Before I start this post, allow me to define both privacy and security:
Privacy: the state of being apart from other people or concealed from their view
Security: freedom from danger or risk, in an element of safety.
From a technological point of view, or in terms of our data, this can mean a slightly different thing. Privacy of our data means the ability an organisation or individual has to determine what data is shared with other parties or people. Security of our data covers the practice of keeping information protected from the corruption and unauthorized access.
Organisations are constantly watching our electronic 'moves', there are many examples of this throughout every aspect of our lives. For example, banks watch and document our spending habits, GPS on our phones know our location almost all the time and social media documents everything that is or has been put on there. In each of these instances our privacy is being invaded by companies. However, without this invasion, we wouldn't be as secure. Banks keep this information about us to monitor our habits and keeps a record to build up a picture of us as customers. This way if any behavior is out of our nature it can be investigated as a possible card theft. GPS is used on our phones to keep our whereabouts know to computer systems, this way the police can use it to find missing persons.
Data collected online is reported back to our governments, which again is a compromise to our privacy. However, this information is used to prevent and give warning to crimes that are being planned, such as terrorist attacks. Cookies use our recently searched data to produce adverts that we are more likely to notice or want to click on.
In all of these instances technology is both keeping us safe and keeping our data safe but in order to do so, our privacy has to be sacrificed. Personally, I don't mind organisations watching my online behavior as I have nothing to hide. I understand that some groups of people will not share the same views as me and don't want their information shared with organisations, but the way technology is moving now, I expect its not going to go other way any time soon.
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Monday, 23 November 2015
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Windows 10 review
I have eventually got my update for windows 10 on my computer and laptop, at the moment, I like it, however, my flatmate absolutely hates it and curses it every time she uses it, after all she is a history student. In this blog post I wanted to share my opinion on the new operating system from Microsoft. Windows 8 was an improvement to the Microsoft operating systems and brought them up to the same standard as other companies, however, if I had to choose between Windows 8 or Windows 7 then I would go with 7 every time as it was simple and did everything you needed it to do, nothing more or nothing less. However, if asked to choose between 7, 8 or 10, at the moment I would choose 10, because I think 10 is a good combination of 7 and 8.
The first major change is the taskbar and the features listed on it. It has a new and improved look and has a standard set of programs pinned to it, these are all featured in the centre. There are other new parts to the task bar, in the far left is the start menu. Next to this is the search bar, which is otherwise known as Cortana. In the far right is the usual information like battery and internet/wifi, but there is a new notification panel. This is just on the task bar, there are many other features added to make it better than other operating systems Microsoft have distributed before.
One of the pre-pinned programs on the task bar is a new browser, Microsoft have changed and evolved called Microsoft Edge. Which is basically a newer version of Internet Explorer. Now I don't use Internet Explorer, I use chrome, but from what I have seen on TV and on the internet, it does look pretty cool. Thats all I will say.
Another thing which is useful in Windows 10 is the addition of Cortana to the desktop. I have had a Windows phone before and she was quite helpful when it came to organisation, to have this on my laptop now will help me with uni work etc. You can ask Cortana to remind you to do tasks at a specific time or place, search the web, ask her random questions etc. etc. However, Cortana has a bad side, in order to work to the best of her standards she needs to gather data about the user and our behavior, which is in most peoples eyes, spying on the user and many people are put off by this. But in today's day and age, privacy and security cease to exist simultaneously. Having said this, I like how Cortana is personalised to suit our individual needs, I'm not to sure of another mpore private way around this though. On the plus side, you can talk to Cortana as much as you like as she is voice based (but you can type in what you want her to do as well) even if I do find voice recognition temperamental. She is a great addition to the desktop so far though.
