Mechanical Failure

New technology is great, but there is always the risk of a system failure. Because these machines hold large quantities of information and can transmit it anywhere, they are very helpful. But for this same reason, any glitch can be tremendously harmful. Just recently, electronic trading at the Chicago Board Options Exchange was shut down on a Friday from 12:00 PM untill the close of the market. Only open outcry floor trading was available. As a result, the exchange traded 1.8 million contracts on that Friday compared to 2.8 million contracts the day before. This could have resulted in large losses in profits for heavy traders. Fortunately, the electronic orders were able to be electronicly routed to other exchanges. This was seen as officials at the other exchanges reported a spike in volume.
Eventually, if a larger mechanical failure occours, it is possible that the electronic markets will be shut down, resulting in large losses for those who can not access the live trading floor, like me. The best way to solve this is force companies to spend more money on server infrastructre, maintainence and security to ensure ample room for failure only in "clusters." This would greatly decrease the likelihood of a massive system failure.
Business Week: Electronic Trading Interrupted

www.veoh.com

I was browsing around the internet and ran accross Veoh. It's like Napster and Youtube except even better and only videos. I downloaded the client and signed up for a free account, and now I can download lots of movies and music videos ect for free. I've heard they have entire movies like Allie G and South Park. I'm sure this must be because they haven't gotten caught yet, but for the mean time its really badass. And if you don't want to download, you can still go to the website and strem the video, for free. This is great for us the consumer, but it hurts the performer and the movie company. As the movie company gets less money, they will hire less talent and the quality of production may decrease, so they can keep their profit high. (They are a profit maximizing firm anyways) Eventually, the uncontrolable masses will be using the internet to get their media, and for free. The next best thing the movie companies can do is then support Veoh in return for ad revenue sharing. (In a way, how cable TV is today. There is even room for premium content) Make it the next big thing that syncs with the iPod. Sure, the movie company lawers may shut down Veoh, but there will just be another one, and another one, and another one. They can only fight for so long until they must give in. Thats a lot of money waisted on lawyers and TIME letting content be stolen online. The sooner the move, the better.

This is a prime example of how networked technologies have evolved the difficulties and overall logistics of media distribution. It is clear that using the internet is quicker, requires zero materiels, and bears no responsibility like a movie rental. But it also brings up issues of intellectual property rights as the files are easily transfered from one user's computer to another.

Veoh

Are My Shoes Watching Me?

For the past year or so, Nike and Apple have had an agreement together to sell the "Nike + iPod Sport Kit." Its simple in opperation: A small wireless device is put in the Nike running shoe and a counterpart wireless device is plugged into the iPod. Then data is recorded to the iPod, such as speed, calories burnt, distance run, ect. You can even sync the data to your computer every time you sync your iPod. This is great because people who really enjoy running can take their experience to another, more enjoyable level. The data can be usefule for training, or even online competitons held by Nike.

However, a report has come out recently that has made people think twice about what they are putting in their shoes. The report states that with the proper detection systems, a person's location and dirction can be traced based on the origional ID number that is being put out in the open air waves from the device in the shoe. Specifically, the sport kit device will transmit upto 60 feet. This clearly shows a danger as we are moving into the "wireless age." Everything that has wireless capabilities can be traced and located: A cell phone, wireless internet cards, even the little device in the running shoes.

The report goes further to point out that Apple and Nike could have taken more steps to prevent problems from arising such as encrypting the signal sent out by the wireless chip. This simple precaution would ensure protection of the right to privacy.

We are setting the scene to move towards a state where we are tagged and tracked like animals by our "superiours."

Cyber Terrorist Attack

A posting on a "jihadist website" claims that there will be several cyber attacks on US financial institutions including the stock market, banks and investment firms. They claim that they will delete mass amounts of data, potentially ruining financial companies and investors. Every threat must be taken seriously; even if these "terrorists" don't have the working knowledge to hack into large servers, it is verry possible that they have the money to hire someone who DOES know how to break into comptuers. This threat exemplifies the dystopian view of networked techonlogy and computer systems that work to store and automate financial data. The only steps that can be taken are the hiring of people to constantly test and protect the network from hackers and thieves. They must work hard to keep the edge on their "opponients." However, it must be realized that before the birth of this relatively new technology, all the data was kept in paper form large file cabinets. Just as computers can be hacked, paper can be burt or shred. A terrorst could potentially achieve the same goal in the past as he can now, so no new threat really arises from this networked technology, just a threat of a completely different nature.
CBN New Article

Second Life

After downloading and installing second life, which was pretty easy, I connected to the network to find out what this thing is all about. After the load screen finished, I was taken to a grand imaginary world. People flying around, odd looking things placed in odd places, and chaos and confusion were this first things that came to my mind. I knew that it was going to take a while to get used to this new world. I started walking around trying to find something to do and eventually gave up. I was board and frustrated at my lack of understanding as to how people can be entertained by this seemingly pointless game. Eventually, I decided that I should give it a shot and start taking to someone. I walked up to a house, and a lady told me to come in. After we said hello, we sat down and started talking. She said she was a mother and that she had been playing Second Life for a while. She mentioned another game similiar to SL called Moove, but she said that she prefered SL because you can do more. After this and a little more chatter, I decided that we didn't have much in common. I left her house and left my SL.

Last Thursday, we met for class in the UT section of SL. I thought that this was kind of odd. It was hard for me to pay close attention to what was going on and I got easily distracted. In way, I feel that it is difficult for me to take a classroom setting as seriously in the medium of SL. Joe even had to tell me to come back and listen to the speaker a couple of times. I didn't think it was rude when I left the circle for a second, but if I had done that in real life, it most definately would have been taken as rude. I feel as though I can engague myself more in the situation if I am in the presence of someone speaking or someone I'm trying to talk to.

Second Life is great because it levels the playing field for everyone. Initially, no one knows what you look like so they may get to know you on a different level than they would have gotten to otherwise. It is possible that a persons bias for somones looks may interfere with the content that person has to offer. As well, the span and ability for communication of a more diverse group of people is offered by second life. For example, I can find someone who speaks spanish and start talking to them if I want to work on my spanish speaking/understanding skills.

This power can also be taken for the worse. Creepy old people could lie about their age, gender or their complete existance. When you actually go to meet them, you may be in for a surprise. If used to replace a serious setting like a class or a meeting, SL opens up the possibility for more side distractions. It could be the avatars flying around or the music you have playing on iTunes or the environment of your "first life" that could throw you off and make you completely miss the point of whats going on.

www.secondlife.com