DRM Doesn't Work!

Do the Impossible

Steve Jobs did the impossible, and he did so on more than one occasion. What was his secret? He explored various religious views, and eventually settled on a sort of personal zen Buddhism. He experimented with different drugs in high school and college, ranging from marijuana to LSD. He was a free spirited, yet deeply conflicted individual, with a unique way of thinking. He just never let himself believe that anything was impossible.

Jobs' friend and associate Steve Wozniak built a circuit board that everyone else thought was impossible to build. Jobs and Wozniak together built the Apple II. Jobs took over a floundering Macintosh team and turned the product around to save Apple. Over 10 years after being ousted from the company he created, he was brought back in and saved Apple yet again. His 'reality distortion field' would simply take over situations and make them be the way he wanted them to be. The secret to doing the impossible is to bend reality to your will. Make the impossible possible.

Major of Choice

Women are vastly outnumbered in the field of Computer Science. Several of my CS classes in college have been all males. While the concern over dwindling numbers of women in Computer Science is valid, a more pressing concern is the discrepancy of wages between men and women. On average, women still make over $10,000 less than men. Additionally, CS is not the only field that is male dominated. Notably, Aviation and many of the Engineering disciplines are just as skewed. Some of the wage gap may be explained by major choice. Thus achieving the goal of making CS a more balanced field between men and women would likely also have a positive effect on the wage gap.

Why does God need computers?

Scientists in general tend to be less than religious. Technology and religion don't usually mix. This begs the question, what use could computers be to God? Computers allow for more work, church related and otherwise, to be done in far less time. Missionary work is much more efficient when using computers. Temple ordinances are recorded with more consistency and less duplication. Building schematics for meeting houses and temples can be created and modified much easier with the aid of computer drafting programs. God doesn't need computers, but they make things a lot easier for us to do his work.

"Make copies for all your friends."

I enjoy going to concerts, in part because I get to discover new music. On one occasion, I arrived at the venue in time to listen to the opening band. I had never heard of Lady Danville before that night. Their performance was upbeat, energetic, enjoyable, and different. After their set, the band members came out into the crowd and hung out near the merchandise table where they were selling CDs and t-shirts. My friend bought one of their EPs and had them autograph it. They encouraged us to make copies of the disk and share it with our friends. The landscape of the music industry is changing. Bands no longer have to rely on big studios to produce and distribute their music. The internet is revolutionizing the dissemination of music to the masses. Copyright laws have their place, but they have become obsolete. If the concept of copyright cannot be updated to coexist with the internet generation, it would be better to leave it in the past.

Hackers - Evolution of the Label

The word 'hacker' has a very different meaning today than it did 20-30 years ago. In Cliff Stoll's book "The Cuckoo's Egg" he points out that the word was generally used within the community of programmers to describe a very skilled coder. Being called a hacker was high praise coming from your peers. The advent of networking computers across the globe had begun to change the connotation of 'hacker' to mean something quite different. A hacker was now a derogatory term used to describe programmers who used their skills to break into other computers and cause some sort of detrimental effect. A hacker is still obviously a skilled programmer, but now calling someone a hacker implies ill will.

The evolution of this term reflects the gradual increase in technical knowledge among the general public. Stoll showed that hackers were able to gain access to others computers because even the system admins didn't know how to protect their computer systems. Since that time, technology has gotten more complex and likewise the systems used to protect them have as well. Operating systems on modern computers include safety precautions such as firewalls and anti-virus software to discourage hackers. That being said, hackers are also improving their methods. Vigilance and care are required to avoid the malicious effects of hackers and viruses.

Gamification of Genealogy

The world has become impatient. People want things now, not later. Games on mobile phones are played in chunks of 15 minutes or less. Doing genealogy is not fast. It takes a long time to get anything meaningful done. I rarely have 2 hours at a time to devote to any single activity. If doing family history can be made fun, quick, and enjoyable, more people will actually want to do it. If I could take 15 minutes out of my day and actually make some meaningful progress in family history, I would be much more inclined to do so. Make genealogy a game, and I'll play it.