Journal #2 Revised- With Pa$$w0rds Comes Anxiety?

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            The TED Talk I chose for this assignment is titled “What’s Wrong with Your Pa$$w0rd?” by Lorrie Faith Cranor, a computer science and engineering professor at Carnegie Melon University.  Basically, this presentation is about the troubles people go through with having to choose and memorize such complicated passwords for so many different accounts.  This is clearly for security purposes so that hackers have less of a chance of getting into personal accounts.  Cranor shows her audience the research done at the university, including what the most effective and secure choice of password is that someone can use.  The best thing someone can do when creating a password, according to the statistics, is pick a longer word that is easily pronounceable, but not something used in a usual day to day conversation, or maybe not even a real word.  An example of this would be the word “tassawaki.”

            A presentation like this may not always seem extremely exciting, but it was actually quite interesting.  It showed just how easy it can be for someone to hack a password and get any information needed.  Lorrie started out by talking about how many requirements there usually are for creating a password.  Most websites and companies ask for 8 characters, an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a digit, a symbol, and no more than 3 of any character.  This is something we can all relate to, especially as college students, because just having to create a password for our school emails requires most or all of those criteria.  In fact, we are made to change our password just about every semester.  Even the title of this presentation shows just how complicated a password can be.  I think the hardest thing for all of us is having to memorize so many different passwords because it seems like everything on the internet requires one now.  I’m sure that everyone can understand why passwords need to be so detailed, no matter how annoying, but until this TED Talk, I didn’t realize just how important it truly is to make them long or difficult, considering how extremely easy it is for a smart hacker to figure them out.             

Journal #3 Revised- As If College Wasn't Hard Enough

http://www.impawards.com/2014/posters/dear_white_people_ver3_xlg.jpg

 

 

The movie Dear White People, a film directed by Justin Simien, takes place at a prestigious college known as Winchester University, a predominantly white school.  One of the main characters, Samantha White, runs a radio show titled “Dear White People” while another character named Coco tries to become famous, and a gigantic afro wearing character named Lionel Higgins knows minimal of his black culture and feels like an outsider.  The school is segregated in just about everything, and no one realizes just how bad things really are until an offensive Halloween party is exclusively thrown one night. 

I think this film depicts what it can be like to be on the minority side of things, especially at an Ivy League school where everyone is there for their intelligence, yet no one is treated equally.  This movie shows just how segregated and prejudice society can still be, even after so many movements and changes in history. 

Personally, I enjoyed this film.  It was quite controversial and sensitive in some parts, but I believe that’s what made it such a hit, because it was different than the everyday comedies and dramas.  I also like that it not only depicted the struggle of being the minority, but also just the everyday struggle of a college student. My favorite quote that really stood out to me and made me chuckle came from Samantha White, whose answer to Professor Bodkin’s statement “Might I also remind you that I read your entire fifteen-page unsolicited treatise on why the Gremlins is actually about suburban white fear of black culture,” was responded with “The Gremlins are loud, talk in slang, are addicted to fried chicken and freak out when you get their hair wet.”  She seemed to be extremely real and willing to speak her mind.  I also enjoyed the bits of comedy.  

I feel as if my few responses of dismay to this film came from the fact that I came from a very small town that is predominantly white.  I grew up not seeing or experiencing some of the racism that still occurs in society because my high school rarely had any races other than white.  Because of this, I feel my surprising responses to a few scenes in the movie are most likely different than someone who grew up in a larger, more diverse community.                     

 



Journal #4 Revised- The Honest Man with the Tall Hat

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The film I chose for the evaluative writing assignment was Lincoln.  Directed by the well-known Steven Spielberg, Lincoln is a true story based on historical events.  During the time of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, tries everything in his power to end the rapidly increasing number of casualties of the war by abolishing slavery.  In his attempt to pass the thirteenth amendment, Lincoln does attempts to not only keep his own family happy, but to change the minds of the prejudice democrats who out-number the non-prejudice republicans in the country. 

Beyond just the plot of Lincoln, the movie portrays our sixteenth president never backing down from anyone or anything, no matter how great the odds against him were.  Abraham Lincoln showed his audience a whole different side to a politician that nobody is used to seeing.  “Honest Abe” is kind hearted, he not only thinks about himself and the people on his side, but also the democrat’s side and everyone who disagrees with his view.  The movie also shows the effects of the Civil War from the view of the people living it back home and how it could be just as difficult as being on the front line of war.   

Personally, I enjoyed this movie for a few reasons.  At an early age, many of us learned about Abraham Lincoln.  We knew in elementary school that he was the sixteenth president of the United States, he ended slavery, he wore a tall hat and was tall himself, and also that he was an honest and good man.  Yes, this film portrays every part of that, but it also shows the stress he and his family went through.  Instead of only seeing the uplifting and memorable parts of Lincoln, the audience learns quickly how hard it was to be not only the sixteenth president of the United States, but the man in charge when his country was fighting his own country.        

