Group items tagged

Recently, there have been a lot of passcode exploits, especially on the iPhone and Samsun Galaxy. On the iPhone, it can allow the attacker to access their way into the Phone app, letting them place calls, see/edit contacts, and access photos via the "assign new picture" option. On the Samsung Galaxy, the attacker can flash whatever was open before the phone was locked for a second. This is enough time to launch an app, which can be repeatedly downloaded and completely unlock your phone. The article suggests the user of the phone should download the Apple's Find my iPhone app or Prey, which can track the location of your smartphone if it is ever lost or stolen. This, they say is the best protection for your personal information stored on your phone. These passcode exploits can let one worry and doubt how much protection the lock screen actually provides. The truth is they are no more secure than any other password or PIN, which means they can eventually be cracked. However, it is still suggested to always lock your screen, just in case it is robbed by someone who does not know anything about getting around locked screens. Many companies are aware of the issues and is releasing new techniques, like the iOS 6.1.3. Hopefully, with time, these password problems will not be an issue anymore.

Bitcoin; the once elusive currency reserved for shady transactions on the deep web has become popular over the past 12 months, but a recent collapse has its integrity in question. Firstly, it is important to understand what bitcoin is. For the uneducated, Bitcoin is a digital only 'currency' that is used like regular money, to make transactions, with the added bonus of (possibly) being anonymous. Due to an exploit in Bitcoin and in the online wallet service, Mt. Gox, Many people are raising an eyebrow about the reliability and integrity of the currency. Goldman Sachs, a HUGE investment banking company, recently weighed in and called Bitcoin a "speculative financial asset", not a currency. Personally, I think the currency, which was created with the purpose of being an anonymous hard currency, has failed because it has gone to the mainstream. The money isn't heavily secured, as the recent online bank heists have shown, and has no real advantage for the public. Bitcoin worked fine, amazing even, as a P2P currency only used by the deep web community, but its gotten to big and needs regulation to stay constant. This, however, is against the very nature of BTC and will therefore not be supported by the community. All in all, BTC is an interesting idea that worked on the micro scale, but cannot hope to function on the macro.

When people decide they have no use for old technology and do not think twice before throwing it out, they probably do not realize that their outdated piece of hardware finds its grave half way across the world. Possibly even in Guiyu, China where the largest electronic waste or "E-waste" dump site exists. People are oblivious to the fact that this is a recurring problem, not just a small matter of sorting and recycling through a few pieces of plastic, metal and wires. This black hole of scrapped computers, television sets, air conditioners and even refrigerators is toxic towards the environment, and is contaminating the growth of crops all around the area, such as rice, from the gases of the poisonous elements contained within the gadgets to make them work. The consuming pile of E-waste is not just environmentally deadly but also causes health hazards, along with the expensive and dangerous recycling operations that are needed. If people continue to neglect this issue, E-waste will continue to grow, swallow the earth with a blanket of harmful bi-products and affect everyone's lives, which is something we do not want. E-waste is hazardous and will eventually kill the planet with the path that it seems to be following without any real rise against the issue. This is such a nice way to give back to the environment don't you think? Polluting the earth and by proxy ourselves with technological garbage is obviously a smart thing to do, as if we aren't destroying the world enough already.

The main idea of this article is the possible effects on the environment that laptops have over desktops. This article discusses the possible of conserving natural resources, using energy efficiently, and how laptops contribute to landfill toxins. Connection: The main problem that laptops have is the resources that laptops are made of. For example, laptops are usually made of metals such as mercury, lead, chromium and other various metals that if not recycled could contaminate the land and resources around the landfill. For example if such metals end up in the landfill, they could contaminate ground water, land water, and the soil around the landfill. This wouldn't allow us to drink the water as well as growing crops or using the soil around the landfill. This highlights how important it is for us to create laptops that use less harmful metals and the importance of recycling laptops.  In my opinion, considering some of the harmful effects that laptops have they also have many positive ones. For example, now that people can use things such as power point presentations, sending emails, we don't need to use as much paper as we used to which saves paper and preserves trees. Due to computers, communication has also become much easier. People can now order things off the internet rather than drive far away to a specialty shop, their item is delivered by a delivery person who has many things to deliver. This is far more efficient than each person driving to a shop to buy something.  In conclusion, computers do have some negative effects on the environment but they also do have some positive effects and made our life much easier. Roman.

