Books by Bill Inmon

This is a note for Future John.

I am reading Fundamentals of Data Engineering which says that beside Ralph Kimball, Bill Inmon had a lot to do with data warehousing in the early days. I’m going to try and read a few of his books, many of which are available in Kindle (and Audible) format from Amazon.

CORSAIR HS55 Surround Gaming Headset Plus Games

I’m such a good little consumer. Today I got myself some surround sound headphones with microphone attached. I got the CORSAIR HS55 Surround Gaming Headset which was a step up from the CORSAIR HS35 v2 option.

I am interested in getting a VR headset but honestly I don’t know anything about that technology yet, so I am holding off for now. I don’t understand why the price differentials are so drastic, there are $20 thru $3,000 options. I think some of them are just straps which you attach your smartphone to.

Also I am planning to get the Logitech G X56 Throttle and Stick Controller but I haven’t hit the buy button on that one yet either. I want this so I can play my Descent games (see below, I got Descent 1, 2, and 3).

There is a sale on games at the moment over on Steam and I got a bunch of games while they were up to 90% off:

A few days ago I got Prey which I have been playing on my new gaming rig ‘treat‘, that’s been a bit of fun.

What is elliptic curve cryptography?

The following quotation is taken from Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Developers.

What is elliptic curve cryptography?

First, there are no ellipses. Second, there are no curves. So why is it called an “elliptic curve”? The primary reason is history. Performing integrals of the elliptical orbits of planets gave rise to formulas labeled elliptic curves. These formulas were then used in other areas of mathematics, and the label stuck.

The areas of mathematics used in public key cryptography involve number theory (the properties of integers), combinatorics (the study of counting), and finite fields (sets with finite objects and specific rules). Elliptic curves are used in just about every area of mathematics. This makes studying elliptic curve math very difficult because it is hard to determine what you really need to know and what is just really interesting.

For example, elliptic curves have been used for factoring numbers and solving Fermat’s Last Theorem. In chapter 3, I explain how elliptic curves on the complex plane are used to understand elliptic curves over finite fields. It’s all interesting but not necessarily applicable to cryptography.

Handling Cookies is a Minefield

I read an interesting article today Handling Cookies is a Minefield. It’s basically about what characters are supported in cookies across browsers and servers.

As a rule I only use two cookies: a session cookie, which identifies the session, and a persistent browser cookie, which identifies the user and their browser.