Group items tagged

Apple is the wealthiest company in the world possessing more money than the US government. With this being said, it is no surprise that four of the top five best paid executives in America are employed by Apple. It was reported by Bloomberg that they each receive a base salary of $805,400, but also get paid in stock options. At the top of the list, Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Technologies makes a huge equivalent of $85.5 million a year. Next on the list is Bruce Sewell, Apple's lead lawyer, who makes $69 million a year. After that is Jeffrey Williams, Senior VP of Operations, who makes $68.7 million a year, and Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Financial Officer, who makes $68.6 million a year. I gave this article the economics tag because it deals with the salaries of highly paid apple employees. Personally, I think it is outrageous that these people make multi-million dollar salaries, and this kind of thing should be regulated.     

       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.

This article states that you have to be careful when you are looking for a job that lets you work from home because scammers make fake websites to get valuable information from you. For example the company CNBC website has been copied to http://cnbc.com-index.in. The URL is .in and not .com that is one way to know that the website is a fraught it should be .com. People who have gone to this copied websites to apply for a job have been asked very personal questions such as are you married, bank information, and to pay a fee for a company laptop. You should be suspicious if your contact for the job has an email of @gmail.com or @hotmail.com usually companies have their specific email. To avoid this scam always Google the company and your contacts email. Always have an opened eye to URL's and what the job application is asking for. I choose privacy and security as my tag because these scammers can get a lot of information from and start maxing out your credit cards and take money out of your bank account. In my opinion the government should step in and start watching out for theses fake websites and take them down of the internet or block them.  

This article is about South Carolina which had a hacker break into the state's computer system. It was said that a hacker from another country staged several attacks on the State Department of Revenue since August. This exposed 3.6 million social security numbers and 387,000 credit and debit card numbers and all but 16,000 of the credit card numbers are protected by encryption, but hackers can decrypt them. People that filed tax returns since 1998 are to contact state law enforcement officials to prevent identity theft. They still haven't found the hacker. This article relates to Privacy and Security as well as legal issues because it deals with hacking important information profiles of people such as their credit card numbers and social security numbers. As well as creating a possibility for identity theft.  This could create lots of problems for people and the government because of a hacker. It is times like these where we think how we can tighten security for these things stored on the computer? We also think is it just best to stay away from technology for these matters, because of moments like these where mass information that was stored is now exposed.

Google is now saving all information and google searches, youtube, emails and even will be able to see any of your chats through gmail or google chat. this is another shocking video of peoples internet privacy being one step closer to be taken from us. the government knowing everything you do and making a profile on you is not just a scary future scenario, but a a real life situation.

This article notifies the world that the CIA wants to spy on you through your TV and has the means just to do so. Anytime you download a movie from Netflix to your television or turn on a Internet-based radio, you could be alerting people who you don't want or need watching you. The CIA organization will not need to plant bugs in homes or other places to spy on individuals because of coming advances in computer and Internet technology. Just by people purchasing and using new apps and various "connected" devices, people will essentially be bugging their own homes. The CIA agency and others will be able to "read" these and other gadgets from outside places to monitor via the Internet and perhaps even with radio waves outside your home. This is astonishing information and what makes it even more surprising is it can get worse, it the sense that everything, not just electronics, will be controlled by an app or chip, and will ultimately be viewed and seen by outside sources. This is a scary idea that can be put to action and that fact that we won't even be secure and safe in our homes because there may always be someone watching us and viewing what we are doing. I understand technology is helping us in our everyday lives, but I feel this is too far and the government is now using there means of advancing technology against society. They have the power and resources to possibly monitor and maybe to control what we go on the Internet or what we watch on TV and this will alter our once safe and comfortable environment to have the freedom to use technology how we like in our home.

As the title states, hacking will soon be a top threat over terrorists. Hacking is a big deal because the people who do hack are able to take data - especially important data - from their sources and use it for their own benefit. For businesses, this is highly critical because just like that, any ideas you may have stored on computers could be gone and in the hands of others. Also, hacking might not be just for stealing data but also inputting viruses into other computers. In the US, two bills are being set to beef up the security of government networks to be protected from any cyber attacks. 

scary, but true

The Bitcoin and "Coin" are two different virtual currencies with no intrinsic value, but still give the capability to purchase whatever you want as a consumer. Bitcoin is a digital crypto-currency that is ran over the internet. It runs off of bitcoin miners and traders. The currency "coin" however, still uses your countries own currency. It is a beta-project of a credit card, that can hold all of your cards into one. You can have your debit, visa, and mastercard all on the coin. This simplifies purchasing goods because you only need one card that can do many specific things. This article compares the two types of future currency. After reading this article I believe the "Coin" is a safer and more reliable option. It allows us to use actual tangible money, and this money is non-volatile and regulated by the government unlike Bitcoin which goes through many spikes in prices.

