Thursday 12 August 2010

Open source

Open source


Having the access of open source we are able to get information to our leisure practically for free. Free access to a collection of statements or declarations written by someone onto a human reader able computer and allowing extensive free redistribution rights for this software.

After this lesson I’m left in two minds whether to follow the ‘Hackers Values’ of able to have the access to other peoples computers and anything on there that might teach you something about the way the world works should be unlimited and free.
The internet allows people to do and access a lot of things for free as well as having the freedom of speech too whether or not its not to most people interest to listen or watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0nuRZI9LmI
a video posted on YouTube on how to hack somebodies computer.

It's very annoying when you need to access information online and your asked to pay or become a member. All information which is there to teach should be provided for free and thats just what I believe.
But on the other hand I don't believe in  stealling and I guess what belongs to someone is there's and they should always have the right to give the permission to access.

Nothings for free

Commercialized personal computers such as Apple was becoming a hit with it's flashy labels and latest technology.
I remember when Software was installed for free into a computer before purchasing and there was hardly any need for any additional spend after buying a computer but with modern technology and the period of software stealing taking place software had to be paid for as said by Bill Gates himself.


“One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? ” Bill gates

I agree with him as people like himself put alot of work and effort into producing a product and by all means need to be paid or congratulated in some way for doing so.

Who likes to work for free?

Privacy and Surveillance

Maintaining privacy is a must to many by choice as well as by law. Breaching someone’s confidentiality, disclosing information, intrusion, exposure and distortion are all types of unwanted information distribution.


I believe that everyone should have the right to privacy to do things needed to be done alone or even just to have that time alone.

“Privacy is a fundamental right, essential for freedom, democracy, psychological well-being, individuality, and creativity. It is proclaimed inviolable but decried as detrimental, antisocial, and even pathological” Daniel J Solove Understanding Privacy 2008

We find ourselves in a much more private society as to those in a more primitive age or place.

Living in the most watched city in the world I could definitely believe that surveillance is implicated of both the watchers and the watched. Many people may not know or notice how much of there information is being documented or controlled.


As David Lyon examined in the ‘Surveillance Studies: An Overview’ there are many sites of surveillance such as workplace control, consumer activities, policing and crime control to government administration.

We are constantly being spied on and monitored even without our own permission. Some people may believe that its for our own safety but the modern day surveillance doesn’t stop at CCTV it involves customer profiling which puts together information on you relating to your purchasing patterns and marketing.



With the phenomenon of Facebook, bebo and other social networks were personal information could be easily accessed are we really safe anymore.

The future of robots

After leaving this lecture I couldn’t stop thinking whether the 2099 theory of the humans and machines merging together to form a physical and mental realm.


When I think of robots, I think that they are a combination of metal material which have been made to forgo certain tasks and follow instructions via programmed specialized devices. Apart from that they do not have emotion or any other similarities to humans.

We’ve all seen the make belief robots in the movies like terminator were the human machine form is merged together which are called the embodied intelligence robotics.

“An embodied creature or robot is one that has a physical body and experiences the world, at least in part, directly through the influence of the world on that body.” Rodney Brookes

A clip from the Terminator Salvation film were robots are taking over the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNHYbszaCpE

Virtually

Nowadays it’s hard to distinguish what is real and what is not. The word virtual is when something gives you aspect of reality but in ‘reality’ is not a real material. Anything virtual to me tries it’s best to connote realness but in all fairness isn’t real at all i.e. the pictures of maps which show out what the earth is meant to look like from above. Ideally the picture is what the earth looks like from that distance but one, it isn’t the earth itself and two, it’s not the real depiction of what the earth really looks like.


Now more than ever people are speaking to each other on the web and this is known as the virtual community where you are in reality speaking to someone but as it’s only virtual you are able to be anyone you want to be; just like the characters in video games i.e. the Sims.

In the game the Sims you are able to make these people do anything the average person is capable of doing like working, shopping, maintains a house, having children but the reality is that no matter what they do they are still virtual characters who don’t really exist.

a picture of the game 'The Sims'

Web 2.0

We have approached the period of mass communication and it is amazing. The internet has allowed people to connect and communicate in ways only imaginable when the idea of web was invented. There is no stopping the development of the web nowadays as countless ‘cool websites’ are being invented such as YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace and Facebook.


The internet is becoming more open to peering, sharing and acting globally. You are able to become a master of the internet much easier these days with sites such as Wikipedia allowing us all to

‘become children, playing at being adult, slipping into an Alice in Wonderland version of reality...But for grown-ups, it is worse than bad.” (Andrew Keen, 2006)

2.0 is all about blogging, interacting and just meeting people in ways you were always meant to.

News

News is the gathering, compiling and presenting of a message so that it reaches its audience in a time limit in which it is still valid, effective and relevant. News always has to be fresh to meet its demonstrate value.


News can come in so many different forms from formal news like that we see on the television by networks such as ‘Sky News’ and ‘Fox’ or that which appear in correspondence such as newspapers or just that of word of mouth.

The invention of writing was that which made that of delivering news what it is today. Technology transmission was that which allowed newspapers to be created. Newspapers allowed people to read regularly published new which also included a range of other stories.

There are many different varieties of delivering news to people nowadays from reporters to news networks. It’s not only the professionals who deliver news it’s also transmitted via blogs, peer to peer transmission like on social websites.
Scribal Transmissioncomputer mediated gossip