Blog on Bennett

Google Loses French Copyright Case

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:01:16 +0000

On Friday, Google was found guilty of copyrighting because they were digitalizing books and putting them online without author permission. Google was sued for $431,700 by the French Publisher’s Association. This is a big deal because Google is such a large agency, and cases like this discredit the usually reliable source. I think that in cases like this, Google needs to be more careful. They are starting to get so large that they feel they can get away with anything when this isn’t true. Google needs to be more respectful of their sources and not assume they can get by without properly accrediting their material, even though they are a large network.

Source: World News

http://article.wn.com/view/2009/12/18/Google_Loses_in_French_Copyright_Case/

Viruses That Leave People Red in the Facebook

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:51:55 +0000

Because of the popularity of Facebook and twitter, malicious attacking is more prevalent than ever. It is now so easy to pick up a virus without even knowing it. Usually viruses attack your hard drive, but now they are attacking you digitally. Crooks have been finding ways to get personal information and have been making money unethically. They say they are raising money for some donation or charity online, but really your credit card information is all they need.

I think this is a problem because so many people today are on social media networks. This could have a major impact on the networking industry because no one will want to open ads, or buy things off the network. So, that being said, this networking sites should really start stepping up their game when it comes to security, because it could be a long night mare if they don’t.

Source: New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14virus.html?_r=1&em

Twitter Disrupted By Web Attack

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:41:29 +0000

Even though Twitter has been on the rise, they were cyberattacked Thursday. Until Thursday, the site has done a really good job keeping its service relatively clean. It was a denial of service attack, which is when the service is inaccessible to its users. It was not the only service attacked, but it has definitely taken the longest to recover. Future hope is to prevent these kind of attacks from happening again.

I think there will always be Cyber attacks, but the severity of the attack is what I worry about. If a network company is able to handle a situation efficiently, then I think it’s fine. Because Twitter is experiencing this problem, it makes me question how well private information is being protected.

Source New York Times

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/twitter-disrupted-by-web-attack/?ref=technology

Tokyo Man Marries Video Game Character

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:39:59 +0000

One of the most bizarre things I have ever read; Nene Anegasaki is a video game character for the Nintendo DS game “Love Plus”. A 27-year-old man named Sal 9000 proposed and married this video game character. The difference being that he is a human, and she is an animated video character. The character adapts to Sal’s personality the more they interact. The marriage took place online and hundreds of people tuned in to watch it. Sal said he started playing the game then became more attached to the character, again the more they interacted. He is quoted saying “Sal says Nene is better than a human girlfriend. “She doesn’t get angry if I’m late in replying to her. Well, she gets angry, but she forgives me quickly.”" He commented on his addiction to the game, which is playing, or dating, it everyday. This is a weird mix up in a virtual reality world.

I don’t think this will have a big impact of influence. He did get worldwide notice, but I these are individual actions. I think this is totally whack. What has the world come to? You have kids marrying cartoon characters. I believe there is either something wrong with that individual or the society as a whole. The fact that a young man marries a cartoon character just is way overstepping the line.

Source: CNN WORLD

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126109611986796377.html

Military Could Use iPhones to Track Friends, Enemies in War

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:03:11 +0000

A new app showcased by Raytheon, a military contractor, can make way for a new use of Apple’s iPhone. The app is call One Force Tracker, and it can be used to locate friendly or enemy troops, as well as serve as a communication device. The goal of the program is to enable superior situational awareness for friendly troops, giving them an edge in almost every task being done. There is also another app that can calculate ballistics for snipers in the field. The future purpose of the iPhone could be different than we see it now.

I think this is a good idea, and maybe another system geared more towards the military and not socially would be a good buy. The iPhone has had a fair amount of problems with the iPhone, and I don’t think that it is ready to be used in a battlefield. Just thinking about how fragile and sometimes unreliable they are makes me disagree with this article, for now at least. Until a better more reliable source comes out, I don’t think that there should be any integrating of the iPhone into the military.

The introduction of the iPhone into the military could have a major impact on not only Apple, but also the military. They could either benefit or struggle with this new app. I do think it could be effective, just right now I don’t think it is ready to be in war.

Source: WIRED

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126109611986796377.html

Officers Warned of Flaw in U.S. Drones in 2004

stevebeta — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:29:44 +0000

The UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) has become one of the leading technologies in today’s military. With the current war in Iraq, these planes have seen major combat action and have proven succesful. They are used for reconnaissance and other combative duties. The UAV is unmanned in the air, but is really controlled from professional trained military pilots on the ground. It is almost like playing a video game, except with a multi-million dollar plane.

