| Note: While you will be given some choice
in terms of which questions to answer for each exam you take, there will
not be as many selections as you see below--this document is serving a
different purpose (to provide sample questions).
ESSAYS (only 1).Select and answer ONE of the following two essay questions and answer it in about 4-5 bluebook pages.About 30 minutes total. (Weight factor: 6) |
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1.What
is the National Information Infrastructure? What segment of our society
is building it, and why? What are some of the concerns that have
been voiced by public interest advocates in this regard? What compromise
did Sarah Egans propose in the article she wrote for Newsweek (RH-11)?
Do you agree with her proposal? Why or why not? Provide some
evidence (from the readings) to support your answer.
2.Discuss
software piracy: What is it? What are three different examples
of piracy, as discussed in the readings? What are the social and
moral costs of piracy (and to whom)? Discuss at least two different
arguments that people have offered in defense of piracy¾for
each argument, provide an appropriate counter-argument. Finally,
what solution does Richard Stallman propose in his “GNU Manifesto”?
3. The year is 2003. Your favorite elderly Aunt Bertha, concerned about her advancing years, is about to buy Wrinkles-A-Way, an expensive night cream which promises to make her look more youthful. Because she is a very proper and private person, she often prefers to do her shopping for many personal items from home, and generally orders from catalogs. Aunt
Bertha has recently gotten into computing for the first time, and has been
exploring cyberspace through BillGatesWay, her Internet service provider.
She just sent a digitized picture of herself to BeautyMakers, the company
that sells Wrinkles-A-Way, and she immediately received an "after" picture—she
is very impressed with what the product will do for her! She shows
you her "youthful" picture displayed on her computer screen, and is about
to press the BUY-ME button—but you ask her to wait. What would you
discuss with her before she buys? In other words, what are the many
(and different) risks inherent in this scenario? From the
lectures, discussions, and readings, discuss as many different risks with
Aunt Bertha as you can, and give her your sound advice (you’re such
a good niece/nephew).
4. Your friend James, who owns a very successful small business, recently began to use the Internet through a local service provider to send and receive business email. He tells you that a friend of his asked him if he was using PGP; because he had no idea what it was, he was too embarrassed to answer his friend except to say “No, not yet, but I plan to soon!” So he asks you, a COMP 380 graduate, to explain it to him. Describe to James, in laymen's terms, what public key cryptography is and a little about how it works. Tell him why he might want to use encryption such as PGP. And because he is so interested in all of this, you decide to tell him why the U.S. government is very concerned about strong encryption, and what they propose to do as a solution: that is, explain to him something about escrowed key encryption, and briefly why privacy advocates are so opposed to it. 5. What is “universal access”? How does it differ from “common carriage”? What are some ways universal access can be provided for the NII? Why do proponents believe that universal access will be so important in the 21st century? What do you think should be a “minimum basket of services” to be universally provided, and briefly, why? What other non-technical problems or roadblocks will we have to worry about before universal access becomes a reality, according to B. Thomas (RH-27)?
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| MEDIUM-LENGTH ANSWERS (2 total). Answer each question in about 2 blue book pages.. About 15 minutes per question, 30 minutes total. (Weight factor: 3 each) |
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1.
Fundamentally, what was the biggest difference between ENIAC and its predecessors,
Aiken's Mark I and Zuse's computer, the Z3? Pragmatically, why was
this of any importance?
2.What is forensic computer animation, and what is it used for? What are some of its advantages? List some of the main risks or drawbacks that Riley discusses in RH-22. |
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SHORT
ANSWERS (3 questions total).Answer
each question inabout a paragraph
or two. Lists
are fine when applicable.
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About
5 minutes per question, about 15 min total.
(Weight factor: 1 each)
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1.In
his article "Information Superhighway from Hell" (RH-13), what did Jeff
Johnson predict would be the main purpose of tomorrow's Information
Highway? Be very specific in your reply.
2.Provide
a definition for the term RAM, and list at least one attribute about
it.
3.List
and briefly describe at least two main contributions made to the computer
science community by Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, as described both in class
and in the readings.
4. According to a few of the articles you read (RH-22 thru 24), why is the White House sketching out a defense policy for the nation's computer-controlled networks? In other words, (A) what is the main risk they are concerned about? and (B) what are some of those computer-controlled systems they are concerned about?
5. Show how a computer stores the decimal value 623. (ie, write the code).
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....jmw