Too Ubiquitous??

I was born in 1985, two years before China’s first ATM and first bank card came into use. At that time, companies paid salary by using passbooks or by cash. Because computers were rarely seen, not to mention the ones connected to intranet, the numbers on those passbooks were handwritten by bank clerks. My father tells me that he went to bank once every month, passed part of his monthly wage and his passbook to the clerk, watched him write down the date and new balance on the book, took the book back and went home.

I guess the clerk would most probably forget the exact balance he had just written down on my father’s passbook at the time he left the counter, and therefore, only my father and mother knew how much saving in my father’s account. And I don’t think the bank knew it, either.

Today, we use bank services more easily thanks to the latest technology. I now go to bank less often than my father did in 1980s, but, from ATMs to smartphone applications, I now handle my savings more often than he did. Moreover, my wife can do far more to her husband’s bank account than my mother could do 30 years ago.

Today we don’t need to go to an ANZ branch or a nearby ATM to know the latest account balance. Instead, we could do that with a laptop or a smartphone connected to Wi-Fi. At the same time, the bank knows it, too.

As the only access to my father’s bank account in the past was to see the numbers on his passbook, it was my parents and the clerk that had the access. That is to say, now not only my wife and me but the bank are able to access to my ANZ account. What’s more, as we could log on to the account through ATMs, more than 300 locations in Auckland Urban Area can access to my ANZ account!

If we are wandering at the city center, we could easily find 42 different places to see how much left in my account. Modern technology provides us new mediums between ourselves and our needs. It is ubiquitous and convenient while, at the same time, dangerous.

My wife has an ASB account. She finds 16 more ATM spots than I do in city center.

I have a Countdown OneCard, too. See how many places can access to my account in the city?

And we also have AT Hop cards, a Farmers Club card, a living rewards card, and many more…

Dark Side

The invention of the Cloud is a milestone. It allows both computer nerds and computer illiterates. With different devices accessing to the Cloud, people are able to read and use information they previously put in the Cloud wherever they have been to.

I was quite surprised at how helpful Evernote could be when the app was first introduced to smartphone users in China. At that time I was doing my small trading business. I had to spend my weekends in wholesale markets looking for special items that my online customers might like, and comparing their prices with those set by other online sellers. With Evernote I was able to do the preparation at the table before I set off for markets, and to review price lists and item lists when I arrived there.

This is indeed remarkable. Such a practice of the Cloud saves time, money and much of the data flow in my mobile plan. Argued by many app developers, users, and even scholars, that mobile apps of this kind present an idea of convenience. Lametti (2012) regards it as a service “with users increasingly interacting with the Internet with relatively less powerful devices than computers”. With smartphones or tablets, or now the watches, we can access to our accounts respectively at any time anywhere – very convenient.

However, in a fast-developing world that everyone enjoys an easier way to solve more problems in less time, who will care about the dark side? Not long ago Evernote said their users’ personal data had been stolen. I was not upset because when I heard the news I already had my business finished and had not tapped on the elephant icon for months. But I knew the elephant team was upset – they had done more than just enough to protect user privacy at every user terminal.

Not all companies now focus that much on user privacy and information security as Evernote does. Convenient is top priority. If I swipe to activate your smartphone now, I could easily find out:

• Your name, your phone number, your email and physical address and your travel records in Booking.com without password;
• Your name and email address in GrabOne without password;
• Your telephone number in Vodafone, again without password.

If you are from China, I could, moreover, luckily access to your Baiduyun (a Chinese practice of the Cloud and online storage). Hooray.

Source:

Evernote Breach: 7 Security Lessons: http://www.darkreading.com/attacks-and-breaches/evernote-breach-7-security-lessons/d/d-id/1108909?

Lametti, David. (2012). The Cloud: Boundless Digital Potential or Enclosure 3.0?. VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF LAW & TECHNOLOGY.

From Amigos to Authorities, the Whole Country Are Spying on Us

With the popularity of social media worldwide, there is currently a growing concern over the leak of personal detail and whereabouts on the Internet. Academic literature have been discussing both governments and ordinary people spy on others. Media scholar Mark Andrejevic argues that: ‘In a culture of constant connectivity and online self-disclosure, we can not only keep tabs on our friends and family members via cell phones, e-mail, and instant messaging, but we can check up on new acquaintances or old friends by going online.’

