SocialPond

Things about society.

Saturday, October 05, 2024

Low code, no code programming and the social observation

For many organizations, the organization is run by business graduates, maybe, except few tech. companies.

There is no right or wrong, concerning an organization's hiring practice. On the other hand, common practices do reflect its social impacts.

In general, as analysing the American Community Survey show, business degree, usually, paid well comparing to other degrees. This, in general, matches people's common sense. The only other study fields that is compatible in earning are the STEM fields. On the other hand, the study has shown that, unless STEM graduates become a manager, their earnings will endup lower than those of business graduates.

With higher earnings and ranks in organizations, many business graduates, except few, are likely to hold high estims of themselves and considered themselves are bright and can make great decision on, basically, everything. Many believe they can make no wrong and understand the world better and, even believe, business graduates are capable of learning and doing anything.

The low code, no code approaches to programming, in a way, flatering into the mind of business graduates.

The low code, no code approaches, in general, requires low entrance learning curves. In general, people with basic logic mind can create scripts to help with business processes. Examples of low code, no code products range from Microsoft Excel, Word, Access ...etc, the office production suite. All these products enhanced business graduates ego. With the basic logic mind, which most business graduates posses, they have managed to automate some business process and provided visible result. This helps them to show that they have achieved result with minimum efforts. Of cause, one thing, many of them have ignored is who have created those tools and, forgot to ask themselves, wouldn't those people can do what they have achieved in effortless moves.

The self-esteems of business mangeres can push the direction of the organization so high as to dictate programmer or, to bigger extend, the IT direction of an organization while lacking the knowledge of how programmers can were able to create those tools they custom to and used. In their mind, these tools are all IT or programmer need to create the great products for the worlds while forogten that they have never able to create those tools with their tools and scripting skills.

The new tooks that coming this way is the Power App. At the first look, it may have the look of the low learning curves, just like what Excel, Access possessed. Looking at salesman's demonstration, it can really catch business graduates' eyes. On the other hand, people kept forgot the old saying: no pain, no gain. There is always a cost of gain. When you adopt a tool, you are limited by the tool. From the beginning, Power App may looks powerful and capable. On the other hand, it takes away many features that needed to make great software, which business graduates have never experienced and know about. Asking programmer and IT to adopt the Power App, it basically strip the IT and programmers the access to those great features of traditional programming. With time, Power App will continue to adding those knowing programming features into the Power App. This, however, will alos adding complexities to the Power App and the low learning curve will there no more.

Here is a summary of the article. With some logic mind, many can write scripts. On ther other hand, not many people with logic mind can become Mathemtician - Mathematics is pure logic. So, give Mathemtician a round of applauses and let's be humble, listen to experts and don't force your ego on them - they have studied way more to become experts.

Monday, September 20, 2021

The democratic Earth

Many people have envisioned Democratic Earth, where the whole earth is under the morden democratic system. Unfortunately, with the reality, the possibility seems remote.

As I have constantly promoted, Education is very enssential to the successs of a Democratic system. The sole of the Education must be more than the hard science, the technoledge, etc. But the understanding the brace of the sole of the democratic value.

Many of today's education fails the essential ingradient of teaching our young the value and the practice of democratic systems. The fail of the democratic education results the notions of self-centered value. The values most people see are those surrounding them. People can careless things happened remote from their surrounding. Even though that are human natures, which is also an animal nature. The reason human being the human is the ability to see past the animal nature.

Even though in all practical senses, people have to take care of things near home before extended their good will to the far. The worry these days is it will never reach far. When the education failed, more people are concerned about their near then the far. The majority will prevent the good will ever reached far since it is against their immediate interest. Without the education to change that, the self centered consideration will become stronger and stronger and narrower and narrower. Simple evil act of bribary would conquer the narrow society one by one.

The narrow mind exist in many current events. The refuse to stand up for justice is one. We all know that there are many society in the world that are violating the human rights, but many of us choose to be scilent - because it is far and is not in our immediate interest.

