CE: Hacked, son!

"Japan's top weapons maker has confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack reportedly targeting data on missiles, submarines and nuclear power plants."

What if you had the power to launch missiles, deploy submarines, and shutdown a nuclear power plant?  That's what the hackers, who had targeted Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), feel like.  Although it is unknown on whether the information stolen is important or not, this incident still leads to concerns on the security of MHI.  What's even worse, was that the government wasn't even aware about the attack.  Normally, I thought that the government would know immediately after the discovered the breach, but in this case, the government found out through local media reports.  Now, the defense ministry is demanding MHI to carry out a full investigation on the attack. 

The worst part is that the computers were accessed in August, when the news story was posted on September.  The hackers also might've gotten some IP addresses from the network.  If the incident reveals that sensitive data was leaked out, the defense ministry could impose a penalty on MHI, as it is a main domestic arms supplier.  Another concern is that the hackers were operating outside the comapny network, which means that the hacker would be more difficult to locate.  MHI isn't the only company that has been targeted, IHI has also been a victim of a virus attack.  Suprisingly, IHI had been receiving emails that conatined viruses for months.  I wonder if the security of the company is sufficient, as the viruses were spread through email.

The companies should be more alert on computer attacks, especially since we're in the age of expanding technological advances.  Also, these companies specialize in weapons.  That reason alone is enough to take secuirity to a whole new level.

RE: Mmmm, Human Flesh...

"Even though I say that, I do not think I would be able to survive a zombie invasion unless the zombies are unbelievably stupid and incompetent."- Andrew Fan

 Well then, you have no need to worry!  Zombies are pretty dumb and they should stay that way, unless a new form of pathogen allows the reasoning part of the brain to function.  A normal zombie is infected with a pathogen that takes over the host's brain and basically reduces it to mush.  The only function of their brain is to produce movement and have a hunger for flesh.  That's why it is critical for the victim of a zombie attack to aim at the head.  Also, the zombie pathogen may be able to be transmitted to animals, but that is probably unlikely, since our body composition is different.  If somehow a zombie attains the ability to think for themselves, they're going to think that you would be dangerous (if you had a weapon) and back off.  The downside of that, is the zombie can plan an ambush, in which case, you're probably f%$ked, as well as most of humanity.

The most ideal place for shelter in a zombie outbreak, is underground.  The zombies would probably not be able to find you, and if they do, make sure your entrance is a narrow hallway, so the zombies have to enter one by one.  This strategy enables you to kill the zombies easily, if the need ever arises.  The only problem with an underground shelter, is the lack of sunlight, which can cause vitamin deficiency and require you to venture out for electricity.  Another important part of surviving a zombie outbreak, are weapons.

Your weapons definitely have to be efficient.  Having a durable, damaging weapon is a must, especially if you plan on surviving through the hordes of zombies.  My first recommendation is the crowbar:

Portable, yet unbreakable.  Sharp, yet blunt.  I really think it should be your primary melee, as it has a variety of uses.  You could use it like a bat and break the zombie's skull, or use the sharp end to stab through the zombie's eyeball.  It has many other uses as well, like prying a door open, or breaking glass.  My second reccomendation is a tactical knife:

 The tactical knife is not used as a weapon, but rather as a multi-purpose tool.  Having a knife is pretty much necessary in any form of survival, it just has too many uses.  Do not use it as a weapon (unless absolutely necessary), as it has too short of a range and might get stuck in the zombie's body.  A word of caution, properly disinfect and wash your knife, or anything that has came in contact with a zombie.

Well, that's my opinions on zombies and how to survive them, hope you guys enjoyed reading this.  Feel free to post some tips on how to survive a zombie outbreak!

CE: Terrible, Terrible Damage...

Seriously, why do people do this?  According to the latest news from Al Jazzera, a man, armed with an axe, killed 3 adults and a child as they were walking to the Kindergarten school.  He also seriously wounded another child and adult in the attack.  The attack was carried out in Henan province's Gongyi city, early on Wednesday morning.  I sort of understand targeting adults for murder, but children?  Can you imagine the many years that the child would never experience?  I truly feel empathetic for the loss of the children.  Just the thought of my life ending early gives me a scare.

This hasn't been the first attack either.  This report is the latest in a chain of violent attacks on children and has forced Chinese officials to increase security around China's schools.  Another attack includes a stabbing incident at the end of August.  A female worker wielded a box cutter to slash at children, who were aged between three and four years old, belonging to migrant workers.  The stabbing occurred at the Little Happiness Star nursery in an eastern suburb of Shanghai.  Both of the attacks, as well as may others, were the result of having a mental health problems.

