Topics for Computers, the Internet, and Society, Class Four

Last updated: 10/20/03
Link back to course Welcome

Agenda for Class 7 on October 14
(Computers, the Internet, and Society only)
(updated to include addition)

Quiz 1 - one hour
Starting October 20 this year, Pipeline will require a current-version or recent-version web browser. You can get free downloads of Netscape 7.1 and Internet Explorer 6 SP1 (Service Pack or Update 1) from support.wayne.edu/allwsu/software/support/index.php (live link on course web site).
What you should be working on
1. Weekly reports - EVERY week, whether we are meeting in class or not
2. Postings - two per week
3. Essay A and personal web page due at the next class, October 28.
In the news
1. October 9, NPR
  Van Dinh, a 19-year old college student, was arrested in Boston today on charges involving the Internet, securities fraud and identity theft. Mr Van Dinh bought options on Sun Microsystems which would have earned him money if Sun stock had fallen. It did not fall, and Mr Dinh faced losing the money he had payed for the options. Dinh went to a securities chat room and gathered some names, then offered people a stock charting tool for free. Instead (or possibly along with), Dinh caused a keyboard logger to be installed, which gave him the online brokerage account information for a man in Westboro, MA. Finally, Dinh used the man's account to buy Dinh's options, saving Dinh the loss on his options (until he was arrested).
2. NYT October 10, 2003 Pg 1
  "Snoopware", software that can be downloaded to another computer to monitor and report on the user's activities (may include a keyborad logger), is a new category of software, and may be illegal according to some. Some of this software can be downloaded silently via email (the exact method is not clear to me). Software that does the same basic thing but is installed by an employer to monitor employees is called, in this article, "spyware."
3. 10/12/03 Business Pg 1. The KaZaA online music-downloading system was developed by three programmers from Estonia, and distributed by two Swedish entreprenuers. Now the team has come up with an Internet phone software system called Skype (name has no meaning). This allows free high-quality phone calls over the Internet using the new VoIP protocol (Voice Over IP). Other small new phone companies and the major phone and companies and ISPs are also trying to decide how to use this. Skype is free, and allows users to connect themselves rather than go through servers. Skyper Limited, their holding company, hopes eventually to make money selling premium services such as voice mail. Skype plans to allow the use of regular telephones over its system this Winter, allowing very inexpensive phone calls, with charges only for connecting the phone to the Internet. Regardless of Skype's success, VoIP is expected to result in major changes within the telephone industry.
4. October 12 NYT News of the Week in Review Pg 3
  Cellphone cameras are being combined with "blogs" to develop online "candid" phot albums. In a "blog" (web log), people use one of several simple software systems to upload daily (or at least regular) updates to a personal web page. The page displays the latest updates at the top. With cellphone cameras, people can include photos in their blogs, instantly. One example given was of Gary Dann, who was in a grocery check out lane, standing behind a man who was having an unpleasant argument with the check out clerk about a credit card not working. Dann whipped out his cell phone, snapped an unflattering photo of the customer, and right away uploaded the photo to his blog, along with an equally unflattering caption for the photo. Another site has a monthly contest for the "best posterior" (clothed). Cell phone cameras are raising new privacy concerns, because the person taking the picture can just seem to be working with the cell phone, not the camera.
5. October 12 NYT News of the Week in Review Pg 4
  The dispute over media ownership restrictions is part of a larger debate over ownership and control of information, and especially digital information. One regulatory model is that the owner of the transportation medium is not allowed to own a company using the medium for transportation. This is the model used in the trucking and railroad industries, and often in the internet traffic business. Also, additional media ownerhsip restrictions may help preserve information diversity and preserve competition. But if media is becoming one big pool of digital information, perhaps restricting newspaper ownership is should be abandoned in favor of regulating all media outlets as group (newspaper, radio, TV, cable, Internet). Also, recent mergers such as AOL and Time-Warner, or MSNBC, combine information carriers with those owning content, and may upset the model of either being a carrier or a provider, but not both.
6. October 12 NYT Business Pg 4. Computer viruses caused an estimated $132 billion in corporate damages this year, through the end of September. In August alone, damages are estimated at $35 billion, mainly due to the SoBig.F virus. Very few claims will be filed because insurers are limiting and withdrawing coverage. This is because one incident can have worldwide consequences, making it impossible for insurers to spread the risk among several customers. An individual hacker attack may be covered, but data loss and business interruption are typically not covered. Many companies, the article says, are not aware that they are not covered. Insurers and reinsurers are concerned that a major business can go bankrupt due to not being able to service customers at all over a period of a few days.
7. NYT 10/13/03 Pg C3 A company named Sunn-Comm developed a music encryption scheme that allowed a few copies to be made. Anthony Hamilton, a R&B singer, released an album using this scheme. A Princeton PhD student, John A Halderman, studied this encryption scheme and discovered that holding down the <Shift> key while inserting the CD would allow unlimited copies to be made, and published a paper, also sending it to reporters. Sunn-Comm's stock declined drastically in price, and it threatened to sue Halderman, but has recently changed its mind.
8. Pg C3. Digital projection of films is ready for commercial use, but expense is holding it back. Viewers prefer digital - steadier, sharper picture with no scratches.
9. 1. Stories continue about the Board of the New York Stock Exchange. Board members themselves receive retirement benefits in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This is consistent with the industries they are regulating, but the Stock Exchange does not earn anywhere near the profits of the member firms.
  2. Jet Blue. This story illustrates potential problems with joining databases together. Early in 2002, the airline company was asked by a government contractor, Torch Concepts, to furnish passenger data for an anti-terrorism study that Torch was doing for the federal Department of Homeland Security regarding a proposed Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening program [CAPPS II]. Jet Blue furnished the data, which was limited to its normal information about passengers (name, address, telephone number). Torch then asked a third company, Axciom, to join this information with whatever else it could find. The resulting aggregate database was presented to the federal government, and the PowerPoint presentation found its way onto the Web. One of Jet Blue's passengers was identified by name and Social Security Number, with other information as well. Public perception was that Jet Blue furnished all of the information on the slide. Some customers started a lawsuit. Jet Blue apologized to its customers, and said that the information release, done under the circumstances immediately following 9/11/2001, violated its privacy policy and would not be repeated. This story illustrates what can be done by combining separate databases, and the concern with which the public views privacy.
  3. A recently-published study by Dr Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University reports that monkeys have been fitted with electrodes in their brains, linked to a robot arm, and that the monkeys learned to move the arm using thought alone. Monkeys were led to this accomplishment in stages; moving a joystick controlling a computer mouse icon to control the robot arm, and then controlling the arm directly. For a while, monkeys moved the joystick, even though the mouse had been disconnected, but later they stopped moving the joystick. Researchers hope to use this with paralyzed humans.

