An Ethical Argument - Spying and Surveillance

Overview
Recently, there has been a lot of controversary over the National Security Agency (NSA) and its spying of Americans as well as other countries.  This issue falls under Computer Science because you must hack or program a device in order to record surveillance of it.  Lately, reports have come out that the NSA has access to a nearly limitless amount of private content such as phone calls and internet communications.


Connection to Computer-Science
Spying and surveillance relates to computer science in a variety of ways, but it all really comes down to programming.  Our ISPs (internet service providers) allow the government access to our browsing history by law.  Our browsing history is recorded by our ISP and is given straight to the government for analysis and storage.  It must be programmed and coded by our ISP to store the information as well as retrieve encrypted information.  Overall, computer science plays a heavy role behind the scenes of internet security and spying.  Think of it kind of like anti-spyware software that you can install on your computer, only the spyware is hard coded and there is no way to stop it.




Positives
Through surveillance of its citizens, the NSA claims to have resolved several issues and terrorist attacks before they have occurred.  There have been multiple cases where the NSA intercepted a possible terrorist attack successfully and got a guilty plea from the suspects.  It can be argued that if spying on telephone or internet communications have even saved a few lives, it is surely a successful program, even if it is not entirely well liked.  It is difficult to appreciate something that happens so deep behind the scenes and you only rarely hear about foiled terrorism plans.


Negatives
The most clear issue behind the NSA spying and surveillance is the infringement of privacy.  You would expect that if you were to send an email or have a phone call that it would be kept private.  The NSA has access to a significant amount of internet traffic each day and they can review anything that has been flagged as suspicious.  One huge problem with dealing with all this suspicious activity is the amount of false positives.  For the NSA, false positives could mean innocent people are monitored, detained, find themselves on no-fly lists or are otherwise inconvenienced, and that the agency spends resources inefficiently.  This infringement of privacy has many citizens upset.


My Stance
Personally, I support the idea of spying on everyone for suspicious activity.  I feel that if you have nothing to hide and you don't do anything suspicious you should have no reason to worry.  I think that if the system has even saved a few lives, it is worth the resources we spend.  If you had a loved one that was injured from a terrorist attack, you would want every system possible in place to prevent such attacks.  However, I do also feel that the NSA may be a bit extreme.  I don't believe that the NSA's methods of finding terrorist activity is as well-defined as it should be.  They shouldn't need so much access to so much information; they should rather search for and detect any activity they deem as extremely suspicious that raises red flags.


Summary
NSA spying and surveillance of American's communications such as phone calls and e-mails is a huge controversial issue.  Many believe that it is infringing on our privacy while others feel that it is warranted.  I can understand both viewpoints but I do feel it isn't that huge of a deal.  More information is constantly being exposed and the situation constantly develops, so hopefully the issue is soon resolved in a way that makes both sides satisfied.

Any opinions or comments are welcome in the comments section...

A News Analysis - Computer Science

New Technology Can Track Movement Behind Walls

Brief Overview
The article, New Technology Can Track Movement Behind Walls from The Economic Times written by Devina Sengupta explains a new technological breakthrough in Computer Science.  "Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are using low-cost wi-fi technology to develop the system that spots movement of people in rooms or behind walls."  This new technology, Wi-Vi, can be thought of as a cheap and accessible radar.

Doesn't this already exist?
The technology of seeing through walls already exists, so why is this important?  "We wanted to create a device that is low-power, portable and simple enough for anyone to use, to give people the ability to see through walls and closed doors," said Dina Katabi, a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  This new technology is all about making through-wall movement tracking available to the general public.  The purpose of the technology and what it will be used for is all up to the buyer.

Positive and Negative Uses
Some might think that the technology to see through walls shouldn't be available to everyone, while others believe this breakthrough is useful and won't be abused.  Wi-Vi can be used in many ways, positive and negative.  Some of the positive ideas for using Wi-Vi include: cheap radar for military and police, improved home security, and even for traffic violations.  However, it can be argued that making this technology available to all can easily be abused in ways such as: home robbery, heists, and a lack of privacy.  There really is no saying what the general public will use the technology for when it finally reaches its initial release.


How It Works
Wi-Vi sends a Wi-Fi signal at a wall and bounces back, however, a portion of the Wi-Fi signal penetrates the wall and reflects off all the objects inside the next room.  "So we had to come up with a technology that could cancel out all these other reflections, and keep only those from the moving human body," Katabi said.  To do this, Wi-Vi sends out two signals.  The first signal is sent out and reflects back, giving a static view of the other side.  The next signal is sent out and reflects back, comparing itself to the first, static view.  Once both signals have been compared, it is simple to tell which objects have moved and which objects have not moved.  "So, if the person moves behind the wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human," Adib added.  Once the system has cancelled out all of the reflections from static objects, it can then concentrate on tracking the person as he or she moves around the room.


Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
The author does a mediocre job of establishing a strong ethos.  The author cites many professionals as well as scholarly articles for evidence, however, we don't actually get to know anything about the author's background or his stance on the issue, so it is easy to question the credibility.

The author does a great job at establishing a strong pathos.  Throughout the article, it does pull at your emotions because it makes you wonder if the technology will be used for good or bad.  This is helpful and important for the article as it encourages the reader to keep reading further.

The author does an excellent job with his logos.  All of the claims made in the article are supported with a link to an article that explains things in more detail, or it comes as a direct quote from someone who is a credible source.  Overall, the article has really strong logos and pathos, but it could use improvements when it comes to the ethos and giving some background information in the author.


Summary
Wi-Vi is a new technology that will be coming to the general public very soon.  Wi-Vi is a device that allows the tracking of movement through a wall or barrier.  This is the first time such a device will be available for a low cost and accessible to everyone.  There is no saying how well Wi-Vi will do on the market and what consumers will decide to use it for; only time will tell.

