Me vs. Me (Pros and Cons)

                Bianca Gonzales, a famous tv personnel, once blurted out a statement stating "Only post online what you can actually say in real life."  With her statement I am both taking two sides ― pros and cons ― and debate it with my alter ego by giving few scenarios.

Issues Issues Issues!

                In our generation today, challenges and hopes in the world are as diverse as its people. Same thing goes to the technological advancement, governance and policies. Below are three contemporary information technology issues that are generating a lot of media coverage.

Issue No. 1: I Love You Virus

                This issue might be too old (I don't care), but it is gold. Who will never forget that "I Love You" virus that attacked tens of millions of Windows personal computers way back May 2000? It started spreading in Philippines as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs". Unknown to what it is about, the file is a worm that damages the local machine, overwriting random types of files and sent itself to every name it found on the email. The bad thing for this was that, the one who created this was never charged with a crime. Since at the time it was released, the Philippines had no laws criminalising malicious use of computers. Which I think there should be a law for that so that the creator will pay for what damages he has done to a lot of humans. This is in accordance to Utilitarianism theory which means making that law is a right action for it will benefit many people (those whose computer had been infected by the virus). (Source)

Issue No. 2: ATM Scamming

                Scamming is prevalent nowadays. There is a lot of scamming incidents and one of which happened in an ATM Machine. The sad thing is when you thought you had your money safe and guarded by your chosen bank, when it is not. So how does the present scam work?  According to the bank, certain machines have been compromised.  Why was the public not informed?  The accounts of persons using these compromised machines were hacked, so even if your ATM card is in your possession, they can withdraw from your account. An action should be done to solve this issue. With the idea of Consequentialist theory where we will think of right action as that which produces good consequences, banks should be more transparent: at the first sign of a scam, this should be shared with the public so that the depositors are informed and aware. (Source)

Issue No. 3: Piracy

                There is a lot of piracy that is going on in our generation today. From movies, music, software, books and others that we could just illegally grab and download from different pirate sites.  Most of the people are just lurking on to some pirate sites waiting for download links of let say a movie that is currently showing on cinemas. The common reason of people for doing such act is to avoid the expenses from buying such costly products. I, myself, am a person who enjoys things for free and I would admit that I commit piracy. So my ideal solution for this one is that products must be at its lower price or if possible for free. This is in accordance to the Utilitarianism theory, where a lot of people will benefit and enjoy from that said solution. (Source)

Ethical Guide for Tralfamadorians

                Now that you have come to your senses and have decided to live in peace with the humans my dear Tralfamadorian, may I now present to you the following necessary guidelines that you must follow while staying here in our beloved Earth. There are different ethical theories that are known in this planet. These theories are what we humans appropriately apply in a particular scenario according to its usefulness such cases.  There are two categories for ethical theories ― Teleological and Deontological.

                Teleological Theory or the Consequential Theory describes an ethical perspective that contends the rightness or wrongness of actions is based solely on the goodness or badness of their consequences. In a strict teleological interpretation, actions are morally neutral when considered apart from their consequences. There are three types ― Egoism, Utilitarianism and Altruism.

                Ethical Egoism is the kind where everyone should always act in their own best interest or whatever brings them the most happiness. The ethical egoist is not saying that we, as moral agents, ought to act selfishly, that is, that we should never promote the interests of others. Acting in the interests of others is quite consistent with ethical egoism, so long as acting in other people's interests is at the same time acting in one's own interests. Given the fact that very often what is good for others is also good for us, it is a fair bet that an ethical egoist would do things in many circumstances that promote the interests of others. For example are parents who sacrifice their well-being, at times their very lives, for the sake of their children.

                Utilitarianism is the kind that brings about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. In other words, the interests of all objects of moral concern must be considered on an equal basis in all ethical deliberation. One's own interests, or the interests of people within one's own social group, should not be given a favoured status over the interests of others. This is not to say that these interests are irrelevant to moral judgment. It would be as illegitimate to disregard one's own interests in moral judgment as it is to disregard the interests of others.

                Altruism states that an action is right if the consequences of the action are favourable to all except the actor.

               Deontological Theory refers to an ethical theory or perspective based on duty or obligation. A deontological, or duty-based, theory is one in which specific moral duties or obligations are seen as self-evident, having intrinsic value in and of themselves and needing no further justification. Moral actions are evaluated on the basis of inherent rightness or wrongness rather than goodness or a primary consideration of consequences. Kantianism and Divine Command Theory are deontological theories.

                 Kantianism emphasizes the type of action rather than on the consequences of that action. Example is the policemen that shoots and kills law abiding citizens. It may be stated in the bible that killing is prohibited but in order to maintain the peace order, the policemen must to their duties.

