Study Journal 4

Thursday Feb. 19

• How reliable is the information on Wikileaks? The article pointed out that individuals come forward with information, so it is within reason to believe that a fair percentage of what is available is inaccurate. I still feel it serves no better purpose than gossip magazines. 
• Unless national security is threatened, Wikileaks should be able to publicly post what they want. The governments of the world have a lot to hide and it is nice to see a resource that is making them sweat. 
• The idea of the NSA collecting phone calls and email metadata seems like an inordinate amount of wasted time. Unless, it has proven profitable to national security, I feel it was a wasted effort and wasted taxpaying dollars. 
• NSA intrusion in the lives of Americans should be the evidence needed that the government doesn't trust it's civilians, thus why should it's civilians trust the government.

Tuesday Feb. 24

• The fact that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange life is being threatened seems to verify my question from last Thursday. Why would anyone want him dead if the information wasn't a valid hazard to them? Information can be a powerful tool, so much so that people can lose their life over it.  
• Hacktivism is a liberal approach to what should be available to the public via the internet. I don't see anything wrong with posting anything online as long as it doesn't directly impact my friends or myself. Personally I am content with the distraction Youtube provides me, therefore I don't need classified government documents to cloud my mind with conspiracy theories.
• I have noticed that most individuals have expressed aggravation in one way or another directed towards our national government. It is impossible to please everyone, but I would think the aim of the government would be to support the majority in one way or another. I don't think the NSA secretly monitoring our emails is helping to restore trust in the people.

Thursday Feb.26

• I have regularly used an NDA form in discussing potential start-up opportunities. However, in class it was brought up that they are difficult to enforce. Regardless, I'm assuming that an NDA agreement can serve as a potential threat to filing suit against someone if they break the contract. 
• The ethical dilemma of people buying up patents just to sell or lease them should not be tolerated. I believe that this demotivates people who want to create, invent, or start something. It is similar to a pain that I feel when trying to secure a domain name that is for sell for a non-sense price. 
• The debate over exact obedience in my view can in someways be more harmful than good. For instances, many people fall out of character and become robotic when they pursue exact obedience. It also can damage someones self-esteem when they fall short. 

Tuesday Mar. 3

• The image of the FBI agent that was arrested for selling information, really put things into perspective. For some people loyalty and integrity means less than money. Yet, he was caught and it seems that even the wisest criminal eventually ends up behind bars.
•  Economic espionage doesn't benefit anyone except for the individual or company that is responsible for the assault. As an app developer, I have to be cautious of people that may try to ripoff the unique games I create, for their own personal gain.
•  A few decades ago, thief relied on taking a physical object, where today it encompasses the very ideas we have. The redefinition of what a "thief" is, provides more liberty for people to create.What it means to "steal" has evolved and could potentially continue to evolve.  

Post 2

        No one should be entitled to anything, especially when someone else is working relentlessly to provide it for someone else. Ezra Taft Benson's political stance in his talk A Vision and a Hope for the Youth of Zion takes an unpopular stance by comparing socialism to welfare. It is ironic that the national government thinks they are helping deprived citizens when in reality, they are creating a heavier demand of dependent people. While on the other end of the spectrum, citizens who are financially independent are taxed in heavier brackets. In other words, the harder someone works for success financially, the more the government takes. The article stated that government considers it a "right" for citizens to receive welfare rather than it being a privilege. I feel that it should be a "right" of individuals to contribute to an assisted living program such as welfare, rather than a mandatory ploy to assist some individuals that have no work ethic.  Perhaps, I am embittered towards this ideal of government charity because I study and work tirelessly to provide a better future for my family, not someone else's.

Current Event Post 2

        With the advent of resources and tutorials abundantly gifted by users across the world wide net, it only takes time and patience to learn just about anything, including hacking. Hacking is an increasing problem as the article pointed out, "data breaches have increased roughly fivefold since 2009". Could this be the result of curious individuals who teach themselves how to hack via the internet? In class it was debated whether withholding such information would have promising results. Arguably, it would have a minimal impact since the determined individual would find means of learning desired content in another way. The destructive reason to learn such material is due to ones self interest. The article stated that "theft of intellectual property motivate many of the attacks" and "politically motivated attacks are a growing reality". Stopping the barrage of espionage is inevitable, it is a cancer that is flooding the body of the world. Yet, as the article reemphasizes, hacking is something that can be prepared for and fought against. With that strategy in mind, hopefully within time hacking will be an improbable and frustrating pursuit that will limit the number of breaches. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/us/politics/obama-administration-plans-to-open-center-to-fight-cyberattacks.html?ref=topics&_r=0

Study Journal 3

Tuesday Feb. 10

• Users can become comfortable using a certain API. Therefore if a company copies a similar API (but implements it differently) it can be helpful to the users who can easily adapt to another companies API, but it can harm the original company who built the API. 
• It seems advantageous to use trade secrets over a patent since it requires no registration and no discloser. However, the higher cost of the confidential material leaking may not be worth the precaution of holding a trade secret. 
• As discussed in class, the trade secret of Coca Cola, takes in-depth precautions to secure its recipe. So much so that it seems burdensome to rely on individuals with the trade secret to keep it so. It could lead to ethical problems such as blackmail. 
• It's amusing to think that the very process of taking notes in class hold their own copyright. Still, it is perhaps best to solidify that copyright by mailing a copy of your notes to yourself and not opening the envelope. Thus, it holds its ground in a court of law. 

