a cultural critique
I am still loving my new MacBook Pro, and I am still hating my other notebook (yes, it runs that dreadful Windows Vista). However, I wonder if one of Apple’s great tools, Time Machine, may not be a potential security vulnerability.
In an announcement that will likely have long term implications for users of personal computers, the International Linux Foundation today reported that it will release a version of its operating system that will include a link to a distributed network.
I was an avid fan of PCs for 25 years. I was an ardent supporter of Microsoft Windows, even during the dark Me years. However, when Vista came to my desk last fall, I lost my passion for PCs. I bought one of the most capable notebooks available, spending ten times more than I did for my the eight-person 1964 Oldsmobile Jetstar 88 that I drove while I was in college. Yet, Vista ruined this fine piece of computing hardware. Yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and for the last two weeks, I have been in computing heaven.
Americans use multiple resources when searching for specific answers. The traditional sources, libraries and librarians, are still common alternatives, even with the ubiquitous availability of internet access.
At the recent Chaos Communications Congress, Steven J. Murdoch, a researcher in the security group at the University of Cambridge, discussed how clock skew can be used to facilitate a digital attack against anonymity networks. Clock skew, the tendency for a computer’s clock to become less precise when heated, can reduce the efficacy of anonymizers, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Tor network.
The broad acceptance of digital technology—the personal computer, in particular—creates a social breach between those who have access and those who do not. Access is not only a function of being able to buy a PC, but also a function of being able to operate the machine efficiently.
Have you recently been receiving messages from a number of new friends? If so, you are either a good person or a one of the millions of spam victims. Experts estimate that 90% of e-mail traffic is spam, and those spammers claiming to be your friend may not really have your best interests at heart.
A podcast is a digital multimedia file that is distributed via the internet. Podcast listeners/viewers may download individual podcast files or subscribe to a subscription feed that automates the downloading of podcast episodes. Podcasts may be played on a personal computer; however, the inherent portability of the medium encourages use of a mobile playback device, such as a portable MP3 player.
Being away does not mean being gone.
Always on is not always good.
Skills not practiced are lost.
Accessibility is the hallmark of the internet.
Technorati, the recognized blog tracking service, reported that there are fifty-one million blogs were in publication as of today. This is one hundred times more blogs than were in existence when the tracking service started, three years ago.
It is in noting the distinctions that I understand the differences.
The first distinction, for most personal computer users, is one of hardware and software: Microsoft Windows or Macintosh, IBM-style or Apple. Is the computer one that runs Microsoft Windows or Mac OS (operating system)? Fundamentally, is it one made of nonproprietary components, capable of running multiple operating systems (i.e. DOS, Windows, Linux, and Solaris)? Is the system designed specifically to operate the hardware vendor’s operating system, Mac OS, an operating system that, interestingly, is based on the open source Linux operating system?
I may not have caused the problem, but I am willing to repair the problem.
How well do users accept responsibility for the perceived complexity of digital systems?
Although I judge that popular digital computers are less secure and more difficult to use than they could easily otherwise be, primarily because buyers are swayed in their decision making by marketing influences, I also judge that most end users don’t accept sufficient responsibility to learn the nuances, strengths, and weaknesses of the systems that purchase or use.
Everything doesn’t go right, the first time.
It is difficult to accept digital failures and the all-too-often human failure to properly use digital technology as it was designed to be used.
Communication is the heart of all relationships.
Weblogs—blogs—are a product of the need to make it easier to publish on the web. For the less technically adept user, blogs are a venue to online publishing that requires almost no special training. I have read many articles that describe blogs as a source for writers, web publishers. When I discuss blogs with adult university students, especially business management majors, a common reaction is that the blogging software is a facilitation tool that the could use to build web content without leaning heavily on the support of information systems staff or contract computer advisors or webmasters.
Wikipedia, the popular online reference source for undergraduates and consumers, worldwide, has more than 15 times the number of articles than the well-known Encyclopedia Britannica, the self-proclaimed “world’s most indispensable and reliable reference resource.”
McAfee’s antivirus software caused problems for Microsoft Excel users, on Friday. Just as Excel users, around the world, were attempting to complete their day’s work, the virus signatures, pushed to them by McAfee, caused the McAfee software to incorrectly identify the excel.exe file as being infected by the W95/CTX virus.
Google, Inc. seems to hope that thousands, possibly millions, of internet users will trust their digital data to the Mountain View, California company, the same one that sings forth the anthem “Don’t be evil.”
