Peter Norris

My last post was January 17, nearly a month ago. I said I was going to try to blog at least every-other day and clearly, I failed. I’ve just been really busy with school and every time I think about blogging its a bad time. Hopefully now that its reading week next week I should be able to get caught up on everything and get back to blogging more often. I’ve got a couple of post ideas I’m going to work on in the next few days so check back soon.

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A new semester at university has started. So far, there isn’t very much work. In fact, I don’t think I have any work to do right now. I’ve only had 3 of my 5 classes (the other 2 are tomorrow), and so far there’s nothing too special. Although, I am looking forward to Algorithms and Data Structures course. It looks interesting. As well, my Cisco security course looks like I might actually learn something and get to do some fun things in the lab.

It was my birthday 3 days ago, and now I’m 20. So far, nothing has been different from when I was 19. Hopefully that will change soon.

I have some ideas for the blog that I’m going to work on over the next little while, as well as finding some ways to monetize the blog. I need to find some source of income and the blog looks like a good option.

Until my next post, remember to keep your firewall turned on.

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I know I haven’t posted in over a month. I’ve just been busy with school and other things. I keep saying, I should post, but I never do. School has been going good so far. Most classes are good. A couple I could do without though. A brief summary is below.

Cisco: This class is Intro to network security. And when I say intro I mean intro. Its very basic, we haven’t actually learned much and the professor leaves a lot to be desired.

Cybercrime: So far this class hasn’t been too special. The prof is the former head of the child exploitation unit of the toronto police. Starting next week they’re going to be bringing in a bunch of guest speakers talking about security stuff so this could be good.

Computer architecture: I like this class. The prof is great and we’re actually learning about stuff I’m interested in. So far we’ve talked about some different processor architectures and we’re going to be doing some assembly programing.

Object Oriented Programming: In this course we’re learned object oriented programming with c++. The prof is great too and this should be a good course.

Marketing for the IT Sector: This course focuses on marketing in the IT sector. The material, while it sounds interesting, is a little dry (at least how we are learning it) and the prof is decent, but not great.

In other news, our dog Sally had puppies 2 weeks ago today. There are some pictures here and here.

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In one short week it’s back to school. On Monday September 3rd I’ll be moving back into res for another fun filled year. This is year two of four and I’m definitely looking forward to going back. Classes officially start on Thursday the 6th, but I don’t have my first class until the following Monday the 10th. I have a pretty decent schedule this year. My schedule for the fall term is as follows:

Monday
11am-2pm: Marketing in the IT Sector (Lecture)
3pm-6pm: Cisco Security 1: Fundamentals of Network Security (Lab)
7pm-10pm: Computer Architecture (Lecture)

Tuesday
11am-2pm: Cybercrime (Lecture)
2pm-5pm: Cisco Security 1: Fundamentals of Network Security (Lecture)

Wednesday
9:40am-11am: Object Oriented Programming (Tutorial)
7pm-10pm: Object Oriented Programming (Lecture)

Thursday and Friday
Nothing!

Aside from I plan to be involved in some extra things, such as a Mac user’s group and a security club. I’m really looking forward to year 2 of IT Security at UOIT. 

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As UOIT’s first undergraduate graduating class receives their degrees, so do 8 students who graduate from Canada’s first masters program in IT Security. UOIT is often referred to as the new MIT of the North.

This program is the first one it’s kind in Canada and one of few word-wide.The MITS program focuses not only on the technical aspect of security, but also on computer law and ethics, cryptography, and secure coding. 8 students graduated from the program this year (the first graduates) and Clemens Martin, one of the professors, said that enrollment is rising and competition is tough as there are more applicants than spaces in the program.   

The itbusiness.ca article can be read here and more information on the MITS program is available here.

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I went to write my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) exam today, but came out without a certification. You need an unimaginable 849 out of 1000 to pass, and I had 734. I knew the exam was hard, but in my opion it was too hard. There were a couple of things on there I don’t even remember ever doing in class at school which covered the material.

There was also a simulation question in which I had to configure something on a simulated router. I had to configure an access control list to permit and deny HTTP traffic from different users. I had access to one router only, which was the one I was supposed to configure it on. This should have been simple to do, however the ip access-list command needed to do this was “not supported in this version of the Ciso IOS”. How am I supposed to configure an ACL on a router that doesn’t support the command needed to do so? I think this question was worth a lot of marks, which isn’t fair because I couldn’t even answer it! I know I should have done more studying than I did, but I don’t think that would have helped. Now I’m out $70.

