Datagram!

Not a lot to report. I read to W. today at Lighthouse International about NAT. Network Address Translation vis a vis IP datagram packets. It was pretty boring (especially the reciting of IP addresses number by number over and over, as examples,) but I did learn about the interesting dilemma of IPv4 and its meager 4 billion addresses capability.

Since the textbook we're reading is from, like, 1997, I'm sure this problem has been solved but since I don't know that, I can imagine an exciting and tense Y2K scenario before full implementation of IPv6. Ask me what happened to IPv5!

By the end of this reading relationship, I'm pretty sure I'll be qualified for a job at the Internet Engineering Task Force, a dream job for any modern woman.

I'm heartbroken that I can't find the thing that connects my digital camera to my computer, hence no good photos from Maine. Where I went for my birthday. Which was very nice. My iPhone pics don't do justice to the magic that is autumn in New England justice, but I tried..

Embarassing Moments and Transport Layers

First for me: forgetting how to spell the word "embarassing" (still not 100% sure). Then Googling it and getting so many funny responses that I forgot what my own hilarious tale would have been... So, my findings. Not linked, so that you too can search for other people's embarassing moments and be amused. Note: according to one source, the top embarassing things are: shyness, baldness, acne, and sex. Phew. I'm doing kinda okay. Top Google results (omitting YouTube for obvious reasons):

How to escape embarassing situations by using your mobile phone. ...

Information and excerpts from the book to help you deal with health problems that are difficult to discuss, including shyness, baldness, acne, and sex.

Embarassing. Victory_2_tiny by mlmintampa on Sep 27, 2008 4:11 PM EDT in Football. My head is literally fuming. I feel heat coming off my head right now. ...

Oct 9, 2008 ... Google just rolled out a new set of ads making the total number of ad-based revenue streams roughly equal to.

The last one I do link to as it looks kinda interesting (no, I didn't read the whole thing).

Anyway, today's topic as I read to W. at Lighthouse International was "Transport Layers." Which, for you uninformed means: a group of methods and protocols within a layered architecture of network components, within which it is responsible for encapsulating application data blocks into datagrams (packets) suitable for transfer to the network infrastructure for transmission to the destination host, or managing the reverse transaction by abstracting network datagrams and delivering them to an application. Such protocol are also referred to as "transport protocols."*

Got it? Good.

* Thank you, Wikipedia, for explaining it, like 68% better and more succinctly than the poor dude's 1994 textbook.

Sunny Saturdays [w/ video]

Sunny Saturdays are not my cup of tea. Too ... wide open and relentlessly ... upbeat. I know the burden's on me to fill up that time, to breathe and explore and for god's sake get some fresh air and sunlight. Well. I'd prefer a rainy, windswept day with a book any time.

Anyway, I DID have plenty to do, starting with getting up to 59th and Lex before 10 am to volunteer at Lighthouse International, the leading nonprofit resource organization for the visually impaired. I love the place... it oozes goodness, somehow, proximity to Bloomingdale's notwithstanding. Light, modern, airy, the building welcomed me back after a long hiatus.

Obviously, any volunteer work will provide a sense of having done something right and good. I lucked out, though, and also got to meet a cool guy and learn some stuff about Internet protocols. Two hours of reading a textbook on all things Internet just flew by. Today we focused on SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, syntax over Telnet, getting into P2P file-sharing (Napster through Gnutella only). The guy, W., is a very bright, relatively young African American grad student at Brooklyn Polytech. He has some sight but not enough for reading. He's been essentially blind since age 10. He lives in Brooklyn and has a really long commute to the Lighthouse. He's not sure what he's going to do with his graduate degree. He may teach but thinks that might have its own challenges and annoyances. He has beautiful eyes.

Later, I got my hair cut.

Below, a slice of what seemed like possibly tens or hundreds of skateboarders zipping down Broadway. In traffic.