Assembly, system calls, hex representation and port binding shellcode. Yes, it’s assignment time and I’m spending Sunday afternoon in the lab. With 6 modules this semester and assignments due in just about all of them I’m really getting to know the four walls of what is commonly known as the MSSF-lab. Surrounded by about 40 computers, the sizzling tunes of Sonny Rollins and friends are hardly audible over the monotone sound of some 120 CPU and power supply unit cooling fans. Not to mention the air condition…

“The accept function waits for a connection request from a client to arrive on the listening descriptor listenfd, then …” sighs content as the steaming hot coffee runs the back of the mouth. No one makes coffee like Star… Shoot! Why can’t they do like in the states – 24h black coffee. “Did I miss a f**ing meeting with the coffee? Eh? You can get every other flavor except COFFEE flavor coffee!” No one loves coffee like Dennis Leary.

1:08 hour (41%) battery power remaining and 59 minutes 46 seconds till the security guard gets here. I better get back to my int main args. “The distinction between a listening descriptor and a connected descriptor confuses many students.” Yes, Mr. Bryant. Yes Mr. O’Hallaron. It wouldn’t be a 977 page programmers perspective if there was no confusion.