Fluency Milestone 11: The Turing Test

While I read chapter 23 in Snyder, I didn't achieve my "aha!" moment of the week until the FLAG presentation on Thursday. After re-reading the section on The Turing Test, the concept of whether or not computers could think became somewhat clearer to me. The book's description of the Turing Test made me realize that we are the "judge" when we use a website like turinghub.com. At first, I found it hilarious to ask the computer (or human) stupid questions like "Do you think you're sexy?" After the 14 year old in me got a kick out of the answers I received, I finally decided to take the test again, and attempt to actually judge whether I was talking to a computer or a human being on the other end. Using turinghub.com to perform the Turing Test, I realized that starting out with a simple statement like "Hey there buddy" could help me make this decision rather quickly. Whether or not this works for everyone, it works for me! The answer I received twice in a row by first stating, "Hey there buddy" was "You have my full attention. 'There you go again -- Reagan'" which led me to believe that this was a robot automatically responding to "Hey there buddy." Then again, maybe it's a human who responds to all initial messages that way, it's up to us, the "judge" to make that call!

If we are deceived by the turinghub.com test, it is then said that the computer is intelligent, according to Snyder. Ever since the FLAG presentation on Thursday, I have found myself lured into taking the Turing Test over and over again, as it is highly stimulating. It challenges us to decide whether or not computers are intelligent; if they answer our witty question in a witty way, does that mean we are speaking to a witty human, or perhaps an intelligent, yet witty robot?

Digital Governance Nugget 11: Zune was a bad choice.

As the holiday season is quickly approaching, the electronics world is busy launching new products in hopes to make a significant profit during this year's season of shopping. Microsoft's response to the ever so popular Apple iPod, Zune, is one of the latest products to be released to the public, hoping to be come the hit "toy" this season. However, it seems like Zune is going to end up being a dud, and Apple will not have to worry about a loss in sales this year.

I was reading a blog posted on InfoWorld.com discussing Zune. Paul Roberts, the writer of the blog, made an inference to Zune becoming the next BOB for the gadget world. For those of us who may not remember BOB, Roberts informs us that in the mid 1990s, BOB was a "disastrous effort to change the whole desktop GUI metaphor to something more cute and family friendly...Bob didn't go over so well and the project, plus its "shoot me in the forehead, please" smiley face logo have become synonymous for ambitious Redmond projects that flopped."

After reading this man's blog, as well as some of the comments left by other readers, most of whom regret purchasing Zune, I couldn't help but think that this product really was a dud produced by Microsoft. Being that we discusssed the topic of PC vs. Mac on Thursday, this blog by Paul Roberts is quite relevant and for the first time this semester I am blogging about a blog!

iPods are hip and trendy, they come in many colors and sizes. You can buy a nano which fits 500 songs or you can buy a nano which fits 1,000 songs. This nano can be green, pink, black, white or blue. You can buy a regular iPod with different storage sizes and I believe these come in either black or white. According to the blog, Zune is only available in Brown, Black and White and its slightly larger size (compared to the regular iPod) makes it hard to fit in a pant's pocket. While all electronic products run into some technical problems, including iPods, recent Zune buyers have already complained a lot about the problems with their recent purchase. Going back to the blog, one of the biggest problems/mistakes made by Microsoft is that "Zune players do not work with the Vista Operating System, Microsoft's next version of Windows, which is due out to consumers in January. So far, Microsoft is just saying 'check back for updates' on Vista-Zune compatibility. The lack of a clear upgrade path for an OS that's already out the door is just NUTS."

And it is NUTS. Yeah, I'm biased. I have a Mac and a green iPod mini (which I still cherish even though it's 2 years old and considered outdated compared to the nano) AND I LOVE THEM BOTH! However, before I crossed the bridge to the "other side" 2 years ago, I purchased a Sony MP3 player and faced numerous problems which led me throw that pathetic waste of money to the back of my closet to gather dust. I plug my iPod mini into my computer and it automatically updates it in seconds. No need to download additional software, convert file formats or anything. iTunes and iPod just seemed so easy to manage.

It will be interesting how Zune's sale are this "Black Friday," as well as throughout the holiday season. Hopefully, InfoWorld Tech Watch will provide me with updates, even if it is via Paul Roberts' blog!

