Note Re: Posts and Psoters

Considering that the three of us started this blog with one account, under my name (that is, Stanley Cabrera), the posts have been credited as such even though we have each made our posts.

So from now on we'd be indicating the author of each post by placing the name of the author at the end of each article.

Thanks very much!

MySpace and Internet Predators

Who among us haven’t heard of MySpace or Friendster? Chances are a lot of us have heard about it and a majority of people we know have accounts in either MySpace or Friendster… maybe even in both.

MySpace and Friendster are just some of the many internet social network service providers. They cater to both young and old, bridge gap between races, and provide an enjoyable past time. Yet with all the benefits and conveniences provide by MySpace, Friendster or any other social network service provider, the danger of abuse and misuse is not far behind.

In an article written by Paula Lehman for Business Week Online[1], she tells us that MySpace is currently facing a $30 million lawsuit concerning a 14-year-old Texas girl who said she was assaulted by a predator she met on MySpace. She further informs us that U.S. lawmakers were lobbying to have social networks banned from schools and libraries.

For its part, MySpace has bolstered its security measures. Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace Chief Security Officer, announced a partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to use MySpace to disseminate word of child abductions through the Amber Alert system. He also said that the site will implement an e-mail verification system and an “over/under” privacy tool that prevents contact in either direction between users above the age of 18 with younger users[2].

Novel as these efforts may seem, these measures are insufficient to counter the existing dilemma. Pedophiles and other internet predators need simply fool people into believing that they are minors. By simply typing a “falsified” age entry, these individuals could still continue making contacts with minors. No one would know whether the entry is falsified or not due to the millions, if not billions, of users worldwide.

Strict policy guidelines should be implemented not only by internet social service providers but also by States to help curb this problem. A lot of laws have been passed to prevent child pornography, abuse and abduction but an efficient “monitoring system” is at want. Such a suggestion may not be acceptable to many since it might create a “privacy issue”, but its need is evident. Without such a system, the danger of the proliferation of internet predators will continue.

by: Bryan Tan

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[1] This article may be viewed at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16789338/

[2] Ibid.

To FOSS or Not to FOSS, that is the Question

The FOSS revolution is quite a tale. The concept of cooperation between programmers from all over the world to come up with something very much productive is awe inspiring, really. One wonders, how did they pull it off?

Of course, when one thinks about it, if you’d post some code on the net and ask for suggestions in improving it, you’d get a whole lot of sorts of responses. There would be the helpful ones, the useful ones, the absurd ones and even the harmful ones. Why? That’s because there are so many people on the net nowadays that you’d have a multitude of weirdoes who’d want to put in their stuff, often malicious.

Back in the early years of the internet and when the call for help in the GNU and the Linux projects were made (okey, so the internet, or at least it’s predecessor, was in existence for quite sometime before that but it was still in it’s early years in the popular vernacular), it was still quite exclusive to those in the know. It was either your in the computing or telecommunications industry or a certified geek to get into the internet. That carries with it competence with programming and computers and, more or less, a close-knit (and often competitive) community who know each other (at least when compared to current standards of internet interaction). Such are ingredients for a more organized and efficient effort.

True, the increased popularity of the internet and computing has also increased knowledge and competence regarding it. However, such improvements are often skewed to quantity and sometimes to the detriment of quality. You have lots of young kids fresh out of computer school, bored, unemployed and hankering to make a mark. Thus you get lots of these viruses springing up all the time. What that means is that although there are a lot more potential contributors, the effort becomes more and more difficult to organize, with forks cropping up every so often.

Granted, it does not mean that the current batch of FOSS collaborations cannot be as productive, as can be seen in the Mozilla Firefox series of software. It just means that Linux is that special. With majority of the contributors being old timers, the code for Linux was made in C, which has the advantage of being near to machine language and thus more reliable than the subsequent programming languages. Ergo, Linux is as steady a program as it gets. And that distinguishes it from Microsoft Windows. The comparison becomes more skewed when you factor in the disparity in the price. That’s the appeal of Linux, ditto with other FOSS packages. Since in terms of functionality (the useful ones, at least) the gap between the “commercial” types and the FOSS ones is becoming smaller and smaller. Now that it’s clear that FOSSing has its advantages.

