Monday, April 16, 2012

Final Reflection

Billy Manzi

Professor Fluery-Lawson

Digital Apps

4/16/12

Final Relfection

During my semester in Digital Apps, I learned a lot in class, from learning how to type faster, to being able to create our own website. We worked on a variety of different things in class, group projects, and individual ones as well. I took a few things away from this course, such as, how to rightly create a website, and how to correctly make a business card. These things are necessary to have in the business world someday in my future.

In the future, I plan on owning a business of my own, and in that sense, I would definitely need a website of my own to promote my business. In the design a web project we worked with a computer application that would help us create a website, and while I was using it, I felt very confused, but when I learned all the tags and modifications with the application, it was a very simple thing to do. It reminded me of how a simple power point is created. All in all, a necessary part of every man’s business is the promotion of his business, and a website would be a great help to that cause.

One more thing that every business man will need is a business card, a business card is essential to every business man’s ensemble. It must be on that man or woman at all times. The business card has all the critical parts to know about you and your business; it includes your name, company logo, name, and/or colors, and also maybe a motto or other sayings. If I go anywhere in the near future it won’t be without my business card.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed my semester in the time I had in ITM 123-02, it had its hardships, and I struggled at parts, but anything I couldn’t get through I could learn how to do in class. I learned how to successfully create a website and a business card, important for every upcoming business man. I learned much in my class and enjoyed my time, even though it was at 8am.

Monday, April 9, 2012


Billy Manzi

4/9/12

Professor Fluery-Lawson

Digital App

Apple Manufacturing Corp.

Would you want your eighteen year old daughter to be working in a manufacturing company for minimal wage, and in rugged conditions? Well for little “Chen” working in in a factory in southwestern China, this is her reality! She has to work through harsh conditions, and brutal, and long days. The whole company is so independently based on building one part of the Apple I Pad, that Miss Chen did not even know what she was looking at, when the reporters presented an I Pad that she probably help build, in front of her face. “Miss Chen stares curiously at the I Pad. Even though she works overtime in a factory in southwestern China that manufactures them, she's never seen the finished product.”

There are an exponential amount of people that work at the same factory that Miss Chen works at. While living in the lower class part of a small Chinese town, she can afford little, and is used to working long hours that take up most of her day. An eighteen year old girl should not be working in a huge factory; she should be in school, becoming a knowledgeable person. “The 18-year-old student from a village outside of the southern megacity of Chongqing is one of more than one million factory workers at a Chinese company that helps manufacture products for Apple Inc.'s lucrative global empire, which raked in a record $46.3 billion in sales last quarter.” A big name company such as this one does not give a second thought to “small” issues such as the one that preoccupy Miss Chen.

All in all, the company that we all know and love, Apple, has beautiful and amazing products that we all use every day. However, at what expense do we use these products for? If a small girl must suffer for us to be entertained on a long car ride, then is it really worth it? I don’t believe so! Instead of playing Draw Something on your I Phone, read a book, or just play a game to pass the time.

Extra Credit Blog

When people loose their cell phones they do not realize the risks that can come of that. Especially people who do not use number locks on their phones. People who find your phones can hack into anything from your online banking to your facebook.  Symantec conducted a test where they "lost" phones in places such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, New York, and Ottawa. They then tracked what the people who found the phones and what they did on the lost cell phone. In 72% of the lost phones the finders looked through the phones pictures.  60% of the finders attemped to access social media and 40% tried to access corporate e-mail and online banking.

To avoid these things happening to you when you lost your smart phone there are many things you can do to prevent or help the situation. First you should always have some type of lock on your phone. This way if lost it is difficult to access. Second if your phone is stolen or lost you should go on a computer and change your passwords. Then finally shut down your phone until you can get another phone

Blog #4 Facebook Password

There has been a knew interest for employers to ask people who are applying and interviewing for jobs for their facebook passwords. They are doing this to look throughout the person's facebook to see what is going on in their social lives. They are doing things such as going through their messages and looking through their photos and on their walls. For people who really need jobs they do not have any other choice but to give the employers their passwords. But many people, such as myself, believe that this is a huge invasion of privacy.

