Last day of lectures :( At least it was a good one :)
I had no idea that there was so much free software available on the web. I have been searching forever trying to find a database program that I could download for free. I have Microsoft Office, but it's the home version which doesn't include Microsoft Access. Not only did we talk about the right for users to free software, but Steve included a website at the end which lists free software. Yay! Who wouldn't agree with the concept of free software? It costs like and extra $200 dollars when you buy a new computer to get Microsoft Office included, and maybe if you're lucky a limited use of a virus protection program. I'm not particularly computer savvy and didn't even know about patches you could get to fix glitches in the old programs (usually I don't even understand there is a problem). I only update my software when that little box on my computer comes up and says there is an update available. I like the fact that people can put stuff they've created on the internet for free and can be protected against someone stealing that product and using it for commercial gain. It makes me happy that there are people who want to use their knowledge for good instead of for profit.
I was write in my initial reaction to Primer, it's a crazy movie. I was lazy and instead of researching the movie like Steve said, I came in to it totally unprepared. I actually thought I had a moderate grasp on what happened, and then I did some research. Wow, I was totally off the mark. I found out that there were 7 different timelines, when I only knew about half of them. I couldn't follow which Aarons and which Abes got killed and why. I still don't understand who knew about the extra machine first and why they went back to before the whole thing started. The plot line got lost in the craziness of the time travel. I would like to watch it again though to try and follow it a bit better and see if I can follow the story line better the next time around, now that I know what to expect.
So on with the Tutorial Task. Write a 500 word critical reflection of the course.
I enjoyed taking this course. I think experiences like this are why it is beneficial to study abroad. As a biology/chemistry major I would never have gotten the opportunity to take a course like this back home. I am required to take lots of classes that have nothing to do with my major, but even that is within a certain boundary. I'm not even sure we have a class like this at my University. My favorite thing about this class is that it was not a technical computer course. It was a technology course for people interested in technological philosophy. A lot of the lectures made you really think about what this technology is and how will that impact you personally, and society as a whole. My favorite lectures were the ones about virtual reality and time travel. These are interesting concepts that fascinate lots of people, but no course really touches on them, except maybe a physics. They also made me think the hardest about how these topics could impact my life, especially virtual reality. It might have also been that two of the movies we watched were also about virtual reality and time travel. I also enjoyed writing my essay. With so much freedom to choose a topic it's easy to find something you want to write about. I actually feel like I've learned a lot about the law and how it pertains (or in some cases doesn't pertain) to the Internet. Steve was a very enthusiastic guy. He seems to really enjoy what he does and is passionate about what he teaches. Our final was very fair and really I think Steve did an overall excellent job with the class.
My opinion of the movies we saw is mixed. I thought Primer was a bit hard to understand and wouldn't recommend it. The concept was cool though and you should probably show another movie relating to time travel because that's a very interesting topic. Existenz was awesome and I think everyone should watch this movie. It almost serves as a warning to humanity, be careful how far you push technology. Alphaville was pretty good too. I guess all the movies we saw were a bit out of the ordinary, pushing the envelope of our imaginations. Though La Jetee was different, 12 Monkeys is soooo much better. I think the kids in the class would have enjoyed watching 12 Monkeys.
I'm mixed on the tutorials. I enjoyed some of them, mostly the ones with Photoshop and 3D worlds. I didn't particularly enjoy the scavenger hunt or the Microsoft Word and Excel. Instead maybe you should have the students do further research into the topics that you bring up in class. I would have love to have done a scavenger hunt or some kind of tutorial tasks on Black Holes or find sites about e-democracy. Maybe let students have a choice on what tutorial task they want to research from that weeks lecture.
Overall I have a very high impression of this class and would recommend it to other students.
I just want to say thank you to Steve, Adam, Chris, and Jules.
You did an excellent job running a great class and I appreciate all your hard work.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Week 11
I have had little experience with Microsoft Excel so I knew today's tutorial task was going to be more difficult then last weeks task with word. Sure enough within exercise two I encountered my first problem. However, this was not completely my fault. In the tutorial manual it says that to calculate gains/losses write the formula =IF(F2>0,$Gain$,$Loss$). However, whenever I wrote this formula I kept getting an error message. The message advised me to click on the function key next to the formula which I did. A screen then popped up which told me I was entering an invalid code for both gains and losses. I deleted the $ signs and just wrote gains and losses. This worked and the formula appeared in the boxes just like described.
The advanced exercise with the Macros was an absolute nightmare for me. I followed the instructions, or so I thought, exactly as written but in the end my buttons did not produce the Gain/Loss lines like they should. Wait let me correct that, the GainsandLosses button produced something but not gains and losses, only gains. The other two buttons didn't work at all. I decided to go back to the beginning and try it again, see if I just accidentally skipped over something. I repeated the instructions again exactly and the same thing happened.
I asked Adam what was going wrong because I was getting extremely frustrated with this program. After explaining what was happening I discovered there was an unusual quirk with the macros. If you show the losses first, the gains will disappear. However, they don't later reappear when you try to click on the losses and gains. You have to go in order from gains and losses, to gain, to losses in order for all of the correct graphs to appear.
Extremely Annoying
Todays lecture was extremely interesting. It really changed my view of what a hacker was. The media always uses the word hacker to describe when a virus gets sent or information gets stolen. Because of this I had an extremely negative impression of hackers. To me they were extremely smart computer geeks who like to break into computer systems to cause havoc or for monetary gain. To think that Hackers are important to democracy on the internet would have seemed laughable to me.
However, my favorite part of the lecture was the physics lesson. Having never taken physics I only knew the absolute basics. I never realized how interesting this topic was. Steve explained the theory of relativity in such simple terms that it makes such absolute sense now, when before it seemed completely incomprehensible. I am still a bit confused about Black Holes, but I'm really interested about reading up on them now. I know the gravity would crush the human body so we couldn't survive, and I understand that time is eternity in a black hole. What I don't get is that the lecture notes say that at the center of a black hole space and time do literally have boundaries you can cross. Does this mean that light and atoms that go in the black hole, if they eventually get to the center, time travel? Do they exist in different times? Wouldn't that create extra mass that would be measurable by scientists? So many questions.
Almost wish I had taken physics now.
Primer is going to be an interesting movie. Though it is very understandable now, time travel movies can get extremely complicated. The movie has an interesting concept, but is very slow and the dialogue is rough and doesn't flow easily for the audience to understand. The movie introduces all these different concepts about computers and physics, but never really explains them. Unless you were very knowledgeable about those concepts, they can be very difficult to follow. Steve's warning at the end of class to research as much information as possible about the movie seemed a bit ominous. If Steve thinks its wild and hard to understand, I can just imagine how the rest of us will be feeling.
The advanced exercise with the Macros was an absolute nightmare for me. I followed the instructions, or so I thought, exactly as written but in the end my buttons did not produce the Gain/Loss lines like they should. Wait let me correct that, the GainsandLosses button produced something but not gains and losses, only gains. The other two buttons didn't work at all. I decided to go back to the beginning and try it again, see if I just accidentally skipped over something. I repeated the instructions again exactly and the same thing happened.
I asked Adam what was going wrong because I was getting extremely frustrated with this program. After explaining what was happening I discovered there was an unusual quirk with the macros. If you show the losses first, the gains will disappear. However, they don't later reappear when you try to click on the losses and gains. You have to go in order from gains and losses, to gain, to losses in order for all of the correct graphs to appear.
