Goooooogle!!!

Following questions are answered:


1. Google should not be used in scholarly research.
I consider this statement to be wrong. Google is a search engine with multiple features embedded into it that facilitates searching for scholarly articles.
http://scholar.google.com/
Above link is a search engine provided by google and its whole purpose is to give easy access for a scholarly research. This search engine is a useful tool for finding scholarly articles and related information.

2. Like databases and the library catalog, Google allows you to modify your search to get better results
Yes, google has advance filtering capabilities. A user can use boolean operators to filter a search. Also google supports filtering using date, location and many other factors.
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
This link describes other special features google provides when using google search. These tips can be extremely helpful when narrowing down search results.

3. Google contains no academic (AKA scholarly,  peer-reviewed) content
Google does contain scholarly articles.
http://scholar.google.com is a search engine that specifically searches for googles scholarly articles.


Next, Watch Eli Pariser's "Beware of Filter Bubbles" TED Talk and answer the following questions: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s

4. What is a filter bubble? 
Its a personal filter that determines the information that we get to see from a web search or a similar feed. It only shows us the results of what we have interests in and completely isolates us in that world. This is something, most of the time, the user does not have control over.
It also keeps us from information that we may need to know and only feeds us information the algorithms decide that are relevant to us.

5. How does the idea of a “filter bubble” relate to our class theme of media literacy? 
To be media literate we need to go through all the information and evaluate them but in the case of filter bubble, we only get to see a part of the information feed, not the whole. We don't see the big picture, instead we are fed with what the filter determines to be relevant to us.
I consider this to be a major drawback when it comes to having an open door for all information around you.

6. Why is it important to know about filter bubbles? How can they affect your research? 
Only a few understand and realize the existence of the filter bubbles. This means most of the information that are available to us come through a filter bubble and we don't see a standard information query. Every search we do returns results that are unique to our personality or personal computer.
In the case of a research we might end up looking at one side of the research question because the information we get might be filtered and our scope of the research might be limited to the bubble we live in.

7. Lastly, picture you are in an elevator making small talk with a stranger about this awesome class you are in called LIBR 1101. Stranger says “I don’t really know why you are bothering to take this class, everyone knows that all you need is Google these days.” What is your quick response to this stranger? A hint: although it is certainly your prerogative to do so, agreeing with this person will make kittens cry. 
I will say "Google is only one of many ways, in fact google is a small part of the big picture"

GALILEO vs Libguides

Finding information on a research question specific to a database.
Database name - Computer and Information Systems Abstracts

What was your research question? 
What is the impact of Artificial Intelligence in our day to day life in the future

What were your keywords (search terms)?
Artificial Intelligence, daily, future, life

What do you think of the results you got? Were they relevant? Were they scholarly? Did you get too few results? Too many?
I did the search and got 11 results. 9 of the results were scholarly journals and others were articles. The results were too little and only few of the results were relevant to my search.

What is the difference between searching in a subject specific database and in Discovery (the tool that searches a bunch of databases at once)?
It was clear after the search above, that a subject specific search narrows down the scope of a research to a tiny window compared to the same search in Discovery. Same search in Discovery gave me around 60,000 results. Also I had the option to narrow down my search which was a luxury I didn't have in a subject specific search when provided with too few results.

When do you think you’d want to use a subject specific database over Discovery (and the other way around?)
I would use Discovery to get a brief understanding of the research topic I have so that I can decide to go further or not. It will be very useful in presearching point of a research.
Using a subject specific database to get information would be only feasible when you are decided on the topic and want to go more deep into the subject.

Using Libguide


What research guide did you choose? (Paste the link to that guide in your blog post.)
http://libguides.westga.edu/computerscience

What do you think a research guide is?
A feature similar to a catalog on where to find relevant information related to the topic.

How does a research guide compare to the list of resources you found in GALILEO? Which one (research guide or GALILEO subject guide) do you think you’d be more apt to use if you were working on a research project?
A research guide gives more focused information on a subject and it seems very useful with all the links provided. Also at the same time the research guide puts a boundary to the extent we can do research on. Its more like a limited source of information compared to GALILEO. I would feel much efficient working with GALILEO rather than a subject specific research guide which has a limited scope.
I also think a research should be done with an innovative state of mind, using a guide might defeat the purpose.

GALILEO Explained

What is GALILEO?

GALILEO stands for GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online. Its an online Library by the University System of Georgia. It holds links to thousands of articles, scholarly journals, newspapers and magazines.

How does GALILEO organize information?
It organizes information according to the Subject of the article. Links to subjects that fall under the same category are stored in a single database and there might be multiple databases for a specific category. Their are multiple categories in GALILEO so the whole library is a collection of databases with links to information sources.

What is the relationship between GALILEO and a database?
GALILEO consists of several databases that contains links to resources such as scholarly journals, articles and magazines. These databases are categorized under the relevant subject. In a real live library scenario, the  databases act as bookshelves in a library.

What is a database and how does it organize information?
A database is a collection of one or more tables. The table will consist rows and columns. When a user stores information such as a link to an article in the database it takes up the storage as a row in the table. The columns of the table can be relevant fields for storage of an article, such as published date, Author, Title and HTML Link.

