The Great Privacy Debate

It seems you cannot go anywhere on the internet these days without someone arguing about the privacy concerns of this website, or that technology, but to the average everyday person, what does all of this really mean? Consider this, millennials are going to be the first generation where your birth and government records, your school records, your health records, and your “likes” are all electronic, and in many cases easily accessible. The fact that this information is out there may not be an issue alone, but when large companies aggregate that information to create a dossier on you, and then target adds to the person they think you are, it can be a little creepy. In 2012 Target was able to predict and determine that a girl was pregnant, even before her father did. Target had (based on its prediction the girl was pregnant) sent coupons to the girl that matched products she would need at that stage of her pregnancy. All of that was based purely on purchasing habits over a few months of one credit card.

Now at the same time no one is advocating for using only cash at the grocery store, deleting your Facebook right now, or closing your Gmail because Google scans it, because those services are useful. I literally wouldn't be able to do any work if I didn't have a Facebook account. Perhaps though a middle ground can be reached, one where we don’t volunteer every bit of our interests to the world for examination, but we also don’t live as shut-ins wearing tin-foil hats. Below I have compiled some of the easiest ways to reduce some of the data available about you on the internet. Next week is going to be an outline of the legal rights you have regarding your data (spoiler: it’s not a lot).

Facebook

Large data aggregation companies mine Facebook, twitter, and any other social media sites to get more information about what you like (advertisers) and your habits/history (Background checks). One of the easiest ways that you can prevent your information from getting out there is to change your posting from the default friends of friends to friends. For example if you post a picture of you and your friends drinking, that gets shared with your 2,000 or so friends, and if it’s also shared with friends of friends, suddenly 4,000,000 people have access to the photo. Facebook actually has a handy little tool that allows you to change all of your previous posts to friends or private if you want to hide all of your old stuff, but keep in mind this won’t affect a third party that already has your information. You can also in the privacy settings make it so that your profile is not searchable on the internet (so getting to it from google for example), but anyone with a Facebook account will still be able to search it in Facebook’s search engine. Finally, make sure to manage things you are tagged in carefully, if you are tagged in a friend’s photo, you have no control over who its shared with, only your friend does.

Google Products

Gmail: There is nothing you can do except change add settings in your general Google profile. This is done by going to settings in your Google profile, then privacy/adds, and selecting the opt out option for everything.

Google Chrome: Although your protections on paper (in the contract you accept when installing) are very limited, Google does offer some helpful extensions to reduce the ability of sites to collect data on you as you are browsing. The first is the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on, and the second is Keep My Opt-Outs, both are by google, and both help to stop advertising cookies from landing on your computer. Of course if you really want to eliminate the ability for cookies to land on your machine at all you can do so manually in the settings of Chrome, although the result is a browser that is almost non-functional.
Google+: Essentially any information you put in your about profile for Google+ is automatically public, period. So, only put up what you would feel comfortable everyone knowing about you.

If you live in Europe you have the ability to request google take down certain search results. How that process works is rather unclear as it requires you to (Currently as of 9/18/2014) submit a legal action, but that process may become more straightforward with time.

I accept the terms and conditions

In theory of course you should be always reading the terms and conditions before you click accept because clicking that button is the same as signing your legal signature, but in reality no one does that. Instead most of us just hit the button and then go back to what we were doing. Now to be fair most of us don’t have the time to read the 100+ pages of legal documentation that come with the iphone, so instead one of the best ways to know if there is an issue is to google/bing/duckduckgo it. Chances are that even if you haven’t read the contract, someone else has, and they will have posted on the internet what you are signing away (if its anything important to them). Of course if you do have the time, read the privacy section because that’s the most important part, everything else is usually just common sense.

Congratulations to our graduates!

Congratulations to the Johns Hopkins University Class of 2014!

Among the many graduates who walked this year, a few have been Student Technology Services employees for years. Here we honor those who have graduated on Thursday, May 22, 2014 for their services to our mission and our community. We will miss their faces in our Production Room and their knowledge and experience that allows us to tackle complex problems. We who remain will not disappoint. Let's wish them the best of luck!

Sierra Costanza
Kyle Mercer
Jessica Noviello
Michelle Ploch
Violet Smith

#JHU2014

Ninite: Streamlined Installation

Right about now there are lots of people shopping for computers in anticipation of a new school year, a new job, or a new graduate. A computer is easily the most powerful tool of our age, and with all the ways to customize a machine, it is arguably one of the most versatile as well. However, there is one very annoying and very mandatory thing that everyone, from young owner to old, is subjected to. That is, of course, installing software on the computer.

There are many things to install when you first use your new computer, and many of them are easy to forget because they work automatically, such as Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader. We installed them so long ago on our old machine that the only time we ever think of them is when a pop-up announces we need an update. So it's easy to see why installing every app we've never thought of takes a large amount of time, and frustration if we discover we've forgotten one.

