P2P Networking

Before reading about Peer-to-Peer networks, all I knew was that they are used to share files or data, like music and videos. Now I know that there are Peer-to-Peer networks and Internet Peer-to-Peer networks. I have learned that Internet P2P is often used when people are downloading movies or music, whether or not it’s legal or illegal, and involves a client-server network. Consequently, computers in the network can either be used as servers of data files or clients. In addition, I now know that P2P networks are easier to use than Internet P2P and are likely less expensive or free to download. All P2P networks are used to share various kinds of files. However, movie or video, music, and graphic files are three of the most popular type of files that P2P networks are used to share. These uses are in fact legal; however, many of the actual music and movie files being shared through Internet P2P are being shared illegally. This means that the users, sending or receiving, these files do not have permission to download or share these music or movie files.

If P2P networks and sharing applications exist, then what exactly makes sharing some types of files using these networks illegal? Numerous amounts of files that can be downloaded using P2P sharing applications and networks, including music, movies, graphics, application software, and even software suites like Microsoft Office, are illegal to download. These files are illegal to download because the owners of the particular music, movie, or software files have not given permission to do so and have a Copyright. Therefore, by downloading these types of files, users are in violation of Copyright infringement and consequently, make the use of the P2P network or program illegal at the time of the illegal download.

I have used P2P networks before and I know a lot of people that use them also. I have downloaded a lot of music using the new Napster music sharing application, iTunes and Limewire. I will even admit that back in the late 1990’s and the year 2000, I think, I downloaded quite a bit of music and pictures without knowing at the time that I was doing so illegally. It’s not until the past 3-5 years, when hearing about Napster etc… that I discovered that I had illegally downloaded music in the past. I have downloaded shared music and video files before but have never been the one who was doing the ‘sharing.’ I do know that iTunes and Napster charge a fee before you are allowed to download any music and that Limewire has two different versions. One version of Limewire requires a membership and fee in order to download music and is much safer to use than, the other version which is free to download. The free version of Limewire, as mentioned, is not very safe to use and puts all its users at risk of picking up adware, malware and viruses. It also puts users at risk of copyright infringement because users do not officially know the source and authenticity of the files they download.

The University of Delaware enforces strict rules on illegal file sharing and prohibits the use of illegal sharing applications and illegal file sharing. UD encourages using legal P2P networks and deleting any illegal P2P sharing applications and illegal downloaded files. The University of Delaware can track IP addresses that offer illegal downloads and that commit copyright infringement. UD does not take kindly to students illegally downloading files or downloading any kind of illegal file and if you are a student and want to stay on campus and a student then you should probably not illegally download any kind of file.

I agree with the government taking some action on trying to stop illegal downloads but I do not think they should prosecute users so harshly, particularly because most of the users are teens and students. Now of days money is tight for everyone, especially teens and students, and it is easier and cheaper to just download the music by any means instead of spending $20 per CD. The government should figure out some sort of compromise that can make everyone happy. However, I think that the musicians, bands, and producers that own the music should be thankful for all the millions of dollars they make every day and that people want to listen to their music bad enough to illegally download it. I cannot think of anything I have read or heard that says that illegal music downloads have affected the amount of money that any musician makes. Apparently they are all still making their millions and will more than likely continue to. So what’s the big deal? Everyone should spend more time trying to find a compromise, get along, encourage equality, and not focus so much on money, legalities and well, money.

Keyboarding Speed Test

I took a typing test at TypingTest.com. I took a two minute test where I typed text based on Aesop's fables. The test was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I think it was a challenge for me because of the way it was set up and because I had to copy words instead of me coming up with them myself. In my opinion, having to look up at the top up the screen while the words change color and disappear after you type them, and then having to look down through all that text to see what you have typed in order to keep up and make corrections, was really hard and distracting for me. However, I managed to get through a few tests without getting too lost or frustrated.

On the very first test I took I scored 53 WPM, with a gross speed of 56 WPM, and 96% accuracy. My score was way worse than I thought it would be. The second time I took the test, I typed slower then the first time! However, my accuracy remained the same. My score the second time around was, 44 WPM, with a gross speed of 44 WPM and 96% accuracy.I replicated the same exact results the next 3 times I took the test and my score became lower each time after that. All the way down to 40 WPM and 90% accuracy. I gave myself a good 30 minutes until I tried the test again. I was getting frustrated and tripping over my own fingers. The sixth time I took the test I finally improved by scoring 47 WPM, 49 WPM gross speed and 97% accuracy. My score continued to increase the next few times as well. It went from 48WPM to 53 WPM to 55 WPM to 60 WPM, with my accuracy staying at 96% until the last test which was 97% accuracy.

