Three Things I Learned and Advice

Three most important things I learned this semester:
1) It is possible to improv on a presentation, you feel much better about yourself if you actually take the time to prepare.
2) A good resume is the key to getting an interview. Put the things that look the best for you in plain view.
3) When writing a paper, chose a topic that you're interested in, make a clear outline, and do not go overboard on writing.

One piece of advice for students next semester:
This class is not hard to pass if you actually take the time to try, it is best to do the assignments when they are due or you will forget and have twelve-ish blog posts to write the last day. I watched it happen, it is not pretty.

Final Class

This week marks the final week of classes and I could not be happier. That means my floor has 5 more opportunities to turn the lights off on my while I shower, which I was lucky enough to experience yet again not ten minutes ago.

But, on to the main topic. The final class period means the evaluation of class. It was both a blessing and a curse that Dr. Wilkes played off that he cared very little about the class. It meant that I could present without being nervous out of my skin. But it also meant that guidelines for things were often not well defined.

The assignments were not overall difficult, but they did allow for lots of presentation practice and even some chances to learn things about ourselves. The final paper was by far the most difficult assignment, as I am having trouble not making it fifteen pages. Mine is currently five pages and I have not covered even half of the topics I was hoping to cover, so it looks as if I will be cutting some things.

I was disappointed in the lack of farm stories. They are not related to class in the last but they were one of my favorite things about discrete math. I am from Creston, so seeing pictures and hearing stories of the things I grew up with brings back memories. Though, that is just a personal preference and probably would have cut into class time.

This class prompted me to get my first professional interview, which was both nerve-wracking and exciting in one. I am  highly disappointed that in my job search I realized that to get a good Computer Science job it looks as though I will have to move away. After moving at least fourteen times in my life I thought my most recent move was going to be the last, but on the up side.. if I get a bigger house, I can have more cats!


As a treat, here are my pets, who are all named after Pokemon.

Meowth, he has multiplied in size though.

My gender-confused kitty, Skitty.

Shuckle, the Red-Eared Slider.

Interview

Unfortunately, I missed class today to attend an interview at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport, Tn. It is not unfortunate that I had an interview, but it is unfortunate that I missed Casey Park's talk. 

But, while I was in Kingsport, I discovered something amazing that I did not know existed.. Eastman. I arrived right as it was getting dark on Sunday, to check into the Marriott and go have dinner with the other applicant and a host. My hotel room overlooked a golf course, which was not impressive in itself. But, as we carpooled to dinner, Eastman illuminated the near sky. It was truly a beautiful sight.

Bright and early the next morning, it was time for the interview. We started with breakfast, where my host was late. Then we rode over to the plant and as the other applicant interviewed my host showed me videos on the Eastman Innovation Lab portion of their site to showcase what Eastman really does. My favorite video was of the Eastman Titan plastic, a baseball team was shown hitting and breaking other types of drinking cups in one hit, when they hit the Eastman Titan cup the cup just bounced around and continued to bounce hit after hit.

One of the videos that stuck out to me was a partnership Eastman had with ASU where they gave ASU industrial design majors a chance to use Perennial Wood in ways other than just for decks and siding.

After the videos, it was my turn to interview. The interview consisted of a panel of four workers, who took turns asking me questions that were based on my resume. They were looking for things that displayed teamwork, motivation, and a drive to learn new things. At the end of the interview, they commented that I displayed all of the qualities of an IT employee that they were looking for. They also commented that my interview went well.

Before I arrived at Eastman, I was sure that I did not want the job. But, after seeing Eastman and learning what they do I changed my mind. 

Final Presentations

Today we watched half the class give final presentations. The one I found the most interesting was Ethics of Violent Video games. I am not as avid a gamer as most college students my age, but I do play my fair share of games. In fact, I was recently at the midnight release of Batman: Arkham Origins.. I have not had time to beat it yet.

