Yesterday, I read about a combined dormitory which became operative in some areas in United States. I was very surprised when I found this article because it is unconceivable thing in Korea, a conservative country. However, the situation was same in America and many Americans have different opinions about that.

   Some people agree with a combined dormitory. They insist that the right of gays be protected. According to article many gay students are having a great difficulties living in a dorm with their male friends and many of them want to share room with female friends or live alone.

   On the other hand, some people disagree with this idea. They believe that a new policy will cause serious sex problems like Teen’s pregnancy, unmarried mothers abandoned children. In addition, they are also saying that there are possibilities for many immature students to have wrong sex morality.

   In my point of view, a combined dormitory policy is too early to be operated. Though many university students might insist that they can control their lives, still many people have a tendency to make mistakes when they are given freedom. I’m not saying that this system is wrong. I’m just telling you that we should think one more time if there are serious side effects.

   What do you say about this issue?

   Have you ever heard of this word? It’s generally known as Golden Miss in Korea and the number of alpha girls is tending upwards. As a woman who wishes to be one of them, I would like to write something down about it.  

   Alpha girls are so-called women who have high educational backgrounds and afford to do anything they want. They usually don’t get married and live alone enjoying their gorgeous lives. Moreover, their common interests are fashion, beauty, and cosmetic and leisure activities. At first, I thought they are pathetic because it seemed like an excuse to me for not being able to find perfect men for them. However, as time goes by and I’m getting older, I believe that being an alpha girl is pretty much cool and is exactly what I want to be.   

   First, they can enjoy and work without any responsibilities about husbands and kids. It’s not quite surprising that many of women especially in Korea stop working after getting married and too busy with the care of their families to spend some time for themselves. They can whatever sports they want to do and go wherever they want to go which they would’ve never had chances to do if they just get married. Moreover, they also can work as much as they want and that will give them wealth as well as good position in their workplace.   

   Second, they have power over men. I believe that the only reason why men have more authorities in society is because they make more money than women. However, it doesn’t apply to alpha girls because a lot of these qualified women earn much more fortune than any other men. They even can speak up on certain issues and insist their opinion against men.   

   Women have to be competent for special areas in order to enjoy our lives and not to be controlled by men. An age of patriarchy and gender discrimination has gone and it’s time for women to speak their voice up. To do so, being an alpha girl can be one of alternatives.

Hacker breaks into Daum’s system

By Jin Hyun-jung

   The nation’s second-largest internet portal Daum was attacked by a professional hacker in July, the police said yesterday, revealing loopholes in the firm’s security system.

   The hacker, who was only identified by his surname Shin, broke into the portal’s customer consulting system which allegedly contains personal information of customers such as their names and citizen registration numbers.

   The internet firm subsequently asked 7,000 members to change their id and password without informing them of the incident.

   Daum said in a statement that it kept the incident under wraps for eight months due to concerns that the suspect will disclose the information that he obtained. The company said it found no evidence that the suspect gained access to its server and customer database.

   It also enhanced its security system to fill the hacking loopholes.

   Shin threatened to sell the personal information, demanding tens of millions of won. The police are still seeking Shin’s whereabouts.  

(The Korea Herald/ Thursday March 27, 2008)

——————————————————————————————

   When I first read this article about 3 days ago, I thought this could be a good material for our class. I found two things to think about in this article – one is what the hacker did after hacking and the other is what company did when they knew about hacking. I guess it’s rather different from what we’ve learned.

   First, hacker threatened a firm and demanded money, which looks a little different from other hackers that we’ve covered in class. “Hacker Crackdown” said that the purposes of hacking are to learn something, to show off, to warn or for fun. For that reason, I reached the conclusion that the objectives of hackers are changing as time goes by and technology develops. This idea can be supported by many other hackers who ask for money after they hack individual homepages of famous celebrities.

   Second, a company didn’t publicize the fact their portal site had been hacked. It could have been dangerous because many people didn’t care the notice that a firm posted including me. Even though the company worried about customers’ information which would be opened to the general public if they let people know, they definitely should’ve told us.

   In my opinion, we need to talk about both the definition and purpose of hackers and what company should do related to publicity and secrecy. What do you think?

      These days many criminal movies that a lot of people are crazy about are released and the number of merciless crimes that is reported by media are increasing. Do you think the movies and real crimes are irrelevant? Some of you might think so but I don’t.

      Whenever I see movies about serial killer who murders a lot of people cruelly, I am quite worried about the possibilities of happening similar crimes with similar techniques. That can instigate potential criminals to commit a crime or provide them of new ideas about how to kill people. We can also find that the murder of two elementary school girls is quite similar with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in the point of techniques and motives. Both murderers chopped off the victims without any reason. That surely makes us creepy. Even though there are many movies based on the real stories it’s also true that this kind of movies are inciting to more heartless crimes.

      At this point, I want to ask you meaningless questions. What are these movies for? Is it for the people who want to kill someone but have no idea how to do it? Or is it for the public people who just enjoying watching this sort of movies? Whatever it is, that doesn’t help anyone. We should think how serious crimes these movies can cause and if it’s possible, I think we’d better stop manufacturing cruel criminal movies. Movies which make human life worthless and valueless must not be produced anymore. There are already too many victims who have been sacrificed.

   Today, I read an article about GPS system, which is to protect our kids from being kidnapped. Since two elementary school girls were murdered, it has been a big issue and maybe most of people would agreed with this safety device. However, I think this is just a stopgap not a radical resolution. I will explain to you my position.

   First, police officials are trying to avoid the blame from citizens for taking 82 days to find the murderer. It is 82 days that is really important in this situation. According to studies about sexual and abductions crimes, many of suspects were usually people who lived near victims. Also, in this case, the killer lived only 150m far from victim’s house. For that reason, I’m quite doubtful about the way police officers do their job. Therefore, they decided to draw people’s attention elsewhere in order to avoid their responsibility, which apparently sounds effective.

  Second, GPS system is about privacy that many people want to keep. If all citizens install GPS systems on their cell phones we are under the control of big brother. Some people might say that we have to take a risk for the better peace but do you think the sexual and children-related crimes will disappear if we do this? I don’t think so. Eventually it will turn out to be not effective at all and will only violate our private life.

  I mentioned two important reasons why GPS system, which is suggested by police officials, can not be a radical resolution. It’s just an excuse for cops. We need to find more effective and practical ways to protect both childrens from crime and privacy as well.