[ from the this-one-is-funny dept. ]
Yet another random entry…
I was reading through some of the INTERCAL documentation and came accross this paper which is just plain damn funny. That guy really didn’t deserve an ‘F’… 
Staying up to read some notes and listening to “DJ Sammy – Heaven (Candlelight Mix)” since there is no accounting for taste.
Jon.
[ from the book-early-book-often dept. ]
I have booked a ticket to see the Matrix Reloaded on Wednesday the 21st of May 2003. Anyone else in Nottingham who wants to see it is welcome to join me for the 23:30 performance at the Warner Village. They are offering free Matrix DVDs while stocks last – so I will probably not get one now.
I will also go to see this with the Nottingham LUG if possible and probably with Hussein and others. This is one film that I am likely to end up seeing too many times whether I want to or not. Star Trek First Contact was a film that I actually ended up seeing 6 times in the cinema before it finished, then I bought the VHS Video, the DVD, the counselling, etc.
Jon.
[ 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.