Light in the dark

We are thrown into this world with such little guidance. Parents are more relaxed with the standards their children must uphold and this in turn makes their children's children even lower on standards. Perhaps, people don't see this as an issue, their standards are so low that they don't care about moral issues. I am thankful for the resources I have been given through religion. The LDS church is not alone in the fight to keep standards high. There are other organizations out there, helping to maintain the integrity of people around the world. It's up to us to live right and help our children to grow up as a beacon to the world. By doing our part, we can help save a world that is growing ever darker.

Vlog

Light of the Internet

The Internet is filth. Of course, there are many useful websites out there, but a large portion of the Internet is dedicated to degrading and disgraceful acts. Searches for religion will result in topics that are anti-God or against specific religions. The number of uplifting sites are limited and without them, we would be in a worse state than we are now. In the midst of all of these evils, we, as a faith and people, need to stand tall. Official LDS websites help to debunk erroneous myths about the LDS faith, not only is this important, but we are provided with a place that we can find uplifting and inspiring material, without worry of stumbling across objectional material. We are a light to the world and we need to continue to shine our light in all areas of the world, no matter how dark, including, and perhaps especially, the Internet.

Open Source

Open source software is common these days, from programs such as Open Office to Linux operating systems. We are provided with plenty of free versions of the software big corporations are attempting to charge hundreds of dollars for. Of course, there are pros and cons as usual that come with free software. The pros are first, it's free! Secondly, there are often cool and very useful features added to make the users life better. The cons are, however, it's free! Interestingly enough, people don't want to put as much effort into something they aren't getting paid to make. I have found, from personal experience, that the open source versions of software are a lot less reliable than their costly competitors. Linux lacks the support and compatibility of Macs and Windows. Open Office has many features, but they don't always work as intended and the documents don't port their formatting to other word processors. Many open source programs are prone to freezing and unexpected behavior, probably due to lack of thorough testing. After all, who wants to waste their time testing something they aren't being paid to produce?

Banning outsourcing

Friedman considers the idea of banning outsourcing in The World is Flat, but dismisses the idea, believing that it would be detrimental to the goals America is trying to achieve (globalization). While this might be true, perhaps the goal we are trying to achieve is not the most beneficial goal for our country.

Outsourcing has many benefits for companies, the main one being cost reductions. On the other hand, outsourcing removes thousands of jobs from America each year. It's estimated that we could be losing up to 200,000 jobs a year to outsourcing. The unemployment rate in the USA is currently 9.7% (as of february 2010), which equates to approximately 15 million people that are unemployed. After 10 years of losing jobs at a rate of 200,000 per year, we will have lost 2 million jobs. Assuming this has already been happening, how many jobs have we lost to other countries, when we have plenty of people in our own country in need of work? If we continue with this trend, unemployment rates will continue to rise. The countries that we outsource to have practically no limit to the human resources they have available, the population of China and India are the largest in the world, it is entirely possible to give almost every job we have in the US to those countries and still have more people available to work. Unemployment would be up to 70-80% in the US, but we would have managed to globalize businesses and trade and these other countries we have been outsourcing to would be thriving. Finally! We will have achieved our goal and the world will be a better place. . .

So, where will this end? Should we continue to outsource jobs in order to save some money? If we banned outsourcing, the price of products would rise in the US. Maybe, we should just make the sacrifice for the better of our own country, or maybe there is another way? Prices would rise because we have a minimum wage set by the government, that prevents companies from paying American employees as little as they pay those in other countries. With all the unemployed people we have here, wouldn't $2 an hour be better than $0 an hour? Surely, the government could put something in place to allow companies to hire those without jobs, that desperately need money, for an amount smaller than minimum wage. If it was closely monitored, so that companies can't abuse the idea of outsourcing to pay their employees less, we could employ struggling Americans and still keep costs down.

Globalization in my opinion can never fully work, unless all countries unite as one. This seems a highly improbably event and thus integrating economies is not helping our country. We enjoy some benefits, which cannot be ignored, but is it really worth ignoring those struggling in our country to help those elsewhere? Let's sort out our own problems before looking to others.

