Final Exam

The Internet has radically changed the way we communicate. Social network sites like Facebook and Mixi help us keep in touch with our childhood friends with so much ease. We can also have as many friends as we like without any restriction. Sites like LinkedIn help in forming and maintaining business connections, as well as connections which could be immensely helpful in one's career. 

The Internet has revolutionized the way we access information, starting with Google in 1998. Google and Yahoo help us find information with so much ease, a degree of ease never imagined before their creation. With Google Documents, we can create, edit, and share documents online, which is quite economical.

However, coexisting these advantages are potential disadvantages. They include malware and online scams. Recently, social networking sites such as Facebook have been the target of malware attacks. In these, malware gets installed on a user's computer through advertisements. Also, criminals try to access users' confidential information and gain unauthorized access to their system by pretending to be friends or acquaintainces of the recepients. Online scams also include fake iTunes gift certificates in which the scammers deceive online users by claiming to be from iTunes Store to make customers download the attachment and get the certificate code in order to redeem the gift certificate. The attachment is a zipped file containing the malware Mal/BredoZp-B which can provide unauthorized access to hackers to steal confidential information such as credit card numbers and passwords.

Currently, the Internet is accessible not only through computers, but also through smartphones. Since Android is presently the most commonly used operating system on smartphones, malware authors have been targeting smartphones using Android. Basically, they target devices which are the most used. When computers and/or smartphones get infected with malware, users' privacy and important details can be compromised, the device does not function propoerly, and it is likely that the malware could be spread to other users.

Also, once information (particularly images) is uploaded on the Internet, it circulates and cannot be retrieved. This is not just one of the worst aspects, but also a potentially embarrassing one. One example is that of the circles for a blog post that Scott Hanselman made. On Facebook, he discovered the image he used was on a stranger's wall, and that the image spread very rapidly within Facebook.          

Thus, the best aspects of the Internet include ease of communication and instant access to information. The worst aspects include malware, online scams, and the inability to retrieve information once uploaded.

Sources

http://androidandme.com/2011/11/news/googler-speaks-of-mobile-security-says-anti-virus-companies-are-playing-with-your-fears/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YourImagesAreAVirusTheyAreEVERYWHEREOnTheInternet.aspx

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/the-history-of-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/

http://www.wwwireframe.com/geekosphere/security-flash/dont-fall-for-malware-and-scam-deals-this-shopping-season.html

final exam question

Viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and spyware are included in malware.  T/F

Malware

Malware (short for "malicious software") refers to programs designed to gain unauthorized access to a computer system, to destroy data, and to change the whole working of the system. Viruses fit into malware. They can be transmitted via the Internet including through e-mails. Other type of malware include Trojan horses, computer worms, and spyware.

Facebook and other SNS are targets for malware. The advertisements on the site cannot really be trusted as spyware can get installed on one's computer. Recently, in Japan, one company's system was attacked by virus. It came via an e-mail from someone who posed as the legitimate sender.

1 Quote a Day

"I believe people work for satisfaction. I believe it is a big mistake to think that money is the only way to compensate a person for his work." 


Hint: from the founder of Sony 

Google Translate Fail

Ryoko Sakka Chaya Jiro ( 旅行作家・茶屋次郎 ) is a famous mystery series occasionally aired on TV Tokyo.

I copied 旅行作家・茶屋次郎 and pasted it in Google Translate. The English translation was "Chaya travel writer Jiro"

I found this amusing because although all the words in the translation are correct, I was actually expecting to see "Travel Writer Chaya Jiro".

Wait a minute! I thought that Google Translate does word-for-word translation! Now, I think this translation is really funny because Ryoko ( 旅行 ) means "travel", Sakka ( 作家 ) means "writer" and Chaya Jiro ( 茶屋次郎 ) is Chaya Jiro, the writer's name.

So, the reason I find this translation very funny is that Google Translate did a very random translation instead of a word-for-word one that I was actually expecting it to do!

