Assignment #1: Fast Internet Speeds in Canadian Small Towns

   Some of the internet connections in these rural communities mentioned in the article have speeds of up to 1,000 megabits (one gigabit) per second. The reason they are getting these speeds is because they have high-throughput fibre-optic cables deployed directly into their buildings. Places like Harriston, ON, for instance, being very fortunate because of their fast blazing internet connection service speed. The community of Olds has the fastest internet in the country, this being because they've come up with a plan to build their own fibre network. They used loans & grants from the government, connecting each home along the way. Residents of Olds now can sign up for gigabit home internet access for $120 a month.
   When the community of Stratford, ON installed their own fibre-optic network-loop throughout the place, they started building up a reputation as an IT hub. The University of Waterloo opened a campus there, and Royal Bank opened a $400,000,000 data centre.
   Bell announced recently that they plan to spend $1.1 billion to wire up 1.1 million homes & businesses with fibre-op in Atlantic Canada and Northern Ontario.
   I think now more than ever these communities need high-speed internet access because each day we are all becoming more & more connected. The more we connect, the more we can stay up-to-date and alert of things happening around us and, especially, around the world.
   The Federal government supplied $305,000,000 to ensure remote communities of Canada to have increased internet access.

Journal Entry #6: Digital Business

I found this unit to be really interesting, and I have learned much from this.
Nothing was too confusing in this unit, in fact I found it very easy.
I have purchased various things online, so have my family members and friends. Personally I haven't had any issues, but once a family member of mine ordered dresses online for a wedding - only to have them come in the wrong colour & size. For some people unfortunately there are many issues w/ online shopping. While others always have it good.
I haven't sold anything online - but my mom & dad have, using Kijiji, and they had no trouble at all with it. From what I could see it was all positive feedback.
I think when it comes to shopping online, young people are very irresponsible. They may not have that much knowledge on the technology or shopping method they're looking into. 

Assignment #2: PayPal

PayPal offers two different "merchant accounts" specifically for small business owners. It is completely free to set up a normal account. The Website Payments Pro account costs $30 a month and allows consumers to complete their transaction on your website – a small cost for promoting unique brand awareness. With either type of account an internet merchant receives a variety of extra features. PayPal is used by 179 million active users, and is extremely popular mostly everywhere.

PayPal states it is their top priority to keep your information, transactions, and money safe & secure. 

"Once your information reaches us, it resides on a server that is heavily guarded both physically and electronically." - PayPal

 PayPal has a "Buyer Protection Program" and it states: "If your order doesn’t arrive or match the seller’s description, you have 180 days to raise your concerns with us, so our Buyer Protection Program can help you.

Here are some scenarios:

- You received a completely different item.

- You purchased two items, but received one.

- An item is defective but not immediately obvious.

- You bought the original, but received a counterfeit."

 

  So, if you purchase an item from another country, it has your back, and you're protected.

If I were to start an online business, I definitely would allow a payment from the use of PayPal. I just think it is probably the safest way to do your online purchasing.

  I prefer PayPal above any other method, mainly because it is something I am more familiar with than any other method out there. PayPal also confirms the safety of your info, transactions, money, etc. 

Assignment #1: Shopping Carts?

The two biggest reasons people still shop in-store are probably, one: the fact they may not have a computer or credit card, and two: for the socialization and they're being assured they'll get the product/clothing ASAP.
The two biggest reasons people online shop are, one: convenience (also not having to leave the house), and two: sometimes there are really good discount sites and prices.
It depends on what I'm buying - but if it's clothing or makeup, usually online unless I go w/ friends out shopping, just because to me it is easier and there are a lot of really good sites that have things that we don't have here. To be honest there are not many shops around here for things like that. If it's groceries - obviously I don't online shop for that.
Considering online shopping is drastically changing the way we purchase things, I think by 2050 there is a highly possible chance that it may be the most preferred way of shopping. Now that I'm seeing all these apps for shopping, let alone sites that've always been around, there are more and more people using their technology for shopping. There's even apps for ordering food and groceries to your own home! It is getting pretty crazy in my opinion. But, it is the future of shopping.
My views on Canada Post switching over to online sending methods are that it is a very good idea for their business, considering basically everybody is online now. Everyone's got technology of some sort today. Digital shopping is becoming increasingly popular every day.
With online shopping, if you try to send something back (rather than if it were physically bought & you have the advantage of easily returning it,) it can be quite difficult. Not all digital shops allow that. I think what all digital shops should do is to have a no-return-charge law, so people are not charged a second time for having to send it back, instead it can be sent back to the online-shop for free. The shipping & handling prices should be at least lowered. Some sites charge way too much for that. I have heard of people who when they bought an item online, the company had been continuously using their credit card funds without the person even knowing it. Our credit cards & identities should be seriously protected, especially with online shopping being an increased use of shopping day-to-day.

