Group items tagged

German states used malware to spy on their citizens. Infected computers were able to be turned on and used remotely by the German government. This included the government being able to track what the person was typing and turning their webcam on/off.

This post is about Online Universities and why they don't compare to the real thing. Products like Saba LMS, Moodle, and iTunes U have made e-learning mainstream, and most universities offer and allow some or most of their coursework to be completed online. First off, the concern with many online universities and colleges is post-graduation employment statistics. Most have very low graduation rates. A government recruited states that "it's not ideal. It doesn't set a baseline expectation, for me or for the people he or she will meet in the field. If I just need to check off a 'degree' box on a requirements form, online will do, but if two candidates are similar, I'm going with the one from Stanford or UVA." Moreover, the differences come down to two things: brand and social interaction. Traditional schools can clearly understand reputations, strengths and weaknesses. Without historical data and a history of success or failure, the online schools' GPAs, class standing and other performance metrics are just numbers and statistics. The author of this article also states that "Giant online schools that accept pretty much everyone may be democratizing education, but they're not helping employers or anyone else separate out the best and the brightest." This can hurt the prestige, and ultimately the graduates of the school. This issue relates to the "eLifestyle" tag because in the end it will definitely affect not only the students, but the regular citizens of a country. The graduates of universities, online of traditional,  will be the leaders of the future, and I believe that traditional universities and colleges are better because professors can get to know and understand students at a different level. It is hard to judge or mark a student based only on online text. For instance, you will never be able to distinguish a student that truly tries and works hard but cannot understand the information properly to a student that understands it but is lazy and slacks off.

This article is about internet users in China that are having trouble and difficulties using Google last Friday. Most of them tried to use Google Search and Gmail, but got declined from using them. However, they switched to alternative services, such as Hotmail and Yahoo.  This whole problem about the connection were affecting a week-long meeting of the Chinese Communist Party. China has been known to block internet access for its citizens during politically sensitive times. One example was the protests at Tiananmen Square.

The US has a skilled developer shortage and it's one of its own making.While Silicon Valley wrings its hands over H1B visa caps onto skilled foreign workers, the bigger issues remains in the US because they are unable to educate its own citizens. While they try to educate a surplus of Science,Technology, Engineering and Math students for STEM roles we seems to fail to entice enough of them to get into technology. since 1980, STEM grads increased 60%.

Social media is used in everyone's daily lives. Whether it be sending a tweet, posting something on Facebook, blogging on tumblr, or posting a picture on instagram, we are all involved in social media in someway. This article is about how the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has declared war on Ukraine and has sent thousands of Russian troops to invade parts of Ukraine. President Obama spoke with Vladimir Putin, and made in clear that what he is doing is violating Ukraine's sovereignty and that this would have a negative impact on Russia. . On the weekend, Russian troops surrounded the borders of Crimea because the President of Russia said that he wants to protect the Russian citizens that live there. I think that what Vladimir Putin is doing isn't good at all because it could lead to a second cold war. Social media has played a big role in this war crisis because all over the internet there are tweets about whats happening, pictures of people getting hurt, videos of the Russians surrounding Crimea and other parts of Ukraine, and different Facebook groups that support the Russians and the Ukrainians. I think that social media helps a lot in situations like this because it makes the world aware of whats happening and that something should be done to stop this.

By now, everyone who is the slightest bit technologically inclined - or just interested in the news - has heard of the 'questionable' activities of the NSA. The National Security Agency, for the uninitiated, is a United States government agency that deals with national security and recently became the object of scrutiny after leaked information showed the massive data collection effort of the agency. This included: recording phone calls, ingoing and outgoing call identities, computer browsing, emails, key-logging and much much more. Needless to say, this was perceived as a tad scandalous and independent panels were brought in to assess the agencies spying program. Recently, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that the metadata collected by the NSA was obtained through illegal means. Before you cheer, however, this sort of conclusion has been reached before and has only resulted in a promise to limit spying. This is bad because its merely a promise; a promise from a government who lied repeatedly, committed perjury, knowingly covered its tracks, and chased a citizen away with the threat of life in prison. Unfortunately, many people have since stopped caring because its no longer new news, but we need to stand up for our right to privacy and demand legal action to prevent such breaches of trust in the future.