Essay: The Presence of Oxygen in Earth’s Atmosphere and It’s Effects on Evolution of Early Organisms

This short essay was nominated for the 2011 Fanshawe College Academic Senior Vice President’s Writing Award in the Science and Social Science category. Although I was one of the Top 3 finalists, I was disqualified because my program end date was December rather than April, meaning I wouldn’t be a current student at the time of the award ceremony.

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Oxygen has always been an important part of life on earth, dating back to the first signs of life millions of years ago. Oxygen is the 8^th element on the periodic table; a gas at room temperature. To condense into a liquid, the temperature must be reduced to -182.95 degrees Celsius. This temperature is much colder than the current low-temperature record here on Earth (-89.2 degrees Celsius), meaning that oxygen will always be a gas under natural conditions on Earth, given there are no major environmental disruptions.

TechFee’d Archives: Is Kinect on your Christmas List This Year?

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on November 29, 2010.

Released on November 4 in North America, Kinect is an addon for Microsoft’s Xbox360 gaming console. Before the official announcement, Kinect was referred to by its codename, “Project Natal.” With the use of a mounted camera and nothing else, Kinect is able to pick up the movements of players, representing their images as characters on the screen. This allows for a whole new range of movement-based games. Though the most obvious genre is sports, fitness and workout games, there are also driving and fighting games, along with more wellknown names like Sonic the Hedgehog. In addition to the 19 games already launched, 22 games have been announced as in the development stage.

TechFee’d Archives: Firesheep Makes It Easy For Hackers

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on November 22, 2010.

Do you use free public Wi-Fi? A new Firefox plugin called Firesheep may be enough to make you rethink your actions.

Firesheep has been around for nearly two months, unveiled on October 25, 2010 by a software developer out of Seattle named Eric Butler. Available for free download, Firesheep takes advantage of a security loophole found in unencrypted public Wi-Fi. Those who install the plugin can connect to any public Wi-Fi, such as that found at Starbucks or Coffee Culture, and use it to take over, or “side-jack,” those using typically secure websites. Just because you’ve never shared your Facebook password doesn’t mean someone nearby can’t gain access to your account.

But it’ll never happen to me, right? Think again; Firesheep has been downloaded nearly one million times, and although the installation is a little tricky, numerous tutorials and YouTube videos make it a simple process that almost anyone with a laptop can accomplish.

TechFee’d Archives: Copyright Laws Questioned in Internet Flame War

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on November 15, 2010.

Looking for an easy way to get an angry mob of Facebook users to follow you on your every move around the Internet? Leave it to Cooks Source Magazine to show you how it’s done.

TechFee’d Archives: Minecraft Blast From Past Gaining In Popularity

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on November 8, 2010.

The fact that Minecraft hasn’t even reached Beta hasn’t stopped it from being one of the most popular new games on the market.

Categorized as a “3D sandbox” game for PC, Minecraft players use textured blocks to build everything from houses to roller coasters. The classic version of the game is free of cost, and lets players exercise their creativity by building structures with unlimited blocks. It also offers survival mode, which expands the variety of items available and adds monsters. The latest implementation of the game is the Alpha version, and while it is not free, it is the only version that is currently updated regularly.

TechFee’d Archives: Make a Good Impression With Social Networking

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on October 25, 2010.

We’ve all heard stories about the teacher who was fired for Facebook pictures of her holding a drink, or the woman fired for insulting her boss through a status update. That stuff doesn’t happen in real life … right?

I’m in the act of post-graduation job hunting, and every ad I’ve applied to thus far has asked for a Twitter username, Facebook account or personal URL. Employers have ceased being sneaky about it; they’re blatantly advertising that they’re going to snoop your profiles before they even think about giving you an interview.

TechFee’d Archives: Phone Wars Heating Up

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on October 18, 2010.

There’s new competition on the field.

