Computer Ethics

As the Internet has become more and more a fundamental part of the average individual's life, the ethics involved have also become an increasingly problematic matter. It seems that no matter what it is, people will find some way to take advantage of a good thing, and the Internet is no exception. There are many areas of concern for Internet users that they should be aware of and prepared to encounter/prevent.

Computer ethics are a problem that many don't consider often. Most people like to pretend that nothing bad will happen to them, which is never a good train of thought travel on. One of the more obvious areas of concern is software theft, also commonly known as piracy. Piracy is the unauthorized distribution (or copying) of software. An example of piracy would be downloading media using programs like utorrent or bittorrent to illegally obtain copies of songs, albums, or movies. This is one of the most popular versions of software theft, although it is not the only one. There are also those who market professional counterfeits: software that looks the same as the authentic product, but is really stolen software being redistributed. Some people purposely take part in piracy, but others are a victim of the system; to learn how to avoid becoming a victim, click here, and to learn more about software theft click here.


Another area of concern regarding computer ethics (or lack thereof) are hackers, crackers, and script kiddies. All three of these invade a user's privacy and can gain access to/obtain  personal and/or financial information. Hackers enter into your system and can access your information, although crackers are the ones known to wreak havoc. These two categories of online criminals usually have a fair amount of knowledge as they can write the codes and programs to break into your computer. Script kiddies on the other hand, are not near as knowledgeable and use pre-written codes or programs to hack a system; however, this does not refrain them from causing serious damage to a computer or indivudual. This is an obvious lack of computer ethics and can generally be prevented through ardent security preventions such as firewalls, anti-virus software, and strong, secure passwords. You can learn more about these invaders of Internet privacy here.

Computer ethics spread beyond the legally invasive properties, such as piracy and hackers, and into the area of mere offensive behavior, such as cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is becoming more and more of a problem, especially in more recent generations. Cyber bullying is where an individual (usually a teen in junior high or high school, though not always) is, just as the name suggests, persecuted and tormented via the Internet. Common pathways for cyber bullying are popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The results of cyber bullying can be self inflicted harm, depression, a decline in grades, and even suicide. Become more informed about cyber bullying at the Cyberbullying Research Center.

Yet another topic of computer ethics is computers in the work place. Believe it nor not, this is quite a large ethical issue. Consider it: computers don't get tired, they don't need Christmas bonuses (or a steady wage at all), and they don't require vacations and time off for their children's soccer games. They are much more convenient in many ways than a human employee. Many people are worried about their jobs and the decreasing probability for future employment in many areas where computers can take over. Hence, an ethical problem arises: is it okay for corporations to replace employees with computers, or is it an economic responsibility to maintain jobs for people? You can read more about this, and other issues, at Computer and Information Ethics.


More resources:
Ethics in Computing
Introduction to Computer Ethics
Computer Security Ethics and Privacy
What is Computer Ethics?

Operating Systems

When I first took a look at this assignment I didn't think it would take too much effort, I'll admit. However, I soon realized that I really didn't even know exactly what an operating system was, or what it did. I read the chapter but none of it registered. This assignment has definitely been one of efficiency, for once I'm forced to relate something foreign to my own life, it becomes a much more manageable topic to comprehend.

Since the assignment is really to tell about all you've learned, I'm gonna start off with what I learned about operating systems in general. I didn't realize that they pretty much ran the entire computer, including starting up and shutting down, managing programs, file management, and even as basic as connecting to the Internet. Basically, an operating system is the system that lays the foundation for almost everything you could possibly need to accomplish on a computer. Something that I've learned in class is that most phones in today's era are really nothing less than miniature, hand-held computers, so even your cellular device has an operating system and couldn't perform many basic tasks that we expect from our phones without an OS. Another thing I didn't consider is that operating systems are usually designed to specifically run on one certain type of computer, but this fact isn't difficult to derive once you know the name of an OS. For example, Mac OS X runs only on Macbooks, and Blackberry (you guessed it) runs on the Blackberry cellular phones.

Upon investigation, I found only two operating systems that I personally use; the first was fairly obvious to me, for I did know that Windows 7 runs on my Lenovo Thinkpad. I did a little research and learned that the first version of Windows came to existence in the mid 1980's, but since then Microsoft has almost constantly been configuring new versions and brought us to what we know now: Windows 7. What I didn't know about Windows 7?

1) That even though Windows 7 is the newest version of Windows, there are still four editions of Windows 7. Windows 7 Starter is designed for small computers like netbooks or notebooks; it is a very basic edition that is typically installed on a computer upon purchase and not sold in stores. Windows 7 Home Premium, which is capable of all that Windows 7 Starter can perform, merely has the addition of Windows Aero which provides additional visual performance and navigation. Windows 7 Ultimate is yet another step up, again consisting of all Windows 7 Home Premium capabilities, only with additional elements to ensure file security. Windows 7 Professional is more adapted for small businesses so that users can take advantage of advantaged backup features, easily share documents and search for files, and etc.

2) Shortcuts enabled by the Windows key when used in unity with another key. I know this must seem like ridiculously juvenile information to just now be learning, but I am. I learned this on Wikipedia's page "Features new to Windows 7" and had some fun messing around with the features that the Windows key (which I had previously ignored) enabled.

