Artificial Intelligence

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a very interesting article published by BBC News. The article, titled Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind, briefly introduced what artificial intelligence is and how several professors and scientists feel about such technologies. One artificial intelligence technology, or AI, mentioned in the article was the Cleverbot, a software designed to converse and chat like a human. The Cleverbot scored high in the Turing test, tricking most participants into thinking they were talking to a human. Stephen Hawking warns us against AI technology, saying "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race" (Hawking, 2014). He also reminds us that humans are limited to competing with AI technologies due to our slow rate of biological evolution. Hawking does believe that AI technology can be useful, but needs to be highly monitored. Oppositely, Rollo Carpenter, the creator of the Cleverbot, believes that humans will have the ability to control technology for a long time. He says, "I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised," (Carpenter, 2014). After much thought and deliberation, I agree with Hawking. I think that it is critical for us to monitor AI technology. The capacity of the technology is amazing, but the consequences of the technology could easily surpass the benefits if we are not careful.

Cellan-Jones, Rory. "Hawking: AI Could End Human Race." BBC News Technology. BBC News, 2 Dec. 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540>.

Stingray

For this week's blog post, I read an article that hits close to home for everyone living in the Baltimore area. That article revealed that Baltimore police have been using technology that many feel is a violation of our privacy. The technology, called the "Stingray", is basically a tapping system. It acts as a portable cell phone tower and gives police complete access to any phone calls, text messages, and records attached to the device. According to David Rocah, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, "We think it should not be used by police in Baltimore or anywhere else without a warrant,". I agree with Rocah. I think it in an extreme violation to  someone's privacy to access their records and informations without reasonable cause or their consent. Some Marylanders don't see a problem with this, including July Kelly. Kelly stated, "...Apple has access to all of your tracking information. I trust police more than I do a corporation...". I also couldn't agree more with this. I would trust police more than a corporation, but I think that too many people have too much access to our privacy. I think is just one example of why it is important to monitor your online and mobile activity, as well as keep up with recent news in technology.

"ACLU: Baltimore Police Use "invasive" Surveillance Technology." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 30 Nov. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/aclu-baltimore-police-use-invasive-stingray-surveillance-technology/>.

The Safest User Response

During this week, part of the lesson was to complete a quiz that analyzed how well we utilize software security tools in our on lives. I was shocked by my classmates and my responses. Generally speaking, most of my classmates and I were deemed unsafe users by the quiz. I would agree with this statement. Several of the items that were used to judge us on this quiz I hadn't even heard of or thought existed. For example, as foolish as it sounds, I didn't know the importance of having software security on mobile devices and tablets. For some reason, I had just thought any devices other than my computer were safe, simply because they are mobile. This week I learned that this is not the case, and that it is critical to practice software security on any devices connected to the internet. Another thing I learned this week is to be cautious of free and open WiFi networks, because you have no way of knowing who is using the networks and that the network is very insecure. I found the ways I learned to utilize software security very valuable, and I have applied some of these methods since. I even downloaded an app to protect my mobile phone's software!

Net Netrality

I decided to do this assignment on the topic of Net Neutrality. Prior to this week's class, I had never even heard of net neutrality before, which I find to be rather alarming. In addition to the information I gathered in class this week on the topic, I read a very informing article on net neutrality by the Apple Insider. The article explained the ins and outs of net neutrality, including its origins, its consequences, what it means to every day consumers, and even the President's view on the topic. A line that I found very helpful in explaining the issue was "cable companies are currently fighting for the ability to throttle Internet traffic from certain sources, while giving preferred content a fast lane over their network" (Robles, 2014). My reaction to this topic stayed consistent throughout the entire article: I support net neutrality. I think that it is critical to keep the Internet free and open to everyone, just as it has been in the past. I think that if cable companies and Internet providers began charging g and certain services the amount of users would decline dramatically. Overall, I feel as though the absence of net neutrality would cause technology, research, social media, shopping to fall back rather than come forward. Just as Obama had told in a statement he made to the FCC, I believe the Web should be "open and free" (Obama, 2014).

