Monday, December 9, 2013

paper number 2

Computer Security at Work place
            Website 1’s goals are to “defend the computer”, “protect company data, and financial assets”, “create strong passwords and keep them private, and guard company data when you’re on the go”. They assume that their measures will do their jobs. Their perspective makes these things the main focus. They believe updating your software will keep the defenses up. They also do not want you to put any confidential material on anything on unsecure programs or apps.
            Website 2’s goals are “Physical security”, “Access passwords”, “Prying eye protection”, “Anti-virus software”, “firewalls”, “Software updates”,” Surfing behaviors”, “email behaviors”, “keep secure backups”, “give it a rest”, and “report problems”. This website doesn’t assume too much of the user, but they do want the user to be part of the solution to computer security. The perspective of this website anticipates many different scenarios, including somebody stealing a laptop or mobile device with confidential or important data.
            The point of view for website 1 is more of a general security and more broad. It is security based on a greater scale, maybe for the bigger scams or bigger risks. It has many of the usual security problems on the webpage and it goes over the usual strong security items(strong passwords, don’t put confidential information on anything that may not be secure, to choose the encrypted Wi-Fi network over the no password network). These are rather simple and basic methods, but effective. Using a secure network over an unsecure network is obvious, but it is much better for the computer that surfs the web from it, stronger passwords mean harder to hack into the account and the simple section as “defend the computer” with the simple things as updating software and keep the antivirus up to date.
            The point of view of the second website is a little more elaborate. It has motivations with things such as, keeping the access passwords stronger, keep surfing behaviors logical, keeping secure backups, and reporting problems. This website has motivations from these because they can potentially let malware turn up on the computer. Keeping the web surfing behaviors logical helps keep malware off by not going to unsecure websites and frequent malware from specific shady websites. Keeping the passwords keeps hackers from accessing their email, accounts, or computers.
            Political diversity of opinion is to each their own. It basically means that we can choose which party we want to choose. The democrats believe in many, many items, and they believe that they are right, and the same goes for the republicans. This is all based on each person’s viewpoint and it makes for advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are they can make a great argument for their respective political party, but a disadvantage would be that they would be rather biased when talking about the other party’s point of view. It makes it great for their respective party but not for the other party. It enhances the ideals that their party wants to do, but diminishes the other party’s ideals if they were going in another direction and vice versa. It definitely makes it tough to make decisions on anything because they have opposing ideals.
            These two organizations affect our culture greatly, because the populous has to choose a party, thus making us oppose each other. A positive is that we end up being in a debate and extra knowledge from both points of view shows, therefore making us learn knowledge we normally wouldn’t about certain situations. Negatives are pretty severe, where there could be really misunderstood facts and fights escalate.  
Website 1:
Website 2:

E-waste paper number 1

Critical Thinking, Ethics, and Civic Responsibility
                The main problem in the video was the hundreds of millions of tons of Electronic waste piling up each year. It is very bad for the environment and the locals health.
The e-waste is very bad for the environment, and most people in the world do not even know it is there. E-waste piling up in certain areas is bad because there are organized criminals scavenging through the old hard drives for information. The information contains personal files, bank accounts, and important documents from big corporations. The e-waste gets burned to salvage the copper and other metals to be sold for small profit. The small profit isn't the problem though, it is the hazardous fumes being sent into the air. The fumes are hazardous to the people breathing it in. Thus, having major health complications down the road. Toxic substances ruin the land it is on because they burn the stuff and they leave the stuff on top of once habitable land.
                The impact of this problem leaves environments damaged and non-habitable. The burning of the computer pieces sends lead, mercury, and cadmium into the air. Thus crippling the youths health at an early age and hurting the land. Also the toxins flow into the bodies of water nearby. The e-waste not being taken care of properly hurts the individuals in the community nearby. The e-waste's impact on individuals who get their information stolen is great also. The individual could lose all of their money and get in trouble at their job because of leaked information. In the video every hard drive had pertinent information.
                From this source(1), They wrote "We believe that manufacturers of electronic goods, who have benefited from sales of their products, should take responsibility for them from production through to the end of their lives. " I'm not sure if I agree, but it is a possible solution. If they created the products they should know the proper way to recycle or reuse their own products to make new ones. Another solution is (source 1) " manufacturers must design clean electronics with longer lifespan, that are safe and easy to recycle and will not expose workers and the environment to hazardous chemicals. " This is a great way to help the environment, keeping everything "green". This also helps keep the workers out of hazardous waste and chemicals. Therefore minimizing health risks when working or recycling the products.  Earth911 says "Establishing efforts to enlarge the capacity of sustainable e-waste dis-assembly in Africa by setting up criteria and requirements, supporting new and improved initiatives and making e-waste disassembling profitable so new e-waste businesses can be established". This will make more businesses want to recycle and make a profit instead of dumping their e-waste for a small fee. Therefore making e-waste far less likely.
                I think the e-waste problem is horrific, and it needs to stop immediately. I know it isn't going to stop today, but helping prevent it myself with my own products will help a little. I can do my part in recycling my own products, maybe even tell my friends and family to watch their own e-waste. If they tell their friends and family it will be that much better.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

