“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans..”
Christ. It’s been a busy .. uhhh.. 3 months. My dissertation has been handed in, I presented a poster about my project to people, and I handed in a big ass portfolio. Go me. I have to thank my awesome girlfriend Janet, as she helped me through it all, especially the more stressful times. Without her, I think I may have been a bald quivering mess, crying in a corner with pieces of a ripped up dissertation in my mouth.
Now I only have a couple of little pieces of work to do, and a presentation to do in front of 100 people (+____+). But those are non-issues, compared to the thing that comes after they are done.
I’m (re)joining real life.
UH. OH.
I’m scared. Even though I have almost finished my degree, I’m still unsure as to what I actually want to do with my life after I get the piece of paper that says “lulz gg pal u r teh gradu8″. I’m not sure about the Digital Forensics anymore (yes, that’s what my degree is in).. Some things about it really interest me (such as network security - which sadly was covered very little on the course), and some things bore me INTENSELY (investigating the contents of a hard disk for evidence of crimes). I just don’t have a LOVE for it, like you’d think one might. I don’t want to help single handedly end the fight against cyber terrorists with a PERL script.
My other options for jobs are:
1 - Become a bum
This one is not really a viable option. I want a decent amount of money, and I don’t want to sleep in a cardboard box.
2 - Whatever I can get.
This one could be good. I could end up choreographing a band of chipmunks dressed as women, in an all chipmunk version of GREASE. Though doing this, I could also end up counting the weekly total of paperclips that were used by our parent company in Whocares on their reports.
3 - Turn my skills into SKILLZ.
Create a trojan, gather a botnet, and DDOS big websites till they pay you to stop. The only downside to this is the high possibility that I will not feel safe in the shower for several years, due to SHANKIN BILL and STABBY MC KILLFACE.
4 - Start my own company.
I have many hair brained ideas, some of which are just retarded, and some of which are quite sensible. However, as I have between little and no confidence in my ability to succeed, these to me seem a little risky.
As usual, this post is pointless, and has no real content. To summarise:
I’m scared about getting a job, and starting a real life. But I’m also REALLY looking forward to getting a house and starting a life in a new town with my awesome girlfriend.
Christmas has been and gone, and now….
Work. That’s what I need to do. A shitload of work. I guess you could have guessed that, since I am blogging - it’s quite a good time killer.
I spent a large part of today coding something in PHP to aid me in the breaking of a Vigenere Cipher for an assignment at Uni. It was worryingly fun, even though it was a bit of a cow to do. It made me remember how much fun coding PHP is, and how much I love web jiggery pokery in general. Then I thought about the C sharp code I’m going to have to write soon.. and how scary that sounds to me. My pants are wet.
For my final project at University, I’ve somehow ended up attempting to create a plug-in for the Forensic Software Framework TULP2G. You may have heard of it, though that’s doubtful. It’s a piece of software that is used mainly for extracting data from mobile phones. With its base plug-ins, it mainly extracts data from SIM cards.. Though being a Software Framework, the idea is that ingenious people create more useful plug-ins for it. I’m one of those ingenious people….
I’m meant to be writing a plug-in that will allow me to extract data from a 3G phone, or a PDA. I’m geared towards the PDA, or at least a smart phone that runs Windows CE, since it should be easier to copy something from a Windows device.. right? I hope so.
As well as copying the data and doing whatever has to be done with it, the plug-in has to do it in a forensically correct manner - which means, alter nothing at all - and be able to verify that no modifications have been made to the data during the copy. Most of the time we use MD5/SHA1 hashes to verify this - so it shouldn’t be too hard.
THEN, when I’ve done that, I need to produce a hu-fucking-mongous dissertation on the thing - though, I like to think I’m rather good at bullshitting writing long and informative pieces.. I mean, look at my blogging history!
As well as this, we have several other pieces of work to be done - none of which will be (hopefully) as challenging as my project… It’s times like these I wish I was one of these people who can actually do work in advance… I should have been working on my project since I started again in September.. but what kind of student would I be if I did things sensibly?
So.. yeah. the next two or so months are going to be fun. Hopefully I will come out of it with a decent project, meaning a decent mark.
Only time will tell… wish me luck..
The times they are a’changin.
I used to be a big PC guy. Both in the sense I was fat - and that I vowed only to ever use PC’s.
For me, they did everything I needed. I could play games, I could download and watch shit.. I could keep in touch with friends.. send e-mails and surf the web - all from one place with relative ease. Sure, i’d get the occasional problem, but I worked in IT anyway, so sorting these things out was no big chore for me - i’d rather not do it.. but it was part and parcel of having a PC.
