Larson Oct 20th

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 Assignment 2: Narrative-Imaginative-Descriptive DRAFT Hacking Case Anonymous Reportage One night two hackers decided to hack a bank’s bill. They were two old good friends in a small house in New York, who knew a lot about computers. Their dreams of their whole lives have been to hack a bank and become millionaires. Apparently that night was a great opportunity to take action. They had just arrived from a computer-dealer’s shop downtown, and bought the two routers they lacked of to complete the hacking operation. Excited by their anxiety they established their computing room in the living-room, connected all cables in their places and began working. They entered the bank’s archives and finally changed some numbers. With great amusement they both took out some beer and drank all the night. As the plan followed, one of them was supposed to go personally to the bank and get all the 5’000’000 dollars they had put into the account. At 10:00 a.m., the morning after, Matt, the older guy, owner of the house and the account, got up and changed clothes while his friend remained asleep with a beer bottle in his left hand. He loaded a gun just in case and left away towards the Merrill Lynch New York’s bank ready to get their money out. (also paragraphing) Having asked a bank-guard where he could take away great amounts of money, he headed towards the manager’s office, knocked at the door, and a secretary told Matt to wait nearby since the manager Mc Donald was on the phone. 15 minutes of waiting time seemed an hour for the anxious and nervous newly rich robber. He stared out of the window as a cute girl walked past the street when his cell phone rang; it was Ben – Matt? Where are you? – I’m at the bank just about to take away our fortune. – Wait, hold on! I’ve been trying to enter the bank’s archives and someone has apparently changed the password, it seems they’ve noticed we’ve hacked the archives… why don’t you wait 5 minutes and let me enter the bank’s archives again so I check everything is going on as we planned it. – Don’t be fool Ben! – He ended the conversation just at the time the manager opened his office door – Mr. Matthew Peterson? – Yes sir. – Come in please, take a sit… so what do you need? – I want to take my money out of my account. – All of it? … Right now? – Yes sir, if I can. – Well well, let’s see… The manager began researching for his account in the computer and said allowed: 5’000’000 dollars, well I’ll give them to you right now… - He went to another room and after 20 minutes came out again with a black thick suitcase. He opened it and it was full of 100 dollars notes. Matt saw this suitcase and couldn’t believe it. ( ) Manager said: - do you want to count them by yourself? – Matt didn’t answer, he felt uncomfortably nervous, he was all sweat, his anxiousness wouldn’t let him breathe, and finally… he suffered a heart attack. Ambulances arrived but it was too late. Matt Peterson died that morning at the Merrill Lynch bank in an attempt to take 5’000’000 dollars out from his account. Ben got this news by the afternoon when after calling Matt at his cell phone repeatedly, got worried and drove to the bank.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 From one joyful moment to another all went wrong. Ben went…. that same afternoon to Matt’s funeral and returned home crying, feeling as if it was his funeral too. Benjamin remained in his bed thoughtful. The stolen money lied in Matt’s account. Matt didn’t have a family, nor-parents, nor-cousins, nor-nephews alive. Where will all that money to? How could he take it away if it wasn’t his account? What happened the following day… as I heard was that all those 5’000’000 dollars may have been absolved by the state. All was lost, all was gone for Ben Mayer, a poor 21 year old fellow died of a heart attack due to stress and depression. No-one could prove certainly why Ben got to that extreme of stress, but I wouldn’t open my mouth. The day after his death, a black suitcase arrived to Ben’s house with a will, Matt’s will, in which he stated clearly that his property should be given to Benjamin Mayer (his best friend) in case he died. Where did all that money end? Well… as I said, I won’t open my mouth… but why not tell you that Benjamin had a servant… ? See to word order and punctuation mistakes Assignment 2: Narrative-Imaginative-Descriptive Hacking - Case Anonymous Reportage -

Hey Tom, how come that you have such a spectacular car…a beautiful house in the seashore…when two months ago you were nothing more than a servant? It’s a long story… do you wanna hear it? Why not?

