It's Written In The Book

Law... let's talk abou the law. Yeah, you're arrested for.... stealing an... eraser!

No, the real thing that we're talked about (yesterday really) was the law about piracy and downloading. I promised a whole post about this so here it is. Technically, downloading is illegal. We do it because everybody does it. If we download songs and not pay for it, we're not buying the rights from the company to be able to use their work, and buying the rights from them is how they make money. Without it, they wouldn't be able to earn a living. Just imagine yourself, making a piece of artwork that took time and effort, and somebody made copies of it to sell for free. The people who view this piece of art wouldn't credit you for everything you've worked for and all your time had just been wasted.

The same thing happens for this. Programs such as Limewire makes you able to share mp3's with people. This is still illegal because people still won't pay for the mp3's they get by sharing with you even if you paid for it.

The law doesn't clearly state this, and therefore people don't realize it. Now, they're trying to change it. If the rule states that we're not allowed to copy DVD's, then downloading mp3's should be the same.

CRACK! Ooops, my bad!

Today we talked further more into computer ethnics. There are two types of ethnics in general:

1) Utilitarianism: a decision is good if it does the most good to most people
2) Continism: a decision is good if you can wish that everybody else would make that same decision

Computer ethics compared to real life is a bit shifted.
*people think that they're not dealing with people anymore so they could say/do anything that they want without any regards to another person's feelings
*people might not do bad things physically, but virtually, they think that it's okay to do them
* hacking, cracking, viruses and piracy are ways that can destroy people's lives over the computer

-hacking: disassembling; destroying files
-cracking: destroy people's security system
-piracy/ downloading: (a whole post would come about this later)
-DOS: denial of service attack

*these things aren't mostly done by professional hackers; they're called script-kiddies
*rationalizing is making excuses for what you're doing even if you know it's wrong

Hurry! Block That Website!

BAM! A window pops out on your screen while you're chatting on MSN. What can be more annoying than pop-up windows that scatters every once in a while on your screen? A virus, of course. Something that can break down your computer within a couple of days, or yet even in a day or less. What can be more frustrating than viruses? Well, viruses that can steal money from you.

This article called Hacking for Dollars by Robert Lemos (http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&hid=18&sid=32feee71-2ebe-4579-9df7-52c86378b052%40SRCSM2) or (http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=voh&AN=23268805&site=src-live) talks about the modern hacking desperate people do to get money.

The viruses that we had before were all able to destroy our computers so quickly because they only needed to exert themselves once into our files and yet be able to duplicate efficiently. Modern viruses that allows the hackers to earn money doesn't operate that way. The viruses shouldn't be detectable and therefore keeps itself small. They are also only used to target a specific victim, unlike older viruses that spreads world wide. This way, anti-virus programs won't recognize them. These kind of viruses only attack a small number of people in order to prevent a huge controversy or financial problems.

There are different ways to do hacking depending where you are. For example, the majority of Chinese hackers use the Trojan-horse virus to install a software using the Microsoft Office to steal business secrets. However, European or American hackers do the crime in order to steal money from bank accounts and transfer it in their own.

There are different ways you can prevent loss of money due to computer hacking. You can upgrade your browsers into newer ones because these ones have special blocking systems. You should also delete spams and check all of your accounts for fake identities.

I Made It!

Hello, kamusta na kayo kung naiintindihan nyo ito.

Well, not much happened. I just finished writing the Excel test today and it was rather easy compared to the Word and Powerpoint one. Hopefully I'll get a perfect score on this one.

My partner for the podcast is absent, and so we haven't done anything yet. Everything is already planned out, but we haven't started recording the podcast. She's sick so it's not her fault. But still...

So, what else can I talk about. I don't have anything to complain about right now. Surprising, isn't it? But when I do, I will. It's just that there hadn't been anything that is going against my plans (except for the podcast).

But I made it! Last week was the worst week of my life! It started out on Monday, when I was late two times, I lost my agenda, I slipped by the stairs twice, my name wasn't on the trip list, yada yada yada. And a series of the worst events followed after.

Pit Pat Pit Pat

Well, we have a test on Monday about Excel. Hopefully the notes I have on my blog would be enough for me to study. I have such a busy week! I have an English Play to do, a math homework, my podcast and tons of other things. Goodness, it's starting to feel like school again.

For a couple of days now, we've been working on a Budget sheet in Excel. We're supposed to choose and occupation and see how much we save after all the expenses I make. As a trainee for a computer animator, I can save up to $1 175. Yay! Imagine how much I make as I professional.

Well, lots of things to do so that's all I can write for now.

From an Excellent to a Powerful Word

Oops, I forgot to update my blog yesterday. So here's what had happened so far:

I just went to the Papillion Restaurant in downtown Toronto as a French trip. It was fun, and the food was pretty good.

Yesterday, we learned how to insert a graph from Microsoft Excel to Powerpoint or Word without breaking the link between the graph and its table or data. Simply follow these steps:

1) highlight your table and create your chart
2) before you finish click on 'As New Sheet'
3) this would make your chart on a new sheet
4) save this graph
5) open up your document in Powerpoint or Word
6) click on Insert, Object, click on the tab 'Create From File',
7) click on Browse and look for the graph you saved
8) click on 'Link to File' and a check mark should appear on the box
9) click OK
10) your graph should appear on your document

This way is better than just copying or pasting your graph because every time you need to edit your data in Excel, your graph would be linked to it. It would change the information automatically, and you wouldn't have to make a new graph.

Blah!

Well, my day didn't exactly go like 'blah' because I have a couple of important things to mention. First of all, I switched to the newer blog version and it has pretty cool features, except the my blog didn't change at all.

Anyway, the other thing is that we started learning about how to make charts in Excel. Honestly, I learned it already in Grade 8, but I think everybody else learned it in earlier grades. The main thing that I'm trying to work on right now is creativity and uniqueness so that my charts/tables/graphs don't look like anybody else's. I don't really have a problem with creativity (I'm an art student after all) but I need to familiarize myself with the features in Excel.

To create a graph:

1) create your data firts (a table or chart of some sort)
2) go to Insert, and then Chart
3) you have many options and you can choose the one you want or the one that is most appropriate for your data (like a pie graph for percents)
4) you keep choosing the options you like and filling in data like axes and titles and then you click Finish
5) your graph should appear on the screen

Everything is Made out of Cells!

Well, today in computer class we started working on our Excel unit. It was pretty interesting. We spent half of the class talking about the really cool ways you can do to calculate things in this program. There are also a few terms I would need to remember for the test:

cells: each of the boxes you see on your sheet
text string: a text; something that math cannot be done to
value: numbers; something that math can be done to
formula: an equation starting with =

The formula so far is one of the most important things you can do in Excel. With this you can add up the values in your cells, or do anything with them at all like finding out the average of the marks in your report card. Another important thing is that if one number is changed, the other numbers that relies on it would change as well so you wouldn't have to do the math yourself.

You can add sheets to your document if you want. This would really come in handy if you have a lot of information to type up. You can cut and copy the formulas from one sheet and paste it on another so you would have exactly the same formula and then you wouldn't have to change the data from one sheet to another. To add a sheet go to Insert, and then click on Worksheet.

The other thing that my teacher showed us today was the features that you can adjust so that your chart would look nice when you print it out. You can do this by going to Format, and then Cells. With only these two options, you can do a tremendous amount of things, like adjusting the numbers after a decimal, placing borders on your chart, changing the alignment of your font, etc. There are many things you can do with this.

Oh, by the way my podcast is due in two weeks. I hope my partner and I would do a good job on them.