Vlog - Children and Computers

Baby Article

We aren't the only ones who need to watch our screen time. The activities we participate in as children can form habits that are hard to break as adults. Because of this, experts advise that children under the age of two shouldn't spend any time on computers or in front of the tv. One of the things I've noticed with my daughter is that she is generally more active with a board book than in front of my computer (when she's not trying to eat it). Among other things, pediatricians  say that too much screen time affects attention span, concentration, and appetite control negatively. The best thing to do is play with them.

Smallish Post 6

As a child, my mother didn't allow us to play electronic games unless they were educational, and even then, we had time limits. It was probably a good thing, because I was mesmerized watching other children play games, like Pokemon while I waited for gymnastics practice. Now that I have my own daughter, my wife and I will need to decide how much and what kinds of games we will let her play, and what kind of example we will be to her.

Book Post - Here Comes Everybody

Like Spiderman's Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility. " Social networks provide a powerful way to share information. This information can be spread and influence many people in the decisions they make day to day. Because of this, erroneous information can have a detrimental effect on people in just the same way good information can inspire and promote others to choose wisely. We, as users and consumers in this vast network, need to make sure the information that comes to us is reliable, and that the things we say are truthful.

Smallish Post 5

Before I was a web developer, I was a quality assurance analyst. I would spend my day going through web apps, lazily clicking buttons and dragging images in an attempt to break a specified function. When I found an error, I'd tell the developers, and later they would come to me asking how to reproduce the bug. Now, I do the same to my team's QA. Though her documentation is much better than mine was, many of the details on how to reproduce the bug are unclear. This is probably due to her inexperience with the tools she could use to describe the bug better. I've learned that when testing, it is important to record details well so that issues can be fixed quickly.

Smallish Post 4 - Why I declared Computer Science

After coming home from my mission, I decided that I wasn't willing to put in the work to get a degree in Cello performance, and that it would just be a hobby of mine. What got me into computer science was my cousin, Andrew. Andrew was majoring in computer science, and I thought that if he could do it, I could too. I ended up liking the intro class enough to declare the major before the semester was through. If I hadn't had someone like Andrew to show me that computer scientists aren't all geeks and recluses, I wouldn't even have considered a career in computers. If that social stigma would have prevented me, a male student, from entering computer science, how much more would the perceived environment scare away female students?

Smallish Post 3

In the Nerds 2.0.1 video, John McAfee pointed out a few interesting ethical questions about software. One of those was how to pay for software, and, even though I'd rather not pay at all, I like the solution he used. Several companies have gone from selling software to a system more akin to renting software where a consumer will pay a monthly fee to have rights to use said software. As a consumer, this has deterred me from using their products (especially if there is open source software that does similar tasks). I think McAfee's products mix open source and commercial mindsets very well, and he still managed to do very well.

The Cuckoo's Egg Post

Knowledge is power, and who you give it to can be a very important decision. Cliff details how he searched for traces of the hacker, and one of the things he did was try to block off alternate paths that the hacker may have had. He did this by following the hacker's trail and informing victims of what had occurred. If he had spread the hackers tactics publicly, there would have been not just one hacker, but many copycat hackers exploiting the same weaknesses, a few of which may have had even more nefarious purposes. In addition, depending on how widely the knowledge was spread, many of the would be victims would not have been notified of the issue, causing the problem to expand and increase. On another note, due to the cautious nature of the hacker, Cliff wasn't able to ask explicitly for information on the usenet, fearing that the hacker would catch wind of Cliff's efforts and find another way to his goal.

Current Event 3 - Predict this!

Article found here.

Computers have made our jobs more and more easy to complete. At work, one of the applications we are working on has cut the time spent scheduling teaching appointments from a full forty-hour-a-week job to one that can be accomplished in less than three. The programs and machines in this article can drastically cut the amount of research time drastically. Not only that, but the hypothesis created by the machines have a very high accuracy rate. I'm amazed at how these machines can read and analyze so much text and produce accurate hypothesis based on the research.

Small Post 2 - Family History and the Internet

On my mission, I encountered several members who were interested in family history, and one preparation day, the missionaries I was living with and I went to a sister's home to learn more about how to find our genealogy. When I got home, I began to bug my mom about her side of the family, because I didn't know as much about them than I did my dad's side. I was able to collect information for my grandfather and take his name through the temple. I feel much closer to my grandfather now, and with the advance of technology, it is easier for me to learn about my deceased relatives. I'm grateful for the advances in technology that made this possible.

Current Event 2

Access article here.

Today, I went shopping with my brother-in-law and his wife On our way home, his smart phone asked him if he would like to go shopping at Sprouts, where they usually usually go shopping. It had recognized that, not only had we left home, but we were in the parking lot of a grocery store, and it 'made the assumption' that he was trying to find Sprouts and was lost. His reaction (he thought it was really nifty) was very different from his wife's reaction (she thought it was scary) on how predictive technology is now. The article discusses how software's power to predict can be detrimental to a person as well as being a useful tool. I don't believe that is completely the case. Personally, I find ads annoying regardless of whether the product being advertised is a product that is related to my most recent Google searches, and I always find it nice that I can find what I'd like to type in an option under the search bar, because that is a few milliseconds less that I have to wait for the information to come. I understand the concern that people have for the increasing "smartness" of technology, but I don't believe that is detrimental to humanity.

Current Event 1

Link to article here.

Technology is becoming not only more pervasive, but also more personal. Only a few decades ago, computers were rare, expensive, and used mainly by scientists and other professionals to perform calculations. Computers have become smaller and found their way into schools, homes and even our pockets. In this article, they share the results of a contest to find a better breast pump. In addition to changing the mechanics of how these pumps work, groups began to put together ideas for apps that could improve a mother's ability to know how well there child is being fed. There are already many apps available today that are being used to assist persons with finances, exercising, and scheduling, to name a few. As we continue to use and develop new technologies, they will continue to become more involved in our lives.

The problem with Spotify

My freshman year of college, I was introduced to Spotify via facebook. I was pleased that I could listen to whatever songs I wanted whenever I wanted. I didn't even mind that there was an ad about every five songs. After a while, I realized that the ads that were being played were different from the ones originally used, and I felt the new ones were very inappropriate. I decided to stop using Spotify because I didn't have the funds necessary to listen ad-free. Even so, whenever I think about Spotify, that one ad plays over and over in my head.