The Visually Impaired Discovering Life in New Ways with the iPhone!

I never thought about a visually impaired person using an iPhone with its flat screen and no brail yet, that is exactly what many of them are doing. They have found a way of making the iPhone their own tool. There are apps being made for the blind by the blind. The app VizWiz is helping them make clothing decisions by allowing them to take a photograph of their cloths and sending it to a service that tells them what color it is. They are also finding ways of being even more self dependent with apps like Sendero an accessible GPS that tells the user’s current position by giving them their street, city, cross street and nearby points of interest. The visually impaired can feel the difference in coins but can’t tell the difference in bill amounts. Now, there is another app called LookTel Money Reader that allows the user to scan the bill of money being handed to them so, they know exactly how much money is being returned to them. Instead of them just trusting that the person is giving them the right amount back. The iPhone has an option that allows the user to have the iPhone verbally read what is on the screen allowing the person to put their finger on the screen to be told where they are on the screen. This allows them to navigate the screen and choose the right button that now all they need to do is double tap to enter. Another app Paisios is working on an app that will not only tell someone what color their clothes are but, also tell them what other colors it goes with since, for many visually impaired the word yellow only mean ripe banana they have never actually seen yellow. The apps that stick are the ones that are practical, accessible, fast, and easy to use. Some of the apps they wish were out there are ones that offer navigation that works indoors, informs them of construction sites to avoid, and describes to them what restaurants and stores are on the streets as they are walking down them. They also have some of the same concerns as seeing people about becoming too dependent on the new technology. They are concerned that the new generation with all these new app options that are reading out loud to them they will forget how to read brail.   

  

I think these are great apps. It just shows you that technology is truly expanding into levels of use that are making the world absolutely limitless no matter your abilities are or are not. I agree with the idea that we always have to be concern with becoming too dependent on technology for everything. Yet, why would anyone want to discourage it if it can improve the quality of someone’s life by allowing them to do something they would otherwise be unable to do. I know I would not want to discourage anyone from living their lives to the fullest.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2012/05/how-the-blind-are-reinventing-the-iphone/256589/   

Are You Your Employer's New Threat!

In this article they are warning Android users to be aware that there’s a malware that is infecting mobile handsets of Android users. This malware is infecting these Smartphone’s running Google’s Android operating system when the Smartphone is use to access one of a dozen websites that have the malware. The way these sites are doing the infecting is by using an iframe tag that is included in the site which links the Smartphone to the malicious software that is then downloaded automatically once the site is visited. It does this by prompting the owner of the Smartphone to install the downloaded app. The researchers make note that this is the first time hacked websites are being used to target and infect mobile devices. These installations are only possible on phones configured to run apps that are acquired from other sources than Google Play market. When someone visits these websites that don’t have an Android it returns an error message that prevents malicious activity from happening. Research shows that at the current time the malware appears to serve as a simple TCP relay or proxy while it is posing to be a system update. Even though at this time it doesn’t seem to cause any direct harm to the mobile devices the concern about this Android Trojan called NotCompatible is it could be used to gain illicit access to private networks if the infected Android was to be used as a proxy.

I wonder how employers will be handling this new threat when the majority of employees have Smartphone’s. I don’t know how many are using the Android operating system by Google but I’m sure it is a large number. This just may be hacker’s newest way of trying to hack a company’s files by gaining access from the inside. In the article they mentioned that “the company’s security app automatically blocks installation of the software.” I got the impression they were talking about the researchers company but it was unclear exactly what company they were talking about. This would be a good solution for a company if this was an accessible security app that other companies could install to protect their networks from being compromised. 

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/05/android-users-targeted-for-the-first-time-in-drive-by-download-attacks.ars?clicked=related_right 

Giant Search Engine VS. The Author Guild, Who wins?

