Astro Boy - The Human Side of Technology

Ever wondered what was Japan's inspiration why they went this advanced in technology, even after their devastation on World War II? You got it right! (Assuming you read the title of this post)

Astro Boy first started as a manga series which was first serialized in Japan from 1951 to 1968. It was then followed by two further series on 1975 and 1980 to 81. He is created by Osamu Tezuka, often reputed as the "god of manga." It was later serialized in the United States under the Dark Horse Comics.

Thanks to the ever helpful Wikipedia, I was able to gather important information.

Astro Boy also saw alot of action in motion. It was made into a television series, and dubbed as the first anime ever made. The beginning of the series was produced by Mushi Productions, which premiered on Fuji TV on New Year's Day 1963, but was eventually moved to the NHK network. It was also the first anime to be broadcast outside Japan. It lasted for four seasons, with a total of 193 episodes. At its height it was watched by 40% of the Japanese population that had access to a TV. In 1964, there was a feature-length animated movie called Hero of Space released in Japan. It was an anthology of three episodes; The Robot Spaceship, Last Day on Earth and Earth Defense Squadron. The latter two were a special treat for Japanese fans since the theatrical versions were filmed in color.

There has been a lot of plans for a movie. In 1962, MBS released an hour and 15 minutes of black and white live action film and since there are limitation on what people can do with a film, the success of the film was out of reach. It was on 1999 that Columbia Pictures has announce the making of the Hollywood version of the comic series.


The Astro Boy feature film version is slated for 2009 from Imagi Animation Studios.

The plot of the series is simple. The story focuses mainly on Astro Boy, a robot created by Dr. Tenma, the head of the Ministry of Science in hope that he would be able to replace his son, Tobio, who died on a car accident. After the realization that the robot would never have emotions, he sold it to a cruel circus owner, Hamegg, who later gave him to Professor Ochanomizu, the new head of the Ministry of Science.

Throughout the series, Astro Boy, fights crime, injustice and evil at the same time struggles with the difficulties of his hopes to be a real boy. The series, whether on manga or on TV, explored issues on morality, responsibility, racism, prejudice, true heroism, and acceptance of loss.

While, on the storyline, our hero is built on pure metal, yet he displays great human emotion, even greater that most of the people on the series. While the story focuses on his struggles as a robot and his wants to be human, the loss, the responsibilities and his limitations, Astro Boy remains loyal and and pure, making him the real picture of the perfect technology. A technology with a touch of humanity.

Indeed, Astro Boy is an existing evidence, that in every technology we make, build or create, we always long for it to have a human side.

Internet and Data Security Terms and Meanings

I was browsing the internet today and I found this very valuable resource. Just thinking of sharing it.

Internet Security is always an issue, not only to large corporations but also to individual users. It builds the confidence between business partnerships and and keeps your properties protected. also, Internet Security is a big part to one's overall security strategy and business solutions.

But the problem nowadays is that most of us is not knowledgeable of even the most common terms that internet security gives. I found this great site, Internet and Data Security Guide, which defines most of these terminologies that is very clear and concise. The following are just a few from the site:

Anti-spyware - An Anti Spyware software is similar to an Anti Virus, but it works on programs that don't try to take over your system, but instead pop up ads and unwanted messages.

Anti-virus - Software to deal with programs like computer viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. These programs are all characterised as being unwanted software that install themselves on your computer through deception.
In order to prevent damage by viruses and worms, users typically install antivirus software, which runs in the background on the computer, detecting any suspicious software and preventing it from running.

Authentication - The process for verifying that someone or something is who or what it claims to be. In private and public computer networks (including the Internet), authentication is generally done with passwords.

CSIA - The Cyber Security Industry Alliance is an international public policy advocacy group dedicated to ensuring the privacy, reliability and integrity of information systems.

Certificate - An encrypted file containing user or server identification information, which is used to verify identity and to help establish a security-enhanced link.

Cookie - A small data file that is stored on a user's local computer for record-keeping purposes and which contains information about the user that is pertinent to a Web site, such as user preferences.

Cracking - Finding a password by trying many combinations and words.

Cryptography - The practice and study of hiding information.

Decryption - The process of converting encrypted data back into its original form.

Email filter - Software that scans incoming email for spam or other unwanted material and filters it accordingly.

Encryption - The process of converting data into cipher text to prevent it from being understood by an unauthorized party.

Firewall - A firewall blocks any unauthorized ports on your computer, thus restricting unfettered access.

Hacker - Illegally breaking into systems or writing viruses and other malware.

Information security - The art and science of protecting computers and data from misuse.

Internet Security - The prevention of unauthorized access and/or damage to computer systems via internet access.

Malware - Malware can be classified as trojans with a limited payload and are often not detected by most antivirus software. They may require the use of other software designed to detect other classes of malware, including spyware

Password - A password is a secret word or phrase that gives a user access to a particular program or system.

