CS 177 Recitation

1
CS 177 Recitation

• April 21, 2006

2
Reminder

• The Final Exam will take place on Tues 5/2 from
  1020 am to 1220 pm in Lily 1105.

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Greatest Inventions

• Is the computer going to move?
• Do you agree with this list?

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Greatest Inventions

• Is anything on the list evolving like computers
  are?
• How would your life change if all computers were
  shut down right now?

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Embedded Processors

• What are embedded processors? 
• computer chips that are built into appliances and
  machinery
• Are there more embedded processors or computer
  processors?
• A huge majority of processors are in devices
  other than computers.

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Everyday Life

• What software do you use that saves you a lot of
  time? 
• Do you need computers to stay connected with the
  world today?
• Why did subscription newspaper and magazine sites
  on the Web fail? 
• The information was free at other sites.

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How does work?

• How do blogs work?
• People journal their lives online.
• How does a search engine work? 
• Pages are cataloged by keyword.
• Whats bad about search engines?
• Information may be old and unavailable.
• Sometimes hard to sort out the junk.
• Limited by your vocabulary.

8
Email

• What are the positives and negatives of email?
• Spam
• Forwards
• What should we do about spam?
• Beat them up! No, seriously.
• Fines? Tax?
• Do free email addresses promote spam?

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More Recent Developments

• What are the positives and negatives of IM?
• Spim (just like spam)
• Anonymity (who are you really talking to?)
• What are the positives and negatives of Facebook,
  mySpace?
• Release of personal information
• Networking of friends

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E-Commerce

• What types of things have you bought online?
• What is identity theft?
• A hostile user uses personal information
  available online to perform transactions without
  the knowledge of the actual person. (like in the
  movie The Net)

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Security

• Do you feel secure when you send personal
  information over the Web?  Why should you?... or
  shouldn't you?
• There are some common sense precautions that are
  easy to take.
• What is "phishing"?
• Faking actual company transmissions to possibly
  obtain personal information.

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More Security

• What security measures can you take?
• Encryption
• Abstinence
• Etc.
• How does encryption work?
• Remember that there are different costs to use
  encryption schemes.

13
Advertising

• How does advertising work on the Web? 
• Banners, Popups, Flash Ads, etc.
• How can it be made to be very effective?
• It can be personalized to your interests.
• What is "data mining"?
• Using a large set of data to make assumptions
  about users or groups of people.
• These conclusions may affect advertising
  strategies.

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Bad Bad Things

• What is "click fraud"? 
• Clicking multiple times on a banner ad to make it
  appear that the ad is leading to lots of
  visitors, typically done by competitors.
• What can be bad about data mining?
• Big Brother
• Who makes sure that the people collecting the
  data use it ethically?

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When Things Go Wrong

• What computer system bugs have affected your
  life?
• Why are these so unbearable?
• Computers cant react to the situations in a
  logical manner, they only have their programming
  to rely on. 

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Reliability of the Web

• Why is the Web an unreliable information source?
• Anyone can put anything on the web.
• Does this mean its worthless as a resource for
  research? For a paper?
• No, but it must be corroborated with reliable
  information, such as a book.

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The Digital Divide

• What is the "Digital Divide"?
• The great disparity between people with access to
  computers and those without it.
• What factors seem to be most divisive?
• Age
• Race
• Economic Factors
• Education

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The Digital Divide

• What can we do about closing that divide?
• Theres not any right or wrong answer.
• Conditions are improving as time passes.
• We have to make sure that we give opportunities
  to the most people possible.

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Questions and Next Week

• Next Week, we will be reviewing for the final.
• Most of the review will be dependant on YOUR
  QUESTIONS.
• If you dont understand something, ASK!
• Have a good weekend!