Week Five: Team Plan

The members of my group are Bryan Cox, Jacob Ferguson and myself. After researching ways in which our group would work best, we will most likely use Yahoo chat,web conferences, and email. We have decided on this as our best means of communication because all of us seem to have very differing schedules.
My current job allows me to work collaborativly with a staff of 28 staff members so I have a lot of background working with groups of people. In my job, I oversee 24 of the 28 members of my staff so I also have a lot of background with decision making in a group setting.
Some of the strengths that our group have are that we already know each other. This is something that can also work as a double-edged sword. However, in our experiences we have worked together both personally and professionally, so this should give us an advantage in working together on this project.
I think that when it comes time to assign tasks, we will meet either online or in person and just work to delegate the responsibilities so that there is not just one person working on the project at hand. In order to make sure that every member of our group is putting in the same amount of work we could possibly do group evaluations of ourselves to ensure quality control. Any ideas on other ways that we could possibly do this would be helpful :)

Assignment #3

Even with the news of being turned down by Yahoo, Microsoft has decided to go ahead without the aid of Yahoo. Bill Gates is standing strong in his bid to Yahoo and has decided to not revamp his offer stating that he believes that the offer that was given was more than fair. The next move is that Microsoft will be authorizing a Proxy Fight. This new move will actually cost Microsoft a lot less than their previous offer of $44.6 billion and bring down their financial costs to $20-$30 million. These actions could possibly result in a hostile take over, thus it may force Yahoo to have to act upon the requests of Microsoft. Other than these two main companies there is not much news for other companies to try and create another large merger, and without the help of Yahoo, I do not believe that Microsoft will be able to compete with Google in the way that they are imagining.

If everything goes the way that Microsoft plans, Google will have to step up their game in the market place. One thing that they have already started work on is the creation of the new G-Phone. A lot like its competitor, the iPhone, the creators of the G-Phone have already begun working on aspects of its predecessor that have been poorly accepted. They plan on marketing the G-Phone in different styles, which is something that the iPhone did not offer. Although many of the features that the makers of the G-Phone are hoping to achieve are outlandish, it shows that they are already thinking in a way that many of their competitors have been unable to.

In order to make the "Deep Web" more accessible, Google has been working to offer more services to offer its users more specified search options as well as allowing for more information to be found. Google Book Search, Google Scholar, Window Live Academic, and the Amazon Search inside the Book, are just a few examples of how Google is working to make the “Deep Web” a little shallower. Other examples of search engines that work to aid in this dilemma are Kelly Blue Book, the Library of Congress THOMAS, and the USDA PLANTS data base.

On the other side of making the “Deep Web” shallower, there are countries and governments who are working towards making items on the web unreachable by their citizens. Countries such as China, are working towards creating programs that can block information from being sent to the citizens from their country. The more and more that large companies come together to control search engines and other aspects of the internet, the less and less individuals will be in control of what they are able to see and find within the constraints of the online world. If a certain company/companies are in control of what you are searching, what do you think they are going to want you to find? I believe that slowly but surely, companies are going to start only showing information that is helpful to their own survival. Who would have thought that a search engine could cause so much trouble?

Chat Room Experience

I attended a chat room entitled "Celebrity Scoop". At first I thought that it would be weird because my previous view of what a chat room is was that its only use was for people who wanted to meet for dating reasons. After entering this chat I thought that it was really interesting and was a different way to find out information that I would usually hear about on the news later that night or maybe even later that week in a magazine. I know that for myself I really enjoy reading about celebrities so I found that I had a lot to talk about with the people in the chat room. There were still some people that were there for dating reasons, but for the most part, I really didn't encounter many of those situations at all. All in all, I really enjoyed my chat room experience and I would probably go back to the same one another time.