Extremely Annoying
Todays lecture was extremely interesting. It really changed my view of what a hacker was. The media always uses the word hacker to describe when a virus gets sent or information gets stolen. Because of this I had an extremely negative impression of hackers. To me they were extremely smart computer geeks who like to break into computer systems to cause havoc or for monetary gain. To think that Hackers are important to democracy on the internet would have seemed laughable to me.
However, my favorite part of the lecture was the physics lesson. Having never taken physics I only knew the absolute basics. I never realized how interesting this topic was. Steve explained the theory of relativity in such simple terms that it makes such absolute sense now, when before it seemed completely incomprehensible. I am still a bit confused about Black Holes, but I'm really interested about reading up on them now. I know the gravity would crush the human body so we couldn't survive, and I understand that time is eternity in a black hole. What I don't get is that the lecture notes say that at the center of a black hole space and time do literally have boundaries you can cross. Does this mean that light and atoms that go in the black hole, if they eventually get to the center, time travel? Do they exist in different times? Wouldn't that create extra mass that would be measurable by scientists? So many questions.
Almost wish I had taken physics now.
Primer is going to be an interesting movie. Though it is very understandable now, time travel movies can get extremely complicated. The movie has an interesting concept, but is very slow and the dialogue is rough and doesn't flow easily for the audience to understand. The movie introduces all these different concepts about computers and physics, but never really explains them. Unless you were very knowledgeable about those concepts, they can be very difficult to follow. Steve's warning at the end of class to research as much information as possible about the movie seemed a bit ominous. If Steve thinks its wild and hard to understand, I can just imagine how the rest of us will be feeling.
Week 10 Tutorial
The first three exercises in this tutorial were very basic. As a student I've had to change the style of the font, double space the text, and add headers and footers for many of my essays. I found the advanced exercises new but not exactly challenging. I had never used the track changes button before and it was kind of cool to see the effects it had on the text. The mail merge button was not something I had used before and is not something I can see myself using in the future. While I understand that it may be convenient for someone who is constantly having to send letters to different companies and needs all the information on file, I don't really have any need for it in my daily life. It is easier to just write the name of the person and all their information directly into the document instead of putting it in a saved list and then having to cut and paste the correct <> to where it is needed in the document.
I did not have any problems in performing any of the exercises, though the last one with the mail merge was a bit tedious and annoying. Though I did find the exercises easy I know it is just because I am familiar with Microsoft Word since I use it so much. Word is a great tool for any student. Some of the features that I like that were not mentioned in this tutorial are the highlighting feature and the ability to change the color of the text. When I am organizing an essay and I have lots of journal articles and information I find that by color coding the author it is much easier for referencing and organization. The highlighting feature also allows me to highlight areas of my essay that are incomplete as a reminder to myself to go back later and fix them.
The end of Existenz was really wild. I started guessing towards the end, when everything started changing really quick that the entire movie was part of the game. It made sense because all of the characters, even from the begining, always shouted "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller" Once the scences started changing so quick it took away the feeling of it being too seperate worlds and made it seem as it was all part of the game. I LOVED the way it ended. The chinese guys question was the same one the audience had "Are we still in the Game?" The line between virtual reality and actual reality seemed so blurred in the movie that it was almost frightening. Could society come to a point where we know longer know where one reality begins and another ends? Trippy
I did not have any problems in performing any of the exercises, though the last one with the mail merge was a bit tedious and annoying. Though I did find the exercises easy I know it is just because I am familiar with Microsoft Word since I use it so much. Word is a great tool for any student. Some of the features that I like that were not mentioned in this tutorial are the highlighting feature and the ability to change the color of the text. When I am organizing an essay and I have lots of journal articles and information I find that by color coding the author it is much easier for referencing and organization. The highlighting feature also allows me to highlight areas of my essay that are incomplete as a reminder to myself to go back later and fix them.
The end of Existenz was really wild. I started guessing towards the end, when everything started changing really quick that the entire movie was part of the game. It made sense because all of the characters, even from the begining, always shouted "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller" Once the scences started changing so quick it took away the feeling of it being too seperate worlds and made it seem as it was all part of the game. I LOVED the way it ended. The chinese guys question was the same one the audience had "Are we still in the Game?" The line between virtual reality and actual reality seemed so blurred in the movie that it was almost frightening. Could society come to a point where we know longer know where one reality begins and another ends? Trippy
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Week 10 Essay
The internet has been a useful tool for criminals, which has led to an increase in crimes especially child pornography.
The popularity and easy access of the internet has led to a whole new era of crimes, the most heinous of these crimes being child pornography. Some of the reasons that the internet has become a sanctuary for these criminals are: the anonymity of the internet, the fact that criminals are only subject to laws from within the country they reside, and the fact that there is no international governing body policing the internet. Though child pornography has been around long before the advent of the internet, the internet has become a tool to increase the outreach and create a community of these pedophiles.
The anonymity of the internet has created an environment where thieves have a much easier time getting away with a crime. Most criminals who use the internet as their medium have some degree of knowledge of the internet. These criminals use that knowledge to hack into serves to falsify IP numbers, trace lists, and other identification (Palme, 2002). Though it is usually possible to track down these criminals, the work is tedious and many times crosses legal jurisdictions. For example, “A person posting a picture, the server, the picture site where other users can locate the image, and the site providing the password for access may all represent different legal jurisdictions”(Bauserman, 2003).
One of the biggest challenges when dealing with internet crimes is that cyberspace has no borders. This is especially frustrating in terms of how criminals are punished. One of the biggest producers of child porn is Russia. In Russia, there is no distinction between adult and child pornography, and possession of any type of pornography is not a crime (Shytov, 2005). In fact in over 130 countries possession of pornography is not a crime; and in over 120 countries there are no laws which address child pornography distributed over the internet (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006). The international centre, along with Interpol, found that only 5 countries (United States, Australia, Belgium, France, and South Africa) whose laws were adequate enough to deal with child pornography (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006).
There have been some programs and laws created in order to fight child pornography. In Florida the Cybercrimes Against Children Act of 2007 has just recently been passed (Jones, 2007). This act specifically addresses pedophiles who target children over the internet, and includes a harsher sentence for offenders. The FBI has also created the Innocent Images National Initiative, which targets sexual predators over the internet (Mueller, 2007). Internationally, efforts to control child pornography are few, and nowhere near adequate enough. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, which entered into force on September 2, 1990, is the first convention that specifically addresses child pornography (Esposito, 1998). This convention was the first to attack the issue of child pornography at an international level. The First World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Stockholm in 1996 (Sinclair, 2005). However, the specific issue of internet related crimes was not discussed. The Council of Europe Cybercrime has been the only multilateral treaty to address specifically child pornography as a computer crime (Shytov, 2005). While there has been limited international cooperation to regulate child pornography, most of it has been highly ineffective. “A 2002 report by ECPAT International and the Bangkok Post estimated that 100,000 child pornography web sites existed in 2001” (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006). By 2003 that number had doubled.
Since law makers have been so ineffective in stopping online child pornography many citizens have decided to become online vigilantes. Perverted Justice is one of many online vigilante groups. They have a list of over 675 men who they have met in online chat rooms while posing as preteen girls (Schultz, 2004). They post these men’s picture, contact details, and online conversation on their website. While they can not actually arrest these predators, they do set up sting operations with their decoy profiles. These operations attract anywhere from ten to thirty men who believe they are going to have sex with a girl between the ages of eleven and fourteen (Perverted Justice, 2007). These men are in for a nasty shock when not only are they surrounded by police, but they find NBC Dateline news cameras capturing footage for their upcoming edition of “How to Catch a Predator” (Perverted Justice, 2007).
