Acostello17's Blog

Adobe V. Apple

acostello17 — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:21:46 +0000

The conflict between Apple and Adobe right now regards Apple’s resistance to allowing the use of Flash on Apple products. On April 8,20120 Steve jobs “recommitted to never allowing Flash to run on the iPhone or iPad” and also “banned Adobe’s new Flash-to-iPhone C compiler which was to go on sale Saturday, April 10.” As both Apple and adobe are thriving companies, at the top of the technology pyramid, it might seem odd that they wouldn’t being working together. However, Apple is being stubborn and despite the fact that Adobe could greatly contribute to their products, Apple has gone out of its way to make sure that the Apple products like the iphone, ipad, and itouch are not compatible with Adobe’s Flash. This has made many people, specifically Adobe workers, users, and supporters, outraged. They can’t seem to understand why Apple would do this to them. What harm could really be done by programing Apple products so they can incorporate Flash into their products. In my opinion, I think that Apple is being ridiculous. It is such a successful company that it shouldn’t be worrying about any competition or harm other companies, such as Adobe could do. If anything, allowing Adobe’s content to run successfully on Apple products would be beneficial for Apple. Apple is being selfish and stubborn and I fully understand why so many people are upset.

Net Neutrality

acostello17 — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:12:49 +0000

The recent ruling of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals regarding net neutrality has the potential to change the internet greatly. It will allow “ISPs to restrict certain types of services such as Hulu.com or VOIp services in order to force you to pay for cable or wired telephone services.” Net neutrality is what allows people to pay the same price for all services of the internet, but this this new ruling it may be possible for websites to charge people more for their services. I personally think this a bad ruling. ISPs should not have the power to make such restrictions. People all over the world enjoy using websites free of charge, and will be very upset if they are told that they can no longer have access to these sites without paying. In my opinion the internet’s ( and almost of of its services with the exception of doing things like purchasing items) should be free. I don’t see how anyone ( other than the people who run the websites that are going to start charging people) will benefit from this. Even these companies may be negatively effected by this ruling because it is very possible that people will stop using the site once they find out that they have to pay. So in the end everyone loses.

Government’s Use of Social Networking sites

acostello17 — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:32:40 +0000

An interesting question now-a-days is whether or not government should be able to gather information about citizens by looking at social networking sites. While a person could argue this use of social networking sites by government is fair or unfair, I think it all really depends on the case. For instance, in general i do not think it is appropriate for the government to snoop around people’s information and personal life just because they can. This would be considered intrusive and unnecessary; however, if the government has a legitimate reason to be using the social networking site to get information this may be acceptable. But when would it ever be right for the government to intrude on a persons personal life? Well let’s say someone went missing, or was suspected as a criminal. By looking on that person’s facebook or myspace, they may be able to acquire more information to either help find that lost person, or prove them guilty/ innocent. The important thing is that the government does not over step its power and rights and start going into people’s social networking pages just because they can. I feel that it is only acceptable when it will help government in some substantial way. However, it is very possible that the government will not respect their boundaries, so in that case people should just be that much more cautious about what they put on their social networking pages.

Cloud Computing

acostello17 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:38:36 +0000

The definition of cloud computing is “ anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet.” These services can be broken down into three categories, consisting of: Infrastructure-as-a-Service(also known as IaaS) , Platform-as-a-Service (also known as PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (also known as SaaS). What makes cloud computing so unique are three specific qualities. One of these is that it is elastic, meaning a person can get as little or as much service as they want whenever they want. Another is that it can either be public or private. Public cloud serves sell service to anyone who wants it, while private cloud computing is only offered to a specific number of people. Either way, public or private, the point of cloud computing is to provide people with “easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.”

There may be issues regarding the emerging technology. because with each new service, people are going to find flaws and make complaints. The main downside of cloud computing is that is has a great appeal to big companies. Although it is great that cloud computing can be so useful for large companies, this means that a majority of people will not benefit directly from the services of cloud computing.