As of today, we begin to see the result of our self-centered narrow mind. Countries relied on forceful control of their citizen was able to squesd out the efforts of their citizen and produces enough resource to influence many democratic system around the world while the democratic systems continuing their narrow minded self-interest.

The other demonstration of the situation is the COVID-19. The world is connected. Many western countries have been focused on their vaccinate their own citizen, which isn't really wrong. However, on the ohter hand, if you totally ignored the other part of the world, the virus got the chances to exist for a longer time and got more chances to evolve and become more lethol. So, to really control the virus, a worldwide vacination is necessary.

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Saturday, August 28, 2021

Education, Democratic, and the Covid-19

I do not have time and would just like to take quick notes and I can elaberate it later.

As I mentioned in many of my previous post, the education is very important for democracy and the Covid-19 demonstrates how our education systems have faired us.

Personally, I have stated many times that a very important thing in education is to suspend the democratic system. If we can't teach our citizen how to suspend the democratic system, many thing we have build on will colaps.

In the case of COVID-19, the issue of govering power of elected officer are clashed with the individulism a lot.

As demonstrated by the Mainland China, many of us in the demoncratic system may begin to doubt the value of the demoncratic system when it failed to protect its citizen as China did. Fortunately, there are success stories in the democratic systems: The Taiwan, the New Zealand.

However, the goal of this article is not about who did well and who did not. But is to focused on the resolving of the issue of the governing power and the individulism.

Democratic systems need be supported by few pillors to principle. For one, the idea of governing by the people. For two, the freedom of will of the individual. There are few others that are important to the success of a democratic system.

For the first principle above, the governing by the people, it usually take the form of people electing officers and the officers inherited the power from the people and execute the power in terms of the people and for the people. Usually, every elected officer are bound by certain laws that provide guide lines on what is or is not under the officer's execute power. However, in a practical sense, it is hard for these laws to specify every applicable cases. The gray areas, therefore, exist. However, as is the basic practice of democratic systems, the legislature are giving the power to establish laws while the elect officers are to follow the laws. Many elected officers were given emergency authorities to help resolve the slow response issues of democratic system. However, these emergency authorities are, as is implied, for emergencies only. Eventually, the power comes from the law established by the legislature body.

Based on the operational principle described in previous paragraph, the executive orders issued by elected officers should be temparary. To held those orders extensively, laws should be passed by legislature. Obvering the pratices during the COVID-19 period, many few elected officers relyed the executive orders to the legilature body. Many of the legilature body did not take these issues in their hands either. Without the endorsment of the legislature body, these executive orders are and should be temparary and be considered the will of the officer and not that of the people.

Proceeded with the second principle of individualism. Democratic systems allowed and protected individuals to free to express their opinions and free to gather and try to get their idea heard. However, all democratic systems also has the underline under-wrote that majority rule. These usually carried out in legilature bodies, where votes on laws are conducted. Even though laws are not to depress the the opinions of the individual, other behaviors are to be guided by the law.

In the case of COVID-19, elected officers should have seeking supports from legislature bodies to endowse his/her executive orders. The endowsment and the law would provide executive officers the power to enforce the law.

In a democratic system, even though the system is govern by individual citizen, which does not give each individual the right to do whatever they wanted. They were given the full rights to express their opinions but beyond that, individuals' behavior are governed by the group consenses.

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Friday, January 08, 2021

The ever evil power of the media preceding the Jan. 6, 2021

A democratic system heavily relied on the free speech to communicate and to allow all points of view to be heard. Censored media will put death to the democratic system, no matter how you try to justify it.

To make point for the above statement, we need to start with a look into the human nature. Even though there are this philosophical arguments as if human is born as angel or born as evil. But that is not as matter as how a human can be turned into one.

Let's begin with the question of "How moral a people can be, before the power and fortune?". How many people can resist the temptation? In the past, due to various reasons, to a large extend, Americans have less been enticed to corruption. However, with the world now getting tightly connected, more and more American have been lured and enticed to corrupt. To a large extent, this can apply to a large part of western civilizations.