Child abuse is not a crime caused by the advent of the internet. Pedophiles existed throughout history. The Greek emperor Alexander the Great is documented having a sexual relationship with a boy (Wright, 2002). In more recent times we have learned that many Catholic priests have been abusing young boys in the past. Still for the most part these criminals had limited access to child pornography. Today, the internet has made viewing child pornography easier then ever before. Web sites, message boards, file sharing, email, and web cams are just a few of the many avenues the internet has opened (Mueller, 2007). With so much pornography available, these predators have become desensitized to these acts of molestation (Mueller, 2007). Men who might have started out just observing may become enticed to actually seek out children to molest. The internet has also led to a feeling of security among children. Myspace is a social networking website that is popular among teenagers today. However, in only twenty days of looking through myspace profiles, Perverted Justice found 1,203 myspace pages of registered sex offenders (Perverted Justice, 2007).
For most people the words “advanced technology” usually have a positive connotation. This seems reasonable as the advancement of civilization has been dependent on humans’ ability to create new and innovative technology. However, along with the benefits this new technology brings, there will always be disadvantages. For millions of children around the world this has meant a loss of security and new vulnerability, even within their own homes. The anonymity of the internet and the false sense of security of social networks for teens, have made them easy prey for online predators. The lack of international cooperation, and lenient penalties for offenders in most countries, has allowed this tragedy to flourish. While vigilantes try to help authorities bring these criminals to justice, their victories seem small in comparison to the amount of child molesters who get away unpunished.
References
Bauserman, Robert (2003) “Child Pornography Online: Myth, Fact and Social Control” The Journal of Sex Research 40(2): 219
Esposito, Lesli C. (1998) “Regulating the Internet: The new battle against child pornography” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 30(2,3): 541-566
International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2006) “New Study Reveals Child Pornography Not a Crime in Most Countries” Press Release http://www.icmec.org/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_X1&PageId=2338 (accessed 10 May 2007)
Jones, K.C. (2007) “Crackdown on Pedophiles” InformationWeek 1132(1): 23
Mueller, Robert S. (2007) “Child Pornography and the Internet” Vital Speeches of the Day 73(1): 45-47
Palme, Jacob (2002) “Anonymity on the Internet” http://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/society/anonymity.html (accessed 10 May 2007)
Perverted Justice (2007) http://www.perverted-justice.com/ (accessed 10 May 2007)
Schultz, Marisa (2004) “Online Vigilantes hunt down pedophiles” US Today http://www.rickross.com/reference/perverted_justice/perverted_justice6.html
(accessed 10 May 2007)
Shytov, Alexander (2005) “Indecency on the Internet and International Law” International Journal of Law and Information Technology 13(2)
Sinclair, Ruth (2005) “Child Protection” Research Matters 18(1): 19-25
Wright, Michael Phillip (2002) “Abuse of Boys and Slaves by the Homosexual Patriarchs of Ancient Greece and Rome” http://members.aol.com/mpwright9/greece.html (accessed 10 May 2007)
The popularity and easy access of the internet has led to a whole new era of crimes, the most heinous of these crimes being child pornography. Some of the reasons that the internet has become a sanctuary for these criminals are: the anonymity of the internet, the fact that criminals are only subject to laws from within the country they reside, and the fact that there is no international governing body policing the internet. Though child pornography has been around long before the advent of the internet, the internet has become a tool to increase the outreach and create a community of these pedophiles.
The anonymity of the internet has created an environment where thieves have a much easier time getting away with a crime. Most criminals who use the internet as their medium have some degree of knowledge of the internet. These criminals use that knowledge to hack into serves to falsify IP numbers, trace lists, and other identification (Palme, 2002). Though it is usually possible to track down these criminals, the work is tedious and many times crosses legal jurisdictions. For example, “A person posting a picture, the server, the picture site where other users can locate the image, and the site providing the password for access may all represent different legal jurisdictions”(Bauserman, 2003).
One of the biggest challenges when dealing with internet crimes is that cyberspace has no borders. This is especially frustrating in terms of how criminals are punished. One of the biggest producers of child porn is Russia. In Russia, there is no distinction between adult and child pornography, and possession of any type of pornography is not a crime (Shytov, 2005). In fact in over 130 countries possession of pornography is not a crime; and in over 120 countries there are no laws which address child pornography distributed over the internet (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006). The international centre, along with Interpol, found that only 5 countries (United States, Australia, Belgium, France, and South Africa) whose laws were adequate enough to deal with child pornography (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006).
There have been some programs and laws created in order to fight child pornography. In Florida the Cybercrimes Against Children Act of 2007 has just recently been passed (Jones, 2007). This act specifically addresses pedophiles who target children over the internet, and includes a harsher sentence for offenders. The FBI has also created the Innocent Images National Initiative, which targets sexual predators over the internet (Mueller, 2007). Internationally, efforts to control child pornography are few, and nowhere near adequate enough. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, which entered into force on September 2, 1990, is the first convention that specifically addresses child pornography (Esposito, 1998). This convention was the first to attack the issue of child pornography at an international level. The First World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Stockholm in 1996 (Sinclair, 2005). However, the specific issue of internet related crimes was not discussed. The Council of Europe Cybercrime has been the only multilateral treaty to address specifically child pornography as a computer crime (Shytov, 2005). While there has been limited international cooperation to regulate child pornography, most of it has been highly ineffective. “A 2002 report by ECPAT International and the Bangkok Post estimated that 100,000 child pornography web sites existed in 2001” (International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006). By 2003 that number had doubled.
Since law makers have been so ineffective in stopping online child pornography many citizens have decided to become online vigilantes. Perverted Justice is one of many online vigilante groups. They have a list of over 675 men who they have met in online chat rooms while posing as preteen girls (Schultz, 2004). They post these men’s picture, contact details, and online conversation on their website. While they can not actually arrest these predators, they do set up sting operations with their decoy profiles. These operations attract anywhere from ten to thirty men who believe they are going to have sex with a girl between the ages of eleven and fourteen (Perverted Justice, 2007). These men are in for a nasty shock when not only are they surrounded by police, but they find NBC Dateline news cameras capturing footage for their upcoming edition of “How to Catch a Predator” (Perverted Justice, 2007).
Child abuse is not a crime caused by the advent of the internet. Pedophiles existed throughout history. The Greek emperor Alexander the Great is documented having a sexual relationship with a boy (Wright, 2002). In more recent times we have learned that many Catholic priests have been abusing young boys in the past. Still for the most part these criminals had limited access to child pornography. Today, the internet has made viewing child pornography easier then ever before. Web sites, message boards, file sharing, email, and web cams are just a few of the many avenues the internet has opened (Mueller, 2007). With so much pornography available, these predators have become desensitized to these acts of molestation (Mueller, 2007). Men who might have started out just observing may become enticed to actually seek out children to molest. The internet has also led to a feeling of security among children. Myspace is a social networking website that is popular among teenagers today. However, in only twenty days of looking through myspace profiles, Perverted Justice found 1,203 myspace pages of registered sex offenders (Perverted Justice, 2007).
