What had I achieved in this summer?

I give myself 80 points (out of 100) for the things I did this summer.

First of all, I passed ECT; for that I have to thank David and Kyoho who both offer me some help in preparation of that exam.

Second, I finished a course, Security Architecture and Engineering, in this summer and I got an A- (not meeting my expectation but acceptable). And I enjoyed what I learned from that class, especially some knowledge pertainning to viruses/worms and setUID programs.

Third, I learned Java and Perl by myself. Surprisingly enough, you can pick up these languages quickly and easily as long as you have good knowledge of C. And of course, I do. So here I go, I can program in Java and Perl now which can be put on my resume! However, learning Perl is a little bit unexpected since I was gonna learn Javascript and Python instead. Anyway I will learn Python later.

Fourth, I created my own C string library which tackle the problems of buffer overflow with original C string library. This is my first self-supervised project and it went pretty well. This project is sort of an initiator, an anchor, to other projects I am planning to implement later on. The next project will be a simple board game in C++.

Fifth, the first complete draft of your resume is completed and reviewed by the counselor in CCE. So that I can use this resume to put myself in the job market.

Finally, I got head start on some classes I will take in the coming semester.

Hmmm... not too bad huh? Continue on achieving your goals and pushing yourself to jump a little bit higher every time you try. May the force be with me.

Courses taken in this semester

I finalized my course list last week. Here it is:

• Network Security
• Artificial Intelligence
• Topics in Software Security
• Advanced Programming

*P.S. Auditing Data Structure and Algorithms in Java I love every course I take for this semester so far. Every course interests me so much and I want to learn them so badly!!! This semester I will be using UNIX/LINUX environment intensively, and I enjoy using it. I tried to do my first assignment in Advanced Programming yesterday, and I already learned a lot from doing that assignment!!! I just love using UNIX/LINUX tools.

$ svn $ tar $ bzip/bunzip $ gzip/gunzip $ gcc -g -Wall $ less $ top

Midterms are finally over

I am so glad that mideterms are finally over. The past two weeks has been painstaking. And it seems like all the shit things happened in the last week. First, I had two midterms plus FOUR homework assignments due last week. The schedule is scary enough but that is not the worse. I got seriously sick in the middle of that week which means I was not a hundred percent functionable during that week and indeed I screw up those two exams. Second, a teammate of PLT group did not inform us beforehand that he wanted to change his group to another team. To me that is unrespectful at all and selfish. However, this kid, turned back to our team and asked for some project files we have been working on last week. I have to say that was pretty annoying. And I had to waste my time dealing with this shit all because this selfish kid. Anyway, it might not be bad to work without him. Three is sometimes better than four, or maybe, most time. This week, is much better than last week though. First, I got totally recovered from that damn cold. Second, I had only one assignment due and two mideterms this week. However, I did not score well on these two midterms either. But, hey! I have a long holiday. Just do not forget what you came here for - learn to be a HACKER! And improve your English!!! Don't ever forget that.

First day of school

The honeymoon period is over. The real thing starts. Continues...

I-House

First of all, what is I-house? International House.

Orientation, orientation... AND orientation!!!

Yes, three orientations in total! And you can add even more if you want to. The very first one is international student orientation. Continue...

Columbia University in the City of New York

My highest academic degree so far is going to be completed at this Ivy League school. So let's talk about it a little bit. First of all, it is small. I mean the main campus is quite small. It is much smaller than NCTU. Second of all, this school is more like a business entity, not a academic institution. Maybe my view here is bias or too quick to jump to a conclusion, but this school indeed knows how to make money (I guess it is probably because it is in New York and it is Ivy). It actually plays a part in New York's real estate market. So it is certainly a rich school!! Third, the campus is quite campact but beautiful as a whole. Here are some photos for you to take a virtual tour of the campus - Fourth, one thing I like about this school is that near its main campus a park - Riverside Park - sitting elegantly right besides it. I like this park. And I will sort of live in this park. Because I live in I-house. Fifth, I went to the SEAS (in case you don't know, this acronym stands for School of Engineering and Applied Science) building a few days ago. There are several departments reside in this building. I am not sure if it is crowded after school starts. The infrastructure inside the building is quite well built according to my first impression. I hope that I will enjoy studying at SEAS. http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/homepage-views/view1/index.html