Smallish post 7

I believe that one of the few things that we get to take with us when we die are relationships that we create while we are here.  For most people, we create a good part of our relationships at work.  I have made friends and acquaintances at work and those can be the hardest relationships to keep positive.  It can be hard work sometimes.  Sometimes with a coworker there are conflicting feelings and opinions and it takes charity to still be keep a good and professional relationship with them.  But charity is key.  Having charity allows there to still be good feelings between us.  Another key is forgiveness.  Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness allows a relationship to stay strong and to grow and is the application of charity.  With charity comes forgiveness.  Striving for charity in every relationship will have eternal returns.

Position Vlog

http://youtu.be/Sk3tT6SVuso

One scripture that I think about frequently says that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.  It is a much of a caution as it is a promise.  Things that can appear insignificant can have a major impact on our lives.  Addiction starts this way.  It may start as something small and simple, but it can grow to become an evil and destructive habit.  As a husband and father, much of my time is devoted to those responsibilities.  Taking care of my wife and son are worthwhile and fulfilling activities that bring the most happiness to my life.  I have to be very careful with my time so that I can fulfill my responsibilities.  The internet seems to be that consistent temptation that wants to eat up my time.  I have to be on constant guard to prevent it from overtaking my life.  The social sites and online video games can consume a life.  And it can start with something small and simple.

Smallish post 6

There are many things a person can do to protect themselves from inappropriate content on the internet.  From an antivirus to a PC's location, there is an infinite list of actions that someone can take to help protect themselves.  But I believe the most important thing I can do to protect myself is to gain knowledge.  As a parent I think about what I'm going to do to protect my son from all the bad things that are out there on the internet.  I'll have rules and policies like most parents have, but more importantly make sure that he knows right from wrong and how to handle those situations where inappropriate content  comes on the screen.  If I can lay that foundation of right and wrong with him the rules and policies become less useful because he will understand the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law.  That will be when I feel that my son is protected.

Here comes everybody

The world hasn't been the same since social media became mainstream.  When the ideas of MySpace and Facebook were first conceived, I wonder if their creators knew the impact that they would have.  Here comes everybody by Clay Shirky explores both the positive and negative impacts that these social tools have had on our society.  To me the main question that the author is posing throughout the book is whether progress in this area is a good or a bad thing.  It benefits people, but at also harms people.  Most people have had both kinds of experiences with social media.  I enjoy going to Facebook every once in a while to catch up on what's going on with my friends and sometimes join in on a conversation on a subject that I enjoy talking about.  But I've also known people that have lost their jobs because of what is on Facebook.  I believe that no matter what the experience, I would not want someone to restrict my ability to be on social media.  I would rather take the bad with the good than to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Especially when people get into trouble with things that they have voluntarily put on social media.  When posting, know your audience.  Expect that people outside your target audience will be able to read your post as well.  If you do not like it, then you have the choice of not using social media.

Smallish post 5

Open source programming is not very intuitive.  I, like most people, think at first that open source development is not an efficient way of developing useful software.  It may be because I have been conditioned to accept software from Microsoft to be the way things things work.  They make it and distribute it, I buy it and use it.  If I come across a problem I send them an email or an automated error report about the problem that I'm having.  Not once have I ever received a personal response back about how to fix the problem or receive an acknowledgement they are even aware of the problem.  Open source programming approaches it fundamentally different.  Everyone is working together, as "co-developers" as Eric Raymond puts it in his article  The Cathedral and the Bazaar.  There is unity, which is a contributing factor to their success.  Communication is more open and it is not as if the programmer and the user are on two sides of a continuously waging war.

Smallish post 4

Free software is an interesting idea.   Usually when I am buying software I think it should be free, but other times I think otherwise.  I've always been a supporter of the free market where price is determined by supply and demand.  Software is unique in that it is difficult to quantify the supply. If another copy of a program is needed, a copy can be made fairly easily.  With an almost unlimited supply, logically the price would be low if not zero.  But there are 2 reasons that companies like Apple and Microsoft can charge so much for their software.  First,  they protect their source code, which allows them to control the supply of their software.  And second, there is an extremely high demand for the software.  The combination of these two factors allows companies to charge so much.  Controlling the supply is something that monopolies do, so in essence these companies have a monopoly on the software market.  But that may be beginning to change with the expansion of other software companies that open source programming like Linux and Android.

