Aspects of the Internet: Final Exam Blog Post

          For my final post I would like to discuss the pros and cons of the internet. This is a very debatable subject since the internet provides everything for people. Some people would say that they can not imagine a world with out the internet, while others are quick to shake their heads in fear of the very thought of getting a Facebook account.
          The internet has many good aspects. For example, improving your literacy or cognitive skills, connecting with your peers and how the rape rate has declined because of the public internet access. You can improve your knowledge of every event in history, every theory and every aspect about life. There are some web sites such as lumosity featured in the Wall Street Journal and New York times which are said to increase your brains cognitive functions and overall health. Most of these types of web sites target the elder crowd around their 60s to help their cognitive skills such as memory which with age, we as human beings loose over time. The internet has a wide range of resources dedicated to knowledge. If you wanted to learn anything, it would be on the internet. There are even resources to help teachers teach their students online. With the many networking sources you could also learn immensely from your peers and get connected with people, who know people, who could get you your next job opportunity. I figure that it works like this:

          Many people especially those in favor of the internet have an interesting out look on the internet. In the link below it will re-direct you to a video. The video is about the views about the internet from the co-founders of YouTube and Digg. Chad Hurley, Co-Founder and CEO of Youtube, states, "...the internet is about connecting individuals...".


http://videos.howstuffworks.com/science-channel/5120-download-web-20-video.htm#mkcpgn=snag1

          Also, many would say that free porn on the internet should be on the negative aspects of the internet. After all, no parent wants their child to receive a pop-up of a pornography advertisement. But it very interesting how the rape rates have decreased as more porn availability has gone up. According to Anthony D' Amato Leighton Proffesor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law in his Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series one titled PORN UP, RAPE DOWN, he gives a very clear explanation and he gives facts about the matter.
          The negative aspects of the internet is whether or not the internet is a safe resource for gathering information.Of course there are ways to protect your self from many threats from the internet. This video below is great illustration of how this works.



           Even though everyone is capable of taking extra precautions to protect their personal information, it is undeniable that there are still ways for people to become victims of hackers and their malware. The difficulty with malware is that they take many different forms of shapes and sizes. The most common type of malware is a Trojan Horse. There is the chain letter type that when a person clicks on something, the same e-mail gets sent to every one in your address book. Then there is the painful malware that crashes your computer. Also the larger scale type of malware that when clicked on can crash many computers at the same time or even worse create a way for hackers to hack into the information at a large company. For example, the Mitsubishi Heavy malware attack and the Kawasaki Heavy malware attack. Malware is possibly the biggest example of the negative aspects of the internet. But also there is how the use of social networks could be trouble for many people. Expressing your opinions to the world is good, to some extent. There have been many incidents such as people getting fired because of facebook, a teenager getting kicked out of school, the young man getting kicked off of the football team for a facebook post. Some people have been put into jail. Police and University officials are now known to use Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Twitter etc. for further use in court. And victims such as Rebecca Black have received death threats from people over the internet.
          In my opinion, all of their punishments were just. I also believe that not everything should be expressed publicly given that they believe in the freedom of speech or not. There are many more pros and cons about the internet, in fact it's endless since people have different opinions. My examples for positive aspects were improving your literacy or cognitive skills, connecting with people, and safety in terms of rape. My examples for negative aspects were about malware and social networking websites.

Google Translate FAIL haha ds106 asignment #5

Description: Find something in a foreign language and use Google Translate and laugh about how awful it is. Its pretty easy to do if you use Google Chrome. Just go to a site in another language and select the translate to English button when it pops up (options - under the hood - check the box that says to offer translations). I think you can also use the main google.com to translate pages as well. If its a language you know, give an explanation of what it should be and list possible reasons it got messed up.

This one I did of the iconic, Got Milk? It sounds so silly in Japanese...




In Japanese is says: mi ru ku wo eta ka?

