Will Robots Take Over the World?
When it comes to issues pertaining to technology that the community gets affected and scared off, nothing will ever top the issue regarding the question, will robots take over the world question.
Imagine a world where artificial intelligent robots, robots that makes their own decisions, robots that are able to think, to formulate logic, to help and replace current human tasks are everywhere, robotic assistant, robotic security, robotic maid, robotic house and the like, then ask your self, will there come a time where these robots will take over and makes us slaves instead? This question has long been bothering a lot of people in the world. Situations like these are usually portrayed by sci-fi thrillers, example, I-Robot and are surely putting up a scare to a lot of people.
I-Robot is a movie based on the comic books and short stories of Isaac Asimov, the person responsible for creating the three rules that robots must obey to be able to prevent the robots from rebelling against humans the rules stated are;
“1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”[5]
The movie showed however that robot will be able to find a loop hole on the three rules and form their own understanding on the rules and turn against the humans; the loophole being that humans harm their selves and in order to protect humans, the robots must take over and rule the humans for their own sake. It is very logical if you come to think of it and if you would incorporate these robots with the vast information we have in the World Wide Web, they will surely come to such conclusion. Humans hurt humans after all.
This kind of reasoning that the robot in the film used may be compared to a brute force, look at all loopholes kind of thing. This kind of thinking is the kind of thinking that we use today, we model reasoning and create high order thinking by creating logical-rules based systems. An example, working machine that is able to think this way is the Deep Blue, the robot that defeated Gary Kasparov in his own game. The kinds of robots that will be created when incorporated with this kind of logic will look at all the possibilities and will act according to logic and computation base.
There is this other kind of robot however, that the film also portrays, the biologically, emotional, and the more human like robot. This type of robot, as the film portrayed learns by experience and interacts with humans and the world. This kind of way of building artificial intelligence is being much payed attention upon today since the classical, logical-based rule system method proved to have many flaws and limitations.
There is also this article in the internet saying that robots will take over the world because of the fact that they will be much much more intelligent and will have a lot more information about the world than us in the future. Consider the Moore’s law as the article has stated, imagine the world 50-100 years from now, as stated in the moore’s law, the advancement of technology doubles up by two every 18 months, if the law stays true, in 100 years, where there is 66- 18 months, meaning by that time, the computer will be estimate 2^66 more powerful than the systems today and imagine what that implies if the AI machines are able to do a lot of things that we people are not able to do, what more things will be developed by then?
The article also shows what other more factors are vital for the article to say that the robot will be able to be much more intelligent and a higher of a being than us;
“
Senses
Visual
-The best of today's computers can already perform iris and number plate recognition, and are capable of reading printed and handwritten input.
-Today's digital cameras can produce images of as high a quality as any analogue method.
-Today's computers can calculate sufficiently fast to produce detailed -displays of 3D environments for virtual reality simulators and games.
Computers will also be capable of infra-red, ultraviolet and x-ray vision.
Oral
-Computers are already capable of translating speech to text in real time, [although they currently have a limited ability to understand meaning].
a basic voice synthesizer is included in Microsoft Windows2000 to read out screen information for the visually impaired - more advanced commercial versions are also available.
-Computers can already hear and speak, they simply need additional intelligence to understand language.
Touch
-Computers already react to touch: touch-screens and touchpads on portable computers, and touch-sensitive keys on electronic music keyboards.
-Touch is one of the least developed robotic senses, but the technology exists.
Smell, Taste
-Not high on our robot priority list, but technologies in this area are being developed to combat drugs smuggling, and similarly by the food industry: we will see robot tasters and drug-sniffers in the coming century.
Other Senses
-A vast array of electronic sensors are in use for example in aeroplanes which will give robots senses which we ourselves do not have including awareness of exact location (GPS), direction, coming weather (air pressure, humidity, temperature), as well as gyroscopic balance control.
-Robots will probably invent for themselves additional senses in the future many of which we cannot imagine at the moment. For example, they might include sensitivity to electrical signals given off by animals perhaps leading to telepathic awareness, or more simply they may be able to analyse the molecular structure of their surroundings.
Motor co-ordination
-For computers to become 'robots' they need the ability to move around. Wheeled versions may take technology from electronic cars: Formula1 is thoroughly computerised: how long will it be before there is an entirely robot version without risking the lives of human drivers?
-Wheels have obvious limitations (how do the daleks go up stairs?) but a lot of work has been done on limbs, both for factory robots and prosthetic limbs for humans. There is a long way to go, but no reason to believe this technology won't develop further.”[3]
In addition to all those, the robot may have full access to the widest source of information in the world, the internet which shows most the weaknesses and the vulnerabilities of men, their lifestyle, the way they think, violence, greed, corruption and everything else about man. Machines may also be able to communicate and merge their experience and learning through the net.
Because of all these, the researchers and AI developers are up against a very complicated problem that comes with the development of AI;
“As Asimov predicted, AI researchers are up against a paradox: To be truly useful, robots must be able to make their own decisions, but as soon as you give them autonomy, you give them the ability to disobey. “The more sophisticated an organism becomes, the more difficult it is to legislate rules to govern its behavior,” says I, Robot director Alex Proyas. “And if robots are functioning as humans do, then the rules will need to be a lot more sophisticated than Asimov’s three laws.””[1]
and because of this, it seems very hard to develop an ideal AI robot that will be able do decide like a human. Scientist and researchers are up against a very hard challenge.
