Fair Use is Fairly Awesome

Putting digital rights management (DRM) technologies into music is counterproductive. It's impossible for music producers to effectively stop large scale piracy and distribution of their music using DRM (see the analog hole). However, producers can use DRM technologies very effectively to annoy and drive away customers. People would rather buy legitimate copies of the music they listen to. Provide affordable, high quality, easy to use music, and people will buy from you. It's that simple.

The Internet is dangerous

Where were Little Red Riding Hood's parents? The same logic that gave Little Red her name probably sent her out through the wolf infested forest, alone, with a basket full of smelly food to Grandma's house. Of course, you would never send your child out into the spooky woods alone. But, when was the last time you let your child use the Internet without you? When was the last time you ventured out there unprotected and alone?

Luckily, Little Red was saved by the lumberjack. For your safety and the safety of your family you may want to brush up on your Internet lumberjack skills a bit. One good way to do that is to check out the Internet safety podcast. If you prefer your information in text form or you're already a seasoned veteran lumberjack with something to contribute head over to the Internet safety wiki. These are resources that can help keep Little Red Riding Hood from getting close enough to the wolf to ask him stupid questions.

Linux makes me feel guilty

People are always telling me all I ever do is take, take, take. I never give back to the community. Ya well, I don't have time for that sort of stuff. Sure, I have talents and programming abilities that could be put to good use in the open source community, but I'm busy "gettin' mine." A man's gotta eat. Haven't you ever noticed that those guys don't get paid? They do make a pretty mean operating system though (It's got a penguin for a mascot and everything). As far as I can tell these open source guys live off the warm fuzzies they get from making high quality software products freely available to the masses. Here's where I contribute. It is a proven fact that everyday my usage of open source software feeds a programmer suffering from warm fuzzy starvation.* That's right, I'm a philanthropist.


*This is neither proven nor a fact.

The world is flat. Who knew?

In case you haven't noticed, the world has been changing in the last 20 years or so. Growing up I never thought anything I wrote would be read by anyone outside my immediate family. Today, literally tens of people will read this post (ignore the fact that they're still all family members). Virtually anyone in the world has access to my biased opinions and mediocre writing skills. All of a sudden, everyone is within my reach, they all live in my hometown. The world is flat again, we've gone back to Pangaea. So, how do we keep from falling off the edge?

Understanding the events, processes, and technologies that have led to our global society is critical to survival in the flat world (Start here). No one ever thrived in an environment they didn't understand. But, just knowing about something about your environment doesn't guarantee success.

You must adapt to the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in the flat world. Companies like Dell and Wal-Mart are thriving in the new world because they have recognized (and often created) opportunities that have allowed them to break out of traditional business models and do business more efficiently. These businesses also recognize that they must continue to adapt and evolve with the changing world to stay competitive.

Just like companies must adapt and evolve so too must individuals. A lot of people are trying to push you over the edge of the new flat world. You used to have to outperform the guy in the next cubicle over to get the promotion. Now, you have to outperform all of India to keep your job. This is a pretty scary thought (it scares me anyway). Of course, the solution is to stay marketable by continuing to invest in yourself. You should always be progressing and adding to your skill set. There will always be a place for someone who is versatile and competent.

So, the world is flat, but as long as you're willing to adapt, evolve, and innovate you won't fall off. And just in case you're having a hard time seeing how much things have changed in the last 10-15 years here's a little trip down memory lane.

Hackers are lame

The world is full of malicious hackers. Some of them may have government funding, but the real motivation seems to be proving they are smarter than whoever wrote whatever they're hacking. What they don't seem to understand is that no one is impressed if you hack into a website, it's not that hard and it happens all the time. If you really want to prove your superiority, create a website no one else can hack into, that would be impressive.

