French policing- Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes Essay

French policing- Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes - Essay Example The minister of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Service controls the Directorate-General. The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes is responsible for ensuring that fraud is detected and tackled, indirect taxes are levied accordingly, smuggling is prevented at borders, counterfeit products are detected and dealt with, drug trafficking is prevented, money laundering is stopped, and borders are thoroughly surveyed (IMF, 1996). The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes in France serves the purpose of guarding the borders, guarding the coasts, handling custom services and conducting rescue operations in the sea. The history of French custom services can be traced back to the revolutionary period. France formed a military custom service responsible for fighting in major wars which included the First World War and the Franco-Prussian War. This custom service was referred to as the General Firm. The servicemen who served in this custom service were armed and they acted as frontier guards, as well as performing other functions related to para-military activities such as patrolling to prevent smuggling (IMF, 1996). During that time, custom service workers were divided into two groups, those working in brigades and those working in offices. Those working in brigades were well organized, armed, disciplined and operated along military lines. Those working in offices were given the same duties and respon sibilities as custom inspectors in other countries. Individual custom officers serving the customs department later on wore blue uniforms with red stripes on the trousers. Most of them were known to be former soldiers. The customs service of the military took part in the initial stages of the Second World War. However, after French was defeated, the service was disbanded and never reconstituted again. The custom service in France has been tasked with the responsibility of custom and immigration checks at certain

Software Apps for Business ( The Apple Mac book ) Research Paper

Software Apps for Business ( The Apple Mac book ) - Research Paper Example Apple has offered multiple machines during the period on between 2008 and 2012, including Apple Airs 2011, Apple MacBook Pro 2012 and Apple MacBook Retina Display 2012. This research-based study is intended to highlight the exemplary differences between machines launched in 2008 and 2012 in order to identify the relative differences, advantages of the new model and disadvantages of not using it along with other alternatives for Apple’s product offered in 2012. Product Offered in 2008 The apple MacBook Pro offered in 2008 had a 15 inches long screen with overall height of 0.95 inches with 14.35 inches of width, dept of 9.82 inches and weight of 5.5 pounds. This MacBook allowed connections and expansions through Magsafe power port with Ethernet port. Also, a FireWire port along with USB connectivity was also present. Express card with 34 slots, Kensington lock slot were one of the main features. Built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet were available for multi purpose connectivity to other networks. Audio features included stereo speakers, omnidirectional microphone, Minijacks for line-in and lineout and Apple stereo headsets were also available. Video output display is supported by NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor with dual-link DVI support; 256MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.4GHz configuration; 512MB of GDDR3 memory on 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz configurations along with Built-in camera and Minidisplay port (Apple, 2008). Further output options are DVI output, VGA output, and Dual-link DVI output whereas, the input is performed through traditional keyboard and touchpad. Specifications of Apple MacBook 2011 & 2012 Over five years, Apple has launched few models which were an extension of Apple MacBook 2008. These models were faster and lighter with impeccable audio and visual output and peripheral support for various software applications. In order to explain the advancement in Apple MacBook 2008, a comparative analysis of it with Apple MacBook Pro 2012 is performed. Apple MacBook Pro 2012 is an advanced version of Apple MacBook Pro 2008 with extensive memory, processing ability and various other features (Arthur, 2012; Westover, 2012). There are various versions available in Apple MacBook 2012 however for the purpose of comparison; Apple MacBook 2012 with 2.6 GHz processor is selected (Apple, 2012). Furthermore, presence of Intel architecture makes it fully capable of supporting multiple operating systems (Nikkel, 2009)1. Advancements Made in the Version 2008 and Comparison with Version 2012 The advancements made in this product are listed below (Apple, 2008; Apple, 2010): a) 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz) with 6MB L3 cache where the last version had 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with L2 Cache memory. b) The memory constitutes of 8GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 memory as compared to previous 1066 MHz frontside bus with maximum up to 4 GB memory. c) Storage has been multiplied up to 750 GB 5 400 rpm hard drive as compared to 320 GB. d) In MacBook 2012, various configuration options are available whereas