One night two hackers decided to hack a bank’s archives. They were two old good friends in a small house in New York, who knew a lot about computers. Their dreams of their whole lives had been to hack a bank and become millionaires. Apparently, that night was a great opportunity to take action. They had just arrived from a computer-dealer’s shop downtown, and bought the two routers they lacked of to complete the hacking operation. Excited by their anxiety they established their computing room in the living-room, connected all cables in their places and began working. They entered the bank’s archives and finally changed some numbers. With great amusement, both of them took out some beer and drank all the night. As the plan followed, one of them was supposed to go to the bank and get all the five million dollars they had put into the account. At 10:00 a.m., the morning after, Matt, the older guy, owner of the house and the account, got up and dressed up in formal clothes while his friend remained asleep with a beer bottle in his left hand. He loaded a gun just in case and drove towards the Merrill Lynch New York’s bank ready to get their money out. Having asked a bank-guard where he could take away great amounts of money, he headed towards the manager’s office, knocked at the door, and a secretary told Matt to wait nearby since the manager Mc Donald was on the phone. Fifteen minutes of waiting

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 time seemed an hour for the anxious and nervous newly rich robber. He stared out of the window as a cute girl walked past the street when his cell phone rang; it was Ben – Matt? Where are you? – I’m at the bank just about to get our fortune. – Wait, hold on! I’ve been trying to enter the bank’s archives and someone has apparently changed the password, it seems they’ve noticed we’ve hacked the archives… why don’t you wait five minutes and let me enter the bank’s archives again so I check everything is going on as we planned it. – Don’t be innocent Ben! – He ended the conversation by the time the manager opened his office door – Mr. Matthew Peterson? – Yes sir. – Come in please, take a sit… so what do you need? – I want to take my money out of my account. – All of it? … Right now? – Yes sir, if I can. – Well…well, let’s see… The manager began searching for his account in the computer and said allowed: five million dollars, well I’ll give them to you right now… - He went to another room and after 20 minutes came out again with a black thick suitcase. He opened it and it was full of 100 dollars notes. Matt saw this suitcase and couldn’t believe it. Mc Donald said: - do you want to count them by yourself? – Matt didn’t answer, he felt uncomfortably nervous, drops of sweat fell down from his forehead, his anxiousness wouldn’t let him breathe, and finally… he suffered a heart attack. Ambulances arrived but it was too late. Matt Peterson died that morning at the Merrill Lynch bank in an attempt to take five million dollars out of his account. Ben got this news by the afternoon when, after calling Matt at his cell phone repeatedly, got worried and drove to the bank. From one joyful moment to another all went wrong. Ben went that same afternoon to Matt’s funeral and returned home crying, feeling as if it was his funeral too. Benjamin remained in his bed thoughtful. The stolen money lied in Matt’s account. Matt didn’t have a family, nor-parents, nor-cousins, nor-nephews alive. Where will all that money end? How could he take it away if it wasn’t his account? What happened the following day… as I heard all those five million dollars were absolved by the state. All was lost; all was gone for Ben Mayer, a poor 21 year old fellow who died of a heart attack due to stress and depression. No-one could prove certainly why Ben got to that extreme of stress, but I won’t tell anymore. The day after his death, a black suitcase arrived to Ben’s house with a will, Matt’s will, in which he stated clearly that his property should be given to Benjamin Mayer (his best friend) in case he died. Where did all that money end? Well… as I said, I won’t tell anymore… but why not tell you that Benjamin had a servant in his house…? Gripping story!! Very well written. 34 out of 40 points. Assignment 3: Reading and writing. Based on the following article:

Web underused in time of crisis Technology commentator Bill Thompson says the web was a powerful tool - but sorely underused - during the airport chaos caused by arrests on Thursday for alleged plotting to blow up planes.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 This should be coming to you via e-mail from Venice, where the cybercafes have started offering wireless connections and you can even log on while sitting at the waterbus stop. Instead I'm sitting on my living room floor trying to decide whether the 1900 Ryanair flight to Forli I booked myself on Thursday night will actually take off, and looking at the Trenitalia website trying to decide whether I'll be in Italy in time to catch the last train to Venice's Santa Lucia station. Thursday wasn't a good day to try to get off this island of ours. I woke to the news of the new security procedures and growing chaos, but since my Easyjet flight from Gatwick wasn't until that evening I decided to go to the airport anyway, hoping that the system would have settled down a little. Unfortunately Easyjet cancelled all their flights from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted and I was left stranded. After queuing at the British Airways ticket desk I learned that they weren't selling any tickets at all for flights within the next two days, so it seemed was no chance of getting on a plane that day.

