The New Face of Emplyment: Freelancers

Since the 2008, market failure and the subsequent problems following it, the face of employment has changed drastically. Employers are trying to develop new ways to lower the cost of doing business, not out of being cheap, but in actual need to keep their companies a float. One of the ways of doing this is hiring freelancers, or as they are more formally called, independent contractors. Independent contractors are people who specialize usually in one or two types of work, in a particular field. There is everything from independent computer programmers to independent telemarketers out there. They come from all walks of life, and they have one thing in common. They are especially skilled at what they do

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The New Face of Emplyment: Freelancers

The New Face of Emplyment: Freelancers

Since the 2008, market failure and the subsequent problems following it, the face of employment has changed drastically. Employers are trying to develop new ways to lower the cost of doing business, not out of being cheap, but in actual need to keep their companies a float. One of the ways of doing this is hiring freelancers, or as they are more formally called, independent contractors. Independent contractors are people who specialize usually in one or two types of work, in a particular field. There is everything from independent computer programmers to independent telemarketers out there. They come from all walks of life, and they have one thing in common. They are especially skilled at what they do. This is why they can branch out on their own and manage to be hired by others on a per project basis

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The New Face of Emplyment: Freelancers

Clickjacking: What is it and How You Can Protect Yourself?

Lately, there has been a lot on the news about this type of computer attack called “click-jacking” where, through the use of web pages, hackers are cheating people out of millions of dollars by setting them up with fraudulent purchases as well as data mining their personal information, such as credit card numbers. Unfortunately, this type of attack is extremely hard to trace because of the way it is built to make it seem as if the person who was attacked indeed intended the action taken or the information shared. Thankfully, there have finally been some breakthroughs in finding and arresting those who participate in this awful activity. On November 9th 2011, the FBI shut down a ring of click-jackers who collectively stole over 14 million dollars and affected well over 4 million computers individually. How does it work? Click jacking works by hackers creating a button on a web page that does something other than what it is saying it will do. For example, the button could be a simple submit button.

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Clickjacking: What is it and How You Can Protect Yourself?

The Resurgence of Apache

Evolution occurs at such a lightning-fast pace on the World Wide Web that almost nothing maintains dominance for very long.  Things like Google as a search engine and Flash as a primary video streaming service are the exception rather than the rule.  Even then, Flash just took a severe body blow, as support for it is suddenly being abandoned in the wake of HTML 5′s emergence . To have any sort of dominance on the World Wide Web for just a year or two is amazing.  That is what makes the run that the Apache Web Server has had all the more breathtaking.  They first hit the top spot in web server technology in early 1996.  They haven’t given it up since. They did come close recently, though.  Microsoft finally took their gloves off and put real effort into their web server technology.  This resulted in a surge in Microsoft web hosting that, at its peak, gave it a third of all web hosting serve technologies in 2008, just a step behind Apache. So close, yet… That surge ran out of fuel, though.  By the time of its November 2011 web server survey, Netcraft showed that Apache’s share of web server software was back up to a dominant 65% of all web sites.  Microsoft had fallen back down to just over 15%, and even Google so far is stuck in low also-ran single digits.  Relative newcomer nginx was third with about 8%. So why is this dominance so pervasive?  What is it about the Apache web server that gives it such an unshakable place in the web hosting world?  Is there any indication that this will change any time soon? The flexibility of modules – especially open source modules Through the use of modules, which are essentially plugins to the Apache web server, the web host is able to configure Apache to their specifications.  These modules allow smooth cooperation with other applications, including other web hosting software packages.  Several dozen modules have been released by the Apache Software Foundation, and several dozen more have been developed independently. This hints at the thing that gives these modules that bit of extra power: Apache is open-source.  This leads to the usual benefits that attend all open-source packages: individual flexibility, expansiveness of user support, rapid development and bug tracking and fixing, high efficiency, and so forth

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The Resurgence of Apache

Distributed Computing: What is it and What is it Used For?

A trend we hear about now and again, mainly in relation to some rather large mathematical projects is ‘distributed computing’. Distributed computing is when you take a large task and break it down into many small parts and have an entire bank of computers working on the project instead of just one. This allows for a project to be completed faster, using the processing power of many computers which are in the bank that is working on the project. Simply put, distributed computing is a way to take a task that would take one computer million years to complete, and instead hand it to a million computers, thus making the task obtainable. What types of tasks are completed in this way? One of those more well-known tasks is PrimeGrid , the project which works to find more prime numbers through the use of distributed computing.

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Distributed Computing: What is it and What is it Used For?

Geek Science: Guest Blogging FAQ

Q:  What is good content?  A:  MailChimp is: http://mailchimp.com/resources/guides/ Q:  Can I do a research and compile different sources?  A:  Yes: http://maileohye.com/google-site-performance-compilation-answers/ Q:  Who is a content curator?  A:  I don’t know either, take a look: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/content-strategist-as-digital-curator/ Q:  What’s a good illustration?  A:  Something special for every case. http://culturedcode.com/things/blog/2011/07/cloud-sync-beta.html Related posts: No Related Post

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Geek Science: Guest Blogging FAQ

DARPA: The Internet’s Midwife

In the late 1980’s, early 1990’s, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) of the US began to see how the Internet could become a significant player in the nation’s defense. These exact visionaries were so proud of their creation because the internet did exactly what it was supposed to. They were ahead of the rest of the world technologically speaking, and they celebrated the birth of their newest baby. Soon, various communications and activities began taking place within the internet. It was then found that this was by far a faster and more accurate way to work. However, as with all children, the internet grew up. Other governments began implementing the code, began connecting themselves across the network of fiber optic cables that had now been laid and they “went online” doing many of the same things the US government did. Then, it was that the creators of this marvelous invention learned that, as a teenaged creation, it had many of the problems a normal human teen had.

