People Do Want to Steal Your Data

          In the past decade our society has rocketed into a whole new world thanks to wireless communication. With the proliferation of smartphones and high speed cellular data, you are never more than a few taps from anywhere or anyone. We live online, maybe not in the literal sense, but rather everything we post is there for everyone to see unless we take the right precautions. And even if we do take those steps necessary to protect ourselves from the perils of the internet, there always is the chance you will be the victim of the next iCloud brute force hacking attempt.

          I'm sure you all heard of the massive iCloud security breach that led to dozens of notable people's personal information and media being distributed throughout online forums such as Reddit and 4Chan. Apple is claiming that there was no fault on their end, but rather the perpetrator(s) used brute force password guessing along with correctly answering account security questions. The two step verification method they suggest using is a smart idea, but the truth is that many of us are just too lazy or simply don't care.

          I believe that is where the real problem lies. No body wants their digital information to be compromised, but at the same time people have the "it won't happen to me" mentality. It can certainly happen to you, and if you are particularly careless there is a good chance that it will. The best solution is simply not to keep anything in digital form that you don't want disseminated throughout the internet faster than you can say Insta-famous, but barring that there are some other solutions.

          1Password is a powerful tool that I have used for a while that helps me keep my passwords cryptic and, for the most part, un-guessable while helping allowing me to maintain my sanity by not having to remember them.

"1Password gives you the security you need in today's online world without slowing you down. 1Password makes you more productive while simultaneously increasing your security with strong, unique passwords for all your accounts and keeps all of your important information encrypted and secure."

The best part about 1Password, besides the fact that you only have to remember one password, is that it is now available on the iOS Appstore for the low, low price of 0 dollars. If you want to learn more about 1Password, head over to their website and check it out!

          Moving past physically securing your data to keep ourselves safe, I think educating people of the ramifications of being careless with their online persona is important. I can't even imagine where technology will be 10 years from now, but I am willing to bet it will play an even larger role in our everyday life. So, protect yourselves because someone out there does want to steal your data!

--Scott

The Sky Is No Longer The Limit

3D printing is a relatively new concept and many people are not very familiar with it. This is unfortunate because this technology has potential to be immensely important to our future. 3D printing adds a completely new dimension what we thought was possible. In short, 3D printing is the practice of using a robotic printer to create an object by using a computer controlled additive process. There are many micro-layers that are carefully laid into place to form this three-dimensional object. This object can then be used as if it were normally manufactured. One benefit from making objects through this process is only the amount of raw materials needed to construct the object are used in creation. There is no surplus material or material that is wasted. Efficiency and effectiveness are both increased in this aspect while using three-dimensional printing.

Some popular applications of 3D printing include:

• Automobiles
• Aerospace
• Apparel
• Medicine
• Firearms
• Construction
• Art

The ability to create an object from numerous raw materials sounds like something we have been doing for years. However, 3D printing adds the opportunity to create whatever, whenever. Being able to create something on the fly decreases the need for manufacturing every part that you will ever need to have on you. 3D printers can even create fully-functioning versions of themselves. Some say 3D printing will change the world, but why stop at the world?

Made In Space has created a 3D printer (Zero-G Printer) that was launched into orbit yesterday September 21, 2014. One of the main challenges for them was to create a 3D printer that is able operate in a microgravity environment and also withstands the force of take-off. This wasn't achieved in the past because the parts would just wiggle around without the gravity that the earth has. You can imagine the doors this opens up for human kind. The Zero-G Printer will be the first time any kind of manufacturing will take place in space. Whether this triggers out of this world manufacturing (literally), or assists NASA voyages and missions, it is safe to say that this achievement is worthy of recognition. 

Zero-G by Made In Space

While this breakthrough could be the start of something new, knowing what that something is exactly is quite the challenge itself. What's so unique and attractive about 3D printing is all of the opportunity it presents to us. It is hard to tell how 3D printing will change our lives but as you have read, space development is only one of the many possible applications. Who knows, maybe we will start civilization on another planet because of printing 3D objects we need in space. 

Notable links: 

Forbes

Boston

Wikipedia

Posted by Brady Feldman

Big Data, Small World

In today’s world every action that we take can be recorded as data. From the number of times you search “Pizza Hut” on Google, how often you scan your gym membership RFID tag, or even the number of texts you send per hour, it is all data. In fact, the idea of being surrounded by this universe of data is referred to as “big data”.  Though our daily actions can be recorded, sorted, and analyzed at a relatively cheap cost, is the holy grail of business answers buried in the mess? Is it worth the time and effort to find the needle in the haystack? These are the “big” questions when it comes to “big data”.

Big data is a relatively new idea, and there seems to be confusion at all levels of this concept. One of the initial problems is pinpointing an absolute standard definition of big data. A reoccurring definition I have seen declares big data as “a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis” (Forbes). Wow, that’s quite a bit to chew. How do we wrap our head around the amount of data that is out there? Is it possible?

Big data is generally defined by volume, velocity, and variety (The 3 V’s). The volume of the data represents the amount of data we are dealing with. The velocity represents how fast the data is moving, and the rate at which the data is being collected. The variety of the data represents what type of data we are analyzing, structured or unstructured data. Structured data is data that has been arranged in a format… but it’s not that simple, not all formats are considered appropriate relational structures. Good examples of structured data include relational databases, data warehouses, and complex enterprise systems. Unstructured data is data that need more interpretation from more complex correlation systems. Some examples may surprise you, such as an excel spreadsheet without exact specifications, a word document, or even the tweet you sent 15 seconds ago. It is all considered unstructured data.

Who has the time and money to keep track of all this structured and unstructured data? Large analytics companies such as IBM and SAS offer “data mining services” to help sort through this tangled web of potentially useful information. According to SAS’s video “Big Data…What it Means to You”, in 2012 the amount of data stored in the world exceeded 2.8 million zetabytes (1 zetabyte is roughly 931 billion gigabytes). By the year 2020 that number is predicted to be 50 times larger! Despite this enormous value, only 0.5% of this data is analyzed! This leads to unprecedented levels of competition to find the “secret business plan” or the “solution of all solutions”. There is no way of knowing that the information we are looking for is out there, we just need the resources and patience to sort through it. It will be important to keep your eyes and mind open to the prospect of big data analytics, it seems to be where our world is headed, and we all need to buckle our seat-belts for the ride.

Posted by Andrew Miller

Meet the Team

Byte Of Awesome is managed by Brady Feldman, Scott Evans, and Andrew Miller. We are three Senior Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA.

The purpose of this blog is to discuss a wide variety of news across the technology industry. We plan to use our knowledge and interest in this area to provide meaningful insight. We will be posting regularly throughout this academic semester ending in December. Though this blog has been created for a course, we plan on meeting and exceeding the requirements set forth.