The following humorous (we hope) piece is from "The Compleat Computer"
by Dennie Van Tassel, pub by Science Research Associates 1976.

Daily Surveillance Sheet, 1987 From a Nationwide Data Bank

NATIONAL DATA BANK
DAILY SURVEILLANCE SHEET
CONFIDENTIAL
JULY 9, 1987
SUBJECT: DENNIE VAN TASSEL
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA CRUZ, CALF.
MALE
AGE 38
MARRIED
PROGRAMMER
PURCHASES:

WALL STREET JOURNAL .25

BREAKFAST 2.50

GASOLINE 6.00

PHONE (328-1826) .15

PHONE (308-7928) .15

PHONE (421-1931) .15

BANK (CASH WITHDRAWAL) (120.00)

LUNCH 3.50

COCKTAIL 1.50

LINGERIE 26.95

PHONE (369-2436) .35

BOURBON 11.40

NEWSPAPER .25

***** COMPUTER ANALYSIS *****

OWNS STOCK (90 PERCENT PROBABILITY)

HEAVY STARCH BREAKFAST. PROBABLY OVERWEIGHT.

BOUGHT 6.00 GASOLINE. OWNS VW. SO FAR THIS WEEK HAS BOUGHT 14.00 WORTH
OF GASOLINE. OBVIOUSLY DOING SOMETHING BESIDES DRIVING 9 MILES TO WORK.

BOUGHT GASOLINE AT 7:57. SAFE TO ASSUME HE WAS LATE TO WORK.

PHONE NO. 328-1826 BELONGS TO SHADY LANE. SHADY WAS ARRESTED FOR
BOOKMAKING IN 1975.

PHONE NO. 308-7928. EXPENSIVE MEN'S BARBER - SPECIALIZES IN BALD MEN OR
HAIR STYLING.

PHONE NO. 421-1931. RESERVATIONS FOR LAS VEGAS (WITHOUT WIFE). THIRD
TRIP THIS YEAR TO LAS VEGAS (WITHOUT WIFE). WILL SCAN FILE TO SEE IF
ANYONE ELSE HAS GONE TO LAS VEGAS AT THE SAME TIME AND COMPARE TO HIS
PHONE NUMBERS.

WITHDREW 120.00 DOLLARS CASH. VERY UNUSUAL SINCE ALL LEGAL PURCHASES
CAN BE MADE USING THE NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY CREDIT CARD. CASH
USUALLY ONLY USED FOR ILLEGAL PURCHASES. IT WAS PREVIOUSLY RECOMMENDED
THAT ALL CASH BE OUTLAWED AS SOON AS IT BECOMES POLITICALLY POSSIBLE.