In my mind I was picturing the American posters of Got Milk? With a Japanese salary man standing instead and Got Milk? is subtitled--- ミルクを得たか？ROFL LOL....

News Paper Blackout Poetry ds106 asignment #4

Description: Grab a marker and today's morning edition and start blacking out sections to create a new story. It could be a poem, a picture, or a novella, all drawn from the words of the latest news.




I think out of all the projects this one was the most fun :)

Sing, Dance, Jump in puddles ds106 asignment #3

Description: pick a bad photo, apply a vintage effect and write something in helvetica.Sounds like fun! So here it is:

Tis was a nice day...

 



This was back in high school :) This picture was taken after walking around Tokyo for hours...learning about history. So I thought that it would fit the vintage effect. In the picture above in my teacher(in the middle) Im in there somewhere...but beware....i look chubby :) and next to me is my best friend.

 

18 (ds106 assignment 2)

This assignment is called SongStory. Basically I am to choose a song that reminds me of certain memories from the past. :)

When I turned 18, I got on a plane to visit my home town Houston, Texas. I hadn't visited the states for about 4 years and I was really out of touch with the music. I was just bewildered at the songs that everyone knew.

The song that reminds me of all the memories when I visited Houston, Texas is definitely this one:



When I first heard this song that year I was like, "He's on a boat?....ok...." lol But anyway, it really reminds me of the time I went to Houston because EVERYONE knew this song. My birthday is in August so we went to Galveston, swam in the back yard pool, went to house parties and so much more. I love the summer and the warm sun hitting the back of my neck. And I also thought it was fun to hear all of my friends sing this song every time it came on. Such good memories :)

Data of the Dead Digital Story :Writing

I decided to update my last will and testament. I wrote one back in 2011. But my life has changed drastically since then.

I always new about people writng their last will and testament when they are old or sick. But I used to wonder, but what if I die tomorrow? Even though I'm only 24 years old if something were to happen to me tomorrow, I would like to leave certain thoughts and things to the people I care about. So I guess this a way I can do that.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

I, STEPHANIE HUGHES, residing at Houston, Texas, being of sound mind, do hereby make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament and do revoke any and all other Wills and Codicils heretofore made by me.

ARTICLE 1
1.1 - I direct payment of my debts, funeral expenses and expenses for administration of my estate.

ARTICLE 2
2.1 - I direct that the rest of my estate be to my mother, HIROMI TADA. If she predeceases me, I give the rest of my estate to my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES.

2.2 - If any beneficiary shall fail to survive me by 45 days, it shall be deemed that such person shall have predeceased me.

2.3 - If neither my mother nor my sister survive me, I direct that the rest of my estate be divided into four equal parts. I give one part to my sister's first child; one part to my mother's mother; one part to my mother's brother, TOSHIHIKO TADA; one part to my mother's sister, NAOMI TADA.

ARTICLE 3
3.1 - I appoint my mother Executrix of this will. If she predeceases me, I appoint my friends (a) JOICE BAZAR and MARINA SAITOH, to said office. I direct that no appointee hereunder shall be required to give bond for the faithful performance of the duties of said office.

ARTICLE 4
4.1 - To the following I leave my possessions. JOICE BAZAR, I leave all of my electronics including but not limited to my phone and computer. To my sister, JULIANNE HUGHES, I leave all of my materialistic possessions including but not limited to my jewelry, make-up, clothes and shoes.

4.2 - This Will has been prepared in duplicate, each copy of which has been executed as an original. One of these executed copies is in my possession and the other is deposited for safekeeping with my mother.

I, Stephanie Hughes, do hereby declare to the undersigned authority that I am 18 years of age or older, of sound mind, and under no constraint or undue influence willingly sign and execute this instrument as my Last Will and Testament in the presence of the following witnesses, who witnessed and subscribed this will at my request, and in my presence at Houston, Texas on this 22nd day of August, 2015.

MALWARE: The Love Letter

So far there has been conversation about different subjects. But I think we can all agree this time on the simple fact that malware is a big pain in the gluteus maximus.

