Server Help :: View topic - For Those With Ideas on Issues in Computer Science

Server Help

Trash Talk - For Those With Ideas on Issues in Computer Science

Muskrat - Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:44 am
Post subject: For Those With Ideas on Issues in Computer Science

I've recently been contacted by the Mathematics Department Head of my university about applying for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Each state school may nominate 4 sophomores or juniors, 300 of which are chosen. I think this is a somewhat prestigious scholarship(pays well, at least) and I am delighted at being nominated.

Let's cut to the chase.
Within the application there is a required essay: the reason for this post.

Application Essay wrote:

Discuss a significant issue or problem in your field of study that is of particular interest to you. .....
discuss an idea for research that could have significant impact on the issue or problem...

As a sophomore Comptuer Science major I find myself faced with discussing issues which I have hereforto disregarded. This is where I seek help.

What Issues are there within the Computer Science world that are worth discussing?

Throw out any ideas you have, I can research and build my own content from there.

Much obliged to any help.

Bak - Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:50 am
Post subject:

P=NP

Recurrent Neural Networks

Computer Architectures

Dr Brain - Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:33 am
Post subject:

AI is the big CS issue these days.

You could say something about human computer interaction though, and how there's no easy-to-program, fast, good looking GUI.

Muskrat - Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:01 am
Post subject:

Sweet, thanks guys.

I kinda like that idea brain.

Smong - Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:33 pm
Post subject:

You can write about web 2.0 syndrome and how many websites are now using diagonal lines, dotted lines, ajax, tags and tag clouds, "link me" buttons and other assorted eyecandy.

Solo Ace - Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:47 pm
Post subject:

The problem of encryption being less safe every day due to increasing clock/decrypting/cracking speeds. I read in some vague article that quantum cryptography would solve that one though.

Cerium - Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:22 pm
Post subject:

US IP patents/copyrights and what have you. This shit is seriously putting a damper on what we can and cannot develop. When faggots like amazon are allowed to patent 1-click-shopping, theres a serious problem.

Though, this is probably outside the scope of the scholarship.

Cyan~Fire - Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:56 pm
Post subject:

Dr Brain wrote:

and how there's no easy-to-program, fast, good looking GUI

Hear hear!

Quan Chi2 - Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:30 pm
Post subject:

If secuirty has anything to do with computer science, then I suggest that you discuss why/how modern web applications are being exploited so easily, or something along those lines if you know what I mean.

Bak - Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:46 am
Post subject:

eclipse is easy-to-program and good looking...

fast? well... it's reasonable for what it does.

Mine GO BOOM - Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:52 am
Post subject:

Quan Chi2 wrote:

discuss why/how modern web applications are being exploited so easily

It is actually pretty simple. The number one thing all programs should understand is to never, ever trust the user input. You ask them to enter a username, and they'll put thirty commas in. Well, if your system uses commas for dilemmas and you don't sanitize the input, your system is screwed. Some common examples:

SQL is done by text. This allows humans to interact with databases very easily, as you don't need to make a binary protocol because computers can parse text very quickly. Downfall is that people assume that their javascript will prevent a user from inputing an invalid email address. Whoops, they disabled javascript and put their email address with quotes and semicolons. Even when a language has built in functions to help with it, people still screw up.

Char strings. If you write 5,000 bytes into a 20 byte char array, your computer will let you. You'll clobber everything in the stack/heap, but your CPU won't care when it is writing. And a common problem that new users to C have with char arrays is that some functions will write up to the last byte and not append a null character at the end. Whoops, have fun next time you read that. *NOTE: Windows is changing most if not all of their strcpy/sprintf type fuctions into secure modes to help combat this.

There are tons more problems, but that is the big one. People trust the user's input too much. Users will do everything in their power, even without trying, to screw up your program. Every single action should check to make sure every part of it is correct. When reading numbers, check to make sure it is actually a number. It isn't hard to see a GET input and then change values. And if you are assuming an integer, make sure you didn't get real number instead. Check for divide by 0 for any variable that a user could control. Make sure numbers that need to be positive are positive.

Quan Chi2 - Fri Sep 15, 2006 3:49 pm
Post subject:

You're right. You made good points, and those are the points that I think should be discussed. Its so simple that its a problem. A lot of well written web applications are being exploited. So I think its a significant issue to be discussed among people in this field, computer science. He could discuss computer forensics in the part of his essay that discusses solutions, but correct me if I'm wrong.