Saturday Introduction to Information Systems

As the third strong, nationwide wireless competitors,  Sprint agreed that sell its majority of the company to a Japan technology corporation which is SoftBank. Because of the tremendous debt issue, the Sprint has continued to lose revenue and losing contracted customers for lone time.  Therefore, spring wants to sell its 70% of shares to SoftBank, in order to avoid bankruptcy.  The new global partner also seems to have strong financial ability which compare to the rest three giant, nationwide wireless competitors. For example, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. For the Sprint subscribers, it seems that this combination will bring other competitive situations among US cell phone service market. I strong believe that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile should concern about the new competitive ability after it got involved with Softbank, Japan. Because of the Softbank company is the third largest carrier in Japan. Its technology levels on communication area are extremely developed.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/15/technology/sprint-softbank-purchase/index.html

Could 3D printing eventually replace the mass manufacturing of goods?

The CEO of the 3D system has stated that the 3D printer is build for home use. The printer is extremely efficient because they do not produce any waste and  they are accessible for consumer to purchase with only $1300 each. This could allow you to print something out by yourself. In some degree it is not true that mass manufacturing will be eventually replace by 3D printing. The 3D printer will take most of the small client away from the mass production industry. The 3D printer allow small user to create their own and do not need to pay the manufacture to do it. But to the mass manufacturer it is a different case.

Let’s look at the color printing method that we are using now. Although we are having color printer at home but did we fully replace the mass manufacture goods? No, it is because big industry have larger money to afford more sophisticate machinery to print better quality and could lower the cost by bargaining with their the suppliers. Where large scale of production like text books are still produce by big industry and small scale are produce by costumers  This will happen to 3D printer as well. It is too expensive for 3D printer to print thousand of cars compare to mass manufacture. Therefore mass manufacture goods will still exist.

How might 3D printing change the fashion world?

In the video 3D printing are capable of printing on shoe and on gloves. This is a major impact to the fashion world. People could create unique fashion for their own. They could change their colors of the clothes after they had purchases. People can even create shoes and clothes that they like. 3D printer will make the people more fashionable.

In my point of view, it would make the fashion world more competitive because everyone had the ability to make shoes and clothes. Designer need to be more creative to attract customers.

Your Digital Legacy: States Grapple with Protecting Our Data After We Die

Should executors be allowed access to a deceased persons’ email and Facebook accounts?
I believe that executors should be able to access a deceased persons’ email in order to shut it down. I think they should have access to it for a certain period of time like a week then it should automatically be shutdown because. It is through their discretion if they would like to go through that person’s private information and I hope that they would respect that person’s privacy although they are deceased. When it comes to Facebook I again believe it is up to the executor to make the decision if the account stays. However, I do believe that information that person kept privately should remain private.
Why would technology companies like Google be opposed to laws that allow other people to access a user’s account after that person dies?
I believe that technology companies are uncomfortable with other people having access to people’s personal information even if it is an executor. I also feel they do not want to have to deal with problems that arise out of other people having access to some other person’s account. It is a privacy issue and it would be difficult to keep track of all of these privacy issues.

I was born in the US so I will talk about the use of technology in numerous Middle Eastern countries, which came to be known as the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was numerous groups of people uprising against governments they felt were not providing their people with proper treatment. The uprising of the people vary from country to country some wanted to overthrow their government, others were more focused a treatment of poor citizens, and other reasons. This movement began in Tunisia and spread like wildfire to other Middle Eastern countries. The use of social networks played a vital role in connecting the revolutions and people who were fighting. Many people saw what was going on in other countries through social networks and it gave them the courage to start their own revolutions and connect with others to join. Technology played a vital role in the Arab Spring as it connected these people against those they were protesting.

: http://techland.time.com/2012/10/25/these-are-the-25-worst-passwords-of-2012/?hpt=hp_t3

What tips does the CEO of SplashData give for creating a unique password?
The CEO says that you should come up with “passphrases” for example something like cats go meow, so it’s easy to remember and then you could add hyphens underscores and other punctuation to adhere to many password requirements.
Why are passwords important?
Passwords are important because they help prevent people from accessing personal information about you.

