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As technology constantly evolves, we replace our old electronics with brand new ones. on average, Canadian households have 24 electronic devices. When our old electronics go past their useful life, they become e-waste. In Canada, e-waste is a big issue. Environent Canada estimates that 140,000 tonnes and counting of e-waste is dumped in landfills every year. These electronics include harmful materials such as arsenic, mercury, and lead. Many of the electronics we buy were developed with planned obsolescence, which is planning to design a product with a life span. This is good for manufacturers, because it encourages consumers to buy their new products sooner, as these companies use cheaper components. Instead of old electronics dumped in the landfill, they can be recycled and used for new products. When planning to buy a new product, it is best to read reviews of the product and check if it lasts for a long time, or uses recyclable materials. Also, the cheapest model might not always be the best, and quality may come at increasing costs. in my opinion, if electronic companies plan for sooner obsolescence for their products, they should try to use more recyclable materials, and try to use less of materials that are harmful to the environment.

This article is about Google Fiber which is a new type of internet that uses an optic fiber cable to deliver Internet at the incredible speeds of a gigabit. The Internet that is available now in Canada is only up to about 500 megabit speed, and Google Fiber is about double the speed, at a lower cost, in comparison to Rogers or Bell. The article explains how the Fiber Internet is spreading to cities of the United States, such as Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah. There is a lot to be done on installing this Internet in the cities, and it will take a lot of time, but in the end it will be worth it, as it increases the poor quality Internet Services that are available now in North America. In my opinion, Google Fiber should start making its way into the new developing cities of Canada, such as Vaughan, or Richmond Hill because it will be easier to install since the infrastructure is not finalized.

An android smartphone called the Alcatel One Touch Idol X has been released in Canada on February 11th. It has average specs compared to the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s while costing a lot less. Without a contract the Idol costs 250 dollars while with a Bell 2 year plan it has a price tag of 0 dollars. The operating system of the Idol X is a modified version of jellybean 4.2.2 giving the phone noticeable difference but still keeping the android feel. Also the Alcatel smartphone has a beautiful design. It looks a cross between an iPhone and the Samsung galaxy S4. Finally, on paper this phone is near perfect but the next couple months will put it to the test in real life situations.

thoughts/opinions?

This article shows how people will react to new tablets.  People seem to be very interested in tablets, despite cost.  Many large companies in the U.S. and Canada, such as Best Buy and Future Shop, reported low stocks of the new Microsoft Surface Pro.  Microsoft will continue to develop new tablets/computers like their new Surface Pro, as consumers show an interest for these new technologies such as tablets.  The only units left in consistent stock are the 64GB, as people favor the 128Gb units over their lesser counter-parts.  I think that Microsoft will earn a lot of profit because of this new software that they are producing, as consumers are willing to but expensive tablets that come with new features.  Other companies as well as microsoft will capatilize on this willingness, and we will surely see new software similiar to this in the future. 

In this article, Rob Beschizza examines how many medals each country in the olympics has per 10 million people living in that country. Canada has only 4 medals per 10 million people whereas Norway holds 27.9 medals per 10 million people. This graph shows a new way of calculating who has the most medals. Rob Beschizza has a career in writing articles for the site: BoingBoing, and each Olympian has a career in their favourite sport.

Missed the mark here. The intention was to post something related to Careers in Computing.

15 year old Amanda Todd was found dead in her home on October 2012. This event was due to cyber, physical, and verbal bullying. He committed suicide in her house. She had no one to support her in this process. She tried forgetting so she decided to move to different schools. The people in her school followed her and made things worse. She was alone. Imagine how she felt. Bullying is horrible and it should stop today. But, no one is making a change and stopping these people. In this video, Amanda Todd stated "I didn't press any charges, i just wanted to move on". In my opinion, she should of told her parents or the police that she was being bullied because this would made a huge difference. She wouldn't be depressed for her whole entire life. This girl is my age, and if I was being bullied.. I would of told at least a teacher or my parents. Bullying is bad, and it should stop.

Bullying, a serious problem that is drawing not only around schools, but also in social networks, which is known as cyber bullying. This article explains how a girl who made a single mistake lead her to a depression, getting bullied in school and online, then to cause suicide. Our generations should be bullies but rather, support those who are in depression. One devastating mistake can lead to many horrible things such as cutting or even depressants. Unfortunately, this happened to the girl, and she couldn't bear the pain of being bullied even when she moved to a different school and the bullying continued. We need to take a stand and stop bullying not just to stop pain but to prevent a heavier loss, suicide. This connect to the environment because through the internet, it uses were to verbally bully someone through social networking.

I know that a lot of people were talking about Amanda Todd. Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd posted a YouTube video last month that detailed her brushes with online and offline bullying, and this week she was found dead in her home in Canada as a result of a suspected suicide. She first attempted to kill herself by drinking bleach but then went to the hospital and survived. After people heard about that they began posting pics of bleach, Clorox. So then she hung herself. They said, 'She should try a different bleach. I hope she dies this time and isn't so stupid.' They said, 'I hope she sees this and kills herself.'" I think it is so wrong when people make others feel bad that there willing to kill themselves. This is an outrage and I can't believe she didn't find help before she decided to kill herself. 