Has anybody thought of fighting against a giant? I found this article about a lawsuit between Google, the giant search engine and the author guild. The author guild defines themselves as a non-profit American organization of and for authors. They have about 80 thousand members who are in the book publishing industry including published authors, literary agents and attorneys. Their conflict with Google started on September 20, 2005 when they filed a lawsuit against Google for its Book Search Project. The Author Guild claimed that Google was committing copyright infringement. The main cause of the litigation was distribution of scanned books that were still in copyright on Google search engine. On the other hand, Google responded that they had fair use of the materials according to the US copyright law. On October 28, 2008, the legal dispute was settled by Google's announce of payout agreement of $125 million to the organization.

Recently, Google is involved in another lawsuit with NY library and they sensed the Author Guild's movement. Google wants the organization stay out of this case. Additionally, they urged a judge keep the group out of the case. Their action is, in fact, forcing authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant.

While I was reading the article and informed myself about these cases, I could not decide which side I should stand for. As a consumer of the book publishing industry, I am siding with Google in terms of distributing scanned copies of books. However, at the end of the day, it will hit the industry. The important part is keeping the balance. Nowadays, consumers have access to either free or low priced published contents. Therefore, the book publishing companies should come up with creative ways to maintain competitiveness.

Any other thoughts?

DRM Free E-Books

I found an article that talks about how a big publisher, Tor Books, is planning on dropping DRM completely from their e-books. DRM stands for digital rights management. DRM is a technique used to control the distribution of information and content and limit its use.  DRM is an adaptive technology that can change to accommodate different industry specifications. By doing this DRM helps with copyright protection and illegal distribution. The most common technique DRM uses is encryption. The digital data is encrypted to ensure that it can only run on a certain platform and cannot be copied or transferred. DRM also uses restrictive licensing agreements to ensure that the item purchased is controlled. The main reason DRM is used by various industries is to attempt to fight piracy and limit copyright infringement.

The article talks about how DRM makes life harder for the customer, begging the question why use it if it makes you lose customers. DRM is also quite ineffective. DRM is not working as it should because it does not stop piracy or file sharing. Encryptions on DRM can be broken. Asides from the encryptions there are many very simple methods that can be used to bypass DRM. Hackers and users are getting more tech savvy everyday and they have come up with simple yet effective methods to avoid DRM. A few ways customers can circumvent DRM are:

·      When dealing with audio files: they can be burned onto a cd and the ripped from that cd into a DRM-free platform. This can be done to all music files. It can also be done to movies.

·      With books: physical copies of books can be scanned into a computer and made into an eBook.

·      With software: there are many types of software that have been developed to specifically decrypt software to a DRM-free form.

So then, why go through the hassle of it all? It is much simpler and more efficient for the publishers to provide DRM-free e-books so that their customers can use any platform they like instead of being tied down to a certain platform. This will probably open the doorway for other publisher to do the same, making the playing field more equal between e-book providers, such as Amazon Barnes&Nobles and Apple, because the prices of the e-books will begin to decrease as well.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/digital-content/232901070

Robot Soldiers

I found this article that talks about the ethics of robot soldiers. I think robot soldiers are inevitable. The way technology is advancing and the constant increase in people's reliance on technology; soon we will be looking at technology to fight our wars. One of the biggest questions this poses is how can we allow technology to take someone's life. I don't know that we are not already doing that. Think about homing missiles and how they find their target in order to explode. Yes, we do choose the target for the missile, but it is still up to the missile to get the job done. Also, like with any soldier, the robot soldiers will need orders from someone. Those orders are what will determine what the robot does or who he kills. So, technically it is not really the technology that makes the decision it is still us humans. In the article it says that the robots would have the decision making power, however, regular soldiers also have decision making powers. If the technology that goes into making the robots is meant to act the same as how soldiers are meant to act, then the robots will still have to have orders to follow in order to complete their tasks. Also the likelihood of other nations also developing technological warfare instruments is very high. This makes me think that it will most likely be robots against robots, which may be better for humanity. This way people do not have to get hurt for any governmental issues with other countries. I personally think it is a non issue. I like the idea of robot soldiers, with humans controlling them of course.

Anybody have any other ideas?

http://www.lawfareblog.com/2012/04/law-and-ethics-for-robot-soldiers/