First Time Home-Buyers - with The Red Sign Team

We love our new home!  We have lived here for nearly 2 months now and we love it more every day.  A huge thanks to the Red Sign team for helping us find and finance our home.

The Red Sign team helped us through the entire process.  We are first time home buyers and we were not very educated regarding the process of finding and buying a home.  The Red Sign team provided helpful resources that helped us to understand the vocabulary and feel like informed home buyers.

We started out by looking at their site, http://www.utahrealestate.com/, to look at various houses.  We looked at several houses a day, just trying to get a feel for what kind of house we wanted and how much we should expect to pay for such a house.  Red Sign's preferred lender was able to quickly get us pre-qualified for a loan so that we knew about how much we could afford.

One day we found a house online that looked perfect for us.  We really wanted to see it, so we contacted our Red Sign agent.  We were hoping to see it the coming Saturday, but our agent found out that the house already had two offers and would soon be closing.  She said we could see it that evening, so we rushed off to see the house.  We had our first walk-through and loved it.  We knew it had already received two offers, so we were nervous that we wouldn't get the bid, but our Red Sign agent gave us some advice to help increase our chances.  We found out a couple days later that we got the bid!

Once we got the bid, the Red Sign team helped us every step of the way.  Closing was just a few weeks away, so we didn't have a lot of time.  Despite the short time period, the Red Sign team helped everything flow smoothly.  The lender was able to process our loan very quickly (during the government shutdown, even) and with very few hiccups.  Our loan officer let us know all of our options and made sure that we got the best deal.  Before we knew it, the loan was processed and we were able to pick up the keys and move in!

Overall, the Red Sign team was helpful, friendly, and professional.  They made our first home-buying experience a great one.  Even now that we've moved in and have lived here for a couple of months, they still invite us to free events that they host, like an early premier of Catching Fire and other fun family activities.  If you are thinking of buying a home, contact the Red Sign team.  You'll be glad you did!

Logic: another thing that One Direction isn't very good at.

One Direction has something in common with penguins: not being particularly gifted in logic.

Take the song "What Makes You Beautiful", for instance.  The lyrics say, "You don't know you're beautiful, and that's what makes you beautiful."

Let the variable K represent knowing that you are beautiful, and let the variable B represent you actually being beautiful.  The song says

~K => B

If you do not know you are beautiful, then you are beautiful.  This is logically equivalent to the contrapositive, which is

~B => K

If you are not beautiful then you know that you are beautiful.  This, of course, makes absolutely no sense.

Perhaps One Direction meant cause and effect to flow the other way.  Instead of not knowing one's beauty being sufficient for one being beautiful, perhaps not knowing one's beauty is necessary for being beautiful.  This would be

B => ~K

If you are beautiful, then you don't know that you are beautiful.  That seems closer to what they are trying to say.  The logically equivalent contrapositive in this case is

K => ~B

If you know that you are beautiful, then you are not beautiful.  This doesn't seem quite right either.  How can anyone know that they are beautiful if they are, in fact, not beautiful?  And there are plenty of people who are beautiful, and, having healthy self-esteem, know that they are beautiful, which in no way diminishes their beauty.

Thus, neither interpretation of the lyrics is logically sound.  Perhaps there is an implied premise.  For example

(B and ~K) => B

If you are beautiful and you don't know that you are beautiful, then you are beautiful.  This also sounds like what they might be trying to say.  In this case, however, the conclusion is merely reiterating a premise, which is a logical "duh".  This is kind of like saying "if I am a silver hippo and the universe as we know it is coming to an end, then I am a silver hippo."

In conclusion, I am a silver hippo.

Hypocrisy

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."
- Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:27)

Hypocrisy is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not."  As a Christian, I believe that all men are commanded to "be . . . perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).  I also believe that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  To be Christian, then, is to preach perfection despite personal imperfection.  It is to believe one thing and do another.  Thus, given the above definition of hypocrisy, every Christian is a hypocrite.  So how are we different from the Pharisees which Christ condemned?  We admit our hypocrisy, continue to strive for perfection, and rely on the Savior to carry us through to the end.