I can attempt to write it again but the next time it will cost me about $170. Next year we do the material for the CCSP certifications, but in order to go for that I need my CCNA. I don’t even know if I want to go for that though. To get my CCSP I have to write 5 exams and pay close to about $700 probably. I don’t think it’s worth it. Being certified in using a Cisco firewall (one of the exams) doesn’t seem like something that will get me a job. I know the exams cover non-Cisco material, but they are very Cisco specific. There are other companies out there other than Cisco. I’d rather spend my time and money on vendor-neutral certifications, some of which are even more recognized than Cisco certifications. I might decide to go for my Network+ and Security+ certifications instead. These cover the same principles as the Cisco exams but do not focus on configuring and using any specific device, which I can easily learn if the need arises.

I want to do security consulting and research, not network administration. I don’t think I need have vendor specific certifications. This is going to require some thought (and $$$), so I’m going to spend some time weighing the options and hopefully all will work out in the end.

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Wow- I haven’t updated since September. Everytime I think of it, I can’t (not at a computer, busy, etc..), and when I have nothing to do, I don’t think to update. But I finally found time to, so here goes.

First, school. So far its been pretty good. First term has finished and I’m currently enjoying some time off. I don’t know any marks yet, but I think I’ll be pretty happy with most of them. Especially math. It’s amazing how my lowest mark last year (a 60 in Algeo) could very well be my highest mark (probably at least an 80). None of my exams were even difficult. None of them took the full time allowed and I almost feel like I wasted time studying for a couple of them.

Hopefully next term will be just as easy as this last one. There were a few times when I had a lot of work to do, but the majority of the time my classes didn’t require any work or reading. Hopefully these new classes will all be the same. However, I have a few business ones this term, so we’ll see.

In other news, I get to move! I no longer have to live in crappy Simcoe in a shared room that never seems to go above about 10 degrees with a roommate who clogs the toilet about once a week. I’m going out on the 27th to move into my new room in South. Don’t know who my new roommate is, but at least I’ll get my own room.

Second, life. There really isn’t much to say. I’m still single with no prospects (surprising, eh?) and still sober. Yes, you read that right. No drinking for me. Why? No access and nobody I hang out with at school drinks (as of yet). Hopefully that will change soon. I could use a drink (or two, or three, or four). Although it’s only 12 days until I turn 19, so that will all be changing soon.

So far this “christmas” break has been full of relaxing and tv- just what the doctor ordered. It just doesn’t feel like christmas this year. Maye its the warm temperatures and lack of snow (but hey- that’s global warming). Although we are supposed to get some flurries on christmas day, so maybe we’ll get a somewhat white christmas after all.

Merry christmas and happy new year (if you dont celebrate christmas, tough- I don’t care about being politically correct!)

Peter

PS: The title came from an Apple article on shell scripting. It read “Writing a shell script is like riding a bike. You fall off and scrape your knees a lot at first, but once you are sufficiently experienced, you’ll understand why people drive cars.” I just thought it was a good title for the post as it kinda sums up my first few months of university which comes with alot of scrapes and bruises.

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I’ve been here at UOIT for just over a week now and I’m likeing it. I’m starting to get used to living in res and sharing a room, but I’m still going to be going home most weekends. As for classes they all seem like they’ll be pretty easy. Except discrete math of course. And networking, although fast paced, should be interesting and as a bonus I’ll get my CCNA certification at the end. My math tutorial today was “interesting” to say the least. I couldn’t understand a word the tutor said and we were there for 10 minutes- the class was supposed to be an hour and a half. He didn’t even explain anything. All he did was read a few examples off the board. He reminds me of Ferguson (scary- I know). Anyways, I swithced out of that class into another one. Other than that, nothing else is wort mentioning. Except for the fact that I got to go on a school bus. The building that one of my classes is supposed to be in wasn’t ready so we got bused 2 minutes down the street to the Shriner’s club. Anyways- that’s all for now. Have fun and stay (relatively) sober.

Peter

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I’ve been here at UOIT for 2 days now. While I like it hear and I’m having fun (FBIT!! FBIT!!) I’m not happy with the res situation. I could have had a suite with a private room and a shared common area but I got stuck with a shared room. Mr roomate is in chemical egineering at Durham College which means we will have different groups of friends and be going to some different events. He seems nice, but he’s not the type of person I’d hang out with. And the fridge runs all night. 15 minutes on, then 15 minutes off. All night long. I got 4 hours of sleep last night. And did I mention that I have no privacy? I know a lot of universities have have shared rooms, but I could have had a suite with my own room. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I can’t live like this for 8 months.

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So I haven’t posted in about three weeks. I just haven’t had the time. This is what I’ve been up to: got my laptop and ID card from UOIT, get a new Macbook Pro, watched 9 hours of LoTR and been out of the house alot. I don’t think I’ve had one day home in the past couple of weeks. And as of tomorrow it’s ony 1 week before school starts and I move into res! I can’t wait! Anyways- that’s all for now. I’ll post more later. I promise this time.

Later days, Peter

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