Current mood: a little stressed
Current tunes: Wintersun - Starchild
Open-source software development is a wonderful method of developing programs. It pools the talents hundreds of developers around the world. However, open-source will never replace closed-source software development. The reason is that humans are primarily motivated by self-interest and open-source development does not encourage this behavior. In a perfect open-source world, programmers would contribute to many different projects, and all software would be free. Programmers would make money by donations to their projects by those who use them. Unfortunately, this model cannot work because when something is available for free, why would anyone pay money for it? How many programs, apps, and services have we used which ask for donations and we never contribute (sorry Jimmy Wales)? Programmers need a guaranteed source of income so they work for companies which must keep their software secret so they can gain revenue. Open-source software is a great ideal and has brought many innovations to the world, but it will never replace traditional closed-source software.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Great Aunt Lucy's Online
Current mood: happy
Current tunes: Fail Emotions - Speed of Light
Computers and the Internet have had an amazing impact on family history. In the days before the Internet, finding information was the most difficult step of connecting with ancestors. People interested in family had to look up where their predecessors lived and write to the nearest genealogical society, church, or government record library in order to request that microfilms or other records be sent. Now, FamilySearch contains billions of records that have been digitalized and indexed, making searching extremely fast. Finding new information can still be a challenge, but with the advent of the Internet, finding information that other people already have is almost instantaneous. With these wonderful tools in place, no one has any excuse not to do family history.
Current tunes: Fail Emotions - Speed of Light
Computers and the Internet have had an amazing impact on family history. In the days before the Internet, finding information was the most difficult step of connecting with ancestors. People interested in family had to look up where their predecessors lived and write to the nearest genealogical society, church, or government record library in order to request that microfilms or other records be sent. Now, FamilySearch contains billions of records that have been digitalized and indexed, making searching extremely fast. Finding new information can still be a challenge, but with the advent of the Internet, finding information that other people already have is almost instantaneous. With these wonderful tools in place, no one has any excuse not to do family history.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Listened to Anything Good Lately?
Current Mood: happy
Current Tunes - Stratovarius - Unbreakable
The current copyright laws pertaining to technology and modern media are ineffective at protecting the interests of artists, inventors, and the public. The Internet has facilitated music and software sharing. This sharing should be used to promote an artist's work, not restrict it. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to advertise: it's free to companies and customers trust friends more than advertisements. Customers are able to preview music before purchasing. People should not copy music blatantly and distribute it to their friends, but copying music so an acquaintance can decide if he wishes to purchase it should not be penalized. Under the current laws, however, this sharing is illegal. Unfortunately, there will always be opportunists. When Radiohead released their album In Rainbows, they first released it as a "pay-what-you-like" download. Most people chose to pay nothing (http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/40444). Is this evidence that file sharing must be regulated? As an aspiring intellectual property lawyer, I will have to help answer questions such as this.
Current Tunes - Stratovarius - Unbreakable
The current copyright laws pertaining to technology and modern media are ineffective at protecting the interests of artists, inventors, and the public. The Internet has facilitated music and software sharing. This sharing should be used to promote an artist's work, not restrict it. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to advertise: it's free to companies and customers trust friends more than advertisements. Customers are able to preview music before purchasing. People should not copy music blatantly and distribute it to their friends, but copying music so an acquaintance can decide if he wishes to purchase it should not be penalized. Under the current laws, however, this sharing is illegal. Unfortunately, there will always be opportunists. When Radiohead released their album In Rainbows, they first released it as a "pay-what-you-like" download. Most people chose to pay nothing (http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/40444). Is this evidence that file sharing must be regulated? As an aspiring intellectual property lawyer, I will have to help answer questions such as this.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
More WiFi, More Better
Current Mood: wistful
Current Tunes: Delain - We Are The Others
Increasing the range of the WiFi spectrum will be very beneficial to the United States. WiFi is becoming increasingly important each day through the use of phones, laptops, and other devices. Currently, many WiFi hot spots are extremely congested making service for everyone slow and causing major headaches. This expansion of the available spectrum will make working from a variety of places, such as an airport or a university, much more convenient. However, this transition must be made very carefully. Currently, some of the spectrum that has been planned to be made public is in use by private entities, such as the military. The FCC must make sure that the modification will not interfere with these entities or dire consequences could follow, such as weapon equipment malfunctions or plane crashes. Hopefully, all the government entities that currently use the new public frequencies have kept meticulous records of which frequencies they use and the devices that must be changed. If the government goes about this change correctly, everyone will benefit with faster wireless speed and greater convenience.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415667,00.asp
Current Tunes: Delain - We Are The Others
Increasing the range of the WiFi spectrum will be very beneficial to the United States. WiFi is becoming increasingly important each day through the use of phones, laptops, and other devices. Currently, many WiFi hot spots are extremely congested making service for everyone slow and causing major headaches. This expansion of the available spectrum will make working from a variety of places, such as an airport or a university, much more convenient. However, this transition must be made very carefully. Currently, some of the spectrum that has been planned to be made public is in use by private entities, such as the military. The FCC must make sure that the modification will not interfere with these entities or dire consequences could follow, such as weapon equipment malfunctions or plane crashes. Hopefully, all the government entities that currently use the new public frequencies have kept meticulous records of which frequencies they use and the devices that must be changed. If the government goes about this change correctly, everyone will benefit with faster wireless speed and greater convenience.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415667,00.asp
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Double Rainbow...tables
Current Mood: content
Current Tunes: Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
While reading The Cuckoo's Egg, two main points seemed to jut out in my mind. The first is that a government entity must exist whose sole purpose of existence is to track down hackers, especially foreign, and persecute them to the fullest extent of the law. In The Cuckoo's Egg, Stoll mainly pursued his mysterious visitor without government help. This is mainly due to the fact that the Internet was very new in 1986. It was unclear which government organization presided over it. Internet crime was almost non-existent in 1986, and the main culprits were college-age pranksters. The dramatic increase in Internet usage has shown the desperate need of a government entity to combat the malicious use of Internet services. Whether this entity be a branch of the CIA, the FBI, or the NSA, someone needs to take on the mission of investigating Internet crimes.
