For the final project of the semester, Kat Gonzales and I reflected on our respective Notre Dame experiences in this podcast.

Talk about teaching America’s youth to code has been going on for a while. While I don’t disagree with supporters of this movement, I am not going to start preaching about the power of coding myself. I agree with Jeff Atwood and Jason Bradbury who both believe that there are things beyond just knowing how to code… Continue reading Post XIII: Coding for all?

For Project 4, Kat Gonzales and I created a podcast discussing the Artificial Intelligence in the 1984 hit, The Terminator. The audio can be found here.

Oh, trolls. The internet really is one of the best and worst things we have. The wonderful thing about the internet is that we are able to connect with anyone with access to it; I don’t need to have met someone halfway across the world in order to have a meaningful conversation with him or… Continue reading Post XII: Why can’t we all just get along?

Automation is quickly becoming more and more prominent in our society, and not just in industries that utilize the top technologies. Walk into almost any supermarket and, at least, four of the cash registers are self-checkout. Granted, it’s not really like a robot is taking the groceries out of my shopping cart and bagging them… Continue reading Post XI: People vs. Robots

The podcast, “All Scandals Considered,” for Project 3 is posted on Kat Gonzales’ blog here. I worked for GE Transportation last summer (and will be returning there in the fall) and I quickly learned that emissions standards are what drive much of the locomotive industry. I know for a fact that there is no such… Continue reading Project 3 Response: All Scandals Considered

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) expands upon the Copyright Act of 1976 and addresses all of the potential copyright infringements that can occur in the digital age. According to Wikipedia, “it criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works.” It also protects certain online… Continue reading Post X: Pirating

When learning about patents in Design Methodology (a core class for Mechanical Engineers), the thought of patents stifling innovation never really came up. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office  (USPTO), a patent grants the “right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.” Patents protect inventions for… Continue reading Post IX: Patent Pending?

If I surveyed 1000 people about their opinions on online advertising, I am certain that people over, say, 35 would have much more negative views about it than those under 35. I’m sure a study like this has been done several times and my hypothesis is not exactly groundbreaking, but it does point to how… Continue reading Post VIII: Online Advertising

When news of the struggle between Apple and the FBI came to light a couple of weeks ago, I pretty quickly thought that Apple should just unlock the phone and be done with it. Since that first thought crossed my mind, my opinion has changed many times. I still have not definitively chosen a side in… Continue reading Post VII: Government Backdoors