Articles written by Diana Diamond
Whom to Protect and How: The Public, the Government, and the Internet Revolution
Digital technology promises to integrate sites and people
Carnegie Mellon to use ‘Sims’ to enliven educational software
Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering
Whom to Protect and How: The Public, the Government, and the Internet Revolution
According to the article, between 1985 and 1999, the number of Americans who used a computer at work or at home has doubled from 30 to 70 percent. Likewise, the ownership of a home computer quadrupled from 15 to 60 percent in the same timeframe. By the year 2001 54 percent of Americans used the Internet, almost quadrupling in a period of six years. Most of the Americans use the Internet at home for obtaining information such as to learn about entertainment, sports and hobbies (38 percent), current events (37 percent), travel (33 percent), and health (28 percent). There are fewer Americans who use the Internet to shop (24 percent), pay bills (9 percent), and make investments (9 percent).
Most of the Americans see computers as making life better (8 out of 10 of them), while a small few see computers as making life worse (about 9 percent of them). About two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans believe that the Internet industry is doing a good job serving the consumers, and only 7 percent think it is doing a bad job. Consequently, Americans do not believe computers have improved life since it takes away the amount of free time and time being spent with family and friends.
When it comes to considering dangerous content, many Americans are very willing to accept regulation. However, those same Americans are very leery when the government starts to regulate what can be displayed on the Internet. For the most part, most people believe that the government should do something in lessening the dangerous content that is displayed on the Internet. Some people think that the government should do something about dangerous strangers talking to kids (about 79 percent), the availability of information about how to build bombs (about 75 percent), false advertising (about 62 percent), and the availability of guns for purchase (about 61 percent). Moreover, 56 percent of the people regard the loss of privacy as a major problem with computers or the Internet, while 60 percent have favored government restriction even if would impose on our right of freedom of speech.
Given from the statistical information that we are seeing now, it is likely we can assume that by the next decade, we will see an upsurge of growth and change in the world of the Internet. The information that is shown in regards to Americans who use the Internet is more likely to triple the usage. However, even with the availability of information on the Internet, it will be very difficult for the government to regulate what is displayed on the peoples’ screens.
Source:
De Palma, Paul (Eds.). Text: Annual Editions: Computers in Society, 2005-06. CT: McGraw Hill/Duskin, 2004
In this article, the head of an Indian consulting firm and a high-tech-union president face off on the effects of off shoring and globalization. Ashok Soota, who is the cofounder and managing director of MindTree Consulting in Bangalore, India, expresses his views by stating that the term " ‘Offshore’ is a term borrowed from the manufacturing economies of the last century. In the knowledge economy, the terms offshore and onshore have no relevance. At MindTree, we have substituted these with the term ‘OneShore’." He understands that America is very adaptive when it comes to change in terms of technology.
Marcus Courtney, who is the president of WashTech/CWA, a Seattle-based union for high-tech workers, believes that it’s not a good idea to have the jobs being outsourced around the globe since the United States will lose its competitive advantage. Moreover, Courtney states that, “It is the cost differences combined with technology that makes offshore outsourcing a serious threat to U.S. high-tech workers. Also, tech workers in India are not immune from the forces around driving down costs. More and more Indian companies will be seeking ways to "offshore" their work to gain additional competitive advantage.”
The issue that was upon stake in this article was not just so much about off shoring programming jobs to a different part of the continent. It focuses on more as to how much the workers are being paid in terms of the amount of input that they put to the jobs. Overall, both of the two men came to a conclusion that off shoring is good for America. The reason for it is because as what Courtney stated, “Globalization requires that we have social imperatives outside of market forces. If the onus is to constantly update and re-skill, then we should have social policies around that imperative. We have to look at other values such as fairness, who is really winning, losing and why.”
Source:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open-debate-full.html, January 2006
Digital technology promises to integrate sites and people
The article that I found in relation to wearable computers and phones is from The Hindu, dated February 16th, 2006. The author of this article is A. Srivathsan who was reporting this in Chennai. The article discusses digital technology that promises to integrate sites and people.
According to the writer, in India the construction industry is only at its initial stages of integrating digital technology. He is hoping that the quality of services will be improved once mobile computing promises to integrate sites and people. However, in order to do so, it needs effective information management and communication.
When it comes to communicating with your employees, emails are not so useful when it comes to immediate and on site reference. It compromises the time that you spend to check the message on a computer as well as involving a break or a shift from the work place. With the advent of mobile phones and PDAs, it seems to resolve the problem of checking the messages by having it done in real time.
According to the writer, wearable computers are now supplementing hand held computers. These devices are worn or kept as a part of the human body leaving the hands free. Video Eyewear, wristPC keyboard and one-handed keyboard are some of the products. The introduction of wearable computers will allow users to access their information more quickly without compromising their safety standards.
