RSS Feeds

In his article on RSS feeds, Dr. Shaw claims that these feeds have the potential to one day be the main way people use the internet. I could not agree with this statement more. In my experience, the internet is used primarily to check information such as financial information, stocks, emails, sports, facebook, myspace, and things of this sort. If RSS feeds expanded to where they could provide information for the most used parts of the internet, this new technological phenomenon would definitely take hold. Main websites such as yahoo finance, cnn, and facebook would have to focus heavily on advertising their new way of operating. RSS feeds would need to be explained and justified before people would start to take advantage of them and that could be done through online tutorials and other sources of information. If people were convinced enough to start using them, I am sure the use of RSS feeds would spread like wild fire.

It is easy to explain why companies would want to take advantage of RSS feeds; in using these feeds, websites can control what information is given to subscribers. In controlling the information subscribers can view, companies can publish different information that may put them at an advantage. For example, if CNN.com has incentive to publicize a certain story in the news, they may put that at the top of the list of stories that get sent to subscribers. Also, in addition to controlling information, companies or websites can regulate and observe how many subscribers they have. Many website based companies are valued on how many hits or views their site gets and by sending podcasts or other information to subscribers via RSS feeds, companies can control not only the information they give to people, but the number or people they give it to. For example, if a certain person visits a website once a week and decides to subscribe to the RSS feed for that site, the site will receive more hits because they control how many times people receive the information; that person who subscribed would give the site more hits than just one a week.

A very popular site that offers RSS feed subscriptions is www.nytimes.com. As seen in the screenshot above, people can subscribe to pretty much any portion of the website/newspaper that is offered. This may foreshadow what is in the future. If technology follows the same trend as newspaper, it will move to the internet, from there it will go to RSS feeds then who knows.

Another site that uses RSS feeds is npr.org(above). Npr.org is the website for the national public radio (npr) and offers many different types of RSS feeds. These RSS feeds are similar to those displayed on nytimes.com; they encompass fields from arts and culture to world news.

The last site that I frequently visit offering RSS feeds is surfline.com(bottom). The RSS feeds offered on this site aren't as broad as nytimes.com and npr.org. Surfline offers surf news, alerts, and an RSS feed called surfwire, which talks about upcoming events and issues having to do with events. The other RSS feeds on this site offer surf reports for most of the big surfing spots in the world. If surfline wanted to add some RSS feeds to improve their site, they could add an RSS feed that offers the newest videos or one that shows pictures of recent pictures or tours.

Lastly, I think RSS feeds are an ingenious way for people to get information without having to search for it on the internet. It is becoming easier and easier to do things that were once unheard of, and RSS feeds are an example of this. Instead of going to a website and searching for information, one can just click on a tab and all the most recently updated information pops right up on the screen of the subscriber. At the same time, I cannot see RSS feeds completely taking over the way people use the internet. There are still needs for non current information. For example, it would be very difficult to create RSS feeds that would allow a user to research old information such as old news articles or critiques. In conclusion, yes, I do think RSS feeds may grow to be the main vehicle in which people use the internet; however, as a result of the need for non current information, I cannot see RSS feeds completely taking over.

War Driving with Net Stumbler

The first location I chose to war drive is South Station in Boston. Only one network was to be found and I could not connect to it because of two reasons; the signal was very low and a password was required to gain access to the service. The vendor was labeled “fake” and the speed was 54Mbps. A screenshot of the wireless signal acquired at South Station can be found below (top). The second location I searched for free wireless internet was my girlfriend Rachael’s house in Connecticut. I found a few more wireless signals here, but nowhere near as many as in the classroom (for obvious reasons). The signals were called: RomeNet, Clark, Linksys, NetGear, and Print Server. The Rome’s and Clark’s are Rachael’s neighbors, so that is where the names of the signals come from. The signal named Linksys is the name of the Rachael’s signal and therefore the signal that I connected to. I was not asked for a WEP key, so I just clicked “join network” and was then able to connect to the internet. A screenshot of the wireless internet signals found at Rachael’s house can be found below (bottom).

Above are screenshots of the two Network Stumbler scans I completed. The one on the bottom is from Rachael's house and on the top is from South Station. There are 5 networks on the bottom and one on the top; the highlighted channel on the bottom is the Linksys network, which I am currently connected to. For each network found, the channel, MAC, SSID, Speed, Vendor, Type, Encryption, SNR, Signal, and IP are all displayed. Also, these screens show whether or not the signal is secure. The only secure signal in these cases is the Clark signal on the bottom screen.

