A long break isnt it?

Writing this in the middle of the following question which keeps flashing whenever I am low.

Why am I doing this PhD ?
Reason (for this question):-
Peer Pressure at time t.
No way of backtracking at time t+1.
Better than writing codes at time t+2.
Really worth to gain knowledge at time t+3.
I am happy having the liberty to do whatever I want at time t+4.
Hopefully a succesful grad student at time t+5.
Finally, reach where I want to be (the decision will be taken during the period of a successfull grad student) at time t+5.
Note: "Just keep thinking where am I daily? Hope I am at time t+5 for atleast 5 yrs!"

Result (of this question):-
I am motivated more inspite of my ____ grades.


Let me restart my regular reasoning session for today.
(1) What would have made Prof.A* to make "Dan" work on VM?
Reason:-
Time pass
Result:-
He was found to have mpd which is the human version of Virtual machines.

(2) Does the availability/security of a server (any machine in general) change because of virtualisation?
Reason:-
Just thinking of a research problem to work on.
Result:-
Gotto discuss this in today's lab session! I am going to lab just in the evenings these days. Rest of the time I keep sitting on my couch.

(3) What did the POTSHARDS guys achieve really when there were so many theoritical efforts for long term archival storage?
Reason:-
I wanted to know the difference between "theory" and "systems"
Result:-
The POTSHARDS guys didnt really design their experiments properly. They should have atleast found out any anomalies in the the generalisations done by the theory guys like Theodre Wong. Any systems experiment should have a reason in it rite?

(4) Why do I make silly mistakes in exams?
Reason:-
I screwed up my grade card this semester by doing very trivial things ?
Result:-
Exams tooo require smartness just like research (?). Why not I do smart work for exams from now on? as well as in research!

(5) When will I get the feeling of a full fledged researcher?
Reason:-
I keep sleeping for 8 to 9 hrs these days without any worries or motivation to get up.
Result:-
I will be a complete researcher the day when the following happens,
- Understand completely whatever I look at
- Be focussed on research (and think what to do in the next two hour window)
- Have a standard way of living. Eg: Mornings at home, noon in school, evenings cofee!!, Do some research during nights, correction/coursework weekends!

(6) Why did the POTSHARD people crib at the Wong's redistribution idea?
Reason:-
I happened to read the POTSHARD work's conclusion! comments about wong's work
"however, this approach could compromise the system unless
very carefully done because the refactoring process would
have to read enough information in aggregate to rebuild
the data. By keeping this on separate nodes, the PASIS
designers hoped to avoid information leakage."
- I really donot understand wat is wrong in wong's approach!

Result:-
Each server autonomously (without reading other servers) participates in the redistribution. Thus, no security loopholes(?). But, all the existing servers participates in the redistribution phase in wong's work. We donot want that. We are ready to compromise availability and have lesser no of servers participate in the redistribution.Done!!! Done!!! Done!!!

Fresh after playing volley

So what all did I think of today?
(1) What is making the female Dr."williams" volleyball whenever we play?
Reason (for thinking) : Just like that
Result (of thinking) : It is hard to believe that its just coincidence

(2) What is this setuid business in Unix systems?
Reason: Didnot understand how trojan horses worked
Result: (one can refer to 13.3 of matt bishop but still i am writing).
Each of the process has a UID associated with it. The concept of effective UID is used because the UID of the process can change dynamically.
How?
If the setuid of a program is set, then the UID of the process running that program changes to the owner of the file. The UID is not the process which run the process. For this to happen, an explicit call to a system call setuid should also be made !

Pretty interesting? But, what if the setuid of the shell program is changed to the uid of the currently running user? The access permissions that would have been there for a shell would not be accessible by the shell program now! This is because the expected protection domain is of the "root" for a shell program.

(3) Difference between a VMware & XEN machine? What is XEN hype?

Reason: Sleepiness
Result : (actually dint think yet). Going to sleep.

tomorrow please !!!!!!!

The day when I ate "chicken biriyani" at India Pavillion

So I am back with ideas! to pen my thoughts. What have I been thinking today?
Why Am I writing this blog? Reason: I realised that there should be some metric to standardise my performance per day. Metrics have always been successful isnt it?
Result: I hope I donot have any answer just for the first question in this series of blogs. I hope I write a SUCCESS here!


(1) About the synchronous nature of write functions in a TCP stream socket.
Reason: Our 511 project used this idea
Result: Yeah indeed! the programmer (nath) did that properly !

(2) Where to place the raquet ball when the player (opponent) is standing in the middle of the court?
Reason: I "cupped" while playing with my "boss". Failures make people think is it? Not-thinking leads to failures. But, again failure leads to think? Is this what they call a "paradox"?
Result: I feel that, a very fast hit towards the right hand nook would do? Ask "boss" if that is rite!

(3) What on earth made people find virtual machines?
Reason: I tried to figure out the difference between a virtual machine and an Exokernel. Any questions why I compared them ? Just because they were taught on the same class
Result: Yeah it sounds a decent enough problem. Process migration/management easier.

(4) Why is Dom0 present in a XEN based machine?
Reason: VMware doesnot have a Dom0 Background: Remember that, the OS think that they are running on the real machines and they give specific calls to their device drivers. But, there are no device drivers for a virtual machine! But, XEN doesnot do this. What it does is just call yet another OS running on dom0?
I am not clear is it? Will answer tomorrow.
Result: VMware can dynamically alter the machine code of the function calls to the device driver. The new machine code will have function calls to the device driver on the Hypervisor(VMM)

Few things to think tomorrow?
(1) What is the relation between inflation/market index/GDP growth/Money value/Interest rates?
(2) So which is better? XEN or VM ware?
(3) What is the difference between a Unix filesystem consistency/ Andrew filesystem/ NFS
(4) Why do American woman look good from far and "stink" when closer? No oil in their skin!
(5) Why am I fresh after playing?