cyber crime and preventing it

Crime has had a big role in the evolution of IT, with more and more complex viruses being made, anti-virus software has had to right new codes to detect and destroy them before they infect the PC.

 Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a huge problem as it puts millions of people’s information at risk of fraud and theft. It comes in many forms to catch people and companies out. For example hacking can be carried out in a number of ways, for example a DDOS attack can be staged on a server and uses lots of other infected machines to overcrowd the space and therefore cause a server crash which in turn gives the hacker access to the information stored within.

 

Another form of cybercrime is piracy, the taking and using of unlicensed goods, one of the key culprits of this are Torrent files. When someone downloads a torrent file they then use torrent software to eventually get it, the reason why it is such a threat is that it’s virtually untraceable, this is because the files is split into hundreds of sub-files which are then stored on hundreds of host PC’s owned by users to when needed, be downloaded one by one and put back together this makes it very hard to track who the file belongs to amongst all of the traffic.

 

Another form of cybercrime is Phishing, this is where an email is sent to a host mimicking a known website such as a bank and it will ask for the details of that person, if the person is fooled by the message they will enter their details and give them to the hacker to be used for theft of money or even sold if it is a valued account. RAT attacks are when a virus such as a Trojan horse is put on a host PC and if it becomes infected the hacker can gain complete control over the machine.

 

 

Preventing crime

These types of crime can be prevented in a number of ways. For example torrents are usually found on a piracy website such as pirate bay, these sites are found and shut down by the government; however this can be futile as more proxies of the website are made so it becomes very hard to track. A way to deal with phishing is to know the rules of asking for information for a bank and always check the URL of the website that you are entering in your details, on top of this you can compare the actual website by typing it in Google and comparing to see if it is real.

RAT attacks can easily be prevented by downloading anti-virus software to detect and delete the viruses before they infect the machine.

Entertainment 2

Most entertainment nowadays involves some kind of IT, even physical sport uses huge amounts of IT to broadcast and televise the sport to millions around the world and it has even been implemented with the sport itself with electronic linesmen, it has been implemented everywhere.

Film and TV

Cinema has been evolved by IT; one of the largest grossing films "Avatar" was

almost entirely CGI with people in motion capture suits and had a gross of $760,505,847 (USA). However, a more recent film of "interstellar" manages to avoid using large amounts of CGI whilst actually being a science fiction film involving excessive amounts of space travel; this was due to the director (Christopher Nolan) thinking of it as fake and dishonest. That is why the films largely used sets to portray the planets they explored.

Films now use huge amounts of CGI to enhance characters. For example the character Golom in the Lord of the Rings is animated throughout the films and is played by Andy Serkis (also known as the king of CGI) who has built an acting career almost entirely on CGI character such as Caesar from Rise of the planet of the apes.

Music industry

Music has been greatly evolved by the introduction of IT, although some people still choose to ignore it to retain a better sounding track. Digital audio has allowed for huge amounts of editing to take place ad for this reason a reputation has been made that some singers are dishonest and edit their voice, however this editing can create new sound that can’t be made with analogue audio and has even created whole new genres to create iconic bands such as MGMT and the gorillaz.

The reason analogue is sometimes preferred is because it creates a warmer and more human sound than digital, this is because of the path the signal takes. With analogue, the signal is transferred straight from the microphone to the recording tape, while digital is taken and converted to binary to then be played back.

 Photography

Digital photography is now widely used by the general public, cameras have been integrated into smartphones and as a result every person has a phone in their pocket to capture ad record the world around them.

Most phones now even have a better camera than standalone digital cameras from 10 years ago. Professional depictions can easily be achieved with a phone which would have needed specialist equipment in earlier years with the best camera phone being at 17 megapixels all while having the functionality of a smartphone.

 

 

 

Employment

IT in the workplace have evolved a lot in the last 40 years, it used to be that almost none was integrated in employment, people would have done jobs that now computers and machines can do much faster and in a more efficient way.

Evolution of IT in the workplace

An office in the 70s would consist of no IT, instead of computers it would have typewriters, instead of “Microsoft Spreadsheet” would have physical paper and graphs to do calculations. Mechanical and physical attributes of an office have now been entirely replaced by the PC, even filing cabinets in older offices have been phased out due to the digital upgrade so all files are kept as a document on a hard drives or even put on a storage cloud so everyone can access it from the internet. However, so attributes can’t be changed because of our physical being, such as chairs.