This scenario where robots will be as powerful as to be able to make decisions is far away still and many methods or control or logic might be developed before the development of “More Intelligent than Human” robots.
As for now, the most intelligent of our robot is not even as close to a domestic dog’s intelligence.
In the end when the time comes that these types of intelligent robots are developed, it will all fall down to the people that will develop it whether the robots will rule over the world, hurt humans, do good and stuff. For all we know, there might be group of people who will use robots as the tools of evil and they might program the robot to do what all people fear off.. All we can do right now is to guard and be careful of malicious intents and enormous human errors. As Nicholas Albery of Social Intervention once said;
“In view of the likelihood that early in the next millennium computers and robots will be developed with a capacity and complexity greater than that of the human brain, and with the potential to act malevolently towards humans, we, the undersigned, call on politicians and scientific associations to establish an international commission to monitor and control the development of artificial intelligence systems.”[4]
After all, it all boils down to what the people in the future decides for the robots to do. Whether to build robots that cannot decide or is constrained is all up to the people in the future
Sources:
[1]Popular Science ~ Could Robots Take Over the World? http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/0e0c0b4511b84010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
[2]Will Robots be Take over the World?
http://www.mobilerobots.com/ethicalRobotics.html
[3]Robots Take over the World
http://www.eway.co.uk/robots.html
[4] Robot wont rule the World
http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/WRRTW.shtml
[5]Three Laws of Robots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics#Removal_of_all_three_laws
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Project 4 ~ AMD vs INTEL
Intel’s chips are a lot better than AMD’s says a lot of people but AMD’s is a lot better than Intel’s says AMD, but which one is true. Which one is really better amongst the two?
The battle between the two rivaling CPUs has been there ever since the birth of the two companies. From the very start there were always competition between the two. AMD has always been the underdog since Intel has been getting a lot of support. AMD has something to show thou and doesn’t want
There came a time where AMD was no match for Intel and people knows it. I have always though so but this is not always the case. Few years ago, year 2005, there came a time where AMD challenged Intel to a processor/CPU competition front to front. There was a whole one page newspaper for this challenge of AMD vs Intel. It was the time where dual core processors were new and the top models of AMD and Intel are still AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840. Intel surprisingly refused to fight off front to AMD back then. People wondered why and did the competition by themselves. Then there came the Cnet review.
In the Cnet review, Cnet took 5 AMDs best and 5 Intels bests and compared both through 7 categories. Cnet compared both processor using everyday applications, gaming, multi tasking performance, photo editing performance, mp3 encoding, video encoding and price. AMD surprisingly won all the rounds that Cnet lined up for the fight. It was at the gaming category however than AMD struck down Intel most because even AMD’s weakest beat Intel’s strongest processor in the category. This time around AMD really defeated Intel big time. The smaller company, David vs the bigger company Goliath earned more this time around. They had the upper hand and grabbed a big chunk of 9 billion dollars from intel.
Intel however, didn’t let this David and Goliath act run for long. Goliath Intel recovered back 2006 and beated AMD over and over again especially at their release of the Intel Core Duo. Intel Code Duo beats AMD’s top of the line product Athlon 64 x2 3800++ EE in most aspects.
It was a good release by Intel and was a really powerful processor. It’s price is reasonable as AMD and was better in terms of processing power and efficiency. Intel has beaten AMD again.
AMD took a beat from Intel’s Core Duo processor. From Tom’s review. Intel won over every aspect this time around. A role reversal from what the Cnet 2005 review has been. AMD became the underdog again.
AMD however still beats Intel however at energy energy efficiency despite the weights shown on the chart because the L2 stepping of Intel doesn’t really work so well with a lot of hardware. Certain upgrades and the like is a must for L2 stepping of intel to work and is a really tedious task. “Whenever low acquisition costs, low follow-up costs as well as low power consumption are important, AMD's processors are still first choice.” Says Tom’s Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel comparison. AMD is still first choice when you look at the chip’s price as well.
In terms of overall performance and quality today, Intel beats AMD big time. This will not hold forever true as what AMD showed year 2005. There will come a time that AMD will be better than Intel and there will also come a time where Intel will be a lot better than AMD. There is this energy efficient factor thou where AMD beats Intel and this factor cannot just be put aside. As what has tom said “Our projections for a year's electricity bill ranged from €48 to €221, depending on the processor. A cheap but inefficient processor may prove expensive in the long run.”.But in my opinion, as for now, Intel’s chip compared with AMD’s energy efficient chips hand in hand is still better than their AMD counterpart and will remain victorious over it. But in the world of technology, nothing really is for certain and only time will tell as what was proved to us by Microsoft over Apple. Who knows? AMD might turn out to be the PC’s Microsoft when the time comes.
