Study Journal #6

Technology and the Church

November 19

• You do not have to sacrifice what you know to be right to fit into the business world.
• I think that conducting business after 7PM is not very good. Even if people are traveling, they should be able to do everything they need to do between 7AM and 7PM. If any more information is needed, then extend the visit, write more emails, conduct more Skype sessions in order to get the information you need.
• "There will be many inventions of labor-saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work." - Brigham Young

December 1

Stephen Richardson

• The Church is a wonderful example of how to create technology that has a great purpose. The machine translation tools created by the church allow people all over the world to be more productive and more accurate in translating enlightening messages for people all around the world.
• Machine learning is an amazing thing. I don't think it would be humanly possible to read millions of sentences, receive a new sentence and then recall back to any similar sentences to see if the new sentence is valid. I shudder to think of where we would be with our translation projects in the church if we did not have computers.
• It's funny how the church tests their system against the Google translation tools. Even more funny is that the church translation tools are up to 10-15% better than the Google tools. I guess Google hasn't recruited all of the best and brightest after all.

December 3

• Just because we can do something, should we do it? This is a great question to ask with every new technology as it is discovered or invented. Most technology is a double edged sword. It can be used for good, and it can be used for bad.
• Quick reminder: "We are what we repeatedly do." - Aristotle
• Bednar - All advancements are from God to further His work.
• Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work. - Brigham Young
• Be Authentic & Consistent, Edify & Uplift, Respect Intellectual Property, Be Wise & Vigilant - Bednar

December 8

Craig Miller, Senior Vice President, FamilySearch

• What compelled the priests of the middle ages to keep records? The Church wasn't around at the time, and I'm pretty sure no other churches had a concept of redemption of the dead. The hand of the Lord was truly still in action during this time.
• I am in a digital signal processing class right now. It has been one of the most advanced concepts I have ever studied, and I wish I was better at it. Seeing how DSP is used to help automate processing historical records is absolutely amazing.
• It is really cool to see how technology is used in the church for a good purpose. However, I feel like this topic is kind of pushing it for an ethics class. I feel like we should be talking about those gray areas in life and have in depth, open discussions about controversial topics. Again, I do like hearing about how the Church uses technology for good, but I don't know if it is in the scope of this course.

Current Event #6

Anonymous Hackers Declare War on Islamic State After Paris Attacks

An international hacking organization known as Anonymous has declared cyber war on ISIS after the recent Paris attack. While technically the group has been fighting ISIS since January after the Charlie Hebdo attack, they have now officially announced their intentions. Normally it has been hard to know who Anonymous would be fighting on a week to week basis, but their motives have usually been centered around defending civil rights. I have seen links talking about "anonymous hackers" on the internet over the past few months, but I never realized that that was the actual name of the group. It is interesting to see a hacking group band together to fight against something, especially when that group doesn't seem to have any moral code to live by. It will be interesting to see how long they stay with this vendetta they have created, and what they will do afterwards when this is hopefully all over. Will they continue to fight for the common good, or will they go back to hacking whatever they want because they don't agree with something?

Study Journal #5

Finance

November 5

Social Issues in Computing

• Why are there not more women in computer science? There are lots of different reasons. One big factor that seems to stand out in most of the comments in class is the "strong male presence" that seems to be present in the CS world that makes women uncomfortable.
• People should not be forced to do what they don't want to do to fulfill a quota. If you like doing something, then do it.
• It sounds like a lot of women are also "forced" out of STEM majors because of pressure to be a stay at home mom. As I said before, if you like something, do it. My wife is a Medical Laboratory Scientist, but she isn't really planning on working in a lab. She loves her current job as a secretary at the Marriott School of Business, and has been offered full time employment there. She is happy for the education she got though, and in the event anything ever happens to me she has a way to provide for herself should anything bad happen.

