World Without Secrets By Richard Hunter

After watching two groups discuses this book I thought I should state something about it in my blog. Also both groups kept me interested as well.

It was published in the year 2002 and it talks about privacy and security. On the privacy side of the story, people are so worried about their identity being out in the public but what they don't know is that when they purchase something online such as Amazon.com or Nordstrom.com they are giving private information out onto the internet. Someone could hack into their account and steal their identity easily. Also they talk about smart houses. Lots of money was put into smart houses and depending how many electronic devices they wanted into their houses allowed people to easily hack into the computer behind the smart house and see their every move in every place in the house. Thats really scary!

They discovered the open source software movement where anyone could access it and use it. Linux was the name and they didnt think it would've been successful but it was. By the year 2003 they noticed it was very successful and Microsoft saw linux as a threat to their company. So microsoft stated bad things about the code so people wouldnt want to use it.

They also talked about Hackers and Crackers- its ethical by nature. You have to be accepted by the community to be a hacker. An example is a mentat which are people who fill in the gaps that computers cant do. Its like a trust between a client and a mentat. She gave an example that kevin fritas was an example of a mentat.

Overall i thought this book was pretty interesting.

Against the Machine by Lee Siegel

After watching the first group present in class I thought it was an interesting book to talk about.

The book is about the internet reshaping out thoughts about ourselves, other people and the world around us. In other words, the internet is separating "us" from the real world. I thought that was interesting that he stated that in his book since we did discuss that topic in class... is the internet really separating people from the outside world? The group also talked about the Bait and Switch method which relates to Ebay. Also Online expressions as in everything is the same and anyone can put whatever they want on the internet. For example: expressing who they are or who they aren't. Siegel doesn't believe people can be both artists and a professional. Its kind of like the "click" in high school. One group can be part of another group, its just wrong. He says that there is not originality and no one has personality. He talks about how culture changed from watching a movie on TV to watching a TV show like American Idol where you can express yourself by voting. He also says the only reason people are doing things online is so that people will notice them and it will help them become more popular like web 2.0. So overall Lee Siegel is very negative and contradicts himself a lot. He seems to be really against the internet and how popular its become.