Wedding invitations: done!
Well, the first batch, anyway, which is everyone we had addresses for. We were over the 1 oz limit, so they're all going out with 60c netstamps rather than the 37c normal stamps.
Lowest zip code: 02139
Highest zip code: 99762
Shortest distance: 0.3 miles, zip code 15232
Longest distance: 7,503 miles, Okinawa, Japan 901-2303
Thursday, August 8, 2002
Monday, August 5, 2002
Got my Lord of the Rings DVD today! Yay!
Morning meeting went ok. Jon (NeoCell chief) pointed out some deficiencies in my (very abstract, very high-level, very rough draft) design, which is a good thing. Not what I wanted to hear, of course, but sometimes what I want is not what is good for me. This feedback will help me to refine the design.
Nonetheless, the idea is fundamentally sound, or so it seems. Unusual, yes, and there's a large risk of customers refusing to adopt the idea. It could be a big flop. But what invention that was worth a damn did not have such a risk?
Of course, the riskiness of an idea is not an indication of its goodness. As mathematicians would say, riskiness is a necessary but not sufficient property of a good idea.
Morning meeting went ok. Jon (NeoCell chief) pointed out some deficiencies in my (very abstract, very high-level, very rough draft) design, which is a good thing. Not what I wanted to hear, of course, but sometimes what I want is not what is good for me. This feedback will help me to refine the design.
Nonetheless, the idea is fundamentally sound, or so it seems. Unusual, yes, and there's a large risk of customers refusing to adopt the idea. It could be a big flop. But what invention that was worth a damn did not have such a risk?
Of course, the riskiness of an idea is not an indication of its goodness. As mathematicians would say, riskiness is a necessary but not sufficient property of a good idea.
Friday, August 2, 2002
I'm not feeling well, and I don't know why.
I've been jittery the last few days, butterflies-in-the-stomach-type of a feeling. On the plus side, this has suppressed my appetite a bit. I'm guessing it's stress-related combined with my excessive intake of coffee.
I'm proposing a fairly dramatic shift in direction of some projects at work, which brings the necessary politicking. Campaigning for a technological decision is not unfamiliar territory to me, but it still wears me down. And then there are the wedding-related items, a trip next weekend, trying to play money-manager with stocks, ... oy.
At least it looks like we're going to get some desperately-needed rain here today:
I've been jittery the last few days, butterflies-in-the-stomach-type of a feeling. On the plus side, this has suppressed my appetite a bit. I'm guessing it's stress-related combined with my excessive intake of coffee.
I'm proposing a fairly dramatic shift in direction of some projects at work, which brings the necessary politicking. Campaigning for a technological decision is not unfamiliar territory to me, but it still wears me down. And then there are the wedding-related items, a trip next weekend, trying to play money-manager with stocks, ... oy.
At least it looks like we're going to get some desperately-needed rain here today:
The National Weather Service says severe thunderstorms may develop
over the head of the Ohio region this afternoon and tonight. Wind
gusts could exceed 60 mph and hail could reach 1 inch in size. If
rain amounts go over 2 inches, there will be ponding of water in
locations with poor drainage.
The high heat and humidity will help develop scattered thunderstorms
by late afternoon. National Weather Service Pittsburgh expects a
front, from the Great Lakes, will move slowly southward across the
head of the Ohio region tonight... and this may help storms to become
better organized and severe.
Consequently, the skywarn net may need to be activated late this
afternoon and tonight. Stay tuned for updates.
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
I've given up trying to use the Sun workstation on my desk at work. It's painful. Sun equipment used to be prime stuff; not anymore. The cheap PC next to it is much faster.
Though not as fast as it could be. I opened up the disk defragmenter, but, surprisingly, it didn't look like there was much fragmentation. Well, at first. There were only a few spots of blue on the "Analysis Display," while a good 95% of it was solid red.
Then I saw the legend: "(Red) = Fragmented files (Blue) = Contiguous files". Heh... oops.
Though not as fast as it could be. I opened up the disk defragmenter, but, surprisingly, it didn't look like there was much fragmentation. Well, at first. There were only a few spots of blue on the "Analysis Display," while a good 95% of it was solid red.
Then I saw the legend: "(Red) = Fragmented files (Blue) = Contiguous files". Heh... oops.
Monday, July 29, 2002
On the up-side, I think I can fix them with a dab of superglue.
I seem to be in a devil-may-care attitude about work as of late. Not that I don't do it. Just that the code I'm writing is architecturally clean, and I'm refusing to bend to our product teams' demands to pollute it so they can integrate it more easily.
