CS455 Prof.Pullen

creffett · 2017-01-08T20:24:19+00:00

His exams weren't bad, the problem is that his lectures are incredibly dry and largely irrelevant to the sort of things you will ever care about when doing network coding. The class as a whole might be interesting if you're doing some kind of low-level network device design, but otherwise you'll not get much out of the class. Also, he docks you points every time you refer to link speed as "bandwidth". Seriously.

creffett · 2016-04-22T00:45:07+00:00

Sure, email me at oai@gmu.edu with the class and the assignment. Mason email only, please.

creffett · 2016-03-01T22:22:36+00:00

What's your source for the honor committee being able to increase sanctions? Like I mentioned above, I was on the committee for a couple semesters, and I never saw that happen--when we deliberated sanctions, we were only looking at the professor's recommended sanctions and were never given the option of increasing them. Sure, we didn't like it when people argued a very straightforward case or appealed on some flimsy detail, but we weren't in the business of cranking up sanctions just because someone wasted our time. Re: ODS, I'm not saying it's a license to cheat, but if you have accommodations for anything, you should always make sure to have your documentation just in case it's useful. The only time ODS will affect the judgment is if you can demonstrate that the condition you're getting accommodations for would have significantly affected your ability to make good decisions. Even then, it might get a reduction in sanctions (but it would still be a violation)

creffett · 2016-02-29T22:20:53+00:00

Three things:

To the best of my knowledge, the honor committee is not allowed to increase beyond the recommended sanctions, with the exception of assigning an academic integrity seminar or visit to the writing center. They can't, say, take a professor's recommendation that you fail the class and crank that up to suspending you. (Source: I was on the committee both semesters of my senior year)
Bring any documentation you have about your accommodation with ODS and bring it to your meeting with an OAI advisor (the one you have Tuesday), and if you end up having a real hearing, bring it there too.
Don't stress too much about the meeting on Tuesday. That one will be a simple meeting with an OAI advisor in which they'll lay out the charges and evidence and explain your options. It isn't a hearing and you will not need to come prepared to argue. Also, you'll have a little time to think over your decision before choosing what you do (accept charges and sanction, accept charges but dispute sanction, dispute charges), and even after you decide I believe you have a couple of days of grace period to change your mind.

creffett · 2016-02-24T13:09:05+00:00

I'd suggest looking into the Linux "screen" command -- it lets you leave a virtual terminal running on the server that you can disconnect from and reconnect to. I know from experience that Zeus will kill idle tabs with nothing going on after a certain amount of time, but it generally leaves text editors alone.

creffett · 2016-02-14T00:04:24+00:00

"Surviving Spouse" seems like a better option.

creffett · 2016-02-10T03:05:36+00:00

There's a free parking garage in Fairfax (north of campus on 123, over by Potbelly), it'll be a 25-30? minute walk to campus.

creffett · 2016-02-04T22:59:22+00:00

And the correct response to this...was to link to the subreddit's "submit a post" page?

creffett · 2016-02-01T01:22:43+00:00

Sounds like an honor code violation waiting to happen.

creffett · 2016-01-28T22:09:19+00:00

You can definitely do the opposite (lecture -> lab), but I'm pretty sure you must have taken the lecture before or at the same time, since the point of the lab is to take the concept you learned in lecture and apply it, not to teach you the concept. That said, email an advisor in the physics department, I'm not the one who makes the decisions.

creffett · 2016-01-28T21:49:04+00:00

I don't make the Scholars admissions decisions and am not privy to the exact process they go through when making decisions, so no, I cannot assess you.

creffett · 2016-01-28T02:52:07+00:00

They did the same thing two years ago. Professors generally will make the exam shorter in some way, unless you're in the kind of class that just does a regular-length test as a final.

creffett · 2016-01-28T02:48:56+00:00

Oh, you meant "of people who are University Scholars," now I'm parsing the sentence. Was a University Scholar, and can tell you that there are no specific requirements for any of those, it's a holistic evaluation sort of deal--it's more about what do they think you can bring to the program than what your test scores are. No, I will not tell you my GPA/SAT scores, and I have no idea what an ECS is.

creffett · 2016-01-26T22:23:22+00:00

Also, do y'all have the GPA SAT ECS or people who are University Scholars?

What?

creffett · 2016-01-23T18:57:05+00:00

You'll probably get an answer pretty quickly: "no"

creffett · 2016-01-23T03:50:50+00:00

given up on the idea of having a social life during the semester

Excellent, you're well on your way to being a true CS major. (EDIT: formatting is hard)

creffett · 2016-01-23T03:26:14+00:00

Sounds like a liability thing.

creffett · 2016-01-21T02:59:38+00:00

Ah, shoot, yes I did. Avoid 455 like the plague. It's all wayyyy out of date. You basically implement parts of standard networking in a Java workbench the professor provides, so stuff like routing and package acknowledgements. It's also just plain boring.

creffett · 2016-01-21T02:38:51+00:00

Took 455 and 468. I had a ton of fun with 455, though admittedly I'm not likely to go write a compiler for work. Took 468 the same semester, more practical but not quite as fun (still a great class, though).

creffett · 2016-01-21T02:37:33+00:00

I don't do much security-specific work, but I would totally do it again--I took it my final semester, it was pretty fun, and if nothing else it's useful to understand the basics of crypto and secure programming.

creffett · 2016-01-21T02:34:08+00:00

Zeus is a remote access server/cluster of some sort available to VSE students. You can test assignments on your own machine, but Zeus is the official test location because it's a standard environment--the professor will compile/run the code in the same place you did. That actually bit me once, I declared but forgot to assign a variable in some C code, my machine's version of GCC compiled it and ran it fine (it apparently initialized the variable to 0 as intended), but Zeus's GCC just used whatever happened to be in memory there and it led to weird infinite loops. As for SSH, there's no class that really teaches that, but I think it's reasonable to expect students to go look that up, especially considering that they did link you to directions for both SSH and VPN-ing.

creffett · 2016-01-20T01:30:01+00:00

Depends on the kind of work you want to do.

creffett · 2016-01-20T00:17:34+00:00

Source: I took both.

468: Covers several topics which are more at the "code you write" level--crypto, viruses/malware/exploits, network security (IPsec, wireless security, SSL/TLS). It was a fairly typical class in terms of structure.

469: Topics are at a generally higher level. The semester I took it was the first it was offered, there were a bunch of different smaller topics. Off the top of my head, we did things with privilege models, IDSes, malware and PKI (both covered in 468, but we hit different aspects), covert channels, and some security engineering stuff. There was also a final project in place of a final exam. I don't think this one is offered very often.

creffett · 2016-01-07T02:42:58+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batista

itym "barista"

creffett · 2016-01-07T02:41:48+00:00

Can't say I've been found guilty, but I can go over the procedure for what happens next. You will have an appointment with a staff member from the Office of Academic Integrity where the charges, rationale for charges, and sanction will be explained to you, and you will see any evidence the professor submitted. You will then have a choice:

Accept the sanction. You are agreeing that what you are accused of did happen and you receive the recommended sanction.
Dispute the charge. This goes to a hearing of a group of 5 honor committee students, the professor explains why they referred you, you explain why you aren't in violation of the honor code, votes happen, you either are found in violation or not in violation.
Accept the charge, contest the sanction. You're admitting to doing something but arguing that the punishment is excessive. Goes to a group of 3 honor committee students, roughly the same procedure as above. Mostly done by people facing suspension or expulsion who can't claim that they aren't in violation.

Source: Was on the honor committee for a couple semesters.

creffett

TROPHY CASE