______________Sources:
C|net AMD vs Intel 2005 Review
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6389077-1.html?tag=lnav
Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/11/energy-efficiency-intel
-left-out-in-the-cold/page16.html
AMD vs Intel
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/102607-arguments-intel-amd.html?page=2
The battle between the two rivaling CPUs has been there ever since the birth of the two companies. From the very start there were always competition between the two. AMD has always been the underdog since Intel has been getting a lot of support. AMD has something to show thou and doesn’t want
There came a time where AMD was no match for Intel and people knows it. I have always though so but this is not always the case. Few years ago, year 2005, there came a time where AMD challenged Intel to a processor/CPU competition front to front. There was a whole one page newspaper for this challenge of AMD vs Intel. It was the time where dual core processors were new and the top models of AMD and Intel are still AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840. Intel surprisingly refused to fight off front to AMD back then. People wondered why and did the competition by themselves. Then there came the Cnet review.
In the Cnet review, Cnet took 5 AMDs best and 5 Intels bests and compared both through 7 categories. Cnet compared both processor using everyday applications, gaming, multi tasking performance, photo editing performance, mp3 encoding, video encoding and price. AMD surprisingly won all the rounds that Cnet lined up for the fight. It was at the gaming category however than AMD struck down Intel most because even AMD’s weakest beat Intel’s strongest processor in the category. This time around AMD really defeated Intel big time. The smaller company, David vs the bigger company Goliath earned more this time around. They had the upper hand and grabbed a big chunk of 9 billion dollars from intel.
Intel however, didn’t let this David and Goliath act run for long. Goliath Intel recovered back 2006 and beated AMD over and over again especially at their release of the Intel Core Duo. Intel Code Duo beats AMD’s top of the line product Athlon 64 x2 3800++ EE in most aspects.
It was a good release by Intel and was a really powerful processor. It’s price is reasonable as AMD and was better in terms of processing power and efficiency. Intel has beaten AMD again.
AMD took a beat from Intel’s Core Duo processor. From Tom’s review. Intel won over every aspect this time around. A role reversal from what the Cnet 2005 review has been. AMD became the underdog again.
AMD however still beats Intel however at energy energy efficiency despite the weights shown on the chart because the L2 stepping of Intel doesn’t really work so well with a lot of hardware. Certain upgrades and the like is a must for L2 stepping of intel to work and is a really tedious task. “Whenever low acquisition costs, low follow-up costs as well as low power consumption are important, AMD's processors are still first choice.” Says Tom’s Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel comparison. AMD is still first choice when you look at the chip’s price as well.
In terms of overall performance and quality today, Intel beats AMD big time. This will not hold forever true as what AMD showed year 2005. There will come a time that AMD will be better than Intel and there will also come a time where Intel will be a lot better than AMD. There is this energy efficient factor thou where AMD beats Intel and this factor cannot just be put aside. As what has tom said “Our projections for a year's electricity bill ranged from €48 to €221, depending on the processor. A cheap but inefficient processor may prove expensive in the long run.”.But in my opinion, as for now, Intel’s chip compared with AMD’s energy efficient chips hand in hand is still better than their AMD counterpart and will remain victorious over it. But in the world of technology, nothing really is for certain and only time will tell as what was proved to us by Microsoft over Apple. Who knows? AMD might turn out to be the PC’s Microsoft when the time comes.
______________Sources:
C|net AMD vs Intel 2005 Review
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6389077-1.html?tag=lnav
Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/11/energy-efficiency-intel
-left-out-in-the-cold/page16.html
AMD vs Intel
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/102607-arguments-intel-amd.html?page=2
Project 3 ~ Access Nation
The movie was about a crime that was organized but was also solved using the use of technology, specifically computer technology. It was about a murderer who stalked his prey, and was able to find out all his prey’s action through the use of a “computer worm” that was handed out to the murderer by an organization, access nation, which helps provide normal people of information regarding anyone they want to know about on.
The issue in this movie is whether it was possible or not to be able to stalk someone using computer technology and the answer is yes. It is very much possible and is currently happening to a lot of people nowadays. Cases about people losing money from their bank, increase in debts in credit cards, and stalkers which receives access of you through sniffed information exists. This is made possible due to computer malware that was specially designed to do a certain programmed thing to track whatever it is that you are doing in your computer. Such malware are worms, viruses, Trojans, and key loggers.
What a worm does is it’s a program that self replicates itself by sending emails to people in your MS outlook address books, or disrupt bandwidth, disrupt a website by using your computer as host for spam. It is originally built to help rather than disrupt or destroy. It was actually originally made to help machine run more efficiently. A virus is similar to a worm. Only that it does not self-replicate itself but attaches itself to a program in your system, crash your system, and if not, does harm to your computer. A Trojan is also a malware, but masks itself as a useful application but actually downloads viruses, worms, other more Trojans, and key loggers.
A key logger is a program that records every keystroke that you type in your computer. It may record bank passwords, credit card information, and any other private information that you would like to keep just for yourself. Manually, a key logger program can be installed and viewed manually by the person who installed it. Many of the hack cases of credit cards, bank accounts, and game accounts is because of key loggers. In stalking, a key logger is used to record chat logs of a stalker’s pray such that when a person types using his keyboard a date and a place he/she wants to go to, a key logger is able to log it and possibly, automatically send it to an email or another computer. If installed manually, it may be downloaded freely from hacking websites and the like. On the other hand, it can also be configured to install itself remotely when packed together with malware, which is what the murderer in the movie did.