BLS news release
Outsourcing's long-term effects on U.S.jobs

Copyright

The copyright system is in place to protect people. It stops others from stealing an idea and using it for their own gain. This is a good thing, sometimes, but how is this really affecting society? What if Picasso has copyrighted his artistic ideas? Or any other ground breaking artist, scientist or inventor? Our society would be years behind in progression compared to where we are today. The ideas of one person help to inspire others. We can't remove copyright altogether or it may have a similar effect (everyone copying each other and never coming up with new ideas), but perhaps the system should be more relaxed and less geared towards making money.

The dangers of CS404

People love to rant about video game addiction, but what about the addictions that are commonly ignored? I never saw a warning sign attached to this computer science class, saying, "Warning: Those with addictive natures may destroy their lives by taking this class." Why would anyone ever put a warning like this on a class? Probably, it's because we are forced to blog and we are never told that blogging can be addictive. It seems ridiculous, right? That's because, it is! I think, we use the word addiction too loosely these days. Anything can be addictive, if you enjoy it. "Moderation in all things" may not be a completely accurate statement, as Dr. Knutson noted, but it really does apply to many hobbies and forms of entertainment. If video games and blogging were addictive, in the same way heroin is, people would inadvertently try them and not be able to stop, even though they don't enjoy them. Perhaps the real issue is, people can be addicted to fun, whatever that may mean for each individual, and we just need to grow up and control ourselves.

Blogging addiction:
The Blogging Addiction: Causes and Cures
Blogging: Addiction or Conviction

Video game addiction:
Video Game Addiction
Video Game Addiction Debunked

Money > Morals?

Apple recently removed 6,000 apps, that contained adult material, from the iPhone App Store. Apple removed these apps in order to protect children. So, if Apple are so concerned with minors accessing questionable material, why did they remove all of these apps and not the Playboy or Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition apps? It seems to me, Apple is willing to throw away it's morals for a price. Whether those companies are paying to stay in the store or they are more popular apps, I don't know, but Apple has failed in it's goal of protecting children, if it won't follow through completely with what it started.

Why Apple purged 6,000 sexy apps.

Warning: Computers steal morals

Today almost every person knows how to use a computer and most likely has one of their own. Computers are used for business and personal reasons. The amount of information that we keep on a single computer is incredible. A outsider delving into someone's personal files can learn a great deal about the owner of that computer. We save documents and our favorite websites to our computers, but the computer automatically saves large amounts of other information, that we may or may not know about. Our entire history of which websites we have visited is saved to our computer! Some programs will even save our instant messaging chat logs with other people! With just one connection to the internet, all of this information is exposed to the rest of the world.

If you can imagine your computer as a house and the internet is a large city full of houses and businesses, how different is the cyber world to the real world we live in? Everyone has a lock on their front door, but is there a lock on the back door? If there is does it always stay locked? A personal computer has a lock on it; you have user names and passwords, but normally there is also a less protected back door. It is the entrance that is rarely used and less known about; an entrance that normally comes through the internet. Each business also has different levels of security and some are harder to break into and steal from than others. This is the same online, a website might have different levels of security and some businesses might not even display themselves to the public. However, with some effort anyone can find where these locations are and even try to break in to them.

So, if computers are so similar in our society to a person's house or business, what gives us the right to try to treat them differently? So often people use computers as a screen, they realize that people can't see them and feel they can act differently than they would in the real world. They gain confidence in chat rooms and take on a different persona, possibly becoming abusive or lewd, they steal because it is so easy, everyone's doing it and there are no apparent consequences. How different is illegally downloading a $300 piece of software from walking in to the store, picking up the box containing the same software and walking out without paying? The act of spreading a computer virus is the same as vandalizing another person's house. Do we really just throw out our morals because we can't be seen? Or is it because we can't see the effects we have on other people? Or is it because we actually don't have any morals, but we feel pressured by society to act in a certain way?

The next time you download something illegaly from the internet, perhaps you should compare what you are doing in the cyber world to what you would do in the real world.

