yinNout's Xanga

Well, that was quick!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:32:38 GMT

After playing with blogs for a few hours, I settled on Wordpress. However, not your run-of-the-mill Wordpress, but Wordpress installed onto my Berkeley OCF web account! If you own an OCF account and want to do the same thing, just ask me.

Then I took my domain and created a subdomain for it at blog.jeffyin.com, and masked it over my OCF Wordpress blog. So click over to my new blog!

Note: To subscribe to it using Google Reader, you can't just enter "blog.jeffyin.com" since that's actually a mask. Just navigate to the page and find the "Entries (RSS)" link at the bottom and feed that link location to Google Reader.
(http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jeffyin/blog/?feed=rss2)

I'll continue to copy entries back and forth between the two, at least for the first few months.

I've gone and done it

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:24:41 GMT

yinnout.blogspot.com

jeffyin.wordpress.com

I've started accounts at both of these blogging sites and will be evaluating them over the course of a few posts. Which one will become blog.jeffyin.com?? We shall see!

Random Updates

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:49:22 GMT

Work has been crazy busy over the past few weeks. We've got some new projects, and there's always the bug backlog. Man, you'd think that the Internet works pretty well and we've just about figured everything out already -- after all, this website loads fine and you've been getting all your e-mails, right? -- but no, we at Cisco are still gainfully employed and hard at work. Seems like there's always something to fix! On Monday and Tuesday I pretty much pulled two 16-hour days for an urgent case and only managed to solve half of it.

Today, however, work gave me a new toy for the apartment: a Cisco 881-K9 router. It's designed for the telecommuter and has strong encryption technologies* that enable a persistent VPN to the corporate network. I saw one go on eBay for around $500, and they retail for about twice that... and it's just a 4-port router with wireless (pretty powerful though, as it requires a cooling fan)! Since my business unit develops VPN technologies and solutions, we get to try out our work on ourselves. It's great because now, to check my work e-mail, I don't have to turn on my laptop, connect to my home wireless, generate a key, and run the Cisco VPN software to tunnel into work. Actually, I can check my work e-mail with my iPhone, since the router replicates the company's wireless network in my house. You might say that just brings work home and makes it so that I'm more reachable -- well, that's kind of how it is already. This just takes the hassle out of it.

The search for a church has gotten rather interesting. I'm down to two choices: Grace Church Fremont (some readers might know Calvin Chen, who goes there) and Grace Bible Fellowship in Mountain View. Both have pretty good preaching and great small groups, and pretty much have what I'm looking for. I kind of wish I could go to both, or they could merge or something -- actually nevermind, if they merged then it'd be too big and then I wouldn't want to go anymore. I really should just pick one though, as I feel kind of stupid trying to decide between two great things.

While I'm not (yet?) a part of Grace Church Fremont, I did sign up to go with them to Biloxi, Mississippi, on a Habitat for Humanity project. We'll be helping rebuild communities devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Ike. It should be a good trip, and Vicky, Mike, and Shuo-Hsiu will be going too.

I know it's been around forever, but I've recently discovered Google Reader. If you don't know what it is, it basically takes all the popular sites you read and puts them all in one place. The sites must have RSS (most do), and Reader keeps track of entries you've read and notifies you immediately of new ones. It saves a lot of page-loading and clicking around and such, which leads me to this paradox: Google Reader saves me time at wasting time! I'm currently reading a lot of my friends' blogs, news sites/blogs (cnn, digg, valleywag, techcrunch, engadget, autoblog), Cal football blogs, webcomics, and other random sites like Lifehacker, Consumerist, Lolcats, Cute Overload, InternetMonk, and My Money Blog. I still have to go to Xanga to read subscriptions, though, since the digest isn't syndicated -- only individual blogs are. Any other recommendations on what to read? If you're a Google Reader user, add me as a shared reader so we can share articles!

While I'm getting your recommendations... I'm thinking of switching out of Xanga. I think I've gotten a little too old for it (what are these "Mini" things?) and the layout is a bit too cluttered. Maybe I'll sign up with Wordpress, Blogger, or Blogspot, or something. What are your recommendations? I know most people will probably just recommend the one they're using, so please tell me why it's better than the others. :) Thanks!

Vicky's coming today! This weekend we'll be celebrating our 3-year anniversary -- that is, 3 years since we started dating. I'm not sure if we're still supposed to count that stuff now that we're engaged, but I guess it's a good excuse for Vicky to get a present. Haha! Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing her, even though she'll have to spend the whole weekend studying.

--
* Did you know: The United States Government classifies cryptography as "munitions," and as such it regulates and prohibits the export of goods with certain strong encryption technologies to other countries. I guess I can say that I work on weapons at work.

Cerberus!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:12:34 GMT

Cerberus was the name of the three-headed guardian hound of Hades in Greek mythology. He was supposed to ensure that the dead entered Hades but never left. In other words, he was a security guard.

Here is Cerberus when he was younger:

Anyway, the three-headed dog I posted in my previous entry reminded me of Cerberus, the mythological creature, which in turn reminded me of the Kerberos network authentication protocol. It was a protocol invented back in the 80s but is still used to this day. If you've used SSH to connect to your school or company's servers, or your Berkeley OCF account, your computer may have had to use Kerberos to authenticate itself with the network.

