Recently, the federal government has been trying to put away 13 druglords for good for their crimes with leading very large drug operations. However, while they have many of them pinned with hardpressed evidence, several of them are still in trial. One of these men is Jun Feng.
As of iOS 8, all iPhones have been encrytped securely, so that if the passcode cannot be figured out, NO ONE can have access to the data, as the passcode is the only way to decrypt the data on the device, and too many guesses will-yup, you guessed it. Lock the device permanently.
However, Jun Feng's iPhone is running old software, iOS 7, so the device is not encrypted. What this means is that Apple, the manufacturer, has a second way, a "backdoor", to get inside his device. The feds have reportedly intercepted a signal before it reached the phone that attempted to use Apple's iCloud features to remotely wipe all the data, so the feds have reason to believe the device has critical evidence to not only take down Feng, but maybe even escalade and compromise more members of this drug case. However, to get this evidence, they have pressured Apple to hack the device. While Apple has helped feds in the past, this time, they are standing firm that although it is a criminal case, user data should remain protected. This debate is a hard choice to make for Apple, as a lot of pressure from security-concerned public, but also the government, is involved. Users want to be sure that the company they buy from WON'T give over their data if pressured from the government, because then the world might have no privacy. That is why I believe encryption is most valuable. It takes pressure off both Apple and the users. Data cannot be compromised by any parties, whether through court orders or hackers, and cases such as this one would not exist, if everyones' devices were protected with encryption.
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Sunday, October 25, 2015
Paying for YouTube
Previously, I mentioned the effects that using adblockers on the internet has. It costs website owners 6.6 BILLION dollars of earned income, but in exchange, Adblock can remove the ads from almost any site to clean up distractions and enchance the focus on the content the media consumer. However, recently Google has launched their own program to combat this loss of income, but also bring in more money for them and their content creators. That program is the Red program.
Red not only brings ad-free viewing for $10 a month, but it also strives to create exclusive content, allow background playing of videos, offline viewing, but most importantly for a potential subscriber such as myself, it allows unlimited Google Play Music streaming. This music streaming subscription costs $10 alone, but if I could have offline/background playing YouTube videos, and also see PewDiePie's exclusive videos, that would just be AwEsOmE! While $120 a year is a lot for me, I think Google will win a minority of people, particularly old Google Play Music subscribers, but if Google throws in one more compelling reason, I, and many others, may be more pursuaded to go with this option. However, for now, I will stick to playing music videos with the screen on, using Adblock, and listening to Pandora and SoundCloud.
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Red not only brings ad-free viewing for $10 a month, but it also strives to create exclusive content, allow background playing of videos, offline viewing, but most importantly for a potential subscriber such as myself, it allows unlimited Google Play Music streaming. This music streaming subscription costs $10 alone, but if I could have offline/background playing YouTube videos, and also see PewDiePie's exclusive videos, that would just be AwEsOmE! While $120 a year is a lot for me, I think Google will win a minority of people, particularly old Google Play Music subscribers, but if Google throws in one more compelling reason, I, and many others, may be more pursuaded to go with this option. However, for now, I will stick to playing music videos with the screen on, using Adblock, and listening to Pandora and SoundCloud.
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Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Top 8 Predictions of Back to the Future II
In honor of Back to the Future II having visited us on this date 26 years ago in the past, I have decided to compile a list of the top 8 technology items that have made their way into our lives, that were completely predicted by this amazing film (that if you haven't seen, go watch both the first and second, then come back to digest this article!).
1. Personal Drones
Flying drones are seen throughout in Back to the Future’s 2015, and they’re shown doing everything from walking a dog to capturing images for news organizations. While the prediction that drones would be large in photography has come true, and people still walk their dogs the old-fashioned way. However drones—widely available to purchase for consumers for about $1,000 a pop—have given us new and creative ways to do everything from get the best footage, track people, or even make one hour amazon deliveries on the fly.
2. Tablets and Mobile Payment Technology
In the film, there are multiple moments where people are making payments. However, instead of using cash or check, they do it in the cool way- with their fingerprints. Yes, Back to the Future predicted everyone carrying fingerprint scanners with them (well, to be fair, businesses would carry them.) The fact that the movie predicted such tecnology would be so widespread, as it is in our current smartphone world, is quite amazing. Also, film’s prediction that wireless devices could be used for payment (in cabs, for example) was spot on, and in the last decade we’ve seen smartphone apps such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet come along, which make it easy to exchange cash electronically.
3. Hands-Free Gaming Consoles
In one scene, which takes place at the Cafe ’80s, two young boys give Marty the strangest look when they spot him playing an arcade game. “You mean you have to use your hands?” one says. “That’s like a baby’s toy!” While plenty of video games still require the use of your hands, it’s been five years since Microsoft launched the Xbox Kinect, which lets gamers control game actions using voice and gestures. Similar technology is also built into nifty devices such as the Leap motion detector, to control computers with simple movement.
4. Smart Clothing and Wearable Technology
Marty wears power-lacing sneakers and a size-adjusting, auto-drying jacket in the film—two inventions that haven’t appeared yet, though Nike has announced that they will release the power-lacing shoes in 2016, but will auction off one pair in 2015 in their usual attempt to fundraise money for Parkinson's research. What is available today though are multitudes of wearable technology products, including wristband fitness trackers like the Fitbit, “smart shirts” that measure breathing, heart rate, and sleep patterns, and infant-size onesies that double as baby monitors. And while they may be too early-stage for purchase, other inventions like stain-proof clothes and high-heels that change color with the click of an app are under development.
5. Video Phones
Marty’s future self gets fired during a video phone call in Back to the Future II. That call is not only prophetic of video chat applications like Skype and Apple’s FaceTime but also of Facebook, in that personal details like date of birth, occupation, political leanings, and hobbies are shared electronically.
