Sean M. Talts

About Me

I'm a third year undergraduate Computer Engineering major at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Being at least two decades old, I should really have something more substantial to put here, but I find myself coming up short. Check back later - maybe I'll think of something.

Research Interests

I'm currently researching active storage devices, specifically optimizing linux for the nslu2 for on-disk applications (ask me about that on-disk bit if you're curious).

I have previously done some research in the area of physical RFID security (differential power analysis and glitch attacks).

I also worked on the N-Variant Framework in the summer of 2006, and presented a poster (which I have since misplaced) at USENIX 2006.

Past Projects

Operating Systems, CS414 A user-level threading library This user-level threading library uses makecontext and swapcontext and a multi-level feedback queue (with round-robin inside queue levels). A user-level malloc library This has three different memory allocators included: First-fit, best-fit, and buddy system.

Algorithms, CS432 A sudoku solver This solver uses 5 sudoku solving methods and then switches to deterministic guessing. It's able to solve almost all (including evil) sudoku puzzles in well under a second.

Hobbies

I'm a college student, and sometimes I also like to play video games like GuildWars.

I also love to travel.

Countries I've been to, in the order of my first visit:

Mexico Germany France Austria Switzerland

Spain Morocco Canada Japan Thailand

I really want to visit South Korea next. After that, I have a few ideas as well.

I like soccer and volleyball, too.

Also, I really like system administration. Yes, as my hobby. I've got 6 or so computers at the moment, doing different things. Making things work together is kinda my favorite thing ever.

It's probably unnecessary at this point to mention that I really like Linux. I'm a huge fan of Gentoo, but recently I haven't had as much time and I installed Ubuntu on a whim and so far I'm liking it a lot.

I spend a lot of time on the Internets.

One time, first year, I made a song. It's supposed to be a DnB remix of a clip of Darth Vader saying There will be no one to stop us this time. I think it's pretty exciting, personally.

Contact Information

You can contact me by mailing smt6k at either virginia.edu or cs.virginia.edu.