Open Source and FLOSS AND Privacy and Security

http://www.idea.org/blog/2011/07/22/open-source-vs-proprietary-software/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR0rrXMJreM&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfXkxkybQ4Q&feature=youtu.be

As some robots are indeed computer systems, do they interoperate everything as code as a computer would?

GNU: free software

"Black box"

Free software: software that respects your freedom
Users need certain freedoms

So is modding (with reference to gaming) the same thing as 'free software'?

"backdoors"; remotely delete books from Kindles

Copyright is used to make programs non-free. Legally "forbidden to copy this"

Does torrenting have any correlation with open sourcing?

Privacy and Security

The Transparency Grenade  article.
"Equipped with a time computer, microphone and powerful wireless antenna, the Transparency Grenade captures netword traffic and audio at the site and securely and anonymously streams it to a dedicated server where it is mined for information  Email fragments, HTML pages, images and voice extracted from this data are then presented on an online, public map, shown at the location of the detonation".

"Meanwhile, civil servants and publicly-owned companies to make decisions behind guarded doors that impact the lives of many, often leaving us feeling powerless to effect change, both in and out of a democratic context".

I feel as if this device can infringe on others' privacy. I completely agree that any decision that is impacting the lives of many should be completely transparent. I would also like to know if this device faces any legal implication if detonated?

I also think the fact that they make all aspects of this device (design, detonations, etc.) transparent and remove much of the "black Box" aspect of it.

Atlas Speaker Series: How has technology changed reading and literature?

http://classcapture.colorado.edu/Mediasite/Play/0eb1e2df64e0468095ce8500f8f06fbb1d?playFrom=238000

Matthew G. Kirschenbaum


'Track changes'

Historians and biographers, "slim pickings"
This is because of the word processor [changes in culture/lifestyle]

Computers become a tool...? They most certainly did.

WordStar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar

Digital whatnots put those using outdated systems at a disadvantage. Many people use longhand and the use a computer to revise/edit.

What would your eduction be like if we did not have Word and Spellcheck?

Howard Rheingold's Virtual Community

"Social relationships that go beyond the functional use of technology".
I would like examples, please.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC).

"Rheingold recognizes that there is something wrong with [people being frightened by the reintroduction of tribal social relations], but does not delve any deeper into this crucial conceptual problem." Is the fact that it is so open exclusively the reason he does not delve into this question?

"pretending to be somebody else is an apparently inseparable part of virtual communities, a whole new ballgame". What are the conditions that categorizes someone as 'trying to be somebody else'? I do not feel as if I am trying to be someone else online, unless I am missing something, or not aware of what I am specifically doing to do this.

"We are now threatened with the 'selling of democracy'." Capitalocracy as I would like to call it (my term). Where have you seen this? I've seen it in the government, especially in congress, and other places of high status/wealth. I've also seen it in politics... capitalism taken to a new level, eh?

http://www.nationofchange.org/selling-american-democracy-perfect-storm-1342272391

What is the next step for CMC, if there is one?

Out there question: What if climate change changed our way of life and put us in a more, survival-based lifestyle. Would internet usage change? Would it evolve to fit our new lifestyle? What changes do you see to the internet as we know it now, if this were to happen?

Life on the Electronic Frontier: An Interview with Howard Rheingold

Howard Rheingold: "People aren't really interested in interactive entertainment and information so much as the chance to connect with others and form relationships."

Do you consider yourself more interested in forming relationships or with interactive entertainment?

If the Internet was in some way being regulated per hour, would it be as big as it is now if there was a fee levied with its usage?

How often, if at all, do you meet people initially online, and proceed to meet with them face-to-face thereafter (other than online dating sites)?. I feel as if the internet is, in itself, its own community that doesn't mingle too much with reality too often. would you agree with that?

"The community is not inside the computer. The community is between the people".

"Some people feel that the computer is going to make us more isolated". Have you seen this happen? Before the internet, people actually had to communicate verbally. Now, we can sit in front of a computer and communicate which has removed that face-to-face communication.

London: "You can't talk back to [the TV]". With the Internet, you can indeed talk back to the TV via Twitter, just as you would on the Internet.

How many hours a day do you think you spend on the Internet?
Personally, I spend most of my time on the Internet doing homework (for this HW too), communication with people (as opposed to calling them), and for entertainment. I also stream/download movies from the Internet that I then could play on the Television too which inedibly adds more time you spend on the internet.

 If Rheingold says, "'Web years' as being about a month". Where/what does he base that off of?

What will the internet look like in, say, 10 years down the line?

Google Fiber: http://fiber.google.com/about/
"Google Fiber starts with a connection speed 100 times faster than today's broadband. Instant downloads. Crystal clear high definition TV. And endless possibilities. It's not cable. And it's not just Internet. It's Google Fiber"
Does this prove Google is going to take over the world? I think yes.