Of course, the movie gets a few big details wrong—like the widespread use of fax machines.
6. Waste-Fueled Cars
Although you can’t yet buy a vehicle with a fusion engine, like the one in Doc Brown’s DeLorean, the scene in which Doc uses garbage to power his car (well, technically the flux capacitor) is possibly coming. In fact, Toyota is promoting its new hydrogen fuel cell car—the Mirai—with an ad campaign featuring Back to the Future actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
Hydrogen-powered cars are lauded as environmentally friendly since they convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity, with water vapor as a byproduct. That eco-friendliness is partly offset by the fact that fossil fuel or natural gas is typically consumed to create the pure hydrogen in the first place, but scientists are experimenting with solar and wind-powered generation to combat this negative effect, but regardless, kudos to the director.
7. Hoverboards
Tech-startup Arx Pax has successfully created a working, real-life $10,000 hoverboard called the Hendo, which pro skateboarder Tony Hawk has personally tested. Lexus has also created a hoverboard using a different technology involving superconductors. Unfortunately, both versions can glide only over conductive surfaces, so you probably won’t be using one to escape bullies in your town square any time soon until all of the roads are made of metal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8. Video Glasses
One correct prediction from the film’s vision of 2015 is how personal technology would disrupt the American dinner table. In one scene, Marty and Jennifer’s future kids ignore their families, instead watching TV and talking on the phone using futuristic glasses.Sounds very familiar to our current generation to me. Though smartphones are the real source of distraction today, high-tech video goggles keep getting more advanced and popular. Google has stopped selling Google Glass (at least for the time being), but pairs are available for purchase on eBay and can be used to watch streaming video, record images, and search the internet. Microsoft is also working on its HoloLens, which plan to bring augmented reality to the business world, merging that of the real world and virtual world into one.
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1. Personal Drones
Flying drones are seen throughout in Back to the Future’s 2015, and they’re shown doing everything from walking a dog to capturing images for news organizations. While the prediction that drones would be large in photography has come true, and people still walk their dogs the old-fashioned way. However drones—widely available to purchase for consumers for about $1,000 a pop—have given us new and creative ways to do everything from get the best footage, track people, or even make one hour amazon deliveries on the fly.
2. Tablets and Mobile Payment Technology
In the film, there are multiple moments where people are making payments. However, instead of using cash or check, they do it in the cool way- with their fingerprints. Yes, Back to the Future predicted everyone carrying fingerprint scanners with them (well, to be fair, businesses would carry them.) The fact that the movie predicted such tecnology would be so widespread, as it is in our current smartphone world, is quite amazing. Also, film’s prediction that wireless devices could be used for payment (in cabs, for example) was spot on, and in the last decade we’ve seen smartphone apps such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet come along, which make it easy to exchange cash electronically.
3. Hands-Free Gaming Consoles
In one scene, which takes place at the Cafe ’80s, two young boys give Marty the strangest look when they spot him playing an arcade game. “You mean you have to use your hands?” one says. “That’s like a baby’s toy!” While plenty of video games still require the use of your hands, it’s been five years since Microsoft launched the Xbox Kinect, which lets gamers control game actions using voice and gestures. Similar technology is also built into nifty devices such as the Leap motion detector, to control computers with simple movement.
4. Smart Clothing and Wearable Technology
Marty wears power-lacing sneakers and a size-adjusting, auto-drying jacket in the film—two inventions that haven’t appeared yet, though Nike has announced that they will release the power-lacing shoes in 2016, but will auction off one pair in 2015 in their usual attempt to fundraise money for Parkinson's research. What is available today though are multitudes of wearable technology products, including wristband fitness trackers like the Fitbit, “smart shirts” that measure breathing, heart rate, and sleep patterns, and infant-size onesies that double as baby monitors. And while they may be too early-stage for purchase, other inventions like stain-proof clothes and high-heels that change color with the click of an app are under development.
5. Video Phones
Marty’s future self gets fired during a video phone call in Back to the Future II. That call is not only prophetic of video chat applications like Skype and Apple’s FaceTime but also of Facebook, in that personal details like date of birth, occupation, political leanings, and hobbies are shared electronically.
Of course, the movie gets a few big details wrong—like the widespread use of fax machines.
6. Waste-Fueled Cars
Although you can’t yet buy a vehicle with a fusion engine, like the one in Doc Brown’s DeLorean, the scene in which Doc uses garbage to power his car (well, technically the flux capacitor) is possibly coming. In fact, Toyota is promoting its new hydrogen fuel cell car—the Mirai—with an ad campaign featuring Back to the Future actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
Hydrogen-powered cars are lauded as environmentally friendly since they convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity, with water vapor as a byproduct. That eco-friendliness is partly offset by the fact that fossil fuel or natural gas is typically consumed to create the pure hydrogen in the first place, but scientists are experimenting with solar and wind-powered generation to combat this negative effect, but regardless, kudos to the director.
7. Hoverboards
Tech-startup Arx Pax has successfully created a working, real-life $10,000 hoverboard called the Hendo, which pro skateboarder Tony Hawk has personally tested. Lexus has also created a hoverboard using a different technology involving superconductors. Unfortunately, both versions can glide only over conductive surfaces, so you probably won’t be using one to escape bullies in your town square any time soon until all of the roads are made of metal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8. Video Glasses
One correct prediction from the film’s vision of 2015 is how personal technology would disrupt the American dinner table. In one scene, Marty and Jennifer’s future kids ignore their families, instead watching TV and talking on the phone using futuristic glasses.Sounds very familiar to our current generation to me. Though smartphones are the real source of distraction today, high-tech video goggles keep getting more advanced and popular. Google has stopped selling Google Glass (at least for the time being), but pairs are available for purchase on eBay and can be used to watch streaming video, record images, and search the internet. Microsoft is also working on its HoloLens, which plan to bring augmented reality to the business world, merging that of the real world and virtual world into one.