Fluency Milestone 10: Strategies for Building a Database

I'm sure I'm not the first in the class to admit that I don't know a lot about databases. Learning about them can be overwhelming at times, however, Snyder offers strategies that can help you build a database on the design for the HAI! Adventure database which can be applied to database design in general. Thus, my "aha!" moment came while reading chapter 16, and I found the first step of the strategies to be very important as well as making the most sense to me.

The first step in the general pattern when constructing a database is performing a needs analysis. Before typing in information and data, Snyder states that it is important to "list the kinds of data the users will input into the database as well as the kinds of information the database will output to the users." Say I was working for a mayoral candidate's campaign (which is going to be happening soon here in Pittsburgh!). My job was to create a database which would include supporter's mailing addresses, telephone numbers, as well as the district they lived in within the city. First I would list the kinds of data that would be entered into the database: Names, Addresses, Zip Code (numerical), Telephone Number (numerical), and district (numerical). I would then make sure that I note what kind of output I would want to see as well. Horizontally, I would like to see: District, First Name, Last Name, Address, Zip Code, Telephone Number. By performing this needs analysis, according to Snyder, I would be able to understand the goals of the database design.

Digital Governance Nugget 10: E-polling problems in 2006 election, surprised?

As the 2006 election has come and gone, we can now reflect on the use of the e-polling machines nationwide. Computerworld.com wrote an article describing the various problems these new e-voting machines caused across the United States on November 7. It seems as though many polling places throughout the country had to stay open later due to the fact that there was a polling machine problem earlier in the day.

According to a story reported by Aaron Saykin of WTAE - Channel 4, "Common Cause, a nonpartisan election watchdog group, said it received more complaints from voters in Pennsylvania than any other state -- and it ranked Allegheny County the sixth most problematic county in the nation for Tuesday's election, with many of the complaints claiming poll workers were not familiar enough with the new electronic voting machines."

It makes sense. Allegheny County has the 2nd highest elderly population next to, I believe, Dade County, Florida. The elderly population tend to be the ones who work at the polls, atleast here in Western Pennsylvania; and how tech savvy are 75 year old ladies? 98% of them probably have never touched a computer before, so it isn't a surprise that many of the complaints claimed that poll workers were not familiar enough with the new machines.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato fired back at Common Cause, stating that the electronic voting process was a success despite the fact that there were a few errors in the morning hours of the election on Tuesday. "It went relatively smooth and compared to the lever machines, it wasn't a big problem," said Onorato. "Common Cause didn't tell you that yesterday in the press conference."
"There was some human error at the beginning of the day. There was some technical, turning-them-on issues," Onorato said. "But overall, it worked -- and it worked very well. In comparing to the old machines, it was much better of a day."

Perhaps there should be a younger generation helping these elderly volunteers work the polls. Afterall, how are these elderly who have been used to the lever machines for the past 30-40 (maybe even longer) years expected to know how to run an electronic machine when they've never even touched a computer before? It will take some time to get used to the new process, but indeed the transition was necessary for our region, and our nation, to use 21st century technology. Maybe some younger folks can help out at the next election to try to make this transition a little smoother each time, we shall see.

On a side note - does anyone miss voting behind the curtain and pulling the lever as much as I do? : )

Fluency Milestone 9: Don't Even THINK About Redundancy!

While I don't know much about databases, if there is anything that I learned from reading Chapter 15 in Snyder, it is that redundancy, or duplication, in databases is "very, very, very" bad. Thus I had my "a ha!" moment of the week - duplication IS really bad for many reasons. If you have someone's address in one database, and then they move so you have their newer address in another database (or even the same one), how do you tell which entry to use if you need to send a mailing out? Oh no! Your inconsistent data then becomes what Snyder calls "garbage" and this is actually worse than having no data at all.

