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Innovators like Linus Torvalds are impressive risk takers. When everyone else is following the flow, or riding the wave, it is socially difficult to swim against the current. Linus Torvalds wasn't afraid to take a chance by rejecting the trend of cathedral-building style and followed his own train of thought. Taking risks like this are necessary to bring about great inventions. Linus's style of open source programming was a huge step away from the cathedral style where programmers and users were corralled into distinct sectors. Allowing software users to become co-developers has opened the door to faster development and self-gratified consumers/innovators. The masses crave recognition and acceptance, and open source coding is the best way for programmers to find public avowal of admiration.

The Cuckoo's Egg

     I bet there are computer hackers attempting to breach my firewalls and steal my personal information right now. Cliff Stoll's "The Cuckoo Egg" has been enlightening and a little frightening. Thinking about how facilely the hacker Markus Hess was able to exploit simple careless acts of system administrators is appalling. In today's day and age extreme precautions are taken while installing a new system to make sure all of the passwords are reset. Some computer systems require that users reset their passwords every three months, and don't permit user access until these changes transpire.

     It is fascinating how hopeless people feel when their computer has been hacked. It feels like someone is reading your personal journal right in front of your face, and you have no control to stop them. Whether firsthand or through an immediate friend or family member, we have all experienced some form of computer viruses. They are nasty little bugs that are impossible to kill. And even if you kill most of the bug, they persistently return. The future has an even bigger playground for these cyber spies to meticulously lay cuckoo eggs in our systems. Security has to get tighter to anticipate the growing intelligence and cleverness of the escalating slew of hackers. Only by preparing for the worst can we amply safeguard our confidential data.

new.familysearch.org

"The men work outside, and the women do chores inside," was the unwritten code when I was growing up. At least I thought that was the way it should've been. For me, family history work has been regarded in a similar manner. Doing research and finding family names has always been an activity my mom and grandma would do. As I have matured I now realize how wrong I was. My patriarchal blessing even mentions how I should engage and "get lost" in performing this service. The new.familysearch.org site has been the kick in the pants I needed. The reengineered website may not be without faults, but it has opened my eyes to how easy and satisfying it can be to spend time performing family history work. If you are new to family history work, the church's new website is a great place to start.

Interactive Achievement Awards

Jay Mohr hosted AIAS's 15th annual Interactive Achievement Awards for the gaming industry last Thursday. Should it come as a surprise that such a large business as the gaming industry only got a paltry amount of viewers during its award ceremony? Most people play video games of one form or another. Regardless of whether they play Halo Reach on Xbox 360 or play Facebook's Farmville, both young and old are involved in some form of gaming. Although consumers don't care much about the IAA's, they still trust that they will get the most enjoyment out of the games given a "game of the year" award. They value this label. When they look to buy a new and exciting video game or app, they know they will get their money's worth if they purchase one of these games.

Kim Dotcom

Megaupload's Kim Dotcom was arrested and is awaiting an extradition hearing in New Zealand for money laundering and piracy of various types of copyrighted media. Kim has made millions of dollars from premium member subscriptions to his file-sharing site Megaupload.com. Allegedly, "Megaupload was fueling the entertainment industry's push for SOPA and PIPA in the US." I do not fully understand all the logistics for SOPA and PIPA in the US, but after hearing about the terrible crimes that Kim has committed, something needs to be done. Whether or not SOPA and PIPA will accomplish this, or if another anti-piracy act could stop people like Kim, it should be apparent that online piracy is a major issue, and is affecting all of our lives. There is an astonishing number of file-sharing sites out there that do the exact same thing that Dotcom's website has been doing for over five years. It is upsetting to consider all the internet sites that violate the United States's copyright laws.