Just on the surface, we already saw many Western companies, bent to various pressures and requests just to be able to enter the mainland Chinese's business market. Many of those pressures and requests were considered outrageous and unethical in the western culture and companies wouldn't have tolerated them if they were in the western countries. However, many accepted them and entered the Chinese market.

This is of no small matters. This demonstrated that how moral a person can be when facing temptations. The very important point here is how would you know a person have been compromised? What if, the person been compromised has great power? Person of great power can cover things up easier and can also corrupt or defame other people with ease.

The bottom line, however, is that no people or media on the earth can be trusted. Because they are all prone to corruption!



Why shouldn't media or social media involved in censorship?

One thing a lot of us are familiar with is the idea that under 'working' democratic system, no one should take laws into their own hand. Why? BECAUSE NO ONE CAN BE TRUSTED! If we think carefully about this, labeling and bullying people is basically the same thing: You use your single judgment on people. Social media when censored, is accounted the same as labeling and bullying but at a much more forceful level. It applied its own judgment on people. Who gave them that rights? People can easily labeling other people as destroying the democracy but who define the democracy and who gave them the rights to define it.

Blocking posts on forum is a censorship. So is closing and terminating accounts on social media. The other form of censorship is the biased reporting by news media including intentional ignoring.

How would censored media put death to the democracy, you may ask?

Many scenario can lead to the destroyed of the democracy. But if we just look at what happened in the China, it can show you just how bad it can be. When the Chinese government did something bad, citizens will not heard about it because all media are censored and not many people will know about it and the critical mass of protesting will never be reached. What's worse is the crash of the protest will also go un-heard. The people of power would now have nothing to fear and they are going to abuse their power.

Why the riots in China or other places?

Many people may not realize that many riots are occurring in mainland China everyday. The only things is that these will never be real 'riots' since there never have enough people get involved. But there are riots nonetheless. Why there are riots in China?

When people encountered obstacles or problems, the civilized way is to report them and, may be go trough the court/government to resolve the problems. At least in China, of cause, anything that tied to the powerful officials will not be resolved in this way. When the courts do not work, people will, no doubt, try to get their side of the story heard, which, with censored media, is not likely to happen. It is these despairing situation that lead to the riots. We all know, when people feeling hopeless, life is no longer a concern and desperate strikes will occur.

The wisdom of the right to bear arms!

Why on the earth, as a great constitutional country in the world, the Constitution explicitly allowed the bearing of arms? Because, the Founders of the Nation knew the system is not perfect and there are chances the system could be breached. At that point, the Founders trusted the people will prevail the justice.

Holding to a arm doesn't do few people any good. In fact, even if a gang of people holding guns will not do them much good. Besides, why will you bear an arm in a democratic system when the system suppose to provide ways to resolve problems. The things matters, however, When a lot of people can not resolve their issues through the system. This is reaching to the point of hopeless and desperate of the massive.

What media, and social media can or should do to be more fair and provide channels for sharing issues, solicit ideas, and forming consensuses and work groups.

First of all, democracy allows and encourages work groups, for whatever it worth - be it a good or a bad - As we have known, the bad at a time can be a good at a later time. Look back at the era of segregation, the bad idea of Claudette Colvin can be a good later. That is the strength of the 'free speech' and democracy.

Here are just few idea of mine, which, I think, can and should be implemented for media, forum, and social media - I am sure, people can and will come up with more and better ones.,

  1. Media should provide comment areas that allow 'all people' to express their opinions.
  2. For now, like and dislike voting should be implemented for each comments and the article itself.
  3. For now, provide filtering for user to find the most like, the most dislike, ...etc.
The idea behind these suggestions are the following. Democratic system encourage communication as a way of resolve conflicts and, therefore, provides a stable society. Resolving issues via communication requires people to express to their heart's content without reservation. A censorship would prohibit that. The stability of the solution comes from the the consensus of mass. Through the process, people engages in reasoning, fact finding, and persuading. An unpopular idea in the beginning can have the chance to survive in the end. The like-dislike voting only server to classify the idea at the minimum level. More sophisticated classification can be sought, e.g. tagging. The filter mechanism allows user to read about the opposite idea and has a chance to be persuaded. A major implication of this approach is that there is no blocking or censoring.

