Anthony's Blog

Data mining

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:23:33 +0000

It is amazing how cyberspace will keep data stored about us and how it can get a hold of it quickly. Looking for information on the net will generate a record of the person–there will be too much information known about everyone. This can be good or bad depending on what the info is needed for. It is kind of strange if just about anyone can find personal information about a person at the click of the mouse. According to Lessig, data mining (great name) does not involve hard manual labor like mining for precious metals, the mining for data is not hard but it can be dangerous to society. The goal of data mining is to classify objects. These objects can be people who are assigned labels, this can be a form of discrimination against people. People will be classified by the things they buy. This can bring about conflict in our society, just like discrimination against minorities brought for years.

I do not believe the associative rules are bad because these rules are categories about movies and other products, and what will make these products more appealing to the customer. This, I believe, will be useful for the customers. All these ways of getting information can violate people’s privacy, but it can be useful in the war against terrorists, and crimes.

RFID

jus394danthonyj — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:35:40 +0000

The new developments in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), are kind of scary and interesting at the same time. It is also amazing how a person, place or thing can be remotely identified and a quick connection can be made about the person, place, or thing from data that is already store. I know that a police officer can find out who you are from checking your license plate, this would only be disconcerting only if you plan on speeding or breaking the law, but it is still strange that someone can have the ability to check you out. I don’t think I really like it all that much. RFID can be good or bad depending on who RFID is trying to identify. If they are trying to identify a criminal or someone that poses a potential danger to our society or country, then it is good.

The information gathered by RFID is information that would normally require a warrant, and in order to keep a check on the development of more sophisticated RFID, the courts want to develop a Fourth Amendment that will keep track with new technologies. It was a great idea when a form of RFID was used in World War II to identify military planes who were enemies or friends. This certainly outweighs all the negative sides, that don’t really seem like much if terrorists and enemies are identified and caught. RFID is needed greatly in this age of terrorism and global use of the internet. The only issue I have, is the invasion of privacy for private citizens who are not engaged in suspect things. Maybe in the future it will be used to counteract cypberterrorism, and stop terrorists from using the internet as a way to attackour country and our government.

Humor in Singapore

jus394danthonyj — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:10:42 +0000

Since Singapore’s society is severely policed and quite regulated by a tough government that want to regulate the internet, they have found a way website and others, such as TalkingCock.com that is a bit interesting. This is a website in Singapore and it is ingenious at the way it is done. TalkingCock.com is a satirical website that is meant to poke fun at events, people, and also politicians. The website is intended to make people laugh at themselves, but it also talks about politicians in a humorous way and they cannot take offense to it. It is humorous and funny because this way they cannot get politicians bad at them and be sued by them.

Singapore’s premier Lee Hsien Loong, in swearing in speech, made a interesting comment on how he want the people to laugh, to grow, and be themselves. He encouraged them to feel free to express their different views and to be different. This is what is being done in these particular websites. The premier seemed to be open to diversity and encouraged it. I wonder if he still feels the same way. Talking.com and other websites are humorous and this is the only way to express and say what they want without too much fear of retribution by the government. They found a perfect way to bring out in the open what they see, but in a funny way.

Internet in Pennsylvania and Vietnam

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:27:34 +0000

In Pennsylvania, the attorney general is trying to get a court order to block illegal pornography, if he succeeds this will lead to the regulating of other inappropriate materials. Though some people believe that it is wrong to regulate the Internet, I believe that it is a good idea to regulate pornography and other inappropriate material from the Internet because this would make it safer for children and young teens to surf the web. This regulation would keep out some undesirable people that are profiting from these websites.

I do not believe that the Internet should be controlled like other countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, China, and others do, but there should be something done so that children are not exposed to materials that they do not need to see or be familiar with.

In Vietnam, the government has too much control over the Internet. They control it through technical and legal means. The government does it to control sexually explicit sites, but the Open Net Initiative has found that the Vietnamese government is really trying to control political and religious material that could be used to undermine Vietnam’s one party-system. Trying to control religious material and keep it from the people is wrong, but their government thinks it is right. They don’t want people to have access to material that can challenge their communist government and politics. Vietnam is among other countries in Southeast Asia that control what the people can do on the Internet and what they can see. They also have control over what the people do in cybercafe’s. It is good that Vietnam has let its people use the Internet, and wants the Internet to help the economic growth, but it seems wrong that they want to control it in order to stop the people from challenging the political arena.

Internet in Latin America

jus394danthonyj — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:51:50 +0000

Filtering and censorship in Latin America has not happened yet. Cuba is the only country that has systematic technical filtering. In Latin countries, their main concern is the children and the spread of pornography. They seem to have the same worries that we have about pornography, protecting children from inappropriate info. Latin America has many more problems from the government and drug cartels. The people are guaranteed rights such as freedom of expression through the American Convention for Human Rights, but their freedom of speech is threatened by the government and drug cartels. It must be scary to know that drug cartels have so much power. People are beaten up, murdered and some disappear because of what they have spoken. Life in Latin America is not safe for journalist, I wouldn’t want to be one there, the perks are not good enough. There is no governmental filtering yet, but people have to censor themselves or else get killed etc.

