Hello again, all! Just one more presentation to go. Please be sure to send in your topic before class on Tuesday!
We’ll return this week to the conflict in Libya, but let’s start with a different angle. Have you ever used the bit.ly URL shortening service? How about ow.ly, vid.ly, graphic.ly… the list goes on. But I’ll bet you never considered what the “ly” represented, did you? The suffix, which is ultimately controlled by Moammad Gadhafi of the Libyan regime, has long been attractive because of the adverbial potential (if you were hoping to register the smel.ly domain name, it’s taken). The Gadhafi link has caught a number of people off guard, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. military and United Nations, all of whom are distressed by the connection. What do you think about it? How does this affect U.S. plans to announce terror alerts via Facebook and Twitter? Is the Gadhafi link as big of a problem as some seem to think? If you led one of the organizations that used or otherwise relied on a .ly domain, how would you handle this situation? Does control over the unique suffix offer any strategic advantage to Gadhafi in the Libyan conflict?
Speaking of which, the back-and-forth struggle between Gadhafi’s military and the rebel forces has hardly let up, most recently centering around Ajdabiya, a key city 60 miles south of the rebels’ interim capital, Benghazi, with sizable oil reserves. As we all know by now, the unending conflict has cost countless Libyans their lives and, in the global economic scene, has been pushing gas prices skyward for weeks, but perhaps the biggest fiscal shock is that during the U.S. government bailouts over the past few years, one of the largest beneficiaries was the Central Bank of Libya, which received “tens of billions in loans from the Fed.” What are your thoughts on the continuing conflict and the international community’s role in it? What about the set of friendly fire mistakes by NATO? Where do policymakers go from here? How can the conflict best be resolved, and what can be done to limit international consequences as well? For that matter, since nothing on the world stage happens in a vacuum, how does the Libyan crisis relate to those in Syria, Yemen, the Ivory Coast, Egypt, and even Japan?
We haven’t talked much about the prospect of a government shutdown, which Congress seems to avert anew each week. That’s a particularly dangerous prospect when you consider that the U.S. military is presently scattered in various ongoing missions around the globe, and a shutdown might make it impossible to pay them or to keep other government departments running. Considering that the most recent act by Congress will only keep the government functioning through Friday and that its implementation just over an hour before the deadline required “painful cuts,” is such a failure ultimately unavoidable? Was the hurriedly-made deal at the center of this most recent aversion as much of a catastrophe as some experts suggest, or is President Barack Obama correct that it was a laudable step that will benefit the country’s future? What will happen if the U.S government closes its doors for the first time since the dual shutdowns of 1995-1996? What would the ramifications be for the 2012 elections, particularly given reports that the 1995-1996 shutdowns and restorations under a divided government boosted President Bill Clinton’s approval ratings?
Let’s again try to close with a story that’s a little less depressing. In the wake of Sony’s lawsuit against hacker George Hotz, the group Anonymous attacked and successfully shut down several Sony websites. I won’t explain all the details about what “Anonymous” actually is in this post, as a complete explanation could easily span a full book (or just a Wikipedia article), but in this most recent attack they also “‘played’ with” the PlayStation Network (PSN), causing system instability which affected a number of users over the past week. However, the diffuse group has now announced the suspension of attacks against PSN, as their first efforts were detrimental to gamers as well as Sony. Just because their first efforts have been halted hardly means that Anonymous is done, however, as their next move is apparently an April 16 boycott of Sony stores. Do you think that the offline actions will be more effective than the PSN attacks? Do you think that they can successfully attack Sony without further inconveniencing gamers, or for that matter, is that in fact the group’s priority? How should Sony or, for that matter, law enforcement react to such activities? Do you think that Anonymous is correctly fighting for the people, or are they a menace that needs to be stopped? What about other individuals and groups that support Anonymous’ efforts? Finally, what are the ramifications of groups like Anonymous, and what does it mean that a group of individuals who do not even know one another beyond their common claim as “Anonymous” can be so effective in their efforts?
That’s all for this week’s post. As usual, feel free to post about any of the above or below stories, or make your own post on a new topic, if you like. Keep working on those final presentations, and I’ll see you in class!
