My thoughts on the Limewire trial

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/04/limewire-damages-trial/

On one afternoon almost two years ago, a friend of mine and I were engaging in a heavy argument about downloading free music online, versus buying it legally. I was a limewire user before it shut down. I used to download all of my music from this programme, it seemed easy and fast, and most importantly free. I saw nothing wrong with it – it is there, everybody does it, whats the harm if I do it too? My friend on the other hand refused to download any music from limewire or anything similar. She looked at it from a moral perspective and could not believe how I thought it was okay to do so. Her belief is that artists work hard to produce music for their fans, and deserve every dollar for their music. She was expressing how it was morally wrong, in a sense stealing. I could not grasp how shared music online was stealing. We engaged in this heated debate for a while.

I can’t remember when it was that limewire got sued, and shut down, but I remember that when it did, everyone I knew was looking for other ways to obtain free new music. The most creative way was converting YouTube clips into mp3s, although its not as easy as lime wire was.

Today, I have to admit i still obtain some of my music by not purchasing it, but when I have alot of respect for an artist I will purchase their music.

I obviously think that the whole concept of Limewire is unlawful, but people will always look to find the free way out of something, so I dont think that the shutdown of lime wire would have made much impact on users who download illegally.

Facebook detox

We have all gone on healthy eating diets, some of us have tried to give up smoking, some of us have taken a break from the social scene to focus a little on our bodies and our minds.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/04/27/facebook.detox.netiquette/index.html

The article above proposes that we take a break from Facebook, once in a while, to take a little breather and indulge more in the real world. They call it Facebook detox.

Researchers have found that a Facebook user spends over 45 minutes a day on Facebook, and recommend that we should cut that time Down to fifteen minutes a day, or even better, deactivate for a couple of weeks.

Also, they claim that people who do Facebook detox report being happier. This is because they become way less dependent on the social networking site. In a nutshell, the more you log onto Facebook, the more hours you spend on it, the more you require more of it. What would happen if you cut that Facebook time out of your life, at least temporarily?

I assume that a person would go through withdrawal symptoms. Let us compare the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine (cigarette smoking) with Facebook.

Nicotine: on the first day, you feel like you “need” a cigarette. When quit cold turkey, cigarette smokers feel unease, restlessness and deprivation. But within a few days, people who quit smoking report breathing better, smelling the air better and feeling cleaner.

My hypothesis on Facebook withdrawal: the first day will be the disconnection day. Feelings of distance from your online world, from the latest buzz. You will feel the “need” to check Facebook. However, after a few days I think the user will have much more free time on their hands, and will appreciate the real world much more.

The playstation hack

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/04/28/playstation.hack.wired/index.html?iphoneemail

This past month, somebody hacked onto the playstation network and exploited the information of over 75 million ps users. According to CNN, the playstation breach is one of the “biggest data breaches in history”. 77 million playstation network users’ data has been leaked.

The person, or group responsible for this major hack is not known or identified. The CNN article proposes the possibility of several different types of people or groups being responsible for this breach.

When I told my younger brother about this, and asked if he has any personal data on his playstation, his response was “I dont know, and even if I do, who gives a crap?” I was amused by his reaction and went on to explain the seriousness of someobody’s personal data being violated and stolen. What if you had personal information, or pictures you didn’t want anybody to see? I tried to explain the concept of privacy and somebody’s right to privacy to my brother, and how intense it is that somebody may well be breathing over your private documents and data at this very moment. To this, he replied “so what? Even if I had private data, it’s probably with somebody I don’t care about and I will never cross paths with in my whole life”. To this I did not know how to reply. If he could not grasp the concept of electronic, internet based privacy I would not be able to engage in a serious conversation with him.

Everyday millions of users upload information blindly onto the web. It is stored on a server and sometimes backed up onto another Internet server. This has it’s advantages, obviously, but are people selective of the data they choose to upload? Or are they just not wary of the possibility of a heavy hack like the playstation one? Who are we trusting our data with?

The Twitter Effect

When I first heard of twitter, a couple of years ago, I essentially thought that it was pointless. I had had enough of reading useless Facebook status updates.

X is happy
X is on his way to school
X is loving the world
Soon enough it would have been:
X is on the toilet emptying his bowels

This is where I say, TOO much information!! Why do I want to know? I imagined what twitter would be like, a constant flow of X is and X was…

Today I wouldn’t say that. I joined twitter to keep up with the news in Egypt, because I simply did not have the time to read articles online everyday and I got tired of asking people “what’s going on”.