The above article (by Cyrus Favriar) details various interesting facts about the concentration of cellphone subscriptions on the planet - over 6 billion. At first the idea of 85% of the global population having access to a mobile phone seems outrageous, but 6 billion subscriptions does not necessarily mean 6 billion individual mobile phone owners. Many people living in third world countries will have multiple phones in order to take advantage of cheap calls within the carrier to and from a specific other party. Another interesting fact detailed in the article is that over 1/3 of the world's cellphone subscriptions is attributed to China and India, with over 2 billion subscriptions combined. A study from Gartner predicts that 1 billion smartphones will ship worldwide in 2014, and data from Canalys showed that more smartphones were sold in 2011 than personal computers. Between July 2011 and June 2012, Americans used 1.1 billion GB (> 10 000 TB) of mobile data, and over the last year Americans collectively spent 2.321 trillion minutes on the phone and have sent 2.273 trillion text messages. So, why should we be interested in all of these arbitrary facts? We understand that as smartphone prices become exponentially less expensive and other parts of the world gain access to data services, mobile broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace. There is a global trend from fixed-broadband to mobile-broadband subscriptions, simply because it is more cost-effective. As global bandwidth increases we can supposedly pump an infinite amount of data to billions of customers around the world. This relates to eLifestyle because it shows that although we talk about poverty and oppression around the world, one thing unites us: technology. This relates to Economics because of the decreasing cost of smartphones and the accessibility of cheap subscriptions becoming more prominent. This relates to the ICS20 class because as most of us own mobile phones and have mobile plans with various car

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.

this is a problem because people are demanding more computers and phones now because life without them is hard, now you can only apply for jobs on computers or do homework on computers now, so more people need them. This is affecting the environment because to make all these devices are harming the environment, for example the pollution from the factory making the products and the precious metals and supply's we are using to make the devices are non-renewable. So we should find a way to make computers and phones without effecting the environment as much as we are now. this is how computers and phones are affecting the environment, and the demand on computers are just gonna get higher and higher, so we should find a way to build the computer without effecting the environment as much fast.

This is an article about how computers affect our environment, how we can help, and what computers can do to actually benefit us in the world. Some examples of computers ruining the environment could be usage of valuable resources and pollution due to computer waste. Some examples of how we can help would be sanitizing our hard drive, donating our mobile device, raising funds from techno trash, and re-using ink cartridges. Technology can help the environment by helping us develop and produce sustainable practices in the environment. It also allows for paperless communication which limits the taking down of trees. In my opinion I completely agree with what this article has to say. It expands on computers issues but also its strengths.

Many people do not know that just throwing away your old electronics can build up and create a lot of air and water pollution, as well as heat and noise pollution. In our electronics there are many different types of non-renewable resources, also many precious metals are used such as gold, and silver. All electronics contain hazardous  materials that can have a negative impact on our environment, this materials have to be disposed using special methods. You can help the environment by buying more energy efficient products, as well and products that have less hazardous materials inside of them. Also you can dispose your electronics properly and safely. But on the other side using computers can help the environment, because less trees will be cut down for paper. When disposing of electronics improperly can increase the amount of carbon emissions that are the main cause to global warming, also known as greenhouse gases.    

Game of Thrones, the fantasy series that came out of a series of novels written by George R. R. Martin and adapted by HBO has just recently aired its third season with a bunch of people watching it during its premiere. The bad news is that the amount of people pirating the show is more then half the amount of people who actually watched it on HBO. With the premiere having around 6.7 million viewers and the amount of pirate viewers at 4.4 million. These stats are quite impressive but HBO can expect a lot more views when it counts on-demand, DVR, online streams with a gross audience of 11.6 million viewers when counting non-live viewers. On the other hand, TorrentFreak claims that GoT has been the most-pirated show over the past year and that the pirated audience is growing even faster. A few hours after the first torrent of the show was uploaded, it had around 110,303 leechers and 52,786 seeders, a total of 163,088 people. This number actually broke the previous record with 144,663 peers for another show called "Heroes".