3) The hibernation file size is configurable in Windows 7. I found this kind of interesting because I had just recently learned from my book the difference between hibernation and sleep mode. In sleep mode, any open documents or programs are saved to the RAM, where in hibernation, these documents or programs are saved to a hard disk. In Windows 7, the hibernation file size can be set from 50% to 100% of the complete physical memory. This enables the hibernation file to become compressed and take up much less space. The default size on Windows 7 is 75%, but you can learn more about how to manage this at Reducing the Disk Footprint for Windows 7 Hibernation.

4) Third-party software is no longer required in order to burn image discs. In previous versions of Windows, this was necessary and a sure inconvenience for the majority of Windows users. But with the new Windows 7, a user need only right-click an image file and select "Burn disc image" from the drop-down menu to write the image to a disc. This makes backing up images to a hard copy so much easier, and I know I certainly appreciate this because I often copy my photography to discs for various reasons. This newer feature is something I definitely benefit from.

5) Equipped with advanced custom features for your desktop. This was something else that I didn't know about at all until I actually started digging around for Windows 7 features on the web. I soon ventured into my control panel and began customizing my desktop; I was able to change the task bar color from slate grey to leaf green and select a variety of pictures to shuffle on my desktop background, something I was probably a little more excited about than I should have been.

The second OS that I use in my daily life was a little more difficult to put my finger on; I have a Nokia E5 smartphone, though I don't use the smartphone aspect of it. I'd rather not pay to have the Internet or picture messaging, so I use it only for text and calls. Thus, I was not under the impression that my phone even had an OS, until I realized (as aforementioned) that every computer, no matter what size or advancement, uses an OS to operate at all. So I looked it up, and turns out this little phone that I use everyday uses an operating system called Symbian 9.3.
                                                                              
1) Only recently did Nokia broaden it's horizons beyond Symbian. Nokia, along with several other software corporations, including Symbian Ltd., created Symbian OS. In December of 2008, Nokia bought Symbian Ltd., and used only Symbian as their mobile operating software. However, in February of this year, Nokia announced its partnership with Windows and their intentions to begin using Windows Phone 7 for their smartphones.

2) The version of Symbian on my phone is not the newest version of Symbian. After doing quite a bit of digging around, I discovered that Symbian is currently on it's 6th version. There have been Symbian^1, Symbian^2, Symbian^3, Symbian^4, Symbian Anne, and finally Symbian Belle. My phone has Symbian 9.3, which I found to be Symbian ^3, so it's a relatively old version but I find it to work well for my demands.

Sadly, this is really all I could find on Symbian despite my struggles to dig around on the web. It isn't the required five, but I did a lot of searching and couldn't find much else since Symbian is becoming a thing of past due to Android, Apple, and Windows. I don't use my phone for most of what my generation does, therefore I believe I have learned all that I'm really going to about this certain software, especially since it is an old version.

I must admit, though, that I learned more than I thought I would through this project, and I had some fun with it. I even got a snazzy new desktop theme. (Note: I had no idea how to take a snapshot of anything on my computer before I did the investigation of Windows 7.)

Weather, Sports and News

I have never been much of a sports fanatic; in fact, I have never seen a football game, and watching Little League when my big brother played is about as far as my knowledge of baseball goes. But one sport that I am definitely into is mixed martial arts, so I was excited to read up on what's been happening in the MMA world lately. I visited ESPN'S mixed martial arts page and merely read several of the articles on various fighters and match-ups. I also took a peek at Yahoo! Sports' UFC page, where I took note of several fight dates I won't want to be missing.

     I read up on the fights I missed Saturday (since nobody in my dorm lobby cared to join me in watching!), and no longer felt behind in the sport.


      Then I browsed through different newspapers listed online via Onelinenewspapers.com and starting page. The four I checked out are the following:

* New York Daily News
* Houston Chron
* Clearwater Tribune
* Cedar Rapids News

      The top news on the NY Daily was an article on a security scares all throughout 9/11 this year. One scare occurred in the air involving a few passengers on planes acting very suspicious in the airplane bathroom. They were detained afterwards for spending too much time in the bathroom, although it isn't clear whether they were merely detained or arrested. Other scares included an entire neighborhood in Los Angeles was shut down after a 62 year old man planted a fake bomb on a bus. Several terminals were closed down throughout the day to inspect "suspicious packages", none of which posed a real threat after investigation.

     In Houston news, the top story was an NFL game, so I really can't elaborate much there. I read the article and had no idea what they were talking about half the time, but that's okay! Apparently the Houston Texans crushed the Indianapolis Colts, and I'm all for Texas so... go team??!

     In the Clearwater Tribune, I was more than a little entertained by the fact that the date at the top of the page stated "September 8th, 2011, Thursday". This appears to be a small-time paper, with no really big hitting news. I could not read the articles without "subscribing or logging in" but there were some stories about an ATV crash, a baseball game, and a call for volunteers for a river clean-up.

