July 2002

By the way these LPF guys are really a bunch of clowns. Would be funny if it wasn't that they're going to be in our government...

Another nice day of studying. Finishing the assignment the teacher gave me, to decode a message with a BCH code that contains 3 errors. Looking now for a 'nice' message, that won't interfere with the given error-pattern ('last 3 bits turn 1'). Will be going to bed soon. Tomorrow two big other subjects: data compression and complexity. Pfff...

Found a website (here) that has a number of BCH generator polynoms. Spoke to Joanna by MSN; that instant messaging is a nice thing.

Working on decoding algorithm for BCH codes. This is really interesting stuff; too bad I still have to learn the Complexity part. It's not very difficult (had it in other courses), but just less interesting at this moment.

Haha! The finite field stuff is under control I would say. At least the most useful ones (Zp^m/g(x)) I understand quite well now. This really makes understanding the codes a lot easier. I learned a lot today. Quite happy with that.

Made a schedule and budget for the summer (when everybody comes to visit us). It's really nice to do, I'm looking forward to see them a lot!

It looks like I'm making some progress. I've been studying lineair codes this morning; Hamming codes specifically and refreshed my knowledge on that terrain. Now going to the theory of cyclic codes. Not a lot more difficult, but it does require extra background knowledge (of finite fields).

Went to my work early in the morning, had to download a big file and print a few pages. I'll be home around 10:00 and study.

so, we played 99 today... and I became 3rd! I'm rather proud. :) We played 4 preliminaries, of which I won 2 and become 2nd in another one. Only the first game, against Erika and Albert I lost quite badly. The final was between Zoltan, Jerry and me.

The final results:

1. Zoltan
2. Jerry




3. Guus
4. Albert
5. Daniel
6. Rob
7. Marjolein
8. Erika
9. Gerlof

Tomorrow and the whole week I'll be studying.

Woke up early; studied a bit Shannon's Theorem Proof.

I'll be leaving in about half an hour to Zoltan.

Found some really good tutorials on Coding theory, the best is this one.

Tomorrow 99 toernament at Zoltan's place.