Am I A Number?

     Am I a number? The answer is yes. Is everyone else that uses the internet a number? Once again, the answer is yes. Although it's not quite that simple. Each one of us is more of an algorithm. During one of his talks (http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html You can either watch the video before or after reading this), Ted talks about how the internet, not just Google and Facebook, monitor your activity and personalize everything you see. Then he brings up the concept of a "filter bubble." Today I'm going to talk about how those filter bubbles and data mining applies to me personally.

     It's fascinating to think that there is no standard Google. How, regardless of if you're not signed in you won't get the same thing as someone else. I also find it irritating. Now, if you know me well, you'll know that I love to learn, and like Ted, I like to hear other peoples opinions and thoughts. I also like to hear about things that are going on that may not have anything to do with me. These filter bubbles are, honestly, a good concept. I love having Google personalize my searching, so when I search for something, say, a computer term, I won't get a ton of links that have absolutely nothing to do with what I'm searching for. Although, we do need to have some control over it though, or, at the very, very least, some exceptions to these extremely strict algorithms. Instead of having only links, or statuses (Facebook), that are only what the computer thinks the user wants to see, I think there needs to be other links that aren't exactly what the computer thinks we want to see. For example, knowing that I love to learn and, like everyone else, like to be distracted from things I have to do, when I am looking for information on Google, I want to see things that I may not be looking for directly but it would be nice to see other things. 

     Now, data mining affects everyone. There are ways to prevent some of it from certain sites or from using cookies, but as long as you use the internet someone, well some machine, will be tracking you and/or your data. Instead of delving into what data mining is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining) and whatnot, I'm going to talk about what I think of it and how it pertains to me, similarly to the previous paragraph about the filter bubble. In order to form this filter bubble, companies have to gather information. Most common is the links that are clicked on, such as after searching through Google or on your news feed on Facebook. Like everyone else my links are tracked and everything is personalized. Also, like I said earlier, I think it's a good idea it just needs to be altered in a few small but key ways.

     When someone says that everyone is just a number on the internet, you can now say that they're more of an algorithm that specifies what you see and what you don't see, regardless of what you want. The internet has changed from what I, and others, thought it would be but it can get much better. 

My Personal Stance on Privacy

     My stance on privacy is pretty straightforward: privacy is essential. Now, that isn't very descriptive or specific so I'm going to try and elaborate on it for the remainder of this post.

     When I say that privacy is essential, I mean a number of things. The most important is that, no one ever, for any reason, wanted everyone, or even most other people, to know everything about them. Thus, privacy is essential. The degree of privacy changes from person to person. For me, I only want people to know what I tell them individually. Well, my life doesn't need to be quite that private, but in an almost perfect world, that's what people would know.

     The same goes online, I only want people, and machines, to see what I want them to see. Now as much as I would like to go into what others and I could do, and do, to keep people and machines from only seeing what you want them to, this is suppose to be my stance on privacy so check out lifehacker and read their many articles on privacy. (lifehacker.com) 

     Although privacy is ever so important to me, like most other people, I don't want to pay extra for things (software, hardware, etc) that increase my security, and thus privacy. Now, theres another factor that plays into that. I'm a college student, but even if I was making more money than I was spending, I probably wouldn't be going around buying all the latest security gadgets and software. Security software and hardware can have a large impact on how private one's life is. There are numerous software programs that can , but aren't limited to, help ensure strong passwords, block cookies that can access information on websites one goes to, and keeps sites, such as Facebook, from giving away your information and invading your privacy. Hardware can include encrypted hard drives which only people who know the encryption key can access, or even security cameras. 

     In concern to other's privacy, I feel just as strongly about their privacy as I do my own. I will almost always be okay with not knowing something if that person doesn't want me to know. 

     As I stated earlier, privacy is essential. Now, you know my stance on privacy I hope you consider yours just as important.

