Week3- Search Engines

The world wide web otherwise known as the internet has always been a resourceful tool in the world of information technology. Before the invention of the internet information were gathered through various means such as the Library, letter writing, telegraphs, radio, foot messengers etc. Most of those means are now obsolete or going out of style.

The internet is sophisticated, but very easy to use. Users can easily find their way around just by clicking the mouse. You can visit a town, city and state in search of information without having to leave the comfort of your home. Using the internet has saved the world a great deal. I can say the internet has drastically reduced the flow of road traffics, save gas reduce pollution around the world. Imagine if there was no internet and I am expected to get this article to the audience reading it right now, I would have to first have it typed, print as many copies as possible, book a flight, make hotel reservation on every city, state and Country I'm visiting. I will charter a cab that will take me around or at least from the hotel to the conference centers. That is not all, you should expect at least more than 80% of my audience to the the same thing too.
With the internet all these tasks are no longer necessary. Now I sit in my home, type the article and post it on my blogg. Anybody interested in my line of thought or subject would just go to the SEARCH ENGINE of their choice eg google and retrieve this information at the comfort of their own home too.

With the internet comes the search engine which I will say is the Millitary wing of the internet. Search engines makes life easy for users, they are fast, precise and friendly ofcourse they can bombard you with lots and lots of informayion too.
Google is currently the world's search engine giant. They have almost all information at their disposal. You can get virtually any information on google. I am yet to see any other search engines to beat them. They are currently the leader in the world of information dissemination.
The purchase of YouTube by google adds graphics or in another words 'color' to their information banks. So not only can your get any text, you can get any videos on google. Users post all sort of video clips from simply expressing oneself to showing people how to do stuffs. It is really a rich tool.
The help of the intellectual professionals will be needed to direct the flow and policy setting regarding the use of the internet. We should make sure people use the internet for good reasons only. Internet should not be used unethically, such as in the case of the woman who was bullying another child who broke up with her son using the internet (myspace to be specific). The other child ended up by commiting suicide. That is not a good use of the internet at all. Internet should be respected and put to good use at all times. There are lots and lots of good and ethical things we can do on the internet; we can study, email, do webinar, IM even phone using the internet.
Education is very important; and since the internet is a tool in educating people, it should also not be left out of the educating process. Internet courses should be introduced to all levels of educational process right from elementary to Tertiary institutions. This is because people of all ages and beliefs use the internet for one thing or the other. So it is imperative of the society to make sure that its citizens are properly educated on the know-hows of the internet.

This is my perspective, What is yours...
Joseph Asaya

Cyber War and Security

Lessons learned regarding cyber attacks against nation is that the awareness and reality of these attacks are brought to light. We learned that the chinese and Russians attacks the US very often by trying to hack into the pentagon's computer systems or trying to carry out anyform of sabbotages.
These attacks should be treated with all seriousness and actions should also be taken against countries engaged in waging cyber wars against the other.
The countries that are developing the technology and defenses against cyber warfare are US, NATO, Russia, GB and possibly China. I believe cyber attacks are to be likened to Nuclear attacks because the damages that can be caused could be similar.
The Georgian- Russian conflict started in cyber space long before the actual war. We all saw the result, and how the Russian Government (although denied it) crumbled the Georgian governmenct sites and caused lots of Denial of Service attact on their networks.
I am happy that the Obama administration is taking this threat seriously and has appointed cyber security czar to tackle this problem.