Chinese Cybersecurity

I know we have briefly discussed Google and Chinese cyber security in class and some people seemed pretty interested in it. I have found this really interesting report published by Northrop Grumman, which is an American defense company that is very experienced in the field of national defense. This article is pretty lengthy, but I found it a surprisingly easy read. The article is split up into different sections so if you are interested in just one part of cybersecurity, you can just read the one section. I really was surprised at what I found in this article and the capabilities of China. I'm not sure if anyone is interested in cybersecurity, but I found this report to be very interesting.

http://www.uscc.gov/researchpapers/2009/NorthropGrumman_PRC_Cyber_Paper_FINAL_Approved%20Report_16Oct2009.pdf

--Craig Martin

How Much Do You Spend on Technology?

The NY Times had an article in the technology section about how much the average family spends on technology. The first number they stated was $400/month and I was shocked. Then I did the math and realized that me and my husband spend half of that give or take. It was a little shocking. Have you ever thought about how much you spend (don't forget your cellphone)?

http://tiny.cc/1u8iM

Class Starters for CSS

1. Googled - Cascading Style Sheets: Learning CSS from W3C
2. Radio - Batanga is somewhat like AccuRadio, but it focuses on a specific segment of the listening public's interest (by the way, Batanga is web broadcast from Greensboro). It also has a different way of putting music on the playlists. Listener Favorites are chosen by you! At Batanga, your vote counts. Each time you vote for a song by selecting the [icon] on the playlist, Batanga registers your vote. The songs with the most positive votes are listed [in the playlists]!
3. Newsletters -7 Things You Should Know About... | EDUCAUSE series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:
   * What it is
   * How it works
   * Where it is going
   * Why it matters to teaching and learning [FreePint]
   
4. Interesting -Internet Archive, a way to see how things were or used to be (in this case, I wanted to see commentaries that had been made on KPIG in the past, but which are no longer available on the KPIG site). You might find the Wikipedia entry interesting as well, especially the part on the Wayback Machine
5. Economist - Tech.view Only connect Feb 13th 2009 From Economist.com Reaching out online in an age of uncertainty [you can also read this via UNC Libraries' e-journals]
6. Issues to ponder - ITS Security Policy Users of ITS systems have a large amount of important and sometimes confidential data that is entrusted to ITS for storage, processing, and retrieval. For anyone to use ITS systems and services for unauthorized purposes, as defined in the documents governing use of these systems and services, is at least inappropriate and a violation of University policy, and may in certain circumstances be illegal. In addition, ITS systems are part of an international network of computers, and consequently must protect other sites from the misuse of our resources to attack their systems.
7. Pioneers - Håkon Wium Lie
8. Freebies - two places to get free CSS templates: Open Design Community, where one can find XHTML and CSS based free web design templates available for download. And Get Free Web Designs, a site with a similar goal.

Submarine cables

I've finally compiled the information I found about submarine cables, and I think that it really is interesting. First, to look back at underwater cables before the internet, here's a 5 minute YouTube video about telephone underwater cables from the mid twentieth century. Now, here's an 8 minute video about more modern submarine cables and one more 1 minute video.

This Japanese company's website also explains about the ships and tools used to install submarine cables, but I haven't found a satisfactory visual for the maintenance of a cable. Here is a 2 minute animated video that shows basically how it's done though.

Lastly, here is a recent news article about submarine cables that gives them potentially another purpose besides connecting the world.

Free Website Builders

It seems like free (or almost free) website builders have been popping up everywhere lately. Wix (www.wix.com) was recently mentioned in class. I used Weebly (www.weebly.com) last semester for my pathfinder for my Information Resources and Services class because I simply did not have time to teach myself how to code. If curious, you can view my pathfinder here: http://aibspathfinder.weebly.com/ It was almost too easy to create. I couldn't always lay my pictures out the way I wanted them, but it was a small price to pay for the time I saved. Also, unless you have the "premium" paid service, then you must have weebly in the domain name. But there are no sketchy looking ads placed on my site, just a small note at the bottom that reads, "Create a free website with Weebly." Has anyone else used one of these website builders or one like it? Have you had a good or bad experience with them?

- Melanie

Hey, remember Google Wave?

Many months ago, everyone I know, myself included, pretty much flipped their lids when we all saw something like this (<--link). Commence the "OMG-Google-Wave-looks-so-handy-and-useful-and-brilliant-and-new-and-convenient-and-cool" jabber that everyone cooed for about a week. And then October or November rolls around, and two of your friends randomly have Google Wave and they're all "I don't really get it..." but you're angling for one of the invites that are bound to pop up in their Wave inbox in three days so you chime in that you're sure it'll make more sense once more people have it, right? Fast forward a couple of weeks, everyone has invites, Twitter explodes about it, and you want to punch everyone's Facebook status that's trying to dole out invites, and suddenly you have 19 invites and no one else to give them to. You've been signing into Wave for the first few weeks and testing it out with your friends, and all you do is criticize how slow they type, and go back and edit the Waves into embarrassing fonts or edit the text into immature jokes. It has novelty for a solid 2 days, maybe 3. I forgot I had it. So did many of my friends. We joked about it a month ago, and I forgot all about it yet again. So I logged into today, for the first time in weeks, maybe even months. None of the umpteen people I invited ever sign onto Wave. Which leads me to this question: Is Google kind of self-defeating?

Don't get me wrong. I like Google. I love me some Gmail and not too long ago I had the time and energy for Google Reader. I like iGoogle quite a bit. Google Chrome? Not so much. Whatever, I think the little Firefox logo is too cute to abandon, no matter how hard some shiny new browser tries to lure me away. Also, I understand Chrome gets a little creepy Orwellian, and that's shady.

But if Google tries to take over the world (or internet) with Gmail AND Chrome AND Docs AND iGoogle AND Wave AND Google Carrier Pigeon AND whatever their new phone thingy is, I feel like Google needs a gadget or an iWaveChromail thing to kindof streamline all the tasks they're trying to streamline. Multitasking is becoming more complicated the more efficient, "simpler," and real-time they try to make it.

I've watched a few Wave demos online, and asked around, and the consensus seems to be something about accessibility and working out kinks. But I don't know anyone for whom this thing is actually useful or helpful. I don't even know anyone who uses it. I understand it has the advantage of being collaborative, I guess, but isn't that what the reply-all button is for? I guess I just wonder if the brilliant minds at Google are just coming up with all of this stuff because they can, or is this really the future of the internet? Will this someday actually be popular and useful?* Do any of you use Wave? If so, I'd sincerely like to be enlightened.

Here's a video:

I mean, I get it. It's just kinda...meh, unnecessary?

*I realize I might soon be eating my words: Behold, a hilarious little stroll (<--link) down memory lane.

Oh, PS- I still have an absurd number of Wave invites, since I'm sure I've made it sound so enticing if you don't have it already.

password

Would someone remind me the username and password for class materials? For some reason what I'm using isn't working. Thanks.

skardon@email.unc.edu