Rising Value of IT Degrees

NYT 10/20/11: If you’re trying to figure out what to study in college, a new report suggests you would do well choosing a major in science, technology, engineering or math.

Science and technology have “become the common currency in the labor market,” but don’t count the liberal arts out, either.

Ch. 13 FIT: Passwords

How to Make Usable and Secure Passwords.

Check if Your Password Was Compromised.

Usable Password Generator.

What the Hex?

Artificial Retinas: UO Physics Research

A subject in ch. 11 of our textbook Fluency w/IT is human tri-chromatic color perception.

“A couple minutes with… Richard Taylor" features a UO professor of physics, whose research includes artificial retinas that could help restore eyesight in those with retinal diseases.

The Zetta-Flood is Coming

This from Dave Evans, Cisco's Chief Futurist:

This year (2011) the world is creating 1.2 zettaBytes (1 sextillion) of unique data, mainly as a result of HD Video. Evans expects that 91% of internet data will be HD video by 2020.  -from CACM, 9/11.

FIPS in the News: IMDb/Amazon

An anonymous actress claims in a million-dollar federal lawsuit that her offers for roles dropped sharply after the popular Internet Movie Database published damaging personal information: her age.

The actress provided credit card information and her real name – but not her age – when she bought the service, according to the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court against Seattle-based IMDb and its parent company, Amazon.com.

IMDb used that information - without her permission - to uncover her date of birth and added it to her profile on the website.

Europe vs. Facebook: Fair Information Practice Principles

Fair Information Practices are covered in ch. 13 of our Fluency texbook.

As a contemporary case study, read how a 24 year old law student from Vienna, Max Schrems, has filed 22 complaints with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner targeting Facebook's lack of compliance with  EU requirements.

Article: 24 year old student lights match - Europe versus Facebook.

Associated website.

The Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs)

In 1973, the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare published five principles that would allow the benefits of computerization to go forward, but at the same time provide safeguards for personal privacy.
The principles also provide an excellent tool to judge the merits of cases such as Europe vs. Facebook:

To evaluate the merits of Mr. Schrems' case against Facebook, read the first two sections of the IT Law Wiki article: (i) The HEW Report and, (ii) European Developments.

Hazards of the FaceBook Generation

Image via WikipediaIf a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give that person your name, Social Security number and e-mail address?

If your answer is No, read on:

• How Privacy Vanishes Online (NYT)
  
• Stanford Researcher Finds Lots of Leaky Web Sites (NYT)
• Tracking the Trackers (Stanford Law School)
• Digital Collection of Private Information From Consumers and Citizens (Center for Digital Democracy)

The Tilde (~) in Unix & URLs

Image via Wikipedia

UNIX

In a Unix pathname, the tilde (~) is an abbreviation for the "path to your home directory".

Example (not using ~): 

/home4/susanQ/public_html/110/ is the Unix path to Susan Queue's 110 folder on shell.uoregon.edu.

Example (using ~): 

~/public_html/110/ is the Unix path to Suzie's folder on shell.uoregon.edu

URLs

In a URL, the tilde (~) has a related but different meaning: it stands for the path to your public_html folder on the web server.

Example: 

http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~susanQ/ is the URL that corresponds to the Unix path /home4/susanQ/public_html/

Example: 

http://ix.cs.uoregon.edu/~susanQ/110/ is the URL that corresponds to the Unix path /home4/susanQ/public_html/110/

UO TextPad License

UO TextPad License

The University of Oregon has a site license for TextPad, a text editorwith enhanced Web development features(Windows only). The license covers current UO students, faculty and staff only.

Windows users can download and install TextPad from the UO Software Center.

1. Uncompress the downloaded file (TextPad.zip), and run the installer (.exe).
2. Drag TExtPad License.txt onto your desktop.
3. Start TextPad, and open TextPad License.txt.

You will need the UO License Code to register the product. The License Code is contained in the file TextPad License.txt.

If you do not enter the UO License Code in TextPad, your downloaded version will terminate after 45 days, plus you will be constantly prompted to purchase TextPad.

To enter the License Code and register your copy of TextPad:

1. Start TextPad, and open the file TextPad License.txt.
2. Select all the lines including "BEGIN LICENSE" and "END LICENSE", and copy them to the clipboard using Ctrl+C.
3. Choose the "Enter License Code" command from the Help menu in TextPad.
4. Paste the license information into the dialog box, using Ctrl+V.
5. Click OK.

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