Journal Entry #4 (Netiquette)

I didn't find any issues with Netiquette, it was okay. Most internet users never pay attention to the terms of services agreements & things like those, they probably should though, you never know what you're agreeing to... If I were going to rate my own online behavior I'd say 9/10. I'm not a mean person to others online, sometimes I say some pretty stupid things & ask too many questions, but over-all I do pretty great with my attitude online. In real-life it's a different rate. One thing I can sort of take away from this unit is that I should pay attention to detail - when I send a message or type up something online - because I do screw-up lots.
The most major issue with young people online today is that there is too much negativity, and basically zero respect half the time. Be more respectful. Stop saying dirt on other people. Be a nice human please to other people.

Online Discussion Boards (Assignment #3)

The similarities (and rules that should apply) in digital/online communication and in face-to-face communication are that you should always stay on topic, not using all-caps when typing because in real-life-communication you would not yell at the other person, always saying "please" and "thank you," respecting the opinions of others, answer others' questions, be respectful of their mistakes if they make any, don't be aggressive toward the other people, be kind and polite, and be as forgiving as possible.
The most important guidelines to follow, in my opinion, for starters is the fact you should always be kind to one & other. If you've only got dirt to say on the other person or who ever it is you're talking about, keep it inside. Guideline number two: always use your manners, please and thank you's. Important guideline number three, respect the opinions of others. Always. It doesn't matter if you disagree completely or how much you dislike the other; respect each other and respect each others' opinions. Last but not least be forgiving. Let stuff go. Don't hold grudges.
When I make comments on an online discussion board, most of the time I'm asking questions. The comment board I use the most is probably YouTube's comment sections underneath the videos. I ask a lot of questions all the time, whether it be in real-life or on the internet, so I understand it probably gets annoying, but I'm always full of questions. Most of the time it is a positive experience; I get feedback from the question I asked, all is good. Occasionally there is that one person who replies back negatively to my stupid-question (I ask a lot of those) but I ignore it & only ever pay attention to the positive stuff.
I don't really know if I'd enjoy a course where I discuss online issues with other students, just because it isn't my thing really & I am not interested in that sort of thing.

Do As I Say (Assignment #2)

First I chose to review the Terms of Services of Twitter, since it is a site I use a lot myself. It states:

"If you are accepting these Terms and using the Services on behalf of a company, organization, government, or other legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so."

This basically is saying once you've agreed to this and created your Twitter account, you now have to obey all the rights and terms of services maturely. You leave a digital footprint wherever you go, and even on Twitter, a reputation will build up for you.

Second site (something I rarely use, but was interested to see what it stated to its users): Facebook. Terms and Policies.

I found that it exactly states it will have the right to use all information it receives about you, including some things that you haven't even done yet.

Facebook also uses strategic partnerships to track your purchases in real life which to me is very creepy. They also use you for your data and research, and always remember that Facebook has the right to change its Terms and Policies at any time it wants, while your profile still must obey these things. They could change it to anything, and you'd have to do as it says...

Third thing: iTunes.

iTunes, believe it or not, has some extremely creepy agreements that you most likely agreed to.

One being the fact it knows exactly who you are and what you're doing, at any given moment. You may not have noticed much of their statements (because lets be honest - no one wants to read a 56-page agreement contract, even if they do have the time.) There are some terrifying ones. iTunes basically Geo-Tracks you, meaning it knows your exact precise location, and once you agree with iTunes' "contract" this means that somewhere hidden on your computer is a log of everywhere you've been with a longitude/latitude coordinate and a time stamp. Apparently this is to create more ads that apply better to you and the things you like, but to me it's one of the creepiest things I've ever heard.
There's also this:

Yeah, very creepy.

Fourth: Snapchat
I think everyone know how creepy Snapchat's privacy policies and terms and conditions can be - and that they allegedly used to save your photos to their servers. Apparently now that's not the case. In 2015, around October, they changed their "contract" around. Of course the photos are still sent through the servers - but apparently, not saved into them now. But yes there are still people who will be screenshotting and saving your sent photos to their own phones/devices. Snapchat specifically states they try and notify you as much as possible is someone does screenshot you, but they can't always promise (especially if the person does it the old-fashioned way of using another camera just to take a picture of the device screen.) This is the link to the article I got most of this creepy information about: click here.

Fifth & final: Spotify
Spotify has some eerie terms and conditions too. Even though the boss of Spotify came out and said his apology for the dramatic and creepy terms and conditions, they remain partially the same. Almost as standard as most apps' terms and conditions, it states the basics like: Access to your microphone, Photos, Camera. Most people blow over the boring terms and conditions agreements, even though they've got no idea exactly what they're agreeing to...

