South Fork Canyon

I went up South Fork Canyon today I wanted to see how far the road went and where it would end. It was really dusty out to the point where you can't see the mountains. It gets that way usually once a year when the snow starts melting and the wind kicks up all that dust into the air. It was a nice little bike ride, I was hoping that the road would go farther maybe even to Spanish Fork Canyon, but it ends at the Trefoil Girl Scout Camp. There were three Provo City Parks and a few dirt trails, a few ranches and some houses along the way. The road had quite a few little hills and it was very windy there.

Internet Safety

In my Ethics and Computers in Society Class we discussed the dangers of pornography and how it can be easily accessed over the internet. A few of the students in their position statements suggested that an easy way to filter out pornographic sites would be to give them their own top level domain, like .xxx or .sex. This would make filtering websites somewhat easier, but not by much. Filtering will still need to be done at the IP level and not just by the domain name. Even if we could convince all of the current websites to move their domain names over to a new tld there's no system currently in place that could classify all sites on the internet. cp80.net has proposed a solution that has some merit. They suggest that pornographic sites should stay off of port 80 and use other designated ports. It would be easy to have your ISP block those ports or with slight modifications to the frontend of your browser you could tell it which ports you want to have access to. Another possible solution I can think of is when IPv6 comes out in a few years to have a class of IP addresses designated for adult content. It would be a lot easier to implement something like that before the changeover takes place rather than trying to change something that is already set. Currently the best solution is to have a proxy filter between you and your internet connection to block out content that you don't want.

Unfortunately there is usually going to be a way to get around most filtering schemes. In the future it will be even more difficult to filter the internet, because there will be more and more ways to connect, through cell phones, notebooks, pda's, etc. You can have a filtered connection, but a nearby neighbor or the city you live in may have open unfiltered wifi. The real solution is to teach your children what is acceptable and what isn't and then stay involved in what's going on in their lives. Teach them about internet safety and how to stay safe in chat rooms and social networking sites. The Internet Safety Podcast has some valuable resources and is worth taking a look at. Most children will probably learn about pornography from their friends, whose parents don't care what they view on the internet. What it comes down to is that maintaining open communication with your child is the best way to prevent them from being negatively influenced by media.

Dating

When I first got to BYU I thought that it would be easy to date a lot and get to know quite a few people. I soon learned that dating a lot within your ward was not common practice. There are quite a few girls from past wards that I would have liked to have asked out. I would have if I had found the opportunity to. Since I'm not very social in large groups and a lot of people here aren't willing to take the chance to really get to know you, those opportunities don't come up very often. I know everyone is different and most girls feel like they have to say yes on the first date. I'd rather have them say no if they really didn't want to. The real reason it's the guys responsibility to ask first is because we don't have feelings. I can take rejection and move on without being devastated. Well we do have some feelings, but to a much lesser degree since they originate in a different part of the brain that doesn't interfere with rational thought. I know I'm going to get in trouble for saying that, but it's what I learned when Carla Heesch spoke in my Ethics and Computers in Society class. I learned a lot of other more important things from her about equality in the workplace and what the most important priorities in a career should be which deserves to be mentioned, but that main difference that she pointed out between the two genders stuck with me for some reason. I realize that men and women do have different needs and different ways of seeing things. Understanding more about those differences I'm sure would help me have better dating and everyday relationships.

I like going out to events or getting something to eat occasionally on weekends and it's always good to have female company. A few dates shouldn't be the big deal that a lot of people make it out to be. I've always thought it was best to date a lot of people without getting attached until you find someone you enjoy spending time with. I don't know why dating has to be so difficult a lot of the time. It seems like it's just going to be that way no matter what I do.

Summer

Yesterday was nice out and I went up Provo canyon on a bike ride to a ward barbecue. All the snow had finally melted off of the trail. There's still snow on Squaw Peak Road, on Sunday I made it almost all the way to the top. After walking across a few snow patches I decided to go back. I can't really explain what motivates me to keep going on long rides up mountain roads just to ride right back down again. It must have to do with the adrenaline rush and the high I get when I'm all out of energy but I keep going anyways. Maybe someday I'll get out of this phase, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Cycling is the best way to travel especially out in the middle of nowhere because you can really feel the terrain and soak in the surroundings. Recently I've been studying my map and planning out some routes. As soon as more snow to melts I'll go up to Cascade Springs and Deer Creek and then over to Box Elder Peak.

Digital Copyrights

Given current advances in the internet and communication technology, paying for content is such a thing of the past. I bought a ruby on rails book a while ago and that was a mistake. By the time the book arrived through the mail it was already outdated with the release of Rails 2.0 and none of the examples would work. Sure I could install the older version just so the examples would work but it doesn't do me any good to learn the old version not after all the new advances that have been made in that language. I'd do better with online tutorials. People don't really want to wait until the next morning anymore for their newspaper to arrive they want their news now when it happens. I think there will still be a place for creative works, but authors and distributors are going to have to change their business models. Video clips can be viewed online and there are plenty of radio stations streaming music that I like. I record my movies from cable and have my computer cut out the commercials for me. With all these ways of getting free content legally I don't need to resort to the file sharing of copyrighted works. I can watch what I want and then if there's something that I really like I can buy it in order to have a high quality copy.

Tangled in the Web

Tangled in the Web has a good example of how easy it is to allow the internet to take time away from other, more important priorities.
The internet has many valuable resources and information, however it can also facilitate the wasting of a lot of time. It's easy to let online games and chat rooms take up hours of time that should be used for more important things. For example facebook can be a great resource to keep in contact with friends and allow you to see what new crazy pictures they've taken and what's going on in their lives. It's still not as good as having a conversation in person. I think that having balance in your life requires setting limits on how much time will be spend online.