Final Part II

Newton Home 1














Nantucket Home 2













Hawaii Home 3

Week 7 Google Earth

At first glance google earth was rather vast in features and a simple user interface. After navigating around a bit. I found more basic functions to be very useful such as looking up my home address and seeing what is near by. Also directions were easily brought up and you had the option to take a tour which is a version of a video turn by turn. This is a great feature and allows you to be aware of your destination. The layers are a bit bothersome but I particularly found the places of interest feature to be interesting although it doesn't seem very updated. Another feature I found very intriguing was the sky feature. This was changeable under the view settings and it was really interesting and useful for astronomers. I wasn't able to find any alien planets thus far but I am still trying to find a bug. I thought the nebulae star history was great. Here is a picture of my findings.


Some really feature rich options are available and I have yet to explore them all. My concerns are that there is too much information being provided here but it seems the information is limited both in terms of recent data and personal data. As long as GE maintains this approach I do not believe there will be any privacy issues. After looking for the flight tracking option I had to install an add on of the kml plugin. I had to do a little navigation in order to find this feature. But there is an assortment of add-ons if you do a quick search. I am not sure if google themselves provides these plugins or if they come from 3rd parties. These could provide complication and possible software glitches in the future. Overall I was impressed with the array of features GE has to offer. I would probably of hesitated to explore them anytime soon up until now.

Week 6 video assignment

Here is the week 6 short video.

Commercialization Opinions Week 3

It is my belief that we are on the merge of setting trends in a new world of the information age. Data and information will not only be more readily available but more of it will exist. How data is stored from recent years such as tape drives and paper is now being transformed to digital. So how and who will likely benefit from the implementation and exposure of this information. I believe such players like microsoft , yahoo , apple and google will be in the forefront of this technology. A few articles posted here (http://www.ginside.com/) show a brief insight of what these sorts of companies are focusing on for the future. My insight is that such companies like these will have innovative and very powerful tools available to either paying customers or the general public. The strongest bridge to this will be the mobile phone service providers. In my mind this is perhaps the best way to translate lots of information to people that is readily accessible by fingertip. Not only will web access be granted and used as it is now but more customized and evolved options will be possible. Such things like voice search of information or access to business related subscriptions and archives of research data. Whatever the need be these large companies will cater to the information needs businesses and the public have. The ipod is a great example of how information can be shared conveniently and fast. Google is jumping on the bandwagon to the cellular industry and will probably surpass every other companies holdings within this market segment. Googles phone concept is mentioned here http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/WhatAGooglePhoneMightLookLike.aspx
Given the aptitude of this information age it will be crucial to try and contain the information is a secure manner. I do not see how this is possible and likely to do. It poses a sever threat on society as we know it. I remember reading an article I believe it was in business week about who has more personal information available on people of our society google or the fbi? My obvious answer would be google but it is not something everyone is concerned about or even for that matter if they know they should be concerned with this idea. How to handle this information that will be available to the masses is a trifling idea. Concerns are already brewing as google makes it's presence a little too close for some. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01private.html?ex=1338350400&en=0041b797a3d6dd18&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss)
This article states how google earth is really stepping beyond it's guidelines and quite honestly I do not think this huge conglomerate cares and can be so easily regulated. The government in my opinion isn't doing much to regulate google just as much as microsoft is able to dominate a market. I thought it was illegal to have a monopoly in such environments but I guess people have different opinions of what a monopoly consists of. Don't you think it's scary that google has a monopoly of information on not just general information but private information that will be "access granted" to whom ever wishes.

Cyber Warfare Dilema

More then ever cyber warfare has become a serious concern. Relating to the events of the terrorist attacks and cyber crimes it is apparent that cyber warfare does exist and is getting worse. Terrorist groups have ways of training and developing the neccesary skills used to attack governments and populations in either a cyber warfare or regular warfare. Such skills that are taught include weapons training on certain sites and hacking skills. These cyber warfares have even gotten to the point of resulting from political issues such as between Russian and Estonia. According to an article in the Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/19/the_cyberwar_against_the_united_states/
This clearly shows how a dispute over a World War II statue can even cause a great cyber war. Government sites were being hacked amongst banking sites. It is important to acknowledge this and put proper measures in place to avoid such cyber warfare in the future. The US has taken the initiative and the Navy has created a command that will specialize in the fight and protection against cyber warfare. Some form of prevention at this point is a necessity since it is likely the crimes will only get worse. The article concering what the US Navy has in mind can be found here http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Air_Force_sets_up_Cyber_Command_999.html
The french and Russians have accused China of hacking some of their government sites but at this point can't provide proof that the cyber warfare attack came from Chinas government. It is worth noting that these crimes are very deceiving and a lot of misconception can be mistaken for the wrong reasons even leading to a real war. For this reason it is extremely important we deal with cyber warfare in it's current state before it gets to a level that is out of control. Such as terrorism is a great concern so should be cyber warfare.

Internet Media Influences

After researching this weeks blog assignment for my class I found some rather interesting and bothersome issues within the online media. I have never really kept up with the political world that surrounds me. The reason why I don't find political issues to be worth while is that it will probably provide me with more stress and frustration on top of my busy schedule. With the time I did spend researching this topic it came to me that the political world is really turning into a celebrity world. After reading an article found here http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/14/techpresident-tracking-candidate-use-of-myspace-youtube-adsense/
It is clear to me that the campaigning rules are a bit too flexible. Advertisements,commercials and speeches are fake enough we do not need an easier more powerful solution to brain wash america. We have had a lot of amazing presidents in the past but I feel these presidents believed in true american values.

The Incident of Barack Obama's team taking over the myspace page of a supporter was surely a wrong thing to do. This should be considered a form of unfair campaign practice. Not to mention it shows how influential the campaigns actually are. This can be dangerous if considered in certain ways.

In response to the names of websites and there affect towards website visitors is another problematic area to consider. There are all sorts of negative sites about certain individuals that can ruin a persons image and reputation even if that person has done nothing wrong. People will believe what they see more then what they hear. President bush is a good example since his name is found almost everywhere online and in a negative manner.

laptop Malarky

The reason why the consumer gets so wrapped up in the whole which laptop should I buy scheme is quite confusing. After all most laptops generally have similar and the same components. This is because laptops are made by original design manufacturers and then sold to companies like Dell, Sager, Alienware who claim to be manufacturers but in my mind they are assemblers. It is truly hard to tell which laptop is reliable and superior for the normal consumer. It truly bothers me why companies are allowed to encourage such misleading elements to consumers. These companies basically put the frosting on the cake and markup by ridiculous amounts. So next time you shop for a laptop chances are it is not made by the branded label on the casing.