…Sorting out problems with PC’s, day in, day out. Not good times, trust me. One time a guy called me late at night, his screen was on, but there was no signal to the monitor. He’d tried moving the mouse and hitting keys, but the PC would not come out of power saving mode. I was determined to not have to restart the machine - as he had likely not saved his work - and having him moan at me about how he lost it would have really pissed me off.
After a few minutes on the phone, he decided to tell me there had been a power cut a while back..
“Have you turned the computer back on?” said I.
“Oh.. I didn’t think of that!”
It’s a good job you can’t stab people via telephone.
I came to University - and couldn’t get away from PC problems. My PC was riddled with problems that I couldn’t figure out - and trust me, how I tried. Being a poor student, meant not being able to replace hardware that *might* be broken. Also, my friends knowing that I had a background in IT, would regale me with their stories of woe.. how the were doing X and Y happened. “Fucking windows” coupled with comedy fist shaking.
All my problems were solved when I became a Linux convert in my second year of University - I fell in love - mainly, with BASH (tab key, I love you), and the sheer usability, versatility and awesome stability that Linux offers. The only problems I had with it were not so great hardware or software support. Using Linux meant that it was a bit more challenging to do things like manage my iPod, and watch stuff that I had downloaded. Also, while open source software can generally do the job - I do prefer commercial software - afterall, if they are charging money for a product, it has to be able to operate at a certain standard (isn’t that right, Microsoft? oh wait..), otherwise people won’t buy it. I also got rather annoyed at not being able to watch HD content due to dodgy graphics driver support in Linux.
Anyway, I decided to get a new laptop. It was nice - it ran smoothly.. I even installed Vista Ultimate on it, and enjoyed the spangly doodars and shiny wotsits that it had to offer me. Then it all went downhill. Things started to not work. My wireless card in particular. The laptop started to crash a lot - random freezing, applications just giving up while in use. It really started to grate on me.. So I downgraded to XP, hoping this would help me out.
It didn’t.
To cut a long and boring story short, I got really pissed off at my laptop. As if by some not-so-evil twist of fate, it got wine (and orange juice - not at the same time mind) spilled on it. It’s functionality deteriorated until it finally started to sporadically boot, which I was really not happy with.
I had decided I had had enough. I didn’t want to play games anymore.. I wanted things to just work. I didn’t want to have to hunt down hacked drivers to make my graphics card properly with the operating system.. I didn’t want to have to spend an hour trying to figure out why my PC wouldn’t boot into Windows.
So I bought a Mac - but don’t worry, this post doesn’t turn into a “LOLZ MACZ R DA BEST PCZ R 4 DA LOZE!”.
So, why did I choose a Mac?
Well, one of the biggest selling points, was that the operating system was Unix based - and therefore had a BASH console out of the box (mmmm, BASH). Quite sad, I know - but as my Uni course requires some knowledge of Linux, this couldn’t be a bad move.
Also, unified hardware - meaning almost non-existent driver issues. No more trying to find graphics drivers that will play nicely with the other hardware and software I have installed. Not only this - but logic dictates, that unified hardware, means better performance from said hardware, thanks to optimised drivers. And not optimised drivers that have been optimised by some dude who has too much time on his hands…
Support for software is no longer bad. I remember (this was back at school mind you) when doing things that a PC could do on a Mac - was not that easy. If you had a file from a PC, the likelihood was that it wouldn’t play nice with the Mac, and you’d have to jump through a few hoops for your final solution to maybe work. I guess since Windows has monopolised the market for so long, Apple had to do something to make Mac OS more Windows friendly - so they did, and they did it well.
A Mac offered me what I wanted. I wanted minimal hassle and maximum usability - sure I may have had to pay a little more for - but boy - was it worth it. I love my Mac - and I don’t have “PC ENVY COS U CANT RUN FARCRY2!1 LUZL!1!1!11!” or whatever the jokers on the internet would likely say - as they are unable to accept that someone does not agree with their narrow minded opinion, that spending thousands on a system to play a game (that my xbox 360 that cost £200 could.. but that’s a whole other kettle of fish) is not the best way to go about things.
It’s just that RIGHT NOW, a Mac has more to offer me than a PC. I have no problems with PC’s - they are still great, and I can accept they have their issues.. I’m not trying to convert people to Mac’s.. But if you are tired of PC’s and the shit that inevitably comes with most of them (at least, in my experience - of which there has been a lot) - then a Mac may well be the answer.
Anyway. Thanks for reading all that crap. I don’t even really know what I was trying to say. But fuck it.
Hello there
Why hello there internets.
I am Dave Smith.
Yup.
This is my new blog. One day it may contain something worth reading. Just not at this exact second in time.