By having more of our lives online, will our daily lives become more visible to outsiders on the internet?
Yes i believe as people use the internet more our lives our exposed more to the outside world. When someone google’s someone’s name the first thing that typically shows up is the link to that person’s Facebook page. Typically people post a lot of information about their lives on their Facebook and other social networking sites online. It is so easy to gain information on these people because they put it online. Our lives are already more visible, I know what my “friends” have been up to for as long as they have had Facebook because I can go back and look at it.
How do we prevent outsiders from viewing and tracking even the smallest details of our lives?
This might sound like a crazy new idea but how about you do not post about those details of your life online! Other than that we can introduce more privacy laws and such, but I feel that won’t be that effective.

•  How will Windows 8 change the way that users interact with their devices?

In the past October windows have released its new operating system. This system is an improved and enhanced of the old Microsoft system which runs on windows 7. The developers of this new system focused on improving users experience with their products. Microsoft mainly focused on improving users experience with mobile products such as phones and tablets. Windows 8 will also add many apps to their online store; however is not as developed as Apple’s and Google store which have much larger app options. One of the biggest changes is the new interface which is created around “Star” touchscreen. This new interface will help users to operate their computer in much easier and friendly way. It will have a full screen app and hidden menu similar to the way some tablets are operate today. They have improved the product’s security features to prevent malware.

• What is a Start app?

Start app is a company that partnered with app developers in order to assisted  them make a higher profit on their free apps.

In Israel, the country which I am from, people are using technology for a various exercises. For one, recently the Israeli DMV has applied a new system that allows the citizens to renew their licenses and state ideas online without having to personally go to the DMV offices. This new system saves a lot of time and frustration.

Another new technology that has been recently implemented is satellite radio, which allows listeners to rewind and skip forward on any radio station they are listening to, whether it is in the car, at the office or at home.

Lastly as smartphones are becoming very popular, most wireless providers are offering only unlimited data call and text plans, and as so the prices are very low – about half of the price in the US for a limited plan – and the service supports 4G LTE and provide high speed at the palm of your hand.

http://wileyinformationsystemsupdates.com/2012/12/11/explainer-what-is-the-internet-of-things/

http://us.cnn.com/2012/12/04/business/leweb-parallax-internet-things/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

Discussion Questions:

• By having more of our lives online, will our daily lives become more visible to outsiders on the Internet?

• How do we prevent outsiders from viewing and tracking even the smallest details of our lives?

Nowadays, almost every physical item is possible to link to the Internet. In the past, maybe we would just set the alarm clock to the time that we want to wake up next day, it was just that simple. The CNN news is telling us, it is possible to link the electronic clock to the Internet via the Wi-Fi network in our home. The manufacturer of certain brand of alarm clock created a website just for controlling the alarm clock, and we can register to that website, and we can input our schedule and set alert in our own account. The alarm clock will then automatically sync with the internet, the users of this alarm clock product do not need to worry, even they forgot to set the alarm clock before they went to bed. If the alarm clock detected there is a important event in our schedule, and if we have set an alert 30 mins before the event, the alarm clock will wake the user up 30 mins before the event, so the user will not miss the event. Indeed, almost everything in our daily life can be connected to the Internet now, even simple like alarm clock, but there is a question comes to my mind. How if there is a outsider hack into our private internet, and steal some information from us. People may think it is not too dangerous to let the outsiders to know when they will wake up in the morning, but the fact is that if the outsider knows the user’s schedule very well, they can just get into your home and steal your valuable things in your home. The more visible a person to outsiders is, the more risks that person is bearing. For example, if a person bought a smart door lock, which can be connected to the internet and controlled by smart phone through the internet; if a hacker hacked into that person’s smart phone, and the hacker can just simply control the user’s phone to open the door. It is always possible to be hacked, no matter how high the internet security is. So maybe we should concern if it is really a good idea to link everything in our daily to the Internet. Indeed, the information technology brought a lot of convenience to our daily life, we still need to beware of the online security and not too depend on the technology. For example, smart home users should always keep their network secured by regularly update and upgrade their anti-virus software. Although this is a very simple way to protect the Internet, it works as the anti-virus software companies will always update their database to prevent the latest version of the hacking programs.