3 comments

Vacuum Coffee Maker - Brewing

Published on Monday, December 12, 2011 in ,

I made this video for fun.

1 comments

How the Internet is Both a Benifit and a Hindrance to Society

Published on Monday, December 5, 2011 in

"How does the internet effect society", is a question that is often often asked. The Internet is a tool that has revolutionary effects in how society is structured. The changed that it makes in society are both good and bad. The way that society is changed by the adaption of the internet is the power of the individual voice is stronger, the promotion of global societies, privacy is not as important, increase in accessibility of book publishing, and the distribution of illegal information.



The power of the individual to say exactly what is wanted to say without having to filter the message in anyway is not only possible, but a common place on the internet. An example that shows how much one person's voice made a difference and fueled a public protest is a recent event in the middle east. A blogger named Ahmad Abu Khair was arrested for his blog, it concluded that change in the Arab world was possible, but only with a revolution. This single voice among thousands that are both online and offline was picked up and spread to millions of people. The resulting arrest that came out of it is the reason why the public started to protest.



The globalization effect that the Internet has on society is both good and bad. An article from the Asia Times states globalization as a double edged sword. The increasing of communications and also cooperation is beneficial, but the increase in inequality between the classes and the reduction of benefits has shown to be a down side. The article states that, "The wealth of this group is greater than the total income of 41 percent of the world population." This shows that there is a concentration of wealth in the world. So by creating a world the is becoming increasingly global from the effects of the internet can only increase this income gap. The internet and globalization are elements that go hand and hand.

Me and my 542 bestest friends (on Facebo by tychay, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License  by  tychay 


The individual's privacy on the Internet is something that can be be minimal. A story from CBS news about one teacher that had her job effected by images that were on her Facebook. The images on her Facebook involved alcohol and profanity. Something that seemed normal for someone her age to have on her Facebook resulted in a principle of the school asking her to "resign or be suspended." A situation like this could happen before the internet, but now the spread of such information is much more wide spread than ever before.

Amazon-New-Detail-Page by kokogiak, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License  by  kokogiak 


Book publishing is made much easier with a service offered by Amazon. A benefit program enables people to publish their book and also distribute it. Being able to self-publish means that writer can be more in charge of the publication of their books. Another aspect is the printing of the book and that can be done interdependently in a similar fashion though companies also available online.

freenet by MoDTiger, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License  by  MoDTiger 



A service called Freenet enables user to exchanged information
both anonymously and also at no additional change to the user. Being able to do something that is both illegal and can be done anonymously enables criminal activity to take place much more freely than has even been done before. Not having the right tool to locate and identify criminals is a downside to the internet. Giving up individual freedom to do so is a trade off that many are not willing to take.



The overall effect that the Internet has on society is a good thing, but in order to reduce the bad effect that is has on society we have to be aware of them. Not being aware of these bad effect can result in the way the society operates in a negative way. How the individual connects with each other has been changed forever by the internet. How much privacy we have is something that is much less then it was in past generations. Being mindful of how much information and also what information we share needs to be looked at by everyone.

3 comments

Malware And The Ways It Will Effect You

Published on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 in

Malware is something that was coded with a bad intent. So malware can effect you life in many different ways in today's world. Being able to identify and have the correct behavior in this day and age is the best way to combat and avoid malware. Malware can be on many different devices and networks in your daily life, including your phone, power plant near your house, game accessory, social network, windows computer, and mac computer.


A story recently published on infonet about a 15 year old creating a virus called "gawde" which uses Microsoft's Kinect game accessory to take pictures of the victim's surroundings. This software can even be triggered based on voice recognition trigger the camera capture. This is interesting in how it can be triggered.

Another story on the rise of viruses on smartphones is on the rise. It states that in the last four months viruses on smartphones has risen 800% in the last four months. One way that this virus is spread is by applications from the store. The appications insert malicious code in the application. When the virus is on the phone things like identity fraud can be done, SMS, browsing, and downloading content.

A virus called Stuxnet is something that was designed to gain control of systems made by the manufacturer Siemens and also other common control systems. There was speculation about the virus being directed toward Iran and it's nuclear facilities.

On a social network like facebook, users can be lured into clicking on links in emails that have a Trojan in the link instead of accepting a friend request. People nto knowing how to identify what is an email from facebook and what is not needs to be known by the user.

How to protect against a computer virus on a windows machine is something that will hinder your experience and may result in your identity being stolen. Having the correct idea of how malware writers attack users and how to protect against that is a must. By keeping your computer updated and having a software that is known to have a good record of protecting the users is also a must.

On the Mac currently having good usage patterns is the only thing that you need to do right now. The anti-virus programs on the mac are not really ever updated. The reason being the mac is not used widely enough to be a target for someone to write a virus that will spread. If a mac becomes more widely used than maybe one day this will not be the case.

So in today's world you need to be able to have the correct behavior in order to prevent a successful attack. Not having the correct behavior mean that your computing experience will be diminished. This is how mal-ware can effect you in this day and age.


What is the most common type of mal-ware?







Answer: Trojan (see above graph)

2 comments

My Own Ringtone

Published on Sunday, November 20, 2011 in , , ,

I wanted to make a ringtone that I actually wanted to use. Looking though creative commons music I found one track that was interesting and also pleasant to have in everyday life. We don't really call much in Japan, but it still needed be to pleasant.

Tortue Super Sonic - "The Price 12" - Ringtone by user5811304
From Production Music from TSS Tortue Super Sonic

Having lost my phone recently this feel odd making a ringtone for something I no longer have, but I enjoyed it.

I created this with GarageBand on the mac.

0 comments

Screen Capture

Published on in , , ,

I know there is a better one for the mac, but I wanted a free one.

Use CamStudio, Fraps, or another screen capturing software to get footage of something you do on your computer. A few minutes of gameplay is a good example.

So I wanted to just show some of the things Lightroom can do briefly. I tried to stay with the things that were visually interesting and not the more technical aspects.


Excuse the ad in the on the video in the bottom left.

1 comments

Common Everyday Object

Published on Saturday, November 19, 2011 in , , ,

The assingment:

Take a picture of a common ever day object and manipulate the colors.

First to start off with an image I shot for the daily shoot of a mechanical pencil with an eraser:
The Daily Shoot - Mundane & Ordinary

Here is one I shot just a few minutes ago and edited in Lightroom:

Starbucks Mug from Seattle, WA

If anyone was curious about Lightroom here is a screenshot of me editing this image.

Lightroom editing

All of my images that I upload to Flickr go though Lightroom.

Here is what the original image looks like in Lightroom:

Original - Lightroom editing

3 comments

Triple Troll Attack - "Inventor of the internet"

Published on Thursday, November 10, 2011 in , , ,

The assignment that this is for is called "Triple Troll Attack, GO!" The purpose of the assignment is to confuse the viewer and possibly even to make them think it is true.

Here is the exact details of the assignment:

The assignment is to take a photo, a quote from a different character than the one in the picture, and a name from a third character different from the other two, place the quote in the picture, and "sign" it with the third person's name. The three characters are to be from three different, but similar in genre, series. It's known as "troll quoting". For an "official" definition, go here: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/troll-quotes



So my direction for this was to create the most misdirecting and deceiving "triple troll attack". I feel like I met that accomplishment as much as I could by using a rumor that many people still believe. So by doing this I catch people's attention and they want to know what the reason for what I used.

Quote Source: Rumor - Here is the interview that the idea came from.
Image: Al Gore
Attribution: Tim Berners-Lee - The most accurate claim to being the inventor of the WWW

Followers