#LDSConf

Was it just me or was the main tag never as popular as the individual speakers? It was cool that Elder Uchtdorf was on the national twitter hits for two different tags. 

Twitter, you never fail to amaze or cheer me up. Mostly because it is fun to see poor spelling and the good education funds go down the drain. 

An Honest Concern

As a Mormon, this hit straight on. I stand up for my beliefs, though now I worry how that will effect my carrier in software engineering. Three years of late night programming and frustration may go to waste if employers start to reject potential leaders on the basis of what they believe. I understand the hate, the fact that we are closing an option for them. I talk about it with my friend from high school who was openly gay. What leaves me laying awake at night is that people can force repercussions on someone for their beliefs, totally contradicting the first Amendment of the Constitution. I believe that people shouldn't drink, I believe that people shouldn't smoke, and those opinions would be fine in the common eye. As soon as someone takes a stance against gay marriage, you may as well quit your job. It is an opinion and a belief that I hold to be true from God Almighty. It won't effect how I work in a position at a company.

Net Rant

The Other Side of the Addiction

My father in law played second life for several years because his avatar could run, play, enjoy life and live without cancer. He fulfilled many lifelong dreams while recovering from chemotherapy in bed. Video games meet peoples needs and dreams quickly and efficiently and for me it is an escape from the different problems I face every day. No progress on code for hours results in an hour of punching bad guys to relieve my stress. Frustrating essay prompts bring lines of Tetris to my eyes. Punching and puzzles make me feel competent in a field filled with people I think as better problem solvers. The video states that we do what works and video games work wonders. Those addicted to League of Legends or Diablo have a core need being met which must be considered before just cutting the cord. 

The Internet is mightier than the gun

It could be said that having an army with guns allowed for international war. The countries with guns casually overthrew governments of those without to create worldwide empires. The imperialism of the 19th century demonstrated the strength of the modern army. Any fight against the government would fail. That is, until there came something that modern weapons couldn't fight against. The Internet provided a way for the world to band together, to share and spread ideals and ideas. Ideals like Voice of the Faithful and their abhorrence with the inaction of the Catholic Church after Father Geoghan raped young boys flew across the Internet. Ideas of public protest, such as flash mobs to condemn the Lukashenko government for corruption, found homes in the web. These are but few examples given by Clay Shirky in his book "Here Comes Everybody" about how the Internet works to accomplish common goals worldwide.

Governments in the old world relied on the idea that there was no group of people large enough to stand against them. Shirky explained that such a stance does not work today. The group behind Voice of the Faithful and their was so big and their complaints so public that Cardinal Law had to listen and communicate. No appeasement could be made so Law resigned. The connected Internet provided a way for the Chinese people to publicly show the destruction after the earthquake in 2008. When details were leaked that many of the children who died in schools may have lived if the public building contractors did embezzle funds, the parents were furious and launched a campaign against the government to which some leaders publicly begged the mothers to stop. Microsoft released details about a new video game system which required an internet connection in order to process the DRM on the games being played. The gamers took to the Internet in droves to attack the new requirements until Microsoft relented and took out the required internet connection. 

People have a way to make their voice heard. Shirky showed us how the power can be used to change for good. Thus the Internet provides the tools to make changes to governments and institutions that guns alone would never accomplish.

Equality in Software Enviorments

Finally, I have an excuse to buy a new 22" computer monitor! After intensive research, it was shown that a larger monitor helps women work better with a computer. This was one of the findings done by several groups of individuals who investigated the idea that the design of software has an impact on how well women interact and think about computers as a whole. Larger screens improved females' performance while males showed no real change. This topic is among several tests on how different genders interact with hardware and software. The study showed that many software aspects did not entertain to women, like video games, the term hackers, or ways that a webpage was designed. Why would it, as technology has increasingly become a synonym for unnecessary and sometimes horrific scene of sexism. Look at threats Anita Sarkeesian received when she started the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series. This culture and us with it need to change if we ever want to change the shift of females in computer science. 

DRM

This cycle will continue as long as we keep the same forms of copyrights and patents that have plagued the internet for the last decade. There isn't much a corporation can do to prevent it, so why not just make the copy free of all DRM? Pirates would still be pirates and the consumers would be happy. Take drinkbox, a game developer who made the outstanding game Guacamelee, which sold copies of their game without DRM attached. My friend bought it and gave me a copy and I was hooked! Demos rarely do it for me but playing the full copy made up my mind to buy Guacamelee when the next edition comes out. In the end, I understand that the corporations are trying to make the most money they can, but what they are doing neither works or helps. Let me put my digital copy of Robin Hood on the devices I want, not one device the corporation wants.