Over the last two semesters I’ve found many-a-use for a couple Java functions to aid in reading and writing to byte-level values. I don’t have the time to create an entry in the OSS section of the website so I’m going to post them here for now. This release is under the Creative Commons license.

They consist of ByteUtil.java and BooleanUtil.java

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Feedback welcome, updates and additions are welcome as well. Please let me know if this has helped you at all.

Unless you really, really like garlic…do not buy this product.

I’m not kidding. I mean, seriously, I’ve eaten raw cloves of garlic that taste less garlic-ey than this salsa. I only hope that the bottle I got was just disgustingly full of garlic. If not, vampires aren’t safe walking in Walmart any more. One of these bottles hits the floor and they’re all dead.

I’ve been straying a bit from technology a bit lately on the blog, but really that’s a mirror of real life. I love being a programmer and a computer security guy, but the reality of the matter is that it doesn’t define me as it once did. I’ve gotten back into my love of cooking lately, along with photography and music, and I must say that it’s done me a world of good (especially since my time not working in technology shrinks by the day).

One of the tools that brought me back was the NuWave Oven (Pro). This was a wedding gift to/from a couple that I know and love, but I guess that’s a long story. The short story is that the oven is quite nice. While I’ve only used it for two things so far, both turned out quite nice.

The first was traditionally more complex: herb encrusted chicken breast. To do this I tried the basic approach with some frozen chicken breasts. I don’t have a lot of time or space so this was going to be quick and dirty. I tried to thaw the breasts a little, but didn’t get too far and just went right in to the spices. The base was basil, thyme, and rosemary with a little lemon pepper and crushed red pepper for warmth. All of these were just patted into the breast surface and the breasts were just tossed on the rack. Then I seasoned the other side and started the oven up.

Within a minute I could see the chicken sweating off all memory of the freezer and loosing a lot of fat. The wonderful thing about this oven is that you can clearly watch the progress and get a great estimate for how it’s doing. I noticed that the bottom side wasn’t cooking well so after the first 8 minutes I flipped the three pieces over and started again. After 10 more minutes the entire cycle was complete.

The seasonings seemed to be sucked rightinto the chicken and the flavor was fantastic. I did notice that the breast was tough (especially as it sat), but I think that was a combination of faults on my part. First, I didn’t use directions (please, no guy jokes). Second, the chicken was pretty close to the coil on the top, I should have dropped it to a lower level. Third, frozen chicken breasts shouldn’t ever be used…especially if your freezer has been struggling to reach 32 degrees for a week. That said, I think the only pull back from the chicken could be righted almost immediately and I could start adding vegetables to lower trays.

My other experiment was a simple lesson in toasting. I took a huge, day-old-sale sourdough loaf and sliced it up into pieces. Then, using extra virgin olive oil I coated each of the slice sides. Then I seasoned with basil, oregano, and garlic salt, and I threw the slices on one rack in the oven. It took longer than I thought, but the results were fantastic. Perfect restaurante quality toast to mix with some tasty tomato-basil penne from the night before (quick saute with extra sauce makes a great way to reheat).

If you have extra money to spend, or marrying benefactors, I recommend trying out this product. If you don’t have either of the aforementioned items stop by, and I’ll make dinner for you.

Yes, the lyrics to this delightful song by Santana (featuring the always forgettable Rob Thomas) share a truly fascinating phenomenon. It is the belief or need for reason merely because of the existance of one’s true love…or, in my case, a Cryptanalysis course.

While studying common methods for cryptography, there was quite a debate when discussing how humans crack the Caeser Cipher. Everyone seemed to have a strong opinion on whether the method was induction or deduction that humans would use to experiment with various 2- and 3-letter word possibilities, as you do in my mother’s personal vice: the cryptogram.

