Developing Useful Talents

I played a lot of video games when I was little boy. I spent many hours on classics such as Road Rash II, NFL Blitz, Super Mario World, and Mario 64. But then I grew up and realized how much video games waste time and money. Any benefit which video games may provide can be obtained through cheaper and more fulfilling means. Yes, video games can be avenue for socializing in person, but they aren't the best avenue. At least games like Boggle and Scrabble enhance a skill worth having. Instead of idling away our time and money we should be developing useful talents.

Privacy on the Internet is a Fallacy

Privacy on the internet is a fallacy which we need to stop pursuing. Somehow we have allowed consumers to believe that their personal information is safe, secure, and private on the internet. Consumers have no problem knowing that friends of friends can freely stalk them, but riots ensue when personal information is mined by Google to enhance their user experience. This is akin to announcing an engagement in Relief Society and expecting the news to stay there. Ignorance is the sole cause of this illogical behavior. We must stop allowing ourselves to be deceived by the fallacy of a private internet.

The CS Gender Gap is Natural

It is well known that computer science is a male-dominated field. After much research, the most reasonable cause for this phenomena is that women just don't enjoy tinkering with gadgets. The proposed solution to the gender gap is to change computer science so that tinkering is not required. This would be accomlished by teaching computer science more like mathematics. That could tear down some barriers for women, but what about the effect it would have on the men? Lets take another step back and ask, why is the gender gap a problem? A lot of research was done in order to prove whether social injustice was the cause. But now we know the culprit is more natural and we can rest at ease.

A Respectful Forum

We often hear general authorities suggesting that we use social media as a means for sharing the gospel. I have two options for reaching out to my friends (based on what services they use): Facebook or a blog. I had a blog that I updated regularly before my mission. Many of my friends, and a few random people, were faithful readers. But the internet has changed in the 5 years since I stopped blogging; I don't think I could get the same audience I had before. I am left with Facebook, but that is treacherous ground. When people want to participate in a respectful and meaningful exchange of ideas, they don't turn to Facebook. Most of the people who discuss politics and religion on Facebook are passionate and obnoxious fiends. I, like many others, quickly unsubscribe from most updates of those radicals. The last thing I want to do is force all of my friends to ignore anything I say.

Make Your Money and Move On

Copyright law has been a source of much contention on the internet. While trying to protect their intellectual property, the entertainment industry has alienated customers by making it more difficult to access and share content. Some say that the solution is to end the practice of copyrighting. But that is ridiculous. How would anybody be able to make money without copyright? The best solution is to shorten the length of copyright down to no more than 20 years. That is more than enough time for the original creator to reap the rewards of their creation without further hindering the "progress of science and useful arts."

Open-Source Genealogy

Genealogy has a small open-source community. But its not good enough. Genealogy is a big-data problem. And the data is not freely available. The closest thing to freely available records is FamilySearch.org, but they have no APIs for searching their records. Most open-source genealogy software is tackling problems that have already been solved by PAF and RootsMagic. Genealogy data needs to be opened. FamilySearch began to share this vision during Jay Verkler's keynote at the 2012 RootsTech conference. When the open-source community gets access to data, without screen-scraping, we will see a surge of innovation.

Privacy Has No Value

The Patriot Act has stirred controversy since it was introduced to Congress in October 2001. Critics of the the bill claim that it infringes on our right to privacy. Those critics forget that privacy comes at a cost. In The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll tells a true story about tracing a hacker. He attempts to enlist the help of law enforcement and military officials but they constantly resist. Cliff then realizes that "[our] rights actually limit what police can do."

One of the responsibilities of our government is to protect our lives and property. That requires the government to take preemptive action. The government can't protect us if they can't prevent attacks against us. Taking preemptive action requires the ability to gather intelligence on reasonable threats. But intelligence gathering can't be limited only to previously determined threats. The government also needs the ability to identify new threats. This level of gathering intelligence requires an invasion of privacy.

There is nothing wrong with the government invading our privacy. We lose nothing if we have nothing to hide. Instead, we enable the government to fulfill its responsibility to protect our life and property.

Our Ancestors Need Me

I have always felt a yearning to do genealogy. I remember developing my own pedigree system in Excel when I was a child. Over 15 years later my desire to find my ancestors has only grown stronger. I feel my ancestors cheering me on and begging for me to continue researching and taking names to the temple. I also believe that I am among the "skilled men and women" that the Lord has inspired "in developing new technologies which we can use to our great advantage in moving forward this sacred work." Currently I am working on the 20 Minute Genealogist with Dr Knutson, Dr Zapalla, and 8 other students. Though my work on that project will cease when I graduate in April, I will continue applying my talents to genealogy. At RootsTech 2012 I caught a glimpse of the future. It looks bright, and I will make it even brighter.

Buy More AAPL

In response to growing pressure, Apple asked an auditor to inspect the overseas factories where most of their products are made. Despite bad press, the controversy hasn't had any affect on their sales. 19% of all consumer electronics bought in the 4th quarter of 2011 were Apple products; Apple received $1 for every $5 spent on electronics in the US. Their stock is soaring and is expected to continue performing well. Why hasn't the bad press affected their revenue? Because we don't care if our life-changing electronics are made in factories with working conditions that hearken back to the industrial revolution. All modern economies experience growth pains. Conditions in Chinese factories will improve, prices will go up, and electronic manufacturers will find a country with cheaper labor. All the while we will continue consuming amazingly shiny and life-changing Apple products. The release of the iPad 3 is on the horizon and there is still no worthy competitor. I think now is a good time to buy more AAPL.

Child Safety on the Internet is Easy

The safety of children on the internet (especially sites like Facebook) is still a concern despite laws that seek to protect them. Now people are shocked to learn that 44% of children have on Facebook who they have never met. This seems very silly because the solution is so simple: monitor your child's activities on the web. It's not that hard. Don't let them use Facebook if you can't be their friend. Better yet, have them share all usernames and passwords with you that they use on the internet. Facebook and email are the most important accounts (do children use anything else?). If you are concerned about their internet activities while away from home, just take away their smart phone. Children don't need a smart phone (I do quite well without one). Don't depend on federal law and corporate kindness to protect your children -- only you can do that. The solution is easy.

Technically Responsible

The shut down of Megaupload raises tough questions that have gone unanswered for years. Should a content delivery system be held responsible for illegal content being uploaded by their users? Now in this case its obvious that Megaupload participated in the spreading of illegal content. But what about a site like YouTube? What if Megaupload was paying another company to host their servers? Should the hosting company be held responsible too? The tech community dreams of a world where you cannot be held directly responsible for content posted to your site or for misuse of your services (one of the many points of opposition to SOPA and PIPA). But that philosophy of turning a blind eye leads to chaos, just like it did in the housing market. As the world continues to become more connected, we should not become less aware. No, we should become more aware, just as we did with the onslaught of spam and phishing scandals.

The Duality of Technology

Despite playing a prominent role on our life, technology is not well understood by most of us. It is feared by the elderly and idolized by the youth. Very few people understand both its positive and negative potential. But I do. I have suffered the consequences of an information addiction and have benefited from life-changing internet projects. Though "the advantages... of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population," I can make the distribution more even than it would otherwise be. I can work to create positive uses for it and to warn others about its disadvantages. So I have a new goal to spread the positive influence of technology.