Just A Little Something

Google Print

2005-09-29T13:17:00.000-04:00

Google is expanding...yet again. Their latest innovation is the concept of 'Google Print'. Essentially, this features now allows users to access a database of books, listing the book's title and author information, plus a brief synopsis of the book. Google has stated that the search result is to serve as a form of a card catalog, not book dispensary as many critics are claiming. Originally, Google's plan was to make the full text of all books searchable by anyone. They would have made available full text versions of books in the public domain (published before 1923) and portions of those works still in copyright. Admist all the controversy, Google announced they would change their policy, allowing current copyright holders to submit names of books they want excluded from the project altogether.

In my opinion, this is going to turn into the RIAA of the book industry. Google Print is a novel idea, but I can defeintly see where some people might feel as though they are being swindled. I assume that eventually, Google Print will allow access to the full-text of all books, but for a fee. Either way, it will be interesting to see where this goes.

Database Fights Diploma Mills

2005-09-22T10:19:00.000-04:00

Before reading the article "Database Fights Diploma Mills" , I had no idea what a "diploma mill" was, or why some database would want to fight it. After reading into the situation, I now realize the extent of the problem facing the country today.

I am amazed at two things.

First, the fact that people can get these degrees from places such as Almeda University or Hamilton University just from life experience is absurd. I hate how people are out to make a quick buck, not caring about the type of service they supply or the ethics behind those services. Second, the fact that there are people that actually want to get these diplomas to "cheat the system" is beyond me. Do they really expect to go out in the job market, and win a job over someone with a degree from an accredited institution? I guess so, and I guess some places actually take these diplomas.

To me, any diploma that comes from an institution other than the norm, is nothing really. Maybe a half of a diploma? Sure, people can get by with these paid diplomas and make it to places where they would otherwise not even be able to dream of going. On the other hand, a degree from an established institution will get you much farther in life, and leave you with a sense of accomplishment. It is those people that have earned the right to be successful, instead of buying their success.

Search Engines

2005-09-21T11:11:00.000-04:00

Upon reading the article, “Do Web Search Engines Suppress Controversy?” by Susan L. Gerhart, I defiently recieved a deeper knowledge of how search engines work, and the controversy surrounding their usage.The author was pointing out that users should be more aware of "indexical bias and ‘sunny only’ predisposition" of search engines and page authors. That is they should look for opposing/supporting arguments where appropriate. This can be achieved by using alternative search engines, more advanced queries, and by filtering through a greater number of search results.

Until having read this article, I had found myself being a one-dimensional search engine user. That is, I'd only use Google or Yahoo! (lately, YaGooHooGle has been developed for users of both search engines) to gather my information. I come to find out now, that through this one-dimensional pattern, I restricted myself from the majority of the other content pertaining to the subject at hand. However, I find that it would be very time consuming using multiple search engines to find other supporting/opposing arguments, when enough information is given to suit my needs using Google/Yahoo.

The author also states that using the Top 10 search results would help broaden the scope of the search. I find that in each search I have done, only the first two pages are remotely related to my search, with the other thousands of search results having nothing to do with my topic. I agree that there is more information out there, buried within the piles of search results. However, in the time used to search for that information, another more specific search could be used if you are that desperate for information.

Myself On The Web

2005-09-21T08:15:00.000-04:00

My parents information, (Name, Address, Driving Directions) can be found when typing in our Home Phone Number into Google. It is quite interesting to see that anyone can get that type of information on the web. This is just another reason to leave your home phone number unlisted in phonebooks. This is a stalkers dream right here!

As listed in the Assignment guidelines, information about myself can also be found using the UMW Student search page. Using this resource, anyone can recieve my school email address, as well as a link to my UMW Webpage. I can also view information pertaining to myself at my old school, Northern Virginia Community College.

Other than those three resources, I found nothing more about myself on the web. Browsing through various search engines (Google, Yahoo, A9, and many others) for "Floyd Perry" or "Perry, Floyd" yielded much information - none of which had anything to do with myself.

Tyranny of Copyright

2005-09-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

After reading the article "The Tyranny of Copyright?." I have developed several strong opinions towards to the subject.

Copyrights are something that we have grown up with, and really is just a second-nature word that we throw around here and there. The importance of copyrights is truly much more than that, and the issues surrounding the subject should become increasingly pertinent.

