Group items tagged

Computers were first created in the 1940's and by the end of 2002, one billion computers have been sold worldwide. The increase of computers being sold each year has been creating large amounts of electronic waste and can be a source of toxins if not treated appropriately. The problem that we are facing is that an average 24-kilogram desktop computer requires at least 10 times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to be made. Compared to automobiles or refrigerators that only require 1-2 times their weight in fossil fuels, computers have become a serious problem for our environment. By throwing out your old computers, it adds to the mountain of electronic garbage that helps to increase environmental pollution and global climate change. Since this is a problem, most people today are encouraged to recycle computer components so they could be used again. The recycling not only helps the environment but it also eliminates the need to dig out the fossil fuels from nature. I personally believe that the act of recycling these old computers is great for the environment and will help us to save the natural fossil fuels that we so very often use up. The other good news is that companies are now creating their computers from recycled materials to help out on the recycling process.

According to this article, when it comes to computers and the environment the main concern comes from the consequences created when disposing the machine. Overtime, the amount of computer sales have been skyrocketing. This increase, coupled with changing technology, led to large amounts of electronic waste. The metals commonly found in PC's are aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, palladium, platinum, selenium, silver and zinc. Eight of the metals are listed as hazardous. I think that this article is true. Many people don't understand that computers need to recycled properly. If people were to start recycling their computers, i think our environment would look better.

The main concern with computers is the process of creating and disposal. The number of computers being made increases as demand goes up, and this has lead to mass electronic waste. This waste tends to be toxic and damaging to the environment. An average computer will use up ten times its weight in fossil fuels to make. As this is a big issue, the UN decided to review the complications it may have in the future. Significant energy use, long term health affects on people, and long term impacts on the environment are all problems. Solutions to this are viable though. Recycling from people and corporations go a long way. Selling of unused parts is always an option, or even a charity donation. This is a problem now, but might not have to be. Computer recycling is a big motion being taken by businesses, because it happens to be cost-effective and good for the environment. Only good things I have to say about the progression of environmental impacts of tech. Let's hope for a continuing trend.

With the popularity of social media growing rapidly everyday, so are the number of ways people are trying to steal your information. One such case is the Dorkbot or Ransomware worm that has previously attacked Facebook and Twitter has now began spreading through Skype. Criminals using Dorkbot infect it into computers through sending innocent-looking links to victims. Once a victim clicks the link, the worm blocks all files on the victim's computer from use  and uses these files as ransom for a set amount of money. Should the victim refuse to pay the ransom, all the files will be deleted.  This article shows that as easy as it is for our computer to collect data, it can just as easily have this data stolen, all it takes is a single opened link. It is always stressed to never open links that seem suspicious, yet many people will open links without any regard for their data. I think it's very low how online criminals will stop at nothing to find sneaky ways to steal other people's information and their money. Are they so lazy to make money on their own that they will just leach off of people who worked hard to make money to support themselves? People who don't take precautions while browsing the Internet are just as at fault as the criminals who plague the web. Since people are caring less about the safety of their data as the number of cyber criminals increases, it will be inevitable that web browsers will have to increase security or the government will have to make an effort to track down cyber criminals and set laws to punish cyber criminals more harshly.

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

Many things are replaced by electronics and machinery for our convenience. However, in 2012, why is the majority of people still using the traditional form of payment-cash. In the past few years, there were a few developers, who were interested in this topic, began to explore and brainstorm a variety of creative ideas of payment for the convenience everyday consumers. These determined developers may not have created new methods, but they have provided us with options that we may consider depending on our positions: people buying or selling products, or exchanging funds. For each category, mobile apps and online websites were recommended. Since we have easy access to our cell phones, it is not difficult to complete our payment tax with ease. As a result, it is not necessary to carry around cash or credit cards too often when going out to.    For example, Google Wallet is relatively efficient since it supports most or all major credit cards and can be used to pay for restaurant or shop purchases. Microsoft Wallet (similar to Google Wallet) is also another option for those who do have Android phones since Google Wallet is available to only a few Android phones.     

This article is about the top 10 most pirated movies through the use of a program called BitTorrent. BitTorrent makes you download files for no price what so ever. Pirating movies is an illegal thing to do because it makes people download movies for free when people make DVD or Blue Ray copy of it in stores for a decent price. It's unfair to pirate these movies because some of the people who don't torrent movies and buy the real thing pay for it rather than just having to download a copy of the movie for free. In addition, if you use torrents, there's a chance of being caught for downloading things that would originally have a price and get them for free. In my opinion, using torrents can appeal to many of it's users as you can get a variety of things such a movies but it can be claimed as copyright and might be dangerous as you can be caught.

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

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.

