Illegal Downloading: Good Or Bad?

Illegal Downloading: Good Or Bad? There have been many arguments on whether illegal downloading is a serious problem or not. Illegal downloading isnt that much of a problem if you take the time out to research into it. Sources have shown that illegal downloading actually promotes and helps artist more, it helps people become more diverse in music genres, artist illegally download music as well as their fans, and that there is zero to no evidence that free online music financially harms anyone. These and many more is just the tip iceberg on the arguments that are for illegal downloading, but for now where did illegal downloading all begin? The history of commercial music distribution is a recent one.(Miller, Web). Music distribution started up about the 1800s when the idea of sheet music was thought of. Later after that during the 1930s, people of the middle class had pianos. They would usually go to the local store, buy sheet music of their favorite artist during that time, and play it at their homes. Soon after there was the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison which enabled artist to widely distribute their music. The music was first created on wax cylinders and then vinyl discs. During this time there were about 150 companies creating records. Over time, the record industry evolved from 78 RPM discs to 45 RPM singles to 33 1/3 RPM long playing (LP) albums, and then to 8-track tapes (remember them?) And recorded audiocassette, and then to digital compact discs and finally to downloadable and streaming digital tracks.(Miller, Web). Quality had greatly increased with this evolution and so did the distribution. It was pretty obvious that these recordings could be duplicated, but it wasnt as easy back then. The only things that were known were home wire recorders and discs cutting machines. Not all people knew how to use these devices at the time though. What really started making things easy was the invention of the reel to reel tape recording in the 1950s and the audiocassette recorders in the 1960s. The only problems with these were that the audio grade of copied music was somewhat horrible. It wasnt until the digital era started that we could make extremely good copies of music due to CDs and your computer. Then when the internet came along downloading music became simple for anyone to be able to download any type music for free. (Miller, Web). Napster, which started in 1999, was the first hugely popular music file-sharing services. It was shut down by court order in 2001.(Hamilton, 90). Now a days most music downloading is done by college students. (Jambon, Web). One of the main arguments of the opposing side says that it harms artist by taking money from them, but this is the exact opposite. In a survey shown by opposing viewpoints there were only about 12 percent of artists thought that illegal downloading hurt them. Most of the artists were not convinced that illegal downloading is doing any economic harm. Whats worth noting is that higher educated artist in particular believed that file-sharing is doing them no harm.(Opposing Viewpoints). Also majority of the artist thought that illegal downloading helped promote them. About 50 percent of the artists believe strongly that illegal downloading helps get their work known better in public. There was only about 5 percent who thought the other way around. In particular the younger artists ( Illegal downloading also helps artist by helping people become more subjected to new genres of music. Having the easy accessibility of mp3s means that more people will be listening to different types of music that they havent heard before, and this informs them more on music as a whole. Artists really have nothing to worry about when it comes to losing money in the music industry. From research artist have also been known to download music illegally themselves. the Dutch Government announced plans to outlaw downloading of all copyrighted material and measures to make it easier to block websites that facilitate copyright infringement. An interesting, particularly since a survey they published on the same day shows that artists views on file-sharing are not all that negative.(Opposing Viewpoints). They began a huge survey in order to find out more about the view of artist on the topic of piracy, DRM the digital rights management: technologies that limit access to digital content), and similar opportunities and challenges they had faced in the digital era. The questions that were asked in the article were answered by about 4,000 artists of all ages, which included musicians, filmmakers, authors and photographers. When the results had come out, there was in unparalleled look into the state at which the artists stood on the subject. One of the results that stands o ut directly is that artist are pirates too.(Opposing Viewpoints). While not all of them were pirates, there was a good amount of them that were. About 22 percent of the surveyors responded saying that they had downloaded copyrighted works without the owners permission in the last 12 months. Another 71% told the researchers they hadnt downloaded anything without permission during this period, and the remaining 7% didnt know, or didnt want to answer the question.