Government Backdoors

The issue of security and privacy is a really sticky one that I believe has no clear answers. With the Patriot Act and the new age of global terrorism, it becomes harder and harder to decide what is okay in losing privacy and what is too much. I lean towards the security side even though it leads to me losing some privacy. My stance stems from the feeling that I don’t have anything to hide and I am okay with losing some privacy in order to increase safety for myself and others.

In the San Bernardino case, 14 people were killed and authorities search for reasons on how and why the killers did what they did. Apple refuses to unlock the phone mostly because they are worried about the precedent that it will set. They are also worried about the security risks that can come from creating a backdoor into the iPhones and other Apple devices. I feel that a possible security risk is better to have than a known security risk that happened.

One of the reasons that I am okay with some lack of privacy is that I am not doing anything wrong. As long as the information that is monitored never is released to the public, I am not as worried about the government searching through information in order to try and protect me and the country in general.

Big Brother is a valid concern and I can see how it is a little scary to give even more information to the government. However, if the information is used in a responsible manner, I think that the Big Brother concerns can be assuaged. I believe in order to make sure the information is being used in a proper manner  we should create a task force that monitors how the information is being used and if it is not being abused.

I think in a lot of cases security trumps privacy. We are living in such a virtualized world and lots of information is already shared or public knowledge. I am okay with my information being looked through by the government as long as they treat it with respect and don’t release it to the public.

Project 2: Job Interview Process

I think the most important part of our blog post is how it emphasizes starting early. I think I started moving in this direction too late and that may have limited my options and chances to find good jobs. However, I do have a great job that I am extremely excited for after graduation so even though I was late to prepare for job interviews and job prep in general, it still worked out really well for me. Even though it is important to start preparing early, I think that the most important advice I got about the job interview process was actually not to worry about jobs so much and especially getting one right after graduation. As an engineer, there is a huge pressure to have a job right away. However, it is important to remember that after graduation is the start of the rest of our lives. Therefore it doesn’t matter as much if you don’t have a job immediately after graduation.

I think that there is a problem with the new emphasis on jobs from colleges. While jobs are extremely important, I think that there is too much emphasis on jobs and less on learning. Students are pushed for grades and achievements to the point where learning is much less important than an A on the test. Notre Dame does a good job on helping students find jobs and gives them a lot of options to pursue that direction, but I think that the engineering and STEM groups put too much pressure on students to quickly find a job, rather than explore and look at jobs in a different manner. While I think it is good that we have so much support for helping to get jobs, I do think that there is a lot of pressure on students to get jobs that combined with other pressures in college can be detrimental to students. I think that students should be encouraged to pursue jobs, but not pushed towards it.

Bradley Manning Intelligence Leak

The Bradly Manning case is a complex one that deals with the leaking of classified documents that endangered US soldiers lives and hurt diplomatic foreign policy. He leaked 2 videos that showed the US military behaving in ways that it should not. If it was just these two leaks and the article about the US considering Wikileaks a security threat, I think that Bradley Manning would be justified in his leaking of the intelligence, especially if it is a spur of the movement move. However, he deliberately collected and leaked over 250,000 documents that contained sensitive information that could have helped Iraqi insurgents and hurt the country he had promised to defend and work for. I think because of how he deliberately put together the data and leaked it means he should be punished and I agree with what the government did in punishing him.

When leaking information, I think it is important to think about what is being leaked and why. The videos were mistakes by the US military and I don’t think the best thing to leak. It is okay for the media to see it, but it is not something that they need to see. If the US military was doing something like systematically targeting civilians or something else that is against what our country stands for, I think it would be justifiable and good for it to be leaked. However, I don’t think the videos show something that is malignant but rather a mistake. I don’t think these mistakes need to be leaked and it was wrong for him to do so. However, I think it could be seen as a grey area and as such, does not always justify a punishment.

The leaking of the sensitive documents is what I don’t agree with. In the articles it talks about how Manning was angry of his treatment as a gay soldier and was upset with the army. He got emotional about everything and lashed out against the country he was sworn to protect by leaking information. This is unacceptable, especially since the info could have hurt his country. Because of this and how he let his emotions hurt his country is why I agree with his punishment and think that the US government was justified in sending him to prison.

I think that each leaking case needs to be handled individually as there are different circumstances that deal with each one. I think that the Bradley Manning case was handled appropriately and in most cases I think that whistle blowers in the military should be treated harshly.

Diversity in Tech

Tech is known as a white and Asian male dominated industry and is repeatedly targeted for having too few minorities and females. While this is a problem that I believe should be addressed, there are industries that are actually more male dominated or less diverse. Technology is also a very young industry and I believe over time there will be more women and minorities entering the tech work force just like they have entered other emerging work areas over time.

According to a little research I did, technology has the highest proportion of Asian employees, the 10th lowest proportion of Hispanic employees, and the second lowest proportion of African American employees of the jobs researched. The source may not have been the most reliable, so take the numbers with a grain of salt, but I do believe in general that the tech world is not as bad about hiring minorities as it is often made out to be. (Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/diversity-jobs-professions-america/396632/)

Also, I think that the tech field will grow to be more diverse in terms of race in the next 20 years. It will become more socially acceptable and encouraged for African American and Hispanic students to become computer science majors. Computer science is growing, and I think that is will grow proportionally quicker with these minorities than the current majority, especially with a little help.

