If a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer

 

The study of principle : If a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer

EnPathia is a product that facilitates computer access for people with limited or no mobility in the upper extremities.

It allows the user to work with a computer as easily as with a conventional mouse and keyboard, but without the need to use their hands.

EnPathia is an adaptive mouse, but it's not just that. It is also an adapted keyboard, an interface to use up to two switches, an application to simulate virtual mouse clicks...

It's also a head-mouse, but EnPathia won't force you to use a particular body part. Many people comfortably use their forearms or feet. EnPathia adapts to the way you work, not the other way around.

Who is it for?

For people who do not have enough upper limb mobility to use a conventional mouse and keyboard.

EnPathia was developed in collaboration with volunteers with a number of conditions: tetraplegia, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis... One of the reasons why it is easy to use.

How does it work?

EnPathia consists of a small sensor that can be attached with a band to a body part. The user just needs to make gentle and natural movements in order to control the computer.

The sensor can be placed on any part of the body and in any position. The system automatically adapts to the type of movement that is easiest for you to do.

What can I do with enPathia?

Everything you can do with conventional mice and keyboards: browse files and folders, surf the web, play games, write text...

Turn the sensor in any direction (e.g. tilt your head slightly) and the cursor moves in that direction. In order to perform a left click or right click, double click, drag, or display a virtual keyboard just stop for a moment on a location on the screen. A menu displays with all these options, and performing them is as simple as making a smooth motion. You can also use enPathia with one or two switches.

EnPathia works on computers with Windows, Linux or MacOSX. The only requirement is that it has a USB port.

The minimum requirements for the proper use of enPathia are :

Hard disk capacity: 50 MB of free space.

Operating system: Windows, Linux and MACOS

Standard monitor.

Standard keyboard and mouse, which can be replaced by EnPathia after it has been installed.

USB port.

Comparing Linux distributions : Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu

                                                            Comparing Linux distributions

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu are easily two of the most popular Linux distributions used in the enterprise. Even so, there are some key differences between these two Linux flavors. Features, user experience, licensing and documentation are the key components to evaluate when comparing Linux distributions.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) can support nearly any application server or infrastructure role. In its latest version, Red Hat seems to focus heavily on security and compliance. The company has introduced systemwide cryptographic policies, advanced auditing capabilities and updated protocols. These include Transport Layer Security, IPsec, Domain Name System Security Extensions and Kerberos.

Red Hat has also reduced the complexity of RHEL's latest version. RHEL 8 is designed to provide a consistent user experience by using the same administrative tools, regardless of whether the server is running in the cloud, in a VM or on a bare-metal server

Ubuntu is an all-purpose server and provides services such as authentication, domain name server and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Ubuntu can also be configured as a web server, a MySQL or PostgreSQL database server, a file server, a chat server or an email server.

Ubuntu also offers next-generation features, including quality-of-service controls for CPU, memory and storage, and install snaps, which allow admins to easily install applications.

Canonical, the company that offers Ubuntu services and management, is the top provider of managed OpenStack. As such, Ubuntu is a good choice for organizations that want to run OpenStack.

Architecture

Red Hat supports RHEL on several different architectures. The company's dominant architecture is x86 but has versions of RHEL for IBM Power systems and for IBM System z. The company also has a development preview of a version of RHEL designed to run on the 64-bit ARMv8-A architecture.

Ubuntu is also available for several setups. While x86 support is a given, Ubuntu is also available for Arm, IBM Power Systems and IBM System z.

Ease of use

When comparing Linux distributions, ease of use is an important consideration. Red Hat seems to have made a significant effort to improve the overall usability in RHEL 8.

In this release, Red Hat introduced a new web-based management console that simplifies various server management and monitoring tasks. RHEL 8 also includes Red Hat Insights, which is designed to detect and help remediate any internal that might occur on a server.

Ubuntu has a reputation for being one of the easiest Linux distributions to learn. Ubuntu is simple to install and features an intuitive GUI interface that's easier to use than the command-line interface.  Ubuntu Linux automatically installs any required device drivers. Ubuntu also offers an extensive community to answer questions.

Licensing

Red Hat sells eight different license types that organizations can directly purchase from the Red Hat website. The least expensive option is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server license, which sells at $349 for a single RHEL instance. The most expensive option is Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for IBM System z, which sells for $15,000 per instance.

Ubuntu doesn't charge a licensing fee for its Linux distribution, but Canonical does offer a security and patching service called Ubuntu Advantage. This service costs $225 per year for servers, or $75 per year for VMs. A desktop version of the support plan is available for $25 per year.

