I made a huge mistake today

Gosh, I made such a huge mistake today...

I was multitasking, combining Christmas shopping with shopping therapy (which means bying gifts for others and myself) and I bought this Hello Kitty lunch box:



when that Hello Kitty lunch box is avaliable on the market:




Maybe at least mine is cuter...

[Picture credit, credit]

I love Amazon

Seriously, I really like Amazon. I have had really good experiencec buying from them. And what did I buy? I guess you can tell by the recommendations I have just received:

Introduction to Modern Cryptogr... (Hardcover) by Jonathan Katz

Classic Shell Scripting (Paperback) by Nelson H. F. Beebe

Ideals, Varieties, and Algorithm... (Hardcover) by David A. Cox

Okay, so modern cryptography: cool, me likes. Classing shell scripting: not so much. I belive shell scripts should be received from kind people who wrote them, not written by myself. Ideals and varieties sound pretty interesting too, but something tells me that I wouldn't get through such a book without taking a class in the subject and I'm done with my math classes.

So, who wants to guess what I've been watching on Amazon?

The Sims 3: World Adventures

After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on the first Sims 3 expansion pack: World Adventures.


Happy and excited as a kid who just got a new game, I immediatly installed it. It didn't load.

Bummer.

Blogging my thesis: Bernstein was super-easy

Did I say I had trouble understanding Berstein's work? I take that back. I'm reading Boneh now.

I'm reading one paper by Boneh. I have started reading it over half a year ago. I still don't really get it.

The paper is called "Finding Smooth Integers in Short Intervals Using CRT Decoding". In it, the author does the following:

• presents a new algorithm for CRT decoding
• uses it to find smooth integers in short intervals
• discusses how to apply it to the quadratic sieve method
• generalizes the CRT decoding problem
• reduces the gap between CRT and Reed-Solomin decoding.

My brain is burning.

Why I love Sage in 6 simple lines

This is why I love Sage:

e = sqrt(log(4*B) / log(P)) + (5 / (4*d))

g = [P^(a - i) * (x*B - R)^i for i in range(a)]
h = [(x*B - R)^a * (x*B)^i for i in range(d - a)]

m = matrix(Integers(), d, [list(k) + [0] * (d - len(list(k))) for k in g+h]).LLL()

w = sum([x^i * m[0][i] for i in range(d)])

return filter(lambda x: x[0].is_integral() and gcd(P, x[0] - R) < P**e , w.roots())

(That's a crucial part of my thesis.)

Blogging my thesis: Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th was a good day for my thesis - mama had some time for its baby.

I did some hard work that didn't translate into a single additional line, but boy, did I get results. I debugged my sieving for smooth numbers method. I now have two methods that do the same in different ways and give me the same results. Almost. They don't when an unexpected divisor of n is found, but factoring n is the whole point, and that glitch will be corrected very soon.

Now, I have to finish implementing the third method and make some kind of interface that would use all three and make comparaisons.

Friday the 13th was also a good day overall: I did the assignement at the lab and dont' have to go there next week (hooray, more thesis time!) and I went to the gym. I also started my Christmas shopping, where I have pretty mixed feelings. While I can't stand the Christmas ads in November, being in the city at noon was a good occasion to visit a few shops.

So, all in all, dear diary, Friday the 13th was a nice day. Today, I'm coding some more for the thesis.

Geek gets fit (kinda sorta almost)

One of the downsides of my otherwise amazing career is the lack of physical activity. And while I am aware that I should be fit and I love yoga, I am not fit. Yet. However, somes serious steps have recently been taken towards this noble goal.

First, Hubby and I got Multisport cards from my work (and I would like to thank my boss and everyone...)


The cards are way shinier IRL and they let us access many gyms ans swimming pools for [almost] free. We've been using them intensively and visiting a gym twice a week (and the swimming pool later to relax) for a month now.

Second, Husband got a balance for his nameday. A kinda smart balance, that measures your fat and water percentage. The smart balance taught me that I'm made in 50% of water and 30% of fat- sigh.

Finally, Hubby bought me my nameday present: the Wii Fit!



The Wii Fit always tempted me, but I judged it by its cover, and the cover mainly features yoga poses (they look best on pictures), so I instantly thought of the mountain of money I could save by doing these exact same poses on my bedroom floor. But, since I got the console as a wedding gift (I love you Auntie!), its cost dropped significantly and the temptation won.

I like it. It is important to note, however, that it's a weird cross between a game and a workout. It's not a decent game. It's not a decent workout either. But, on a Thursday night, after 8 hours at the office, and knowing that we'll hit the gym the next day and a real workout is not a great idea, the Wii Fit is a pretty cool pasttime.

I may write a better (longer) review, but in the meantime, Gizmodo has an extensive and geek one - enjoy!

On my wishlist: the Tetris dress

I want that dress. Period.



Or that fabric.



Then I'd make a jumper out of it and I'd wear it over my loads of brightly-colored T-shirts.

I guess this is the part where I should come up with some eloquent words of praise for both the design of the fabric and the realisation of the dress, but you must forgive me, for I have partied until 3 a.m. last night. (See pics on Facebook.) I just love them.

Geek got to teach!

If I haven't been an active blogger lately, that's because something came up. Something that kept me stressed and busy: I lectured the security class on Tuesday.

I lectured! Security! At the University of Warsaw! If you can't believe it, don't worry neither do I.

I talked about what I knew best: mathematical methods of breaking the RSA cipher. I also gave an introduction to elliptic curve cryptography and covered primality tests. Here are the slides (Polish only). Out of 150 people enrolled, some 30-40 were present and the lecture went pretty well: there were questions, I was able to answer... And first of all, what an honor!