Happily, Patrick Swieskowski and Sascha Kuzins fixed this problem for us when they built their site, Ninite. Ninite is a free service that anyone can use without registering for anything or entering an email of any kind into any box, which is honestly very refreshing. It's a very simple interface for anyone to use: simply click on the programs that you want to install and hit the "Install" button at the bottom of the page. You may also have to get the Installer for Ninite, but it's a very quite download. Hit the run button on the executable file tab and you're ready to go. It takes a while to install everything, depending on how many you chose, so be patient and wait for it to do its job. Ninite knows instinctively which version of the software it needs to install (32 or 64 bit?), and it does it efficiently.

 

All these apps can be yours for free and all at once from Ninite!

Once the installation is complete, you'll be able to use any program it just installed. The icons for successfully installed programs will also appear on your desktop. If you want, Ninite also offers an updater tool which allows you to update all of the free software at once instead of waiting for the pop-up window to tell you it's time. This system allows for streamlined work and is a great help for a busy college student or professional alike.

While it doesn't install professional software you'd otherwise have to pay for (Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.), it does provide an easy way to make sure you've gotten all of the free stuff available, and maybe even show you some you didn't know existed! Remember, if you're a Hopkins student or an alum, you can get a free copy of the Microsoft Office Suite from the Hopkins Technology Store. We did a blog article about that service here.

Ninite is a service that works on Windows and Linux systems, so Mac users are a bit out of luck (sorry guys). There are some alternatives for the Mac system though, so don't lose hope! Some good alternatives with decent interfaces are Get Mac Apps and Bodega, but I'd be shocked if Ninite wasn't working on a way to become the app installing center of the interwebs for both PC and Mac. Bodega seems to be a permanent feature to a Mac, with its own space in Launchpad and a Mac interface that is accessible at any time, but this is based on limited interactions with it.

 

Bodega is a Mac alternative to Ninite.

 This tool is hugely useful but surprisingly not well known, so the next time you get a new computer, make sure you use Ninite or one of the Mac assistants to get the most out of your computer's lifetime. Ninite rules!

Virtual JHU

Hello Hopkins! It's been a while since we talked about one of our earliest and still most successful projects: Virtual JHU. Now that the Class of 2018 decisions have been released, it's time to get the baby Blue Jays acquainted with our campus. What better way to do that than with an interactive and informative virtual campus model?

The Virtual JHU Homewood Campus! Notice that you can click the name of any building on the right hand side and the map will rotate and zoom to that location on the map. 

To view Virtual JHU, you will have to install the Google Earth plug-in, but the link is provided for you on the page. Once you get to the website main page, the plugin will take you right to where Hopkins is on Earth. The zooming in part is only a small detail of what makes this map different from the others. Alternatively, you can view the shells of buildings and their basic description via Google Earth itself. While on the Google Earth page, simply type in Johns Hopkins University, and most of the models will appear right there through Google. If you look closely at the building descriptions in the Model tab, you will see that credit for the model and information is given to JHU. They really mean JHU STS.

Using the tools on the website is intuitive for anyone who is familiar with the format of Google Maps. The zoom bar, directional compass, and observation angle are all changeable according to what the user would like to view. This makes the interface user-friendly, perfect for a potential freshmen or a parent looking at the details of campus.

Once the site has loaded (and it may take a while, apologies), you are able to move about a 3D virtual version of the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus. Each building seen was modeled using the Google SketchUp tool by out STS team years ago. We have since used this same tool for modeling the New Clinical Building of Johns Hopkins Hospital and modeling virtual dorm rooms for the Housing and Dining Department based on the success of the first virtual JHU project.

Each building you see on the Hopkins campus comes with a short description of the building's history, who it was named for, and, if applicable, what department and equipment are housed there. An example of Mason Hall is shown below.

The history and function of Mason Hall can be found by clicking on the yellow dot that appears on the building.

You can also go inside of the buildings and explore every floor's layout. Here I have done that with the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, the largest building on the Homewood campus.The rooms in which classes are held are marked with a purple box, and the restrooms are the green boxes. Sometimes clicking on a purple box will even tell you which class is in that room, if it's a large lecture group! The rooms will also display what equipment is available for that room in the Equipment tab.

This is a pretty neat tool whether or not you attend classes here because it allows you to explore the resources and the scale of what Hopkins has. You can learn about the campus and its history by reading through the descriptions, and also look inside of the dorm buildings and scope out a potential new home.

As of now, Virtual JHU is getting ready for a renovation that will include new buildings like Brody Learning Commons and renamed old ones like Croft Hall. This will happen within the coming year thanks to the dedication of STS employees. Keep your eyes out for more announcements!