Documentation

Another significant consideration when comparing Linux distributions is documentation. Red Hat provides online documentation in HTML, ePub and PDF format and has an entire training and certification program for RHEL.

The company offers a free RHEL Technical Overview course as well as fee-based courses. Red Hat offers a seven-day free trial of its training program, which provides access to more than 50 online courses.

Additionally, Red Hat offers two certifications: Red Hat Certified System Administrator and Red Hat Certified Engineer.

Ubuntu maintains official documentation online in both HTML and PDF format. Ubuntu encourages the community to contribute to its documentation. Canonical also maintains a collection of online tutorials for beginner and advanced users.

The Seventh Day: the values of hacker ethic in the new century

The Seventh Day: the values of hacker ethic in the new century

Until now, the "hacker" was considered an Internet thug, responsible for hacking and stealing bank card numbers. The rise of the Net has contributed to this bad reputation, which is certainly truncated and misleading, of the buccaneers of the big web. Philosopher Pekka Himanen sees hackers as model citizens of the information age. He sees them as the real drivers of a profound social transformation. Their ethics, their relationship to work, time or money, are based on passion, pleasure or sharing. This ethic is radically opposed to the Protestant ethic, as defined by Max Weber, of work as a duty, as a value in itself, a morality that still dominates the world today.

Passion is always necessary to move forward and can always be harnessed if the context allows. Creative exploration avoids being locked into a vision. While the work ethic shows us that the form comes after the essence of a project. 

Their network ethic allows them to fight against all types of censorship and to unravel the strings.

Censorship and privacy

Censorship and privacy

Turkey blocked Twitter on Thursday 20 March 2014, after threatening to close down Youtube and Facebook earlier this month. Only problem is, censors, there are always ways to get around you.

Censorship has somehow come of age: there's no point in pulling the plug when all you have to do is target the attack. Turkey is content to cut off access to one of the most used domain names to break the means of immediate communication. Blocking voices, silencing the opposition and, ultimately, isolating.

But if Erdogan has cut off a highway, the back roads still exist. One example among many: IRC, the Internet's first instant communication system. 

Turkish Internet users continue to access Twitter, however, by circumventing the ban through other proxy servers and VPNs, a technique used in other countries where Internet access is controlled by the government.

As a result, despite Erdogan's announcement of the end of Twitter, tweets continue to rain down from Turkey. To follow them, some hashtags like: #TwitterisblockedinTurkey, #DictatorErdoğan, #direntwitter, #OccupyTwitter and others to consult in this Twitter feed.

Tor: the 95% of the iceberg exposed

The best-known software to ensure your anonymity is Tor, a network of virtual tunnels. It is a sort of IP address and identity scrambler. But that's not all: Tor gives you access to everything. Only 5% of web content is indexed and referenced, leaving 95% of the scattered data to be discovered, the Deep Web. A few articles to tell you more on Hitek.com, nouvelobs.com or citazine.com. What these sources have in common is that they insist on being able to access anything illegal with Tor. They forget to mention that the Deep Web gives access to a colossal amount of content of a different nature, most of it useless, and completely legal... And that Tor can allow citizens to bypass censorship and communicate with the outside world without taking risks.

 

https://info.arte.tv/fr/la-censure-comment-la-contourner

https://www.la-croix.com/Culture/Nouvelles-technologies/La-Turquie-bloque-Twitter-2014-03-21-1123761

       The formula of Mitnick and our "private" life

Kevin David Mitnick, 35, is the world's most notorious computer hacker.Since his arrest in February 1995, he has been a "computer vandal", accused of having caused up to 80 million dollars worth of damage through his intrusions into Motorola, Nokia or Sun Microsystems. Since his arrest in February 1995, he has been a "computer vandal", accused of having caused up to 80 million dollars worth of damage through his intrusions into Motorola, Nokia or Sun Microsystems.  Hackers around the world consider Kevin Mitnick a martyr. Mitnick admits to having spent most of his life as a "network hacker". His first brush with the law came at the age of 17 for stealing computer manuals. Seven years later, in 1988, the FBI nabbed him for looting software. "He feels his sentence today is disproportionate," says Thomas. For three years after his release from prison, he will not be allowed to touch a computer or mobile phone. 

The recent attacks on Twitter and Doctolib have highlighted two major issues. The first is data management. Too many employees of the firm had access to users' accounts. This problem is the same for ALL online services: clouds or shared servers, medical data (cf. Doctolib), dating sites, Facebook...

For example, with server hosts or SaaS application providers, it is obviously necessary to prevent one user from accessing the data of another. And yet, it still happens regularly that by changing a login a user accesses data that is not his own. Beyond that, can the host or service administrators access our data or metadata? The answer is almost always yes. If the data is sometimes encrypted, who manages and holds the keys? 

