The Issue!
Computer piracy is reproduction, distribution and use of software without permission of the owner of copyright.

Some examples include:

· selling of computer facilities with illegally installed software.

· replication and distribution of software copies on information carriers without permission of the copyright owner.

· illegal distribution of software through communication networks (Internet, e-mail, etc.).

· illegal use of software by the user.

Many people today commit computer piracy in one way or another, whether it be downloading music or a movie or the downloading of a software program such as Microsoft Office 2010. There are many consequences if people are caught such as fines and even jail time, but even though to many it is wrong there is still a positive side to computer piracy.

The Negative and the Positive

There are two sides to every issue including computer piracy, the most noticeable side is the negative where people abuse the Internet and power they have with computers. However; this issue has a positive side as well.

The Negative

Most people commit computer piracy, where they can download just about everything from movies, to music, to software, and video games. Many people just keep the downloaded materials until they are done with it and delete it, but others download these items and sell them to others for a profit. By doing this people are hurting many people from the businesses that sell these items all the way to the manufacturers and people who create these items for us to enjoy. Hurting the producers of these items not only hurts the rich to some degree, but it really hits the common people who work for these companies just to make a living. People selling pirated materials do hurt the big companies that make these items, but they really hurt the common people that are just like them trying to make a living in the bad economy we have going on.

The Positive

Computer piracy does have a good side to it. It helps many people get the materials and items they need fast when they themselves are also hurting in this economy. Technology advances practically every day and old materials and items are forgotten about and not distributed anymore. This causes many people to illegal obtain it just for the simple fact that it is not obtainable legally anymore, like purchasing it at K-mart or Wal-Mart.

Stores today mostly contain the newest and most currently technology and materials, which in turn causes old martials to become harder to obtain legally. It's not that people want to get materials illegally it’s because they have no choice.

Final Verdict!

I'm mostly against computer piracy of any kind, just because of the fact that many people abuse the Internet and sell the items they got illegally for a profit. I do see the good as well as the bad of this issue, we need to learn to control ourselves, it is tough for everyone in this economy but we need to gain control and see the damage we do with our actions. We need to be responsible and ask ourselves do you need these materials or do we simple just want them. I'm mostly against computer piracy for those that simple use it to make profit for themselves, but for those who need to do it because of the fact the materials they need are extremely hard to find or they are in financial problems then I see its use as being acceptable.



What is happening?
Mobile Devies, such as smartphones and tablets, are posing a growing threat to small and midsized busniesses's (SMB) security.

Why this Matters!!
Almost everyone to today in the United States has a mobile device,which include tablets and smartphones, and these mobile devices have made many things possible today, such as being able to communicate to others in different countries and being able to send and receive data faster and more efficient than before. However; the use of these devices are posing an increasing concern for the security of many small and mid-sized businesses (SMB).

One of the problems SMB's have is that many of their IT departments lack or don't have any solutions to map their corporate standard for information security using devices such as laptops, desktops, and servers to mobile devices. Some of the problems that can arise because of this is that SMBs are having a tremendous difficulty determining if their employee's mobile devices are up-to-date with the latest firmware and security that they need their employees to have. These problems can lead to serious consequences, especially if the employee-owned devices are lost, stolen or resold to others outside the company. This can lead to the SMB owners having to show concern and have conversations with employees about having lost, sold or otherwise misplaced devices with employee credentials and sensitive corporate data. These actions can lead to serious consequences for not only the employee, but can also affect the business as well. Consequences can include the firing of multiple employees or the business having to shut down or being blackmailed by another company.

This negligence would not only hurt the companies, but because of the lack of security or the because of the negligence of users to watch what they post, many users of mobile devices would find themselves facing identify and credit card fraud. This would cause many users to blame the lack of security on their devices and take it out on the manufactures of these devices.

 Consequences - The Good and the Bad
These problems becuase of security issues and negligence can not only cause problems for the SMBs and for the sonsumers, but can also lead back to the manfacturers of these mobile devices. Many people because they believe these mobile devices don't live up to their expectations will simple stop buying them, this in turn would cause severe consequences for the producers of these devices. Since people are not buying their products anymore the companies of these devices would suffer finanacial lossses, but they would also lose the confidence and trust of their customers. Without the customer's trust the company would not only lose financialy, but would lose potential customers, this in turn would cause the company to lay off employees and staff that have benefitted and could still benefit the company with their experience and ideas.

Not all is lost though, with this lose the company would require their computer and technical experts to come up with a better mobile device that just doesn't have a bunch of useless apps, but has the capability of being secured easily and will satisfy the customer's expectations. This would further the field of computer science and make technologies that are more reliable, efficient, and productive as well.

Small and midsized companies are hurting because employees are using their own mobile devices to do their work, but this could lead to many issues not only for the company but for the employees as well. Everybody that uses or owns a  mobile devices need to learn to be more secure with their personal information. Fraud, job loss, leaking of personal information, identity theft, and so many other negative consequences can occur because of the current state of security software that we have available and also because of negligence, this could lead computer and technical experts to develop better software, but consumers need to take responsibility as well and watch what information they give out to other people.

Computer Vision

Computer Vision - What is it?


Computer Vision is a field that includes the methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding images, where it takes high-dimensional data from the real word and produces numerical or symbolic information in the form of decisions. One of the developments in computer vision is to duplicate the abilities of the human eye by perceiving and understanding an image.

