The Turing Test

A computer requires many things to be able to pass a Turing test. First of all, a computer must be able to understand human languages, and be able to communicate with humans on an equivalent level. Advanced Turing computers should account for all types of spoken language, including all dialects and irregularities. This means understanding human language grammer and syntax as well as any intelligent person, so that there would be no difference between the two. Of course, in order to store these types of information, the unit must have a rather large storage system with the ability to hold an amount of information equivalent to the human brain. Beyond this, a personality and emotional senses are also required, as it would merely appear as a inhuman machine with a large capacity to store and memorize information without any other human qualities. This memorization displays a sheer ability to copy an intelligent person rather than being intelligent itself. The computer would have to be able to use logic to make rational decisions like a human being, and should show an ability to learn from mistakes and change.

hackers ruin everything

1. People clearly seem to be unhappy with the state of electronic voting methods, and for good reasons. The Diebold machines, which are widely used in American elections, seem to have been built with little thought as to the possibility of being hacked. There are in fact two separate ways that a Diebold machine can be hacked. First, in the documentary Hacking Democracy they displayed how the Diebold machines can be tampered with through the easily accessible memory cards. They show that most machines can easily be taken apart with a screwdriver or similar tool, and access to the memory card is obtainable to anyone with motor skills. To skew the votes, you simply need to write a program to your replacement card and slip it in place of the Diebold card. When the receipts for the precinct are printed out, the results do not show any signs of being tampered with. Thus this form of hacking is the most basic, yet the most effective, and least detectable. The second form of hacking the Diebold machines are highly vulnerable to involves the program that it uses to count the votes. The program, "GEM", is easily hackable in minutes even without the correct codes, and they proved in the documentary that you do not even need a password to access the program files. With this type of hacking, however, there is a chance that the altered program would print out a different receipt than the result. Therefore this method is slightly more susceptible to suspicion.

2. This whole dilemma seems to be causing a lot of issues, and I don't quite understand why we cannot create some kind of solution to all this hacking. For one, if I was in charge of changing our current election process, I would either find another company other than Diebold to manufacture voting machines, or demand that Diebold make their machines with a more secure system of storing voter data. I would recommend that they devise a system where, rather than having individual memory cards in each machine, they make a seperate unit, similar to a server or large external hard drive, that would store the voter data, and could only be accessed by cleared voting officials. For the hacking problems with GEM, I would sugest several things. First, I think the interface of the Diebold machines allows users to interact with the GEM software too much. Voters should at no point have access to administrtive areas that require passwords. Beyond this, any administrative procedures that may need to be accessed via the machine should be done in an alternate fashion from the way a normal voter can access the machine. If this cannot be achieved with the GEM program, I would propose to have another program developed that eliminates any public access to adminstrative material or data.

mashups

The first mashup site that i have found useful is called musicloacted.com. It is a website that uses google maps to let users search their area for other musicians who want to play music, music venues looking for musicians, or practice spaces available for musicians. It also uses youtube API to connect the user with another musician's videos that they may have posted on youtube to display their style of playing. This is valuable to me, since i am also a musician who struggles to find others who live nearby to play music with.

A second mashup i like is LastTube (http://flex2colombia.wordpress.com/lasttube-lastfm-meets-youtube/), which combines last.fm and youtube. It basically links up the music you have scrobbled on your last.fm account with youtube videos of the artists you listen to the most. I like this because i have recently been using last.fm a lot and have been discovering tons of new artists i would have never heard of otherwise. The problem is that all i can do is listen to the songs they have on last.fm, when i would also like to see videos of them performing, so this mashup is very helpful in my search to find new music.

A third mashup that i have found useful is BicyclePortal(http://veloroutes.org/), which uses google maps technology to let users enter in bike routes. they can specify the distance of the route, the elevation/topography of the route, and even show traffic photos of the route. This is pparticularly useful to me since my only mode of transportation is a bicycle. I am constantly disappointed when an event happens in a far away part of the city that i know is particularly hilly because i don't know of a flat bike route to get to that location. by using this helpful mashup, i can now easily find a route to get me to a certain area with much less effort.

Digital Divide

The issue of the increasing digital divide both nationally and globally has certainly caused massive panic in terms of the effect it will undoubtedly have on many facets of our lives. As we continue to rapidly create newer and newer technologies to make things "easier", it seems inevitable that we will become fully dependent on these technologies, thus creating serious problems for those not up to speed. The first area that this divide seems to create an issue is in the workforce. With the increasing elimination of paper media and the availability of the same information online, those who either don't know how to use a computer or don't have access are left in the dust. They cannot access online job postings at places like Craigslist, nor are they qualified to be hired for the majority of available jobs today that require some form of computing familiarity. Health care is effected on many levels by the digital divide. First, as newer and more effective technologies are developed for fighting sickness, the more we see the poor being excluded, as these services are reserved for those willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also, those who do not have access to a computer cannot look up valuable information regarding symptoms of illnesses or household remedies for example. The digital divide effects entertainment in our culture particularly in relation to the rise of blogs, bitTorrents, and peer-to-peer sharing. Friends of mine have often commented to me that they feel left behind in the shadow of all this Internet file sharing. They feel as if they are out of the loop in terms of what is "hip" these days in terms of films, music, literature, etc. because they don't read blogs very often or spend enough time online to read all the information that is available. Educational systems are likewise disrupted by the rapidly increasing digital divide. Certain school ofer degree programs completely online, while other schools rely heavily on online registration and other web based programs like moodle or blackboard to relay information to students. Even beyond this, mostly all classes at some point or another will require an assignment to be typed on a computer and either printed out or e-mailed to a professor, both of which require knowledge of computers and access to a computer. Lastly, our federal government is also vastly changed from these technology advances. One of the recent big issues associated with the government and technology has been the use of electronic voting machines in election, which came in response to the 2000 election's "hanging chad" mishap. Not only is this new form of voting causing just as many problems for senior citizens, but it also has led to hacking issues with the electronic booths and other security problems. Filing taxes online, applying for a passport, or even finding out about a state law, you can do it all online through government run websites. However, despite the appearance of ease of use and availability, millions of people across the country are being excluded from the same information.