The thing about the Magic Lantern is also real. The Magic Lantern is a key logging software program developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Magic Lantern can be installed remotely through email attachments or exploiting common OS vulnerabilities just like what I described in the previous paragraph.
Another issue in the movie is whether a company, like access nation, which sells information to normal people, exists. The answer is yes but they only exist in the black market. No legal company should have the right to sell the privacy of others if it is not about terrorism and the like. Just as what had happened to the movie, the act of doing so is dangerous and will surely compromise lives of a lot of people. Also, as what was shown in the movie, all things that the client do will be a responsibility of the company as to why no one risks on going on such business.
______________Sources:
Worm, Virus, Trojan
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp
Computer Worm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm
Info about Keylogger
http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/keylogger-someones-watching-you- id423.php
Keylogger worm
http://www.albany.edu/its/alarm_alert_121605-01.htm
Magic Lantern – FBI Trojan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_(software)
The issue in this movie is whether it was possible or not to be able to stalk someone using computer technology and the answer is yes. It is very much possible and is currently happening to a lot of people nowadays. Cases about people losing money from their bank, increase in debts in credit cards, and stalkers which receives access of you through sniffed information exists. This is made possible due to computer malware that was specially designed to do a certain programmed thing to track whatever it is that you are doing in your computer. Such malware are worms, viruses, Trojans, and key loggers.
What a worm does is it’s a program that self replicates itself by sending emails to people in your MS outlook address books, or disrupt bandwidth, disrupt a website by using your computer as host for spam. It is originally built to help rather than disrupt or destroy. It was actually originally made to help machine run more efficiently. A virus is similar to a worm. Only that it does not self-replicate itself but attaches itself to a program in your system, crash your system, and if not, does harm to your computer. A Trojan is also a malware, but masks itself as a useful application but actually downloads viruses, worms, other more Trojans, and key loggers.
A key logger is a program that records every keystroke that you type in your computer. It may record bank passwords, credit card information, and any other private information that you would like to keep just for yourself. Manually, a key logger program can be installed and viewed manually by the person who installed it. Many of the hack cases of credit cards, bank accounts, and game accounts is because of key loggers. In stalking, a key logger is used to record chat logs of a stalker’s pray such that when a person types using his keyboard a date and a place he/she wants to go to, a key logger is able to log it and possibly, automatically send it to an email or another computer. If installed manually, it may be downloaded freely from hacking websites and the like. On the other hand, it can also be configured to install itself remotely when packed together with malware, which is what the murderer in the movie did.
The thing about the Magic Lantern is also real. The Magic Lantern is a key logging software program developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Magic Lantern can be installed remotely through email attachments or exploiting common OS vulnerabilities just like what I described in the previous paragraph.
Another issue in the movie is whether a company, like access nation, which sells information to normal people, exists. The answer is yes but they only exist in the black market. No legal company should have the right to sell the privacy of others if it is not about terrorism and the like. Just as what had happened to the movie, the act of doing so is dangerous and will surely compromise lives of a lot of people. Also, as what was shown in the movie, all things that the client do will be a responsibility of the company as to why no one risks on going on such business.
______________Sources:
Worm, Virus, Trojan
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp
Computer Worm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm
Info about Keylogger
http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/keylogger-someones-watching-you- id423.php
Keylogger worm
http://www.albany.edu/its/alarm_alert_121605-01.htm
Magic Lantern – FBI Trojan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_(software)
Project 2 ~ Software Piracy
Software piracy is a very big problem in the Philippines. According to the BSA, Business Software Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world, the software piracy rate in the Philippines during 2005 is at 71%. With the 71% rate of piracy, the Philippines’ IT industry lost about $76 million US dollars which is equivalent to 3 plus billions of pesos. Also, they said that the Philippines is one of the highest raters on software pirates in the world.
During early 2000s, software piracy was getting worse. Investments were halved because of piracy. Investors saw the rising piracy rating in the Philippines making them back down. Because of this, IT people had a hard time. Years and years have passed since then and more and more investors backed away from our market. This is due to the fact that each year, our software piracy rate increases as well.
Software piracy is a big problem because a lot of people are used to practicing all kind of piracy here in the Philippines and the IT industry is falling because of this. Because of software piracy, our IT industry remains as it is and is left behind by the other countries’ software industries. Our IT industry failed to develop because of this and it is found that potential software investments are lost and cancelled because of software piracy.
The problem in Software piracy here in the Philippines is that a lot of people support it. They say that they don’t have too much of a choice regarding these matters because of the poor status of most Filipinos nowadays. People would rather buy 100 peso software pirate products than 10,000 pesos of original ones because obviously, the pirated ones are cheaper and is much easier to find. They say that it is not practical to buy a licensed 10,000 pesos of software than the 100 variation because the life today is hard but that’s exactly what is making their lives and other people’s lives around them even harder.