Saturday, July 27, 2002
Friday, July 26, 2002
Mm. Rain. I like a good rainstorm. Though I might shut down my computer after I write this, since it's a thunderstorm.
Purchased a cheap GPS unit today (should arrive Tuesday-ish). I've wanted to do some mapping for awhile now. Combined with the old laptop I acquired at work and some home-brew software in the works, I should be able to make my own maps, figure out where I got lost, etc. I enjoy wandering.
Not much else. I'll spare my few readers the usual rants about the screwed-up-ness of the NeoCell team and corporate life in general.
Purchased a cheap GPS unit today (should arrive Tuesday-ish). I've wanted to do some mapping for awhile now. Combined with the old laptop I acquired at work and some home-brew software in the works, I should be able to make my own maps, figure out where I got lost, etc. I enjoy wandering.
Not much else. I'll spare my few readers the usual rants about the screwed-up-ness of the NeoCell team and corporate life in general.
Friday, July 19, 2002
The Dow Jones is down more than 250, and was down 300 at one point. Gulp.
Yet I reaffirm my position by putting in a buy order (in an index fund which tracks the market). Either Tam and I will profit at others' irrational market fears when this all blows over, or the U.S. will collapse and any money we have will be worthless in the market, in the bank, or in our pocket.
When viewed this way, there's no question about what to do. Buy. Why everyone else is selling puzzles me.
Anyway... back to work, and no more day trading today. :-)
Yet I reaffirm my position by putting in a buy order (in an index fund which tracks the market). Either Tam and I will profit at others' irrational market fears when this all blows over, or the U.S. will collapse and any money we have will be worthless in the market, in the bank, or in our pocket.
When viewed this way, there's no question about what to do. Buy. Why everyone else is selling puzzles me.
Anyway... back to work, and no more day trading today. :-)
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Wednesday, July 17, 2002
Been awhile since I've posted. I've tried a number of times, but never quite got the motivation to finish an entry.
Anyway, finally got the wedding invitation paper. Now the onus is on me to get them done. Which means we need to figure out wording, finalise guest lists, etc.
I wanted to go visit my brother in Germany some extended-ish weekend in August, but it looks like the >$1500 plane fares will prevent that. Blah.
On the other hand, I did get my ticket for San Diego today. Well, almost. I have a voucher from USAirways for $105 (from a ticket I purchased but never used). You would think that USAirways' booking would be able to deal with that. Nope. I have to go to the ticket counter at the airport today. Bleh.
At least the voucher brings down the airfare to a reasonable level. USAir has the only direct flights from Pittsburgh to San Diego (by virtue of Pittsburgh being one of their hubs), but they charge quite a bit extra for them. It would've been cheaper ($340 vs. $475) for me to fly through Chicago on a comibination (!) of United and American flights. With the voucher, the difference is only $30, which doesn't bother me. I like direct flights, but not at a 30% premium.
Oh. We (Neolinear) made money last quarter! A lot ($1.7M). This surprised us, given the economic downturn. And we didn't even have to cook the books. :-) Even our stingy CFO said it was a good quarter.
On the downside, I've managed to crash Cadence about five or six times between yesterday and today. That's worse than our tool, and they (supposedly) have a real product validation team. EDA tools suck. We make Microsoft look good. Heck, we even make Sun look good.
Anyway, finally got the wedding invitation paper. Now the onus is on me to get them done. Which means we need to figure out wording, finalise guest lists, etc.
I wanted to go visit my brother in Germany some extended-ish weekend in August, but it looks like the >$1500 plane fares will prevent that. Blah.
On the other hand, I did get my ticket for San Diego today. Well, almost. I have a voucher from USAirways for $105 (from a ticket I purchased but never used). You would think that USAirways' booking would be able to deal with that. Nope. I have to go to the ticket counter at the airport today. Bleh.
At least the voucher brings down the airfare to a reasonable level. USAir has the only direct flights from Pittsburgh to San Diego (by virtue of Pittsburgh being one of their hubs), but they charge quite a bit extra for them. It would've been cheaper ($340 vs. $475) for me to fly through Chicago on a comibination (!) of United and American flights. With the voucher, the difference is only $30, which doesn't bother me. I like direct flights, but not at a 30% premium.
Oh. We (Neolinear) made money last quarter! A lot ($1.7M). This surprised us, given the economic downturn. And we didn't even have to cook the books. :-) Even our stingy CFO said it was a good quarter.
On the downside, I've managed to crash Cadence about five or six times between yesterday and today. That's worse than our tool, and they (supposedly) have a real product validation team. EDA tools suck. We make Microsoft look good. Heck, we even make Sun look good.
