Dean's Blog

In response to Jon's blog about the labs, i do agree with him. If we were able to work in the lab with Bud there to answer any questions we encounter along the way so we could then go and do it right in our project. For example, if we all had gone to the lab and worked through a pass through proxy, iteration 2 of our mini projects would have gone much smoother. I think we may have spent to much time analyzing each others projects and not enough time work through generic situations to apply to our projects.

I came across an article that discussed Microsoft's growth prospects. In trying to reach a total of 2 billion computer users by 2015 they are making big moves in the global market. they are offering a major price cut to those governments that give free computers to schools. The package they are offering is a basic version of windows OS and Office for $3. Yes $3. Read the article. This was shocking to me. I mean yeah it will get them to there goal of 2 billion easier, but at what cost to profits. I'm curious to see what happens when they start this later this year.

I was able to solve the issue of the trackback emails by turning the email notification off with Bud's help. I hope this was the only issue with that. But I have also encountered another type of spam from the project that we are doing. People have started spamming our submit form for new coffee shops. Here is an example:

Values submitted by the user:
directions: Hi, excellent site, added to favorites!
fondi
> bed and breakfast
> dominio com
> pompa
> software indispensabili
> ibox tim it mms
> inter it
> praga cose fare
> musica
> fiorentina
>
Good bye.
comment: Hi, excellent site, added to favorites!
fondi
> bed and breakfast
> dominio com
> pompa
> software indispensabili
> ibox tim it mms
> inter it
> praga cose fare
> musica
> fiorentina
>
Good bye.
avail: Coffee Tea
City: Chelsea
name: dazvjx
type: internet
street: Unknown
summ: Unknown
workaround: 30
Submit2: Submit

I've received 4 so far. I feel this supports our reason as to why you have to make sure the information that is being updated to our xml page is checked.

I am receiving a large number of spam post on my blogs. This is turning into a huge hassle. I've been getting probably two a day for the past week. It's sending an email to my Emich account, which is what I import to my Outlook. And Outlook doesn't do a good job at sorting it so its just a big clump. It makes me want to stop using it as a main account. I've got probably 8 or 9 email address because each time one gets infected, it is usually easier to just change email addresses. But I'm getting a little tired of changing and I'm finding my original GMail account still going strong, one of the only few to last for more than a year.

An article in my Google reader came to my attention. A group of researchers at Cornell University are trying to develop software that can detect lies in typed communications between people. they are going to analyze patterns in wording and how people would their sentences to distinguish if something is a lie or not. It sounds a little far fetched. The same thing may have to different meanings. It is not as cut and dry as black and white, the truth or a lie. There are many shades of gray in the world of honesty, thats the problem.

After much hair pulling, we were able to accomplish a couple tasks. Even though much didn't change, it was just as frustrating of an iteration. I'm happy with the site we developed. Throughout this whole project, the simplest things turned into the most disruptive. Formating our script turned out to be our greatest enemy. And sometimes, it just seemed to taunt us. This was a good lesson in watch the detail when it comes to writing script. One thing that this project did reinforce is my dislike for programming.

I found a good article that spoke directly to our projects connect to the real world. The article discusses how mashups are being integrated more into the corporate world to help increase their bottom line. It also says that the most common(of course) mashups deal with Google Maps and financial data for large corporation. It gives an example of how one company was increase profits with an eBay API to make buying and selling easier, which would make it cheaper. I was happy to hear that this gaining ground with large corporations.

In IS 425, it was discussed how the IRS was having some issues. I came across an article that supports the fact that they are having major issues. Over a 3 year span, the IRS misplaced 490 computers. Also in a security audit, they were lacking good security around very sensitive data. With the abundance of identity theft, I would have thought people in a position that carry sensitive, personal data would also protect it. If they knew their own information was on that laptop, you know they wouldn't have lost it.

