2007년 7월 25일 수요일

Info Pros Essay2

In modern society where most people have easy accesses to the internet, problems related to the internet is kind of inevitable. Although commonly considered to be beneficial, internet also gives us problems including computer virus, worm, and so on. Since many use computers and internet, it has become they has become a big concern and my programs are developed to identify and prevent them. However, such incidents are still continuously happening. In my personal experience, my computer was infected by a spyware, and eventually my ID was hacked.
About five or six years ago, a PC game named ‘Diablo2’ was introduced to the world by one of the biggest world PC game major ‘Blizzard.’ The game was a big hit all around the world and especially in Korea it was not an exaggeration to say “everyone is playing Diablo.” Of course, I was one of them and had pretty high level ID. Few years later, Blizzard produced the expansion set of Diablo and the popularity went the highest at that time. At that time, I was spending many times to play Diablo. As a result, my characters were all with high levels and unique items. I suddenly became one of the most famous guys in the school for that.
With many people playing the game, Diablo showed many problems at that time. Since few rare item which is really hard to see could be traded with real cash, many crimes related to item trade were happened. Moreover, because some hacker made a hacking tool for Diablo, ID hacking occurred in many places. However, I thought it would not happen to me because the usual places where the IDs were hacked were internet cafes. Since I played game at home, I thought I would be safe from the risks.
One day, I tried to log in to the game as I usually did. However, the phrase “your password is wrong. Please try it again” popped up on the monitor. I just thought I mistakenly typed the password wrong. However, I could not log on to the game eventually, since I never got the password right. I could not believe that my ID was hacked by someone. I was depressed instantly and thought, “How could possibly be this happened?” Suddenly, warning message from a vaccine program called V3 was popped up in my head few days ago. I quickly initiated the program and check the existence of malware. There was spyware which might steel my ID. I had no idea how could get it in my computer. I just guessed that it was attached to one of a huge number of files I downloaded. Anyway, I regretted a lot about ignoring a warning past, but I could not change anything. ID was already stolen!
Every time I think of the day I lost my ID, I get so depressed because I really played hard. However, the experience did not leave me a sad memory only. It actually gave me a good habit, too. After the incident, I was checking my computer regularly if there are any viruses in my PC. Since then, I had fortunately no problem with the malwares.

2007년 6월 20일 수요일

Infomation Era

As world progressed into Informational Age from Industrial Age since 1980s, many things have experienced various changes. Tangible things became untouchable including cash into credit card, and information started to be considered as “resource.” Among such a wide range of changes, the speed of information propagation can be said one of the most distinctive differentiations. The biggest examples of this are computer and cellular phone.
Although, ANIAC, the world’s first computer, was built in 1947 by US army, not until by 1908s was computer available to the public. When PC, the term popularized by Apple, first appeared in markets, it made possible for users to communicate each other. With the advent of WWW(World Wide Web) by 1989, the speed information spread was considerably got faster. It connects all users around the whole world and help flow of relevant information. For example, if we wish to see the tomorrow’s weather of Tokyo, when internet was not available, people should wait for TV or radio news, or need to buy a newspaper. However, we don’t need to wait, and we don’t need to spend 500 yen for buying newspaper. All we need to do is log on to Yahoo Japan and click Tenki. As this activity does not involve so much time, transmission of information get so faster, and it also apply to money making. We can access to the prices of stocks on NYSE, and also be able to buy and sell them anytime we want. It is undeniable internet have made our pace of life faster.
Along with internet, cellular phone, commonly called cell phone, is one of the representative symbols of Information Age. Although the first commercial mobile phone was produced in 1979 by NTT in Japan, by 1990s cell phones were too big to put in the jacket pocket. However, as it become smaller and comfortable, many people started to enjoy cell phone’s functions. According to Wikipedia, about 80% of world’s total population is using cell phone. It helps the ‘informationalization’ in different way. Cell phones enable news to be delivered instantly. From my personal experience, when I was in Korea in 2006, my sister met car accident. At that time I was studying in a library, and a text message which let me know that my sister was in the hospital. Since I had never told anyone that I was going to the library, if I didn’t have a cell phone, I would never know my sister’s accident that fast. As shown in my example, when information needs to be delivered quickly, cell phone is a very effective method. For business men, who live by seconds, cell phone must be on the top of their must-have item list because their billion-dollar worth information should be delivered as fast as possible. With the advent of Information Era, the possession of cell phone becomes necessary.
In conclusion, As Informational Age came into exist, the rate of information spread got so much rapider than Industrial Age, and the fact is represented and demonstrated by some symbols of the Age such as internet and cellular phone. It is true that, by those modern conveniences, our life have been abundantly promoted. However, it also creates many causes of stress because of too fast pace which sometimes difficult to catch up. So, I, hereby, throw a tricky question for every modern people; Has Information Age only brought us good aspects? Are you satisfied?

2007년 5월 6일 일요일

Info Pros Essay

-Advancement in the internet leads to integration between real world and cyber world in daily life, for example

My father usually doesn’t have time to go to bank. However, he can move a lot of money in his office through the internet. This is not only my father’s story, but of many people. Even five or six years ago, it was even impossible to imagine for a person to do their work without going somewhere. But, today, we can do our tasks, as sitting in front of a computer.

The first example is on-line banking. Of course, it is the most visible result of how internet has changed our lives directly. People don’t go to banks as many times as they used to go before. The reason is many of the tasks have no need to be done at bank. We can do it at the home. For example, back in US, I never went to the bank to check my balance. But I used website instead. Only time I needed to go to the bank was when I wanted to withdraw some money. In this regard, it may be true internet made our homes a bank.

Next, internet allows us to shop without going to market. In the past, people always needed to go somewhere to buy what they need. Although people do go some places for shopping, it also became possible to shop at home. Thus, people sometimes choose to shop through the internet as they are listening to music from their computer. “Ebay” may be a good example of this. Thousands of millions of people log on to the website and try to buy and sell their product. They don’t need to meet each other to buy something, but only need to turn on the computer and get on the internet. These days, the meaning of shopping becomes impossible to simply say going to a shop anymore.

Many things were changed by emergence of internet, and there will be more changes. But, though little inconvenience, it is also important to keep our traditional ways to deal with many tasks because those might remind us that we are living in real world. I hope we properly balance the both aspects so that any trouble will occur.