Thursday, July 11, 2002
I win. For once.
Yesterday, I received permission to use a private Cadence programming interface. This allows me to write code that is better integrated with their stuff and saves me about 8 months worth of work trying to hack together my own equivalent interface.
Today, I just got an additional pair of golden handcuffs slapped on me. Apparently, we had an excellent quarter so they tossed a few thousand stock options my way. It's all on paper, we're not publicly traded, and I don't fully vest on this new set until July 2006, but still... this pleases me.
Today, I just got an additional pair of golden handcuffs slapped on me. Apparently, we had an excellent quarter so they tossed a few thousand stock options my way. It's all on paper, we're not publicly traded, and I don't fully vest on this new set until July 2006, but still... this pleases me.
Monday, July 8, 2002
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who appreciates a clean, consistent architecture.
If the NeoCell team were to build a house, you would have the most immaculate, well-built hallway ever. Every right angle would be 90.0000 degrees. The ceiling would be exactly 10 feet. The walls would be Pantone White 773, with the lighting set so that you could see where you were going, without a dark corner in sight.
But every room off the hallway would be in a different style, with trap doors looming, gaping holes in the ceiling. Doors would be broken off of hinges. To get to the master bedroom, you would need to enter the bathroom, crawl through the medicine cabinet into the kitchen, watch out for the exposed wiring near the sink, and open the refrigerator door to get there. When you finally got there, you would find that someone had parked their car on the bed.
The ironic bit is that the subcontractor for each room would be extremely proud of his work. There would be no inspection; after all, each subcontractor was hand-picked and to have his work second-guessed would be an insult and a wasted expense. A year down the line, the general contractor would wonder why he can't seem to sell that house.
If the NeoCell team were to build a house, you would have the most immaculate, well-built hallway ever. Every right angle would be 90.0000 degrees. The ceiling would be exactly 10 feet. The walls would be Pantone White 773, with the lighting set so that you could see where you were going, without a dark corner in sight.
But every room off the hallway would be in a different style, with trap doors looming, gaping holes in the ceiling. Doors would be broken off of hinges. To get to the master bedroom, you would need to enter the bathroom, crawl through the medicine cabinet into the kitchen, watch out for the exposed wiring near the sink, and open the refrigerator door to get there. When you finally got there, you would find that someone had parked their car on the bed.
The ironic bit is that the subcontractor for each room would be extremely proud of his work. There would be no inspection; after all, each subcontractor was hand-picked and to have his work second-guessed would be an insult and a wasted expense. A year down the line, the general contractor would wonder why he can't seem to sell that house.
Saturday, July 6, 2002
Grr... Injured my left middle and ring fingers today, making it difficult to type.
Tam and I had fun swimming, though. We were out on Lake Arthur, and came across a huge slab of concrete about four feet below the water. We puzzled at first: was it an old parking lot, or boat ramp?
Tam finally figured it out: it was old U.S. 422. Yep... they just made the lake right over it, without bothering to remove the highway itself.
The injury came while I was clearing away algae trying to find the yellow diving line... I jammed my fingernails right into the slab. Ouch.
Tam and I had fun swimming, though. We were out on Lake Arthur, and came across a huge slab of concrete about four feet below the water. We puzzled at first: was it an old parking lot, or boat ramp?
Tam finally figured it out: it was old U.S. 422. Yep... they just made the lake right over it, without bothering to remove the highway itself.
The injury came while I was clearing away algae trying to find the yellow diving line... I jammed my fingernails right into the slab. Ouch.
Tam and I went to Moraine State Park yesterday and went swimming in Lake Arthur. Muchos fun.
And then I went to Dick's Sporting Goods today, because they were having a sale. And bought, of all things, a wetsuit. Hopefully, this will enable me to continue swimming through September or even October. Oooh...
Well, not this October. I'll probably be frazzled with last-minute wedding stuff. But, eh, it'll be there, waiting for me... :-)
And then I went to Dick's Sporting Goods today, because they were having a sale. And bought, of all things, a wetsuit. Hopefully, this will enable me to continue swimming through September or even October. Oooh...
Well, not this October. I'll probably be frazzled with last-minute wedding stuff. But, eh, it'll be there, waiting for me... :-)
Monday, July 1, 2002
Sunday, June 30, 2002
I'm tired of dealing with wedding plans that mushroom out of control.
I'm tired of people trying to pass the blame.
I'm tired of careless drivers who yak on their cellphones, weaving in and out of lanes, not using their turn signals when they change lanes, and leaving them on when they don't.
