Group items tagged

This article talks about how Google is rumored to release a second-generation Nexus 7 tablet. There is said to have more screen resolution, a thinner bezel and an unspecified Qualcomm CPU.  There is no info or pricing, and Google has not confirmed any information yet.  If this information is accurate, then this will be good news for Google.  The first generation Nexus tablet had huge successes, and its predecessor should share the same success.  Also, Google has chosen to go with Qualcomm, a digital wireless telecommunications producer.  This will allow the Nexus 7 Second-generation to save power,  as they are going to drop the current Nexus 7's NVIDIA Tegra 3.  This new tablet sounds very promissing, and will help the company make a large profit while being user friendly.

Facebook is now offering the option to disallow all applications from sharing and/or accessing your information. Currently, there is a lot of talk about privacy on the internet and how a lot of people don't like having advertisements and notifications shoved into their face every time they use social networking sites or play games.  Nowadays a lot of games have 'share' options built into them that allows you to share useless achievements such as how many cows you bought or how much wheat you need to feed them. This annoys many people who use social networking sites to just talk with friends and get up-to-date information from pages they liked.  The 'nuclear' option will allow people who do not want to be bothered by friends' status updates on games and also people who don't want applications to share what they are doing to others without them knowing or without their consent. This may cause many game developers to change tactics on how they want to attract users from sites such as Facebook because they don't want to risk getting blocked by everyone. 

Facebook heads have launched a new 'search engine' for those using Facebook. Entitled 'Graph Search', this engine allows users to type in specific tags to find users that fall under a specific group. The tags include things such as age, location, relationship status, and other similar traits. The Facebook developers should have seen this as an issue from the very start of the project. Many executives and onlookers anticipated that this engine will cause issues, especially with youth. The main concern being privacy. Facebook claims that only users who opt into this feature will show up on the results, but for mindless teenagers who click accept on anything simply out of haste, this could cause an issue. Although there has been no recorded cases yet, this engine opens the door for sexual predators on Facebook, allowing them to easily search for 'Women under 18 in my area' and similar search options. CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself claimed that they are heightening privacy settings for this engine, but there are still concerns to be had. This new feature is obviously a ploy to send more information to advertising companies and other Facebook partners. Facebook is renown for sending information and demographics of it's users to paying companies, but with Graph Search, anyone can do it themselves, including said companies. Facebook is finding new ways to sell out their user base, while still looking like the 'good guy'. Although it has it's benefits for the honest users that want to use it for social purposes, Graph Search is a very bad decision. If it wasn't apparent to you before, now is the time to get off Facebook.

Just a few days ago, another Twitter hoax is called into question. The tweet suggested that 18-year-old Justin Bieber is supposedly diagnosed with cancer. This prank all began with a screenshot of the tweet that seems to be from Entertainment Tonight's Twitter account which informs fans to go #BaldforBieber to support the ill celebrity. A website BaldforBieber.com was set up not long after the tweet and showed photoshopped tweets from Justin Bieber, thanking his fans for their support. On the website were also a number of fake news reports that proved that the rumors were "real". On Friday, the #BaldforBieber was revealed to be a hoax that the pranksters of 4Chan created.   I personally found this prank harsh and insensitive; however, it does teach a lesson, especially to those who actually shaved their heads with the intention of supporting the supposedly ill pop star. The results of this joke indicate how many people these days believe what they read and see on the internet. After such a well thought out yet extreme prank, Twitter users should think twice about information presented to them from the internet and make rational decisions. 

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.

When it's built, the Square Kilometer Array will be the world's largest radio telescope. Then, when it goes online, it will spit out 1,000,000 terabytes of data each day-and IBM is trying to make a computer which can handle it. The Squarer Kilometer Array-which will be made up of 15,000 small antennas and 77 larger stations-will collect a heap of data that scientists hope will shed light on the origins of the Big Bang. The sheer weight of numbers means it will generate a staggering amount of information. To give some context, it will generate 1,000,000 terabyte a day. That's twice as much information as there is traffic on the internet in the same period. It's an insane amount of data. This relates to the course because we learn about the amount of bytes computers use, and this satellites allows us to use 1,000,000 terrabytes a day.

This article explains how your PC can be referred to as an office, in the way that you have to maintain it's speed and efficiency by continuously looking at it's organization and availability with all the files, machines, and decorations that take up space. This is relatable to my life because when my computer works slow or doesn't perform as fast as it should, I always wonder why or what I should do to improve it's speed. This article informs everyone that by removing unnecessary files, deleting unwanted history and by removing programs that aren't used, these are all ways to improve your computer's efficiency. Also, by organizing your files and programs in a system and method that is effective to your use, is also important so you know where your most valuable information is stored on your computer and you can access this data in a orderly fashion whenever you choose. All in all, the amount of space you have and how you choose to use it, is significant and can reflect how fast, helpful, and efficient your computer performs. This is all based on how clean and organized your computer's internal hardware is while all reflecting back to how you choose to take care of your computer.  