                Divine Command Theory is based on obedience, and not on reason. This theory uses the Holy Book as guide in making moral decisions. For example is that this theory upholds God's teachings which are perceived to be morally right.

xoxo,
pring

Dear Tralfamadorian

                What brought you here my dear Tralfamadorian? I just hope you come in peace, but it looks not. As an ordinary earthling living in this so called planet Earth, I would like to give you my Dear Tralfamadorian thoughts that you can ponder before I will let you take control over the things here in my home. Not that you are not welcome here in our place, but what you have right now in your mind is a big no for me as a human being. We humans here don't live as free as you are in your planet, I hope you know that. We live here according to what is appropriate and by that we follow in accordance to set of rules of right conduct which definitely regulates the human behaviour. And why do we do that? Simply because we value humanity. A life full of freedoms like yours may sound great and good. Everybody wants to live a free life, who doesn't want that? Freedom is not doing what you want to do, when you want to do it, in a way you want to do it. By freedom we mean it as living a life completely without restraints. In a world where there is absolute freedom, Anarchy exists.

                Here in our planet, we look at and understand life, in terms of good and bad or right and wrong. We call it Ethics here. Well, ethics main role is to help us humans in the societies to distinguish between right and wrong and to give each society a basis for justifying the judgement of human action. This may sound uninteresting to you, but what makes this thing interesting is its importance and essence in the daily lives of humans. I mean is, why ethics is significant to us. Well there is a lot to say.

                First, with ethics the world will not be messed up. People will live accordingly at peace with harmony of interests among others. Also it is a code of values which guides our choices and actions, and determines the purpose and course of our lives. It is simply a principle that helps promote, enhance, and maintain our lives. Ethics play a role in the lives of individuals and each individual has an influence on society considering that all people and things around them are affected by their choices whether they are good or bad. For example, running a stop sign or slowing down when the yellow light is on. Ethics influence the choices of an individual and it will eventually determine their lives and who they will become. Our beliefs, standards, and personalities are formed by the way we interpret what is wrong and right and how we act upon these interpretations. Without ethics, our society would become even more corrupt and fall from the great nation which it is today. Ethics help keep things in order and in peace. Because our decisions have such a great influence, it is our responsibility to our society and those around us to live a life of good ethics.

xoxo,

pring

Multiresolution Watermark Based on Wavelet Transform for Digital images

The basic concept of this research paper is to perform watermarking using wavelet domain. Since it consists of adding weight to the large coefficients at the high and medium frequency bands of the discrete wavelet transform of an image. But first, let us know why wavelets approach is used here. Considering that this process involves masking, transform domain is well suited to it since it is well localized both in time and frequency. Also, wavelet transform would allow much easier and optimized way in information protection. Another aspect of wavelet transform is to watermark an image in significant regions of the data in order to remain robust and risking image alteration. As we all know, image watermarking introduces the invincibility of the hidden image/text as “secret message” within another image but keeping the watermark robust too. The paper‘s methodology includes operating the frequency domain with Mean = 0 and Variance = 1 and following instructions with code snippets.

Code for getting the image and transforming it into gray scale image: (Figure 1)

img  = imread('home.jpg'); 

img  = rgb2gray(img);      

img  = double(img);

c = 0.01; 

figure,imshow(uint8(img)),title('Original Image');

[p q] = size(img)

Key Generation: (Figure 2)

n = awgn(img,4,3,'linear');

N = imabsdiff(n,img);

figure,imshow(double(N)),title('Key');

Image Decomposition:

[Lo_D,Hi_D,Lo_R,Hi_R] = wfilters('haar');

[ca,ch,cv,cd] = dwt2(img,Lo_D,Hi_D); 

**

Watermarking:

y = [ca ch;cv cd];

Y = y + c*abs(y).* N; 

p=p/2;q=q/2;

for i=1:p

    for j=1:q

        nca(i,j) = Y(i,j);

        ncv(i,j) = Y(i+p,j);

        nch(i,j) = Y(i,j+q);

        ncd(i,j) =  Y (i+p,j+q);

    end

end

** In order to weight the watermark according to the magnitude of the wavelet coefficients, we used one of the two following relations between the original coefficients y and ÿ, the ones containing the watermark:

  

It must be pointed out that the relations (1) and (2), even though they are mathematically different, but have the exact same goal which is to put more weight to the watermark added to high value wavelet coefficients. The parameter alpha is to control the level of the watermark; it is in fact a good way to choose between good transparency or good robustness or a tradeoff between the two. Finally, the two dimension inverse wavelet transform of is computed to form ÿ the watermarked image.

Display Watermarked Image: (Figure 3)

wimg = idwt2(nca,nch,ncv,ncd,Lo_R,Hi_R);

figure,imshow(uint8(wimg)),title('Watermarked Image');

Screenshots

Output of the program after execution.

Complete Code here.

Meeting 5

Finally, we already had a company for our Minor Field Trip. Guess what? We are visiting Davao Light and Power Company! It sounded like so cool for me. I can't wait to see everything inside that building. I am also excited for our interpersonal skill this coming Monday BUT, yes a big but I am too lazy to wake up and be there at the call time which is 7:30 am. That is so cruel. I just hope not to sleep while the program is on going. Looking forward on our snacks! Yum!