Why did I choose the Research Methods class ?

Research methods is not a course we usually have in France. I have already learnt how to do dissertations in French, so I think that learning how foreigners do it can open my mind.

I guess it is a very fast way to skip issues that occur now and then as it will train me to solve problems I may have not paid attention to before. I'm very curious and I like to know why thinks are done a certain way. Sometimes, things seem to be done randomly, and if it is right for some, it is not the case for most of them.

This course was in the list of those I had to choose in order to get a master in computing science diploma. Thanks to it, I will probably be able to get a more interesting job faster than if I just had a bachelor.

Cloud Computing – A new issue to solve

“Cloud Computing” is a notion almost everyone has already heard about, but most of them barely know what it really is. Therefore, this review shall help to get a more precise idea about its advantages and its disadvantages. This work is mainly based on two research papers [1] & [2].

The first paper used to achieve this work is The Case for Cloud Computing, by Robert L. Grossman. He is a professor of mathematics, statistics and computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and also a managing partner at Open Data Group. He has published dozens of research papers, several of them by the IEEE Society. The paper mentioned above describes two types of clouds (on-demand computing instance and on-demand computing capacity) and explains their advantages and their drawbacks.

The second paper, Considerations on the Interoperability of and between Cloud Computing Standards, by Guilherme Sperb Machado, David Hausheer and Burkhard Stiller. They belong to the Communication Systems Group, in the Department of Informatics of the University of Zürich.  They explain how important Cloud Computing has become and point out some issues that will block its evolution if ever no solution is found.

            So, what is Cloud Computing ? Everyone knows, but no one could simply explain as there are hundreds of definitions. Here is one, which may fit you : Cloud Computing offers services over the Internet such as application or hardware that would be too expensive for the little use a user needs. That is what is called “on-demand”. Users do not have to worry about how things are done behind the scene, and it often is way cheaper to pay for such a service than to buy a whole equipment. Indeed, when you use such a technology, you only pay for what you need, which can be very interesting for saving money for more important resources [1] & [3]. Cloud Computing also provides you with an almost unlimited storage. It scales up as demand requires [1] & [3]. A third interesting point is that it requires only a few employees to have it run properly [3]. Salaries are the biggest costs in a company, so reducing it is usually highly appreciated by managers. Moreover, employees tend to move more and more nowadays. Cloud Computing allows it as they can access information wherever they are, whenever they need it [3].

            If Cloud Computing sounds like The Solution, you may think about it again after reading some of its disadvantages.

            The first one is the fact that such services are remote. Therefore, the company requires a reliable and very fast Internet connection, else, latency could cause a real issue [1]. A power failure in the data center could be a real economic disaster for all those companies that relied on this service. Another issue is the fact that a big data center can be aimed by hackers as they know it contains a huge amount of data. Then, security is a part that has to be cared of [1] & [3].  But to me, the main problem is that there is no standard defined. That means that interoperability between different clouds is often not possible [2]. As Clouds do not always offer every software program you need, you may require another Cloud provider’s services. Then, you might have to develop an application so that Clouds APIs (Application Programming Interface) can dialog together. But if no standard is well-defined, it is almost impossible to create such applications. Therefore, Cloud Computing services which were used for their advantages, can become a real issue depending on the companies’ needs.

References :

[1] : Robert L. Grossman, The Case for Cloud Computing, IEEE Computer Society, 2009.

[2] : Guilherme Sperb Machado, David Hausheer and Burkhard Stiller, Considerations on the Interoperability of and between Cloud Computing Standards, IEEE Computer Society, 2009.

[3] : Nariman Mirzaei, Cloud Computing, Indiana University Bloomington, 2008.

Delete : the Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age - Review

Remembering vs. Forgetting.

Humans have always tried to remember as much as possible. Philosophers or scientists were those we relied on in the past. Then, books appeared. They were a fantastic way to remember. Eventually, the digital age came, and electronic devices became so powerful that we tend to forget books so fast.

The Internet era is a fantastic way to remember everything. Anything we do on the Internet may be registered. Therefore, a photo, a text or anything personal can be found, even decades after it was published.

"Perfect memory pushes humans to get lost in detail, with no ability to generalize, to abstract and to evolve", said Viktor Mayer-Schönberger.

At first, I agreed with that quote. It's true that if ever we remember every single thing that happened in the past, it seems to be impossible to have a global opinion. And a global opinion is the key to draw conclusions, which are a key to evolve. Everything seemed to be linked but that was without thinking that humans can be smarter than that.

Nowadays, people are more and more specialized, so that in order to draw conclusions, we need specialists. So what ? Sure, it may take more time and people to reach a goal, but doesn't it worth it when it's about to find criminals for instance ? Or a new medication against an "incurable" disease ?  

Of course, there can't only be advantages. The Internet can ruin your life, because anything that is posted online may be found decades after and turned against yourself. That's a risk people should be aware of, as you have to drive a car safely if you want to stay alive.

Risks are everywhere, but the Internet is a new phenomenon that evolves incredibly fast and people tend to get lost as they don't want to, or can't keep up with it. But that's something we can't skip, it is not temporary.

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger warns us about how Google could use some information against our will. That's an interesting point when you know that most people want everything to be faster. Google uses our information to be more accurate. Without those, the famous search engine wouldn't be that fast and accurate.

Another fact is how Facebook, the social network site, gathers information about its 500 million users. Governments are very interested by such a database, as millions of companies as there are very personal details about those users. Also employers can be interested and everyone knows about it. All you have to do is to control what you share with your friends, and even more with unknown people. As you wouldn't run naked in the street, you don't post such pictures online. 

After a poll in class, which question was "Is the way the Internet remembers everything a problem ?", 18 people voted yes, 12 voted no and 7 didn't have an opinion. To me, those results show that people are being more and more assisted, and they can't decide themselves what to do, they need rules made by others.

That survey surprised me even more that all the participants were students between 18 and 30 years old, and therefore, computer literate and familiar with the Internet issues. But then, all of those students accepted to create a blog such as that one, where they explain their thoughts. That can also be risky. And I'm not even talking about the fact that most, not to say all of them have a Facebook account, where some share pictures with the whole world as they didn't even check their privacy settings.

The Internet has "invaded" us ; we cannot do without it anymore, so we have to do with it. Then, maybe should we be educated that way.