November 10

Cydni Tetro, Executive Director, Women Tech Council [Did Not Show]

• Since the speaker has not shown up yet, we again started to talk about gender bias and racism in the workplace. I really liked one student's comments that the Affirmative Action movement is just a band-aid for the real problem, which is a person's individual bias. Rather than forcing a biased person to hire people, something should be done to help these people change their abrasive views.
• I didn't like the article with the experiment of altering the environment to encourage women to go into Computer Science. It sounded like their original test environment was really an extreme one with the Star Trek posters and sci-fi objects. I think that that sort of environment would also push away some men as well as women. Also, I know quite a few women who are way more interested in that kind of stuff than some men are. Just because you changed the environment doesn't mean that you will be changing the people that are already there. Eventually you will have to interact with people who are very interested in this kind of stuff. Will women be turned away at that point because they don't like their colleagues?
• We didn't really have a class today. However, I do feel that talking about the lack of women in computer science in a room almost completely full of men is not the best use of time. I know about this issue already. I am in Computer Science. I see that there are very few women here. If we want more women in CS, then we should go talk to the women and encourage them to join, not sit here and talk with the men about why is it like this.

November 12

Cydni Tetro, Executive Director, Women Tech Council

• It has been proven that groups work more efficiently if there is a good mixture of men and women in it. This is because there is a greater range of ideas and methodologies, which encourages more thinking and communication.
• 80% of all children in school in Utah come from a home with both parents working. That seems kind of high, but understandable, especially since my wife and I will most likely be adding to that statistic.
• Everyone can help to make a better environment for women to work in tech. The key is to be aware of the different situations that everyone can be in.
• 4 Key Points: 1 - Teams win, ideas don't. You have to work with other people. 2 - Make it a non-issue. Don't do business differently with women as you would with men. 3 - Look around you. 4 - Build a network. The best way to get a job is by knowing someone. Get to know other people.

November 17

Module Quiz Day

• It baffles me that people can spend so much time on social media each day. Maybe it is because I am more antisocial than other people, but I still say that 16 minutes per hour average is a lot.
• I thought that NDA's would be valid enough to keep employees from blabbing company secrets through social media. If there is a contract, then the employees should demonstrate self control, no matter the medium to which they are talking to other people.
• I don't think there is really a big problem with not having women go into computer science. As long as they aren't kept out by silly reasons like they think it is a nerd's world, then I'm fine with whatever they choose.

Current Event #5

Why So Few Women Are Studying Computer Science

Recently in class we have been discussing why there aren't more women studying Computer Science in college. The article I read about this topic makes a few points about why this might be. While I may not agree with all of them, it is good to take into account other people opinions. The article brought up various points, from the toys children play with as they grow up to the culture surrounding the topic being very masculine and macho. Another big reason the article stated was that the reason women don't go into CS is because "women have historically chosen lower-paying yet fulfilling jobs like teaching or journalism, whereas their male counterparts, sometimes considered family providers, choose high-paying careers like computer science and engineering." I don't know about you, but I feel like I have a fulfilling job as a programmer right now. I love what I do and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. The article then shifts into a different point of view by showing how some universities are trying to get more women to study Computer Science. At the end of the day, I don't think that you can dress up and change how the subject looks. Computer Science is math. There just happens to be a wrapper of English around it to make it a little more understandable. If you like math, then you should consider CS. If you hate math with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, then maybe you should consider something else. I don't care who you are or where you are from, if you don't like the subject, then don't study it! If we had more people studying what they loved rather than studying what someone told them to study just to fill a quota then I think that we would have much higher quality employees in all fields. If you like to teach, be a teacher! If you like to cook, be a chef!
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Extra commentary
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I tried to browse the comments after the article as well to get more insights, but as usual the comments ended up boiling down to people bickering and fighting. There was one good comment that I found interesting, and it was the very first one at the top by a Kris Roadruck.

"Most of the people I know that are really good at their craft in tech (be it programming or engineering or networks or what have you) got that way because as a kid they didn't really fit in. As a result they had a lot of extra hours to spend getting really good with computers instead of socializing. Eventually this lead them to careers with other similar social outcasts and they finally had a place they could fit in. Now women are saying listen we'd love to do tech but only if you change the environment where those before us finally fit in to look a lot more like the social environments that rejected them and lead them to getting good at computers in the first place. [...] Maybe instead of that you could instead just get really good at your craft. That would probably make you fit in without forcing everyone else around you to change."

While I may not agree completely with this, I do see where he is coming from. Computer Science has been a safe haven for the "nerds" and "outcasts" of society for a long time. While change may be good, I don't think that we should completely destroy a culture just to help a demographic to fit in. Integration with the culture is what should be happening. Of course the culture can evolve, but we shouldn't destroy it. Where would our technology be today if the computer scientists of the past were not sci-fi nerds? Where would all the dreams and ideas have come from?

