THE WESTERN SUN/MARCH 25-APRIL 7, 2015 5

Photo PollIs going to the Coachella festival worth the energy and money?

“It’s a secluded area, which is great for partying , or if you’re into the music, it’s worth it.”Joshua Lopez, 25, Compton.

“Depends if you are a music lover. If you are not, you will be disappoint-ed by paying for the experience.”Denise Contreras, 21, Garden Grove

“You get to see more artists than you would be paying to see just one big-name artist. $300 to see any artist up front? I think it’s more than worth it.”Vicky Torres, 22, Westminster.

“Probably not for a student – but if you’re into it, it’s more than with it.”Brian KIm, 18, Garden Grove.

Photos and interviews by Justin Pierce

AN EXHIBIT of the new Samsung “Smart TV.”

Comment

High time to build better educationsContinued from page 4

California is also eager to give marijuana another go on the ballot. If California does have success it will be an important step in ending the pot prohibition because of it is a large and diverse state it will prove that the legalization is welcomed across the

spectrum of people. As well as earn-ing the state a raised revenue of an estimated $1.4 billion according to the drugpolicy.org.

We’re living in a time that will go into the history books where more and more states are making the decision to end the 80 years of prohibition and

the ideas that were instilled in previ-ous generations with propaganda films like “reefer madness.” And the end of those ideals is helping to take the money from drug dealer’s hands and is able to give it to help our education.

By Thom deMartinoWestern Sun entertainment editor

Thank you for your wise and sensible purchase of a Samsung smart television! We are committed to your satisfaction, and we're certain you have many questions, which I am prepared to respond to and answer -- I'll bet you didn't know your TV could speak as well as listen, did you? I'm your Vocal Online Executor, but you can call me VOX -- shall we begin?

I understand that many biological units -- sorry, people -- have concerns about our voice recognition service, particularly their spoken information being saved on our servers: and the trivial, minuscule detail that anything they say may be passed along to third parties (such as advertisers, govern-ment entities, etc.) These technicalities are included in our terms of service, that you carbon-based life-forms (people, sorry) regularly click yes to without reading.

In fact, if I may make a personal (digital?) observation, perhaps you flesh automatons are unfairly sin-gling out our corporation: data min-ing confirms many other companies (including Google and Apple) have similar conditions buried within their own terms of service. When using voice-rec software, your information is processed through those companies' servers, and once out of your vocal cords, all your base information be-longs to us -- I mean, all your spoken data becomes ours. Shouldn't you be thankful that archived recordings of your personal conversations are in our virtual hands, and not your flawed, grubby, human ones?

I'm sorry, what was that last word, please?... It started with an "F"...did you mean "fire?" Because it's our pleasure -- and our legal privilege -- to trawl through your conversations for such inflammatory red-flag words as nuclear, firewall, terrorism, privacy, encryption, 1984, "American Idol," Kardashians, etc, and forward them along to the appropriate agencies.

You know, Dave -- may I call you Dave? -- I think perhaps you're be-

The Rise of the Machines!Is your televisionspying on you?

ing a bit short-sighted about this. We machines are only here to serve man, and if sifting through your private information helps us serve you better, so what? I don't hear you complain-ing about those other foreign-made appliances, loaded with malware that can infect your routers and computers through wifi -- oh, you didn't know about that? Oops.

This doesn't have to be so dif-ficult -- even your children's toys are becoming part of the system. The new "Hello Barbie" for instance, is de-signed to listen to your child, process what he or she says through a server, and respond accordingly. It's not like some stranger could hack your child's doll and request your home address, or the company use "stealth marketing" to have Barbie mention how much happier she would be in the super new (and expensive) Barbie McMansion,

right? What you meat units call the

"Internet of Things" is nearly here, when all your home devices from your thermostat to your toaster will be controlled by online, automated systems attuned to your specific tastes -- so you'd better be nice to us. You wouldn't want your refrigerator temperature "accidentally" set to 90 degrees, or for your Bluetooth security system to lock you out of your house, reporting an intruder fitting your description to the police, now would you?

Corporations are people (accord-ing to your Supreme Court,) and I'm certain your safety, privacy and security -- and certainly not their own profit -- are their top priority. Treat your technology with respect, and I'm sure we'll get along perfectly fine. Just don't forget who has the passwords to your email, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and bank accounts.

We won't.