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DARPA: The Internet’s Midwife

A Race to the Top: Streaming Video Services Battle for Top Place

Recently, it appears that the entire race has been with streaming video as an entertainment choice for most tech-savvy people on the planet. Netflix has been the trusty old friend who was always available, adding multitudes of new content every month while also shipping DVDs to your home, usually by the next day, for those movies and TV shows that they are not licensed to stream. However, that comfortable feeling vanished as the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 came and went. With the New Year came new video streaming options available from Netflix for your enjoyment! Video Streaming Comparison Chart Source: www.technobuffalo.com In addition to Netflix, there was now Hulu Plus and latest come to the party, Amazon Prime Instant Video. Each of these services has its pros and cons, of course. As time goes by, they all grow, and there is a vast array of changes occurring with each as they strive to become more innovative than their competitors with every new press release.

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A Race to the Top: Streaming Video Services Battle for Top Place

Autism and the iPad: A New Route to Communication?

Over the last year or so, a “quiet revolution” as the parents of autistic children are calling it, has emerged. iPads and their applications are starting to offer new routes to communication for these children who are otherwise locked within themselves. Autism is a disease affecting roughly 1 out of every 100 children in the world, according to the Center for Disease Control .  Those with the disease range from brilliantly intelligent if somewhat eccentric, well-adjusted individuals to having no ability to communicate whatsoever and becoming very violent when agitated or uncertain in their surroundings. A new voice for those without It is in the area of communication where the technology of the iPad comes into play.  Apple has been very quiet about the use of their new technology as a therapeutic tool for those with communication disorders and special needs.  This is expected: it’s very difficult for a company to make any kind of comment about such things without it sounding like a bold medical claim that can’t be solidly backed up. It is becoming clear, though, that there’s a groundbreaking impact being made.  Thanks to specialized applications, parents, teachers and therapists are able to work on specific areas of development from behavior tracking and modification to teaching children to spell and do math problems.  The biggest areas of implementation that have been tracked are: Communication Behavior Modeling Activity Planning The iPad as Assisted Communications Device Thanks to the many applications on the market for this particular issue, such as Touch2Talk and TapSpeak Choice , those with autism can now communicate with those around them using a device that uses a natural human sounding voice.  This mean the child does not draw attention to themselves with the typical “Stephen Hawkings” type voice one normally finds in text-to-speech and other mechanical devices. These applications let the user tap stock or uploaded photos of commonly asked for and used items, which is spoken back in a clear voice audible to those around them.  Children and adults who were otherwise unable to have a voice of their own are now able to communicate with others for their basic needs, unlocking a world of experience that was nowhere in sight previously.   All of this comes at the cost of the iPad ($500 – $800) and then the application (free to $200), making it far more affordable than various voice-box type devices that don’t have nearly this level of functionality. Behavior Modeling For some with autism, simple things like hand-washing and proper table manners are difficult concepts to grasp.  This can result in anxiety, leading too often to violent “meltdowns” that can last for hours.  Through the use of applications that allow users to create a story with photos, text and audio, a parent or teacher can create a story, modeling appropriate behavior for a given task, such as hand washing.  The person would watch the short story; each step animated to show exactly what is done, broken down into steps and narrated by a familiar voice.  While it must be used with repetition, the fact that autistic people are highly visual learners means this tool will help them to begin learning new skills with a predictable story to go with them. What causes people with autism some of the biggest problems is anything unpredictable.  For example, people’s emotions and facial expressions are often confusing to autistic people and, because of this unpredictability, frightening.  The iPad offers them the ability to control how fast they receive information about a given task through tapping and touching the screen to progress from one slide to the other.  Children will often find this level of control to be both soothing and engaging, and parents will find it an excellent tool for teaching new skills.

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Autism and the iPad: A New Route to Communication?

SOPA – The IP Hammer Has Swung

The rise of the Internet as an intractable piece of the global social engine has brought with it a number of large scale societal problems.  One of the ones that has resisted a common ground solution the hardest is that of how to protect intellectual property in the information age. Piracy of information has been a problem for a long time.  Bootlegs of concerts and copies of videotapes have been black market staples for decades.  The advent of the internet, though, has raised this problem to a new level.  Just about all but the most in-person art forms are now easily digitizable.  If they are digitized, then they can be copied to every person on the planet almost instantaneously. This is a startling development that few people saw coming, and a monumental problem for defenders of intellectual property.  In turn, they have often taken what amounts to “scorched earth” policies to combat it.  Arguably, the worst of these yet is now under consideration.  It is known as “SOPA” or the “Stop Online Piracy Act” … and it has internet freedom advocates sounding the alarm like never before. Is it that bad? As with all modern legislation, 112 HR 3261 is a plate of legalese spaghetti.  At 78 pages, it’s actually kind of short as modern legislation goes.  If you are reading it, though, and you fall on your face as you try to cut your way through lines such as… “ If an effective counter notification is made under subsection (b)(5), or if a payment network provider fails to comply with subsection (b)(1), or an Internet advertising service fails to comply with subsection (b)(2), pursuant to a notification under subsection (b)(4) in the absence of such a counter notification…” … you could be a bit forgiven.  As always, then, we have to go by the read from the “experts” on this, and we know how often they’re in agreement.  Still, going to the authorities that we trust most here, such as the Electronic Freedom Foundation, this looks really bad. A first power – private enforcement of complaints, and lots of it What seems to make SOPA so bad is that its approach to potential “rogue” web sites or copyright infringers is little less than “Whatever you have to do”.  The main target for this legislation is anyone who abets the web site in question.  This includes not only those who host the site but anyone who has even an indirect hand in its continued operation, with payment processors the primary target.

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SOPA – The IP Hammer Has Swung

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