Women are wonderful

If you don't want to be a nurse, don't be a nurse. If you don't want to be a homemaker, don't be a homemaker. If you do want to be a scientist or a computer programmer, work hard, study, and make it happen. Unfortunately, we've created a society where it is difficult for women to develop the self-confidence necessary to break gender roles and penetrate male dominated disciplines. Everyone, male or female, old or young, black or white, should be taught to pursue the path they are most interested in. If we give people the confidence to follow their dreams we don't need to worry about encouraging or prodding them into various fields of study. Let them decide for themselves. If you want to be a homemaker, then, dang it bob, be a homemaker!

You never have to leave your house

Most employers offer direct deposit for your paychecks. You can pay all your bills, make transfers, and perform almost any other bank transaction online. If only we could get Grandma to direct deposit our birthday checks we'd be set. Unfortunately, paper checks will probably be around for a while longer. So, you're stuck driving down to the bank to deposit Grannie's loot. Unless of course you could just scan your checks and deposit them through your online banking service. I've actually been doing this for the last 9 months or so with usaa.com and, I have to say, it's freakin' awesome. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how they're detecting fraud with the scan and deposit method but I guess they must have it figured out. With this little advancement you truly never have to go to a local branch (as far as I know, the closest USAA branch to me is in San Antonio, about 1400 miles away).

Cuckoo's Egg

How difficult is it to break into computers containing government records or corporate trade secrets? Well, that depends. It's really up to the person administrating the computers. These days people are paranoid about the security of their data, which helps motivate them to take the necessary precautions. Rarely does anyone's password not contain at least one number and a symbol making a dictionary attack more difficult. Any system administrator that leaves the default passwords on their machines will be quickly dismissed for incompetence. Still, the security is in the hands of humans, and humans aren't perfect.

The complexity of computers and computer networks continues to grow at an incredible rate. As the complexity increases so does the difficulty of keeping these systems secure. More code equals more bugs and back doors in our systems. You could always just disconnect your computer from all networks. You could also move into the middle of the woods and never communicate with the rest of the world. Sure, no one will harm you, but it's hard to get much done out there by yourself.

We are the at the mercy of the people who know about our systems' holes and insecurities. If we're lucky, those people have morals and want to solve the problem rather than exploit it. We're not always lucky but anyone who discovers a security risk has a few options available to them, each with pros and cons:

1. Publish the problem to the world.
Pro: Raises awareness so that the problem can be addressed and a solution can be found.
Con: The whole world now knows a problem that can be exploited until a solution is found.

2. Inform only the creator of the bug of the problem.
Pro: Limits the number of people aware of the problem to those who should be able to do something about it.
Con: The company may decide that solving the problem is more costly than it's worth or if they create a patch, people may not use it because they don't know the severity of the problem it fixes.

3. Write a "virus" program that takes advantage of the problem.
Pro: Forces people to take the problem seriously and find a solution quickly.
Con: Possible criminal charges, destruction of property, and/or lost productivity.

4. Ignore it and hope it goes away.
Pro: Maybe the problem is small or obscure enough that it's not a temptation to hackers.
Con: If it is a temptation to hackers the problem is still wide open and systems are vulnerable.

You get to decide what you're going to do when you discover the next security weakness. It's an ethical and practical issue that you'll have to weigh out in your mind. Or, you could continue to rely on other people to find the weaknesses and decide whether to protect or take advantage of you.

We all love technology, but not always for the same reason

Everybody loves a train wreck. Combine this fact with immature college students, free speech, and an entrepreneur and you get the juicycampus.com problem. The idea of using the Internet to spread morally corrupt material is not a new phenomenon. However, social networking has taken it to a more personal level. Many of these malicious attacks are protected by free speech laws, but just because something is legal doesn't mean it should be done. Luckily, juicycampus.com is easy to fight. Just ignore it. Fight the urge to stare at the train wreck and it will be removed.