How Technology Can Change Education

     Technology is something that is amazing. Well, that's just my opinion and it kind of influences how I think technology can change education. If implemented correctly I think that technology will influence education in a positive way. Since everyone learns most effectively in different way, technology will be able to help pinpoint what way that is for each person and help them learn in the best way possible. Today, most people know how they learn the best, but it usually takes years and years of trial and error to narrow it down to around the best way they learn.
     While technology has been rapidly improving outside the classroom, technology inside the classroom has been slowly improving. Understandably so, because teachers and other educators don't know how to implement these amazing technologies as teaching tools. I have heard of and seen schools that are either so far behind in technology that their computers are 10 years old, or that have up to date (or fairly close) technology and not use it correctly. Both situations are almost equally as bad. Now enough on what the schools do with their technology.
     Technology can change education in a very positive way. For starters, in a general classroom setting, technology can help students learn the material in many ways. Through new and upcoming technology, the versatility of techniques that can be used for displaying the material that is being taught. For instance, one used to have to print out black and white overhead projector sheets or use blank sheets in order to show something on the wall. Now, most schools have projectors with computers plugged into them and they can show countless teaching materials. Along with the projector, there are "SMART" boards that students can write on, with electronic markers. The boards also allow them to interact with various objects to help them learn material. Recently, schools have even started buying iPads for students.
     As far as I'm concerned, technology, for schools, will bring more good than bad, but the bad still has to be addressed. As I said before, schools, and individuals, are buying iPads for school. Now that alone is not a bad thing. Nothing is much better than an old fashioned, paper, hardback textbook, well, I think. It is cheaper and better for the environment to purchase electronic books for iPad or computer but there are some aspects of a physical book that are better. There have been some studies about that, that have shown some preferences to physical books. (For example: http://lifehacker.com/5898644/read-a-physical-book-when-you-really-need-to-remember-something) Another possible downfall to an only technological future is that some people can't look at computer screens for long periods of time in order to get things done to learn from them or read a book off a screen.
     All of these technological materials, and more, are good and have helped some students learn, but they aren't the best. Future technology will, or at least should, be able to help everyone learn a little bit better. I envision technologies that are outside of our current reach but I hope we will be able to achieve them at some point. I look forward to the future technologies both outside and in education.

Cloud Based Storage: An Internet Technology

     The idea of cloud based storage has been around since the 1960s. It is believed that Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider was the person to invent it. He also allowed the development of Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) Although it wasn't until 2002 that it was put into action by Amazon Web Services. Now there are quite a few very different services offering cloud storage. Including Amazon Cloud Storage, Windows Live SkyDrive and Dropbox.
     Storing something "in the cloud" is not actually being saved in the clouds or in the air. The phrase refers to something being stored over the internet on a servicer's servers. In this case, and most cases when in regards to the internet, being in the cloud means that it is accessible through the internet. Now, what happens when something is stored in the cloud is it is sent, over the internet, to the servicer's servers and then sent to their storage units. Most places will perform what is called a redundancy. When that occurs, it means that they copied everything onto a separate drive in case of a drive failure or so that if you delete it, you may be able to access the files and information again. For example, while using Dropbox, a certain amount of files that are deleted by the user can be recovered later on. Cloud storage systems are contained of many distributed resources while still acting as one; very secure against faults through, like stated earlier, redundancy and distribution of data; and durable through the creation of versioned copies
     There are various advantages to using a cloud based storage system to back up files. For companies, they only need to pay for storage that is actually used by them and there is no need to install their own physical storage devices. Now not only for companies, there is no need to worry about maintenance tasks, such as data replication, backup and purchasing more storage devices. It also allows users immediate access to resources and applications in the infrastructure of another organization.
     Now, along with advantages, there are disadvantages or concerns. When something is sent to the cloud it is also copied and that increases the number of places the information is and the possibility of an unauthorized user accessing it. That can be decreased through the use of encryption. Now, the number of people with access to the data is usually drastically increased and these people might also be bribed or coerced into allowing access or receiving data. If encryption is used, keeping the key with the user and not the servicer will decrease this possibility of unauthorized access. There is also an increase in the number of networks the data travels through. Another concern is that the supplier of this cloud storage could do a number of things, such as, going bankrupt, expanding and changing focus, being purchased by another larger company, or suffering an irrecoverable disaster. If any of those happens, there is a high possibility of the user's data being lost.
     I am someone who uses Dropbox almost every day, and as a frequent user I think cloud storage is a wonderful technology.