Many countries recently blocked access to The Pirate Bay, a torrenting website, in order to prevent the illegal downloading of films, music, programs, and more. However, these efforts were futile, as many users are simply turning to proxy servers to allow them to bypass their countries censorship. Torrenting sites have always been risky territory for users, and as of late, more and more sites have been taking down in order to prevent pirating. The Pirate Bay has an insanely high volume of traffic, and it hasn't slowed down in recent times. It is noted in this article that the only way to rid of TPB is to physically shut down the servers, but even if that were to happen, users are simply going to move to the next site. Whether or not piracy negatively affects the income of the producers of the material being distributed is debatable, however the fact remains true that this process is completely illegal.  As a frequent torrenter, I hope that TPB will continue to thrive at it's current level. My hope is that all these pushes against torrenting will make the industries behind said files realize that users refuse to pay the ridiculous prices and taxes on content. This realization will hopefully lead to cheaper costs on retail products in the media industry, thus removing the need for pirating and torrenting. It will take awhile, but as long as the high price industry standards are in place, torrenting will continue to occur, and no legal matter will be able to stop it. If the internet is to truly be 'free', than laws and limitations should not be placed on content provided. #BarbieJXoXo

This is the greatest article of all time.

I am not the same guy as this poster, but I think he is beautiful

This article tells how the constant evolution of technology has enabled students to teach themselves without the need of a teacher. One way technology has been proven  to help students teach themselves is when the MIT Media Lab delivered tablets to schools in a remote village in Ethiopia. With only the tablets, the children taught themselves the ABCs and even found their way around restrictions MIT put into the tablets. Another way students can teach themselves with technology is proven is by an 11 year old girl  from Pakistan that passed a university level class even after the government blocked Youtube which was the source of the videos she used to study. Thanks to a Portugese professor who uploaded the videos to a website the girl could access, she was able to complete the course. Our access to technology influences us by allowing to be (mostly) self-sufficient since we do not have to rely on the help of teachers completely to learn. With this, students can get homework done more easily and be up to date on lessons taught in class. I think that students cannot teach themselves solely on technology since it isn't that evolved yet. I think this is a good thing that students cannot learn only with technology because in school, it is easier to learn things when someone else explains it to you, promotes more social interaction, saves the jobs of teachers, and makes it harder to procrastinate. I believe that eventually students will be able to learn at home with only the Internet because of how fast technology evolves and how much information is stored everyday.

This article talks about a new tablet line from Microsoft called "Surface". It is supposed to go with the new Windows 8 operating system which is supposed to be a more touch and mobile friendly system. At an event in LA Steve Ballmer showed 2 versions of Surface.  One is running Windows 8 Pro the other Windows RT. Each tablet comes with a stand and magnetically attachable covers to allow the tablet to be like a laptop. The type cover has a keyboard and trackpad, while the touch cover is a thinner keyboard cover that comes in many colours and has an accelerometer to let the system know when it's folded to deactivate the keyboard. Both have a 10.6-inch display. The RT version is 9.3mm thick and weights 673g while the Windows 8 Pro is 13.55mm thick and weighs 903g. Only the RT comes with productivity software like Office Home and Student pre-loaded. This release ties in with portable computing because it is an all new portable tablet that is from Microsoft. It also ties in with their new operating system that goes hand in hand with this tablet. It is something with a new innovative style and can be used in various ways as a laptop or tablet. It also ties in with economics and the whole Apple vs. Microsoft competition. Microsoft has created an "even better" version of the iPad. Now instead of going for the iPad people that like PC's and working with them can make the choice to use the Surface tablet which once again puts Microsoft and Apple in competition with one another for sales. All in all this is a great new tablet and I think it is great for all those Windows users that can get their hands on a new tablet from Microsoft.  It will be interesting to see if this new technology will blow up compared to the iPad and now the iPad Mini.