They're still a bunch of lazy people

So, I've gotten a few attacks on my logic and conclusions in my last post. The more I've thought about it the more I've decided they're probably right, at least to some extent. There are a lot of computer savvy people in the generations between mine and the one that has done most of the current genealogy (they built most of the current technology). People like Ransom Love are already defining the future of family history. They'll get things off to a running start long before my generation gets off their duffs.

It has also been said that when my generation gets old we'll will be just as far behind technology as the older generations are now. I think we'll have to wait and see about that one. I'm sure we'll be behind but, having been raised on computers, we may be better equipped to adapt. I hope so anyway...

p.s. The title "They're all just a bunch of lazy people" is something a really old guy literally yelled from the pulpit in church one Sunday referring to missionaries these days. Apparently, back in the good ole days he was much more diligent than they are today.

"They're all just a bunch of lazy people!" screamed the old man from the pulpit.

Old people don't know how to use computers and young people don't care about family history. Granted this is an overstatement and a generalization, but my experience supports this stereotype. I have taught a few family history classes focused on using Personal Ancestral File and familysearch.com. The first class was mostly older people with family history experience who gave me blank stares for the majority of the seven-week course. The second was a group of twenty-somethings who slept their way through the course. There is a definite gap between those who want to do the work and those with the skills to do it most effectively. Unfortunately, we may have to wait for my generation to get old before we see technology used to its fullest extent in family history work.

The church shall move forward with the quickness of technology

Imagine you've been working on some genealogical research for the last six month or so, then while talking your cousin you mention your work and he informs you that he already did the exact same research a year ago. You just wasted six months, how do you feel? Any one who has done a reasonable amount of genealogical work has run into similar situations. The Lord has provided technologies that can overcome this particular problem as well as a myriad of others. I refer to the Lord because I believe that one of the major reasons for the technological advances we've seen is to facilitate the growth and maintenance of His church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). He has prepared leaders like President Hinckley who take advantage of modern technologies to continue and properly handle the exponential growth the church has seen. Membership has gown to nearly 13 million, temples now literally dot the earth, and there are over 50,000 missionaries in over 300 missions worldwide and all of which would be impossible to handle with a hard copies and filing cabinets system. If the growth of technology continues to keep up with the growth of the church it will be interesting to see what develops.

The pen is mightier than the sword

In the Middle Ages, the richest most powerful knights were those most skilled with the sword. Today, your skill with a pen (or keyboard) determines your rank. Not all knights were required to defend themselves daily, but they needed to practice their combative skills regularly to prepare for when a conflict did arise. You probably don't write an application letter to Harvard every day, but if you don't want the admissions committee to tear it to pieces (like Dr. Knutson will probably do to this paragraph) follow the knight's example and practice daily.

Hackers aren't limited to your computer

Recently the CIA reported that hackers shut down foreign power grids. This is a bit scarier to me than a hacker putting a virus on my computer. I can always backup my data, format, and start over. When a hacker can physically damage equipment that is vital to my daily life I start to take it seriously. Experts predict possible Y2K size catastrophes, only this time they seem to be founded. A country without power, water, or any other utility would not be a happy place to be. Precautionary steps should be readily available to deal with these types of attacks. It remains to be seen if government and other leaders take preemptive action or wait to be forced to make the changes.

Google "will be included in your brain"

I'm a bit of a "reformed googlist." Google co-founder Sergey Brin states, "I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world...it will be included in your brain." With all the world's knowledge so readily available, and being added to daily by millions, why try so hard to enter information into your personal brain? My History professor has placed a 10 minute time limit on our weekly open-book, open-notes online quizzes because, in theory, if you haven't read the book you can't find the answers in 10 minutes. This is true if you look in the book for the answers. However, it doesn't take Google 10 minutes. So, should we teach general education courses or effective Google usage? Yes. This is why I'm a "reformed googlist." Google may know everything, but if you don't know what to ask, it doesn't know what to tell you. You still need the base to build on. If you can't remember the details, Google knows. Google is an amazingly powerful tool that needs to be utilized, but is only used to its full potential by the educated.