California passes a bill that allows children under 18 to delete any posts that they may regret in the future. Some people, such as James Steyer, agree with this idea and say that it is a way to put "privacy in the hands of kids, teenagers and the parents, not under the control of an anonymous tech company," however big social media networks who already lets everyone delete their posted items which make people complain about this new law. This also is a burden to some social media networks due to the problem of having to find the people who live in California. This relates to my tag because it is a bill passed by the government for children in social messaging systems, so it includes both politics and politics. My thoughts on this are the same as the people arguing against this, because there is no point in creating a bill only for people under 18 when almost all social media networks can do this for all ages. < SORRY SIR I FORGOT TO SHARE THIS TO THE GROUP LAST WEEK!!!!

Social media has been playing a huge role in our everyday live so its no surprise that it also plays a big part in campaigning. I read this article about the importance of social media in political campaigns I now understand the impact. In the article Patricia Misutka was saying that it is very difficult to win a campaign without social media. The social media tool is very important because it allows you to reach out to the people and get immediate responses. Now rather than going from house to house and calling and polling people you can see responses to things like platform and policy ideas much quicker and with more accuracy. Another very important reason for campaigning with social media is important for reaching younger people who may not watch the news or read newspapers. Social media is a necessary tool in campaigning but it is not sufficient and will never replace face-to-face interactions with voters.

This article is about how social media has become a very big part of our lives and how it is important for government candidates to have social media because so many people are already on it. The article uses Edmonton as example. The most famous candidates in Edmonton has social media accounts but the least famous ones don't. The article talks about how candidates need social media accounts and you need to be constantly updating since so many people have it. Having social media even when you are in politics are very important. Many people can connect with you if you are on social media. They would know you better and become more well know if you are on social media. Election campaigns are more effective if you have a social media account because people who followed you would constantly get campaign updates and would re-tweet it. That means more people would know you and you would have a higher chance of winning the election.

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.

In British Colombia a research team with the help of satellite-imaging companies are able to monitor changes in the environment such as forestry. This satellite imaging will help detect threats to forests such a Wildfires, insect infections, and deforestation. I really like how today's technology is being used to help the environment rather than just creating pollution from CO2 and old computer parts. Also I believe that this kind of work is really important especially with the kind of deforestation we see in the Amazon. Also I believe that the money governments put into things that benefiting our environment should be research projects like this rather than final products. All in all I believe that this a great way to aid the planet and further our technology.

This week, pro-russian hacking groups have said that they have took down many of NATO's websites. The group that claimed attack was Cyber Berkut a hactivist group. The type of attack was a DDOS attack (distributed-denial of service). The attacks came when Ukraine decided if its Crimea region was to join Russia. The Russian government has also ordered ISP's (internet service providers) to block certain anti-Putin websites. I believe this hacking is just a less violent form of Ukraine vs Russia. I still do not believe why Pro-Russian hackers would interfere with a referendum that would actually co-inside with their very own beliefs.

Scientists have now further refined their ability to be able to read and render our memories. Test subjects were given a number of movies to watch (hopefully not rise of the planet of the apes, that was just a terrible movie, it has no respect to the first film in terms of story. In the first film it is said humanity wiped itself out in a nuclear war to destroy the monkeys but in this movie it was because of a disease, and they even put it after the credits so if you leave early which you will, you will not even finish the whole movie or grasp its crappy plot.)and were then placed in an MRI machine. The MRI machine read their brain activity for hours on end which was then compiled and rendered through super special 11 herbs and spices techniques to roughly display their thoughts visually. This technology needs to be further refined so that instead of hours of imaging, it can be seconds of imaging so that our governments may use it to find the terrorists, our enemies and decrease our liberties all at the same time.

Scientists working out of Georgia have claimed they have reversed the aging process in stem cells. Stem cells are essentially nature's duct tape because of their ability to replicate surrounding cells however they regenerate slowly which is one of the reasons why that have yet to be put into major medical use (that and our conservative government). This new discovery has made indestructible duct tape at a cellular level. This however does not fix stems cells' slow replication process, but this is one step forward.

All airplanes are now fitted with "black boxes." These are basically boxes that record every movement in the airplanes altitude, pitch, speed and so on. well people are thinking of putting boxes such as these in cars so that it will be a lot easier to find out who was really at fault in accidents. I believe this will be a very useful tool as accident investigation is a big field and can become a much easier and make thins much faster.

The "Bitcoin rush" is very similar to what the gold rush was in the 1800s. Only a virtual version. BitCoins are a form of digital currency that  Driven by the Bitcoins value of around 256.00 USD, people have set up rooms with high-tech PC's dedicated to mining BitCoin.

thoughts/opinions?

This article talks about a "selfie" (self-taken photo) taken by MLB Red Sox' player David Ortiz with the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. The picture was used by Samsung for an ad which raised many questions for the White House. Obama did not know that "Big Papi" (David Ortiz) had connections with Samsung and did not know about the financial benefits. David Ortiz is being payed by Samsung for this photo which he also posted on twitter. Officials are saying that they are not going to take any action to take down the photo but also say that they have not approved of this photo.