The author ends his report with a question in mind that he hopes to be answered in the future – Is the Indian business market investing enough to improve its quality and upgrade the skills of its work force?
Source:
A. Srivathsan, “Digital technology promises to integrate sites and people”, February 16th, 2006 The Hindu
Carnegie Mellon to use ‘Sims’ to enliven educational software
The article that I found in relation to women in computer science is from Fort Wayne.com dated March 10th, 2006. The author of this article is Daniel Lovering who was reporting this in Pittsburgh. The article discusses about Carnegie Mellon to use “Sims” to enliven educational software.
According to the article, Carnegie Mellon University plans to incorporate the elements that are in the widely popular game “The Sims” in its free educational software that hopes to make computer programming more appealing to students. The name of the program is Alice, which according to Randy Pausch (a computer science professor and director of the Alice Project) is a teaching program that was developed in the past decade and is now used from over 60 colleges and universities and about 100 high schools. What the program does is designed to do is to make abstract concepts concrete for first-time programmers, using three-dimensional images of things such as people or animals that can be controlled by clicking and dragging words with a computer mouse and from there, these words form a program.
A 2005 study was conducted in the University of California, which shows that there has been a 50 percent drop in computer science majors over the previous four years. Moreover, the proportion of women who were considering majoring in this field fell to levels not seen since the early 1970s. Electronic Arts, the company that creates “The Sims” published a statement that they want more “women in computer science, they want more minorities in computer science…any underrepresented group.”
By marrying the characters, animations and playful style of “The Sims” to Alice, according to Steve Seabolt (vice president of Electronic Arts), we are helping make computer science fun for a new generation of creative leaders.
Source:
Daniel Lovering, “Carnegie Mellon to use ‘Sims’ to enliven educational software” from FortWayne.com, March 10th, 2006
Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering
The article that I found in relating to spam was called “Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering.” This article was in the Sydney Morning Herald, dated April 1st 2006. The reporter for this article is Adam Turner.
According to the article, Google’s quantum-based spam filtering launch was thrown into chaos simply because of Microsoft Window’s inability to cope with Australian’s daylight savings changes. In Australia, daylight savings was extended for this year, ending this weekend, to allow for Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games. Unfortunately, Windows lacks the flexibility to handle such changes. Therefore, the analysis of Australian inboxes from Windows users saw the system attempt to process 25 hours worth of data.
As a result of this incident, the resulting quantum fluctations created a feedback loop that engulfed London’s Supercomputing Methods Experimental Group (SMEG) research centre where the project was based. Although no one was injured, the impact of such flucations included a quantum reflection “doppleganger” effect, which saw all matter inside the research centre temporarily appear in two places at once. Even though Google remained quiet about this incident, SMEG spokeswoman Shirley Knott did not. According to her, she said that “Australia’s daylight savings changes, combined with Windows’ flaws, almost destroyed three years of hard work.”
At the end of the article, it discusses how Google’s quantum-based spam filtering was based on. It uses revolutionary spam flitering technology that was announced three years ago by SMEG – building on the research of Austrain theoretical physicist Erwin Schrodineger. What it does is that it uses microscopic black holes – created when cosmic rays traveling at near the speed of light collide with tiny particles in the Earth’s atmosphere and therefore form a grid of ultra high speed “write only” memory.
Source
Adam Turner, “Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering”, Sydney Morning Herald: April 1st, 2006.
The article that I found in reference to Japanese students not using computers is called “Japanese Youth Shun Computers.” This article was taken from a blog website “Greggman.com” and it was dated on May 17th, 2005.
According to the article, the author talks about a survey that was conducted by a Japanese teacher (sometime around late 2004) who brought in the article to his class. The survey was about cell phone and computer use among elementary school students from 4th grade and up through junior high and up to high school sophomores throughout Japan.
From the given statistics, the highest percentage of students that have a cell phone were high school students. Of those students that have a cell phone, high school girls have ranked the highest in sending at least one e-mail a day.
However, what interested the author most was the percentage of students that use the computer to send and receive e-mail by computer. Only 30% of junior high school students used computers more than high school students. Elementary school students rank higher than the high school students when it comes to using the computer for playing games and studying.
The author notes about what are Americans kids like when it comes to the usage of the cell phone as well as the computer. He expresses his view by stating that “my impression is e-mail from cell phones never quite caught on in the USA mostly because the cell phone companies sucked at making it easy to use (the last two phones I got while visiting the states both had atrocious e-mail text entry interfaces)”. Moreover, the author believes that there will be a time where there will be no use for computers for us to check our e-mail due to a major advancement on PDAs and cell phones.
Source:
“Japanese Youth Shun Computers” http://greggman.com/edit/moblogposts/2005-05-17moblog.htm|template=print|lang=english|?q, May 17th, 2005