The internet service found at South Station is not free because it isn't even accessible. There may be a way to pay the provider for the service, but it is beyond my knowledge how to even try to find the owner of the wireless broadcast. At my second site of war driving, two signals were easily accessed and therefore free; Linksys and NETGEAR. Both of these were free because they did not require a password to gain entry. This leads me to believe both the "NETGEAR" network and the "Linksys" network are unsecure because for anyone with a computer with wireless internet capabilities, it is possible to access the unsecure network. The other three, however, did require a password, which, with my limited knowledge of hacking, made it nearly impossible for me to access.

It is never ok to have a personal unsecured network. Not only is it a bad idea because other people can get your purchased internet for free, but it is also possible for them to hack into your computer through your network and access your personal information. If a company decides to offer free wifi, it probably just equips the building with a wireless signal accessible by customers and prompts them with a password at login. To make sure the company has only customers using its free internet, they make the customers go to the front desk and ask for the password. Companies will do this to bring in more business. For example, Starbucks used to broadcast free wifi throughout their whole store which not only gave people a chance to search the web for free, but it is more likely that visitors buy a coffee because they are in a coffee shop. Customers also may be more likely to buy a cup of coffee because they feel they are being treated well as customers and don't mind spending money knowing that they are being considered. Also, the company will probably make its internet accessible by customers, but not its whole network. For example, the company will probably secure all of its network files and only leave the wifi available to customers so that internet can be used but confidential files cannot be accessed.

After finding free wifi, I can do anything that I could have done had I paid for internet; I can surf the web, go on aim, search itunes, and check my outlook email. Having access to free wireless internet allows one to do almost anything on the internet, however the free internet will always be wireless, which may become a nuisance because it may go in and out of reception or it may only be accessed in certain areas of the house or yard.

I am impressed with CCleaner. For the most part, it was very easy to navigate through the website. Once the first screen came up, I simply clicked on the “Download CCleaner Now” link, which brought me to a different page where I was asked for a donation, which being the broke college student I am, I denied the request. http://blackboard.bentley.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_6093_1

Once this donation site came up, I clicked on the tab for “Download from filehippo.com” where I was bombarded with a seemingly endless array of different versions of CCleaner, which I could download for free. http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

After I clicked on the “Download Latest Version” link, I was confronted with another screen with an option to save the file to your computer, which I accepted(Below).

I followed the steps of installation and ran the scan. I was surprised to see how much CCleaner picked up; it terminated 14 mb of useless files hidden on my computer. I was even more surprised at this because the computer that I scanned is pretty much new; I just started using it a week ago and I already have at least 14 mb of useless files.

The spyware protection software I tried is called XoftSpySE. I found this free software link by visiting http://comparespywareremovers.com/ and choosing the top rated spyware detection program. XoftSpySE was rated 9.8 out of 10, easy to use, and was rated High/Very High in popularity. I clicked on the “Link” button on the website which brought me to a site where I was prompted to either download or view testimonials; I chose to download because I don’t have any time to waste on useless user opinions. http://www.paretologic.com/xoftspy/se/newlp/xray/?uid=p33il

When I chose to download the application, a similar screen came up asking me to save the downloaded file to my computer, which I did. Again, I followed the simple installation directions, reflex clicked on the “I have read and accept the terms of agreement” box and performed my first scan. XoftSpySE recognized 106 objects; I briefly scanned through them, and chose to instantly delete rather than to look at more information on the objects found.

I think it is dangerous to have both adware and spyware on a pc, but I think the more dangerous of the two is spyware. This type of software enables someone to track what you have been doing, obtain personal files, and possibly even steal your identity depending on how much information the spyware projects. On the other hand, I think adware is more of a nuisance than a danger. It has to do with advertising gimmicks such as pop-ups and other things of that sort. The most common way for these programs to infect your computer is through the visitation of non secure internet sites. Every time a site like this is visited, many little files are downloaded onto the computer, which can potentially add spyware or adware to the pc that visited the sites.

I think sites contain these kinds of programs so that the makers of the site can obtain information about whoever visits. For example, if the owner of a website wants to obtain bank information about the people that visit his or her site, he can install a program that will put spyware onto every computer that visits his or her site. The predator can spy and copy bank usernames and passwords in order to gain access to that individual’s account. Also, adware may give the advertizing company an idea of how many people are viewing their ads or make it easier for ads to pop up on the user’s computer screen. As far as adware and spyware are concerned, people may gain a lot of information about many different people. Spyware essentially lets people spy on you through what you do on your computer, and adware allows people to advertise on your computer screen when you are not interested.

my name is ryan