AssistantTechnology

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Hacking Horrors

I have recently read an article written by Mat Honan about the time he was hacked. Just thinking about what happened to him makes me shudder. He almost lost all of his data and only managed to save three quarters of it. In the article, Honan talks about how easy it is to actually change an iTunes account or reset it. To be honest, I find this a little scary. Just think about it: someone can access everything about you and all your personal information is at the tips of their fingertips. I agree with Honan in the fact that iTunes should “beef” up their security and make things safer. Honan almost lost pictures and videos of important things such as the birth of his daughter. If he wasn’t able to retrieve those pictures, it would have been horrible. Can you imagine?: “Hey daddy, can I have a baby picture for my class project?” “I’m sorry honey, we don’t have any baby pictures of you; only your brother.” That would be absolutely horrible. Thankfully, for me, my parents have warned me about giving personal information and I have been really good about it. If you search my name, username, email, or anything, you won’t find anything about me at all. My digital footprint is invisible. Most people can be found on the internet, especially with social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. I don’t ha

ve accounts to either of these so you can’t find me. Some people are not as good at doing this and I feel sorry for them. If I did have a Facebook or other social network account, I would make sure that my account would be as secure as possible. I wouldn’t

put anything revealing (of where I live, people I know, etc.) on there either. It is just basic smarts. Unfortunately, there can never be an electronic device that is entirely secure. There will always be someone willing and able to hack into accounts. The only real solution that I can think of to stop it would be to stop using technology all together, but we all know that that will never happen. I think that the best advice I could give about the prevention of hacking is to keep personal information to a minimum (preferably zero), always back-up files (even if you don’t hand out your information it is still possible to be hacked; it would just be luck), and use passwords that are hard to crack. 

For example, use four random common words as your password and it will be harder to crack than others as explained in XKCD’s Password Strength. If you play all your cards right, then you could escape the harsh realities of hacking and if you are one of the unlucky ones, then just see if you’ve followed my advice and if you have, my condolences, but if you haven’t, well then, good luck to you.

[assistanttechnology-blog]

STEM: Stupid or Superb

I have been in the STEM (Science

 Technology Engineering Mathematics) for roughly a year and a half now and I have realized that it is not all that it is cracked up to be. My school got a grant to be used in buying all of the STEM kids a laptop. It is nice to have a laptop, but as I have mentioned in previous posts, what is the point if we never get to use it? The laptop was only one of the things that they used to entice kids into joining STEM (although by now people have and probably will get out of the STEM program). Last year, they said that if we graduate high school with a STEM diploma, we will automatically be accepted into CU, which is a great school and would be nice to go to if there are no other options available. This year, however, there was a completely different story. They told us that now we don't actually have a guaranteed admission into CU and that is after we send in our applications. It is like we are not even in the STEM program because we get no privileges. There are also some good things to the STEM program. We get to learn about many different things involving science and technology which will help us better in the real world. We also get to create amazing things such as robots in the Robotics class. Otherwise, there are not many upsides, but I figure I've spent time in it and it will look good to say I've graduated high school with a STEM certificate.

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"Put Your Computer Away!"

That is what I constantly hear in my classes. My school got funding to give all the students in the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program Macbooks to use in the classroom. This is my second year with them and apparently the teachers changed some of their rules. Last year, I used my computer in almost every class and now I hardly ever even take it out of the bag. I guess I can kind of understand this because everyone last year was on Skype, Facebook, or playing a game while they should have been paying attention, b

ut still, is it necessary to effectively "outlaw" the computers. I asked around and a lot of people agree with me. My friend Emily said that she tried to take notes on her computer and the teacher made her put it away! I definitely say that I would much rather type up my notes than have to write them. Another one of my friends, Max, said that he hardly ever brings it anymore because there is no use for it. Of course there is some use, for there are a lot of games available, but when I see ten kids sitting together at lunch playing Minecraft and not even eating I wonder if it is right that we can't use them. I read this article about laptop bans on a college campus. Sure it is a little different, but it has the same basic principle and has mixed reactions. Maybe people pay better attention in class without the laptops, but if I have a laptop, I would like to use it and not have to lug it around for nothing.

