Max  

Junior (named after his dad, who we also had)  

Otto  

SWiFT "Stuff"

• here are the PowerPoint slides I presented on Netfilter/Kernel Modules and User Mode Linux at the 110602 SWiFT Meeting. Also of note may be
  • the User Mode Linux homepage.
  • a netfilter HOWTO
• here are the PowerPoint slides I presented on the state of Split-TCP in March.
• here are the PowerPoint slides I presented on my work post Split-TCP in June.
  • here is a patch to fix the retry count bug in the 2.26 release of ns-2. It was submitted to the maintainers in late April of 2003 but hasn't appeared in the distribution yet (06/29/04).
  • here is a patch to add accurate physical carrier sensing to the 802.11 MAC code in the 2.26 release of ns-2. It was submitted to the maintainers but hasn't appeared in the distribution yet (06/29/04).
• here is the script I mentioned during my presentation in November that will manage running a bunch of jobs across a bunch of machines. here is a tar file with some sample input. If you run labrun.py without arguments it will print a usage message. Remember - you need to have ssh keyauth setup to all the hosts you want to use.

Course-related

• Here are the slides I presented on Bellovin's 1989 paper entitled "Security Problems in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite".
• And here is the writeup on my course project - a set of POP3 and SMTP proxies, written in python, which implement "transparent" PGP encryption.

CS202: Spring '03

• Here are the slides that three peers and I presented on Sun's JXTA P2P Framework.
• Here are the slides that Titus and I presented on our socket migration project. The report will follow "soon" (for the academic interpretation of "soon").

CS235: Spring '03

• Here is the "Music and Data Mining Primer" I did for Dr. Keogh, and here are the slides.

CS260-003: Winter '04

• Here are the slides I presented providing a one hour primer on COM.

Dan Berger
dberger(at)cs.ucr.edu (GPG Key)
1B27 A0B9 C9FA A7D8 EA9E 76B4 847C 95C5 51A1 2856
iCal Free/Busy: http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~dberger/dberger.ifb
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Surge Building, Room 357
University of California, Riverside
$Id: index.html,v 1.15 2004/08/25 20:54:58 dberger Exp $

Yup, it's the obligatory "home" page. I can't promise you'll find anything useful, or even mildly distracting here. Consider yourself warned.

I defended my masters thesis (A Scalable Architecture for Public Key Distribution Acting in Concert with Secure DNS) on 24 August. For those with insatiable curiosity, or chronic insomnia, the manuscript is available here, and the defense presentation PowerPoint slides are here.

If you're looking for SWiFT stuff, try here.

If you're looking for any course related documents, they're here.

If you're looking for information on the technical seminars that Titus Winters and I have been coordinating, try here.

Finally, if you've come in search of the semi-official CS Thesis template/skeleton, you need look no further. It should be fairly self-explanatory - untar it, type make, and you'll get the skeleton of a thesis. Read the latex, fill in the appropriate blanks, and viola. (Updated: 07/26/04)

Abstract

I did my undergraduate work here at UCR - graduating in 1996. Since then, I've gotten married, worked as a system administrator for small and large companies, been a contributing engineer and technical lead on a large ecommerce product, traveled a bit, co-architected and led a team in building a J2EE based content management and publishing platform for a company that's now defunct, and generally enjoyed myself. If for some reason, you want more details - take a peek at my resume.

I'm back at UCR pursuing my graduate degree - and it's all Dr. Payne's fault (recently I've leared that Dr. Molle had something to do with it as well - it's a conspiracy, I tell you). I came out to have a nice innocent lunch with him - and next thing I know, I've signed up to take the GRE (with a weeks time to prepare - that was fun) and I've indentured myself to Dr. Ravishankar to work on SWiFT. Funny how these things work.

My interests are wide ranging and varied, including (in no particular order)

Motorcycling

I've been riding since late 1999 - my current bikes are a 2001 Triumph Sprint RS (pictured above), and a 1999 Triumph Trophy 900. My wife and I (she has a red 2001 Suzuki SV-650) enjoy touring - and especially a picturesque spot on the California coast, halfway between LA and SF, called Ragged Point. The restaurant is excellent. We the head chief was a fellow named Roger Wall (no relation) - and he was downright awesome. Our most recent trip was a visit to the Vintage Motorcycle Museum in Solvang, CA.