As I pointed out, to much derisive laughter, it’s neither. The correct form of reasoning to use here is abduction. This kind of methodology is not as pure as its bother and sister, deduction and induction, as it can lead to incorrect results. However, this sort of reasoning is arguably the most visible in our modern society. In particular, mysteries and detective-work almost always begin with a great deal of abductive reasoning. A trick to remembering these is to walk through a scenario. Here’s one that I made up:

Sherlock Holmes went to his friends house for tea and found his friend laying in the entrance with a gash on his head and a bloody candlestick next to him; he was dead. Using abductive logic, he could guess that he was struck and killed by the candlestick. It is possible that he died some other way, and that may not even be his blood on the candlestick, but it is fairly reasonable to make that step. Based on this, he could could also use inductive reasoning to estimate that a human struck him (a fairly strong induction as Sherlock remembers only 1 in 200 beating victims that he’s seen attacked by an animal).

Sherlock then remembers that his friend’s will stated that ‘if I die, my butler will take over and own my estate’. Since the man is dead, the butler must own the estate. This fine bit of deductive reasoning tells Sherlock It’s probably a good idea for him to go talk to the butler.

For those three of you who didn’t know, I’m not a Minnesotan any more. Or a Wisconsinite, I guess. No, my home is now in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s strange to say, but I almost feel like I’m already living that small dream. I’ve heard people say that “if you talk about something it long enough, it’s real”.

I don’t know how long it will be before I start to feel like this is where I’ve always been. It will probably be after I stop hearing about my accent, and maybe after I change my license plates. I hope it will come like the pentecostal flame, only giving me the strength to kill giant spiders instead of speaking in tongues.

There were a few steps to this journey, and I’ll probably document them for you in the next day or two. Without internet access or a working knowledge of Tulsa’s geography, I’ll probably be sitting inside a lot without much to do. It’s good, and I’m not trying to ‘fix that’.

But in summary: it’s now a week before my graduate courses start up in computer science, and three days before I find out just how small I am relative to the entering class of graduate students. These are major events, and major chapters that I’m now going to be exploring. I’m glad you’re reading this, and I hope you can find time to leave a comment or two on this blog series. I’d like to hear what other people are going through.

When I described what this blog may contain, I mentioned that I might get to having some music on here. I figured that was a pipe dream, but I now realize that the unbelievable is actually at hand. This years Easter visit to my parents house turned out to be a veritable Fool’s Gold-mine. Whenever I go back home, I sneak into my old bedroom and fiddle around with the instruments I used to play while in high school (piano, American flute, guitars, and even the organ if I feel crazy enough). One of my favorites is the hammered dulcimer that my parents bought a few years back.

Many of my friends haven’t heard of this instrument, and when try to explain what it is or how it works I always get a thorough mix of confusion, short attention spans, and disinterest. This is unfortunate, as it’s probably probably one of the most beautiful instruments I’ve been exposed to.

Its double stringed strike-points provide an extremely rich tone, added to by the harmonic resonance that the wooden body allows. Additionally, the hammers are so light and loose that it really doesn’t require muscle development to get the right control, it’s all in stroke management. In fact, many people who try it are surprised by how easy it is to get a tone, and how quickly they can pick up double striking or even more complex ‘stickings’. You’ll have to forgive me, I’m a percussionist by heart. I try to stay away from the terminology, but it comes back.

I probably do find it easier to play because of my percussion background, and I know that my hands move a little faster than my mothers when I play, but not by much. The one major problem for me is the vertical layout, as all mallet instruments are typically horizontal (i.e. like a piano). In addition you will notice that the scale is actually a set of 4 string pairs that go up the left brace. You start near a white brace on the right side and walk up four. Then you flip to the left side and start at the white brace again and go up. In this way they fit 3 scales on the left side (D,G,C). It’s also handy because the you can borrow low notes from the other scales as they are relatively close keys (2#’s, 1#, and no #, respectively).

I’ve linked the image to a video of me playing a very simple version of Loch Lomond given you my first YouTube video embedded in the page. It’s very simple, but don’t judge too much. Unfortunately I never really had the chance to learn the instrument, and I’ve definitely never been taught. Still, that’s the way I am with music. If you can give me a logical way of breaking up the thing into scales, I’ll give you some songs by ear. If not, I’m going to go play chess with the kid next door.