The intention for killing children is absolutely illogical.  What has the child done to you?  If they're being annoying, for god's sake, they're children!  If they broke something of yours, then get the parents to replace it, instead of taking it out on a child.  I really can't think of any reasons to kill a child.  Having murderous intents on children is not normal, and they should've looked for doctor to remedy that.  Hearing these sorts of news really shifts my perspective of the world and how it operates.  Next time, I hope I wouldn't have to write on something this tragic.  'Til then, keep safe!

FREE: Time to take notes!

The end of the 2011 year will be known as the "mobile-frenzy months".  With the release of the Samsung Galaxy S2, the upcoming iPhone 5 (Although it is uncertain when the release date of the iPhone 5 is, since Apple has not specified a release date, nor made a public announcement of the official phone), the Droid Bionic, and now, the Samsung Galaxy Note.  Samsung has been really busy in its mobile department, releasing the new Galaxy S2, which has over 5 million sales, the Galaxy Tab, and the new announcement of the Galaxy note at the IFA electronics show in Berlin.

The Galaxy Note sports a 5.3 inch, Super AMOLED screen, which is really a suprise because a previous smartphone (Dell Streak 5) didn't do so well with a large screen.  The reason why the Dell Streak 5 declined was the lack of a smooth operating system.  The combined problems of having a buggy operating system and the removal of features from the previous software version caused the Dell Streak 5 to fail.  Samsung, however, might stand a better chance with the 5.3 inch screen, due to the fact that they have more experience in producing user-friendly smartphones.  In my opinion, the 5.3 inch display is a great idea, allowing the consumer more freedom to navigate on the screen and making typing on the phone easier.

The next feature of the Galaxy Note, is the S-Pen.  Now, Steve Jobs says that with styluses, we are going backwards, in term of technology, but I beg to differ.  The sharp and sleek pen allows for controlled and precise movement, compared to our fingers.  With the pen, there are also more features included in the phone, including the note-taking app, the ability to annotate photos, and even a drawing pad.

The hard ware includes a 1.4 Ghz dual-core processor (for a snappy interface), a 8 megapixel camera (with a 1080p recording quality on a 1280 by 800 pixel resoulution), a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, and 16 gigabytes of internal memory.  These qualities put this smartphone in the category of one of the most powerful smartphones on the planet.

With my phone contract expiring soon, I have already decided to get the Samsung Galaxy Note (which comes with a £600 price tag) if it becomes available.  If not, then my next choice would be the iPhone 5.  The Galaxy S2 will be the third option if the iPhone does not get a new form factor and a larger screen.

After reading this post, I hope you've gotten a new view of the smartphones available.  Feel free to leave any comments or questions for me to answer. (Quick question: Which phone are you planning to get?)

RE: Terror-ism.

"I think that the Department of Homeland Security partially only arrested this person to calm the public and assure the people that they were safe even after 9/11." -Andrew Fan

I also agree on your opinion about calming the public after a terrorist attack. For one, the attack on September 11th has caused a tremendous amount of panic on the topic of terrorism. People were afraid of another possible bombing that might've occurred in the days after the attack. On the other hand, people had just lost their loved ones and were going through a really emotional phase. If not for the arrest on the "Dirty Bomb", panic would've escalated even further, causing irrational actions. The arrest gave a little bit of relief for the worrisome, and a feeling of justice for the ones that lost their friends or family.

However, there are other concerning problems to this case. First of all, why did he even send the letter stating that he had a bomb? It would be unwise and cause a lot of public disorder. If the reason I think of, for the threat, is true (causing public panic), then that shows that terrorism is ever increasing in and out of the US and that, is a bad situation for the country to be in.

I don't even know why terrorism is so widespread. Is it because it gets the message though? Well, the message gets through alright, but people rarely ever pay attention to what the terrorists want, it's always the acts that the terrorist goes through, that people pay attention to. I don't even remember what the 9/11 bombing was a result of. Something about a "holy war" on the US? Anyways, in my opinion, terrorism is not efficient. What IS efficient, is persuasion through peaceful means.

I would like to thank Andrew Phan for his post on 9/11, and encourage everyone to read his post in the highlighted text above. Leave any reactions/comments below!