(Opposing Viewpoints). There was another question ask to the surveyors who had recently owned up to downloading other peoples copyrighted works. These results had shown that music was the most downloaded media type, with 80 percent from music, 40 percent for movies and 5 percent for e-books and games (Opposing Viewpoints). So as well the fans downloading illegally, the artist were no different. Lastly there really is zero to no evidence when it comes to financially harming artist. If you think about, the music industry should be rejoicing at this new technological advance. Heres a foolproof way to deliver music to millions who might otherwise never bought a CD in a store.(Aksomitis,16). There is an exceptional amount of cross-marketing. The cost is extremely low and there is no shipping. The RIAA may be right about their being a lot changes in the music industry, but at the same time there still are a good amount of labels left. Well turn into Microsoft if were not careful, folks, insisting that any household wanting an extra copy for the car, the kids, or the portable CD player, has to go out and license multiple copies.(Aksomitis, 16). People as artist are the ones who have the ear of the masses, and thats who should be trusted. Most of the shame should not be brought on the fans and the people, but on the bad state of the industry of recording companies, radio programmer s. There although is some good arguments that states the fans need to organize themselves in order to better their own lives and morals in illegal downloading. This is true but this is one of few true statements that fall under the cons of illegal downloading. In conclusion to this argument, there is some but not a lot of danger when it comes to illegal downloading its actually a good thing. Whether it be helping the artist, artists illegally downloading or any other reason. Illegal downloading is here to stay, and while there all no ways to completely stop it there are always ways to help it. Work Cited Jambon, Marc M., and Judith G. Smetana. College Students Moral Evaluations Of Illegal Music Downloading. Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology 33.1 (2012): 31 39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Miller, Michael. Downloading Pirated Music: Pros and Cons.Que.com. (2012): n. page. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Sar, Ernesto Van Der. Copyright Violations Do Not Hurt Artist Income. The Music Industry. Ed. Noah Berlatsky. Detroit: Green haven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. From Artist Dont Think Piracy Hurts Them Financially, Study Shows. TorrentFreak.com. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2013 Aksomitis, Linda. Downloading Music. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Print. Hamilton, Jill. The Music Industry. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print. Smith, Ethan. Listen to Music Free, but Pay to Carry. Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition 05 June 2007: B1+. Newspaper Source. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. Heigl, Alex. Five Ways to Justify Illegally Downloading Music. Nerve.com. (2011): n. page. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Stem Cell Therapy Essay

Sepulveda Bio. Anthro. Tues 6-9 Cell Replacement and Stem Cell Therapy to Treat Neurodegenerative Disease Stem cell therapy is being used to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The disease itself, new therapies and treatments, along with a cure are currently being studied by universities and stem cell researchers. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which attacks the neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary movement, eventually leading to respiratory failure and death (Kamel et al. 2008). The current course of action for a patient with ALS is physical therapy and, if their budget allows, cell replacement therapy. However there is presently no cure and the patient will eventually have respiratory problems and die from the disease. Adult stem cells (ASCs) and blastocyst or embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are being used to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in cell replacement therapy, yet this only slows the degeneration of their neurons (Goldman, Windrem, 2006).Research for both adult stem cell and blastocyst stem cell technologies are the only practical option in approaching a cure or more effective treatment for ALS. Both of these technologies require stem cells, but are challenging to safely retrieve and utilize through the current treatment methods, which is why it is essential to continue to support and fund this research. Cell replacement therapy is currently the only stem cell treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, but researchers are trying to find new ways of treating and possibly curing ALS.Cell augmentation using stem cells could be the future of treatment for ALS but scientists are currently working to increase availability of the needed ESCs and ASCs to treat patients using cell replacement therapy. There are three different ways to harvest the necessary stem cells for neuron replacement: growing ESCs in vitro, har vesting stem cells from the brain or spinal cord of a live donor through biopsy, and harvesting from the brain or spinal cord of a donor post mortem (Sohur et. al. , 2006). The goal of treatment of ALS is to slow and eventually stop cell loss progressing to the point of functional impairment.To accomplish this goal, protecting the remaining neurons as well as replacing and augmenting damaged neurons is important. The ultimate goal, to cure ALS, is to fully restore authentic neuronal circuitry or â€Å"full systems reconstruction† (Ormerod et. al. 2008). Full systems reconstruction would consist of recreating a map of