Ethics

Ethics hold our society together, and they are an integral part of business transactions. As I become part of the future workforce, it should be of the utmost importance for me to conduct myself professionally and ethically. While cutting corners may seem like the easy thing to do in the moment, it is unethical. Having and following a personal and professional code of ethics keeps a society safe. Our society runs smoothly because there are many good people doing good things. We much each be responsible businessmen in order to contribute to a happy and fruitful capitalist society.

Adult Content Filtering

Women in CS

The inclusion of women in the process of software design can provide additional insight that improves software. Call me sexist, but women help diversify design ideas. Women simply see things differently than men in many cases. Not only can women help make adjustments to application functionality that can put more females in their target audience (think pintrest), but they can see additional ways to make a program useful and user friendly. Since computer science is primarily male driven field, it is unfortunate that more women aren't there to help change the programming paradigm.

Linux's progress is slow

The lack of monetary incentive keeps Linux moving at a crawl. People build software for Windows because they know they will make money. Linux has made great progress in its lifetime, but until it finds a way to attract a greater audience, software developers will continue to look elsewhere. A sense of community is not enough of an incentive to justify the time required to write truly impressive software. Unless Linux makes some changes toward reaching a more general audience, they will not attract enough dedicated developers to really make an impact on society.

Flexible smartphone screens

Are bendable smartphone screens really that useful? What practical purpose would they really serve? We can't yet reasonably make bendable circuitry or cameras. It also doesn't sound terribly useful for touchscreens either. Even if the curved screen is permanently curved, that just makes me feel like it would be difficult to keep in my pocket. I could see bendable screens possibly being useful in other applications, but not in smartphones. I'm hoping the industry will prove me wrong but, I'm not confident that they can.

#ldsconf

As I followed #ldsconf on twubs, I was surprised at some of the comments. Many were memorable phrases from the speakers. Some were witty stabs at certain beliefs. Others were random comments about the kid who was caught yawning on camera during the musical number. Watching people's comments often helped me think about what was being said from a different perspective. It was a refreshing experience and I do believe I will do it again in the future.

Online Collaboration

Online collaboration in the collection of data is the way of the future, but doesn't always seem fair. It's the social media of information. Whether it be for family history, support forums, Wikipedia, or other data stores, online collaboration is taking hold of society. Sites often find ways of encouraging people to participate and provide ways of recognizing people for their hard work and contributions. More and more, when people spend a few hours finding a solution to a problem, they will find somewhere to post it, and if it is useful enough, relevant searches to that problem eventually work their way to the top of the Google search list. This has created somewhat of a open source approach to information, but in some cases, it is making people a lot of money. Popular information sites put up ads and are making quite a lot of cache off of the hard work of the community.

Free Smartphone

With the pending release of a no contract and no monthly payment smartphone, anyone that has wanted a smartphone without having to pay for data now finally has an opportunity. This will have quite an impact on the app market, bringing the world of smartphone apps to a larger audience. Those who would love to tinker with Android apps can now do so with only a down payment on the phone. Whether through would-be developers or would-be app purchasers, the app market is about to get bigger. I myself fit into both categories. In fact I just signed up for the beta, and I know there are plenty of people like me that can now jump into the world of mobile computing. There is no guarantee that this free smartphone venture will succeed, but I am confident that if it does, it will have an impact on the market.

3D Printing and Weapons

3D Printing can do many things, some of which may be cause for concern. Specifically, the personal manufacture of weapons has many implications. Why get guns illegally when you can just print them in the privacy of your own secret lair? Unfortunately, unlike drugs, printed guns cannot be sniffed out by dogs. All new technologies can be used for good or for evil. What can be done about this new problem? 3D printing makes gun control a joke. We need to find a new way to control weapons. You can't print gunpowder. Is it even possible to try to regulate ammunition?

Star Trek in our future

As technology advances, it tends to make our work more efficient. We harness technology, and make it do our work for us. I often wonder if this trend will eventually lead us to the economy of the fictional world of Star Trek. A world where technology has so far trivialized the work required to fulfill our basic needs, that everyone instead uses their time to explore science and creativity. This hypothetical world of general wealth and prosperity is quite different from the capitalist society we live in now: where new technologies are used for personal gain rather than given freely to others. Such drastic changes in politics would have to be fueled by an incredible amount of cooperation. Many of the necessary changes seem almost unfathomable. For example, how exactly does one overthrow the use of currency in society? Changes like this may be in our distant future. What could we be doing now in order to make changes like this possible, or maybe even likely?