Media literacy

Media literacy is Continuum that is verified as a line along of which people have different levels of views in term of their personal understanding of presented messages. One can develop personal media literacy during the process of intellectual, emotional and moral maturation by which he becomes able to develop individual skills and knowledge. This supports the activation of our knowledge structure so we increase the level of interpreting media points efficiently.

Passive people are considered in the lowest level of medial literacy because they only think about the outside meaning of media messages and not daring to seek better exposition. Other people are in higher rank because of their ability of relying on individual interpretation, yet they can not see what is behind the seen due to the lack of experience. However, there is different type of people who could reach a high level of media literacy and that by using all the skills and knowledge, such as the ability of using conscious process, to attain different perspective of the presented messages. Therefore, enhancing our talents and experiences will eventually aid us to improve the levels of our media literacy and become aware of the flowing message.

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What are the important attributes of watching Sesame Street Program?


The first years of life are especially important in the growth and development of child's brain. Children of all ages are constantly learning new things which television could be one of the most prevalent means to influence their learning.

Sesame Street has been the most popular television show for the last four decades to the extent that this children’s show is translated to more then 19 different languages around the world. The main purpose behind this program is to aid weak young students with their readings abilities to catch up and be equally in the same level with their peers. Different characters such as Big Bird and Cookie Monster are playing important roles to attract youngster in providing humor and pleasant appearance. These features present some letters and relate them to specific words to remind the viewers about the worthiness of reading. Also, I believe that Sesame Street helps diverse children to improve their social skills and upgrade their math, English and science evaluations. Thus, the directors of sesame Street have a main role of increasing the educational level among children.

 Essentially, some regular shows of this program are presented with some songs such as “Hey Food” that sound similar to the famous Beatles’s song “Hey Jude”. This strategy makes the program always appear fresh, so the audiences feel updated through the diversity of the show. Another advantage about this television program is that there is no mention of local cultures activities which has made the program more attractive to be adapted by different families from dissimilar backgrounds.

In short, Sesame Street is an educational television program for preschool children, particularly aimed at disadvantaged children to teach them the awareness of letters and numbers.

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My thoughts about motivating employees in workplace  

 In order to increase productivity of an organization, one must first fully understand what motivation is, and how the organization’s employees are motivated so that the proper incentives can be given in order to get a positive response from employees and avoid a situation of low productivity that some companies may face.

Any organization needs to understand what type of motivation their employees are inclined to, and then implement a rewarding policy to encourage productivity. If they are successful in motivating their representatives, they will begin to experience higher levels of productivity due to increases levels of job satisfaction among employees, which will also lead to lower absenteeism and turnover rates. Employers should work on resolving the main causes of dissatisfaction amongst employees rather than trying to create a sense of satisfaction through tangible rewards. Companies should consider increasing the wages of their employees, and equalizing the amount of work which is done by everybody in order to allow all the employees to feel that they are being treated fairly. The level of motivation within an organization is directly correlated to the level of productivity one has.

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Operating system security issues

Computer users have largely become familiar with the operating system's accessories, such as how to play games online, but they tend to neglect the security features that are included to help the user maintain a safe and reliable operating environment. As a result, many information systems exist in an insecure state that leaves the system at risk to a virus infection or a complete compromise by an attacker. It only takes a very primitive virus or Trojan horse to create a distractive effect of infected computers and compromised systems [2]. Therefore, it's irresponsible to set up a computer (Operating System) without regard to security.

This paper is dedicated to operating system security issues. From setting up a secure home network to creating strong passwords, it's important to understand the details of using an operating system in a safe and secure manner. The aspect of security is generally defined by all of a company's data, such as the material and software resources, that allow a company to store and circulate this data [2]. The goal of OS security generally is to ensure that these organization's material and software resources are used only for their intended purposes. David K. Hsiao Douglas S. Kerr (1987) claims that security generally is comprised of five main goals: authentication, authorization, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation.

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of an entity, either in person or electronically, where credentials are requested and checked to verify or disprove an entity's claimed identity [1]. Linux and MAC X OS both support local and network-based authentication to help ensure that only users with valid authentication credentials can access the computer's data, applications, and network services [2]. Passwords can be required to log in, wake the system from sleep or a screen saver, install applications, or change system settings. In addition, Mac OS X supports emerging authentication methods such as smart cards. By securely caching network-based credentials, Mac OS X allows you to authenticate offline. So users can disconnect their notebook computer from your office network and work offline using the same user name and password.

Authorization is a process of granting access in operating system that protects computer resources by only permitting those resources to be used by resource users that have been granted authority to use them [1]. It is responsible for allowing or denying user different actions such as request to read or write a file, to connect to a website or kill a process. Assuming, for example, that someone has logged in to a computer operating system or application, the system or application may want to identify what resources the user can be given during this session[3]. Thus, authorization is sometimes seen as both the preliminary setting up of permissions by a system administrator and the actual checking of the permission values that have been set up when a user is getting access. Logically, authorization is preceded by authentication.

