WEEK 10

Magnitude 8.9 Earthquake in Japan This Morning Probably the Biggest in Area's Recorded History

And scientists are on the job, already producing many spectacular graphics to illustrate tsunami characteristics and other data collected about this phenomena.

 

WEEK 9

Tiny-fingered researchers at the University of Michigan have created this computer, the world's first complete millimeter-scale computing system. It is a prototype designed to be implanted in a human eye, to monitor internal pressure there for signs of glaucoma.

Original Article

WEEK 8

Dumber and Dumber?

     I found an interesting article by Jonah Lehrer of Wired which takes issue with Gideon Rachman's article in the Financial Times about how there is a dearth of geniuses and "great thinkers" today compared to times past. 

     Lehrer points out that while it may seem that our civilization is producing less of these "great minds", the reason is not that we're not as smart, but that today's great problems are so large and complex, and computer networking so widespread, that most solutions come from teams instead of individuals.

Original Article

WEEK 7

 President Obama to Meet With

Technology Industry Leaders

    

     President Obama travels to the west coast this week to meet with top executives in the technology sector including Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg and other major players. The President is going to start his trip with a visit to San Francisco, then will travel to Hillsboro, Oregon to tour Intel's semiconductor plant and will be promoting and discussing some of the initiatives announced in his State of the Union address last week.

      

Original Article

Week 6

More Hacker News....

I know I probably shouldn't be so fascinated with hackers,

but now that growing marijuana is pretty much legal

it's one of the last ways that I can think of to be

a potentially ethical outlaw

 

 Too much Robin Hood, Dukes of Hazard and Pirates with a heart of gold as a kid, I guess.

Hackers busted into a NASDAQ confidential corporate communications system and had access to three hundred different companies' information for over a year. No suspects. No motive. Go Hackers.

Original Article

Anonymous, a group of hackers who have acted in support of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, mainly through denial of service attacks against corporate websites of companies that have been critical, or introduced sanctions against Wikileaks, got a little more up close and personal last week. A security researcher who claims he can identify Anonymous' members has pretty much had his world turned upside down with up to sixty instances of malicious tampering on everything from his personal emails and photos, to messed up financial accounts to nasty smart phone flares. I like what Wikileaks was doing, but I definitely pity this fool.

Original Article

Brought to you by the folks who really invented the internet, (sorry Al Gore) DARPA recently started a program that encourages, recruits, and pays hackers from all over the world to help strengthen network security. So leave NASDAQ, the Pentagon, and that security researcher alone, get a haircut, and get a job. Just Kidding (please don't mess up my junk).

Original Article

Week 5

Could the U.S. Government Shut Down the Internet as Egypt Did?

Technically, the United States could do the same thing Egypt did to block internet access,Robert Faris, research director at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society said.

The government would have to call four or five top internet providers and order them to disrupt Border Gateway Protocols in a way that shut down the majority of American internet traffic, he said. Others said the government would have to deal with the country's thousands of internet providers in order to fully clamp down on internet access, which would be logistically difficult.

But that's unlikely to happen here, experts said.

For one thing, the internet in the U.S. is bigger. There are more companies involved, more data at play and more locations where the internet comes in and out of the country.

Moreover, U.S. law would prevent such an authoritarian shutdown.

"The internet is a network of networks," said Andrew Blum, a correspondent for CNN content partner Wired magazine and author of an upcoming book on internet infrastructure, "and they're all commercially operated.

"They're all businesses. Their autonomy is sort of their bread and butter. And they're mostly unregulated. So the idea of having to comply fully with any government order to shut them off is pretty extreme. It's as if there were a government order to close every McDonald's -- all at once."

A country's legal framework, not its technical infrastructure, determines whether it is able to shut down its citizens' access to the internet, said Cowie.

"It really comes down to the fact that somebody has to have the legal authority to go to a company that runs a large part of the internet in the United States and say, 'Turn off your connection to the outside world.' "

However, as CNET reports, three U.S. senators have submitted legislation to give the president emergency powers over the internet in the event of a cyberattack or other disaster scenario.