The information screens were little help, showing flight times that had long passed, so I headed to a café downstairs and paid for a day's wi-fi. None of the airlines has anything as useful as an RSS feed for flight updates that I could subscribe to

From my laptop I was able to check out the various airline websites and get a sense of what was going on. Showing remarkable efficiency, Easyjet were already offering any passengers on cancelled flights free re-booking, so I moved my flight to Sunday, the earliest available slot and one that seemed to stand a chance of flying. Then I surfed around, looking at news services and airline sites, and found that Ryanair was running a limited service from Stansted. Desperate to get away, and confident that if I could get anywhere in continental Europe I could get a train or even another flight, I went there to see what was available.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 When I finally made my way to the Ryanair ticket desk at Stansted at around 4pm on Thursday afternoon I was told that they were full and there was no chance of getting out that evening. I couldn't even buy a ticket for tomorrow, as they weren't selling any tickets at all from the desk. When I pressed her the woman at the counter did check and tell me that there was one flight to Italy on Friday morning with spaces, but she couldn't sell me a ticket. So I sloped off to the corner of the terminal, got out my laptop and managed to make a booking, a lot happier than the man at the desk next to me who was getting increasingly frustrated. I may have used the web to get a flight, but it hadn't been my first choice for finding out what was going on earlier in the day. While everything was developing during the morning I had the TV and radio on, and let my attention drift between them while I checked my e-mail, packed and got things together for the day. I didn't use the web because things were happening so fast that the ability of speech-based media to break news immediately and the way I could split my attention between what I was doing and what was being said was invaluable. But once I got to the airports and into the maelstrom the net was vital. Even if I'd had a portable radio with me, the information I needed was too detailed to be provided by the mass media. With my laptop I could check detailed lists of cancellations and try to find another flight. The few attempts I made to call reservation centres at BA and Ryanair were as futile as I knew they would be, but I managed to get myself booked on the morning flight to Milan - since cancelled, as you might expect, but rebooked for the evening - within five minutes of being told there were spaces on it. Of course it was far from perfect. There's no way to book a flight for the same day, and Ryanair didn't bother to send me an e-mail overnight to tell me that my early morning flight had been cancelled, even though they insisted I provided an address. And none of the airlines has anything as useful as an RSS feed for flight updates that I could subscribe to. But without the web it would simply have been impossible. I now face another problem, of course. The new rules mean that I will have to check in all of my luggage, including my phone and, crucially, my laptop. Do I trust the baggage system, with the danger of damage or pilfering, with my PowerBook? I don't think I can take the risk, so it's going to have to stay home and I'll cope by using cybercafes or whatever other access I can find.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 And that means if anything goes wrong I'll be completely stuck. I won't even have my phone, once I've checked in my bag. In the old days any working journalist would head off on a story with a pocket full of loose change so that they could phone the office - I wonder if I'm allowed a few euro coins in my clear plastic bag? Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/5245080.stm Published: 2006/08/04 11:02:48

I’ve been analyzing the article “Web Underused in Time of Crisis” which was published on the BBC network. It is based on the experience Bill Thompson, the technology commentator of BBC, went through during a turmoil caused by the arrests due to a terrorist’s attempt to blow up planes in an English airport. He states that the web was “underused” and ignored in such a chaotic situation, being this technological advance a “powerful tool”, a convenient alternative to book tickets and follow the flight’s schedules. I strongly support Thompson’s main idea; the web is a very important innovation of modern times, and offers great facilities and alternatives of communications and media’s distribution from which people in general do not seem to take advantage. In my opinion, people should be more concerned about the facilities offered by the web; they can be of great help in times of crisis up to the point that when you start using it, it becomes nearly a must. This is clearly shown in Thompson’s report: “But once I got to the airports and into the maelstrom the net was vital.” “But without the web it would simply have been impossible.” In Argentina, the web is practically unused. People are generally concerned only about the advantages offered by e-mails or chats and the web pages’ finders such as Google or Yahoo. But they are missing other facilities such as long-distance study programs, or virtual trading pages such as Mercadolibre in South America or the global E-Bay service, Tickets’ bookings for flights or whatever you can imagine could be facilitated by the use of the web. Argentina is not a country with end technology, moreover, a great proportion of its population live in poverty, which implies they cannot afford computers or easy access to the Internet. But concentrating my analysis on the sector of people who can access the web, I find that the younger generations are more in touch with the web than adults since the least generations were born among technology and its cyclic advances. Different is the situation of a sixty-year-old person trying to understand technology and being aware of the facilities offered by it.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 Technology is apparently advancing quicker than what people are aware of, so that’s why many others are not up to it. Although the Internet is a powerful tool that facilitates life, it is a very personal decision whether to take profit of it or not, I know a lot of people who hate the Internet while others criticize their position. The truth is that this anti-technology people provide sound arguments such as that it is unnatural to dedicate our time to a machine, and quiet boring. Regarding those persons who do not get along with computers and the web, but I still understand the web as a revolution of modern times. It is up to us to cling our selves to it, take profits, and live in a modern way. Quite original reading passage, very good supporting arguments. 8 out of 10.