precisely patterned neurons of the correct type using the stem cells to send projections to the appropriate field within the brain. The cure seems virtually impossible with the technology currently available, but recreating neurogenesis may be possible in the future.Adult stem cell harvesting is difficult and costly when retrieving the stem cells needed to treat neurodegenerative diseases from brain matter or spinal fluid. Neurons are very specific cells in the brain and spinal cord and possess a special set of neurotransmitters depending on their function; this poses problems when harvesting ASCs (Zhang et. al. , 2006). The ASCs needed to treat ALS must be able to specialize and replace degenerating neurons affected by the disease. This procedure would not be possible without using stem cells to replace the damaged and degenerating neurons.However a problem associated with ASCs is rejection of foreign cells when transplanting ASCs taken through biopsy from a donor. Although biopsy from the patient receiving treatment is an option, the ASCs required come from the brain or spinal cord and can be very dangerous to harvest this way. Adult neural stem cells can be harvested from brain tissue, either from a deceased donor or through biopsy, and then grown in a culture (Ormerod et. al. , 2008). ASCs will not expand nearly as much as ESCs in cultu re and will differentiate into a limited number of neuron types.When using ESCs, which conform to the necessary specialized type of neurons, the lack of flexibility encountered in the ASCs is eliminated. Human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), however difficult to harvest initially, will multiply greatly when grown in culture. The ESCs are generated by in vitro fertilization and grown into the blastocyst stage before harvesting. The advantages of ESCs are boundless; the results of the therapy would not be obtainable without use of the stem cells to replace the damaged cells.The ease and frequency with which ESCs can be expanded in culture is a significant advantage over ASCs. Growing such high numbers of stem cells in this fashion can prove problematic though, while the cells reproduce indefinitely they become more susceptible to mutation and may cause tumors following transplant (Ormerod et. al. , 2008). Thus, a challenge rises to differentiate the cells fully before transplant or to gr ow many more cultures from different donor eggs, which are difficult and expensive to receive.ESCs are more easily specialized into neurons, oligodendrocytes, and glia needed to treat ALS than ASCs; but the possibility of tumors forming in the patient along with the cost and complication of creating new chains of blastocysts from donor eggs pose a disadvantage of using this technology (Ormerod et. al. , 2008). Taking into consideration ESC technology’s advantages and disadvantages, it is equally as viable an approach to a cure for ALS as ASC technology. ALS is an extremely destructive disease which unfortunately plagues a large population.ALS is difficult to treat because it is a neurodegenerative disease and requires brain surgery and neuron replacement. Both adult stem cell and embryonic stem cell therapies have potential to increase the quality of life for patients with ALS but they both have their own individual inherent risk that must be taken into account by the patient and doctors when choosing a stem cell therapy method. Donors are few and far between and the necessary cells are very specific for this particular procedure.Through an increase in research and development of new ways to multiply and store stem cells, along with an increase in donors, the road toward a cure will be a short one. Hopefully in the future the treatment will become easier, less costly, and less dangerous for the patient. Works Cited Larsen CS. 2010. Essentials of Physical Anthropology: Discovering Our Origins. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company Ormerod, B. K. , Palmer, T. D. , & Maeve, A. C. (2008). Neurodegeneration and cell replacement. Philosophical Transactions: Biological , 363(1489), 153-170.Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/stable/20210044 Sohur, U. S. , Emsley, J. G. , Mitchell, B. D. , & Macklis, J. D. (2006). Adult neurogenesis and cellular brain repair with neural progenitors, precursors and stem cells. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Scien ces, 361(1473), 1477-1497. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/stable/20209745 Kamel,, F. , Umbach, D. M. , Stallone, L. , Richards, M. , Hu, H. , & Sandler, D. P. (2008). Association of lead exposure with survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Evironmental Health Perspectives, 116(7), 943-947. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/stable/25071103 Goldman, S. A. , & Windrem, M. S. (2006). Cell replacement therapy in neurological disease. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 361(1473), 1463-1475. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/stable/20209744 Zhang, S. , Li, X. , Johnson, A. , & Pankratz, M. T. (2006). Human embryonic stem cells for brain repair?. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 363(1489), 87-99. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/stable/20210040

Realtionship Between the Media, Public Perceptions of Crime and Police Essay

