LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE

In class, we played a game which I believe is called a truth and a lie (like two truths and a lie?).

 Basically, each one of us had to provide two statements, one lie and one truth. The challenge is to make our classmates believe that the lie is actually true. To do this, it is ideal to provide a statement that sounds almost absurd so our classmates wouldn't believe it's true and find a statement that almost seems too easy to not be true (does this even make sense??). Or, we could also take the risk and do it the other way around in the hopes to trick our classmates.

I liked this game because I'm usually good at telling when people are lying and when they are telling the truth. It's like a special talent I have.

I was a bit worried though because I'm not very comfortable with lying. In the end, I ended up fooling most of my classmates and making them believe my lie.

It was a very fun and interesting activity to do and I'd definitely try to play this again with friends soon. :)

HACKER vs. CRACKER

Whenever I hear the word "hacker" I always think of some computer genius or nerd who through his techy ways managed to get into someone else's computer system to wreak havoc.

I always thought a hacker could be someone who hacks into a government site, for example, and post false information. Or probably someone who would go into a social networking site of someone else to post malicious stuff or maybe even someone who would go into someone else's personal accounts to steal information or something else.

I learned through the video I watched though, that I had the wrong connotation of the word hacker all along and I was actually referring to a "cracker."

The RFC 1392: Internet Users' Glossary defines "hacker" as:

A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular.

Apparently, the hackers are the good guys while the crackers are actually the bad guys.

Crackers are people whose purpose is to break security measures for various purposes. They use their knowledge not for good reasons.

When Ignorance is NOT Bliss

Let's go back to some of the many IT misconceptions we discussed in our INTRICT class, one I remember us talking about was the misconception that using plastic screensavers(the one we used to put over our computer monitors) which we believed to filter out radiation actually worked. We learned that this isn't true because in order for a screensaver to really filter out the little radiation our computers produce(very low and extremely low frequency radiation), we would need to install glass screensavers WITHIN our computers. Along with that misconceptions the false belief that being around computers could cause you cancer. Like I already said, computers only give off very little radiation, not enough to cause health problems. I used to have a professor who used to warn us not to put our mobile phones around our body because she believed them to cause radiation which she said may lead to infertility. I see now that this is a lot far fetched.

I also remember us talking about the Y2K bug and how a lot of people freaked out back then because they believed that the Y2K bug would lead to them losing everything they saved in the bank and everything they have on their computers. In reality, the Y2K bug was a very simple problem. All they had to do is fix the date and everything would come back to normal.

Another misconception we used to believe was that using mobile phones in gasoline station might cause a combustion. This is completely ridiculous to me because, what does your phone have to do with it???

These misconceptions prove that we fear what we do not know.We should keep learning new things to discover what works and what does not.

PIRATE

Piracy. Piracy. Piracy.

What could I really say about piracy?

Not a lot seeing as I'm admittedly guilty of downloading some songs online without paying for them and watching the occasional films I leech off my friends' computers. So yeah, I guess I can't really cast the first stone among the people who choose to pirate stuff instead of pay for them.

I do remember before when I knew nothing about piracy. I honestly thought downloading songs and the like from the internet is entirely free. I mean, that was the only way I knew I could download songs. I didn't know you had to pay for them. I swear. I guess I was indeed young and naive.

And when I was a bit more knowledgeable and finally found out that wasn't how things were supposed to be, I still couldn't do things the right way because I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to pay for my purchases when I don't even have a credit card or anything. In addition, purchasing those isn’t very cheap.

I guess I would've been more willing to pay for them and support the artists had they made their prices lower so their products would be more accessible. Also, they should provide more payment procedures to choose from so that we could pay in the easiest mode of payment for us.

Techy-fy the Government Part 3

For the last part of reporting on potential solutions to government problems, five of my classmates shared their suggestions.

First, Ms. Lo proposed creating hi-tech contact lenses which has the ability to zoom in and out, take pictures, and even record videos. To me, it still sounds a lot Sci-Fi and I'm not sure if such technology is possible in the near future.

Then, Ms. Ma proposed Find My Luggage. A tracker would be installed on the luggage's locks and you would need to download an app on your phone in order to track your luggage. This way, it would be easy to locate them and luggage lost would be avoided.

Next, Ms. Versoza proposed a Food Analyzer technology. This gadget aims to analyze the food we eat and provide us their nutritional facts. With the help of this, we would be able to watch what we eat and help us choose healthier options.

Ms. Lobatique afterwards suggested a technology that would not allow you to use your mobile phone inside your car. This way, vehicular accidents would be avoided and drivers would pay more attention to the road instead of their mobile phones.

Lastly, Ms. Blanquera proposed using CCTV's to survey areas during natural disasters, especially during floods. This way, the people would know which routes are safe to take and which ones aren't.

Techy-fy the Government Part 2

The class continued with the presentations of potential solutions to government related problems. Five students reported today including me.

First was a suggestion by Mr. Ludovico of a Radio Frequency Identification Device. It is basically a device which contains information about the owner of the vehicles and the vehicle itself. This would help in tracking motorists as there would be Radio Frequency Identification Scanners in every traffic light. This may help reduce traffic violations and make sure everyone follows our regulations or is punished rightfully if caught disobeying the law.

Next reporter was myself. I suggested having an Electronic Barangay Recording System because I noticed how a lot of work and papers processed in our Barangays are still being done manually and this usually consumes a lot of time and effort. Having automated processes in the Barangay would save a lot of time and energy and retrieval of information would be so much easier.

Third was Ms. Gonzales with her proposal of putting up CCTV's in rural areas. A lot of rural areas still don't have CCTV's so Ms. Gonzales suggested putting them in very strategic places where criminals can't tamper with them or steal them. She also suggested having a government card for public officials. Basically, all the officials' funds would be in the card and they could use the card to pay for their transactions. This way, we would know where the money is going and this way, reduce corruption. She also proposed putting Digital Map Directories in train and bus stations to help with the people who are visitors or new in some places.

Next up was Ms. Hatol with her proposal of creating an app called MyGov available for all androids, iPhones, Windows phones and the like. The app would contain a list of all government projects. This way, we would know what the elected public officials are doing.

Lastly, Mr. De Leon proposed a Light Powered but Cheap Solar Energy. The idea is to provide cheap solar panels to provide electricity especially for people affected by natural disasters.