Electronic Voting

The documentary Hacking Democracy really opened my eyes to the problems with electronic voting. The film follows the group, Black Box Voting, which is a nonprofit organization that studies how the election results could be altered. Like all computer progams there can be vulnerabilities in it. The actual election results are stored in a file using Microsoft Access that can be easily opened and edited, without permissions.
What is even more alarming about the Diebold company is why and how they were contracted to make the voting machines. There were many companies hoping to get the contract, but Diebold, being the highest bid among the companies must have had some connections. Robert Kennedy Jr. in an article entitled, Will The Next Election Be Hacked?, stated that Diebold totally toook over Georgia's election without supervision. They could have installed software without anyone's knowledge. A former employee of Diebold has came forward in recent years to state what he knows and how unsecure the machines can be.
If I was in charge of California's election I would hire an independent monitoring firm from either outside of the country or from another state. In this case, there would be people not affiliated with either party or candidate that is going to look over and review the results and see if they aren't tampered with. As for the software problem, it might be time to invest in a very secure voting system that is constantly being updated. There are always going to be little problems, as we saw with the "hanging chad's" with the paper votes.

File Sharing

The Internet brings people from all over the world together. They share stories, pictures, music and movies. It seems inevitable that people will share copyrighted materials. The RIAA and MPAA do not want copies easily available for people to download. There is a lot of money and creativity that goes into the production of a Hollywood blockbuster or a hit song. Personally, I feel that in some cases the file-sharing that is being viewed by some as immoral is actually okay.

Groups like Radiohead have been working on a different approach with their music, 'when the album In Rainbows was released as a "pay what you want" sales model as an online download.'-wiki

Downloading a song you don't own from a major label artist:
Major record labels are notorious for their bad treatment of artists. I feel as well as high profile bands such as Nine Inch Nails that the major record labels are receiving most of the payment and not the artists. In this case I feel that it is okay.

Downloading a song you don't own from a struggling independent artist (who doesn't give you explicit permission).
Struggling artists have put a lot of time in making their music without the help of a multimillion dollar record company. However, when the music is shared, exposure is gained that may benefit the artist in the long run.

Downloading another copy of a song you already own.
What else could you do with a five year old CD with hundreds of scratches from the normal wear and tear. You already bought the product once, I feel that you are entitled to the song still, being in an .mp3 file is more secure and won't have to worry about scratches.

Shoplifting a CD from a store.
In this case shoplifting is wrong and illegal. That is taking merchandise away from the store and if it happens a lot to a small store could run them out of business.

Downloading a song to "try it out" - if you like it enough, you'll buy the CD.
Like in many other markets there is a try before you buy. When buying my used car, I drove it around and checked everything myself to see if I would like to invest in it. If I didn't want i, I wouldn't have to pay the price just to see if I liked it. With music I see it as the same, if you enjoy the few tracks you downloaded off a new CD and then decided to buy it that's fair.

Copying a CD from a friend, or ripping a CD you own to your hard drive, and then giving the CD away
If you copy the CD for your personal use I don't find that much wrong with that, but when the issue of giving the CD away that shouldn't be allowed.

Making music you own available online to share with a couple of friends.
If it is making a radio station type of thing I could see why someone would want to do this. When it comes to the actual music available for download I don't feel that's fair.

Making music you own publicly available on the Internet, such as through KazAa or Limewire.
Although, you aren't making money for sharing your music library with the masses, giving away music to millions of people affects the record company, but most importantly probably the the artists themselves.

Creating and giving away "Mix CDs" of music you like to friends
Compiling music from different genres of music and sharing them with your friends I feel is the same as letting them hear what you enjoy. Don't feel that this is a bad thing, and usually happens when a middle to highschool boy has a crush on a girl.

Creating and selling "Mix CDs" of music you like to anyone who wants to buy them
There are mix CD's that are actually legitimate and sold in stores like the "Jock Jams" collection or "The 90's classics." With the legitimate mix CD's they pay royalties to the artist. When an individual does this they are making all the profit for something they didn't create, which is wrong.

Blog 4: Python Output

1. Given the following python function definition:

def combine(a, b):
result = 0
while b > 0:
result = result + a
b = b - 1
return result

a. What does combine(3,4) return?
Answer:12
b. What does combine(6,7) return?
Answer:42
c. What does combine(3,0) return?
Answer:error? Can't enter equation.
d. What mathematical function does combine compute?
Answer:function is a*b
2. Given the following python function definition:

def splitup(a,b):
result = 0
while a >= b:
result = result + 1
a = a - b
return result

a. What does splitup(10,2) return?
result=5
b. What does splitup(8,2) return?
result=4
c. What does splitup(35,5) return?
result=7
d. What mathematical function does splitup compute
a/b


3. Given the following python function definitions:

def strange(a):
print "Strange: a = ",a

def weird(a, b):
print "weird: a = ", a, "b = ", b
strange(a+b)

def reallyWeird(a, b):
strange(a - b)
print "reallyWeird: a = ", a, "b = ", b
strange(a+b)

def downrightOdd(a):
print "downrightOdd: a = ", a
reallyWeird(2*a, a)

What is the output of each of the following statements:

a. strange(6)
strange: a=6
b. weird(8, 4)
strange: a =12
c. reallyWeird(8, 4)

reallyWierd: a=8 b=4

strange: a=12

d. downrightOdd(3)

downrightOdd: a=3

strange: a=3

reallyWierd: a=6, b=3

strange: a=9

4 Given the following python function definition:

def odd(a):
result = 0
while a > 1:
a = a / 2
result = result + 1
return result

a. What does odd(2) return?
1
b. What does odd(8) return?
3
EXTRA CREDIT: What mathematical function does odd compute?