The most important and best change (in my opinion) is the start menu. No longer will we have to switch screens to view the programs we have installed. Although a step up from Windows 7, the Windows 8 start screen was a disadvantage to the operating system. Now, the start menu is where it should be, on the desktop page, in the left hand corner. However, Windows 8 still appears in the start menu, as live tiles. Which is the best part about Windows 8. I like how you can customise the start menu as in Windows 8 (with live tiles) but its now even better because its in its own menu rather than a separate screen. The start menu can be dragged along and customised in size to, so when you click on the start menu, it can potentially cover the whole screen. As with Windows 7, it also has a list of all the programs on the PC, as I said a mixture of Windows 7 and 8.
In the right hand corner of the desktop page, there is a new subtle notification panel. It holds all the information about whats happening in all your apps and other customised settings like; internet/wifi, battery saver mode, tablet mode or brightness. To me, this is a great idea as all of the important information is in one place and its easy to know when stuff is happening.
Another cool feature is the ability to have multiple desktops screens. This is good for when you are working on multiple projects or doing a lot of different things at once. Another thing which has been improved is the command prompt. This interface hasn't been updated since the 90's and I'm glad it has been. You are now able to change the size of it etc. This wont mean much to most people but to a programmer who has to use it for networking, it is a much needed improvement.
Overall, I think Windows 10 is a bigger and better improvement than any other operating system so far with Microsoft because of new and improved features such as the notification panel and the addition of Cortana. The element of Windows 8 in the start menu also keeps the operating system modern yet brings in a bit of Windows 7. So far so good with 10.
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The first major change is the taskbar and the features listed on it. It has a new and improved look and has a standard set of programs pinned to it, these are all featured in the centre. There are other new parts to the task bar, in the far left is the start menu. Next to this is the search bar, which is otherwise known as Cortana. In the far right is the usual information like battery and internet/wifi, but there is a new notification panel. This is just on the task bar, there are many other features added to make it better than other operating systems Microsoft have distributed before.
One of the pre-pinned programs on the task bar is a new browser, Microsoft have changed and evolved called Microsoft Edge. Which is basically a newer version of Internet Explorer. Now I don't use Internet Explorer, I use chrome, but from what I have seen on TV and on the internet, it does look pretty cool. Thats all I will say.
Another thing which is useful in Windows 10 is the addition of Cortana to the desktop. I have had a Windows phone before and she was quite helpful when it came to organisation, to have this on my laptop now will help me with uni work etc. You can ask Cortana to remind you to do tasks at a specific time or place, search the web, ask her random questions etc. etc. However, Cortana has a bad side, in order to work to the best of her standards she needs to gather data about the user and our behavior, which is in most peoples eyes, spying on the user and many people are put off by this. But in today's day and age, privacy and security cease to exist simultaneously. Having said this, I like how Cortana is personalised to suit our individual needs, I'm not to sure of another mpore private way around this though. On the plus side, you can talk to Cortana as much as you like as she is voice based (but you can type in what you want her to do as well) even if I do find voice recognition temperamental. She is a great addition to the desktop so far though.
The most important and best change (in my opinion) is the start menu. No longer will we have to switch screens to view the programs we have installed. Although a step up from Windows 7, the Windows 8 start screen was a disadvantage to the operating system. Now, the start menu is where it should be, on the desktop page, in the left hand corner. However, Windows 8 still appears in the start menu, as live tiles. Which is the best part about Windows 8. I like how you can customise the start menu as in Windows 8 (with live tiles) but its now even better because its in its own menu rather than a separate screen. The start menu can be dragged along and customised in size to, so when you click on the start menu, it can potentially cover the whole screen. As with Windows 7, it also has a list of all the programs on the PC, as I said a mixture of Windows 7 and 8.
In the right hand corner of the desktop page, there is a new subtle notification panel. It holds all the information about whats happening in all your apps and other customised settings like; internet/wifi, battery saver mode, tablet mode or brightness. To me, this is a great idea as all of the important information is in one place and its easy to know when stuff is happening.