The article describes five different ways students abuse technology such as phones and computers to cheat in school through means such as copying and pasting, file sharing, and sharing answers through text. The Internet is a vast collection of information, students will usually use this to obtain research for school projects and properly give credit to sources. However, some students use the Internet to steal information, and pass it as their own so they have to do minimal work and because it's easy. Eventually these students end up failing because they don't know how to write their own pieces of writing. Plagiarism is not only committed by students but even reporters, and writers. This goes to show how easy it is to cheat using technology.

The British company behind the personal assistant app Indigo for Android and iOS is looking into creating a more sophisticated voice-controlled personal assistant like Siri. The company's inspiration was the movie Her. A story about a lonely writer who falls in love with Samantha an extremely refined Siri. The new technology connects various systems within you home. You can search for a route to your friends house on your computer and get in you car and your phone will direct you there. Another thing is rather than filling out forms with your information you can just tell the voice controlled personal assistant your address and other information and it will put it into its memory. The new Siri will learn more about you as you search thing through it . If you look for restaurants in your area and you look at different sushi restaurants it will register that you like sushi restaurants. To tell you the truth i am very excited to see how this ends up and I will be happy to see its release.

This article talks about how hackers have been scamming netflix users into believing that there is a problem with there netflix account. when the user calls the 'tech support line" (which is also fake) they are transferred to a scammer who will prompt you to download a program that allows them to search your computer for any valuable information. These scammers have also charged these innocent people with a fake bill of $400. So do not fall for these tricks or else you'll be dealing with your information stolen and $400 down the drain. This article reminds us how careful we have to be while enjoying our computers.

FreedomPop has come out with a new phone that will protect your phone calls and data from hackers. The phone is nicknamed the "Snowden phone" but is actually a Samsung Galaxy S2 that FreedomPop remodeled. The phone is selling now for $189 and comes with unlimited voice and texting. They also throw in 50MB of monthly data access for the first three months and then charges the users $10 a month. FreedomPop's Chief Operating Officer Steven Sesar says: "In light of recent violations in consumer's privacy across social networks and mobile devices, privacy is becoming increasingly important to many Americans and we all have a right to communicate anonymously. Large carriers don't have the flexibility, desire, or creativity to invest in privacy." I think this is a great idea because today, so many people don't know if their information is safe. This will help people feel more secure and safe with their information and not have to worry about who could have their phone calls or text messages.

For about a century, scientists thought that human noses were able to recognize 10,000 different odours. Although this has been true for a number of years, new research shows that we can actually detect over 1,000,000,000,000 distinct scents. That is over a trillion different smells. Leslie Vosshall and colleagues, who work at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, says that the 10,000 number had to be wrong. They considered that the human eye perceives 10 million different colours using only 3 types of light receptors, and the human nose has 400 different receptor types in comparison. Vosshall and her team created an experiment to prove this new theory, but because testing a trillion different scents would take eternity, the team crafted never-before-smelled scents composed of 10-30 odour ingredients. Each volunteer in the experiment smelled 264 different groupings of odours and then the team used that data to determine how many different scents the average human could identify. This is very cool new information that I have learned because it shows us that we are capable of so much more than we expect ourselves to be capable of. Considering that the whole existence of the human race could be wiped out by one single infection, this information reminds me that humans are too awesome to go into extinction.

Yelp's ability to provide detailed information and reviews of businesses is very impressive, and the free app gives you exactly what you need when you're on the go. You can quickly find out if a business is currently open or closed, get directions to the site, see photos of what's inside, and read reviews and tips about the business. And the design of Yelp's mobile app makes doing so surprisingly simple. Yelp is an Editors' Choice iPhone app because it makes life on-the-go better and more enjoyable. And the information it delivers is extremely helpful for anyone in an unfamiliar city.

Sony is suffering from yet another hack attempt on its networks. But this time, the company seems to be better prepared, and apparently all credit card information is safe. Philip Reitinger, Sony's Chief Information Security Officer, has posted an article on the official PlayStation blog explaining the incident.

brandon copied me

DON'T LISTEN TO CODRIN HE COPIED ME!

This article is about an emergency communication system which can be used during disasters with users spreading information and looking for on-the-ground updates. Twitter hopes to start this in Japan. This tool lets users search Twitter for a postal code and see accounts of people tweeting about any disasters in that area. Eventually Twitter says it could be expanded to other countries. Twitter although, isn't the first network to set up disaster services-earlier this year, facebook introduced a ''Disaster Message Board'' that lets users mark themselves safe during an emergency. I think that this is a good idea because most people around the world are now on twitter, so if there are any disasters occurring in that country, everyone can find out about it before it comes to their area.

