Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

I found this great blog today and wanted to share. This gal really is feisty, in a good way!

Foxy Pink Cheetah: Feminism

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Shell Shocked

Have you ever signed up for something and then realize when it was over that, had you known what you were signing yourself up for in advance, you would have never signed up for it in the first place?

Yeah. That's what Advanced Operating Systems at USC taught by Professor Neuman is like.

Don't get me wrong. I actually *liked* and *enjoyed* the class, even though operating systems is not my strong suit. And Professor Neuman is awesome. The running joke among a few of us is that Professor Neuman can cause a lightbulb to spontaneously light up through sheer enthusiasm and mental brilliance. He's that good.

But had I known in advance that the open book, open note final would involve two 3" binders full of papers we had to read, the actual textbook for the class, my own notes and the slides from class, I think I might have passed. Or questioned my sanity.

For future reference, if you take this course from Professor Neuman, be prepared to learn a lot about distributed operating systems. Neuman is God when it comes to this and computer security. Yes. Try taking a class from God. The brain cannot get any fuller than this, and there is no dial past 11.

If you do take this course from Professor Neuman, here is a list of the readings to pay particular attention to:

Any paper on Kerberos or Prospero.
The Cheriton and Lampson papers are especially "good for you".
Neuman's paper on Scale in Distributed Systems was nicknamed in my class "The Magic Paper". Much knowledge is to be gleaned from this. Read this paper even before you take the midterm.
The Fault Tolerance and Mach papers are "good for you" as well.

When you take the final, for God's sake please print out a copy of your reading reports. They came in handy as I didn't have to re-lookup many of my answers. Also, for the design problem, a lot of people seem to get hung up on details. The specifics of the problem description are only there to provide some context for solving it. You can't completely forsee or solve every problem this system is going to have in the 30 or so minutes you have to solve it. The point is can you get the broad strokes of the solution and convey them in a way to the grader to show that you have an understanding of the course material. Your solution doesn't have to be "right", but you do need to justify your decisions in a way that "makes sense".

Anyway, in a way I'm sad the class is over. I look forward to taking Computer Security with Neuman next Fall.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Bento Snack

I actually made a whole lunch for Mr. Bento today, but here's just a photo of the snack portion (because it turned out the prettiest). This is the small tupperware container, filled with cheddar cheese, smoked sausage, and crackers. If I had a couple grape tomatoes I would have squeezed them in around the crackers, but other than that everything fit quite snugly. The angle of the photo just makes the container look half empty.

The rest of the lunch was Thanksgiving leftovers; stuffing and green beans in the rice container and turkey slathered with cranberry sauce in the soup container. The large tupperware container had peanut butter cookies and chex mix to snack on, but I haven't really tackled that one yet.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Hey Twilight Fans!

Please, please, please, for the love of homemade macaroni with real cheddar cheese, please explain to me why you love this series so much.

Because this synopsis of Breaking Dawn and this comparison of Edward's behavior to an abusive relationship signs checklist do not help your case.

I watched Twilight last night. On YouTube. And I do not understand the appeal of Edward's character *at* *all*. I was OK with his character until his conversation with Bella in the hallway when he tells her flat-out that no one would believe her version of what happened with the van. Holy crap. Any fascination I had for the character completely died in that moment.

I actually really liked the Jacob character (even though I *know* he forcibly kisses her in one of the later books). Given the choice between the two, at least it appears that Jacob genuinely cares about Bella (although the reason why escapes me. I think she's an awful human being, even for being an angsty teenager).

And yes, when they make the film version of Breaking Dawn, I think they should keep it as true to the novel as the synopsis. Because at least that film would be hilarious.