thoughts.on.code

Bruce Schneier has posted another Hashing attack on his blog. This time duplicate certificates are created, using the MD5 hash algorithm. MD5 is now officially useless. With both of the major hash algorithms compromised, we really need a new hashing solution. My experience in the internals of hash algorithms is very weak, so I will not pretend to know what a good solution would be. Hopefully someone smarter than me will find a solution quickly.

So, it seems like I am falling off the wagon here a bit. The last few weeks (since the OJUG meeting) have been very odd. I am currently trying to accomplish the following in the evenings:

• Prepare for next round of classes. I’m trying to finish up my Bachelors in MIS at Bellevue University. I took the accelerated degree program, and now have a total of 24 credits left to go. Nine of those are for the “Kirkpatrick Signature Series”, a block of liberal arts classes that are required for all students. The other 15 I plan to CLEP out of.
• Study for CLEP/DANTES tests Yuck.
• Study for / Work on Java Certifications I am a Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP), and my boss has “asked” me to get the Sun Certified Web Component Developer and Sun Certified Java Developer certifications, as well as upgrade my SCJP cert to 1.4 or 1.5.
• JKeyManager I am not getting anywhere. After the first burst of energy, I have now barely looked at the code in the last two weeks. I have a quite a few things to do, as detailed in the last post. I really want to get this released before I start class in a couple weeks, but that doesn’t look likely right now.

… Along with trying to have a meaningful life with my wife and kids. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. But, one thing at a time and I’ll get through it, right?

Sorry for the rant
- Matt

I have been on a break of sorts for the last week and a half. I put so much effort into getting ready for the OJUG meeting i.e.: Learning a new language so that I could present on it like I knew what I was talking about, that I just needed a break.

So, I took it easy: I rewrote some old code that I had lost and put it out on the site.

I did not get much done on JKeyManager. I am now at the point where I need to finish the Key Pair generation and get a first release out. The biggest problem there is that I am still not familiar with CVS and SourceForge, so I will need to learn those things as well as get the code done. Right now I am not using a source repository (gasp). My only recourse if something should fail is that I have been putting a zip file in my personal web space with the entire eclipse project whenever I make changes I want to keep. This obviosuly needs to change. The Pragmatic Programmers are shaking their heads at me as I write this.