Bigotry at Berkeley (Current Event 2)

Although I enjoyed Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo's Egg," I encountered a blind, anti-authority attitude described in Berkeley that I found very disturbing. In the article below, I find that the liberal bigotry of Berkeley is as strong now as it was when Stoll's hacker-hunt was going on. As they passionately hated the military then, so do they hate the Marines now; they treat them as if they are an undesirable, inhuman pestilence. It is disappointing to compare the America of today with the America of my grandfather's time. Why is it that the (I hope) few have the loudest voice? How can people choose to use their freedoms to attack those that would guarantee them? Why are the mistakes of a few used to judge the rightness or wrongness of a nation? To me, these protests at Berkeley typify the rabid dogmatism of the political left and their unwillingness to consider the true greater good of all; these people want their "rights" with no responsibilities.

Berkeley Council Backs Off Marine Action

Weiter, immer weiter (Smallish Post 4)

The proliferation of genealogical research and the technology to expede its progress since 1836 is amazing and makes me wonder what will happen next. I have noticed a movement in the Church to reach out specifically to the German people: my first trip to Germany I took with my father for the purpose of advancing our genealogy, but since then the Church has microfilmed hundreds of medieval German church records, allowing us to extend lines further without the need to find ways to travel to Germany often. For the living, the Church has established Outreach Centers, where senior missionaries provide a haven for young single adults in Germany. This program allows youth to gather in a place where they can have fun and also seek advice on dealing with life's problems and on the Gospel. Finally, the new First Presidency includes, for the first time that I am aware, a native German, Elder Dieter Uchtdorf, who has always been an advocate for his Heimatland. All these things together make me very excited to see what will happen in Germany. I only hope that I can be a part of it.

"...But you took that end, and...well, you TOOK it. And I guess that's somethin'." (Smallish Post 3)

I don't feel I do anything well. Still, if God can make our weaknesses strong, perhaps I can still be useful in working with machines. I can't paint, but I can develop software to help true artists express their feelings to large Internet audiences. I can't communicate well, but I can build databases so that people have more access to the words of those who can. I'm not a "spiritual giant," but I can still develop tools to help those who are effective at preaching the gospel and good principles. I'm certainly not the best developer, but what skills I have can still be made to bless others, and I suppose that's enough.

To Catch a Thief (Current Event 1)

The idea of stealing from a thief makes me wonder why we don't make fake packages like this that reveal who the phishers are, rather than simply stealing their stolen information. I don't know whether it would be considered entrapment in the legal world, but even if legal action couldn't be taken, it would be easier for companies like Google and Yahoo to shut down these guys' accounts quickly. Sure, it won't help catch the astute script-checkers, but at least we could make life difficult for the typical scam artist.

I found this article through Slashdot.org, but here's the original link:
Netcraft Article: Stealing Phish from Fraudsters

Technology (Smallish Post 1)

The blessing and the curse of this Internet age is that anyone can say anything online. I have found that researching current events, especially the latest American political campaigns, is a nightmare. Some things I read are things which I know from prior knowledge are patently false (especially regarding attacks on LDS and general Christian beliefs), but things like candidates' stances on various issues become muddied. There is a tendency for people to think that they are authorities on a subject when they've read about it online, and false notions or misrepresented facts get promulgated just as much or more as the truth. Perhaps because anonymity was harder to achieve, writers of books and magazines had to found their arguments on fact and reason, whereas it seems that the freedom which blogs and online comments grant brings the ugly, ignorant, and unreasonable side of humanity to light as well.

Being Concise (Smallish Post 2)

In my school years, I was a very terse but complete writer. My statements said everything that I needed to say on a subject, but they were judged unacceptable by my teachers because they failed one criterion: the length requirement. For years I had the notion drilled into me that concise writing must not be complete; if I wanted to have a good essay/report/thesis, it had better have been at least so-and-so number of pages long. Smaller assignments were even micromanaged with a word count requirement. My inclination was to give my thoughts succinctly, but I had to learn to put "BS" into my writing because it was the only way to improve the assessments of my work. In the real world, however, short, strong statements are preferred, and I find that I have in great measure lost my ability to be terse and therefore to write effectively!

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