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Twitter could potentially change our politics in multiple countries for better or for worse. This article describes how twitter has changed the landscape of voting for a president, party, or prime minister. Many countries have adopted twitter as a means of reaching and interacting with their voters. Some examples could be Barack Obama, who has a group of 100 people working on social media for his campaign. Mr. Pinera, the president of Chile has also made it mandatory for all of his cabinet members to get twitter so everyone can interact. Politicians though, have also abused this system by making either very rude tweets to anti-party members or making bland tweets to not offend anyone (causing less followers towards the party.) I would like to call this e-politics, and I believe it is change towards the better. Expanding into the internet for new voters is a genius idea that all parties should add to their campaign.

Admit it, if you have a smartphone, you're probably glued to it. It goes everywhere with you, and you use it all the time, even in school, where it's a big distraction. In South Korea, the most wired country in the world, some schools are remotely disabling students smartphones in school via an app called iSmartKeeper. With the app, teachers can lock all the phones in the school, only allow emergency calls, only allow texts and calls, disable specific apps, and unlock the phone during breaks. The app also uses geofencing that puts the restrictions on the phones when the students enter the school premises. Parents are also provided with a management app that allows these restrictions to be put in place when their teens are doing their homework. In Seoul, the app has been trialed in 11 schools, and the results were mixed. Many students rooted their phones to avoid the restrictions, and the geofencing sometimes didn't leaving the phones to be locked after the students left school. This app is for Android only due to the popularity of local brands like Samsung, however, iOS users should beware, as an iOS version is coming next month.. I think some advantages are it minimizes distractions and encourages students to be more focused on their studies. However, it may anger many students initially. No word yet if the app will be available outside South Korea.

I find this article very interesting. This article explains the possible use of biotechnology to transform punishment. Philosopher Rebecca Roache and her team have spoken about the use of a drug that could make a 10 year sentence seem like 1000. The drug disorients the persons perception of time. Although many parts of this punishment seem unethical Roache make some valid points stating "Is it really OK to lock someone up for the best part of the only life they will ever have, or might it be more humane to tinker with their brains and set them free? - the goal is to look at today's punishments through the lens of the future." I find this a very interesting point and in some ways i agree with it I think in some cases it can work but I have mixed feelings. Although it seems like a good idea I feel it is a huge invasion to tinker with someones brain without consent and I really don't think anyone would consent to this.

Just when you thought that the Apple-Samsung dispute was long gone, the two rivaling tech companies will once again appear in court next week in Silicon Valley. As usual, they are accusing each other of ripping off designs and features. Apple is accusing Samsung of infringing on 5 patents including Samsung's popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung on the other hand is accusing Apple of stealing ideas to use on Apple's iDevices. According to Apple attorneys, Apple "revolutionized the market in personal computing devices, while Samsung "systematically copied Apple's innovative technology and products. Samsung in defense says that it has been a "pioneer in the mobile business sector since the inception of the mobile device industry, and that Apple copied many of Samsung's innovations on Apple's iDevices. Some things Apple claims that Samsung copied are tap to search technology, and "slide to unlock" the latter in my opinion, is not true. However, each smartphone has many patents, but Apple is only challenging 5 of them. personally I think that Apple and Samsung devices are very different. Sure some features may be similar or identical, but that's just to have competition. Although both of them are innovators, I think that Samsung/Google is innovating more nowadays than Apple.

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.

Some game developers are tired of pirates taking their game at no cost. Some game developers have implemented ways to trick the pirate as the list shows. Some like Alan Wake allow you to play the whole thing but others like Serious Sam 3 won't let you past the first mission by putting in an immortal enemy. These are 8 funny ways to mess with the pirates but there are many more...

For the longest time we have all felt very safe while on the internet. Even with feeling this security, we should be more cautious with what we put out on the internet because there has been a bug lurking around in the most important security measures for years. Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has been keeping your browing page secure and safe for numerous years and is a huge part of the internet and thankfully it is still working as it should. The problem that we have been experiencing is a software library called OpenSSL has a hole in it that has been there for years called "HeartBleed". OpenSSL allows people to get the protection from TLS/SSL easy and fast and has worked fine just like TLS/SSL but because there has been a minor coding error, malicious people can abuse different versions of OpenSSL and grab information that should originally be secured by TLS/SSL. The main problem that everyone can understand is that all of your personal information is being opened up and placed into the hands of someone who should not have the information. The other problem that this "HeartBleed" has is that the attackers will also get to see how the site that is taking your data indentifies. Not only can they see recent transactions but they can look back at old transactions that have already happened. The worst part about all of this is that none of the attackers leave a trace.Since they leave no trace, it is hard to tell how many websites and people have already been effected by the "HeartBleed". While sites try to fix up the problems it is recommended to change all of your passwords and to keep a close eye on your credit card statement. This bug is a huge problem for our society because absolutely no one is safe because there is no way to know if you've been attacked. The article says that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft hasn't been infected yet so that is at least good. I think that everyone should always be careful with their personal information

Cyber bullying is defined as a young person tormenting, threatening, harassing, or embarrassing another young person using the internet or other technologies. This page gives 11 important facts on cyber bullying that you might not have heard of. Some of these facts include: 70% of students report seeing frequent bullying online, only one in 10 victims will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse. I completely agree with these facts and agree with the motive of this site. Cyber bullying is a cowards way out and is not nice in any way.

Simply, there are creepers on the internet that will steal whatever image you think yourself to be without hesitation and then commit mysterious, illegal, dangerous, suspicious activity under your name which could unfortunately get you into jail even though you are innocent. This is a fact. And you know what helps them create this problem of identity theft? It is the information people freely and openly decide to share on their social media accounts like Facebook. Just one insignificant status allows bad people to assume your identity - all they even need is a vague birth date and birth place, and you are basically done for. YOU COULD BE FRAMED. This goes beyond security issues and transcends what illegal is defined as. Say goodbye to your privacy laws and hello to a never ending game of pretend. Identity fraud is swarming on this site and people don't even realize the massive extent it goes to. People are oblivious and frankly don't care if someone is unfortunate enough to fall victim to identity theft.

The smartphone wars are taking a turn for the worse. Last week both apple and Samsung companies made patent infringement lawsuits against each other. Apples lawsuit of 2 billion dollars against Samsung is for use of the slide-to-unlock feature, auto word correction, universal search of the phone, and Internet and background syncing of data. While Samsung's 7 million dollar lawsuit against Apple is for the use of remote video transmission and on digital imaging. I believe that apples case is a little childish compared to Samsung's especially with the part about the slide to unlock future. Samsung's case seems to be about more important matters like using its camera and the remote control patents. I personally would like Samsung to win because I prefer their products and customer service over Apple's.

That's right, folks, the legal battles between Apple and Samsung are far from over. The Cupertino company has successfully won its case to have a preliminary injunction slapped on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, meaning Samsung cannot sell its 10-inch slate down under.