Hundreds of other jobs have evolved greatly thanks to IT, such as the postman where signature are given on a computer pad to make handing out post more efficient than before. Furthermore, factory lines have changed greatly due to advances in robotics and engineering, this includes mechanical arms to put together products, and one of the only jobs done by humans is  simply checking the products for any faults and obvious mistakes and even this job is starting to be done by computers for cameras and lasers to measure produce.

Replacement the worker

A massive down side for all of these advancements is the replacement of physical workers. This is very apparent for factory workers where machines have taken over making the products all that id left is checking them, this replacement has reduces the amount of available jobs greatly because IT can simply do a  better job at a fraction of the cost. Although the factory worker is being phased out, the upkeep of the these machines requires mechanics and IT technicians which in turn has raised the amount of jobs available for that sector whilst attracting more people to train for it as the job will pay better then working on a n assembly line.

Skilled labourers are becoming less common as less demand for them has meant less people training for it, this is all due to IT advancements, and this can mean jobs like construction are less prominent for people. However, a job like sewing isn’t changing much as places like sweat shops are still being used to create clothing for the western market; furthermore, companies like apple assemble their products in china in sweat shops, paying the working a very little amount for hours of work. This could be seen as an upside of IT taking over jobs because it will get these people out of cramped and unhygienic conditions to then get a better paid job.

Creating jobs and Making jobs easier for the worker

Many jobs have been made significantly easier by advancements in IT. For example, the postman has been given a GPS to find the easiest route for delivering mail, similarly in large warehouse like Amazon’s, a computer has been implemented to show collectors the best route to get groups of orders to send off. What is more, retail workers jobs have been made easier by the electronic till where they simply scan in or press the product being bought and then charge the buyer the amount on screen.

The vast developments in IT have led to the creation of thousands of new jobs, this is jobs such as a computer programmer where they can be employed to create and uphold website and applications. Call centres are one of the largest sources of work in the world, hundreds of companies pay overseas callers to work for them and  answer support calls from customers all while simply pressing a button and asking or answering questions on screen.

introduction to life in the information age

Life in the Information age has evolved exponentially in the last 20 years, and this was aided in the huge advances in technology in that time and all of the advances have helped progress our modern lifestyles to where they are today.

Communication

One of the most advanced and fasted changing forms Information sharing is communication. The telegram is what began this with people sending Morse code through a physical wire, this got more advanced as people could create codes which were very prominent in the world wars to send Information to an ally without it being intercepted and read.

After the invention of the Telephone communication could be done with physical audio instead of beeps and tones, however it wasn’t until much later in the 1970’s it would become much more popular as most people had one so it could be used effectively and with an actual useful function for being able to talk to anyone. The telephone continued to advance until the mobile telephone was invented, however this didn’t get much use from individuals because it was too big and too much of inconvenience to carry around. This changed as they started getting smaller and lighter while becoming readily available to most people so that anyone could start being reached from anywhere in the world.

The modern phone (or smartphone) has almost entirely taken over from all other phones. The piece of technology that was once for calls alone is gone and can now be used for millions of functions including text messaging and internet access. This huge advancement connected people like never before and people can communicate with any in the world from anywhere in the world.

 Advances in computing

The word “computer” simply means to add up or calculate, it was until the invention of the mechanical computer that being a computer was a job, (similar to accounting). After that huge computers were created for simple tasks like calculating, these were made with cables and transistors, these were run on 8_kb and then later upgraded to a 16_kb. Kb stands for kilobyte, this I what makes up the foundation for all computer and is made up of binary code (0’s and 1’s), a kilobyte contains 1024 bytes of data and each of those bytes hold 8 bits, each of those bits is either a 0 or a 1, the combinations of 0’s and 1’s creates the code for the computer so it knows what to do in a certain situation.

It was the found that binary code could be used for much more sophisticated uses and therefore perform millions if not billions of calculations. This is when the computer was made smaller and was to be used as a calculator. These were much larger machines than our current calculators weighing more than a person and were used in universities.

