Our Biggest Weapon Against Pornography

http://combatingpornography.org/cp/eng/

Book Post 2

One of the points covered in Here Comes Everybody is the fact that teens who would regularly have a conversation socially, now spend that time talking over the internet. This has been the topic of many articles and news reports. Talking over the internet however, is inherently different from talking over the net. From personal experience and from talking to other people I know that some conversations that are held online would not have occurred in a social environment. Conversations which sometimes occur with people who you would not regularly interact with anyway. They are different ways of communicating and therefore not replacements for one another. The time people spend on computers is usually a replacement for other types of entertainment like watching television and reading. One could even argue that the internet has helped people express themselves in ways they couldn't before, an example being blogging. This issue is not black and white as portrayed in the book.

Women and Computer Science

Its frequently pointed out that women are not attracted to majors like computer science. Several studies have been done to find answers as to why this major is not attractive to women. I have always wondered if maybe we are asking the wrong question. It was not until recently that women started to form a larger part of the academic graduate field. The numbers continue to grow but compared to men, women still have less time in any academic field in general. It took a large generation of engineers to begin the generation of computer scientists. Is it possible then that a similar female generation has to exist before a large generation of female computer scientists? I think that with time we will see an increase in women in fields like computer science.

Technology and the Gospel

Technology, or anything for that matter that is introduced into a society, will have both a positive and a negative impact. Computers for example can be used to learn about the gospel but can also be used for other purposes like pornography. It is our duty as church members to distinguish these sides and use technology as best we can so that the benefits of using such technologies will overshadow the negative uses them. As computer programers, this duty lies largely on us as technology today is spread through computers. We should follow the example of Brother Calderon and try to identify the places we could use to bring people to the gospel, and exploit them.

The Hollywood Consipiracy

Stories about how companies steal from producers through copyright laws and regulations are not something new. We always hear about Hollywood conspiracies to steal material and “slave” anyone who produced something that is worth selling. Hollywood and companies like Hollywood do make millions of dollars out of copyrighted material, but they also provided services which are valuable to original authors which they would probably not be able to do themselves. Companies like Hollywood are responsible for many of the anti piracy movements which are in effect today. Individual authors would not be able to take action against the millions of people who use their work without paying for it. Companies like Hollywood in this case can and will take action against them. Companies like Hollywood are also responsible for distributing the goods they produce. Individual authors would have a hard time trying to distribute their ideas and products around the globe if companies like Hollywood wouldn’t distribute these goods for them. Hollywood and companies like Hollywood are not entirely the blood sucking monsters some people portray them to be.

Ideas

Great ideas come in many flavors and it is important to be able to recognize certain symptoms which in many cases accompany them. As Raymond put it, “Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch.” This idea can however be taken beyond the realm of software and applied to any field, it is not an idea that is true about software development alone. A second symptom of a great idea is when this idea is presented to a group of experts on the subject and the idea is not completely refuted but instead criticized and possible modified. Experts will not lose time in an idea which is a dead end or is a “shiny object.” Connected with this idea is the fact that one has to be prepared to receive criticism and filter the good suggestions from the bad. It is also important to never be discouraged when you think you have a good idea and it turns out to be a shiny object. Good ideas take time and sometimes a stroke of luck to find.