Online Standards of Service Use: (Assignment #1)

Companies that use the terms and service agreements or have major conditions before use:

• Apple - when you purchase a product from Apple usually there is a terms and service agreement contract as soon as you unlock the phone for the first time.
• Facebook - when signing up for Facebook, first you have to follow through & accept the terms/conditions.
• Instagram - when signing up, accepting the terms/service agreement.
• Twitter - same as Instagram.
• iTunes - again like it is with Apple: as soon as you download/open iTunes, there is a terms and service conditions"contract" that you must accept.

Though there are many sites and forums about the terms and conditions of many materials, the best one I could find was this.
I think teens especially should pay attention to the terms/conditions on social media. These days not many people are aware of what they're doing or how it could affect them and/or other people. There are always consequences, but in order to receive good outcomes you must be smart with what you share about yourself and others online.

Journal Entry #2 (Digital Communication)

- When it comes to digital communication, the thing I find most surprising is how we take it for granted so much. It's almost like we don't acknowledge the fact we could send a message in a second to someone living millions of miles away from us.

- Things I learned from the "E-mail Etiquette" video was that I should send an email back to the other person very soon after they send me one, because if not, it is rude to take too long to message back an email.

- Blank Carbon Copy is something that allows the sender of an email to conceal the person entered. It's to ensure they don't see each others' names. For business/company reasons it would be acceptable to use.

- The most important thing for young people to understand when using digital communication is that you need to use proper wording if it's an important email.

Journal Entry #3 (Digital Rights and Responsibilities)

What I find surprising about digital rights is that not a lot of people know about them. People don't always take the time to learn these types of things about technology & rights.

From what I can see online, there is lots of immaturity definitely. Though there are many immature people, with that there's an equal amount of positive people/things going around the same way.

Not much people act or behave responsibly when it comes to social media especially. 

The main, and first, commandment on the Tablets is the most important. Texting while driving should never be done. People should straighten out their priorities if texting someone is more important than watching the road & not accidentally killing a person. Many people die each year because of people who were texting while driving. 

The biggest issue towards young people that is faced is probably having their personal material stolen/exploited. Make sure you are careful of who you trust with your personal information, and don't distribute it among other people if it is something you especially care about.

Acronyms Attack (Assignment Two)

 Acronyms can get annoying after a while & shouldn't be used in a formal way of speech or in a letter/text/paper assignment. Four places I'd never use acronyms would be:
1. On an important document
2. While speaking to other people face-to-face (I never did & hope I never will because it's pretty dumb)
3. In front or towards older people who don't understand them
4. In any assignment paper ever
I can't think of any reason you should use acronyms unless it's texting someone & you wanna get the word across quick.

Communication Compass (Assignment One)

  Digital communication is mainly the communication of others through a source of technology. For instance, when you text a friend. The ways we communicate can vary, but for most, it's with technology in this day & age.

Advantages of digital communication: You can message back & forth with friends/family members who live far away. You can share documents & knowledge w/ others in a business or company if your co-workers are not present to speak with face-to-face at the moment, or even if there are businesses & companies that are located overseas. You are able to text a friend to make weekend plans or to plan different sorts of things with. You're able to send pictures to one & other through technology and share different moments.

Disadvantages of digital communication: With all the material being shared w/ many others, there are negative affects, such as the possibility of your personal messages/photos of being put out there in a negative way. People are constantly sharing today, when it comes to technology, so that leaves open doors of negative outcomes. The possibility of your personal material being "leaked" is very high, and also many others may use your pictures to portray as you, when in reality they are only pretending to be you online. It can be pretty scary. For example: when you send a video or image to a friend or stranger, they automatically have the access and power to do whatever they wish w/ it. It is very important you keep your personal things safe. And only trust people w/ your things if you truly trust them a lot.

Three of the most popular used forms of digital communication are probably texting (cellphones), social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, etc.), & some apps that can be downloaded with iPads, tablets, and other tech. The reason of these being so popular is because they're so easy to access. It's literally right at our fingertips. Teenagers probably use them the most. The reason they're so often used is most of the time, we may have friends/family that live far away, and we need to send them a quick message - whereas back in the day when you would send a letter it'd take a long while to get to them. People even have online-friends now.

Today communication is fast and pretty easy. It isn't all right to have out a phone or technology when we are in important situations or scenarios. There's actually a site, I won't name it, you download a certain thing that changes your IP address, giving you access to inappropriate files, videos, drug orders, and many other nasty, graphic, and illegal items. It's referred to as "the deep web" and shouldn't be used as it is illegal & there's a possibility you can get yourself in A LOT of trouble. If you do use it, use it very wisely. You can end up in a bad situation... Many child predators and cannibals, even, spend their time on the deep web. Just don't do it.
   