Long story short. The UAV unencrypted video feeds were intercepted by Iraq intelligence back in 2004, the U.S didn’t think much of it because they don’t have the technology to do anything. The problem is that if these video feeds get intercepted by China or Russian Intelligence, things could go bad very quickly. The concern being that the enemy can take control of the UAV, and turn it into a threat against the U.S. The U.S., know recognizing the problem, is quickly trying to find ways to encrypt the video feeds and get secure connections to prevent future disaster.

This article shows that even though we are very technologically advanced we are not perfect. I think this could be a major problem, and should be a top priority to fix. If UAV’s are the future of our Air Force, shouldn’t we have full control and security on them? If this technology gets into the wrong hands, things for the U.S. could get very dangerous.

Source: World Tech News

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126109611986796377.html

Facebook did well, but 2009 was the year of Twitter and Digg

stevebeta — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:23:57 +0000

Basically in 2009 Facebook was the unofficial winner in the social network market. However, twitter and Digg were actually the winners by a small margin, but winners none the less. Twitter became quite the celebrity gig, and was also used by many organizations. Twitter brought also brought in a plentiful amount of money. Digg, also a popular social network, is organized in a way by having people being able to vote on social media. Digg has started to integrate with Facebook and twitter, and is on the rise. Facebook has been struggling with spam, security, and privacy issues. Hopefully by resolving these issues, they will end up on top again.

I think the issues with Facebook are problematic when trying to maintain a good relationship with users. Because it is so popular, it has been hard for Facebook to pinpoint a problem. Once the issues are resolved, they should be able to establish a much smoother relationship with its users.

I agree with this article because Facebook has become a liability. Since all the attention has been on Facebook, twitter and Digg have been able to rise under the radar. Once they start becoming more popular, they to will start to experience problems. It is not easy when you have to deal with millions of customers.

Source: Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20534-LA-Web-20-Examiner~y2009m12d13-Facebook-did-well-but-2009-was-the-year-of-Twitter-and-Digg

Final Website

stevebeta — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:36:20 +0000

This is my final website: Cradle of Coaches

http://www.users.muohio.edu/cripesr/CRIPEFINAL/Homepage.html

Steve Cripe

Google poised to become your new phone company

stevebeta — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:46:38 +0000

Recently, Google bought Gizmo5, an online phone company similar to Skype. Though the company has fewer users than the known Skype, the recent purchase by google could give the company many advantages. With google now having control, contacting people internationally and domestically can be made a lot cheaper. Calling, receiving, voicemail, skyping, etc. will be made available on laptops and will essentially be free. Although there are restrictions right now that google must deal with, but the future may be promising for google.

It is clear that this new system by google will have a major impact on not only the phone industry, but also company profits. If google is the cheapest provider of a good service, more customers will move to google. This will in turn make other companies lower their prices, in all benefitting the customer. Also this new idea can really boost profits for google, and will give google another advantage in the technology dominating industry.

I think this is a good move by google. This will ultimately benefit the customer, and who doesn’t want cheaper phone prices? I think this will take out the unnecessary charging that other companies have manipulated all this time. I also like that this because it promotes competition between the companies. In all, it was an interesting article and i look forward to seeing what happens in the future.

Source:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/13/google.phone.service/index.html

U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets

stevebeta — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:37:35 +0000

Recently, the CIA and other intelligence firms have been investing in Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. The firm uses information publically available but often hidden in blog posts, online videos and radio, and newspapers. Visible accesses over a million posts and conversations via blogs, online forums, Facebook, twitter, etc. The company senior vice president was quoted “That’s kind of the basic step – get in and monitor”.

The general purpose of Visible technologies is to label and tag posts, then forward them to colleagues and allow them to respond. How it works? They label posts as positive/negative/mixed/neutral. Then examine the influence of the author, if what is said is relevant and important. Then colleagues respond to the posts. Visible keeps tabs on Web 2.0 sites, AT&T, and Verizon.

The fear is government intervention is real. “anything that is out in the open is fair game” Steven Aftergood. What is problematic is that there is the chance for unauthorized public investigations or operations. There is the temptation to use this software at an intelligence agencies disposal to compile information on political figures,critics and journalists and could exploit information.

I believe this could be a problem because it could exploit personal information. I don’t think the government should be allowed to access these sites in order to monitor blogs. Since it is public sites, maybe a private blogging site or a public site with privacy rights should be implemented. I think in the future, government access of these sites could lead problematic relations between the government and the public.

Source: Wired: Danger Room

https://mymiami.muohio.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=%2Fbin%2Fcommon%2Fcourse.pl%3Fcourse_id%3D_37916_1