In conclusion,protection mechamisms are implemented in operating system to support different security policies. These security policies serve the purpose to maintain the system's quality attributes, among themauthentication, authorization, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation. In other words, a secued operating system is the plan
that shows where security measures need to be placed. If the plan describes a specific solution then, prior to building such a plan, one would make a risk analysis. The operating system then can be capable to distinguishe between requests which should be allowed to be processed, and others which should not be processed.Thus, the goal of the security system is to authenticate a subject and authorize its access to any object. The risk of unauthorized modification or destruction of data, disclosure of information, and denial of access to data while in transit should be considered along with the risks associated with data that is in storage or being processed. In addition, system engineers should implement security measures to preserve, as needed, the security goals authentication, authorization, integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation, including application software, while the information is being processed, in transmit, and in storage.

Reference
[1]David K. Hsiao Douglas S. Kerr (1987). OPERATING SYSTEM SECURITY A TUTORIAL OF CURRENT RESEARCH*. Department of Computer and Information Science The Ohio State University Stuart E Madnick. The Sloan School of Management. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[2]Chen, Z., Liu,Yi., Shen, C., Liu, J., & Zhou, L.(2007). Security Enhancement Architecture for COTS Operating System. Dept of Information Security Naval University of Engineering. Beijing, China

[3] Jinhong, K, Guo,. Stephen, Johnson,. Il-Pyung, Park. (2006). An Operating System Security Method for Integrity and Privacy Protection in Consumer Electronics. Panasonic Digital Networking Laboratory2 Research Way, Princeton,

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you know you are an Arab when 

- A visa is not a credit card. ...
- You refer to your dad's friends as Amoo. ..
- You have an endless supply of pistachios, dates, and pumpkin seeds.
- Your parents say you're becoming Americanized anytime you get into trouble.
- You curse at your teachers or strangers in Arabic. ....
- You can spot an Arab a mile away and they have spotted at you because they
keep staring. ..
- After a family meal, the women fight to the death over who should wash the dishes
while the men sit on their behinds and discuss politics, waiting for their tea. .
- Your parents want you to become a doctor or engineer...
- You use your forehead and eyebrows to point something out...
- Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to  call you to dinner
even if you're in the next room....
- You have at least thirty cousins. ...
- You arrive one or two hours late to a party  and think it's normal....
- You are standing next to the largest  suitcases at the Airport...
- You talk for an hour at the front  door when leaving someone's house....
- You say bye 17 times on  the phone....
- When your parents meet strangers and talk for a few minutes,
you discover  they know one of your uncles back home....
- Your parents don't realize phone connections to foreign countries
have improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs
when making long distance calls. ..
- Your relatives alone could populate a small city.....
- You still came back home to live with your  parents after you graduate...
- You always say "open the light" instead of "turn the light on"....
- Your parents drink 6 cups of tea a day...
- You've had a shoe  thrown at you by your mother. ...
- You're proud to be an Arab 

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My father and I

When I was a boy of sixteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But now that I am twenty-four, I am astonished at how much he had learned in eight years. He turned out to be a thoughtful man with a great experience and knowledge in everything (including ME).

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An idea to overcome my disappointment

I’ve talked to many people who have encountered this and the solution I hear most often is also the one I disagree with the most. It’s fairly common, but if you do this I think your seriously limiting your chances to bring these sort of experiences into reality. The solution is to expect the worst, to never get your hopes up for things, to never allow them to excite you but then in turn never feel bad because you can never be disappointed. The logic is to expect the worst and then be pleasantly surprised if something good does happen.

Shifting mindsets

The first thing I had to change in my thinking was the small fear I had in the back of my mind whenever I would get hopeful for things. I’d get pumped and excited but I also knew there was a chance it wouldn’t work out and I’d be really afraid of this possibility. It almost felt like a desperate need for the plan to be fulfilled rather than a healthy hopefulness. Getting excited and pumped up for something does make it easier to manifest it into your life, but having a nagging fear in the back of your mind can often sabotage this and set you up for disappointment.

Therefore, Life can be disappointing from time to time, but if you don’t let the disappointments get you down you’ll be free to dream big and make countless amazing plans in which the majority will work out, giving you a life full of awesome experiences.

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It happens more than you think

(I just started working at a computer store, so my trainer has a phone call on speaker so I can listen in.)

Lady: “You sold me a faulty piece of s*** laptop!”

Trainer: “What seems to be the problem, ma’am?”

Lady: “The ¬†f***ing thing won’t open!”