On Wednesday, the bill's authors tried to distance themselves from what's happened in Egypt, issuing a statement:

"Our bill already contains protections to prevent the president from denying Americans access to the Internet -- even as it provides ample authority to ensure that those most critical services that rely on the Internet are protected."

Original Article

Week 4

Geeks Just Want to Have Fun

(Fun stuff at CES 2011)

 Hackers Infiltrate CES 2011!

     Behind the scenes at CES 2011 there was a hacker convention which spilled out onto the main floor as various amateur hackers, computer scientists and digital security specialists tried to show potential weaknesses in current technologies. The first link below will take you to an article detailing some of their attempts, but the big story is that none of their schemes really worked. 

Original Article

For the Modern Man Who Has Everything

 

 The Beer Keg Computer

Original Article

Dancing Cleaning Robots

Now That's Entertainment! 

Original Article

Week 3

Google's Search Under Scrutiny

     Google's competitors have been complaining about how  Google does business to whoever will listen.

Their latest gripe is about how Google influences it's search engine.

     Andrew Odlyzk, a University of Minnesota law professor, says that, "Google's core search relies on a pay for priority scheme...which can highlight, favor and omit sites based on who has paid Google the most money".

     James Grimmelman, a law professor at the New York Law School, has the opinion that, "...search is an inherently subjective enterprise that makes mockery of attempts to legislate it".

     Either way, regulation through legislation is coming to the internet as it has to every other facet of our modern lives. 

Original Article

Second Life

Second Life is a cartoonish, but otherwise realistic virtual reality game featuring avatars that interact with each other in a variety of virtual environments.
Launched by Phillip Rosedale and Linden Labs in 2003, it is an internet accessed application that requires a substantial download to use. It has had as many as 88,200 avatars in residence at any one time.
While it is obviously a very popular site, I don't have any interest in it except as a cultural phenomena. I feel that once I have applied my available energies to my own life, that I have little time for such games.

Week 2

 

Wikipedia's 10th Anniversary

Saturday, January 15th

   

  Ten years for Wikipedia. In honor of this occasion I have included a link below to an article covering all the hoaxes, growing problems and  "open edit" problems that the site has experienced in it's rapid growth.

   I actually use Wikipedia a lot (although I know better than to cite it or admit it in class), finding it's straightforward format, very inclusive nature and the links provided to most of the information presented, makes it very valuable in early research on most topics.

   Although this article lists some limitations and problems with an open edit encyclopedia, I think the most telling fact in this article is that every one of these embarrassments, that o lot of organizations might try to obscure, have their own Wikipedia pages.

Original article

Giant Computer Starts Bid for World Domination

    At a rehearsal taping for the upcoming Jeopardy showdown between a big-ass IBM computer and some puny humans, "Watson" slapped some nerds....HARD. I'd like to see how he would do on Survivor, though.

Original article

Week 1

The Apple iPhone 4 will be available through Verizon February 10, 2011

      It seems the major significance of this event is an increase in competition between; AT&T, which has had a near monopoly on providing service to the popular iPhone, and is consistently one of the lowest rated mobile phone providers in the industry, and Verizon, which is usually one of the top performers in customer ratings. Also, total bandwidth for the iPhone will be greatly increased, at least temporarily minimizing problems supporting the many functions and applications of the iPhone that AT&T has experienced.

     While projected price and function will be similar, the Verizon iPhone will create a mobile wifi "hotspot" capable of serving up to five devices versus AT&T's one device per phone. As is usual though, you cannot get something for nothing; the CDMA chip that the Verizon phone uses separates voice from data and cannot run both at once as the AT&T served phones can. Also, as usual, there will be a substantial monthly charge for the hotspot capability.

     If Verizon is not very clear about these limitations, or is not able to supply enough bandwidth to avoid "swamping" of their network, then their customer ratings are likely to quickly plummet to, or even below, the level of AT&T's. 

Original Article

Introduction

I have enrolled in CIS 120 to directly address my dysfunctional relationship with computer technology and culture. I hope to learn, not only the specific tasks and functions involved in working with a computer, but also the systems, relationships and developmental context at work in order to come to a better understanding of the modern digital age and where I might be able to fit into it.