-910 words
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Amazon Can Throw Fire Too
Amazon is a great online buying center, full of anything and everything from toilet paper to refrigerators. Amazon tries its best to provide many services in an all-in-one package, and does a great job with it. However, to provide a great shopping experience, Amazon has to start some lawsuits.
Amazon first noticed hundreds of thousands of fake reviews, either 1 star or 5 star, springing up over the place, and to solve such issue, started by suing corporations such as BuyAmazonReviews or Fiverrr. Companies such as these take in money from companies wanting good/bad reviews distrubuted, and they proceed to pay workers to write anonymous fake reviews to raise products up or bring produts down in Amazon's satisfactory ratings.
However, suing these companies has not worked, and thus, Amazon has started a lawsuit against 1,114 people that have been acused of writing hundreds of fake reviews each. While Amazon does not yet know the names of these anonymous users, Amazon hopes to lead by example in showing that people leaving fake reviews will be punished when found. Amazon hopes to keep its Garden of Eden pure for customers to make easier purchasing decisions through this seemingly harsh enforcement, and I agree with their decisions. If I am buying a really expensive product, every 1-star review I see greatly sways my decision, so knowing that there are only legitimate reviews on Amazon will help me make the proper, unbiased decision, and I'm sure many more buyers will side with Amazon's decision due to the straight-forward experience it brings to shopping at their site.
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Amazon first noticed hundreds of thousands of fake reviews, either 1 star or 5 star, springing up over the place, and to solve such issue, started by suing corporations such as BuyAmazonReviews or Fiverrr. Companies such as these take in money from companies wanting good/bad reviews distrubuted, and they proceed to pay workers to write anonymous fake reviews to raise products up or bring produts down in Amazon's satisfactory ratings.
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Self-Driving Cars: They're Here NOW!
Previously, I talked about the thrill of self-driving cars. Self-driving cars create several benefits: they increase fuel economy, decrease the amount of focus the driver needs to attend to driving, and most importantly, increase the safety of our roads. As I stated previously on my blog, car crashes account for more deaths each year than all the homicides combined, so self driving cars would greatly decrease this number to as near as zero as possible.Here and there, manufacturers such as Chevrolet have cars that have auto-stop technology for objects that jump out or auto-parallel parking buttons. However, while full self-driving cars are currently being tested by BMW, Google, and Apple, the technology hasn't been widely available to the public. That is, until just a week ago, when Tesla released the first self-driving car. To be more specific, Tesla did not release a new car, nor is the car fully self-driving. What they release then, one might ask? Simply a software update.
How is this possible, and how does it work? Well, since October of 2014, Tesla has included multiple camera and detection sensors in its Tesla Model S car, but the sensors have layed dormant for a year. Telsa wasn't quite prepared for a self driving car, but added these sensors in preparation. Thus, with another year of software development, Tesla's engineers were confident enough to release TeslaOS 7.0, with a beta feature added in to the built in cruise control mode. Once the car has been wirelessly updated (props to Tesla for no need to go to the a dealership for the update), most things will seem the same in the car. But one feature has been updated, and has needed an update in a long time: the cruise control button. Under normal circumstances, everyone knows the cruise control button does not equal auto pilot, and the driver must still stay alert. However, starting with TeslaOS 7.9, once the user is, say, driving down a road at 55mph, the user can click the "Cruise" control button and take their hands completely off of the wheel. The car will stay in its current lane and continue the same speed at the same time. If a deer pops out infront of the driver, the car will auto-brake, and if a car is driving slowly upfront, the car will adjust its speed. It takes cruise control to a whole new automated level. If on the interstate, and the driver turns on the left turn signal, the car will automatically switch lanes to the left when deemed safe, and then continue in that lane at that speed while the driver relaxes, sipping away at their coffee and chatting on the phone as if their car driving itself was no big deal.
However, there is a caveat to the whole experience. While Telsa's engineers have spend years on this project, there are still certain risks, and since self-driving is still, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk pulled a smart liability claim by making the statement that,"We’re advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. The software — it’s very new,” he said. But he added: “In the long term, people won’t need hands on the wheel. And eventually there won’t be wheels.” While Musk holds high expectations for the future, there is one thing for certain: Self-driving cars are coming, and Musk has set foot to make Tesla the first to bring it to market.
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How is this possible, and how does it work? Well, since October of 2014, Tesla has included multiple camera and detection sensors in its Tesla Model S car, but the sensors have layed dormant for a year. Telsa wasn't quite prepared for a self driving car, but added these sensors in preparation. Thus, with another year of software development, Tesla's engineers were confident enough to release TeslaOS 7.0, with a beta feature added in to the built in cruise control mode. Once the car has been wirelessly updated (props to Tesla for no need to go to the a dealership for the update), most things will seem the same in the car. But one feature has been updated, and has needed an update in a long time: the cruise control button. Under normal circumstances, everyone knows the cruise control button does not equal auto pilot, and the driver must still stay alert. However, starting with TeslaOS 7.9, once the user is, say, driving down a road at 55mph, the user can click the "Cruise" control button and take their hands completely off of the wheel. The car will stay in its current lane and continue the same speed at the same time. If a deer pops out infront of the driver, the car will auto-brake, and if a car is driving slowly upfront, the car will adjust its speed. It takes cruise control to a whole new automated level. If on the interstate, and the driver turns on the left turn signal, the car will automatically switch lanes to the left when deemed safe, and then continue in that lane at that speed while the driver relaxes, sipping away at their coffee and chatting on the phone as if their car driving itself was no big deal.