We have all heard of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and its association with Kazaa and other Peer2Peer programs. The RIAA is just one of many organizations seeking to stretch the limitations of copyright on the Internet to its fullest. By creating outrageous lawsuits against people simply because they downloaded a piece of work (whether it be music, movie, picture, etc), the RIAA has taken the theory of copyright to the extreme. It is one thing to blatently steal someone's idea or invention and make a profit from it; but to enforce a copyright regulation against sharing files over the internet that hold no bearing on importance or financial obligations is just absurd.

I agree with the article in that copyright on the internet needs to revert back to how it was when the idea was first concieved. To have Congress make it so any copyright can be extended well beyond the lives of those here makes new ideas hard to comeby. At the rate things are going now, copyright will control everything in our lives, when really it should be us, who control them.

Digital Piracy In The News

2005-09-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

Court rejects RIAA request to identify song-swappers by By Grant Gross, IDG News Service

This article, found through http://news.google.com/ shares some information dealing with the on-going struggle between the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and online subscribers who download various music or movie files over the Internet.

As stated in the article, a U.S. appeals court rejected the RIAA's plea to identify alleged file-swappers in order to sue them. This decision by the court is the second time a federal court has denied access to those that seek names of online subscribers. Up to this point, the RIAA has simply filed "John Doe Lawsuits", meaning that the defendants are only identified once the lawsuit has begun.

In the end, this decision by the court serves no real purpose other than to help keep the concept of Internet privacy alive. Case and point of this concept is Verizon arguing that anyone could claim to be a copyright holder (could be anyone, from serial killers, rapists, etc.), and could subsequently file a subpoena to discover the identity and home address of any Internet user.

All-in-All, this is another small victory in what will turn into being a long struggle against the RIAA.

Phishing Scams

2005-09-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

By now, I'm sure a good majority of us have either recieved these emails, or have otherwise seen these emails in some other fashion. It seems that the bulk of junk mail we recieve now falls into one of two categories. Porn, or Phishing Scams.

First, let me describe exactly what "Phishing" is. Basically, it's the act of sending an email to someone falsely claiming to be a legitmate company in an attempt to scam the user into giving private information that will be used for identity theft. The email usually directs the user to visit some website where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers. These scammers are relying on the fact that you forgot that any legitimate company would never ask for such personal information over the internet.

In short, never, ever give out any type of personal information over the Internet unless you are 110% sure it is a secure transfer. So this may seem like a pretty simple concept to understand right?

Well, I failed to abide by this when I was first using the Internet. I have since learned my lesson and will never again, to the best of my ability, allow myself to be so gullible towards things I see on the Internet. It was my Freshman Year in High-School, and I had just been given my very first screenname through AOL. I was all excited, constantly in chatrooms, living up the 'Internet Life'. It was in this excited stuper that I fell for one of the now oldest tricks in the book. I recieved an email from someone posing as 'AOL Admin' stating that my screenname would be terminated if I didn't provide "Critical Account Information" This included my name, DOB, SSN, screenname, password, and mother's maiden name. Me being young, naive, and quite frankly stupid, fell for this gimmick and gave my information to this fraud. I told my father immidetely, and had my father cancel my screenname to resolve the issue. In the end, no real damage was done, but there was a point in time where I was scared that I had just messed up big time.

I was lucky, that's for sure. Unfortunetly, countless others fall for such gimmicks everyday :(

Parking Permits

2005-09-06T07:56:00.000-04:00

Prior to the Fall 2004 semester, student parking permits were free of cost. It appears that sometime since then people decided that things needed to be changed. Of course, the students get the brunt of this.

The construction of a parking garage for future students was planned, driving the price of parking permits to $100 per vehicle last year, and now $150 this year. I understand that this fee helps cover the cost of construction on the new facility and other things around campus. But my question is why upperclassmen have to pay for a permit, when the investment will not affect them in the least. The majority of students at UMW will long be graduated by the time the first car enters that garage. This makes no sense, and makes even less sense if you dive further into the situation at hand.

Since students have to pay such a huge fee for parking permits, shouldn't there be some type of benefit seen today? After all, we are paying for a service here. The opposite seems to have happened. Not only are students being forced to pay an arm and a leg, but they are also looking at less overall student parking spaces. In fact, it has been said that there are more Parking Permits, than there are Student Parking spaces. Makes total sense doesn't it? This is due to one of the primary student parking areas, located near the front gate, being converted to 'Faculty/Staff Parking' only. Commuting students, such as myself, are now forced to park at the far end of campus, sometimes causing a long and arduous walk from car to class. If the limited remaining parking spaces are full, tough luck. Looks like you'll be late for class looking to find a parking spot on the streets. Or worse, across Route 1 next to Einstien Bagel. Enjoy that walk guys.

