How long can you last without you cell phone?

As I mentioned before, technology has been developing very rapidly. To such an extent that it no longer changes our lives, but it controls our lives.
Have you ever asked yourself if you can live without some of the key consumer technologies out there. Such as the television, computer and the mobile devices? For me particularly I found that I am not bound to mobile devices such as the cell phone. I can use it for all types of things calling, texting, browsing the web but I choose not to and the main thing is that I am not tempted too do so. However if you ask me to not use the desktop computer for a week, I will pretend I didn't hear that.
One particular technology which has been proven to be highly addictive is cell phone usage. Recent research has shown that "60-percent of the world's population has a mobile subscription of some kind. That's more than have indoor plumbing. At the current rate of adoption, by the end of next year, 85-percent of the population will have phones." [1] Yes technology has helped in many areas, a key one being medicine, but at what point is technology using us rather than us using technology?

The facts speak for themselves:

"A survey by the phone insurance company "Asurion" found 28-percent of Americans think their cellphone is more helpful in life than their spouse or significant other.

An earlier survey said 22-percent of people would give up their toothbrush for a week before they gave up their phone for a week." [1]



Is TECHNOLOGY controlling you or are YOU controlling technology?

Technology alters our brain for good and bad, explained in general terms.

The science behind technological addiction.

[1]. http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/cellphones-cell-mobile-necessity-can-you-live-without-your-phone-20120209

Apple's Trademark contested

    Companies and business as we all know strive to preserve an image that society can associate to. Whether it is for a line of clothes, brand of perfumes, name of foods it is irrelevant. Business are willing to go a long way to defend their ideas whether they can be expressed in tangible form (e.g. Big Mac sauce) or in intangible ( some specific concept/framework/model). In order to distinguish between "entities" there must be a unique features pertaining to each one. To preserve this uniqueness there are some key legal concepts which allow for this to be attainable: copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrets. If such protections were not in place I believe that the competitive strive in today's economy that drives capitalism will be non-existent.

   Apple Inc. is  a leading company that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. Perhaps most notably  known from devices such as the iPhone, iPod,iPhone and iPad.

    Recently another company based in China, Proview Technology (Shenzhen), which deals with  manufacturing of computer monitors and other media devices. The issue was regarding the iPad device trademark holdings "A Shanghai court ruled against a Chinese company on Thursday in a suit that sought to prevent Apple from selling its popular iPad mobile device in China."

On one side Apple Inc. argues that "...it bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago." On the other hand "Proview Shenzhen claims it still reserves the right to use the trademark on the Chinese mainland." [1]

Who is right and who is wrong? Is this a loop hole in the system?

The progress of the story is that there is no progress " March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Proview International Holdings Ltd.’s Shenzhen unit said talks to arrange settlement negotiations with Apple Inc. regarding the rights to the iPad name in China have stalled." [2]


[1]. http://english.cri.cn/6909/2012/02/23/3124s682895.htm

[2]. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apple-trademark-dispute-negotiations-are-stalled-proview-says/2012/03/22/gIQAd5IIUS_story.html

Google services combine -> privacy concerns spike. Should you be worried?

Google is an "American multinational Internet and software corporation specialized in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies."¹ One of their search engine locations is at "www.google.com" which ranks number one in the world of estimated percentage of page views.² Google's quarterly revenue is estimated at around 10 billion dollars during the year 2011.³ All in all it is hard to argue that Google does not affect the internet experience of users. Google has had different privacy laws for its numerous services (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Google_services). But this has all changed. You may have noticed when you used Google's search engine starting this past January, a notification at the top of its  different service pages about the upcoming changes related to Google's privacy laws. Well, it is a fact now "It combined more than 60 of 70-plus policies into a new main policy⁴", if you don't like it Google suggested: "...the company said if users didn't like their data being combined across services, they could simply stop using those services".⁴

On one side "The company says the changes make it easier for users to see what information the company has collected about them"⁴, but critics on the other hand say "...the new privacy policy gives Google free rein to parse together a user's personal information to find out what she is interested in, who she talks to, where she goes and, basically, who she is."⁴ 

I am inclined to side with the critics. Google now has the ability to use the data gathered from a user's pattern across its services to find out all about there is to him/her(personal preferences, hobbies, interests, i.e. who they are). If you think it was easy to characterize a user by his usage patterns with the previous privacy laws, now it has become a "walk in the park". One area which I am focused on is that placing advertisements relevant to the user's preferences will surely increase the revenue of Google, now that they have the full picture of any of their users. To support its decision with regards to changing the privacy laws Google stated that "...it has cut down on the Google Terms of Service and made them easier to read"⁴

But at what cost?

