Smallish Post 6

A friend and I were discussing a topic similar to the reading due on 11/20. We were discussing whether the advancements of technology is a good or bad thing. I was thinking about how it scares me how dependent society is on technology and how much it has infiltrated everyday tasks in our lives. My friend reminded me that it can be detrimental specifically when it hurts relationships between people. I love how David A. Bednar illustrated this in his devotional talk, Things as They Really Are" and warned us to use technology wisely. I also loved how it said that technologies can connect us with people around the world and equally isolate us from people within our own home. Technology can be so beneficial to us and especially the advancement of sharing the gospel and I think that fact is important to remember as we use our devices.

Book Post :: Here Comes Everybody

In the book called Here Comes Everybody, I really connected with the idea of mass amateurization. He describes media has handed the average person technology that will replicate something that other people do as a profession with little to no effort. Some examples of this that I have been witnessing over the past few years are especially with fashion blogging, photography, and general creativity and innovation. I have been following fashion blogs for many years now and have noticed recently that the number of bloggers has increased dramatically. One of the reasons I see for this is that any girl with a nice camera and a cute face can post hundreds of pictures of themselves on the internet in regular clothes and call it fashion blogging. Many of the blogs I see these days are bringing absolutely nothing new to the fashion table and they get sponsored like a skilled fashion blogger for reasons other than their fashion sense. With phone cameras and the neat filters and apps that mimic Photoshop, many people can create a photo that seems really nice with little skill of their own. Professional photographers are not being acknowledge for the talent they possess because a phone and a few apps can mimic a quality photo and fool many people. And lastly, Pinterest has sucked so much creativity from the world. What used to be innovative and fresh is suddenly "pinned" all over the globe and now everyone is morphing into the something ordinary because everybody participates in the "new" looks and ideas.

Smallish Post 5

I always knew that the percentage of women in the sciences and Maths was low but I didn't know that at one point it was not. From the article in the New York Times, I learned that the percentage of women in computing was about 50%. Naturally there is the question in my mind if why the amount of women decreased but even more than that I wonder why in the world the amount of women in sciences was that high! Also, I find it interesting that the idea is sometimes argued that there is a higher ratio of women in technology in other countries such as China and India and use it to argue that the low ratio in the US is a problem because women do not have a good introduction to technology. I find this baffling. The culture in China and India is completely different from here. Here, we have so many freedoms, especially in expectations for women and careers.

Smallish Post 3

I found the article written in the Ensign in 1984 about the Church and computers to be very fascinating. It was interesting to see how the Church viewed technology at the computers beginning stages. The statements that President Kimball had were relevant then and continue to be relevant now even though he had no idea what computers had in store for society. In the article it stated that the Church was able to index 70,000,000 names when in this year we were able to index over 5,000,000 names in one day. That is incredible to me! I also found it interesting that President Kimball gave some warning about technology and the reliance on it. He warned Church leadership to not rely so heavily on technology and to remember to focus on spiritual promptings. Now the Church Authorities are asking us to use technology wisely and still warning us about being engulfed in technology and putting so much of our life focus into computers.

The Cuckoo's Egg

One of the main themes I noticed while reading The Cuckoo's Egg was the theme of persistence. Clifford Stoll seemed like he had to go through some great lengths to get to his ultimate goal of uncovering the hacker. Just as the hacker spent so much time spying, Stoll had to place himself in the role of hacker in order to be one step ahead. It was interesting seeing how Stoll followed something with which he had no deep personal connection with past all the dead ends he ran into. Something that he knew to be unethical drove him to keep inquiring with the three letter government agencies and even when his relationship with Martha was waning because of his endeavor. The title really does portray the journey well, as a maze that Stoll had to explore through many different avenues. It makes me curious whether tracking a spy would be similar with how technology and the internet has changed since 1986. With the move from using computer lines to going over networks, it seems that the basis of espionage such as obtaining secrets and spying on many systems would stay intact thought the methods of obtaining these secrets may change. It would be fascinating to know whether spying over the internet has become easier than it was during Stoll's somputer security days or whether the access to spying has become limited by increased technology and security measures.

Small Post 2

As I was reading through the articles on Family History I noticed how I did not recognize many of the resources and terms used in the earlier articles. Technology has grown into something that is effective and has successful usability which can be seen through the advancements in Family History. In the early stages, people were being encouraged to gather records, write down information, and talk with relatives. In the article published in 2000, we see that there were multiple sources one could use to find information and it could be recorded, seen, and cross-referenced by anyone. Now, with FamilySearch, all of those multiple sites have been brought together in a simple and intuitive layout that anybody can learn easily. It is not overwhelming and is simple to connect with other people and store or view information. I am amazed by how years of methods and systems were brought together rather seamlessly by one application.

Current Event 2

Comments on this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/technology/exposing-hidden-biases-at-google-to-improve-diversity.html?_r=0


As I was reading this article reviewing diversity bias within Google I could not help but wonder if lack of gender diversity is in fact a problem. There is no doubt that females contribute to companies by ways of various forms of thinking, views, and abilities. As a woman in Computer Science, I appreciate all the help that companies such as Google are doing to mitigate gender bias; however, I do not necessarily view the low ratio of females to males as something that needs to be "fixed". With the ratio of females to males in technology-related fields in the education system, it is inevitable that the ratio will be similar in the industry. Also, men and woman are different. They think differently, they have different interests, and they have different social roles. I see firsthand how much Computer Science seems better suited to the way men work and do not see this as a bad thing. Tech Giants that hire more men than women are hiring people who, in my opinion, are innately structured better for technology and who are typically more interested in the work.