Between the service providers themselves on the one hand, and third-party vulnerabilities on the other, attackers have many technical options to access our data. However, solutions exist to protect data: end-to-end encryption, popularised by messaging applications when data is stored or transmitted, or obfuscation, which consists of hiding data when it is manipulated.

But technical attacks are not the only threat.The second issue illustrated by the Twitter attack is that at least one of the employees with excessive access was deceived by the attacker. This type of attack is called "social engineering". The objective is to get a person to perform an action by playing with their brain. These attacks were popularised in computer science by Kevin Mitnick, who was hounded by the FBI for years, phoning people to gain illegitimate access to networks from the early 1980s. Today, "presidential frauds" are based on the same schemes: learn as much as possible about the targets (organisation, who is there? when? interests? etc.) to create trust, put the targets in a stressful situation in order to get them to reveal a secret or carry out an action, in complete serenity.

Bad / Good design

The Bad: PayPal Receipt Concept on Dribbble

Animations are a crucial element of interaction design, but they should always serve a purpose. They should never be done for animation’s sake. Unfortunately, designers tend to have a love affair with animations, partly because animations are so fun to create that we might not know when to stop.

Vladyslav Tyzun’s animation concept for a PayPal email receipt, posted on Dribbble, is an example of animation done wrongly:

The animation is pretty, but superfluous. In total, it takes a whopping 3.5 seconds to see the transaction details. A simple fade-in of the receipt would be more elegant, and because it takes up less time, better for the user as well.

This problem becomes dangerous when designers seemingly cannot get enough of animations. As of 2016, Vladyslav’s animation would receive more than 500 likes and 8,000 views. This shows a misguided appreciation that designers have towards animation for animation’s sake. Having insight into the designer’s tendency to prefer swooping epics over more direct representations and catching yourself before you give in to animations will save you a lot of time and prevent many headaches. Remember, users come to sites for a purpose—we want to show them what they are after in a short space and time, not detain them in a grand tour of the gallery.

The Good: Stripe Checkout’s Animation

When we do animation purposefully, however, the results can be great. Look at Stripe Checkout’s animation when the user receives a verification code:

Stripe uses animations to make things seem faster than they are: it provides users with updates (like “Sent”) even though they might not have received the SMS yet. This prevents users from feeling frustrated at having to wait, and provides assurance that an SMS is on its way right now.

Rachel Nabors, an invited web animations expert at the W3C, suggests five principles to keep in mind when designing animations3:

1.     Animate deliberately: think through each animation before you create it.

2.    It takes more than 12 principles: Disney’s 12 principles of animation work for films, but not necessarily for websites and apps.

3.    Useful and necessary, then beautiful: 

 should take the back seat to UX.

4.    Go four times faster: good animations are unobtrusive, which means they run fast.

5.    Install a kill switch: for large animations such as parallex effects, create an opt-out button.

Remember, users come to sites for a purpose—we want to show them what they are after in a short space and time, not detain them in a grand tour of the gallery.

An IoT developer

 Short depiction of an IT professional in your country (qualities, skills, education, attitudes etc. 

The IoT developer's main activity is to analyse the needs of client companies and to anticipate those of end users. They support the sales teams in studying the technical feasibility of a project. It is he who ensures the study and development of IoT solutions. He or she defines a minimum viable product (MVP) strategy, integrates the technical constraints and performance expectations of the communications protocols into the specifications (energy consumption, autonomy, interoperability, information flows to be transmitted, costs, set of sensors to be integrated, etc.).

They keep a constant watch on technological developments in order to anticipate them. The IoT developer's role is also to develop software interfaces for the microcontroller. He/she creates prototypes/models "Proof of concept" (POC), he/she creates API programming interfaces and manages their deployment. He defines test scenarios and implements them. It analyses the performance obtained, proposes and implements improvements. He/she sets up evolutionary maintenance measures and participates in the structuring of databases.

Technical skills required

Technical skills are expected of the IoT developer. He/she must master hardware architectures (interfaces, sensors, etc.), have a good knowledge of embedded electronics, understand its constraints (autonomy, energy consumption, etc.), and be familiar with electronic board manufacturing processes (PCB / Routing). 

He/she must also manage telecommunication protocols and therefore know Low Energy / LPWAN network protocols and master the associated prototyping platforms (microcontroller, Raspberry PI, Arduino).