All of this advanced greatly when the computer chip was invented, this was when the circuits found in a larger computer could be mad much smaller by printing it onto small pieces of silicon. This is where computer started real advancements because they had found a very cheap and fast way to produce components for computers meaning more people could afford the machines they create. Computer chips are now able to be installed into almost anything; even cars now have a fairly powerful processor with up to 2 GB of RAM (Random access memory). The advancement that created the computer chip changed the use and availability of working computers for everyone and hugely brought forward the strength of the P.C to over a billion times as powerful with terabyte (1 billion kilobytes) sized hard drives and gigabytes (1 million kilobytes) of RAM.

Entertainment

Entertainment is thought to have been the main reason for online becoming so popular in recent years. People can communicate, listen, watch and play at the touch of a button.

 

Social media

Millions of people use social media to interact with others from anywhere in the world, they can talk to people they know or find and get to know new people. Social media allows people to keep constantly updated on the happening within their friendship group.

Within social media are connections to other entertainment sources, this can be links to places like buzzfeed.com where entertaining and informative articles can be found daily. This diversity within a site like Facebook or twitter allows people to have a hub where all of their online video entertainment can be found and linked to.

Online games

The world of online games is a huge one; this includes titles like “world of Warcraft” (WOW) and “league of legends”.  WOW is played by over 6 million people and is growing constantly; it is an extremely social game as it requires good and constant communication with a large group of people to succeed.  Important relationships can form between people as they play and there have been thousands of physical meet-ups between people who play and some even end up getting married.

On the other hand we have game like “League of legends” where close teamwork must be upheld to then win a game. Whereas with WOW you get quests to do with others in an expanding open world, league of legends is a competitive multiplayer game where each game is held on the same map and you are put against other real people. This competitive aspect means the game has huge replay value as the odds of what will happen change every time. However pitting random people against each other is bound to cause problems, this is what has made league of legends infamous for its toxic community where people will insult and threaten in game to other and even their own team, this shows that although the technology may work, we still need people to co-operate in a social environment for it to run smoothly.

1 in 4 people will play video games on a regular basis and half of these will be online games. The closely knit community that back up these groups provides communication and social aspects and provides it to people all around world to make new bonds with new people.

Videos

One of the most used websites in YouTube; here people can stream an unlimited number of hours of entertainment all for free. It had grown massively in the past few years with 1 billion unique users visiting the site each month, and it creates a lot of media. New age celebrities have emerged from YouTube and are mobbed in the street by their millions of followers. While the site offers free viewing it doesn’t stop people from making a living out of it. Adverts that are shown to the viewer before a video will create a revenue of whoever owns that account and over time this has proven to provide millions of jobs for people from all around the world.

 

Download services

When the internet was first commercially used you would have to go and get a CD to then have it on your computer. You could buy and rent them to then download and use. and then downloading through the internet was introduced.

Main use of download services

It then became much more possible to get a hold of the information through downloading, this was made possible through broadband technology and it therefore became much more possible. Most of which was used for entertainment purposes. Streaming is one of the main ways to have entertainment. However, the difference between the stream and downloading advancement is that you get to keep it. For example downloading a game allows you to play it offline while streaming a video on YouTube is only allowed when you have an internet connection to receive the information from the server giving it out. Many people use downloading to get e-books for phones tablets and dedicated e-readers, this advancement has made it very quick and convenient to read whatever you want wherever you want.

Non-entertainment downloads

Non-entertainment downloads are services such as downloading a new map for a Sat-Nav through your PC. Practically all software is able to update online. Mobile technology is included in this with software updates for IOS and Android and Windows will now download updates automatically when you turn off your computer.

Automatic download

Automatic downloads can cause huge problems as it can clutter your computer without you even knowing and even cause unwanted files to be present. This is very evident with the infamous Adobe who seems to update their web player every other week without much permission from the user; this can cause problems as sometime the new updates can cause compatibility issues with flash using applications and websites like YouTube.

My use of download services
I continuously use download services to play the games i purchase on Steam which is a game distributor where it is completely digital, it has allowed me the convenience of having all of my Titles in one place to be used at anytime. no physical store, no over priced goods, all easy to use and in one place.

E-government

What is E-government?