This information can be found on http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid201_gci1287881,00.html

First Message of the Internet

acostello17 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:51:41 +0000

The first message sent over the internet was sent on October 29, 1969. The writing that obtains this information shows that the program was being loaded at 21:00, or 9:00PM. The message was successfully sent at 22:30, or 10:30PM. This information was found in records at UCLA. It seems that the message was transfred from the UCLA SDS Sigma 7 Host computer to the SRI SDS 940 Host computer. The message sent only said “login”, but during the process, the system crashed and the SRI computer only received “Lo”. Those at UCLA did not give up though, and an hour later their attempt to login was finally successful. Although the only purpose of this transaction was to login the UCLA computer into the SRI system, the action was remarkable as it marked a huge advancement in the world of technology. UCLA and SRI were able to talk back and forth through their hosts, something that had never been done before. Even though this small communication is not very exciting, we must keep in mind that the process of sending messages over the internet had to begin somewhere, and this was one of the first baby steps. It is amazing to think that about only 40 years ago sending messages via the internet was only being invented, as now people do that every single day. This just goes to show how far technology has come in such a short amount of time.

Abstract Typography

acostello17 — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:24:32 +0000

This is my abstract typography project. I used the letter “K” and different shades of blue to create my abstract picture. I enjoyed this project because it was pretty simple but at the same time it was fun. Since we were allowed to choose our letter and color the project was more exciting because we didn’t have a strict set of rules to follow.

Google and China

acostello17 — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:14:25 +0000

A conflict between Google and China has recently occurred due to two Gmail accounts being hacked in China. A few years ago, when Google agreed to do business in China, they made it very clear that they would, “carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services.” Google also commented, ” If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.” Since Google gave China a fair warning that they would not tolerate any nonsense, it would seem fair that Google is considering putting an end to its business with China. Google has not taken the occurence lightly. The company is currently making an effort to strengthen its security so nothing like this happens again. I personally think Google is overreacting about the hacking that has occurred because people’s emails get hacked much more frequently in the United States, so it is unfair that they take such drastic measures when only two Gmails were hacked in China. I would suggest that Google just gives China a warning that if anything like this happens again, business between them will over. In a way Google should almost thank China for bringing it to their attention that they need to improve their security. Hacking is never a good thing of course, but since no real damage was done in this specific situation, the only thing China really did for Google was show them that they need to make improvements. If it were my decision I would make sure that the people responsible for hacking the Gmails faced consequences, and then the rest of Chinese citizens did not have to pay for the wrong doings of their peers.

Character Character

acostello17 — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:20:20 +0000

This is my first character character. It is an exact replica of Jordan. It was very fun to create.

This is my second character character. It is a plate with eggs and bacon on it. It was very frustrating to make and the eggs were impossible to form with characters on the key board. I am very happy tp be done with this project.

Visual Vocabulary

acostello17 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:12:04 +0000

This is my visual vocabulary Photoshop project. I think the project allowed me to gain a better understanding of the different typography terms. Since it was a visual project, I believe it will be easier to remember the vocabulary. I enjoyed how there was plenty of room for creativity instead of just one way we had to do the project.

Facebook Privacy

acostello17 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:12:52 +0000

About a month ago, Facebook changed its privacy settings and sent out a notification to all of its users to inform them of the new changes. The new privacy settings actually allow strangers to gather much more information about Facebook users, and view more pictures than they previously could. As over 100 million people currently have Facebook accounts and an abundance of personal information and photos are posted on peoples’ profiles, several privacy groups have filed complaints about the recent changes. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and EPIC, are just a few of the ten companies that have spoken out about Facebook’s privacy terms. The biggest concern is that the majority of people did not even read the message sent to them by Facebook about the new privacy terms and instead just agreed to the terms. Due to this many people aren’t even aware that what they agreed to was to allow their Facebook profiles to be more public than they had been before. Most people probably thought that the new policies would keep their information and photos even more private. An executive director from EPIC declared, “The company [Facebook] should not be allowed to run down the privacy dial on so many American consumers.” I think it is good that these privacy companies are taking action as the users who did not take the time to read the terms are not even aware of the information they agreed to expose to the world. Facebook should not have changed the privacy settings as they were fine before, and people had already chosen the settings they wanted regarding how much of their profile they felt should be public.