Friday, July 11, 2008

Just a note to let you all I’m still here :-)

For me the next month will be pretty heavy – I’m wrapping up 2x university subjects at the moment which will mean that I only have 1 subject left before I finish my Masters degree. All being equal I will then have it finished by the end of this year.

One of my subjects is quite hard – I’m studying Encryption – The standards I’m learning about are
DES, 3DES and RSA. Not only am I having to learn them at a high level, I have to learn the mathematics behind them. For DES and 3DES this is not so much of an issue (as there is little maths involved), but RSA is extremely complex and involves large Prime numbers and Mod maths.

The other subject isn’t too hard – It’s focused on IT Security (more on the ethics side than the technical side), but with a focus on learning about Linux – The 3 flavours I’m learning include Red Hat, Fedora Core and Ubuntu.

Some exciting technology developments have happened over the past week:
-
HyperV (the new Hypervisor for virtual servers running on Windows Server 2008) has been released to manufacturing (RTM). This means that anybody who has an appropriately licensed Windows Server 2008 can run virtual servers in full production mode

- The new 3G iPhone – Apple have released the new 3G iPhone in Australia. I’m currently looking for a new phone, and the iPhone looks like it would suit me down to the ground. Although I must say when I compare it to other midrange to high-end mobile phones of around the same price, it does look like a number of the iPhone’s features are now obsolete – For example the phone only has a 2MegaPixel camera – Other new phones are coming out with 5MegaPixels. Another example is a built in FM radio, most other phones from Nokia or SonyEricsson do have a built in radio. If the iPhone had a built in FM radio I’d be sold, but at the moment I'm not convinced.

Anyway – I better get back to my Uni work – I’ve got 2 assignments due in 2.5 weeks time, and then the final 2 exams on the 4th and 5th August.

Cheers,
Phil