First Post... Finally

Sziastok!

I'm finally getting around to what I've been planning to do for months now - update a blog a little about life in Budapest! Now winter has arrived I'm spending a lot less time outdoors and, naturally, more time on the web. I don't have any pictures but I've decided to return to the city in the spring so I'll be sure to bring along a camera. It was one of the toughest decisions of my life, but now I'm stoked to return - hopefully I can bring along some climbing and camping gear and do some more exploring once the nice weather returns.

Time is evaporating faster than ever here. The last few weeks have mostly seen me holed up in my apartment in the suburbs. Now that it's winter, darkness creeps in by 4 and it's a lot harder to get downtown during the evening. I have been able to get out now and then though - on Saturday I relaxed in the outdoor thermal baths of the city park for almost 3 hours. Life is good.

My classes are still interesting, but certainly grueling. It's become that stage of the semester when the prospect of a break gets more and more appealing at an alarming rate. (Although it's hard to imagine leaving Budapest, I'm definitely craving the mountains! And nachos.)

I'm off to Amsterdam with Isaac on a red-eye flight Thursday morning for Thanksgiving weekend and I'm totally psyched - it'll be my first real excursion since our trip to Lake Balaton - this time, though, we've shied away from the public park sleeping option and opted instead for a hostel.

Well, hopefully this stays semi-updated - and look for pictures in a few months. In the meantime, here are some links I've gotta share:

Includes pic of new Woods Hole underwater bot

Provides some statistical justification for the structure of modern (kick-ass) chess programs.

Exciting news!
Today in my quantum computing class we studied how to break RSA encryption with a quantum computer - a.k.a. How To Rule The Internet - and now this fantasy is becoming a reality! woooo! Of course this particular uber-computer would, at most, be able to break a 1-binary-digit key (0 or 1).