Charity

In the New Testament, Paul teaches one of the most important virtues to have in life is charity. He says, "And though I... understand all mysteries, and all knowledge... and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2). So easily do people get wrapped up in their own pursuits and their own dreams that they forget others around them. The accomplishments you make in your career or other pursuits, though important, will eventually fade away, but the people you helped will always remember what you did for them. And in the end, the people's lives that you touched will mean much more to you than anything else you did in your life.

#ldsconf

It was an interesting experience following #ldsconf. To be honest, I felt a lot of the comments at the beginning and end were disrespectful and uninviting to the Spirit. During the actual talks, the comments a lot better- mostly just quotes from the talks. That was actually more helpful because if there was a quote you liked, you could probably find it on there. It was a pretty good summary of the talk. I still find following hashtags to be very distracting, though. I missed a lot more from the talks trying to follow the comments (though to be fair, for about half the session I didn't realize I was behind and that I could skip to the front of all the comments, so I was about half an hour behind). But even when I was caught up, I still missed a lot from the talks.

SSP: Short Software Patents

Escapes or Traps?

6:30am. Wake up. Prepare for the day. Go to church. Visit with family and relatives. Take parents to the airport. Listen to friends’ struggles. Ward prayer. Receive a practice missionary lesson. Plan FHE. Scripture study. Such was my day on Sunday. I was exhausted and didn’t necessarily want to do all those things, but the happiness I felt at the end of that day surpassed anything I’ve felt in a long time. In contrast, other days I’ve tried to escape by reading a good book or watching a TV show. Sometimes such activities have helped me to relax. At other times I can’t stop participating in the activity, even though I have assignments and/or projects and tests that need doing. What was meant to be an escape turned into a trap. Choose your escapes carefully. Determine what you are trying to escape from. If you are trying to escape from something good simply because it is hard, you will miss out on the good that would come from that opportunity. The times I have been happiest are when I choose to do something good - particularly when trying to come closer to God and His Son and trying to serve others - even when I didn’t want to do it.

How God Uses Technology

I used to think The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was a little behind on the use of technology. But as I've read more and heard more, the Church is actually right next to cutting edge. Speakers from the Church's technology department have told us how God has guided them in the use of technology. Why would God care about the technology the Church is using? He wants everyone on earth - because they are His children - to hear His gospel so that they can be happy now and be able to live in heaven after they die. God gives us technology to bring about these purposes.

"Thou Shalt Give Heed unto All His Words," L. Tom Perry

Who has responsibility for computer security? You do.

One of the biggest threats to your own computer security is you. Do you pick easy to remember (and guess) passwords? Do you use the same password for multiple websites? Do you leave your computer unlocked in a public computer lab or at work when you get up for a break? Do you send passwords or other confidential information by email? Do you keep a list of passwords on the wall of your cubicle? Do you continually delay updating your operating system and software on your computer? If so, you pose the greatest risk to your own security. It is not very likely a person will be able to break into your computer if you do not leave these doors open.

A more serious example is found in The Cuckoo's Egg, the true story of Clifford Stoll tracking down a computer hacker in the 1980s. Through much of the story, Cliff watches a diligent hacker repeatedly attempt to break into computers on military bases using several default passwords such as "guest", "visitor", "root", and "manager". Some of the bases had changed these passwords and the hacker was unable to break in. Sometimes, though, these passwords had not been changed and the hacker was able to walk right in and steal sensitive information.

Founder's Vision

A news article just reported that Bill Gates is going to step back into Microsoft as a director and technology advisor. The article mentioned several other founders that came back to the companies they started and the various outcomes of that return. Some outcomes are good, some not so good. A broader question to consider is the following: Since a company is usually started by one or a few people with a vision, should that vision change with successors to those people? If yes, how fast should it move away? In one sense, the vision of the founders is what defines the company and moving away from that is creating a new company. But the vision for a company is not built in a day by the founder, either. While the founder is still around, he is defining the company all along the way. The world around the company does not stay the same, and the founder makes changes to keep up with it. Looking at it from this view, change is actually healthy for a company and is necessary after a founder leaves. However, changes to the vision and ideals of a company should be carefully considered and be slower to occur.

Security

Recently, a group of scientists presented a paper on a way to obfuscate computer programs. This will be a major breakthrough in security if it holds up under the attacks that will be made in testing it. My dad once me that while computers are powerful, much of a computer's resources are taken up by security. I have since thought that the same applies to our lives. So much of our time and efforts are spent protecting ourselves. We don’t want to look bad in front of others. We want to be safe when making a purchase online. And of course, all of the time we are pulled and tempted to do things that are wrong. Initially, it appears that life would be wonderful if all of these threats were removed. Progress would be unhindered. But this is an incorrect assumption. For a moment, imagine that all threats in our lives have been removed. What is the motivation for the aforementioned group of scientists to create a new security schema? What is the motivation for me to choose to do good things? There is no motivation without opposition and threats to my security. Opposition is required for us to advance as a society and to become the people that God wants us to be as individuals (see 2 Nephi 2:11).

Social Media creates polarity

Facebook is about to release an app called Paper that ties a user's feed with actual news articles (see this article). This app will kick a few more fence-sitters off the fence. If a person does not have a strong opinion on a subject, with this app he or she will be exposed to articles that espouse the opinions of their friends. Thus, Paper will tend to polarize opinions on many issues. Whether or not people are kicked off the fence prematurely, or in the right direction is a different question. If people tend to drift towards the opinions of their friends, they may hold ideals they don't fully believe in.

Does society have too much information?

So much information is free and immediately accessible through the internet that people of today place little value on such information. Consider the research paper in junior high or high school. When a teacher places stricter requirements on the types of sources that can be used in writing the paper, how many students groan? What, no Wikipedia? Looking more closely at this response, isn't it a very backward attitude? Shouldn't we want the best available sources? The reality is that we don't value information; what we value is how easily we can get it. Since that has become our standard, the best available sources are no longer sought after. We need to recognize our own attitude towards the information that is available to us and place value on it based on credibility, not accessibility.