Definition: “E-government consists of the digital interactions between a citizen and their government, between governments and government agencies, between government and citizens, between government and employees, and between government and businesses/commerce.”

Uses of e-government

As the purpose of e-government is to give remote interaction with your government, the uses of it can range hugely. For example for Tunbridge wells, a resident is able to go to the Tunbridge Wells borough council website to perform a whole manor of tasks which includes reporting a problem, reviewing a parking ticket and even requesting a new bin which my family has done in the past to be met with a speedy response and action. This carries over to the fact that doing government processes online is more fast, simple and convenient. The fact that anyone with an internet connection can interact with community is as a result making modern life largely more functional than before where problems would arise such as timing constraints and your transport to and from the council building.

E-petitions: This is the most direct way to interact with the government through E-government. It works by someone or a group of people have a request or problem for a government department. They will then start a petition online for the public to sign electronically. This way of holding a petition means it is easier for the public to get signatures because it can reach more people in a smaller amount of time. This as a result means more petitions will reach the amount to be discussed in parliament, this as a whole improves public and government relations.

Not only can the public get to the government, but information from the government can be sent out too. This works in ways such as for a user to print out a form that is needed for a process, instead of having to physically go to the council and find it. Furthermore, another example of this is for the public to look at crime maps for a specific area to do research on it, on websites like http://www.police.uk/ you can find how many what specific acts were committed do to the accuracy of a road.

Dealing with fraud

The problem that faces e-government is trust, this is because some people feel disconnected because of the services now being on the web and as a result do not believe it is secure enough for their information. The way they combat this is to include large security measures whenever someone is logging in or performing a task on an e-government website. This includes password protecting and email verification so that the account gets bound to the user. This in turn provides a safer e-government experience.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Government
http://www.police.uk/kent/245/crime/
http://www.tunbridgewells.gov.uk/
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

Online education services

Online education services are widely used by teachers to inform their students and also for students to educate themselves. These services offer a huge convenience as people studying a course are able to have access to the content and information they need 24/7. These are being used more frequently in primary and secondary education because people are becoming computer literate at younger ages meaning they aren't being needed to be taught how to use primary functions of a computer.

BBC Bitesize

Bitesize is one of the most used online education services in the UK, it is mainly used by primary and secondary education but other course are available also. Bitesize gives students access to slide shows, tests and even games so that they may learn the subject to a better standard, the primary format the information is given in a simple page format with short paragraphs and bullet points to give the main facts and improve the speed at which people can learn from it.

Although Bitesize provides free notes and information for public courses, it has a huge lack of specifics for people to work from. This Is because they don’t provide defined exam boards, this limits hugely to people trying to learn because they are unable to know whether the information given is relevant to them or not.

My maths

My maths is used wisely in secondary education to set mathematics homework. While providing homework tasks, to accompany this they also give an online class with homework for students to learn from before they take on the main task. Furthermore they also give maths tasks and questions in the form of games to make the learning experience a more fun one.

The difference between this and Bitesize is that it tackles a specific subject of education as opposed to entire academic years and key stages. This makes way for them to concentrate better on the overall experience so that students can teach I the most efficient way possible while Bitesize has to take on and monitor over 20 different subjects which in turn makes for a less fulfilled and thorough experience.

Non-education specific websites

Websites like YouTube provide hundreds of channels made by individuals that educate on many different subjects. One example of this is My GCSE Science. This channel contains tutorials and note videos of every subject and topics for AQA physics, Biology and Chemistry. I used this service to revise all of my notes for my science GCSE exams and achieved and A grade in each of them.

YouTube provides so much variety that you will be able to find the information you need on thousands of subjects with and actually person talking about it to you which takes gives a physical element and as a result sets this apart from both Bitesize and My maths.

Online banking

Banking was originally where people would go to store their money in a large vault to keep it safe, and the more money you had the more you would be able to make with investments and interest. When you were paid it would be done with a physical check would then be paid to the bank and the money put into your account. This system has evolved over time produce the modern online banking service you see today.

