The author talks about how he is apprehensive of the proposed cloud computing systems. He thinks that the user will be losing control of how and where their data is stored as well what software they are using. He says that the desktop revolution was about taking personal control of computing and not having to share it with someone else. I agree with the author because we have gone from a state of computing where we had to lease time on large mainframes to be able to make use of them, to having laptops that are light and can be carried around easily with us. I feel that this is a step backwards and will eventually fail or be merged with another technology.
I mention the fact that it might be merged with another technology because it may be useful to have cloud computing for certain things such as photo storage but it is not very useful for word processing, which is better done locally on a desktop or laptop. The author talks about how email on the web is a good part of cloud computing and I agree completely, since our school email is mostly accessed by the students through Outlook Web Access and the little that do access it through their local email software such as Outlook do so using IMAP which keeps the messages on the server as well.
The author also talks about Winzip having an online utility that will take any compressed file and send it to you in familiar ZIP format. I believe this is a very useful piece of cloud computing software because it allows the downloading of many proprietary compressed files without having to download an unknown uncompressing program that might bring harm to our computer. Another technology that is very useful in cloud form is customer relationship management or CRM software because if it is located in a cloud then it can be accessed by all employees and everybody can make changes and additions as they come up.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Article 6 - Cyber Crimes
Article 6 - The 10 Most Mysterious Cyber Crimes
The author discusses that a computer hacker is considered the best if he is not able to be caught. He tells us about a list of the most infamous unsolved computer crimes known to the public. There are security breaches happening all the time in the computing world and most of the time in the best cases the offender is captured by the FBI or another law enforcement agency. I think that it is good that the FBI is able to catch most of these offenders but what is scary are the hackers that go unnoticed and commit some sort of breach and are never caught. One such case is the WANK worm which was a 1989 attack on the computers of NASA to protest the use of use using nuclear fuel in one of their rockets.
This attach is said to have cost NASA around a half million dollars to clean. I think that it is a disgrace that someone would do that since all they were able to do was get a small message out which did not change anything and actually took money away that could have been used for research. Another attack that happened was the breach of CD universe by a hacker where he stole 300,000 credit card numbers. He then used these numbers to blackmail the company but they did not want to deal with him. In the end as retribution he posted all the numbers on a website. I think that this type of attack should not happen and that website that do electronic transactions need to protect their data.
One of the worst cases of hacking is on military equipment. A hacker from Germany was able to hack into a military contractor and steal two thirds of the source code for missile and satellite guidance software. This is attack is very bad since it breaches our national security and allows us to vulnerable to hostile countries.
References:
Article Link - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,233122500.asp
The author discusses that a computer hacker is considered the best if he is not able to be caught. He tells us about a list of the most infamous unsolved computer crimes known to the public. There are security breaches happening all the time in the computing world and most of the time in the best cases the offender is captured by the FBI or another law enforcement agency. I think that it is good that the FBI is able to catch most of these offenders but what is scary are the hackers that go unnoticed and commit some sort of breach and are never caught. One such case is the WANK worm which was a 1989 attack on the computers of NASA to protest the use of use using nuclear fuel in one of their rockets.
This attach is said to have cost NASA around a half million dollars to clean. I think that it is a disgrace that someone would do that since all they were able to do was get a small message out which did not change anything and actually took money away that could have been used for research. Another attack that happened was the breach of CD universe by a hacker where he stole 300,000 credit card numbers. He then used these numbers to blackmail the company but they did not want to deal with him. In the end as retribution he posted all the numbers on a website. I think that this type of attack should not happen and that website that do electronic transactions need to protect their data.
One of the worst cases of hacking is on military equipment. A hacker from Germany was able to hack into a military contractor and steal two thirds of the source code for missile and satellite guidance software. This is attack is very bad since it breaches our national security and allows us to vulnerable to hostile countries.