I'm tired of control freaks at work who think it's their job to tell others what they can't do.
I'm tired of excuses.
I'm tired of people trying to pass the blame.
I'm tired of careless drivers who yak on their cellphones, weaving in and out of lanes, not using their turn signals when they change lanes, and leaving them on when they don't.
I'm tired of control freaks at work who think it's their job to tell others what they can't do.
I'm tired of excuses.
Friday, June 28, 2002
According to their website, the 7-Eleven company has 385 stores in the United States.
For comparison, there are 8,924 in Japan and 2,908 in Taiwan.
I find this somewhat amusing and disturbing.
For comparison, there are 8,924 in Japan and 2,908 in Taiwan.
I find this somewhat amusing and disturbing.
$300k, though? I think that's a tad high, and I don't think I'd enjoy paying a $2400 mortgage every month.
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
I'm beginning to see why some stockbrokers jump out windows when the market crashes. (No, no, I'm nowhere near that mindset, don't worry. :-).
It's disheartening to see your hard-earned nest-egg vanish so easily. I've been watching non-trivial amounts of money vanish every day now for the last five weeks or so. Despite spending no money and working ten hours, I end up poorer when the sun sets.
Of course, you have to keep in mind that it works both ways. During boom times, I can sit and home on my lazy butt and make money.
In related news, I'm none too happy about WorldCom misplacing $3.8 billion dollars. That's not going to be good for the market tomorrow. (On the other hand, I already have my buy order in place for the index fund I invest in, so... :-)
It's disheartening to see your hard-earned nest-egg vanish so easily. I've been watching non-trivial amounts of money vanish every day now for the last five weeks or so. Despite spending no money and working ten hours, I end up poorer when the sun sets.
Of course, you have to keep in mind that it works both ways. During boom times, I can sit and home on my lazy butt and make money.
In related news, I'm none too happy about WorldCom misplacing $3.8 billion dollars. That's not going to be good for the market tomorrow. (On the other hand, I already have my buy order in place for the index fund I invest in, so... :-)
Monday, June 24, 2002
Is there any way to get objective information about what Arafat really does? Some sources claim that he supports terror, others say that the terror attacks are not connected to him, and still others are mum on the issue.
It seems that the informed sources, when it comes to the Middle East, are anything but unbiased. I'll have to resign myself to continued skepticism on the reporting on this issue.
Sunday, June 23, 2002
I am so sore. But quite happy.
Just got back from a weekend trip to a cottage out near Ligonier. Went swimming last night and this morning in a pool/pond (constantly getting fresh stream water, and has all kinds of random fish in it). Given that I don't usually swim and don't get as much exercise as I should, I will be sore tomorrow. Eh.
Also had lunch with Tam and Alli (Tam's friend whose family owns the cottage) at the Ligonier Tavern (which was a surprisingly good restaurant).
Just got back from a weekend trip to a cottage out near Ligonier. Went swimming last night and this morning in a pool/pond (constantly getting fresh stream water, and has all kinds of random fish in it). Given that I don't usually swim and don't get as much exercise as I should, I will be sore tomorrow. Eh.
Also had lunch with Tam and Alli (Tam's friend whose family owns the cottage) at the Ligonier Tavern (which was a surprisingly good restaurant).
Friday, June 21, 2002
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
I think we're about to be bought by Cadence.
We got a strange e-mail from our HR director/VP of Finance regarding stock options, and how, from time to time, we should evaluate whether we should exercise our options and purchase stock. I thought nothing of it at the time.
This morning, however, Cadence sent out a press release regarding a customer success with NeoCell, one of our products (Cadence markets and sells NeoCell). In this press release, there is not a single mention of Neolinear, and no mention of NeoCell being a registered Neolinear trademark. Management is brushing this off as an oversight. In my experience, though, marketing droids tend to be obsessive about making notes about trademarks.
I don't want to work for Cadence. They tend to squash any innovative ideas, internally. Their turnover rate is abysmal -- most of their good coders left.
We got a strange e-mail from our HR director/VP of Finance regarding stock options, and how, from time to time, we should evaluate whether we should exercise our options and purchase stock. I thought nothing of it at the time.
This morning, however, Cadence sent out a press release regarding a customer success with NeoCell, one of our products (Cadence markets and sells NeoCell). In this press release, there is not a single mention of Neolinear, and no mention of NeoCell being a registered Neolinear trademark. Management is brushing this off as an oversight. In my experience, though, marketing droids tend to be obsessive about making notes about trademarks.
I don't want to work for Cadence. They tend to squash any innovative ideas, internally. Their turnover rate is abysmal -- most of their good coders left.