Another cool feature is the ability to have multiple desktops screens. This is good for when you are working on multiple projects or doing a lot of different things at once. Another thing which has been improved is the command prompt. This interface hasn't been updated since the 90's and I'm glad it has been. You are now able to change the size of it etc. This wont mean much to most people but to a programmer who has to use it for networking, it is a much needed improvement.
Overall, I think Windows 10 is a bigger and better improvement than any other operating system so far with Microsoft because of new and improved features such as the notification panel and the addition of Cortana. The element of Windows 8 in the start menu also keeps the operating system modern yet brings in a bit of Windows 7. So far so good with 10.
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Friday, 18 September 2015
Lovelace and Turing
Recently I have been watching several documentaries on various technological advances in history. These documentaries have been part of a digital season on the BBC. They have made me realise why the sector I am studying is such a great one which will lead the world into a new age of technology, much like it did one hundred years ago. There are many people throughout history which have influenced the technology we have in today's world, but I would like to focus on just two in this post. Lovelace and Turing.
Firstly, Ada Lovelace was one of the first people in history to touch on computer technology. She was born and lived in the 1800's, and loved nothing more than science, maths and logic. She was a daughter of a rich family and because of this, she was invited to a small party hosted by Charles Babbage. He had something very innovative to show his guests. He created part of a machine called the difference engine which computed values of polynomial functions. When showing this to his guests the only one who spotted its potential was Ada. She worked with Babbage for years after this to design a bigger, better machine called the analytical engine. This is where she came into her own, and what she is most famous for. Inspired by the cards used to weave looms in the factories, she created, what we see as the worlds first computer program. She was never able to test this though as the analytical engine was never completed. I wont go into the details as to why but she started the idea of a machine being in two states. In the sense of the cards she was working with, it was either a hole punch or no hole punch. Or better known today as on or off, the basics of binary. Along with Babbage, they also came up with the idea of conditional branching. The idea that the computer program can make a decision on which path to take depending on what a variable is equal to. This is still used in computing today.
Turing living 100 years after Lovelace and only discovered her papers years after he started his own work in the war. Turing was inspired by the work of Lovelace and realised they had many of the same ideas. He worked with a team of mathematicians who created the bombe, which was a machine which helped crack German coded letters in World War 2. This machine looked for patterns in the code and once it had found them, the team were able to crack the letters for that day. (This was because the Germans changed the cryptography each day) Alan Turing and his team saved countless lives and were one step ahead in the war effort, he and the team were the ultimate reason Britain won the war.
To me, these two people in history shaped the future of computing and contributed to what we have today. Turing was one of the first people to build a working computer to do something more than basic addition, even if it was still the size of a whole room. Ada also inspires me as in the 1800's, men and women were not seen as equals and weren't even allowed to do things such as handle money. To do what she accomplished is amazing in those years, and even more so for a woman. I guess it almost showed the world that a women can do the same intellectual work as men, or more. Even if she was not able to test her program.
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Firstly, Ada Lovelace was one of the first people in history to touch on computer technology. She was born and lived in the 1800's, and loved nothing more than science, maths and logic. She was a daughter of a rich family and because of this, she was invited to a small party hosted by Charles Babbage. He had something very innovative to show his guests. He created part of a machine called the difference engine which computed values of polynomial functions. When showing this to his guests the only one who spotted its potential was Ada. She worked with Babbage for years after this to design a bigger, better machine called the analytical engine. This is where she came into her own, and what she is most famous for. Inspired by the cards used to weave looms in the factories, she created, what we see as the worlds first computer program. She was never able to test this though as the analytical engine was never completed. I wont go into the details as to why but she started the idea of a machine being in two states. In the sense of the cards she was working with, it was either a hole punch or no hole punch. Or better known today as on or off, the basics of binary. Along with Babbage, they also came up with the idea of conditional branching. The idea that the computer program can make a decision on which path to take depending on what a variable is equal to. This is still used in computing today.