Study Journal #4

Finance

October 27

Frontline: Dot Con

• IPO: Initial Public Offering - This is the process that many internet based companies went through to take their companies public and sell shares on the stock market.
• During the "Dot Con", analysts and investment bankers would start to fund start up tech companies and get quick profit off of them. The scandal behind it is that they would give the first sells the stocks to their "good clients" and guarantee them a profit before their clients would sell the stock within hours after the stock went up.
• Many of the people running the Dot Con relied on the "Greater Fool" theory, which is that you will make money as long as you can find a greater fool than yourself.

October 29

• One student's comment really caught my attention today. A company he worked for creates email filtering technology to protect users from scams like phishing and malicious software. To find new customers, they send out their own phishing emails and then sell their products to the people that fall for their attacks. While they don't take any money from the people, I don't know if this is a very ethical thing to do. The problem is I like this idea too. I just feel like it is in the murky, dark gray area in the ethical spectrum. I don't know what I would do if I worked in a company like that.
• I don't like the idea of financial kickbacks. It seems like dirty trades that steal money from the people that want the work to get done. As with the example Dr. Dougal gave in class today, the interpreters and the software contractor are making extra money with the 15% buffer of translated words, but the people that want the work done are losing out on extra money for superfluous work that doesn't help at all.
• A key contributing factor to why technology companies are so popular to fund and invest in is due to the very low overhead compared to other areas of industry like automobile production.

November 3

• Does culture really pay a price for new technology? Shouldn't we consider the new technology part of that culture, rather than something that destroys it? I feel that culture is something that evolves over time, not something that is defined by our ancestors and is then set in stone.
• I never really thought about how movies can affect different dialects and accents around the world. I guess it really is amazing that there are still so many different accents that can be found.
• Dr. Dougal - "What would my life be like if I didn't have ___________?" (insert technology in blank). All of the things I think of first to put in that blank make me shudder to think what life would be like without it.

Current Event #4

Tech Startups Feel an IPO Chill

During the 1990's technology companies were in high demand by financial backers. Investors found startup tech companies to be easy flips to make a quick cash out with little work. People began to act like sharks and jump on any startup company, good or bad, and get them to enter the public market as soon as possible. This time was known as the "Dot Con" era. Fast forward to today, and technology companies are starting to get the cold shoulder from investors. Instead of being treated as royalty, tech companies now have to survive the proving grounds of any other startup company and get to a stable point financially before investors will back them. One company that is starting to feel this pressure is Dropbox. Instead of cashing out like many other tech companies of the past, Dropbox is now forced to continue to improve its services and begin to branch out with more products in order to keep up its value. While this change in the market may be negative for startup companies becoming successful, it will help to improve the quality of the software being created. It makes me think of the parable of the wheat and the tares in D&C 86 where the good companies will be invested in and the bad companies will disappear.

Study Journal #3

Law & Computing

October 6

• Free Software: Sometimes having software for free isn't always the best thing. Money saved on support costs can end up going to spending your own time to troubleshoot your own problems. Linux may offer a lot of freedom, but it requires a vast amount of time to master and customize to suit your needs. Is your time worth the same or less than the cost of paying a support team to take care of any problems that may come up?
• I feel like the Free Software Movement is the nerd version of the hippie movement. Share everything with everyone. What is mine is yours. Bill Gates did come off pretty strongly though that he felt that the creators of good, clean, documented code should be paid for their work. I think that we have a nice balance today between free software and intellectual property.
• I think it is funny that Linus Torvalds thought that it was embarrassing to call his operating system Linux in public.

October 8

Dr. Asay: Intellectual Property

• Trade Secrets: Confidential information that the company depends on can be considered a trade secret. However, if someone can duplicate this trade secret, then the secret is out and can be reverse-engineered by anybody.
• To obtain a patent, you need to apply at the patent office. It takes about three years to get the application process completed due to so many patents coming in. If you are the first to get a patent in for some technology, then you will most likely be the one to get it. Patents are used primarily to sue other people.
• Copyright: Copyrightable material has to originate with you and have a portion of creativity to it. It is more lenient with independent creation.

