imchris.org

Last fall I moved to Berkeley and started as a postdoc in the EECS department for Vern Paxson. I’ve been there now for about 4 months working on a number of different security topics ranging from web security to bot nets.

On the web front we just found out that we have a paper in WWW 2010 on a system named Alhambra, that was the third (and final) part of my dissertation.

On bots, I’ve taken some responsibility on the farming of bots, including testing new malware binaries, attempting to identify malware, and keeping bots running in an environment where we can monitor them.

Another interesting project has involved Twitter (with Steve and Kurt), and I’ve been doing a lot of infrastructure work to get our code running on the scale we need. Python, Amazon’s EC2, and the multiprocessing library seem to be the key so far to making things work the scale we are aiming for.

Finally, climbing – There’s been a lot of weekend trips since I moved here: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Pinnacles national monument, Mount Diablo, Bishop, Owns River gorge, Castle Rock state park, and probably others. Climbing a lot at Berkeley Ironworks too.

I have just about finished moving out to Berkeley, CA where I have started my position as a postdoc. Now that I almost have a computer setup, its about time to get pictures on here from Red River Gorge, KY and Red Rocks Canyon, NV, the two most recent climbing trips. The RRG trip was this last summer leaving from UIUC with Kurt, Mirella, Justin and Carolyn. The Red Rocks trip was during all our free time during DEFCON, about 4 trips each.

RRG – Climbed for two days, then it started raining. We hit Muir Valley (practice wall area) and the Natural Arch (roadside crag). There’s plenty of climbing all over, but unless you comfortably can climb 5.12 sport or trad, be prepared to drive around to find stuff that’s in your range.

Red Rocks – Mostly climbed at First and Second Pullout, at Black Corridor, the Gallery, and the Panty Wall. The Black Corridor was right in our range for climbing, not impossible, but a good range of routes to climb during the day (and in the shade). The panty wall was simply too easy, and would have been a good warmup if it wasn’t already 105 deg outside. The Gallery area was good but not as big as I expected and it took us a long time to find the right approach. It was our last day so we were tired from DEFCON and the other days of climbing, so a few hours in the morning shade climbing and we had done most of the routes we wanted to.

I have recently started climbing outdoors. As of June 2009 I’ve been to Jackson Falls and Cedar Bluff both in southern IL. I’ll try and post pictures of climbs here when I have them. There’s a lot of good resources already online for Jackson and other places in IL, so I’ll try and link those too.

Jackson directions and routes online.

Cedar Bluff directions and routes

Vertical Heartland, A Rock Climber’s Guide to Southern Illinois by Eric Ulner looks like the best resource for climbing in IL.

Cedar Bluff – Saturday May 30, we went to Cedar Bluff. I had never been there before. The directions found on the link above are right. Park by the church and hike up a short trail to the bluff. It was raining when we got there, but the first few climbs were dry. At the bluff we climbed:

Africa (left side, 5.8) and Detention (right side, 5.10a) at Cedar Bluff

Detention (5.10a lead, right where the trail meets the bluff)
Africa (5.8 top rope, directly next to Detention)
Fear of Flying (5.9, off-width crack, coming up from the trail go to the left)
Dos Equis (5.9+ lead, coming up the trail go to the right.)

Fear of Flying (5.9, off-width crack) at Cedar Bluff

Jackson Falls – Sunday, may 31 we drove to Jackson. I had been there once before but for the most part climbed new routes. This was the second day of lead climbing outside for me so we took it easy and did some great routes.

Yosemite Slab area – Fun routes, good to get going. Two out of the four of us had never climbed outdoors before, so this was a fun start.

Pete’s Lead (5.7, top rope)
Smidgin (5.6, lead)
Tina’s Soul Food Kitchen (5.7, lead)
Easy Gully (5.6, top rope)

Royal Arch wall – I had climbed here the one time I had been to Jackson before, and done one of the routes next to Deetle Dumps (maybe Archangel, 5.10a, or The Meanest Flower, 5.9)

Deetle Dumps (5.8, lead)

Wave Wall – This route was difficult, either I was tired from the previous day and other climbs or something, but doing Fine Nine really made me tired for the day.

Fine Nine (5.9+, lead, right side picture)

Pete's Lead (5.7, crack on left) and part of Smidgin (5.6 right side of the picture) at Jackson Falls

Fine Nine (5.9+) at Jackson Falls

Mr. Jimmy – A  tall free standing boulder, the easy climb was fun and fairly long. The camera battery died before we got here, so there aren’t any pictures.

Big wall Greg’s Chicken Shack (5.6, lead)
Venom (5.10a, lead)

During Thanksgiving break I went to Death Valley National Park. Flew into Las Vegas and drove to the park. It’s an amazing place. I started to write a short page about the different things I ended up doing and there’s pictures on my flicker feed. I joined the pro flickr club so they won’t be disappearing. The trip was pretty long though a lot of fun.

The rest of the fall semester is going to be working on another project, my thesis propsal and setting up prelims. I might even have to start interviewing for jobs.

Christmas break was fun, I ended up going to New Hampshire’s White Mountains and staying at an AMC lodge. Did a lot of snowshoeing, survived a blizzard, and generally got to be in lots of snow. I’m looking forward to some camping this spring though I’m not sure where or when yet.

Spring semester started too, I’m taking a course called “Design of 4G WWANs and Their Building Blocks: Intelligent Routers”, its an ECE598 taught by Constantine Polychronopoulos. No other courses, just continuing the web browser research and trying to get going on some new ideas.