Heh, what can I say? When you get delayed, you get delayed. Partially that's due to me going to Anime Banzai this past weekend (I was cosplaying Sanji from One Piece), but also I've been busy playing Pokemon so much, I crowd out the time to review it! Ahem, anyway, another short blog post before Pokemon shows up!
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Oh, copyrights. They do so much to help individuals protect their works of art... when big name companies aren't taking advantage of them. But now we have YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other websites, big and small, on the internet letting people share movies, TV, and music for free, those same companies are throwing tantrums about losing money due to everyone sharing everything and not paying them to do so. I have little, if any, sympathy towards such companies that don't realize they're sitting on a gold mine of publicity and aren't profiting on concerts, CDs/MP3s, posters, and other memorabilia they wouldn't normally sell without free sharing. Instead, they pushed for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was a terrible law that would've only protected their interests, not the interests of the original owners who weren't getting the copyrights to begin with.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
GSpark Reviews: Open Sourcing
I knew that Linux was a good OS for open source development, but I didn't know that it started out as open source software. This means that, as a user, I can give advice on a feature it'd be nice to have, point out a bug in the system, or suggest a way to make it more efficient. Best of all... the developers might even listen to me and try to implement my suggestion. Of course, someone else can come in and complain about that idea, if it gets implemented, and ask them to take it out, but that's the beauty of open sourcing! No one knows more about good software than the customer (remember, the customer is always right!), so if the users are the testers, there will inevitably be one person that brings his/her own solution to a certain problem, and it might be exactly what is needed to improve the software. Listen to the user, and you may end up with the best software in history.
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My review for Pokemon should be coming very soon. Stay tuned! Waving out!
--Gemini $park
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My review for Pokemon should be coming very soon. Stay tuned! Waving out!
--Gemini $park
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
GSpark Reviews: CS... for the ladies?
Okay, so my review of Pokemon is coming, so you know; it'll just be over the weekend again, during which time I'll have done this short review and another one.
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I like women who are willing to study Computer Science along with a huge group of men; I'm even good friends with one such lady. But what happened to the higher percentages of CS women colleges got in the past? Apparently, some women think computer science is "nerdy" or "geeky" and don't want to be perceived as such themselves. I have to applaud the women who embrace such ideals; most women nerds I know go into either art or writing, and, while those are still really good majors to go into, I admire those willing to study a major that runs heavier on math and logic than even math does! The whole reason I'm a total geek myself is because my mom was a huge Star Trek fan AND a math teacher, so my transformation was just natural. The same goes for women; if they're raised by goodly parents versed in a programming language or two, then they'll be more likely to study computer science.
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I like women who are willing to study Computer Science along with a huge group of men; I'm even good friends with one such lady. But what happened to the higher percentages of CS women colleges got in the past? Apparently, some women think computer science is "nerdy" or "geeky" and don't want to be perceived as such themselves. I have to applaud the women who embrace such ideals; most women nerds I know go into either art or writing, and, while those are still really good majors to go into, I admire those willing to study a major that runs heavier on math and logic than even math does! The whole reason I'm a total geek myself is because my mom was a huge Star Trek fan AND a math teacher, so my transformation was just natural. The same goes for women; if they're raised by goodly parents versed in a programming language or two, then they'll be more likely to study computer science.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
GSpark Reviews: The Cuckoo's Egg
Well, Pokemon (at least my review of it) will be going on the back burner for a little bit, but only because I have just recently become partial to an AMAZING book (yes, a book) called The Cuckoo's Egg. Written by Cliff Stoll, it's a true story, but it shows that all you need to play spy games is a computer. I like to call it a "science nonfiction" book because it has all the intrigue of crime drama paired up with... well, computers! NCIS's Timothy McGee would likely geek out about this book, it's that cool. Onward!
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There are quite a few recurring themes that come up within The Cuckoo's Egg; there's no way I will cover all of them here, so I'll look into the theme that stands out to me most. First off, I like the idea of thinking about networks as communities. Why? Because they essentially are communities. Take any given message board/forum on the Internet, for example. A message board has a given number of people--members with online accounts--it has administrators, moderators, and other staff to make and enforce certain rules that allow the vast majority to enjoy their time on it, and it most likely revolves around a given topic, like how Bulbagarden's forum talks mainly about Pokemon. Many members become great friends online (I should know, I'm friends with most of the active members on Quark), and those friendships allow for a real community to form. Your "neighbors" may be in other countries or states, but you have a tie to those people through a network.
Stoll takes this concept further and says those who hack into computer networks violate the trust inevitably formed in a community. Saying that it's no better than breaking in and robbing someone's house? "Wow, that's harsh," you say. Let's go back to the message board analogy. Perhaps a message board has a private forum for the staff. Okay, now say that a hacker knows about this forum and wants to access it. If the hacker is similar to the one Stoll brought down, then he'll try accessing a guest account. If successful, he can then utilize any hole in the security system for this message board. Eventually, he finds some obscure hole that not even the staff know about and gains admin privileges soon after. He would then reset the login information for an admin's account, preferably an inactive account so no one's the wiser, and then he would have access not only to this private forum but to the other privileges of an admin as well.
And what could he possibly do as an admin, or, Heaven forbid, a super-admin? Access to a private forum is the least of the community's worries! First, the members think a good member of the staff who had gone inactive is back when in reality this admin had just become their worst nightmare. Second, he could ban whoever he wanted to ban, including other admins, close down whatever thread he wanted to, or he could alter data somewhere. Worst of all, however, he'd have access to every member's private information which he could then exploit in a mass identity theft, if he wanted to. Any of these misused powers destroys trust within the forums, and, if he got his hands on webmaster privileges, no one except the real webmaster would be able to stop him (and even then the staff might have been booted off already), and the board would eventually get shut down by request of the staff. All because one person got privileges he shouldn't have and tarnished a well-known person's reputation.
