Tech Article 2/29

China Claims its Military and Defense Sites were Hacked by U.S. Attackers

To counter the recent reports claiming that a special unit in the Chinese Army was behind the repeated cyber attacks on the U.S. institution, the nation claims that its defense and ministries websites are routinely hacked from IP's originating in the U.S. It's reported that more than 144,000 hacks are targeted at the China Military Online and Defense Ministry websites. Defense ministry spokesmen said that close to two-thirds of those attacks (62.9 percent) originate in the U.S.

For the original link, click here.

Tech Article 2/22

PlayStation Vita not Getting Price Drop in the US

Sony announced it would be dropping the price of the PlayStation Vita from 24,980 yen to 19,980 yen in Japan starting Feb. 28 , which hints a price drop might come in the US. But the Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida says that a price drop in the US isn't coming. Yoshida says this is due to economics, and the current exchange rate is the reason the price drop was in Japan exclusively. It's been an issue with Sony and also hurt Nintendo in the past. But it's still likely that there will be a price drop after it's on the market for a while. 

Do Now 2/19

A new class that I would like to add to our school curriculum would be a class that goes in depth into computers, and I would like it to be more of an intermediate class that's not too easy or hard. I would teach about not only processes you can do on the computer, but how the computer works and its internal structure. The class would be provided with high-tech laptops that can do many quick and advanced processes that most can't do. I'd have it set up quite like this class, with the classmates sitting around the center of the room where my laptops and projector would be, with the do now typed up on the projector. The only difference is that we'd be learning a lot harder topics. I would have the students work in both groups and alone, depending on whether or not the topic requires many minds to work together or if the topic is opinionated and needs many points of view. I would have the students produce work usually typed up and emailed to me or have it be shared in a folder on Google Drive. I would have it consist of pictures, graphs, spreadsheets, and basically anything that they want or need to explain their work. I would give them work that would ask maybe about a specific part of the computers internal structure or how to complete a certain process on the computer.

Tech Article 2/15

Android Dominated Smartphone Sales in 2012

Android continues to prevail over Apple in the highest selling smartphone system in the world, mostly thanks to Samsung. Android sold 68.8% of smartphones while Apple's iOS operating system sold 18.8% putting them in second. Together, they sold 87.6% putting Blackberry and Windows far behind.

The high Android sales is mainly because of the thousands of different types of smartphones that come in different shapes, sizes, and with different advantages. Apple only has six versions, only allowing them to sell 130 million smartphones last year. But customers who bought their smartphone from Apple, are most likely to stay with Apple.

Click here for the original link.

The Weekend

Over the weekend, I did like nothing so I was like," I'm gonna waste my time on YouTube!" So I found this hilarious video of a man who claims to be a banana. Pretty funny. I also shoveled and played a lot of video games like ARMA2. So.... yeah. The video of banana man is at the bottom.

Tech Article

Father Gives Daughter $200 to Quit Facebook for Five Months

            A 14 year old girl was given $200 for quitting Facebook, not forever, but just 5 months. Many Facebook users have taken “vacations” from the site. Rachel Baier, a high school freshman in Massachusetts, told her dad she’d stop using Facebook until the end of the year in exchange for $200.

Here’s a quote from the father…

"She approached me. She has been frustrated she hasn't been able to find a babysitting job and she has been looking for ways to get cash, so she asked, 'If I didn't use Facebook for so long would you pay me?'"

The father thought she was joking at first. He later realized her daughter was serious, so he drew up paperwork. "I went back and thought about it, and said if you are going to do it, we are going to sign a contract. And she said okay." The contract states that from Feb. 4, 2013 through June 26, 2013, Rachel will have her Facebook account deactivated. She will receive $50 halfway and $150 on the last day of ninth grade.

Original link: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/father-daughter-200-quit-facebook-rest-school-year/story?id=18431318