Over the last ten years there have been a couple of preferences that have driven many of my technology decisions. One is a preference for using plain text rather than proprietary software. The other is a preference for flat files over databases.
My move toward plain text came about for several reasons.
First, I just wanted to take notes that I could quickly create and reference as needed.
I swear some people can’t keep track of reality.
While browsing Amazon for something to read in the vein of philosophy I ran across a book entitled The da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth is Stranger than Fiction by Robert M. Price. The book purports to debunk the “many misleading claims found in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code” according to one reviewer. That statement and several others made by various reviewers suggest that somehow Brown was intending to provide accurate historical information regarding the Christian Church. Funny, having read The Da Vinci Code I don’t recall Brown ever claiming that the book was historically accurate. For someone to take the time to write a book to refute claims that were never made seems, well, stupid. Apparently, Mr. Price (or I should say Doctor Price, given his PhD) has difficulty comprehending that fiction is by definition not fact. Fiction writers often base their works on some variation of an idea or concept and follow the “what if” process. That is, “what if” there really is an Opus Dei 1 with sinister underpinnings? “What if” Jesus and Mary Magdalene really did have a child together? and so on. Fiction writers take some fact and embroider it with the lace needed to paint an enticing picture that tells an entertaining story. Few set out to present history (or any other topic) factually.
I became interested in drones in the spring of 2021. My wife was preparing to retire from her teaching gig and considering a new career in real estate. After 15 years in our relatively small town in the mountains of North Georgia, we were planning a move to a little larger town with fewer challenging hills and more conveniences. We were building a new home in our soon-to-be new town. This was, I thought, a great time to explore my interest in drones. After all, I could document the progress of our new home and, if she did go into real estate, I would be positioned to do some of her photography. Win!
I was watching a news report this morning about students using ChatGPT that asked whether this was considered cheating. That got me to thinking about how we encourage cheating in education..
Think about it: The purpose for education is to provide the student with the foundational knowledge they need to be successful in work and life. We all want to be successful, so cheating to get there doesn’t seem to me to be a very profitable endeavor. After all, at the end of the day you still have to know how to do things in order to be successful. I used to remind my nursing students of this all the time: If you want to be a good nurse you’re going to need to actually know what you’re doing. Cheating might get you through the class, it might even allow you to pass the licensing exam but the real test is whether you can function in the real world. It’s a hell of a lot less stressful to actually know what you’re doing when in an emergency than to try to wing it because you lack the knowledge to actually perform correctly.
I recently read an article on Wired about Faruk Ozer, The CEO of Turkey’s biggest Cryptocurrency business. That article outlines how tens of thousands of Turkish people were victims of Ozer’s theft of their crypto wallets and all of their assets. The thing that stood out to me is how easy it was for him to simply download their accounts onto a thumb drive and be off with their money. In the wake of the crypto crimes of Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX) and Changpeng Zhao (Binance) I fail to understand why anyone would trust their financial assets and future to something so easily stolen. Unlike banks, there is no FDIC insurance. Unlike stocks and bonds there is no physical document to show ownership. (Yes, I realize that most transactions exist in the ’ether’ but using a reputable trading house provides a level of safety that they are unlikely to steal your money.