Monday, June 17, 2002
scaryr: I don't trust sushi at all
scaryr: It's got a real mean streak.
kangadac: If it's mean, um... that's not right.
kangadac: It's raw, yes, but not *alive*.
scaryr: I still don't trust it.
scaryr: Sushi betrayed my great-uncle, actually.
kangadac: How so?
scaryr: Sold him to the Russians for a piece of tin.
kangadac: You sure you haven't been hitting the liquor cabinet?
scaryr: It's got a real mean streak.
kangadac: If it's mean, um... that's not right.
kangadac: It's raw, yes, but not *alive*.
scaryr: I still don't trust it.
scaryr: Sushi betrayed my great-uncle, actually.
kangadac: How so?
scaryr: Sold him to the Russians for a piece of tin.
kangadac: You sure you haven't been hitting the liquor cabinet?
Saturday, June 15, 2002
Friday, June 14, 2002
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Science Fair Volcanoes...
...had nothing on me last night.
Tamara got me a root beer kit for my birthday last December, and I finally got around to starting a batch a couple weekends ago. We tried some on Sunday. It was awful. I think I didn't put enough sugar in, and the yeast started fermenting.
I decided to rectify this last night. I opened the bottle, put a funnel in, and started pouring sugar in.
Instant 4-foot geyser. Root beer *everywhere*. One girlfriend rolling on the floor, unable to stop laughing.
So, yeah. That was one pissed off colony of yeast. I'll have the last laugh yet, though, when I enjoy my root beer.
In other ponderables -- why is nearly *everyone* on my LJ friends list depressed? *Hugs* from Tam and myself. Cheer up!
Tamara got me a root beer kit for my birthday last December, and I finally got around to starting a batch a couple weekends ago. We tried some on Sunday. It was awful. I think I didn't put enough sugar in, and the yeast started fermenting.
I decided to rectify this last night. I opened the bottle, put a funnel in, and started pouring sugar in.
Instant 4-foot geyser. Root beer *everywhere*. One girlfriend rolling on the floor, unable to stop laughing.
So, yeah. That was one pissed off colony of yeast. I'll have the last laugh yet, though, when I enjoy my root beer.
In other ponderables -- why is nearly *everyone* on my LJ friends list depressed? *Hugs* from Tam and myself. Cheer up!
Monday, June 10, 2002
Just after I got MorningGloryCam running and stable, my other computer (the one I usually use for e-mail and such) dies.
Fortunately, it's fixable. A voltage regulator chip was not glued to the board properly, and time and heat caused it to lift right off (and relocate itself at an odd angle). Unfortunately, I don't have the proper tools for this. As a result, DigiKey is now a few hundred dollars richer at my expense.
I'll be spending my time on this computer until Thursday or so.
Fortunately, it's fixable. A voltage regulator chip was not glued to the board properly, and time and heat caused it to lift right off (and relocate itself at an odd angle). Unfortunately, I don't have the proper tools for this. As a result, DigiKey is now a few hundred dollars richer at my expense.
I'll be spending my time on this computer until Thursday or so.
Sunday, June 9, 2002
Saturday, June 8, 2002
Friday, June 7, 2002
Well, it seems that CowbellTiara is a personal project by professional artist Akitu Taira. Pero, one of my office mates, translated the pages for me.
My boss is out of town next week, so that means I can show up to work anytime I want. Wait. I already do that. Hrm.
Oh, and it looks like CORBA won out. Time to dust off the CORBA books.
My boss is out of town next week, so that means I can show up to work anytime I want. Wait. I already do that. Hrm.
Oh, and it looks like CORBA won out. Time to dust off the CORBA books.
First, does anyone know what CowbellTiara is? I love the pictures I've seen from that page. Unfortunately, all of the information is in Japanese. (Hm, maybe I can get Pero to translate for me...)
Secondly, I've become the inadvertent sysadmin.
We have a ~1 terabyte directory, /zone, in which quotas are not enforced. So I've been dumping a lot of useful utilities into /zone/dacut. However, some of the soon-to-be-released items I'm working on are starting to rely on said utilities. Having software builds depend on the state of a user's directory is a no-no!
As a result, I started moving various items into their own directories. Then people started coming by. "Dave, do you know why {gcc,makeinfo,mozilla,etc.} isn't working?"
Heh. Turns out that word has gotten out that having /zone/dacut in your path is a useful thing.
Well, I'm spending the day recompiling stuff into proper directories. They needed to be updated, anyway. And the system I had for doing so was unmanageable. Some good will come out of this.
