Thursday, January 28, 2010

Virus hoaxes

By now, many of us have become familiar enough with spam and chain emails that we instantly recognize anything our filters don't catch, and we promptly trash it. For those less familiar with the pattern by which we can recognize more harmful emails -- some with viruses or links to phishing sites -- Snopes.com is an excellent investment of your time. Many of the scams being run on the Web are as old as time, but come in newer forms less recognizable to the unseasoned Web surfer. To complicate matters, some of the warnings you'll receive over email about some new internet virus are complete hoaxes written by someone with too much time on their hands. Snopes.com investigates the most common of these and differentiates between the real hazards, the fakes, and the wrongly accused. Next time you get an email claiming, for instance, that the FDIC has failed, head over to Snopes.com before believing it, and always check your address bar against what you know is the correct web address before logging into familiar Web sites like Facebook.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Where are all the girls?

In nearly every Computer Science class, men outnumber women by a huge proportion. Sometimes there are no women to be found. Besides the widely held sentiment that Computer Science majors don't get many dates, a more important phenomenon's afoot. In an opinion article for Communications of the ACM (June 2001/Vol. 44, No. 6), Paul De Palma discusses the need for more women in Computer Science, and some of the reasons he believes we're so deprived of them and their talents. One reason he cites is that although women actually tend to love math (contrary to some popular stereotypes), Computer Science, and coding in particular, are often taught in a way that hides too much of the underlying logic. This makes it like a syrupy fog compared to the straight-edge logic of mathematics, and therefore less palatable. There's merit to this argument, but teaching such abstraction is essential, both to the nature of coding and to the field in general. Whatever the drought's cause, women are sorely needed. Like it or not, women bring otherwise unfathomable and unforseeable contributions to the field, and refine the sensibilities of any field's motivations. It's Computer Science's turn, and not just to improve the dating pool.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Verizon's copyright infringement penalties

Current Event: Verizon Wireless enforcing penalties for copyright infringement.

See the whole article here:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/verizon-terminating-internet-accessinternet-access/

As cell phones integrate with the Web, ISPs and phone companies are making agreements to rescind the access of customers who engage in file sharing of copyrighted material. Sharing files illegally is a neighborly but dishonest practice that's been around since before the Internet's public debut in 1993. Back then, piracy of intellectual property was most prevalent in home videos and computer games (LAN party? Don't mind if I do!). Since internet access is now a standard feature in most consumer mobile electronics, file sharing is ever more ubiquitous. Perhaps because the means to download and keep content illegally is identical to simply browsing the internet, many people don't feel they are stealing. It is certainly a much less intense experience than shoplifting or taking a newspaper without paying for it (Edgely). But each time we do that, it's one less unit of revenue an artist worked for, but didn't receive.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Hidden Treasures

Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recently said in a General Conference talk, "We should be seeking the kind of treasures the scriptures promise the faithful: “great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures” (D&C 89:19). Now focus on the word "hidden." One meaning of this phrase is to understand and experience things kept from the less faithful. But another meaning emerges in context of Elder Oaks' warning not to make paramount "every combination of that worldly quartet of property, pride, prominence, and power" in our lives. This other meaning of "hidden" is the suggestion that we all ought to seek that which we can treasure within ourselves -- treasures that don't rely on others' validation. Social networking sites are beset by advertisers and monetized apps playing on our need to validate ourselves through (perceived) accumulation of worldly treasures, yes, even those categorized under the intangible quartet mentioned earlier. Because most advertising works this way and because the internet's financial dynamics are catalyzed primarily by advertisement, let us be cautious lest our hearts be distracted from the true treasures.

(This post was meant for the Smallish blog post assignment originally due on Jan 14th)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Testing

This is a test of Aaron McCausland's CS 404 Broadcast System.
It is only a test.
Were this a real post you would have been advised to study and ponder it
until your brains melted.

But the purpose of this post is to make sure it works, and to verify my
authorship to Technorati: NCZ853ZHG6EW

Thank you.