Smallish post 3

Technology amplifies people's talents.  FDR did it with the radio.  Steven Hawking does it with his equipment.  It allows people to share their talents.  The radio amplified FDR's leadership during times of crisis in the United States.  Steven Hawking's equipment provides him a way to communicate his brilliance.  This is true for both good and evil.  Thieves used to steal possessions, but now they steal identities.  Technology can take what is already there and amplify it.  Choice is what determines whether it amplifies the good or the bad.

Cuckoo for Cuckoo's Egg

There is not a great divide between a hero and a villain.  They are like two sides of the coin.  There is a chance for the result to come out one way or another.  The result is a consequence of the choices that are made.  Those that are capable of great good are also capable of great evil.  There are several examples of where this is true, where evil people change and become good.  The best example may be Saul from the New Testament.  He committed great acts of evil, including killing the followers of Jesus and after a powerful spiritual experience he became an apostle of Jesus Christ.  He was capable of great evil and of great good.  It is our choices that determine what side of the coin we become.  Clifford and Hess from The Cuckoo's Egg are also two sides of a coin.  Both of the men do impressive things, especially considering the time period.  They both were breaking new ground in hacking.  Hess brilliantly navigates in and out of systems stealing information.  It took intelligence and creativity to be able to do that.  The same can be said about Clifford.  Through intelligence and creativity Clifford was able to track, disrupt, and eventually catch Hess.  These two people are two examples of greatness, one bad and one good.  The choices that we make are determine what we will become.

Smallish Post 2 Inspired technology

There is an issue that I find very interesting  to think about.  It's whether or not some technology is inspired.  On one hand, people give thanks to God for some technology being invented.  God created everything, therefore he created technology.  This argument happens a lot in hospitals.  On the other hand, people say that technology is not from God, because it is man's attempt to approve on God's creation.  These people use evidence of where technology has hurt people instead of helped them, such as computer hacking and identity theft.  I view this issue as a subcategory of a "The problem of evil".  God created everything, and there is evil in the world, so did God create evil?  To me it comes down to agency and responsibility.  God does give us gifts, such as technology, but how we use those gifts is up to us.  We choose to use them for evil.  So I think it's not the question of whether certain technology is evil or not, it's a question of whether the person using the technology is evil.

Current Event 2 Natural Order

Postman's fifth idea is that some technology becomes mythical or part of the natural order of things.  It's become the natural order to have the latest and greatest smartphone in the market.  The manufacturers have noticed.  Each popular line of phone like the Galaxy S series or the iPhone series comes out with a new phone every six months.  People buy them because that has become the natural order.  Build quality has been sacrificed because a phone's release date is more important.  With the latest release of the iphone (iPhone 6 and 6 plus) there have been some major build quality issues.  The phone will bend under the smallest of forces.  It does not matter to most people who are planning to buy the new iPhone.  Either they don't see the fragility of the phone as much of a problem, or they know that they are going to get a new one in six months anyway.  They can endure the six months knowing they will have a new phone soon.  

Birth of the Subscriptions

I was reading this article by Edgar Alvarez on Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/22/microsoft-office-365-students/ so I felt like I should give my opinion on the up and coming trend of program subscriptions.  I don't like it.  Whenever I spend money on a product, I would like to own the product itself, not "own" the privilege of using the product.  It's similar to the difference between renting or buying a house.  There are benefits of both, but bottom line leasing is renting the house and buying is investing in the house.  Buying a house is better.  Buying software is better than renting.  Buying a subscription could lead to buying software that I can't really afford.  Short term you do save money, but long term you do not.  But the reason why I don't like subscriptions is I do not own things that I'm paying for.  From what I understand subscriptions are getting more and more popular as well.  There are rumors that operating systems are going to become subscription based.  I'm not looking forward to that.

Neil Postman's point of view

I agree with most of the things that Neil Postman says in his article "Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change".  Technology does come at a price, there are winners and losers, and changes caused by technology are ecological.  In one way or another, these statements are true most of the time.  They are also relative.  Price in this case has a negative connotation, being something that is unwillingly given.  But this isn't always the case.  The things that people give up because of technology could be willingly given.  I imagine that there were several farmers that gladly gave up their sickle for a combine harvester.   Being a winner or a loser is often left to our point of view.  McDonald's is coming out with a machine that will take food orders for customers instead of the employees.  Some could consider the employees losers in this scenario.  They could also be winners if they take this opportunity to go find a better and more meaningful job.  It depends on your point of view.  So these statements that Postman are making are mostly right, but he's choosing to look at it in a negative light, and there are other ways of looking at it.

I'm trying blogging for the first time to see how it works.