Dangerous form of communication is probably that of if you speak to strangers. Sometimes, okay, you meet a friend the same age as you, you may think all is good, when there's a large possible reality that they could be like 50 years old. Catfishing is more popular than you'd think on the internet. This can be a danger to you because you never know how much, exactly, that they know about you. For all you know they could have access to your phone number, your address, anything.

As far as I can see, the world gets more & more connected everyday. I am positive that yes at some point in time there will be a "healthy balance" between people and tech. There has to be, with the way it's all evolving so quick. Especially with kids of younger generations, like my sister for instance, who's almost 6, is very smart with technology and she's already beginning to learn how to text. It's a little weird for me to see that, because when I was her age my brother & I were outside 24/7, and didn't have access to technology unless it was the TV, but we didn't watch very much of that. In fact, we didn't have a gaming system until we were a bit older, when my dad brought home an old Nintendo 64 and a GameBoy for us to have & we were amazed with it all, thinking it was the coolest thing. In the early early 2000's when the GameCube was a big thing, we had that, but maybe when we were 8 & 9 years old. And seeing my sister, being so young and having access to much more digital things than we had access to, it blows my mind. I actually see kids every where now with iPhones and laptops, texting and Skyping even. That ALONE seems crazy to me. I didn't get a cellphone until I was 14, & I pay my own cellphone bills. I have no idea how much responsibility these kids will have. I don't know if it'll be a positive or a negative impact on the younger society with all this access to technology. It will definitely be different... 10 years ago is not a long time ago, but since then there's been so many new things and discoveries.

Journal Entry #1: Digital Security

the most surprising thing i found when it comes to creating passwords is that if you've got a strong enough one, the person/computer trying to get access to your account (or whatever it is you have the password on) will automatically just move onto the next one.
i recommend for people to use a password tester online to check and see how difficult your password is, and possibly about how long it'd take for that computer or person to crack the code.
i didn't find anything confusing or difficult, to me this was pretty easy.
based on this assignment, I think my passwords are fine, and as soon as i learned new things during this assignment about the safety of passwords/accounts, i tested my own passwords out to see how strong they were & all of my own passwords seem to be extremely difficult to crack so I was happy with that.
the absolute most important thing to remember when creating a password is that you should include things only you know about, things that no one else could ever guess. add lots of symbols, numbers & letters. use a password tester online, i recommend https://howsecureismypassword.net/. 

Assignments, Digital Security

Digital Security (Assignment One)

I would say that the passwords listed are stupidly easy to guess. They've used the simplest phrases/numbers to incorporate into the passwords that any one really could guess them. For example, the password "abc123." The password "password." In my opinion they are probably going to be the easiest things for any one to guess. Personally I've never used any of those passwords listed, I always made up my own, and tried to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to guess. Seniors probably will use passwords like those, just because they aren't fully aware of the consequences & don't know much about technology. Some may have a hard time remembering their passwords - so they pick the easiest thing they know, or write it down on paper where it's out in the open. Those aren't good ideas, but, if they do have problems remembering, maybe they should pick the name of their pet or a family member. Something they know really well & that they don't have to write down. Another terrible easy password that is not listed there is probably just any password related to "1234567890". Things like that. Passwords don't necessarily have to be long. Just something only you'd know. The strongest passwords are the ones including letters, numbers & symbols all in the same password.
                                               
Hercules Code (Assignment Two)

I pasted the password "TMLLo$343vaKid" listed into howsecureismypassword.net. The "answer" I got for as to how strong that password really is, was that it would take a desktop PC about 157 billion years to crack. I made up a password to test on the same site. The password I chose was "Th3Ra1n1n$pa1n" as in, "The rain in Spain." It answered that it would take about 2 billion years to crack. So what I noticed was that the strongest chosen passwords each consisted of numbers, symbols, and letters. The more letters/numbers/symbols you have in your password: the safer it is. I tried to make a password that would be even stronger than the listed one (which apparently is "BEST.") This is what I chose: TRI$$HIN3$MA1NLY0NTH3PLA1N. As in the phrase, "The rain in Spain shines mainly on the plain." You know how long it will take for a desktop PC to crack that? About an octillion years. Much much more than TMLLo$343vaKid can be cracked in. I went to the link they gave for me to use (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx) tested my password there & it put: Strong.

Apps on Google

The apps I tried out today were WeVideo - Video Editor, & the Audio Editor. The first one, wevideo, was a simple and easy app to create a video if you ever need to make or edit one. I feel that it could be very helpful for people who enjoy uploading videos to YouTube & maybe need assistance in editing their own videos. It could also be helpful when you for example go hiking or snorkeling, any type of adventurous thing with pretty scenery, with the app you're able to edit and enhance the scenery or the ocean water etc. adding nice things onto it.
The second app, Audio Editor, is pretty cool too because you can record a sound (ex: guitar) and either enhance it or add on, you can make music with it, or if you want you can make background music for a YouTube video.

Hacking, Google slide