This class has been a very interesting, getting to learn not only what others do on the internet but what I my self am capable of. Communication online has its good side and its bad side(s), learning more about them was intriguing. I was a bit worried when I first signed up for this class because I am not a strong writer but I love to talk. Seeing the amount of postings and responses needed for the class I was fearful of my ability to stay up with the class. But I found with everything outlined ahead of time and the reading was not boring or hard to read, I was able to keep up for the most part. The class seemed more based on the interaction we, as classmates had with our postings and responses then again with our blogs and responses to them and our follow ups to comments on our blogs. As an online student this class represents what online classes are all about. To be able to communicate with other students about a subject within a time frame during each week of class, so responses can be posted is normal for online classes. Also structuring your own time so you have read the materials and have a good grip of the subject so you can hold these internet conversations and keep up with others is also a needed ability for this class and online classes. This class requires that you keep up with both the reading and the communication, which makes you as the student structure your week so you are prepared for class deadlines. I enjoyed this class because I got to meet new students who are from different backgrounds and programs at Oregon State, and I was accepted as a student just the all the others. Being a returning student who is a bit older then most of my classmates can sometimes put up road blocks in communication because people are uncomfortable talking about stuff or may not understand what I might be talking about(or I might not get what they are talking about). I am not that old but when I let it out that my daughter is a student on campus at Oregon State they figure I am a bit older then they are. So being accepted with out prejudice was very nice. Thank you to all of you who I spoke with (posted, responded, or blogged with), and thank you to not only our instructor but the university for offering this class, I really enjoyed this term.
Casey
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Internet in the News
The use of the internet to distribute Pornographic materials has been happening for years and the nature of these materials has legal constraints to them. Distribution of child pornography is illegal and punishable by law. This has in now way stopped these sick individuals from obtaining and trafficking these photos and materials. Just this last week there was a bunch of arrests made of people who were distributing child pornography online. One of those arrests was here in Oregon this is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to stopping this problem. The World Wide Web is just that world wide and in some places it is not illegal (or is not stopped by police), this opens the door for these individuals to gain and traffic more illicit photos. There have been some real high profile cases in the news over the last few years; like the man who said he killed the young JonBennet Ramsey, just to be extradited back to the United States to then find he was not telling the truth, he just did it to get out of charges he was facing overseas. Then there was the coach from South Salem High School in Salem who was pleaded guilty last summer of sending and receiving illegal photos of girls and boys. He admitted to sending and receiving photos while he was coaching students at the school. No comment has been made to whether or now any of the photos were of students he coached or students from the school he was at. The FBI has developed a group of agents who actually spend time searching the World Wide Web for deviant internet porn, tracking and searching for those people who are involved. Several laws have been put in place to like the Communications Decency Act of 1996 which was violated first amendment rights. By the media coverage given to these arrests shows there is a news interest; or at least the news planners think we as viewers want to know about this. I understand we need to know when the people who commit these crimes are school teachers, clergy, medical professionals or political figures because these people are in direct contact with either our children or are making decisions that affect our futures. What we as citizens do with this information are where the real change will happen. If we ignore these criminals who distribute or take these photos and those child predators that molest young children and then get away with it because the legal system doesn’t want to proceed with charges, we are tacitly approving this behavior. A different story all together is the prosecution of the predators and those who help them stay out of the legal system. The articles I used to form this are the news story about the arrests this week, also an article from the Oregonian http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/exsouth_salem_coach_gets_priso.html and then this web site http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050923-5346.html
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
WILD CARD
Wild Card
So this story is from a few years back.