Post 1

      The debate for free software as opposed to proprietary software is an ongoing ethical conflict to this day. With the abundance of free software others can readily learn and more importantly, contribute their own code to the neighborly community. This can potentially help further people in their pursuits to develop better technology to make the everyday working individuals life that much easier. Still, in order to afford the comfortable necessities of life, one must make an adequate income to do so. Therefore, proprietary software is essential. It leads to the foundation of large structured enterprises which contribute largely to the economy. Yet, it restricts the independent developer whose curiosity hungers for the intuition that a companies software provides. In conclusion, it is within reason to agree with both standings.The development of software is an arduous, tedious, task that essentially takes a special mindset to master. Even so, it is impossible to learn it all. Thus, a community of support and free software is the initial formula for one to prepare for opportunities to make money(proprietary software) from their own developmental talents. Such as the self-reliant  programmer who uses free software to learn the required knowledge to build a tech company.

Study Journal 2

Thursday Jan.22

• "Greed was good" (Triumph of the Nerds, Part I).What a sinister view, assigning an attribute normally associated with bad to good. Allow me to revise, "Success was good." 
• There was speculation in class on the real intent of Steve Jobs admitting "It wasn't for the money". Regardless, money should always be a perk of starting a company, not the chief endeavor. However, it has stricken the strongest of individuals to its enticing influence. 
•  The ideal of programming for fun has never fit in the specification of "excitement" for me. Still it started with these hobbyist who enjoyed tinkering with software in order to build a computer and its accompanying apps. Surely anyone can appreciate their contribution. 

Tuesday Jan.27

• Gates was viewed as a cult leader (Triumph of the Nerds, Part II). A larger than life individual which is a caution indicated in the "Seven signs of ethical Collapse". Still, Gates has no control over how people view him and I'm sure he probably welcomed the admiration on his behalf. 
• Apples attack on IBM in their famous 1984 commercial is the start of their further aggression seen elsewhere, such as the "I'm a mac, I'm a PC"  commercials. They are relentless in their pursuit to discredit competitors much in the way a politician would towards an opponent candidate.  
• Just to point out, I found the videos title to be a bit of jab at those presented in the film. Nerds is a term given by someone who lacks the self-esteem and self-respect to advance their own state of being. 

Thursday Jan.29

• Job's caustic remarks about Microsoft stealing their ideals was hypocritical of Apple stealing the GUI from Xerox. He further buries himself by stating that he was "shameless about stealing great ideas". If it wasn't for the borrowing or stealing that major tech companies such as Apple or Microsoft had deviously done then who knows if we would have the the sophisticated technology the world knows and loves today. 
• The stubbornness of Jobs to pay no attention to the initial failure of the apple II was a bit startling. I find no admiration in this. One must take notice and prepare in accordance to meet the needs of the situation. Ego can be a destructive tool that inflicts everyone. 
• "Being right vs. success"(Triumph of the Nerds, Part III) implies taking one or the other. I don't really see why both can't be used to compliment each other. Unless the quote follows along the line that doing the wrong thing is the way to be successful. In which case it is never right to do the wrong thing. 

Tuesday Feb.3

• the film Revolution OS, loss much of it's credibility when it villainized Bill Gates. Gates is a respected forefather to much of the technology we have today and it was apparent the film held a bit of bias against Microsoft and others that did not support free-software.
• I stand considerable in the direction of having proprietary software. Although it is quite helpful to have free software available, it is even more so advantageous to use it as a means to make money. As such companies can expand, provide jobs, and grow the economy. 
•  After reviewing The Free Software Definition, the question I find myself asking is "what if"? Would the world be that much further ahead if software was free? 
• From the film, I felt the attempt of the social movement of free software was admirable, but also laughable. Namely because their means of income was from support through the use of Linux. There has to be a more profitable way to benefit everyone. However, I do not have the solution.

Thursday Feb.5

• I do find the lengthy Free Software license to be a clever way to thwart someone from stealing and patenting software written by others. It is helpful that a community of programmers are readily available to assist and even write most of the code that one might need for software. 
• The philosophical standing of Open Source seems like a more practical approach to the war on proprietary software. It contributes in part to the Free Software movement while at the same time holding a portion of the software as proprietary. Is this a plausible solution to Tuesdays response? Regardless, it meets the needs of both sides so it arguable a step in the right direction. 
• The on going war between the various companies has come down to a very important element, the software and apps on their machines. Today the world is flooded by such applications, such as finding a calculator app that does just about every mathematical operation possible in order to be superior to other similar apps. 

Current Events Post 1

          In class we have discussed matters in which a situation could lead to an ethical dilemma. We point out the warning signs and potential ways to avoid such positions of dishonest integrity. However, this article illuminates the flip side of that coin, namely, that being ethical can come with its own challenges. Unfortunately, sometimes standing on a higher plain than others may lead to a king of the hill battle in which ethical offenders seek not the hill, but to drag the one upon it down with them. Despite, the internal and external struggles that may befall someone with high ethical standards, I firmly believe we must stand firm in our morals. I follow the articles conclusion in my own words "It's never wrong to do the right thing".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/s-l-young/unexpected-cost-of-ethica_b_6027034.html