Thursday, June 6, 2002
Hm. I desperately need to fix this ad-hoc RPC* mechanism I've created with something more standardised. The only problem is which standard?
There's CORBA, SOAP, DCOM, RMI, SunRPC, etc., which all have their pluses and minuses. The problem is that each one has what appears to be a fatal negative for this project. Grr.
*RPC = remote procedure call. This allows parts of a program to run on a different machine in a way that is (ideally) transparent to the programmer.
There's CORBA, SOAP, DCOM, RMI, SunRPC, etc., which all have their pluses and minuses. The problem is that each one has what appears to be a fatal negative for this project. Grr.
*RPC = remote procedure call. This allows parts of a program to run on a different machine in a way that is (ideally) transparent to the programmer.
Monday, June 3, 2002
Troublemaker
Today is timecard day. I hate timecard day.
Well, I used to. You see, we fill out our timecards using a web application. Each time you submit an entry, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the server to process. There are at least three entries per day (clock in time, clock out time, and then you bill your time to one or more projects). This means that it takes upwards of an hour to fill out the timecard.
Since all my time is billed to DARPA, anyway, I have since written a script which automatically fills out the timecard for me. Even better, it randomizes the start and stop times slightly, filling in between 9 and 10 hours (which is reasonably accurate for the time I spend here -- anything past 8 is ignored, anyway, since I'm an exempt employee, so...).
Well, I used to. You see, we fill out our timecards using a web application. Each time you submit an entry, it takes about 10-20 seconds for the server to process. There are at least three entries per day (clock in time, clock out time, and then you bill your time to one or more projects). This means that it takes upwards of an hour to fill out the timecard.
Since all my time is billed to DARPA, anyway, I have since written a script which automatically fills out the timecard for me. Even better, it randomizes the start and stop times slightly, filling in between 9 and 10 hours (which is reasonably accurate for the time I spend here -- anything past 8 is ignored, anyway, since I'm an exempt employee, so...).
Sunday, June 2, 2002
So they do flip coins.
Here's how the National Weather Service has created this week's forecast for Pittsburgh:
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA
335 PM EDT SUN JUN 2 2002
IN THE FACE OF RECENT MODEL DISPARITIES...OPTED TO GO MORE THE ETA
RUN FOR DAYS 1-2 THEN AVN FOR DAYS 3-4 AND MRFX AND RELATED
ENSEMBLES FOR DAYS 5-7.
ETA HAS MIDWEST SYSTEM MOVING EASTWARD ALONG WARM FRONT AND
AFFECTING THE HEAD OF THE OHIO REGION MONDAY...PERHAPS NOT TIL
AFTERNOON FOR WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA.
TEMPERATURES WILL STRUGGLE TO MAKE THE UPPER 60S. CONCUR WITH HPC
THINKING THAT THERE MAY BE HEAVY THUNDERSTORM RAINFALL MONDAY
NIGHT...CONSIDERING THE INCREASE IN MOISTURE AND LIFT WITH THE
NORTHWARD MOVING WARM FRONT. THE AVERAGE RAINFALL IN MANY BASINS
SHOULD EXCEED 1 INCH.
ON TUESDAY...ETA HAS THE HEAD OF THE OHIO REGION IN THE WARM
SECTOR...WITH HUMID CONDITIONS. THE ETA AND AVN SHOW AT LEAST TWO
SMALLER SCALE SOURCES OF LIFT MOVING THROUGH THE REGION THEN.
DIURNALLY THE BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE AFTERNOON
AND EARLY EVENING.
THE AVN THEN SHOWS THE SPLIT UPPER FLOW OUT WEST DEVELOPING AN UPPER
LEVEL TROUGH IN THE MIDWEST. THE OPERATIONAL MRF SHOWS THE DEEPEST
DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM WITH A CUTOFF BY THURSDAY. HOWEVER THIS
IS AN ENSEMBLE OUTLIER...AND USING HPC THINKING FROM RECENT
DISCUSSIONS...WENT WITH THE MRFX AND THE GENERAL LOCUS OF ENSEMBLE
SOLUTIONS...THAT SHOWED THE MIDWEEK MIDWEST TROUGH PROGRESSING
EASTWARD TO THE EAST COAST THIS WEEKEND. THIS WAS LIKEWISE SUPPORTED
BY THIS MORNINGS AVN RUN. SO KEPT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FOR
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY...BUT THEN WENT TO DRY CONDITIONS FOR FRIDAY
AND THE WEEKEND.