Phishing - Phishing is when you receive an email that looks like it's from your bank, Paypal, or another site you use, and asking you to login to confirm your information.
The way this works is the attacker sets up a web site which mimics the target site, say a fake bank site, and then sends this phishing email to thousands of people, until one bites.
Then when the person tries to login, his login information is gathered by the bad guys and used to steal information or money.
The most basic rule is to never click a link in an email, never download from an untrusted source, and always type in the address of your financial sites to access them.

Spam - Unsolicited e-mail. Also known as junk e-mail.

Spyware - Software that runs on a computer without the explicit permission of its user. It often gathers private information from a user's computer and sends this data over the Internet back to the software manufacturer.

Trojan horses - Programs that conceal their true purpose or include a hidden functionality that a user would not want.

Viruses - Programs that can slow down system performance and cause strange system behavior and in many cases do serious harm to computers, either as deliberate, malicious damage or as unintentional side effects.

Worms - Programs characterised by having the ability to replicate themselves and viruses are similar except that they achieve this by adding their code onto third party software.
Once a virus or worm has infected a computer, it would typically infect other programs (in the case of viruses) and other computers.

I know that I listed a lot, but these terms are just the few that one needs to be informed of. So if you have time, go ahead and check it out. ^_^x


DISCLAIMER: The following definition was given by RuleWorks.co.uk and all credits goes to them. I do not guarantee that the content will be available by the time this post is read.

The Art of Wall-E

Once in a while, there are just movies that stand out. So, I decided that once in a while, I should blog about the films I loved. Ofcourse, I will also take into consideration that the films I am going to feature should stay in our theme, which is, the human side of technology.

So, my first review will be about..... drumroll please.... tada!
Disney and Pixar's Wall-E!

To be honest, it is really rare that I would get this feeling on watching a movie, the satisfying and the heart-melting feeling I mean. The last time I felt this good on a movie is with Rules of Engagement (in terms of screenplay) and Spider-Man 2 (with the special effects and the character involvement). This is by far, the best movie of the year for me, the best of all the animated films and one of the best this century. Why? Check it out.

The plot. What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, Wall-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that Wall-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, Wall-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an adventure into motion. An adventure that not only would threaten Wall-E's love, but also the existence of the entire humanity.

The plot is very simple, nothing that deep to confuse you, yet is intelligent enough to keep its viewers focus on the movie, and make you think after you got out of the cinema. But what made me this attached to the movie is because of Wall-E's character. Pixar has succeeded in perfecting a movie for a character. You couldn't help but to understand the character, to say why he is lonely, to know what he wanted and to understand why he falls in love. It has been so long, since people, like me for instance, who get so attached with a character, mush less on the character's situation. Wall-e, if real, would be a real example of how human technology could go.

I am not going to give out any details or any spoilers, but I would highly recommend the you guys watch this movie. If you can catch it in the big screen, the better. Trust me, Wall-E is the character you'll love, and you'll never stop loving.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the image on this post. It is owned and copyrighted by Disney and Pixar.

The World's Greatest Brand Names and Where they came from

I made a comprehensive list of the world's greatest brand names and the reason why they were named like that and where the it basically came from. Here are just the few and the most famous:

Adobe - named after Adobe Creek, a river located and ran behind the house of its founder, John Warnock.

Apache - it got its name from 'A PAtCHy' server, a result when its founders applied patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon, in which the program started from. Thus, the name Apache.

Apple Computers - the name came from Steve Jobs' favorite fruit. The issue was he was actually late for filling a name for his business, he threatened his colleagues that if they did not suggest any better name by 5 o'clock, he is going to call the company Apple Computers.
CISCO - short for San Francisco.

Google - it was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. But is was later changed by its founders when they got their cheque after presenting the project to its investors, which was made out to "Google".

Hotmail - its founders formulated the best name for the service that would end with "mail". They settled with Hotmail, originally because it had HTML on it. And it was originally written as HoTMaiL with the uppercasses on it.

HP - its founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether they would name the company as Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Lotus (Notes) - Mitch Kapor, who used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation got the name for his company from 'The Lotus Position' or 'Padmasana'.

Microsoft - coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the dash was later removed.
Motorola - the name came originally from the company Victrola, which manufactures radios for cars and was the where Paul Galvin started.

ORACLE - Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the Central Intelligence Agency. The code name for the project was called Oracle which stands for "One Real Asshole Called Larry Ellison".

Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap, with red and white stripes, while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone !
SAP - "Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by 4 ex-IBM employees who used to work in the "Systems/Applications/Projects"

SUN - the acronym for Stanford University Network.

Xerox - came from the Greek word "xer" which means dry. The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product trying to say "dry", as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying.

Yahoo! - the word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book 'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.


These are just a few but it was fun to know that some of these company names where actually formulated with weird reasons. A proof that indeed technology has a human side.

