My Political Compass

Reading List - Authoritarian Left

Response #1 The word "Hacker"

The Word Hacker

To my understanding the word “Hacker” is a contentious term used in computing for several types of person. Throughout the years there have been numerous crimes that have been committed, do to the hacking of computers. Also there have been numerous cases where hacking is used to solve crimes. The word “hacker” has two meanings to it, with programmers hacking is someone that can make a computer do whatever he or she wants.

The word hack has two different meanings, it can be used in a good sense as if someone does something so clever to beat the system it is called a hack. But also in a bad sense it is also called a hack when you do something in an ugly way. I think the word is used in an ugly sense more than a good sense. when I look on TV I often see people getting in trouble for fraud through the hacking of people’s bank accounts and hacking into system codes. According to an article in (whatis.com) People were first introduced to hacking when the movie “War Games” came out in 1983. The same year, six teenagers got arrested for breaking into about sixty computers some of which was government owned and operated machines (pcworld.com).

Today I have learned that hacking is pretty much frowned upon. There are so many people who make a great deal of money hacking, whether it’s in a good sense or bad. There are now skilled IT Technicians that work to keep the internet clear and clean from hackers. If a hacker is able to access a company’s database, the technicians will alert the company of the database.

A hackers are very diverse and have their own society that most people don’t know about or don’t understand. To become a hacker you should be skilled in a couple of things; most hackers are skilled in different categories with computers. Most hackers have to learn programs, be skilled with operating system and different languages. Effects that hacking is causing to the society can’t be ignored. Hacking these days are bringing more danger and causing people to lose almost everything they have. Nowadays you can find out anyone’s information through a computer causing many people to get money stole from them. But that’s only the small problem of hacking. When dealing with hacking into the government, that is just a very different type of crime. Because hackers are human beings, who have two sides; evil and good, evil individuals should be studied and given the highest priority in the war against hackers because since we put our hands on the cause, we can fix it to reach for better effects.

Response #2 "The true meaning of pictures"

Response to “The true meaning of pictures”

          In response to “The true meaning of pictures” Mario Mattei talks about how pictures can give off many different meanings according to the way you use them and classify them. Shelby Lee Adams set out on a pursuit to document the Appalachian lives. As I was reading the article I noticed that all of the pictures seemed to be poverty related. This could surely give off a negative example to some people and also offend people that may come from the surrounding areas.

          When stumbling upon this article I very quickly became interested considering I am from the Appalachian mountains. Some of the photos I saw can be disturbing to people that do not understand the lives of the people who were pictured in the photos. When dealing with photos that come from the hollers of the Appalachians most photographers give little reasoning behind the pictures and details, this leads people often in the wrong direction.

          Coming from Harlan Kentucky, I realize in most hollers there are people who are exactly like the people in the pictures that some people may call “Hillbillies” whose poverty may be their own fault. I come from the city of Harlan which is in the mountains but not in the hollers, most people believe that people from Harlan are the same as the people that live in the hollers which is not true at all. The photos that Adams displays can give off a bad stereotype for other surrounding areas. I do feel like the people in the photos should be able to voice their own images.

          Understanding that Adams was also from the Appalachians I believe he was trying to explain and show the world what has been poorly stereotyped when dealing with the people in the hollers. Shelby spent time with the people he photographed and made time to find out who they were and he got to know them on a personal level. By Adams making the effort to get to know them shows me that he had no intentions of I guess you could say advertising the people in a negative way.

          In conclusion I feel that was Adams did was very respectful and greatly appreciated by people that live in the Appalachian Mountains. When taking pictures of people I feel that you should give a great deal of background with the images, so that people don’t get the wrong example and twist things up for the worse. Unless of course the pictures are meant to give off a negative example do the circumstances. I have a lot of respect for Shelby Lee Adams.

The starting point.

Where are you from?
-Harlan Kentucky is where I am from. A very small town in southeastern kentucky.

What is my experience with writing?
-I must say I do not have that much experience with writing. I feel that this is because I do not enjoy writing for fun. Outside of school hardly ever write.

What do you believe in?
-I am a firm believer in respect. I believe in treating others the exact same way you would want someone to treat you.

What kind of culture do I consume?
-When I don't have anthing to do and even sometimes when I do have things to do, I find myself turning to basketball. I enjoy playing basketball and also watching it in my spare time.

Why am I in college?
-The reason I am in college is because i believe that it is the final step to where I need to be in life to be succeed.