Does the media and the amount of exposure to specific news media affect fear of crime? This question is examined in a survey with data collected from three universities in the United States and one in Canada; The Impact of Media on Fear of Crime among University Students: A Cross-National Comparison, goes over the results. It’s believed that fear in itself can be debilitating leading to harmful social outcomes. Vincent Sacco believes there are three dimensions to fear of crime: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. Cognitive looks at a how a person assesses their likelihood of being victimized. Emotional is how someone feels about crime, and behavioral is a person’s response to fear of their perceived likelihood of being victimized. However, in 2011, it was argued â€Å"that fear of crime ought to be conceptualized by distinguishing between generalized anxieties and more concrete episodes of fear, as well as by differentiating effects of everyday worries and anxieties† (Kohm, Waid-Lindberg, Weinrath & Shelley, 2012). This theory â€Å"is thought allow for better understanding of how people are motivated to protect themselves† (Kohm, Waid-Lindberg, Weinrath & Shelley, 2012). Despite a decrease in crime rates, citizens of both the United States and Canada still have a high fear of being victimized. One theory suggests that increased fear is a direct result of an individual’s perception of the risk to being a victim. This can occur because of one’s past victimizations or through media exposure of crime also known as indirect victimization. Individuals learn of local crime, national crime and even world-wide crime events through media sources: TV, newspapers, and internet. In 2007, the United Nations Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) showed that the United States reported the second lowest level (16%) of fear of being victims of a burglary compared to Canada who reported higher levels (25%) of fear, even though crimes rates had declined since 1989. Secondhand information (news sources) raises fear and beliefs that victimization is likely, in turn individuals become indirect victims through their fear. The cultivation theory suggests that when violent crimes stories increase so does the fear of crime. Similar to the cultivation theory, the substitution perspective states that individuals with no history of victimization will have increased fear of crime with crime related stories. The resonance perspective is just the opposite. It states that the media increases fear when the content is similar to one’s experiences. These three theories are derived from the indirect victimization model. Most individuals receive crime information from television news reports, where stories on crime are reported twice as often as political news stories. Stories involving multiple victims, use of firearms, as well as certain other crime characteristics is more newsworthy than others. The survey done on Canadian and United States university students showed that local news affected individual’s fears more than world news. Also television news reports affected fear more than other news sources such as newspapers or the internet where people can select which stories they want to read. The nature of a criminal offence and the community context in which the crime occurs determines how a story is reported. An example being, â€Å"smaller suburban and rural areas are more likely to report all homicides while large urban areas may be more selective† (Kohm, Waid-Lindberg, Weinrath & Shelley, 2012). The article states that fear if crime is directly related to demographics factors which include: gender, age, race/ethnicity, and situational factors including any previous victimization, one’s perception of their risk of being victimized, and concerns about local crime. Even though males experience higher levels of being victimized, women tend to fear crime more because they feel they are able to defend themselves against a physical attack. One study reported that Elderly are more fearful where as another study shows younger individuals are more fearful. Therefore, age as a predictor for fear of crime is inconsistent. The following universities were given a self-administered survey as part of the current study this article was based on: Colorado State University (CSU), University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and Florida State University (FSU) and one Canadian, University of Winnipeg (UW). The campuses of UTA, FSU and UW are located in higher crime urban areas. In Florida and Texas, violent and property crime rates are higher than the national average. Winnipeg’s violent and property crimes rates are also higher than the rest of Canada’s crimes levels. Criminal Justice or Criminology majors reported a lower fear of crime compared to other majors or students who were yet undecided. The survey also showed that there was a similar rate of concern between both nations; reporting on a scale of 1-10 the average was seven, clearly showing a somewhat high concern for crime. In summary, the findings for the survey are as follows: women, whites, non-criminal justice/criminology majors reported aving more fear of crime. A general concern about crime was relatively the same between the American and Canadian students though Canadians had higher rate of fear for risk of violent victimization and Americans had a higher rate for property victimization. The media plays a substantial role in determining the amount of fear of crime that people hold. This comes from the fact that the media extensively and disproportionately cover crime stories. But how does this affect the public’s perception of law enforcement? The answer to this question is simple. The media leads people to believe that