chang, R.S.). Besides of that, compare to the speed of ISDN and BISDN, ATM's speed is very fast, which can be up to 625 megabytes per second.

      Generally speaking, the four commonly used network protocol, TCP/IP, ISDN, BISDN and ATM perform different purposes and functions. However, TCP/IP is the most essential network protocol as we know that the Internet becomes more popular today, while TCP/IP holds the Internet together, and therefore computers that comprise the Internet communicate are using TCP/IP networks. Undoubtedly, for the future technologies and trends, new networks must also meet the growing demand for faster transmission speeds, especially for sound and video applications. Therefore, the recently developed high-speed networks, like BISDN and ATM, are gaining in popularity nowadays.

Danny's Writing 4:

Purpose: The purpose is to provide ideas and guidance to land use planners, including the development patterns which make transit less expensive, less circuitous, more convenient and more efficient, and those which make access to the system more attractive to the potential transit user.

Major principles of transit oriented urban design:

• A grid network instead of a discontinuous road network:
  Road laid out on a grid with close spacing of arterials and collector roads will provide for direct and regularly spaced transit routes serving all direction. It will reduce congestion, disperse automobile traffic and reduce the need for excessively wide arterial roads which are designed solely to move large volumes of automobile traffic.
• Street-oriented uses along arterial roads:
  As the traffic demands on arterial roads are reduced, developing street-oriented uses along these roads will become feasible. The result is a more attractive and safe environment for pedestrians, which encourages walking and transit use.
• Improve access between arterials and the interior of blocks:
  Access can be improved by providing mid block pedestrian walkways. A better solution from convenience and efficiency standpoints is to design subdivisions, so that a larger number of local roads intersect directly with the arterial network. More frequent intersections along arterial roads, coupled with an overall grid system of roads will allow buses to provide more direct service and better coverage, and provide more direct pedestrian access to the transit service.
  
  

• At the subdivision or neighbourhood scale, streets should be designed to minimize walking distances between residential and transit stops.
• Buildings should be oriented toward the street and should be built close to the streetline, to improve access and reduce walking distances.

• Develop a finer grid of arterial and collector roads:
  A finer grid of arterial and collector roads will help to disperse traffic and reduce traffic volumes, so that individual arterials can be developed in a more pedestrian-supportive fashion. With a finer grid of arterials and collectors, it will be possible to intensify uses along these routes without creating excessive levels of traffic congestion.
• Develop pedestrian and transit-supportive uses along arterials:
  Developing higher density residential along arterials will encourage pedestrian activity by creating a more interesting environment and support transit use by ensuring that larger numbers of people live adjacent to transit.
• Improve access between arterial roads and internal subdivisions:
  If residents are not use transit, pedestrian access between internal subdivisions and arterials must be convenient. Walking distances to arterials can be minimized along residential streets and must be short and walking routes must be direct. Access can be improved by providing mid-block pedestrian walkways.
• Need to have comprehensive planning of arterial or collector road system on an area municipal-wide basis, to ensure that adjacent developments and neighbourhoods are linked with direct transit-compatible roads.
• Need to have comprehensive road network planning at the district and neighbourhood scale, to ensure that minor collectors are designed to be continuous and fit into an overall transportation system.
  
  

• A maximum distance of 1000 m between collectors should satisfy the walking distance criterion and allows a greater flexibility in subdivision layout. This flexibility is useful when the parcel of land is to include a relatively large land-use feature like open space use.
  
  

• Design arterials and collectors to accommodate full-sized buses:
  To facilitate conventional transit access, all roads designated as transit routes should meet the design standards, such as the recommended minimum turning curve radius for a bus is 15 m, and the recommended minimum lane width is 3.5 m along straight sections of the road plus an additional 0.5 m along a 15 m radius curve. - To improve traffic flow:
• Provice continuous left turn lanes:
  On arterial roads carrying high volumes of traffic, cars stopping to make left turns can delay transit vehicles and impede traffic flow. The solution is to provide a continuous left turn lane alone the centre of the arterial.
• Avoid one way street systems:
  One way street systems are disruptive to transit systems and inconvenient for riders, and can result in longer transit trips. The solution is to reserve a special contraflow lane for transit vehicles only.
  
  

• To improve the attractiveness of transit, arterials and collectors should be designed to provide as direct a route as possible to minimize trip length and to avoid backtracking. Roads which permit direct and efficient routing for transit vehicles reduces the costs for transit operators, result in a more comfortable ride for passengers.
  
  

• Reduce intersection spacing along arterial and collector roads:
  More frequent intersections reduces walking distances to transit stops, and provides more alternative paths for automobile traffic, reducing traffic congestion along arterials and collectors.
• Reduce spacing between arterial and collector roads:
  Developing mid-block collector and arterial roads at 600 m to 1000 m intervals would help to disperse through traffic and could result in lower traffic volumes along individual roads. Reduced traffic volumes could eliminate the need to widen arterial and collector roads. Reduced traffic volumes could eliminate the need to widen arterial and collector roads to accommodate bus only lanes.
• Avoid reverse lotting along arterials and collector roads:
  Reverse lotting along arterial and collector roads creates a dangerous environment for pedestrians. The most transit and pedestrian-supportive solution is to develop higher density, street-oriented uses along both sides of arterials.
  
  

• Transit services can be restricted to the collector or arterial road, operation on local streets to complete the bus route becomes unnecessary.
• Turnarounds allow for much more attractive and efficient two-way routes, as opposed to the less desirable one-way open loop route.
• Temporary turnarounds allow transit service to be phased in as new development proceeds.
  

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