Assignment 1 – Argumentative & informative John F. Kennedy’s Assassination John F. Kennedy was shot to death in 1963, in Dallas. He was hit in the head and throat when three shots were fired at his open-topped car, while he was travelling through the main business area of the city. One of the murderers was identified: Harvey Lee Oswald. However, it is unbelievable that still today nobody knows for sure why he was killed and by whom. Will we ever get to know? I do not think so; many years have passed since the assassination occurred. During this lapse of time, evidences have been destroyed and many witnesses have died. But we can still make our own suppositions to provide answers to this question. At first sight it appeared that the crime consisted in an attempt towards the government of the United States. Shortly after the shooting, it was a time of great confusion, since it took place during the cold war, people started to wonder if the crime was not part of a longer attack. But some evidence began to prove that it was a whole conspiracy within an agent of the FBI, James Hosty, who appeared in Oswald’s address book. But later on, the FBI provided a typewritten transcription of the document in which Hosty’s name and phone number were deleted. More over, two days before the murder, Oswald went to the FBI office in Dallas to meet Hosty, and he when found that Hosty was not at work, he left a letter for him. When Oswald was arrested, he was immediately murdered, and in order to destroy evidences completely, Hosty was asked (by his supervisor) to destroy the letter, and Hosty did so. Here we can clearly see that the government was involved in the crime but we still can not prove who gave the order. To my mind it is reasonable to take Lyndon B. Johnson as the promoter of the crime since, before it, he was the vice-president, and it is sound to say that he was motivated by a great ambition for power. Johnson is greatly suspicious of the crime also because he had enough power to create a secret conspiracy with the FBI. Indeed, the first official investigation of the

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Larsson, Matías AR512 0012 assassination was established by him two weeks after Kennedy’s death. This commission of investigation was headed by Earl Warren under the supervision of Johnson, universally known as the Warren Commission. It is quiet suspicious the fact that Lyndon Johnson was the one who took action in informing the world on what happened, since this would let him narrate his own version of the crime according to his plans, in order to hide evidences. There are many other controversial theories about President Kennedy’s assassination. There are many people that sustain the existence of an unknown conspiracy involved in the crime, but they also state Oswald was not involved at all since shortly after his arrest he insisted he was a “patsy”, and never admitted any participation in the assassination. This supposition gives place to another version of the conflict. Supposing there was another conspiracy with nothing to do with the FBI, we can think that Oswald was first, unfairly accused as the murderer and soon assassinated in order to make people think he was the assassin (and the conspiracy did not want him to reveal information which in fact, he would not have since we are supposing he was innocent).Taking advantage of Oswald’s relationship with the FBI agent, would have also been of great convenience for this people by causing confusion by involving the FBI. There are still a lot of theories to mention but which cannot be proved. Despite the attempts of many people to find and prove someone to blame, a lot of years have already passed, and year by year it turns more difficult to get a concrete response to this mysterious question: Who killed John F. Kennedy? Being without an answer yet is astonishing. Without any doubt and without sustaining the murderers’ commitments, I can conclude that whoever the author of the crime was, they did it in a very effective and shrewd way. Very interesting investigation, clearly expressed in quite good language. 34 out of 40

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