there is more crime than there actually is. Therefore, the media also plays a role in forming expectations of police. When people think that crime has increased, they more than likely will believe that the police are not doing their jobs. The problem is, is that the media has created a false image of law enforcement. According to Ronald D. Hunter and Thomas Barker (2011), â€Å"the police officers of Hollywood lore are fictional images of stereotypes that have been exaggerated to provide entertainment to a bored public† (p. 41). A few examples of entertainment media that depict these false pictures of police are: CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, and NYPD Blue. Each and every one of these portray the characters as super-cops that can perform more than just the standard jobs of real life police officers. For example, in CSI the multitude of character can perform investigative tasks as well as tasks involving forensic science. The characters of these shows solve challenging cases using their superior intelligence and expertise. Almost always, the characters solve their case in single day maybe two days. People tend to believe that these fictional images and stereotypes are true and base their perceptions of real life police off these. Aside from entertainment media, the public is also greatly influenced by news media, as previously seen above. According to Hunter and Barker (2011), Depicting the police negatively as misusing deadly force, police prejudice, or police corruption is also newsworthy. The amount of emphasis given to police actions and the media’s interpretation of these actions as either proper or improper have a tremendous effect on the public’s perception of the police. p. 41) Police agencies across the United States; deal with accusations of misuse of force on a daily basis. Justified or not, images of police using force continue to outrage the American public. However, police use of force incidents are often misinterpreted by the community due to the media frenzy twisting facts. The media undermines the authority of the police and reduces the trust that the public has in its police. What is observed in the media is largely carried out to represent police as a whole. In other words, the media magnifies situations and creates an exaggerated perspective that viewers assume is a standard of all police and police organizations as well as crime. Among the different types of stories in the media, negative stories attract a larger audience. What a person reads, hears, and observes in the media largely defines the person’s perception of the police. Whether we recognize the effects of the media or not, our perceptions of this world are heavily influenced by the information we receive from the media. The media constantly surrounds us, frequently informs us, and just as frequently misinforms us. The influence of the media is significant since media could be identified as a primary source in influencing people’s perceptions of crime and their perceptions of police. Besides the significant effect on fear of crime, the media has influenced the public’s attitudes toward police at the same time. News media may be the primary source for the public viewing the police as ineffective and incompetent. Studies have highlighted the powerful influence of media’s news coverage, there are solid justifications for us to examine the links between fear of crime and how crime news coverage influences the public’s attitudes toward police efficiency.

Which Delphi Files to Store in a Source Control System

Delphi employs a number of files for its configuration, some global to the Delphi environment, some project specific. Various tools in the Delphi IDE store data in files of other types. The following list describes the files and their filename extensions that Delphi creates for a typical stand-alone application, plus a dozen more. Also, get to know which Delphi generated files should be stored in a source control system. Delphi Project Specific .PAS - Delphi Source FilePAS should be stored in Source ControlIn Delphi, PAS files are always the source code to either a unit or a form. Unit source files contain most of the code in an application. The unit contains the source code for any event handlers attached to the events of the form or the components it contains. We may edit .pas files using Delphis code editor. Do not delete .pas files. .DCU - Delphi Compiled UnitA compiled unit (.pas) file. By default, the compiled version of each unit is stored in a separate binary-format file with the same name as the unit file, but with the extension .DCU (Delphi compiled unit). For example unit1.dcu contains the code and data declared in the unit1.pas file. When you rebuild a project, individual units are not recompiled unless their source (.PAS) files have changed since the last compilation, or their .DCU files cannot be found. Safely delete .dcu file because Delphi recreates it when you compile the application. .DFM - Delphi FormDFM should be stored in Source ControlThese files are always paired with .pas files. A DFM file contains the details (properties) of the objects contained in a form. It can be view as text by right clicking on the form and selecting view as text from the pop-up menu. Delphi copies information in .dfm files into the finished .exe code file. Caution should be used in altering this file as changes to it could prevent the IDE from being able to load the form. Form files can be saved in either binary or text format. The Environment Options dialog lets you indicate which