Concerning development and computer and embedded systems, he/she must master agile methods and object methodologies, master operating systems or real-time OS, master frameworks, know several programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python, Perl, Golang, Assembler) and have a good knowledge of security standards and techniques applied to connected objects. Finally, concerning data storage and processing, he/she must master Cloud Computing environments, master web applications (JavaScript, PHP, Node.JS, HTML, CSS), and have a good knowledge of fusion and mass data processing.

 

What is the career path for the IoT developer? How has it been changing during the last 20 years (since the millennium)?

Before becoming an IoT developer, they may have started their career as an embedded system developer or OS developer. Among the possible evolutions: project manager or IoT product manager.

To become an IoT developer, the most sought-after profiles are those from engineering schools or universities with a specialisation in industrial computing or embedded electronics. The required level is generally Bac+5. Three to five years' experience in iOS, embedded software development or innovative technologies is also desirable.

The number of vacancies for IoT developer positions increased by 28% between 2016 and 2018 in France. 

From 1995 to 2015, there has been a dramatic change in the developer ecosystem.

- The rise of open source options: In 1995, there were about 5 open source languages for the web including Perl. Now there are over 100 languages including Ruby, PhP and Javascript.

- Plethora of libraries and frameworks:The only libraries available in 1995 were those for Javascript. Today, there are over 100 libraries and frameworks for Php alone.

- Client-server application development to Web apps to Mobile apps: The overall changes are from PC (dekstop / laptop) client software to web applications and now to mobile applications. We have gone from native clients to browser based apps back to native mobile apps all over again.

- Phenomenal rise of consumer apps, thanks to mobile : Personal finance (Intuit), to 1+ Million consumer apps thanks to mobile. PC’s were largely (90%) used for “work” with few consumers having home PC’s. The home PC’s rose thanks to the web, but now everyone has a mobile phone. Which has led to a phenomenal increase in # of consumer apps, not just business or productivity apps.

- Increased availability of application level API’s: From providers such as Facebook, Twitter, and others on programmable web. 

- Ease of looking up coding examples, tutorials and sample code: Thanks to Stack Overflow and Github, there are many more samples, code snippets and examples that developers can use to be more productive quicker.

-. Increase in the number of indie developer (solo): With the rise of consumer mobile apps and mobile games, there has been a significant rise in # of solo developers who are able to make a living based on building applications for niche audiences.

- The change in market share of complied versus interpreted languages: 20 years ago, most programs and applications were compiled (C, C++) and the share of interpreted languages was small. Now, with Javascript Ruby and Php taking the forefront, most applications are interpreted not compiled. The only exception is mobile apps – which are still compiled.

- The changes in app distribution – App Stores: Discovering, installing and using apps is a much more smoother and easier process now than before thanks to App stores.

- The availability of Cloud infrastructure for app development: The biggest change for developers over the last 10 years has been the rise of AWS and other cloud services, which allow developers to provision, build and deploy instances and machines much faster than 20 years ago.

 

• What impact does the copyleft have on choosing a software licence for one's project? 

This is a short overview of different types of copyleft in FLOSS licenses. Essentially there are four types of copyleft. No copyleft, weak copyleft, strong copyleft and very strong copyleft.

No copy left : Thirdly we have licenses that are short and simple permissive. The only conditions being preservation of copyright and license notices. Modifying and distributing can be done without releasing source code and for some cases stating changes. Such licenses are for example the MIT, Apache and BSL. Software under MIT license is for example Ruby on Rails and Node.js. 

Weak copyleft

The main difference between strong GPL and the lesser variant is, that the lesser one allows the creation to be linked with a non copylefted project. The non copylefted software can then be redistributed under own's terms if it is not a derivative work, otherwise the software's terms must allow modification and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications. Weaker copyleft licenses are LGPL, MPL and others. Software licensed under LGPL is 7-Zip and some VLC media player libraries.

Strong copyleft. GNU GPL is a strong copyleft license which is usually used as the baseline for comparison with other copyleft licenses. It mandates that the code of derivative work to be released under terms of the same license and does not permit compilation with differently licensed code. Linux kernel is example of GPL licensed code.

A controversy was caused by incompatibility between CDDL and GPL. These licenses share the same spirit of copyleft but because of GPL’s strong copyleft, OpenZFS cannot be easily combined together with Linux.

GNU AGPL is very strong copyleft license. The only difference from GNU GPL is that network use is treated as publication. This license is targeted at hosting providers that run modified versions of copyleft software as a service and keep modified code to themselves.[2]

An Opinion On A Constructive Proposal For Copyright Reform

    

                             

This article aims to explain the opinion about the ideas of Chapter 2 of The Case for Copyright Reform from 2 members of "The Pirates King".

• Moral Rights Unchanged

In my opinion, it seems obvious, we can't claim that we have written or created somthing if it is not the case.