Trainer: “Have you tried turning the laptop around, and opening it from the other side?”

Lady: “Um…I have to go now.” *click*

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Funny story about OpenSource

Caller: “I need to report a very serious computer crime! The local university is running an illegal computer system!”

Me: “Could you please repeat that?”

Caller: “The local university is running an illegal computer system! They’ve hacked it!”

Me: “How could you tell they’d hacked it?”

Caller: “Well, when it booted, it didn’t say Windows or Microsoft or anything! It said something about Deviant Linux, I think, and the main screen looked nothing like my good, legal Windows screen at home! I think they hacked that, too!”

Me: “Do you mean Debian Linux?”

Caller: “Yes, that! Is it some sort of computer mafia or something?”

Me: “Uh, no, it’s just a different operating system. Nothing to worry about.”

Caller: “But it’s illegal! It’s not Microsoft, not even Windows! They’re on a normal Microsoft computer, so they’re breaking the law! I think they stole my identity when I came in the building! I’m calling the FBI!” *hangs up*

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OpenOffice

Based on several academic research sources, OpenOffice application is a useful software for individuals and companies in term of reducing cost, efficiency and reliability in attaining some software applications. I attend to educate people of what OpenOffice could potentially offer as a comparable software for features such as; easy to use, installation, bugs free and security that allow companies and individual to install this application as many computers as needed, unlike Microsoft Office, where permission is needed to install on multiple computers. OpenOffice also can open and save to Microsoft formats with similar text layout accuracy. This software is compatible on any different type of operating systems such as Linux, Mac, and all windows platforms .This will provide a competitive cost advantage and rapid growth to computer users due to its availability on every operating System, free of any cost and to its functional similarity to the best Microsoft Office suite.

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Thread in Object Oriented Language

Threads in Programming Languages

All human senses sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing can be employed at once. Computers, too, can perform several operations concurrently. It is common for computers to compile a program, send a file to a printer and receive electronic mail message over a network concurrently. Computer can do that by applying a technical concept called threads. Technically, a thread is defined as an independent stream of instructions that can be scheduled to run two or more tasks in overlapping duration within the same operating system [1,p.155]. This means that threads provides a single flow of control with a process that runs independently to perform a great variety of operations in parallel. A process is active execution of one or more programs. The concept of thread was first developed by the United States Department of Defence that made concurrency widely available to defence contractors building military command and control system [2,p.1045].

Each thread has a life-cycle during which it goes through a number of states. A thread can be in only one state at a given point in time. Figure 1 explains that a new thread begins its life cycle in the new state. It remains in this state until the program starts the thread, which places the thread in the runnable state. A thread in the running state is executing its task [3,p.179]. Sometime a runnable thread transitions to the suspend-blocked state while it waits for another thread to perform a task. Also, according to figure1, the suspend-blocked thread transitions back to the running state only when another thread notifies it to continue executing. The runnable thread transitions to the blocked state when it attempts to perform a task that cannot be completed immediately and the thread must temporarily wait until that task completes. At this point, the blocked thread transitions to the runnable state, so it resumes execution [4,p.189]. A blocked thread cannot use a processor even if one is available. Finally, runnable thread enters terminated state when it successfully completes its task or due to an error. These states are virtual machine states which do not reflect any operating system thread states [1,p.188].

In most operating system, each thread is given a small amount of processor time called a quantum or timeslice by which to perform a task. When the thread's quantum expires, the thread returns to the ready state and the operating system assigns another thread to the processor [2, 3].

There are single and multithreading executions in threads. Single thread is going through “the computation of the entire task from the beginning to the end without being interrupted [3,p.198]”. Multithreading, on the other hand, each application contains separate threads of execution, where each thread has its own “stack” and problem counter. This allows all applications to execute concurrently with other threads while sharing memory. The problem with single threaded applications that can lead to poor responsiveness is that “lengthy activities must complete before others can begin [4.p,192]”. In multithreaded applications, threads can be distributed across multiple processor so that multiple tasks execute concurrently and the application can operate more efficiently. Multithreading can also increase performance on single-processor system that simulates concurrency. This happens when one thread cannot proceed, another can use the processor.

In conclusion Threads are a way for program(s) to split into two or more simultaneously running tasks. They represents single sequence of instructions executed in parallel with other sequence by time slicing.

Reference:

[1] S. Prasad, Multithreading Programming Techniques, New York, McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1997.

[2] H. Deitel, Paul J. Deitel , Java how to program, New York, 7th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2007.

[3] Gent, Operating Systems: A Modern Perspective, Third Edition, University of Colorado, 2004

[4] A. Fourouzan, F. Gilberg, A Structured Programming Approach Using C, (3rd Edition), Brooks/Cole publishers, 2003.

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