The second point that stuck with me from the book was the method of hacking used by Stoll's adversary. He did not use sophisticated tools or state-of-the-art programs to break into his victim's computers. Most of his access came from knowing the default accounts and passwords for various types of computers. This must have been extremely embarrassing for the military bases and universities since they were expected to have some of the highest security on the planet. While hackers today cannot prey as easily on systems using these methods, default passwords and guest accounts still present easy access to malicious users. System designers must carefully approach this issue in order to balance security and convenience.
Current Tunes: Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
While reading The Cuckoo's Egg, two main points seemed to jut out in my mind. The first is that a government entity must exist whose sole purpose of existence is to track down hackers, especially foreign, and persecute them to the fullest extent of the law. In The Cuckoo's Egg, Stoll mainly pursued his mysterious visitor without government help. This is mainly due to the fact that the Internet was very new in 1986. It was unclear which government organization presided over it. Internet crime was almost non-existent in 1986, and the main culprits were college-age pranksters. The dramatic increase in Internet usage has shown the desperate need of a government entity to combat the malicious use of Internet services. Whether this entity be a branch of the CIA, the FBI, or the NSA, someone needs to take on the mission of investigating Internet crimes.
The second point that stuck with me from the book was the method of hacking used by Stoll's adversary. He did not use sophisticated tools or state-of-the-art programs to break into his victim's computers. Most of his access came from knowing the default accounts and passwords for various types of computers. This must have been extremely embarrassing for the military bases and universities since they were expected to have some of the highest security on the planet. While hackers today cannot prey as easily on systems using these methods, default passwords and guest accounts still present easy access to malicious users. System designers must carefully approach this issue in order to balance security and convenience.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
404 - Women Not Found
Current Mood: It's going to be one of those weeks...
Current Tunes: Gojira - From Mars To Sirius
There is a severe deficiency of women in computer science. While some may regard this as a minor inconvenience or not even a problem, the lack of females in this field should greatly disturb everyone. Due to the minuscule amount of women involved, the field of computer science is overlooking untapped talent. Women think differently than men, and this difference is a great attribute that brings about wonderful innovations. One of the reasons that many women do not choose computer science as a major is that they do not know that they would be adept at programming. Every student should take at least one computer science course at some point during their university experience. This would accomplish two goals: it would give students a chance to appreciate computers and all the work that is invested into creating effective software. It would also find students, especially women, who are proficient at programming but would have not know this had they not taken a computer science course.
Current Tunes: Gojira - From Mars To Sirius
There is a severe deficiency of women in computer science. While some may regard this as a minor inconvenience or not even a problem, the lack of females in this field should greatly disturb everyone. Due to the minuscule amount of women involved, the field of computer science is overlooking untapped talent. Women think differently than men, and this difference is a great attribute that brings about wonderful innovations. One of the reasons that many women do not choose computer science as a major is that they do not know that they would be adept at programming. Every student should take at least one computer science course at some point during their university experience. This would accomplish two goals: it would give students a chance to appreciate computers and all the work that is invested into creating effective software. It would also find students, especially women, who are proficient at programming but would have not know this had they not taken a computer science course.
Monday, February 4, 2013
The Mandarin Word For DDOS is...
Current Mood: Tired, if that counts as a mood
Current Tunes: Kamelot - Silverthorn
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal claimed that attackers from China attempted to hack the news companies' computers in what seemed to be a state-sponsored attack. China denies these allegations. In a world where the Internet's importance is increasing dramatically, cyber-attacks are becoming more common. Soon, soldiers specializing in computer and Internet security will have the same importance as marines and artillery. The United States must invest more time and money in cyber-security training programs or it will be left behind and needlessly expose itself to future computer attacks. The government should invest in incentives for education in computer security with grants and scholarships. Recruitment for the NSA and similar agencies charged with keeping America's information highways safe should be invested in just as much as the navy or air force. This will keep the United States safe and allow more people to serve our country in ways they otherwise could not have. The soldiers of the future will not fight with bullets but with DOS attacks and rainbow tables.
Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1047269/china-peoples-daily-rejects-us-hacking-claims
Current Tunes: Kamelot - Silverthorn
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal claimed that attackers from China attempted to hack the news companies' computers in what seemed to be a state-sponsored attack. China denies these allegations. In a world where the Internet's importance is increasing dramatically, cyber-attacks are becoming more common. Soon, soldiers specializing in computer and Internet security will have the same importance as marines and artillery. The United States must invest more time and money in cyber-security training programs or it will be left behind and needlessly expose itself to future computer attacks. The government should invest in incentives for education in computer security with grants and scholarships. Recruitment for the NSA and similar agencies charged with keeping America's information highways safe should be invested in just as much as the navy or air force. This will keep the United States safe and allow more people to serve our country in ways they otherwise could not have. The soldiers of the future will not fight with bullets but with DOS attacks and rainbow tables.
Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1047269/china-peoples-daily-rejects-us-hacking-claims
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