The Importance of Ethics

It is so simple to be mischievous. With the availability of the Internet, we can communicate with millions of people instantly, and no one will know if we are being dishonest. For example, I recently read a story of a man who bought an Xbox One for his child from eBay. When the package came, all that was in it was a photo of the desired console. How disappointing! Because it is so easy to be dishonest, it is imperative that each of us establish our own personal ethics. When we all follow our set of ethics, we can more reliably depend on others to be honest as well.

Balance in a World Fighting for Attention

In our capitalistic society, businesses fail if they don't get your attention. Before the Internet, it was relatively difficult to gain the population's attention because of the difficulty in reaching a large audience. With the invention of the Internet, a company can literally reach almost the entire world for the price of a reliable server. This is remarkable. Now we have all these different companies and products all fighting for our attention in this dog-eat-dog world. Because of this, it is so easy to get sucked into one of these companies that fight for our attention. We often hear of people spending hours upon hours on social media sites like Facebook, or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. If we can learn to moderate the time spent on these sites, our lives will be better off.

Social Media and the Gospel

Steve Jobs

No one but Steve Jobs could have done what he did. At least 4 industries that have been revolutionized because of him: personal computers, music and music storage, smart phones, and tablets. He didn't invent these industries, but he took them in their infancy and molded them into mature fields of technology. But it wasn't solely his vision that allowed him to change the world like he did. It takes a unique combination of creative vision and tyrannical leadership to do so.

Those who worked closely with Jobs agreed that they hated him, but admired him and wanted his approval at the same time. This is where his magic came from. Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs frequently mentioned his "reality distortion field." This is the term attributed to Jobs's ability to convince others of what he wanted. For example, during the development of the original Macintosh, Jobs thought it booted up too slowly. His developers didn't think it was possible to make it go faster. He told them that they were going to sell at least 5 million Macintoshes. Each of these computers will probably boot up once a day. If the team could shave off only 10 seconds from the boot up time, that would be 50 million seconds saved every single day. After a year, this would be a couple dozen lives. So by shaving off 10 seconds, the Macintosh team could save lives. This is his reality distortion field.

There are many things I admire about Steve Jobs, but he definitely had his priorities out of order. He completely sacrificed his family for his work. This is completely different from how I want to interact with my family. They are the most important and will always come before work.

CS Stereotypes

It is widely known that there are relatively few women in the computer science industry. This is because there exists strong stereotypes associate with those who enter the field of computer science. These stereotypes create a difficult barrier for computer savvy women to overcome. Typical stereotypes include words such as "anti-social gamer" and "geeky nerd." Although I don't adhere to these stereotypes, it is easier for me to overcome the barrier that they create because I am closer to those stereotypes. When you think of an anti-social gamer, you almost always think of a male. When you think of a geeky nerd, you almost always think of a male. Even though I am a social non-gamer, it is easier for me to identify with the stereotype simply for the fact that I am a male. A social, non-gaming woman will have vastly more difficult time relating to this stereotype.

The Dual Nature of Open Source

Open source and free software are essential for technological advancements to continue. Almost every single piece of software relies on the use of previous breakthroughs that someone has allowed you to use for free. Sometimes, this reliance is just the fact that your software was developed on a Linux machine, or maybe you wrote your program in a language that you didn't have to pay to use. The truth is that if you couldn't use Linux or if you couldn't use that language, you would probably not have the determination to finish your program. On the other hand, you don't make much money from open source projects. In order for people to have the desire to develop new software, there usually has to be a monetary incentive. The decision whether to add to the open source community or charge for your software is quite a conundrum.

The Dynamic Properties of the Church

Change is good. In the face of constant change, failure to adapt is failure. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces this principle whole-heartedly. If Mormon pioneers looked in on today's Church as an entity, I think they would have difficulty identifying it as the future of their religion. However, if they take a closer look, they would find that the core principles have not changed a single bit. This is what I admire about the Church. Mormons are able to take new technology and use it to their advantage, while many religions think that in order to preserve their religion, they can't accept any new change. Change in religion is beneficial as long as you hold strong to your core religious values.

Patents

The current patent system needs a very serious reform, but any changes need to be thought out carefully. Patents are necessary because they encourage innovation - I would be much less willing to spend my precious time to develop a new technology if I wasn't guaranteed that I would get paid when people use it. The problem is when EVERYTHING is patented. It is important to realize that the new technology you developed is built upon technology others have developed. Hopefully in the future, people will use your new technology to continue to create more technology. Patents discourage this. Short term patents of only a couple years could prove as a possible solution. This would allow the creator to get some money in the beginning, but prevent the halt of innovation.