In the early 1990s the average person was just getting acquainted with computers when the spread of a virus by floppy disk became known. It was very malicious...very sneaky...you couldn't see the virus and it would eat up files O.o....

In the early 2000s came the network worms (i.e. slapper, slammer and sasser etc..) and the most widely spread e-mail virus in history, the Love Letter or ILOVEYOU e-mail.

This computer worm reached millions of homes. When just one person opened the attached file called LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU, it sent a copy of its self to everyone in Windows Address Book. So you can imagine how quickly this virus spread.

The way that this worked was similar to the Christmas Tree EXEC which was the first computer worm to paralyze computers internationally in 1987.

I have a similar experience with e-mail viruses. Except I thought it was from my mom and in the subject line, if i remember correctly, it said hello....or it was blank. But, in the end everyone on my e-mail list got an advertisement of porn and Viagra (not the best e-mail for my grandma to receive).

 

Question for the exam:

In the 1990s, how was the first virus spread?

1) By flying pigs

2) By mice

3) By floppy worms

4) By floppy disk

We are all artists

Tim Owen's talk titled We Are All Artists was very interesting and in some ways inspiring for some people (more specifically on ds106). He gives points such as creativity takes everyday practice and that creativity is not inherited. Although I have read a few posts from other people who disagree with this, I don't necessarily think it's that big of an argument.

He suggests that ds106 is a community that fuels a creative environment for everyone. Although I agree with this, I can't say that I'm too comfortable with his explanation that being uncomfortable helps people to be more creative. Mostly because people by nature or people in general have the basic flight or fight response. When in a situation where they are uncomfortable they will try to remove the thing that is making them uncomfortable. Or, try to create a way to get around being uncomfortable. Tim also suggests that the things that are the most creative are the things that make you think out side of the box to solve creative problems which I do agree with.

(I guess that what this has to do with computer science is that you use the computer to do the art work.)

I do however agree on finding inspiration around you. I do this a lot for my inspiration in writing. 

Digital Storytelling!! Using the Web

Image: Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web - Opportunity, Challenge, Responsibility by Fräulein Schiller through CC Licensing
The gist of what Digital Storytelling means for our new class project, ds106 is the usage of digital tools to tell our own real life story. I have seen and read some other work by others who are part of the ds106 community and it seems that their topics can be about anything as long as it follows the requirements of the assignment given. It reminds me of Dailyshoot--DERP--which is probably why it is called "ds106".
Although I really enjoy seeing other's designs in the Design category in ds106, I think that the Web category is really practical and probably the easiest to understand.

Using the Web can be a fun and easy way to tell a real life story.



Like this video above, you see different people with different stories. We have the capacity to make a difference in other people's lives by sharing our own experiences through the internet. I really like this suggestion for Web Assignments. As it says, "Yes, I know that these are, technically, videos but the point is that they are using a functional web tool (the search engine) to actually enact a narrative. Video is just the means of capturing the narrative."

Here is a blog of creating a literal real life story using the internet. :)

And this one is great! The author gives a wonderful explanation and interesting usage of  The Wayback Machine!

Pear Soup

This has nothing to do with CIS class but, i needed somewhere concrete where I could put up my recipe for Pear Soup! I was just hungry and didn't really have anything to cook so I made this out of the things that I had at home :P

Anyway,  I Googled "pear soup" after I had already made it just to see if there is such a thing as Pear Soup and apparently there is! And from what I can guess is that Pear Soup is originally from the UK. Of course had I known this, I would have tried to make it the standard way but I was already done cooking it before I checked.

So, there are no specific steps I think because in any order it would have come out the same. But here are the ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
half can of water
2 tea spoon dill weed
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 whole onion
1 dash of Cummin
1 dash of Salt and Pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon of Sugar
1/2 pear wedged
Sliced ginger

I cooked the onions and  pear in a frying pan with a bit of oil and chilli powder. Once the onions were golden, I put them in side the pot with the coconut milk, water and ginger. As the soup was boiling, I added the rest of the spices :)

Pop-Culture: Gossip and Media

Connection #ds674, a photo by hughes_tuj on Flickr.    

