The Connected Life

I don't know your opinion but to me the whole concept of the internet of things scares me! After watching the Sony Ericsson video in the lecture it has really got me thinking.. Is the internet of things the future.. or is it the present? and is this wired world really that necessary?

Really the internet of things is no new concept.. as much as you may have been unaware the internet of things is happening around us, and has been for quite some time now. According to the GSMA there are already 9 billion total connected devices worldwide that's more devices connected to the internet than people on earth! and that number is "going to explode to 24 billion devices by 2020" according to new statistics released by GSMA. 

What do you make of the:

Top 10 Internet of Things Products of 2009

Top 10 Internet of Things Developments of 2010

What about all of the avenues that it would open up for hackers. Pachube has developed a 24hour hackathon purely devoted to the internet of things apps and think about it if there were 24billion internet of things devices out there how easy it would be for hacking to take place. Already we are aware of the risks associated with hacking but being able to hack a door lock to open, a car to crash or an oven to burn is a great concern to me and it makes me wonder is it all that necessary why cant we just do it all ourselves? 

I have really enjoyed blogging this semester and may even continue to do so in the future I guess ill have to see. One thing that I do know is that prior to DIGC202 I swore I would never get a Twitter Account but I will admit I actually don't mind twitter at all and I WILL continue to tweet in days, weeks and months to come. I never thought I would be followed by people like Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Blackberry Australia or The McGrath Foundation. 

Goodbye Iraq War.. Hello Technology War

Hi I'm Elise and I'm not a massive apple fan and yep you heard me right.. I'm not a massive apple fan. You know when you look around class and you see that one token PC user.. Yep that's me! and it's not that I have my laptop from High School and it just needs upgrading.. I just bought a new laptop that wasnt a Mac. Ok so yes I know how to use a PC better than I do a Mac but I honestly have little interest in purchasing a Mac.

So you ask what about my phone...? I swore I would never get an iPhone but yes I do have an iPhone and the only reason that I have one is that I wasn't given an option... Why did I have no option you ask...? Long story short.. My phone company had to pay out my contract but the terms was that I couldn't change mobile companies and my only option for a phone (other than my old one that cause them to have to pay out the plan in the first place) was an iPhone. So I was definitely forced into this one.

Having said that I'm not a massive Mac user I do own an iPod touch (couldnt tell you the last time I used it as I now use my Phone) and I do use iTunes and without these the way in which we listen to music would be so different.. We may still even use our discmans (Haha in writing this my computer has not recognised the word 'discman' and thinks its spelled incorrectly) that are pushed up the back of our wardrobes somewhere.

But enough about my ranting... (and if you think I'm ranting this guy takes ranting to a whole new level... I just came across this when searching for info on Macs and PCs) {WARNING.. Explicit language used and may offend some of the Mac users out there..}

We all know about the "technology wars" between Google and Apple and even Microsoft where it is really a battle of the technologies and companies in order to be number one in the digital world.

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Yes its great to have that healthy competition and to further company goals and objectives but  if they are all coming up with the technologies, selling the proposed number of products and making a profit does it matter so much? At the end of the day it comes down to our opinions and preferences as the users!

Are you more of a Mac or PC user? iPhone or Android user? Why do you have these preferences and what is your opinion on the technology wars?

Social Networks spark flames

We all know that information that is posted on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites can go viral and as we saw in Ted's lecture the impact that this sort of information can have. Yes I had heard about the protests and demonstrations that were going on in the #mena region however I did not understand the impact that social networks had on these events.

Another great example of the impact that social networks can have on specific events is the London riots. We all saw reports or news bulletins with information regarding the riots and the part that social networks played but how much of an impact did social networks?

It was the shooting of Mark Duggan on the 4th of August that sparked a series of riots (which can be followed on this interactive timeline) The first form of social media recognised was the use of Blackberry messenger which was named as a "key tool in the organisation of activities" and it was later released that Police would be investigating and would be able to track down and arrest those whom had been organising and communicating via BBM. Like what happened in Egypt (but in relation to phone networks not the internet) the government shut off phone communication networks in order to stop/ prevent protests which only seemed to spark more!

After the phone networks were turned off the blame for the riots was next shifted to social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.. The Guardian complied a unique database with over 2.5million tweets with relation to the riots which have been presented in a time line "Twitter traffic during the riots" (Definitely worth a look) which shows patterns with relation to events which occurred.

Although social networks and other forms of modern day technology had a lot to blame they also had a major affect on the clean up from the riots. What do you think about the affects of social networking and new media technology and the effect that it has on riots and events (mena, Cronulla riots etc)? Could more have been done to prevent this sort of affect?

I also found this interesting fact.. (Seems appropriate as my assignment is on e-retail and it also relates to this blog post...)
During the riots Amazon.co.uk's top sports and leisure sellers included police batons and baseball bats..

Search "Hack" and prepare to be hacked!

Sure we all know what hacking and viruses are and the majority of us have been hacked or had viruses on our computers whether we know it or not (Yes I am also including the friend/siblings etc that 'hack' your facebook page!)

So while thinking about last weeks lecture topic and how I would go about it, I looked at some information about hacking, the history of hacking and what information was actually out there on hacking (including websites recommended in the lecture). Being a bit of a smart arse I posted a twitter comment...

and do you know what?!

Today when I received my monthly security report sure enough on the 19th of September I had 3 web threats ...

When I had a closer look at the web threats sure enough they were all from websites which provided information on hacking. (Not happy!.. so don't expect too much external research in this blog!)

I guess this goes to show how easy it is to be exposed to threats on the internet considering I was being so careful as well. Thank goodness to virus protection I say!

Sticking to what I know I was reading through the news as I do on a daily basis and I came across the following article "Googling Heidi Klum? Prepare for a virus or two" (don't worry this link has no viruses!). Sure enough we all know there are viruses out there but for there to be a list of the Top 10 list of the Most Dangerous Celebrities to Google is a worry! 

In a way I guess I respect hackers as I know that what they are able to do is so very clever and I would never be able to do it myself, however what I question is whether their uses or purpose behind the hacking is... 

What is your opinion on hacking? Prior to this weeks topic were you aware of viruses and hacking to its true extent?