In Cuba, the Internet was declared a fundamental right, but a right that is totally controlled by the government. What kind of right is that? The government restricts private ownership of computer hardware. People have access to the Intranet in public places called public access points.

In Latin America, defamation, hate speech, and disrespect for public figures is prohibited by law. It is a good idea to filter pornography, but killing people for going on the Internet is quite barbaric. The drug cartels have too much power.

Blog # 9

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:24:34 +0000

It seems hard to believe that the people in Serbia would have to protest for the Internet. Here in the United States we now take the Internet for granted. We expect to use everyday. I can understand why some people do not want censorship of the net, because if one thing gets censored then many more could follow. In Serbia the regime did not want the Internet to spread throughout the country, but the people know that the Net is important in spreading information without the control of the state. The regime can stop people from doing other things, but they cannot stop them fro m using the Net. They knew they could not control it, they responded with silence and ignorance. The Net is important for third world countries trying to reach democratic standards, and it is great that Serbia and Africa have access to it. It seems hard to believe that having access to the Internet is such a big problem for these countries. In Africa, according to the reading, television and radio are still the main mode that they receive their information about national and international events and this form of communication is important to political life in Africa. The Internet is beginning to be also an important new way to communicate and will bring more of away for the people to communicate with the rest of the world.

Extra Credit

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:35:54 +0000

The events on Thursday, March 6, 2008, at the 25th Anniversary of the School of Justice and Social Inquiry was a very interesting one. I felt like it was a family reunion and the speakers were very knowledgebale on the topics they were there to discuss. There were supposed to be 3 guest speakers, but only 2 were present. The first guest speaker was Professor John Hagan, who discussed the classes of war refering to law and social exclusion. The exclusionary was on drugs, policy of mass incarceration during the U.S. crack epedemic in the late 1980′s. He also talked about the exclusionary act of counter insurgency in regards to Darfur. The other guest speaker was Professor Suli Zhu, who was very hard to understand because of the heavy accent. However I was able to relate to him when he said “American society in an individualized society and sometimes we don’t understand why things happen.” I was able to relate because a lot of the time we don’t understand why things do happen. We understand why things need to be done the way that they are because of our parents and educators who teach us our social norms and values. The Dean of Social Sciences was one of the closers for the event and she stated something very interesting in regards to the beginning of students’ educational experience. She said “the ability to think and understand the things around us was the beginning of the educational eperience and to move forward” was the beginning for her and I believe it is similar for most students too. I believe we are first challenged in college when we are required to critically think and make sense out of the things that we learn. As students, we need to interpret the things around us, the things we read, and the things we learn in the classroom then make sense out of it so we can apply it to our every day life.

Internet and World struggles

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:42:22 +0000

The internet made it possible for the Zapatistas in Chiapas to get support from Mexico and the world. The Zapatistas got world recognition form Internet communications. This use of the Internet was a good one for their movement. The development of the Independent Media Network and the use of websites brought attention to the struggles of certain countries. It has made it possible to bring about ideas on how to fight against neoliberalism. The expansion of the Internet into other countries also makes people aware of their problems and struggles and societies everywhere.

The Internet can also be useful in promoting Democracy in other countries. U.S. politicians believe that the Internet can be used as a force for democracy and to get rid of regimes around the world. The only problem is that the Internet is used by the higher income countries, and in order to make changes, the Internet needs to be made available to all countries and disadvantage people. Countries in Southeast Asia have problems with the Internet because they want to censor the Internet because they want to keep young people from the dangers of the internet such as pornography and guerilla politics. They also want to stop postings that can be devisive or incite political trouble. But it is a good thing that censorship and regulations have not be implemented yet. But there are problems with e-mails because they do not reach their destinations and some systems seem to be sabotaged so that mail and information won’t be able to go out.

Revised New Outline with Conclusion

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:09:59 +0000

Thank you for your comments on my outline. Here is my new outline. I hope that it is better than the last one.

TOPIC: The Internet and impact on children and teenagers

INTRODUCTION–This paper will analyze the positive and negative effects the internet has on young people.

II. History of the Internet and World Wide Web.

A. A literature review about the Internet and why it was created by Department of Defense and not intended for public use.

B. Positive effects on school children and teenagers and how it can help them learn.

C. Negative effects it can have on because it can isolate them from family and friends.

III. How the Internet can be dangerous to unsupervised children.

A. The terrors of chat rooms

B. Children can easily access pornography when they are looking for something else.

C. Sexual predators–they are there lurking and waiting to seduce children.

IV. Conclusion

A. How parents should supervise thier children and have regulations to keep their children safe.

B. The government should censor sites that are detrimental to our children.

C. Concluding thoughts on the negative effects the internet has on young people, what course of action has already been done and what future actions should take place to make the internet a more secure tool for young people to use.

New Outline

jus394danthonyj — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:44:18 +0000