...is a funny segment on SNL. You should check it out sometime.
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. As the semester rolls on, the work piles up and much of my time during the week is spent mentally checking off boxes of what needs to be done and what is done. So I thought I would just post what I've actually learnt/doing so it doesn't seem like time wasted plus maybe one or two random things that have happened in the meantime. I'll try to find a mid point of dumbing down the tech speak for people that don't understand and actually saying the tech speak for people that do understand.
CS 1315 - Media Computation
This is my blowoff class. It's an introduction to CS(Computer Science) for non-CS kids. So I'm learning Python, a language I learnt in my first year of uni and concepts that I learnt in year 10 at high school. Yay! Fun! The only interesting thing about the class is we do some media manipulation. All we've done so far is basic picture manipulation so posterizing pictures, grayscaling, sepia tones, etc. Basic effects that any photo editing software can do pretty much.
CS 1332 - Data Structures and Algorithms
Basically learning all different sorts of data structures and ways to store data but with a focus on how fast that structure is. Is it faster to find something in a list or a tree structure? Stuff like that. So far the data structures we've covered are arrays (and matrices of them), lists (array, linked, circular,etc), trees (general trees, binary search trees, AVL trees), some basic collections (sets, bags, maps) and just started on hash tables. Not too difficult so far and kinda interesting manipulating data in the structures.
CS 3251 - Computer Networks I
This is probably my favourite class so far. The professor is one of the best I've had. Yes, he's teaching pretty much from the textbook and yes we have to read 2,3 sections before each lecture but I feel like I actually understand it pretty well, and it's not boring me to pieces which is always a good sign. We pretty much study each layer of the network stack so we've done the application, transport and starting the network layer now. We've done some cool little tricks like doing a trace to random ISPs around the world and seeing the path the trace took (ie, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago, LA, Sydney and then Brisbane to a Telstra server located in Brisbane), learn how to send spam (our professor sent himself an email pretending to be obama@whitehouse.gov) and actually looks at each packet of data sent from our machine. Our current project is pretty much making a scaled down version of dropbox which is pretty cool actually.
CS 3451 - Computer Graphics
This course has it's ups and downs. Sometimes the material just clicks and other times it takes a while. Plenty of geometry, manipulating vectors, points and frames with some physics and tangent stuff thrown in. The results definitely look the coolest. Like the last project I just did was to make a ball bounce around inside a shape with a user defined start point and velocity. One of the extra credit suggestions for that project was to extend it to a mini-golf game which I think would be doable if I had the time. That's pretty cool, making a mini-golf game! We're almost finished 2D stuff so 3D stuff we look even cooler I'm sure. The professor isn't too bad but clearly super smart. I know he's good when you learn some curve that was named after him.... Unfortunately what seems trivial to him, isn't always so trivial. Sometime he'll say about the next project "It's simple, my solution is only 5 lines or 12 characters"....Hah! 12 characters, I wish I could do it in 12 characters.
CS 4235 - Introduction to Information Security
Probably will be the hardest class I think. The material isn't overly hard but because half the class are post-grad students, the level of teaching is aimed much higher than I'm used to so you really have to tune in to keep up sometimes. Some of the material is pretty dry (woo....memory management) and some is interesting because it comes from a more philosophical perspective in saying "well if a system has value, then it is open to attack" and asking questions like "Who are the attackers? What are their motivations? What are their resources?", stuff like that. It's something you don't always think about when you think information security. In our first project we took advantage of a buffer overflow exploit.
Dumb down version: Giving the computer too much information than it can handle so that it gives control to us.
Teched version: Functions like strcpy(src,dest) are unbounded so if src is char src[10] and dest is char[5], you'll overflow the buffer and get a seg fault. We take advantage of the overflow to make the overflow overwrite the return address of the function call in the stack to the address of a system call to generate a shell in unix.
So in a way, it's a basic "hack" if you will which is pretty cool. The downside? All modern operating systems have functions in place to detect this and stop it. We had to compile the code with special flags to turn this protection off....
So as you can see, busy busy stuff.
But I have managed to do some other stuff apart from just school work.
Two weeks ago, I went white water rafting with other exchange students on the Ocoee River which is where they did it for the 96 Olympic Games. For photos, check out my facebook page, they're are some stellar ones. In fact, most likely you got here from my facebook page and my display picture is from rafting so you've probably already seen them. The rafting itself was awesome fun and would love to do it again. We only went up to class 4 rapids but would be keen to do some more adventurous ones :D
One random thing that does stand out that I remember was a place I saw on the bus trip. It was a fast food type place. I forget the name, for some reason the word "Handies" or something spring to mind but it may not be it. The thing which made go "what now?" was their tag line.
"Charboiled Thick Burgers"
Just think about that. Charboiled....Thick...Burgers. If you're not salivating at the thought, you're most likely human. Let's get the easy bit out of the way. "Thick burgers". In the land of the USA where a normal burger is double patty and a little burger is a single patty, how big is a "thick" burger? A couple of inches? One, maybe two, coronary attacks? I don't want to find out!
Now the more baffling part....Charboiled. How do you charboil a burger? Wouldn't that make it really soggy? And how does char boiling it make it any different to just boiling? These are all questions that need answering. Although when we did stop to have something to eat, I did not risk my life in order to find out. I'd prefer to keep my heart and taste buds relatively in tact this trip...
Another thing which has happened recently. I feel pretty American, I've wasted an hour waiting at both the Social Security Office and at the DMV. Yep, can't get any more American than that, right? Sitting there watching random numbers get called seemingly for no reason and when you think your number should be due up next, the people go on break and 10 desks go down to 5 desks and extends your waiting period by another 20 minutes. All this just to get a Georgia State ID card (think 18+ card back home). Worth it? Definitely, not only did I get a truly American experience, I no longer have to carry my passport for proof of age/id which means more potential spontaneous fun :D
This weekend coming up is TomorrowWorld. TomorrowLand is a Belgian music festival that has been running for 9 years is known as one the most high production/ridiculous lineup festivals around the world. The fact that the TomorrowLand after movie racks up 20million+ views on youtube in mere weeks shows it's popularity. This year, they are expanding to outside Belgium for the first time and the site just happens to be 30 mins outside Atlanta. So naturally I got on board. I've got tickets for 2 of the 3 days and I am so keen. My intended set list is Dyro, YVES V, NERVO, Mord Fustang, Jorris Voorn, Maya Jane Cole, Pete Tong, A-Trak on Saturday and on Sunday Moar Levi, Norin & Rad, Jaytech, Late Night Alumni (Kaskade), Hardwell, BT, Armin Van Buuren! Very packed full and for an avid dance music fan/amateur DJ, very tasty indeed. I've got my Australian Flag cape ready to go and I am set for some intense dancing marathons. Bring it on!
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