Charles Street Reconstruction

Welcome back, Hopkins! It's snowing here again in Baltimore, but (hopefully) spring is on its way and will arrive sooner rather than later. Then the construction that has disrupted traffic down North Charles Street can begin again!

The extremely wet winter has completely obliterated the already tight schedule that the city of Baltimore imposed on the North Charles Street Reconstruction Project. It is a $28 million undertaking that will renovate and beautify the Charles Street area around the Johns Hopkins campus, making it safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. Johns Hopkins University has a financial interest in the successful completion of this project, having donated part of the $28 million, but it certainly will not be done before the start of the 2014 fall semester.

Johns Hopkins Information Technology Department (IT@JH) has had a large, albeit quiet, role in the renovation project. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of miles of wires, cables, and conduits running underneath the tar on Charles Street. In order to proceed with construction, every single one of those cables had to be inspected. Some communications cables were 40 years old, but replacing them could also mean a lack of service. So how do you replace a system without removing it?

The answer is you relocate them, and the daunting task was assigned to the Homewood Networking Team. Their team worked closely with JHU Facilities to assemble an expert team to take stock of the extensive wire system and copper assets located below the street. In an effort to avoid such issues the next time construction is imminent, the team also designed and built two 8-way conduits to streamline communications wires and cables. Now that the Northern part of the project has basically concluded, the Southern half will be a relatively simple redundancy.

The amount of work that this team put into this project is astounding, but what makes it truly exceptional is the fact that there was virtually no downtime among any of the affected systems. In total 500 fiber connections were relocated. Most of the changes were made during the early morning hours, when demand on the systems was minimal, which speaks to a special level of dedication in itself.

From all of the members of the Hopkins community, we say a sincere thank you to the members of these task forces, who performed to the highest standards of ingenuity. For all those seeking more information regarding the overall Charles Street project, visit this site: http://www.charlesstreetreconstruction.com/

We all hope to see the construction completed soon, but first we shall wait for spring. Happy first week back!

The Gaming World of Steam

For some people playing video games is a great stress release. You may even say it could help them let off...Steam (pun certainly intended).

The Steam logo

This kind of Steam is not the kind that rises out of a pot of boiling water; it is a vast game distribution and communications platform for people who play video games on their computers. It is estimated to  account for 50-70% of all online game sales, an industry that is about $4 billion big, and support 7.5 million concurrent users as of February 2014. This is ten times as large as the 75 million active users (those with an account) that Valve reported in January 2014. This monster is huge and it's getting bigger.

Some games that a free to play and available once Steam has been installed

The major company behind the Steam platform is Valve Corporation. The platform allows users to download games, save information on a cloud, chat with other players in game space, and keep friends lists. Steam is constantly changing to fit its evolving clientele, a must for any technological company. Until May 2010, Steam users had to have the Windows OS, meaning players on Macs and Linux systems were nonexistent. Steam not only fixed this issue, but made its cloud platform-independent and cross-compatible (Mac people could play against PC people, etc.). It reached out to make some games available on the PlayStation 3 console, and it is currently working on its own video game console project, called the Steam Machine. It even allows iOS and Android users to use Steam on their mobile phones. It's incredible.

Pretty much the most awesome computer game of all time.

One of their most popular games is the FPS game Portal, which features the new portal gun weapon, designed to allow the character to move throughout an obstacle course by shooting start and finish wormholes around the obstacles. It's an addicting game that only takes about an hour to play, but it's wonderful to test problem solving skills and strategy. Its sequel, Portal 2, even has a multiplayer mode and is one of the few available on PS3. Some other games they have distributed include the popular HalfLife 2 series, Crysis 2, and Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2.

I know from personal experience that the games Steam offers are some of the most challenging I've ever played. I like that most are suited for a single player, and even if they aren't, the online community is large enough to supplement a single player with a full field of opponents. Most games are available on Steam for cheaper than they would be in a store. One thing that Steam is famous for doing is giving 70% of the profits to the game designers and developers, instead of the 30% they get from retail sales. This has led to some calling Steam an "effective monopoly," but no more has been said about it since then.

Installing Steam is very simple. At the top of the store's home page, there is a green button that says "Install Steam." The system will have to be told which version to download according to your OS, but everything beyond that is pretty much standard installation stuff.

Then all you have to do is make a Steam account, log in, and start playing.

Warning: these games are extremely addictive. Play only over school breaks so you don't fall behind on work.

Good luck!