A Review - Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi

What is the Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a very simple, broken down, single-board computer.  The purpose of the Raspberry Pi is for teaching the basics of Computer Science, but its uses are extremely vast.  The Raspberry Pi was released on February 29, 2012 and costs around $30.  This simple device is a great tool for learning basic functions of a computer and how to control them through your code.


Why is it important?
The Raspberry Pi is important to the future of Computer Science more than anything else.  The apparatus is great for beginners and can be used to help them get the feel for developing software.  Computer Science can be a complex idea for some to initially grasp and this device can help aid in the early learning.  The Raspberry Pi truly is one of a kind due to its low costs for its vast functionality.  The Computer Scientists of tomorrow are using the Raspberry Pi to learn; it is one of the easiest ways to learn the basics of the complex idea of programming, and it will truly aid in the future of the field.

Raspberry Pi in use

How does it work?
The Raspberry Pi features a CPU, GPU, RAM, USB ports, video input and output, audio output, onboard networking and storage, power source, and its own operating system.  You can kind of think of it as a bare bones smart phone with extra functionalists.  You can write programs that use any of the Raspberry Pi's hardware, some examples include: voice activated garage door, handheld game emulation, control a remote control car, and even creating a light show.  This youtube video briefly shows a Raspberry Pi connected to Christmas lights and a cellphone.

The Raspberry Pi's future
The Raspberry Pi team is continually working on making the device cheaper and more accessible to everyone.  Additionally, the Raspberry Pi's hardware will constantly be getting upgraded in newer versions of the product.  As more technological breakthroughs come out and as computers become faster and faster, the Raspberry Pi will be keeping up and upgrading.  The uses of the Raspberry Pi are immense and the envelope is constantly being pushed as bright people develop unique software; as the Raspberry Pi is upgraded, the possible applications are limitless. 


Evaluation
The Raspberry Pi is a must have for anybody who likes to experiment and test with computers.  The Raspberry Pi boasts a solid 4.6 our of 5 on Amazon.com with over 554 reviews.  Based off some Amazon reviewer comments as well as testimonials from my friends, the Raspberry Pi gives you so much computational power for its price.  The one downside to the Pi that I constantly hear and read about is the learning curve.  It takes a long time to get used to the Pi and it can be difficult to start working with it without additional help.  Overall, the Raspberry Pi is a great purchase and is especially great if you enjoy learning new things.

Summary
The Raspberry Pi is a great tool for Computer Scientists, old and new.  It is a cheap device that promotes easy learning as well as advanced functionality.  The Raspberry Pi is a must have for anyone in the Computer Science field.  The device can be used for educational purposes, personal tinkering, or even within a company or business.  The possibilities are seemingly endless for such an inexpensive computer.

An Explanation of Your Field - Computer Science

Hello, I am Stephen and I am working towards my BS degree in Computer Science.  In this first post, I will be informing everyone about the Computer Science field.


What does a Computer Scientist do?
The first thing you are may be wondering is what a Computer Scientist does.  It is hard to specifically say exactly what a Computer Scientist does because the field is so broad.  A general description of the field would be: Designing, optimizing, improving, and creating computational systems.  Computational systems are simply any computing device such as a computer, smart phone, tablet, or even a wireless printer.  As I previously said, the field is quite broad and most Computer Scientists usually focus on a select part of the field, such as: designing, coding, testing, security, and much, much more.  My personal interest within my field is in Human-Computer Interaction.  Human Computer Interaction is all about User Interfaces and what type of User Interface would be best for an application's audience and consumers.  For example, the User Interface for an airline pilot would be much different then that of a television.  Televisions are very universal and will be used by almost all audiences so you would want a very simple, easy to learn User Interface.  On the other hand, for a pilot, you would require a User Interface that has a lot of functions and you would need it to be error free.  You could say my major is Computer Science with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction.


What are a Computer Scientist's interests?

Computer Scientists have many interests and the interests of one Computer Scientist may differ greatly from another.  For example, I really enjoy being creative and also playing video games.  The dream application that I would like to work on is the code for a new interesting video game that implements the worlds newest technological breakthrough.  On the other hand, you might meet a Computer Scientist that loves math and problem solving.  This person's dream application might be writing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is so smart that it can beat any human in a game of Chess.  Currently, even the smartest Chess AI has been beaten by multiple humans.  This person would need to use his math and problem solving skills to calculate all of the possible combinations of moves that can be made in a game of Chess, and determine which move to make in a situation.  The number is finite but is extremely large; we may never have a computer strong and fast enough to compute all the possible combinations and decide which one is the best.  In summary, just like almost all other fields, you can't really pinpoint exactly what a Computer Scientist may be interested in.  The one thing they all must have in common, however, is a love for computers.


Why are we important?
Many people might stereotype a Computer Scientist as a nerdy guy from the IT Department.  We may know a lot about computers and how to run one, and we can certainly help with those kind of issues, but our specialty mainly lies in developing software.  It is something that many people take for granted and don't really think about.  For example, "Oh this CGI in this movie is amazing!".  You wouldn't be able to have such beautifully rendered computer animations if it weren't for the underlying code and software made by a Computer Scientist. 2D and 3D artists use the programs that we create, but receive all of the credit.


                                            Summary

Internet Fridge by LG

All together, the technological world would be centuries behind without Computer Science.  Hardware does us no good without our software.  So much of what we use everyday requires computation, and the field is expanding at an incredible rate.  We are even starting to see fridges that connect to the internet.  No Computer Science means no computers.  Computers are an essential part to current everyday life.  Therefore, Computer Science is an essential part of everyday life, and it is becoming more and more essential every day.