Articles written by Nicholas Rudzwick
The New Reality Of Offshore Outsourcing
Military Uniforms of the Future
4.2.B. Equality, Hierarchy, Freedom
Anti-spam Solutions and Security
The New Reality Of Offshore Outsourcing
The article for my second report comes from itemweb.com. The author, Russ Finney, writes about outsourcing and its impact on businesses, jobs, college students, and the global market.
In the beginning of the article Finney writes down three questions 1. “Is it inevitable that American technologists will be replaced with inexpensive foreign labor?” 2. “Should today’s college students stay away from degrees in computers and IT?” 3. “Will the CIOs of the future have the American talent and resources they need to operate their enterprises (Finney)?” Throughout the article he answers these questions.
Finney answers the first two questions in the first half of the article. He says that “the worldwide technology labor pool is changing – it is on an irreversible march toward globalization, and this change is being accelerated by the growing ease of modern travel, communications, and the Internet (Finney).” It makes a lot of sense because as the world is getting smaller, more jobs can be done for less money elsewhere. However, Finney also says that there is a need for more experienced computer people as well. Of course these people have to be Very Experienced and knowledgeable, not just simple computer programmers; because those simple computer programming jobs can be done for less else where (outsourcing).
Finney answers the last question little abstractly in his article. The American talent and resources companies depend on, come from the colleges and universities that are educating us; and they “need to meet the emerging requirements” that the computer world has.
In conclusion, according to Finney, there are still jobs out there for computer people, but these computer people need to be more knowledgeable than ever before, because with the ever shrinking world, they need to stay one step ahead to keep their jobs.
Works Citied
Finney Russ The New Reality of Offshore Outsourcing April 4, 2005 http://www.itmweb.com/f040405.htm
Military Uniforms of the Future
The article I chose comes from about.com and is about the military uniforms of the future by Donna Miles and the American Forces Press Service.
According to the article these new uniforms will have benefits and/or capabilities not unlike those of fictitious characters like the power rangers (Military). The article goes into stating that the uniforms will have built in chemical and biological protection; be waterproof and flameproof; built in insect repellent, antibacterial agents for injuries, antimicrobial agents that control odor, and even new synthetic materials that will make the uniforms cooler in hot environments, and warmer in colder environments (Military).
Another advancement the article talks about is in the headgear department. The new headgear will be able to protect against ballistic and fragmentation injuries while serving as a HUD (heads up display) with options such as: thermal sensors, cameras, and chemical and biological sensors (Military).
In conclusion these new uniforms will further integrate man and technology like never before. The only problem I can see with these new technologies is that our military has to be careful to not get too dependant on these technologies.
Works Citied
Military Uniforms of the Future http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/genweapons/a/futureuniforms.htm
4.2.B. Equality, Hierarchy, Freedom
The article I found for Chapter 3 came from the P2P foundation. In this article they discuss a little about what the idea of P2P is, and that some monopolies, and/or ideas want to cripple P2P.
According to the article P2P is democratic. You choose whether or not to participate, subscribe or unsubscribe to the P2P. The writers even go into stating that “Peer to peer is not anti-hierarchy or even anti-authority, but it is against the fixed hierarchies and ‘authoritarianism’, the latter defined as the tendency to monopolize power, with a will to perpetuate itself and deprive others of resources that it wants for itself (4.2.B).” Here the fixed hierarchies are no doubt companies like Microsoft, which have monopolies on several parts of the computing world.
Lastly the article also talks about ways in which companies are trying to destroy or severely cripple the idea of P2P networks. Several ways that the companies are trying to cripple or destroy P2P are through Digital Rights Managements, and threats of legal attacks and even imprisonment for those who choose to use P2P, for their file sharing (4.2.B).
In conclusion the article discusses P2P, what the idea is behind it, why some companies do not like it, and some ways that those companies are trying to cripple P2P.
Works Citied
P2p foundation 4.2.B Equality, Hierarchy, Freedom November 18, 2005 http://p2pfoundation.net/index.php/4.2.B_Equality,_Hierarchy,_Freedom
For the Lure of Data article, I found an article called “Technology Addiction, a new relationship between man and machine.” This article mainly focuses on one type of addiction, mainly internet addiction, someone who has to be online for long hours at a time.
In the article the author sites a Dr. Wilkey who states “people with low self-esteem, a poor self-image, or poor social skills” are more susceptible, because the internet “allows them to interact with others without having to deal with interpersonal contact.”
The article also goes so far as to list healthy and unhealthy habits that can separate an internet addict from regular people. Some habits are: A need to stay on longer to get satisfaction, anxiety if the user is not online, user loses track of time, and the user neglects important social or business commitments in order to spend more time online (Technology).
In conclusion, even though this article is from March/April of 1996 it is even more important today because as our access to the internet grows, through the use of mobile devices like cell phones, laptops, and PDAs; this problem is going to get worse, unless something is done about it.
Works Citied
Friedrich Garth, Technology Addiction a new relationship between man and machine http://www.usc.edu/isd/pubarchives/networker/95-96/Mar_Apr_96/feature.technologyAddict.html
The article I got comes from the servo magazine and is written by Dan Kara on why humanoid robots are getting so much attention.
The reason that humanoid robots get a lot of publicity is because of their appeal that they look like humans according to the article. Even though humanoid robots are appealing, their functionality leaves a lot to be desired at the moment. Scientists still have problems making them walk properly, not to mention going up and down stairs. The author even goes into saying that at present most robots can only do one task at a time and that can be very frustrating. He even says that at present the best idea is to have droids do specific tasks well, and that they do not look humanoid at the moment. The author’s conclusion is that robots will eventually be humanoid and be able to perform a variety of tasks but not for some time.
Works Citied
Kara, Dan Why Humanoids? http://www.robotictrends.com/displayarticle772.html?POSTNUKES
Anti-spam Solutions and Security
The article I found came from securityfocus.com and was titled “Anti-spam Solutions and Security.” Basically this article talked about the definition of spam, and how it could be counteracted.
According to the article 50% of the present world’s e-mail is spam, and that spam is generated by only a few hundred groups in the world (Anti-spam). The problems that spam produces are also very expensive. On estimation spam costs up to $20 billion a year on lost productivity; and spam within a business or company can cost the company anywhere from $600-$1,000 a year for each worker.
The more serious problems that spam can lead to are Identity theft (which is an ever growing issue in this country), and Viruses (also an ever growing issue). Also, the fact that spammers and virus makers are collaborating only makes the problem worse. In the article the author writes that spammers have added malicious code that targets browser, HTML, and JavaScript exploits. The article gives two examples: 1. with the URL display problem with Internet Explorer, where a “%01” before the hostname can be used to hide the real host name; 2. A wide belief that some viruses are used to help spammers by opening proxies that are used to relay spam (Anti-spam).
Of course the article also mentions some solutions to the problems such as filters, and reverse lookups. There are many types of filters that organize mail as spam. Some use Wordlists, others use blacklists, hash-tables, and artificial intelligence and probability. Of course these software also have their exploits/problems, but they are better than nothing. Hopefully in the future the United States will get with the times and pass laws to stop the spread of spam in the United States
Works Citied
Krawetz, Neal Anti-Spam Solutions and Security http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1763