The Jan. 6, 2021

Looking back at Jan. 6, 2021, this is the fail of the democratic system when people turn out in mass feeling desperate. In a 'working' democratic system, these grieves should have been channeled through various media, social media and court systems. Instead, Facebook, Twitter, and major media censored the contents and courts joint in denying the present of evidence. All of these caused the massive grievance desperate for resolution and a the point it reached the state of bearing arms. When this point is reached, it is the failed of the democratic system, the one to blame is not those who gathered in front of the capital, but the media, the social media, and the courts that have failed the system. Don't say the Constitution has been broken, it specifically allowed bearing arms. Do not blame Mr. Trump. He is not my hero. But if he can persuaded that many people, he have good enough reasons. Don't mis-judge our citizen, they are not that easy be persuaded without enough evidence.

Monday, December 21, 2020

The American Value demystified - a view from immigrants

When it comes to the immigrants, many 'Americans' may have the impression that people immigrated to the United States for the reason of the material life, which may not be totally wrong. However, that simple believe may have overlooked other attractions United States has.

In general, the Asian immigrants may have given Americans the impression that they are not fitting into the American culture very well and it may also seems that they are living in their own social circles. It may also give the impressions that they are distanced from the 'American values'.

From the surface, part of these is due to the language barriers. For many Asian immigrants, their native languages do not related to the Western Language families, and this not only presented the problems in the accent but also in the way phrases are constructed. A possible exception can be the Indian since some of them have read and wrote in English before they come to the United States.

One of the misimpression American may have about the Asian immigrants is the value of democracy, which, sometimes, may have mistaken with the patriotism. The 'American White' sometimes have the doubts about Asian immigrants patriotism, which, in my view, many times are close to the racism. As we all know there are as many 'White' immigrants in the United States too. But as far as I can tell, 'American White' have not raised the same questions about their patriotism or their Democracy believe. One of the manifest of this is the treatment of the Japanese during the World War II in the United States.

Personally, I have also encountered events while working in a whole white office here in the United States. I was assumed to not well acquainted with the 'Western' democracy and may not be patriot as should be. An event was held in the Office to go through the patriotism and the democracy. As an foreigner, of course, I do not recite the 'pledge' well.

I can't speak for other Asian immigrants. However, looking back at the event, many times, I said to myself, I don't know if they really know the Democracy or the Patriotism better than I do. My believe in Democracy stem from my reading of what happened in the Mainland China and my understanding of the Patriotism developed through the constant name calling in China/Taiwan's political environment.

Democracy is to know what can happen without Democracy while the Patriotism is not the recitation of the the 'pledge' but the believe of Democracy, which is bigger than the Patriotism.

With the 2020 United States' presidential election fraud, I have evident my believe one more time. Ms. Hima Kolanagireddy's testimony in the Michigan hearing resonant with me for a longest time. The love of the country has nothing to do with her race and has nothing to do with where she come from. But has everything to do with how she embraced the Democracy value of the United States. The patriotism is stem from the love of the Democracy value.

Today, the news on the EpochTimes.com, once again, confirmed my believe (My apology that link is in Chinese but you can copy and paste into Google translation if you like to read it yourself). Basically, a bunch of Asian/Chinese come out on the street to support Mr. Trump. The reason these Asian/ Chinese came out have nothing to do with their love for Mr. Trump, but because they love the Democracy and they see the fraud election could destroyed the Democracy they loved. Many of these men and women were not activists and, for many, this is the first time they speak out.

As I speak out many times, I am not a Trump supporter. But, on this one, I am totally with him. I hope once this is over, Mr. Trump will look back and understand that immigrants, legal or not, with adequate education, are all the supporters of the Democracy and the patriotism of the United States. On the other hand, just being White have nothing to do with the embrace of Democracy. Also just look at the media that would faithfully report all these event - the EpochTimes.com, and the New Tang Dynasty Television. They are not our traditional American Media. But they stand up.