Improvement and Progression

"Improvement and progression are one eternal round"
- If You Could Hie to Kolob, from LDS Hymns

An age-old question lies at the heart of philosophy: what is the purpose of life?  We are here to learn and to grow.  We are here to improve ourselves until we are perfected, as God is.  We have a natural desire to grow, to advance, to become better, to reach our full potential as children of God.  God helps us to achieve this while Satan fights against us.  Satan is the great imitator.  One of his greatest tricks is to make us feel like we are improving, even when we're not.  Thus he "lull[s] [us] away into carnal security" (2 Nephi 28:21).  Video games can be a tool Satan uses to make us feel like we're improving.  Rapid technology advancements over the past twenty years have made games dynamic, realistic, and social.  In the virtual world, we can be whatever we like.  Our stats are easy to see, to track, and to improve.  We accomplish tasks, we make friends, and we feel that we are being productive as our stats improve.  In the real world, progress--particularly spiritual progress--is not so easy to improve or to track.  Thus we allow our real selves to diminish as our virtual selves improve, and we deceive ourselves into believing that our virtual selves are more real.

Social Media

"Arguments about whether new forms of sharing or collaboration are, on balance, good or bad reveal more about the speaker than the subject. . . . Societies before and after revolution are too different to be readily compared; it's simple to say that society was transformed by the printing press or the telegraph, but harder to claim that it was made better."
- Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody (pp. 297-298, emphasis added)

People are meant to work together in groups.  Groups are the backbone of a capitalist society.  It is human nature to want to be around and communicate with other people, at least sometimes.  Despite technological advances that allow effective long-range communication, people continue to travel long distances so that they can physically be with those with whom they communicate.  Being in a group can give one a sense of belonging, and groups can easily accomplish tasks that would be impossible for a single individual.

There are elements of our society that make it difficult to form groups.  We drive instead of walk, so we don't walk and talk with people we meet as we run errands.  In many households, both parents work, so neither parent has much time for socializing.  Many can't afford the time or the money it would take to meet with a group or to manage a group's resources.  Some have the time, but they find ways to entertain themselves with television or video games instead of relying on human interaction.  Many have a hard time finding people with similar interests.

Social media offers some solutions to these problems.  Social media makes it easy to form groups, with very little costs in terms of time and money.  Using sites like Facebook, Pinterest, or Meetup, people can easily find people with similar interests.  Despite popular belief, use of online social media tends to increase face-to-face socialization rather than decrease it.  Social media has given us a new way to form groups more easily than ever before.  But, as Shirky says in the quote above, society has been so transformed by social media that it can't be argued that society has truly been made better by social media.  While social media offers solutions to some of today's problems, it is impossible to say whether or not the pros outweigh the cons.

Computers in the Church

"The Lord's plan is to advance ever more rapidly His word and His works.  These buildings have been built to take advantage of the wonderful and miraculous technology that will allow the university and Church to reach the hearts and minds of members and friends across the world."
- President Henry B. Eyring

We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are a record-keeping people.  We believe in documenting everything, for "whatsoever [we] record on earth shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever [we] do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven" (Doctrine and Covenants 128:8).  We have records for family history, personal saving ordinances, patriarchal blessings, general conference addresses, finances, member records, ward and stake statistics, etc.  The Church as an organization could not have become what it is today without computers to maintain, access, modify, and append to this data.

Technology and Religion

"Science without religion is lame.  Religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein

As a Christian, I have always been taught to "live in the world, but not of the world."  It is important to not conform to the weaknesses of the world around us.  The Epistle of James teaches that a "true Christian" remains "unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).  To keep ourselves unspotted, however, it is not necessary to shun science and technology.  God's work and glory is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), and He will use a variety of means to complete His work.  While  technologies such as television and the internet can be used to transmit smut and filth into our homes, they can also be used to broadcast the words of God's servants to the world.  God also uses the internet to help people connect with their families and their ancestors, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah (see Malachi 4:5-6).  Technology is not of itself good or bad; it is how we use it that makes it one or the other.

Software Patents

"In the electronics industry, patents are of no value whatsoever in spurring research and development."
- Vice President of Intel Corporation, Business Week, 11 May 1981

A software patent is a set of rights given to the creator of software that disallows anyone else to make, use, sell, or trade software without permission from the patent holder.  According to United States patent law, you can't patent a mathematical formula or an abstract idea, but you can patent a "practical application of a computer-related invention" (Tyser).  How, then, does Google have a patent for a variation of the abstract idea of a linked list? (See http://www.google.com/patents/US7028023.) Perhaps software patent laws in the United States are not as well-defined as they seem to be.  We should either define the laws more strictly or abolish software patents entirely.