Pros and Cons of Commonly Used Internet Browsers

These days there are many popular browsers to choose from: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer to name a few. Most people are running Chrome or Firefox, but there are advantages and disadvantages to each one. Here's the breakdown:

Chrome: Currently the most widely used browser, Chrome boasts fast boot-up and loading times, a massive extensions marketplace, and an easy-to-use interface. You can also go "Incognito" if you don't want to save search history or cookies. Chrome also integrates your preferences over every device on which you use Chrome, even if it's a public computer. Simply log into your Google account and all of your bookmarks, preferences, and recent history is returned to the computer.The Chrome store is also occasionally interesting (it's very small though), and the Chromebooks are a nice addition to the Chrome family.

However, Chrome isn't all cupcakes and rainbows; Chrome achieves its fast boot-up times by starting up in the background as soon as your computer turns on, though you can change this on Windows using MSConfig or Autoruns. The loading times are most likely made possible by the large memory requirements Chrome places on your computer. To see what I mean, you can open up Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del on Windows 7, or from Terminal in Mac) and go to the Processes tab. Here's mine for example. 5 of the 6 most memory-consuming processes were all Chrome-related, and I only had 2 tabs open with minimal extensions. Plus, some sites (Hopkins sites, banking sites, etc.) have an issue with working on Chrome, and some of those issues stem from the fact that it is a 32-bit browser, unlike Firefox or Safari, which are 64-bit. At the point when this happens, I just switch to using another browser.

Further, Incognito mode doesn't actually do much to protect your privacy. Google's own page states that it won't affect "Websites that collect or share information about you, ... malicious software ... [or] secret agents". And because Chrome is proprietary (not open-source), it is always possible that the browser has some hidden behaviors to collect your information. Thanks to Edward Snowden, Google's quip about secret agents just doesn't seem funny anymore.

Oh, and that new scroll bar is awful.

Firefox: Unlike Chrome, Firefox by Mozilla is entirely open-source. Like Chrome, Firefox can be set up so that you can use your settings from any device (Using Sync), but if privacy is a concern, you don't have to. One of my favorite features on Firefox is the "Master Password". Like Chrome, Firefox will ask you if you want to save a password for a site. Without Sync, Mozilla doesn't need to know your passwords; they can be stored safely on your computer. And with Master Password, you can make wildly complex passwords for all your online accounts, and only have to remember one. That being said, your Master Password should still be fairly secure in case your computer falls into the wrong hands.

I also prefer how Firefox displays their privacy options. Here is Chrome and Firefox side-by-side:
Chrome's privacy setting are actually much longer than what is shown, and all the powerful options are hidden in a non-descript button called "Content settings". Plus, there's no description as to what the settings mean. What are handlers? Which plug-ins are running without my knowledge? While Firefox may not have as many options as Chrome, Firefox is much more verbose with the options it does have.

Firefox is noticeably slower than Chrome, but also places less memory requirements (For me, only one process, and it requires about a third of the memory that Chrome collectively asks for.) Bottom line: Firefox is more trustworthy than Chrome and has more understandable options, at the cost of some speed and overall performance.

Internet Explorer: If you're running Windows, Internet Explorer comes natively on your computer, making it the ideal web browser for downloading a better web browser. As far as other real advantages, there really aren't any. It's as slow (if not slower) than Firefox, and doesn't really have any features that stick out. Its Settings page is bloated to the point that it is difficult to find the settings you want to change, the horizontal scrollbar can be unresponsive for touchpads. If you're using IE to view this blog, do yourself a favor and switch to Chrome or Firefox right now.

Safari: Safari is the Internet Explorer for Macs; it's the native web browser and comes installed on the OS without any work on your end. Unlike Internet Explorer, however, Safari is actually a decent browser (though Firefox is still #1 in my book). The current edition available for Macs is Safari 7, and there is a Windows Safari application also available (5.7.1). Because of the large population of iPhone users, Safari accounted for 62.17 percent of mobile web browsing traffic, but only 5.43 percent of desktop traffic in October 2011. Curious.

The privacy settings on Safari are also pretty impressive, with third party and cookie blocking, options that will tell websites not to track you, and Private Browsing, which is more comprehensive that Chrome's Incognito mode. Safari is also very power efficient on Macs, designed to help your battery last for 1 hour longer than it would if you were using Chrome or Firefox. Both Firefox and Chrome also use about a third more memory (133%) on your hard drive than Safari will (again, on a Mac). According to the Apple page, Safari is also 6x faster than Firefox. The Safari extensions act like the Chrome additions, allowing users to choose weather apps, Facebook enhancers, and things that will help with code debugging.

Safari promises to do all this on Macs, and I know from experience on my home PC that Safari is not even close to these stats on a PC. You are much better off with Firefox or Chrome on a PC, no question. Despite all the advantages, Safari is still far behind Firefox and Chrome, even on Macs. I like how Chrome can integrate over all my computers and Chromebook, but Safari has nothing like that. It certainly helps make a decision.

We hope that this post has helped you if you ever had questions about web browsers. Thanks for reading!