kakostacbhp’s Blog

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080923-study-confirms-users-are-idiots.html

This article reminded me of that phishing quiz we all took. Unfortunately, the results most people got on this quiz were terrible. With all the attention on security and viruses, it’s hard to believe that people would be so careless as to make these kinds of mistakes – especially since they’re so easy to avoid! I don’t care if you just want to get rid of the annoying dialog box as quickly as possible, don’t click “okay” or even “cancel” without reading the message first. As we found in the phishing quiz, it’s easy to fake something like that. One of my high school friends took a programming class and made a dialog box in which the “cancel” button was simply a loop to re-display the box. Imagine what else it could be… The “x” or Alt + F4 are much safer. Please, use common sense!

Cluster computing sounds fascinating. I’m really glad we got to learn some more about that. I’m just a regular old CS major so I probably wouldn’t have any use for it, but I’d be curious to see what a cluster could tell me about my GES group’s marshmallow gun and its capabilities. How much force do you need to launch a marshmallow ten feet? What would be the differences in performance between, say, smokeless powder, a stiff spring, and diet coke and mentos?

On the other hand, I think I’l be having some trouble with UNIX…

I can’t say how happy I am to be finished with that project. Not that it was particularly difficult or time-consuming once I actually sat down and got focused; I just hate long-term deadlines. It was interesting to see how everyone presented their different pieces of information. I loved the Legos, by the way. I also liked being able to answer Drew’s question about rasterizing. (Thank you, high school multimedia class!)

And now we’re moving on to processors and operating systems. After reading the howstuffworks articles on these subjects, I’m starting to understand a little bit more. The microprocessors were fairly straightforward, but the OS article was confusing. I learned little details, but I don’t think I grasped the big picture. Looking forward to having my questions answered in class.

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/don-t-trash-it-20-great-uses-for-your-old-pc-464128?artc_pg=1

This article suggests several alternatives to tossing old PCs, from setting up a closed circuit tv for security to donating its processing power to distributed computing. Erica mentioned the recycling of electronics in one of her blog posts, but this is a different approach to the issue of old computers.

This is a British article, but it would probably do a lot of good in the U.S., too. I know I’m guilty of not thinking about what to do with old computers. Once you’ve got the new one, the old one disappears. Out of sight, out of mind. But this article has some great ideas. My family saved one of our old computers, the kind that takes the 5″ floppies, and set it up for the kids to play games on. SimEarth, anyone? I loved playing ridiculously old games, so it might make an entertaining and inexpensive toy. It’s definitely something to think about, whatever your choice.

Class this week…. interesting. One quiz I liked and one I didn’t. You can guess which one I didn’t. I need to check everyone’s blogs more often.

Other than that, I had a lot of fun. The phishing quiz was probably my favorite. I found the IRS emails particularly ironic because my mom works for the Treasury. But speaking of email, I’m having trouble accepting that the magic email i grew up with is just formatting and text messages. I thought it used some special extra something. I guess I was wrong.

Overall, I’ve found that CBH is definitely my most demanding class. I like that, but it can be challenging trying to finish everything. I tend to procrastinate – as you should be able to tell from the dates and times of my blog posts. The readings, however, I can do beforehand, since those don’t require as much effort as writing. But I’m not terrible at finishing my work… I’ve made it this far without people telling me that I need to get my work done. I think I’ll be trying to kick this habit. So, here goes…

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/wt-tn091008.php

Not really a technological issue, but I find the capabilities of the human brain fascinating. We’ve created so many complicated machines, and yet we still find that nature discovered some things first. I wonder if we’ll ever completely understand our own minds…

A few months ago, my dad told me that he’d seen a tv program about Alzheimer’s and possible cures. One of the things that the researchers found was that activities like drawing, painting, music – any artisitc engagement – were found to slow, and occasionally even reverse, the damage done by the disease. A little while later, I was reading a book about drawing that examined the brain’s role in the process and how it can affect people’s artistic “talent.” And most recently, I’ve been reading Eternal Sabbath – completely fictional, but with a basis in science. One of the first scenes involves a boy who believes that he’s been burned, though in reality he hasn’t. When he’s taken to the hospital, the doctors find that he’s exhibiting symptoms of severe burns, such as damaged skin, irregular lymph nodes, and high blood sugar. It’s a shocking testimony to the power of the brain.

Maybe someday we’ll figure out how to use a little of that power. Imagine having a navigational system like MapQuest or Google Earth in your brain, and being able to add to that store of knowledge merely by glancing at a map or a set of directions. Imagine being able to overlay a map onto the streets you see in front of you as you drive. (I am absolutely terrible at navigating, so I would find this particularly useful.) So maybe I’m something of a freak, but I think I’ve just found a passion of mine. Hello there, brain!

Hopefully. The readings were very helpful. I didn’t understand them at all the first time and I had to really concentrate on every detail. But reading the first one made the second one easier, and so on, and gradually I absorbed the information. Going over the same information in class was also very important since it gave us the chance to ask questions about stuff that the readings didn’t make clear, and was also just another way of looking at the info.

Even better, class discussion lets us hear everyone else’s thoughts. Maybe they can add some detail that I didn’t know, or perhaps they’ll think of questions that I didn’t. I don’t usually ask questions in class, so this last is really good for me. I hadn’t even thought of asking about how domain names, host names, and urls all fit together, but I didn’t understand it well and I’m glad that it was explained.

http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20030228/tech3.shtml

This article talks about different applications of telecommunications technology for medicine and healthcare. Especially with the advent of video phones, telemedicine is becoming a cost-effective and convenient solution for rural areas, as well as for outpatient care.

Most of the article focuses on military and defense applications for telemedicine, specifically for helping trauma patients make it to advanced medical care alive and for crisis situations, including both natural disasters and terrorist attacks, among others. When I read it, I was amazed at what medicine can do when paired with telecommunication. Telecommunication technology has allowed for distant medical expertise to become available immediately when necessary. And because the systems evolved after natural disasters in the 1980s, they can already accomodate partially destroyed physical infrastructure. If necessary, surgeons can even perform on patients thousands of miles away through robots. And it’s nice to see technology being used to help people every now and then.

With all the storms lately, I think many people will be wondering about safety. I, for one, would certainly be happier knowing that there are systems in existence to provide necessary medical assistance to areas affected by natural disasters when circumstances prevent physical aid.