How is it used and how is it evaluated?

Computer vision is used in different fields such as the medical field, in artificial intelligence, and is used even in the military. Artificial intelligence makes use of computer vision and is one of the recent areas that have taken to using computer vision. Computer vision is used in artificial intelligence in creating and improving robots in order for them to navigate through an environment and one day to be able to perceive and understand the world as we do.

Computer vision is used in robotics in order for their machines to navigate successful through an environment. For a human as we grow we learn though experience how to walk and navigate through the world, but also how to identify and recognize an object after increasing encounters with that object, but for robots recognition and identification are limited at the moment. When robots see through computer vision and see an object they are processing to recognize and identify that object, which is easy for humans, but for computer vision at the moment only specific objects and in certain situations such as a hand waving and even avoiding certain obstacles. The most advanced robot is the ASIMO a robot developed over in Japan by Honda that can run, walk, climb stairs, many other tasks that we consider simple, and even responses to your motions and when you speak to it.

A robot must also process what actions to take when the motion of an object changes. To determine the motion of an object a robot uses egomotion, which determines the 3D motion of the camera relative to the rigid scene it is looking at, and tracking where the camera follows at object or multiple objects over time. The robot uses these processes to determine how to turn and react to certain objects. When moving and looking at objects it also uses two other processes scene reconstruction and image restoration, where when a robot sees a certain object such as a moving vehicle or a stationary object, like a rock or bench, and will recall that image from its memory and from its past experience with that object (assuming the robot has had past experience with that certain object) will determine the appropriate action to move its body, with its motion tracking system, and determine how to approach that certain object in the world. Robots reaction time to certain objects is impressive, but it still is somewhat limited.

Other functions, when using computer vision, a robot uses is feature called extraction, which is how well it can identify lines, edges, and ridges and also to be able to localize points of interest such as corners, blobs or points. Other functions that robots use are segmentation/detection where at some point when it is processing an image point or an image region a decision is made that certain area of the image requires further processing. Robots today also have decision making abilities where they make final decisions in applications such as Pass/fail on automatic inspection applications or Match / no-match in recognition (able to recognize and identify a certain object) applications.

Humans though experience are able to navigate through the world with the use of their senses and are able to identify and recognize objects in the world and are then able to make a decision about how to approach that object. Computer vision allows a robot to perceive and analysis an object in the world and with the use of its memory, processors, and other applications is able to determine what would be the best course of action to handle the situation it is in.

Robots have come a long way, but are not quite as fast and accurate as humans when it comes to  identifing and handling certain situations in the world, but robots are advancing every day and have come a long way from just being able to move to now being able to make simple and real world decisions in there environment. Robots are limited in all of its criteria, but have advanced to a stage where they can move autonomously and solve simple problems.

Here is the link for the videos page for AISMO:

http://asimo.honda.com/asimotv/

Here is a link to Robot Soccer, where autonomous robots built by different countries compete in a soccer tournament:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLKKbz2mNyo&feature=related

My field of study is Computer Science. This field has much to offer and is used almost everywhere and to some degree in other fields as well. Computer Science is used today from major companies and businesses to everyday people doing their jobs.

The field of computer science has many applications in the world today and those who are interested in this field have many different areas that they can apply. Computer Science can be found in many different areas, which include education (teaching; research), government, research, and private industry. This field has made many people's lives easier. The companies who center on computer science have developed technology that has helped the world expand and has helped other fields as well, from the home computer to the cellphone without computer science many pleasures we enjoy and also take for granted today would not be around.

Computer Science has also changed many aspects of our lives as well from how we communicate with others, whether local or international, how we receive information such as the news, to how we run our daily lives. Technology has changed and inspired how many people run their daily lives. Technology has expanded our communication abilities from being able to call and talk to friends and families thousands of miles away to what most believe is the greatest invention of our time, the Internet. The Internet has changed so many aspects of people's lives, from how people listen to music or watch movies, to how people communicate and respond with one another, to even how we view the world. The Internet has been a revolutionary invention and it is thanks to those in the computer science field.

Computer Science has also helped and improved other fields as well especially in education. Students are able to work more efficiently and effectively with the help of computers. They are also able to communicate with their teachers and classmates easily. They are also able to get questions answered quicker and have more resources available at their disposable for projects and research papers than they ever had before.

This field is also an essential to the many businesses, without technology many businesses would fall apart and fall into bankruptcy or cause prices of products to increase because they can't meet the demand of the people. Computer science has influenced and produced the creation of machines that make products such as certain food products, home appliances, and even money in amounts that meet the demand of the people. If this technology didn't exist more people would be starving because of food shortages and even inflation and recessions would occur.

The people that are interested in the Computer Science field are those that have a passion for technology, find electronics interesting, or want to work on current and next generation technology. The places computer science can take someone is nearly limitless, nearly every field needs computer science to some degree whether its developing more sophisticated medical equipment to save someone life, to developing next generation gaming systems or operating systems, to even helping students at a school or college with their computer or technical problems. Technology is everywhere and influences nearly aspect of our lifes and people in the computer science field or those who are interested can find many great opportunities ahead of them. Computer science ranges from simple coding of applications, to the development of hardware and software such as Microsoft Office, to the improvement and development of fully functional and independent A.I. systems and applications. The future for computer science has much to offer to those who are in the field and to those who are interested.