Many of us remember the PSN outage of April 2011. Sony blamed 'Anonymous,' a collective hacktivist group formed in 2003 on 4chan, after they found the Anonymous calling card 'We Are Legion' in their system. Anonymous is composed of individuals with the ideals of: 1. Freedom of Information 2. Freedom of Speech 3. Unregulated Internet Anonymous will only attack databases and websites only if provoked, and will not do so for monetary gain. The group has recently engaged in multiple attacks on international government databases. The article, by Casey Chan, is about the Anonymous digital attack on Israel, in retaliation after the Israeli government threatened to shut down Internet access and other telecommunications to the Palestinian people in the Gaza and "Occupied Territories. " The group attacked the Israel Foreign Affairs database and Bank of Jerusalem database, as well as DDos attacks on over 600 sites and theft of over 2000 email addresses and passwords. This attack has generated some controversy. Since the beginning of November, Israel has also received over 150 missile attacks from the Palestinians as well. Anonymous aids the Palestinians by sharing a 'Care Package,' instructions on what to do in the event Israel does sever the Internet connection. Anonymous has become quite influential on the Internet. This illustrates how important the Internet has become. The internet is not only a commodity, but a right to have. It has replaced forms of communication, entertainment, transactions, and more. A group of 'anonymous' users has been formed for the sole purpose of protecting it, with the will and capabilities to punish any party that wishes to disrupt it. As with every conflict, there are sides. Anonymous, in protection of Internet freedoms; and the Israeli government, that has been fighting a war for as long as anyone can remember. Who's side are you on?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDeOMq4RPxY&feature=relmfu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) *More information on Anonymous

This article talks about how people are not comfortable giving their credit card information to social networks. I agree with these people. Something as valuable and important as your credit card info should be protected. There are many hackers online and once you put something online you can never get it back. I found it interesting to discover that men ages 45-54 use their mobile devices to access social networks more than 18-44 year old people. 

The article that I have chosen to share for week 4 is about IBM and their new services to help eliminate fraud and financial crime. The article interested be because around 3.5 trillion dollars are lost per year to financial crime and fraud through technology. While the software is being marketed to big companies it also directly involves us, the consumers. For example when Sony's PSN was down thousands of peoples accounts were hacked and had money taken from their accounts. This new software interested me because now people can feel a little more secure using online programs knowing that their information can be safer. It is a new time where many things are bought through the internet and with better security people won't feel as worried about their security

The article that I have chosen to share for week 4 is about IBM and their new services to help eliminate fraud and financial crime. The article interested be because around 3.5 trillion dollars are lost per year to financial crime and fraud through technology. While the software is being marketed to big companies it also directly involves us, the consumers. For example when Sony's PSN was down thousands of peoples accounts were hacked and had money taken from their accounts. This new software interested me because now people can feel a little more secure using online programs knowing that their information can be safer. It is a new time where many things are bought through the internet and with better security people won't feel as worried about their security

On March 13 Target experienced a massive breach that compromised 40 million credit and debit cards as well as personal information about approximately 70 million customers. There has arrose allegations of the Target security team dismissing the warnings as nothing and allowing it to happen. Although Target has come back saying that like any large company there are many technical events that come to the attention of the team. The team noticed the criminal had entered their system but the situation was evaluated and acted upon although at Target they are investigating whether if different judgements had been made there would have been a different outcome and the entire situation would have been avoided.

We all know that voice recognition software exists having been created by companies like Apple, some of us thought that advanced technology would end at a computer recognizing words and responding to questions. However that is not the case. A company called Kimera Systems is developing a system that figuratively reads your mind. This isn't a software that literally reads what you are thinking and performs an action based on your thought since that would require an implant into your body. Rather, Kimera's system consisting of the Salience Engine and DigitalMe (or DMe) Smart Agents. The Salience Engine collects information from its users and uses this to understand human action better while the Smart Agents perform actions based on the user's preferences and the user's previous actions. For example, if a user sent out party invitations to friends and then went out to buy groceries, Kimera's system would automatically download a shopping app for the user because the system understands the user is going to the grocery store to buy select food items. This system, should it be implemented into future phones and devices could very well change society for the better and for worse. This system could make people's lives better by allowing decisions to be made by the system for the user so they can worry about other things while knowing Kimera's system will take care of tasks for them. This could negatively impact society though because since the system automatically makes decisions for the user, if they begin to rely on this system and lose their sense of judgement rendering them unable to decide without this system. Though automated technology is the dream of many, is an automated life really what we want? From this new technology Kimera is creating, other more advanced automated technologies could arise and eventually we could end up losing our humanity since everything we need to do is done for us by a computer. We would end up like the humans in the movie Wall-E who were