Modern online banking
Nowadays rather than a physical payment people get their salary via an electronic signal which goes to the bank to tell them put money into your account. Similarly when you bank in an amount of physical money like a £20 note, that will be converted to data and then you bank balance will increase by £20. The newer, faster and more convenient system allows people to control their bank account whenever and wherever they want to due to it being simple data rather than notes and coins in a bank which is harder to track and count.

However, whilst these advancements are making our lives easier they are in fact taking a long time to do so. This is mainly due to people not trusting the system, the disconnection from their money makes it seem like it’s harder to control and as a result this makes them feel it may be tampered with easily. This highly untrue as the only breach in security to someone’s account can only be cause by the person themselves. A system called phishing is used by hackers and thieves to trick the user into giving their details by giving out a link which sends them to a mimic site to then type in their details. This can be avoided in a number of ways, for example to avoid phishing you may get free antivirus to scan the link to check if it is legitimate or not, or simply learn how to differentiate the real emails
from the fake ones. Furthermore to increase security even more, card readers are used by some banks to get a newly generated passcode every time someone wants to log in and this is further reinforced by memorable information where people must recall the character of a sentence or phrase they chose.

Whereas most banks would have started off years ago as large physical building such as Barclays or Lloyds, they have now moved to smaller locations and moved more online. Due to this less money is stored in banks and there is no need for large vaults. Furthermore gold is also used as a real valued currency to trade with and similarly in recent years oil has been used in the same way, this is better than actually money because it has physical value rather than virtual.

Some banks like first direct have never been and are not physical and are purely online and this makes way for them to put more money into their security systems and therefore makes them a slightly more trusted online bank. The lack of a physical bank also hugely reduces running costs of the business as less people are needed to maintain the company.

Virtual currency
Bitcoin is a currency that was created by the public and while it does not use a bank it is purely online and virtual. The original way to get Bitcoin was for a computer to solve algorithms and earn Bitcoin for doing so. The landscape for the currency involves no banks and all Bitcoin is either still locked by an algorithm or owned by someone to be traded in E-commerce. This system makes Bitcoin the only currency used worldwide with no bank or government involvement, the public have complete control over it, and where it goes.

Online banking has huge advantages with it giving people access to their accounts to make transfers and payments to others. Furthermore it’s much cheaper for banks to have online banks as it creates less demand for physical banks to go to and therefore less staff is needed to manage them. However this exposes massive drawbacks for the workers at banks as they will end up being paid less or even being out of the job.What is more, its advancement is taking a lot of time due to people being less trusting of it.

Sources:
http://www.norcimo.com/blog/archives/2006/04/more_lloydstsb.shtml
http://sketharaman.com/blog/2014/06/

E-commerce

E-commerce is a commercial transaction that takes place electronically over the internet. This revolutionary system allows anyone to purchase goods from anywhere at any time in a secure system. E-commerce is performed when two sides, a buyer and a seller do business and this usually involves the sale of physical or digital goods. It allows anyone from around the world to buy products from anywhere and is carried out using a credit or debit card.

 

Online Shopping (Ebay and Amazon)

One of the most used platforms for e-commerce is Amazon which oversees transactions between buyers and sellers. It originally started off as an online book shop but branched off to sell the millions of products you can find today. Amazon works by connecting individual buyers and seller from around the world and lets them do business their payment system.

Another well-known online shopping website is Ebay, this works in a similar fashion with individual buyers and seller but with one large difference, they use a service called PayPal to transfer the money from point A to point B anonymously. This is when the buyer will give the details and money to PayPal and they then will pass the money on to the seller with their details. This system ensures no fraud and theft of account details will occur and thus makes Ebay a viable and safe option for people.

 

The success of these two websites is also due to the fact that they almost entirely run on trust and feedback. For example if somebody on Ebay sells a product and while doing so they provide good communication, polite service and they actually give the product described, they will as a result receive a good review and therefore gain better reputation. The reputation of a seller on amazon and Ebay is so vital because without good reputation nobody will want to buy from them and no further sales will be made. This system further ensures less fraud will occur due to the act only being able to take place once per account made.

 

Click and collect and Brick and click

These types of transactions involve the buyer purchasing and item and them having to go and physically collect it as opposed to having it mailed to them. This is still more convenient for some as it allows the avoidance and large aisles and the amount of time it takes to find a specific item. Furthermore companies like Argos use this service a lot and in turn it saves them huge amounts of money on delivery costs.