Cybersecurity & Espionage

October 13

The Cuckoo's Egg & Intellectual Property Review

• Why would the government grant a monopoly to someone? It helps to protect inventors and give them rights to their inventions, as well as give more motivation for innovation. This can be a double edged sword with patent trolls though.
• I think that software patents should not have a duration of twenty years. Most technology is rapidly evolving to the point that what is patented today becomes outdated in just a few short years. I feel that five years would be a much more appropriate length of time.
• Non-Compete Clause: These agreements keep a person from leaving a company and going to work for their competitors. A company normally pays extra to add these clauses to employment contracts.

The Cuckoo's Egg

October 15

• Is being apathetic unethical? In Cliff Stoll's situation, system admins that were apathetic and did nothing to prevent the hackers moving through their system then allowed the hackers to move on to bigger and more important systems.
• I, like many others, find the Windows Updates very annoying. I run Windows on a Mac, and so I am constantly booting back and forth between operating systems. It is a major drain on my time when Windows decides to update when I am in the middle of switching back over to Mac OS X. However, I am very grateful that they go through all the work of keeping my data and system secure and safe.
• I find it interesting that as Cliff gained more knowledge during his experience with the hackers, he started moving his political views more towards the right. I know that there are extremists on both sides of the line, but maybe learning more would help us all to center ourselves. Education and knowledge allow us to see more options and choices.

Daryl C. Dougal

October 20

• The FBI is unable to investigate if less than $100,000 is involved. This affected the Cuckoo's Egg story because there wasn't a monetary loss happening for anyone.
• Before 1996, theft did not include taking pictures or copies of information, such as taking a picture of the KFC recipe in their vault. An example of this is Fuji stealing the technology of the disposable camera from Kodak. (Economic Espionage Act of 1996)
• One of the biggest reasons that the United States lost the Vietnam War is due to the actions of John A. Walker. He passed on military secrets pertaining to the machinery that encoded and decoded messages for the Navy.

Current Event #3

Swig vs. Sodalicious
A battle is brewing in Utah. Swig, a soda shop, is suing a competitor, Sodalicious, for trademark infringement. A few years ago, swig started out as a small company in St. George, UT. When they began business, they trademarked the term "dirty", which denotes a special variation on their drinks. Sodalicious, a more recent player on the scene, began to also market almost all the exact same products as Swig, just under a different name. However, they also use the term "dirty" to denote the same type of mixture for their drinks. While Swig is technically in the right for being able to sue over this, is it really right for a company or individual to copyright a common word? As we saw in the examples from class, terms such as elevator and kleenex were originally brands which became so common to use that they lost their copyright protection. But dirty is a word that has multiple meanings. Can a simple word such as this really be protected? It will be very interesting to follow this story to see where this lawsuit goes.

Study Journal #2

September 22

• Triumph of the Nerds (Part 1): Great things don't just happen by chance. Hard work and sacrifice are required to make something truly great.
• During the advent of personal computers, everyone had a greater sense of community and sharing. It's too bad that today people want to guard every bit of information possible and strike down all those around them.
• Is the definition of success really measured by money? Shouldn't it be the knowledge that you have made a difference, even if you aren't the one getting the recognition for your accomplishments?

September 24

• Triumph of the Nerds (Part 2): IBM was a big mainframe computer company until the era of personal computers arrived. Good thing they recognized what the future had in store and changed gears and got in the game.
• It's sad that the original inventors of new concepts such as the QDOS end up being cast aside while others make millions off of their ideas.
• I always wondered how reverse engineering was legal. I didn't know about the "clean rooms" using people who have never interacted with the original product. I guess there is a lot of legal jargon that I am still missing out on, but I still don't like reverse engineering. It sounds like a cheap way out of designing something new and original.

September 29

• Triumph of the Nerds (Part 3): Why couldn't companies realize what they had at the time? XEROX had the first GUI system with a mouse and keyboard and they just blew it off! Narrow-mindedness and no desire to change can really cripple even the best of companies or people.
• "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." - Steve Jobs. Too bad they didn't steal more of the software ideas from IBM so that they would be more sellable. There is only so much you can do with a text editor and a simple paint program.
• It's a good thing that Bill Gates wanted to create a GUI interface to challenge the Macintosh. With no competition, Apple would have become complacent and we probably wouldn't be anywhere near what we have now.
• It's funny to see Steve Jobs' reaction to Microsoft launching Windows. He sure isn't happy about losing out on another chunk of the market share.
• What is my definition of success? If I have enough to provide for my family by doing something that makes society a better place, then I feel that I have been successful. Money helps, but also knowing that advancements have been made by using something I have done is a great feeling.

