A Dangerous Cave In

The software industry is a goldmine. Fortunes are being made every day.  With the lure of high salaries and bonuses comes a real danger of loosing personal integrity. Last semester I applied for several fulltime positions. As I went out for interviews I had the chance to meet many recruiters. Recruiters from these companies try to win students over with large benefit packages, competitive salaries, and all kinds of swag. In the face of such high demand, it can be hard to remain humble. I found myself seeking greater and greater opportunities with little thought of how blessed I had been. Once I had signed a contract and had a little time to think, I realized that this interview process had changed me. In order to have real success, a person must keep a strong focus on his or her personal values, otherwise an excited miner will quickly find his life caving in.

Stemming the Tide

My family has always been somewhat of an anomaly. In my younger years, I was oblivious to sports, music, and the current TV shows; I still am. Over the Thanksgiving break I talked to my father about many of the gaming and technology addictions that others face. I was surprised to learn that my family’s success was a result of a dedicated effort by my parents. My father loves sports, but to prevent sports addictions he worked hard to ensure that our family never watched sports in the home. My mother made it a rule that there would never be a television in the family room or in any of the bedrooms. As we grew up these influences were minimized. As I prepare to have a family of my own, I will need to make a concerted effort to protect my children from the tidal wave of technology.  

Internet Neutrality

A Haiku and a Short Story

My laptop is safe

Files encrypted, no loopholes

What was the password? 

I tried to be original once… It was patented 

Here Comes Everybody

Earlier this year I worked with a few friends from my ethics class to promote social change. Our Goal: To make simple acts of service a part of each student’s day. Together, we founded Text2Serve.  By sending a simple message to 40404, a person could sign up to receive daily service challenges. Within a week we had over 100 members! One day the challenge was to make a yummy treat and share it with a friend. Within a few hours three plates of goodies had shown up at my door. Unknown to me, we had formed our own Text2Serve community. The book, Here Comes Everybody, discusses the global impact of easy networking. Suddenly terms like flash mob, open source, wiki, and crowd sourcing have become commonplace. With no barrier to communication, vast communities can form overnight. As growing numbers of individuals connect, a network can quickly gain an enormous amount of influence. While The First Amendment enables freedom of speech, this ability to network grants power of speech. The game changing power of the Internet enables even the youngest of students to have an enormous impact on the world.

Majorly Unattractive

The first day I entered my family history class, I was surprised that half of my classmates were women. I had to remind myself that most classes are this way. As a computer science major I have become accustomed to classrooms dominated by men. Why are there so few women studying computer science? The rise of video games seems to be a contributing factor. As women try to enter the field, they find themselves surrounded by game-crazed men. Is this appealing? A recent survey conducted at my apartment complex showed that women rank video games as a highly unattractive trait in men, just below bow hunting and hatchet juggling. Is it any wonder that women aren’t flocking to tech companies? I am fascinated by computer science, but if my classrooms were filled with cat-crazed grandmothers, I would leave in search of better company. 

Security in Public Code Books

How do you make a secret more secure by publishing your code book? Many companies hide their code; this hides bugs from exploitation, in essence providing security through obscurity. However, Lava-bit, the flag ship of secure email, just published all of its encryption code. While this may sound counter-intuitive, open sourcing their encryption code is one of the best ways to provide security. Now Lava-bit encryption will be open to constant public review. Hidden bugs will be trampled by mobs of contributors. Perhaps most importantly, this decentralizes all the public keys preventing big brother from stealing lava-bit’s keychain. Now I hold the key to my secure email, and only I can decrypt them. Because Lava-bit has revealed its secrets, I can rest assured that mine are secure.