essay 5 robotics

Husqvarna robotic mowers are home mowers that graze or cuts grass for a certain sized yard, based on the one that you purchase. They have the 0.75 acre and 1.48 acre models(husqvarna.com). These are used to mow the lawn in replace of humans. Another human replacement is the Neato robot which vacuums a household for you(neatorobotics.com).


The neato robot seems to be all positives, the only thing is that you have to empty the dirt holder and it might not be big enough for the entire household. Therefore, you might have to empty the dirt holder frequently, but if it lasts a while it seems like it is a great robot. The robot uses infrared light to scan the surroundings to map out the best course of action to clean. Rather than the other robots that do the same thing, but they just move around randomly and bump into things all the time. It also recharges its own batteries when its low, it finds its way back to the charging station. This thing will clean while you need to be doing other things, which frees up time for you.


The Husqvarna robot mows the lawn whenever you turn it own. It uses low energy and has no emissions because it isn't gas powered. It recharges itself like the neato robot, it finds its way back to the charging station also. This robot doesn't really edge the grass for you, so there will still be need for landscaping jobs, but it will decrease the workload for them. It might save you a buck, but it will decrease the amount the landscapers will make.


There won't be legal issues with these robots, but they might give rise to ethical issues such as people losing work. There could be the issue with your landscapers looking badly towards you because you are switching from them even though they could have been your landscapers for years and be very displeased with the idea of losing their job to a robot. And the Neato robot doesn't seem to have any legal or ethical issues unless the robot damages your house somehow, but that shouldn't happen because they said that it has great laser sensors.


These robots are great if you are a busy person and don't feel like doing these minor jobs but tedious jobs. They are duties that should be done frequently and it would be very convenient to have these robots do it for you. I think that robots should be used whenever it can profit us as a society. If it decreases jobs, we should create more jobs. If we use those robots and it profits humanity as a whole, I do not see anything wrong with using them. There are many great ideas coming everyday and robots will most likely become part of the future.



References:
http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-mowers/husqvarna-robotic-mowers-for-homeowners/

http://www.neatorobotics.com/how-it-works/

Monday, December 2, 2013

Essay number 4 Copyright and Copyleft



Copyleft is a license that allows anyone to use, modify, and share the program. Copyright is a license also, but it allows only the owner of the copyright to modify and share the program.
The goal of copyleft is to be able to have a program that is useable, modifiable, and shareable even after going public. Initially the first person made the program unlicensed, and this worked for the users of the program to share, modify, and use until the first person made the program into proprietary software. Proprietary software is something that cannot be further modified or shared unless the owner of the software allows it. This is why copyleft first started. Copyleft uses a license to make certain that the program will be shareable, modifiable, and useable by anyone. It copyrights the program so that it is always shareable, modifiable, and useable by everyone. (Self, 2011)

Copyright is a license that makes the author of the program the only person to share, modify, and use the program. “Copyright protects original works of authorship literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture” (U.S.Copyright Office, 2001). Copyright is used for someone who wishes to own their program or software and not allow anybody else to use it without consent.