October 1

• Module Quiz only today.

Current Event #2

The Slippery Slopes of Silicon Valley
About a year ago there were many ethical dilemmas happening in the Silicon Valley. Start-up tech companies were using the data given to them by their users and clients to perform studies and to take down their competitors. Some examples of this are Facebook and Uber. Facebook recently changed up the news feeds of over half a million users to perform a psychological study. This allowed them to alter the number of positive and negative items seen on a user's wall. While this may not have had very significant effects, Facebook was manipulating information in different ways for different customers without their knowledge. Uber, a taxi service, also used technology to take down one of their greatest rivals, Lyft, by sending in fake orders and canceling them. Many people in the world look up to Silicon Valley as the center of the technology industry. However, their loose ethical standards seem to suggest that maybe they aren't the shining pinnacle of inspiration we should all be looking to. Hopefully as these young start-ups grow up they will also mature in their interactions with those around them.

Study Journal #1

September 8

• Ethics and morality are not the same thing. Morality is a set of "rules" that are immutable, while ethics are rules that are changed over time. I always thought that these two words were synonymous, but it makes sense that ethics change over time and from group to group.
• Philosophy has three tenants: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics. These three items correspond to the following questions: What is reality? How do we know what we know? Given what we know, what should we do? Again, ethics comes down to what is the general consensus on what to do in a given situation. It can be bent and changed over time.
• Aristotle believed that ethics was more about becoming and doing good rather than knowing good. The same is true about hypocrisy. A person can tell others what is right from wrong, but if they don't follow what they teach others, then are they really good / ethical?

September 10

• LDS ethics require that we treat neighbors with respect regardless of the situation. It doesn't matter if your neighbor might be a terrible person. If they are going through hard times, help in any way possible. You might become friends over time and help them to change for the better.
• There are four principles of situational ethics: pragmatism, relativism, positivism and personalism. All I could think of was the song "What is Love?". I guess a lot of music was based off of ideas from situational ethics in the 60's.
• Situational ethics rely on more of a case by case decision process, rather than a set of rules or laws. The only rule it stays true to is "love", or do what is better for the greater good. How would our court systems work though if every case was decided differently by different judges? How do we decide what is the greater good? Unless you are omniscient, this method of thinking is impractical and nearly impossible to implement.

September 15

• Knowledge is power. Data is knowledge. Computer scientists hold the data. Therefore, computer scientists hold the power. However, power should not be abused. Without good ethical codes of conduct, computer scientists can become corrupt and cause great harm in a variety of ways.
• From the article about the fish, sometimes we don't see all the details about something from just quickly glancing at it. We need to interact with it so that we can learn about it.
• Order of Ignorance 2: Lack of Awareness: I do not know that I do not know. Unless you sit still and think about nothing and interact with nobody, this area in the orders of ignorance should be decreasing constantly. We should always be exploring for new information and new knowledge.

September 17

• Temptations of the devil can ALWAYS be overcome by renewed faith in God and by repentance. This phrase doesn't say SOMETIMES or MAYBE, it says ALWAYS. This would be a good quote to put on the wall or as a note to self.
• Many people think that "Christ is peace" means no war. However, this also can apply to having a peace of mind, peace of spirit, peace in the home. Following Christ will help us to avoid contentions.
• He that takes offense when no offense was intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense was intended is an even greater fool. - Brigham Young --It doesn't matter what other people think about you or call you. The only opinion of yourself that you should care about is Heavenly Father's opinion.

Ethics & Morality

Faith & Scientific Progress - theblaze.com
Recently there have been many reports on the sale of fetal tissue from an organization known as Planned Parenthood. This topic has almost divided the country on which side is in the right. Many of the people who want to shut down the program appear to come from a religious background. Because of this, a Harvard professor stated that although this is a sensitive topic for many, we shouldn't allow faith to get in the way of scientific progress, and that the suffering of many people could be cured if the research could take place unhindered. The way I see it, this professor has no qualms about what can and cannot be done if it is in the name of science. While I wholeheartedly support research and science, if the process includes the killing of infants in their fetal stages, then it should not be allowed to continue. There must be a line drawn in the sand somewhere. A "line in the sand" has actually always been around, which is the code of conduct we call morality. There is also another code called ethics which more people like to subscribe to. However, it seems with each passing day we continue to dash the ethical line and redraw it further away from morality.