The only question is, to FOSS or not to FOSS?

point-and-click-and-hitch

A few years ago, at around the time that E-commerce became quite a hot topic, or shall we say, “fashionable”, in the country, the promise of shopping for imported goods without budging from one’s house (or seat, for that matter) appeared on the horizon. Suddenly, one need not badger his or her relatives in the States or elsewhere to buy some coveted stuff for him/her and have it Fed-exed to Manila. One could actually just “point and click” and after some time, (given sufficient credit card balance) the a guy in a blue and white uniform knocks on the door and hands over the thing. At least, that was the promise.

As expected though, some hassles and kinks had to be smoothed out. Amongst the very first purchases of my sister were books from Amazon.com which took 4 months to reach us, no kidding. The frustrating thing is that they had actually been delivered to the country within a month of her order, but were held up due to customs duties issues (which we discovered much later). This was around the time that a new set of issuances were released (at least that’s what they told us) and the people on the field were quite confused as to what would actually be charged. That experience brought to light the vast improvements required on the logistical aspects of E-commerce activities. But still we were hopeful that it would improve in time.

Fast forward a few years and the operation of E-commerce is still bogged down by logistical concerns. Just the other day I read in Yes! magazine (uh, I visited my mom back in our old house and had nothing else to read) that brand name luxury goods, if they so happen to be unavailable in Rustan’s (or in Greenbelt) can be bought online, though you risk them getting stolen by unscrupulous cargo handlers (this was an article where Gretchen Barretto showcased the particular brands of shoes, clothes, accessories and make-up which make Tonyboy Cojuangco a bit poorer by the day). That would give new meaning to the term “traveling bag”. Considering that the imported goods which are worth buying online would surely be the ones which cost a bundle, buying online and having them shipped when such vulnerabilities still exist becomes less attractive (except maybe for fashion-minded and naughty-handed customs personnel). Very unfashionable.

Considering also that at best one can only see a video (usually just a picture, which maybe from a sample and not the particular stock your buying, or more commonly just words describing the item for sale) before buying something, even if indeed the thing arrives at the buyer’s doorstep (after escapes delay and more importantly, disaster (theft, that is)) another concern is genuineness: whether the “LV” you bought is THE LV. Then again, at least they’re offering stuff for sale and to be delivered to us. Apple’s iTunes has so far snubbed Asia (wont sell downloads outright). Now that’s one hitch.

YOUtube, MEtube

Hands down, one of the biggest buzzmakers of 2006 in the internet/web scene was the rise in popularity, and subsequent MEGABUCK acquisition, of YOUtube. It’s that site with all those videos one can view. But, as shown by the TIME magazine article, it’s much more than that. About $1.65 billion more.

That’s how much it took Google to acquire YOUtube. Why so much? One word: advertising. With so many people viewing the site (termed as “hits”), marketers speculate, products advertised in YOUtube would be very popular, or at least very familiar, with potential buyers. Ultimately, advertising in YOUtube is said to lead to more sales. The TIME magazine article even went as far as stating that there is hard evidence that YOUtube has already done this (at least with the CBS shows). Given that the potential for advertising earnings would run into several billions, some say that Google actually got a bargain in the YOUtube deal. But of course, others also say that’s rather being too optimistic. Right now, I’m with the others.

In the first place, despite all the hype about “web 2.0” and the supposed stepping up of amateur videobloggers to fill up the gaps and voids that the professional entertainment industry has neglected, YOUtube, for me and a good number of people, is a place where I can find TV shows and films unavailable in the local market, whether that be by free TV, cable or optical media. The videos of some funny guy, cute gal or gothic underground rock band? Those are just icing on the cake. But the videos done by the pros are still the cake. At $1.65 billion, I think that’s some pretty expensive icing.

The typical scenario is that a bored dude logs onto YOUtube, stumbles upon a quirky video, wonders and hopes that his friends haven’t seen it first, then mass refers it to all of his friends (with whom he’s playing an “I saw it first, I’m cool!” game). The truth is those dudes never really think of “YOU”, it’s actually “ME”. More so with those videobloggers. Thus YOUtube should have been MEtube. In any case, after the referrals, that video is forgotten. The dude then goes to watch episodes of his favorite soap or series, which in all likelihood was uploaded by someone other than the show’s copyrights holder. There comes the problem. Hello, “Napster”?