One thing that I think will be important for encouraging growth in minorities in tech is them having a role model to look up to. I don’t know of any super famous entrepreneur in tech that is African American or Hispanic. There are many white leaders in the field and I know of quite a few that are Asian, but I don’t really know of any that are the other minorities. I think that there should be more publicity of the minorities that are successful in tech in order to try and attract more minorities down the road.

I always thought that tech was the most male dominated industry in the world. Partly this is just what everyone seemed to talk about, and partly I really didn’t think about it. After some research, another kind of poor source has technology as only the eighth most male dominated industry. (Source: http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-10-male-dominated-industries_8.html) While this isn’t a great win, I do think it shows we don’t think about some of the other industries that are even more male dominated.

I think women should be encouraged to learn to code and to enter the tech field. I think is would help more than just the diversity of the companies, but also the products, worker satisfaction, and so much more. Because of all this, I think it is important for tech leaders to push for more female heroines in tech as well as try to make special programs to encourage women to pursue tech. Unlike the minority bias, I think the gender bias will be harder to fix, and therefore I think it should be concentrated on more and before the minority problem.

Startup Fever

Globalization has come to mean that the very top of the pyramid can get extreme amounts of wealth, and those much farther down the ladder get less than they would without globalization. The idea is there are tons and tons of mediocre or good employees, but like a bell curve there are only a few at the top. Because the few at the top are able to leverage themselves to the whole world rather then to just one city or town, they are able to make an absurd amount of wealth and have much higher influence than they otherwise would have.

Startups are a great example of globalization. The select few that survive and do well do extremely well and make a lasting impact on the world, but the vast majority that fail do not provide any creation of wealth and hurt their employees, founders, and investors. Because of the ability to have monster payouts and the fact that it is easy for software to quickly grow to be a world phenomenon, startups are extremely hot and growing rapidly.

Besides for the possible benefit of a massive payout, one of the biggest reasons that computer science majors, especially millennials want to join a startup is that they want to feel like their work matters and affects the company in a powerful way. They are worried that they would just be a cog in the company working at a desk and a no name employee for the rest of their life if they worked at a larger company. Also, they may find the work interesting and see a much more rapid road to advancement.

The biggest risk with joining a startup is that they are risky. It is common for employees to work really hard and the company still fails. I was always taught that only 1 out of 7 startups survives, and only 1 out of 7 of the survivors makes it big. There is lots of possibilities for failure and oftentimes the failure can’t even be predicted or avoided. There are also issues with not earning as much and working longer hours with higher stress.

Even though there are lots of issues with startups, I am very proud to say that I am working with one and that I hope to start companies in the future. The biggest factor when looking at jobs was if the company is a startup or not. I am working on a startup that I helped found with my dad, so it is not exactly a normal situation, but I have always wanted to work with and for startups. Partly this is because I feel that I am betting on myself and my team much more than I would be if I was working for a larger company. Also, I find the work extremely interesting and feel that my work can have a major lasting impact on the world coming from a startup as compared to a larger company. I also like being able to have a large influence on company culture and how the company is run in general. In a large company like Microsoft it would take years for me to get to the point where I have a major impact on projects like Windows or Xbox or a ton of luck. I would rather bet on myself to be lucky with a startup than to bet that I will be noticed and become influential in a company like Microsoft or Apple which I feel requires the same amount of luck.

I don’t plan to move to Silicon Valley as some of the culture things there bother me, but I do hope to create and grow successful startups in Seattle.

Code of Ethics

Primarily our code of ethics deals with the just acting like a good person and respecting others ideas and person. Mostly following the code of ethics is common sense and trying to do the right thing.

Some highlights from our code of ethics are: strive to work for others; respect others questions, and search for balance.

Striving to work for others is an important part of Catholic social teaching and is part of the reason that we have an ethics class for computer science majors. It is assumed if we do well in the real world we are expected to give back to the community, but we also should concentrate on helping others as we go. Our work should be to help others rather than being concerned with how much money we make. We should try and do good in the world.

Respecting others questions is something that we are taught as young children, but it stays super important through college. As the subjects get more difficult and the content more complex we need to continue to respect other peoples questions as there are times where we will be the ones that don’t understand the content.

A final highlight is searching for balance. In my opinion the secret to life is balance. Without balance we can get caught up in one small thing and it can dominate our life. Even work or school can be bad if we spend too much time on them and they take over our life. Having balance is better for mental and physical health and important for raising a family down the road.

The biggest weakness with our code of ethics is its length. At almost 2.5 pages in length it is pretty long for students to read. Also it doesn’t go into too much detail on some of the more difficult conundrums. The most important part of the code of ethics is treating others as you would want to be treated. Respect and being a good person are the most important part of the code of ethics and that is what we concentrate on in our code.

I think that the creating of the code of ethics wasn’t that useful for my group. Acting in an ethical manner is ingrained by now and we know right from wrong. A written out code of ethics would have to be so specific as to be unreadable in order to have enough detail on certain situations that would be helpful.

The code of the ethics helped us think about what is right and wrong to do as a student, but as a student most things are pretty cut and dry. The next few years will have a lot more moral problems and be more complex. While the code of ethics helped us think about right from wrong as a student, I think it would be a lot more useful to make a hypothetical code of ethics for the next few years in the business world rather than the simple world of college. I think it would help us think about graduation more and be a better thought exercise for us.