FOR TEMPERATURES...WENT CLOSER TO ETA MOS FOR MONDAYS HIGHS...A
BLEND OF ETA AVN AND NGM MOS FOR TUESDAY...AND MRF ENSEMBLE MEANS
MOS FOR DAYS 4-7. ...GIORDANO
Friday, May 31, 2002
An entry in Tom's () journal made me start playing with MapQuest this morning. So I started mapping out ridiculously long trips from Pittsburgh (to San Diego, Calgary, etc.).
I figured, hey, lives way out there. I entered Fairbanks, Alaska into MapQuest and...
Hm. I tried entering in other addresses (University of Alaska at Fairbanks, etc.)... always the same thing.
Sorry, pbee... looks like someone stole all the roads in Fairbanks.
I figured, hey,
 |
Hm. I tried entering in other addresses (University of Alaska at Fairbanks, etc.)... always the same thing.
Sorry, pbee... looks like someone stole all the roads in Fairbanks.
Monday, May 27, 2002
On second thought...
Conjecture 4a:
It is impossible to construct an expression language which is not a limiting factor by conjecture 3.
Corollary 4b:
It is impossible to construct a program which fulfills all three characteristics.
It is impossible to construct an expression language which is not a limiting factor by conjecture 3.
Corollary 4b:
It is impossible to construct a program which fulfills all three characteristics.
I'm recording this as a reference for myself when I wake up tomorrow. (Conjectures ranked in order of how certain I am of them, from most to least)
Conjecture 1:
Of the set -- short, powerful, maintainable -- all computer programs exhibit at most two such characteristics.
Conjecture 2:
Programs which exhibit zero or one such characteristic have their programmer as a limiting factor.
Conjecture 3:
Programs which exhibit two such characteristics have their expression language as a limiting factor.
Conjecture 4: (which I would like to disprove)
It is impossible to construct a program which fulfills all three characteristics.
Conjecture 1:
Of the set -- short, powerful, maintainable -- all computer programs exhibit at most two such characteristics.
Conjecture 2:
Programs which exhibit zero or one such characteristic have their programmer as a limiting factor.
Conjecture 3:
Programs which exhibit two such characteristics have their expression language as a limiting factor.
Conjecture 4: (which I would like to disprove)
It is impossible to construct a program which fulfills all three characteristics.
Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Monday, May 20, 2002
Sunday, May 19, 2002
Some might accuse me of being obsessed with Quidam and Cirque du Soleil as of late. To them I say: "Guilty as charged."
The characters: a young girl fumes, she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.
If only I could go to the universe of Quidam.
The characters: a young girl fumes, she has already seen everything there is to see, and her world has lost all meaning. Her anger shatters her little world, she finds herself in the universe of Quidam. She is joined by a joyful companion as well as another character, more mysterious, who will attempt to seduce her with the marvelous, the unsettling, and the terrifying.
Saturday, May 18, 2002
Friday, May 17, 2002
I'm completely brain-fried. I've had my nose down in this code for so long and I need to come up for some air.
But I'm happy with it. Not only does it work, but it's elegant and reads well. I'm one of those people who demands elegance in my code, and have been known to rewrite thousands of lines of working code to achieve it.
You'd think I was talking about a poem or somesuch.
But I'm happy with it. Not only does it work, but it's elegant and reads well. I'm one of those people who demands elegance in my code, and have been known to rewrite thousands of lines of working code to achieve it.
You'd think I was talking about a poem or somesuch.
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Heh... aggressive, aren't they?
Included at the bottom of some pr0n spam I got...
You have received this email because you have DOUBLE optioned to receive a free porn membership through a partners website and agreed to accept adult offers and specials.
How does one double option to receive a free porn membership? "Spam me, baby... spam me again!"
You have received this email because you have DOUBLE optioned to receive a free porn membership through a partners website and agreed to accept adult offers and specials.
How does one double option to receive a free porn membership? "Spam me, baby... spam me again!"
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Dumb and dumber
I feel like I'm losing my capacity to learn new things.
First, I held a meeting this morning (well, I was forced to, by upper mismanagement) which didn't cover much ground. It felt like my brain was unable to hold onto the topic; I was parsing sentences without understanding them.
Now, I'm trying to read some stuff on Mathematica's MathWorld site; for example, this discussion on fractal dimensions. I *know* that I was able to understand this, once upon a time. I could crank out problem sets regarding proofs of such concepts. Now I see a bunch of symbols and terms which form no concrete idea in my mind.
Perhaps I'm just losing my discipline -- that is, there's no incentive for me to study this, so I'm not putting the effort that used to come naturally into it. I'm worried, though, that it's deeper than that.
