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October 28, 2005
Privacy...? What's that?
Week 8
It was actually a relief to read chapters 5 and 6 since they were not technical and I could relate to what was being explained because of the whole political orientation. I always think it is interesting when I hear about any place that I am directly associated with discussed in books or on TV so the part about Case’s involvement with the Cleveland Freenet was cool even though it happened the year I was born so I guess the notion of having a direct connection is stretching it a bit since I knew nothing of Case until the latter have of my senior year in high school. A political science professor of mine went out of state over fall break, I can not recall where exactly but Maryland comes to mind for some reason and she now appreciates the wireless network here much more since she felt disconnected from the world because she could not go online even though she had her laptop with her the whole time. I got off on a tangent so retuning back to “Internet Galaxy” as usual I am going to bring up a topic addressed in this book that is also been addressed in other courses I have taken and this time it is the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico. I find it worth mentioning because it came up in a reading for one of my Spanish classes and it has come up before in other classes and I am proud of myself when I actually remember events since history a weakness of mine; way too many dates and names.
For the most part the chapters were very informative because I was glad when noopolitik was defined because it was mentioned early on and did not no exactly what it encompassed. Many observations were made that I agree with such as there not being political secrets in the Internet Age once they are told to a small group. The war crimes that the US army committed against their captives was all over the news and people could see the photos online. Even the clips of soldiers being beheaded were available online. Although it is not as important as the examples I have already mentioned but situations that occur with celebrities like R. Kelly and Paris Hilton are accessed by the public via the net. Basically with the internet and how quickly information is spread by it makes it so that secrets are rare in more than just the political arena. Privacy does seem like it was a right of the past that is put aside more frequently as times go by. The Patriot Act ignored privacy as does the freedom of expression when people use it to disburse photos and media clips online. Do not get me wrong I am not trying to say that some of the reasons are legitimate or undermine the Patriot Act but am simply trying to illustrate that in the book when it said people should get over the loss of privacy it has a point but of course I am also not saying that privacy is a lost cause because certain aspects of it should always be protected ofcourse.
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October 18, 2005
Internet and other topics
I am going to start this blog entry on a positive note that really has no true substance other than it made me happy. After receiving the peer editing packet I was feeling a little overwhelmed because I thought we still had to read from “Internet Galaxy”. Thank goodness for planners because if I would have been overly prepared it would be disappointing because I can not afford to be making my workload any heavier. Unfortunately, what I read for this class tends to be stored in short term memory unless I find it incredibly interesting so it can not be done way beforehand. After reading the research papers I found them to be entertaining which was nice because it made the peer editing so much better to do.
On to a more appropriate topic, I always find it to be interesting when topics addressed in one class are also discussed in another. That was the case with the ownership of the Internet issue. Although it was not discussed on the same days it stood out to me since I had read it in my notes repeatedly yesterday and Sunday when reviewing for my Violence in the Political System, Poli. Sci. course. Of course the discussions took two different roles. In the political science class it was brought up to show how the United Nations is not supported as much as the agency that currently is responsible for the internet therefore showing the presence of repression.
Personally, I think that since the internet was developed in the US it should remain its responsibility. I think it is unnecessary to alter the current situation since I do not see anything wrong with it. Why fix it if it isn’t broke? I agree that if it does change then problems are surely going to arise especially when it comes to censoring information on the internet in foreign countries. Even though Chinese will be the most common language spoken in the US, I do not think that is basis for the US to relinquish its right to control the internet due to language when language has failed to be the basis for other decisions. For example, in a Florida county where Spanish was far more spoken there than English they failed to make it the official language. The point is I do not think it is fair that the internet would not be in English firsthand. I understand that this is not the most compassionate view but I think it is in perspective.
Lastly, I would actually like to address “Internet Galaxy”. One of the parts that caught my attention the most was about how Cisco claims they were making these huge changes but Latinos were still being paid a measly 8 dollars to clean for them. That is in no way close to be considered a livable wage considering the location of CISCO. Although, efficiency is always among the advantages of technological advances some things never change. Human interaction is always an issue when addressing issues concerning these advances but what should also be the focus is how certain aspects of the humans are neglected in particular the little people that do the menial labor to survive and are barely doing just that.