1 . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
2.  http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/google.com
3. http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html
4. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224820/Google_privacy_change_draws_firestorm_

Extra links:
http://www.theticker.org/mobile/about/2.8220/google-s-new-privacy-policy-is-not-so-private-1.2708120

ACTA progression

    ACTA has continued to be a widely debated topic. People have taken to the streets to express their views against the ratification of ACTA for their voice to be heard "...citizens protesting the treaty marched over 4,000 strong into the capital city Sofia in protest, calling on the government not to sign it. Similar demonstrations were also held elsewhere in Europe, most notably in France, Germany and Ireland."¹ Freedom of speech and expression infringement in the Internet, violation of personal privacy, human rights are some of the main reasons as to why ACTA should not be passed. Protests in many European cities have made governments of countries to reconsider their position on ACTA. Some claim that neither the group Anonymous nor the peoples protests have been the reason for their "change of heart", "Prime Minister Tusk announced Tuesday that the government’s U-turn on the ratification of ACTA was not the result of public pressure or demonstrations in the matter."2

   Whether this is true or not is uncertain, but what is certain is that people care and they are not willing to bypass a matter which could have serious consequences in their lives now and in the future. Following on recent news has shown that together we can make a difference, "Bulgaria and the Netherlands join Poland and Germany in refusing to ratify Acta, citing privacy and human rights issues."³ Is this accurate? From what I have read they did not clearly refuse to ratify Acta but have put it on hold "Hopefully Germany goes all the way and refuses to sign ACTA, not just put the agreement on hold"⁴, "Bulgaria will freeze its participation in the controversial ACTA trade agreement...This means that our country will not undertake any actions, including a ratification of the agreement, until the stance of the other EU member states is made clear," the Minister explained."⁵

     What I get from this, reading between the lines, is countries looking for a way out, all in order to maintain stability and power. If one bill or treaty doesn't get passed then try it again under different name and different context but pertaining to the same goal (e.g.  SOPA,PIPA then ACTA). Governments will keep trying to enact a law until they manage "to slip one past you".  Don't get me wrong, I also believe that people's work/ideas should be acknowledged and they should be credited for it, but this is not the way. These new proposal's  set forth by governments and political unions(e.g. European Union) with regards to the protection of intellectual property, personal information and freedom of expression create more confusion in the public, rather than comprehensibility/clarity.

What is the current standing on ACTA?

The Commission has decided to refer the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement to the European Court of Justice, halting for now ratification of ACTA by 22 EU countries. The Commission's moved was welcomed by leading European political parties that fear the international accord would trample rights and freedoms.⁶

The European Commission is going to ask the EU's highest court to assess whether ACTA is incompatible with the EU's fundamental rights - such as freedom of expression and information, protections of personal information and intellectual property.⁶

If ACTA is given a "green light", will countries who refused to ratify it ,by freezing it, become inclined to side with the  decision of the EU's highest courts, as the idiom says: if you can't beat them, join them, or will they follow their own "path"/constitution/laws?

1. http://www.techspot.com/news/47472-bulgaria-and-the-netherlands-withdraw-support-for-acta.html


2. http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/90889,PM-Tusk-says-ACTA-suspension-%E2%80%9Cnot-caused-by-external-pressure%E2%80%9D


3.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/15/acta-loses-more-support-europe?newsfeed=true


4. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/02/10/germany-wont-sign-acta-at-least-not-yet/


5. http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=136640


6. http://www.euractiv.com/infosociety/eu-suspends-acta-ratification-news-511054

Are we Pirates? Do we live in a Pirate world?

