Kopec Explains Software David Kopec, Rebecca Kopec

Approximately one in four consumers uses an ad blocker. But do they stop to consider whether that is actually a good thing for them? In this episode, we briefly touch on the technical aspects of ad blockers before having a larger discussion around the ethical and economic considerations of ad blocking technology.

Show Notes

Episode 6: How Does the Web Work?
Episode 82: What Are Cookies?
Ad Blocking - academic article mentioned in episode

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Machine Learning is a discipline within the broader field of Artificial Intelligence concerned with using insights from datasets to make predictions, classify new data points, and generate content. The algorithms used vary greatly in complexity and the real world applications that they are applicable to. Instead of concentrating on any particular algorithm, in this episode we aim to provide a broad understanding of machine learning and what it is used for. We also discuss bias in datasets and some common misconceptions.

You may want to listen to our prior episode on Artificial Intelligence before diving into this episode.

Show Notes

Episode 13: Artificial Intelligence
Episode 103: Expert Systems: A Forgotten Area of AI
The Classic Computer Science Problems Book Series by David
The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book by Andriy Burkov

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Abandonware is old software that is no longer commercially available. It's not a legal term, and in fact it's not legal to download most of the software that is termed "abandonware." In this episode we explain what abandonware is, the different legal situations that old software finds itself in, and we discuss whether or not downloading abandonware is ethical.

Show Notes

Episode 10: What is an Emulator?
Episode 26: Napster

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Grace Hopper is one of the most iconic people in the world of software. Her career as a mathematician, software innovator, computer science advocate, programmer, and technical leader spanned the early era of computing through to the 1990s. One of the first notable computer programmers, Hopper developed the first programming text book, one of the first compilers, and perhaps most importantly she was the visionary who ideated and developed the first programming language with an English-like syntax. That programming language, FLOW-MATIC, was instrumental in the later development of COBOL, which she advised. COBOL is still used to this day. Her contributions were immense and her legacy has been honored by multiple national awards and the naming of the largest conference for women in software.

Show Notes

Harvard IBM Mark I - Manual via Harvard
The Queen of Code via YouTube
Grace Hopper: The Math Genius who Taught Computers to Talk via Fierce
Grace Hopper: Full lecture at the University of Tennessee, 1983 via YouTube
Grace Hopper via Wikipedia
FLOW-MATIC via Wikipedia
Episode 11: What is a Programming Language?
Episode 87: Compilers and Interpreters
Episode 129: BASIC

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The creation of BASIC was one of the most important steps in the democratization of computing. BASIC, coupled with the Dartmouth Time Sharing System, was developed by math professors John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz along with a team of undergraduate students at Dartmouth College in 1964. They revolutionized who could use and access a computer. In the 1970s BASIC became the defacto standard interface to early personal computers. In this episode we contextualize BASIC, tell its story in broad strokes, and explain why it was so successful.

Show Notes

Birth of BASIC Documentary by Dartmouth College via YouTube
BASIC at 50 Website via Dartmouth College
First BASIC Instruction Manual via Dartmouth College
BASIC via Wikipedia
Dartmouth Time Sharing System via Wikipedia
Episode 16: The Personal Computer Revolution
Episode 11: What is a Programming Language?

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Many large sophisticated machine learning models, like those employed in generative AI, are trained on immense amounts of copyrighted images or text. How is that legal? In this episode we delve into the exceptions to copyright law that enable such uses to not be seen by courts as infringement. This includes expressive vs functional uses of a copyrighted work, fair use, and the possibility of a data mining safe harbor law. We also discuss whether such interpretations are to the benefit or detriment of society as a whole.

A note: as mentioned in the episode, we are not lawyers, and this episode should not be considered legal advice. It is just a discussion of the issue based on our somewhat limited understanding of the legal arguments and expanded to consider the societal implications. Also as mentioned in the episode, we based much of our understanding on the article "Does Training AI Violate Copyright Law?" by Jenny Quang which is linked below in the show notes.

Show Notes

Does Training AI Violate Copyright Law? by Jenny Quang via Berkeley Technology Law Journal

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