Knowledge I gained from the reading:
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Reading this article left me with disappointment and confusion. Everything happened in this case seemed to me as unethical and unlawful. The knowledge I gained by reading this article is that life is not always fair. Even though J committed or a despicable crime being a family man and created ethical issues by his questionable conduct, he did not commit a crime that he got punishment for. Most important knowledge I gained from this case is that, you are not always judged by your intention but mostly by your conduct.
Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
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It seemed to me that J was caught between the law and unethical conduct. J got the punishment he deserved, for doing something no family man should do even though the way he was arrested by the police did not seem to be fair to him when we hear J’s side of the story. Personal insight in this story for me is, we should keep ourselves away from forbidden temptations and play by the rule and ethics.
Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
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I could understand how strongly Michele Deery felt about arresting and putting online predators out of the streets and behind the bars. However, I felt that she did not play totally by the rules and her conduct of luring J into something he claimed he did not intend to do seemed to me as of a kind of abuse. The question this story left me with is that, why Deery did not stop communicating with J when over and over she saw that his interests were not along the line with what she was looking for in a predator. Another question I have is that why she was not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt by meeting with him first? She could have worn a wire and recorded their conversation and get his intention in record after meeting him for real.
Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
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Reading this story, I have learned that, one should never do anything unethical or something that is not widely accepted by the society. Law does not go by what we say our intention is but law requires evidence. So, one should always abide by the laws of a society.
Reference:
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Mark Bowden. (2009, December). A Crime of Shadows. Vanity Fair.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Reading - Custom Is King
Knowledge I gained from the reading:
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By reading Custom is King I learned that it is hard if not nearly impossible for some, to go against what they believe in and what they have been taught by the culture they are used to. Some would say, it is written in our gene. The bottom line is people don’t change. Even if they do, it does not happen very frequently.
Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
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It is not always easy to bring sudden change to any unit of our society. Change takes time and the process is slow. This is true for business as well as in our personal life. To make a positive change to put a positive impact in society one would have to work very hard against trends. The reason being, people easily get comfortable with what custom they currently have in place and usually are hesitant to take risks. People who do take risks however, often succeed in life. In the case of this article, if Greeks or Indians were to take a risk and do what they were asked by breaking their customs then they would have gotten paid. This last statement is just to make a point however eating another human being is morally wrong and unethical.
Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
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This story leaves me with a thought or question, how much effort one would have to take to change the culture or custom of any unit of the society. What about a corporation that is used to run business in certain way even though there might be a better solution out there? What prompts changes and at what point are we willing to try it out and take a risk?
Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
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I have learned that, to bring changes in one’s personal or practical life it would take hard work and dedication and lot of research to find pros and cons. I have also learned that changes don’t come easily but it is a slow process.
Reference:
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Article from class handout reading.
-----------------------------------------------
By reading Custom is King I learned that it is hard if not nearly impossible for some, to go against what they believe in and what they have been taught by the culture they are used to. Some would say, it is written in our gene. The bottom line is people don’t change. Even if they do, it does not happen very frequently.
Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
It is not always easy to bring sudden change to any unit of our society. Change takes time and the process is slow. This is true for business as well as in our personal life. To make a positive change to put a positive impact in society one would have to work very hard against trends. The reason being, people easily get comfortable with what custom they currently have in place and usually are hesitant to take risks. People who do take risks however, often succeed in life. In the case of this article, if Greeks or Indians were to take a risk and do what they were asked by breaking their customs then they would have gotten paid. This last statement is just to make a point however eating another human being is morally wrong and unethical.
Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
------------------------------------------------------------------
This story leaves me with a thought or question, how much effort one would have to take to change the culture or custom of any unit of the society. What about a corporation that is used to run business in certain way even though there might be a better solution out there? What prompts changes and at what point are we willing to try it out and take a risk?
Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have learned that, to bring changes in one’s personal or practical life it would take hard work and dedication and lot of research to find pros and cons. I have also learned that changes don’t come easily but it is a slow process.
Reference:
---------------
Article from class handout reading.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Reading - Killer@Craigslist
Knowledge I gained from the reading:
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By reading the Killer@Craigslist article it is clear that Internet was created to gather, share and search for knowledge that is available all around us. As time went on Internet became a large virtual market place where everything and every service is sold and there are buyers for everything. I have also learned that Internet could be a very unsafe place if one is not careful enough. Every activity on the Internet leaves digital foot prints behind which can be used to track people and their Internet activities by the Internet service providers and the government authorities. Not only that, there could be a number of crimes one can be a victim of starting from murder to identity theft to many more countless crimes if one is not careful.
Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
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Although the Internet did not introduce murder as a crime for the first time, in this case it definitely aided in expediting the communication process that lead to the crime. So, cybertechnology and inter could be unsafe and we have to be careful about what we do and who we communicate with on the Internet. However this same technology was used to track down the killer in this case. It is not the technology but the user of the technology is responsible for the way he or she uses the technology in their lives. Some might say that it is unethical to track people’s activities on the Internet. But from this story it is clear that without Internet activity tracking there were not too many other evidences which could have been used to capture and arrest a killer. For our own safety we have to accept the fact that not only mine but everybody’s Internet activities are monitored and this can in turn save our lives.
Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
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Reading this story, it appears that the killer was growing up in an environment where he did not see much affection between his parents. His parents were divorced multiple times. As a kid he did not have many friends and was not the most popular person in the school. However there are a lot of people like this in the society but not everybody turns out to be a killer. This story leaves me with a question in mind as to what turned Markoff into a killer who was such a brilliant student with a bright future.
Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
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Personally, after reading this story, I will be more careful about protecting my privacy, who I communicate with and what kind of personal information I share on the Internet. My general Internet activities will be much carefully planned and executed. And not only Internet, but I will use better judgment all together in life.
Reference:
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Maureen Orth. (2009, October 1). Killer@Craigslist. Vanity Fair.
-----------------------------------------------
By reading the Killer@Craigslist article it is clear that Internet was created to gather, share and search for knowledge that is available all around us. As time went on Internet became a large virtual market place where everything and every service is sold and there are buyers for everything. I have also learned that Internet could be a very unsafe place if one is not careful enough. Every activity on the Internet leaves digital foot prints behind which can be used to track people and their Internet activities by the Internet service providers and the government authorities. Not only that, there could be a number of crimes one can be a victim of starting from murder to identity theft to many more countless crimes if one is not careful.
Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Although the Internet did not introduce murder as a crime for the first time, in this case it definitely aided in expediting the communication process that lead to the crime. So, cybertechnology and inter could be unsafe and we have to be careful about what we do and who we communicate with on the Internet. However this same technology was used to track down the killer in this case. It is not the technology but the user of the technology is responsible for the way he or she uses the technology in their lives. Some might say that it is unethical to track people’s activities on the Internet. But from this story it is clear that without Internet activity tracking there were not too many other evidences which could have been used to capture and arrest a killer. For our own safety we have to accept the fact that not only mine but everybody’s Internet activities are monitored and this can in turn save our lives.
Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading this story, it appears that the killer was growing up in an environment where he did not see much affection between his parents. His parents were divorced multiple times. As a kid he did not have many friends and was not the most popular person in the school. However there are a lot of people like this in the society but not everybody turns out to be a killer. This story leaves me with a question in mind as to what turned Markoff into a killer who was such a brilliant student with a bright future.
Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, after reading this story, I will be more careful about protecting my privacy, who I communicate with and what kind of personal information I share on the Internet. My general Internet activities will be much carefully planned and executed. And not only Internet, but I will use better judgment all together in life.
Reference:
---------------
Maureen Orth. (2009, October 1). Killer@Craigslist. Vanity Fair.
What some other students thought about Madoff
About Madoff's case, forgot to mention one thing. Some of the other student that wrote in the discussion board didn't think that clients had much responsibility out of ignorance. However, I feel that all parties had more or less responsibilities. Customers acted the way they did out of greed. Also they should have notified SEC of any wrong doing by Madoff and his firm which they didn’t.
Cyberethics and Cybertechnology
Read chapter 1 and completed homework question. Now I know what is cyberethics and cybertechnology. I have learned some other ethical terms as well. Well cyberethics is not a widely used term. It means computer related ethics.
Bernard Madoff Case
I watched a video on Bernard Madoff and the case against him and his firm. I have heard about Madoff but didn't know much of the story in detail. The video was very interesting and I learned a lot from it. I feel that all parties involved, Madoff, his firm, his employees, clients and even SEC contributed to this situation. Madoff was a dishonest businessman. His employees and entire firm were conducting business in such way that they only cared about their part of the cut. They had acted the way they did out of greed. Clients knew that the way Madoff was doing business was not the right way and they even knew why he was running business that way. However they didn’t feel obligated to report this to authorities just because they were under the impression that they were making their money. Even SEC should be accounted responsible as they didn’t investigate Madoff on time and even when they initially did they did a poor job. It also felt to me that SEC agents were not comfortable going after a reputed and respected person in Wall Street such as Madoff.
Learning Style Quiz
I have taken the learning style quiz and it seems like I am fairly well balanced on the two dimensions of each provided scale. My scores were 3, 3, 3 and 1. I am not good with memorizing anything. I like logic better than theory. I hope my writing skills improve. I like being in the class. Online class is not my thing.
My Code of Conduct
I work in IT and being a senior software developer, my primary responsibility is to product quality software product that meets customer requirements as closely as possible and delivers the product in an efficient and timely fashion. So, after giving it much thought, I figured that my own code of conduct should have something to do with what I do in my day to day work life. And I will implement the same ethics in my personal life as well.
So, here is my Code of Conduct that I will live by for rest of my career and personal life.
“LISTEN, UNDERSTAND, COMMUNICATE and then DELIVER”.
Professionally, I will make sure I listen to my customer and understand their needs. I will be taking lots of notes during requirement and other meetings. I will not do guess work and communicate as much as needed to clarify what I need clarification on. And when I fully understand the fact I will deliver the product developed per the customer’s need.
In personal life, I can use the same code of conduct or ethics. I will not jump into conclusion on any topic without fully understanding it. That way I will be a better communicator and will have inputs on any conversation or other areas of communications which will have a greater and positive impact.
So, here is my Code of Conduct that I will live by for rest of my career and personal life.
“LISTEN, UNDERSTAND, COMMUNICATE and then DELIVER”.
Professionally, I will make sure I listen to my customer and understand their needs. I will be taking lots of notes during requirement and other meetings. I will not do guess work and communicate as much as needed to clarify what I need clarification on. And when I fully understand the fact I will deliver the product developed per the customer’s need.
In personal life, I can use the same code of conduct or ethics. I will not jump into conclusion on any topic without fully understanding it. That way I will be a better communicator and will have inputs on any conversation or other areas of communications which will have a greater and positive impact.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Ethics, Low, Policy & Technology - 011210
This is my blog for Marymount University IT-550 class. In this class we will learn about ethics, law and policies in information technology world. There will be a lot of reading in this class. I am not much of a reader or writer. As far as writing goes, writing application programs is what I do best. However, I will try my best to enjoy and have fun in this course. Hopefully I will develop some writing skills from all the readings, assignments, blogging and working on final research paper.
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