Table-top Role Playing

Back before first person shooters, and "computer RPG's" - people used to get into groups, sit around a table, roll dice, and collaboratively tell stories. I'm a big fan of this sort of diversion - have been for more years than I care to admit. In 2003 I wrapped up my 3rd Edition D&D campaign set in Krynn - a fantasy world invented by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman in their Dragonlance series of novels. I'm still waiting for the Iron Kingdoms setting to be released by the guys over at Privateer Press - it looks way cool. Being the impatient type I am, I tried starting up a new group with the intent of running through the Witchfire Trilogy from Privateer Press - it didn't work so well (schedules were so much simpler in high-school). I've also got a copy of d20 Modern sitting on my shelf, and I've been thinking about starting a game in a more contemporary setting. My current bit of self-delusion is that I'll use the GURPS Traveller rules to spin up something set in the Firefly 'verse.

Billiards

It's the only use I have for ESPN2. I've got a home table, but I don't play nearly as much as I probably should - in no small part due to the dining top we bought along with the table. Being the basically lazy person I am, I just don't get motivated to take the table top off the pool table very often. When I do play, I tend to favor 9 ball, with 8 ball as a distant second. I've often thought about getting a kit to modify the table to play three cushion billiards, but haven't yet.

TiVo

Well, it's not an interest, exactly - I just wish I thought of it. I've owned a TiVo since late 2001 - and let me tell you - it truly does change the way you think about television. Sure, I could have hacked together something similar, but for $99 (it was a special) I got a DirecTV/TiVO combo unit and I've never seen television the same way since. You know that old adage about "hundreds of channels and nothing on"? It's absolute nonsense - the reality is that there's plenty of quality programming on - just not when you're watching. TiVo solves that problem. I've seen the PVR solutions offered by Microsoft (no way are they getting a device in my living room), Dish network (what a POS), and ReplayTV (some cute features, but I prefer the TiVo interface). I've hacked my TiVo to increase it's storage capacity and added a network interface and I'm running the TivoWebPlus web server..

Firefly

Ok, it only lasted 14 episodes (and 3 of those never aired in the US) but I was sold by the second episode. I'm not normally a fan of westerns, and I'm a fairly harsh critic of Sci-Fi - but the characters in Firefly were just so cool I couldn't help but get hooked. Between their cancelation of Firefly and their piss-poor handling (and cancelation) of Wonderfalls (and The Tick before that), FOX is on my short list. My experience with Firefly is that most folks either love it or hate it - not too many remain apathetic. Take a chance.

Oh, and Universal seems to think there's money to be made in the Firefly 'verse - they've started production on a feature film set to release in 2005. This obsession with Firefly is getting dangerous - I'm turning into a fanboy, damnit...

Fountain Pens

I have a "thing" for fine writing instruments - there's nothing like the feel of a good fountain pen. My first was a medium nib Cross that my wife bought me as a gift one year. Since then I've assembled a small collection - mostly as follow up gifts. I have a Parker 45 - which is my "workaday" pen, a senator, another Parker variant, and two very cool looking "Level L5"'s from Pelikan. In an age of digital communication, I guess they're just anachronisms, but I like them.

Space Exploration

I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why we, as a society, have tolerated the fact that we went to the moon in 1969 and haven't done anything nearly as far-reaching and visionary in the 30 years since. It's embarrassing, it's frustrating, and it's damn short-sighted. As Carl Sagan put it - "a species either becomes space-faring, or becomes extinct." I'm a member of the Mars Society and will talk the ear off anyone who sits still long enough about why we need to get off this rock. If you haven't already, you really should read The Case For Mars. Oh, and Entering Space, and Failure Is Not An Option.
 
If you happen to be one of those people who think the whole moon landing was an elaborate hoax - I have only one response. You may be right - but I choose to believe in it - because it inspires me to do more, to try harder, it gives me hope that there may be more in the universe than merely energy, matter and entropy. I choose to believe that we went to the moon, because even if we never go back, I believe that achievement makes the world a better place.
 
Rest in peace; Rick D. Husband, David M. Brown, William C. McCool, Laurel Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla. May our actions give your deaths meaning.

Coffee

But never as a central nervous system stimulant - only as a conversational stimulant. I like good coffee - which pretty much rules out Starbucks (they confuse roasting with immolation, in my opinion). Armenian, Turkish, espresso, cappuccino, and occasionally just good old kona or arabica. My wife was kind enough to gift me with a vacuum coffee pot - though it's not as fancy as that one. In fact, you can get your very own from amazon. Aside from looking too cool, they take a long time to brew - which forces you to sit around and actually engage in conversation.