I had AOL DSL at the time so the service included the ability to have multiple screen names. We let other family members have these names because one of them can be online while we are online via DSL. It allowed one dial up access at a time, so each family member who had dial up had to work with each other so they didn’t boot the other family members who might be online. But this is a different story. So my niece had a screen name through our account and she had computer troubles. The person she had fix her computer had her save her password for her internet so he could see what was wrong. The person logged in and changed her password and then saved the new password so she didn’t know it had been changed. He then used his own computer with her screen name and AOL service to launch an email attack on people and companies. AOL shut down our internet service and locked out all of our screen names because of the attacks. We were able to regain our service and lock out that screen name so the person could not continue. My niece was able to figure out who did when she was told by AOL the times the assaults were launched. She was at work and her boy friend and his buddy (the computer repair guy) were either hanging out or playing online games at the buddies’ house. These attacks were upwards of 1000 emails sent to others at one time to fill inboxes and overload servers. AOL didn’t say that any of the emails were threatening but several were offensive and graphic in nature. Lesson learned is that when you have passwords saved on your computer and you let other people have access to your computer you run a risk of then gaining control of your password protected information or services. In this instance the predator changed the saved password so the user didn’t even know it had been changed. Then he was able to do his damage when he was ready and she was the one blamed for the problem. This was a few years back when this kind of stuff was happening (pre 9/11/2001). So to protect my self I always change my passwords that I have saved before and then after I have someone work on my computers. I also try not to let people I do not know use my computers, because someone can hack into my computer and do damage later. This holds true for those who use internet communities or sites that you log in to use. Someone can access what you have on MySpace or Face Book and make changes to your page and mess with your friends’ pages. My daughter made the mistake years ago of accessing her Neopets web page from another person’s computer and either didn’t log out or let them see her password so they stole all of her points and pets. So; just as a note internet security is not just a spam blocker or the little lock in the lower corner or virus software it is how much information you are willing to give out and how you protect yourself by your actions. EBAY warned users about ghost pages that look like the EBAY log in page but they are not so you are giving someone else your information. The email tells of things to look for like the www. Address should be there site and you will only be directed to log in pages through certain actions so if you are directed and have not done one of these functions you should leave EBAY and return through the front page.
Casey
So this story is from a few years back.
I had AOL DSL at the time so the service included the ability to have multiple screen names. We let other family members have these names because one of them can be online while we are online via DSL. It allowed one dial up access at a time, so each family member who had dial up had to work with each other so they didn’t boot the other family members who might be online. But this is a different story. So my niece had a screen name through our account and she had computer troubles. The person she had fix her computer had her save her password for her internet so he could see what was wrong. The person logged in and changed her password and then saved the new password so she didn’t know it had been changed. He then used his own computer with her screen name and AOL service to launch an email attack on people and companies. AOL shut down our internet service and locked out all of our screen names because of the attacks. We were able to regain our service and lock out that screen name so the person could not continue. My niece was able to figure out who did when she was told by AOL the times the assaults were launched. She was at work and her boy friend and his buddy (the computer repair guy) were either hanging out or playing online games at the buddies’ house. These attacks were upwards of 1000 emails sent to others at one time to fill inboxes and overload servers. AOL didn’t say that any of the emails were threatening but several were offensive and graphic in nature. Lesson learned is that when you have passwords saved on your computer and you let other people have access to your computer you run a risk of then gaining control of your password protected information or services. In this instance the predator changed the saved password so the user didn’t even know it had been changed. Then he was able to do his damage when he was ready and she was the one blamed for the problem. This was a few years back when this kind of stuff was happening (pre 9/11/2001). So to protect my self I always change my passwords that I have saved before and then after I have someone work on my computers. I also try not to let people I do not know use my computers, because someone can hack into my computer and do damage later. This holds true for those who use internet communities or sites that you log in to use. Someone can access what you have on MySpace or Face Book and make changes to your page and mess with your friends’ pages. My daughter made the mistake years ago of accessing her Neopets web page from another person’s computer and either didn’t log out or let them see her password so they stole all of her points and pets. So; just as a note internet security is not just a spam blocker or the little lock in the lower corner or virus software it is how much information you are willing to give out and how you protect yourself by your actions. EBAY warned users about ghost pages that look like the EBAY log in page but they are not so you are giving someone else your information. The email tells of things to look for like the www. Address should be there site and you will only be directed to log in pages through certain actions so if you are directed and have not done one of these functions you should leave EBAY and return through the front page.
Casey
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