Now, to be fair, this is the worst-case scenario; fortunately, in today's world, many security measures are in place that make it highly difficult for hackers to invade accounts like this, but what I portrayed above illustrates the idea Stoll was trying to get at. He lived in an age that didn't have nearly as many security measures anywhere, so anyone with decent hacking skills was able to reach almost anywhere, look at unclassified, but sensitive data, and steal accounts, whether old or new. Such a misuse of information really did violate the trust and privacy of a community, and he found himself a cause worthy of fighting for: freedom of computer use and peace of mind for everyone who this hacker had hurt.
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GSpark Light Says: I like the way Stoll vividly portrays his mission to take down the hacker that cost him $0.75, and I also like how he was able to express his opinions and the moralities behind what drove him to go to the lengths he did. I'm sure many of us, especially the NSA, are grateful for what he did and the standards he helped set in today's society. Because he was as persistent as the hacker was in his efforts, the world learned from its mistakes and started to take computer security seriously.
GSpark Dark Says: Unfortunately, there is a major language problem at the very beginning of the book, followed by other instances of medium to low profanity. Also, those who are offended by shower scenes should be cautious near the middle of the book. It also portrays alcohol usage, though not too heavily.
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Well, that was fun! I like deviation once in a while, and The Cuckoo's Egg was a definite deviation from what I normally look into, but once I started reading the book it was very difficult for me to put it down until it was finished. Anyway, I *should* have Pokemon for my next topic soon... if I can remember to put such games down long enough for me to write them up! ^_^' So, waving out for now!
--Gemini Spark
---------------
There are quite a few recurring themes that come up within The Cuckoo's Egg; there's no way I will cover all of them here, so I'll look into the theme that stands out to me most. First off, I like the idea of thinking about networks as communities. Why? Because they essentially are communities. Take any given message board/forum on the Internet, for example. A message board has a given number of people--members with online accounts--it has administrators, moderators, and other staff to make and enforce certain rules that allow the vast majority to enjoy their time on it, and it most likely revolves around a given topic, like how Bulbagarden's forum talks mainly about Pokemon. Many members become great friends online (I should know, I'm friends with most of the active members on Quark), and those friendships allow for a real community to form. Your "neighbors" may be in other countries or states, but you have a tie to those people through a network.
Stoll takes this concept further and says those who hack into computer networks violate the trust inevitably formed in a community. Saying that it's no better than breaking in and robbing someone's house? "Wow, that's harsh," you say. Let's go back to the message board analogy. Perhaps a message board has a private forum for the staff. Okay, now say that a hacker knows about this forum and wants to access it. If the hacker is similar to the one Stoll brought down, then he'll try accessing a guest account. If successful, he can then utilize any hole in the security system for this message board. Eventually, he finds some obscure hole that not even the staff know about and gains admin privileges soon after. He would then reset the login information for an admin's account, preferably an inactive account so no one's the wiser, and then he would have access not only to this private forum but to the other privileges of an admin as well.
And what could he possibly do as an admin, or, Heaven forbid, a super-admin? Access to a private forum is the least of the community's worries! First, the members think a good member of the staff who had gone inactive is back when in reality this admin had just become their worst nightmare. Second, he could ban whoever he wanted to ban, including other admins, close down whatever thread he wanted to, or he could alter data somewhere. Worst of all, however, he'd have access to every member's private information which he could then exploit in a mass identity theft, if he wanted to. Any of these misused powers destroys trust within the forums, and, if he got his hands on webmaster privileges, no one except the real webmaster would be able to stop him (and even then the staff might have been booted off already), and the board would eventually get shut down by request of the staff. All because one person got privileges he shouldn't have and tarnished a well-known person's reputation.
Now, to be fair, this is the worst-case scenario; fortunately, in today's world, many security measures are in place that make it highly difficult for hackers to invade accounts like this, but what I portrayed above illustrates the idea Stoll was trying to get at. He lived in an age that didn't have nearly as many security measures anywhere, so anyone with decent hacking skills was able to reach almost anywhere, look at unclassified, but sensitive data, and steal accounts, whether old or new. Such a misuse of information really did violate the trust and privacy of a community, and he found himself a cause worthy of fighting for: freedom of computer use and peace of mind for everyone who this hacker had hurt.
---------------
GSpark Light Says: I like the way Stoll vividly portrays his mission to take down the hacker that cost him $0.75, and I also like how he was able to express his opinions and the moralities behind what drove him to go to the lengths he did. I'm sure many of us, especially the NSA, are grateful for what he did and the standards he helped set in today's society. Because he was as persistent as the hacker was in his efforts, the world learned from its mistakes and started to take computer security seriously.
GSpark Dark Says: Unfortunately, there is a major language problem at the very beginning of the book, followed by other instances of medium to low profanity. Also, those who are offended by shower scenes should be cautious near the middle of the book. It also portrays alcohol usage, though not too heavily.
---------------
Well, that was fun! I like deviation once in a while, and The Cuckoo's Egg was a definite deviation from what I normally look into, but once I started reading the book it was very difficult for me to put it down until it was finished. Anyway, I *should* have Pokemon for my next topic soon... if I can remember to put such games down long enough for me to write them up! ^_^' So, waving out for now!
--Gemini Spark
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