Robles, S. (2014, November 14). Inside the net neutrality dispute, and why it's important to Apple users. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/11/15/inside-the-net-neutrality-dispute-and-why-its-important-to-apple-users

Midterm Collaborative Project

For this week's blog post I decided to do a review of the Midterm Collaboration Project. For the project, my professor placed the class into groups. Each group was responsible for creating a business, a business logo, a business letter, flyer, and presentation. My group split up the responsibilities by each of us focusing on one major part of the project: mine being the presentation. This project required us to utilize Google Drive. Not only does Google have its own document and presentation program, but it allows groups to collaborate with one another easily. Google enabled us to share each portion of the project within the group as well as with the professor for grading. I also learned how to download additional programs into Google Docs, such as MindMeister, I found this project very beneficial. Not only did it allow me to become acquainted with new people in my class, but it allowed me to learn more about Google's processing programs. Though I have used Google Drive from time to time, I had never before used it to work on a group project or to share documents. This assignment showed me just how beneficial this program is! Because of this project, I will definitely utilize Google for future collaborative assignments.

USB Hackers Response

For this week's blog post, I read the article, Critical USB hack goes public; how bad is the risk? by Matt Picht of the Atlantic Journal-Constitution. The article outlined and explained the recent threat of USB hackers and the issues that they are introducing. Prior to reading the article, I had never heard of or could even imagine a hacking technology like this. I find this extremely alarming and I am concerned for the future of cyber security. I think now more than ever that it is critical to be careful of what we store in our computers, phones, tablets, other devices. According to the article, a pair of hacking researches publicly published the work describing how they developed the malware. Though I can see why the researchers thought this would be beneficial, I think that overall this could cause more issues. Unfortunately, I feel that people will take advantage of their work and use what they have found to further develop the malware, rather than find a solution. I think that other hackers may also use their research to develop technology to attack users from a completely different angle. Something that really stuck out to me in this article was when it noted that this threat could bring "years of insecurity". This article not only shocked and surprised me, but it showed me just how important it is for all internet users to stay up-to-date with recent news in technology.

Picht, Matt. "Critical USB hack goes public; how bad is the risk?." AJC.com: Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News. Atlantic Journal-Constitution, 4 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. <http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/critical-usb-hack-goes-public-how-bad-risk/nhcHM/>.

PowerPoint Module Reflection

Without a doubt, this week has been my favorite week of CSIT thus far. I have enjoyed both the readings and discussions - PowerPoints and presentations are one of my strong suits when it comes to learning with technology! That being said, I was very fond of this week's assignment. Not only was I able to work with something I like, but I was able to learn more about the PowerPoint 2010 program. Whenever I have done a PowerPoint in the past, it has always been for a class presentation, and not very many specifications were required. Prior to this week, I had no idea that if could insert a footer or even change the PowerPoint designs from page to page. These are skills that will certainly prove useful to me while completing other assignments, and even later in in life. I'm addition to learning more about the PowerPoint program, I was also able to show my Professor (and possibly even my classmates) a little more about myself. Though there were some technical specifications required for the assignment, my professor basically left the rest up to me. I felt that I was able to show her a little bit of my personality while also displaying some of my skills. Overall, I enjoyed this project because I love being creative and having freedom while completing assignments!