In my future at a non-profit organization somewhere, I expect to be working with databases a lot - perhaps involving volunteers or board members, maybe even a mailing list of those interested in more information about our organization. As difficult it as it may be at times, Snyder has taught me that I will need to make the time and effort to go through my databases and check for inconsistencies. If it has something to deal with two different addresses or two different phone numbers, I will then have to search a recent phonebook or online resource for the most current information. Then my database can be the most up-to-date, accurate master database available at the organization and I will be one amazing employee! : )

Digital Governance Nugget 9: Republicans Outnumber Democrats Online

In an article posted by govtech.net on November 3, Nielsen/Netratings showed that Republicans outnumber the amount of Democrats who are online accessing the Internet. The findings showed that 36% of U.S. Adults online are Republican and 30.6% are Democrat. This recent finding doesn't seem to surprise me that much, as Republicans tend to be from the more wealthy side of the economic spectrum. However, what does surprise me is that I haven't found many political ads jumping out at me on the Internet. With the election coming up on Tuesday, you would think that Republicans (and Democrats) would be heavily advertising their campaigns on popular websites. I can safely say that I haven't been targeted by any political ads while surfing the Internet (unless I went to a candidate's campaign website, obviously). Television, well that's a totally different story.

What is also interesting about this article is that the top three sights accessed by U.S. adults who are Democrats were BlackAmericaWeb.com, AOL BlackVoices and BET.com. I am wondering who exactly Nielsen/Netratings polled for this survey, it seems to me that a majority of those U.S. adults who were polled were African American. I was surprised that CNN.com (accused of left-wing political associations) as well as the New York Times websites weren't among the top three. The Salt Lake Tribune, a news paper from the predominately conservative Salt Lake City ranked in the top 5 among websites visited by Republicans. Thus it is surprising that a more liberal publication didn't make the top 5 for Democrats. This article makes me want to know the details of the study: How many were in the sample? How were these people selected? Where were they selected from? One city? One state? Several states? While the article continues on to state that the New York Times is a favorite online newspaper of choice among Democrats, I am surprised it is not a top website accessed by Democrats.

This article is an example of how details of polls like this one should be given along side of the statistics. It makes it seem like all Democrats are African Americans when indeed there is more diversity among the political party. Perhaps the article could have been more in depth in regards to what Democrats and Republicans search for on the Internet, or if they use the Internet to connect to others in their party. While the most frequented websites accessed by Democrats were a surprise to me, I was not surprised to find that Republicans outnumber the amount of U.S. adult Democrats online.

Fluency Milestone 8: Operations on Tables

While there are several operations that one could perform when working with databases, in Chapter 14 of Snyder I found the "union" operation very useful. I work at a non-profit organization in Oakland and although I don't use databases all the time, I found that the union operation would be a great way for me to create a new volunteer database sometime in the near future. According to Snyder, the union operation combines two tables if they have the same attributes.

At my organization we have several volunteer databases. These databases include volunteer name, email addresses and the date they volunteered. At each event that we organize, we make the volunteers sign in with their names and email addresses. Thus there is a database for each event. If I wanted to make one large master database of all the volunteers we've had for the past two months (September and October), I would be able to use the union operation to combine the various databases for anything between 09/01/2006 and 10/31/2006.

The operation might look something like this:

Master = September + October

I would then be able to send a mass email out to our most recent volunteers to encourage them to return next month for more exciting volunteer opportunities!

Digital Governance 8: "DVD Jon" Strikes Again!

In an interesting article written by May Wong at the Associated Press, computer hacker Jon Lech Johansen, also known as "DVD Jon," has claimed to have find a way around iPod and iTunes restrictions. These restrictions were put in place by Apple so that any music purchased from iTunes (which is a LEGAL way to download music) will only be able to be played on iPods, not on other mp3 players.

Famous for creating software that unlocked the CSS (Content Scrambling System) which protected DVDs from being copied illegally Johansen has an incredible talent, and he somehow finds the ability to get away with his illegal behavior. While he was charged in Norway for "data break-in" after the film industry complained, he was later acquitted. If indeed his iTunes hacking software becomes a widespread success, and Johansen sells the license of his software to others, will Apple let him get away with it? Will any charges pitted against him eventually be acquitted?