 

Journal #5- Hisory is Hard to Replicate

 

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           Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, being based on Abraham Lincoln and the time of the Civil War, is clearly a film based on historical events.  Although the movie gives a good depiction on what it was like to be in the White House during that time, there are a few, interesting small things that are historically inaccurate about Lincoln.  After some research, I have found a few quirks that wouldn’t make the average audience think twice about, but made historians a little frustrated.  For example, Mary Todd Lincoln would have never watched the final voting of the thirteenth amendment from the House gallery.  In other words, she would not have been in the actual room of the voting.  Also, at the time of the Civil War, the fifty cent piece never had Lincoln’s face on it, though they mention it in the film.  For one of his speeches, Abraham Lincoln pulls his speech out of his hat in the movie, but was never actually known to do such a thing.  Lincoln also never kept a portrait of William Henry Harrison in his office.  One big thing that the movie switched around was who voted what when it came to the abolishment of slavery.  The Connecticut delegation actually voted for the passing of the thirteenth amendment, but the film shows it voting against it.  Many events were changed or switched around just for the pure reason of making the movie more suspenseful and more entertaining for a twenty first century audience.        

Journal #4- The Honest Man with the Tall Hat

 

 

The film I chose for the evaluative writing assignment was Lincoln.  Directed by the well-known Steven Spielberg, Lincoln is a true story based on historical events.  During the time of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, tries everything in his power to end the rapidly increasing number of casualties of the war by abolishing slavery.  In his attempt to pass the thirteenth amendment, Lincoln does everything in his power to not only keep his own family happy, but to change the minds of the prejudice democrats who out-number the non-prejudice republicans in the country. 

Beyond just the plot of Lincoln, the movie portrays our sixteenth president never backing down from anyone or anything, no matter how great the odds against him were.  Abraham Lincoln showed his audience a whole different side to a politician that nobody is used to seeing.  “Honest Abe” is kind hearted, he not only thinks about himself and the people on his side, but also the democrat’s side and everyone who disagrees with his view.  The movie also shows the effects of the Civil War from the view of the people living it back home and how it could be just as difficult as being on the front line of war.    

Personally, I enjoyed this movie for a few reasons.  At an early age, many of us learned about Abraham Lincoln.  We knew in elementary school that he was the sixteenth president of the United States, he ended slavery, he wore a tall hat and was tall himself, and also that he was an honest and good man.  Yes, this film portrays every part of that, but it also shows the stress he and his family went through.  Instead of only seeing the uplifting and memorable parts of Lincoln, the audience learns quickly how hard it was to be not only the sixteenth president of the United States, but the man in charge when his country was fighting his own country.         

Journal #3- As If College Wasn't Hard Enough

               

                                                                       http://www.impawards.com/2014/posters/dear_white_people_ver3_xlg.jpg

 

 

                 The movie Dear White People takes place at a prestigious college known as Winchester University, a predominantly white school.  One of the main characters, Samantha White, runs a radio show titled “Dear White People” while another character named Coco tries to become famous and a gigantic afro wearing character named Lionel Higgins knows minimal of his black culture and feels like an outsider.  The school is segregated in just about everything, and no one realizes just how bad things really are until an offensive Halloween party is exclusively thrown one night. 

                I think this film depicts what it can be like to be on the minority side of things, especially at an Ivy League school where everyone is there for their intelligence, yet no one is treated equally.  This movie shows just how segregated and prejudice society can still be, even after so many movements and changes in history. 

                Personally, I enjoyed this film.  It was quite controversial and sensitive in some parts, but I believe that’s what made it such a hit, because it was different than the everyday comedies and dramas.  I also like that it not only depicted the struggle of being the minority, but also just the everyday struggle of a college student. My favorite quote that really stood out to me and made me chuckle came from Samantha White, whose answer to Professor Bodkin’s statement “Might I also remind you that I read your entire fifteen-page unsolicited treatise on why the Gremlins is actually about suburban white fear of black culture,” was responded with “The Gremlins are loud, talk in slang, are addicted to fried chicken and freak out when you get their hair wet.”  She just seemed really real and willing to speak her mind, and I also enjoyed the bits of comedy.   

                I feel as if my few responses of dismay to this film come from the fact that I came from a very small town that is predominantly white.  I grew up not seeing or experiencing some of the racism that still occurs in society because my high school rarely had any races other than white.              

Journal #2- With Pa$$w0rds Comes Anxiety?

 

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/3b/3b6199912965e3e396ab0b8caa88cfc38ee558dbfe3188fe0496cbdf6bab5b30.jpg

            The TED Talk I chose for this assignment is titled “What’s Wrong with Your Pa$$w0rd?” by Lorrie Faith Cranor, a computer science and engineering professor at Carnegie Melon University.  Basically, this presentation is about the troubles people go through with having to choose and memorize such complicated passwords for so many different things so hackers have less of a chance of getting into personal accounts.  Lorrie shows her audience the research done at the university, including what the most effective and secure choice of password is that someone can use.  The best thing someone can do when creating a password, according to the statistics, is pick a longer word that is easily pronounceable, but not something used in a usual day to day conversation, or maybe not even a real word.  An example of this would be the word “tassawaki.”  A presentation like this may not always seem extremely exciting, but it was actually quite interesting.  It showed just how easy it can be for someone to hack a password and get any information needed.  Lorrie started out by talking about how many requirements there usually are for creating a password.  Most websites and companies ask for 8 characters, an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a digit, a symbol, and no more than 3 of any character.  This is something we can all relate to, especially as college students, because just having to create a password for our school emails requires most or all of those things.  Even the title of this presentation shows just how complicated a password can be.  I think the hardest thing for all of us is having to memorize so many different passwords because it seems like everything on the internet requires one now.  I’m sure that all of us can understand why passwords need to be so detailed, no matter how annoying, but until this TED Talk, I didn’t realize just how important it truly is to make them long or difficult because it is extremely easy for smart hackers to figure them out.