Inspiration:
The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll

History at our fingertips

Family history used to be a gruelling process. Travelling to places to search through the census, hoping that the person in question actually lived in the place you thought they did. Now with websites such as familysearch we can access records from all over the country, even the world! Now that we can easily do our family history will it get done? Not likely. Sure technology makes life easier for us, but it rarely motivates us. Sadly, this is the way of society today; technology is there to make us lazier. At least it's there if we wanted to use it right?

Family History via the Internet

Mainstream means malware

It seems that Facebook is no longer safe. I'm not talking about sexual predators; I'm talking about viruses. Facebook is blocked my many employers, but only a third of them claim to block it because of loss of productivity. The majority block it because of the security issues associated with it. As Facebook has soared in popularity, malicious programmers have also become enthralled with it enough to create viruses that are delivered by our beloved networking site. This is just one example of mainstreaming software becoming a target, and more will follow. Assuming they continue to be so fashionable, it's time to start taking better care of your impenetrable computers Mac users! It's only a matter of time; Macs are not better, just not as popular.

Why your boss hates Facebook
Apple claims immunity, but releases anti-virus

Getting lost in the world

You probably went to see Avatar, and most likely saw it in 3-D. Technology has advanced so far that we can virtually live in another world. In my previous post, I talked about Microsoft's project Natal. It shouldn't be long before the motion sensing technology is incorporated into 3-D viewing to create an almost real world. How long will it be before we are able to feel the virtual world around us? I think this is a great step forward into the future, however it makes you wonder what ramifications it will have. There are enough people lost in 2-dimensional worlds already. What will happen when we can cast aside our reality in favor of a "better" life? Perhaps we will end up like this? I guess we can't tell, but I for one am excited about these advances in technology. I just hope we can control ourselves.

Inspiration:
How 'Avatar' may predict the future of virtual worlds.

Women don't like science . . .

Google "women science scholarships" and you will find pages of links to scholarships, that are only for women interested in scientific degrees. But, aren't there less women in the sciences because of their lack of opportunities? Clearly, numbers let us conclude that, the low numbers of male teachers compared to women is caused by a lack of opportunities for men. Or, perhaps men and women are different. Our society values money making skills more than any other. This flaw is the reason we are forcing women to become men. It's my opinion that the job of being a mother is more important than any CEO's position. How many of our world's leaders had loving and supportive mothers, and how many of society's delinquents had abusive mothers? I think we need to reassess our outlook on life and see that men and women will never, and should never, be the same.

Inspiration:
Title IX and Women in Academics

Microsoft: Always full of new ideas!

Nintendo introduced motion sensitive gameplay to the world, with the introduction of the Wii. The new style of play, and family friendly games, caused their sales to soar. Never one to be left in the dust, Microsoft has announced its latest project, that is set to make the Wii a thing of the past. Project Natal uses a motion capture camera to track the moves of the person playing the game. Microsoft is full of original ideas! Or was it Microsoft that was built off of borrowed ideas?  Microsoft strikes again! Though, perhaps not at all original, in my opinion, they do take the idea to a level no one else could have.





Related topics:
Motion sensor technology, throw out that remote control! 7 features of the Toshiba ZX900 cell TV

Google: The fountain of knowledge? Or the downfall of society?

If you ever have a question, google has your answer! Advances in technology have provided us with a wealth of knowledge, but is this really what our society needs? Neil Postman describes how we gain from technology, but also make sacrifices from it's improvements. Google cofounder Sergey Brin puts it succinctly:

"I'd like to get to a state where people think that if you've Googled something, you've researched it, and otherwise you haven't and that's it."

Google is not research! This is where we are making our trade-off for technology. We have the answers to everything, yet we don't know anything. How many times have we 'googled' something, looked at the first result and then stated that as fact? Not all sources are accurate and not all sources are unbiased. Other times we find correct information, but we learn only the 'what', instead of the 'why'. Our society is becoming increasingly lazy and our knowledge of the facts is also lazy. Technology allows us to sound smart, when really we are far from it.

"With great power comes great responsibility"

We have the power to know everything, but we must have the responsibility to use this power correctly. Otherwise, we will become a society of lazy and surprisingly uneducated people, oh wait...

The world according to Google.
Neil Postman: Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change

Who said anything about ethics?

Let's discuss ethics. Actually, I don't think you want to go there...