The Face of Communication

Communications and the written word

Communications depending on the written word don’t reduce cultural and ethnic bias, people still type in their native language. In that case, words and ideas are harder to comprehend than visuals. Class, age and gender bias will most likely be reduced through online communications because when online it’s hard to tell what class, age or gender people are unless they reveal it so I believe they will be treated and dealt with differently through written words.

Children: Reading and Writing

I don’t think e-mail, discussion groups or chat groups will offset children’s tendencies to not read or write. If anything, these extra activities will distract them even more from reading books and writing on an actual piece of paper. The more people use computers, especially children, the less literate they tend to be. The internet may have a variety of information at one’s finger tips, but that doesn’t mean the information is being used. The internet has many shorthand responses since the advent of instant messaging. Children won’t learn the correct way to spell things and they won’t broaden their minds through discussion groups because most of those forums are based on opinions. Personally, I noticed the more I used a computer the worse my handwriting got, not even in cursive form, but plain print. Children need a balance of classic knowledge (i.e. reading books, learning in an actual classroom and interacting with peers) and new technology. If this balance exists then children will be well rounded in education and the information society.

Online Communication vs. Face-to-Face

One example that online communication is preferable to face-to-face communication is when your business partner/partners are somewhere else in the world and there is no other way to communicate, hold a conference, or meeting other than via the web and email.

Urban Legends

The definition of an urban legend (from dictionary.com) is a folkloric and often sensational tale about modern life that is repeated in the media and by other means, making it more believable to some.

Another definition (from http://tafkac.org/) an urban legend:

• appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously in varying forms
• contains elements of humor or horror (the horror often "punishes" someone who flouts society's conventions).
• makes good storytelling.
• does NOT have to be false, although most are. ULs often have a basis in fact, but it's their life after-the-fact (particularly in reference to the second and third points) that gives them particular interest."

My definition of an urban legend consists of something being scary like waking up in a bathtub full of ice without a kidney.

The two urban legends I recognized was the alligator in the sewer legend and the temporary tattoos that have been coated with LSD, those are really popular. When I was a kid I actually believed the alligator one, but since this legend has been around for so long and has been disproved many times, I don't believe it anymore. Another urban legend I have known about since I was a child was the Bloody Mary urban legend and until this day I still won't look in the mirror and say her name, it creeps me out.

It's hard to believe whether these new urban legends are true or not because some of them have supposed scientific proven facts and people who know someone that it happened to. Just like dialing #77 to get away from a rapist. I've never heard of this before, but the person swears it happened to their friend: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/fakecop.asp

I never heard of the "Deadly Soda Cans" legend where people can die of Leptospirosis by drinking straight out the can due to dried rat urine (disgusting!): http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/raturine.asp

The third one I've never heard of was lead being in popular lipsticks: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/lipstick.asp

The web is so prone to these types of stories because people like to be entertained and are easily deceived by rumors and stories.

Why urban legends get passed (http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend1.htm)

A person might pass on non-cautionary information simply because it is funny or interesting. When you first hear the story, you are completely amazed that such a thing has occurred. When told correctly, a good urban legend will have you on the edge of your seat. It's human nature to want to spread this feeling to others, and be the one who's got everyone waiting to hear how the story turns out. Even if you hear it as a made-up joke, you might be tempted to personalize the tale by claiming it happened to a friend. Basically, people love to tell a good story. Another reason such stories get passed on is because the details make them seem real. You may have heard stories of children being kidnapped from a specific location of a local department store, or you may have heard about various gang initiations (more on this later) that occurred in a specific part of your town. Since you are familiar with the setting -- you know it's a real place -- the story sounds real. This level of specificity also plays into your own fears and anxieties about what could happen to you in the places you visit regularly.

Urban Legends and the Internet (http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend4.htm)

Forwarded e-mail legends are often the work of one or more pranksters, not the product of many different storytellers. For these authors, the thrill is seeing how far a legend will spread. As with word-of-mouth legends, there are all sorts of e-mail hoaxes. Cautionary legends are very common in e-mail forwards, often focusing on made-up computer viruses or Internet scams. Even a skeptical person might forward this sort of message, just in case it's true. A similar sort of e-mail legend is the charity or petition appeal, which outlines a good cause or a horrible miscarriage of justice and then instructs you to add your name to a petition and send it on to everybody you know. There are real e-mail petitions, of course, and these do help out good causes. It can be tricky to spot a hoax, but one indicator is that the e-mail includes no address to send the list to when it is completed. Additionally, if a message begins with "This is not a hoax or urban legend," it probably is.