Math

Convert the following binary numbers to both hexadecimal (base-16) and decimal (base-10)
1.
a. 1011 Hexadecimal-B Decimal-11
b. 10101 Hexadecimal-15 Decimal-21
c. 10010110 Hexadecimal-96 Decimal-150
d. 1111111 Hexadecimal-7f Decimal-27

Convert the following decimal numbers to both binary (base-2) and hexadecimal (base-16)
2.
a. Decimal-8 Hexadecimal-8 Binary-1000
b. Decimal-63 Hexadecimal-3F Binary-111111
c. Decimal-113 Hexadecimal-71 Binary-1110001
d. Decimal-97 Hexadecimal-61 Binary-1100001

3.
Suppose that we want to download a 200 MB file. How long will it take on each of the following connections?
a.56 kilobits/s
1638400 bits/56 bits per second
=29257.14 seconds
8 hours, 7 minutes, 31 minutes

b.5 megabits/s
8*200mb=1600megabits/s
1600/5=320 seconds
5min and 20 seconds

c.10 megabits/s
1600megabits per second/10megabits per second=160 seconds
2 minutes and 40 seconds

4. If we have an Internet connection that can upload 3 Megabits/second, and an MP3 is 60 Megabytes, how many MP3s can we upload in an hour? In a month (given a reliable connection)?
.375 megabytes per second*60 megabytes=22.5 seconds for mp3 to be uploaded
3600/22.5=160 songs in an hour
2629743.83/22.5=116,877.5 songs in a month

Net Neutrality

My thoughts:
I think that net neutrality is important to have so that everyone is getting fair and unbiased services from their ISP's. It is important for their to be an equal playing field when it comes to the internet. An ISP shouldn't be able to prioritize or suppress information that is traveling to it's destination. The recent speech from the FCC is a great step foward in making sure that the net remains neutral so that free speech can prosper and people can continue to use whichever hardware and software they would like.
Pro-Net Neutrality:
-WeAreTheWeb is an organization made up of celebrities and others who say, "Big telecom and cable providers want to restrict your access and charge you more for internet content you already receive for free." They believe that the people own the web and not the big companies.
-OpenInternetCoalition is a group of companies that includes Ebay and Ask.com that believe the internet should be open to all. Being founded by public funding it should stay public and big companies shouldn't place "toll booths" in the internet. They want even people that don't have a lot of money to be able to use the same services and not be restricted by more fees.
Anti-Net Neutrality
-NetCompetition is an organization made up of big companies and ISP's as AT&T and Comcast. They are "Promoting competitive internet choices for consumers." They don't want the government to get involved in the industry and feel that market-based competition is better than government managed competition.
-HandsOffTheInternet is another organization made up of companies including BellSouth and Alcatel that is against the gobvernment regulation of the net. They feel that the consumers should make the choices and not the governemnt. They warn of a broadband price increase because of "net neutrality."

Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?
-Cloud Computing is like a virtual hard drive that allows users to save and update their work on a provider, like Google's Sites. Users don't own the "physical infrastructure", but instead use a company's and some get charged for only what they use. A user can access his/her work on the provider's site anywhere there is a computer and internet hook-up. Uses applications and storage from a network rather than locally.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for an ordinary computer user?
-An ordinary computer user will find that cloud computing is very convenient as they can take advantage of it wherever there is a internet connection. Cloud computing allows for no carrying of heavy hardware in order to continue working on something that was saved before.
-Some disadvantages are, some companies might experience some down-time as they are repairing and making their site better. Unfortunately for the user during this time they have no access to their work. If they had a physical copy it might not halt all of the work for that period.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of cloud computing for a start-up company?
-A start up company would find that it is a lot more economical to use cloud computing, as they don't need to spend money on hardware, as they can just use a provider. It will cut costs and allow a start-up to spend money on other things such as advertising.
-It is crucial for a start-up company to be viewed as solid and doesn't have that many bugs. If their provider goes down, that could mean that they are viewed as somewhat of a failure, not being able to keep their site online.
What are the social dangers of cloud computing? That is, why might people be uneasy about the whole world's documents being stored on GoogleDocs instead of on local machines?
-There are some security ricks people need to be aware of. Since you don't have "full control" of your work when using a cloud computing model there is a security issue, not knowing who has access. There is also a problem with data availability, when there is downtime on a system. You are completely without your documents or sites when GoogleDocs or GoogleSites goes down, leaving many to be doubtful about cloud computing.

First Post

Hello, Julian here letting you know that you can find the assignments due on this blog.
About me:
Born: Bloomfield, NJ
Grew up: St. Louis, MO
Favorite Baseball Team: St. Louis Cardinals
University's attended: Depaul University, University of San Francisco
Hobbies: baseball, beach, walking dog in golden gate, bars, exotic foods