I'm sorry, but that's just a bit unfair if you ask me. Not only are students now paying a ton of money for a sticker, but are also now severely limited in their parking options. The parking garage is a novel idea, and will serve future students of UMW very well; however, the current students do not deserve to be treated as such. If we are going to pay, at least make it worth our while.

As of right now, all I see is myself paying $150 for some garage I'll never see, and a 1.5 mile walk between my car and class. Nice service don't you think?

"Big" Little leaguers

2005-08-31T14:51:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have been watching the Little League World Series (LLWS) for the past couple weeks. The tournament ended on Sunday, August 28th, with Ewa Beach, Hawaii winning the Championship over Willemstad, Curacao. Now, that in and of itself is enough to cause headlines. Did you know the last American team to win the LLWS was Toms River, NJ in 1998? - A span of 7 years. However, despite this great accomplishment by the team from Hawaii, the headlines are focused on one of three subjects, "Curveballs" , "Age," and "steroid Use".

I'm sure all of you that watched ESPN at all during the past couple weeks heard about the kid from California who struck out 18 batters....in a 6 inning game. That's right, Kalen Pimentel got every single possible out by himself. To say the least, WOW! It wasn't since 2001 that the LLWS had seen a pitcher dominate the other team to this degree. Remember Danny Almonte? He was young kid from Brooklyn, NY who became only the second person to throw a PERFECT GAME (that is, not a single batter reached base) in the LLWS. It was later found out that Almonte was actually 14 years of age, as opposed to the maximum age limit of 12.

Now I'm not calling Pimentel out or anything, but honestly, it's hard to not think that something is up. He has stubble on his chin....at 12. Lets be real here, that's just a bit crazy. Anyways, the sites I listed from ESPN.com go pretty in depth and bring up some really good points about "Almonte-like" age accusations and even Steriod Use amongst preteens and teens. How else can there be a 6'6'' 225lb 12 yr old from Saudi Arabia. Yes, you read that right. I can't find a link on him, but I remember sitting down with some friends watching the game, and his profile came up. I just sat there with my jaw through the floor looking at this Little League version of Andre the Giant. Something needs to happen to keep the prestige of the LLWS intact. As you can easily see, it's getting a little out of hand.

Last topic - Curveballs. When I was in Little League, I can remember my dad and coaches forbidding me to throw any sort of pitch aside from the normal fastballs and changeups. Why? "It'll ruin your arm" I was always told. I was so furious when I'd go out there, only to be outpitched by some kid throwing curveballs and such. But now in retrospect, I am thankful. I have read about numerous statistics about young teens having "Tommy John Surgery", a now-common elbow ligament replacement procedure. The problem with throwing curveballs at such a young age is that it puts so much pressure on an under-developed part of their body. Not to mention that they are not nearly mature enough to fully understand how to correctly throw the pitch time and time again. My only advise to any young athletes out there is to just take care of yourself. It's not worth to destroy your body before it's even fully mature.

Overall, I still enjoy watching the LLWS. Despite all the negativity and questions/concerns that now surround it, I still find myself in awe of what these kids can do. Makes me wish I was back at that age playing ball, not having another care in the world.

Critical Thinking In The Internet Era

2005-08-31T11:57:00.000-04:00

After reading this article pertaining to the use of the Internet in conducting research, I find myself in full agreement with the author's point "that many students have dufficulty recognizing trustworty sources, though perhaps the underlying problem is a lack of understanding of the Internet as an unmonitored source of inofrmation.". The Internet has clearly become the dominate source of knowledge for the majority of students in the 21st century. While searching the Internet is most defiently easier than taking a daytrip to the local library, the wealth of information on the Internet is oftentimes suspect to being erroneous or misleading.

While the Internet can be used to find much information about basically any topic imaginable, it should only be used as a compliment to validated sources of information, rather than the lone source. Basically, the Internet alone should not be your basis of information when writing important research papers, or conducting research for a job-related task. Unless the source is verifiable, such as http://www.britannica.com/ or another web-based encyclopedia, the information obtained may or may not be 100% accurate. Imagine basing your entire research paper on some random webpage, only to find out the information on that site was entirely wrong. I think it’s safe to say that if that were the scenario, your grade would not be even close to an ‘A’. In contrast, if more than one webpage were used to verify the information given, or an entirely different medium was used to gather and cross-reference information, the research paper would not provide faulty information.

The Internet is a powerful tool when used properly. It is clear that many people abuse this power and treat the Internet as a ‘Know-all, End-All” solution to anything and everything. That abuse will prove to be an ‘Achilles Heel’ of sorts for those who rely on this information “too much”.