Internet Safety

Internet Safety is something that is very important to talk about. The internet can be a very valuable tool. I use the internet daily in my school work, to communicate with people via e-mail, and to do research on items I am looking at purchasing. However, when using the internet it is very important that you know about ways to prevent bad things from happening to yourself. Every year more people are becoming victims of crime online such as identity theft, people are being stalked by others and finding out personal information. These things can all be prevented. One of the most important things about internet safety is making sure that you are aware of the different things that can harm you on the internet itself. Some of the dangers of the internet are talked about almost daily but some are still unknown by computer users. While many people have heard of viruses not many people know how easy it is to catch one and therefore don’t know how to prevent them.

One of the best ways to prevent catching a virus from happening is just simply by being careful where you go on the web. Often times, people will visit unsecure websites and get a virus just from visiting them. People are sometimes redirected to sites when they click on a link of a page that is secure and it takes them to an unsecure website. So, being careful where you go can save your computer from catching a virus. Another good way to prevent bad things from happening is by making sure you are not downloading anything that could potentially carry a virus. Often these come through e-mail and people open them up thinking that they are harmless. I think the best way to avoid this is by not opening anything unless you know who it is from. These are just a few of the things that have helped me as I have been using the internet. For more information you can always visit the internet safety wiki created by my school, which has lots of great information.

http://wiki.internetsafetypodcast.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Open Source Programming

As a computer programmer I am always looking for new ways to help better the programming world and the way that my programs are developed. While reading the essay, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond, his idea of letting others view a project before it is finished to help in debugging really opened my eyes to open source programming. I am not really a big Linux fan myself, but I do think that having an open source program that allows the whole world to contribute to the debugging process really speeds up the process of fixing problems in the code. Thousands of eyes looking at the code are much better than just having a couple of eyes looking at it.

The only real downside, and probably the reason that most programs are not done as open source projects, is that not as much money can be made. This, as a programmer, is kind of a problem as I am going to be trying to make a living creating projects. With that all aside, I still see that there is a huge benefit to having an open source project, and that the benefits outweigh the money issue for users, because there will be less bugs in the programs that they use. Overall, I think that open source programming definitely serves its purpose and benefits a lot of people.

The World is Flat

After reading through the book The World is Flat I have gained an interest as well as a better understanding of how much technology has really changed the business world today. I always thought of technology as mostly something that affected people in America, or people in other developed parts of the world like Europe, but I can see that it has really changed the whole world. We are all connected now in a very large network making business very easy to do all over the world, not just in your local neighborhood. Computers and the internet have made it very easy to get a product to the rest of the world. In fact most people will do research on products through the internet first before going to a store to buy it, or they will even purchase straight through the internet. It is pretty amazing to see the growth of internet businesses.

Another thing that was really brought up and talked about in the book was outsourcing and how that affects people in the United States. I have to say that I used to think that outsourcing our jobs was a really bad thing for workers in America, but I now have a more educated look at it. I have realized that most companies that outsource actually are just expanding there company, they are not really losing many employees by doing that. Also, it is interesting to think that because these jobs are going over seas it helps out the economy in these other countries making it possible for other people to buy more American products. By doing this it actually creates more jobs for Americans. I have a sister who works for Microsoft who actually travels over to China about every three months to train a team of programmers over there. While talking to her, she has nothing bad to say about the project over there and does not ever feel like there are too many jobs going overseas.

Overall, reading this book has really changed the way that I look at globalization and how much technology is changing the world we live in. Our world has definitely become smaller through technology and it is neat to see so many different countries doing business together so easily.

Robots

What an interesting society we live in today. Technology is changing the world, but how much? I discovered an article about robots being released in Japan to do various jobs. I found it very interesting to read about the different things that these robots do, they even have some already working as receptionists. Granted most of these robots are just like machines doing a simple task over and over again, but they are developing robots in Japan now that are going to work and act just like a human. These robots are even going to be able to react to different feelings as well. I think it is just amazing to see the different things going on with technology and when I read this article it really made me realize how far we have actually come already. So, next time you watch I-Robot or some other futuristic movie you might want to ask yourself, is it really that far off from where we are now?

Computer Science

What keeps people away from computer science? As a computer science major myself, this is a question that I have actually had for a long time, but I have not really taken the time to think it all out. First of all, I think that most men in general have an interest in technology and the latest and greatest in electronics, women on the other hand do not so much have that interest. This I suppose is one reason that women in general are not that interested in computer science. If you don’t have an interest in technology then you are probably not going to want to learn what goes on in the background of a computer program, or why the hardware does what it does. I do feel that a lot of women would enjoy the programming side of computer science quite a bit, as my wife has done some html code on her blog and really likes trying to figure out how she can make things look better on her page, but I don’t think that many women have that desire to get to the point to want to expand past something like that. This still does not cover the men though. Men on the other hand I believe really enjoy playing around with computers and trying to make them do different things. I feel however that society has turned the computer world into a world where only geeks and nerds can dwell. I feel that a lot of people are turned away from computer science and programming as careers because of this. Also, men feel like they have to be providers and make lots of money, thus they choose careers such as doctors and lawyers where they are certain that they will be able to do that. Even though recently computer scientists have started to make a lot of money, there is no certainty that you will do so. Also, programming is hard and time consuming, so it is pretty understandable that someone would steer away from that a little. So the question why people do not choose to take up a career in computer science? This I guess is still mostly a mystery to me, but at least now I have thought it through a little and can see that desire, time, and money can all play a role in deterring men or women from the field.