Computers In Education

Topic Description

What I always found interesting was educational computer games. As a child, I have always loved computer games when it dealt with learning. Children don’t realize they’re learning when they’re playing a game like Oregon Trail. I would like to learn more about what other educational computer games are offered and how they affect a child’s education in the long run. I want to know if computer games really help children learn.

Available Tutorials

It was pretty hard finding tutorials on computer games, most of the ones on the internet you either have to pay for or they're just regular online games. The first link I found is especially excellent, it had everything educational, from Science to English and History.

This website has a ton of tutorials on it:

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/interactive.htm

This link motivates children to read K-8:

http://bookadventure.org/ki/index.asp

The games on this site you have to download or pay for, but most are family activities to help children learn:

http://www.kidwaresoftware.com/


Evaluation

I clicked on Language and Arts section of the first link I listed. I took a grammar tutorial on this website:
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/CET/flashactivities/addition_matching_game.html

I didn't understand it at first, but then I got the hang of finishing the sentences. I couldn't see the other sentences below until after I clicked submit, scrolled down and saw that there were more sentences to finish. If I was a child, I would be confused...even more so than I was now haha...the set up isn't very good.

Free WLANs Controversy

After I read the issue in the book, I had an opinion right away about having free internet. I realize there are problems with it, but so many positive things come from it like providing the internet to people who can’t normally afford it and saving public schools money. I’m going to research how broadband and wireless service providers are reacting to this new technology. I don’t believe they have a right to debate something that is completely legal. I understand Napster had to deal with musicians and it was technically ‘stealing’, but this Free WLAN doesn’t involve other people’s life work. Broadband service providers don’t own the internet. I don’t believe anyone has rights to the internet; it’s just access to information. We shouldn’t be charged for it. Since I stated my opinion, I will now state the facts.

Pros of Free WLANs (Computer Concepts, pg. 272):

• Inexpensive and simple to set up an antenna
• Can connect to any available Wi-Fi network
• Libraries can offer internet access to people in low-income areas
• Local schools could get wired without exorbitant cabling expenses
• Parents, kids, and grandparents, as well as corporate executives could exchange e-mail and instant messages from locations that include the kitchen table, the corner coffee shop, and the Little League field
• More than one user per household can share the connection

Threat to wireless service providers

(website: http://www.rpoptions.com/hottopics?9):

“Wi-Fi is faster and cheaper than 3G wireless giving it the real potential to steal share from the already smaller than expected market for 3G services. The sole value-add of 3G is the lack of geographic restrictions. 3G wireless, unlike Wi-Fi, can be accessed at any place within the geographic reach of your provider (or its roaming partners). But do consumers really need wireless access to be always on? With hubs in office buildings, apartment complexes, train stations, airports, coffee shops and restaurants, Wi-Fi users may not be at any real disadvantage with respect to geographic scope of service.”

Their reaction:

“To respond to this threat, many wireless providers, some of whom already spent billions building 3G infrastructure, are incorporating Wi-Fi capabilities into their networks. The goal is to provide their customers the best of both worlds; coverage and speed in a bundled package, enabling differentiation from those only able to supply Wi-Fi services.”.

Threat to broadband service providers (http://www.rpoptions.com/hottopics?9):

“Not only does Wi-Fi present a clear and present threat to wireless providers, Telcos who have invested in building wireline broadband capabilities are also potentially in danger. The Wi-Fi technology enables individuals to share broadband capacity with each other, reducing the requirements for individual connections. As homes and apartment blocks introduce Wi-Fi technology, each apartment, and workstation will no longer require a dedicated connection point. This shift could dramatically reduce the demand for supplemental wireline connections, affecting the top line of every Telco offering broadband services.”

Their reaction:

“Some Telcos have responded to this by lobbying government to enact regulations which would slow the adoption of Wi-Fi. Their goal is to increase barriers to entry and delay the change by attempting to have government communications agencies create laws to force Wi-Fi to meet regulatory requirements for security of signals and quality of service. This tactic may delay the widespread adoption of Wi-Fi,”

The links provided on infoweb didn’t have any articles about the reaction of commercial service providers and a few of the links didn’t work, so I had to research it on my own. A lot of websites came up saying how many major cities (including Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York) are jumping on the free Wi-Fi bandwagon, The articles reported on how it will help low-income neighborhoods. I think every city should start this Free WLAN project and give people with less income the same opportunity more fortunate people have.