For most people the words “advanced technology” usually have a positive connotation. This seems reasonable as the advancement of civilization has been dependent on humans’ ability to create new and innovative technology. However, along with the benefits this new technology brings, there will always be disadvantages. For millions of children around the world this has meant a loss of security and new vulnerability, even within their own homes. The anonymity of the internet and the false sense of security of social networks for teens, have made them easy prey for online predators. The lack of international cooperation, and lenient penalties for offenders in most countries, has allowed this tragedy to flourish. While vigilantes try to help authorities bring these criminals to justice, their victories seem small in comparison to the amount of child molesters who get away unpunished.
References
Bauserman, Robert (2003) “Child Pornography Online: Myth, Fact and Social Control” The Journal of Sex Research 40(2): 219
Esposito, Lesli C. (1998) “Regulating the Internet: The new battle against child pornography” Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 30(2,3): 541-566
International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (2006) “New Study Reveals Child Pornography Not a Crime in Most Countries” Press Release http://www.icmec.org/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_X1&PageId=2338 (accessed 10 May 2007)
Jones, K.C. (2007) “Crackdown on Pedophiles” InformationWeek 1132(1): 23
Mueller, Robert S. (2007) “Child Pornography and the Internet” Vital Speeches of the Day 73(1): 45-47
Palme, Jacob (2002) “Anonymity on the Internet” http://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/society/anonymity.html (accessed 10 May 2007)
Perverted Justice (2007) http://www.perverted-justice.com/ (accessed 10 May 2007)
Schultz, Marisa (2004) “Online Vigilantes hunt down pedophiles” US Today http://www.rickross.com/reference/perverted_justice/perverted_justice6.html
(accessed 10 May 2007)
Shytov, Alexander (2005) “Indecency on the Internet and International Law” International Journal of Law and Information Technology 13(2)
Sinclair, Ruth (2005) “Child Protection” Research Matters 18(1): 19-25
Wright, Michael Phillip (2002) “Abuse of Boys and Slaves by the Homosexual Patriarchs of Ancient Greece and Rome” http://members.aol.com/mpwright9/greece.html (accessed 10 May 2007)
Week 9
My essay so far is coming along pretty good. I originally knew that I wanted to do an essay on cybercrimes, but wasn't quite sure what type. I showed Adam a couple of choices and he said that any of those would be fine. I went to the library and started looking up internet crimes, to see what kind of information was available both in the library and online journals. I found lots of information on identity theft, however the language used was technical and hard to understand. It was also quite boring to read through. I decided that if I want to write a good essay I need something that I'm passionate to write about. As an avid viewer of Law and Order: SVU I knew that online child pornography was a real problem. I decided that while a bit of a depressing topic to research about, I would learn a lot about how the internet has become a breeding ground for pedophiles, and what we can do to stop it. Some of what I've researched has disgust me, especially learning that in most countries (Besides America and Australia) there are no laws against possessing child pornography. These countries are using the right of freedom as justification for why they can't punish these people. I knew child pornography was a problem, but I also knew there was a lot of awareness about it in the U.S. However, in most other countries not only is there a lack of awareness but a lack of punishment for offenders by the legal system.
Cyberpunk is a really depressing genre. I understand that the world isn't perfect but to only see the bad in everything must be pretty depressing. It does make you think and give you a different perspective on what will happen in the future, but I think it makes it soooo extreme that its almost ridiculous. I don't agree with the Utopian views of Plato or Sir Thomas Moore, but the Dystopia view in "Brave New World" and "1984" again go to an extreme that I can't see happening. The Utopia and Dystopia views are so far to the extremes of a normal scale for society that both seem only plausible in a philosophical sense, never a practical sense.
Existenz is proving to be a very thought provoking film. Jude Law's experience in existenz shows the flaws on the computer game which separates it from reality. The characters in the game have to answer questions a certain way in order for the game to progress. Characters within the game will idle if they go for a period of time without being spoken too. Basically we see that while the virtual reality world is an amazing experience, it's not without its own bugs and glitches that come with any computer system. The game world seems almost like a continuation of the real world. The guns are the same and that saying "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller" is the same. It's almost if the two worlds have some how merged. I can't wait to see the end of this movie. Hopefully it will kind of sum things up.
Cyberpunk is a really depressing genre. I understand that the world isn't perfect but to only see the bad in everything must be pretty depressing. It does make you think and give you a different perspective on what will happen in the future, but I think it makes it soooo extreme that its almost ridiculous. I don't agree with the Utopian views of Plato or Sir Thomas Moore, but the Dystopia view in "Brave New World" and "1984" again go to an extreme that I can't see happening. The Utopia and Dystopia views are so far to the extremes of a normal scale for society that both seem only plausible in a philosophical sense, never a practical sense.
Existenz is proving to be a very thought provoking film. Jude Law's experience in existenz shows the flaws on the computer game which separates it from reality. The characters in the game have to answer questions a certain way in order for the game to progress. Characters within the game will idle if they go for a period of time without being spoken too. Basically we see that while the virtual reality world is an amazing experience, it's not without its own bugs and glitches that come with any computer system. The game world seems almost like a continuation of the real world. The guns are the same and that saying "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller" is the same. It's almost if the two worlds have some how merged. I can't wait to see the end of this movie. Hopefully it will kind of sum things up.
Week 8
What are the qualitative differences between the regular Instant Message program and a 3D environment? Also, what is different about the kinds of socialising that happens in these spaces? Does the 3D aspect make much difference?
In a 3D program you are not just chatting with others through text. You are creating a virtual image of yourself and displaying emotions along with your words. You are able to interact with other members of the community in a virtual reality instead of just through words. It involves more creativity then just your standard IM. In the 3D world you get to create a profile and image for your own character. There is more of a sense of community in the 3D world since you all coexist in a virtual reality that you help create. In a regular IM program you will usually only talk with people you know, and maybe the occasional stranger. Even in online chat rooms you usually won't find the same people in that chat room day after day. Since the 3D environment is about both gaming and chatting you will find a larger percentage of "regulars" in the 3D worlds. Since these spaces are very social you may find that people who are loners or unhappy with their social life in the real world might escape into these virtual reality zones. There is a certain sense of anonymity on the web that allows people to feel more comfortable when talking to others. For someone who is very shy these 3D worlds give them a sense of belonging and friends who they can talk to.
I find it interesting that we are moving from a 2D chat environment to a 3D virtual world. As a child I remember reading a series of books called Diadem. In this series there is a boy named Pixel who is from a world where most of the population spends every moment in a virtual reality world. All social interaction, schooling, and everything else that takes place in the real world, only exists in virtual reality. Playing in the 3D virtual worlds reminded me suddenly of this book which I read 10 years ago. Though it's not the total immersion that is depicted in this novel its a step in that direction. Just the fact that the face of socialization over the internet is evolving makes me wonder how far off the future in that novel really was. Though we are a long way from a world like that it did play on the back of my mind.
The start of Existenz is really cool. I love Jude Law and was surprised that I had never heard of this movie. The whole concept of virtual reality is really interesting. Having a world where people have bioports put into their spine to connect to a virtual world seemed so cool. Since one of the current problems with virtual reality is that it only engages two of our five senses. The bioport seems to have fixed this problem so that you can smell, taste, and touch the virtual world. Then there is the fact that people are trying to kill the creators of these technologies for corrupting reality brings a humanistic element to the movie. I can tell there are going to be lots of twists and turns in this film.
