Working on Thanksgiving

A few weeks ago people made a huge deal out of Costco deciding to keep their doors closed on Thanksgiving. When it happened I couldn’t believe that it was this big of a deal that people didn’t have to work on a day that is considered a national holiday. No one should have to work on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is already bad enough that we celebrate a time where the pilgrims from the old world came to the new and slaughtered countless natives. This should definitely be one of those holidays that no one works on.

Employees not having to work on a national holiday should not be front-page news. This should be very low-key common practice. No one should have to work on a national holiday, when they could be with their friends and families.

Bringing Android back to it's roots

When Android Inc first started in 2003, Andy Rubin (founder of the small company) had a dream for a mobile phone operating system that was powerful, secure, efficient, and most importantly, open source. An open source program is one that is completely public and ready to be modified in any way that the user wants. When Google acquired Android Inc in 2005, they promised to keep Rubins dream alive. Up until recently, Google has done a great job doing just that. The problem is carriers like Verizon and AT&T locking the boot-loaders on their phones, making it impossible to change the operating system on their devices.

This may not seem like a big deal to the average consumer, but it makes enthusiasts like myself really have to fight to get what we were promised over ten years ago. Carriers locking their phones like this is one of those hidden frustrations that most people don't know about that drives me crazy. It makes me never want to use AT&T or Verizon as a mobile carrier anymore and switch to one that allows me to do what I want with the phone that I purchased. I don't blame Google for my misfortune. They have stayed true to their word and released their own line of phones and tablets called Nexus devices. These devices are completely unlocked and ready to be modified in any way, right out of the box.

Their isn't really anything that can be done to solve this issue as carriers want to maintain more and more control over how you use your phones. I guess enthusiasts like me will have to settle with Google's Nexus 6. Boo hoo.

Comparing and Contrasting AMD and Intel processors

In my compare and contrast essay I really focused on the contrast part. Mostly because the two I chose do the same job, but take very different approaches as to what they think really matter. I talk about how AMD is good for multi-taskers who are on a budget and how Intel is for users who just want a faster computer overall and are willing to spend a little more to get it.

 I think that I did a very good job contrasting the two and briefly describing the benefits of both. Unfortunately, I think it falls a little short in the comparison department. There’s a link to the essay down below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B92fono4_p1IYWZWNHp3YWR3Y00/view?usp=sharing

TED Talk: "Big Data is Better Data" -Kenneth Cukier

In Kenneth Cukier’s TED talk “Big Data is Better Data” Cukier took a very interesting approach to big data. He didn't talk about how is evil and taking away our privacy. He is thinking bigger; he realized that things could be generalized in good ways to improve society. He argues that Big Data is the thing that will bring the human race together. He says that not only will it bring us together; it will keep us safer in things like driving. He talked about machine learning and how computers will get smarter with data, just like we do. He also mentioned the reverse side of big data, which was necessary for this argument in order to maintain fairness.

I think that Cukier said some things about Big Data that made me think about it in a different way. I had always heard about the negative connotations of Big Data. He made me think about how great this technology can be for mankind. Things in theory will be safer, statistics will be more accurate, and mankind will be just better. He also made me worry about the things that big data could end up doing to our rights as humans. It could end up ruining our freedom and making us trapped by our own technology. He used Edward Snowden as an example for this. Snowden is seeking political asylum from the big data he collected.

http://www.ted.com/talks/kenneth_cukier_big_data_is_better_data?language=en