True, YOUtube has so far avoided the hassles of litigation and that Google has supposedly set up a legal defense fund in the hundreds of millions. A good number of articles and write-ups also paint a very rosy picture for YOUtube. But I think that’s part of the problem, the picture’s just too rosy. Kind of reminds me of the SEGWAY marketing propaganda. I bet Google also set up a marketing fund in the hundreds of millions.

I suppose the entertainment industry is still negotiating with Google to find a win-win situation. Until then, everyone in the know is just wait-wait.

Of Gadgets and Goons

Candy’s unfortunate incident (she got robbed, see her December 13, 2006 post) reminded me of my own unfortunate incident involving gadgets. Two years ago the place I was staying in got broken into and the scoundrels took off with my handycam – they didn’t even bother closing the door after them! Rascals! I hope they burn in hell!

(obviously I’m not as forgiving as Candy)

What really ticked me off was the fact that my handycam contained videos I took for a project for which I was really excited about (thankfully, since I’m such a good boy I didn’t have to worry about the scoundrels getting away with uh, more “risqué” videos of mine). I didn’t just lose hardware, I also lost my information, my intellectual property. As can be imagined, that really killed my enthusiasm. I only got enthusiastic about killing those goons.

Right after disgruntled ex-lovers, I suppose theft of cellphones and handycams (of rather exhibitionist individuals) leads to all those “scandals” that populate the net and which your friendly local pirate purveys. Must be horrific to be victimized in that way. Not only did they lose their hardware, they also lost information, and, uh, intellectual property.

I guess such unfortunate incidents show that all these “glittery” gadgets, which are supposed to make our lives better, attract a lot of goons, which of course makes our lives much worse. I’m speculating, but maybe whoever entered Candy’s dorm already knew she had an iPod beforehand. My place got broken into a few days after I got a 30 inch TV, and I guess that caught some rascal’s attention. I really wish they’d burn in hell!

Grrrrrr!!!

Anyways, I guess I’m still lucky because nobody got hurt when the robbery took place (I was out and my mom was supposed to visit me at around the time the robbery took place, good thing, I would say, that her visit didn’t push through). I mean, some people get knifed for their shiny cellphones, PDAs and of course iPods. That’s why some people think it’s a good idea to ditch the trademark classy white earphones which iPods come with. I think I’d change mine pretty soon – though primarily because the OEM replacements are rather overpriced.

True, it looks the part and sounds decent enough, but it tells all and sundry that you’ve got a shiny, expensive gadget on you, and that makes you a target. Some years ago a kid in the States got killed because he wouldn’t hand over his iPod (which was betrayed by the white earphones) – Steve Jobs e-mailed the kid’s mom telling her he’d be there for whatever she’d wanted. Too bad Stevie, with all his billions, couldn’t give her what she wanted most – her kid back.

Technology

Gadgets

Goons

All of it could be quite stressful.

FUZZYLOGICAL

December 4, 2006

"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident.
That’s where we come in; we’re computer professionals. We cause accidents."

--Nathaniel Borenstein

“The New Frontier”

Computerization and advancements in technology have brought about a dramatic shift in the way people live. With the advent of the internet, the gap between cultures has greatly narrowed down. People from opposite continents could exchange information in a split second. What took days before can now be done in a click of a button. Access to information has never been easier.

The practicality of using the internet cannot be contested. Going on-line creates opportunities unavailable to those not connected to the net. There is an increasing trend for companies in putting up web pages and providing their products and services on-line. The internet is the new frontier. Businesses, both large and small, are racing to exploit the possibilities that the net could bring.

With the increasing number of transactions conducted on-line, the need to police and regulate the internet seems to emerge. Various unscrupulous individuals have used the internet as their medium for committing their dastardly deeds. The range and variety of internet crimes is astounding. From child pornography, to cyber theft, to propagation of “virus strains”, to pilferage of ATM accounts… The list is endless. Just as the possibilities for individual and company growth are boundless, so are the possibilities for propagation of cyber crime limitless.

There is an increasing need for legislating laws penalizing cyber crimes. To date, not all cyber crimes are punishable due to lack of implementing laws. Legislating cyber laws and their subsequent enforcement should be given priority due to the increasing role of the internet in our society. The duty of policing the internet should not be left to a single country alone but should be a concerted effort by all States considering the importance of the internet to today’s global economy.