As far as search engines are concerned Google is the top player without any close competition. The company of Google itself is an extremely innovative place where they encourage their employees to create new ideas for the company to test out. Google also has an onsite masseuse for their employees. The only close competitor to Google is Yahoo, and they are not really that close in my eyes. Google has been on top of their game for some time and they are ahead of the times with such applications such as Google Earth, Google maps 360 and many more. Now Microsoft wants to get involved in this game and they recently attempted to buyout Yahoo with an impressive offer; however, they were turned down. This comes as a blow to Microsoft as they are involved in pretty much anything that works with computers and they are a mega corporation. They are not used to being told no, just like the bully in the schoolyards. In an effort to compete with Google, they are going to try to “buyout” the stockholders of Yahoo in an effort to have a leadership switch which would essentially allow Microsoft to buy them out. Microsoft has the funds to do this and much more, but waging this proxy war would be considerably cheaper for them by about $20 billion. Even if they do merge, I don’t think that they will be able to come close to Google. Google is too much on their A game right now and there is no signs of them slowing down.
Google just rolled out some plans for the G phone in an effort to one up Apple. They are planning to release the phone not just in one style but in multiple different styles to accommodate all of the potential users. It is not just one phone, but it is going to be the ability to bend the phone to do whatever you want it to do through the course of Android, an open platform for mobile phones. This is going to be huge to the industry and the world. Having a phone that will do pretty much whatever you want it to do is amazing. Obviously this is a ways off from now, but I think this will really secure Google’s top spot in the world.
There is a way that the Deep web is becoming more and more accessible, Yahoo added a subscription like feature that searches those kind of websites. The deep web are those websites that do not pop up on search engines, they are seemingly hidden in the deep wires of the internet, much like the far reaches of space, it hasn’t been fully explored. There are algorithms being developed to search for these sites, but the best way so far has been through human who relies on people to just sit and basically click on links and fall deeper down the rabbit hole. There is still tons of information out there that most of us have yet to see and the trick is to find a different method for crawling these sites so they can be more easily searched.
My take on this is that corporate America and the capitalists don’t want certain information to be out there, while at the same time preaching freedom of speech. I think corporate ethics play a huge role in the internet as websites are being closed down because they mad “someone unhappy”. I think that this is crap, we should not be limited to what we can post and read on the net, regardless of the content, that is what the back button feature is for.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Chat room
So i joined this chat called computer games and it was not that bad. Everyone has these preconceived notions that chat rooms are for hooking up with other people and for relationships. Now they have chat rooms for everything from little hobbies to ways of life. Honestly, the one that I joined was kind of quiet at first. I do not know what else there may be to describe it other than some of the people seemed nice, but then again who knows. Would i go to chat rooms regularly? No they really just are not my thing, but i can see how some people can like them and spend a lot of time in them.
Assignment 2
With the dawn of the internet, it has allowed everyone from all over the world to be connected in some way, shape, or form within seconds. Although it is a great tool for information searches and talking to other people across town, across the country, across the world and even people in online games. However, some people take advantage of this and exploit it to their own benefits. This website that I found is a perfect example of what can be accomplished just by typing some words into Google, it is a website on how to be a hacker.
The internet is a dangerous place, probably more dangerous than walking down the streets in this very city. There are tons of websites that people freely put their information into to purchase things from places like Dell.com, Amazon.com, and ebay. We assume that these sites are safe enough to give our info to, but how can we be sure. If we assume that those sites are safe what is to say that a phishing scam that is disguised like an Amazon.com letter will go undetected. I play an online game called World of Warcraft. Now I know of people online whose accounts get hacked and it seems to be a fairly common practice. They are disguised as links from websites that are commonly know on the forums. Some people spend a lot of time acquiring their items in the game and to log in one day and see all your stuff just gone is a crappy feeling. Obviously this is nothing in comparison to someone’s identity being stolen, but it is just an example of what kind of stuff goes on. Do we have any idea how easy it is for our identity to be stolen online? No, we trust our info to these sources that we don’t see in person nor could we walk into, yet we trust them with practically our lives. Lives are ruined everyday because someone’s information can be stolen and they then proceed to trash their credit history. Bye bye low interest rates.
Even more disturbing about this internet are the pedophiles out there that attract kids. These people are the scum of the earth, yet they are able to abduct these kids and get them to meet them in person. It is scary that you have no idea who you are talking to online. I read an article about this older man ruin his life because of an online “relationship” that he thought he was having with this teenage girl. The man pretended to be his “son”, himself like 20 + years prior. This girl that he had “met” online told him that she had begun to talk to someone else online. Turns out the older man worked with this younger kid and got so mad at him for “stealing” his love away that he killed him. Mind you that this guy is married with kids and his wife left him and he went to jail for murder. The best part about this story is that the young girl was not so young after all; she was a mother pretending to be her real daughter. The mother being the same age as the older man. You cannot trust people you meet on the internet. This story was really disturbing when I had read it.
We are unable to tell what is safe and what is not safe, just look at TJX, online. There are ways that we can protect ourselves on the internet that are just the same rules when we were kids, don’t talk to strangers and don’t get into cars with strangers. It is not always that simple, but the in some sense it is. The internet is just full of people who are out to get you and if we don’t watch out, they will get you next.