• Free Non-Commercial Sharing

"copyright has evolved to a position where it imposes serious restrictions on what ordinary citizens can do in their every-day lives. (..)We want to restore copyright to its origins, and make absolutely clear that it only regulates copying for commercial purposes."

This seems to be a good idea to follow in order to keep people living in art field, earning their life with their creation imagination. 

That's true copyright has evolved to a position where it imposes serious restrictions with sharing files. For instance in the case of movies and series, downloading and streaming are used although there are some fee if the personn have downloaded a huge number of movies or others.

• 20 Years Of Commercial Monopoly

The commercial exclusivity of 20 years seems for me a bit to short. 

• Registration After 5 Years

I totally agree on the fact that the copyright protection should be given automatically to all the new published works. And the writer have to have the right to continue to exercise his commercial exclusivity.

• Free Sampling

"Today’s ever more restrictive copyright legislation and practice is a major obstacle to musicians, film makers, and other artists who want to create new works by reusing parts of existing works."

That is why this have to done one each field after an other one. Each art has some different limitations and  patents of different time.

• A Ban on DRM

Acording to me, it should be regulated by the intension, if people are not intending to get profit of it then it shall not bother them. It sounds like a basic human right, lets say music. It would be out of place to forbid me to share music to my friends only because i did not ask permission from author?

To sum it all up, the ideas itself are great. They are rightful and don’t work against ordinary people. Of course, it will take plenty of time to make these rules work, there will be some adjustments made i believe.

How web-based social networks has influenced its area ?

Instagram & Twitter

The intensive use of digital social media by social movement actors is an emerging trend that is restructuring the communication dynamics of social protest, and is widely acknowledged to have contributed to the successful mobilisations of recent movements (e.g. Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street). Yet our understanding of both the roles played by the social movement's use of social media and the extent of its impact comes largely from anecdotal evidence, media reports, and the media's own experience of social protest. 

Buying Instagram followers is the quickest way to go from being a social media nobody to a somebody (if by somebody you mean someone with a lot of fake followers and also someone able to publish fake news). Lots of major celebrities have been caught with fake Twitter followers, but the practice persists, and it’s a major problem on Instagram too. Buying followers is incredibly easy – the influencer pays a service anywhere from $10-$1,000 for hundreds of likes, and simply watches their follower count tick up.

A study on Twitter, found a significant imbalance in terms of the size of communities interested in different health conditions, regardless of the seriousness of these conditions. Improving the informativeness of tweets by using, for example, URLs, multimedia and mentions can be important factors in promoting health conditions on Twitter. Using hashtags on the contrary is less effective. Social network analysis revealed similar structures of the discussion found across different health conditions.

Sources :

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00038-018-1192-5

https://hmi.marketing/the-truth-about-influence-on-instagram/

From the earlier history of the Internet

 

                2 technologies from the earlier history of the Internet (before the Web, or pre-1991 period) 

                    - one which has become obsolete and been replaced by more modern things, and 

                    - another which survives to this day. 

                                                                                    The CD

Who uses CD's anymore? And for that matter, VHS and cassette tapes. Thanks to the MP3 and MP4 we don't even need things that go in disc drives to watch TV shows or movies. In fact who even needs a disc drive?

The 1990s are characterised by the dominance of the compact disc and the resulting spike in income in the music industry.  The 12 cm CD transformed the industry and the way consumers experienced music, representing a fundamental shift from analogue to digital technology.While the CD began to lose importance at the beginning of the 21st century, it inadvertently established a digital culture, one that is now embedded in society through streaming and downloads. The 1990s represents a time in history when digital technology and the Internet's ability to support file sharing revolutionised the music industry. 

                 The Fax

    Having experienced a boom in the sixties, the fax rapidly developed among private individuals, and especially in companies, many of which still use it. For legal or HR departments, and for health, real estate or finance professionals, the fax remains the best means of communication to combine efficiency and legal enforceability. It is therefore the preferred channel for sending important documents in complete security and reliability.

    Although email is fast, it is still strictly forbidden to use it to send personal data or official documents in many countries. While this practice is legal via the fax channel.

Admittedly, sales have fallen heavily but "the market is far from having disappeared". In Japan, the fax is still widely used. In Europe too, but to a lesser extent.

It was said to be condemned to gather dust in attics and museums. Twenty years after the arrival of the Internet, however, the fax has not yet retired, even if its horizon has narrowed.

Source :https://www.sudouest.fr/2015/06/28/vingt-ans-apres-l-arrivee-d-internet-le-fax-fait-de-la-resistance-1971883-4725.php