Stick to the Code

Even traditionally criminal organizations like pirates and the mafia had (or currently have) codes of ethics against which member's behavior was measured--though criminal organizations would generally only care about ethical behavior toward their own members, or other closely linked groups. Computing professionals have an even greater need to live by a code of ethics and morals, because of the positions their work can put them in.  As the ones who are creating and maintaining the computer systems that will be running the world in the immediate future, they are given access to enormous amounts of private data on other people and organizations, from personal health histories to corporate financial holdings. With this access comes and expectation of trust that the computing professionals need to meet.  This trust is fragile, and can easily be broken through unethical and dishonest behavior.

The Internet, Unplugged

Media and its affects are becoming omnipresent in our world today. Most households now have more than one computer, as well as additional Internet-connected devices. This trend is not slowing down, and there's no chance of making it. The Internet is an amazing technological feat with so many useful applications, and it should be accessible to everyone. But with all of it's awesome capabilities, the Internet also brings a large helping of danger into our homes. From online-gaming or Internet-pornography addictions, to phishing emails from Nigerian princes and easy access to less-than-trustworthy people, and more--the Internet opens a floodgate into the home for all of this if we don't take precautions. Beyond content filters that can be installed on the home network, it also helps to limit the amount of time we expose ourselves to media, in any form. Scheduling unplugged hours (or even days) during which media is off limits can help build family bonds and lasting memories that watching the latest sitcom together can't. We shouldn't kick the Internet out completely, but we should control how we use it, and not let it use us.

Copying is not Theft (Position vlog)

Internet Army Wanted, Inquire Within

The Internet has enabled the tearing down of barriers and bringing people together in ways that have no real parallel among other communication forms. The telephone can approximate some aspects of it with the capacity for hundreds of people to join a single conference call, but the scale is so much smaller than is possible online, and there is no persistence to the data generated by the call. The fact that data generally persists on the internet enables people to break down not only barriers caused by geographic distances, but also barriers created by temporal distances. I can respond to a blog or news article that was first posted weeks, months, or even years ago, and it's still possible that I could get a reply from the original author or spark new discussions based on the old information. And then we have the vast array of groups that have been created that would not have been possible without the internet, if only because the people who join them had no easy way of finding one another. It's possible to find a group of enthusiasts for just about anything you can think of and begin contributing to their discussion immediately. And the free-form and changeability of the Internet let's people imagine and implement new ways of communicating and meeting with others, from SnapChat to Vine, and more. The social changes brought about by the Internet are far from over, and it will be exciting to see how our social interactions continue to evolve as it becomes ever more ubiquitous.

Where Have All the Women Gone?

Computer programming was originally considered a woman's job--and was advertised in the women's section of employment classifieds. ENIAC, the first general purpose all-electronic computer, had the majority of its programs entered by women. And they did it without manuals, instead referring to the logical schematics of the computer to enter their programs. Yet, because these women often posed with the machine they programmed for photos to accompany stories and articles, they were disparagingly referred to as refrigerator women, equating them to the models who would present kitchen appliances in department stores. This circumstance cannot be traced as the cause that led to women's dwindling presence in computer science, but it surely didn't help at the time. Instead of inspiring more young women to enter this wondrous field, these premier women computer scientists were largely forgotten and pushed behind the men who built ENIAC. The few women I know in the computer science major are just as capable, if not more so, than the men in the major. It's not capability keeping women from the profession, so what is it? The environment we are given to work in? Dungeon-like, windowless basement rooms? Or is it that young women look at computer science and don't see many women, so it becomes something to be avoided, with the cycle repeating ad nauseam? I don't have the answer, but with computers becoming more prevalent throughout society, we will hopefully see women coming back to computer science.

Building Better Software is the Goal, Right?

There is something to be said for polishing your software project until it gleams before releasing it into the wild. You'll likely get more complements than criticism from the people who actually use it, for one. And using highly polished software is definitely more satisfying than using buggy, under-developed software. But there is something tantalizing about a fast-paced release schedule where you are constantly shoving out new versions into the clutches of your users. While they will tear each release apart at the weak seams you programmed in, they will also provide you with valuable feedback about what works and what doesn't--and suggestions on how to improve your feature-set. And this feedback circuit expands even further on open-source projects, where you collaborate with other developers, and everyone (including the users) picks at the bugs. At the end of the day you might not end up with a better piece of software than if you spent month's ferreting out all of the bugs between releases, but it's likely you will end up with one better targeted at your users, meeting more of their needs--since they helped with its development.

Technology and the Church

As new technologies have been developed and become available, the Church has taken those technologies, evaluated them, and then, if any have been found lovely or of good report, has started using them to further the reach of the gospel.  Most ward buildings I have been in recently have had a wireless network, for example. This enables the leaders who need access to up to date information be able to access it no matter where they are in the building, and without needing special access to the Ward Clerk's office.  And look at social media, as well. As of this writing, the Church's Facebook page has 808,823 likes, and there are more than 46,000 people talking about the church on Facebook. Then there's YouTube, which BYU blocked from 2006 to 2009.  Now there are multiple YouTube channels where viewers can stream content produced by the Church. The Church is moving in the right direction with how they embrace technology, and I can't wait to see what the future brings.