However, there is a caveat to the whole experience. While Telsa's engineers have spend years on this project, there are still certain risks, and since self-driving is still, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk pulled a smart liability claim by making the statement that,"We’re advising drivers to keep their hands on the wheel. The software — it’s very new,” he said. But he added: “In the long term, people won’t need hands on the wheel. And eventually there won’t be wheels.” While Musk holds high expectations for the future, there is one thing for certain: Self-driving cars are coming, and Musk has set foot to make Tesla the first to bring it to market.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Beware of USB Flash Drive Tasers
Almost anyone outside of really young infants know what tasers are. Bzz-bzz! Buzz-Buzz! Yes, I'm talking about the bee-sting of high voltage current that can paralyze a criminal in their tracks, stopping them without doing permanent harm. That is how most people see the use of a taser; a non-lethal weapon that can be used to stop the "bad guys". However, bad guys might soon be using the technology against us, with a new exploitation of USB ports, to tase NOT humans, but our computers and sacred data.
The newly discovered vulnerability affects all USB ports that are on the market, and was discovered by a whitehat (friendly) hacker by the name of Dark Purple. In his freshly uploaded video, he shows his proof of concept in action, inserting the "taser flash drive" into an old laptop, and watching within 2 seconds as it tases the laptop, shutting it down and killing it. There is a chance that this tase of electricity will also destroy data, but the probability is not known.
But how does it work, and how can it be stopped? Well, let's tackle one of those questions. The process starts with the flash drive being plugged into the USB port on the computer. From there, the USB port send a small, harmless -7 volt charge begins to trickle into the flash drive, but instead of powering memory modules like a normal flash drive would, it begins to feed this power to many capacitors. Imagine this process as charging the "battery"....
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Once the capacitors build this voltage to -110 volts, it stops charging and shoves all of this current back into the laptop, causing a huge electrical current spike inside the computer. Since computers were only built to input roughly -7 volts, one could imagine the computer does not take this spike well. It causes component damage, mostly on the mainboard, CPU, and RAM, but could also hurt the hard drive. However, after it does this process once, it begins charging its capacitors again, before unleashing this critical -110 volts on the computer again. It does this, hundreds of times a second, thus, within mere seconds, the computer is killed, before the user that plugged it in even realized what was happening. Nothing like a flash drive frying an expensive computer. Many people are aware of flash drives sometimes containing viruses, and we've come up with antivirus programs to combat this, but this flash drive is the Black Plaque of flash drives. Plug it into a Windows desktop, an Apple Macbook, or even a Linux machine: it will slay all of them, with no sign of giving mercy.
But how can we protect against this problem? Do we have to be scared of every flash drive we touch from this day onwards frying our electronics? Shall librarians fret and chew nails over students frying IMC computers? Well, the simple answer is, no. At least, not yet that is. Only one of these prototypes have been made, and as far as the community is concerned, Dark Purple is not planning on manufacturing these flash drives for the public to wreck havoc in the world. He has merely published his results on the internet to inform of the vulnerability. While he has not published any diagrams or exact building instructions, it won't be long until an electrical engineer somewhere in the population of 7 billion people on our planet is able to replicate the same idea into a similar compact design and fulfill what Dark Purple has refused.
The only protection we face from this issue is future protection. Computer manufacturers will need to integrate voltage regulators on the INCOMING voltage for USB ports, ensuring that if a high voltage spike is to be received, it can be down-volted to a more manageable current that won't harm internal components. However, for all other devices that are already out on the market, we shall hope that landfills and recycling centers are not filled to the brim with tasered computers in the coming years.
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But how can we protect against this problem? Do we have to be scared of every flash drive we touch from this day onwards frying our electronics? Shall librarians fret and chew nails over students frying IMC computers? Well, the simple answer is, no. At least, not yet that is. Only one of these prototypes have been made, and as far as the community is concerned, Dark Purple is not planning on manufacturing these flash drives for the public to wreck havoc in the world. He has merely published his results on the internet to inform of the vulnerability. While he has not published any diagrams or exact building instructions, it won't be long until an electrical engineer somewhere in the population of 7 billion people on our planet is able to replicate the same idea into a similar compact design and fulfill what Dark Purple has refused.
The only protection we face from this issue is future protection. Computer manufacturers will need to integrate voltage regulators on the INCOMING voltage for USB ports, ensuring that if a high voltage spike is to be received, it can be down-volted to a more manageable current that won't harm internal components. However, for all other devices that are already out on the market, we shall hope that landfills and recycling centers are not filled to the brim with tasered computers in the coming years.
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Sunday, October 11, 2015
The Long-Awaited Facebook Dislike Buttion
For years, Facebook users have always toted about wanting a dislike button, mostly for humorous purposes, but also to dislike items that were not worthy of being flagged as innappropriate. In the Spring of 2015, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased of such a button, but now, at the end of the year, Facebook is about to deliver.
While not directly a dislike button, Mark Zuckerberg posted this image to Twitter showing the near-finalized concept in action. When hovering over the dislike button, Facebook will expand the menu, allowing for mutliple emotions to be selected, from Love to Sad. The most useful scenario I can see for this would be a post that states something such as "We all remember John Doe very vividly, and even though he is gone, we will always remember him" or "9/11: Never Forget" and clicking the Sad emotion, as a like is not very suitable in these scenarios. Overall, its a great concept, and I believe it will add more personality to this virtual hangout space.
