BP 5/20

BP 5/20: Bluetooth's Complexity Has Become a Security Risk

WHat is the BlueBorne flaw?
How is Bluetooth developed?
How can malicious third parties use Bluetooth?
What issues did BoxLock run into?
What's the next step for bluetooth?
What's the safest thing to do if you aren't using Bluetooth?

BP 5/14

BP 5/14: WHat's App Let Hackers Install Spyware

How many people use WhatsApp?
What does WhatsApp say is the best way to not be targeted?
How does this vulnerability work?
What is NSO?
Do you use WhatsApp?

BP 5/13

BP 5/13: Germany Tests it's First Electric Highway

How long is the stretch of highway?
Where did the first eHighway launch?
What's a pantograph?
How many trucks will use the electrification a day?
What are your thoughts on this?

BP 5/8

BP 5/8: Computer Assisted Telepathy

Where did this research take place?
What is Neuralink?
What can you do with an augmented brain?
How cool is the video?

BP 5/7

BP 5/7: CHrome Will Let You Block Cookies

How do browsers differentiate themselves?
What will it not affect?
Why are they doing this?

BP 5/6

Hey ya'll,

I'm back.  I was really sick last week, and am still recovering.  Today I'm giving the AP Exam, so I'll be back a little later today.  I hope you all had an amazing weekend.

BP 5/6: What is Shielding?

What is Shielding?
What has the term evolved to include?
What is the biggest issue with Apps?
How is shielding used as a set of "best practices?"

BP 4/30

BP 4/30 -- Apple is Removing 3rd Party Screen Apps

What did Apple do to its competition?
Why did Apple do that?
What does Apple Cite as the reason?
What devices do the parental features work on?

BP 4/29 -- Canvas Overviews

BP 4/29 - Canvas Thoughts

What is something that we can use the Canvas Course for?
What should not be included in the course?
How long did it take for you to complete the course?
Do you recommend using this next year?  Why or Why Not?

BP 4/24

BP 4/24: Teen Sues Apple for $1 Billion

Why is the teen suing Apple?
Where was the teen when the robbery took place?
How does Apple use it's facial recognition?

BP 4/23

Welcome Back!

BP 4/23: Samsung Retrieves all Galaxy Folds

Why are they recalling them?
What happened to the Galaxy Note 7?
What did Reviewers do the devices?
When will they send out updated information?

BP 4/10

BP 4/10: 1/2 of American's Don't Use Broadband Speeds

How many people in the US are without broadband access?
Why are ISPs reluctant to invest in rural areas?
How much in subsidies has the US doled out?
What's the problem with the maps?
What happened in Ferry County?

BP 4/9

BP 4/9: US Army Shows How It'll use the HoloLens

How much is the HoloLens Contract w/ the US Army?
What does this device do?
When could soldiers be using these devices?
Why could this technology be good on the battlefield?
Why are people upset with this contract?
What are your thoughts on this?

BP 4/8

Hey ya'll,

I haven't graded anything since like... two weeks ago.  I'm going to be grading everything on like Friday.  So that means your annotated bibliography and everything is going to need to be done by that point.  Make sure it is.  That means blogs, annotated bibliographies, podcasts, everything.  Including the new project that I posted up last week.  Instead of the instructional video, all you have to do is post it on FlipGrid.  Make sure you read the directions.

Lastly, after Spring Break we have a big project that's coming up.  I need ya'll to test the modules that we'll be using for Canvas.  I'll explain in more detail at that point, but make sure your competent enough in using the platform before we start.  Also, I'm not there today, so make sure you put any laptops you need me to fix into my box. 

BP 4/8: To Stop Copycats, Snapchat shares itself

Who runs SnapChat?
What is Snap Kit?
Why would people use snapchat instead of facebook now?
What is AdKit?
What is Snap doing with Bitmoji?

BP 4/3

BP 4/3: Snapchats New Status Feature

What feature has Snapchat started to roll out?
HOw do you use this?
What is Passport?
Do you use this feature in Snap?
What is Snapchat going to release soon?

BP 4/2

BP 4/2: UPS Drones Moving Blood Samples Across NC

Who runs the firm?
Where did the flight first take place?
How many flights will it make?
Where did this project start?
Where else has this been tried?
What are your thoughts on this?

