Make a final blog post describing the three most important things you learned this semester and offer one piece of advice to students taking the class next semester.

Looking back, it’s difficult to claim that any single piece of knowledge was more valuable than the other because all knowledge has purpose. However, if I really must choose only three tidbits from the entire semesters worth of classes, I would say:

1. Software Patenting/Ethical Use of Software: Prior to this class, I had basically zero knowledge of software copyrights, when to use which type, why you would go about using one over the other, etc. Both the intellectual property lecture and the HiveTracks case study provided unique insight into the difficulties that can arise from conflict of ownership on code, reusing someones’ code where it’s not appropriate to do so, and other situations that can arise from copyrighted software. It taught me to be mindful about releasing anything and to pretty much always consult a lawyer if I want to make money distributing anything without being sued by some patent troll or another.
2. Public Speaking/Improving Communication Skills: This semester, we got a LOT of practice speaking in front of large groups – both formally and informally. Public speaking is a skill that’s not particularly stressed in other Computer Science classes and I think that’s not very conductive to the departments goal of producing knowledgeable and capable graduates because, any professional in any field is bound to encounter team-wide meetings and other social events in which they MUST be comfortable speaking confidently and clearly to the room. It is an essential skill for any field and I’m glad that we cultivated it throughout the semester as I certainly feel like my public speaking has improved and with it, my confidence in those situations.
3. Business Practices/Business Mindset: Seminar helped me to consider the various things that can help or hurt in an interview setting, to consider how to market myself effectively, to consider what information I put online and how it may affect my professional reputation, and a number of other things that affect employment opportunities in the long-term. While many of these topics contained some common sense tips, there were an equal number of things that I’d just never considered beforehand and all of them proved to be useful as time went on. Particularly, the lecture from the CareerGear representative about how to sell yourself effectively in a professional setting.

Lastly, if I had to offer one singular piece of advice to a student taking the class next semester? GO TO CLASS.
People seem to think that just because there is no explicit punishment for absences listed in the syllabus, that missed classes have no effect on their grade or their ability to succeed. I disagree. Many of the class lectures have been useful, including networking opportunities, expression of student knowledge, etc. It’s incredible to see what some of our peers are capable of and broaden our own professional horizons accordingly – just go to class!

Did you learn anything new about the patent process from the presentation?  What is your opinion about software patents?

The intellectual property lecture was great because, previously, I had little to zero knowledge of software patenting and the intricacies thereof. It was empowering to hear that we have automatic ownership of the code that we create and with the right approach, can patent and sell code libraries to other developers without ever having to even touch the application level of development. Conversely, it was disheartening to hear how restrictive patents can be sometimes, especially when legal action is taken against one side or the other. However, it was still an enlightening experience to learn about the specific copyright/patent approaches used for various types of software and the distribution thereof.

Make an entry in your blog reflecting on the cyber-security presentation by Adjunct Professor Larry Bridges.  What was your favorite part of the presentation?  Do you like having guest lectures?

The Cyber-security lecture by Professor Bridges was surprisingly insightful and I’m glad he was able to talk to the class. Prior to his lecture, I’d expected him to lecture on safe password practices, common hacking methodologies, and other topics that permeate the typical cyber-security lectures directed at the average end-user. However, Professor Bridges seemed to take note of his audience and lecture at a corresponding level of knowledge. I thought his data on the largest hacks to-date and the specifics of how they were executed was the best part of the presentation, especially because many of the hacks he discussed were not covered in the usual media outlets (presumably for PR reasons) so, it was great to hear about some of the under-the-table incidents and whatnot.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed having guests lectures because each lecturer has provided insight into their respective topics that couldn’t be found elsewhere. They all lectured on day-to-day activities, micro-level knowledge of whatever their topic was and overall, they provided us with a unique perspective and some fascinating tidbits of knowledge.

Write a blog post reflecting on your experience in the class session where students presented their final topics.

After discussing the topics that each student intends to finish their semester studying, I was surprised at the lack of diversity thereof. It seems that many of my peers intend to research and report on the same three things; privacy, security, and how to ensure you’ve got both.

While that is, of course, a generalization and some variety of topic was exhibited – I was still surprised as the consistency of topics expressed. That being said, I am excited to say that my topic of “The Industry of eSports: A Playground for Programmers and Pro-gamers alike” fell outside those boundaries and thus may be interesting to some of those students who are caught in the overlap.

I fear that my personal bias in favor of eSports and investing in the blossoming industry that it has become may skew my research but, objectivity in writing is a fool’s errand. Even legal documents contain some measurable amount of word bias or personal bias evident in the diction or the content thereof.

I think it’ll be fine.

What is your reaction to the information presented in the documentary Citizenfour?  Did the documentary have an effect on your opinion of Edward Snowden?

After watching CitizenFour (for the second time in my life), I am, once again, appalled and afraid. I have always been on Snowden’s side; the rights of the common people should certainly take precedence over the agenda of the ruling powers. The fact that the NSA violated constitutional rights en masse and continued to do so, despite being legally barred from doing so, needed to be brought to light.

I support Snowden’s decision to make that information public and I continue to support the bravery of both Snowden and Glen Greenwald for doing so in the face of great adversity. However, I cannot possibly support the United States in their treatment of Snowden and their handling of the case.

The most jarring part of CitizenFour was not the information that Snowden reveals but rather, the actions of the U.S. Government in response to his actions. The intimidation, the death threats, the charge of treason, the harassment, and just ridiculously mob-like behavior of U.S. officials in the face of Snowden’s actions is disgusting.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with what he did, you should still feel disgusted that your government treated an American citizen so poorly that he had to flee into exile and take extreme precautions to ensure they could not find him – for he was afraid for his life. Not afraid for his freedom, not afraid for his career, but afraid for his very life – afraid that the U.S. Government would silently and ruthlessly end his life.