It is one thing for an employer to look at someones photos, which I still believe is an invasion of privacy, but to go through their personal facebook is even more invasion than that. The employers are going through the applicants personal conversations with their friends and families. One person says "Will the next step be to request a key to my house?" That is a little extreme but they are right. It is a huge invasion of privacy. Especially if the person does not have bad pictures or anything like that. I do not think that there is any reason to request their facebook password.

Bryer Crawford-Extra Credit Blog

I read "Most finders of lost phones try to access personal data, survey finds" by Amy Gahran, written on March 20, 2012. This article says that people who find lost smartphones try to find personal information. For example they will try to get email accounts, banking information, they look at photos, texts, social media etc. Most who found the phones there purposely lost tried to return them but after the fact that they tried gaining personal information. These phones that were lost did not have a passcode or any sort of protection and this was to see what people would do. This is a reason for everyone to have some sort of lock passcode on their phone so if it is lost no one can get through. I feel as most people with the option of having passcodes have them and that is a good thing. This is the reason the phone has the option for a lock passcode is for us to use it and secure our cellular devices. Those who find lost phones and return are very nice and considerate but how would you know they did not go through all your personal information before hand? You will probably never know unless they started accessing your account information on a daily basis. This article proves to show that people are not always nice and considerate and you should always have passwords/locks/passcodes whatever it may be to secure your phone as best you can.

Bryer Crawford- Blog # 4- Facebook Password

I chose to write about ACLU: Facebook password isn't your boss' business. This article is written by Doug Gross who works for CNN and this article was written on March 22, 2012. This article states that employers are starting to ask their future employees for their facebook log in account. They then will log into your account and go through everything. I knew employers were checking facebook profiles and photos but not going as far as asking for their passwords and logging in as the person. They will go through everything including your private/personal messages. They are called private messages for a reason. Most have objected and not gave out their password but some have given in because it was a decision of giving the password and keeping your job or not giving the password and hitting the road. This is just like asking someone for their personal email account and password and reading all of the emails. This is private and everyone has a right to have their own private life. I had no idea that this was going on and like most others I do not agree with it. This is not right, I do not even agree with the fact that they are basing some employment oppturnities on what their facebook looks like. What they have been doing is a lot better than what they are doing now and if this should change it should go back to the way it was. I feel that this is wrong and unfair in many ways.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Extra Credit

Most finders of lost phones try to access personal data, survey finds March 20, 2012 By: Amy Gahran Thinking about some stranger accessing your phone is an uneasy thought. Having them going through your photos, your messages, your passwords and everything else we store on our mobile devices is a scary thought. The recent rise in smart phone carriers has caused the amount of smart phone thieves to rise. These thieves are taking smart phones from owners and running to access personal information and even changing passwords to accounts to take over. A recent study was done in cities all over the country by Security software provider Symantec. The Company purposely lost 50 cell phones that had no locks set on them and found that in the vast majority of cases -- more than 95% -- the people who found these missing cell phones tried to access personal or sensitive information, or services such as online banking or e-mail. This is almost every person that found one of the 50 cell phones tried to access personal information. The Company stated that in order for smart phone carriers to keep their information safe they should set a password lock on their device. Along with setting a password a carrier should make sure they do not store passwords on the device or use one password for all accounts. The last tip they gave is to report a stolen phone as soon as possible to try to stop security breaches before they occur. After reading this article I decided to put my password back on my phone as well as delete my password application as well. I never thought about how much information is so easily accessible if someone were to take it from me. I think that we all need to be more careful as to what we put in writing because we never know what could happen in the future.

Blog #4



ACLU: Facebook Password Isn’t Your boss’ Business


I read the article: “ACLU: Facebook Password Isn’t Your boss’ Business” This article is so relevant to today’s day in age.  All of the job interviews I hold in the future, I will probably be asked to show my Facebook or give a password so they can get onto my Facebook.

Facebook has become such a necessary requirement to anyone in this world for communication.  If we think back to a day without Facebook it would probably be a really hazy memory because it is such an important feature in our life. It is on our phones, ipads, computers, tablets, and everything that can have Wi-Fi. 

Giving a boss access to your facebook account could kiss your job goodbye.  You need to have a private life and giving him access to your life would be him knowing all the stuff that could be personal.  Personally I am considering deleting my Facebook to avoid future troubles I could potentially have.  You have a password for a reason; it is a privacy feature so only YOU can have access to your account.  It is not your bosses business.