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While not directly a dislike button, Mark Zuckerberg posted this image to Twitter showing the near-finalized concept in action. When hovering over the dislike button, Facebook will expand the menu, allowing for mutliple emotions to be selected, from Love to Sad. The most useful scenario I can see for this would be a post that states something such as "We all remember John Doe very vividly, and even though he is gone, we will always remember him" or "9/11: Never Forget" and clicking the Sad emotion, as a like is not very suitable in these scenarios. Overall, its a great concept, and I believe it will add more personality to this virtual hangout space.
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Computers' Effects In The Auto Industry
Cars. They've become ever-more technology filled. Whether it was 1996, when cars started having computers log engine timings and the dozens of sensors that seem to always unnecessarily flip on the "Check Engine" light, the new Apple or Android radios that allow more media consumption in cars, or the new self-driving cars, every car company is packing more and more tech into cars. While most people have no problem with this, others even encouraging it with enthusiasm, I know my grandpa and dad think it makes 10 times more things to go wrong and need fixing in devices and cars. While this may be true, it isn't the only downside of the technology in our cars. In the wrong hands, or with bad intentions, this technology can be used against the law in devious ways, and these are two ways in which computers have done harm in vehicles, as well as one way that will have to come into question someday: will your car be programmed to kill you?
Since 2012, car hacking has been a thing. Cars from a 2012 Jeep, to the newest 2015 Corvette, have been hacked. The problem comes from vulnerable radio systems, meant for the convenience of the owner to play music over Bluetooth or even connect to WiFi, has opened exploit vulnerabilities in cars that could have never been imagined in the 90s or early 2000s. Cars have been wirelessly hacked to disable breaks, force the gas pedal to full, lock or unlock the doors, and countless other devious hacks that could have potentially life-threatening effects for the owners. While most of these hacks have been discovered by security corporations, thus keeping the hacking methods secret, it is still plausible that a hacker driving next to your new shiny car could potentially lock your breaks and force the accerator to the floor. Quite an unlikely but scary in my opinion that will become more revelant given time.
Another harm that has come is cars becoming self-aware. By this, I am refering to the VolksWagen scandal that happened a few months ago. VolksWagen was found to have been rigging their cars to secretly "meet" tight emission control standards on their diesel TDi cars. When the TDi cars detected they were being tested through their ODB2 port, they would automatically throttle themselves down, limiting horsepower but keeping emissions down by 96%. The reason VolksWagen cheated these results were to gain 4 MPG (raising from 46 to MPG effectively), making a good marketing punch, and also increasing the horsepower and punch of driving the vehicle. Instead, they ended up getting caught red handed, cheating with their computers to exceed emission standards by 40 times.
The final sins of computers in the auto industry hasn't even happened yet. Oh no, its fully theoretical, but it will happen within our lifetimes. Its commonly refered to as the "school bus vs brick wall". The theory goes that cars will self-drive in the future, and one day, you are driving down an interstate, when suddently, the car blows a tire and starts sliding out of control. The car, calculating millions of possibilities, decides two possibilities are possible. Up ahead, there is a bus full of 30 children, but to the right, there is a concrete pillar as part of an interstate bridge. The car can continue on its current course and crash into the bus of children, killing them in a 120 mph collision, or the car can veer hard right, smashing into the concrete pillar, saving the 30 children, but killing the one driver. The question mostly comes down to, should the computer shut down and just stay out of the situation, creating 31 deaths (kids plus the driver), or should the car be programmed to create the least number of casualites, sacrificing its driver for the 30 children. The question has stumped many, and the role of ethics and the worth of human life comes into play, but most importantly, it will have to be made, and computers will have a huge effect in the auto industry.
-678
Since 2012, car hacking has been a thing. Cars from a 2012 Jeep, to the newest 2015 Corvette, have been hacked. The problem comes from vulnerable radio systems, meant for the convenience of the owner to play music over Bluetooth or even connect to WiFi, has opened exploit vulnerabilities in cars that could have never been imagined in the 90s or early 2000s. Cars have been wirelessly hacked to disable breaks, force the gas pedal to full, lock or unlock the doors, and countless other devious hacks that could have potentially life-threatening effects for the owners. While most of these hacks have been discovered by security corporations, thus keeping the hacking methods secret, it is still plausible that a hacker driving next to your new shiny car could potentially lock your breaks and force the accerator to the floor. Quite an unlikely but scary in my opinion that will become more revelant given time.
Another harm that has come is cars becoming self-aware. By this, I am refering to the VolksWagen scandal that happened a few months ago. VolksWagen was found to have been rigging their cars to secretly "meet" tight emission control standards on their diesel TDi cars. When the TDi cars detected they were being tested through their ODB2 port, they would automatically throttle themselves down, limiting horsepower but keeping emissions down by 96%. The reason VolksWagen cheated these results were to gain 4 MPG (raising from 46 to MPG effectively), making a good marketing punch, and also increasing the horsepower and punch of driving the vehicle. Instead, they ended up getting caught red handed, cheating with their computers to exceed emission standards by 40 times.
The final sins of computers in the auto industry hasn't even happened yet. Oh no, its fully theoretical, but it will happen within our lifetimes. Its commonly refered to as the "school bus vs brick wall". The theory goes that cars will self-drive in the future, and one day, you are driving down an interstate, when suddently, the car blows a tire and starts sliding out of control. The car, calculating millions of possibilities, decides two possibilities are possible. Up ahead, there is a bus full of 30 children, but to the right, there is a concrete pillar as part of an interstate bridge. The car can continue on its current course and crash into the bus of children, killing them in a 120 mph collision, or the car can veer hard right, smashing into the concrete pillar, saving the 30 children, but killing the one driver. The question mostly comes down to, should the computer shut down and just stay out of the situation, creating 31 deaths (kids plus the driver), or should the car be programmed to create the least number of casualites, sacrificing its driver for the 30 children. The question has stumped many, and the role of ethics and the worth of human life comes into play, but most importantly, it will have to be made, and computers will have a huge effect in the auto industry.