In a 3D program you are not just chatting with others through text. You are creating a virtual image of yourself and displaying emotions along with your words. You are able to interact with other members of the community in a virtual reality instead of just through words. It involves more creativity then just your standard IM. In the 3D world you get to create a profile and image for your own character. There is more of a sense of community in the 3D world since you all coexist in a virtual reality that you help create. In a regular IM program you will usually only talk with people you know, and maybe the occasional stranger. Even in online chat rooms you usually won't find the same people in that chat room day after day. Since the 3D environment is about both gaming and chatting you will find a larger percentage of "regulars" in the 3D worlds. Since these spaces are very social you may find that people who are loners or unhappy with their social life in the real world might escape into these virtual reality zones. There is a certain sense of anonymity on the web that allows people to feel more comfortable when talking to others. For someone who is very shy these 3D worlds give them a sense of belonging and friends who they can talk to.
I find it interesting that we are moving from a 2D chat environment to a 3D virtual world. As a child I remember reading a series of books called Diadem. In this series there is a boy named Pixel who is from a world where most of the population spends every moment in a virtual reality world. All social interaction, schooling, and everything else that takes place in the real world, only exists in virtual reality. Playing in the 3D virtual worlds reminded me suddenly of this book which I read 10 years ago. Though it's not the total immersion that is depicted in this novel its a step in that direction. Just the fact that the face of socialization over the internet is evolving makes me wonder how far off the future in that novel really was. Though we are a long way from a world like that it did play on the back of my mind.
The start of Existenz is really cool. I love Jude Law and was surprised that I had never heard of this movie. The whole concept of virtual reality is really interesting. Having a world where people have bioports put into their spine to connect to a virtual world seemed so cool. Since one of the current problems with virtual reality is that it only engages two of our five senses. The bioport seems to have fixed this problem so that you can smell, taste, and touch the virtual world. Then there is the fact that people are trying to kill the creators of these technologies for corrupting reality brings a humanistic element to the movie. I can tell there are going to be lots of twists and turns in this film.
Week 7
All of the images posted below were found by searching Google image.
Communication
Games
Celebrity
Uh oh, someone is in the dog house. Who let the dogs out.....who who who who. Paris Hilton, Hollywood's most famous debutant, has recently been arrested and sentenced to 43 days in jail. This sentence has now been reduced to 24 for good behavior (she actually showed up to her court hearings). There is nothing better then reading about a celebrity who acts above the law, yet winds up doing time just like us normal folk. To create this image I took a picture of a jail cell, pasted it over a picture of Paris Hilton, then erased the areas between the bars where Paris's picture was underneath. This is my favorite of all the images I created.
Friends
Nothing beats a boy and man's best friend. One of the most loyal friends you will ever have will always be your pets. Whenever I felt sad or upset over something playing with my dog would always make me feel better. I could tell him anything and never be judged or have to worry about rumors or gossip. For this picture I used text to write on the boys t-shirt # 1 Dog Lover and to right over the dog's fur Boys Best Friend.
Communication
Another adventure for the Verizon Wireless Man. In America we have an ad by Verizon Wireless where this dude goes all over the world to places where one would think there would be no reception and repeats into the phone "Do you hear me now". The ad is meant to show how good Verizon Wireless reception is, but the phrase has become a joke among most of America. In this picture I added a cell phone to the hand of the soldier and made a little voice bubble with the catch phrase "Do you hear me now".
News Worthy
Australia in 50 years. Since I have arrived in Australia I have been confronted daily on the news about the water crisis and the level 5 water restrictions. After watching the special on global warming with Al Gore I am certain that Australia needs to find a way to fix this water crisis before it is too late. In this picture I took a picture of Australia, went over it to make it more defined and then pasted it on top of a picture of an empty dam. I then erased the middle of Australia so that the picture of the dam would show through and Australia would appear as an outline over the dam.
Australia in 50 years. Since I have arrived in Australia I have been confronted daily on the news about the water crisis and the level 5 water restrictions. After watching the special on global warming with Al Gore I am certain that Australia needs to find a way to fix this water crisis before it is too late. In this picture I took a picture of Australia, went over it to make it more defined and then pasted it on top of a picture of an empty dam. I then erased the middle of Australia so that the picture of the dam would show through and Australia would appear as an outline over the dam.
Australian
A miniature Steve Irwin. Boy they start them young over here:) When I think of Australia one of the first images that comes to my head is Steve Irwin wrestling a crocodile. The only explanation that I can think of for that type of insanity is that Australian children must be taught from birth how to wrestle these monsters. In this photo I cut the image of a child crawling and pasted it on top of the image of a crocodile.
A miniature Steve Irwin. Boy they start them young over here:) When I think of Australia one of the first images that comes to my head is Steve Irwin wrestling a crocodile. The only explanation that I can think of for that type of insanity is that Australian children must be taught from birth how to wrestle these monsters. In this photo I cut the image of a child crawling and pasted it on top of the image of a crocodile.
Popular
This is how normal people always act around those that are popular. It seems as though once you're classified as "popular" everyone bows down to kiss the ground you walk on. A popular person can get a normal person to do anything just by hinting at the promise of popularity in return. In this photo I took a picture of Carmen Electra and whitened out the background. I then took this picture and a picture of a man bowing and pasted them together on a blank frame.
This is how normal people always act around those that are popular. It seems as though once you're classified as "popular" everyone bows down to kiss the ground you walk on. A popular person can get a normal person to do anything just by hinting at the promise of popularity in return. In this photo I took a picture of Carmen Electra and whitened out the background. I then took this picture and a picture of a man bowing and pasted them together on a blank frame.
Games
When I see the word games I automatically think of the greatest game on this planet...Baseball!! When I think of baseball I simultaneously think of the New York Yankees, the greatest team on this earth. Since baseball is about as American as apple pie I decided to make a picture that would display baseball's origins. I took a picture of a baseball player and pasted it over a picture of an American flag. I then adjusted the opacity of the baseball player to 75.
Celebrity
Uh oh, someone is in the dog house. Who let the dogs out.....who who who who. Paris Hilton, Hollywood's most famous debutant, has recently been arrested and sentenced to 43 days in jail. This sentence has now been reduced to 24 for good behavior (she actually showed up to her court hearings). There is nothing better then reading about a celebrity who acts above the law, yet winds up doing time just like us normal folk. To create this image I took a picture of a jail cell, pasted it over a picture of Paris Hilton, then erased the areas between the bars where Paris's picture was underneath. This is my favorite of all the images I created.
Week 6
EASTER BREAK
No Class or Tutorial................WOO HOO!!!!!!
Posts will resume again next week :)
No Class or Tutorial................WOO HOO!!!!!!
Posts will resume again next week :)
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Week 5
I am falling behind on these posts and feeling the pressure to get myself updated before I'm drowning in blogs to post.
All of the photos I have were taken with a digital camera. However, they're from a multitude of different people with different digital cameras so I can't say for certain the type of model of the camera for any of the photos in this blog.
Friends
I chose this as my photo for friends because these were the first friends I made when I came to Australia. The first week when I arrived I didn't know a single person. These people went out of their way to invite me to their party knowing that I didn't know anyone and hoping that I would soon meet people and feel more comfortable in this country. I consider these people my first Australian friends.
High Tech
This is an image of a ghoul at the Jekyll and Hyde club in NYC. The whole set up at Jekyll and Hyde is pretty high tech. The basic theme is that everything is alive. All the dummy's randomly talk to you, the eyes in the pictures move, and figures, like this guy, will randomly come to life during the meal and start conversing with members of the audience.
