jcm's blog

[ from the Visiting-Computer-Science-Dignitaries dept. ]

Yesterday I was in Oxford to hear Donald Knuth talking about Metapost. The talk was indeed most interesting and had a unique style – I particularly enjoyed discovering that he wrote TeX so that it produces output similar to the typesetting used in his first calculus book.

There was a smaller session afterwards at which we ended up discussing all manner of topics – including INTERCAL – and where I was able to privately ask a few things about MMIX. Knuth initially thought he had met me previously, which was pretty cool.

I impulsively purchased the O’reilly book on POSIX.4 Programming For The Real World so damn yet another bookshop for making me want to buy more books!

Jon.

[ from the something-to-think-about dept. ]

I am looking for a project which uses LD_PRELOAD to override the standard glibc file handling routines with magical ones which perform transparent filename munging and encryption of content. If such software does not currently exist then I will look in to the problem myself.

This mechanism is not entirely secure against deliberate malicious intent however should provide a user on a shared computer system with some level of protection against a casually interested Administrator or anyone else who would potentially consider having a look around a user filestore.

Jon.

[ from the are-going-to-take-over-the-world-soon dept. ]

Today I will be on campus first thing to finish some work, check out graduation tickets (I know “I should have done that already”), etc. Then I will be on a train to London to meet some friends, visit family in Reading. Tomorrow I am in Oxford at a Knuth Talk on Metapost. Back in Nottingham on Tuesday night to continue working and contemplating exams.

Jon.

[ from the deciding-what-to-do-with-my-life-etc. dept. ]

I handed in a 16,000 word dissertation on my to date work on The Genesis Microkernel Project and will release some code in the summer, once I have resolved the problems. In any case I am now beginning to make some serious progress on the road towards a decent part time hacky project.

So with that over, and with final exams looming on the horizon, I am taking some time to reflect upon what I want to do next. It is looking likely that I will seek employment with one of the contacts I have been talking with though I also intend to at least take on a part time PhD.

I am “not quite finished yet” in terms of education, or at least that is how it feels. I very much like the idea of combining work with interesting research and I do know the committment involved in mixing both together. I will know how things will work out soon enough.

Jon.

[ from the Isograted-Circuits-Coming-Next dept. ]

IBM succeeded in creating the first Isolinear circuits. Star Trek technology comes to life.

Jon.

[ from the email-backlog-building-up dept. ]

For those people (hi Chris) who have mailed me recently and not received a full reply then I apologise and will be in touch soon.

I have begun sending suggestions to the Computer Science department for alterations to the courses for future students. I feel I can make a large number of positive comments before I graduate so that these issues are discussed at the relevent committee meetings.

Jon.

[ from the biometric-invasion-of-privacy dept. ]

The Home Secretary is to propose that this country become more of a prison state by introducing biometric and other invasive privacy measures at UK entry points. While I generally question the usefulness of biometrics I certainly do not propose to like the idea of providing these details to the government. I suppose I am not supposed to object given that it is probably in the interest of protecting us from Witches…sorry Terrorists who are obviously everywhere. Blunkett annoys me greatly.