Information Technology in a Global Society Sample of Test Two
1. Recently, thousands of customer records containing sensitive information were viewable on popular e-commerce sites. The records could be accessed and downloaded by anyone using a standard Web browser. No sophisticated hacking tools or programming knowledge were required. Many security experts think that consumer records are not properly protected on a significant number of Web sites. a. (2 points) Identify two sensitive fields, other than those containing personal information, in a customer record which could possibly be viewed due to this security error.
People could view your credit information like activation code and expiration date and people could see your purchase history. b. (4 points) Explain two ways in which such a security error could occur.
1) Servers normally include a FTP server. The web site manager could have set up the ftp server without deactivating the anonymous login. This would allow anyone to log in using FTP and download the files with the customer information.
2) Or, the database could be stored in a directory that is readable using HTTP. There would be no link to the page directly but a user could accidentally type in the web address of a sensitive directory and see the files which they could download without following a link. c. (4 points) Explain two reasons why large retail stores are diversifying into e-commerce.
1) People find shopping online to be convenient. Online companies like amazon.com are cutting into traditional retail stores’ business. If they don’t diversify into selling online they could loose a lot of customers. But by offering their merchandise online stores can leverage their existing distribution and management systems to efficiently sell online and very likely undercut the new dot-com upstarts to maintain their market share. Many stores like Office Depot and Sears allow you to buy online and pick up the merchandise at their stores so you have the convenience of using an online search tool to find your product without the delay normally associated with delivery of the product.
2) A second reason for traditional stores to go online would be to diversify their product lines. Retailers can test new products online before incurring the huge cost of rolling out a product to all of their stores. If that product does not do well they have lost all of the investment in distributing and stocking the product in the stores while it has taken up valuable floor space. Retailers have to make hard decisions about what to sell due to limited amount of space in their stores. With online stores, the floor space is infinite. They can sell all kinds of products with much less overhead (possibly not even stocking it in their own warehouses). If the product does well, they can roll it out to their stores. d. (10 points) Discuss three reasons why many online companies have failed.
When online companies starting being the big thing in the 90’s everyone wanted to invest in them and make a big profit. People saw others becoming millionaires and wanted to do the same. This did two things, first it made the stock prices sore so more people wanted to join in the act, and two it gave small companies a ridiculous amount of money to spend. Well the bubble had to burst, and it did. The companies failed
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Information Technology in a Global Society Sample of Test Two because people finally realized that most were not making any money and would probably not do so soon.
Why could they not make money?
1) The online companies where spending money as fast as they could since they had so much from the stocks. But money was not always spent wisely. Because there was such an explosive growth of these companies there were not enough qualified IT professionals to hire. Online companies were forced to hirer incompetent people at very expensive salaries. There is no way many companies could sell enough product or advertisements to cover the salaries. Remember that the majority of Americans were not online at the time. Their potential number of customers was quite small. Advertising on the web was not yet proven effective. Most of the selling of advertisements went to other online companies so the money was going around in circles.
2) Even if the company had a great product that was selling well many did not think about how they would fulfill the orders. All the emphasis was placed on the web site like the merchandise would magically transport itself. The companies who were successful and got many orders often fell behind on delivery and customers got mad. Meanwhile, traditional retailers with stores or catalog companies had an existing infrastructure that could meet the demand. As soon as companies like Sears, Eddy Bauer,
Borders Books caught up and made their own web sites the upstart dotcoms were doomed.
3) And finally there were just too many new online companies that did not have an original idea or a justification for being online. For example, selling wedding cakes online might have sounded like a good idea, but do future brides really want to buy their cakes online? How could they trust this company?
Many transactions are done better in the real world. On the other hand, things that can be sold online were already being sold by catalog. There is not a big difference. Once the catalog retailers figured this out they could create their own web site. With so many new web sites with nothing to set them apart it was inevitable that many would fail. Those who survived did so the way all good companies do: great organization, efficiency, branding, and luck.
2. Ananova has her own news site on the Internet. She is not real, but merely a virtual actor (VActor). She is a sample of the virtual characters that can be created using 3D graphics programs. These actors live in a virtual world and their designers offer descriptions of their virtual lifestyles. Such Web sites are very popular and are visited by thousands of fans. a. (4 points) Describe two IT processes which are used to create VActors.
1) One program used on The Lord of the Rings is called Massive. It is a computer program that creates thousands of digital warriors (agents) that look like a huge fighting army when seen together on the screen. The process allows each agent (person) to make its own decisions so that a realistic crowd behavior emerges. The movements of each agent are not orchestrated by the designers, only the general movement.