In the article it states:

"It's an invasion of privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people's private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process," attorney Catherine Crump said in a statement from the ACLU. "People are entitled to their private lives."

In conclusion, I believe giving access to anyone that is not immediately related to you is a violation of privacy and it can create serious consequences for you in the future.  People who give out their passwords to friends create their own problems but giving it to your boss is another story. It is technically against Facebook’s law to give out your password to anyone.  People are breaking that law every day and it needs to be controlled because peoples Facebooks are being hacked and it is dangerous to a person.  I am almost positive I will be deleting my facebook just because I don’t want to encounter these problems.

Blog # 4- Tech for business

If you were in the middle of a job interview and your potential boss asked for your Facebook password, would you give it to them? I’m sure this is one situation you never thought you would hear of never mind encounter, but unfortunately it’s happening more and more. A recent interview went some place that Justin Bassett, of New York, did not expect it to go just a few weeks ago when he was asked for his Facebook password in the middle of his meeting. Justin refused and was not offered the job because of the decision to not share his information. When we go through college we learn how to deal with different situations that may occur during an interview, this is not one that we are trained to deal with. If this were to happen to me I cannot sit here and say I would allow the company to do so. My Facebook is very clean and has nothing on it that I would not want anyone seeing, I just feel as though asking for something as personal as a password to a social network page has nothing to do with being hired for a company. What if we were to ask the potential employer what their e-mail password was, or how about reading their personal mail? Isn’t that the same thing? I understand that companies want the best candidates for their company; however there are so many more ways than snooping through a Facebook account that it can be done. The main issue with this new trend is whether or not it is legal to do so. The Facebook Company does have a policy, long story short, that your account is your account. The other issue is that companies are slipping this new little rule into contracts that have to be signed so the employee has no choice. After learning about this I want to ask you… Would you let your new boss have your password to your Facebook? If so why, if not why? All in all I do not agree with this concept; however it may make users think twice before posting on the site.

Extra Credit Blog


Google launches monthly user-activity feature

Doug Gross, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/28/tech/web/google-account-activity/index.html
Recently the company that lets you use their website as a search engine "Google" has come out with a new way to track monthly user activity.  The reports of how much the user uses google do not just tell you however, users need to sign up in order to track this information.  Information such as your most popular search topics, number of emails and other account activity can be tracked with this new feature."Every day, we aim to make technology so simple and intuitive that you stop thinking about it -- we want Google to work so well it just blends into your life," Andreas Tuerk, a product manager for Google, wrote in the post. "But sometimes it's helpful to step back and take stock of what you're doing online."
Privacy advocates, including some in Congress, fear that puts too much personal information in the company's hands. But Google said it wouldn't be collecting any new information just collating what data it already had in a way that would be more clear and help create new products and features for its users. The new feature also allows you to track the different consoles you use to sign into google so even if your at someone else's computer it will still track the things you are doing on the internet at all times.  Knowing about your own google account helps with a number of different things that the explained in the article including your passwords which adds a extra level of security and the computer can know based on your own personal user activity.  


Having your privacy can be a difficult thing to track on the internet.  But having google track it for you sounds a little scary of an idea to me so I don't know if I would ever let it happen.  My apple computer currently tracks all my history anyway so I personally don't find a need to have to sign up for the new feature that google is trying to sell.  

Blog #4


This is NOT a tech bubble

 @lamonicabuzz February 6, 2012: 12:21 PM ET






This article describes the success and the failure of fortune 500 companies in the United States.  The article explains that the Nasdaq is at its highest level rating since 2000.  It also tells us that the tech companies that own stock like Facebook and Netflix are currently on the rise and helping make this level keep rising.  "If you want to declare that tech stocks are once again a bubble ... you'd be dead wrong.


What will Facebook do with its billions?


With the Nasdaq being 11% higher already so far this year people are starting to worry if a correction needs to be made because companies like Facebook and Apple just have so much money.  If a pullback were to happen it would probably be brief.  Even thought the Nasdaq is still high lately the index is still 44% below the all time highs, so a pullback likely would not happen still for quite awhile.


