Raised by Video Games (Small Post #7)

Growing up I was addicted to Runescape. I played countless hours and my character reached levels impressive to my online virtual society. Many people probably view time spent on such addictions as a terrible waste of time, but through playing I learned valuable skills. This achievement can be credited to my parents who strictly limited my time playing the game. This forced me to manage my time. I would constantly seek the most efficient way to make money or gain experience points to remain competitive. I also learned several lessons of economics and thoroughly understood how they worked. Thanks to Runscape I became defensive against scams at a young age which I now see used in the real world. Without parental supervision Runescape may have been detrimental, but with time restraints it enhanced my life.

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Genius Killed by Knowledge (Book-Inspired Post #2)

I thought I had a stroke of genius. At work we were asked to create a translation application for smartphones that could assist the volunteers at the Olympics. The idea was to provide grammatically correct translations that a computer, such as Google Translate, could not provide. At first we prepared 7000 common phrases and had volunteers translate each phrase to their native languages. Instantly I saw the limitation, but at first was not sure how to overcome them. The first solution I had was to show both Google’s translation and the translation by the native speaker if there was one. This would work well because it would display the correct translation for each phrase the volunteers had done and show a sometimes correct Google translation for the others. Then I had my supposed stroke of genius, allow the users to help generate the applications content.

The application could allow the users to confirm that Google’s translation was correct, correct Google’s translation, correct other user’s translations, and rate other user’s translations. This would allow the application give the user many more correct translations, providing the users supplied their input. This seemed genius to me until I read Here Comes Everybody and realized that users must have some motive to contribute. The plan for the application is to release it free to the public with a time bomb to disable the application at the close of the Olympics, and after that charge for subscriptions to the application. Before I could imagine users willingly contributing their knowledge to help the whole community of users, but now I imagine a hesitance in the users to contribute knowing that an organization will profit from their volunteered work.

           

Confidence (Small Post #6)

I programmed simple computer games as a kid, I learned to program my graphing calculator in high school, and now I am about to finish my junior year studying computer science at BYU, but I still have fears I will be unable to finish programming assignments. Computer Science assignments are usually all or nothing. Either the student finishes the project and receives an A or doesn’t and fails. To make things worse, one bug not foreseen can cause several unplanned hours of debugging. Several hours of debugging can take place without any progress, and the programmer must have the confidence in themself to keep working by believing they will find the bug. For every assignment I have to allocate sufficient time in my schedule such that I will have full confidence I will finish my assigned project, but when I am short on time I have to rely on the confidence I have built up by solving hundreds of previous problems. It is not surprising that a lack of confidence to succeed is a reason people choose not to major in Computer Science.

The Church and Technology (Small Post #5)

The only way for an organization to survive is to continue to adapt to the world around it. The Church is no different. Although the core doctrine of the Church will never change, the way the doctrine is taught and shared must adjust as the world changes. The organization of the Church can benefit from advances in technology by using new innovations to decrease time spent on mundane tasks. The Church must also use technology because the adversary uses it for his purposes, and the Church must be on the same front to stop him. If the Church does not use technology it would struggle to carry on its great work.

Great Artists Steal (Small Post #4)

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal." Although creating software is not technically art, it takes a creative mind to make innovative programs.  Most ideas programmers use are not new. They blend ordinary ideas to create unique software. The product itself is the masterpiece, not its common parts separately. It is ridiculous that companies own patents to the building blocks of software. It is like an art company that owns the patent to a color and requires other artists to pay royalties to use it. The novelty is not the discovery of the color, but rather the complete painting. Programmers should be able to freely steal the parts that compose programs, and have their masterpieces, not the parts, protected from being borrowed without permission.

Release Early and Often (Small Post #3)

By the time I had heard about the BYU Mobile App Competition I had missed the registration deadline by a day, but I was still permitted to compete. The registration deadline was also the first day applications could be published. A principle from Eric Steven Raymond’s article enabled me to be successful despite the time constraint. “Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.” This was essential to my success. Two weeks after the start date I released a very basic beta version of my application (Cat Bird and Worms). Every change I made was published as an update and the feedback of the users directed my programming. Although the final product of the application was still basic it had became an addicting game with a large user base. Releasing early and often, while listening to user feedback, allowed my simple application to become a winning one.