Assignment #2

A wise man one said “with great power comes great responsibility”. Although this saying originates from the story of Spider man, this saying can be used in many different situations; in this case, to show the power that a person takes into their hands when deciding to use the internet. Like any new invention, the internet is, in many ways, a double-edged sword. People become so used to inputting their information into a machine that they trust, that many forget that they are not the only ones with the ability to view this information. Think about the Christmas season. Very recently people have come to realize that they no longer have to venture out to the stores to buy their loved ones gifts for the holiday season. When people are buying these gifts online, how do you think that they pay for them? They are using their credit cards, and thus, inputting their credit information into a machine, which in turn, sends their information out into computer world. Although many of these businesses make it so that your information stays as secure as possible, this has been how many people have been able to steal other peoples credit card numbers and do a good deal of damage to the owners credit.

Another aspect of the internet that makes for a great deal of problems is harassment. This harassment can range from hate mail all the way to sexual harassment. This offers a huge problem for adults, and is becoming more and more of an issue as children begin to learn to use computer technology at a younger and younger age. Parents need to make sure that they are constantly monitoring everything that their children are doing while on a computer. Children do not realize that giving out any information at all while on a computer could end up with them being abducted. There have been hundreds of cases of people pretending to be younger than they are in order to gain a child’s trust and get them to meet up with them. Although police officials have caught onto this area of crime and have started to do many sting operations to get these individuals off the streets, many people still get away with these crimes. It is the job of the parents to educate their children on the dangers of using technology such as this.

Not only can people steal information from people that put their credit card information onto a website, but some very intelligent people have found a way to break into government agencies and cause very serious problems. Not only could people cause total melt downs for computer servers, but if someone wanted to, they could basically shut down our whole security system and leave us open for attack at any point. Not only are crimes such as this being dealt with, they are being dealt with in an extremely serious manner. People that are caught meddling in any government agencies materials could be sentenced to life in prison.

It is hard to believe that only ten years ago none of these issues would have had to be addressed. However, with all the new technology that is out there today, everyone needs to re-evaluate the decisions that they are making with regards to putting too much information out there for everyone to read. User beware!

Assignment #1

How are computers affecting the future of cars? How are they not? In today’s world there are already around 20 computers making your car function properly. With all of the advancements in the way people are viewing technology as a resource for improving our daily lives, it is no surprise that someone would finally realize that there is a more productive way to get around. Instead of paying over three dollars a gallon for gas, people are starting to realize that there are other ways to make a vehicle run. With the use of nitrogen, which is the main element in air, we will soon be able to run our cars without producing any pollution into the atmosphere. Aside from nitrogen there has also been much thought about making cars run off other materials such as hydrogen, alcohol fuel, highly compressed air, garbage, and even hemp oil. Just as in using nitrogen, using any of these other materials as a source of fuel will allow for a more sustainable vehicle that rids the atmosphere of harmful pollutants.

There will also be a change in the materials that will be used to actually manufacture the car. Materials such as, duraluminum, fiberglass, and carbon nanotubes will completely replace the use of steel; using materials such as these will improve the lightness and strength of the total vehicle.

In the very near future cars will have sensors systems that will allow for cars to “talk” with one another and will able to sense if a car is about to collide with another vehicle. After realizing that the car is about to be in an accident, the computer system will take over and maneuver the car so that there is no car accident. This will lead to a major decline in the amount of vehicular deaths, and will make driving a much safer experience for everyone involved. In today’s world, parents are always afraid of letting their teen go out for a drive; using this technology, parents would be able to get to sleep at night knowing that their child is safe behind the wheel of their car.

Another improvement will not be with the vehicles directly, but will involve making even the highways “smarter”. Using Bluetooth technology that is currently being used with many hands free devices, the new “smart” highways will be able to provide the driver/s with information regarding many issues facing drivers. Drivers will be able to find out about:

• Vechicle restrictions
• Hours of Service
• Open/Closed Information
• Entrance Information
  
• Exit information for the managed lane
• Tolling information (if any)
• Required method of payment (if any)
• Penalty for improper use
• Current traffic congestion in general-purpose lanes
• Incident management information
• Travel time and estimated time savings for use of managed lane
• Occupancy requirements
• Presence of transponder or cash (if required)
• Specific prohibitions of certain vehicles (trucks, towed trailers)

These “smart” highways along with the help of “smart” cars are only the beginning of what technology will be able to do to help out individuals on a daily basis.