Google Maps Story

For this assignment, I chose Sapporo (capital of Hokkaido, which is the northernmost island of Japan) because I went there with my high school teachers and friends before graduation. We saw Sapporo City. It was very beautiful and different from Tokyo. The roads were broad and there was plenty of greenery. Sapporo is renowned for the Shiroi Koibito chocolate brand. Here is the map.



View Larger Map


The idea for this type of interesting assignment was submitted by David, who is also known as Mr. Thimble.

Following are the steps I used to embed the Google map.

1) I searched Sapporo Google map.

2) I clicked on the Link button (which is after the Get Directions, My Places, and is to the right-side of Print button) in the left-side panel. 

3) Then, I copied the HTML code to be embedded and pasted that code in the Edit HTML tab of the blog.

4) After pasting, I just clicked on the Compose tab.

Colorize Your World

 

 

As You can see, I chose my favorite cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry! I found this CC image from Flickr, and saved it as a Paint file.

 

How I changed the colors:

1) I clicked on the Color 1 box in the Home tab of the ribbon. Next to that are the Color 2 box and a list of colors to choose from.

2) I chose black from the list of colors.

3) Then from the Brushes box (with the down arrow) on the Home tab, I chose the first option (Brush).  

4) Using the Brush option, I colored both Tom and Jerry with black! (although not completely)

5) Then, I colored both white by clicking on the Color 1 box and choosing white from the list of colors.

6) When coloring white, I used the Calligraphy brush 1 and Calligraphy brush 2 options (from the Brushes box)

7) I colored their tongues red. To color using red, I clicked on the Color 1 box and chose red from the list of colors.

8) When coloring Tom's tongue, I used Calligraphy brush 2. For Jerry's tongue, I used Brush.   

 

This assignment was enjoyable and interesting. I also learned more about using Paint. There are indeed other ways of achieving this same result such as using only Brush to color their tongues and using only Brush to make those white spots. I did this assignment because many times, I tried to imagine how Tom and Jerry would look with just black and a few white spots instead of their respective colors, that is grey and brown.          

Triple Troll Attack

The three individuals I had in mind when doing this assignment were Steve Jobs, Douglas Engelbart, and Peter Norton. They have made significant contributions to personal computing. The person in the image is Douglas Engelbart. The quote is actually from Steve Jobs, but is attributed to Peter Norton.  

This assignment was really enjoyable. I found an image of Douglas Engelbart. I saved it as a Paint file. Then, I clicked on the A (Home tab) for the text box. I placed the quote and the person's name in the text box. After saving the file, I uploaded it to Blogger. I used black for the font color of the quote because I thought it would look good on a grey background (the wall in the background), and used blue for person's name hoping to add some color to the black-and-white image.   

Response to "We Are All Artists"

In the blogpost titled "We Are All Artists", Tim Owen (pen name "Timmmmyboy") discusses his understanding of the arts and creativity. As per the title of his blogpost, he believes that every one of us is an artist.

Timmmmyboy discusses some important ideas related to creativity. Some of his main ideas are that creativity is not inherited and that practice improves and makes perfect. This is because one learns to be an artist (for example) and because artists (particularly designers) work diligently on designs and to ensure that aesthetics and functionality coexist with each other. His other idea that practice improves and makes perfect holds true because beautiful works of art and beautiful designs are beautiful because the artists (painters and designers, respectively) worked diligently until they could master every small, minute detail.   

Another important idea he holds is that one is creative in difficult and uncomfortable situations. Basically, creativity is about finding an extraordinary solution to daily problems, and about finding novel approaches to deal with everyday situations. 

I personally feel that desire and need are the keys to creativity. That is the desire and need to find new and rather extraordinary solutions. Furthermore, I feel that, in a sense, we are artists because of our expressive abilities. However, we are not always artists. This is because creativity is an important key to being an artist. We are creative when we want to find solutions. Perhaps, it can be said that we are all artists especially when we want to find solutions. 

