A little late for a new term post as it started about a month ago, but it is better now than never.

This year’s Fall semester is as busy as any other and I got neck deep in to studying right away. Here are some of the courses that I am currently taking.

  • AMATH 251 - Introductions to Differential Equations
  • CS 458 - Computer Security and Privacy
  • CS 456 - Computer Networks
  • CS 348 - Introduction to Database Management
  • PHYS 121 - Mechanics

One of the most intriguing courses so far has been security. The first assignment involved finding and writing exploits for a provided program that is known to be buggy in a virtual environment. The goal of the exploit was to gain root access through attacking the program with techniques like tocttou, buffer overflow and string formatting. The assignment was slow going at first because of my lack of experience in GDB and the sheer volume of debugging. However, after spending some crunching time I managed to get ‘er done. It was really interesting to see how vulnerable code can be and how important it is to take precautions to protect it.

Other courses like Mechanics and Differential Equations involve lots of weekly practise to keep the brain nice and sharp. The Mechanics course is a first year course, usually taken in first year. As a student in 3B with more calculus background than most first years, it is very rewarding to be able to make connections with the materials presented in class and what I have learned in the past, making things easier to understand.

With the database and networks course, not much can be said about them as the assignments have not started to roll out yet. All I know is that I am excited to take them!

In addition to my courses, I also got a TA marking position for MATH 239(Introduction to Combinatorics) as some part time work.

Outside of academics and work, in the small sliver of time left, I enjoy working out and running daily to help focus and stay healthy. In the kitchen, I have been expanding my culinary skills and have been trying to cook up some of my favourite dishes. Most recent successes include red beet salad. Other projects such as making another website or playing around with web scrapers are also in the works.

As this post had a rushed start, I will finish in the same fashion with a quote from a friend: “Time is passing, but are you ?”. Stop procrastinating and GET TO WORK!