DISCLAIMER: The following information used was not approved by its founders and I do not own any of these images. The logo is copyrighted by its preceding companies.
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The Laws Microsoft has set on Computer Security

This information is quite old yet just want to post it and share it again.

The Microsoft Security Response Center has received before a lot of reports with regard to users experiencing a lot of errors and breach of security even they have updated their anti-virus softwares and they always turn on their firewall. And with their investigation, they found out that most of these cases were because of the owner's fault. As a step to help prevent future problems like these, Microsoft has released a list on what they think is the fact with regard to computer security. They called the list The 10 Immutable Laws of Security.

The following is the content of that specific list.

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore

It is true that a program is designed to run as what it was supposedly programmed to do even it would be something negative. It is also a fact that when a program is running, it could do a lot of changes on your computer, changes that even could go beyond the limit of what you can do for your computer. But it is also a fact that a program cannot run without one's approval. That is the reason why it is not advisable to install, run or even download softwares and computer programs from a untrusted source.

Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore

Operating Systems is just running with a series of ones and zeroes, and if it would break down, one cannot blame the OS, because it was right all along to follow inputs. Therefore it is always best to give restrictions and privileges to other users of your computer, to ensure that only trusted individuals can alter and make changes on your computer's operating system.

Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore

I mean, why the hell would you let your computer to be used by an untrusted individual!

Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your website, it's not your website any more

See rule #1, only in this case, uploading untrusted files to your site is the case. The end result of these is that there actually no difference between users that has been tricked and users who has voluntarily did it.

Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security

In choosing a password, it is advised the we develop a complex one, one that is not easily forgot and not to be able to be guessed by others. And please don't use predictable passwords like you dog's name, or you favorite superhero, anniversary dates and worse, your name! Consider special character enriched passwords and random capitalized or not capitalized letters and numbers. A good password contains atleast one capital letter, another letter which is not capitalized, two numbers and, importantly, atlease one special character.

Always remember, even though you have the best security in your computer but you do not have a strong password, you are as marginally vulnerable as those who do not have security at all.

Law #6: A computer is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy

Microsoft has stated that "Every computer must have an administrator: someone who can install software, configure the operating system, add and manage user accounts, establish security policies, and handle all the other management tasks associated with keeping a computer up and running." Thus, a computer is secured when its administrator is someone who warrants trust. Take steps to keep honest people honest. Diversify task as effectively as possible, it is always best to divide task to more than one administrator, limited to only a few number of people.

Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key

No better way to say this than how it was posted in the Microsoft website about the 10 Immutable Laws of Security which goes:

"Suppose you installed the biggest, strongest, most secure lock in the world on your front door, but you put the key under the front door mat. It wouldn't really matter how strong the lock is, would it? The critical factor would be the poor way the key was protected, because if a burglar could find it, he'd have everything he needed to open the lock. Encrypted data works the same way—no matter how strong the crypto algorithm is, the data is only as safe as the key that can decrypt it.

Many operating systems and cryptographic software products give you an option to store cryptographic keys on the computer. The advantage is convenience – you don't have to handle the key – but it comes at the cost of security. The keys are usually obfuscated (that is, hidden), and some of the obfuscation methods are quite good. But in the end, no matter how well-hidden the key is, if it's on the computer it can be found. It has to be – after all, the software can find it, so a sufficiently-motivated bad guy could find it, too. Whenever possible, use offline storage for keys. If the key is a word or phrase, memorize it. If not, export it to a floppy disk, make a backup copy, and store the copies in separate, secure locations. (All of you administrators out there who are using Syskey in "local storage" mode—you're going to reconfigure your server right this minute, right?)"

Law #8: An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all

One should make it a standard operating procedure to always update your virus archive signatures as often as everyday if possible. Not only that, one should also update the anti virus itself on a period of time that would range from three months until eighteen months, the more often, the better. While, it is a must to have this software, keep it as minimal as possible. By this, I mean it is also unwise to install five different softwares on your computer, in which would be a reason why your computer would be very vulnerable to the outside world.

Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn't practical, in real life or on the Web

Human interaction in the web is as safe as we want it to be. It is not always recommended, although at times it is best, to stay anonymous. As long as one would only give information, personal and pertinent, to trusted individuals and sites, one does not have to fear about violation of privacy.

Law #10: Technology is not a panacea

Technology can do many great things. It can be very very helpful, especially in our world today that computing and communication's best medium is technology. But just like, everything, it is not perfect. Nothing in technology is perfect. Even the most secured computer will have flaws. Even if it is paired with the best administrator.

Keep your expectations low on your security and high on its vulnerability.; But always keep in mind the two main things that would keep a good security, its technology and its policies.

There you have it guys. For more related information, it is best to check the 10 Immutable Laws of Security in Microsoft. Yadda!
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