The word "piracy" since the old days has been used to refer to " robbery or illegal violence at sea. "1 The term has been continued to be used even to this day, with similar meaning but attributed to a different context.  Virtual piracy or also known as Internet piracy is an ongoing and fast expanding trend, with  the incredible growth that is clearly visible in the information technology sector, and a concern for personal information and  intellectual property. For most of us the term "piracy" in these days is associated with 

"the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book,recording, television program, patented invention,trademarked product, etc."1

The Business Software Alliance(BSA) trade group, which is an anti-software piracy group, with collaboration from the International Data Corporation produces every year a software piracy study in attempt to estimate the amount of copyright infringement of software in different countries. Although there have been several criticisms on the way the study data has been gathered and some of the assumptions made which could "get a first year student of statistics into trouble."2, many of the politicians or governmental organizations rely and quote these statistics as facts to support their arguments "The results of the study have already been quoted by an MEP from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)"3

Here you may find BSA's latest study published on May 2011:   2010 Piracy Study

A table from the study showing the piracy rates:

So what is Canada's current standing in the world of software piracy?

Contrary to most opinions, Canada is not a "pirate haven" at all. In a recent survey entitled Global Survey of PC User Attitudes 2010-2011 performed by BSA with "the survey’s list of 32 countries, with what BSA referred to as “regular pirates,” Canada ranked 29th... the BSA pegged Canada’s overall software piracy rate at 29 per cent of all PC users."4   

"...the BSA, whose members include major software vendors such as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., and Symantec Corp., said nearly 47 per cent of computer users globally “acquire software by illegal means most or all of the time.”4

Here is a graph illustrating this:

People who obtained their software through illegal means always or most of the time where refereed to as "regular pirates".

Some of the piracy that is committed comes from the vagueness and the complicated licensing of software products “Many of these users are unaware that they are participating in illegal practices such as downloading programs from peer-to-peer networks or buying a single program and installing it on multiple machines over the allowed number of installations,”.4 In my opinion educating the user and having clearer and concise licensing schemes from software companies could potentially reduce piracy around the globe. 

1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/piracy
2. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/it-at-work/2005/06/24/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics-39205464/
3. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/it-strategy/2005/06/24/bsa-figures-do-not-add-up-39205463/
4. http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/news.asp?id=64215

SOPA, PIPA and the sequel ACTA!

Privacy is a huge concern in the world we live in and it should not be taken lightly. Technology has grown to such proportions that information goes viral faster than it ever has. Controlling  or restricting the flow of information is extremely difficult if not impossible and it raises the question to what extent is it an option,where does one draw the line, without conflicting with privacy and freedom of speech. An example of this is the two bills put forth by the U.S. Congress,I am talking about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Personal Information Protection Act), which undoubtedly provoked the public to express their pessimistic view with regards to the bills. You may ask what is so wrong about protecting  personal information or stopping piracy act? Yes, on the surface it all sounds good, but if the government is allowed the power to freely and easily enforce its power it would
undoubtedly be liable to infringe on freedom of speech as swell as the tamper with innovative ideas. As the saying goes "with power comes great responsibility".  I do believe that there will be positive aspects but history has shown us that power can lead to catastrophic circumstances. The government would potentially use it to satisfy their goals by silencing any opposition that is in their way. Next time you visit this blog it may be no longer here. A few lines above I used the words "freely" and "easily", this is in relation to the reaction time of "dealing" with a website. As we have recently seen Megaupload, a site renowned around the world for file sharing, has been "taken down" by the U.S. government. I researched around and found that the investigation  against Megaupload began in 2010, at the latest. http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/how-megaupload-was-investigated-and-indicted
This is two years before they were officially shut down, however this time will become greatly reduced if the bills are passed. Due to the large number of protests of web sites and communities around the globe the U.S. congress has halted the bills (http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/20/u-s-congress-pulls-sopa-legislation/). Is this the end, are the bills "dead"?

ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is another hot topic at the moment, not too far of from SOPA and PIPA, which yet remains to come to a conclusion.  A number of countries have signed ACTA. Numerous groups have stood up against ACTA and its vague and unclear definition, and are untouched by the reassurance of ACTA that it will not hinder freedom of speech. What happens now? Where do we go from here?