United States is a great county with good resources. With good education and moral values, our citizen should be highly competitive and would not be afraid of competition in the jobs market.

Good material life maybe what we think is our attraction. But, don't forget the Democracy, which many immigrants are craving for.

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Wednesday, December 16, 2020

2020 US election Fraud

Basically, I can't see anyone can come out and said that there is no fraud in the US 2020 presidential election. The issue is, however, not that if there is a fraud or not. It is we are facing it or not.

The event surrounded this year's election is really making me heart broken. Not only it made me wondering if I can trust the election again, it made me wondering if I can trust any media anymore.

The attempt of trying to downplay the hearing and president Trump's efforts is so obvious that totally out of the characters of almost all media. Even plausible testimonies are totally ignored. The attempt of trying to cover up and ignore is no better than the Communist Party of China.

The reaction of the executive branch of those States in question are also raise suspicious. When question raised, government should address questions directly. The should have take the active roles in engaging in the public hearing and seal all evidences, and even ask for audits. Instead, these government officers ignoring citizen's doubts by defining its own justification.

When facing with criminal acts, the thing to do is to preserve the evidences and allowing investigations. The facts that there is no intents in investigation or bring people to justice while accusing citizens of not providing evidences is just not a government should do. We all know who has the power to get to the bottom of the evidences. Not doing it is just the evidence of trying to cover up.

These officers continue to reiterate there isn't any wide spread fraud while not bringing anyone to justice. The question is not how wide spread the fraud is, but did they enforce the law. Besides, if you did not bring people to justice, how do you know how wide the spread is?

As to the media, I think the leak of the CNN internal meeting summarized it the best. I simply can't believe this is the America media. The NPR and PBS do not do any better. You may not like Mr. Trump, just like me, but when it comes to the heart of our democracy, there is no second thoughts.

One distinct feature in this 2020 election fraud is un-ambiguity hostile attitude against the Republican voters and observers. That raised the red flag of possible systematic frauds. If the situation is just the poll worker treat all voter badly, it may not be as suspicious. But given that almost all instances are aimed at Republicans, it is really alarming.

I also very disappointed with the US court system. The court is a place to uphold the justice and protect the democratic system. Turning down cases based on procedure should only be a means to guide cases to the right procedure and not to discourage the case. A fraud presidential election, affects all States and how is that not justified for Texas to bring up the Constitutional case.

One thing I also very disjointed is that I haven't see a Democratic come out and admit there is a possible fraud. Election fraud is much bigger than the party. Until I see some democratic show their passion about the democratic system, I shall not vote for any Democratic candidates no more.

* The Dominion is really not the issue here - yes, it could be an evidence if it turns out it is involved in dictate the result. But even if it is not, the human factor is enough to justify Mr. Trump's fight. Even if Mr. Biden has more true votes, if he is involved in the plot, he should be dis-qualified.

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Monday, December 07, 2020

More American than American

Discrination: I am no Trump supporter as can be seen from my various post.

I was tracking the aftermath of the 2020 United States Election and has watched hearings held by various States' legislature body. After watching many testifies, I have trouble to believe that many States decided to take no actions.

Let's focus on just few hearing events:

It is very hard for me to believe that after these testimonies, those States' officers can take no action in investigate initiativing those incitances and put people involved through justice system.

As I mentioned in my previous article, the important thing is not who won. The who won issue has nothing to do with the integrity of the voting system. Just because the recount does not change the outcome it does not mean people involved in illegal act should not be punished.

It also bothers me a lot that many States involved simply refused to check the signature. Why? Without checking the signiture, you basically tell people go ahead and fake - we don't care who you are, just send in the ballot. Some States quoted the length of the legal battle as an execuse to not doing the right thing. What kind of idios is that. Are we saying time should be a factor in judging a criminal should be pardoned?

I can't believe that people do not think that there are frauds commited intentionally. We may not know the extend, but how can States officials so sure about the extend without thorough investigation.

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