Week 11: Assistive Technology

Single-switch access

Single-switch access is used by people with very limited mobility. If a person can only move his head, then this switch can be put near head, so it would be possible to click and navigate using this switch with head movements. This allows a person to navigate through the computer system.

Large Print Bluetooth Mini Keyboard

This keyboard was designed for vision impaired and mature aged iPad and iPhone users. It has big buttons and big sharp letters, which are easy to see. This helps to reduce eye strain. The keyboard uses Bluetooth technology, so it can be connected to any Bluetooth compatible device.


I was suprised how big the prices are for these kind of devises.

Week 10: Hackers

This week's task is to describe an IT-project, which is done by people with “hacker's” mind-set. According to Steven Raymond hacker is someone, who has strong skills and knowledges in the field where he is dealing. As opposed to crackers, hackers build things, solve problems and believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help. There are many free analogues to operation systems and programs with commerce purpose, that have been done by people with hacker's mind-set. One of the most significant for me is Linux. Linus Torvalds started to build this project by himself, to make a truly free Unix-like operation system. Nowadays Linux is a free open-source project and a lot of people working on it every day. It is used in many areas: on desktop computers, as a platform for other operation systems, on servers and super computers... I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop and didn't regret about it.

Week 9: Digital enclosure

Every minute 100 hours of video are uploaded to youtube, 800+ million daily active users in facebook, 280+ monthly active users in twitter and users of other social media share a great amount of information about themselves. Devices that are connected to “Internet of Things” share information about it's users. All this data is being gathered and stored into cloulds. It is not a secret, that this information is being analyzed by companies for statistics which can then be distributed to marketing companies, advertising and government.

I personally do not like the fact, that primary purpose of this system is to make profit on customers and that my information is being collected unknowingly, so i choose carefully what information I share.

Week 8: Virginia Shea rules of Netiquette

Virginia Shea rules of Netiquette are as below:


1. Remember the human
2. Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
3. Know where you are in cyberspace
4. Respect other people's time and bandwidth
5. Make yourself look good online
6. Share expert knowledge
7. Help keep flame wars under control
8. Respect other people's privacy
9. Don't abuse your power
10. Be forgiving of other people's mistakes


Rule nr. 6 Share expert knowledge.

I am very grateful to the people who share their knowledges and experiences. I follow many thematic blogs, news sites from IT, computer science, to business and politics and listen to podcasts where top specialists and experts are discussing the latest events and issues. Knowledge sharing is very important and thanks to the internet, it is done very fast nowadays. These people make an invaluable contribution to the society.