This column was first published in the UCLA Daily Bruin on January 16, 2009.

During a visit to the tech hub that is Silicon Valley, Barack Obama, the biggest geek to hit the White House since Al Gore, touted a new position in White House if he were elected: Chief Technology Officer. But with the economic state of our country still volatile, the little-known CTO appointment seemed irrelevant.

Au contraire; it is very relevant if we want to regain our economic strength and be competitive again in a continually globalizing world.

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This column was first published in the UCLA Daily Bruin on November 19, 2008.

Don’t be evil – as the Google mantra goes. Or at least, be a little evil for the greater good.

Immediately after Google’s introduction of their new project, Google Flu Trends, the Cassandra cries roared from privacy groups. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, yet cursed so that no one would believe her predictions. This is no Cassandra, though; and there is certainly no privacy infringement disaster on the horizon.

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