ANN for Wireless Network Applications

September 28th, 2009 by Jason Ernst
 

This semester I have been taking a soft computing course. We have covered fuzzy logic and are starting artificial neural networks (ANN) although I have missed a couple of classes due to the conferences I have been attending. Anyway the ANN class today piqued my interest in how I can apply this to my area which is wireless networks. It seems to me so far that it could be applied to some of my cross-layer work since the network could be trained to tune parameters to settings which yield good performance based on specific network conditions. However, I’m not sure if this approach would be good or if some other AI type of technique may be better. Also I am interested in how ANNs could be applied to breaking encryption schemes if it is even possible. I have tried a few searches on Google and some journals / conferences but nothing of interest has come up yet. I don’t think I really understand ANNs enough to answer any of the questions, but I thought I’d get them down so I can come back later and think when I have more time. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions on these ideas.

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Perimeter Institute Physics Festival!

September 8th, 2009 by Jason Ernst
 

This may be only marginally related to computer science, but if you are like me, you may also have an interest in physics (and for those who don’t I think there are some lectures on quantum computers which may be cool). The festival runs in October and there is about a week or so of events including lectures, panel discussions and even live taping of TV shows (Steve Paiken if you are familiar with his show). You can register starting today for some of the events and next week for some as well. Here is the link: http://q2cfestival.com

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Problems with Mobile / Wireless Service in Canada

June 2nd, 2009 by Jason Ernst
 
mobile wireless canada sucks

Today I set out to try to find a replacement for my LG8100 phone which has had a very long and horrible life (going through the washer and dryer several times and still working). I am interested in getting some type of blackberry an iPhone, or would even consider one of the newly popular mobile usb modem sticks. The reason for this is because I want to be able to either tether to my laptop, or use the stick to access the Internet while I travel. For instance I am planning a month long cross-Canada trip this summer. All of the sticks seem to only work on 3g networks. They don’t have information on whether they can fall back onto legacy technology at all. Well this is useless unless I can somehow stick to major metro areas. Not very useful for a “mobile” Internet technology.

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Posted in Miscellaneous by Jason Ernst

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Top 10 Reasons to Study Computer Science in 2009

January 30th, 2009 by Jason Ernst
 
Computer Science Researcher

The trend in blogs, the internet and news sites lately is to write articles about the economy. Instead of that however, I thought I would use the opportunity to try to encourage people who might be considering studying computer science (or related related fields) to go forward and pursue education in this area. Now is an especially good time to get your foot in the door since admissions have generally been low the last few years and there are plenty of jobs, which is more than we can say about many other areas. It’s also close to the start of the year so maybe it would be good to start with a new career path.

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Cluster Computer Case Suggestions?

October 1st, 2008 by Jason Ernst
 
microwulf cluster

So I’ve recently come across a bunch of free computers and I’ve decided to try to hook them together to form a beowulf style cluster for running some of my simulations on since I think I can modify the code to be parallel. I have tested all of the computers and have them spread across my basement floor however I seem to have a problem. I need a way to enclose them into some sort of case or storage area. I don’t want to use wood and have been exploring some kind of plexiglass or similar material without much luck. So far the best idea I’ve seen has been the “Microwulf“.

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Posted in Computer Science, Miscellaneous by Jason Ernst

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