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October 14, 2005
WK 6 The Internet Galaxy
Castells’ The Internet Galaxy did succeed in these beginning chapters to bring me to the realization that I was misinformed about hackers. I was under the impression that hackers are what he described as crackers. I always thought that hackers were those to blame for computer viruses. I never had even heard of the term crackers used to refer to the people that are actually the ones being devious. The whole techno-meritocratic culture is new to me. Castells had perfect timing when it came to describing hackers as being “normal” people since at that moment I was thinking about how they are probably loners. Some of my high school peers I am pretty sure can be considered hackers and belong to this culture but before reading this I would not have thought so.
Since my group is writing about the history of internet for the final research paper I did know a little bit about its development. I think it is amazing how so many people especially college students were able to add on their own coding and for the product to be the internet as we know it today. I do not understand how it works but it shows how people can work together and not to sound elementary but share and have so much to show for it. I wonder if more innovations for products came about this way what the outcome would be. It seems limitless. Once again the Leonardo book relates because each person that contributed basically superseded what the other had done before him. Creativity makes progress come a long way.
In Thursday’s class discussion the topic of government’s financial responsibility came was brought up. It is interesting because in my International Relations class that I have prior to SAGES had also discussed the government in terms of how they spend money for projects that may never be necessary. An issue was how the US is contemplating creating some nuclear protection system that would take 15 years to implement and how it would be more feasible to allocate the money on a project that has immediate results. I think these issues relate since the government originally spent so much money to develop on the internet for security measure but the outcome was entirely different. The difference is that everyone benefits even though the government’s original plan failed per se.
Anything related to security usually does get all the necessary money to fund it but now people are a little more hesitant. I am glad the hesitance was not present back then because the world would be an entirely different place. I am sure the internet would have been invented eventually but I wonder how much later. Being that the internet was developed with a security purpose in mind because of the government initiating it, without the governments initial involvement the internet may have developed in stages much different that the ones that took place to get it to how it is now.
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October 06, 2005
Shopping Carts and McDonalds
Both of the films we viewed at class were interesting, especially the first one. It is no wonder why the one young man has put off going to medical school while working for that company. It seems like such a fun job and even though they have many deadlines and projects they really do not have any reason to get stressed as a result of their environment. None of them have to worry about their ideas being criticized. It is also obvious that they value diversity since they do not want a bunch of mundane suggestions for their product innovations.
Instead of just relying on what their own experiences, they also rely on field research to learn the situations of others. It is shocking that modern shopping carts are not used in stores currently when there are so many injuries caused buy them. The velocity of the shopping cart was addressed and so should be the issue with shopping carts running into cars. To prevent this some stores have resorted to charging a quarter for the use of the shopping cart which is refunded when the cart is returned to its rightful location. Most stores place many of those cart holder spots but that does not fix the problem since some people are too lazy to put them there regardless. Last night my friends and I bought groceries at the local Tops at Severance Circle and for the first time I have encountered another approach to this shopping cart dilemma; bars were strategically placed to prevent shopping carts from leaving the vicinity. Of course as a result this presents an inconvenience to the customers. The customer is forced to carry all their groceries to their car if they are alone or if they are more fortunate by coming with others someone can bring the car to them.
On another issue brought up in our class was how McDonalds may be spending lots of money on ubiquitous technology. In high school I remember being told that a McDonalds existed in California that was practically completely run by computers. So there was no need for workers since people could place their orders by themselves. It always seems as if such advancements eradicate menial labor which makes it more efficient but at the same time leaves people of the lower socio-economic strata unemployed among with young people. Advances in technology possibly allow more jobs associated with computers to exist but others are left out in the cold.
In a utopia it would not be an issue because for every job taken away another job would be released. The world is far from being ideal so it does not make sense that people are unemployed. Places need to be cleaned, litter needs to be picked, and tons of other jobs could be done around to make our surroundings better to look out. If everyone that is unemployed had a job then slums probably would cease to exist. Ubiquitous technology would be created to enhance everyone’s life not just those that work on offices and the upper middle class.
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