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.