Secure P@$$w0Rd$

"Treat your password like you treat your toothbrush.  Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months."
- Clifford Stoll

Online protection is never a guarantee.  Even high-profile businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have fallen prey to sophisticated hacking within the past two months.  250,000 passwords were stolen as a result of the Twitter hack.  Twitter acted fast and forced the compromised users to change their passwords.  Their Twitter accounts have been secured, but these users may still be in danger if they practice password reuse.  Having a single password compromised can compromise your entire online identity if you use the same username and password for Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and online banking.  While it is important to have secure passwords that can't be guessed algorithmically, it is even more important to have a unique password for each online account.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/rising-computer-hack-attacks-prompts-concern/

Means to an End

"Martha . . . began to see a mechanical rival in my pocket pager. 'How long before you're free from that electronic leash?' . . . The hacker wasn't just breaking into computers.  By way of the beeper, he was invading our home" (pp. 170, 245).
- Cliff Stoll in The Cuckoo's Egg (1989)

In The Cuckoo's Egg, Berkeley astronomer Cliff Stoll finds a 75-cent accounting error that he soon attributes to a hacker in his system.  Initially thinking the hacker to be a harmless Berkeley student, Stoll sets up a clever (although somewhat ghetto) system he can use to track the hacker without being detected.  Cliff's hacker-tracking is discouraged by his boss and his girlfriend, and higher authorities aren't willing to take the case.  Despite the opposition, Cliff doggedly pursues the unknown hacker month after month.  He spends nights at work, waiting for his tracking system to go off.  He puts off work that he is supposed to do to spend time tracking and analyzing the hacker.  He eventually rigs his tracking system to call his pager when the hacker connects, thus allowing him to take action no matter where he is, who he is with, or what he is doing.  After months of diligence, his work leads to the capture of a group of German spies selling sensitive military data (or so they think) to the Russian KGB.  The end is impressive, but does the end justify the means?

Cliff was willing to sacrifice a lot in order to catch these hackers.  He was obsessed.  Had his boss found out how much work time he was dedicating to tracking the hacker, Cliff could have been fired.  Cliff put his girlfriend, Martha, on the back burner whenever his pager notified him that the hacker was connected.  He arrived late to the Halloween party that Martha had planned for weeks because the hacker came online as Cliff was about to leave work.  He sacrificed important relationships for his obsession, and he had no guarantee that his labors would amount to anything important.  He had no idea that the hacker was anyone of consequence.  Had the hacker been some punk in high school, Cliff's obsessive persistence would not have been worth what he sacrificed.  It so happens that the hackers ended up being international spies.  Does that make it worth it?

Battle of the Sexes

"I want to help middle-school girls stay interested in math and be good at it, and see it as friendly and accessible and not this scary thing.  Everyone else in society tells them it's not for them.  It's for nerdy white guys with pocket protectors."
- Danica McKellar

Not many women take Computer Science courses.  Not here at BYU, at least.  In most of the Computer Science courses I've taken, 80-100% of the students have been male.  Some blame it on blatant favoritism towards male students.  Others say that women don't like the abstract application of mathematics or the peculiar mix of math and creativity.  The real reason, however, is the men.  Women don't want to be peers and colleagues with geeks that have limited (severely, in some cases) social abilities.  Men in Computer Science have tendencies to be geeky, to not work well with people, to not be able to communicate with non-geeks, to not observe principles of basic hygiene, to not keep up with modern trends, and to be unhealthily obsessed with their computers.  The very thought of working with these men every day is no doubt repulsive to many women.  Women won't start being attracted to Computer Science until the men in Computer Science make themselves more attractive.

Bionic Hand

"'Cause everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads."
- They Might Be Giants, We Want a Rock

David Gow, an engineer based in Scotland, has shared the news of his new and improved bionic hand with the world.  Though the hand cannot sense touch or temperature like a real hand can, the bionic hand is shaped like and can move like a real human hand.

This new break-through in technology has already changed lives of amputees.  Unfortunately, hope for many amputees is quickly snuffed out as they see the price tag: $60,000 - $100,000.  Considering that prosthetic limbs are typically replaced every 3-4 years due to wear and tear, getting a bionic hand is financially impossible for middle- and low-class citizens.  Though the bionic hand is an impressive piece of equipment, its potential cannot be met until the technology is simplified so the price can be lowered.