"Many of the big tech companies are in good product cycles, have recurring revenue streams and they are cheap," said Ted Parrish, co-manager of the Henssler Equity Fund (HEQFX) in Kennesaw, Ga. His fund owns big stakes in Apple, IBM (IBMFortune 500) and Qualcomm.
"Facebook is an outlier. You can't look at Facebook and say other techs are too expensive," Parrish added."
I personally believe it is hard to tell what to do with these big tech companies and how large they are getting along with the fact that they rake in so much profit.  Right now it seems to be a good thing for the economy and stock markets, However this could change in the rather near future.  With all these companies getting so big it could be close to time to have to do what some of the people in this article were worried about having a pullback.  Right now experts say there is no need for a change, so they should probably just keep it and not interfere. 

Internet Threat in NYC

Its a shame that we still have to deal with these threats. The good part is that we find them and put them to rest before anything major happens again. Sometimes i have to think that people are just parinoid and we really cannot blame them. However again there is a line where you have to understand that we have people in place to prevent anything bad from happening. People just need to start beliveing again that things will get better before they get worse, sometimes a task easier said than done. We have moving forward, and things are shaping up to be better. I know to say we just need to trust in the government and go about our regular lives is a simple and obvious tasks to do and sometimes harder but not to remember 9/11 but its what we have to do. Living in the past, living scared will never get us and this country back to where it was before. We have to move on while never forgetting the past. We as the people need to relax and just let the people in charge do their job, because they are working for us.

March Madness and Social Media

Its no secret that social media is apart of everything now whether it be for fun, or as a marketingt tool etc, its there and will be there for a long time. The bad part of social media is that soemtimes things get leaked or get out before the party it affects knows about the news. A lot of times you hear about professional athletes and coaches are asked, how did you find out about this news, and probably more than 75% of the time there answer is through twitter, or the news or something media related. Sadly thats how we communicate now for the most part, whether its texting, tweeting, facebooking its the new way of communicating. Especially tweeting now, twitter is one of the biggest and fastest growing social media network in the country. During the super bowl, world series, any major sporting event it just gets even bigger. During the NCAA Tournament or the term March Madness as the mouth of March has been dubed, social media activity was through the roof. We want news or stats or up to the minute scores all you need to do is go on twitter or some social media network. I use social media I have a facebook and twitte, and I think its a good tool to use, but there is a line, an invisable line that sometimes people cross. We have to remember about face to face, talking it out or talking to one another about things. Sure twitter and all that is good for like I said scores, new information but when coaches and players find out thing via twitter or social medias before hearing it from the cats mouth thats where the line is. Coaches and players shouldnt find out about things through social medias, like the peyton manning story. Jim Irsay the Colts Owner tweets more than anyone, and sometimes its best to just not say anything. He was always tweeting about Peyton and stuff like that when the stuff should have been handled face to face in house behind closed dorrs not out in public. Soical media is a great tool when used the right way.

TweetDeck bug gives access to other users' accounts

One thing that I wish I had heard from where the people who were affected by the tweet deck bugs. I wish I could have heard from the peoples whose accounts where broken into on accident because of the mistakes by the tweet deck bug. I felt as if this article bounced around because the video they showed had almost nothing to do with the discussion at hand. The video was about the founders of twitter mean while the article is about how a user warned tweet deck that they could tweet from other people’s profiles. Imagine all the people that were affected by that. If that individual didn’t warn them about the problem, there could have been more people hacking people’s accounts. Within the video they talk about how the founders left and that there was a group of people to replace them called the senior advisory group to take over the company. It made me ask myself did the founder leave because of this happening or what? Or did the founder leave because there are always problems with the site with different bugs and things going wrong with it. I remember this past year twitter stopped working because people were tweeting too much at one point. I believe it was during the time of Tim Tebow and his run as a quarter back for the Denver Broncos. When is the site going to be able to not have any bugs? I look at Facebook and see that they barley if at all have any problems, while twitter has problems a lot. I am not trying to bag on twitter because I am a user of the site and I love the site. What I am trying to say is that they need to improve the site so they can one day maybe surpass Facebook. Social media is an ever changing tool in our lives ten years ago it wasn’t even around. This is all new to us and new to the owners of these different sites and change is something that they are all about. In saying that it is not an excuse to have a bad site with bad bugs in it all the time. 





produced March 30th, 2012 

 http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/30/technology/tweetdeck-bug-twitter/index.htm