All posts by Eric "smurph" Murphy

Eric is a software engineer and father of two, who's hobbies include video games, open source software, and just being a geek.

Payton Turns 3!

Three years ago today, something amazing happened that I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand. Our oldest daughter, Payton, was born at 24 weeks. That’s 3 1/2 months early! She was 1lb 12oz and fit in my hand. She was the tiniest baby I’d ever seen. I didn’t think it was possible for a baby to be born that early and little, and fight for her life the way Payton did. She’s an amazing little girl and has been an inspiration to Erika and I.

She had such a little personality early on and that personality has grown quite a bit in three years. Like any toddler, she can be a handful at times, but overall she’s such a happy and sweet little girl. I’m looking forward to watching her grow up.

Today also marks the day we became a family instead of just a couple. It was an intense and scary day but it was a special day I’ll never forget.

Happy Birthday Payton!

We're starting her earlyReady to play!Payton at almost 3

Raising a Healthy Gamer

Video games seem to have such a bad rep when it comes to kids. There has always been a lot of a lot of controversy over ESRB ratings, violence, language, and addiction. Most of that friction comes from parents who have no experience with gaming, have no interest in gaming, or has a child who they think is addicted to gaming. Parents who take the time to understand gaming and its effects are much more prepared to help their kids have a good experience and probably learn something from gaming. Yes, you can learn a thing or two from gaming. This quote is pretty powerful and sums up my response to any parent who opposes video games for their kids.

What was ultimately reinforced for me is a simple truth that all the legislation and media hand-wringing often misses: if a parent isn’t doing their job, then no law will fix that. Don’t worry about understanding the newest study or crunching numbers on the latest gaming statistics: if your gut says your child isn’t old enough for a game, or that they’re playing too much, listen to it.

Hit up the link for a great article:
Raising a healthy gamer: seven tips for parents[Ars Technica]

Thanks to txshurricane for the article!

Iranian Activists Enabled by US Technology

Onion routing is some seriously cool secure networking. This is way beyond encrypted tunnels. Basically you have a series of “onion routers” which each have their own public/private keys. When you send a message to the first router, it randomly picks a series of the other routers and encrypts the message with each of those routers’ public keys. Then it sends the message to the last router who’s key was used to encrypt it. That router decrypts it and sends the message to the next router who’s key was used to encrypt the message. So you have multiple layers of encryption, each router peels a layer from the “onion” and sends it to the next router creating a completely random path. When it reaches its destination, the response is put in the included “reply onion” and sent back a different path. Therefore not even the destination knows the origin!

In order to compromise this, one must either have control of ALL the onion routers, or break the multiple layers of encryption. Sounds pretty solid to me.

I just have to note one thing though, the Wired article is inaccurate since its saying they’re poking holes in Iran’s firewall. Really its not poking holes. Poking holes implies you’ve hacked the firewall and opened up access to something that was previously blocked. This tech is sending encrypted packets through protocols and ports that are apparently still open. Whoever controls the firewall could easily block known onion routers or block the protocols/ports they’re using, making it a much more difficult first hop. They also do not mention if this traffic is masked as simple web traffic or what. Onion routing is simply a means to disguise the origin, destination, path, and messages, not for bypassing firewalls. However, if the firewalls block Twitter.com, for example, the firewall would not know to block these onion messages going to a random onion router who’s final destination is Twitter.com. Still, that’s not “poking holes” in anyone’s firewall. That’s just being sneaky.

Must reads:
Activists Use U.S. Tech to Poke Holes in Iran Firewall[Wired]
Onion Routing[Wikipedia]

I don’t know why, but I…

… signed up for twitter.

Mostly I wanted to follow a few game developers, Co-Optimus, stalk Felicia Day and such. Not going to post updates to it obsessively like some people1 but it is set up to tweet new blog posts.

Btw, just kidding about stalking Felicia Day. She must have a ton of creepy, geeky, WoW obsessed stalkers. Poor girl. Anyway, she’s funny, that’s why I’m “following” her. If she gets annoying I’m removing her though 😛

1You have to watch this…

A Letter to Sam, You’re a Serious Heartbreaker

Dear Serious Sam,

You’re coming to XBL Arcade, so I should be ecstatic right? After all, you’re one of my all-time favorite co-op shooters. They don’t get much better than you, when looking for an over-the-top shooter that is insanely fun. But, alas, Sam, you broke my heart with this news because while you are coming to my favorite platform with the new Serious Engine 3, improved graphics, and 4 player co-op goodness, you forgot about split screen! The old you wouldn’t have done this. You even had split screen on PC. PC!! I can count the number of split screen, co-op, PC games I’ve owned on one hand (and probably have fingers to spare) and you’re one of them! So why would you omit this legendary feature on a console where split screen really thrives?

Sam, I say this with great regret, even though you’re a mere $15 (1200 MS Points), I’m not going to purchase you on XBLA until you can prove to me you’re still worth it. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m married to a gamer, she likes playing shooters and I think she’d love you. But without split screen, we’re just not having it. I’m sorry, Sam. I guess this is goodbye until the other new Serious Sam title comes out, but since you’re built on the same Serious Engine 3, I’m not keeping my hopes up for split screen.

Missing You,

smurph