You see, people nowadays lack education on this kinds of things. They think too naively and say that buying/getting hold of pirated products doesn’t harm their selves and others, which is wrong. By supporting piracy we doom our development in the industry. People don’t get jobs because of the lack of investment. People wont buy original software because of the rampant selling of the more convenient pirated software here in the Philippines. People will keep developing pirated software because of too much support from the people their selves.
What we needed was a counter-measure for piracy, an organization that will educate pirates that piracy will not be tolerated. That is where Philippine Anti Piracy Team, or PAPT, was launched. PAPT was developed 2005 when the Philippine government finally realized the need for an anti piracy team. There was a need to let people know that what they are doing is wrong and is punishable by law. PAPT then took action. First, they initiated a 30 day countdown for all companies, computer shops, etc to license what needs to be licensed, and after which was a raid. PAPT raided computer shops, business establishments, and continues to raid up till now. A lot of people has been captured and a lot of computers was seized by the PAPT due to raids. Alas something is being done.
If software piracy will be decreased, for sure the effects of what happened at year 2000s when investors backed off our market would reverse. More investments will come, and our economy will improve. Thus improving the lives of all in general.
Software piracy is a big problem for both the IT world and our economy, thus affecting the lives of people that lives in that country that is being affected. We get poor because of supporting piracy rather than saving the money we use to buy a pirated software. Stop supporting and the source will stop distributing. You wont steal a car, you wont steal a purse, so don’t steal software. If you cant buy it, then you cant have it. Same should go on what you do to get a car. You work hard to have one and not steal it because stealing is crime.
______________Sources:
Website Philippine Anti Piracy Team
http://www.papt.org.ph/news.aspx?id=2&news_id=24&paging=3
Software Piracy Rate in the Philippines Remains at 71%
http://w3.bsa.org/philippines/press/newsreleases/2006-Global-Piracy- Study.cfm
Piracy robs Philippines of software investment: study
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/24/1095961838408.html?from=moreStories
During early 2000s, software piracy was getting worse. Investments were halved because of piracy. Investors saw the rising piracy rating in the Philippines making them back down. Because of this, IT people had a hard time. Years and years have passed since then and more and more investors backed away from our market. This is due to the fact that each year, our software piracy rate increases as well.
Software piracy is a big problem because a lot of people are used to practicing all kind of piracy here in the Philippines and the IT industry is falling because of this. Because of software piracy, our IT industry remains as it is and is left behind by the other countries’ software industries. Our IT industry failed to develop because of this and it is found that potential software investments are lost and cancelled because of software piracy.
The problem in Software piracy here in the Philippines is that a lot of people support it. They say that they don’t have too much of a choice regarding these matters because of the poor status of most Filipinos nowadays. People would rather buy 100 peso software pirate products than 10,000 pesos of original ones because obviously, the pirated ones are cheaper and is much easier to find. They say that it is not practical to buy a licensed 10,000 pesos of software than the 100 variation because the life today is hard but that’s exactly what is making their lives and other people’s lives around them even harder.
You see, people nowadays lack education on this kinds of things. They think too naively and say that buying/getting hold of pirated products doesn’t harm their selves and others, which is wrong. By supporting piracy we doom our development in the industry. People don’t get jobs because of the lack of investment. People wont buy original software because of the rampant selling of the more convenient pirated software here in the Philippines. People will keep developing pirated software because of too much support from the people their selves.
What we needed was a counter-measure for piracy, an organization that will educate pirates that piracy will not be tolerated. That is where Philippine Anti Piracy Team, or PAPT, was launched. PAPT was developed 2005 when the Philippine government finally realized the need for an anti piracy team. There was a need to let people know that what they are doing is wrong and is punishable by law. PAPT then took action. First, they initiated a 30 day countdown for all companies, computer shops, etc to license what needs to be licensed, and after which was a raid. PAPT raided computer shops, business establishments, and continues to raid up till now. A lot of people has been captured and a lot of computers was seized by the PAPT due to raids. Alas something is being done.
If software piracy will be decreased, for sure the effects of what happened at year 2000s when investors backed off our market would reverse. More investments will come, and our economy will improve. Thus improving the lives of all in general.
Software piracy is a big problem for both the IT world and our economy, thus affecting the lives of people that lives in that country that is being affected. We get poor because of supporting piracy rather than saving the money we use to buy a pirated software. Stop supporting and the source will stop distributing. You wont steal a car, you wont steal a purse, so don’t steal software. If you cant buy it, then you cant have it. Same should go on what you do to get a car. You work hard to have one and not steal it because stealing is crime.
______________Sources:
Website Philippine Anti Piracy Team
http://www.papt.org.ph/news.aspx?id=2&news_id=24&paging=3
Software Piracy Rate in the Philippines Remains at 71%
http://w3.bsa.org/philippines/press/newsreleases/2006-Global-Piracy- Study.cfm
Piracy robs Philippines of software investment: study
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/24/1095961838408.html?from=moreStories
Project 1 ~ PCs
The PC was a technological boom at the past. It is, in reality, Simon that was considered the first PC defenition but it was never really popular since it was only an experimental machine. It was, however, the release of IBM PC that the word “personal computer” hitted the mind of the mob. Its release was so successful and so revolutionary and the timing of its release, the release of the floppy disk ten years ago, and the boom of the microprocessors were perfect. It featured the revolutionary operating system which people really took interest off. People really needed and most importantly, really wanted a personal computer to be incorporated at their homes at that time.
