Digital Divide*

In class we read an article inside The New York Times “Upfront” magazine called “the Digital Divide”. In our country, it is an invisible divider that divides the western rural areas and the urban eastern areas. Urban areas on the east have wired broadband available whereas rural western areas do not have that available to them. The people who live in the western part of country are at a disadvantage because they have no internet access. The students who are in the college application process and the students who want to apply on line for a job are really backed up in the corner because they cannot do what they have to do.  They need the internet so they do the things they need to do. The government is being questioned about whether they should keep the country like it is meaning the way it is divided. Or should they make the country all equal by having available wired broadband in the areas who do not have it. I contemplate that the government should make a change to our country. They need to have internet that is accessible to each and everybody in our country. It will better please a lot of people who do not have internet access, that they now will have it.

Cyber Warfare.."

Recently Cyber Warfare has been a topic that everybody is talking about. Cyber Warfare is defined as “the use of computers and the Internet in conducting warfare in cyberspace.” I think if we have any more real and serious war it will be on the through computers. Yes, it is less dangerous and if it came down it deciding which war you would want (i. e. cyber or physical), a number of people would say cyber. But little do they know yes, the plus side of cyber warfare is that is less people dying but our whole country is based on the internet. By saying that, it something happens to the internet people would go crazy. The results of cyber warfare will affect a lot of people and affect the country as well. It will mainly affect the people who use the internet on a regular basis. Those people are not the only ones affected; the ones outside that circle will be affected also. Other countries or people within our own country can hack into our top secret databases and get information or secret codes, so they can possibly ruin our country/world.  I hope there are not any more wars of any type anytime soon, anywhere especially in the United States.

File Sharing**

In class we had a discussing the ongoing issue about file-sharing. LimeWire was our main focus; they recently shut down because of illegally allowing people to obtain songs online without paying for them. LimeWire now could end up paying damages of over $1 billion. Before LimeWire closed down, I was probably one of their biggest customers because I always would download the music from their site. I would do it because the CDs were not out yet and I heard there was a website that lets you download the song for free. My grandmother always told me nothing in life is free, but when I saw “download your favorite songs for free” it caught my eye.  Whenever I see free, I am going to go for it. I think if it was not free I would not download them, I would just wait until the CD comes so I could buy it. It is a shame how much LimeWire has to pay, just because of their customers downloading, even though I was one of them. Ever since LimeWire shut down I have not illegally downloading music from one of a similar website to LimeWire. The reason I do not do that anymore is that; I do not want the police come to my house and take my computer, make me pay a fine, or arrest me for something so little.

Technology in the News!

         Recently, Apple came out with the new white iPhone 4. Which is thicker than the black iPhone 4. Also, apple has put some information out regarding the use your location link on their iPhones. On some smart phones when you are on the internet or on one of your many apps, it may say "do you want to use your location?" I, myself usually presses no, but can they still see where you are or not. If you do press yes, then that information is stored in the phone towers for up to a year. That can either be a good or bad thing. It can be a bad thing because the smart phone uses have no clue what the phone companie sare going to do with the information. Wither they are going to release it or keep it for their own records. My question is what why be the use of keeping those types of records just for the phone company? Why would they need or want them? What use would it do for them? It can be a good thing because if the police may want to use it to catch the criminals they are looking for. But what if the cell phone is in someone else's name but they are looking for you? Will they arrest your family member or friend for something you did? Lastly, if the information in the towers gets piled up what will happen? Will they transfer the left overs to another tower or erase it? When I looked this topic up they said it was a glitch in the software. But how is that posssible? Starting at keeping the information for only 5 minutes to up to a year, that is a very big difference. So I doubt if that was really a glitch or was it on purpose?

Osama Bin Laden!!

        

Recently on the news all I have been seeing is that Osama is dead. The U.S military has been looking for him since the attack on September 11, 2001. It has been 10 long years that they have not found him, and they found and killed him today. I found this story interesting because Osama has got to be the best player in the game hide and go seek. Ever since the United States military went to where he is from that is who they were looking for, but had no success until now. On twitter there has been rumors that he is not dead, but you should not always believe what you hear on social networking cites. Yes, sometimes they are true, but other times people put things up there just for entertainment. I do believe that is finally dead, but I also believe that since now he is dead his people will try to come back and kill the people in America. I hope nothing like that happens, because 9/11 was horrifying and very sad. I was only in the 1st grade when it happened and i still remember it like it was yesterday. I believe nothing like that will happen again but you never really know what will happen you have to hope it does not happen. Lastly, it is possible because they US military went to war to find Osama and to stop them from further attacks on the United States. But since it’s been 10 years since an attack and their leader is dead, most troops probably will come home. And that will give Osama's people a lot of space and opportunity to come attack again under a new leader. All on the news all you hear is things about Osama. In the last couple of days, there has been arguments to if the White House should release the photos of Osama Bin Laden’s' killing. Some people say no, the photos should not be released and others say yes because we watched all of those people on 9-11 die, so why can't we see the photos of the man behind that die. Me personally, I would not care if the White House releases the photos it would not make me another mind.