Happy New Year Everyone

I just want to wish a Happy New Year to all visitors of my blog Techenglish.

Happy New Year!

С Новым Годом!

Šťastný Nový Rok!

Prague, the Czech Republic

My Internet goals for 2009

By Galina Vitkova

I´d like to participate in the Group Writing Project 2009 (http://www.dailyblogtips.com/what-are-your-internet-goals-for-2009-group-writing-project/). So, here are my Internet goals:

• Ensure regular SKYPE conversation conferences on technical topics.
• Involve in these conferences students from English speaking countries.
• Involve students from English speaking countries in written discussion carrying out on the blog http://techenglish.wordpress.com/.
  
• Complete e-books Computer English and Internet English containing technical texts and exercises for development of communication skills.
• Come in affiliated programs on the Internet concerning study of technical English.

I invite my students to participate in the project, too.

ROBOTS – Discussion

Dear friends of Technical English,

Robots are another technical topic very suitable for discussion. For those, who doesn´t remember the origin of the word „robot“, I remind that the word was firstly introduced by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play Rossum´s Universal Robots (R.U.R.) in 1921. Now around two million robots “live” in the world and they are used almost in all spheres of human activities (industry, medicine, education etc.) – see the page Statistics on robots at the site. Many ethical problems arose in connection with it. The problems above all else concern relationships between humans and robots, permissible or acceptable robots´ behaviour and many others. I believe people gradually will cope with these issues and reach some kind of agreement.

However, there is one area where robots can be very dangerous. It deals with military robots, war robots (don´t confuse with a war of robots), battlefield robots. They are true robots operating autonomously, on their own. Nowadays such robots are being developed for Pentagon in the US. Scientists working in this area claim that making lethal autonomous robots is inexpensive and proliferating, that coming such robots on the battlefield is only a matter of time. It isn´t science fiction but grim reality they add. Moreover, they affirm “it is time for people to start talking about whether this technology is something they want to embrace”. And they continue “The important thing is not to be blind to it,”

In this case the ethical problems are very serious and urgently should be resolved or at least discussed before these robots will be a component of a regular army.

The capabilities of modern intelligent robots are practically unlimited. In order to have the inkling of modern robots aptitudes read and enjoy my students´ essays narrating stories about such robots.

Military robots of the same level of intelligence equipped with ability of making decision about humans´ life or death are the great threat for mankind. I think the main topic of our discussion might be military robots. The proposed issues for the discussion are as follows:

• Do people accept the development of lethal autonomous robots?
• Do people need robots that will be allowed to make decision about their life or death?
• How to protect mankind from such robots if they appear?

“It is not my belief that an unmanned system will be able to be perfectly ethical in the battlefield” Dr. Arkin, the main author in developing such systems, wrote in his report (PDF) and I share this opinion. Moreover, I am convinced such robots should be banned.

Galina Vitkova

Robotics

By Hana Absolonova

I would like to describe my beloved kind of robots. They are marked as R2D2. These are robots that serve all over the world in many different roles. We can meet them as waiters and we can also see them helping on farms. But they are mostly used as technicians at spaceships because of their exact way of operating and ability to stay operational in outer space. They are also used as co-pilots in many kinds of air-fighters.

These robots look a bit like a white can with blue dots and stripes. They also have a variety of sensors on them and for movement they use three flexible legs. On top they have an opening artificial arm. See the R2D2 picture on belovedrobot.

They are very useful and very practical, but they have one big disadvantage and that is communication. They are only able to pipe and communicate with other machines. Making them able to communicate with people would be a huge improvement.

Autonomous robots

By Arzumanov Eduard

AIBO (Artificial Intelligence roBOt, homonymous with “pal” in Japanese) was one of several types of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony. There have been several different models since their introduction in 1999. Able to walk, “see” its environment with the build-in camera, and recognize spoken commands, AIBOs are considered to be autonomous robots. The robots are able to learn and mature based on external incentive from their owner or environment, or from other AIBOs. The artist Hajime Sorayama created the initial designs for this robot.

AIBO runs on software called AIBOware. The Life AIBOware allows the robot to be raised from a pup to a fully-grown adult while going through various stages of development as its owner interacts with it. The Explorer AIBOware allows the owner to interact with a fully mature robot able to understand (though not necessarily willing to obey) 100 voice commands. Without the AIBOware, the AIBO will run in what is called a “clinic mode” and can only perform basic actions. Many AIBO owners enjoy teaching their pets new behaviours by reprogramming them (in Sony’s special ‘R-CODE’ language).

