The Creativity Pot

Have you ever been in a room pitching your ideas to others, only to have them push better ideas back at you? It is the most incredible feeling in the world. You can come up with some great idea, that no one else can think of. As you tell others about your idea, they tell you ways to change or expand your idea to create something better; something you never thought of. Together in this melting pot of ideas, ideas are tuned into amazing products. Creativity comes from numbers. One person may be creative, but together we can change the world. If we look though history, we can find that the biggest advances happened in times and governments when thinking outside of the box was encouraged. Aristotle built ideas off of Plato, who in turn built off of Socrates. Ideas flourish upon collaboration. One modern evidence of this is the Android OS for mobile phones. Android is an open-source software, where its competitors are not. Android started off as the most lacking, most annoying phone OS out there. To be frank, it was horrible and its competition was incredible. However, through time, Android has become the most popular and most up to date phone OS on the market. Its competitors simply can't keep up with the innovation. The open-source software allows creative ideas to build off of others creative ideas, creating a collage of human creativity. When we work and share our ideas with each-other, truly amazing things can happen.

The costs of justice

I find it frustrating when criminals get away with things for political reasons. In The Cuckoos Egg Clifford Stoll retells his events tracking a hacker. As Cliff continued to chase the hacker, he often went to federal agencies to receive help and collaboration with catching the hacker. For varying reasons, each agency said they couldn't help. There were many times where Cliff was close to finding out more about the hacker, but couldn't quite get there due to bureaucratic reasons, such as not having a warrant in the right state. Just like state police officers do not have authority to write tickets in other states, agencies such as the CIA, do not have permission to do things out of their jurisdiction. While Cliff was dealing with these struggles he made a comment that these jurisdiction rules are intended to protect us. 

It is often the case however, that such laws can also limit justice. How often is justice thrown by the wayside because the crime fits between two separate boundaries? Don't get me wrong, I understand why such boundaries exist. I understand that power corrupts and such laws limit corruption and Tyranny. However, far too often criminals are allowed to walk, or are never even hunted. 

I myself have been a victim of cyber crime. I have found that no matter how much information you are able to collect about the perpetrator, no one is willing to help you bring them to justice. If we want to reduce cyber crime, we need to have a system set up to discourage such crimes. People don't bother robbing banks because they know that banks are highly secured and nearly impossible to get away with. Cyber crime however is encouraged by the law more then discouraged. If jurisdictions and bureaucracy is going to remain how it is, cyber crime will just get worse. We need a more defined law or agency if we are going to keep up with the criminals.

Twitter Feed

Last week I was watching the General Conference for the LDS church. While the conference goes on, many people tweet about it. As I watched the conference, I decided to also watch #LDSConf on Twitter. It was a great experience. As I was watching the feed, I actually learned things and realized things about the talks that I did not originally notice. I would hear something I liked, then go check to see what people tweeted about it. Sometimes, there would be some good tweets that helped my recognize a further explanation upon something that was said. I can truly say that watching twitter helped me enjoy the conference even more. Of course, not all tweets where worthwhile, and there was a lot of "noise", but even with all the noise, it was a worth-while experience. I will be following twitter for all conferences to come.

The Evolution of Technology: From Comical to Miracle

One of my favorite things about the evolution of technology and innovation, is when some cool, yet almost pointless, invention gets built upon to enhance someone's quality of life. When the Xbox Kinect came out it was a cool gaming device, but not incredibly useful. Now, the Kinect sensor powers surgical software. We could even go back to the "primal" days of technology with the ALTAIR 8800. The ALTAIR was claimed to do absolutely nothing, yet, because of it, computers are now such a vital part of our lives. Whenever you see a new technology product that you feel is pointless and perhaps even a joke, such as Google Glasses, don't think about the product itself, think about the next step in the technological evolution. It might just become a life changing miracle for some - and perhaps, all.

Watch the story of the "bionic eye" glasses at CNET: http://cnet.co/1bCBRrO

Dont shame the Game

I often get frustrated with people who instantly assume video games are fruitless idle hobbies. As a child I would often be limited in the amount of time I could play video games. While I understood the logic behind this, I was often upset that my sister's time was never limited in regards to reading books. While it is true that books can make you smarter, not all books do. On the same logic, it is true that some games are violent, profane, and lustful. Some games however, can be good. I have seen people lock themselves in a room for weeks on end - and barely come up for air - in order to read some intriguing series. On the flip side, I have played video games requiring skills such as: puzzle solving, social interaction, integrated reading, organizational skills, progression management, leadership, patience, money management, and trading. One of the biggest things I have learned through games is if you fail, keep trying. Who I am today has a lot to do with some of the games I have played. You wouldn't accept Harry Potter as an evil book simply because some religious guy said it was demonic; you would try to figure it out for yourself. If you want to know if a game is fruitless, don't assume, do some research.

What is Privacy?

Sometimes we forget that the word privacy is subjective. With the recent appearance of The Faces of Facebook some people are concerned about their profile photos being available to anyone and everyone. The designer of the site claims photos have always been public (which is true) and privacy isn't being breached. For others, however, this is a direct violation to their understanding of privacy. It is hard for sites and even governments to defend our privacy when we all have different opinions on where the line should be drawn.


Read about Faces of Facebook from CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57605235-93/see-the-faces-of-all-1.2-billion-facebook-users-including-yours/?amp&Media