To me, CitizenFour isn’t a story of privacy and journalism, it’s an expose on the malicious practices of the U.S. Government and their merciless pursuit to defend the secrecy of such practices. Maybe I’m just melodramatic but, that’s how it felt to me.

What did you find most interesting about the discussion surrounding the case of Apple being asked to create a back door to get data from a terrorist’s phone.

After Apple released its public statement on whether or not it planned to comply with the FBI’s request to build a backdoor into the iPhone, the discussion of consumer privacy and consumer rights was once more thrown into the forefront of mass media coverage. In class, it seems like all of my peers side with Apple in their decision not to comply and to protect the privacy of its users but, I am skeptical by nature.

While I am entirely for privacy and firmly believe that the mentality of “if you’ve got nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t worry about privacy” is a gross violation of basic human rights – I am, again, skeptical. The FBI shouldn’t need any assistance from Apple to get into the single most popular smart phone in America; with all of the resources of the American government behind them, the FBI should not, at all, need help with the phone. Ergo, I don’t understand why they felt the need to go public with it and incite a media storm with Apple.

However, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt – let’s assume the FBI sincerely needs Apple’s help (or Apple’s legal permission) to break the encryption on the phone. If this is actually the case, I too applaud the stance that Apple has taken. We cannot build a backdoor into every iPhone in America for the convenience of vigilante justice on the everyday consumer – it’s borderline NSA-caliber invasion of privacy and simply unnecessary at best.

Ultimately, the entire situation is muddy and it’s difficult to trust the word of either side to be truthful as they both seem to be treating this more as a PR stunt than anything else. Who knows?

Describe your experience trying to uncover information about your classmate and the followup discussion in class.

In this assignment, we were tasked with ‘snooping’ on our classmates as an exercise in online privacy/online reputation. Previously, I’d expected that the only data we could find online about someone was what they chose to make publicly available – their social media, their blogs, etc.

After completing this exercise, I was intimidated by how easily data could be found on people. The digital age has come with incredible access to communication and knowledge; to our fellow man and his expertise but… as a drawback, nearly everything you could ever hope to learn about someone is online somewhere nowadays. That’s terrifying to me! With some clever search engine legwork and a few publicly-available online tools/sites, you can uncover people’s addresses, families, occupations, residence history, crimincal records, etc. etc. etc. – SO MUCH INFORMATION.

Ultimately, the exercise taught me that protecting my online information is both necessity and futile. Some information will forever be publicly available and the information that you choose to put online is incredible important to protect or filter.

Scary stuff. Sca-ry stuff.

Share thoughts about the presentation and discussion of the Hive Tracks case study.

In discussing HiveTracks with it’s co-owner and co-founder, Dr. James Wilkes, I came to two major conclusions.

Firstly, Ethics is a significantly more broad term than previously anticipated in the context of Computer Science. Throughout the course of the discussion, we were faced with situations that I’d previously never though would be blanketed under the term ‘Ethics.’

For example, disputes about code ownership – when you write code, do you own it? Does the company own it since you wrote it for them? It’s a tricky question and the answer is not always as obvious as you’d expect, depending on the situation.

Secondly, Computer Science is applicable everywhere. Even something like Beekeeping, which is a practice I’d thought was rooted mostly in variable beyond our control (weather, will of the bees, etc.) has had success/survival rates blossom with the careful helping hand of clever code.

That being said, there are hundreds or even thousands of industries and hobbies where code has yet to be added to the ‘tools of the trade.’ I, as an up-and-coming developer, am extremely excited about the prospect of what lies ahead as a result.

tLast week, the class was treated to a viewing of “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch and tasked with reflecting on the contents of said lecture.

First things first, WOW!
When the lecture first began playing, I was put off by how outdated it looked. I presumed it was going to be a lecture pertaining to Computer Science (this is CS 4100 after all) and seeing how old the video was worried me – usually old lectures are about old technologies which are harder to relate to/get engaged in.

Boy, was I wrong. Pausch did an incredible job at delivering timeless advice in a charming, simple way. His anecedotes about chasing your dreams and particularly about the difficulties therein were very powerful messages. I resonated strongly with his belief that;

Brick walls are only there for you to prove how badly you want it.

aka, obstacles exist only as a means of proving you’re motivated to accomplish your goal no matter what. Obstacles exist to separate those who aren’t willing to truly strive for a goal from those who will stop at nothing to be successful.

That can-do, unstoppable attitude really made me reconsider some of my experience with obstacles and solidified the ideaology that I can do anything if I set my mind to it and work my butt off to succeed.

That being said, the lecture was inspiring, heartfelt, and deceptively simple – I would recommend checking it out on youtube whenever you find yourself in a particularly dificult time in your life and are in need of some positive encouragement.

Following a presentation given by Erika Cary from the Appalachian State Career Center, we were tasked with reflecting on what we took away from the presentation.

Personally,  I found most of the presentation to be more of a common-sense lecture on seeking employment; a lot of common tips that everyone tells you when you start seeking employment. Dress nicely, build a goodsume, practice for interviews, prepare, prepare, prepare, etc.

So, while much of the presentation was redundant to me, Ms. Cary presented with enough tact and ethusiasm that I was still engaged throughout the course of the presentation. Lastly, I was previously unaware that listing relevant coursework was a valuable resume move – I thought that having the degree came with the implication that you’re capable and that’s that. However, according to Cary, students applying for specialist or ‘niche’ positions have higher success rates when included relevant coursework on their resume, explicitly. Interesting point!