In five weeks, on October 4th, this fall, 35 8th graders are going to the United States of America for Operation Starship (O.S.). The trip is organized by Mrs. Chandler, and she will be one of the chaperones along with Mrs. Rockey and maybe Mr. Souza. Back in April of 2008, many students who were in 7th grade at the time applied for O.S. The application consisted of different questions about the applicant. Students also wrote an essay and got teacher recommendations. After some hard work by Mrs. Chandler and Mrs. Rockey, 35 students were chosen to attend the O.S. trip. The students, who made O.S., had to fill out and hand in many forms dealing with passports and permission from parents. The flights that they are going to be on will all be Northwest Airlines and includes going from Bangkok to Narita, Narita to San Francisco, San Francisco to Memphis, and Memphis to Huntsville. This trip will be very exhausting for the students and the chaperones because they will all be very jet-lagged and tired from all the traveling in airplanes. They’re going to Huntsville, Alabama for 5 days at the NASA Space Camp, and then they go to Florida and San Francisco to go to Disney’s Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The NASA Space Camp is going to teach them about NASA and Space, while getting to go through simulations that real astronauts would use to train. They are also going to be visiting the Kennedy Space Center and many other places. The students who made Operation Starship will be missing 8 school days and the Parent/Teacher Conferences, so they will have to make up the work for those 2 weeks’ worth of school. When the students arrive in Bangkok, the October break will have already started. They get back Saturday night and will be back in school after the weeklong October break.
9/01/2008
Age of Linux- Steve. J
A new age has come, an age of freedom, an age of stable computer systems. And all will know that Linux is the best compatible operating system. There are hundreds, thousands of reasons why Linux is better than Windows or Mac, but I’ll just state a few of the reasons.
First of all, many of us care about the environment, don’t we? Mac and Windows are sold in boxes, and I believe it takes more than one piece of paper and plastic to create those boxes. However Linux is downloadable from internet, which takes mathematically, approximately 0 materials! Also by using Linux you can recycle a computer from 1995. Your computer will be much faster and convenient although it is from long ago.
Secondly, Windows is too expensive; people tend to download “free” software from internet, piracy, because it is costly to buy every utility. To give an example ‘Adobe Premier’ is around $800; ‘Nero’ is $100. All of us really need these tools, but some of us can’t use them because it’s too expensive. In Linux you get all of them in your system for free. Additionally, Linux have this cool tool in the system to tell the computer users to download certain software.
Lastly, Linux have awesome tools. In Windows everything you do, you have to reboot. Have you just upgraded one or two little things on your Windows system with "Windows update"? Please reboot. Have you just installed some new software? Please reboot. Does your system seem unstable? Try to reboot, everything will probably work better after that. All these reboots can frustrate people. Linux, however, basically doesn't need to restart. Whether you install new software or perform routine upgrades for your system. It is only necessary when a part from the heart of the system has been updated, and that only happens once every several weeks. Linux also have this cool tool called cube desktop, which I like the most, you can flip around several desktops, for example you can have one desktop chatting with friends, one desktop for listening to music, and one desktop for playing games, other desktops for something else, but it won’t affect computers no matter how much program you activate on each individual desktops.
After all this if you still want to use Windows rather than Linux, there are only four reasons why. You’re a hardcore gamer, you have proprietary software you can’t live without with, you work in the book/ printing industry, or your hardware is not yet supported. Seriously, the age of Windows or Mac is over! All of middle school students and teachers should have Linux. However if you want to use windows and Linux, or Mac and Linux why don’t you try dual operating system? (I use dual operating system) You can switch to Linux and the other system just by restarting the computer. Get Linux!
Don’t Underestimate Free Hacking Tools- Steve. J
Many of us just think that, hackers require “special” hacking equipment. However people can just download free software from internet. I know you guys would be laughing about “free” software, but do not underestimate free hacking tools. Many of them can take over ISB’s system. Although they are free and easy to use, it is true. Maybe I am wrong about ISB (Since there are like twenty technicians defending the school server), but I am sure about the fact that it will take less than 20 minutes to crack into the wireless network. First of all, you can never ever defend yourself by Kaspersky, Avast, or Norton, etc, unless you are being attacked by worms, Trojans, or viruses. Secondly, never click on items, or icons you didn’t create, unless someone else you know have created them. Lastly, do not send files to people that you do not know. This is a little complicated, but if you send any files to unknown users, they can easily figure out your i.p address by back tracking their own system. By back tracking their system, they can see which i.p address sent the files.
To prevent these hacking tools
1. Don’t click on anything suspicious
2. Don’t send files to unknown users
3. Change your Windows into Linux (probably the best of the choices, hundred times higher security than windows, and computer can turn much more efficient, I use Linux too)
Free Download or Cyber Piracy?- Steve. J
All of us, teachers and students do not care about downloading free products from internet. However, for each download we take, we are killing a product. Every one of us, including me, has been downloading “free” music tracks, movies, and games from the internet, without taking much notice for the result. Now it has reached the point where entertainment industries are expressing drastic fear towards cyber piracy. No matter how much people are arrested for cyber-piracy, the number of free download is increasing. 3.6 billion music tracks are downloaded each month, which means each day the music fans are downloading 120 million tracks. Half a million movies are downloaded, a day. Hypothetically, the movie industries are losing 10 million dollars a day; think about 365 days a year. With each download we make, we are killing it, after all the entertainment industries have disappeared, then we will start to realize the mistake we had made. If you wish to download music or movies, at least watch the film or buy the music, and download it.
‘Professional’ Hackers- Steve.J
Chinese hackers claim that no sites are safe. This group of hackers even says that they are paid by the Chinese government itself. Xiao Chen, the nickname of the leader of the three ‘professional’ cyber burglars, claims that even the most sensitive sites have weaknesses. The three Chinese have been attacking government and private websites around the world, ambiguously bringing terror to all computer users. Xiao Chen has been hacking for three years, worked with 10,000 different registered users of the hacker’s website. If I’m not wrong, the three hackers claim that they can break in to the pentagon’s system, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. The real danger is that there are thousands of other hackers just as good as Xiao Chen or better. Now our virtual world has become as dangerous as the real world, or worse. Stop going through suspicious websites!
Are you looking at the notices in the internet? - Christian
Sometimes people try to read the daily notices, but they do not have time to look at it because they are late for class. Has this happened to you? Well now you can read them on the internet. You can come home from school, and you can check the notices. It has helped me a lot. This is the website: http://soarcenter.wetpaint.com/page/Notices+for+Today
It is very helpful. Try it out.
Pixar’s New Movies By:Shawnie
You’ve all have seen “Cars”, “The Incredibles”, “Monster Inc.”, and “Ratatouille.” Now Pixar is coming out with a new movie in 2009 called “Up”. This is a movie about a 70- year-old guy named Carl Fedricksen, who meets a young girl named “Ellie” when he was young. Eventually, they get married after a few years. Time passes and Ellie passes away. Now developers are forcing him to move to a retirement home. During 2009, DreamWorks will also launch ‘Shrek 4’. In 2010, Pixar is launching ‘Toys Story 3’ which was supposed to be out in 2009. Here’s a teaser trailer on the latest movie “Up”! Hope you like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEdVwg7to4