Other articles of interest:
How one Oregon lawmaker convinced his colleagues to ‘Rick Roll’ the state legislature
Vote count ‘human error’ shadows Wisconsin Supreme Court election
Google’s Size Pertinent to Broad Antitrust Case
3 Ways Social Media Can Wreck Your Career
PlayStation chief: Nintendo makes ‘babysitting tools’
New book reveals Apple’s Steve Jobs mentored Google co-founders
The Sleepless Elite
Texas Speed Limit Raised: Is it Safe?
Is Your Brain Liberal or Conservative?
Six industries hurt by an NFL lockout
Purdy: Defense threw the better pitches at Bonds trial
Ramirez was a huge talent, colossal waste
Charlie Sheen Tour: What the Critics Say About the Disastrous New York Show
The New Commodore 64, Updated With Its Old Exterior
Video Games Help Stroke Victims Rehab Motor Functions
Your commute is making you stupid, study suggests
Is it a new particle, or just a fluke?
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jkrebsba
jleoni24
jmesker
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COM 315 Course Blog 
Apr 10, 2011 @ 12:03:31
I’d like to make a comment on the Anonymous shutdown of Sony’s websites and PSN. The thing I think is most interesting about the shutdown is not Anonymous trying to hurt Sony, but the direct impact that it has on people who may support Anonymous. Chances are that people who support Anonymous do use PSN to play games and buy games. By causing instability to the system, support for their cause will dwindle from within.
The idea behind Anonymous is understandable, but they need a much better way of doing things. Shutting down websites through direct denial of service attacks are popular among them, but it’s pretty much all I really see them do. It hasn’t done too much so far; they just need to get popular support for their cause. If what they want is good, people will follow.
Apr 11, 2011 @ 00:22:36
I just find it really interesting how this hacker group Anonymous is so effective. It’s such a well planned out attack though that it’s really effective. DDoS attacks are extremely easy to do if you have enough people. And what makes it good about the group Anonymous is that nobody knows each other. So if they catch one they will have no idea who the other people are.
In regards to the things with Sony, I feel that if Anonymous continues they actually might have a say on things that happen with the company. Every company wants their customers to be happy and if people are boycotting Sony equipment, they might change things within their company.
Apr 10, 2011 @ 16:41:55
Hey Brian,
I wanted to comment about the article titled “Your commute is making you stupid, study suggests”. This article is of particular interest to me because following graduation I will be moving to and living in southern California for my job. The plan is to move in with my parents for a few months until I can afford and find an apartment of my own. The only thing is, my parents live about an hour away from my work location. This mean I will be driving 2-3 hours per day, depending on traffic conditions, in the same southern California freeways in which the study was conducted. I know that I probably won’t be exposed to the highway air enough to actually make a difference in my brain cells, but I do question the quality of the air in general in southern California. I mean, don’t get me wrong, California is a beautiful and diverse place to be. They have everything from beaches, to mountains, and even some dessert landscape. The thing is, there are just way too many people down there, this causes increased pollution in the air since everyone drives to work. Fortunately for me, when I live closer to my work location, I plan on riding my bicycle to work. This would not only save me on gas costs, but I would not be adding to the already polluted air in southern California. I believe people need to be more aware of the damage they are doing to the environment, and it is articles like these that will hopefully get people’s attention to try and reduce the amount of toxins in our air.
Until next week!
Manny Cuevas
Apr 10, 2011 @ 22:06:34
Hey Brian, I just read the “Video Games Help Stroke Victims” article. My mom’s a physical therapist, and she often works with people in rehab. She came home one day asking me questions about our Wii game system and trying to see if she could incorporate it into the rehab process. It’s pretty neat to see that she was on to something there. These new motion sensor gaming devices make people use very basic motions to do tasks that are simple, and these motions are very similar to that of the motions used during rehab. I would like to see games in the future made specifically for rehab purposes, but I feel like the good old fashioned way of stretching and rehab will prevail.