I think that my WPM and accuracy finally started improving because I was becoming really familiar with the test and the words I was typing. I personally do not think that a web-based tutorial can help me learn how to type faster and more accurately, but it may be very useful to someone else. I type way faster when the words are coming out of my head instead of having to copy words and look all over a computer screen. However, I do think that web-based tutorials could be useful for basic skills development and improvement depending on whether or not one is learning something for the first time or if they are familiar with it. If one is not at all familiar with a skill then a tutorial would most likely be helpful and go at the speed they needed, whereas, if someone is already somewhat familiar with a skill they might find the tutorial or test frustrating because it may challenge what they feel comfortable with. I guess it really just depends on the person, their computer literacy and the skill they are trying to develop or improve on.

I search for tutorials on the web that would show one how to use Adobe Photoshop. Google came back with quite a few hits and one of them was the Adobe website. On the Adobe Photoshop website there is a "Support Center and Help" page where one has access to dozens of tutorials. There are video tutorials and book excerpt tutorials on how to use many of the features available on Adobe Photoshop. I chose a tutorial at random, a book excerpt tutorial called "Retouching Blemishes in Adobe Photoshop CS4" by Chris Orwig. The tutorial includes Chris Orwig telling you how to remove blemishes and reduce wrinkles in your photos using Adobe Photoshop. Anyone interested can go directly to this specific tutorial or go to the Adobe Photoshop "Support Center and Help" page and look through other tutorials offered on how to use Adobe Photoshop.

Happy learning! =)

Flickr

I chose to evaluate the Flickr web site. Flickr is owned and made available by the Yahoo! Incorporation. Flickr provides storage for photos and video and helps users make their content available to the people that matter to them. Flickr is constantly striving to enable new ways for users to organize, customize, share, and edit their photos or video. Flickr users can upload from the web, cameras, cell phones, a personal computer or whatever photo software they are using.
A Flickr account comes with the use of the editing program called Picnik, with which, users can get rid of red eye, crop and resize a photo and even get creative with fonts and effects. You can get creative in other ways as well! You can customize a photo to fit the size and theme of your photo book, print framed pictures, and create the family Christmas card, all on the Flickr web site.
With Flickr, you can choose to make your photos and video available to everyone, just a private few, or no one else. In addition to choosing who can view your photos or video, you can even give others permission to comment on, organize, add notes to and even edit your content. Users can also create and manage a photo blog with comments and more! Flickr makes sharing your content easy and personal. Through groups and privacy controls you can choose how you share your content. Photo groups, you may choose to belong to, show you others that share common interests with you. You can even share where your photos or videos were taken and see other photos or videos that were taken near you. This feature allows you to explore the world in an unique way.
Being able to choose how you organize your content is another great feature that Flickr offers. You can organize your content by theme, date, people, location, or anyway you want to. You can create a set of just summer vacation pictures, and then add that set to your vacation collection. Batch, set, and collection options for organizing your content also allows for batch, set, and collection editing. Flickr offers you the ability to organize your content in just about any way you can imagine. Flickr features for editing and organizing go on and on.
I personally use Flickr and I love it! A Flickr account is free and easy to set up. However, the free Flickr account only comes with a certain amount of storage space and features. If you want more storage space and features you can update your account to Pro which costs $24.95 a year or about $2.00 a month. A Pro account includes: unlimited uploads, storage, sets and collections, access to your original files, ad-free browsing and sharing, stats on your account, and HD playback for high-definition uploads.
I use web based storage because all of my photos and video are in one convenient location that is easy to access, the web is still there if my house burns down and because I can organize and edit them in any way I want to with just the click of a mouse. However, I do think of a few reasons why web-based storage might not be the best way to store all my photos.

Searching The Web

I used www.yahoo.com to search for child development information. I normally use Goggle.com to search the Internet but I decided to use yahoo.com for the purpose of comparing how Yahoo is different from www.Goggle.com as a search engine. I typed the words child development information into the search box and received 548,000,000 hits! However, many of the hits were commercial sites that did not appear to be reliable sources, but I did receive many non-commercial hits as well.

The very first hit listed was http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/ but the site did not appear to offer information that I could be positive was credible. The first non-commercial hit listed was www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopment. All but two hits on the search results page appeared to include relevant information on the topic I had searched for. The two hits that were not at all useful were http://www.parents.com/, which is a web site that sells Parent magazine and http://www.cbom.com/ which sells children's books. However, there were a few hits I received on my first search that were useful web sites for a schoolproject for my computer class. I was able to use www.pbs.org and www.zerotothree.com.

To narrow down my search and reduce my number of hits I typed 'stages of normal child development' and 'early childhood milestones' into the search box. I was able to narrow down my search results but not really reduce my number of hits. However, I did find three more useful web sites through these additional two searches. The web sites were www.AboutOurKids.org, www.wondertime.go.com, and www.kidshealth.org/parent. I was able to use all three of these sites as resources for my school project. In my opinion, searching the Internet and finding exactly what you want is way more difficult then it used to be. Consequently, if you know how to use the right key words when you search and what to look for then you should be able to find what you need.

I am a student at the University of Delaware and I am currently attending classes at the Dover Campus. I am a Cognitive Science major, a philosophy minor and plan on being a speech therapist. In my spare time I enjoy listening to and making music and spending time with my nephew. One day I hope to be given the opportunity to travel around the world.