How will the law affect netizens outside the US?
Though the law is out to protect the rights of creative people in the US, the effects if ever the law gets passed can actually affect everybody logging on to the internet.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, SOPA can actually hurt you by affecting your favorite sites. Favorites like YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook, Vimeo, blog sites like WordPress.com, Tumblr and Blogspot.com can be held liable for contents uploaded or linked by its users. So even if your blog is legit and a user makes a comment linking other visitors to another site that is in the blocked list, your site, your blog will also be banned, chopping off a large portion of ad revenues. Your site will no longer be indexed by US based search engines, and will not allowed to advertise or sell in the US. You can also be penalized if you use backgrounds (music or effects) that violates US copyright laws.
A History of Modern Computing, 2nd Edition, 9780262532037 (0262532034), MIT Press, 2003
Computers were invented to ‘‘compute’’: to solve ‘‘complex mathematical problems,’’ as the dictionary still defines that word. They still do that, but that is not why we are living in an ‘‘Information Age.’’ That reflects other things that computers do: store and retrieve data, manage networks of communications, process text, generate and manipulate images and sounds, fly air and space craft, and so on. Deep inside a computer are circuits that do those things by transforming them into a mathematical language. But most of us never see the equations, and few of us would understand them if we did. Most of us, nevertheless, participate in this digital culture, whether by using an ATM card, composing and printing an office newsletter, calling a mail-order house on a toll-free number and ordering some clothes for next-day delivery, or shopping at a mega-mall where the inventory is replenished ‘‘just-in-time.’’ For these and many other applications, we can use all the power of this invention without ever seeing an equation. As far as the public face is concerned, ‘‘computing’’ is the least important thing that computers do.
But it was to solve equations that the electronic digital computer was invented. The word ‘‘computer’’ originally meant a person who solved equations; it was only around 1945 that the name was carried over to machinery.
That an invention should find a place in society unforeseen by its inventors is not surprising.3 The story of the computer illustrates that. It is not that the computer ended up not being used for calculation—it is used for calculation by most practicing scientists and engineers today. That much, at least, the computer’s inventors predicted. But people found ways to get the invention to do a lot more. How they did that, transforming the mathematical engines of the 1940s to the networked information appliance of the 1990s, is the subject of this book.
Remembering the year that was 2011
Two days from now 2011 will be bidding us adieu. As that day approaches, I can’t stop but remember how life has been. This year has been my best and my worst.
Logic House
I headed a computer org and helped transform its members from cry babies into someone the IT world can reckon with. The same org that has seen the ire of certain instructors (instrutors because I don’t see them qualified to be called profs). The same underground org that outdid the college’s official IT org. The same org that helped students out during finals.
From what was a small group it grew in membership and is now recruiting members from different schools.
Life
This year can be also dubbed as the year where the phrase “Find, be happy and lose it” greatly applies. I found you, I finally did.
The Dream
I did not file for graduation, I wasn’t part of the group that graduated this December. Though I was to receive the highest award fot CS majors, I didn’t take part in this year’s graduation. The event that also confirmed one instructor’s narrow mindedness and his minions stupidity. All I can say is, “You can keep your stupid ceremony and award. I can take on any of your so called best. And yes, I can teach this course better than you.”
San Jose State
Five words, “San Jose State or bust!”
I will be pursuing another degree possibly a degree in statistics or engineering.
Hopefully everything works out the way i planned it.
Miss, why are you so prejudiced?
I was at the mall last week, bent on buying a new backpack. Checking out a bag at a Halo booth in Robinson’s Ortigas, I asked the salesgirl if I could look at a bag closely. To my surprise, she didn’t get the bag right away, but instead mentioned that the bag was priced at 1500.
OK, so maybe I didn’t look like I could afford a bag like that but miss mind you I can. And yes I know its a laptop bag, I own one and a netbook. Yes I also own a desktop with gaming specs and I walk around with an iPod Touch and Tablet with me. So yes miss I know what I’m buying and I am pretty sure I can afford it.
I just like wearing older clothes because they fit me better and they’re more comfty than new ones.
Something we Filipinos have to learn is we need to be more sensitive to these things. People who wear clothes like me, sometimes have more money than those who wear branded (often impressive knockoffs) clothing.
Yes miss, good dresser doesn’t equate to better purchasing power. I work for Ducati as a systems administrator and I often see customers wearing jeans and shirts buy our stuff than the ones wearing squeeky clean polos and polo barongs.
Peace.
