Module 11

                                                                                           Module 11

For this week the class had to review a film related to computers and write about it. I decided to watch again Live Free of Die Hard. I actually like all the die hard movies but this one is one of my favorites.The assignment is just to explain how the computers were used in the movie.

In this movie the F.B.I. is investigating a computer outage at their cyber-security division. They start tracing  the hackers responsible for this and they find out that most of them have been killed. The F.B.I decide to take the rest of the hackers into custody. This is when they ask detective John McLane to collect Matt Farrell because he was the closest officer available to Matt's location.

 McLane picks up Matt in time for him not be killed by assassins hired by the terrorist Matt was unknowingly working for named Gabriel. Matt explains McLane he was hired along with other hackers to find a code for a large amount of money but they didn't knew who was their boss.

When they get to D.C. there is chaos everywhere because Gabriel has taken over the transportation and stock market, he also broadcast a message threatening the United States and a broadcast showing a fake explosion of the capitol building.  Matt recognizes this as the start of an and attack designed to target the nation and explains that to McLane. They later find out that Gabriel was a top expert hacker for the U.S Defense Department  and was fired when he tried to show the head of the department about the vulnerability of America if there was a cyber-warfare.

While the movie keeps going we discover that Gabriel plan was to take over a National Security Agency building facility where all personal data and financial records of the United States were going to be saved in case of a cyber-security emergency, this security system was created after 9/11. We also find out that Gabriel was the one who created the program,that is why he knew all the information was going to be there and why he created all this chaos, to create the illusion of an emergency and activate the download. During the movie we can see how just with a few clicks Gabriel and his crew take over not only computers by changing the traffic lights or turning down all lights of the city but also how they could hurt people and control their lives by erasing their savings accounts,401k and trying to kill anyone that interferes with his plan.

I think in this movie the use of computers is very realistic, I don’t think every hacker is going to send an F-5 to kill you but I believe that someone with knowledge can hack into the transportation system or any other system and create a disaster. Now a days there is a lot that can be made from your computer if you have the tools, you don’t even need to be as smart as the bad guy in this movie, you can learn how to hack or override something from YouTube. I think there is a lot of movies out there that shows us how much power we have given to computers in our lives and how things can go wrong from it.

Module 10

This week our assignment was to read a short story called "A Logic Named Joe" while reading this story I could not believe it was written in 1946.The author of it describes how computers could solve our problems just by asking them. In this story Joe is some type of super computer that gets smarter with experience, Joe can connect to other logics and give people answers to any type of question. We can notice in the story how the author can see that not everyone was going to use this "power" as something good, maybe the kids were asking the computers to watch some cannibals shows or how to find a buried treasure, there were no filters to what kids were able to do or look in the computers, and adults were asking how to create weapons, how to get rid of someone or to how steal money from banks.

When Jenkins wrote this story computers were big machines used for bigger tasks. He predicted that we were going to be able to have this at home and use them for simple questions and for a lot more than they were used before.In the story everyone had a logic and they would use it to watch tv, make phone calls or chat and also to get information. Now, almost everyone has a computer at home and we are able to watch tv shows, get all the information we need about something and get a hold of anyone with another computer trough a video call, social networks or chat.

Now, a computer might not be able to do what Joe did in the story but we are very close to that point. They are programmed to save patterns of the way we use them and the things we like. I was a little creep out the first time I notice that right after I visited a popular clothing store website and got out of it, the next page I opened had a add with the same item I was looking at from the same store telling that they were recommending me the particular item. After that I started to research about it and its unbelievable all the information we don’t realize we share or we teach the computer every time we use them. It is a little bit scary. Computers evolve and are getting more powerful, the worst is that we rely on them for almost everything. I cant think of what would happened to the world if all technology was taken out of it.

At the end of the story Joe gets caught or maybe I should say that the human brain beat the machine. So maybe as long as we are smarter than computers they will not overpower humans.

Module 9

                                                                                          Module 9

Right now I'm reading the final chapters of this book and still learning about how the world has flatten and how companies or countries are using this in their advantage. In past modules we learned about supply chains and after learning about them we can realize that almost everything is made by supply chains.  The process of building a Dell laptop starts with the order of the computer, the order goes to Dell's systems, they get your personal information and everything related to the order, that includes your credit card information to charge you for the item. Once you order the computer doesn't mean that the item is sitting in a shelf waiting for you, instead the item is in little parts all over the world. They have six factories around the world and your computer will be assemble in one of those, but they order the parts from their SLC warehouse. Once the computer gets assembled it is sent down to arrive at the place where the software will be installed, after that the computer goes to the boxing department and gets ready to get sent out to the buyer. This is what we call supply chains.

Al-Qaeda has a supply chain of their own too. They use this for death and destruction. The book mentions that it’s a suicide chain. The flat world has made it easier for terrorists to transmit their terror and to move the tools to conduct their operations. With the help of the internet they can also get information on the places they want to attack or their enemies without having to travel to that place, they can also recruit and train their people. This shows us that the flattening of the world can be use  for any matter and by any group.

Countries in the middle east that are rich in oil get stuck on getting money just from drilling, they don’t develop or try to to find another ways of making money. This is what her refers to The Curse of Oil. These countries generally don’t have higher education, court systems or general rights for the citizens.

If there comes a time when the oil runs out the citizens of these countries will have no way of advancing or supporting themselves.

At the end of the book we can realize that all the advances in our technology are not always use for good, but it makes our world a more productive place and helps individuals around the world to expand.