-678
The New Microsoft Lumias: Great, But One HUGE Mistake
Companies sometimes make mistakes. Whether it was BlockBuster not jumping on board with Netflix back in 2000, or Kodak holding onto film into the digital era, companies make mistakes. Most recently, Microsoft held its Windows 10 Devices conference, where they announce many great products. Everything was a hit, from their Surface Tablet and Surface Book (their new laptop), or their Lumia phones, everything looked spectacular. However, they made one mistake that will sacrifice their standings in the cellphone market.
On October 6th, Microsoft announced their new Lumia phones. Lumias are similar to Google's Nexus project. With the Nexuses, Google install the stock, clean software, and showcases to other companies (OEMs) what the Android OS is capable of. Microsoft's version of this has been their Surface devices and Lumias, showcasing how Windows Phone 10 can work across devices. Microsoft has been losing the smartphone wars, with long-time contendors of Android and iOS crushing marketshare numbers like an Excel sheet against Windows Phone. However, with the release of Windows 10 this fall, Microsoft was set on a mission to unify devices, so that the phone would work with the tablet, the tablet would work with the desktop, the desktop would work with the All-In-One(AIO), the AIO would work with the laptop, and....... you may understand my emphasis on the unification Microsoft was trying to create at this point. Everything would work seemlessly together, and the Microsoft Lumias were supposed to be the hero of all of this. Its been the missing food of Microsoft's feast, so everyone was excited to find out what had been brewing in the pot for the last few years, and lo and behold, the new phones were amazing.
They have the latest processors availble from the likes of Qualcomm, pushing blistering speeds with 3GB of RAM for efficient multitasking, some of the best cameras (definitely the best Windows phones have ever seen), backed with their 20MP sensors, and they have very respectable screen sizes at 5.2" and 5.7", what I consider to be the sweetspots. They ran the latest Windows 10, allowing intercompatibilty between apps on tablets, desktops, and phones, and the UI had once again been revamped from its Windows Phone 8.1 days. It even lost the "running Windows Phone version X.X name", settling for "running Windows 10", a slogan that implies the phone can be just as powerful and as much of a utility as a full-blown Windows 10 desktop or laptop.
All of these "fancy" tech-specs and Windows 10 mean nothing though. Microsoft put the last of their energy into these two new phones, the 950 and 950XL, and reviewers in the Windows 10 Devices conference were blogging about these devices live at the event, with much enthusiasm for the potential they had. But then it all went downhill at the end. Microsoft announced they would sell these phones only one way: through AT&T EXCLUSIVELY. Now, 32% of the US currently are on AT&T's plans, but that eliminates 68% of the market in the US immediately off the bat. That leaves it down to 103 million consumers to make this product a success in the states. It sounds like a large number, but unfortunately, AT&T has a 15:1 iPhone:Android ratio. From my experience, iPhone users are the least likely to switch to another platform, leaving mostly the bottom 5% of people the most likely to switch platforms. Exclusive phones, such as the iPhone, made sense back in 2007, as AT&T paid Apple money, and AT&T made money from users switching to them as a carrier, but in 2015, with so much competition, it was a pointless move on Microsoft's side, and it has doomed this phone for almost all of the states. Sure, AT&T will give this phone good advertisement occasionally, as it did with its "41MP Nokia Lumia 1020", however, this phone will otherwise never see the day of light, and it is a shame, as it may just be Microsoft's last chance at taking a grasping hold on a little marketshare while Windows 10 is still fresh.
-681 words
On October 6th, Microsoft announced their new Lumia phones. Lumias are similar to Google's Nexus project. With the Nexuses, Google install the stock, clean software, and showcases to other companies (OEMs) what the Android OS is capable of. Microsoft's version of this has been their Surface devices and Lumias, showcasing how Windows Phone 10 can work across devices. Microsoft has been losing the smartphone wars, with long-time contendors of Android and iOS crushing marketshare numbers like an Excel sheet against Windows Phone. However, with the release of Windows 10 this fall, Microsoft was set on a mission to unify devices, so that the phone would work with the tablet, the tablet would work with the desktop, the desktop would work with the All-In-One(AIO), the AIO would work with the laptop, and....... you may understand my emphasis on the unification Microsoft was trying to create at this point. Everything would work seemlessly together, and the Microsoft Lumias were supposed to be the hero of all of this. Its been the missing food of Microsoft's feast, so everyone was excited to find out what had been brewing in the pot for the last few years, and lo and behold, the new phones were amazing.
They have the latest processors availble from the likes of Qualcomm, pushing blistering speeds with 3GB of RAM for efficient multitasking, some of the best cameras (definitely the best Windows phones have ever seen), backed with their 20MP sensors, and they have very respectable screen sizes at 5.2" and 5.7", what I consider to be the sweetspots. They ran the latest Windows 10, allowing intercompatibilty between apps on tablets, desktops, and phones, and the UI had once again been revamped from its Windows Phone 8.1 days. It even lost the "running Windows Phone version X.X name", settling for "running Windows 10", a slogan that implies the phone can be just as powerful and as much of a utility as a full-blown Windows 10 desktop or laptop.