Apr 11, 2011 @ 12:02:29
I would like to discuss about the article regarding commute:
I haven’t experience any heavy traffic in West Lafayette. However, I did when I was in Seoul, Korea. I am sure the whole Korea area is smaller than one state in the U.S. – it is about 219,800㎢. And Seoul area is only 605.52㎢, which is abut 1/350 or the while Korea area, and in this small city, Seoul, there are almost 3/4 of the whole Korean population. Even worse, because the living costs in Seoul is much higher than in other suburbs, especially housing fee, many people live in suburbs, which are close to Seoul, and then commute to work in Seoul. Therefore,though transportation in Seoul is well developed and organized because of this reason, there are extremely heavy traffic jams in Seoul. I am sure no body wants to experience it, but it is an inevitable situation when you live in Seoul.
Anyway, it is surprising that these kinds of commute make people dumber. – if it is applied to Korean people, people living in Seoul become dumber and dumber everyday. I was thiniking of doing something like reading a book in the traffic jam as a solution, but there must be an issue regarding accidents due to other activities while driving. I hope there will be more researches on this matter so that people can get practical advice/solution not to be dumber in the same situation.
Apr 12, 2011 @ 01:04:31
I found the article on the Tevatron particle accelerator very refreshing. It’s not often that something like particle physics makes it into the news, so hearing an update on that very specialized and extremely complicated subject really peaked my interest. It’s to bad that the Tevatron accelerator will most likely be seeing its end in September just because of budget shortages. Major breakthroughs in particle physics are much less likely to be made with only one super collider running. Even if the Hadron Collider is much larger and more powerful, the event of an anomaly being witnessed and investigated is much more likely to occur with two operating rather than just the one.
Apr 12, 2011 @ 16:05:50
I found PlayStation chief’s view on the Game Boy incredibly arrogant. Let me start out by saying, I’m not a huge Nintendo fan. I have not owned any of their consoles since the Nintendo 64. Nevertheless, there is no doubting the incredible advancing they have brought to mobile gaming devices. To merely discount them as “baby-sitting devices” show a lack of respect for the company who is responsible for bringing mobile gaming to the masses. I’m sure Sony’s new gaming device is going to be awesome. However, I see no reason to bash a company, namely Nintendo, that is responsible for grooming their demographic to even want to buy a mobile gaming device. Sony needs to realize those buying their product most likely cut their teeth on the big gray brick Game Boy.
Apr 14, 2011 @ 15:23:51
In regards to PSN and Anonymous,
From what I read, the Lawsuit has been settled out of court as of 4/11/11. Mr Hotz is to never again hack Playstation hardware. Anonymous still believes this is unjust to my understanding. Also, the forced firmware update made the modding impossible.
I guess the moral dilemma here is does Playstation have the authority to dictate the use of their end product after bought and paid for. For example, if I buy a car from a dealership, and then replace the computer chip to remove the speed cap in the car, can Ford, Toyota, or anyone else come after me if I publish a guide on how to do it.
Personally, I think once I’ve paid for your product, I have every right to do with it as I please. I can mod it, or I can smash it into tiny pieces. Sony’s concerns are understandable, as it may hurt the sales if people pirate games via this modding. However, everywhere I go, I see people struggling with DRM, CD protection, and other software protection with LEGITIMATELY owned software. I personally had my XP cd key deemed, “Un-Genuine” by the Genuine update many years back. All for what? To keep the minority of people who would rather steal and shell out a few dollars for their product?
If Anonymous ended their DDoS attacks against Sony because they were inconveniencing gamers, maybe Sony should drop it’s stance on denying mods because they are inconveniencing me and others. Seems logical no?
Apr 14, 2011 @ 17:19:57
In the article by Investopedia entitled “Three Ways Social Media Can Wreck Your Career”, they talk about three ways for social media to wreck your career. Really, there’s only one: “Have no common sense.”
