Wikileaks

The Wikileaks fiasco has become one of the most popular stories in the world lately. Over the last month, the site Wikileaks.org has been publishing hundreds of thousands of confidential government documents. This is the largest set of confidential government documents ever to be released to the public. Perhaps one of the biggest issues I have with this is the fact that reports are indicating that people, in particularly soldiers, are dying due to the leaked information. That makes this an issue that must be addressed. I think the issue isn't the leaked information itself, but the policies that have been put in place that allow people to have this confidential information. Information of this level of secrecy should be shared between as few people as possible. In the event that someone in this inner circle is fired or gets pissed off for some reason or another, they should probably be monitored, to make sure something like this doesn't happen. In my opinion, this is the government's fault. One person who is not to blame is Julian Assange. Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. He is being sought for rape and assault charges which he may or may not be guilty of. Many people in the media believe that the charges are fraudulent and are just being targeted at Assange because of his involvement with Wikileaks.

college - a place for lazy people

This has proven to be an enlightening semester. I've had several technology related classes in which I was far more knowledgeable than the rest of the class. Throughout these classes I had multiple people come ask me to help them with projects, homework, and other assignments. While I don't usually mind helping people, it became increasingly annoying as I realized most of these people are just lazy. It's not that everyone in my classes is too stupid to learn how to work with technology, it's that they haven't ever had to actually sit down and learn how to use a new technology. I think if we could find a way to force students to learn that real IT implementation consists of actually having to sit down and figure out how to use something you've probably never used or seen before, we might make great strides towards becoming a top 20 University. Friends I have who've graduated that seem to have this same problem are finding it very difficult to get jobs or promotions. It would look much better for Clemson to be graduating students who are going to be able to actually go out into the workforce and be productive. Very few students get immediate jobs in management. Typically you have to actually learn how to do something first before you get to manage other people who do that particular job.

Facebook slowing down

When Facebook became available to the public it quickly became one of the most popular sites in the world. In a matter of just a few years, Facebook went from being a small site being run out of a dorm, to a website that takes an entire data center to run. Since then, Facebook has steadily gained members at rates that most people never thought possible. Now that most people in the world have or will soon create Facebook accounts, we will soon reach a point at which the number of total Facebook accounts will actually decline. A lot of students (the original Facebook users) are beginning to realize all the risks of Facebook. With everyone you know having Facebook accounts, you are more vulnerable to having information you consider private being exposed to people you don't want to see it. The more people realize this, the more you will see people deactivating their Facebook accounts. Students especially will realize that by allowing anyone to post things on their Facebook accounts, then allowing their employers to see those accounts, they are putting their self into a very risky situation. This in my opinion will be the reason why many people (including myself) will be deleting or deactivating their Facebook accounts.

web 2.0 technologies- google docs

We began talking about web 2.0 technologies in class this past week. Web 2.0 has quickly revolutionized the internet. While the internet (as the general public knows it) was widely an informational tool at it's creation, it has now become an interactive resource that many people and companies depend on daily. One of the most popular examples of Web 2.0 technologies is the google docs suite. This has quickly become leader in both consumer and enterprise office products. Many companies including Clemson University have implemented Google Docs within their IT environment. One of the key positives about google docs is that for the most part it is completely free. To consumers it is completely free. It's also free to businesses, however some businesses prefer to host their own google server which allows for faster indexing within their organization. Not to get off on a side note, but it's interesting to point out that google doesn't actually make their servers, they buy dell servers, paint them yellow, and put a big google emblem on them. Google also makes it easier for people to ensure they keep up with their files. Google takes care of this by storing all of your files in the "cloud." This is basically just a fancy way of saying they host your stuff on their servers. This office suite has taken a huge chunk out of the microsoft office market share over the last few years and is a perfect example of how web 2.0 technologies have become a way of life for most people.

Evolution of Networks

As I'm sitting here reviewing basic network vocabulary for Jason's test this afternoon, I'm realizing how much networks have evolved over the last 10 years (the amount of time I've been working with IT). The first computer I took apart had a 10 megabit ethernet card and was running through a 56k dialup modem. Residential networking was basically non-existent and even high-performance computing had barely dreamed of gigabit speeds. Now I'm sitting here typing on a computer that is running on a complete gigabit network. Our High-performance computer clusters are using 10 gigabit ethernet cards and fiber optic networks that can potentially get even faster. It's amazing what 10 years of evolution has given us in the world of IT. I can't imagine what we'll have in the next 10 years.

Ipad worthless?

I purchased an Ipad shortly after they were released. I spent $500 on the new Steve Jobs wonder toy. I didn't see a need for the 3g version since I already have an iphone, and I saw no point in paying for more storage since most of the time I have a laptop with me as well. When I first bought the Ipad, I used it every day. Since then, I've used it less and less. I realized today that it hasn't even come out of my bookbag in 2 to 3 weeks. It seems that what I thought would be a very useful tool has turned into a somewhat worthless toy. Anyone want to buy an Ipad?

Blog for MGT455

The blog is very pointless. The only purpose of this blog is for Jason to torture us by forcing us to update something every week.