DRINKS DURING HIS LUNCH.

BOUGHT VERY EXPENSIVE LINGERIE. NOT HIS WIFE'S SIZE.

PHONE NO. 369-2436. MISS SWEET LOCKS.

PURCHASED EXPENSIVE BOTTLE OF BOURBON. HE HAS PURCHASED 5 BOTTLES OF
BOURBON IN THE LAST 30 DAYS. EITHER HEAVY DRINKER OR MUCH ENTERTAINING.

***** OVERALL ANALYSIS *****

LEFT WORK EARLY AT 4:00, SINCE HE PURCHASED BOURBON 1 MILE FROM HIS JOB
AT 4:10 (OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM HIS HOME).

BOUGHT NEWSPAPER AT 6:30 NEAR HIS HOUSE. UNACCOUNTABLE 2.5 HOURS. MADE
3 PURCHASES TODAY FROM YOUNG BLONDES. (STATISTICAL 1 CHANCE IN 78.)
THEREFORE PROBABLY HAS WEAKNESS FOR YOUNG BLONDES.

Word - pictures.
1. Insert / Picture
  1. Clip art
  2. From file
2. Picture becomes part of Word file
3. Format / picture
  1. Select picture, then Format / Picture
    1. Size
    2. Text wrapping
    3. Cropping
  2. Put a border around it with Format / Borders and shading
1. Word - lists
  1. Bulleted lists. For multi-level, choose bullet style level by level
  2. Numbered lists - choose style, or multilevel
2. Word - tables
  1. Use table insert tool button
  2. Use table menu item for further changes - must have table selected!
    1. Adding or deleting rows or columns - have insertion point where you want to act
    2. Split or merge cells - have insertion point where you want to act
    3. Change height and width
  3. Insert content by placing the insertion point and doing what you would normally do - type, Insert / Picture, etc.
  4. Default is a usually a table with no printing borders. If you see greyed-out borders while editing, they do not print. Add, remove and change borders with menu item Format / borders and Shading...
3. Groupware - features for people working together as a group. An example is editing.
  1. Original author and editor creates document and puts it on a LAN where everyone in the group can open the file.
  2. Every person in the group should have Tools / Options / User Information filled out.
  3. Choose Tools / Options / Track changes and choose your options.
  4. When others open up the file and edit it on the screen (not on paper), their changes will be marked as chosen, and their initials will display.
  5. Later, the editor can go through and accept, reject or modify each suggested change as desired, using Tools / Track Changes / accept or Reject Changes...
4. Word / Word Help - What's This? Will tell you word's name for an object on the screen, and what it does. Then you know how to look it up in the regular help.
5. Word does much more (e.g. fields?)
Review of Internet handout, finish it
Excel (handout)
1. After entering the table of monthly sales figures, convert to Japanese Yen at Monday's exchange rate of 108.57 Yen to the dollar, by multiplying each dollar rate by 108.57.
Copying and pasting between Office applications (and other applications)
1. Selecting
2. Copying
  1. If your computer has less than 32 MB RAM, you may want to close the first application at this point, and then open the second
3. Pasting
  1. Double-click item to edit in original application
  2. Paste what?
    1. Item
    2. Numbers, Formulas
    3. Chart
    4. Link
History of the Internet (handout)
Protecting Yourself Online (handout)
Internet - issues / Read the news!
1. Just another technology?
2. Will there be enough jobs for people?
3. Permanent underclass?
4. Racial / ethnic / cultural equality
5. Invasion of privacy
6. Relationships between Employees and Employers
7. Falsifying information and/or the source of information
8. Intellectual property rights
9. Pornography and children
10. Pollution and environmental degredation
11. Dependence and the potential for disasters
Personal web page
1. Get all files together in the same folder - pictures, etc. This will result in relative URLs and links using filenames only, not folders. This means that you can check the links on your own PC, then bring them to me on a floppy diskette for uploading, and the links will still work
  1. To test, in Netscape, choose File / Open File in Browser... or in Internet Explorer File / Open...
Turning the lab computers off
1. Click on Start button
2. Select Shut Down..., click OK

WALL STREET JOURNAL	.25
BREAKFAST	2.50
GASOLINE	6.00
PHONE (328-1826)	.15
PHONE (308-7928)	.15
PHONE (421-1931)	.15
BANK (CASH WITHDRAWAL)	(120.00)
LUNCH	3.50
COCKTAIL	1.50
LINGERIE	26.95
PHONE (369-2436)	.35
BOURBON	11.40
NEWSPAPER	.25