    Lastly, I browsed through the Cedar Rapids News, but it was about as informative as the Clearwater Tribune. The "top story" was a sentence about whether or nor the state senators should adopt a program similar to that of Kansas that offers certain tax breaks and benefits to rural residents.

    Overall, I failed at trying to be unique and choosing some small-time papers for the sake of refreshment from the big national papers. But the most interesting story turned out to be the passengers being detained for their act of spending too much time using the facilities, so I apologize. But it was certainly interesting to look at these different papers.

Fun and Entertainment

     Upon choosing "Fun and Entertainment" as my first area of interest, I was required to look into "geocaches" which I knew absolutely nothing about. After minimal research, I discovered that geocaching is actually an outdoor sporting game where one uses a GPS to find containers called, you guessed it, geocaches. These geocaches are small, waterproof containers that contain logbooks in which the geocacher logs their code name and the date of signing. I was shocked I had never ever heard of this, since records show that there are over 5 million geocachers worldwide. You can learn more about geocaching here. It is an activity that, in all honesty, if I ever were to find myself in a fit of boredom, I might consider indulging in.

      The next resource I was asked to access was that of the Discovery Kids webcam, however the site appears to be down at the time and I was not able to view it. In place of this, I visited the Panda Cam San Diego Website where I watched for quite a while as the wind blew the foliage to and fro and I was afraid I would not be able to witness a panda, but at last one appeared in the corner of the screen, though not for long. However, the website remains on my desktop and I check it on occasion in hope of seeing more of the pandas, and perhaps will continue to do so.


     Next, I checked out the Internet Movie Database where I searched for information on one of my favorite movies, The Man From Snowy River. I read through Tom Burlinson's biography, as he plays the main role of this movie, starring as Australian horseman Jim Craig. Burlinson was born in Toronto, Canada to his English parents and though this particular movie is the only I have ever seen him in, I have heard of his two other main roles, Phar Lap and Windrider. Another major character in this film are brothers Harrison and Spur, played by Kirk Douglas. One might be surprised to find that Douglas actually had the difficult upbringing of being raised in the ghetto; nonetheless, he attended university and received an acting scholarship that initially began the process that led him to stardom. As he worked his way into his career, he worked with such names as Burt Lancaster, John Wayne, Jack Nicholson and Farrah Fawcett. The director of this film is George Miller, though there was little to no information about him on IMDB.

    I also did some research on this informational website on one other film, Roman Holiday, starring the one and only Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn was born into wealth in Belgium, with an English banker for one parent and a Dutch baroness for the other. She suffered from depression and malnutrition during the time of Hitler, but attended ballet school in London afterwards and prospered there as she began her career as a model. Her position as an actress grew from that and she went on to star in such popular films as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Funny Face, and My Fair Lady. Audrey has been named by Empire magazine one of top 100 movie stars of all time, and few people would beg to differ. Her co-star in Roman Holiday is the suave and successful Gregory Peck, who experienced a rough and unstable childhood in California. his parents divorced when he was but a young child, and his father was a drug addict. However he did attend college where he began his studies as pre-med but soon became interested in acting and theater and changed his focus. From there he was very successful, after all, he did play a major role in this debut film of Hepburn's. William Wyler directed Roman Holiday, and has been considered on of the most influential directors of all-time. At the time of his death (1981) he was considered second only to the great John Ford. 

    I also visited Entertainment Weekly's EW where I took a look at three of the top stories. One of them being the top 8 most brutal jokes at a recent Charlie Sheen roast. One of the top 8 was made by Kate Walsh: “It’s amazing — after abusing your lungs, liver and kidneys, the only thing you’ve had removed is your kids.” Another story was on Paul Simon's performance of "The Sound of Silence" at Ground Zero's memorial today. And the third story that I brought up was that of the "family reunion" of the cast of Home Improvement, a highly popular comedic sitcom of the 90's starring Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson.

And last, but not least, was asked to review the information I could find on The Beatles at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Website, along with information on one of my favorites. But first up is The Beatles, who I am also a very big fan of, inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band, inducted in 1988, consisted of: George Harrison (guitar, sitar, vocals), John Lennon (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Ringo Starr (drums, percussion, vocals). The band's first number one single in the states (as they were a British band) was I Want to Hold Your Hand. This was the first of 45 more singles that would become Top Forty hits over the next 6 years. The Beatles would eventually have 20 number one hits, three more than runner-up Elvis Presley. In 1970, McCartney left the band, and the group that had rose to such fame in such little time ended just as quickly as it had begun. Fans remained hopeful that the band would reunite, but the brutal assassination of Lennon in December of 1980. In 1995, the three remaining Beatles came together to produce a 6 hour documentary, which was the closest they ever came to reuniting, though their effect on the music industry is permanent.

     My final bit of research was done on one of my favorite artists, and also an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Eric Clapton. Clapton was the first individual to ever have been inducted three times: first as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992, second with the band Cream in 1993, and finally as a solo artist in 2000. Clapton jumped from group to group over the span of his career; first the Roosters, then the Yardbirds, followed by the Bluesbreakers, and then Cream. He remains a remarkable influence on music today. Below is a clip to one of my personal favorite Clapton pieces, Layla.