Turing living 100 years after Lovelace and only discovered her papers years after he started his own work in the war. Turing was inspired by the work of Lovelace and realised they had many of the same ideas. He worked with a team of mathematicians who created the bombe, which was a machine which helped crack German coded letters in World War 2. This machine looked for patterns in the code and once it had found them, the team were able to crack the letters for that day. (This was because the Germans changed the cryptography each day) Alan Turing and his team saved countless lives and were one step ahead in the war effort, he and the team were the ultimate reason Britain won the war.
To me, these two people in history shaped the future of computing and contributed to what we have today. Turing was one of the first people to build a working computer to do something more than basic addition, even if it was still the size of a whole room. Ada also inspires me as in the 1800's, men and women were not seen as equals and weren't even allowed to do things such as handle money. To do what she accomplished is amazing in those years, and even more so for a woman. I guess it almost showed the world that a women can do the same intellectual work as men, or more. Even if she was not able to test her program.
Thank you for reading my post, it means a lot.
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Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Humans - Channel 4 program review
I feel like Humans has explored the relationship that humans and artificial intelligence could possibly have in the future, if such a technology was developed. They could change our lives for the better and make us safer. I have previously explained my view on robots in an earlier blog post, but I believe they can do a whole lot for us and will not take over the world like most people think they will. During the series we meet a range of synths with a conscience, each created by a computer scientist named David Elster who is the son of Leo, who we meet in the start of the series. Before David died, he made these synths and his son is half synth and half human because of a reason you will find out in the series. Leo is with his other synths at the start of the series but they were attacked and captured while on the run. All of the synths are split up but Leo and another synth called Max are not and are left to die. The other synths are sent to London and basically forced into other lives.
Niska, another synth with a conscience, is put into a brothel and forced to sleep with men, along with other 'normal' synths. This is until she has had enough and decides to break out and attack people etc. Then her search starts to find the others. Meanwhile, Max and Leo are having some trouble with another group of 'synth snatchers'. Niska is an example of the more adult way to use the synths and is a way that some people could build them to serve other humans. Not the most efficient way, but I guess if you can think it then someone is going to copyright the idea. The problem with Niska is that she has a conscience and a sense of being and is very similar to a human, which is not good if you want AI to constantly sleep with customers... However, Niska was my favourite synth until the very end, which I will let your find out why.
Anita or Mia, as she is known later in the series, was the AI 'mother' to Leo but was captured and reprogrammed to become a synth which was sold to the Hawkins family. Anita was used to help around the house and is a perfect example of what most people would view artificial intelligence for in the future. She would cook, clean and look after the children. It all started to get a little weird when Mia, the code buried deep in her memory, started to reappear. Mia/Anita was a good example of how caring the future of AI could be, she was friendly, caring and loving towards everyone in the series.
Fred was a synth, who at the start of the series was working on a farm after being separated. He tried to escape but was captured again when they realised he wasn't like the other synths. He was given to a man named Hobb who experimented on him and found out about the others. Fred is a good example of if this technology got into the wrong hands and wanted them for himself.
In the series we meet a man named Dr. Millican who worked with Leo's dad until his ideas about synths who could think and feel. He had a synth named Odi, who was not a member of the 'rogue' synths but I still think their relationship was an important part of the presentation of synths in the series. He helped Dr. Millican with everything from pills to making food to providing medical aid. Another beautiful thing about their relationship is the fact that synths can't forget like Humans can, with Odi, he kept telling Dr. Millican about the times he shared with his wife that he forgot about because of his old age. Odi, in my eyes is another prime example of how synths/AI could be of use to us and why it would be technologically beneficial to explore further.
Max was the synth that Leo stuck with throughout the whole series as they were not separated in the attack at the beginning. He was a loyal synth to Leo and aided him greatly in finding the others. He is another good example of the type of AI that would be of use to us. He 'killed' himself in order to save Leo from being caught from the police, but that's not the end for him - don't worry.
