Deep Thoughts
by Tim Faircloth on Oct 30, 2008, 2:44 pm
haikus are easy
but sometimes they don’t make sense
refrigerator
New toy - blip.fm
by Tim Faircloth on Oct 28, 2008, 4:27 pm
I don’t know why I’ve been keeping quiet about this for so long, but I’ve got a blip.fm profile. It’s like twitter, but with music.
I can only describe my taste in music as “eclectic”: a little techno, a little rock, a little random stuff (like tracks from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog).
…and yes, that’s me in the picture playing guitar hero. The hand to the left of the picture belongs to a friend and coworker of mine (sorry for cutting you out!). I believe in that picture we’re trying to work our way through Helicopter (by Bloc Party) on easy — hey, don’t judge, it was our first time playing.
On Why I am Sometimes Silent For Long Periods
by Tim Faircloth on Oct 27, 2008, 10:50 am
I’ve been inspired by my sister’s latest blog post about why the frequency of her posts wanes at times. Given that I just took an almost two month haitus, I thought I’d offer a few explanations myself.
I’m often quite busy. I’ve got a full-time job, two graduate classes, a girlfriend, and several friends which demand my time. On top of all that, it’s deer season.
Sometimes (much like my sister), I’m in an emotional state that I can’t appropriately express in this medium. When I conceived this blog I decided it would be mostly a tech blog, and partially a sounding board for the little issues in life that I feel are important (like compilation support on my iPod Touch), not an emotionally-charged ranting space for things that don’t concern my readers.
Sometimes there are huge stretches of where nothing really interesting happens. I go to work, come home in the evening, hang out with my girl, and go to bed.
I also have a tendency to forget that there are other people out there interested in my life. Every now and then I’ll get a call from my mom or my dad saying “Hey, just wanted to make sure you’re still alive!” Yeah, I’m still alive, I just haven’t thought my life’s been very interesting the past few weeks or so.
Holy cow, he's alive!
by Tim Faircloth on Oct 21, 2008, 4:59 pm
That’s right, I’m here. The workload of two whole classes has forced me into hiding. That’s right, classes. For those of you that don’t know, I’m starting work on my Master’s degree in Computer Science here at GSW.
I’ll catch you all up. What have I been doing? Class. It seems like every week I have an assignment that requires several hours of coding or database work. Assignments for my (Oracle-based) database class is relatively unexciting, but I’ve done a few things in Information Security that I think a few of you might like:
- Project 1: Caesar Cipher - It’s amazing how easy it is to crack this encryption with a fairly large degree of accuracy.
- Project 2: Vigenere Cipher - Not quite as easy, but once you find the key length all you have to do is split your ciphertext into groups and treat each group as a Caesar-enciphered text.
- Project 3: RSA Encryption Algorithms - Didn’t have to crack this one, but we did have to implement some of the algorithms involved in RSA encryption, like the Extended Euclidean Algorithm and the universal formula for encryption/decryption ((a^b) mod c = d).
- Midterm project: Kerberos Protocol - Rather complex system of getting jobs from a user to a service by splitting up the tasks involved in doing so. Interesting project
That’s enough about class. I think about it enough as it is.
I’m also working on my Halloween costume… I’m going as Jayne Cobb from Firefly. Erica’s making me a cool hat to fit the part, and I went to an army supply store and got a cool hip holster for $20. Hell, I may even be able to use the holster after Halloween — provided I buy a gun big enough to fit it properly (for now it’ll hold a bright orange water pistol).
I’m also looking forward to Christmas. That’s right, Christmas. By the way, if I happen to wish you a Merry Christmas, feel free to say “Happy Hanuka” or “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Winter Solstice” or whatever you celebrate during the winter season — I’ll be glad that you’re wishing me well — just don’t give me a speech about how I’m being a pigheaded jerk for celebrating my own way.
Anyway, sorry for the tangent.
The reason I bring up Christmas is because I realize that I haven’t given anybody any hints for gifts or whatever, so I thought I’d make my list public (since pretty much anyone that would get me a gift reads this blog). Keep in mind I’m not saying “Hey, you should get me a gift”, I’m just giving you clues if you already had it in your head that you were going to buy me a gift.
- a watch - I’ve got watches running out of my ears, but none of them are exactly what I want. My digital Casio is great for everyday wear, but looks trashy when I wear something nice. My two Fossils look nice, but the metal bands are difficult to adjust without bloodshed — and neither of them has a backlight. I have trouble reading analog watches period, let alone in the dark.
- Burnout Revenge for XBox 360 - I’ve played the demo of this game so many times it’s not even a challenge anymore. On that note…
- Microsoft Points - I just love so many of the XBox Arcade games that I’ve had to buy a few. They’re cheap, but I always hate spending money on games like that for myself. As a reference, the average game which provides several days of non-stop entertainment costs about 800 points. You can buy Microsoft Points cards at any video game store.
- Gift Cards - So I’ve been telling myself for a few months now that I’m going to do this or that to my house, but I always find one main reason not to do it — money. I need new storm doors and a few other minor things for my house that I just don’t feel like buying. Also, I do most of my grocery shopping at Walmart or Winn Dixie.
- other stuff - Cash and Candy are universal gifts in my book. Also, I’m sure I’ll think of something else to put up here later on.
hmmm… guess that’s all I have for now. Hopefully I won’t leave you folks in the dark for so long.