Having a PC was, back then, a status symbol, a sign of wellness in life and only the abled ones were the ones to get a hold of it. People had their eye on it from the very news date that the first “Personalized PC” to be launched. Who wouldn’t have want one any way? Back then only few would have imagined that you could own those computing machines that only used to exist in their workplaces and was too expensive to be able to incorporate it in their homes. True that there are existing computers in their time but none that isn’t too bulky and none that you can really bring home. People back then really wanted and dreamed of what we already call, Personal Computers.
At first, there was no way for normal people to really buy the PCs even if they wanted to. Early PCs usually costed from $700 to $3000 dollars a package(take note that the equivalence of each dollar today may be 1 dollar then is to 3 dollars now.) with the early ones not really being as useful because the required technical skill for the user to have to be able to operate on these. It was usually the business people, the schools, and the money-able people, the programmers who only owns this stuff.
The thing that made the PC become so popular and bought of the market is because, people liked it and needed it. It was the time of many technological advances and people knew, that tasks will be harder from then on manually. It was the era of computing and people really needed help in that area. That’s when people thought about a machine wherein they could do whatever they needed to do. There were computing applications, CADs, CASE tools, office applications and a lot more. People embraced the PC because of this and many investors saw more possibilities on this device as well. The PC could do many things and the people and the investors loved it for that.
One of the areas that the investors saw that was booming at that time was the gaming industry. The gaming industry was at boom and what would be better than supporting an already useful, powerful tool of computing and incorporate entertainment in it, incorporate more usefulness than what it already has? With the use of the already available GUI and taking advantage of the computing power of the PC, incorporating games was possible. The PC was incorporated with games and people loves games especially in their PCs.
Another factor of the boom of PC was networking and the Internet. There was no other way for people to be able to access the Internet than their PCs. It was their gateway to the online world. The internet was so successful because it is so useful to both business people and ordinary people. It was a means of transfer of information without having the need for phxysical presence. The network/internet made the PC more needed by the users and the business people.
In conclusion, I believe that the very reason why the PC became so popular and so in demand such that it reaches the point to where a PC is a common household appliance is because a people saw a lot of possibilities along with it. It was a great help to everyone and adults, tennagers, children, wanted it and desires for it. Thus, the business people liked it too and finds ways to continue to make it better. PC is so popular because of the support it from so many areas. It became popular to kids because of the support of the gaming industry, to adults and teens because of the Internet and school/office applications and a lot more.
Having a PC was, back then, a status symbol, a sign of wellness in life and only the abled ones were the ones to get a hold of it. People had their eye on it from the very news date that the first “Personalized PC” to be launched. Who wouldn’t have want one any way? Back then only few would have imagined that you could own those computing machines that only used to exist in their workplaces and was too expensive to be able to incorporate it in their homes. True that there are existing computers in their time but none that isn’t too bulky and none that you can really bring home. People back then really wanted and dreamed of what we already call, Personal Computers.
At first, there was no way for normal people to really buy the PCs even if they wanted to. Early PCs usually costed from $700 to $3000 dollars a package(take note that the equivalence of each dollar today may be 1 dollar then is to 3 dollars now.) with the early ones not really being as useful because the required technical skill for the user to have to be able to operate on these. It was usually the business people, the schools, and the money-able people, the programmers who only owns this stuff.
The thing that made the PC become so popular and bought of the market is because, people liked it and needed it. It was the time of many technological advances and people knew, that tasks will be harder from then on manually. It was the era of computing and people really needed help in that area. That’s when people thought about a machine wherein they could do whatever they needed to do. There were computing applications, CADs, CASE tools, office applications and a lot more. People embraced the PC because of this and many investors saw more possibilities on this device as well. The PC could do many things and the people and the investors loved it for that.
One of the areas that the investors saw that was booming at that time was the gaming industry. The gaming industry was at boom and what would be better than supporting an already useful, powerful tool of computing and incorporate entertainment in it, incorporate more usefulness than what it already has? With the use of the already available GUI and taking advantage of the computing power of the PC, incorporating games was possible. The PC was incorporated with games and people loves games especially in their PCs.
Another factor of the boom of PC was networking and the Internet. There was no other way for people to be able to access the Internet than their PCs. It was their gateway to the online world. The internet was so successful because it is so useful to both business people and ordinary people. It was a means of transfer of information without having the need for phxysical presence. The network/internet made the PC more needed by the users and the business people.
In conclusion, I believe that the very reason why the PC became so popular and so in demand such that it reaches the point to where a PC is a common household appliance is because a people saw a lot of possibilities along with it. It was a great help to everyone and adults, tennagers, children, wanted it and desires for it. Thus, the business people liked it too and finds ways to continue to make it better. PC is so popular because of the support it from so many areas. It became popular to kids because of the support of the gaming industry, to adults and teens because of the Internet and school/office applications and a lot more.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Competition
Market competition is a very good thing for progress. Imagine how our technology would be right now if it wasnt for competition. I mean if you would look at the rate at which , Apple vs Windows, PC vs Mac, Google vs Yahoo, and all other companies with matching big time competitors improved after their competition came out and the rate of their progress without each other's counterpart, you would definitely see the connection and thank competition a lot. Fact of the matter is, they help each other and society progress in a way rather than the other way around which is do harm.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Do Something!