All of these "fancy" tech-specs and Windows 10 mean nothing though. Microsoft put the last of their energy into these two new phones, the 950 and 950XL, and reviewers in the Windows 10 Devices conference were blogging about these devices live at the event, with much enthusiasm for the potential they had. But then it all went downhill at the end. Microsoft announced they would sell these phones only one way: through AT&T EXCLUSIVELY. Now, 32% of the US currently are on AT&T's plans, but that eliminates 68% of the market in the US immediately off the bat. That leaves it down to 103 million consumers to make this product a success in the states. It sounds like a large number, but unfortunately, AT&T has a 15:1 iPhone:Android ratio. From my experience, iPhone users are the least likely to switch to another platform, leaving mostly the bottom 5% of people the most likely to switch platforms. Exclusive phones, such as the iPhone, made sense back in 2007, as AT&T paid Apple money, and AT&T made money from users switching to them as a carrier, but in 2015, with so much competition, it was a pointless move on Microsoft's side, and it has doomed this phone for almost all of the states. Sure, AT&T will give this phone good advertisement occasionally, as it did with its "41MP Nokia Lumia 1020", however, this phone will otherwise never see the day of light, and it is a shame, as it may just be Microsoft's last chance at taking a grasping hold on a little marketshare while Windows 10 is still fresh.
-681 words
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Car Trackers: The Ultimate Teen Tool, The Ultimate Stalker Device
Recently, with the rise of available tech, car trackers have risen to the charts on Amazon. The company MotoSafety published a product on Amazon for merely $61 that can simply be plugged into a car (into the diagnostic ODB2 port) under the steering wheel of the driver seat, and by pairing a smartphone within 40 feet of the car, a person can track everywhere that car drives, including speeds, fast braking, distances, and times of arrival and departure. The marketing for the device is for monitoring teen drivers. but my concern is that the device may be used to stalk untrusted spouces suspected of cheating or being where they aren't supposed to be, or other unknowing situations, where the driver is completely unaware they are being stalked. It is quite amazing technology, and I think it is great that we can buy a mini car chip that has bluetooth and GPS built in, and is capable of syncing to our smartphones and showing interactive maps, but small devices such as this make me question every time I get in my car if someone such as my parents are ever stalking me unkowningly, and I think this technology creates unknown paranoia sometimes.
-201 words
-201 words
Self Driving Vehicles, and Why Driving Should Be Illegal
Transportation has been around a long time. Even before the days of the automobile, people were riding horses and pulling wooden carraiges. Even with the introduction of GPSs, there has always been a common trend between transportation 2000 years ago and transportation in the twenty-first century; humans have been in control. For those not familiar with the concept of the movie, The Matrix, in the near future, robots will take over the world with AI. How, one might ask, does this relate to transportation? Well, in the near future, I hope that computers will run the world, making all driving controlled by computers. Its not a sci-fi movie concept either, it is happening now, and will come into play within my generation is gone. Welcome, to the world of self-driving cars.
It all began about a decade ago, when trains were all driven by manual engineers, and relayed to different outposts to switch tracks and what-not to send a train in the right direction.
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That was when it was devised to remove a lot of room for human error by building in a computer system that would automatically switch the tracks for them, creating less room for engineer-outpost communication error, sending a whole freight train in the wrong direction, slowing a delivery by hours or even days if the mistake were not realized soon. But the biggest difference between self-driving trains and self-driving cars is pretty evident: trains are on tracks, and cars are clustered together, sometimes bumper to bumper, turning left, changing lanes, and most importantly, free to roam on the roads, not barred by tracks. Before self-driving technology could reach cars, it would need an intermediate step, and that is where the tractors came along.
In 2008, John Deere launched its self-driving tractor initiative, allowing tractors to be guided by GPS, and also record other data such as harvest yield, more accurate harvesting of rows, as well as log which areas are in need of insecticide. The main point though, was that not only were tractors were driving themselves, with the occasional need of a manual driver, but they were very smart and accurate about their driving, keeping within a 6 inch tolerance, so as not to wreck the crop driving over it. This took self-driving technology to new heights, leaving the railroad track behind.
Google started the initiative in 2009 to begin their self driving car program, not because it was more efficient for fuel or because it was a convience, but because of the safety concern.
Generally, society is pretty unanimous in regards that murder is terrible, and last year in the US, 16,121 people are killed in homicides. Going along with this figure, 11,208 of these victims were killed with guns. However, how many people died from car crashes? 32,719 people happens to be the answer. So while people are concerned about gun safety, and politians wish to remove guns from society, polititians and others should think about making laws against human driving, because twice as many people die in preventable car crashes each year, and cars kill 3 times as many people as guns do, and that is why human driving should be illegal.
-533 words
It all began about a decade ago, when trains were all driven by manual engineers, and relayed to different outposts to switch tracks and what-not to send a train in the right direction.
That was when it was devised to remove a lot of room for human error by building in a computer system that would automatically switch the tracks for them, creating less room for engineer-outpost communication error, sending a whole freight train in the wrong direction, slowing a delivery by hours or even days if the mistake were not realized soon. But the biggest difference between self-driving trains and self-driving cars is pretty evident: trains are on tracks, and cars are clustered together, sometimes bumper to bumper, turning left, changing lanes, and most importantly, free to roam on the roads, not barred by tracks. Before self-driving technology could reach cars, it would need an intermediate step, and that is where the tractors came along.
In 2008, John Deere launched its self-driving tractor initiative, allowing tractors to be guided by GPS, and also record other data such as harvest yield, more accurate harvesting of rows, as well as log which areas are in need of insecticide. The main point though, was that not only were tractors were driving themselves, with the occasional need of a manual driver, but they were very smart and accurate about their driving, keeping within a 6 inch tolerance, so as not to wreck the crop driving over it. This took self-driving technology to new heights, leaving the railroad track behind.
Google started the initiative in 2009 to begin their self driving car program, not because it was more efficient for fuel or because it was a convience, but because of the safety concern.