The article says that one way is to not “[Allow] Photos of Yourself to be Posted or Tagged.” It talks about how a teacher’s picture holding alcohol forced her to resign. If someone hadn’t have taken the picture, it wouldn’t have come to that. OR, if she hadn’t held the alcohol, it wouldn’t have come to that. OR, if she didn’t drink alcohol in the first place, it wouldn’t have come to that. There’s a reason alcohol is considered a depressant…
Secondly, it talks about being too opinionated. You can’t express your true opinions without being judged, regardless of this “freedom of speech” myth, period. It’s true, if you’re a teacher and you post about how much you hate your job and your students on your personal blog, some parent WILL find it, and MAY report you. However, if you’re a teacher and you post about how much you hate your job and your students on a private blog, that no one knows is yours, no one will know that YOU hate your job or that YOU hate YOUR students. Why do you think I post on this blog as DMack5? I don’t want any future employers to be able to google me and in 5 seconds know that I hated my old job and my students.
Common sense people……common sense. The funny thing is, common sense isn’t so common anymore…
Apr 14, 2011 @ 18:09:02
In response to the Manny Ramirez article, I feel that Manny did the right thing. With more and more players getting caught with performance enhancing drugs, I hope that Manny does not get inducted in the Hall of Fame. Like the article states, Ramirez was an excellent hitter. But the fact that he almost “needed” the drugs to perform later in his career, it’s a smart decision to keep him out of the Hall of Fame for cheating. I am glad that he decided to retire instead of take the 100 game suspension.If he would have taken the 100 game suspension he probably would have failed more drug tests and just made things worst for himself.
Apr 15, 2011 @ 14:59:54
I think with Anonymous causing instability of the PSN network for possibly it’s own supporters was most likely just collateral in the big picture. I’m sure it was realized at one point of just how many Anonymous supporters were part of the PSN, and that may have had something to do with making the offline approach instead. Regardless, I think that Anonymous is almost to the level of online vigilante, just kind of messing with things as need fit. As some of you may or may not seen, a person claiming to be part of Anonymous showed up on an interview awhile back for going onto the Westboro Baptist church and messing with them because of their highly offensive viewpoint on other religions and the country that they are based in. Not to start a religious debate though, I’m just saying that it seems like once you catch the attention of Anonymous, there’s really not too much you would be able to do about it.
Apr 17, 2011 @ 15:16:36
Marcus, I agree with you that the collateral damage is a big factor in Anonymous’ efforts. It’s difficult to lodge a major assault on any large organization without some unintended consequences. On the other hand, as Eric noted, they’re at least somewhat effective in accomplishing their primary goals. The internet allows you to organize some incredible activities without even knowing one another’s names. Brian, I actually hadn’t heard that the lawsuit was settled, but that would explain why it suddenly dropped out of the news. One has to wonder, though, if Sony would have settled the lawsuit without the extra pressure of impending protests and other possible actions by Anonymous. Maybe the offline approach, as Justin suggested, was ultimately more effective — it certainly seems to do more to get the attention of the mainstream media and populace.
I was interested in the “commute” article as well, Manny. The longer your commute, the more this could presumably affect you. Some people hold their breaths as they cross behind cars on the road, and this study might indicate that they’ve been right to do so. Ji Hyeon, you make a great point — how might this differ in other areas? We pay so much attention to the obvious consequences of driving, such as the increased rate of accidents while texting or drinking, but things like this could be incrementally devastating across the population, especially in high-traffic areas like Seoul where traffic jams are routine.
James, I’m glad you highlighted that article, as I’ve been intrigued by the potential theraputic uses of video games for quite some time. It’s exciting to see that some real advances are being made beyond the obvious “Wii makes you move around and is therefore exercise” idea. I’m not sure whether old-fashioned therapy will prevail, particularly considering research on tailored medical messages — to heavily abridge the explanation, a great deal of work is being devoted to having an automated doctor of sorts diagnosing common problems without the need for time-consuming human intervention. (At your last doctor’s appointment, how long did you wait beyond your scheduled appointment time?) It may sound far-fetched, but even some of my own work is devoted to this idea, and it’s gaining ground faster than you’d think.
Kyle, I certainly agree with you on the article. It’s nice to see science being highlighted every once in awhile for its own sake, not for some “the Hadron collider will blow up the universe!” silliness. With that said, though, everything is based in the real world — without funding, nothing will happen. (See: NASA.) Maybe that research line will be continued at some point by an enterprising team of scholars, even if now isn’t the time.