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Information Technology in a Global Society Sample of Test Two
2) Another process used in The Lord of the Rings was the use of sensors placed on a live actor to capture the motions of the actor and digitally recreate them on the computer, giving the actions to a digitally created actor. b. (6 points) Explain three economic issues which are related to the use of VActors.
1) Using virtual actors takes a very large initial investment in computer equipment and expertise. There is a very large number of highly paid technicians and designers that need to be hired to get the studio ready to film virtual actors. This would be a boost to technical professions.
2) Most virtual actors are not completely computer generated. Many have real voices and/or actions. But others are completely virtual (as in the armies generated in Massive). These virtual actors are replacing real actors and not getting paid so the trend could emerge of real actors having much less work. Many people want to act now and can’t. The use of virtual actors could force wages down for real actors.
3) A huge cost of movies now is in actors salaries. If a studio can produce a popular virtual actor they could keep all those profits to themselves. The Disney studio has been doing that for decades with animated characters but virtual characters are different due to the potentially lower cost of production and more lifelike results. c. (10 points) Discuss three non-economic issues which emerge from the use of VActors. Use specific examples in your discussion.
1) The use of virtual actors can allow people to create movies that would be impossible to create before because of safety or physical limitations. Virtual actors are limited by the physics of the real world.
As this technology becomes available to everyone we could see people writing screen plays and producing the movie all by themselves just like someone would write a book. Writing books is a hobby and career for many more people than those employed making movies because of the cost, time, and difficultly involved. If individuals could in the future express themselves with movies as easily as they could write a book we may see making a movie become as common as writing a book. Will this make writing and reading books something of the past?
2) The use of virtual actors allows film makers to expand their films to match their imagination. With movie making before digital effects and virtual actors, people were limited to making movies in which people were physically able to act. Now the are no constraints. Now, like in the making of The Lord of the Rings, the world of movie making has caught up with imaginations so that if you can think it, it can be seen.
3) Think of the fact that virtual actors never age. As we move farther into virtual reality and being fans of virtual actors we could loose our sense or reality in the movies. What happens to society when people start admiring virtual people as their heroes. People who never age and can be perfect in any way could place a unreal expectation of how we expect people in our real life to be.
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Information Technology in a Global Society Sample of Test Two
3. Countries are troubled that the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is the only functioning worldwide navigational network, is run by the US military and controlled by the US government. As American technology becomes a worldwide standard, other governments are worried that this dependence raises serious issues despite the fact that it is free. GPS which is operated by the US Defense Department is also used by military forces in other countries.
However, some countries are investigating creating their own version of GPS. a. (4 points) Identify two IT components used in a Global Positioning System and describe how a GPS operates.
The GPS is made up of digitally controlled satellites and hand held computerized receivers. b. (6 points) Describe one civilian use, one military government use and one non-military government use for GPS.
Civilian: GPS is used in cell phones to pin point where the cell phone is when making a call. The location of the cell phone is important when making a call due to the “cell” nature of cell phone technology
Military: GPS is used in missile guidance systems. The “smart bomb” determines where it is with a GPS receiver an adjusts its movement to locate a target with GPS coordinates.
Government: Transit systems use GPS to locate their buses and trains and to adjust and control the routing of the busses and trains. c. (10 points) Discuss three issues involved in the control of this important tool by any single country.
1) Since the US controls the GPS system that is currently being used by everyone in the world they can use it as a means of control. In time of war the US could turn off the satellites or have them changed to be able to be used only by the military. Currently the system is more accurate for our military and deliberately inaccurate for civilian use. This gives the US an unbalanced means of control, that together with its strong military could make it act in aggressive ways.
2) Placing responsibility of maintaining a system that the world has become dependent in the hands of a single country is not prudent. What happens if the US becomes unstable or otherwise unable to maintain the network of satellites? The system is not redundant and reliability is an issue. For something that has become so critical for so much of the world’s commerce and transportation we should have a second system controlled by another government or a collection of countries. Safety critical systems such as airlines should use GPS receivers that would be able to automatically switch from one system to the next in case of a failure.
3) The US not only controls the GPS system but makes unilateral decisions about development and use of the system. It was created by our country so understandable is customized for our needs. A more international effort could result in more innovation in the development of the system. Also, all countries could have a input into how it would be developed to best suit their needs.
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