Many of us think of Apple as this giant in electronics. Over the past decade, Apple set the market for smartphones, ultrabooks, and tablets. However, in the past couple of years, Apple has begun to fall off. Rather than being the huge 'juggernaut,' Apple has become a follower, forced to play catch up to other companies including Google and Amazon. Evidence of this are tied to the recent releases of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. Apple's response was the iPad Mini, when they realized consumers enjoyed smaller tablets. Before that was the iPhone 5, in response to people wanting larger phone displays. Apple Maps is a blunder that both iOS 6 users and Apple pays for. Apple was slow on the draw to join in on changes to the market specifications. Having controlled the market for the past decade with the popularization of smartphones, tablets, and retina display, Apple was simply unprepared to react to these changes. Apple still has their innovation and secrets hidden in R&D, but the fact of the matter is their most recent releases contain ideas from other companies' progress. This relates to elifestyle because our generation uses these products in our daily lives. Most of us do not remember a time when electronics did not make up a substantial part of our lives; when Apple was not a prominent consumer electronics company. This reminds us that power does not last indefinitely; innovators become followers, and companies fall. The next big thing in electronics may not even exist yet. 

This article is about a new device that could help avoid the usual visits to the doctor for injected medicines. It is done by implanting a microchip inside the patient's abdominal. Then the physician administers the drug by remotely pumping the meds into their system. So basically, the microchip delivers you the meds at the doctor's command. I think this is a good breakthrough in technology and medicine. I mean imagine getting the same medicine that is usually injected to you without the hassle of arranging appointments to the doctor and having to go through the pain of the needle. There is one concern though. What if someone sits on the button by accident or forgets to push the button? But nonethless, I find these device a very great thing to have in the future. 

Angry Birds has become one of the most popular games for people of all ages to play while on the go, but if your someone who is a veteran player, and may be getting a bit tired of the same old basic mechanics, fear not, because there is a solution that requires a new skill for playing the game. This new creative and innovative answer to gamer's problems is a real slingshot that interfaces with the game over a USB connection. The slingshot is recognized by a PC as a mouse and the angle of the shot depends on how the player is holding the slingshot.  Also, the company has designed this USB compatible slingshot so the skills and tools are available to everyday people to go and build one themselves. All the components are widely available and relatively cheap to buy. In addition, mbed have released instructions and code for creating their prototype. I believe this is a interesting and intelligent way to attract more people to play Angry Birds and also an exciting creation to sustain the present gamers. This advancement enhances the overall experience of playing Angry Birds and this demonstrates how successful this game has become over the years and the attention it receives to maintain and increase it's high praise and recognition as a worldwide well-known computer game.

This article is about Apple increasing the size of the iPhone screen and making the screen bezel-free. Both Samsung and Apple are working on a similar prototype but Samsung is using a more standard fingerprint scanner. As the Source said in this article, to have the possibility to scan your finger on the whole screen still has many technological barriers to over come.

thoughts/opinions? what's the connection to Careers?

Yota Devices is a smart phone phone company, based in Russia that is making waves in the cell phone community with their innovations in smart phone hardware. The yotaphone was released last year in asia and europe and quickly made a name for itself by offering not only staple specs we have come to expect, but also innovation for the screen. Its front screen operates as anyone would guess, so the real area the phone stands out in is shown when flipped over. The back screen is a low-power e-ink display that in the phones first incarnation was mainly used for display and lacked touchscreen capabilities. Now, however, in the yotaphones upcoming successor: the screen has made the jump to a full touch panel, allowing it be used to answer calls, receive and dismiss notifications and be used to play games that don't require the flashy capabilities of the front screen. This kind of innovation in cellphone technology is of paramount importance and the biggest step forward since the original iphone. The potential is amazing, allowing for new software to utilize the second screen, and making cellphones even more accessible and useful to the smartphone community.