Humans was a series that I thoroughly enjoyed and I would watch the next series as soon as it is on TV. Not just from a drama point of view but a technological point of view as well, it was such a good series which showed the viewers how AI can benefit our lives and gives us a glimpse of how it could also cause a divide in society and riots in the streets.
Here is a trailer for the series so you can really get hooked:
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Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Samsung and Microsoft phones
I have recently changed from a Microsoft Nokia Lumia phone to a Samsung galaxy phone, the difference to me is not going to go unreported. I have had my Samsung phone for about a week now and it is so much easier to use and the quality of the screen is so much better. It is lighter and faster processing, with TWO cameras, yes, my windows phone only had one...
Previously I owned a windows phone for about two years, and don't get me wrong it was a good phone and did everything I would expect from a smartphone these days, with the addition of Cortana, it came up to a similar level of that of an iPhone. Cortana was very useful and the features such as inner circle and the news summaries were good too. Samsung don't have a personal assistant such as Cortana or Siri but this is a feature that I am not too bothered about losing as it is not necessary.
Another reason I moved away from Microsoft was because of the most useless app store ever, the windows store. There is literally nothing in that store that anyone would want, no snapchat, no soundcloud, no instagram. On a Samsung phone, it is operated by android, and the google play store is the store used to buy apps, it has pretty much everything you could think of on there.
Now, let me get this straight, I have nothing against windows at all, I have a laptop and computer which are both windows 8, soon to be windows 10, but I think that, having the same layout for a desktop computer and a smartphone is not the best idea. The windows operating system works perfectly for desktops, but not quite as perfect for a handheld device. After all, who needs snapchat on their computer anyway, because its the same operating systems for both desktop and smartphone, there is no difference between them, when there really needs to be.
Overall, Microsoft's range of smartphones are not bad ones, but there are better ones out there, such as Samsung phones or apple. Its your own opinion that matters in the end anyway, if you have a windows phone and love it, don't listen to everyone else. My opinion is one that has been changed because of the conversion from one brand to another.
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Friday, 3 April 2015
Benefits of virtual reality
Most people believe that gaming and virtual reality are bad for us, especially for children. The amount of times child and adolescent behavior are blamed on the nature of the games they play is un-real. However, some people do not realize how much it can help us as a society and help our jobs. If children and teenagers are interesting in gaming and making games then we should encourage them to seek out a profession in their chosen path. I've seen how passionate people can be about gaming, since at my university the computer science course is so close to the games technology course. This year I've found two of my best friends on the gaming course, and they cannot wait to start coding for games properly. (at the moment we are only first year).
Back to virtual reality, it is the technology that companies are moving towards developing now. Oculus rift is an example of the virtual reality headset that is being developed by Oculus VR. Sony have also been working on headsets to be used with the PS4 console. Most people have a view of virtual reality for being just for games and letting people be completely immersed in the game they are playing. I have some reasons why VR is not just for that, not matter how awesome Skyrim would be in virtual reality.
Virtual reality can be used for more than gaming. It can be used for design of many things such as furniture, machines and in the picture (on the left) it is used at an Audi warehouse to design new cars. It makes it easier and probably quicker to design and shape how you want the object to look. It will probably will also be more accurate and reliable.
The picture on the right also shows virtual reality being used by US Navy training. This style of training reaps many benefits for them. Firstly, it means that no one will be injured or killed, because many officers and soldiers are killed in training exercises, therefore this prevents many deaths, which are most likely to be accidental. Another benefit is that you could probably record the training exercise and play it back to analyse their performance.
Thirdly, virtual reality can be used to train other people than soldiers, for example, doctors and surgeons. If they can practice on virtual patients instead of real people the pressure will be less because the experience they are gaining are not at the potential expense of a life. It will be less stressful to operate on a virtual person, and in this situation, they will be also be able to play it back and evaluate where they went wrong.
In summary, hopefully, this post has made you think about the different and ever expanding reasons why virtual reality isn't just for gaming.