Thanks to:

• http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/A-history-of-cloud-computing
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_storage
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing_security

Biography of a Computing Pioneer: David Huffman

     "I enjoy pushing things to their theoretical limits." A quote from David Albert Huffman. The biography of David Huffman begins in Ohio on August 9, 1925, where he was born. He got a quick start in life when he earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State University at the age of 18. After receiving his B.S., he served two years as an officer in the U.S. Navy as a radar maintenance officer. As a radar maintenance officer he served on a destroyer that helped clear mines in the waters around Japan and China after World War II. Following serving in the Navy, Huffman returned to Ohio State to earn his Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering.
     In his final year before receiving his Master's, his professor in a class on information theory gave Huffman and his classmates the option to write a term paper or to take a final exam. The topic, or, I should say, problem, of the term paper was to find the most efficient method of representing numbers, letters or other symbols using a binary code. At first, it appeared to be a simple problem, but after working on it for months he decided to start studying for the final. As he was throwing away his notes, the solution hit him. "It was the most singular moment of my life," says Huffman. "There was the absolute lightning of sudden realization."
     This solution is now knows as the "Huffman Code." The Huffman Code was, and still is, used in many machines. What it is, is an algorithm that finds the frequency of all the characters (letters, symbols, and numbers) in a document. After that, it, basically, creates a tree with the most common character used, at the top. Now, depending on whether the first character is represented as a 0 or a 1, the tree will flow left or right, respectively. The sum of all of the probabilities will always be less than or equal to one. This "tree" is what's known as "biunique," which means the code is the code is "uniquely decodeable," or it can only be decoded in one way, ensuring that the final product is a correct document. (To learn more click on the last link at the bottom)
     After coming up with the Huffman Code and receiving his Master's, he proceeded onto MIT where he received his Doctor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He recognizes that he is best known for his code but Huffman says he is most proud of his doctoral thesis. It may be the first formal methodology for devising asynchronous sequential switching circuits, which is an important type of computer logic. This also helped him receive a faculty position at MIT.
     In 1967, Huffman left his full time position at MIT and moved to the University of California at Santa Cruz in order to become the first head of it's new computer science department. He was there until 1994, but remained active teaching information theory and signal analysis courses.
    Even though he was such an intelligent and innovative thinker, in October, 1999, David Huffman died at the age of 74. Throughout his life he received various awards, they are:

• 1955: The Louis E. Levy Medal From the Franklin Institute for his doctoral thesis on sequential switching circuits
• 1973: The W. Wallace McDowell Award from the IEEE Computer Society
• 1981: Charter recipient of the Computer Pioneer Award From the IEEE Computer Society
• 1998: A Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the IEEE Information Theory Society
• "For the invention of the Huffman minimum-length lossless data-compression code"
• 1999: The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal
• "For design procedures of minimum redundancy (Huffman) codes and asynchronous sequential circuits, and contributions to analysis of visual imagery."

Thanks to:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Huffman
• http://www1.ucsc.edu/currents/99-00/10-11/huffman.html
• http://www.huffmancoding.com/my-uncle/scientific-american
• http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/David_A._Huffman.html
• http://www.ieee.org/documents/hamming_rl.pdf
• http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/pioneer#_118_tabs_WAR_pluginsui_INSTANCE_d0QT_tab2
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffman_coding#Problem_definition

How Connected Are We?

