Eight Days a Week - Website

Just how careful does one need to be in one’s day-to-day life? The website www.safewithin.com should give you some idea. The website is entirely dedicated to disseminating information on the how-to of keeping yourself secure from various threats. The “Auto Safety” section will brief you on safe driving. The “Child Safety” section is for all those parents who want to make sure their child is safe when they’re not around. The “Home Safety” section is all about securing your house from various overt and covert threats. If you have a pet, then check out the “Pet Safety” section as well. But don’t miss the “Personal Safety” section which will help en route to physical safety and healthy eating habits. Is there something you should be watching out for, especially in this season? The “Seasonal Safety” section has the answer. The “Senior Safety” section addresses health concerns of elderly parents and grandparents. And finally, if you are planning to go abroad this summer, check out the “Travel Safety” section. It is definitely a very comprehensive website, but make sure you don’t become a safety freak by the time you’re done browsing this website.

Killing the online bug

Time spent on the PC or the Internet is never fool-proof. An innocent looking e-mail attachment, a loophole in the operating system and a simple encased floppy disk. And the next thing you know, the repair man is telling you that your system will have to be formatted. And that previous data of yours, well you can just forget all about it.

I am sure most of you know that a virus is harmful for your PC. But if you aren’t sure what a computer virus is, then check out http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/~aviva/compsec/virus/whatis.html. The virus is defined here as a ‘parasitic program’ that infiltrates your PC without your knowledge or permission and affects your precious files and data. Another site http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/usd/iss/ol/issues/viruses/whatis.html goes further by explaining the different types of viruses that exist, from boot sector virus, macro virus, worm Trojan horse and e-mail virus. For each virus explanations are available as how they enter your computer and what damage they can cause.

Probably the most common misconception is to use the terms virus, worm and Trojan interchangeably. No doubt all three are bad news for your PC, but nonetheless there is a difference that is explained at http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/1999041209131106. This link explains all the three terms and goes on to differentiate between the different types of viruses. You can also test whether or not your own notions of what a virus is are correct or not, as this web site also deals with what is not a virus (but can be considered as such).

The PC Virus Workshop Handout at http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/ccent/info/virus.htm also disseminates some useful information about viruses in general. The handout is presented in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which deals with common, but important questions like why should you care if there is a virus on your PC, means to discover whether or not your PC has been infected with a virus, how to use antivirus programmes and most importantly, how to carry out do-it-yourself measures to protect your PC, such as write-protecting your floppy disks.

McAfee Security has its own Virus Information Centre at http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp where you can access a wealth of information. The home page will let you know of the recent virus threats and how to combat them. The virus removal tools will provide you with the appropriate fixes. There is a virus calendar which will inform you of the different times of the months and years when certain viruses become active and wreak havoc with your system. The section on virus hoaxes should give you something to refer to when someone forwards the supposed virus threats. There are also a whole lot of newsletters which you can subscribe to receive this information in your e-mail as soon as it becomes available. In the end, I advise you to go through the Anti-Virus Tips section for information on how to detect and protect yourself from viruses.

One place where you can purchase a range of anti virus software is http://www.antivirus.com. Apart from reviews on the best picks of antivirus software, this site also offers loads of information on the recent virus threats. You can browse through the Virus Encyclopaedia to find out which virus is capable of what. Probably the best part of this web site is that it offers to do a free scan of your PC. So if you’re thinking that your PC is not infected, you might just be in for a good shock. The more technical users can browse through the white papers on information on malware, malicious code and architectural impact on performance if your PC is infected. If you maintain your own web site you can also add some virus updates to it as well.

For more information on how to protect your PC from viruses check out http://aolcom.com.com/4520-6600_7-5021309-1.html. It has a six-step protection plan which includes updating your windows to download the latest security patches, refraining from opening unsolicited e-mail attachments, keeping yourself informed of the latest virus threats, installing an antivirus software, scanning your system with it regularly and updating your software frequently to ensure it offers protections against the latest virus definitions.

More steps to protect your PC from viruses, worms and Trojan horses are given at http://www.securityguide.us/article.php?story=20030910184604708&mode=print. These steps include installing a good firewall (check out http://www.zonelabs.com) and making a backup of your system just in case.

And where will you get free antivirus downloads? Anti Virus Security and Free Downloads at http://download.com.com/3150-2239-0.html?tag=dir is one web site worth checking out. It contains a whole bunch of tools to combat the threats of viruses, worms and Trojan horse, all on one web site. You can also check out more anti virus utilities at http://pcxtreme.co.uk/antivirus/antivirusAtoM.html.

Where it is all too well to be informed, there is such a thing as ‘too informed’. You must keep in mind that some virus threats are a hoax and it doesn’t do to create hype about them in cyberspace. And you can learn more about them at http://www.vmyths.com/. Related to all these virus hoaxes it lists all the virus threats circulated through e-mail that are nothing but a hoax or urban legend. It also teaches you how to spot a virus hoax. Answer a few questions here whenever you receive a virus threat e-mail and you will most certainly know whether it is genuine or not. In the end, it also urges you to stop these hoaxes and outlines the necessary how-to.