Monday, October 11, was the long awaited launch event for the newest edition of Microsoft’s smartphone operating system – Windows Phone 7. This new OS, which will be available in the 2010 holiday season (with no specific release date) is direct competition to Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS.

While the outlook for this new iteration is generally optimistic, previous editions – most notably Windows Mobile 6 – were received in quite the opposite fashion. Though many found version 6 an improvement over Windows Mobile 5, it put up a weak fight against the other competitors. Perhaps the poor reputation acquired by earlier versions was reason for the rebranding from “Windows Mobile” to “Windows Phone.”

TechFee’d Archives: iPad Madness!

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on October 11, 2010.

The iPad, Apple’s 9.7-inch tablet-style computer, was announced on January 27, 2010 at an Apple press conference by bigwig Steve Jobs. Of course, the media went rabid over any ounce of information they could find on this so-called revolutionary device, and Apple enthusiasts lined up to get on the waiting list for the chance to buy their very own iPad on release day – May 28 in Canada.

As I witnessed the immediate flood of excitement that washed over future buyers, I couldn’t help but find the whole thing a bit silly – we all have laptops, smart phones and fancy MP3 players capable of doing anything from chatting with friends on the other side of the world to watching the newest music videos online. Even many modern MP3 players come with wi-fi capabilities, a camera and a web browser. With all these toys already cluttering up our desks, handbags and backpacks, who could possibly need an iPad? Isn’t it just another device to perform the exact same functions with a slight variation in size and input method? The idea is to pack everything into one device, but consumers still insist on carrying a variety of tools to perform these functions.

TechFee’d Archives: Location-based craze – is it safe?

Originally published in the Fanshawe Interrobang on October 4, 2010.

Location-based social networking is nothing new by technology’s standards. Loopd, founded in 2005, was one of the first of such services available, while Gowalla (2007) and Foursquare (2009) have excelled and brought popularity to the technology.

With more than a dozen alternatives available, almost any smartphone equipped with GPS can be used to let a service know where you’re hanging out, and give you the ability to check-in to venues and leave tips, pictures, or other information for future visitors.

Common sense, or perhaps laziness?

Last night I went out for the night with a friend from school, returning home around 1:30. Usually when I get home that late, the building is deserted and has been for some time, as the elevators always take a few minutes to warm up and start running again. This time, however, there were about 7 people standing in the lobby, as well as a few people outside.

Going inside, an infuriated lady standing by the elevator informed me they were “broken”. She was RAGING. She also wasn’t letting anyone near them, and was claiming things like “I tried it! You’re my witness!”

I did the obvious thing and headed down the first floor hall to the stairwell. I live on the 4th floor, and my building is only 8 stories, so really, it’s not that far of a hike. I bit annoying, but definitely not a horrible experience. 3 guys followed me – as they chatted, I found, that apparently they had not even thought of taking the stairs. Nor had anyone else. Now, there are two types of people in my building – those that ALWAYS take the stairs, those that REFUSE to take the stairs, and those (like me) will take the elevator when possible, but take the stairs when necessary.

Walking down the hall, the lady was still SCREAMING “I”VE BEEN HERE FOR AN HOUR! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET TO MY APARTMENT!”. I’m quite sure she hadn’t been there an hour. My guess, is that because the elevators take a few minutes to start when they’ve been idle, she likely just hadn’t waited long enough. Or hit the button once and not tried again – when a crowd gathered, she wouldn’t let anyone hit it again. Perhaps she realized her mistake of not hitting the button.

Anyways, I got to my floor. The stairwell is on the opposite end of the building to my apartment, so to get to my apartment I have to pass the elevators, which are in the middle of the building. Curious as to my theory, I hit the down button on the way by. Sure enough, within 15 seconds, the elevator was on my floor.

Now, the question is – why the heck did no one take the stairs, and instead just form a gathering in the lobby? Was everyone too drunk to think of such a thing? Or were they all just incredibly lazy?