Tumbler, Twitter, Facebook and etc...any type of networking website could be a tool to get gossip around the world. The dictionaries are used when slang comes up and the person does not know what it means. The most basic form of gossip and media get to the public by magazines, newspapers, tabloids, advertisement, and TV. 

Youtube could be used to do anything. It could be used to make fun of artists, and TV shows such as Family Guy or Saturday Night Live especially make fun of celebrities. And those who want to be like celebrities who are made fun of, are made fun of themselves. Rebecca Black has been big news...although at first people were hating on her and now people are feeling sorry for her. In my own opinion...gossip is usually negative and the media seems to just make gossip stronger or in another sense gives gossip its push that it needs to make it into the pop culture of today...I honestly don't understand what makes people want to gossip so much about celebrities etc.

On the other hand, I can understand why some people would like to gossip online. There are websites such as 2chan and 4chan which are websites where people can freely express their opinions without ANY restrictions. I guess that since it is on the internet then they don't have to state their name or show their faces, so it's a whole different world of absolute freedom for those people. I think it's great for them!

• So most of the media gossip covers big events and/or celebrities. For example the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine was a major event but it also spurred up a lot of gossip.

Internet

Internet, a photo by hughes_tuj on Flickr.

One of our readings for class was The History of the Internet in a nutshell. We haven't discussed much about this reading in class yet, but I suppose that we will get to it very soon. This reading is quite interesting and gives bullet point facts on a timeline about the Internet.

The Internet has progressed so much within such a small amount of time. And with the Internet growing at such a fast pace, so has the media. Pop culture (Popular Culture) has so much variety nowadays because of how fast the media is able to collect so much information. Pop Culture is basically everything that the media and popular celebrities consider to be new trends of that time of year. What I mean by that is, last century's pop culture is different from this century and so on.

For example in the 70's Bob Marley was considered as part of Pop Culture. However nowadays not many people know him unless they grew up in the 70's. Of course though, people don't really follow what the media says...but if the media had certain popular celebrity faces on their ads or music videos, then it is easier for people to follow. And when people follow up on which celebrity does what to their hair, for example, that is what is considered as pop culture. And with the power of the Internet, pop culture is even more accessible.

Flying pigs in the Future?

Flying pig, a photo by hughes_tuj on Flickr.

Hello World! This is my very first blog post! I have decided that since this post is the first one, then like everything else, I would like to start it off with baby steps. In class, we had a very interesting yet difficult reading which was Vannevar Bush's "As we may think". And I say difficult as in the language and vocabulary was a bit of a challenge. I beleive it was a challenge because of the era it was in, which is 1945. And that is about 2 generations apart from the college students of 2011. In class we hit so many different points. We talked about the stone Adze, Selection by association, Index, Ratheon, The era during 1945, Dwight Eisenhower,

 Military Industrial Complex, Ted Nelson, Doug Engelbart, the Memmex or the theory to the modern day computer.

I feel that we got to so many points...But out of all those points this is one point that I could discuss more about and fully understand:

Communication Loss and Limits

It was about how we have done so much research, but yet for example, "Mendel's concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it; and this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential." (pg.4)

So to explain, out of all the time that Mendel put into his research, it was lost for a good amount of time because no one could further his research. And even though we have a record, the publication is far beyond their present day knowledge of research to put it into good use. I believe some people could comprehend or relate to that....

I mean sure we could want flying cars or hey, it might be interesting to see a flying pig just to prove some people wrong :D But our imagination can only be put into reality depending on what is provided now, through research. But not only research, because we also need tools. The tools that we need though, have not been invented yet. So maybe 40 years from now we might see flying pigs ;)