The Cuckoo's Egg

Do I have information that other people want? This question has prevented me from thinking too much about password security. I know a password on your computer or phone is important, because it discourages theft - the thief wants your computer or phone from which they can wipe all your stuff. Passwords on a FaceBook account, on the other hand, don't give a thief a shiny new piece of hardware that they can claim as their own. The same is true with a CS account password and most other websites that use usernames and passwords.
Reading The Cuckoo's Egg has given me a new view on password protection. There is a section where the hacker logs into a normal account with a simple password, then becomes a superuser through the vulnerability. This user had no idea that his easy password would allow a hacker to break into the rest of the system. This showed me that I have no idea what can be done with access to the various accounts that I have.
Using difficult passwords is also very important. It does not take very long for computers with gigahertz of processing power to use brute strength to iterate through all the words in the English language. I'm sure it wouldn't even take too long to iterate through a small combination of all words in the English language. This is why many companies are requiring that you have capitals, numbers, or punctuation in your passwords. This protection can be compounded when you don't even use derivatives of English words - the more random, the better.
The main problem I see with our world today is the fact that every single website asks you to create an account with a password. Then you have two options: develop a photographic memory to enable you to remember different passwords to each of your different accounts, or use the same (or similar) passwords for each of your accounts. Unfortunately, most people choose the latter. As soon as a hacker discovers the password to your seemingly innocent Twitter account, he has the password to bank account, and every other account that you've created. It is so important to choose different passwords, but it is so difficult to remember so many different passwords!

#LDSConf

Following #LDSConf on Twitter during conference was surprisingly insightful. I found the value coming from two distinct directions. First, Whenever I would get sleepy, I would turn on my phone and look at all the tweets coming in about the current speaker. For some reason, it is much easier to stay awake while on your phone than listening to the speaker. Second, I would look periodically at the hashtag conversation and be able to pick up all the important things that the speakers have said in the recent past.

Violent Video Games

http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/10/08/1442242/red-cross-wants-consequences-for-video-game-mayhem

People play video games to get out of the real world. How boring would a video game be if your character went to school, watched TV, and spend 8 hours of the day sleeping? This is clearly shown though a fake news clip showing the most recent war game, Modern Warfare 3, where the majority of the game is spent hauling equipment and filling out paperwork. Of course no one would play this because it is just real life. Therefore, imposing laws in video games that exactly mirror real life is ridiculous. I have never played the newly released Grand Theft Auto V, but it is enticing to me because I have the ability to do things I would never do in real life, with the added benefit of minimal consequences.

Family History

The Internet has boosted the advance of family history like nothing else in the history of mankind. The Internet has taken something that was difficult, time consuming, and, honestly, not very much fun, and turned it into something that even kids can enjoy. In my opinion, the largest benefit comes from the fact that family history is now a group project rather than an individual assignment. For example, if I enter the information for my grandparent, that information will now show up on the family history for my siblings, cousins, and anyone else that could be associate with my grandparent. When I first logged onto FamilySearch, I simply had to enter my ancestors who are still alive (my parents and grandparents), then it automatically connected me to all my ancestors dating back to the 1600s. That was amazing! This is because others in my family had entered that information, and it is visible to anyone connected to that family tree.

Surfaces on Delta Flights

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/09/30/2338230/delta-replacing-flight-manuals-with-surface-tablets

Good job Delta. You have finally entered the 21st century. I can't believe that up until today, pilots from Delta Airlines have had to carry up to 34 pounds of manuals and maps with them as they go from plane to plane. I can't believe that they have just now decided to save themselves $13 million per year in fuel and other costs by adopting Surface tablets. It's amazing to me how reluctant some people are to embrace the technological world - especially in an environment that is already so digitally-centered. Most modern, commercial airplanes have a "glass cockpit", meaning that all the instruments and controls are already digital and computer-based. While other airlines have used iPads for the past year, I admire Delta and their willingness to analyze which tablet will help them the best, rather than simply using the tablet that everyone else is using.

Hacking of TouchID

Within the last week, Apple released their newest phone, the iPhone 5S. One of its main features is a fingerprint reader, called TouchID, that the user can use to unlock the device, purchase apps, and many other security-sensitive actions. They claim that the probability of a wrong finger registering a correct match was about 1 in 50,000. Also within the last week, a video was posted to YouTube where the subject sets the print with his index finger, then unlocks the device with an artificial print lifted from a glass, then applied to a piece of latex. This shows that with some CSI skills, anyone can unlock your locked iPhone. 

My first thought was that this is embarrassing for mankind. Some people are so bent on breaking the rules that the first thing they do with their brand new $600 phone is to hack into it. On the other hand, after some thought, I realized that this is beneficial to iPhone users. People who have very sensitive information on their phone need to know that it is possible to break into it. They can't rely on TouchID to protect them.

Even though it is possible, it's not easy. It takes materials, knowledge, and preparation. Unless you are currently a character of a spy novel, you shouldn't have to worry. 

Supply and Demand of Time

200 years ago, people had to hand wash their clothes. I've never done it, but I'm assuming a normal washing-machine-size load would've taken at least an hour or two to wash. With a couple loads to wash, washing your clothes could've been an all day task. It would seem that now that we have washers, we should have so much more free time. This same principle is true in other areas of life as well. Before computers, you had to hand write any essay or letter that you needed to write. Now I can type up a 10000 word dissertation with proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar in a matter of a few minutes. Before the Internet, research included making your way to local library, searching the shelves for books that might have the information that you needed, and then reading through all these books to find that information. It is pretty evident that because we have more time available to us, we value it less - exactly like the economics principle of supply and demand. If we had all of our current daily duties, but we also had to spend a couple hours washing our clothes by hand each week, we would value our time more, and spend less of it doing things that are of little worth, such as aimlessly surfing the Internet.