I am a nerd...

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:38:46 GMT

I am a big nerd, 'cause I saw this picture on digg.com and immediately thought of something else.

Here is said picture:

It's not photoshopped, it's actually a halloween costume for this man's dog!

But... after I saw the picture, I immediately (as in less than a second!) thought of something else extremely nerdy. What could it possibly be?
Complete the sentence of what ran through my head: "Hey look, it's a three-headed dog! That reminds me of _____________________!"
Venture a guess in the comments and win ... I dunno, the fact that you are at least as big a nerd as I am!

If no one gets it then I'll post the answer in a few days. :)

(I hope people still read my xanga)

GoBears!

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:28:48 GMT

Cal def. Michigan State
38 -- 31

One Year Later...

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:01:40 GMT

Today (or yesterday, rather) marked a year since I became a full-time software engineer at Cisco! I celebrated it by...

... working until 1:30am*. Whoohoo!

Being in a cube farm all by yourself at midnight is about twice as sad as being in a CS lab in college all by yourself at midnight.

* Ok, so I actually got off work at 6pm, went to go hang out with Vicky, then came back in at 11pm and worked 'til 1:30am. I needed to get some work done in time for an upcoming vacation. It'll be worth it! :D

Freebies, or Why You Should Take Me With You to Places

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:21:51 GMT

So this past week has been a string of freebies for me:

Sunday: I go to Bakesale Betty's in Oakland (read the Yelp link; the place is as awesome as they say). I order a Fried Chicken Sandwich and a Strawberry Shortcake. When I get to the front of the line, they tell me that they're out of shortcake, so they refund my money for the shortcake and give me a slice of blueberry pie instead. Then, they serve up a fried chicken salad instead of the sandwich. I tell them, and they give me the sandwich and just tell me to keep the salad, even though I never even touched it and it was in a box, ready to be sold to the next guy who wanted one. So... I got a sandwich, a salad, and a quarter of a blueberry pie all for the price of a sandwich!

Monday: My friends at work take me out to Dave & Buster's happy hour to celebrate my engagement. I order a small beer -- Newcastle -- but they bring me a large one instead (I couldn't finish it. Sad, I know). They just charge me the price of the small one. I didn't really pay for any of it, since my friends were taking me out... but still, it was a nice deal, although small.

Tuesday: Ok, this one's actually not a freebie, more of a reverse-freebie. After work, I printed out 3 Jamba Juice B1G1 coupons to share with some of the people with whom I play ultimate frisbee. 5 guys go with me, two of them pair up, leaving me to buy my drink on my own. I end up buying two small drinks, making a really big one. Sad. HOWEVER, I went to Blockbuster afterward to rent the Batman Begins Blu-Ray disc, and before I rented it I asked the clerk how much it would be, and she told me it'd be about $5.50 AND a 2-day rental only. I reluctantly agreed to rent it, since I would be watching Dark Knight the next day. However, the disc rang up at $4.00 AND the computer indicated a week-long rental! Sweet!

Thursday: I'm at Jamba Juice again with just one friend this time from ultimate frisbee. I order one flavor and he orders another, but they end up making both of ours in the same flavor. They remake him a new one and give us the mistaken one for free. I let him have the extra one for his roommate.

Friday (today): I get a call from the Mazda dealership, asking for feedback about the oil change / Technical Service Bulletin (I had to get the passenger seatbelt buckle replaced because it was squeaky). I told them that the service was fine and that I'm very happy with the car, but the service did take a long time. Actually, last Thursday, I took the car in and waited 3 hours, and winded up having to take the car back and go to work before they were even able to get to my car. I had to come in the next day to get the work done and waited another 3-4 hours at the dealership. Anyway, the lady who called me threw in a free oil change gift certificate for me.

I could get used to this...

Whoa

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:48:09 GMT

Ever have one of those moments where you feel like your "heart strings," as they say, are being tugged?

So I'm planning on taking a road trip with some friends, starting from Vegas and going out to visit some national parks and stuff. I was assigned to do some research on Monument Valley, Utah -- find some sights to see and lodging for the night. As I was playing around on Google Maps, browsing around the Four Corners area, I saw a bunch of familiar names that made my heart skip a few beats:

...Many Farms... McNary... Whiteriver... Klagetoh...

I visited these places on mission trips back when I was in junior high and high school. I still remember those places, especially McNary, as if I had been there recently. All we really did was run a VBS program for the kids, maybe feed them in the evenings, and do door-to-door evangelism with the Apache residents in the neighborhood. However, in the background, while we were doing all that, loomed the effects and all the social issues brought on by the U.S. Reservation system*, and those same smiling children in VBS would have to continue growing up in hardship after we left. I guess that sounds dark, and I suppose it is, but the whole point of going there was to share the Good News, to bring light to darkness as John 3 puts it. I hope the kids grew up with a Savior to light their way in the darkness.

I wish I could write a longer post reminiscent of my experiences there, but life here in San Jose beckons. I hope I can dream about those places tonight.

*You should read up on the Reservation system. It's a classic example of how simply throwing money at a problem doesn't just make things all right. Maybe I'm just especially enthused by this, and maybe it's going to become a Big Deal in my life. Who knows where God leads!

Engage!

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:00:15 GMT

I don't have a camera, so this is the only picture I could come up with for the time being: