Knowing your limitations as a working student

October was a bad month for me. I was falling behind in school and I was unproductive at work. The worst part of this for me was the feeling that I was cheating my employer. I only worked three days a week and was assigned to large projects. I felt bad because I spent lots of time figuring out what I was doing and what I needed to do next instead of making progress on the assignments. Also, school pressures were distracting me from work. Luckily, I had a great manager who helped me adjust my responsibilities and encouraged me to take a day off from time to time to catch up in school. From this experience, I learned that I need to be honest with my employer about my limitations or any hesitations I have about a particular assignment. The ACM's Code of Ethics states,

"A computing professional has a responsibility to request a change in any assignment that he or she feels cannot be completed as defined. Only after serious consideration and with full disclosure of risks and concerns to the employer or client, should one accept the assignment."

I wish that I had been wise enough to understand this concept before. I hope other working students and new working professionals can learn this lesson without the pain of hard experience.

Internet Immune System

Like germs coughed up by a room full of children, inappropriate content spreads through the Internet. We use the term "viral" all the time to describe Internet content. Just like we have to balance avoiding germs and building an immune system, we need to balance avoiding Internet filth and building self control. Parental controls and pop-up blockers will only protect us so much. At some point we will have to exercise self control, so let's make sure we get some.

Cheer up your friend with a simple text

Since we all know that technology can be used for both good and bad, I thought I would share a way that was recently added to the good list: NowCheerUp.Me. This site's slogan is "Have a Hug on Us." Using this site you can send a random friendly note anonymously to any mobile phone number... for free! Here are two samples:

"What do Iron Man, The Doctor, Indiana Jones, and Marty McFly have in common? You're more awesome than all of them."

"You are loved by so many people. You're a beautiful, wonderful, amazing human being. Seriously – don't stop being brilliant."

So, go and do something good with technology!

Level-headed thinking about intellectual property laws

Usually when I hear people talk about intellectual property laws, they just rant about how restrictive copyright can be and how we should have a more free and open society. Occasionally I hear (or give my own) rant about how copyright should be respected in order to protect producers (whether they be writers, programmers, or whatever). The truth is, however, that intellectual property law is not black and white. Yes it is important to protect consumers, but having a free and open society has its merits as well. Sometimes big companies fuss over illegal file sharing (especially music), but really the big companies benefit from free word-of-mouth advertising. I do not know exactly what changes should be made to copyright law, but I for one will continue to obey the law and begin to be more open to some of the potential reforms.

This article by Osron Scott Card has some good insights and interesting ideas about how to change the laws in a way that is win-win for everyone.

Work for it. Care about it.

I am a computer science student, and as such, I have learned a lot about open-source software. I recently had the opportunity to work on a project called OpenSeadragon during my internship at FamilySearch.org. I found working on the project deeply satisfying. I was able to contribute to code many people use, simultaneously contributing back to the open-source community that I rely on so much as a programmer. A year ago, I knew almost nothing about open-source software. Now I feel strongly that it is an initiative worth supporting and contributing to. It is because of the effort I invested into open-source that I care so much.

Another example of this can be seen in Cliff Stoll's personal account of chasing a hacker in his book, The Cuckoo's Egg. Because of Stoll's background as an astronomy student and a programmer, he recognized the value of computer networks and research sharing. But it wasn't until he worked for months to catch a hacker in his system that he really began to feel passionate about network security. Usually we invest in what we care about, but just as often we care about what we invest in.

Piracy and intellectual property

I respect copyright. When I need an image to use in a PowerPoint presentation, I use Google's advanced image search to find images with a non-restrictive license. If someone is going to go to the effort to produce something awesome, they have a right to charge for use or not. This makes me appreciate movements in open-source and ad-based products because they let me use great products without paying. As a programmer, I use open-source software all the time. As a consumer, I often watch YouTube and read web comics and I am happy to disable my ad-blocker for these and other sites I visit frequently (as long as the ads are appropriate). It bothers me how people disrespect others' intellectual property. I hope that we, as a global society, can learn to respect the effort that others make to create great things.

Post inspired by: Think piracy is killing the music industry? This chart suggests otherwise.

LDS General Conference and Twitter

This past weekend was the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both this conference and the last conference that was held in April, I followed what people were saying about it on Twitter (hashtag: #LDSconf). There was both good and bad about the experience.

It was fun to see that it was trending nationwide (and even worldwide at one point). Social media is a great way for people to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church (both the organization and individuals) have been doing a great job of using technology to this end. It was fun to hear what people had to say – some of it very insightful.

I was disappointed, however, that most people were just tweeting quotes from the conference or commenting on silly things like what color tie a specific speaker was wearing. I was also disappointed that some people were using the forum to share other agendas.

Lastly, while I did learn some from following the conference, I probably would have been better off just paying closer attention to the speakers. I had a hard time listening to the conference and reading the conversation online. I know I missed a lot of both and I am glad I can review them both after the fact.

Technology always offers a trade-off. For example, with mobile phones we can be contacted anywhere and anytime at the cost of having to be in touch all the time. In this case, it is great that we can share the Gospel online to everyone willing to read it as well as hear what others have to say, but the cost is that we also get some junk and maybe get distracted from the hearing the message fully ourselves.

Genealogists vs. the Rank and File

I currently work as a web developer at FamilySearch.org. Since working there, I have noticed an interesting dynamic: some people are very dedicated and intense about genealogy while others are casual and untrained. FamilySearch struggles to please dedicated genealogists without intimidating or confusing people new to family history research. Imagine being such a newcomer and inputting some data about your family tree. Later, you discover that somebody else had edited a lot of your work, adding many more names, dates, and sources (this is possible because FamilySearch uses an "open edit" model where anyone can make changes). You might feel hurt or intimidated and would certainly feel less confident about continuing to do the work. I do not know the solution to this problem, but I think awareness is part of the answer. Hopefully with awareness, more people will get involved without getting scared away.

World Vegetarian Day

I just found out that today is World Vegetarian Day. I feel grateful towards the many individuals and organizations that try to spread awareness and I love how the Internet facilitates that process. Awareness is a major key to understanding. The more we know about a particular cause or misfortune, the more likely we are to be kind towards those who care about that cause or suffer because of that misfortune. I hope that we can all try to be more understanding of others, especially when using the Internet where it is so easy to hide behind a mask of anonymity while saying potentially harmful things.

Working with intellectual property is scary

The other day Goldman Sachs was at my college campus trying to recruit computer programmers. As the recruiters described how wonderful it is to work for Goldman Sachs, I couldn't help but recall an article I read about how Goldman Sachs prosecuted a former employee, Sergey Aleynikov, for stealing intellectual property. I don't know all the details of the case, but essentially, Aleynikov was trying to do what was right and legally required by open source software licenses and contribute code that he created back to the open source community. I would never work for a company like Goldman Sachs, because I believe that open-source is a good thing and ought to be promoted, not discouraged.

You can check out some of these articles for more information about the trial: Vanity Fair, Above the Law, Forbes

So much to read, So little time

Recently, I added Y Combinator's Hacker News to my RSS feed. I quickly learned that there were more interesting articles posted than I could possibly read. My main purpose in subscribing to Hacker News was to become a better programmer, yet I found myself reading articles on how to run a successful startup and how healthy eating is an engineering problem. Later, I decided to just do a Google search for "how to become a better programmer." In the first few hits I found an article with a list of specific suggestions and measurable tasks that I could do. Most of the time, more information (like from Hacker News) just takes our focus away from actually doing anything worthwhile. I could continue reading articles about becoming a better programmer, but until I actually implement the ideas in the articles, I am just wasting my time.