Programming with integrity

We have seen how the effects of the dot-com bubble led some analysts to become cheerleaders because of financial gain. This essentially robbed the public who funded their company because they lied about its accomplishments. The lesson that we learn from these analysts can be applied to us as individual programmers. A good programmer has a certain amount of integrity that will not allow himself/herself to receive credit where credit isn't due. If they don't understand a concept, they will have the patience to learn it for themselves and program it before they receive the credit. If they don't do this, they will find themselves bankrupt of ideas in a time of need.

The Freedom of Speech of a Blogger

LDS Tech Conference

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is holding its first annual tech conference this year to organize a community of software developers anxious to contribute their talents to the church. With membership worldwide, the church is able to call upon a variety of people to help build up the kingdom with technology. The variety of talents makes this opportunity to serve such an exciting one, as people come together to create new tools for members and auxiliary leaders.

Linus' software revolution

The software development world was rocked with Linus Torvalds's development of Linux. Contributions of random bits of code from many people were being submitted every day and managing the complexity of such a chaotic project was becoming unbearable. That is why Linus' second baby git was born. Linus loved his creation so much that he named git, just like Linux, after himself. Git is a version control system that is shifting the paradigm in version control from centralized to distributed. It is yet another great step in Linus' software revolution.

My MStar story

MStar was a Utah based phone, internet, and television provider that partnered with UTOPIA to provide their services through a local fiber optic network. It was one of the first providers of this new technology and I was lucky enough to be one of their first salesman. We would literally run from house to house because we made so many sales with little effort. These experiences showed me on a local level exactly what happened on a global level to lay the framework for the dot-com bubble.

In the book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how the world got flat in one gloriously long sentence. He writes, "Just as the national highway system that was built in the 1950s flattened the United States, broke down regional differences, and made it so much easier for companies to relocate in lower-wage regions, like the South, because it had become so much easier to move people and goods long distances, so the laying of global fiber highways flattened the developed world." That is the beauty of the fiber optic network that will transcend any of the criticism of its expense.

On the global level we saw companies that invested in the fiber optics go bankrupt and on the local level we are seeing a similar scare. However, just like Friedman argues in his book, "fiber cable is the gift that keeps on giving and unlike other forms of Internet overinvestment, it was permanent." Think of what communities can do with this technology in place! If you need help thinking, listen to what google is planning to do with it. Even though UTOPIA has had its ups and a lot of downs I still believe it was the right choice for our community.

Feelings about copyright infringement laws

I just read an article in a New Zealand newspaper of a new proposed punishment for online copyright infringement. New Zealand, along with the rest of the world, is struggling to find a law to overcome this complex issue. Last year they proposed that these illegal downloaders be banned from ever using the Internet and now they are thinking of a fine and suspension instead. I don't have the answer to this complex issue, but I believe the laws should error on the side of simplicity. I feel this way because of the great expense it would be for a government to try to enforce such complex laws. I imagine that it would take a great deal of time and energy to actually find the guilty to punish--let alone ban them from ever using the Internet. Instead, I believe that we should spend our time and energy creating technology to protect the majority of people from even breaking the law in the first place. An example of this is Itunes, because it allows people to easily access music while still maintaining copyright laws.

Toyota recalls and potential threats

Growing up in the computer dominated age that we live in, we are all aware of potential bugs and glitches in our software. That is why today even our DVD players connect to the internet to download software updates. However, when the software glitches hit the car or aviation industry people aren't as forgiving. Last month Toyota recalled the 2010 Prius because of such a glitch that interfered with the car's brakes. Others, including Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak, have complained about acceleration issues in the Prius due to a software malfunction. Obviously, this is a deep concern and an issue that won't go away soon. As cars become more reliant on computers we might begin to see people waiting a year to let the others "test out" the car as they would any other new technology.

Family over video games

A few days ago, Bob Brown of Network World wrote an article describing the most violent tech-related stories of 2010. Out of the eight stories, three are cases dealing with a child's video game addiction. Hopefully this is a wake up call to parents that video games can lead to extreme addiction and violence. The Proclamation to the World directly combats these family attacks by teaching our identity and purpose. If we don't teach our children their identity and purpose somebody or something else will. We see from these examples that video games can facilitate forgetting that identity by leading some children to actually kill the very person that helped give them life.