Google is looking to expand its high-speed internet service, Google Fiber, into the city of Austin in Texas. Google Fiber is an internet service that offers ultra-fast Gigabit internet speeds with no bandwidth caps that no other provider in Canada and the United States offer for a price under $120.  This is because there are major internet service providers who create a monopoly over the entire industry keeping all their prices the same so they maximize their profits and offer sub-par internet connection.  With Google Fiber, these companies will have to provide better internet or they won't be able to compete, so many people want Google Fiber to expand as fast as possible over North America so that the monopoly is broken and people are given better internet.   This plays into eLifestyle because Gigabit internet connections with unlimited bandwidth will allow most people who pay for internet to pay less, have a more reliable connection and have faster speeds. This also plays into economics because Google Fiber will allow small businesses to use the internet without fear of high costs.

Anglophone= English speaking person Francophone= French speaking person Technology has become a large part of our everyday lives. This article talks about how Canadians are purchasing more and more electronics. (Cell phones, iPads, tablets) The article also talks about how Canadians are also signing up for Netflix, a service that allows users to watch movies in the comfort of their own home. The Media Technology Monitor states that 28 % of English speaking Canadians owned a tablet at the time of the survey which was 7 times the amount in 2010. I think this this is a result of society and the services that businesses now offer that they hadn't previously. EX: Now, we can watch movies on our tablets, but let's say 10 years ago, we would have to go to a movie theater. I believe that portable devices have positively affected our lives. These devices make everything we do more convenient, for example, cell phones allow me to contact my friends anywhere in the world and they also provide me with help in an emergency. I strongly believe that portable devices have positive effects in our lives, and judging from the increasing amount of technology users, many others think so as well.

6/10 would read again

Don't be fooled by this imposter, I am the real spider man.

       Last year american congress introduced CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act). Although this act  speaks of protection it does quite the opposite. With this act almost all privacy on the internet will disappear. Despite many people opposing this bill last year a new version of this bill has been released this year. This CISPA 2.0 would grant immunity to private companies who can share your data with other companies, private agencies, and the government. This means that your private information and cybersecurity is virtually non-existent and can be shared with anyone. At the end of the article it tells people how they can fight against this bill. Although this bill is for the united states, Canada has attempted to pass a bill like it in the past and I personally do not want any bills of this sort to pass legislature.

With people becoming more tech savvy, the security and firewalls of major websites and servers are becoming just obstacles to hackers looking for valuable information these websites contain.  Michael Tchong suggests that we need a new internet, one built from the ground up. He says that China is far more advanced with technology and internet security than that of the United States and Canada. Some suggestions that Michael Tchong has made for this new internet is making the internet so secure that to hack it, you will need to be a genius with alot of time on your hands. He proposes that there should be a next-generation eye-recognition technology using a computer or mobile camera. This will help sites like Facebook and LinkedIn in their endless battle against identity fraud. Also he thinks that it should only be accessed by Americans for obvious reasons that the Chinese and other known hacking countries would try and destroy the new internet.  

States in the US have been slowly gaining traction that allows gambling to be completely legal online. This would mean that anyone over 18 can sign onto an account which allows them to gamble away all the money they have. Nevada was the first state to legalize online gambling, and more states are estimated to follow suit. Although the article doesn't give an opinion on the newly legalized gambling, I believe that this news is terrible. More and more people will become addicted to gambling, and now it's very easy and very comfortable to lose your life earnings. These new rulings will eventually run into some legal issues, as people under 18 WILL find a way to gain access to these operations. There is no proper way that rules can be enforced in online gambling. People will become addicted, kids will gain access, and people will go bankrupt. Gambling is alright, in moderation, but these new laws will allow anyone with an internet connection to gamble away everything they own without even realizing it. Good thing we live in Canada.

Bogomil Shopov, a Bulgarian blogger and digital rights activist, bought 1.1 million Facebook names, user IDs and e-mails for the ridiculously low price of 5 dollars. Luckly for us, he was not trying to spam people, or use this info in a negative way. Instead he wanted to see how bad the facebook security really is. And it turns out to be really bad. According to the seller of the information, a Gigbucks user with the handle "mertem," the data was collected from Facebook applications."The information in this list has been collected through our Facebook apps and consists only of active Facebook users, mostly from the US, Canada, UK and Europe," reads the Gigbucks post. This can affect us a lot because there are a lot of teenager (our age) facebook users. If instead of person who was trying to prove a point was a spammer, the information that we have on facebook can be in danger.  Facebook is currently looking into the breach of user data but they haven't yet come to a resolution.