Alike, surveillance with social media has been a hot topic in film and TV industry during the past decade. Even the most irrelevant auto racing films, like Fast And Furious, mention social media monitoring such as tracking emails. Thus, it is believed that both scholars and filmmakers have been convinced by and convincing others that our peers had been spying us for daily lives.

But government has been spying on us for everything.

Since 9/11 Western countries have been on a higher alert to any suspicious information online, and therefore watching whomever they believed to be dangerous more carefully through the Internet on the grounds of counter-terrorism. New Zealand, as a quiet and remote country, had long been believed by most people that they had been far away from government surveillance until recent years, during which Kim Dotcom was strictly spied on by GCSB, and the authority declared they would monitor suspect Islamic “warriors” in New Zealand.

Ordinary people are disturbed now. They at first worried about not only their privacy would leak, but now they are also worrying about the government’s eye-catching statement would let real terrorists remain in hiding.

Just weeks ago New Zealand Herald published an article titled “Five ways to stop NSA spying on your email”. This makes me more confused: is this to say that government really spy on not only those suspects but us?!

Source:

Mark Andrejevic. iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era.

Five ways to stop NSA spying on your email. (Mar 17, 2015). New Zealand Herald.

Youtube is 10-Year-Old

On 23 April 2005, Jawed Karim, one of the formers of Youtube, uploaded a video named “Me at the Zoo” – the website’s first ever video clips. It was not until half a month later there came the first ever comment of Youtube, saying “interesting…”

A decade has just past, and now Youtube has already become the most significant member in social media world. Every minute there are over 300 hours’ length of video uploaded, with viewer comments in 61 different languages. Its popularity grows as fast as eyeglasses did in 13^th century – “from nonexistent to merely exotic to utterly commonplace”.

However, what is different to the spreading of eyeglasses is that Youtube solely relies on data, which was once a great concern of Karim and co. To their great surprise, as Youtube has fast developed during the past 10 years, the cost of network traffic has significantly decreased worldwide as a result of the Internet perfection.

Suddenly everyone used Youtube, including who wanted to earn money. Entertainment was the first beneficiary. New generation pop stars, such as Justin Bieber (annual income of $80 million) and Katy Parry (annual income of $40 million), started their careers from Youtube. Even the middle-ages like Johnny Depp, Leonardo Di Caprio and Park Jae-sang should thank Youtube.

And there were political users who changed the real world. Five years ago, the Révolution de Jasmin became the first great revolution that employs social media, that Youtube was used to spread martyrs’ bravery. Nevertheless, in recent years, the site has been utilised as a notice board by terrorists, for example the Islamic States extremists. When the biggest Islamic school in Auckland started to monitor its students’ online activities, you will know that Youtube is not only for the Funniest Home Videos or Billboard Hot 100. It’s for your life.

Source:

– Me at the Zoo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw

– Survey: YouTube Stars More Popular Than Mainstream Celebs Among U.S. Teens. http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/survey-youtube-stars-more-popular-than-mainstream-celebs-among-u-s-teens-1201275245/

– Uncharted. Erez Aiden & Jean-Baptiste Michel

– Islamic school keeps watchful cyber eye on students. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11438738

Utopia or Dystopia?

In the Middle Ages, science was no more than a kind of many superstitions, although remarkable technological development had been seen including windmills. The Revolution in 18^th Century, which originated from the Renaissance, rescued science – the knowledge from and changes the universe. Since then, authorities and scientists have been claiming that technology is connecting people for a better world. However, since 18^th Century as well, military has also been dramatically fast developed thanks to technology. From quantum physics to astronomy, from nuclear engineering to computer science, almost every field that has seen human’s great technological achievements is linked with military and security needs.

Even a good relationship between people does not mean that they will not beware of each other. Last weekend Edward Snowden revealed that China was spied by its best friend from Five Eyes. Kiwi hackers had accessed into Chinese Consulate’s computer system, before they shared the data with their partners.

