I like Disney

What more would you like to learn?

2007-03-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have learned a lot of useful things in this class. What I learned this class enable me to make my blog, Power Point presentation, and my home page. Therefore, I am satisfied with this class. But if I have to find what I would like to learn, I can tell you about following two things: Microsoft Excel and Webpage.

First, I would like to learn more about Microsoft Excel because I have not used Excel before, and probably whole contents of Excel cannot be covered in this class. Also, it seems difficult to use Excel because there are a lot of tables to fill in. I do not have confidence on understanding the system perfectly. In addition, I often see help-wanted ad on a newspaper and notice companies seek person who can at least use Microsoft Word and Excel. Therefore, if I can use both of them, it is easier for me to find a job in the future.

Secondly, I would like to learn more about making web pages because we have just been taught the basis of it. If I can learn more advanced knowledge of webpage, I will be able to make more sophisticated webpage and can share it with a lot of people. Also, I will tell what I am interested in more efficiently through the Internet if I can understand the detailed system of webpage.

From these reasons, I would like to learn more about Excel and Web pages.
Through this class, I gained a little confidence on using computers and got over my computer phobia. I appreciate Mr. Poza giving a wonderful class this semester!!

What is Viral Video ?

2007-03-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

Viral video is video clip content that is distributed among people through the Internet, webs, blogs, and so on. Contents of viral videos vary from comical animated cartoons to unique videos created by amateurs. At first, viral videos have been shared among friends and co-workers just for pleasure, but owing to the prevalence of camera phones, many amateurs can edit video shots on mobile phone easily and distribute them to indefinite people through the Internet.
Today, viral video that has been created mainly for personal hobby spread its field into market uses. Many companies take advantage of distributing viral videos to many people around the world and use viral videos as a commercial tool. For example, Kodak, Trojan and Ford which began to embark on this distributing business initially are extending their business to the creation of viral video. You Tube is the most famous and popular free video sharing websites. You Tube make contracts with people and pay money to them if their viral videos can make a hit among people. As a result, some distributors who published fascinating viral videos have a high popularity among the viewers and are called “Internet Celebrities.” One of them is 79 year-old English man. He had published his viral videos on the You Tube web sites, and just a week later, unexpectedly he became famous and popular among people who watch his videos on the Internet.
In addition, You Tube use viral videos to promote music bands and to send commercial message for music campaigns.

This is my favorite viral video titled Happy, Happy, Hamster! It is funny and commical. The hamster is very cute.

Computer gifts you would buy for friends and family

2007-03-10T06:38:00.000-08:00

Computer gifts are getting popular among not only young people but also elderly people today. If I had a lot of money, I would buy computer gifts for my sister and mother.

I would buy a 8GB iPod nano for my sister who is a university student. It is because she likes to listen to music and has a lot of CDs. She also belongs to a brass band club, so she often listens to the music that her brass band'club chose for an image-building. It takes 2 hours to commute from her apartment to her university, so she always listens to music on a train. However, she only has a CD player, which indicates she always has to carry CDs in her heavy bag. Therefore, I would like to buy a 8GB iPod nano for my sister so that she can listen to music without CDs. Also, a CD player is kind of out of date now, so I would like to give a stylish iPod for my sister’s birthday present.
In addition, I would like to buy a Mac desktop computer for my mother. My mother’s computer has broken now because of Viruses. She was Shocked because her all data were gone. She used a windows computer and she paid 5000 yen for anti-virus service before. I leaned that the Mac has excellent security system against viruses, so there are very low possibilities for the Mac to be attacked by viruses. In addition to that, my mother likes to take photos and share the pictures that she took with her family and friends. I’ve heard that we can arrange photos and making an original album using i Photo on the Mac. Therefore, if I had a lot of money, I would buy a Mac computer for my mother.

What is Net Neutrality?