     How connected are we? That's an interesting question. Throughout time people have been more or less disconnected from other people. Until the 1830s no one could be contacted unless you went to talk to them yourself or if you wrote them a letter, both of which would take about the same amount of time. The telegraph, starting about the 1830s, allowed messages to be sent over great distances but it still wasn't perfect. The telegram either had to be delivered to the person addressed or they had to go pick it up. In the 1870s Alexander Graham Bell patented the phone (http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm) and then phones were the next best way of communication. Phones brought people a little closer, in that they could call someone anywhere that they had a phone. After it was first introduced, the phone eventually was made smaller and smaller. Eventually, sometime it the 1980s, it became handheld and portable, now known as the cell phone. Although, not long after that, the internet was invented and people use it every day to communicate around the globe.
     With the internet came e-mail, which allowed for almost instant communication through text sent from one email address to another. Instant messaging had already been developed even before the internet. But, after email came social networks. The first being SixDegrees.com, which only lasted a few years and progressing from there. Some early Social networks are LiveJournal and LunarStorm. Starting in 2003 the social networking industry exploded. With websites such as Friendster (2002), LinkdIn, MySpace, Last.FM, and Hi5 popping up, they all continued to bring people from all over the world closer and closer. Today, there are many different social networks online such as Bebo, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace and Google+.
     All of these technologies have brought people closer together. With the internet, not only through social networking sites, people in America can meet people in Europe through online video games, both on the computer or a console. Cell phones have also helped connect people.
     Cell phones have, and continue to get smaller and more powerful. With a cell phone you can make calls to anyone in the world who has a phone (though it may cost you a small fortune to do so) and you can text someone, which is almost the same as instant messaging them. Since Blackberry came out with phones that could e-mail, the things phones could do has increased exponentially. Now, with a smartphone, people can not only call and text, but they can access all of the social networking websites and connect to people all over the world. Connect to people that are on computers and also on their phones as well. They can still e-mail and instant message people through almost any IM service. Some phones have more computing power than the spaceships that landed on the moon.
     As to the question, "How connected are we?" I think, as a population, we are almost completely connected. Although, I don't think there is a definite answer, such as a number, there is only a concept. Internet and cellphone towers aren't everywhere, but they almost are. Being so thoroughly connected, I think at times it can be a good thing but I've noticed that people around me, and me as well, are very dependent on this ability to be constantly connected and it can even be a need.

Turing Completeness

     To discuss Turing Completeness, one must first explain that it all (it being the term "Turing Completeness" and everything it encompasses) started with a man named Alan Turing. Turing was born in London, England in June 1912. He was a mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and a computer scientist. He invented the Turing Machine. It was a theoretical invention, meaning it was never actually built by him, and, until recently, no one had successfully. Those that succeeded used more advanced parts than Turing had in his time. Such as an electronic scanner. One was even built out of Legos which I think is really cool. (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/lego-turing-machine/) It was a machine that, given it had access to an infinite roll of tape, could read, write, and erase symbols, such as binary, on that infinite strip of tape according to a table of rules. The table of rules included the implementation of any computable algorithm. The machine would read what was written on the tape then, depending on what was written, usually instructions, it would perform the calculation by writing the answer. Or, if the instruction was to change something that was already written it would change it. The following video does a great job showing the the Turing machine and how it works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3keLeMwfHY
     Which brings us to Turing Completeness. The Turning Machine was originally thought up to represent computing machines, so when something is Turing Complete it means that it can be represented on a Turing Machine. When deciding whether or not something is Turing Complete one does it without regard to run time or memory usage. It's not about the efficiency, only about the capability. Some people are confused and think that being Turing Complete is about being able to do everything, but it is about the ability to do calculations that a Turing Machine can. It is also about the ability to run forever. Since the Turing Machine is designed with an infinite amount of tape to manipulate symbols on whatever is Turing Complete it must have the ability to run forever, although it doesn't have to run forever.
     The majority of things that are Turing Complete are abstract and not physical entities. Nearly all computer programming languages, such as Java, C, C++, and Pascal, are Turing Complete because they can do any calculation. Also, by using loops and GOTOs they can also run forever. These programming languages differ in how the calculation will be performed, such as the number of loops required, and as stated before maybe not as efficiently as another, or the speed. While it could be using a loop it could just be using a GOTO statement or  recursions, they have the ability to run forever. While most programming languages are Turing Complete there are many that aren't. The largest language I found that isn't Turing Complete, while still being general-purpose, is SQL because without recursion, dynamic SQL, or the WHILE loop it is guaranteed to stop and not run forever.
    All of this is important to computer scientists. Turing was the first computer scientist and knowing what it means to be Turing Complete is important because when asked to do calculations you'll know that some languages can't do all of the calculations you may need to do infinitely.