VIS 2 Trash Collecting Backpack

CAT 125 Open Source

As a programmer, open source is not a new thing to me. However, current Cloud technology has pushed the programming to open source a little bit more. Because of the ease of storing and transferring files online, many people choose to share their codes with the public. This not only benefits the community, but also help their own source get close to perfection.
For one reason, sharing and discussing the codes can help people learn more. Many blogs and websites enable the code download links of their products. This would help the beginners to study how programs are functioning. Like we reading books to develop writing skills, reading others' source code can improve programming skills. There are always many ways to achieve same goal, so finding an efficient way is very important for the programmers. It can reduce the calculating time, also reduce the chance of get bugs. I personally read others' code a lot, and I have learned a lot techniques. Only reading the tutorial books does not help the real situation too much. So open source is one of the necessary features of computer programming.
Another reason to open source is to allow the community to review the code for the owner. Usually, the first version of a program is not quite efficient, for example, the operating system, Linux. After the community reviewing the source code, many beta testers could give a lot of good suggestions. Some time they even provide the solutions. That's why Linux is always updating faster than the other two major OSs: Windows and Mac OS. People have different strengths, so it is really helpful to have more people to work on one product. Only in this way, the program can reach the better result.
However, open source is not always good. Some people steal others' codes easily, and modify it to their own. That is one of the reasones some programmers decide not to share the codes with others.

CAT 125 - How People's Opinions shifted by 50 Cents Party in China

In China, there is a group of people called 50 cents party. The named "50 cents" is based on their income rate. Basically, they are low educated people(no high school diploma) who are working on the Internet. Their job is mainly about spreading the comments on major forums and social networking websites. A lot of Internet users think those activities are common, like commenting a YouTube video, or a product review. However, the 50 cents party takes it as a career. They write thousands and thousands comments daily under the command of their employers. Their goal is to shift viewers opinions.

First fact, they get paid 50 cents for each comment. Each day, their boss will assign them a task, for example, saying something negative about a company's product. And soon, one leader of this party will write a post complaining this product in one of the major forums in China. The rest of the party members will start to agree with this post and add more negative thoughts about it. Sooner or later, the viewers will trust what they say, and really think this product is worthless to buy. This is 50 cents party's power, they pretend to be normal Internet users, and secretly change people's opinions in very short amount of time.

Since the Internet users has grown into a half billion, there is a huge market for 50 cents party. In common, people trust other's feedback more than the advertisements. So companies start to hiring 50 cents party people to spread their products on the Internet. This causes the unfair competition because they also hiring them to attack their enemies. The true value of the product has been covered by those comments. Because the power of this media really affect people's thoughts, the online shopping consumers have a hard time to choose products.

As this goes by, all the credits of the companies become less and less trustable. People are unable to tell which are the truths and which are lies. The Internet comment has become a flood of fake.

CAT 125 Second week personal blog

Turned in as hard copy