2007-03-04T06:38:00.000-08:00

Net neutrality is also called network neutrality. In general, it is defined as a network design principle. It means that people can access to network equally, and the principle prohibits providers from offering discriminatory the Internet provision. For example, the Internet Service Providers cannot provide service plans known as tiered service whose price is different according to the user’s choice of quality of service levels. The term “Network Neutrality” was imported from Europe to the U.S. around 2003 when the FCC started defining the residential DSL as an Information Service.
Net neutrality is also a current controversial issue. Proponents agree the principle, saying that the Internet is communication media that is important for societies, and the information service should be accessed equally under special treatment of the law. On the contrary, other critics say that net neutrality would prevent the providers from offering high quality of service.

Recent Computer News

2007-02-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

I found recent three computer news.
The headline of the first one is “Computer Surveillance- What Does it Offer?”
This news tells us that computer surveillance is used to check employees’ e-mails, internet-use, phone calls, and computer-use in 77.7 percent of major U.S. companies. One of the reasons is that Companies’ employers are concerning about following two things. The first one is that many employees use their companies’ computers for private use in their working hours. The second one is that companies attempt to prevent employees from using companies’ computer to commit fraud crimes and using the system to send sexual materials, which causes the companies to get in a lawsuit trouble. Companies can easily install computer monitoring software, which is needed to use computer surveillance. The computer surveillance enables the companies to see not only users’ e-mail accounts and password but also the contents of emails and web-pages that users saw.
The headline of the second one is “Domestic Violence Victims Keep Track of Offenders with Computer Monitoring.”
This news tells us that more than 40 states of the U.S. have the computer system called “VINE” ( Victim information and notification everyday). The system tracks offenders by monitoring computerized booking systems and protects victims by giving information of offenders. For example, when an offender’s status in custody is changed, the victim are notified it within 15 minutes. In addition, not only victims but also offenders’ family members, the news media, and victim advocacy group can use VINE.

The headline of the third one is that “150 USD for Each Notebook from One Laptop per Child Project”
In the U.S., the project “One Laptop per Child” is making progress now. The U.S. will deliver almost 2500 laptop computers as test drive to state educators in Brazil, Libya, Pakistan, Rwanda, Thailand, and Uruguay. One laptop is US $150. Only 2 watts of power is needed to use the laptop all day. The display is switched to black and white for sunlight viewing. The laptop uses the flash-based memory, and USB port is dependent. The ultimate goal of the project is that 150 million laptops will be delivered to children of developing countries.

Introduce 3 good web sites

2007-02-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

I know a lot of good web sites because I enjoy surfing the Internet in my free time. Among the web sites, I choose three good web sites.

Firstly, Wikipedia is one of my favorite web sites. Wikipedia is kind of a free encyclopedia. If I do not know the meanings of words, I can look up the words using the Wikipedia. I just type the word that I want to search, and then the web page shows the meaning of the word. I can get not only the meaning of the word, but also a lot of useful information of the words such as historical backgrounds. For example, if I search the word “bees” on the web page, the web page will show bees’ body structures, common habits, and various roles of bees in their communities in addition to a basic definition of bees. However, the information on Wilipedia does not have 100 percent creditability because it is not made by professional people, but if you keep this in mind, you can enjoy the web page. Link Page → http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Secondly, Japan National Tourist Organization Web site is also a useful website especially for foreigners who visit to Japan. It is because the web site has a lot of sections such as “Find a Location,” “Arrange Your Travel,” “Japan in Depth,” and “Festival and Events”. Therefore, we can get information that we need to know when we travel to Japan. In the section of Arrange Your Travel, we get information about Japanese money, Guide service, Customs, and so on. In the section of Japan in Depth, we can learn Japanese history. Among these sections, the most fantastic one is “Find a Location”. When we click"Browse the Map of Japan" in this section, it leads us to Japanese map. When we move the cursor over a name of place such as Kyoto, we can see a close-up map of Kyoto and see more detailed information of Kyoto. And then we move the cursor over the name of temple we want to visit, we can see a few explanations about the temple with a small picture. When we want to know more about the temple, we click on “Detailed Page” which is connected to the link page. We can get whole information about the temple in the link page. From these points, the web site is very useful and recommendable to see.
Link Page→http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/index.html

Thirdly, Disney Home Page is a fascinating web-page. We can enjoy sound effect as soon as we open the web page. Everytime we click the mouse to choose something, we can hear pretty sound. Also, the homepage entertains us visually. For example, we can see a lot of fantastic pictures and animated characters. Movie previews give movie information effectively. In addition to that, it has link pages of all Disney Lands around the world. We can enjoy playing small games, get information of Disney shops and see all of Disney characters in this web page.