 

Brick and click involves a physical store such as Sainsbury’s starting off as a store and then moving to online services for people to order their shopping for it to be delivered at the user’s convenience. This type of shopping allows people to have the choice between a physical shopping experience and a virtual one.

 

These Types of E-commerce can be very useful to people with a busy lifestyle and let those with a distance between them and the nearest store to relax and wait for their products. However much these further broaden the idea to people that it is good to stay indoors often and it takes away from a possible social aspect of shopping with friends and family. Furthermore if this type of shopping becomes even more popular it will mean less staff will be needed to maintain the physical shops because even less are needed to uphold a website and this in turn means less jobs to go around.


Sources:
http://www.panovistamarketing.com/news/2013/06/219/
http://jomec.co.uk/life360-2014/food/delivery-truck-or-garbage-bin
http://www.abolsitsolutions.com/services/ecommerce-services/

Real time services

A real time service is a source of information where it is updated in real time via the internet to provide people with info such as news, GPS positions and live visuals from a webcam. This technology updates at a constant rate to allow a user to get the information as soon as it is sent out and it can be accessed by almost anyone as these services are usually free and easy to use.

 

News feeds
These and used by the average person on a daily basis and come into play on a lot of websites. One of the most used global news feeds is twitter, and with 645,750,000 active twitter users twitter has the largest mass of news updates with 9100 tweets being sent out every second. When someone writes and releases a tweet anyone can access is who has a twitter account, however people who are following that person will see it on their main screen news feed where if a person they follow tweets they will see it instantly amongst the rest.
Another mass used news feed is the one used by the social media site Facebook, here the user can see any updates made by friend’s family and pages they like and follow much like twitter.
Similarly to twitter and Facebook, News stations such as the BBC or newspapers like the daily mail have webpages and apps to display articles and reports instantly for readers to enjoy.

 I use all of these apps on a daily basis and find them very useful. I use twitter very regularly throughout the day to get updates on people that I like and follow, I also use it to get information from my school to know key dates and tasks that I need to complete.

Some limitations of news feeds are that it is very hard to navigate and you may not be able to find the information you are looking for. Furthermore twitter and Facebook and allowed people to voice their opinion to the world but the limit of 140 characters people can only give short and concise and very vague views which may end up coming across to some as offensive. However the use of twitter and Facebook allow people to connect and socialize such as to contact a family member that lives in another country.

Live webcams
Live webcams are used by people to get a real time updating view of an area, for example if someone is planning to go on a ski holiday to specific resort, they may use their live webcam to get a feel for the area to know whether it is for them. These webcams work by being mounted on a permanent spot and then the images a broadcast to an internet page, these images are usually updated around once every minute but some have live video available. Live webcams are also used by people to get a look at places of interest , these being images such as a live feed of a holiday location or even a feed of earth from the view of a satellite.

I personally do not use live webcams of holiday locations; this is because I don’t have a desire to travel in this point in my life so I don’t have a need to look at the place where I am going. However some of the other webcams available do appeal to me such as the live feed of earth from a satellite as images like that are not common and are a marvel to look at.

Live webcams are used by many people around the world and are mainly used by people over the age of 20, this is because they are at an age where travelling is financially an option for them so looking at a location before they visit is very useful to them, however before this age they simply aren’t needed. On the other hand we have webcams for purely entertainment purposes and these are used by all ages to look at views of earth to images of puppies at Disney (found here: http://disneylivecams.com/all-cams/wdw-pet-care-cams). These type of cams are used by a thousands of people and provide entertainment as opposed to useful information about an area. So although certain cams are used less by some, overall live webcams are a revolutionary system to give people a small window into another part of the world.

 GPS

Global positioning systems are
used by millions of people each day for a variety of reasons. It works by a GPS receiver measuring the travel time of radio signals to and from a satellite and then using that measurement to triangulate a position to then send back to the user, this information is then used for an array of services. Firstly GPS is used simply for directional purposes, companies like tom-tom use this information to work out where a user is and where they have to go, a system is them put into play to visually show them where to go to reach their chosen location. The information made by this system can also be collected and used by companies like Facebook, this happens when a user selects the option to give their location when they send a message. This information is then used by Facebook to find out your rough location and then advertise more accurately to you. For example if I send a message to my friend with locational messaging enabled whilst I am in my local shopping centre, I will them be given advertisement relevant to that area for me to use.