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Back to virtual reality, it is the technology that companies are moving towards developing now. Oculus rift is an example of the virtual reality headset that is being developed by Oculus VR. Sony have also been working on headsets to be used with the PS4 console. Most people have a view of virtual reality for being just for games and letting people be completely immersed in the game they are playing. I have some reasons why VR is not just for that, not matter how awesome Skyrim would be in virtual reality.
Virtual reality can be used for more than gaming. It can be used for design of many things such as furniture, machines and in the picture (on the left) it is used at an Audi warehouse to design new cars. It makes it easier and probably quicker to design and shape how you want the object to look. It will probably will also be more accurate and reliable.
The picture on the right also shows virtual reality being used by US Navy training. This style of training reaps many benefits for them. Firstly, it means that no one will be injured or killed, because many officers and soldiers are killed in training exercises, therefore this prevents many deaths, which are most likely to be accidental. Another benefit is that you could probably record the training exercise and play it back to analyse their performance.
Thirdly, virtual reality can be used to train other people than soldiers, for example, doctors and surgeons. If they can practice on virtual patients instead of real people the pressure will be less because the experience they are gaining are not at the potential expense of a life. It will be less stressful to operate on a virtual person, and in this situation, they will be also be able to play it back and evaluate where they went wrong.
In summary, hopefully, this post has made you think about the different and ever expanding reasons why virtual reality isn't just for gaming.
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Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Python and C++
In the last six months I have learnt two new languages, not French and Portuguese, not those languages, no. I have been learning to speak in a different language entirely. As the name of this blog suggests, I have been looking at programming languages since I have been here at uni. First I looked at Python, quite a simple language really, a good one to start with. Secondly, I have and still am looking at C++. Similar to Python in some ways, C++ includes more complex functions and keywords.
At the first term of uni, we looked at Python, a language that can be used on any machine with any type of operating system. The only thing you need is to download the Python IDLE, which is free, then your away. I have had some previous experience to programming in Python and found it easy to get started with it. However, if you are new to programming entirely, Python is a good place to start and there is an endless amount of resources and tutorials online for you. Python is also a language that is self-explanatory, for example the code:
print("Hello World")
will literally print the phrase 'Hello World' to the screen. The only think you have to be careful about is the syntax, which means how it is structured. For example, the line above will not work if the print statement is a capital P. This is why people find Python so easy to begin with. However, from what I have learnt, programming takes a lot of practise and is not all about throwing yourself into coding, sometimes you actually have to think about how a program is going work and fit together.
C++ is a language that was created from the language C. First named 'C with classes', then changed to C++, in my opinion, it is a similar language to Python, just with different syntax and add-ons. As stated from the website (http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html) 'C++ makes it easier to manage memory and adds several features to allow "object-oriented" programming and "generic" programming. Basically, it makes it easier for programmers to stop thinking about the nitty-gritty details of how the machine works and think about the problems they are trying to solve.'
In my eyes, C++ is a better language to make bigger applications in, purely because of the type of compiler and software I have been using to write programs. With python it is a blank screen to type in and a window that executes the code. In the C++ software I am using, (Microsoft Visual Studio 2013), it gives you a list of header files and source files listed neatly at the side. It also has an output window to view errors and the area in which you write the program is included all in the same window. I just like the idea of it all being in one place, even if a command prompt window is opened to execute your code.
Overall, both are good languages and are the only two languages I have ever programmed in. But this was my opinion about both of the languages. Although, I am in C++ mode at the moment and prefer it, this is only because I am starting a small project for my coursework. Python is a good starting point for any new programmer and I highly recommend starting there. If you are debating whether or not to start programming for a subject, degree or even a hobby, I'd say just go for it. It is a very good skill to have and links to maths and other topics under computer science.
If you wish to start programming yourself, I have left a few websites below to take a look at, which I use at uni:
https://www.python.org/
http://www.cplusplus.com/
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