Kirill Kurkin's blog for the E-SPEAIT course

In this post I will write about an example of the "if a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer" principle. To be more precise, I will cover eye tracking devices. Eye tracking devices (also called gaze interaction devices) can be used to determine the point at which user is looking at on a computer screen. Moreover, these devices also let users control the computer with their eyes. For example, users can "click" with their eyes by focusing on one point or blinking. These devices are extremely beneficial for people with disabilities who cannot user their hands. How does eye tracking devices work? An eye tracker consists of various sensors, cameras and projectors. The projectors create a pattern of near-infrared light on your eyes. The cameras take high-resolution images of the user's eyes and the pattern. Received data is processed with machine learning and mathematical algorithms to determine the eyes' position and g

In this post I would like to compare two Linux distributions. For this purpose, I chose Ubuntu Linux and Kali Linux. Ubuntu Linux  Ubuntu is a Linux based Operating System that belongs to the Debian family of Linux. It was released on 20 October 2004. Ubuntu is free to use and is open source. It was developed by a team “Canonical”. Ubuntu consists of everything that is needed for everyday use: Mozilla Firefox browser, video and audio viewers pre-installed with many other useful applications for regular users to download. Also, Ubuntu has a Ubuntu Sever variant that is used for servers. Ubuntu Server is efficient for building top-performance, flexible, and secure data centers. Moreover, Chinese version of Ubuntu is used for running the world’s fastest supercomputer. Ubuntu uses KDE desktop environment and has a user-friendly interface that is perfect for Linux beginners.   Kali Linux Kali Linux, just like Ubuntu, belongs to the Debian family of Linux. It was developed by “Offensive

In this post I will take a brief look at the ideals of hackers' culture that are mentioned in Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen and Hacker HOWTO by Eric S. Raymond and whether they are applicable in the modern world or not. First of all, I would like to mention that cybercrime has drastically risen in the last 10 years and the aim of these crimes is now usually financial profit. We need money for almost everything, and hackers figured out ways to make money on the Internet and there are getting more of these ways every year thanks to the technical development. Therefore, hackers are now often associated with criminals that steal money from ordinary people. Although it is sadly partially true, it is not right to say that all hackers are bad. Secondly, freedom of word and free access to every piece of information, which is the main aim of hackers, becomes less real every year. Popular social media have censorship, which is contrary to freedom. Users' privacy has also become less val

In this post I will describe three cases: first two of them are connected to the internet censorship and the last one is a privacy issue. These 3 cases are quite fresh, and interestingly, all of them are connected to Facebook.   Venezuela president's Facebook page was frozen On the 27th of March it became known that Facebook has frozen the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's page for 30 days. It happened, because he promoted a thyme-based remedy, Carvativir that, as he says, is supposed to cure COVID-19. It wasn't the first time he mentioned this medicine, so Facebook decided to ban his account for repeated violations of its policy against spreading misinformation. Facebook said it followed World Health Organization guidance showing no evidence of any cure for the disease. In my opinion, it is not right for Facebook to filter what others say. Also, the whole misinformation rule looks quite absurd. Does Facebook know everything and it can always get the most recent informa

In this post I would like to take a look at the overall digital security situation in Estonia. To better see the result, I will divide the overview into three parts that are connected to three components of Mitnick formula: technology, training, policy.    Technology  Overall, I would say that Estonian citizens have a lot of technological possibilities to protect their personal data, as they are free to choose any antivirus and other protective software they want. Also, there are no legal restrictions on VPN usage in Estonia, which may also contribute to people anonymity and security (as well as to cybercriminals, who can hide their identity). It is also worth mentioning that Information System Authority of Estonia developed the DigiDoc software, which lets you encrypt and sign documents using your ID-Card certificates (Smart-ID and Mobiil-ID were also added in the latest update).   Training  Though Estonia is quite advanced in a technological way, to me it seems that there could be a

In this post I would like to provide two examples of designs: one with bad ergonomics and one with good ergonomics.   Bad design: Keyboards Many PC users are used to keyboard shortcuts. It makes their life much easier, for example, CTRL+C and CTRL+V is probably known by everybody. Instead of clicking right mouse button, repositioning your pointer and clicking "copy", you can just use CTRL+C shortcut. We got used to the fact that CTRL is located on the left bottom of the keyboard. This proved to be quite convenient and we can always find the key without looking at it. Another handy key is a Fn (function) key. It is undoubtedly useful in many situations, but it is not used as regularly as CTRL. It is usually placed to the right of the control key, as seen in the picture below. However, some manufacturers decided to swap Fn and CTRL key and place Fn at the bottom left of the keyboard for some reason. In my opinion, it is a horrible design solution, since we are used to the fact

  In this post I would like to provide my own thoughts on who is a professional and who can we call a professional in the world of IT. Also, I would like to compare a modern IT professional with an IT professional 20 years ago and reflect on some ideas mentioned in the Wiki of the course. First of all, professionality has no specific meaning and may mean different things for different people. In my opinion, professionality is still more connected to the work itself than social aspects. If you are a professional, you know how to solve any problem related to your field and how to do your work effectively. Some people need to work in a team to solve a problem, some can manage it alone. Therefore, ability to work in a team is not a professional trait to me, though it may help a lot. So, I would say that professional traits are those traits that are needed to effectively solve any problem related to your field of work. This also applies to the field of IT. These are: adaptability, analytica