My personal use of GPS tracking has to do with a game called ingress. This is a game made by Google. The concept is that is uses GPS to generate a virtual world around you on your mobile device, the software the uses Google maps to find landmarks in your area and then on the map turn them into something called a portal, this portal can then be hacked by one of two factions that you join when you first start the app. These portals can then be linked to created fields. All of these processes gain you points to then then level yourself up this in turn makes this game a true example of a virtual reality game. This new use of GPS is an instance of ways people can use it not only for proper use but as a way to use the information of your location in a new less formal way.

GPS is being used by millions of people and the use of is give people directions is helping us all find our way, and what is more it created a new game in the process. But with this information comes loss of privacy as companies and governments are able to find your location to gain information about yourself to then be used or even sold. And this invasion of privacy may push some people away from using GPS as a result.

 

Sources:

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~kws23/research/summerMentorship/GPS.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

http://disneylivecams.com/

 

http://www.wirelessdictionary.com/wireless_dictionary_GPS_Post_Processed_Kinematic_PPK_Definition.html

Communications

Communication has evolved  substantially since the invention of the world wide web. Before we used very physical types such a mail, and it has been improved upon many times such as with the invention of the telegram which allowed messages to be send through a physical wire in a binary fashion of long and short beeps. eventually this evolution led to the creation of our modern communication we see today, this mainly being in the form of email, text message and phone calls.

The mobile phone was first made available in japan in 1979 and later introduced to the rest of the world after 1981. it was revolutionary with it being the first portable wireless communication option. before then only land line phones were used, this worked using a huge network of wires spanning the entire country, a residence would have a wire coming from their house which would connect to an exchange point to then go through a different wire to the desired place. the modern mobile however uses radio masts to relay a signal from someone's phone to another's. This can also be done using satellites to be able to call and text internationally but both methods of phone calls let people connect instantly from anywhere in the world.
A huge 6 billion people have access to a mobile phone and this number has been made in recent years by newly developed country like some in south east Asia. the use however can sometimes be blocked by a bad signal, for example in the UK the extreme hilly environment means for more troubled connections, this backed up with the fact that i don't get phone signal from my own bedroom and have to go to the other side of the house to gain it. however in somewhere like Florida in the USA the terrain is very flat to allow the need for less but taller radio towers so much so that you can at least one from anywhere in the state.

With the introduction of the world wide web across the 1990's the invention of electronic mail meant people could quickly and formally send each other messages of the internet to anywhere in the world . this done using satellites, the email is converted into a signal which is then sent down a physical wire to a transmitter which then sends it to a satellite and back down to a receiver in a different country such as India and then to another receiver of another person. this coupled with the mountain of spam emails some people receive may encourage people to not use email and as of 2014 there are 2.5 billion active users of email which means more people up to no good while more people become active members of the online community.
I use email on a daily basis with school and leisure. i use it to send work to my teachers and i use it at home to have updates and posts sent to me all in one place which is one of the many advantages of email in that you can link all of your accounts to one specific feed.
Emails can be sent and received 24 hours a day 365 days a year from any computer that has an internet connection, and can be sent to more than one person. however emails can also hold viruses for your computer if the sender is unknown, other crime such as phishing allows people to view your bank details and other personal information.

But while phone,text and email let us stay connected, it also arises certain problem. such as with being able to communicate with anyone anywhere people begin to feel growing lack of need to go out and physically socialize with friends and family. This in turn making people less social and may lead to health problems due to a possible lack of sunlight if the person is in an office most days. However modern communication helps people around the world connect instantly using many platforms. Phone and text allow users to talk and socialize remotely to friends and family while email lets people send informative and formal text at the click of a button to anyone.


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones#Handheld_mobile_phone
http://education.illinois.edu/wp/commercialism/history-of-the-internet.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/datacomm/1emailrev1.shtml
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/25/more-people-have-cell-phones-than-toilets-u-n-study-shows/
http://email.about.com/od/emailtrivia/f/how_many_email.htm
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