Binh Tran

As a college student, do you take full advantage of what Temple has to offer? Especially the technological resources that Temple has and you pay for it. Why is this so important? While at Temple, I know that majority of students did not even know how to check if a computer room was available or even using the free wireless connection on campus. Do you know that you pay for a technology fee every semester at campus whether you use it or not?

“Student guild to evaluating information technology on campus” is the useful guideline for every student that helps them take full advantage of the resources at their disposal. Students first need to know about what your school has to offer in term of information technology and how to use it in the effective way. Temple university also offers the technology training for students and staffs who are willing to learn and know more about computer.

Temple also has its own app called TUmobile. You can download it to your phone and easily access it. It allows you to keep track on the events and activities that happens around Campus. Using technology is not hard and the biggest benefit is that it brings the students, staff, and information altogether in a collaborative platform. It will become a part of the student’s life and help students to gain the experience in technology.

You should always keep yourself up to date and not fall back behind, because you pay for it so you should take full advantage of it. If you don’t know or want to know more about the new technology program and how to use it, you should come to the IT or MIS department. There is always someone available to help you.

As social media becomes more popular, there are still a lot of problems and issues that we, as users, need to concern ourselves with. One of these controversial issues that seems to never go away is online privacy and how the social media sites manage them. People’s lives have become so intertwined with online social networks that it can take just a few minutes to learn about a person through search engines. Of all the social networks sites, Google and Facebook are two sites that everyone should be more conscious of in controlling what is shown and the policies around your privacy.

The main reason I am writing this is because just recently Google has changed their privacy policy for all their services. From Google+, GMail, Voice, etc., all the 60 different policies for every service is now being combines into one big privacy policy. This will take effect on March 1st 2012 and you are not able to opt-out (unless you decide not to use Google). Google believes that with this change, it will allow the users have more freedom and better experience when using their sites and services. This means when you are using one service, the data they collect will be used in their other services. For example, searching on Google will dictate the ads you see in YouTube and Google+. As you can see, this has its benefits but also can lead to many privacy concerns. You can see most of the information Google has on you through the dashboard feature.

Facebook has always had issues with privacy. Since they changed to the Timeline layout, some Facebookers have complained that their pictures automatically are shared in public even though they set them for friends only.

As a student, I suggest you all have to read carefully about privacy and think twice before publishing something too personal. Sometimes it could cause a tremendous effect on your future career aspirations. Some pictures and posts should be left sharing in person rather than online.

For more information click here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/06/google-facebook-online-privacy-infographic/

Image credit: princeton.edu

What if you couldn’t check what is happening on Facebook? Or are forbidden to use Google, Wikipedia, or even play Farmville? For me, I can’t imagine going a day without these services. However, there is currently a lot of action surrounding two new bills that are gaining a lot of support in Congress. These bills are known as the” Stop Online Privacy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect IP Act” (PIPA). As you may know, these bills are being heavily supported by the RIAA and music companies because of the issues of privacy and their “intellectual property” such as movies and music. If these bills were to pass, the US Government would basically have to power to censor an entire website.

The bills have drawn so much controversy and many big Internet companies are openly speaking out against SOPA and PIPA. Many companies including Facebook, Twitter, EBay, Google, Yahoo, and Zynga have signed a “NetCoalition industry letter” that was sent to Congress.  There are reports that these companies may even consider a blackout of their services if necessary. Markham Erickson of the NetCoalition stated “this type of thing doesn’t happen because companies typically don’t want to put their users in that position… The difference is that these bills so fundamentally change the way the Internet works. People need to understand the effect this special-interest legislation will have on those who use the Internet.”

Issues involving copyright and privacy are becoming more prevalent these days because of the development of technology. While protecting the intellectual property of these companies is important, there are much better ways than a complete censorship. I think if the government passes those bills, it will become a huge set back and cause a lot of unhappy people. We have all become accustomed to the Internet freedom that we currently have. Congress needs to stop listening to the Hollywood lobbyist and understand what effects of these bills. A few days without Facebook seems better than complete censorship. From ABC News: ‘Internet Censorship’? Would Websites Go Dark Battling Hollywood? would give you more valuable information about those bills.

Below is a great infographic by Ivan Tolmachev about SOPA and the dangers of it:

Lifehacker has an article that gives some great tips about how to make your resume obtain a competitive advantage against the thousand of others. Here are just a few:

• Talk to an “insider” for keywords to put in your resume such as HR hiring manager
• Use keywords throughout your resume
• Never use a photo in your resume because it can cause issues when the system tries to parse your resume
• Use the bullet points rather than paragraphs, these allows parser to go through your resume without any problems
• Remember to address the job requirements in the resume

I hope you find the article as helpful as me. I have been filling out many of these online applications never knowing if someone will actual see it. I feel a bit more confident now that if I follow some of these tips like using more keywords, I will get that interview phone call.

Image Credit: theessayexpert.com

Do you own a smartphone? If so, you may want to know that your phone could be secretly tracking everything that you do. Installed on some of these phones is hidden software that is basically invading the privacy of its users. From looking into text messages and keystrokes to things like battery usage, it is all being tracked by this software. Carrier IQ, the company which makes this software, claims that this information is used to “better” the user phone experience. What is even more alarming is that the company claims that this software currently deployed on over 150 million devices worldwide.  Whether this was installed by carriers, manufacturers, or OS itself is still being researched.

A security researcher, Trevor Eckhart, noticed a hidden process running on his Android HTC phone. After failing to stop it, he plugged the phone into his computer to see what the process was actually doing. What he found was that Carrier IQ’s application was tracking his every action. Eckhart published his findings to various websites and forums. Carrier IQ then countered with cease-and-desist letter and threatened legal action. The company later apologized to Eckhart and backed off their threats after the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization and legal firm that “defends individuals and new technologies from what it considers baseless or misdirected legal threats“, started to intervene.

Technology increases tremendously in our daily life; life today could be different from tomorrow. Yes, I agree that technology has made our lives better and more productive. However, the cost of privacy may not be worth it. As phone users, we must always be aware of what software goes into your phones.

Eckhart also recorded a video of the application in action. If you want to know more about the story or look at the video, here is the link to the original story!