If you are an inspiring artist, Google has a job for you. Doodle 4 Google is an opportunity for young artists to show what they've got and use their imagination to create a doodle for the Google homepage. The theme for the year is "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place...." and the submissions must be sent in by March 20, which is fast approaching. The winning doodle will be featured on the homepage of Google for a day and if that's not enough, the winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for his or her school of choice. On April 29, the 50 finalists will be open for the public to vote their winner and the winning doodle will be revealed sometime in June. Only one doodle per student is accepted so if you are interested in participating (only if you live in the states) then you can download an entry form on their Doodle 4 Google site. I think this is a great idea for students to tap into their creative sides and think about how they can change the world. Full classrooms are encouraged to participate which is a great idea for teachers to spend the day teaching the kids how they can make a difference to the lives around them.

Sony has released a new product to their Playstation line-up. Yup, the PS4. Sadly this isn't just it. For some odd reason, Sony has chosen to upgrade their PS3 Slim model to  an even slimmer model. Although the name "Superslim" isn't the most creative name, it sure lives up to it. It weighs just over 4.5 pounds, which is almost 3 pounds off from the original Slim model. Many critics have the same overall feel to it: It looks and feels terrible. This statement says to be influenced by the entire redesign of the SuperSlim model. This new model of the PS3, basically has the same internal hardware than the original PS3, despite the new outer look. Like the last two PS3 models, the SuperSlim, does not have the backwards compatibility with the PS2. Something that was long anticipated by the Playstation Fanboys. I hope Sony really gets his game up because I too, am a Playstation Fanboy, and looks up to Sony.

Over the past few years, Facebook has grown to become one of the largest social networking sites in the world. People everywhere, young or old, have leapt at this opportunity to connect with friends or family from all over. This article brings up the possibility of creating a Facebook option that is available specifically for under 13 users as the current Facebook is only supposed to be available to users over 13. This new option would allow parents to create a link to their child's website and edit the Facebook Timeline options to whatever they think is appropriate. However, this possibility is met with a lot of opposition. People believe that allowing kids younger than 13 onto this site could be risky as they would be more susceptible to the dangers of cyber bullying and abuse. They believe that kids would simply be too young to understand the dangers of the internet and as a result would not know how to stay safe. Letting kids go on social networking sites like Facebook at such a young age is a huge decision. How do you know what is the right one? Despite the over 13 rules on Facebook, there are still thousands of young kids on this site that had simply lied about their age. It isn't hard to get onto this site. No matter what we do, with or without this new Facebook option, there will undoubtedly be young kids on Facebook. This fact is unavoidable. That is why I think that this alternate Facebook for children is not necessarily a bad idea. If we can't keep kids off of Facebook then we might as well work to make a safer version of it for them. Although, I don't condone young kids using this site, I am aware of the fact that we can never keep them all away from it and if that's the case then we might as well do all we can to protect them while on it. The growing world of technology is going to reach the younger children at some point and instead of trying to shield them from this other world and forcing them to explore it behind our backs, I thin

k we should find safer ways for them to discover this cyber world and educate them on its dangers. This article highlights people's concerns about rapidly growing social networks in the cyber world and its expansion to target younger children. It simply gives us a look at how much Facebook has really grown and what they are willing to do to keep it growing. It has grown so quickly and so has its number of users. It is only natural that young kids want to see and learn about what has fascinated so many of older people.

A 16 year old teenage girl attracts the attention of her followers after her tweet claiming that there was someone in her house. The girl was supposedly kidnapped by the stranger in the house when she disappeared; however, after the investigation, the police confirmed that she left voluntarily. Within two days of searching for the lost teen, the police found her walking at the side of a highway. The police finalized that the teen faked her kidnapping.  After the teenage girl tweeted that there was someone in her house, more than 30,000 people retweeted and the local police department received over 6,000 calls about her frightening situation. This event shows how fast news travels through social networking sites and how messy the issue could become if what you post is untrue. The teen that was once known as the young lady who was kidnapped by an intruder, is now someone who has made poor choices and worried many people for reasons unknown.