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TED Talk: Troubling Technology Take-over

TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design and is a world organization. In the TED Talk videos they talk about technology, they talk about different aspects of technology. I have recently watched a video of Malte Spitz talking about how phone companies are watching people. He explained how he asked his phone company what information they have collected from his cellular device and received it. He showed all of the data and the data was where he has been and when he called someone and for how long. Basically, they

tracked him and knew where he was every moment of every day. I find this extremely disturbing. I have a smartphone and when I think that I am being tracked, I want to fling it away and never pick it up, but I do anyways. We have become dependent on technology and it has started to take over the world we live in. The people who control this data have a lot of power in their hands. If they become corrupt (like most government officials have been known to be) the consequences can be horrendous. They may construct a totalitarianism society that may control everyone with the one object that almost everyone has. On the other hand, it may not be all that bad. Using this technology and taking information of entire populations, they may actually help people. If they know what is going on and a crime is being planned, they can take measures to prevent it kind of like the show Persons of Interest, where they stop the crimes before they happen. It would be much better if say they were able to prevent the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Millions of lives would be saved. The pros and cons have to be weighed and it is my opinion that the cons outweigh the pros. I think it would be nice for crimes to be stopped, but also feel that I would have less freedom when tracked. I think that the system should be optional so that people who feel that it would be better to be "in the loop" or so to speak can be while more cynically-minded people, like myself, would choose to decline.

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A screen cast on how to solve Submachine 0 by Mateusz Skutnik.

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Mateusz Skutnik's Submachine Series

Mateusz Skutnik is a brilliant game designer and animator. One of his best games (in my opinion) is Submachine. Submachine is a series of point-and-click puzzle games in which the player is brought throughout the world of the Submachine. It does not actually have anything to do with Submachine guns, so if you are looking for that kind of game, you

are looking in the wrong place. There are Submachine games 0-7, Submachine FLF (Future Loop Foundation) and Submachine: 32 Chambers. Last week, Skutnik finished and released Submachine 8, much to the pleasure of the players. The game answers some questions that have been asked during the course of playing, but also introduced others that may never be answered. We know that Skutnik plans on having at least two more installments of the game with Submachine 9 coming up in 2013. I plan on making some screen cast walkthroughs of each game so stay tuned. 

[assistanttechnology-blog]

Annotate This!

I have recently learned about all of the new features available in the Snow Leopard operating system. An operating system is the software that allows all of the cool features being used on a computer to be used and supported. Snow Leopard is the new operating system on Macs/Macbooks. The annotation feature that is available in Preview is one of these new features. Since I never new about the annotation feature, I figured that hardly anyone else knew about it either so I decided to create a screencast and a presentation to inform people about it. You can view the presentation by clicking on the link above or below and view the screncast below. The annotation feature allows for revision/editing before printing. You can save it after editing if you wish to. It is useful because you can catch things you didn't catch before and circle, highlight, underline, and comment on it. It can also be used with pictures in Preview, not just PDFs. It is just an efficient way to make sure that your paper/picture is the best that it could be. I suggest looking at all of the other tips and tricks because it may allow you to finish things quicker. If it allows you to finish a school assignment faster, then why not? I would do it just to get back to playing videogames. 

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A short screencast on how to use the annotation feature in Preview.

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The Totalitarianism of Technology

I've decided to name the title of this blog what it is because technology is completely overunning our schools (I also prefer to have titles with alliteration). That may not be a bad thing. As a student in the school, I feel as though technology is a big part of the education system, but their are many pros and cons of it. I think that having technology in the classroom benfits the students learning because it may be easier to display something on the projecter that it would be hard to on a white board. At my school, there are two types of teachers. The ones who use technology and the ones who don't. Some teachers don't want to take the time to learn how to use the technology. Another problem is when the technology breaks or malfunctions and the class just sits there watching the teacher frantically trying to fix it. That doesn't happen a lot and usually, technology helps. In one of my classes, the teacher puts a worksheet under the document camera that connects to the projecter, which projects the paper onto the whiteboard. This allows us to effectively "write" on it while we are not wasting paper. Doing things like this is actually fun, and I feel that the information sticks better than just reading out of a textbook. Although our technology is good, it could be improved. I know that every student in the STEM(Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program gets a macbook for their highschool career. I think it is great that we get to use laptops to take notes and do homework, but a lot of the time, the computer is used for games or social networks like Facebook or Tumblr. When I sit in the back of the classroom, I look at all of the laptops and see a lot of Facebook pages open. The students should be taking notes but they are messing around on Facebook. I also see a lot of games being played. I find it amusing when these kids wonder why they got such a bad grade at the end of the semester. Otherwise, I feel that technology has more benefits, because it allows more learning and entertainment, so on breaks or after homework is finished, you can stay connected with people. If I could make the perfect classroom, I would have laptops already supplied in it, with state-of-the-art projecter and document camera. I would have all irrelevant websites banned and make them inaccessible to students while in the classroom. I would also interchange between using different pieces of the technology so that no one gets bored. I would keep their attention with videos and animations and projects that are cool, but also get them thinking while learning the material needed. Since I can't make a classroom, I think it would be better if there would be meetings every once in a while where the teachers would ask the students what they could do to better educate them. Nobody knows more about how they want to be educated then themselves! In conclusion, I would have to say that overall, technology, although it has completely taken over, is not bad and can be put to good use. Sometimes it can be a hindrince, but that can be looked past. Hopefully the teachers read this and take my advice of asking the students how they want to learn because that would give the best results. One more thing, don't forget to remember: Students+Technology=America's Future!   

