Liars Go To Hell

Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell - 2 Nephi 9:34

If you haven't guessed, I hate liars. When I was three years old and got in trouble for lying to my parents about jumping on the neighbors' trampoline, I made a commitment to never lie. I even feel guilt when I'm wrong about something, because I feel like I perpetuated an untruth! (I really should separate the whole "wrong" concept from "lie" concept.) Anyway, since I try to live a truthful life it frustrates me to no end when I talk to people who don't. I can be too trusting, and when I am lied to I get hurt and upset. What's the point of lying anyway? Impress someone? Hide a problem or fault? Revenge? Come on. The truth always gets out and you look like an idiot. And if you were wondering, yes, I never win at B.S. or poker.

Literary Extravaganza

A haiku:
I can't rest in here
Old tombs are far too crowded
Zombies don't shut up!

A very short story(142 characters):
I pulled on my goggles and pushed the frankochicken lever. "Am I a mad scientist?" I thought, "No, mad scientists don't have pizza for lunch."

Genomic Information and Privacy

Priorities and Snowballs

The Lord is pouring out his Spirit on the Earth.  Knowledge and technology are ever increasing, along with the gospel. The gospel will roll on like a growing snowball, until it fills the whole Earth, but it will be helped by other growing snowballs that push it along. Computers can now manage records easily; temple work can be done once and not repeatedly; digital cameras quickly take pictures for ward directories; and the internet can spread the gospel. People don't have to drive an hour to their nearest family history center, now they can just use their home computers and printer to take names to the temple. The direction of technological development is to make gospel work easier and more personal.When more individuals are involved, more gets done and more are blessed.When work is easier, service missionaries who used to type records now can proselyte. The more important work of sharing the gospel can be emphasized when the other stuff is done by a computer. Technology is about the Lord emphasizing priorities.

*Image is from NASA discussing a state called "Snowball Earth", caused by the passage of the solar system through dense cool clouds of dust and gas, which is kind of cool. It's discussed further here:  http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/mar/HQ_05066_giant_clouds.html

Ugly Defaults Are Depressing

Open source software is ugly. Sure the back end code is elegant and, oh, so logical.  But the user interface? Blah. Commercial software companies employ graphic designers, layout editors, and other artists.  (Make sure you emphasize the last syllable there).  Money equals flair.  Without money the user layout just isn't pretty.  Open source developers assume the user wants to customize, and make it easy to do so. But users often don't understand color palettes or size ratios, and are left with ugly defaults or worse.  Ugly defaults are depressing.  Who wouldn't be depressed by a background the color of a dull, grey Tuesday?

Adapt Mollusk!

Globalization of the world scares me, but it excites me too. I'm not just competing with smart people in America, but every smart person on Earth. Now I have to challenge myself to get ahead. Sure I coasted into college with a full ride scholarship. But I can't coast through life. The only way to succeed in this world is to give all your passion and curiosity to several subjects and continually develop yourself. I plan on using my free time (post-graduation) to learn about new web development styles, health management software, and gardening-- the exciting stuff.
I can't assume that I will be doing the same job my whole lifetime. Business software programmers may soon be the thing of the past. What I can assume is that people who are good at math and science will always be needed. It's all about adaptation. Natural selection ensures the survival of the fittest. And through adaptation and a willingness to change with serendipitous life (mutation), one can evolve to the next level. Perhaps I will get my doctorate in genetics or film makeup or hologram technology. Maybe I will be best known for my science fiction literature, or for being the savvy librarian. It's all about adaptation to what life throws your way.
My mom always told me to do my absolute best. Globalization pours concrete over that idea and says to build a house on it.

This is a response to The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman.  Read it. It is awesome.

ARRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Pirates are evil eye-patched evildoers who commandeer crafts craftily. Pirates don't surf the web, they sail the seven seas! Every pirate's pirated copy of Pirates of the Caribbean proclaims that! Nay, these surfing pirates are merely profiteers! And profiteers must earn their moniker; they must make a profit! Profiteers cannot share their cinematic compilations, they must collect cash. Rash record rapscallions wrong reserved rabble with rash requirements of recompense! They demand repayment from those whose booty ne'er would fill their coffers. Parlay with me rapscallions! Non-profiteers add to ye profit! They ship their mateys maps to buried treasure! And their mateys virally ship it to their mateys. The booty increases with the number of mateys. Persecute the pirates and the profiteers and cease the hostilities to the reserved rabble!