Jacob, you’re right about the arrogance. Sony’s shown that sentiment quite a bit in regard to their gaming consoles. It worked with the PS2, when they essentially out-hyped the Sega Dreamcast despite similar technological capabilities between the two systems. It didn’t work so well with the PS3 launch — I think consumers caught on, so they couldn’t beat the XBox 360 with hype alone while charging $200 extra. It seems unlikely that it will work here, but who knows? Maybe the handheld market is different enough from that of consoles that such attacks will help Sony in the long run.
David, I certainly here you there. On this blog, I use my full name, but I’m also careful to only say things that I would have no problem with a future employer seeing. I’ve long been a member of many other online communities under pseudonyms, with my true identity never divulged. (It’s like being a superhero, ha ha!) The internet and its innate record-keeping abilities have really changed the degree to which individuals have to be careful in their daily lives. Many people still have not gotten used to the new challenges in image management.
As for the story of Manny Ramirez, I see your point, Jared. If Mark McGwire is any indication, Ramirez is certainly not getting into the Hall. (After all, most reports I’ve seen agree that there’s no real evidence of “Big Mac” breaking any baseball rules while they were in place — he retired before the rules changed — but troublesome incident in front of Congress tarnished his reputation. He’s consistently fallen short of the required vote count for HoF induction, with those numbers declining fairly steadily each year. Who knows what Ramirez could have been and done without the drugs. We’ll never know, and that’s probably the most depressing realization of all.
Apr 17, 2011 @ 16:33:18
I think what’s interesting about “Anonymous” is that they aren’t doing these things because of a monetary gain but because they can, and because they feel that someone has wronged them. Though this is can be seen as cool almost like a batman vigilante type thing, at what point do they draw the line? With more and more of our personal information being virtually protected online, what happens when a large group like this creates a potentially serious security hazard. I’m not saying what they’re doing currently is wrong (or right for that matter) but they’re playing around in what some people may consider very sensitive waters.
Apr 17, 2011 @ 22:08:04
I am responding to the topic “3 Ways Social Media Can Wreck Your Career.” First off, I would like to say that a lot of those stories are humorous. I had to look up some of those stories on Google. Lol. The girl who worked for Red Cross and wrote, “… when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd,” that was hilarious to me. How do you get your Twitter account mixed up with the Official Red Cross account? Lol. the lady who wrote bored on her Facebook should not have been fired. To me, that is dumb. Every job gets boring from time to time. The fact that she was able to log on to Facebook and change her status clearly indicated that she had nothing else to do because if she were doing something, she would not have been able to log on to Facebook.
In addition, I’m kind of glad that a lot of individuals who rant and rage participate in social media. It warns those around them to be cautious. The girl from UCLA was either racist or prejudice and now people know. Should it follow her work file for the rest of her life? Probably not, she can change. Would I hire her? Probably not.. It would not look good for any company to hire a person who rants about a group of people especially a race that dominates the world. Furthermore, the teacher that got fired should have been suspended. Not fired because she’s free to drink. Well, honestly, I don’t know. If she’s a teacher, she’s more than likely promoting students to stay away from alcohol and drugs. It looks very hypocritical of her to participate in something she’s telling her students to stay away from.
Apr 17, 2011 @ 22:59:12
I thought the article about 6 industries hurt most by the NFL lockout was interesting. I found it interesting how much these companies benefit from the NFL alone. I think that these industries get looked passed when thinking of the NFL as well. These are what make the NFL what it is. From funny beer commercials to team jerseys they are all part of the game that has taken over american sports. I agree that if the owners and the players don’t come to an agreement then these industries will hurt more than what people think. With that being said, I DO think that the owners and players will come to an agreement and the 2012 season will go on as scheduled. Why? Because there is too much money to be lost for there not to be a season.
Apr 17, 2011 @ 23:47:10
I read the article about the commute making you stupid. I didn’t think that their finding were anything too shocking. I figure that its common sense that bad air and pollution isn’t good for you so their research only confirms what most people already knew. I think as more people migrate to the large cities this is something that will have to be examined. I think that new sources of power for cars will help the situation, but it will take a while for the older cars to be phased out. But anyways apparently pollution is bad for you. Surprise Surprise.