CE: Fired, Fired, and Fired.

"Yahoo has now replaced three CEOs in a little over four years. "

A recent firing of Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, has led readers to view the situation in various different lights.  Fired by Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo, on Tuesday, Septermber 6 over the phone, one can wonder what she did wrong.  First of all, was the financial downturn.  Bartz led an austerity, a reduction in the amount of benefits and public services provided, that helped increase Yahoo's earnings, but failed to increase its revenue even as the advertising market on the internet grew rapidly.  Another reason was the integration of Microsoft's search engine "Bing" into Yahoo's search engine.

There are many reasons that leads to the decline of Yahoo.  One of many is the rise of G-Mail.  Although Yahoo was a major email provider a while back, when G-Mail came out, it blew Yahoo's email service out of the water.  G-Mail had more features and benefits than Yahoo's plain emailing system.  The layout of G-Mail was also more professional looking, which attracted many businesses that wanted to emphasize its class.  Another competitor was Facebook, which revolutionized social networking, and provided fierce competition for Yahoo.

In my opinion, I think the reason why Yahoo is declining, is that they don't have innovation.  Take a look at Apple.  With more money than the federal government, one of their major money-making skills is innovation.  Apple revolutionized the smartphone industry and the tablet industry with the arrival of the iPhone and the iPad.  Their innovation led to a professional device that had a smooth user experience and user-friendly software.  If Yahoo had some innovation from the new CEO, who knows?  Maybe they might just bounce back on track.

BC: Who am I? Well...

So, as you all know (I hope), my name is Calvin Lin.  I am 15 years old (as of now) and attend Alameda High School. As with all teenagers my age, my favorite hobby is to play video games, preferably on the computer.  I don't like to play on a Xbox360 or a PS3 because of the controls.  I do better with a mouse and keyboard, then with a controller.  There are also more varieties on the computer platform, than on the Xbox360/PS3.

Video games are an important part of my life.  It helps me relieve stress, as well as provide entertainment on days where I have nothing else to do.  I also learn a lot from video games, from the assembly/dismantle of a gun, to difficult vocabulary, like "Vox Populi" (Voice of the People in Latin) or Biochemical Augmentations.  While adults tend to think video games are wasteful because they just take up time and divert peoples attention from their goal, video games are actually very informing and can sometimes help exercise the brain.  Take for example "Deus Ex: Human Revolution".  Its game-play consists of many strategic actions that  must be thought out, instead of rushing in with guns blazing.  You have to track the enemy's movement, plan your way through, locate an escape point, take inventory of your supplies, and execute them simultaneously.  You don't have one route to follow either, you can take multiple routes and still  reach your goal, but you have to find the most efficient one.  Another feature of the game is to persuade the in game characters to give you information.  This action makes you use your reasoning and common sense skills while enjoying the game at the same time.  Games aren't bad, it's just how you play them that decides its value.

In terms of "who I am", I would like to think of myself as "tech-savvy" or whatever people call it these days.  I have various knowledge on computers, mainly because I have faced the problems myself, and had successfully solved them.  At the same time, after I solved them, I usually look deeper in the solution and try to understand why the problem happened and how it works.  In terms of how I started getting involved and intrigued by computers, it all started when my uncle gave me a computer and a copy of  "StarCraft".  As my interest grew in the game, I started looking for other games.  Most of the games I've played worked out fine, but as the graphics of the games got better and better, I wondered why my computer was running so slow.  I researched on the problem, and soon I hit the solution.  Get a better computer.  At first I searched for brand computers, like Dell, HP, Asus, Gateway, etc...  Then I found a post on the internet saying that there was a cheaper, more efficient way of getting a fast computer, build your own.  I was stunned.  What?  You can build your own computer?  Ridiculous!  Nevertheless, I searched on Google and found out how.  I also asked some older friends of mine for any information that could help me on building a computer.  I actually didn't build my computer first, I built my friend's computer first.  After the build was successful, I began to research more on the parts itself and gained more knowledge about computers from that.  From that point on, I've improved a lot, in terms of technical knowledge.  Even now, I'm still learning a lot about computers.  Hopefully, once I have enough experience, I might be able to make a living out of it.


In this school year, writing-wise, I hope to learn more about making my sentences transition a lot more smoothly.  I also want to expand my vocabulary, so I can specifically express what my opinion towards a topic is about.  That's it for my biweekly column.  Feel free to leave any comments or questions below, and thanks for reading my post!