News
Hurricane Katrina, the category 5 hurricane that flooded New Orleans, first hit Miami as a category 1 hurricane. The eye went directly through Coral Gables where my university is located. They estimated that 4 tornadoes touched down on the university and about 70 percent of the trees and wildlife was destroyed around campus. This picture shows the Iron Arrow tree that was planted when the university 1st opened. This massive tree was taken down by one of the tornadoes.
Summer
Before arriving in Australia I had a layover in Fiji. On this layover I took a 5 hr boat ride out to they Yasawa Islands. This is one of the pictures I took from outside my tent. It epitomizes the tropical island feeling. Crystal blue water, amazing snorkeling, and some of the friendliest islanders in the world. Whenever I look at this picture I'm instantly brought back to one of the most relaxing times of my life.
Unconventional
Hookers and Deviates Party from last year. Yeah umm......I think this one explains itself ; )
University Life
Pop Quiz "What do you do when your best friend stumbles into your room at 3am and passes out on the floor besides your bed"
Answer: Grab the camera and take as many embarrassing photos as you can.
This here is my best friend Casey who lives by the saying "Work hard, play hard"
P.S As this is a on-campus dorm room she had to sneak pass security less they give her a sobriety test and she gets busted for underage drinking
This weeks lecture was totally awesome and really made me think. The concept of virtual reality was turned into a sort of philosophical debate and made me think about the connection of the mind, body and the world in which we live. I remember the first time I experienced VR. I was pretty young and in a computer store where they were promoting this virtual reality headset. My father tried it on and was totally amazed with it. However, when I had a go I didn't really understand what was happening. There were objects coming at me that I was supposed to dodge, which one would think would make me really active in the game. However, I just let the objects hit me not understanding that I had to use my body to navigate in this world. While my father was completely impressed I was just confused. It didn't feel like reality to me so I didn't act the same way I would if I was actually dodging objects thrown at me.
This led me to think during the discussion of whether or not VR was the next reality. As a child who was still forming their view of the world it was very clear to me that this was not real. It was very simple to me. These objects weren't real so why bother trying to avoid them? Even today when I go to the arcade and do the simulation games, I don't really enjoy it. Not only does it seem fake, but I get really motion sick. I think that even the most realistic VR will never really appeal to me. My mind is too critical, to analytical, and I tend to see all the faults and inconsistencies instead of becoming enchanted in the virtual world. I also think that most of the population would react as such. It would be scary to loose yourself in an alternate world and I think most people would start feeling as if they were losing their identity and retreat back into reality.
All of the photos I have were taken with a digital camera. However, they're from a multitude of different people with different digital cameras so I can't say for certain the type of model of the camera for any of the photos in this blog.
Friends
I chose this as my photo for friends because these were the first friends I made when I came to Australia. The first week when I arrived I didn't know a single person. These people went out of their way to invite me to their party knowing that I didn't know anyone and hoping that I would soon meet people and feel more comfortable in this country. I consider these people my first Australian friends.
High Tech
This is an image of a ghoul at the Jekyll and Hyde club in NYC. The whole set up at Jekyll and Hyde is pretty high tech. The basic theme is that everything is alive. All the dummy's randomly talk to you, the eyes in the pictures move, and figures, like this guy, will randomly come to life during the meal and start conversing with members of the audience.
News
Hurricane Katrina, the category 5 hurricane that flooded New Orleans, first hit Miami as a category 1 hurricane. The eye went directly through Coral Gables where my university is located. They estimated that 4 tornadoes touched down on the university and about 70 percent of the trees and wildlife was destroyed around campus. This picture shows the Iron Arrow tree that was planted when the university 1st opened. This massive tree was taken down by one of the tornadoes.
Summer
Before arriving in Australia I had a layover in Fiji. On this layover I took a 5 hr boat ride out to they Yasawa Islands. This is one of the pictures I took from outside my tent. It epitomizes the tropical island feeling. Crystal blue water, amazing snorkeling, and some of the friendliest islanders in the world. Whenever I look at this picture I'm instantly brought back to one of the most relaxing times of my life.
Unconventional
Hookers and Deviates Party from last year. Yeah umm......I think this one explains itself ; )
University Life
Pop Quiz "What do you do when your best friend stumbles into your room at 3am and passes out on the floor besides your bed"
Answer: Grab the camera and take as many embarrassing photos as you can.
This here is my best friend Casey who lives by the saying "Work hard, play hard"
P.S As this is a on-campus dorm room she had to sneak pass security less they give her a sobriety test and she gets busted for underage drinking
This weeks lecture was totally awesome and really made me think. The concept of virtual reality was turned into a sort of philosophical debate and made me think about the connection of the mind, body and the world in which we live. I remember the first time I experienced VR. I was pretty young and in a computer store where they were promoting this virtual reality headset. My father tried it on and was totally amazed with it. However, when I had a go I didn't really understand what was happening. There were objects coming at me that I was supposed to dodge, which one would think would make me really active in the game. However, I just let the objects hit me not understanding that I had to use my body to navigate in this world. While my father was completely impressed I was just confused. It didn't feel like reality to me so I didn't act the same way I would if I was actually dodging objects thrown at me.
This led me to think during the discussion of whether or not VR was the next reality. As a child who was still forming their view of the world it was very clear to me that this was not real. It was very simple to me. These objects weren't real so why bother trying to avoid them? Even today when I go to the arcade and do the simulation games, I don't really enjoy it. Not only does it seem fake, but I get really motion sick. I think that even the most realistic VR will never really appeal to me. My mind is too critical, to analytical, and I tend to see all the faults and inconsistencies instead of becoming enchanted in the virtual world. I also think that most of the population would react as such. It would be scary to loose yourself in an alternate world and I think most people would start feeling as if they were losing their identity and retreat back into reality.
Week 4
1. My topic for my research essay is going to be about how the internet has become a useful tool for pedophiles.
The first journal article I researched is called "Child Pornography Online: Myth, Fact and Social Control". It was written by Robert Bauserman for the Journal of Sex Research in May 2003. This article is mainly a review of another book called "Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography Online" written by Philip Jenkins. In this report we learn that Jenkins went undercover online to find out how the mind of a pedophile works. Jenkins spent most of his time on web based bulletin boards were pedophiles would meet to discuss their "hobby" as they call it. We learn that these pedophiles have little fear of the police, because of limited laws dealing with internet child pornography. Instead they are more frightened of private groups and hackers who infiltrate their programs and destroy their images and videos.
The second journal article I researched is called "Child Pornography and the Internet" written by Robert S Mueller III. Mueller is an F.B.I agent. Mueller talks about F.B.I programs such as the Innocent Images National Initiative which has been around for 10 years targeting sexual predators on the Internet. Most of their operations are undercover and currently more then 250 agents who investigate these cases. He also discuses how these pictures of children are not just photographs but live acts of molestation. As these predators become desensitized they might be encouraged to go out and find children of their own to molest.
The third journal article I found is called "Regulating the Internet: The new battle against child pornography" written by Lesil C Esposito in 1998 in the Case Western Reserve Journa of International Law. Esposito discusses how the internet is now the primary medium for pornography and how pedophiles use the internet because it is virtually unregulated by law enforcement. He also discusses how national boundaries do not exist in cyberspace. I've learned that in many countries such as Spain and Sweden possession of child pornography is not a crime. Esposito discusses a specific convention called The Convention of the Rights of the Child which was ratified in 1990. While it attacks the problem on internet child pornography at an international level it has not been effective because of a lack of effort at national levels.