Cookies and Privacy

My favorite topic in this week's readings was Chapter 1-2.8, Cookie. I found this section interesting because I have seen the term cookies used before, but I never knew what a cookie was or how they play a role in daily life. According to Baldauf, "Cookies enable a web server to identify visitors to websites". Prior to this chapter, I never even thought about how sites recognize my name automatically, and even create advertisements based off of previous purchases or preferences. As mentioned in the chapter, this is an absolutely remarkable tool for businesses and advertisers. However, I couldn't help but to wonder how cookies may be invasive to the privacy of users, especially because not many people know or understand how they work. One thing that I found extremely alarming  while reading the chapter is although "most companies track a user’s activities only within the company’s own website, some web advertisers use cookies to track a user across many websites" (Baldauf, 2013). Not only is the website that you're visiting storing your information, but it is possible that separate advertisers and webpages will as well. Though I feel that most people would not be comfortable with this, I think that it is their responsibility to educate themselves prior to using the internet. After reading the  sections in this week's module, I am definitely eager to learn more about how my privacy correlates with the internet, and will certainly be more cautious of which sites I trust!

Baldauf, Kenneth. "Digital Technology." Emerge With Computers V. 5.0 Cengage-hosted Printed Access Card. N/a: Cengage Learning, 2013. 1-2.2. Online Access Code. 

Assignment #1 Reflection

In this week's module, one of the posted tasks was to complete Assignment #1. In all honesty, when I first glanced at the instructions for the assignment, I expected it to be effortless and ineffective. This assignment quickly proved me wrong. I thought that I had a good understanding of CCBC's library databases, but as I was researching my topic, I quickly realized that I had not. I spent the majority of time on this assignment using the CCBC databases, and in turn, found them to be extremely helpful. I particularly like that each database is optimal for searching a specific topic, and I found the advanced version of EasyBib offered by CCBC to be very beneficial. Needless to say, I will be using the CCBC databases more often! I also found this assignment valuable for becoming more familiarized with creating tables, headers, footers, and more in Microsoft Word. Though I use Microsoft Word often, I rarely need to format documents a specific way, so this assignment allowed me to practice with tasks such as those. Another thing I noticed about this assignment was that it was designed so that there would be no extra, unnecessary work. Each question had a unique purpose and was intended to help me reach a certain goal. The only thing that I didn't like about this assignment was that it was extremely time consuming (for me at least), but I appreciate that now because it showed me that I need more practice with using CCBC's library tools and formatting in Microsoft Word!

Debating Mobile Phones

While reading this week's chapters on Personal Computers and Mobile Computing, I couldn't help but to reflect upon the technological advances that we have made in modern day society. In my opinion, one of the most amazing advances in technology is the mobile phone. It is actually quite remarkable - in a matter of seconds, we can have any data, entertainment, or social media at our fingertips. We are able to store more data than ever in less space than ever, with "gigabytes of storage capacity in a space no larger than a fingernail" (Baldauf, 2013). We are able to save Apps, assignments, schedules, and dates on my smart phone with a breeze. According to the chapter, we are now equipped with "Touch screens, tiny keyboards, voice recognition, wireless headsets, and even head-mounted displays..." (Baldauf, 2013), all of which go into making mobile devices easier and more user-friendly than ever before. However, with such advances, we face several issues as well. One, mentioned by the reading, is that "people feel that they are always on call and on duty", which leads to "burnout" (Baldauf, 2013). Sometimes, I feel like I can never have time outside of work or school without receiving a phone call from my boss or an email about an upcoming assignment, which, at times can be stressful. Another caveat stated in the reading is that we face "issues of etiquette" and "issues of safety" (Baldauf, 2013). These are compelling arguments that I seem to experience every day. I often find myself questioning whether or not it is appropriate to text or use social media in a certain setting, which goes hand-in-hand with he issue of safety. Now more than ever, there are more people using mobile devices or other technologies while driving - causing dangerous situations on the road. The debate on technology and mobile phone usage is a very controversial one. Do the challenges that technology creates outweigh the benefits the technology provides? Though I am curious as to how life was prior to technology, I simply cannot imagine life without it.

Baldauf, Kenneth. "Digital Technology." Emerge With Computers V. 5.0 Cengage-hosted Printed Access Card. N/a: Cengage Learning, 2013. 1-2.2. Online Access Code.