Generally, society is pretty unanimous in regards that murder is terrible, and last year in the US, 16,121 people are killed in homicides. Going along with this figure, 11,208 of these victims were killed with guns. However, how many people died from car crashes? 32,719 people happens to be the answer. So while people are concerned about gun safety, and politians wish to remove guns from society, polititians and others should think about making laws against human driving, because twice as many people die in preventable car crashes each year, and cars kill 3 times as many people as guns do, and that is why human driving should be illegal.
-533 words
Thursday, October 1, 2015
How Computers Work: The Separate Parts
Computers have come a long way in recent years, and although the actual manufacturing of each part is a very advanced, precise process, understanding how each basic component works is a very cool thing to know: It can make you seem smarter when talking about computers, help you troubleshoot when a computer fails, or help a person build a computer! A computer may seem complex on the outside, but on the inside, there are only seven main parts that help everything you do on your computer work flawlessly.
1) CPU, or Central Processing Unit. The CPU is basically the "brain" of the computer, it LOVES doing math and calculating things. Imagine it as the Excel worksheet cruncher!
2) GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit. The GPU is like an artsy person! It is similar to a CPU, but instead of crunching numbers, it LOVES drawing pictures instead, so it helps generate the graphics that you see on your computer screen. It can be seen as the CPU's artsy sister.
3) HDD, or hard disk drive, is where all your files are stored. It is like a CD that spins thousands of times a minute. Files are stored on the HDD by a mechanical arm moving back and forth, magnetizing a glass disk coated in aluminum. When you start your computer, the biggest reason it takes a while to start is because the arm has to read BILLIONS of little magnitized bits on a disk. Basically, it would similar to...a huge circular library, and someone says,"I want the Dino book", but unfortunately, the books were all ripped up page by page, and the librarian has to use a claw arm to grab each page of his book while the library spins thousands of a minute. As you could imagine, it would take some time to find the pages, then pick them up, and then put them together to present the book, and thus, that is why it takes time to boot a computer and reach the desktop.
4) RAM, or random accesss memory, is basically fast memory (measured in Gigabytes) that is basically the multitasking ability of your computer. When you open a program or file (I'll use the book analogy), IT TAKES A LONG TIME for all the pages of a book to be found. However, once the librarian reassembles that book from the slow HDD, she can place it in the RAM, where it can remain, so it will take almost no time to re-retrieve that book. On a computer, if you opened Excel, you would have to wait a while for the HDD to read the program, but once it was inside of the RAM, the program works fast, and closing and reopening it will be faster, because it is still residing in the faster RAM. Without RAM, the world would be a crawl. However, once a computer is shut down, the RAM is completely cleared, so that is why data cannot be stored in RAM.
5) PSU, or power supply unit, is what powers the computer. It converts AC current, which alternates, to DC current, which is constant. On a desktop, it's inside the computer, and on a laptop, its the brick on your charger. Your phone also has that little wall wart, and that's basically a PSU too, but WAY smaller.
6) Motherboard, or Mobo for short, basically has a lot of slots on it, and looks like the most advanced component, but is basically a large flat component that the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other things plug into. It connects everything together like glue, and can be seen as the Mother, connecting all the children together as a family.
7) The case is the last part, and is what I love most, because some look extremely cool, and functions as the exterior chassis to hold everything inside, but also cool everything with internal fans.
-650 Words
1) CPU, or Central Processing Unit. The CPU is basically the "brain" of the computer, it LOVES doing math and calculating things. Imagine it as the Excel worksheet cruncher!
2) GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit. The GPU is like an artsy person! It is similar to a CPU, but instead of crunching numbers, it LOVES drawing pictures instead, so it helps generate the graphics that you see on your computer screen. It can be seen as the CPU's artsy sister.
3) HDD, or hard disk drive, is where all your files are stored. It is like a CD that spins thousands of times a minute. Files are stored on the HDD by a mechanical arm moving back and forth, magnetizing a glass disk coated in aluminum. When you start your computer, the biggest reason it takes a while to start is because the arm has to read BILLIONS of little magnitized bits on a disk. Basically, it would similar to...a huge circular library, and someone says,"I want the Dino book", but unfortunately, the books were all ripped up page by page, and the librarian has to use a claw arm to grab each page of his book while the library spins thousands of a minute. As you could imagine, it would take some time to find the pages, then pick them up, and then put them together to present the book, and thus, that is why it takes time to boot a computer and reach the desktop.
4) RAM, or random accesss memory, is basically fast memory (measured in Gigabytes) that is basically the multitasking ability of your computer. When you open a program or file (I'll use the book analogy), IT TAKES A LONG TIME for all the pages of a book to be found. However, once the librarian reassembles that book from the slow HDD, she can place it in the RAM, where it can remain, so it will take almost no time to re-retrieve that book. On a computer, if you opened Excel, you would have to wait a while for the HDD to read the program, but once it was inside of the RAM, the program works fast, and closing and reopening it will be faster, because it is still residing in the faster RAM. Without RAM, the world would be a crawl. However, once a computer is shut down, the RAM is completely cleared, so that is why data cannot be stored in RAM.
5) PSU, or power supply unit, is what powers the computer. It converts AC current, which alternates, to DC current, which is constant. On a desktop, it's inside the computer, and on a laptop, its the brick on your charger. Your phone also has that little wall wart, and that's basically a PSU too, but WAY smaller.
6) Motherboard, or Mobo for short, basically has a lot of slots on it, and looks like the most advanced component, but is basically a large flat component that the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other things plug into. It connects everything together like glue, and can be seen as the Mother, connecting all the children together as a family.
7) The case is the last part, and is what I love most, because some look extremely cool, and functions as the exterior chassis to hold everything inside, but also cool everything with internal fans.
-650 Words
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