BP 4/1

Different blog post today.

What I want you to do today is to use this opportunity to tell me what's up.  SO feel free to vent about the whole arrangement with the Help Desk.  I'm also open to any suggestions moving forward.  Seriously.  Just type up whatchu got.

BP 3/27

BP 3/27: Europe's New Copyright Rules

What do these new rules do?
What could the laws kill off?
What will play a key role in this law?
What have critics of the law said?
When will this bill become law?

BP 3/26

BP 3/26: Everything Apple Announced on Monday

HOw many subscriptions services did Apple announce?
What is the new TV service called?
What is happening with the News service?
What is the features selling point?
What is the Apple Credit Card?
What about Apple Arcade, what is that?

BP 3/25

BP 3/25: Stadia is Google's New Streaming Service

How will the service work?
When will it launch?
What was the codename?
How fast will it stream?
Where does the processing take place?
What special button is on it?
Where does the controller connect to?
How is this created for Youtube?
Would you buy one?

BP 3/20

BP 3/20: Periodic Table of Mind-Blowing Technology

This is part of your next assignment -- take a quick look at it. 

Who made this table?
How does the table work?
What do the elements have numbers for?
What was this project designed for?

BP 3/19

BP 3/19: The Absurd Structure of High School

What do you think about the author's solution to the problem?
What do you think about this article?

BP 3.18

BP 3/18: More than 2/3 of Android Anti-Virus Apps Do Nothing

How many threats did they use to run this test?
How many apps scored about 90%?
How did the progress bar work?
What types of anti-virus apps should you use?
What does Google do to these apps?

BP 3/13

BP 3/13: Amazon Warehouses Suck to Work At?

What do people complain about when working at Amazon?
How many 911 calls have people gotten?
What did some of the calls have to deal with?
What is happening at these warehouses?
What does Amazon offer for employees dealing with this?

BP 3/12

BP 3/12: Harry Potter Game Wizards Unite

Who made the game?
What classes are available?
Basically, how does the game work?
What platform will this be available on first?

BP 3/11

BP 3/11: Elizabeth Warren Unveils Plan to Break up big Tech

Why does Warren want to break up these companies?
What would the plan include?
What do tech giants do according to Warren?
How did people react to this news?
What era did Warren compare today with?
What else do consumers need?
What are your thoughts on this idea?  Are you in favor, why or why not?

BP 3/6

BP 3/6: How Amazon Taught the Echo to Hear You in a Car

When was the Alexa Auto announced?
Where does it sit in your car?
How did they reprogram Alexa to work in a car?
How does the dummy work?

BP 3/5: The Overlooked Security Threat of Kiosks

What is a visitor management system?
Where were these systems located?
How could these be backed?
What type of information can be gained from these?
Where else might these be used?

BP 3/4

BP 3/4: Secret Lives of FB Content Monitors

No questions on this one.  Read this article, and just tell me your thoughts... About a paragraph should do. 

BP 2/27

BP 2/27: Google Assistant in Texting App

Where is Google hosting MWC this year?
What is Google doing in messaging now?
How is it doing it?
How does this work?
What does this borrow from?
Would you use a feature like this?

BP 2/26

BP 2/26: Fold vs TCL Foldable Phone

How many foldable phones are coming out now?
What's the difference between the Fold and the TCL Phone?
What raised a flag with reporters?
How many cameras does the Galaxy fold have?
Would you buy a foldable phone?  Why or why not?

BP 2/25

BP 2/25: Florida Student Arrested for Failing to Pledge Allegiance

What types of charges is the student facing?
What was the student arrested for?
What do you think of the American Civil Liberties Union response?
What happened to the student after the incident?
What is West Virginia State Board of Ed v. Barnett?
What are your thoughts on this controversy?

BP 2/19

BP 2/19: Protect Tourism or Give Schools Flexibility

What is the battle going on now?
What are tourism officials saying?
What is their argument?
What's the benefit of calendar flexibility?
What is the current state law regarding when schools can start?
What is in House Bill 79?
What do you think about this controversy?

RALEIGH 

A new battle is shaping up in the long-running fight between North Carolina’s public schools and the tourism industry over who should be responsible for determining when the school year begins and ends.