According to Ayn Rand, the Non-interventionism, which is supported by libertarianism, allows people to forestall potential threads from others by appealing to military. Clearly enough, cyberlibertarianism follows the rule. Professor Edward Felten from Princeton University once pointed out that ten years ago cyberlibertarianism had attempted to separate cyber behavior from the actual, real world, and to build up Utopia for the virtual world. He also said that today’s freer environment on the Internet contributes a lot to human-being.

Well, is spying a part of the contribution?

Source:

Leaked papers reveal NZ plan to spy on China for US:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11434886

Quantum Physics as a Military Super Weapon:

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/09/28/quantum-physics-military-super-weapon/

NASA gets two military spy telescopes for astronomy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-gets-military-spy-telescopes-for-astronomy/2012/06/04/gJQAsT6UDV_story.html

New sub commander is a Farmington native:

http://blogs.pjstar.com/kravetz/2015/04/20/new-sub-commander-is-a-farmington-native/

U Computer Scientists Working with Department of Defense on Cybersecurity:

http://kuer.org/post/u-computer-scientists-working-department-defense-cybersecurity

PFF Blog from the Progress and Freedom Foundation:

http://blog.pff.org/archives/what_were_reading/

Lost in Google Translation

I recently read articles from Sherry Turkle about artificial intelligence (hereafter refers to “the AI”). One of them describes children’s reactions towards their just-dead Tamagotchi models. The author, however, says she will unhesitatingly reset her own Tamagotchi once it has been dead, comparing to children’s treating the little pet robots as real ones and not willing to restart them.

I a bit find Sherry cold-blooded, although I myself am not sensitive to any inventions related to the AI. I am sure that the grown-ups are also emotional when living and communicating with computers.

A recent article in New Zealand Herald tells stories about a couple who firstly talked to each other on Google Translation. The lady speaks English which the French gentleman knows a little about, and thus he sent emails to her in English with the help of Google Translate. As you could imagine there were a lot of maddening moments caused by the universally known poor linguistic tool. But they had believed in each other and they finally got married.

It is a little bit sarcastic because the trust between these two grown-up people bases on understanding how untrustworthy the online service is, and, technically speaking, Google Translate does not belong to the AI any more. Nevertheless, the virtual affects the reality. When the lady immediately chose to believe her man who said he actually meant “I want see you again” instead of “I don’t think I see you again” which he had written in the e-mail with the “help” of Google Translate, she was emotional enough.

Another example, a better one, is the explanation of why my wife once found it impossible to stop playing the Sims when she was in university. She describes the game as an ideal world with no boundary or restriction which exists in the real world. From her words, I am pretty confirmed that she understands it is not reality, and I am pretty shocked by her saying “I could go hooking up several guys in a same time and I always succeeded”.

Source:

Mac McClelland: We fell in love on Google Translate. (18 March 2015). New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11419296

Can Google break the computer language barrier? (19 December 2010). The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/dec/19/google-translate-computers-languages

A Broken Ice Cream Truck

On 21 March, a Tip Top ice cream truck broke down in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn. As the freezer refused to work again, 1,500 chocolate and salted caramel cones were about to melt. The truck driver called his company, and opened the rear door and started to deliver the ice creams to passers-by.

“What a nice driver,” you might think, “I should tell my friends about it.”

However, when you were about to send out the text message, you would most probably found your friends had already been among the crowd rushing for the free ice creams.

You suddenly realized, and checked your Twitter.

“OH NO! Our truck has broken down in Grey Lynn,” said Tip Top, “come get a free Chocolate and Salted Caramel Trumpet before they melt.”

Today, ice cream companies don’t use Mr. Whippy vans to promote new products. Instead, they launch TV commercials and, most importantly, use social media. Highly developed technology has brought new content to social activities – a world of the Smartphone Addicts. They don’t physically read a paper, but they read news articles consist of bytes. They don’t usually talk to each other, but they send their own voices through various apps. Technology today is so developed that it allows people survive without certain human touches.

However, to be without these touches does not mean to lost social contact. It is not surprising that some of Smartphone Addicts are communicating with non-human beings through their cellphones. But it is believed that the majority of the addicts are talking to their actual friends, although they are in fact not, physically, talking.

Technology has just changed the way of our social activities. As a result, Tip Top do not rely on advertising through papers or magazines or leaflets or television, but they do rely on social media to tell those “thrumb-talkings” and sociopaths because these two groups of people will (only) follow the new social method, and they still eat.