I came across another interesting story in my Google Reader. This one spoke directly to what were doing in class. A new security threat was found to just about all AJAX toolkits. The article talked a little bit about what the threat was; something about the attackers being victimized user to get the information. It also mentioned that almost all of the major 12 toolkits were affected by this problem. When I searched further about the issue, I found this article that laid out exactly how the security issue worked. It has to do with using JSON instead of using XML and how the browser was handling it. Brian Chess, the chief software architect of Fortify Software called this a "new class" of attack. The web site of Fortify Software had its own article on the problem because of the severity of the issue. For sites like GMail, it creates a huge problem. Emails can contain very sensitive information that can be intercepted because of this problem. I don't think we have to worry about it for our projects, but its gonna make me think twice about how I use the bus.emich.edu email.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
This site took major steps forward since iteration 1. They are offering a ton of information through a number of different services. They have a full site setup which is nice. The map itself offers a bunch of preprogrammed actions which is nice.
Weaknesses
They are making the map secondary to the main site and i fell it should be incorporated into the main site more. It also is formatted different from the same page which doesn't flow well.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
Expanded the information that was being offered. The news source and weather were a good addition to the photo markers. The design of the page is very nice. You can find what you need really easy. This was my favorite site from this class.
Weaknesses
I think you should add something that lets users interact with the site. Everything is static and you can only do a limited amount of things.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
I was quite impressed with the improvements that were made from iteration 1. The login and user agreement were a great way to take care of the account issues. The markers and sidebar actually worked this time which was nice to see. Also like the fact you created a way for people to use the site without having an account.
Weaknesses
I am finding that a lot of the friends in the side bar have no hometown so they aren't on the map. And I'm not exactly sure how this offers any usable information for me. If their on my friends list, I know where they are better than the map shows.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
Everything about this site is great. The design flows nice and looks nice. They have fully developed a whole site. You have added a lot of good information about the local chapter and connect it well back to the parent site. Liked the addition of the Google calendar of events. Excited to see what additions iteration 3 will bring.
Weaknesses
Would have liked to seen the powerpoint presentation. I couldn't find the map that was in iteration 1 and have no idea what happened to it.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
After the presentation they gave in class, this was my favorite site this iteration. You can see a lot of thought went into this site. The site did a number of things that went beyond the requirements of the project which added to the quality of the project.
Weaknesses
Went I got home to do this review, the site did not work. In both IE and Firefox, when the page loads initially, I get an error message that says "(Unknown City?) not found". This was disappointing because i was looking to play around with it and couldn't.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
The best thing about this site is the service it offers. Job searching is something that will always be needed by different people. The setup of the page is basic, but nice.

Weaknesses
For iteration 3, I think you may want to add some design to the page. Even change the background color.

Site
Blog Post

Strengths
The overall flow of the page was improved from iteration 1. The opening flash is nice. I also liked the schedule that was added. You are offering a ton of information.

Weaknesses
I feel that you need some kind of user interaction directly in your page. The blog is nice, but its through another site.

For our project, we were planning on making it so we could create specials tags so people who want to upload there own pictures of the stops could do so and see them on our site instantly. The problem is this, the tags aren't accessible to the sites' search until someone checks them out. This means that the concept of post and immediate viewing access is not possible. It wasn't just an issue with us. Checking out some blogs about Flickr on their own site and some others, I had found many people who were having issues with there tags taking an extremely long time to be uploaded to the search. Some had even been waiting for 4 weeks. I feel this supports our groups original idea that it isn't always about the quantity of stuff on your site, but the quality and reliability of it.

Ah, Google Reader and its many news stories. Here's another interesting story I found through the reader. Google has developed an new technology for their advertising that makes it better for the companies buying ads. Instead of just paying per ad or per post, but it is a pay per action idea. The buyers can set up certain criteria that consumers would need to complete in the ad for them to have to pay Google. This an extremely attractive offer that Google is making because companies don't just have to pay for their ads being shown, but interacted with. this is when you know a consumer is interested in your product and your ad pays off. I think this could spark a whole new set of clients that use Google Adwords.

Apple is making lots of moves, expanding into many different product lines and is starting to gain lots of profit. And I have heard about yet another product, the Apple TV. An article through my Google reader lead me to this story. A Tivo like box that has a wireless connection to your computer that can send video from iTunes to your TV. It is a smart move especially since they are using some existing software, iTunes, to expand its existing profit structure. They are also making more money in the boxes themselves, but the majority of the profits would be seen through the increased downloads from iTunes. The article suggests an increase in market capitalization by $10 billion dollars. Thats a big chunk. Pretty soon, Apple is just going to come out with the iHome, everything Apple, from appliances to furniture that are connected to iTunes and can play music and videos.

In my feed from TechWeb through Google reader, I came across an interesting story. A Microsoft executive made a statement that if people were going to steal software, they should steal Microsoft software. His reasoning was that this piracy could lead to actual paying customers who would not be exposed to the software beforehand. I think this is a great way to view what is going on. Some people may want to try the software before they go out and spend $100 or more on it. They want to see if it meets their needs or if there may be something better out there. It isn't always just people stealing the software. But I think that is why it is so hard to make a legal case against piracy on the internet.