Maya

Maya
Cyber Defender & Databank Supervisor

Because of her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Maya started out as a librarian. While she loved her job, she wanted to do more to help protect people.

Since Cyber Villains such as Ms. Information and Elvirus can corrupt websites and the information on them, Maya teaches people to protect themselves by using caution when visiting websites and avoiding sites that are not trustworthy.

Favorite Quote:

Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime
- Chinese Proverb

Favorite Food:

Anything chocolate

Interests:

Browsing bookstores, baking

February 24 2009

Cyber Terminology: What is a Local Area Network?

A Local Area Network, or LAN, is a computer network that covers a relatively small area, usually just a single building or small group of buildings. Each computer in a LAN operates by itself but can also access and share data with any other device in the network. This allows a group of people to share information and peripherals like printers, and to communicate with each other through the network by sending messages or chatting.

LANs can also be used for LAN parties, where computers are networked together to play multiplayer computer games. LAN parties can be as small as two people or larger than 10,000 people. Some LAN parties require people to bring their own computers, and most are usually organized in advance to make sure there is enough space, electricity, and food for everyone.

posted by Maya
topic: Cyber Terminology

February 16 2009

Judging the costume contest

I was extremely impressed by the creativity the Cadets showed at the costume contest. There were some truly wonderful and clever costumes, but it was clear to everyone who deserved the prize. Dana's thoroughness in both researching the history of her fictional figures and creating them accurately was very evident in hers and Alan's costumes.

Second place went to Yoko and Richard for their striking resemblance to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Although Alexi and Carlo's Pocahontas and John Smith costumes were great, I had to give them third place because technically Pocahontas married John Rolfe, not John Smith. In truth I think Alexi ran out of time. She’d been in the Databank every day that week. She might learn a thing or two from Dana about focus.

posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous

February 10 2009

Using the Web: Online Dictionaries and Thesauruses

dic-tio-nary - noun: a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses (from Merriam-Webster).

Looking for a good dictionary or thesaurus online? I can't even remember the last time I used an actual dictionary or thesaurus book. There are so many useful dictionary sites right at your fingertips! Here's just a few:

posted by Maya
topic: Using the Web

February 5 2009

The Databank

One of the biggest challenges working at the Databank is just trying to keep up with the ever-evolving Internet. We archive the current status of the Web sites in Cyberspace, so that Cadets can easily access the most up-to-date content, but every day there are thousands of new Web sites and updates to existing sites. It’s just impossible for one person to go through it all, so we’ve developed bots to do the work automatically.

But our bots are not doing as well as they used to. Certain types of new sites are getting mislabeled and the few things we still do by hand need to be automated, so I decided this semester to bring the bots up-to-date. We're giving Alexi a chance to redeem herself as my assistant with this task, but I think she's still going to find it to be quite a challenge.

posted by Maya
topic: Miscellaneous