Anti-Virus Software

	Package 1	Package 2	Package 3
Product Name	McAfee	avast! antivirus	Norton Anti-Virus
Publisher	McAfee	Microsoft	Symantec Corp.
Current Version Number	8.0	4.6	11.0
Update Frequency	every week	every week	every week
Special Features	(check body of blog)	(check body of blog)	(check body of blog)
Price	$49.99	(price varies)	$39.99

I've had the opportunity to use both McAfee and Norton Anti-Virus throughout the years of having a computer. I didn't like McAfee too much because everytime I started my computer it had to load McAfee first and then load everything else. I know for most virus programs there are updates every week and the subscription status usually lasts a year which you can renew from the web or the actual program when your subscription expires. I haven't used avast! but I heard about it from one of my friends. The cost of their software ranges from $39.95 to the $70 range, it goes by year. $39.95 is for one year, $57.94 for two years, and $74.13 for three years. I'm pretty happy with Norton Anti-Virus, I can renew my subscriptions from the program (it has a subscription and 'renew' section) and it tells me when it automatically installs updates on my computer. It's really easy to use.

Below I have listed the benefits and features of all three products.

McAfee special features:

• New! Automatic spyware and adware detection identifies, blocks, and removes identified potentially unwanted programs, such as spyware and adware, or other programs that jeopardize your privacy, identity or simply reduce PC performance.
• New! Automated, daily signature updates help keep your PC protected from recently discovered virus and spyware threats.
• Inline cleaning automatically cleans infections when virus, worm, Trojan, ActiveX control and Java applet threats are detected from.
• Comprehensive, fast and unobtrusive scans identify and remove viruses, Trojans, worms, unwanted programs, such as spyware and adware, dialers and other malicious virus-like applications without interrupting your work.
• WormStopper^™ monitors suspicious mass-mailing behaviors and prevents the spread of viruses to friends, family, and co-workers.
• Script-Stopper^™ technology prevents new, script-based threats like the "I Love You" virus.
• Virus security alerts notify users of potential threats and provides information to avoid infection.
• 24/7, worldwide virus outbreak monitoring by McAfee's Antivirus Emergency Response Team (AVERT^™), who continually monitor worldwide virus activities and then provide immediate anti-virus protection and removal solutions to VirusScan users.
• Always-on protection from viruses, spyware and other Internet threats that may enter your PC via e-mail, instant message attachments, Internet downloads, and web browsing.
• Auto-updates run silently in the background, ensuring you’re always protected from evolving and emerging security threats.
• Real people. Real help. For free. Our experts are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via Internet chat. www.mcafeehelp.com

avast! special features:

• On Demand Scanner - with two user interfaces:
• Windows like or Skinnable Simple Interface - just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button
• Enhanced User Interface - Outlook like UI allows user to set any feature of avast!, prepare and run tasks, store and check task's results
• On Access Scanner - resident scanning of all files being opened, read and written and behavior blocker monitoring dangerous actions of viruses or even users themself
• E-mail scanner easily integrates with most mail clients and it checks both incoming and outgoing mails, it provides heuristic analysis of mail content to protect against new Worms, it supports multiple SMTP servers
• Instant messaging protection - checks communication over MSN Messenger, ICQ, mIRC, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Trillian etc.
• P2P protection - scans all files exchanged over Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, Direct Connect, DC++, WinMX etc.
• Network Shield - analyses all network traffic and scans it for malicious contents (Intenet Worms as Sasser, Blaster, SQL Slammer etc). It can be also taken as a lightweight firewall - or more precisely, an IDS (Intrusion Detection System) (on NT/2000/XP only)
• Script Blocker - checks all scripts running under Windows Scripting Host and Web browsers
• Boot Time Scanner - scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does (on NT/2000/XP only)
• Explorer Scanner - right click on the object allows you to scan it
• Screen Saver scanner - integrates with your Screen Saver to scan PC during your coffee breaks
• Integrated Virus Cleaner - removes the most of the dangerous virus/worm including Sobig, Klez, Yaha etc.
• Virus Chest - safety isolated folder to store infected, suspicious and even some system files - to restore them

Norton Anti-Virus special features:

• Automatically removes viruses, Trojan horses, and worms.
• Checks incoming and outgoing email attachments for viruses.
• Automatically scans incoming instant message attachments for threats.
• Checks compressed file archives for viruses.
• Keeps dangerous Internet worms out, blocking them before they infect your system.
• Automatically downloads updates to protect against new threats.
• Automatically scans for viruses upon downloading updates.
• Uses smart technology to detect emergent worms and other new threats without waiting for updates.
• Disinfects your system prior to installation, starting you off with a clean, virus-free computer.

New Features

• Automatically detects and blocks high-risk spyware and adware programs before they are installed on your system.
• Now includes 12 months of protection updates and new product features as available throughout the year*.
• On-going Protection keeps your computer protected from the latest Internet risks by automatically renewing your subscription at the regular subscription price (plus applicable tax).**
• Detects and removes dangerous spyware, keystroke loggers, and other unwanted monitoring software*.
• Prevents spyware programs from hijacking your home page and redirecting you to their download sites*.