Copyright and copyleft are both licenses, but copyright is used to make the software not useable without consent. Copyleft is used in the exact opposite, making the software useable by everyone. Copyleft is assuming that somebody will take the un-copyrighted material and make it a proprietary work instead. This means that it cannot be redistributed or modified unless given consent to do so. Copyright is assuming that someone will want to use the author’s material if not copyrighted.  Copyrighting something makes it solely the author’s decision to give you consent to use the material. Copyleft is the opposite, thus allowing everybody to use the material and forcing it to be that way with the license.

There are reasons for doing both of these. Copyright is useful when trying to preserve your right as an author to keep the material for yourself. It makes it so that you have the high authority regarding the software. It can help you make money if a business wants to pay you for the copyright. This helps the  “little guy” in the company world, by giving them ownership of their software that they made by themselves. It will give them a competitive edge over the other company trying to achieve what they can without the program or software that they have not developed themselves. Copyleft is useful when someone has a software that they want the world to use and to keep it that way. They are both useful in their own ways. I do not think that having just one would of these licenses is good. There will be many open source items if this happened and it would be very hard to have a competitive edge or anybody else. If everything was copyrighted it would be equally bad because what if the xbox or some other item of the sort didn’t allow anybody to write programs using their code for the xbox, it would mean no new video games. Rather very few games. There would me a monopoly from the xbox corporation.











References:
Self, Jason. “What is Copyleft?”. Jxself.org. Jason Self, 2011. Web.  02 Dec. 2013. <jxself.org/what-is-copyleft.shtml.>

U.S. Copyright Office. “Copyright in General.” Copyright.gov. U.S. Copyright Office 11 Sep. 2001. Web. 02 Dec. 2013

Monday, November 11, 2013

Paper number 3

3 - Critical thinking, Ethics, and civic responsibility:  Issue: Software Theft

         Software theft is when unauthorized downloading, sharing, or using without permission of the copyright protected software(www.fastiis.org). There is a long list of types of software theft a few are "Professional counterfeits" which look the same as a genuine boxed product, "Quasi counterfeits" which try to look like the genuine product but don't quite look right, and Internet sites which download/upload illegal software are a few.(www.fastiis.org). Most software thefts occur because they want to make money, and the others who do not make a profit do it because they intend on using is for malicious reasons(www.fastiis.org).
          I will going over two different types of software theft, one of them is Peer to Peer which individuals share software over the internet(www.fastiis.org). Another one of them is Internet sites which individuals download and upload illegal software over the internet(www.fastiis.org). Both of these sound similiar but they are different.
          Peer to Peer individuals are using a program such as Kazaa, Frostwire, or Limewire to share content with other individuals which most of the material is being shared illegally(Heingartner 2004). Having these programs makes swapping of any file very easy , no matter if it is legal or not(Heingartner 2004). These individuals could be individuals who did not know it was illegal to use peer to peer sharing to download music.
          Internet Site software theft is close to Peer to Peer but differs in that, the users download straight from websites. These webistes can be one-click file-hosting sites such as RapidShare, Megaupload, and Hotfile where users can upload their content and share it with other people via hyper link through many different medians, such as emails, ads, or other websites(bsa.org).
          Software theft has a few ramifications, including U.S. Copyright Law which states taht copyright infringement can be punishable by up to five years in prison and 250,000 dollars in fines, also repeat offenders will have up to 10 years in prison. Violoators can also be held liable for damages, lost profits, or work damages up to 150,000 dollars.(Symantec.com)
          I believe that software theft is a pretty common thing these days, but I don't do any pirating myself. The ramifications for pirating software is not worth the software. It would be terrible to be caught, therefore I would not partake in the theft. It costs companies lots of money by having their software downloaded elsewhere for free.



Cited:
www.Fastiis.org. Federation Against Software Theft. 2013. Company No.01821298, VAT No. 404563570. 11/11/2013. http://www.fastiis.org/our_services/enforcement/software_theft/
Heingartner, Douglas. "Software Piracy Is in Resurgence, With New Safeguards Eroded by File Sharing." nytimes.com. 19, January 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/19/business/software-piracy-is-in-resurgence-with-new-safeguards-eroded-by-file-sharing.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm. 11/11/2013
www.bsa.org. Business Software Alliance. October 2009. BSA. 11/11/2013
www.symantec.com. Symantec. unsure publish date. Symantec. 11/11/2013