*Disclaimer: Article above contains profane/vulgar language This article details the findings of the blog 'Jezebel', who compiled a series of racist, anti-Obama tweets following the U.S election, and 'Floating Sheep' who trended those tweets and imposed them over a map of the United States. Using the knowledge of geo-coded tweets and the Twitter search bar, Floating Sheep was able to trend racist anti-Obama tweets from November 1-7. They used an 'LQ' algorithm which compared a state's ratio of racist to normal tweets to the entire country's ratio of racist to normal tweets. States with an LQ score of 1 were on par with the country, while those 1 had more racist tweets on average. After trending the reassuringly low 395 tweets, the study found (unsurprisingly) that higher LQ scores came from South-Eastern states, with Alabama at 8.1 and Mississipi at 7.4. This relates to Privacy and Security because Floating Sheep used geo-coding to find out where the cruel tweets originated from. This relates to eLifestyle because the internet harbours some of the most ignorant/hateful people who make callous remarks without realizing everything that you do can be and often is tracked. This relates to ICS20 because we promote a positive online environment and we frown upon things like racism and vulgar language; the very opposite of what these people mentioned in the article are portraying. If there is a silver lining to this study, it is that in this technological era, we are able to publicize ignorance and judge/analyze those who advocate awful messages.

This article is about how just recently, companies Apple and HTC have signed a 10-year licensing deal meaning that every single one of Apple's and HTC's lawsuits filed against each other has now been settled. Both have been sued by each other for infringing on each other's patents. This new licencing deal means that the companies can use each other's patents to a certain extent- giving their phones an edge over the rest of the smartphone market. HTC says they signed the deal to focus on making better products instead of spending so much time dealing with court. Some analysts say that Apple settled the lawsuits quickly to deal with Samsung and their lawsuits towards them. Apple has signed agreements previously with Nokia and Microsoft allowing them to use certain patents. I chose the tag of portable computing because both Apple and HTC produce many successful smartphone portable computing. Hopefully this deal will help improve both of their smartphone operations benefiting us consumers. In my opinion I think that this whole suing fest (lack of a better word) that has been going on recently is pretty silly as many cases don't seem as if they are worthy to be being sued about. I am glad to see that Apple has settled their disputes with HTC to cut down on this smartphone lawsuit drama.

This post is about a $0.99 app on the Apple App Store. With this app (ImmediateSend) you can send messages or iMessages without closing the application you were using when you received the message. As many iOS users know, when you receive a message, you need to navigate to your Messages App and type the message. With this new app, a pop up appears, and you can answer all of your important messages a lot faster. This relates to Portable Computing because in this day and age it is very important to get things done as fast as you can. This app is very handy and can be very useful if you are using another app and do not feel like hitting the home button. I feel that it is worth paying $0.99. 

Some people have experienced an issue with Google Voice. They have claimed that when they send SMS messages through the service, their messages are sent from random numbers. Some have received other people's personal messages and this can threaten privacy. Although many have been warned that they should never send personal text messages for security reasons, many ignore it. This issue with Google Voice can cause confusion for the people sending and receiving the texts since the sender does not have the option to send their messages to someone they know and the receiver receives a mysterious texts from a number that they cannot identify. Others might also receive multiple texts from random numbers which may irritate the person rather than confuse. Since texting is a very popular form of communication. those who use Google Voice may have to use other methods to communicate if the problem if affecting them too much and will have to wait until the issue is solved. Though this affects only a fraction of those who use Google Voice, this is bothersome. 

We all know how dreadfully horrid Internet Explorer can be, especially older versions. Many have us have grown accustomed to cleaner, more versatile browsers such as (and pretty much only) Google Chrome. With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft has produced IE10. Microsoft is painfully aware of their browser's reputation, and has taken advertising it in a humourous way. The video depicts a typical basement dweller sending "IE sucks" comments and replies to forums, videos, twitter, and the like. Eventually, he comes around when IE creates a new "Karaoke standard" for the web, changing his point of view to "IE sucks... less." The ad directs to www.browseryoulovedtohate.com. Although many of us may never use IE voluntarily, the browser has come a long way from being the decrepit, slow "browser for people who don't know any better." It has made progress, and that is the driving force of technology. Who knows? Perhaps IE10 will be a bit more bearable than its predecessors.

This article is about a new recyclable solar cell. This new cell is made using plant-derived substrates. This is known as cellulose nanocrystal substrates (or CNC). These solar cells benefit from being truly disposable and by eliminating the waste that results from the use of alternative materials like petroleum or glass. These cells are not only transparent enough to allow light to pass into an embedded semiconductor. These cells dissolve in water which makes them recyclable. The only downside to this new cell is that it will not be available in the near future and the cells can only yield a 2.7-percent conversion efficiency rate while the normal cells can reach 10 percent. At least we now know that a clean fuel ear is well within reach. I think that this new cell is very cool because we have never seen anything like it before and will help us reduce a lot of waste when it is ready.

Social news website Reddit may soon have a feature where ads may be downvoted or upvoted, much like the content shared by users. This is one of few websites to currently have this approach with advertisements.  This is rather significant because if people are able to downvote advertisements that they feel are intrusive, ugly and downright annoying, and upvote advertisements that are funny, interesting and better, then we can see advertising companies change their tactics to make better ads for all of us. This can result in a win/win situation where companies generate real views on their ads and people are more inclined to buy their products, as opposed to being annoying by these companies and skipping over and trying to find ways around these ads by using extensions such as AdBlock.  If more websites use this feature then maybe people will start to like ads again, as they will see ads that they want to see, there may be a change in the advertising market where we will see an influx of more creative and interesting advertisements instead of the boring and tedious ones we mostly have today.