format you want to use for newly created forms. Do not delete .dfm files. .DPR - Delphi ProjectDPR should be stored in Source ControlThe .DPR file is the central file to a Delphi project (one .dpr file per a project), actually a Pascal source file. It serves as the primary entry point for the executable. The DPR contains the references to the other files in the project and links forms with their associated units. Although we can modify the .DPR  file, we should not modify it manually. Do not delete .DPR files. .RES - Windows Resource FileA Windows resource file generated automatically by Delphi and required by the compilation process. This binary-format file contains the version info resource (if required) and the application’s main icon. The file may also contain other resources used within the application but these are preserved as is. .EXE - Application ExecutableThe first time we build an application or a standard dynamic-link library, the compiler produces a .DCU file for each new unit used in your project; all the .DCU files in your project are then linked to create a single .EXE (executable) or .DLL file. This binary-format file is the only one (in most cases) you have to distribute to your users. Safely delete your projects .exe file because Delphi recreates it when you compile the application. .~ - Delphi Backup FilesFiles with names ending in .~ (e.g. unit2.~pa) are backup copies of modified and saved files. Safely delete those files at any time, however, you might want to keep the for recovering damaged programming. .DLL - Application ExtensionCode for dynamic link library. A dynamic-link library (DLL) is a collection of routines that can be called by applications and by other DLLs. Like units, DLLs contain shareable code or resources. But a DLL is a separately compiled executable that is linked at runtime to the programs that use it. Do not delete a .DLL file unless you wrote it. Go see DLLs and Delphi for more information on programming. .DPK - Delphi PackageDPK should be stored in Source ControlThis file contains the source code for a package, which is most often a collection of multiple units. Package source files are similar to project files, but they are used to construct special dynamic-link libraries called packages. Do not delete .dpk files. .DCPThis binary image file consists of the actual compiled package. Symbol information and additional header information required by the IDE are all contained within the .DCP file. The IDE must have access to this file in order to build a project. Do not delete .DCP files. .BPL or .DPLThis is the actual design-time or run-time package. This file is a Windows DLL with Delphi-specific features integrated into it. This file is essential for the deployment of an application that uses a package. In version 4 and above this is Borland package library in version 3 its Delphi package library. See BPL vs. DLL for more information on programming with packages. The following list describes the files and their filename extensions that Delphi IDE creates for a typical stand-alone application   Ã‚  Ã‚  IDE Specific.BPG, .BDSGROUP - Borland Project Group (Borland Developer Studio Project Group)BPG should be stored in Source ControlCreate project groups to handle related projects at once. For example, you can create a project group that contains multiple executable files such as a .DLL and an .EXE. .DCRDCR should be stored in Source ControlDelphi component resource files contain a components icon as it appears on the VCL palette. We may use .dcr files when construction our own custom components. Do not delete .dpr files. .DOFDOF should be stored in Source ControlThis text file contains the current settings for project options, such as compiler and linker settings, directories, conditional directives, and command-line parameters. The only reason to delete .dof file is to revert to standard options for a project. .DSKThis text file stores information about the state of your project, such as which windows are open and what position they are in. This allows you to restore your project’s workspace whenever you reopen the Delphi project. .DROThis text file contains information about the object repository. Each entry in this file contains specific information about each available item in the object repository. .DMTThis proprietary binary file contains the shipped and user-defined menu templates information. .TLBThe file is a proprietary binary type library file. This file provides a way for identifying what types of objects and interfaces are available on an ActiveX server. Like a unit or a header file the .TLB serves as a repository for necessary symbol information for an application. .DEMThis text file contains some standard country-specific formats for a TMaskEdit component. The list of the file extensions you see when Developing with Delphi continues .... .CABThis is the file format that Delphi offers its users for web deployment. The cabinet format is an efficient way to package multiple files. .DBFiles with this extension are standard Paradox files. .DBFFiles with this extension are standard dBASE files. .GDBFiles with this extension are standard Interbase files. .DBIThis text file contains initialization information for the Database Explorer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  CautionNever delete files with names ending in .dfm, .dpr, or .pas, unless you want to throw away your project. These files contain the applications properties and source code. When backing up an application, these are the critical files to save.