Degrees of Severity

"Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data, or dollars."
- U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz in the case against Aaron Swartz

26-year-old Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and great contributor to RSS technology, allegedly committed suicide on January 11.  As a strong advocate of the philosophy that information should be accessed freely, he had stolen approximately four million scholarly articles from MIT's online database, JSTOR.  Although JSTOR did not press charges, the United States government did not drop the case.  Swartz could have served up to 35 years in jail and been fined $1 million.  Faced with these possibilities, Swartz decided to take the only sure way out.

Swartz's theft via hacking is unarguably wrong, both legally and morally (Lessig, L.).  He, in part, must be blamed for getting himself into the situation he was in.  However, it was wrong for the government to treat Swartz's case in the way that they did.  This was not a high-profile hacking job.  Swartz wasn't stealing credit card data or information that could lead to identity theft.  He wasn't a terrorist reading confidential files from the Pentagon or military networks.  He took scholarly articles that anyone on MIT's network could have accessed.  The government should not have intimidated Swartz by threatening charges that are fit for one accused of homicide. Yes, hacking is wrong, but there are degrees of severity that should be well-defined in federal internet regulation laws.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/tech/web/aaron-swartz-internet/index.html
http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/40347463044/prosecutor-as-bully

Ever Learning

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be . . . [e]ver learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
- 1 Timothy 3:1-7

With information at our fingertips, we are always learning.  Knowledge is in no short supply, but what of wisdom?  Wisdom is "knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action" (dictionary.com).  Knowledge is necessary for wisdom, but it is not sufficient.  Knowledge alone only "increase[s] sorrow" (Ecclesiastes 1:18), because information alone cannot change anything.  Wisdom additionally requires both proper judgment and action.  Proper judgment, unfortunately, cannot be learned through Google or Facebook.  Proper judgment can only come through understanding Truth.  Such understanding is gained only from experience and taking time to ponder and to meditate.  Once technology causes us to stop experiencing things as they are and to stop taking time to ponder, we cannot have proper judgment and therefore cannot be wise.  Once we lose wisdom, we will only have knowledge, and then there is no difference between us and our technology.

Introduction

"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer."
- Immanuel Kant, from Critique of Pure Reason, 1781

This quote separates knowledge into two classes: knowledge that can be determined through reason and knowledge that cannot.  In other words, there is "reasonable knowledge" and there is "unreasonable knowledge."  Reason seeks after both classes of knowledge, but reason alone can only find the first.

Reasonable knowledge is supported by logic, fact, mathematics, proofs, observation, or scientific experimentation.  As a computer scientist, I work a lot with reasonable knowledge.  I thrive on functions and equations, numbers and statistics.  When people think of knowledge and intelligence, it is often this class that comes to mind.  It is the knowledge of the learned, the intellectual.  It created the atomic bomb, put man on the moon, eradicated crippling and deadly diseases, and developed the smartphones of today.  There is undeniably great power in reasonable knowledge.

There are, however, questions that reasonable people should and do ask that cannot be answered with reason alone.  As Kant said, reason is "burdened by questions which . . . it is . . . not able to answer."  What is the purpose of life?  What is the potential of man?  What force drives the soul of the artist, the poet, the musician?  What defines good and evil?  Surely these are reasonable questions; it would be unreasonable indeed to live life without ever wondering why you do what you do every day.  As Socrates wrote, "The unexamined life is not worth living."  It is only reasonable to ask such questions, yet the answers cannot be found using reason alone.  No equation or proof can answer these questions.  Hence the need for unreasonable knowledge.  Instead of being fueled by logic, mathematics, and science, unreasonable knowledge is fueled by faith, hope, and charity.

The world often sees these two classes of knowledge as contradictory.  The academic world at large encourages reason and scoffs at faith.  They mock the Christian, saying that "it is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come" (The Book of Mormon, Helaman 16:18).  As for me, I am a computer scientist.  As I mentioned previously, reason is the very core of my field.  I am also, however, an active Christian.  I am so much a Christian, in fact, that if I had to choose between the knowledge I've gained through reason and the knowledge I've gained through faith, I would choose the latter.

In this blog I will address many subjects related to computer science.  Though computer science is largely fueled by reason, I will address issues regarding unreasonable knowledge.  I will address moral and ethical issues within the field, and I will back up arguments not with my logic but with my faith.  I ask those intellectuals who claim to be reasonable to not discard this, but to be open-minded and ask the reasonable questions that cannot be answered by reason.