For more than a decade, the state’s school calendar law has required school districts to begin the school year in late August and end by early June. State lawmakers who want to give school districts more flexibility to open earlier in August are mounting a new push with a flurry of different bills designed to see if they can get exceptions made to the calendar law.

“On the House side, we’ve consistently supported the ability of our LEAs (local education agencies) to make some adjustments to meet their needs,” Rep. Craig Horn, a Union County Republican and co-chair of the House Education Committee, said Thursday. “The data has been pretty clear about allowing some calendar adjustments to meet the needs, particularly of low-performing students.”

But tourism officials, who have successfully fought off changes to the school calendar law, say they’re determined to protect what they call “North Carolina’s most precious tourism industry national resource — summer.” 

“As the second largest industry in the state, tourism not only creates and sustains good paying jobs for North Carolinians, but it also contributes greatly to state and local government tax bases that pay teacher salaries, builds schools, and lowers class size.”

The fate of any school calendar flexibility legislation may hinge again on the state Senate, which didn’t act on a pair of bills passed by the House in 2017.

“With over 20 school calendar flexibility bills having been filed this Session in the House and Senate already, we’ll have to carefully look at the proposals to see if any specific ones might be considered moving forward,” said Sen. Deanna Ballard, a Watauga County Republican and co-chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

“I have long supported calendar flexibility and am actively in conversations with administrators in local LEAs and community colleges to sift through potential solutions.”

The school calendar law was passed by the General Assembly in 2004 at the request of the tourism industry and some parents. These groups were concerned about how the school year was starting earlier and earlier in August, cutting into summer vacation time.

Under current state law, schools can start no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11. Some schools, such as charter schools, year-round schools and some low-performing schools, are exempt from the law.

School districts have complained that the calendar law limits their ability to make up time lost due to snow and other weather emergencies. 

“Given North Carolina’s recent experiences with Hurricanes Florence, Michael and Matthew, along with numerous annual snowstorms, locally elected officials could better plan and prepare for weather related school closings if they had more control to set local school calendars,” according to the N.C. School Boards Association’s 2019-29 legislative agenda.

School officials say that the calendar law is especially a hardship for high school students because it causes fall semester to end after winter break and doesn’t line up with the calendar used at community colleges, The School Boards Association says student achievement could go up if final exams are scheduled before winter break.

“The data is pretty clear about the efficacy of aligning the calendars for the benefit of the growing numbers of students taking college courses while they’re still in high school,” Horn said. “We think the time is right to get traction to put accountability into the calendar as well as addressing a demonstrated need for the growing number of students across the state that are going after college credit while in high school.”

Since Jan. 30, 22 school calendar bills have been filed in the General Assembly that would allow districts to set their own opening and closing dates or tie it into the calendar used by the local community college. The bills would give calendar flexibility to 51 of the state’s 115 school districts.

The one statewide bill, House Bill 79, would allow any school district to begin the school year earlier by aligning its calendar with its local community college. For instance, Durham Tech opened this school year on Aug. 13 while Wake Tech began Aug. 16.

All three House Education Committee co-chairs are the primary sponsors of House Bill 79.

Chelena of the N.C. Travel Industry Association said that if groups want the calendars to align then the community colleges should change their start and end dates to match what’s now required for the K-12 schools. He said a later start date for community colleges would give calendar reform advocates what they want and also “strengthen North Carolina’s tourism industry, create more good paying jobs in the state, and expand funding for public education.”

Horn says it’s inevitable in his opinion that school calendar flexibility will be granted. But he admits he’s not sure if it will happen this year. In the meantime, he said House lawmakers are hoping that their Senate colleagues will agree to at least one of the bills that have been filed.

“Maybe if you won’t buy this one, maybe you’ll give us this,” Horn said.

Chelena was more confident that the Senate wouldn’t agree to changes in the calendar law.

“We understand the political pressure Representatives feel from local school boards,” Chelena said. “However, legislators do not want to hurt North Carolina jobs and small businesses that pay for public schools. There is a safety for these legislators knowing that the Senate will not pass these bills.”

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226277690.html#storylink=cpy

BP 2/13

BP 2/13: Google Maps w/ AR Coming Soon

What did Google announce in 2018?
What will this actually do?
Who gets it right now?
Would you use this?
What do you think about this technology?