This article talks about how they are thinking of making ATM machines that can read your palm. It can access your account just by scanning your hand. Then you can easily take out money without scrambling for your credit card. Now you don't need to worry about losing your credit card or even forgetting your pin number. I believe this is a good idea because it can make it easier for everyone to just scan their hands and get the proper amount of money out. I personally like this method better than using credit cards. This relates to the course because it takes a lot of programming to get these ATM machines to work, and also the actual ATM machine is a hardware.

Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in Japan has revealed that it will introduce the nation's first ATM that lets you withdraw money just by scanning your palm. You wouldn't even need your credit card to verify that you can withdraw money from your account. I think this is a great idea. In Canada, we already have the device where it scans your chip, but it doesn't always work. For example, my dad had to send back his credit card 3 times before he finally got the chip to work. This is also very safe because every person has a different hand shape and "design" on their palms, no one would be able to imitate it. I hope that they come out with this machine in Canada soon, i'm sure it would be less stressful for many people.

This article talks about how in Japan they will soon have ATMs that let you withdraw money just by scanning your palm. This will come in handy when you have lost your card. Customers would first have to show identification for verification then they would scan your palm and can easily withdraw money from the bank. This new type of technology can be convenient because there would be less people stealing credit cards from other, and can withdraw anytime even when you forget your card.

This article explains how the successful and profitable Samsung company has decided to open various electronic retail stores in Canada to compete with well-known rivals Sony Corp. and Apple Inc. For Samsung, the retail push is the company's latest move to establish itself as a premium electronics brand, an evolution due to Samsung's success in the smartphone and tablet markets. Another reason for Samsung to have an interest in opening stores, is part of a global movement by the company to expand it's presence with consumers. Samsung, being a major technology company, believes these retail outlets will help showcase their products in a way so  consumers can experience the brand and everything Samsung has to offer like never before. This is a smart strategy for Samsung to take part in because this opens up opportunities for consumers to purchase and learn about new and popular Samsung products in a way that was never offered or accessible to them before. A variety of Samsung stores will give this company a huge advantage on the market and this will ultimately set themselves up for bigger and better success in the years to come. 

In this article, it states that the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics were the most tweeted and most mentioned moments, athletes and sports up to date. The most mentioned sports on twitter in order were ice hockey, curling, and figure skating while the most mentioned sport on Facebook in order was ice hockey, figure skating and bobsleigh. In all, 40 million Olympic-related tweets were sent during the games and 45 million different Facebook users were responsible for a combined 120 million posts, comments and likes on Facebook. twitter did break down the top moments on Twitter of the games was USA's win over Russia in men's ice hockey shootout was 72, 630 TPM  while Facebook created a video that showed the most popular sports in each country each day. Canada was mainly talking about Ice hockey with a little figure skating 

i chose to talk about Siri because i think Siri is a very useful tool. Siri helps me personally and makes not just me but my parent's lives easier to, for example when my parents are driving and the law is you can't use your phone and drive at the same time, Siri helps making a phone call with no hands. Siri also helps you get information more easily, all you have to do is tell Siri what you need and it will search and find the info for you. i also think Siri is good because you can take notes and save contacts more easily for example you tell Siri to make a note it will record what you say and add it to to your notes. This is why i think Siri is a great creation and it makes peoples lives way easier.

In the 2000's. enrollment in computer science at UNB was cut in half, creating a need for more graduates for computer science. There were "More job than graduates from computer science programs." Recruiters were sent out to try to convince more students to join into computer sciences, even as young as grade five, trying to explain the simplicity and importance of computer science. Since then, the efforts of the recruiters boosted the numbers up by 47%. This relates to the tag "careers" because it shows the sudden need for computer science graduates due to the large sum of jobs in computer sciences. There is a high need for this through the 2000's and is likely still in need today. Though this "crisis" was averted, is there still a possibility that this may happen again, and is anyone prepared? In my opinion, if it does happen again we should be ready for this problem, since it will send out more possibilities for jobs.

The youth of today hate politics, but who can blame them when a struggle between old white men for power doesn't really peak there interest. Ontario's premier, Kathleen Wynne, thought she had the solution to the disenfranchised youth problem and turned to the social media site, Reddit, for a solution. on February 11 , 2014, Premier Wynne held an AMA (or ask me anything) from here account on the Canadian reddit board. Many, including myself, were very excited; a politician that's hip, relatable, and will answer questions I have about the government, this was every poli/computer-sci's wet dream. Unfortunately however, madam Wynne has lived up to the rest of her political career, underwhelming (shots fired). During the hour long AMA, hundreds upon hundreds of questions were asked, ones that got to the core of Ontario's political scene, questions about the socio-economic impacts of subway vs LRT. This was shaping up to be the AMA of the century... on the upside, we now know what her favourite books are... and where her next marathon will be held... yay? The premier answered a grand total of 10 questions, the 2 aforementioned included, and all received the same scripted political rhetoric that gave questions instead of answers. Our hopes for a relatable and understanding politician were scrapped by this blunder. All we wanted was a bridge between the politicians that control our lives and the thing we use daily. This was apparently too much to ask, leaving us youth as unconnected and dismissive as ever.