Whacking the World with a Tenderizer (CS 404)

The World is Flat, the book I wasn't able to read, talks about the different forces that have flattened our world, bringing the world closer together. The process of this flattening makes me think of a tenderizer. Of all the the kitchen utensils, I find the it to be the most curious one: a spiked mallet used to whack the heck out of meat. This flattening is like a giant tenderizer being let loose upon the world, flattening it with every stroke.

Whoever is swinging that tenderizer right now is in a frenzy. Technology in the past few decades have not only greatly flatten the world but it's done it rapidly. Twenty years ago I didn't know what the Internet was, and yet today I can't meet someone who hasn't. The Internet alone has brought people closer together than anything else in the past, literally giving people access to the whole world without leaving their home. The accessibility itself drives people towards contributing to the Web, letting more and more people to share their ideas and works.

The flattening  hasn't been smooth though, as with each swing of the spiked mallet parts of the world get roughed up, leaving us with new challenges and questions to ask. How can we protect ourselves from hackers? How can we prevent pirating? Should the Internet be censored? Can technology go too far? Questions like these aren't easy to answer, and even if we can answer them, they'll just come back once things get roughed up again.

It's an exciting time with all this rapid change, but we'll have to work at smoothing out the bumps as we go along. In this flattening world, only one thing can be certain: the tenderizer will strike again.

A New Form of Tyranny (CS 404)

So after reading some articles about copyright laws I was thinking about something: why are the big companies making the laws? Big movie studios and record companies get upset about something that might cut their profits, so they start sueing people, which then lead to copyright laws being made. Who do these laws help? The big companies. Who do they hurt? Everyone else. Is it just me, or does this sound like tyranny? Wasn't the constitution set up to prevent something like this from happening? These copyright laws can, strangely enough, even hurt the authors themselves. Take Earthbound for example: it was a big hit when it was released, but I sadly never played it. Due to new copyright laws, Earthbound will never make a reappearence in the U.S, which means Nintendo can't sell it on the Wii's virtual console. And what about me? I'm a poor college student, so I'm defintely not going to fork over a hundred dollars, and the only other choice is a legally questionable ROM for ZSNES. Something doesn't seem right here, but as long as the big buisnesses stay in power, nothing will change.

Should We Let Computers Learn For Us?

I'm currently taking a machine learning class where I learn different algorithms to get a program to learn a task. I find it fascinating how you can give a program some data, and after training itself on that data, it would then be able to correctly determine the answer on an instance it hasn't seen before. But things like machine learning sometimes bring up the question, "Will we become dumber by having computers do everything?" In some of the small examples I've gone through in class, you can find the answer by hand faster than setting up a computer to do it. Computers aren't needed for small problems, but what about the big ones? An article about predicting threats in cybersecurity talks about Lockheed Martin "processing 1 million 'incidents' a day" to find high-risk activities in cybersecurity. The article doesn't say, but chances are they're using software that's similar to what I'm learning in class to find their answers. When it comes to looking at millions of data, machine learning software is indispensable, especially when the answers can help protect us. Yes, using a calculator to tell you the answer to 2 + 2 could make you dumber, but using technology to tell you the answer to something that would take weeks or months or to do by hand can only help us.

Universal Controllers Don't Work (CS 404)

So it turns out that Sony filed a patent application for a universal gaming controller back in 2008. I can see why such a controller would be appealing: why keep around ten different controllers when you can just have one? Sure, it sounds good in theory, but universal controllers just don't work in practice. Just take laptops for example: to have both a keyboard and a mouse, most laptops have a keyboard and a touchpad. I hate the touchpad! Running your finger across the pad just isn't the same as holding a mouse in your hand. The same problem goes for Sony's universal controller. If all the buttons and controls are done through a touchscreen, how can you know whether or not you actually have your finger on the A button? And how would it incorporate the Nintendo 64 controller with its Z button on the back and the port for connecting a memory card? How would the controller actually connect to the system? The only way they could is by also having a universal connector that has an end to plug into each and every system's controller port. That sounds rather clunky. Perhaps these problems are the reason why there's no word of Sony actually building the universal controller.

My Strange Taste in Music

My brother once asked me, "So, have you, like, started listening to normal music yet?" My answer was, and still is, no. When he asked this question he was referring to my playlist that's composed mostly of music from OverClocked Remix (You can visit the sight from my list of links on the right). While this music may not be considered normal by many people, I see it as wonderful, well created music. My strangeness doesn't stop there, however, oh no. Throughout the day I've had a song stuck in my head that most people would probably find strange, annoying, or maybe even down right scary. The song I'm referring to is the following:

 The Tiger-Patterned Ronald

For some reason I really like music that is made from non-musical sounds, like creating a beat from machine guns, producing a melody from windows sound effects, or the sound of Mario's voice played to Kriby's theme song. Sure, occasionally I'll buy a song that's made by a professional artist, but those songs are old, like U Can't Touch This old. I guess the popular and mainsteam music these days just don't interest me much. At least I can say I'm unique!

Note: If per chance you like this stuff too, you can see more on my favorites list on my Youtube profile.

Hacking is Lame (CS 404)

After reading The Cuckoo's Egg, I gained some insights into what hacking is like, and I've come to a conclusion: hacking is lame. Why is it lame, you ask? Because it doesn't take a genius and superior technology, just a few facts and dull persistence. For instance, some users choose simple passwords, like "12345," "password," or their username. If a hacker can find a list of users, he could just go through that list and enter a common password until he gets in. It's not much different than someone walking down a street to see who left their homes unlocked. Where's the glory in that?

Unless someone is hacking to gain something of value, like money or company secrets, hacking doesn't even provide a meaningful reward. For example, some of my roommates and their friends got into a "Facebook War" not long ago. Dude A would leave a computer while still logged on to Facebook, so dude B would edit A's Facebook account, like changing their picture to something lame, give a lame status update, and join groups that dude A would never join. Once dude A sees that his Facebook account was hacked, he would find the opportunity to take the same advantage of dude B. And what's to gain from this? To be able to say, "Ha ha, I made you like gay!" Oh, yeah, real mature.

But what if a hacker tries to do something worse, like steal money from my bank account or give my computer a virus? While it's problems like these that give serious concerns about hackers, password protection isn't difficult. As long as you don't choose a password that's a word in the dictionary, don't write down the password, and don't pick something simple, the chances of being hacked are greatly diminished. There are, however, other ways for hackers to get into things, and this often comes from bugs in a program. Sadly, the current model of software programming isn't perfect, and bugs are inevitable. Bugs can be fixed though, preventing the same problem from happening again.

Hackers will probably disagree with me, but I find no glory in taking advantage of people. It's just lame.

The Spirit of Elijah (CS 404)

There were no dedicated organizations of genealogy before 1836, but only a year after Elijah's return, England and Wales began mandatory recording of births, deaths, and marriages of their citizens. Since then, more and more people have made efforts in identifying their ancestors. Before computers, searching for ancestors was difficult, and sometimes involved a lot of traveling. With computers and the Internet, however, there are many resources for genealogy, such as Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and now the NewFamilySearch.org. With databases holding billions of names and climbing, it's doubtless that more people will become interested in genealogy, and more technology will be developed to aid this great task. All of this is a testimony to me of the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.