My Current Job

I currently have a job as a research student working at Prince Labs at BYU, and so far it's been good. The funny thing is, though, that it's a Proteomics lab, and I know very little about that stuff; I've never even taken a chemistry class! But that's okay, because what I do is write Ruby programs to accommodate the Mass Spectrometry stuff. Aside from learning a lot more about Ruby and Linux, I've been able to see more how a CS degree can allow me to work in just about any field. I really don't need to know a whole lot about what the program is for, just how to get it to fulfill the required tasks.

What I'm currently working on is a Mass Spectrometry pipeline, which will allow users to execute a single command, and raw MS data will be transformed into identified proteins. My work can be viewed at Github.

I'm also working on an mzIdentML converter. My mentor (Is that a proper term for him?) thinks that if I make this converter then it will be something used by lots of people and maybe even get me mentioned in a paper. I have trouble believing such high claims, but I can at least say that no one is making a Ruby implementation, and with the power of Nokogiri, it's a clean and fast implementation. It would be cool though to create a program that would be useful to others.

My Recipe Book

Last Christmas I made a recipe book program for my Mom as a present, and I've found it useful. If anyone wants to use it as well, you can get it here. Below is a picture of the program in action, as seen in Windows 7.

Clean Music

I don't like profanity, so it bothers me when music I like uses it. To fix this problem I edit the songs, and now I'm uploading some of them to Youtube in case anyone else is interested.


Drop the Dodongo

Oil Ocean (WT-40 Mix)

Standing by One's Principles (CS 404)

Some companies will do anything to make money, but not everyone. Some, like Google, will stand by their principles even if it means losing some profit. Having principles, though, is more than just feeling good about yourself: it can be good for business. If, for example, you're a small research group that focuses on green technology, are you going to find support from a company that is determined to help the environment, or a company that will turn its back on you if it's not profitable enough? When a company consistently stands by its principles, it gains trust, and when a company can be trusted, it not only gains more customers, but it creates loyal ones.

US Government Long Overdue for Some Pruning

I don't know a whole lot about politics, but I've been rather concerned about how things have been going lately. For one thing, our government has gotten way too big and far too much in debt. Taking control of health care doesn't help either. In a simplistic view (Or, in other words, I'm too ignorant to the details), the reason we're in debt is because we're spending more money than we earn. A simplistic answer to this simplistic view is to:

1) Stop spending money on unnecessary things, and,
2) Cut out any programs that cost more than they earn.

Like a tree, the government has grown out of control and producing less-than-optimal fruit. The removing of limbs may be painful to the tree, and after pruning it way back it will take a while for it to start bearing fruit again. With a debt of several trillion dollars, the day it bears fruit may not be in any of our lifetimes. Slow, yes, but the government certainly hasn't fixed the problem by spending more money.

On a separate note, I believe this health care bill will make things even worse. The principles of economics say that when you greatly increase demand and decrease supply, costs go way up. I don't believe the government is exempt from economics.

Again, I'm not very versed when it comes to these things, so if I'm wrong, I'll readily admit that I am. But if I'm right, I fear that it might even be too late to change the direction we're headed.

Can't I Get a Little Respect? (CS 404)

Duality of Technology (CS 404)

Both God and Satan try to influence people to do good or to do evil. While the effects are obvious in people, their workings can also be seen in technology. For example, television, radio, and the World Wide Web provide truth and uplifting messages, but they also provide lies and vulgar media. As in times past, God inspires men to bring about good, but Satan comes along and inspires others to pervert what is good. But are we going to let that stop us from creating new technology? No! If we work to harness technology's power to spread the work of God, then we can strengthen ourselves in the battle between good and evil. Technology we can't even imagine is just over the horizon, and we need to be ready use it for the good of the world.