The Right To Hack

Computer crimes are no different from other crimes, and computer criminals should be held responsible for the damage they cause.

I don’t believe computer hackers should get the same prison sentence as a murderer or rapist, but it’s imperative that they be punished for their crimes. Prison sentences for manslaughter and sexual assault aren’t very long to begin with. The sentences should be extended for the more serious crimes and hackers should then be given a 10 year sentence for the things they did, it’s not right for both to be at the same level. Computer hackers don’t kill people, they mess up machines. Yes, they breach privacy and spread viruses, but they don’t literally go up to someone and shoot them or rape innocent people. I’m not saying what they do isn’t a crime though, as I stated before they shouldn’t get away with anything.

Another thing that bothers me is there shouldn’t be ‘famous’ hackers. I took the following from the Computer Crime link on InfoWeb: (http://www.infoweblinks.com/content/computercrime.htm)

• “The news media often popularizes these types of crimes, making celebrities out of famous ‘hackers’. Computer crime is a popular topic, inspiring many Web sites, magazine articles, and television programs.”

When these people are brought to the level of fame, it just encourages other hackers and exploits the problem, it doesn’t create any solutions. When hackers see such a light prison sentence, small fines, and community service in turn for fame, it’s not going to deter them from the crimes they are going to commit. The media is our worst enemy in cases such as widespread viruses. They reveal who the authors of viruses are and automatically these people are REWARDED with fame for committing internet crimes, they are infamous to victims, but to hackers they are like martyrs. Either way, the authors are in the lime light. I’m pretty surprised to see that there is an article on TLC’s website about a “Hacker’s Hall of Fame” (http://tlc.discovery.com/convergence/hackers/bio/bio.html). I will list a few computer hackers that TLC describes.

Richard Stallman:

Handle: None (nothing to hide!)

Claim to fame: A hacker of the old school, Stallman walked in off the street and got a job at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971. He was an undergraduate at Harvard at the time. Disturbed that software was viewed as private property, Stallman later founded the Free Software Foundation.

First encountered a computer: In 1969, at the IBM New York Scientific Center. He was 16 years old.

Unusual tools: In the 1980s Stallman left MIT's payroll but continued to work from an office at MIT. Here he created a new operating system called GNU — short for GNU's Not Unix.

Little-known fact: Recipient of a $240,000 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.

Current status: Richard Stallman has just published his latest book, Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, available through GNU Press.

Kevin Mitnick:

Handle: Condor

Claim to fame: The first hacker to have his face immortalized on an FBI "Most Wanted" poster. His status as a repeat offender — a teenage hacker who couldn't grow up — earned Mitnick the nickname "The Lost Boy of Cyberspace."

First encountered a computer: As a teenager. Mitnick couldn't afford a computer, so he hung out in a Radio Shack store. He used the store's demo models and modem to dial other computers.

Unusual tools: During the three years he was on the lam, Mitnick used Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as a message drop and to communicate with his friends.

Little-known fact: Sentenced to a year in a residential treatment center, Mitnick enrolled in a 12-step program to rid himself of what a judge agreed was his "computer addiction."

Current status: Kevin Mitnick played himself in 2001's hacker documentary Freedom Downtime. He also appeared on ABC's Alias as a CIA computer whiz; to play the role, Mitnick was only allowed to use prop computers.

Vladimir Levin:

Handle: Unknown

Claim to fame: A graduate of St. Petersburg Tekhnologichesky University, this mathematician allegedly masterminded the Russian hacker gang that tricked Citibank's computers into spitting out $10 million. Arrested by Interpol at Heathrow Airport in 1995.

First encountered a computer: Unknown. Accused of using his office computer at AO Saturn, a St. Petersburg, Russia, computer firm, to break into Citibank.

Unusual tools: Along with a computer, computer games and disks, Russian police confiscated a camcorder, music speakers and a TV set from Levin's apartment.

Little-known fact: Levin claimed that one of the lawyers assigned to defend him was actually an FBI agent.

Current status: Vladimir Levin fought extradition to the United States for two years, but eventually lost his case. He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay Citibank $240,015 (his share from the heist). Citibank has since begun using the Dynamic Encryption Card, a security system so tight that no other financial institution in the world has it.

These people are examples of how computer hackers are criminals, but yet most of the hackers listed on the website are alive and well, and hold pretty good jobs. Although they were punished for certain things they did, they still got away with it. There needs to be a reform on prison sentences and the punishments computer hackers get away with. They shouldn’t be glorified or praised for their work.