Food

I'm something of a "foodie" - that doesn't mean I eat a lot - or that I eat all the time - rather that I enjoy good food. Pretty much any nationality that I haven't tried, I'm looking to. I especially enjoy Indian, Thai, Sushi, and Cuban. I navigate by good restaurants. For instance: there's a spectacular Vietnamese restaurant in Houston, TX; the hands down best Cuban Bistro is in Cambridge, MA (it's called Chez Henri - on the corner of Shepard and Mass Ave.) and my favorite Indian restaurant is in San Luis Obispo (it's called Taj Palace) - and if you like Garlic, and haven't been to the Stinking Rose (in SF - though the one in LA is nearly as good) - it's a must. There's a really good mediteranian place in La Verne, off the 210 @ Route 66 called Grapevine. I also cook, and enjoy experimenting with spices and complimentary flavors.

Wine, Ale and Cider

I enjoy wine - primarily full bodied reds and the occasional desert wine (like a muscat, or a Sauternes). I also enjoy Port occasionally. In fact, you can see part of one of my wine racks in the background of the picture of Max - the black cat to the left. I'm also a big believer in "budget" wines - good wines in the $10 to $15 per bottle range. I've had much more expensive wines - and there is definitely a difference - but for opening with a group of friends over dinner or discussion, good is almost always good enough. Temecula has some surprisingly good vineyards - and my wife and I head down there occasionally to sample the current releases. If driving to Temecula seems to far - why not check out one of the more local vineyards - like the Joseph Filippi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga? You might be pleasently surprised.
 
As far as beers and ales go, I like stouts, porters, India Pale Ales, and anything else with body and complexity. My favorite breweries include Anchor, a British brewery in Manchester called Boddingtons, and a brewery on the east coast called Tremont, which unfortunately doesn't get to this side of the country. Lately I've been drinking fermented cider - from ACE - you can find it at the Beverages and More in Brea - which is a short hop from my home.

Period Reenactment

My wife and I enjoy Renaissance Faires and Festivals, though we don't attend as many or as often as we used to. I've avoided groups like the SCA because of the in-built politics - the same reason I've never felt the desire to work a Faire, just be a participant.

Music

Mostly listening to it - though I have been making a particularly pathetic and unsuccessful attempt to learn Guitar. I have a reasonably sized music collection. The hi-lights of which translate to on the order of 10GB of encoded music. Quite some time ago I ditched MP3 in favor of OGG Vorbis. I've found the quality to be terrific - and the format is finally getting some traction in hardware. I bought a Neuros some time back, and while it's not the most beautiful thing in the world, I've been generally happy with it.

Reading

My wife and I have on the order of 1200 books at last count - my literary tastes are pretty varied - though I avoid slasher horror and all forms of romance novels. I'm looking for the "next big thing" that will strike my interest - the "last big thing" was Cyberpunk (as realized by authors like Phillip K. Dick, John Shirley, William Gibson, Pat Caddigan, Walter Jon Williams and the like). My recent reads include Altered Carbon, and it's sequel Broken Angles, by Richard Morgan (I highly recommend them both), Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (fascinating, and not nearly as morbid as I anticipated), Don Norman's Emotional Design, and City Come A Walkin' by John Shirley. I'm currently reading Tog On Interface. I tried reading Quicksilver - the followup to Neal Stephensons' Cryptonomicon - it was dry, boring, and completely without plot - I gave up after 300 pages. If you like fairly "hard" speculative SF, you might check out Greg Egan - books like Permutation City and Quarentine. I've also been enjoying Kage Bakers series of Company novels - though the 4th one, released in 2001, hasn't yet appeared in paperback.

Cats

Well, they're not really an interest either - but I live with three of them, and I'm allergic to them (don't ask) so they do play a pretty significant role in my life. They're names are Max, Junior and Otto.

(Digital) Photography

Bought a reasonable digital camera last year, and I've been having lots of fun with it. My next project is likely to be a (digital) photo management system. I've looked at the ones out there - and they're either proprietary (like the one that comes with current Mac's) or they're inadequate. I want something that will let me organize photos logically, tag them with the appropriate meta data, search the collection easily, assemble sub-collections for easy publication, and make recoverable backups of both the assets and the meta-data. Seems easy, right? For the moment, I've started using Gallery - which is good, but not perfect. I've got an assortment of pictures online, in case you're curious.