Midterm exam

The Digital Storytelling movement, also known as DS106, uses digital tools to enable individuals to tell their stories on the Web in a compelling and engaging manner. There are various approaches to storytelling. This blog post seeks to discuss the web approach of Digital Storytelling.

The Web approach of Digital Storytelling uses technologies such as Google Maps, Google Search, and others to enact narratives. Other techniques employed include using a picture or video of a pet in a particular situation, and trying to narrate one's own personal story using the picture or video.

These are the links to the three blogs:

http://meritnews.education.wisc.edu/post/2011/09/28/Storytelling-Through-Digital-Media.aspx

http://www.netsquared.org/blog/trenton/center-digital-storytelling-listen-deepl

http://socialmediatoday.com/heatherwhaling/336787/digital-storytelling-30-social-tools-create-sharable-memorable-stories

Image: Digital Storytelling 2011 welcome screen  by digistorytellin through CC licensing

Blog post 2

After the first blog post, we basically continued with our Daily Shoot assignments and discussed about social media and pop culture. Pop culture (short for popular culture) includes music, movies, gadgets, fashion, social networking sites (SNS), and other forms of amusement and communication that have mainstream popularity on a large scale. Social media includes social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Mixi. SNS have become very instrumental, particularly in business. They are used for important purposes such as promotion and market research.

pop culture

Pop culture (short for popular culture) includes music, movies, gadgets, fashion, social networking sites (SNS), and other forms of amusement and communication that have mainstream popularity on a large scale. The aforementioned factors (music, movies, gadgets, SNS, others) are included in culture because they become a central part of daily life and personal needs.

Popular culture differs with individual needs, personal preferences, as well as one's ethnicity, age, and financial situation. For example, children would love Tom and Jerry, while adults would would like movies such as Avatar. SNS such as Facebook and Mixi, however, are popular with individuals of different ages. Smartphones, including the iPhone, happen to be widely popular with the middle-class, and are continuing to increase in popularity and use. Japanese people, regardless of age, would like Anime such as Doraemon and Naruto. In the United States, children as well as adults would like Dexter's Laboratory.  

re: the history of the Internet in a nutshell

http://sixrevisions.com/resources/the-history-of-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/

This article covers key events as well people and organizations involved in the history of the network that is today known as the Internet.

The Internet, as we know, is the global network of interconnected computer networks. It actually began as a project by the United States Department of Defense to enable researchers across the country to collaborate at various sites. Those "various sites" were universities and research laboratories across the United States.

Data over the Internet is transmitted into bundles called packets. ARPANET was the first network to use packet switching technology. On October 29, 1969, Stanford and the UCLA connected for the first time, thus becoming the first hosts on the network that is today known as the Internet.  

E-mail and the @ mark actually started in 1971. It was the work and implementation of programmer Ray Tomlinson. In 1973, the first overseas connection was made by ARPANET between the University College of London. The "breakthrough year" was 1974 due to a proposal to link networks similar to ARPANET into ""inter-network", which would have no central control and would work around a transmission control protocol (which eventually became TCP/IP)." (http://sixrevisions.com/resources/the-history-of-the-internet-in-a-nutshell/)

Later, the World Wide Web (where commerce and considerable transmission of information takes place  today) was developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991.

The Internet has indeed revolutionized the way we communicate, find information, as well as conduct business. Social networks like Facebook and Mixi allow users to have and communicate with as many friends as possible free of cost! The Internet is definitely a benefit for society as it helps in quick access to knowledge, as well as facilitating the learning of languages. Communication technologies like Skype and Yahoo Messenger turn out to be cost-effective for businesses as people can communicate with those in their contact list free of cost! One individual can also communicate with more than 3 people at the same time! Due to the aforementioned reasons, the Internet is definitely a benefit for society.     

CIS Fall 2011 - Week 2

Hello World!

This is my first blog post ever! It is now the end of Week 2. We discussed Mendel's Law of Genetics, as well as the history of the Internet.