The internet is a dangerous place, probably more dangerous than walking down the streets in this very city. There are tons of websites that people freely put their information into to purchase things from places like Dell.com, Amazon.com, and ebay. We assume that these sites are safe enough to give our info to, but how can we be sure. If we assume that those sites are safe what is to say that a phishing scam that is disguised like an Amazon.com letter will go undetected. I play an online game called World of Warcraft. Now I know of people online whose accounts get hacked and it seems to be a fairly common practice. They are disguised as links from websites that are commonly know on the forums. Some people spend a lot of time acquiring their items in the game and to log in one day and see all your stuff just gone is a crappy feeling. Obviously this is nothing in comparison to someone’s identity being stolen, but it is just an example of what kind of stuff goes on. Do we have any idea how easy it is for our identity to be stolen online? No, we trust our info to these sources that we don’t see in person nor could we walk into, yet we trust them with practically our lives. Lives are ruined everyday because someone’s information can be stolen and they then proceed to trash their credit history. Bye bye low interest rates.
Even more disturbing about this internet are the pedophiles out there that attract kids. These people are the scum of the earth, yet they are able to abduct these kids and get them to meet them in person. It is scary that you have no idea who you are talking to online. I read an article about this older man ruin his life because of an online “relationship” that he thought he was having with this teenage girl. The man pretended to be his “son”, himself like 20 + years prior. This girl that he had “met” online told him that she had begun to talk to someone else online. Turns out the older man worked with this younger kid and got so mad at him for “stealing” his love away that he killed him. Mind you that this guy is married with kids and his wife left him and he went to jail for murder. The best part about this story is that the young girl was not so young after all; she was a mother pretending to be her real daughter. The mother being the same age as the older man. You cannot trust people you meet on the internet. This story was really disturbing when I had read it.
We are unable to tell what is safe and what is not safe, just look at TJX, online. There are ways that we can protect ourselves on the internet that are just the same rules when we were kids, don’t talk to strangers and don’t get into cars with strangers. It is not always that simple, but the in some sense it is. The internet is just full of people who are out to get you and if we don’t watch out, they will get you next.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Assignment 1
The question: What role is the computer is playing in changing the automobile and what applications will likely make an appearance in the years to come.
So after watching this video on youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQFEmR50HAk) on DARPA( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ), I became truly amazed at what how those cars were being run. The fact that there are people across this country and I am sure many others who are able to develop such intricate programs and other devices that are able to make these cars run and drive on urban roads and are also able to obey the traffic laws. As the hours pass, technology is constantly changing from cell phones to PDA's to computers and now cars. Think of the things that just one little cell phone can do, it can give you access to numerous email accounts, allow you to surf the web, and now they can even get you across the country with their integrated GPS systems.
Gas? Who needs gas nowadays when there are these hybrid cars driving about around us that run on electricity and gas. Pretty soon we are not going to need to pay obscene amounts of money just to get us down the road to do the shopping. It will be as simple as maybe plugging in your car to a socket and being ready to go. (http:/www.hybridcars.comtechnology.html). This is just a small sample of what I believe the future holds for us.
Computers are practically running our day to day life from the time we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep at night. Most of this can come from our cell phone from setting our alarm that wakes us up to checking the in phone calendar to see what there is planned for the day and what we need to get accomplished. Then we can actually sit down at our desks and use those desktops that we have. In one of my other classes we are using this tool called Google docs. This tool allows us all to consecutively write and change a document in a moment’s notice, all at the same time. How much time does that save one person between emailing back and forth. Now apply this to cars and the computers in them. All the different computers in the car communicating between each other and able to change the speed and direction of the car depending on various factors outside such as wind, rain, snow, ice, bends in the road, detecting children, people or other objects obstructing the road. This is what truly amazed me that was in the video on you tube linked above. All these different computers detecting all kinds of aspects of driving computing simultaneously.
In a few years from, these cars that are run by computers will be much more effective and run smoothly in order to more effectively get from one place to another. GPS is only bound to get more effective in the years to come and I believe that it will be a staple in every car that will come off the line. I also think that computers that may increase gas mileage by incorporating the proper amount of electricity will be much more commonplace than it is now as we will be able to see some long term effects of the cars and the durability of them as well.
So after watching this video on youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQFEmR50HAk) on DARPA( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ), I became truly amazed at what how those cars were being run. The fact that there are people across this country and I am sure many others who are able to develop such intricate programs and other devices that are able to make these cars run and drive on urban roads and are also able to obey the traffic laws. As the hours pass, technology is constantly changing from cell phones to PDA's to computers and now cars. Think of the things that just one little cell phone can do, it can give you access to numerous email accounts, allow you to surf the web, and now they can even get you across the country with their integrated GPS systems.
Gas? Who needs gas nowadays when there are these hybrid cars driving about around us that run on electricity and gas. Pretty soon we are not going to need to pay obscene amounts of money just to get us down the road to do the shopping. It will be as simple as maybe plugging in your car to a socket and being ready to go. (http:/www.hybridcars.comtechnology.html). This is just a small sample of what I believe the future holds for us.
Computers are practically running our day to day life from the time we wake up in the morning to the time we go to sleep at night. Most of this can come from our cell phone from setting our alarm that wakes us up to checking the in phone calendar to see what there is planned for the day and what we need to get accomplished. Then we can actually sit down at our desks and use those desktops that we have. In one of my other classes we are using this tool called Google docs. This tool allows us all to consecutively write and change a document in a moment’s notice, all at the same time. How much time does that save one person between emailing back and forth. Now apply this to cars and the computers in them. All the different computers in the car communicating between each other and able to change the speed and direction of the car depending on various factors outside such as wind, rain, snow, ice, bends in the road, detecting children, people or other objects obstructing the road. This is what truly amazed me that was in the video on you tube linked above. All these different computers detecting all kinds of aspects of driving computing simultaneously.
In a few years from, these cars that are run by computers will be much more effective and run smoothly in order to more effectively get from one place to another. GPS is only bound to get more effective in the years to come and I believe that it will be a staple in every car that will come off the line. I also think that computers that may increase gas mileage by incorporating the proper amount of electricity will be much more commonplace than it is now as we will be able to see some long term effects of the cars and the durability of them as well.
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