The AIBO has seen use as an inexpensive platform for artificial intelligence research.The reason is that it integrates a computer, vision system, and articulators in a package vastly cheaper than conventional research robots.

The RoboCup autonomous soccer competition had a “RoboCup Four-Legged Robot Soccer League” in which numerous institutions from around the world would participate. Competitors would program a team of AIBO robots to play games of the autonomous robot soccer against other competing teams.

On January 26, 2006 Sony announced that it would discontinue AIBO and several other products as of March, 2006. AIBO will still be supported until 2013 (ERS7 model), however, and AIBO technology will continue to be developed for use in other consumer products. That is because of the weak consumer’s interest in my opinion.

So, the AIBO robot is certainly a great invention, but I think it is still void of some use, and the consumer’s interest is low. In my opinion, having a real dog is by far interesting and may not be so boring in future because when having a real dog, you’re never sure of what could happen, so it might be more exciting.

SPAMs

by Patrik Boubín

History of SPAMming

SPAM is an unsolicited message in most cases with commercial content. Spamming means sending a message to a lot of email addresses owners of which don´t want to receive this message.

The first SPAM was sent as an advertisement through the ARPANET network to 393 recipients in year 1978. The subject of this message signed by David Rhodes was “MAKE MONEY FAST!” (very similar spams are sent till today).

The first really massive spam was the “Green Card Lottery” sent by lawyer Company to about 6000 discuss networks in 1994. The very similar communication was the “Global Alert for All: Jesus is Coming Soon”.

The Czech best-known spam is a massive email by Media Online Company about server Tvujdum.cz: in the body of the email information about news and the web was placed. Later this company apologized for it and let know that they will send 50 000 Czech crowns to the foundation Člověk v tísni (Human in dire straits). But after many people complained about this, Media Online was penalized.

The next spammer was a student Richard Slaby with a spam about cloning a SIM card.

A very known spam is “Hotel U Lípy” : this year Mr. Geyer was penalized, he must pay 250 000 Czech crowns.

There is the law of 1994 against spammers in the Czech Republic. It is important for our country, but as usually it isn´t perfect because “look at www.business-offer.cz “ can´t be considered as a spam.

Kinds of SPAMs

1. Email spams unwanted email messages. This problem arose when the Internet was opened to the common users.

2. Instant Messaging – “spim” – Instant Messenger, ICQ, Live Messenger, QIP, Miranda…

3. Newsgroup and forum spams, blogs, wiki, guest books spams

4. Mobile phone spams – SpaSMS

5. Video sharing: YouTube links to the malware software.

Statistics

- language: 99% English, next are Japanese, Spanish and Russian

- domain name: .com 66%, .net 13%, .uk 4%

- size: 80% less than 10 kB , 3% more than 30 kB

- theme (subjects): 15% sex (erotic), 10% pharmacy, 8 % software, 5% luxury products (Rolex etc.)

- 80-90% of all emails are spams

- 100 billions spam emails are sent every day

- the company costs in 2007 amounted approximately 250 millions USD

- influence of the first letter of an email address: mostly the addresses beginning with letters A,M,S,R,P are often abused, with Q,Y, Z – less.

How to prevent (chiefly companies) from receiving spams

1. Don´t use email addresses in the company´s homepage or don´t use @ – it is better to write “name zavinac domain.cz” or use a form with a certificate (it is necessary to fill in 4 characters in the form) because spammer robots try to get email addresses from webpages looking for strings with “@”.

2. Don´t use the company email in web forms, chats, discuss groups – users should use private email addresses.

3. Use antivirus, firewall, antispyware, update the operating system.

4. Don´t use unsafely web addresses and don´t download unknown files.

5. Use antispam both on the server and in a local email client (outlook).

6. Configure SMTP server – use only emails to the own domain.

HOAX

HOAX is a special type of a SPAM. It is a “startler” the basic goal of which is to spread a “chain reaction”. Its content usually concerns charity (e.g. Do you want 7 Golden Retrievers?), money for spreading mails (a burning girl looking like money), something free of charge (Laptop free of charge) etc.

Note: Dear colleagues, I hope you´ve enjoyed the text, which my student has written as an essay. In my opinion this essay is a good material for studying technical texts. At the same time the topic of the essay is a burning problem for many people and we might grateful to the author who shares his experience with us. Good luck in your struggle with spams.

Galina Vitkova