Cyberbullying

At one point in our lifetime, we have either witnessed bullying or have been bullied whether it is in high school or elementary school. Bullies usually cause psychological or physical damage on victims. They usually humiliate victims in front of classmates. However, due to strict policies schools implement, bullying has decreased significantly in a school setting. Even though, traditional bullying decreased in schools, it has taken a new form and evolved from playgrounds to online bullying. In the article "Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies," it states that a girl committed suicide because she was being bullied online. It seems like cyberbulying is worse than tradition bullying because most of the time, the bullies cannot be identified.

Legal and Ethical issues

I do not believe that all information should be free. Producing new Movies, TV shows, songs etc. consumes a lot of time and effort. The viewers should pay to get them. And also people should avoid getting illegal copies of movies, songs, or TV shows, because I believe that it is very disrespectful and for the producer(s) who worked hard to make them.
In the article "YouTube alters copyright algorithms.." the author talks about how YouTube is trying to tighten their copyright policy.  Copyrights are very important because then nobody can steal anyone's creative ideas. I like how Google made Android an open source one. It is really helpful for xda developers and people like me; who are trying to learn about new technology.

Privacy and Security

In my opinion, the Internet is not private. PRISM is one of the programs that the NSA use to collect data. (U.S. British Intelligence mining data from nine U.S. internet companies in broad secret program) According to London’s Guardian newspaper, GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA, also has been secretly collecting intelligence from the same internet companies through an operation set up by the NSA. It is very scary to see that the government is collecting private information. There is no privacy at all. I feel like there is always someone watching what I do on the internet every second.
Also, there are malware all over the internet and without you even knowing it, they might even get in your computer. In the article “Why Spyware Poses Multiple Threats to Security” by Thompson, R. says that these malware can gather information about an individual and sell them to different marketing companies. Privacy and Security is very important for an individual and it should not be taken away.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Robots can only do what the humans commands (programs) them to do. They cannot make their own decisions. Even though Robots make less mistakes, they do not have feelings or emotions, so I do not believe that robots can do everything that humans can do.
Using Robotic cars would make lives easier, but at the same time I believe that it would make people depend too much on the technology and instead of driving a car you would just have to get in the vehicle and it will take you wherever you want to go. In the article, "Driverless Cars Get California License" the author mentions that robotic cars have a faster reaction speed than humans and using robotic cars would cause less accidents. However, in my opinion, I would rather drive a car myself than just getting into a robotic car.
Both robots and humans make mistakes. But robots make less mistakes since scientists have well programmed them to do a certain task without making any errors. The article "Should we put robots on trial?" questions who to blame if a robotic car runs over someone. To put robotic cars on trial, I believe that proper laws should be made first.

Creativity and Social Media

I started using Second Life today. It is my first time using a virtual world game and I'm starting to like it. This is an avatar of myself in Second Life.

Social Media

The social networks I use are Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. I like using Facebook a lot more because most of my friends use it and it is very easy to use. I could always check my Facebook using my smartphone from anywhere I want. One thing I really like about Facebook is that it gives you much more privacy than other social networks out there.

Virtual worlds are where you can create a fictional character to interact with other people on the internet. In the article, " When Writing Digitally, Nobody Knows You're a Duck," the author states, "With the computer screen and virtual environment as a mediator, users can portray themselves however they wish. For people with social or physical disabilities, this masquerade allows an extra degree of equality." I believe that it is really a good opportunity for the people with disabilities or for people from different ethnic backgrounds to come as one and work together. The chance of being discriminated would be less since you wouldn't be able to really see the physical appearance of the real person. According to the article " iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction", David Savill, who is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, mentions that how convenient it is to connect to the world from your computer in your own room. He further mentions how important that is for the people with autistic people. Virtual world is a really interesting concept and I would like to see people using more virtual world tools in the future.

World Wide Web

The future of the World Wide Web will be much more personalized. Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzwell states that he wants to build a genuine artificial brain, that can understand the ideas and concepts. For now, what Google search does is, pick out the key words in webpages. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to "semantic search", which will improve the accuracy by understanding the searchers intentions and contexts' meaning.
According to the article "'The cloud' challenges amazon" people have become more connected to the web, that people are now opening gifts of Netflix capable devices on Christmas. Amazon's cloud computing services provide storage for Netflix. "The cloud" is to store your information not in your device but in the cyber space. You will be able access your information anytime or from anywhere you want.  This will definitely change the way people store their information in the future and I believe it will be much more convenient.

How do you feel a course can effectively integrate blogs?

I'm Haridu Senadeera and I am a computer science major at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago. I think a course can effectively intergrade blogs, especially for the course CS100. It is a great place to publish your work/ questions and your classmates/instructor would be able to comment on your work and have discussions about a certain topic. I'm hoping to see more university courses integrated with blogs in the future.

Why Androids are better than iPhones

Why Androids are better

Apple may have mollified the masses by adding significantly better specs to its smartphone offering, but when it comes to innovation, the iPhone 5 just can't compete with the latest Android handsets. Sure a larger screen, 4G LTE support and a faster CPU are welcome additions to the world's No. 1 phone, but Apple is a year late and $199 short, because Android has provided all these features and more for some time now. 

In fact, even after Apple's johnny-come-lately improvements, Android phones at least 10 advantages over the iPhone 5.

- Avram Piltch, Laptopmag.com