A Word on Ethics

A simple, yet sure way of knowing if what we are doing is ethical is to ask yourself the proverbial, "What would Jesus do?" If Jesus would do it, it is ethical. If he would not, then it is unethical. Let us follow the example of the Savior in all things. This is the surest way of guaranteeing ethics in the workplace.

Video Blog - Using Computers in Moderation

Technology: Another One of God's Tools

Improvements in technology lead to improvements in the quality of our living—faster cars. slimmer TVs, and smaller computer chips. These are just a few of the miraculous results of improving technology. However, what is often overlooked is that while these improvements are working in man's favor, they are also working in God's favor. His purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." This is done by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. What better way to do so than by allowing missionaries to stay in contact with their investigators at any place via cellphones; or how else would branch members in the middle of Hong Kong watch General Conference if there was no satellite to carry the signal? The fact of the matter is that technological advances work in God's favor just as much as it does in man's favor.

The Solution to Near Perfect Software

Open source software is the best solution available to creating near perfect software. I say near perfect because there will always be someone who doesn't like a certain feature in software, no matter how amazing everyone else thinks it is. However, open source software has many developers working on it at once–sometimes several hundred at a time. Many developers equals many diverse backgrounds. Many diverse backgrounds means many different people specializing in different things. Thus, open source software may have the advantage of someone expert in machine learning, and someone expert in data structure architecture, and someone expert in mail protocols. All together, these developers can, and with enough time, will turn the software into a [near] perfect masterpiece.

Flattening the World

The world is being flattened as we speak. Thomas Friedman pointed out ten of the world's greatest "flatteners," but we also need to recognize the smaller "flatteners." Since Thomas Friedman wrote The World is Flat, several new technologies have emerged that have further globalized the world. The cheaper and more portable version of the laptop, the netbook, has allowed many people to go online in places where laptops just aren't feasible. The rise of the 3G network has permitted people in even the most rural of areas to be able to communicate with friends, families, and coworkers. Additionally, social networking has been playing a huge role in globalizing the world. Eventually, the countries of the world will mesh almost as if as one huge nation.

Media Industry vs. Consumers

A radical change needs to be made to how media is accessed. Within ten minutes, a person can burn a CD with over one hundred songs, and not pay a dime for any one of them. The same can be said of burning DVDs. If a person knows how to download a movie to a computer, then that person is just one step away from being able to burn that movie onto a DVD. It is all too simple. The music and movie industry is being walked on by consumers. The rise of Netflix and Pandora has introduced solutions to these problems. The media both content providers provide is cheap (for the consumer) and difficult to pirate (for the music and movie industry). We need to get rid of CDs and DVDs and move to streaming everything on secure servers online. This is a better solution for both consumers and suppliers.

The Death of Mozilla Firefox

It's time to start saying your goodbyes to Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla recently reported that the popularity of the web browser has declined three months in a row. This is the first time in Firefox history that popularity has sunk like this. Instead, Google's Chrome browser has been stealing users from what is now known as the hottest open-source browser on the market. Google has just created too big of a name for itself for Firefox to be able to compete with Google Chrome. Firefox is following after the footsteps of long-gone Netscape. Within the next couple of years, Firefox is going to be another fad of the past. Bye Firefox.