Source:

Tip Top ice cream truck breaks down. (21 March 2015). New Zealand Herald. Retrived from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11421072

Smartwatch

“It gives us a comprehensively new way to connect to others.”

“We can now enjoy many functions with it, for example, listening to music, and paying for goods.”

“We can also interface with it through Siri, that is, by our voices.”

On March 9, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc., gave an in-depth introduction of a new product during the Spring Forward special event, the Apple Watch. In the event Cook also showed a new MacBook, but all newspapers were just putting pictures of the tiny watch on their front pages. Although Apple is not the first company to develop and sell a smartwatch, the Apple Watch could still be seen as a milestone.

One of its highlighted achievements is the pressure-sensitive touch screen. Unlike Apple’s other products which allow users to communicate with/through the devices, Apple Watch can tell a “tap” apart from a “press”. It is an extraordinary progress in social science and communication technology – it makes the device much more like human. Human is able to distinguish “patting” from “slapping” and “battering”, and the different meanings of these actions respectively. So is a watch now.

There are concerns, too. The Watch is so smart not only because of its developed interface with human, but also its cool applications that help its users to self-monitor and checkout easily. However, if personal information could leak through these applications, Apple Watch would be too smart to be stupid. Moreover, from the human-like pressure-sensitive touch technology, we could imagine companies like Apple could develop a more human-like reaction-sensitive technology. Human feels comfortable with a pat, but fights back for a punch. How about the “smart-things”?

Source:

Apple announcement takes big bite out of tech conference. (10 March 2015). New Zealand Herald. Retrieve from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11414816

Apple Special Event. (9 March 2015). Apple.com. Retrieved from: http://www.apple.com/apple-events/

Apple Watch Review: Is it worth the high price tag? (13 March 2015). Geektime. Retrieved from: http://www.geektime.com/2015/03/15/apple-watch-review-is-it-worth-the-high-price-tag/

Is there Media 3.0 in China?

On February 28, Chai Jing, a former journalist of China Central Television (CCTV), released a documentary about the severe air pollution in China. The documentary, named Under the Dome, was directed, produced and narrated by her. Like any publication revealing dark side of the country, the government prevented the people from watching Chai’s production soon after it was published.

Surprisingly and no surprisingly, the controversial 104-minute work received over 200,000,000 views during its six-day “survival time”. It has been a record in China, which surprised the leaders and the ordinary people. Nevertheless, it is not surprised to see Under the Dome became the hottest topic of the country, because the documentary was released on the Internet.

The Internet is ubiquitous. Chai’s work was published through Youku – the top video sharing website in China – and the official site of government-owned the People’s Daily. 12 hours after the release, the documentary received over six million views, and started to be spread through mobile phone apps. In the morning of March 2, Under the Dome, as well as its related articles, was available on every form of mobile terminal.

It seems that Greenfield’s conclusion – “‘ubiquitous’ meant not merely ‘in every place’ but also ‘in every thing’” – applies to Chai’s latest production. Any one could watch Under the Dome through any device connected to the Internet, and could make his own comment on it or simply “like” it then share it with his friends. Supposed a tea pot could remind you to watch it when you are about to enjoy an English breakfast, a table could broadcast it for you and a cup plate could share video, its views would be more surprising.

However, such a high speed of information spreading is a risk of the recent Chinese government. Although Under the Dome was removed by authority less than a week after its publication, the discussion of air pollution has caused a deep distrust among the public, which goes against the government’s hope of social stability. Information is strictly controlled in the country, and, thus, it seems quite difficult for China to allow any means of speeding-up information spreading.

Source:

Adam Greenfield. (2006). Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.

China takes Under the Dome anti-pollution film offline. (7 March 2015). BBC News Asia. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31778115.

Chai Jing Qiong Ding Zhi Xia Yin Bao Wang Luo: 48 Xiao Shi Shi Pin Bo Fang Chao 2 Yi [Chai Jing’s Under the Dome causes hot debate in Internet: 200 million views in 48 hours]. (2 March 2015). DoNews. Retrieved from: http://www.donews.com/net/201503/2882208.shtm