Early this morning I headed down to CSIT for a test. It was a prelude to an interview, as I had recently submitted a resume seeking to fill the post of a Cyber Security Researcher with them. It was a rather ulu place - a squat, white-ish building in surroundings which can only be described as “idyllic”. The taxi uncle got us lost searching for the place, so it took me nearly as long getting there by cab than it would’ve had I taken the bus, and 8 bucks more.
Anyhoo in the days running up to the test I was starting to get a little jumpy as I didn’t know what to expect. The email just said “test” in ominous little letters without specifying what it was a test for. Now when you walk into a shitstorm you’d want to know which way the wind is blowing right? This time though, I charged in with my eyes closed. I expected it to be more of a “Why are manhole covers round?” or “You have two glasses of water, one half full…” sort of test, with an emphasis on logical and problem solving skills, whereas Xinhui was of the steadfast opinion that I should be expecting more personality-revealing questions.
We were both wrong. The title of said paper was Technical Competency Test (Set 1) and I was made to trace pointers, cook up a network client in pseudocode and list the registers on an x86 processor. I knew I should have brushed up my assembly.. just two days ago I contemplated at least going through the instruction set and the basic x86 architecture in preperation for this test - you know - just in case… Of course, I never got around to actually doing that.
Anyway… one of the questions required me to describe a 3-way TCP handshake. Now this is something you get from page 1 of the lecture notes in Networks 101, and I was all set to go, then - MENTAL BLOCK! ARGH! I couldn’t remember what the first packet was called, so I put INT, INT/ACK, ACK.
Well done, Gary. You have just created an all-new handshaking protocol.
Die.
In other news, Alvin and I were at Funan just last night while waiting for the rest of the BF gang to show up for our BF party when we were accosted by a mentally-ill woman in her 50’s. She tailed us from the ground floor to level 4, spewing obscenities and cursing everyone in my family tree. Her words are too harsh to reproduce onscreen Dear Reader, lest they burn holes through the back of your unaccustomed skulls.
It was kinda amusing at first, though my fuse started to fizz when she didn’t give up at level 3, and stood on the escalator beside us all the way till we reached the fourth floor. When I turned to look at her, she went “DON’T BULLY WOMAN LAH!!!” and yelled at us like we were a pair of muggers. People stared, and that seemed to please her.
Suddenly, as quickly as she had appeared, she vanished. I turned my back for a moment and the cursing stopped… We then proceeded to the information counter to send Security after her.
I didn’t stay around long enough to learn of their progress, but I hope they found her.
If we weren’t in public, swear to God I’d have hit her already. Being mentally ill does not equate to possession of a get-out-of-beating-free card. Hey, self-defence… dig?
Bitch.
Gary :: Feb.24.2006 ::
Bitchin', General ::
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