The threat of viruses is a very real one. In the end, it all falls down to us, innocent PC users to keep on scanning our systems and updating our security software. But if it does prove to be a guarantee of safeguarding our data, then I guess all the hard work is worth it.

Problems with Co-Education

Much has been written both in favor of, and against co-educational institutes in Pakistan. Both the proponents and opponents cite apparently valid arguments to support their view. But if we look from a Western sociological perspective, co-education has been declared as extremely disadvantageous to the female students. Many feminist movements have started an active campaign to get single-sex schools established in large numbers.

So why should co-education be disadvantageous? After all, we have all heard that the school being a miniature form of the society at large, co-education encourages young adults to learn how to interact, much as they would do in the wider society. Co-education also helps, according to its proponents, to inculcate confidence and self-esteem in students as they engage in healthy interaction in classes and extra-curricular activities. Ask these proponents about any moral problems whatsoever. Their answer is that it all depends on you, as an individual, as to how you choose to interact with the opposite sex.

But now, if you examine the Western sociologists and what they have discovered through their research, their studies more or less negate the positive aspects of co-education. In fact, the increasing achievement level of female students has been attributed to the increase in single-sex classes. Single-sex classes along with a female teacher, provides a positive role model for the students, not only in traditionally female-dominated subjects like humanities, but also in subjects like science and engineering. The latter subjects, which were traditionally considered as ‘male domains,’ are now being characterized by increasing female achievement levels. Single-sex classes increase the confidence of female student, according to this interpretation, and results in a more positive attitude to science and technology subjects.

Moving on to the study of individual sociologists, the most notable one is that of Michelle Stanworth, who carried out her study “Gender and Schooling” of A’Level classes. She discovered that interaction in the classroom affected the female students in a very negative way: they got less attention of the teachers, were discouraged from class participation and lacked self-esteem considerably. Her conclusion of girls getting less attention was determined by interviews with teachers. When asked about whom they give the most attention to, the teachers named a male student two and a half times as often as a female student. Most of the teachers felt that it was much more difficult to remember the names of the female students of the class. Discouragement in class participation was determined through the response of the pupils who reported that the male students were four times more likely to join a class discussion, twice as likely to seek help from the teacher and twice as likely to be asked questions. And finally, girls’ underestimation of their ability was discovered when the pupils were asked to rank themselves in terms of their ability, and teachers were asked to rank their students accordingly. In 19 out of 24 cases in which there was a discrepancy between the two rankings, girls had placed themselves lower than their teacher’s estimate and all but one boy placed themselves higher than the teacher’s rank.

Another sociologist, Dale Spender has argued in her book “Invisible Women” that the female students get less attention than male students in the classroom. Spender taped some of the classes she took, in which she tried to divide her time equally between the male and female students. She discovered, however, she only spent 38% of her whole time in interacting with the female students. After a further study, she observed that the female students have to wait for a longer time before they receive any attention from the teacher. Also, the attitude of the male students towards the female student is extremely degrading. She found that the male students tended to insult and abuse the female students. They also had a very dismissive attitude towards them if they took any part in class discussions. Spender concludes that the female students, who come out of such educational systems, tend to be submissive and docile in their later lives, who accept male domination without question.

Allison Kelly’s study “Science for Girls” was mainly focused on why science subjects were considered as male domains and she discovered that the female students are disadvantaged in the science classes, which leads them to study arts and humanities instead. In the science classes, she observed, teachers tended to use examples which were more familiar to the male students. The latter also had the tendency to hog the scientific apparatus and shout answers to the questions asked to the class in general. Similarly, Culley’s study of computing classes concluded that the male students monopolized the computers and created an uncomfortable environment for the female students.

An article by Grenville Phillips entitled “Co-education in the Balance” looks at an alternative point of view in opposing co-education. It argues that the brains of the males and females develop differently. Certain psychological experiments indicate that the left side of the brain is characterized by rationality, and the right side of the brain is characterized by emotions. In females, there is an intact connection between the left and ride sides of the brain, while in males, the connection is broken. Hence, female students are more productive in the sense that they can pay attention to many aspects of their education simultaneously, while the male students can only concentrate on one aspect at a time. This difference in ability of learning can have an impact in mixed-sex classes. One subject can only be taught in one way, so which way is it going to be? One which works for the female students or one which works for the male students?

The above mentioned studies do point towards the fact that mixed-sex classrooms are disadvantaging female students in many ways. Of course the above studies have been heavily criticized as well. But one cannot ignore the fact that if the wider society is characterized by patriarchal relations, such relations tend to reflect themselves in the classroom as well which, as I said in the beginning, is considered as a miniature form of the society as a whole. Can we expect our new generation of female students to be independent and self-assured, if they are a product of such co-educational classrooms/schools? Food for thought.