Week 5 Blog (intertwined with week 4 and my holiday experience!)

Ah i cant believe how stressful and out of the loop i felt when i had no internet for the holidays (although i really suppose that what holidays is all about, getting away etc). I did do the readings over my holiday,and i got the feeling Holmes ideas were somewhat relevant to my holiday experience and todays lecture. He stated that computer mediated communication networks and virtual realities are environments rather than just technology, and that the interent has changed how we commmunicate with one another and that we are not affected by boundries, distance or time. This i suppose in a small way relates to my holiday experience, without internet! i mean i generally use internet to check emails etc, yet i also use it for up to date news etc. and i cant say the radio has great reception in akaroa (where i went) so i was either up to date by the paper or 6pm news. this was really the only way i was to get up to date information, and this only occured twice a day, so i was feeling somewhat out of the loop!i was also leaving my poor unopened emails for days, leaving people a little in the lurch if they needed an imediate answer! It also relates to (the whole being able to communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime)what we talked about in todays lecture. For the fact that web 2.0 has allowed us communicate with each other as opposed to 1.0 where it was oneway communication.
Last weeks lectures really made me understand what a virtual community was (at first it all seemed a little broad), yet from what i understand, our blogging system is a virtual community, and for the fact that it is public, anyone with internet access can also view our blogs (unless your profile is private). I kinda never thought about it, just for the fact we can all read and generally understand everyday jargon. But say people that live on the other side of the world, who maybe have english as a second language or even as a first, they may not understand what we are talking about due to the informality of our blogs and the amount of jargon and everyday language we use. Something i never thought of yet i found it quite interesting!!
This has been quite a topsy tervy little blog, but i really thought i should type something up before the cut off date. will have to write something a little more structured for later in the week!

Blog Week 3

Hey guys
so...i havent been at the lectures this week cause i am at home which is kinda cool, but i have to say it pays to go to the lectures as i think u get more out of them, as opposed to what is just put on blackboard. although blackboard is a big help if you do miss the lecture!!was just wondering, what were the questions that were posted for thurdsday?were they just questions for discussion bought up on thursday??will get onto this weeks readings over the easter holiday... while im away on holiday!!(puts a wee bit of a dampner on things!!jks)
anywho i only have a short blog this week, due to that fact i wasnt at the lecture and i dont really have to much to discuss about it!!but il be sure to post again on hopefully tuesday...or definitly wednesday re the readings. i would do it earlier but i have no trusty internet with me:(
c u all next week:)

Week 3 Readings

So iv just read the Douglas Thomas reading...very interesting. got me thinking about all sorts of computer felonies. I read that the law has much difficulty dealing with hackers, and that hackers continually have new ways to break the law or work around it. I think that as long as technology continues to advance, that hackers will also continue to advance, as it seems they seem to generally have a pretty good knowledge of what is new in the computer world. It then got me thinking about worms and viruses, which from what i know infect peoples computers, look at the personal information and can use peoples phone lines without people knowing (i have another story to tell soon about hackers...haha i dont seem to have to much ,luck with them!!).So these people that create worms and viruses are technically hackers...correct? its just that they do it on a much larger scale than what happened to laurens sister, when a person from her school hacked into their bebo account. i found it all very interesting. Anywho, on our old computer (which we were very irresponsible with as we didnt have up to date virus protetion!!) we had viruses and mum discovered on our phone bill that there were calls made to the middle east. so they had been using our phoneline to contact people they knew. Mum complained to telecom which said that would erase the calls made to the middle east, and they put a toll bar on our phone, so no more calls to the middle east!!!!i just find it amazing how one virus can create so much damage. as it turned out, the same thing had happened to my dads work colleague, calls made to the middle east on his phone bill etc. I think this reinforces how impartant internet security is as i recall an incident last year where a bank emailed people asking them for their username and password for their internet banking....turns out that wasnt such a good idea to fill out as the form wasnt actually sent out by the bank...it was sent out by a hacker!
Sorry to blabber on, as i was going to bring this up in the tutorial tommorow but what do the poeple that run limewire come under...fraud..?
anywho, just thought id spin a few ideas. feel free to comment!!

Sophies 2nd Blog

Wow this semester is already going so quickly, i cant believe we are already in our third week. We have just finished our Wednesday lecture and I found it so interesting. I'm sure some other people don't find the whole computer thing all that interesting, but last year i was originally majoring in computer science...the first semester was interesting because the computer paper was mixed with a business paper so it wasn't too full on. But the second semester was incredibly off putting as I was pretty much thrown in the deep end, and was literally expected to know everything about coding etc. So it has been a real pleasant surprise to come into this paper, learning things about the communications of computers, which i personally find far more interesting as opposed to the putting together of computer codes!!!I found the hacking thing very interesting, as it is something we generally all know about but we don't really have any general knowledge on, so it was good to get a little inside view. The reason i find it interesting is due to that fact that when i was a little pre-teen, and all of my friends were in the stage of 'msn', i found one day i was unable to get into my account...someone had hacked into my account and changed my password!!!but my friend knew someone who could hack back into my hacked account, so i could therefore get back into my account (if the makes any sense...). He was able to hack back into my account apparently within 10-15 minutes or so, and i got my msn/hotmail back. And i wonder how on earth.. (or why they would want to hack into a 12 year olds msn/hotmail account) it is they can trick the system.
So...learning about the hacking for me was very interesting, just because i had experienced it before. And at the age i wouldn't be surprised if the stereotype geeky boy would be locked away in his dark room..hacking into MY account!I also found it interesting that hacking didn't start off as being malicious, as that is what first pops into our head when we thing of hackers. Haven't yet read this weeks readings but Im sure ill get onto that sometime today!!
thanks for reading:)

how do you add people to your profile so you can view there blogs??

ha i told you i would be asking questions!!pretty much the question is in the title. can someone please tell me how i add people to my profile so i can access other class members profiles from clicking a button on my profile. anyones help would be great!!
Thanks

Sophies first blog:)

Hey guys
For you that dont know me, i will tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Sophie, im a proud cantabrian, am in my second year of uni, and im majoring in english and communications. So far im finding coms205 really intersting, although the 9am starts can sometime disagree with me!i think our essay topic are pretty cool, still havent decided on one, but am wanting to make a start on it soon!!i have one question if anyone can please answer it for me....i have just purchased my course reader and i was wondering what page for the readings we are up to..?
This blogger thing isnt to bad, but for the past week it hasnt let me sign in, but it miracuously just worked so lucky me. havent foiund the course too confusing yet, but if anyone has any questions about the course dont hesitate to ask me because im sure il be asking you guys lots of questions to!!
Well thats it for my first blog...that wasnt too hard haha.
Thanks for reading!!
sophie:)