Me apologies for the number o' exclamation points, but ye olde pirates exclaim in EXCLAMATIONS!

Bye Saturday Snail Mail

The U.S. Postal Service plans to propose today an adjusted mail schedule that will cut Saturday delivery.  Debt is high and mail volume is down.  The USPS predicts that this trend will continue and is searching for ways to cut back their losses.
I think that the stopping of Saturday deliveries won't affect most people.  The only mail I get is Netflix movies and my granny's greeting cards.  I pay my bills online and only my electricity company and gas company still send me monthly statements.  Even my parents and grandparents who used to pay all their bills through the mail now pay them automatically through their online bank account.  And no more are my friends and relatives sending me their thoughts and communication through snail mail that could take a week, now it's all through email that takes a few seconds.  The USPS is increasingly becoming a shipper of packages and not of letters. Perhaps the USPS should think about expanding to provide internet access or email servers– after all this is the new mail.


http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/02/news/economy/usps/index.htm?hpt=T1

A PA High School Covertly Monitors Students via Webcams

In a recent class action lawsuit, the parents of a Pennsylvania high school student allege that school administrators monitored their son via the webcam installed on his school laptop.  No parents or students were informed that each laptop had software installed that could activate the webcam remotely and take a picture of whatever was in front of the computer.  The plaintiffs became aware of it when their son was approached by a school administrator who said that he was engaged in inappropriate behavior at home and used a photo taken by his webcam as proof.

Schools can't monitor children in their own home-- especially without their or their parents' knowledge and consent!  Pictures could (and probably were) taken of students and their family members in compromising situations.  I know that I've gotten undressed when my computer was in the room. Administrators allege that the software was only installed for help finding laptops after thefts.  Really? Software that can activate a student's webcam remotely and send you the pictures, no matter how you paint it, sounds messed up.  It's either a covert monitoring tool or a way to collect child pornography.  You'd think people would think before using this software.  I sincerely hope it was a rogue employee, otherwise I shudder at the state of the world.  No matter someone's age, a person deserves privacy in their own home!

 

Guilt and Action

After reading The Cuckoo's Egg, I've had to add one more book to the list of books that dredge up feelings of guilt when read.  Oh, the poor, poor systems I've configured.  So open.  So vulnerable.  Of course I had heard of hackers, I knew that they took advantage of vulnerable systems.  "So what?" I thought, "Who would want to take advantage of some purely academic system?  It just handles boring data from experiments."  I was so wrong.  I'd never thought of hackers using my machines as lily pads on their jump across the internet to their real targets.  I want to go back in time and tell myself to be more careful.  But I can't change the past, so on to action and the future.

There are several things that must change:

• No more complacency and universal trust.  While most people are trustworthy there are some sinister snakes seeking to sneak into servers.  The more restricted the server is, the better.  Only valid users should be able to get in. And password and other vital files should be hidden from everyone but the administrators.  
• Assume that people are not going to play nice with software.  Assume that they are going to look for weaknesses.  More security testing needs to be done.   
• Every program needs to be tested for security.  Even a small editing program, like Gnu-Emacs, can be the hole hackers are looking for.  
• Computer accounting needs to be more stressed in the field.  If someone breaks in, how are you going to know about it?  How are you going to know who is on the computer, what is being done, and for how long without computer accounting?

I demand that everyone in the industry care about security!  I know that almost no one will read this, but I demand that all who do think about it!  Every program that is going beyond the classroom should be tested for security.  Buffer overflows, users without permissions, weak passwords, and other security topics need to be thought about before you can think about releasing "working" software.  The software doesn't work until it is secure.

Genetics of Genealogy

I love the genetic aspect of genealogy.  I love looking at old pictures and finding out more about my ancestors' physical characteristics, it makes the people somehow more real.  It's great to be able to look back in time and blame an Irish ancestor for my unruly hair, or see how Mom's sharp nose can be traced back to Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Johnson.  I also can use the knowledge of my ancestors' health troubles to make lifestyle choices to avoid diseases I am predisposed to.  I know that Great-Grandma Ruth had Parkinson's disease, so I'm on the look out for any neurological issues.  Grandma Dickerson has had a life-long problems with obesity, so I'm careful to keep a healthy weight.  My husband's family stays skinny until 30, so I know to start our exercise habits now.  My entire knowledge of my family's health history comes from interviews with my grandmas, and old picture albums.  It would be great if FamilySearch made it easy to upload family photos so that this knowledge could be shared with more distant relations who don't have access to the same sources.