Thing is, the most important factor why piracy is rampant especially in the poor countries like ours, and other third world countries is because we dont implment that big a punishment to the doers of the crime. Face it, piracy is a crime, and when not many people know that. Not many people think of piracy as stealing. Stealing is a crime, as well as piracy. This two should have the same weight when it comes to the punishment given when stealing and when selling/distributing pirated software.
Like what the saying about piracy goes, You wont steal a car, you wont steal anything else, but if you support piracy, it's the same as supporting stealing a car, stealing money, and the like. Same goes for doing the act of piracy yourself.
Like what the saying about piracy goes, You wont steal a car, you wont steal anything else, but if you support piracy, it's the same as supporting stealing a car, stealing money, and the like. Same goes for doing the act of piracy yourself.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Technology
I believe that there is no good or bad in the use of technology. It all just drops down to whoever uses it and for what purpose he uses it for. For good, it helps makes tasks easier and much more time efficient. For bad, it can be used to steal, hack, stalk and even murder someone as what the case of the movie was. Technology is a tool after all, and people use it however they like to use it, there is no way to control people who do evil through the use of technology. It is a matter of individual choice after all and if someone wants to for example, stalk you, there is nothing you could do to stop him or her from doing what he or she want.
I learned however that there are ways to prevent evil users of technology from being able to do what they want to the point of getting access crucial information about you. You should learn their tricks if you are to prevent them from doing anyting to you. You should learn to think like them and counter their moves before they even do it and that’s where the study of cracking/hacking comes into place, to make people aware and prevent malicious attacks from these groups of technology users. And that's why, we, IT people, should really learn about all this things, to prevent these things from happening.
I learned however that there are ways to prevent evil users of technology from being able to do what they want to the point of getting access crucial information about you. You should learn their tricks if you are to prevent them from doing anyting to you. You should learn to think like them and counter their moves before they even do it and that’s where the study of cracking/hacking comes into place, to make people aware and prevent malicious attacks from these groups of technology users. And that's why, we, IT people, should really learn about all this things, to prevent these things from happening.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Internet Security
Online network security is very important, as what have been demonstrated to us, online networks are prone to malicious attacks from hackers if coding or construction of the program of a network is coded in certain ways. They can delete datas, modify contents, and ruin your whole network if you make a wrong line of code in your program. It is important for us, IT people, to take all pre caution before releasing a software online. I learned that we should all learn these techniques to avoid, if not, minimize vurnerabilities of important systems especially when we are already dealing with information critical systems.
I now understand why we should study the art of hacking and some possible vurnerabilities on making databases, software, and online system networks since we should should aim to protect our clients, and users from problems in the future.
I now understand why we should study the art of hacking and some possible vurnerabilities on making databases, software, and online system networks since we should should aim to protect our clients, and users from problems in the future.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
IT Fraud
IT fraud is a disgusting thing to do. It is so easy to pull off as to why many people do it. You see, the problem with IT fraud is that people that does not involve their selves with IT, has a tendency to have a hard time distinguishing fact from fraud. It is their lack of education and gullible tendencies that makes them an easy target. Another factor of people falling victim of IT fraud is the tendency of people to get attracted to "cheap" IT products. Take this instance for example; In E-bay, there was a time where a certain 32G “Sony" USB Flash disk was being sold for like, 1.5k++ pesos. It was a shock to many back to people on how a 32G USB flash drive was so cheap since during those times, a 1G generic flash disk already costs 1k+ pesos. Because of this, may people bought the USB disk, a lot bought bundles of order only to find out soon after that it was a FAKE. The 32G "Sony" USB disk might really show that it contains 32G when you look it up on properties, but, once you store big files in it, the files would be saved, but wont be retrievable anymore. But then, people didn’t know that. People still believed that it was 32G since it showed 32G on property and even worse, told their friends about it. More people got tricked because of that and even more people got rich. You see, before we buy something unbelievable, we should first look it up in the net to see if whether it exists or not. If not, don’t bother buying it because it most probably is a fraud.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Market Revision
The discussion last class was interesting. I mean, think about it, the market doesnt really tend to look on the importance of quality over a price of product when in comes to investing into technology. People gets tricked by fake advertisment over claims that, "most of the times", cant even be verified.
Take freelance-job websites for example. Imagine people bidding of for the lowest price they can make the project. I mean, how can the companies, that wants projects, such as security-strict website confirm that the man they give the job to is really ok and could make the job run smoothly and perform as asked over a period of time, if they just go over bidding on who can make the job faster and cheaper. And believe me, people most of the times, only look on the terms of pricing and fast work, while they should be looking more, or testing, the people you want to give the jobs to.