The web page draws us into the fantastic world!

Link Page → http://home.disney.go.com/index

What is "Social Engineering"?

2007-02-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is illegal techniques to obtain personal information or companies’ confidential information by tricking people. Using the information, social engineers attack the people and companies’ computer networks, disturb the computer system, and steal the companies’ important information. Social Engineers use various ways to get personal and companies’ information. Among them, pretexting and phishing are the most prevalent ways to deceive people into releasing their information.

Pretexting
Social engineers draw personal and confidential information from the people and companies by phone. Social Engineers often call a target and pretend to be the person’s co-workers, police officers and bankers and ask the target to say their personal information. Also, they often pretend to be private investigators and ask companies to release customers’ information, and then, they steal the customers’ telephone records, utility records, banking records and so on.

Phishing
Phising is done by social engineers through e-mails. Social engineers send fraudulent e-mails that look like legitimate emails from reliable companies such as banks and credit companies. The e-mails ask the targets to send their personal information to verify it. The targets who take the e-mail on trust send back the e-mails with their personal information. In addition to that, in the e-mails, there is a link to a web page. The web page often has famous companies’ logo and information to make it look like a reliable web page. Also, it has a request form that asks personal information; therefore, the targets fill out the request form and send it without noticing that they are deceived.

Besides the pretexing and phishing, there are various ways to obtain personal information illegally. Therefore, we should keep in mind that social engineers aim at our personal information using clever tricks, and we should have responsibility for our information.

Links http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/social_engineering.html

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

What do I know about the Mac?

2007-02-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

The Mac
I don’t know about the Mac very much, but I learned the advantage and disadvantage of using the Mac in the last class. Among the knowledge about the Mac that I learned in the class, I will tell three good points of using the Mac.

Firstly, there are very low possibilities for the Mac to be attacked by viruses. While the Windows computers are always exposed to the risks of catching 60,000 computer viruses, it is unlikely for the Mac to be attacked by viruses. It is because the Mac has excellent security system against viruses. In addition to that, only the small number of people uses the Mac, so it is unlikely for the Mac to be a target of the hackers.

Secondly, the Mac is versatile and easy to use. We can use the windows on the Mac. For example, we can use Vista or Windows XP application on the intel-powered Mac. In addition to that, the Mac develops stylish graphic interface, so it is easy for beginners to use it and understand the function because what they see is what they get.

Thirdly, Mac has satisfactory customer service. We can receive worldwide user support from the Apple. It is difficult for the users of the Mac to get support from friends and exchange information with other users because there are not so many people who use the Mac. However, users of Mac can receive reliable customer service and get it fixed with a warranty.

If you want to know about the Mac more, I recommend you to see http://www.apple.com/getamac/

What do I want to learn about computers?

2007-01-28T06:20:00.000-08:00

What do I want to learn about computers?
-I want to learn Power Point and how to make my web pages!

Hello!! It is the first time to write my blog! I don’t know computer very much because I hadn’t been taught how to use computers before I took this class; therefore, in this class, I would like to learn a lot about computers so that I can have confidence in using computers and use them in my daily life.

First of all, I would like to learn how to use Power Point. I ever have given presentations using a Power Point two or three times in classes, but I could just paste some photos on the slide of Power Point and add a few words to the photos. For these reasons, I would like to learn the details of Power Point such as animation and sound so that I can give a presentation efficiently and have confidence in giving presentations in front of many people.

Secondly, I’m looking forward to learning how to make my own web pages because I would like to broaden my knowledge about computers and use computers for pleasure. Before I take this computer class, I used my computer to write term papers, send e-mails, and do a search on the internet. If I can make my own web pages, I will have more confidence in using a computer, and I will feel like that I can connect to people in the world because I can express what I want to say or what I am interested in on my web pages.