BP 2/12

BP 2/12: Spotify will Suspend Your Account if You Use Ad Blockers

What did Spotify announce on Thursday?
What will it start doing?
When do these changes take effect?
How many people are blocking ads?
What did it buy last week?

BP 2/11

BP 2/11: First Human To Sense North

What does Babitz have in his chest?
How does it work?
What is Cybor Nest?
What animals have this capacity?
How can this impact other senses?
What are the long-term effects of this?
Would you ever do this? Why or Why not?

BP 2/6

BP 2/6: Don't Post Kid's Pictures on Facebook

Do your parents post pictures of you without your consent on social media?
What is sharenting?
What have people done with pictures before social media?
What types of issues are raised with these?
Where is the real problem?
What is surveillance capitalism?
What do you think about this problem?

BP 2/5

BP 2/5: Apple Watch Fall Detection Saved a Man's Life

What does Apple tout the Watch as these days?
What has it done recently?
What new feature was introduced on the Series 4?
How does this feature work?
Who is this featured geared toward?

BP 2/4

BP 2/4: Microsoft Preparing XBox Live to iOS, Android, and Switch

When will Microsoft announce this?
What will this allow XBOX Live to do?
What is the company trying to create with Game Pass?
What do you think about this development?

BP 1/30

BP 1/30: Google Takes Its First Steps Toward Killing the URL

What is the security team putting forth?
Why does Google want to do this?
What two things are Google doing right now?
What other initiatives has the security team been successful in implementing?
What's the next question for the team?

BP 1/29

BP 1/29: Apple Disables Group Calling in Facetime

Why did Apple do this?
What is the bug?
What happens if you click silence or ignore?

Now for some information on your Podcast Assignment:

Here's how to Submit it
Here's what you need in a Podcast
Podcasts You MUST pick one of those

1) Today Explained
2) The Gist
3) The Daily
4) Up First

All these links are in iTunes.  However, I listen to mine in Spotify, which is available, or even better, if you can stand some adds, you can download Overcast to your iPhone or Android phone.  It's a good app.  The first Podcast is due on Monday, February 4th. 

BP 1/28

Welcome to the 1st Blog Post of Spring 2019.

Facebook's Plan: One Messaging Service to Rule Them All

What is Facebook doing to the apps it owns?
Why does this matter?
What is the benefit of this for Facebook?
What does this mean for an end to end encryption?
What does this mean for Facebook users?
What do you think about the integration of all these services?

BP 1/9

BP 1/9: Black Market for Location Data

How specific is the location data we are talking about?
How cheap is it to do?
What did the prison system do?
How is this legal?
What is the solution to this problem?

BP 1/8

Hey guys,

Sorry I'm not here.  I have a sick kiddo.  I was going to have a meeting today, but alas, that can't happen.  I'll have grades and everything in Blackboard by the end of the day.  Don't forget that Friday is Genius Hour day.

If you have to take my exam, it's posted in Google Classroom.  I know that the links don't work.  I'm looking for an alternative. 

Without further ado... here is the stuff you need for today.

BP 1/8: Specdrum Rings

What company has made these?
What do they do?
How much will they cost?
When will they be available?

BP 1/7

BP 1/7: Apple Brings iTunes to Samsung Tvs

When will this be rolling out?
What else will the TVs be running?
WHat does this new deal show?
Why has apple turned to services?
Why else would they want to work on Samsung TVs?

BP 1/4

BP 1/4: What to Expect from CES

Where is CES held this year?
What can BotBoom do?
What is going to happen to 5G?
What's next for TVs?
WHat is going to happen to the voice assistances?
What does all this mean for privacy?

BP 1/3

Hey ya'll,

I'm obviously not here today.  Eye stuff remember?

Please do the items on the board.  Don't forget about the bulletin board and GH projects.

BP 1/3: THe Mobile World Might Get Exciting in 2019

What is 5G?
When will TMobile be ready for it?
What's the benefit of a foldable phone?
Who is merging in the mobile sector?
What is Huawei?

BP 1/2

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!!!

We'll chat a bit today, but here's today's blog

The Year in Search 2018

What is Year in Search?
What was the most googled question in the US this year?
Where can you see the trends?
Take a look at the video at the bottom, let me know what you think.