I downloaded the app on my phone and would use the real time timeline, on the go, to check updates of what was going on. The concept of the “real time” flow of information is what amuses me the most. When I scroll down and release a minute after I last checked, there almost always is a new tweet. Millions and millions of users are constantly tweeting from their computers and more importantly, their handheld devices, to reveal “whats happening”.

It’s kind if become an addiction now. When I first wake up, I check the time on my phone, then check twitter. Another challenging yet apt device twitter encompasses that I think is really cool is that you only get 140 characters for your one tweet. Therefore, you have no option but to adapt your tweet to the set character limit which in turn makes each individual tweet precise and to the point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/08/socialnetworking.twitter

In a tablet generation…

I remember when my parents bought me my first computer. It was big, heavy and the monitor and it’s other equipment took up nearly all of my desk. It was the most exciting thing ever. I wont forget the sound of the dial up internet modem, something that went along the sound of ” wa waaaa ti ti tireeeeeee” and continued to purr until it would connect, only to disconnect fifteen minutes later.

Almost ten years later and I’m sitting in the comfort of my bed, connected to my high-speed wifi, and writing this blogpost on my ipad (forgive me for not using the iPad 2, I am that behind on technology) Now, if I was one in a hundred even that was doing this right now, you could consider me boasting. However, I’m not.

http://chronicle.com/article/iPads-for-College-Classrooms-/126681/

The above article talks about wanting to introduce ipads to education. Whereas a few years ago having a computer lab fully equipped with high-tech desktop monitors was considered advanced, what the world is considering now are ipads for students.

The major drawback to this? Finger-based interfaces are not practical enough to use, they may be slow and effortful. Well, let me tell you, If I was typing, say, 30 words a minute on a normal keyboard, I’m probably typing 28 here. I personally think that our generation is technologically capable of advancing, fast. I mean, we’re basically forced to progress at an accelerating speed. Two months ago my mother bought herself an iPhone. My siblings and I laughed and drew straws to decide on who wasn’t going to teach her how to use it. A fifty seven year old using a touch screen interface seemed completely ludicrous to us. I lost, and so I was faced with the challenge. On occasion, she asked me to slow down when I was teaching her to switch between screens, but she quickly got the hang of it. She still types at an annoyingly slow pace, but my point is even someone of her generation can adapt to using the touch-screen. What does that mean for us?

The article talks about the advantages and disadvantages of introducing ipads or purely touch screen tablets to universities and schools. Some advantages include the long battery life, it being so portable and easy to access, and giving room to collaborative study. however, disadvantages include expensive costs, reliability and the touch keyboard; some people are convinced that students are not technologically ready to advance to typing their school work on a touch keyboard.

I agree with both sides, however I think that our generation IS generally tablet ready; we are youthful and faced with difficult technologies to use everyday, however we have learnt to quickly adapt so that we can keep up with this fast-paced technological world.

I say why not

Facebook, Twitter, now Google Circles?

 

http://m.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_launch_major_new_social_network_called_c.php

Several years ago facebook was introduced. Not only did it shove the social network myspace out of the way, but it basically took over the virtual social scene. People from all over the world became facebook users, and created and maintained, a virtual identity until the present day. We can safely say that Facebook is the big boss of the online virtual life.

Now, when I say “search engine” what pops into your head? I don’t doubt the word was google. After all, we use the word google in every way possible… ”Google it, i’m googling him, i googled her” and the list goes on. Google is probably the most visited internet site in the world.

So what happens when google, the world’s most popular search engine, wants to go up against facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, to create it’s own social networking site?

In the article I read, google wants to soon launch the site ” Google Circles” as in social circles, with way more privacy options than facebook, and limiting your virtual expression to those who are only in your tight social circle. This is arguably needed today in a world wide web where expression is endless and privacy is a question…

So, if google takes over all, in a way monopolizing the internet, what will happen? Will the whole entire internet be renamed “google?”

A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

Kaycee’s medical situation evoked empathy from many many people online. They became attached, empathetic and felt different emotions. Little did they know, at least not for a long time, that they felt this for an online blogger, who did not exist.

The phenomenon of having an online identity is one that is bewildering and fascinating at the same time. It can be freedom, you can be who you want to be, say what you want to say and act the way you you want, with no consequences. But at the same time opens doors for deceit, fraud, lies and sometimes hurt, like in the case of Kaycee.

Virtual communities, of all kinds, are present on the internet. There are endless questions of trust and security. Because you can be who you want to be, you can be who you are not as well. As much as we, as online participants try to be secure and not run into somebody who is “lying” about who they are, sometimes it happens.

Furthermore, because the internet is HUGE, we are kind of bound to run into something or someone, at a certain point, that/who is a scam. Now, this is scary, but should we limit our internet use, and all of the benefits we get from being an online participant in the world wide web, for this fear?