This article is about a new concept developed by Berkeley that allows users to emit their password through their thoughts. This concept uses a technology known as Neurosky, and the actual headsets that use this technology look like cat ears. This device is still in testing, but for those eager people who want their thoughts converted into Passthoughts, they can get their hands on the device for a very pricey $199. I don't believe that this invention will "take off" because it doesn't seem very practical in real world situations when typing in a password can be as quick as 2 seconds. However this is a very imaginative invention and will most likely inspire people to create products just like this one. I chose the eLifestyle tag for this post because it may become a fashion trend in some part of the world, (Asia maybe) and people will truly enjoy using this product. I think it is safe to say though that I will not be walking into school wearing cat ears in the future!    

Photoshop is a software that is used by  It is used by  millions of graphic artists, print designers, visual communicators, and regular people like you. It's likely that nearly every picture you've seen ,such as posters, book covers, magazine pictures, and brochures has either been created or edited by Photoshop. they use Photoshop, because of imperfections in your face to make it more cleaner and your body to make you more skinnier or editing your picture to make illusion. But in this report a Greek police did a photoshop to hide an evidence to brutality. this Greek police will soon be in under investigation for attempting to airbrush out evidence of police abuse in the mugshots for four young men.  These men were arrested for an attempted for armed robbery, but the photos that were taken in the scene clearly shows that they were bleeding and bruised and several days after these mug shots however, shows that their in a better shape. The police defense, he did not admit that he changed the photo. This police has been accused treating immigrants and other prisoners like an animal. 

It is about a group of people researching and creating a prototype of a refined hairline grooves of a peacock. The product was pretty much reflected with sunlight and was unaffected by viewing angles. It is used for people that use e-readers. They only have static images currently, but they are thinking about putting moving images on it. This is also made as a reflective display for e-reader users. Having an e-reader isnt really bad. It is portable meaning that you can take it outside with you and be able to use it, but also this article will help all the e-reader users because it will give them static images, and soon moving images. I dont see any negative things about having this device. In my opinion this might help e-reader users because it will give them the entertainment to see static images, and soon moving images, rather than just thousands of words.

        In this article it talks about companies trying to trademark the name "Python" for their server products. The company "Veber" is trying to trademark exclusive right to use Python for software, servers, and web services everywhere in Europe. After briefly explaining what the company is trying to do the article teaches people how they could help stop this from happening.      The article tells the readers to send emails tops psf-trademarks@python.org telling them how they use Python and send them any published information mentioning the Python language. By doing this they can prove that Python the programming language is used everywhere and not only the language the name as well. With this they can top Python from becoming an exclusive trademark.

This article talks about the problems Facebook could have if it were to be breached by a hacker. Facebook is one of the biggest social networking websites to date and is the biggest holder of personal information, and yet they have been able to keep this information safe from hackers. Comparing to Twitter who had 250,000 accounts accessed by hackers, Facebook has done a remarkable job to keep our information safe, and although they have been able to do so for now, eventually they will have to face the problems of hackers. When you look at Facebook over other social networking sites like Twitter and Tumblr, there is a big difference when it comes to privacy and security. Twitter, for instance, is a more public social networking site with the odd soul that locks their account from the public. Facebook has privacy by default, which means Facebook has a lot more to lose if they were to get hacked. The physical damage that would pertain to us would include some of our photos and messages might be stolen, and the worst that could happen would pertain to credit card information, but Facebook would jump on and respond to these problems with password changes and other stuff. The real damage that would hit Facebook hard would be the psychological damage, and it would nearly destroy them. When something big happens in our society, the media jumps on this and will twist the truth in the story to give us, the viewers, the best story that will manipulate us into thinking an entire wrong. Facebook would be all over the media, whether it be on the radio, on the internet, on the news or in newsprint. The world would know about what happened, and fear would sweep across the globe.  People would start asking questions about what is safe on Facebook and if it is safe at all. Facebook already has a problem with people not being sure if everything is safe on Facebook, and this would just ruin everything for Facebook. No matter how much Facebook tries to keep its network safe, i

TL;DR

TL;DR

First off, I do not agree with this article. This article talks about the ever changing English language of texting. As some of us do this, when you send a text message you might send a super long 'hey' like this: "heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy". What is wrong with that you may ask? Well in the article the author, Sam Biddle, says we are doing it constantly, ruining the English language. I quote "Have a little discipline." Sam Biddle thinks that we are purposely texting the way we are in a way to make ourselves look foolish, but I can assure you we are not. When texting "heeeeeyyy" gives our text messages more emotion, and allows us as humans to express our feelings more than by just sounding like a robot. What sounds more human like: "heeeeeey, wanna go to Wendys or something?" or this: "Hello, want to go to a resturant?". Exactly, the first one does. This way of texting helps show our emotion. For example if you are really excited to talk to someone you might add in the few extra Es to show that. Now, just because we talk this way doesnt mean our life with always be like that. On a resume you must be 'robotic' and formal, so you will use proper terminology.