References:
Article Link - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,233122500.asp
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Article 5 - Broadband Caps
Comcast put a limit on customer bandwidth usage this week. A lot of average users will be in shock to find that they can’t upload or download as much as they want but most of the limits won’t actually affect the average user. The author states that he should not be paying the same rate as him. He states that his mother checks news and send a few emails during the day but he is constantly online sending large files and download many different types of data. I agree with the author because the current agreements that the companies have are averaged out where everyone is paying the same rate and many users are abusing it but the smaller users have to pay for it.
He states that he uses it for many other things and that his usage is easily a thousand times that of his mother. He states that no reasonable person would say that they need to pay the same price. I agree that it is reasonable to pay for what you use. This way everyone get a fair speed and amount of bandwidth because that is what they paid for. The author also states that he already pays extra for a connection that is faster so if he wanted to distribute multimedia across the globe he could. I agree with the author and actually have the same type of connection because of the type of work I do.
This announcement was the official limiting of usage was today but they have been doing this quietly for a few years with a magical capacity that no one knew. They would let you use it until you reached it and then would cut your service off. I think that this is unfair and that people that need to use a large amount of bandwidth should be able to pick a package and pay for it.
References:
Article Link - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331596,00.asp
He states that he uses it for many other things and that his usage is easily a thousand times that of his mother. He states that no reasonable person would say that they need to pay the same price. I agree that it is reasonable to pay for what you use. This way everyone get a fair speed and amount of bandwidth because that is what they paid for. The author also states that he already pays extra for a connection that is faster so if he wanted to distribute multimedia across the globe he could. I agree with the author and actually have the same type of connection because of the type of work I do.
This announcement was the official limiting of usage was today but they have been doing this quietly for a few years with a magical capacity that no one knew. They would let you use it until you reached it and then would cut your service off. I think that this is unfair and that people that need to use a large amount of bandwidth should be able to pick a package and pay for it.
References:
Article Link - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331596,00.asp
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Article 1 - Emerging Trends of the Display
The author discusses how the technology in computer displays is changing. One of the biggest moves is the move to LED backlighting in these displays which has taken very long to come but is finally seeing some major headway. In my opinion this is a great technology which is going to extend the life of many displays and allow us to save money on replacements. Current and older LCD displays use fluorescent lighting which can hardly last 4-5 years and in a high use office environment even less. This causes businesses to spend money on replacing them even if they are not ready for an upgrade.
The LED backlighting technology allows us to keep an LCD for up to 20 years since it won't burn out before that. This is great news for offices on a budget that want to have something that is usable for a long time. This type of technology is also great for high utilization displays such as television which get used for many years in most households. This way LCD and Plasma television would be able to last as long as their CRT counterparts which will be great news for people that are not ready to replace their televisions or monitors every few years.
Another great technology is OLED which stand for organic LED backlighting. The technology is currently somewhat expensive but it will be a big player in tomorrow’s technologies. The technology is great because it uses much less power than a regular LED backlight and will be available for dirt cheap once it is fully developed. In my opinion the emergence of these LED technologies is a great improvement to current displays that will allows us to save money and have better displays in the future. We will also be able to have televisions that are mountable anywhere and paper thin in thickness.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336575,00.asp
The LED backlighting technology allows us to keep an LCD for up to 20 years since it won't burn out before that. This is great news for offices on a budget that want to have something that is usable for a long time. This type of technology is also great for high utilization displays such as television which get used for many years in most households. This way LCD and Plasma television would be able to last as long as their CRT counterparts which will be great news for people that are not ready to replace their televisions or monitors every few years.
Another great technology is OLED which stand for organic LED backlighting. The technology is currently somewhat expensive but it will be a big player in tomorrow’s technologies. The technology is great because it uses much less power than a regular LED backlight and will be available for dirt cheap once it is fully developed. In my opinion the emergence of these LED technologies is a great improvement to current displays that will allows us to save money and have better displays in the future. We will also be able to have televisions that are mountable anywhere and paper thin in thickness.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2336575,00.asp
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