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Connor's Connection to Console Commands

I don't know how many of you out there actually play Potal 2, but if you do, and you have beaten the game, you should definitely try the console commands. The console is accessible on the options page of the main screen. There is a button that turns it on and off. When it is on, just press the "~" key and you will be able to access the console. Once there you can type many things in to spawn different objects such as cubes, gels, and turrets. There is also a command that allows you to shoot rockets (which is especially fun in co-op). For more information about the commands click Here. Have fun with your new-found freedom!

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The Blogger's Beginning

As some of you may know, I have only had one previous blog, and I have never really blogged before, so this is one of my first times. Before going into my blogging, though, I would like to discuss some other blogs that I find interesting. One really good blog that I find interesting is Spencer Tweedy's blog. Spencer is a young man who likes to blog about his life. I like it because he just says what is on his mind at the moment and there is no specific genre to his blogs. He just wants to let the world know about him. His blogs are formulated in such a way that will allow comprehension to people without his writing being overwhelming. He also ventures into some deep stuff, such as his view on technology. One thing that makes me happy is how he writes. He doesn't use any "text talk" items and he uses all punctuation and capitalization. Even his grammar is impeccable which I should know: when it comes down to the English language, I can be a stickler. His use of pictures and hyperlinks really compliments his work. I especially like his many pictures of cotton candy and the display of happiness that it brought the children. The pictures are also quality photos that, like the Israel pictures, really bring the images of what he was seeing to your mind. One of my favorite pictures is that of him falconeering. I just have to say that I would love to do that and he should count himself lucky just to have that experience. On the picture, he wrote a few short sentances that include a lot of hyperlinks that connect to things that say who he is. Instead of writing it all out there, he used the links to force people to find out about him. Of what I've read about him, I have to say that I think he is a cool person. Now, though, you can't have blogs without comments! Comments are good because then you can find out what people feel about what you are blogging and get a better sense of connection with the people of the internet. An example of this is the comment to his post about the t-shirt company that he and his friend made. The post gives some suggestions about the shirts. Using the information gained from these posts, Spencer Tweedy can figure out how to get people to want to buy his shirt. A blog that I just found today that I think is amazing is an Ask GLaDOS blog. If you read my last blog, you may know that I have already mentioned GLaDOS. Portal 2 is one of my favorite games of all time and this blog managed to create sound clips of GLaDOS answering questions asked by other bloggers. It is positively ingenious. The person(s) in charge have also made a song using different Cave Johnson, GLaDOS, and Wheatley quotes which I found very entertaining. I would love to know how the GLaDOS voice was made. The person(s) is(are) also working on another song that will be a parady and I can't wait until it comes out. The only thing that would make it better would be a link to the Ask Wheatley site of which there are many exchanges between the to. I would also have liked some links to other Portal 2 blogs/websites, but I guess you can't have everything. I like blogs like this; ones that are directed to only people who have read a book or played a videogame because there a fewer people who get it. There were also some very good pictures that showed GLaDOS as a human which I really liked, especially because there were links to the people who were the original artists. Well, that is all for now. Wow, I wrote a lot. I didn't realize I was writing so much, sometimes I just ramble on and on and on and on and on and on... Oh, there I go again. Okay, well good-bye until next time.

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About Me

My name is Connor. I have recently started an Assistant Tech class where I help people with technology. I have to make sure computers are working, and when there is a problem with some technology in the school, I may help to fix it. I have not taken many technology courses, but I am good with it, and if I am forced to, I can always figure out how to fix something I do not know how to fix. I have not taken any programming courses either, but I would like to; I just have not had the time in my schedule to take one. I love to play videogames (mostly on the computer) and I love to read. One of my favorite vidogames is Portal 2. The controller of the facility in the game is named GLaDOS which stands for Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System. There is a picture of her below. My favorite book series is The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. He is an amazing author and in the series, he basically threw every single mythology together into one glorious story.