The Cuckoo's Egg

What made this book so interesting to me was how real it was because the author is the main character of the book. A particularly real attitude that I enjoyed stemmed from the fact that he was an astronomer surrounded by computer programmers and engineers. In the book he admits using his astronomy knowledge in a presentation to put a group of coworkers to sleep so that he could track the hacker. He boasted that it only took him 5 minutes to do so. I also got the impression that he believed astronomers have the real brains and that he only really took the job because he needed the money. His insights were especially funny to me because my Dad is an astronomer that has shared a similar situation.

Throughout the book I was amazed how determined he was to find this hacker at all costs. He really was a man with a mission and wouldn't be stopped. In the book he tells the hard points of the journey where he risked breaking the law, losing his job, and hurting his relationship with Martha. For the most part I found these risks a very interesting and entertaining adventure in computer security. For example his risks with the law showed the fine line that employers need to make between employee privacy and security. His side stepping responsibilities to find the hacker at work was entertaining and he seemed to do it with style. However forgetting to call Martha about hiking in the redwoods reminded me of the heartache that can come when people get too involved in technology.

For most of us this book is a wake up call to learn more about the risks of system level ignorance. The Cuckoo's egg is a metaphor for an imposer process in the operating system nest that can potentially harm the other children and destroy the cooperation between them. Most people only think on the process level, forgetting completely about everything else in the nest. The Cuckoo's Egg shows us one man's attempt to destroy this ignorance that started by wanting to know why there was an accounting error of 75 cents in his system. I don't believe we need to sacrifice everything that Cliff Stoll did to overcome this ignorance, but I do feel that we should at least work to be aware of its dangers in order to protect our work and family.

Computers and Family History

One of the most exciting applications of computer science for me has been working with family history. For one of my classes my friend and I are creating a website to help our family collaborate and share their knowledge of our family history. So far you can see our progress at www.fisherfamilywiki.co.cc. This website is a great example of free tools that are available that anyone can use to benefit their family. We chose a wiki so that even people with basic computer skills can contribute. I am also working to create a document to help others who are interested to help them make their own family wiki. If you are interested you can email me or leave a comment and I will send you that document. My experience has shown me that people are ready and willing to contribute so don't be afraid to start.

The evolution of computing

Personal computers coupled with the technologies like the world wide web have literally transformed the world in which we live. Today we can find evidence that the field of machine learning will produce the next revolutionary technology to affect humanity for better or worse. Recently the National Science Foundation has supported a project that looks to use machine learning to manage the complexity in the fields of emergency response, product development, health care, education, and the economy. Although this sounds exciting, machine learning might ultimately put people out of a job. Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are using techniques in machine learning to classify strawberry quality. They claim that their technology "harvested plants more consistently and faster than workers could, with a comparable error rate." This is one step in the evolution of the computer industry that shows computers making subjective decisions faster and as well as humans. We can only wonder how this evolution will affect our society.

Thoughts about women in computer science

An issue facing computer science today is the current and future roles of women in the computer science field. Thus far the article which has given me the most insight into how we can increase the amount of women in computer science was written by Professor De Palma from Gonzaga University. The article seeks to build on women's strengths in mathematics as they transition into programming. He proposes that we "keep things as close as possible to pure logic" and "if at all possible, teach computing without microcomputers." Those two points fundamentally teach abstraction which women have proven to excel at and which are extremely important for programmers. Although I know nothing about being a woman, my best guess as to why we don't see more women in computer science is the lack of a standard way to present computer science as a logical system.

A social addiction to computers

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, and now Blippy? CNN Tech News reported this morning that you can now go to Blippy.com and see what others are buying. It is a takeoff of twitter, however instead of writing your own tweet, Blippy will create the posts for you. The purpose is to let the world know where you are shopping, how much you spent, and how frequently you shop there. I believe spending time on a site like that can be just as addictive to society as the world of warcraft is to online gamers. Think about it. How long does it take to read all the information on an average facebook, twitter, and rss reader each day? Add in the time to maintain the personal updates that are continually being posted and we begin to see how people manage their time. Even though it might seem harmless, these sites can lead our society to less productivity and generally more unemployment.

The line between real and virtual life

With all the rage that comes with neuro-networks deciding our future we should remember that artificial intelligence can never be a substitute for true intelligence. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches that all intellectual was never created or made and that it can act of itself. If we believe the scriptures we know that we are made from true intelligence in contrast to computers being made from artificial intelligence. We have the ability to reflect on the choices we make and feel something about it instead of merely executing instructions. As computers become a more every day part of our lives we must not forget to communicate our love and affection to the people the who matter most. We also should remember it is all right to draw from moral guidelines and inspiration that is outside the realm of a computer.