State of the Student Loans

In the State of the Union address, Obama proposed that after college students would only have to pay 10% of their income on student loans and that after 20 years their loans would be forgiven-- only 10 years if they worked in the public sector. Under this proposal students would have the peace of mind that they won't be paying for college for the rest of their life and that they won't be overly burdened by the payments each year.  But Congress will have to back this up with a fair bit of money.  The following example will illustrate:  Let's say that you attended Harvard University and paid for it with student loans.  At an annual tuition rate of $36,828 a year, that's a total of $147,312 debt from getting a bachelor's degree.  Now if you end up in a job that makes $40,000 a year, every year you would have to pay a maximum of $4,000.  Over 20 years you will have only paid back $80,000, and the bank/government/whoever-gave-you-that-loan is out $67,312.  Of course many students would pay back their loans, but some won't, and the money will come from the taxpayer.  I'm not sure how I feel about paying for someone else's student loans.  

Why I Began

My mother taught me to program when I was nine years old.  I still remember using my mom's homemade word processor and typing my first program in Turbo Pascal.  It was a simple calculator program: a user entered two numbers with an operator and the computer printed the answer.  It was a blissful, ecstatic, intoxicating, feeling of relief when I ran it and it worked.  With my mom looking over my shoulder, I had written a program with if/else structures, a loop, variables, and pure logic.  The logic is what drew me to computer science.  If you did this and this, the computer would always give you that.  I didn't go into computer science for the complicated games, the crazy graphics, or the cool programs.  I chose computer science as my field for the thrill that comes by using logic to solve a puzzle.  If more women were introduced to computer science with a bare bones editor, a simple puzzle, and a straightforward language more women would enter the field.

This is in response to DePalma, "Why Women Avoid Computer Science" 

Do People Really Want Privacy?

There has been talk about the right to privacy being implied by or added to the Constitution.  But I suppose like any other right, a person has the right to give it away.  A new site that launched last week, http://blippy.com/, allows users to automatically share information about what they are buying.  A user enters his credit card information and the world gets to know that he spent $23.45 on groceries. It is the financial equivalent of twitter.  There are serious disadvantages to this site.  Blippy's database of credit card numbers would become a sought after target for hackers. This tool could be used by cyber stalkers to  track their prey, govvernments to track individuals with interesting purchase records, and collections agencies to bother those behind on payments over every unnecessary purchase.  People may use this as just another way to flaunt their wealth, puff up their pride, and keep up with the Joneses.  And users are letting people look at their credit card statements! I grew up being taught that credit card statements were to be shredded before being thrown away-- not posted on the internet.  I hope people can prove me wrong.  I hope they want privacy and not Blippy.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/21/blippy.philip.kaplan/index.html

Perfectionists

There is a breed of students known as the perfectionist.  College is designed to root these students out; to simultaneously reward and punish them.  They receive high grades, high test scores, great job offers, and are held up as an example to the other breeds.  But they also suffer from depression at any failure; they have no time for their loved ones; they procrastinate the worthwhile but not immediate; and they miss out on life.  The challenge for a perfectionist isn’t doing calculus, English, or operating systems homework; it is not reading an irrelevant chapter, it is not doing an insignificant assignment, it is not wasting their time, and life, on the unimportant.  In short the challenge for a perfectionist is learning how to not get things done.

This post is in response to Oaks, "Focus and Priorities", (Ensign, May 2001)

Hello World!

This is a blog set up for the computer ethics course (CS404) offered at Brigham Young University.  If you stumbled upon this blog and care about the responses of a college senior to the state of the computing world, please go ahead and read it.  Or if you happen to be interested in what said college senior is up to (Hi Grandma!), then enjoy the elegant prose mixed with life found here.  And if you have come to grade my blog posts on a five-point scale, I welcome you along with your five points.