These three journal articles have given me a lot to think about for my essay. I'm starting to see that some of the problems with child pornography over the internet is due to problems both nationally and internationally. I'm surprised and disgusted that many modern western countries do not have laws against the possession of child pornography. I'm also interested to learn that hackers, who I thought were criminals themselves, actually pose a great threat to pedophiles and their community.
2a.) Here are my answers to the scavenger hunt
1. What is the weight of the world’s biggest pumpkin? 1,502 pounds, grown by Ron Wallace of, Rhode Island; weighed on October 7, 2006.
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htm
2. What is the best way to contact Grant Hackett? I would go through the Australian Institute of Sport and ask for the contact details of his manager, Brian Taylor.
http://www.ausport.gov.au/contacts.asp
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue? A giraffe’s tongue is approximately 18 inches in length.
www.on-the-matrix.com/africa/giraffe.asp
4. Define the word ontology in your own words. Ontology is basically the study of existence. http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/
5. What was David Croenenberg’s first feature film? David Croenenberg’s first film was a 7 min long Independent film called Transfer (1966). He then had two full length independent films Stereo(1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970). However, his first major film was Shivers (1975) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000343/
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written? Janurary 8, 1986 http://linuxreviews.org/dictionary/Hacker_Manifesto/
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with 555? For many years, 555 was unassigned as a dialling code in the US and could thus be used to prefix fictional numbers with impunity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes? The cheapest way to travel from Crete to Rhodes is the overnight ferry, this saves you money because you don’t’ have to pay for a hotel for the night on the island. http://www.greektravel.com/faq/index.html
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts, this week of March 1965? I’ll Never Find Another You by The Seekers.
www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals? He played keyboards for the Brisbane punk band Black Assassins
www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm
Here are the answers to section 2b
1. What is a search engine?
A searcg engine is a program which acts as a card catalog for the Internet. Search engines attempt to index and locate desired information by searching for keywords in which a user specifies. The method for finding this information is usually done by maintaining indices of Web resources that can be queried for the keywords entered by the user.
Reference www.netsetgo.com/glossary.php
2. How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
Search engines give each document they find some measure of the quality of the match to your search query, a relevance score. Relevance scores reflect the number of times a search term appears, if it appears in the title, if it appears at the beginning of the document, and if all the search terms are near each other; some details are given in engine help pages. Some engines allow the user to control the relevance score by giving different weights to each search word. One thing that all engines do, however, is to use alphabetical order at some point in their display algorithm. If relevance scores are not very different for various matches, then you end up with this sorry default.
Reference http://www.webreference.com/content/search/how.html
3. What are some of your favorite search engines? Why do you like one more then the others?
Some of my favorite search engines are Google, AOL and msn. I like Google the best because the results are usually what I'm looking for. It ranking system is very good so I get the results that I want. It's good because you can also search specifically for images too if you want. Google is also one of the best known search engines and when I think of looking for a search engine it's just the first one that pops into my head.
4.Can you find some current news stories about search engines?
This is a pretty good article http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/2615
The article is basically examining whether or not Google is stealing content. Google has recently settled some law suites over infringement rights with pictures and texts. Google compiles lots of news stories in one section and it seems unfair to some of the newspapers. Google might provide the link to the story but the viewer doesn't stay around and browse other stories, instead returning back to Google to look for more stories. This seems a bit unfair to the companies that Google links it too. In my opinion Google really isn't doing anything wrong. If it wasn't for Google then no one would go these newspaper article websites in the first place.
Even though I now know the difference between the Internet and Web I'll......oh who am I kidding, I'll still use the words interchangeably. In fact I usually don't even say the Web, I almost exclusively say the Internet which means I'm just straight out using the wrong lingo.
Netiquette. Now here's something that really upsets me. I hate flamers. They are the most annoying little mongrels on the Web. They especially like to enter political discussion boards. This can be especially annoying when your on the verge of actually make progress on an issue and then a flamer writes something and suddenly you've got a battle of words again and all progress made is lost. Then you have the other sort of flamer that has a valid point to their argument, but are just so damn rude in their reply that you want to smack them. I actually am happy that a lot of the discussion boards and chat rooms are now banning flamers if they leave nasty comments. It teaches people to try and respond to things that they might disagree with calmly and in a civilized manner.
The first journal article I researched is called "Child Pornography Online: Myth, Fact and Social Control". It was written by Robert Bauserman for the Journal of Sex Research in May 2003. This article is mainly a review of another book called "Beyond Tolerance: Child Pornography Online" written by Philip Jenkins. In this report we learn that Jenkins went undercover online to find out how the mind of a pedophile works. Jenkins spent most of his time on web based bulletin boards were pedophiles would meet to discuss their "hobby" as they call it. We learn that these pedophiles have little fear of the police, because of limited laws dealing with internet child pornography. Instead they are more frightened of private groups and hackers who infiltrate their programs and destroy their images and videos.
The second journal article I researched is called "Child Pornography and the Internet" written by Robert S Mueller III. Mueller is an F.B.I agent. Mueller talks about F.B.I programs such as the Innocent Images National Initiative which has been around for 10 years targeting sexual predators on the Internet. Most of their operations are undercover and currently more then 250 agents who investigate these cases. He also discuses how these pictures of children are not just photographs but live acts of molestation. As these predators become desensitized they might be encouraged to go out and find children of their own to molest.
The third journal article I found is called "Regulating the Internet: The new battle against child pornography" written by Lesil C Esposito in 1998 in the Case Western Reserve Journa of International Law. Esposito discusses how the internet is now the primary medium for pornography and how pedophiles use the internet because it is virtually unregulated by law enforcement. He also discusses how national boundaries do not exist in cyberspace. I've learned that in many countries such as Spain and Sweden possession of child pornography is not a crime. Esposito discusses a specific convention called The Convention of the Rights of the Child which was ratified in 1990. While it attacks the problem on internet child pornography at an international level it has not been effective because of a lack of effort at national levels.
These three journal articles have given me a lot to think about for my essay. I'm starting to see that some of the problems with child pornography over the internet is due to problems both nationally and internationally. I'm surprised and disgusted that many modern western countries do not have laws against the possession of child pornography. I'm also interested to learn that hackers, who I thought were criminals themselves, actually pose a great threat to pedophiles and their community.
2a.) Here are my answers to the scavenger hunt
1. What is the weight of the world’s biggest pumpkin? 1,502 pounds, grown by Ron Wallace of, Rhode Island; weighed on October 7, 2006.
http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/record.htm
2. What is the best way to contact Grant Hackett? I would go through the Australian Institute of Sport and ask for the contact details of his manager, Brian Taylor.
http://www.ausport.gov.au/contacts.asp
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue? A giraffe’s tongue is approximately 18 inches in length.
www.on-the-matrix.com/africa/giraffe.asp
4. Define the word ontology in your own words. Ontology is basically the study of existence. http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/
5. What was David Croenenberg’s first feature film? David Croenenberg’s first film was a 7 min long Independent film called Transfer (1966). He then had two full length independent films Stereo(1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970). However, his first major film was Shivers (1975) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000343/
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written? Janurary 8, 1986 http://linuxreviews.org/dictionary/Hacker_Manifesto/
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with 555? For many years, 555 was unassigned as a dialling code in the US and could thus be used to prefix fictional numbers with impunity.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes? The cheapest way to travel from Crete to Rhodes is the overnight ferry, this saves you money because you don’t’ have to pay for a hotel for the night on the island. http://www.greektravel.com/faq/index.html
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts, this week of March 1965? I’ll Never Find Another You by The Seekers.
www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals? He played keyboards for the Brisbane punk band Black Assassins
www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm
Here are the answers to section 2b
1. What is a search engine?
A searcg engine is a program which acts as a card catalog for the Internet. Search engines attempt to index and locate desired information by searching for keywords in which a user specifies. The method for finding this information is usually done by maintaining indices of Web resources that can be queried for the keywords entered by the user.
