Tag Archives: Computer

HOW TO GO VIRAL

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Today half of the population wants to go off grid and the other half wants to GO VIRAL, a phrase used to convey the act of gaining, usually quick, popularity online. Going viral can happen by mistake or on purpose. What do I mean? Sometimes users post things on social media with no intent of many people seeing it.

However, if it is controversal or identifiable enough people will start viewing or sharing the post until it spirals out if control, causing a once internet “nobody” to gain a following on and offline. On the other hand, people who yearn for attention or for people to actively follow them for whatever reason (ie: sales), will put in the hard work and even money to show up on social media feeds and gain popularity.

Here I explain HOW TO GO VIRAL:

Examples:a Facebook screenshot of a young womana screenshot of a young woman in a video a screenshot of a young woman in a video about hair extensions

QUESTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE: Have you ever gone viral? How? | What do you feel about what I am saying?

NEXT: Get A Steady Income ONLINE

Is the Digital Age Killing Art or Enhancing it?

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Art is a something that evokes a feeling. This can be true for someone who views art as paintings and someone who views art as a choreographed ballet. Throughout centuries, people have used art for a variety of situations: to share their feelings; to release stress; to state facts; to show history; to tell stores; to cause controversy; to make a living, etc. However, with the change of the times, was a change of the methods to make art. People went from drawing on an easel to copying-and-pasting on an app, and even to allowing the computer to draw for them entirely. The creativity of today seems to lack a great tangible feel.

Since the dawn of the ages there have been some form of art, not including architecture. You can see that with Ancient Egyptian’s Hieroglyphics and other “cave men” drawings. Since then, there has been a progression based on materials available and change in knowledge.

I wanted to know what people thought of the change. I decided to go around and ask a few people what they thought on the subject.

VIDEO RESPONSES

I asked some students What is Art? Here are their responses:

Credit: Cody, Eije, Al, Mike

Answer from a professional: Prof. Libby Clarke, Department of Communication Design, Co-Advisor of the Printmaking Club

I asked students Has Technology Damaged Art? Here are the responses:

Answer from a professional: Prof. Libby Clarke, Department of Communication Design, Co-Advisor of the Printmaking Club

*BACKGROUND: I have been drawing all my life, starting with pencil drawings, water colors, and coloring books (as most people). I started to progress, of course, as I got into middle school, having tried a variety of mediums like mosaics, charcoal, color pencil, and painting. By time I got to High School I was enrolled in advanced art/drawing and painting. I also held a leadership position in Art Club, doing activities in the neighborhood like Holiday Window Painting. Although I originally wanted to go into Graphic Design, however, once in college for Computer Engineering, I only took Art History and African Art & Architecture with no creation what so ever. Outside of school I started creating on faces and bodies as a makeup artist and became more technical savvy. I began creating websites, blogs, editing photos, and using photoshop. The most I drew was doodles on my school work. Today I am getting back to my roots while still using my technical skills. I have found my happy place :). I am excited to have found the Printing Making Club, using hands on art methods, which meets Thursdays at 12:45 in N 1119 or N 1104. I am also in the process of designing a poster using photoshop and my original art drawings for the City Tech’s Production “Fallen Sparrow,” showing April 1st at 7pm and April 2nd at 1 pm in the Atrium Television Studio.

To me, Art is in so many forms, music, performance, and visual creations. I believe it has damaged some art but has created a platform and a place to enhance art for the new and old generation. I do feel people need to come back to the basics and learn to use their bodies for expression.

QUESTIONS TO THE AUDIENCE: Do you believe the digital age have took the definition of art away from its original meaning? |  Have new age technology made people less hands on? |Are you an artist, if so how have the times changed you?

New Threat on the Digital Block: The CryptoLocker Virus

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a screenshot of a computer anti-virusA few months ago, I got an annoying piece of code on my laptop known as the FBI Moneypak virus. It locked down my laptop screen and demanded a ransom for me to have it unlocked – right in the middle of midterm week. Thankfully the virus was easy to remove and I was able to boot my laptop in safe mode before running anti-virus software to remove it. Different variants of the Moneypak virus began popping up over the internet, each strain slightly different and more difficult to remove until two months ago when an infinitely more dangerous began to appear. The Moneypak virus scares victims into thinking their computer will be permanently locked, covering their screen with a digital ransom note that cannot be removed until a victim pays up. Even if you don’t pay the money, or if you remove the virus, your files are (usually) safe. CryptoLocker however is the complete opposite.

Most people are infected through spam mail. Clicking on attachments from people you don’t know, or from friends or family you weren’t expecting to get attachments from is a very easy way to get infected. You can also catch the virus from less harmful malware already installed on your computer. You can also get the virus from computers that share resources on your network. The virus spreads similarly to the Autoplay malware that made its way around campus last semester, it you share network drives, USBs drives or email and receive attachments often, you are also liable to get infected.

This virus is a nasty one, there’s no other way to put it. Very rarely do victims of this virus know when they’ve been infected.  Once it gets onto a computer, it targets files with the following extensions:

*.odt, *.ods, *.odp, *.odm, *.odc, *.odb, *.doc, *.docx, *.docm, *.wps, *.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb, *.xlk, *.ppt, *.pptx, *.pptm, *.mdb, *.accdb, *.pst, *.dwg, *.dxf, *.dxg, *.wpd, *.rtf, *.wb2, *.mdf, *.dbf, *.psd, *.pdd, *.pdf, *.eps, *.ai, *.indd, *.cdr, *.jpg, *.jpe, *.jpg, *.dng, *.3fr, *.arw, *.srf, *.sr2, *.bay, *.crw, *.cr2, *.dcr, *.kdc, *.erf, *.mef, *.mrw, *.nef, *.nrw, *.orf, *.raf, *.raw, *.rwl, *.rw2, *.r3d, *.ptx, *.pef, *.srw, *.x3f, *.der, *.cer, *.crt, *.pem, *.pfx, *.p12, *.p7b, *.p7c.