When would you use GALILEO in a research project?
GALILEO library has a large number of scholarly journals and articles. This is useful at the presearching stage, to find out how much information is available on specific subject or an incident related to the project. With this its east to determine if the research topic has sources that can support it.

When and how would you use a database in a research project?
I would use GALILEO at the point where I have to go deep into a subject with the use of scholarly information sources. This will be at the mid way of the research where I have to find valid and scholarly information related to the project to take the next step on evaluating information with available resources.

Research Proposal #2

Why Create A Virus?

Introduction

Cyber Space is a breeding ground for computer viruses. Almost every person who uses a computer have come across the term 'Computer Virus'. Most people consider them to be a form of cyber infection and focuses on curing the computer but very few think of the origin of a computer virus. Even the ones who do think about the origin are not aware of some interesting yet troubling facts related to it.

Most people think that a virus is created by some criminal master mind with evil intentions to destroy the cyber world, but the reality is something entirely disturbing. There are various reasons for a computer hacker to create a virus, one of the most common reason is experimenting learned program language skills by students. Another common reason is to show off, an act of self satisfaction which prompts us to think that the creator of a virus with such intentions must be psychologically disturbed.

Except for a very few who have been unmasked by the authorities, every virus creator hides behind a veil and their intentions are not vivid. I wish to uncover the reasons behind creating such destructive programs and the mentality of the creators. 

Background

I am a college student majoring in computer science. I have always had the interest in the field of cyber crimes but more focused in hackers. Recently I have had my interest changed into computer viruses. A computer virus is in more ways similar to a biological virus but different in only one way. A computer virus is not an effect of the nature, its a man made creation. I have always wondered why a person would give birth to something that's destructive and would be proud to claim the glory of its destruction. Sometimes this doesn't really surprise me when I consider other man made hazards such as Nuclear Bombs, which were created in the name of peace. Still it begs the question why someone would go to all that trouble to write a few lines of codes which creates a program that's hardly noticeable and anonymous. 

In presearching I have found out several interesting reasons that would provoke someone to create a virus.

Among those reasons were, showing off, proving a point and also revenge.

Significance

It is important that people understand how people who create viruses come into action. Even the most insignificant person could come up with a deadly virus that can do more damage than a nuclear bomb since everything is controlled by computers in this era. According to the articles I have gone through, most of these people are normal people with normal lives who happens to reap some kind of financial benefit or most of the time self satisfaction.

Methodology

I have done some presearching and found some useful articles that relates to the topic I have. Some discuss the reasons in a more psychological point of view rather than from a single perspective. I would also look into some scholarly articles and journals that have content on this topic and similar topics. After collecting data, I will be coming up with my own conclusion on why a virus creator would go through all that trouble against the law.

Potential Setbacks

During the presearching I found out that there are more articles describing the types and reasons for creating viruses rather than psychological reasons for these actions. Not much information is found to go deep to discover the state of mind of such a person. I would have to go through a psychological aspect of a cyber criminal to achieve this milestone.

References


Who creates malware and why? by Kaspersky Labs

http://www.securelist.com/en/threats/detect?chapter=72

Why People Create Computer Viruses? by NortonAnti-Virus
http://www.nortonantiviruscenter.com/security-resource-center/why-people-create-computer-viruses.html

Why do People Create Computer Viruses? by Bryce Whitty
http://www.technibble.com/why-do-people-create-computer-viruses/

Ideology

Video Response

Video
In the Video the narrator tries to give a clear view of the term ideology from his perspective to his daughter. He talks about two forms of Ideologies. First being 'Repressive State Apparatus' and the second being 'Ideological State Apparatus'.
In Represive State Apparatus he relates the job of police and authority which maintain a form of ideology through command on threat of punishment. In this form, the person does not have a choice other than obey the law. Its an ideology forced on the community for their own protection.
At some point in the video the narrator also mentions ideology through persuasion such as money. He relates this to a form of 'Repressive State Apparatus'. Although he claims they are related I see a fundamental difference. When someone is offered some money to do something he is faced with a choice, which is not the case when authority is forced on a person. The former has a choice and choices are unique to the state of mind even with two people with same ideologies.
Ideological State Apparatus is the form of ideology that has personal preference and opinion tied to it. Interestingly people tend to choose an ideology that's accepted widely rather than have something that's unique. Ideologies of the two major political parties in USA can be shown as examples of this, mostly every voting citizen chooses one of those two ideologies even though they don't embrace it 100%.
Its interesting that the narrator thinks these ideologies doesn't necessarily cope with reality, its more of a world you create for your self for your self comfort. In USA the two major political parties have two different ideologies and as long as the community has more than one well accepted ideas, neither of them can be any close to reality. The struggle for reality will exist.
In the case of a Cannibal Tribe, the community holds a single ideology that justifies their actions. The whole community embraces it, so it easily becomes reality.

Review on Althusser Modules

Ideology - A fake world of ideas built on a persons mind that is produced by the unmet conditions of the real life.

Ideology related to Media Literacy

If ideology is the message rhetoric and hegemony are the mediums for that message. Often an Ideology is portrait through hegemony. Rhetorics solidify the ideology fed to the consumers. In General Media Literacy aids in identifying ideology in context which are hidden from a bird eye view.