As an avid user of iTunes and iPod (I have a green Mini from 2004 that is already outdated), Johansen and his hacking abilites scare me a little; once again my security is threatened. The way the article was written it seems like Johansen can get away with whatever he does. If indeed he does sell his software license to others, will they be able hack into my iTunes program or tap into my iPod while I'm updating it? Granted, the software appears to be used only so that one could put iTunes-purchased songs onto Sony (or any other brand) mp3 players. However, this doesn't prevent someone out there from taking DVD Jon's software to the next level and tap into iTunes and iPods to steal music and install viruses or spyware. Why can't Johansen be stopped...RIGHT NOW? Twelve-year olds downloading Spice Girls (or whatever their modern day equivilent is) and college students downloading movies and music get sued thousands of dollars all the time, yet the whole world could know about Johansen's behavior and nothing is done to punish him. Then again, who has the authority to do so? Johansen is from Norway, but now he lives in California. Apple iTunes and iPod are used globally. Could Apple even stop him? Once copies of the software are made, different versions could be created and they could spread across the globe almost instantly.

Napster was shut down, so KaZaA and Ares came along. Once these programs slowly started shutting down, Limewire was created. What will be next?

According to the article:

Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney at the privacy-advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Mr. Johansen is treading carefully this time, consulting with lawyers, but is not necessarily cleared from a legal fight over copy-protection laws.

"There is a lot of untested legal ground surrounding reverse engineering," he said.

Once again, it all boils down to inadequate laws pertaining to technology, specifically "hacking" software (which includes Johansen's creation as well as spyware). Legal cases of this kind have not been tested as often as other kinds of cases. Thus there is a need beef up our laws, but the United States should not be the only ones doing so; there is a need to protect online security and copyrights around the world. It will be interesting to see what Apple does if indeed Johansen's iTune-hacking software is a success.


Little Jon Lech Johansen circa 1986... he's not as innocent as he looks!

Fluency Milestone 7: Excel at Managing Your Money!

Upon reading Chapter 13 in Snyder for class this past Thursday as well as learning from the lab presented, I discovered that my finances could easily be managed by using an Excel spreadsheet. One of my best friends got married last year and she swears by the financial software, Quicken. However, I neither have the time nor the money to invest in such a product to track all of my purchases as well as other finances like rent, food, and utilities. Since I am familiar with Excel now and the basics of spreadsheets, I've learned that I need not purchase additional software to track finances when I have a very useful tool sitting right infront of me which can do the same. Simple commands like SUM, as well as adding and subtracting are all I really need to know in order to organize my spendings. I can also color code each category! Green for rent, blue for utilities, red for social spending, etc. This tool will help me to learn how to control the amount I spend on the weekends as well as how much needs to be set aside per month for fixed costs such as rent. I am actually excited to be using Excel for once, because I know it will help me in the future when I have certain finances like mortgage payments as well as health and life insurance after graduate school is over. Indeed I will "excel" at managing my money!

Digital Governance Nugget 7: Myspace - the new place to find online predators

Everyday I enjoy watching Good Morning America as I get ready for work and/or class. This morning I was excited to see a story that would inspire me to write my weekly IT Nugget. Thus, I found the story on GMA's website about convicted sex offenders being busted on Myspace. It surprised me that authorities haven't used the social network to catch these online predators sooner. According to the article, Wired senior editor Kevin Poulsen used the names and addresses of convicted sex offenders on state registries, the editor designed his own computer program to cross-reference that information with profiles listed on MySpace.

Poulsen's use of the social network site is a brilliant idea. The State of Pennsylvania's Megan's Law Website allows anyone to search for sex offenders by county, city, name, or zip code. Technically I could find any one of the thousands of sex offenders who have been convicted of child abuse, go to Myspace and search their name for a profile. Through his use of Myspace to search for pedophiles and online predators, Poulsen found one man who had many young boys as friends on Myspace and also made comments to these boys using sexually explicit material. While anyone can put any information they want about themselves on the Myspace website, even if it isn't true, the social network could allow authorities to easily track suspicious activity and users. Perhaps a system could be established where if men between the ages of 25 and 60 ask a 14-17 year old child to be their "friend," their account could be watched for explicit messages, photos, etc. and then that information could be turned over to authorities for further search. It wouldn't be a bad idea. This is a great way that the Internet and social networks can be used to track down criminals.