Dear Internet, You Lost My Credit Card Number But Somehow I Still Trust You. Is This A Healthy Relationship?

The Internet, as powerful of a tool as it is, has brought many negative effects in its wake. Yet despite all of the troubles that the Internet has given us, the Internet continues provides an unparalleled service to mankind, containing a ridiculously vast repository of information and globally connecting individuals in unprecedented ways. These types of effects are typical of useful tools: fire and knives are dangerous in the wrong hands, but mankind still keeps them around for their great utility. So it is with the Internet, but on a global scale; while a single knife can only cut one slab of meat or kill one person at a time, a single computer can provide amazing services to the entire world and simultaneously compromise the personal information of hundreds/thousands of people (as in the recent incident with Target's data breach). Nonetheless, the Internet is here to stay, so it is up to us as individuals to determine how to develop healthy and safe relationships with it.

Passport of Chance

It seems that, regardless of the number of analyses and simulations run, the ultimate deciding factor is chance, being in the right place at the right time. The release of the Passport, Blackberry's newest smartphone, has introduced a newer way to endorse the smartphone trend of "bigger is better"; while other smartphones have been slowly growing taller, the new Blackberry phone decided to widen horizontally. However, Blackberry has been lagging behind Apple and Samsung; while Blackberry once ruled the smartphone market, it now barely finds a stable niche. As an unlearned economist (referring to myself), this new design appears rather desperate as a main selling feature, but the global market is too large to predict; thus, while the fate of Blackberry may be glum, the new Passport may yet be Blackberry's passport back into the market.

The Blackberry Passport:
http://www.cnet.com/news/blackberry-hopes-love-it-or-hate-it-passport-earns-it-a-second-chance/

The Entrepreneur-Nerd Symbiosis Relationship

In the realm of technological advancement, there needs to be both people with fresh, innovative ideas - the nerds - and people who know how to sell those ideas - the entrepreneurs - in order to take advantage of consumer demand for better technology. The recent change in leadership for Microsoft from Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella also marked a shift in the consumer technology market; as the new CEO, Nadella seeks to move Microsoft in a new direction, one that caters to the shift towards a "mobile-first, cloud-first world". Larry Ellison, the ex-CEO of Oracle, has also retired. It appears that the successful entrepreneurs of the late PC era have taken a step back, giving rise to new leaders who see a new vision for where technology can advance (and where money can be made). The nerds of today have been innovating and inventing new technologies, inviting and enticing the entrepreneurs in the industry to take a chance at becoming the technology industry's next corporate giants.

Larry Ellison retires:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/19/technology/enterprise/larry-ellison/index.html?iid=SF_T_Lead

Nadella taking over Microsoft:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/17/technology/enterprise/microsoft-nadella/index.html?iid=SF_T_River

Technological Advancement - A Faustian Bargain?

There is a legend of a scholar named Faust who makes a pact with the Devil; in this pact, Faust exchanges his soul for great knowledge and power. How does this relate to computer ethics? Well, new technologies arise as society accepts the offered technological benefits in exchange for whatever consequences may result from its use. The moral dilemma is whether or not the good is worth the bad; for example, is the convenience offered by automobiles worth the resulting pollution and are the benefits of computers worth the increase of unsociable nerds? Such ethics are determined on an individual basis, but it is important to remember that technology is only a tool, and when applied to the Faustian legend, technology is not the Devil but the Devil's offer. Rather, the people in society are both the Devil and Faust, the giver of technology and the victim of its use. So, as members of society, we are blessed to benefit from technological innovations, but we have to be careful not to trade our morality for temporary comforts and figuratively drag ourselves down to hell.