Reference www.netsetgo.com/glossary.php
2. How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
Search engines give each document they find some measure of the quality of the match to your search query, a relevance score. Relevance scores reflect the number of times a search term appears, if it appears in the title, if it appears at the beginning of the document, and if all the search terms are near each other; some details are given in engine help pages. Some engines allow the user to control the relevance score by giving different weights to each search word. One thing that all engines do, however, is to use alphabetical order at some point in their display algorithm. If relevance scores are not very different for various matches, then you end up with this sorry default.
Reference http://www.webreference.com/content/search/how.html
3. What are some of your favorite search engines? Why do you like one more then the others?
Some of my favorite search engines are Google, AOL and msn. I like Google the best because the results are usually what I'm looking for. It ranking system is very good so I get the results that I want. It's good because you can also search specifically for images too if you want. Google is also one of the best known search engines and when I think of looking for a search engine it's just the first one that pops into my head.
4.Can you find some current news stories about search engines?
This is a pretty good article http://www.geekzone.co.nz/juha/2615
The article is basically examining whether or not Google is stealing content. Google has recently settled some law suites over infringement rights with pictures and texts. Google compiles lots of news stories in one section and it seems unfair to some of the newspapers. Google might provide the link to the story but the viewer doesn't stay around and browse other stories, instead returning back to Google to look for more stories. This seems a bit unfair to the companies that Google links it too. In my opinion Google really isn't doing anything wrong. If it wasn't for Google then no one would go these newspaper article websites in the first place.
Even though I now know the difference between the Internet and Web I'll......oh who am I kidding, I'll still use the words interchangeably. In fact I usually don't even say the Web, I almost exclusively say the Internet which means I'm just straight out using the wrong lingo.
Netiquette. Now here's something that really upsets me. I hate flamers. They are the most annoying little mongrels on the Web. They especially like to enter political discussion boards. This can be especially annoying when your on the verge of actually make progress on an issue and then a flamer writes something and suddenly you've got a battle of words again and all progress made is lost. Then you have the other sort of flamer that has a valid point to their argument, but are just so damn rude in their reply that you want to smack them. I actually am happy that a lot of the discussion boards and chat rooms are now banning flamers if they leave nasty comments. It teaches people to try and respond to things that they might disagree with calmly and in a civilized manner.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Week 3
As an international student I have found that communication technologies have been essential in communicating with my friends and family back home. With the 14hr time difference between here and NY it’s very hard to find a time to call home that is at a reasonable hour for my parents, and at a time where I have access to a payphone. Email has become a consistent source of communication between my parents and me. It’s extremely convenient because I can let them know what is happening in my life and relay any information that they might need from me, without actually having to be awake and online at the same time they are. Email is also easy enough for my technologically inept parents to understand. Instant messaging is another way I keep in touch with my friends and family back home. I also use Myspace and Facebook to let talk with my friends back home and post pictures of the awesome Australian beaches :)
However, I think one of the best communication technologies that I have found is Skype. It’s an internet phone system that lets you make free phone calls over the internet. There is also a feature that allows you to make phone calls from your computer to any land line phone for a small fee. I only found out about this new feature recently but have found it to be enormously convenient.
Knowing very little about the advent of computers I found this week lecture interesting. I really enjoyed the fact that Lord Byron's daughter was a metaphysician. However, considering that Ada's mother left Lord Byron when she was very young, he probably did not have a lot of influence on her. We rarely hear much about educated women in history and I enjoyed knowing that history did not write her out simply because she was a woman.
I knew that Bill Gates had developed Microsoft, and that he screwed some people over in building his empire, but I didn't realize he was such a jerk. I have a lot more respect now for Apple, who I had always thought developed in reaction to Microsoft in order to create competition.
However, I think one of the best communication technologies that I have found is Skype. It’s an internet phone system that lets you make free phone calls over the internet. There is also a feature that allows you to make phone calls from your computer to any land line phone for a small fee. I only found out about this new feature recently but have found it to be enormously convenient.
Knowing very little about the advent of computers I found this week lecture interesting. I really enjoyed the fact that Lord Byron's daughter was a metaphysician. However, considering that Ada's mother left Lord Byron when she was very young, he probably did not have a lot of influence on her. We rarely hear much about educated women in history and I enjoyed knowing that history did not write her out simply because she was a woman.
I knew that Bill Gates had developed Microsoft, and that he screwed some people over in building his empire, but I didn't realize he was such a jerk. I have a lot more respect now for Apple, who I had always thought developed in reaction to Microsoft in order to create competition.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Week 2
Hey my name is Marlena Mitrik. I am a Biology/Chemistry major at the University of Miami. I've been studying for the past year at Griffith University and I'm really enjoying my time here in Australia. Most of my interests have to do with sports. I'm a HUGE baseball fan, Yankees of course cause there the only team worth talking about, and I've been playing on a state softball team which travels around the country since I was 11. I also love football, which Australians apparently call grit iron. I used to keep the team stats in high school and I play on a club flag football team for my Uni. There are many little differences between Australia and the States but I find that the differences in sports is what I miss most about home.
As for the class, I'm not quite sure what to think about it so far. I'm taking this class purely as an elective, mostly because it sounds interesting and I wouldn't get the opportunity to take a class like this at home. I know it's important to learn about the history of a subject first, but I never really enjoyed history and I'm finding the class to be dragging a bit. Looking at the outline I'm really looking forward to week 5 and beyond where we get into specific topics of interest to do with communication technology. While the lecture might be a bit dry, I really enjoyed the screening of Alphaville. I had no idea that the movie 12 Monkeys came from a pre-existing idea. 12 Monkeys is one of my favorite movies of all time and watching La Jeete was really enlightening.
Communication studies and technology is an essential subject to learn about. I am planning on going into the medical profession and communication will be an important part of my duties. Back in the States there is a campaign to stop smoking which uses shock tactics to show people the effects of smoking. The medical community has taken to using commercials and the media to help relay these important messages. Technology has advanced the medical community in leaps and bounds. However, as important as I know communication technology to be for my career, my aim for this class is to learn about communication technology on a more personal level to use in everyday life.
As for the class, I'm not quite sure what to think about it so far. I'm taking this class purely as an elective, mostly because it sounds interesting and I wouldn't get the opportunity to take a class like this at home. I know it's important to learn about the history of a subject first, but I never really enjoyed history and I'm finding the class to be dragging a bit. Looking at the outline I'm really looking forward to week 5 and beyond where we get into specific topics of interest to do with communication technology. While the lecture might be a bit dry, I really enjoyed the screening of Alphaville. I had no idea that the movie 12 Monkeys came from a pre-existing idea. 12 Monkeys is one of my favorite movies of all time and watching La Jeete was really enlightening.
Communication studies and technology is an essential subject to learn about. I am planning on going into the medical profession and communication will be an important part of my duties. Back in the States there is a campaign to stop smoking which uses shock tactics to show people the effects of smoking. The medical community has taken to using commercials and the media to help relay these important messages. Technology has advanced the medical community in leaps and bounds. However, as important as I know communication technology to be for my career, my aim for this class is to learn about communication technology on a more personal level to use in everyday life.
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