Feeling Fulfilled

It is not the strength of my skills alone that bring value, but what I do with those skills. For the last 4 years I have been working on a CS degree, but it will all be for naught if I use that degree for focusing on my own personal gain. If Paul were to speak today he might have said "And though I have software development skills sought after by thousands of companies, if I have not charity I am nothing." As I go on to further my skills and enhance my career, it is vital that I continue to check myself along the way and ask "Do I have charity?"

Inspired By: 1 Corinthians 13

Addiction's Growing Roster

Addiction finally acknowledging more of its MVPs. No longer are drugs, smoking, and alcoholism the only listed players. Commenters are now talking about pornography, gambling, food, and gaming. These not-so-fresh faces are finally getting the attention and ranking they deserve. These players come with their own advantages, not needing physical consumption to be extremely effective. Another plus, Team Addiction hardly had to do any recruiting themselves, leaving us - the defense - to supply their ranks. Food and Fun use to not make the cut until we bulked up their stats by giving way to self-indulgence, forgetting self-control, and by trying to find old-fashioned happiness in endorphins and dopamine. Gaming is not bad - we are, and until we figure out what we're actually trying to find we will just keep on adding to Addiction's roster.

Inspired by: Ensign Article: Just a Game?

Tech Induced Change

Shirkey's "Here Comes Everybody," attempts dryly, and repetitively, to show how social changes come through the advancement of technology. A valid point in his work is that a technology affects social rules and opportunities only when it has fully matured into wide use and acceptance in society. Such great length of time shows innovators that they might not ever see the full effect their creation has on the world, if it has any effect at all. Innovators will never be able to fully predict the influence they will end up having, but must place confidence in their creation and let society figure out the rules regarding it. 

Technology - Virtue and Vice

Texting, chatting, surfing, double-checking. The one thing everyone is given equally is time. Time that can be used in building relationships, improving, and furthering a cause, all of which are enhanced by technology. Time is also used in aimless double-checking facebook, surfing randomly across the net, chatting meaninglessly with acquaintances, and texting instead of building friendships in person. Technology here acts almost as a hinderance. All of us must be aware of where our time is siphoning off to, and consciously direct that flow to avoid wasting our potential and finishing life in regret.

Interviewing Desperation

The STEM Career fair is the speed dating contest for tech companies to meet budding graduates. Thanks to supply and demand, future grads and internship seekers find themselves being fought over and, depending on the skill of the recruiter, fantasizing of future careers at the blessed company. Occasionally a desperate recruiter scares off potentials. Almost like the desperate girl who won't leave you alone, the one that you would probably be interested in if she wasn't forcing her presence on you like a nail into wood. A company this year (who shall not be named) was nigh unto coercing immediate interviews from any possible qualifying programmer. Let's just say that they have fallen into last place on my list, but hey - thanks for the practice. 

Position Vlog - Use Words Right

Some words have too much emotional (and legal) baggage to be handed out like candy.

Pwning Simply-Cool Programs

There are two types of programs in this world: Those that solve problems and those that don't. When a program is written with a real and important goal in mind it is successful. When it's done simply to "do something cool" it dies by the way side, starved of actual attention. However, hope is not lost. Simply-cool programs still have a chance to shine, but that comes after a serious makeover, transforming them from a technological show-off to a purposeful instrument. Their new shining success comes from a visionary who recognizes the world-changing potential behind the simply-cool, and then takes the vision, shares it, and makes it into a reality. If we never see past the simply-cool, we'll be stuck in our dark cubicles, never recognizing the power of our programs until it's too late. 

Riding the Twitter Trend

"I'm pleased to announce that able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19." Twitter explodes. #ldsconf trends. Sorry Elder Cook, but everyone is still recovering from President Monson. Instantly memes were sprouting out of the ground, everything from joking about the lack of freshman next year to RMs having a change in the dating pool. Being a participant in this phenomena was novel. No longer was conference a solitary experience, but an integration of outside opinions and comments, providing new insights and knowledge. Perhaps this style is the conference of the future. 

Security: A Ticking Time Bomb No One Cares About

The 1980's and today's technology have something in common, security issues are rampant and no one cares until they're exploited. Cliff Stoll was put through the loops by several government and private agencies and was never taken seriously until catastrophe seemed eminent. Even with all the issues surfacing today, people are still reluctant to address critical weaknesses in our computer systems. A PhD from a security firm showed how with around a million dollars a dedicated individual could easily hire enough skill to hack the power grid, destroying the nation's power. Think Revolution. As technology infiltrates other fields the security risk rises. From pacemakers to prison doors, hackers are gaining possible opportunities like never before; until technology is actually built from the ground up with security in mind, this will be the case. As long as deadlines, budgets, and features continue to take precedence over security, we will never be safe.


Book: Cuckoo's Egg

They're Watching You

Too often the media runs a scare campaign revolving around some hardly understood aspect of technology, and it works. From people re-posting links claiming that Facebook maliciously added in new security features, to Google being on the path to world domination (yes, I've heard both), people fear that which they don't understand. This fear cripples them into the borderland of paranoia, making them susceptible to hacks, phishing, and lies. These victims rely on us to remove the mystery from the machine, to make false scare reports ineffective in raising the mass's ignorant cry. We fight the pandemic.

Link to Article: Facebook Is Tracking What Users Buy In Stores To See Whether Its Ads Work

Google Police

Censoring strikes a strong chord in me. I am not sure where I stand for recognizing the when and where censoring is appropriate since it is far out of my experience. I am an admin of the facebook page my apartment complex uses. Most of the time my position is that if something should not have been posted, the users will reprimand that person well enough without me exercising admin privileges. The less I get in the way, the more natural censoring happens. However, I do not have to worry about lives being in danger. My method would not have worked for Google, yet their actions makes me wonder where the line resides. Law has yet to decide how much responsibility internet service companies have over the content their service is carrying, even when it's user generated. Google police starts to sound too much like a 21st century Orwellian antagonist.


Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/technology/google-blocks-inflammatory-video-in-egypt-and-libya.html

Writing Skill

My untouchable field, computer science, isn't so immortal. HP announced that they're predicting 29,000 job cuts over the next two years. Ouch. Great computer skills do not equate to job security. In lieu of this I recall how several CS professors stress developing good writing skills. When it comes down to the line, those with exceptional communications skills will keep their jobs, while their practically mute counterparts will be on the job-hunt again. For my ideas to be shared, decisions respected, and accomplishments appreciated, I will need to constantly polish my writing abilities.

Link: HP Now Sees 29,000 Job Cuts In Restructuring Plan

My Actual Priorities

Yesterday in my design class we discussed how to gather details from users. The professor mentioned that surveys and plain Q&A interviews mask the details we need because people tend to answer "how they think they should answer." For a different class's seemingly unrelated reading assigment I studied Focus and Priorities by Elder Oaks. These two events provoked the internal question: "What really are my priorities?" I would normally regurgitate the expected "God, family, church, school" but at this moment it wouldn't be true. I would have to earnestly look over how I spent my time to find my actual priorities. Perusing the moments of yesterday reveal a disappointing answer: school, school, work, school, God, more school, and food. I feel imbalanced.