The market should be thought of new things if you ask me. They should all be oriented on how technology should work to avoid scams and poor performance software output from people they hire. Better yet, hire an IT personell or a proggrammer for who else could better understand and evaluate a programmer than an IT or a programmer itself, right?
Take freelance-job websites for example. Imagine people bidding of for the lowest price they can make the project. I mean, how can the companies, that wants projects, such as security-strict website confirm that the man they give the job to is really ok and could make the job run smoothly and perform as asked over a period of time, if they just go over bidding on who can make the job faster and cheaper. And believe me, people most of the times, only look on the terms of pricing and fast work, while they should be looking more, or testing, the people you want to give the jobs to.
The market should be thought of new things if you ask me. They should all be oriented on how technology should work to avoid scams and poor performance software output from people they hire. Better yet, hire an IT personell or a proggrammer for who else could better understand and evaluate a programmer than an IT or a programmer itself, right?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Flash Memory vs Hard Disk
"Will flash disk prevail over hard, magnetic disks?"
I came to an interesting article in the internet, saying that it wont and how flash disk is so much more expensive than hard disk. But how much longer will it take for flash disk to catch up? I mean, considering the price of flash disks before, it surely has dropped in a tremendous amount compared to what it was then. I'm not saying that hard disk wasnt dropping prices but considering the trend of the price drop, I wouldnt be surprised to hear or see that the prices of it is at a 1:2 or even better, a 1:1 ratio on HD price vs Flash.
Just take CD vs Floppy for example, back then, CDs were much more expensive than floppy disks. It was too overpriced and just to have a cd reader, or cd-rom, would cost you a lot. There were a lot of issues back then too, but then, CD prevailed over time right? It's just a matter of giving more time to advance the technology that we have now.
Flash started to a point where HDD was already being used for so many years. It has an unfair advantage of say like, tens of years, and judging Flash to be the one losing should not be the case. Compared to growth, I’ll say flash grew faster, and I say that Flash memory shall prevail in the near future. It's just a matter of time until someone discovers something that will make flash memory, the new primary choice of storage. Until then, we're stuck to the hard disk which sucks up electricity a lot, huge, has life spans, and can only rotate for a limited amount of time.
I came to an interesting article in the internet, saying that it wont and how flash disk is so much more expensive than hard disk. But how much longer will it take for flash disk to catch up? I mean, considering the price of flash disks before, it surely has dropped in a tremendous amount compared to what it was then. I'm not saying that hard disk wasnt dropping prices but considering the trend of the price drop, I wouldnt be surprised to hear or see that the prices of it is at a 1:2 or even better, a 1:1 ratio on HD price vs Flash.
Just take CD vs Floppy for example, back then, CDs were much more expensive than floppy disks. It was too overpriced and just to have a cd reader, or cd-rom, would cost you a lot. There were a lot of issues back then too, but then, CD prevailed over time right? It's just a matter of giving more time to advance the technology that we have now.
Flash started to a point where HDD was already being used for so many years. It has an unfair advantage of say like, tens of years, and judging Flash to be the one losing should not be the case. Compared to growth, I’ll say flash grew faster, and I say that Flash memory shall prevail in the near future. It's just a matter of time until someone discovers something that will make flash memory, the new primary choice of storage. Until then, we're stuck to the hard disk which sucks up electricity a lot, huge, has life spans, and can only rotate for a limited amount of time.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Technology is Getting Cheaper and Cheaper
Technology is getting cheaper exponentially. I mean, if you come think of it, It just doesnt make sense. It's hard to imagine how better performing systems, processors, memory storage devices, is somewhat cheaper than their weaker predecessors. Not only that the new released ones are better in performance, but actually, they are smaller, and much more compact than their predecessors too.
Take flash disks for instance; A year ago, a 512MB flash disks costed much more than how a 1G flash disks costed now. Nowadays, a 512MB flash disk may be given out
for free already.
Truly technology is growing so fast and so cheap. Soon, it wont be just the people with money that is going to be able to own high performance PCs and "high tech gadgets", the not so able people will be able to get a hold of their own too and more people will be able to contribute. When that time comes, just imagine how much faster the rate of the improvement of technology will become and how much more cheaper and compact the future devices will be.
Take flash disks for instance; A year ago, a 512MB flash disks costed much more than how a 1G flash disks costed now. Nowadays, a 512MB flash disk may be given out
for free already.
Truly technology is growing so fast and so cheap. Soon, it wont be just the people with money that is going to be able to own high performance PCs and "high tech gadgets", the not so able people will be able to get a hold of their own too and more people will be able to contribute. When that time comes, just imagine how much faster the rate of the improvement of technology will become and how much more cheaper and compact the future devices will be.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sept 17 ManTech Class
This september 17 class was a real eye opener for me, imagine, all this time, I was so dumb still thinking that a primary memory card for your PC still costs 3000 pesos more than what it costs now. It's not only the prices that goes down so fast thou, things in the IT world changes so fast too.
It made me realize and think about how fast the rate of technology is improving to such
a point that not getting hold of information as soon as possible will get you left behind, fast. I realized that to be able to get into a deep understanding with technology, a lot of time online in the net, doing research is a very necessary task. I just realized that what they said about the study of technology as life long learning, is definitely true.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