The virus then proceeds to encrypt them with RSA (Rivest Shamir Adleman) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryptions.  Any and everything attached to your computer will be infected. Cloud storage won’t necessarily save your files – people who installed have Dropbox on their computers will have the files in their account encrypted. Attached USB or disk storage will also be encrypted. Any new files you create with the above file extensions will also be encrypted, effectively rendering your computer files useless.

Once CryptoLocker has successfully infected all the files on a target PC, it displays a warning message, giving victims 72 hours to pay around $300 or their files permanently encrypted. They aren’t bluffing. There are numerous reports of people and businesses loosing important files because they didn’t pay the ransom. It’s much worse for people who attempt to (or even accidentally) remove the virus from their computers.The ransom can increase anywhere between 3 and 10 times the initial value of $300. Only an infected computer can access the website to pay the ransom to unencrypt their files, but for the people who’ve accidentally uninstalled the virus, don’t worry.The creators of the virus realized that they were missing out on income and so, provide victims with a link to reinfect their computers so that they can pay up.

There’s a serious debate over whether or not people should pay money to retrieve their files. The argument against paying is that giving up the money encourages the hackers to target more people and continue to update the virus to earn more money. Who wouldn’t – the creators of CryptoLocker are said to have earned upwards of $5 Million in on year. For people who risk losing irreplaceable family photos, financial documents and client files worth thousands of dollars each though, there’s no other option than to pay the money.

Open attachments at your own risk.

 

Sources:

  • http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/11/cryptolocker-crew-ratchets-up-the-ransom/
  • http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/youre-infected-if-you-want-to-see-your-data-again-pay-us-300-in-bitcoins/
  • http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/11/how-to-avoid-cryptolocker-ransomware/
  • http://blog.malwarebytes.org/intelligence/2013/10/cryptolocker-ransomware-what-you-need-to-know/
  • http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/cryptolocker-ransomware-information
  • http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cryptolocker-is-the-nastiest-malware-ever-heres-what-you-can-do/

 

A Slice of Raspberry Pi

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Raspberry Pi - single board computer

Raspberry Pi – single board computer

Not a dessert, or a bad math pun, Raspberry Pi is one of many the many single board computers available on the market today. The device was created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation – a UK based charity founded in 2009 and dedicated to promoting the study of basic computer programming in children. Their ideal is to start from the bottom up. If children are given tools to learn to program early on, they spend less time learning basic programming techniques in college and can move on to acquiring skills that will help them efficiently work in the computer industry. To all the CST majors, think of how much easier Java or C++ would be to pick up if you’d at least touched on the subject in grade school.

That’s not to say the Raspberry Pi is limited to just kiddie stuff. While it was developed to work with Scratch, an educational programming language, the Pi is capable of running operating systems including Debian, Arch Linux, and a custom made OS optimized for use with the Raspberry Pi known as ‘Raspbian’. Various programming tools are available from the ‘Pi Store’ with everything from apps and games to development tool. Programmers who can write in Python, C and Perl will feel right at home here.

Despite being the size of a credit card, the Raspberry Pi boasts some decent specs.

Model A Model B
CPU 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S
GPU 250 MHz Broadcom VideoCore IV
Memory 256 MB 512 MB
USB 2.0 Ports 1 2
Video Input CSI input connector
Video Output Composite RCA, HDMI, DSI
Audio Output 3.5 mm jack, HDMI
Onboard Storage SD / MMC / SDIO
Onboard Network None 10/100 Ethernet adapter
Power Rating 300mA (1.5 W) 700 mA(3.5 W)
Power Source 5 volt (via MicroUSB or GPIO header)
Operating Systems Arch Linux ARM, Debian, Fedora, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan 9, Raspbian OS, RISC OS, Slackware Linux, Firefox OS, Android 4.0, Haiku, Unix

* Both cards are 3.4 x 2.2 inches and weigh 1.6 oz.

Raspberry Pi also has a wide range of uses. One such use was creating a homemade, networked, motion sensitive, HD surveillance system. British native Christoph Buenger used a model B Raspberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi camera module, a housing for the camera, a power supply, an SD card and a Wi-Fi USB adapter (around $100 worth of equipment) to create a system just as capable as one that would cost thousands of dollars. The instructions are available here, and video recordings can be stored to a folder on a computer or viewed as a live stream online via computer or mobile device.

Another person made a Halloween project using a variety of items including a model B Pi, cheap rat toys, red LEDs lights, servo controllers, power regulators and solderless breadboards. Known as the ‘Ratsberri Pi’, the project (with instructions that can be found here ) makes creates creepy glowing eyed rodents that move according to programming.

All in all the Raspberry Pi is a gadget with potential limited only by a person’s imagination. We’re a technology college with plenty of students and faculty capable of coming up with some awesome projects. I’m making one of these an early Christmas present for myself, but what can you guys come up with? Let’s see some projects!

Sources

 

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