I have been aware of video games negatively affecting children because they are easily influenced because they have not learned their own value system yet. It never occurred to me that they could affect adults that way. When I play a violent video game, like Call of Duty, I do not get the urge to go out and shoot people. I choose to play violent video games because they let me be in a place where I would never normally be, I try to avoid fights.. in video games, the fights are the major part.

I recently discovered Saints Row (pictured above). Which is a more laid-back, and less expensive, version of Grand Theft Auto. For me, the fun of the game is to go around and beat people with a giant purple dildo. Why? because it is funny. Would I ever do that in real life? Most definitely not.

In my opinion, given the opportunity to play an ethical game that forces you to think about your decisions would be less popular for those playing violent video games. Sims is a decision based game where you make your sims a life (and in my case, find creative ways to burn down their houses), ethical decisions could be built into a game like this. But you are missing out on what most violent games give, lots of action. Though I do believe ethical games would be successful for the market of gamers who play the reality games like the sims.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is defined as measures taken to protect a computer or computer system against unauthorized access or attack. It is also what I have spent this semester learning about. 


There are a lot of threats in the realm of cyberspace; ranging from small personal annoyances like spam emails to national-scale security threats. Though all protection starts at the same place, awareness. 

I have done several exercises in my Computer Security class that proves just how easy it is to pull off a cyber crime. I have made a spoofing website and learned how to send an anonymous email to get traffic to that website. I have also learned how to monitor traffic to and from a computer, as well as how to use a password cracker.

If you go and google "how to hack a computer", thousands of results and videos come up. People can also buy software that other people have written to hack into a computer. The realm of possibilities is nearly endless and very easy to access.

With all of these things readily at anyone's fingertips, the world needs to be more aware of what information they have available and how to better protect themselves from attackers.

Ethics

Kantianism is an ethical theory that focuses on the act and not the consequences when deciding if the act is ethical. The only inherently good thing in the world is good will.

Act Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that focuses on the consequences. Act Utilitarianism specifies that morality of an action has nothing to do with intent. To decide of an act is ethical, you add up change in happiness of all affected beings.

Rule Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that advocates the adoption of moral rules that, if followed by everyone, will lead to the greatest increase in total happiness.

Social Contract Theory is an ethical theory that states that in a society there is a social contract which is generally accepted. In Social Contract Theory the government is capable of enforcing said rules.

Even though these theories are clearly defined, our own personal interpretation on if a certain circumstance should be considered ethical by these theories was not the same in class. This could be due to a difference in our interpretation of the actual action, or our interpretation of the theories.

Kantianism seems to be the most lenient in saying an action is ethical because kantianism factors in the intent of the person who took the action. Social contract theory is most what our current society goes by for ethics. We have a set of generally accepted rules that people are supposed to follow, if they do not follow those rules they are punished.

People Search

Today we had to make a presentation about the research we conducted on another student. The student I had to research was not 'invisible' per-say, but I had to make a lot of assumptions. For my research I started where everyone else did, the appstate directory. Where I found his middle name, and email. From there I went to facebook, where I found his facebook.. but most information was private.

After a few google searches I found a man with the same last name, which had listed an address, phone number and people living in the household. On a hunch, I went back to facebook and went to my partners friends list. There were people with all of the names of the man I found by google search.

I remembered seeing my partner's profile picture, which had a dog that he identified as his sister's dog. After searching pictures of the people in that household I found the dog. I discerned that that girl was his sister, she had a picture of a man saying happy father's day. From there I had found his sister and father. I went to his father's facebook page and found his mother from that. From his mother's facebook page I found his other sister.

I also learned that I had a lot more on facebook than I had originally thought, most of it is now hidden of course. My life events and certain pictures were shown as public, even though most the rest of my profile was private. I went back and changed all of that to only show what I do not mind people seeing. Though I was not too upset about anything he found, other than my phone number which was not on facebook.

To my surprise, he was not able to find any of my family besides my fiance (which is openly listed on facebook) and the first name of my niece. So, if I had edited my facebook page better.. I would have been as well hidden as he was.

Most of all, I learned that I have some pretty impressive facebook stalking skills. Which is probably not a good thing.