First, I held a meeting this morning (well, I was forced to, by upper mismanagement) which didn't cover much ground. It felt like my brain was unable to hold onto the topic; I was parsing sentences without understanding them.
Now, I'm trying to read some stuff on Mathematica's MathWorld site; for example, this discussion on fractal dimensions. I *know* that I was able to understand this, once upon a time. I could crank out problem sets regarding proofs of such concepts. Now I see a bunch of symbols and terms which form no concrete idea in my mind.
Perhaps I'm just losing my discipline -- that is, there's no incentive for me to study this, so I'm not putting the effort that used to come naturally into it. I'm worried, though, that it's deeper than that.
I must be moving slower in my old age or something. I intended to leave work a bit earlier than normal, say, 6-ish. Yet I was still the last one out, around 7:30-ish. Tam got home from gymnastics around what I thought was 8, but was really 9. Ate dinner somewhere in there, caught the tail end of a movie on T.V., wrote up a few bills, and set the oven up for its self-cleaning cycle. And it's now 12:40. Oy.
Let's see... that's 6 1/2 hours. I'd've sworn it was only 2 or so.
Let's see... that's 6 1/2 hours. I'd've sworn it was only 2 or so.
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
So, um... Verizon has decided that it's too much trouble to actually *send* me a phone bill every month. They just enrolled me in their "convenient" on-line billing system and have stopped sending paper bills.
It wouldn't be so bad if (1) I didn't get 404s navigating through their secure site, (2) they hadn't decided to shift the billing schedule so that this "month" only has 20 days, and (3) payments through their online site would post to your account within a week. Sheesh.
It wouldn't be so bad if (1) I didn't get 404s navigating through their secure site, (2) they hadn't decided to shift the billing schedule so that this "month" only has 20 days, and (3) payments through their online site would post to your account within a week. Sheesh.
Saturday, May 11, 2002
I saw Quidam today (Cirque du Soleil touring show). It was absolutely incredible. Must buy the soundtrack. BTW, Aki, they're heading to Boston in the August timeframe.
Not much else to say. I'm working on a home-brew neural net project. It's taking its time.
Not much else to say. I'm working on a home-brew neural net project. It's taking its time.
Friday, May 10, 2002
Wednesday, May 8, 2002
Matsushita is developing something called Brain-on-a-Chip. It sounds quite interesting, even if the name is a bit spooky.
I'm getting a bit worried about the fact that American companies aren't willing to take risks like this. We abandoned fuzzy logic and robotics because they didn't get a significant return on investment in 18 months. The Japanese, on the other hand, persisted and are now starting to come up with some quite innovative products (Aibo, etc.) which we simply lack the expertise to produce.
This is also the same timeframe which saw the demise of the research houses of Bell Labs, PARC, HP, and -- just a couple weeks ago -- a good chunk of IBM (which is selling their storage systems division to Hitachi -- a field they invented, for crying out loud).
I'm getting a bit worried about the fact that American companies aren't willing to take risks like this. We abandoned fuzzy logic and robotics because they didn't get a significant return on investment in 18 months. The Japanese, on the other hand, persisted and are now starting to come up with some quite innovative products (Aibo, etc.) which we simply lack the expertise to produce.
This is also the same timeframe which saw the demise of the research houses of Bell Labs, PARC, HP, and -- just a couple weeks ago -- a good chunk of IBM (which is selling their storage systems division to Hitachi -- a field they invented, for crying out loud).
This drawing algorithm is turning out to be much more complicated than I had first expected.
Imagine 10-15 colored pebbles laying on a sheet of paper in an orderly fashion. You're given a felt-tipped marker and are asked to group together all the blue pebbles by drawing circles and/or arcs. The result would look something like:
I'm now trying to do this programmatically. The code already knows where the blue ones are, where all the other ones are, etc., so there's no identification that needs to be done. But trying to code this behaviour is turning out to be rather frustrating.
Imagine 10-15 colored pebbles laying on a sheet of paper in an orderly fashion. You're given a felt-tipped marker and are asked to group together all the blue pebbles by drawing circles and/or arcs. The result would look something like:
I'm now trying to do this programmatically. The code already knows where the blue ones are, where all the other ones are, etc., so there's no identification that needs to be done. But trying to code this behaviour is turning out to be rather frustrating.
Tuesday, May 7, 2002
For some inexplicable reason, I'm exhausted today and every line of code I write is utter crap.
I'm also rather annoyed with Cadence's product validation team. Finding bugs is good. Flaming the overworked developers about them is bad.
From: Thomas Sarno
To: Dave Cuthbert, Phil K. Yoon
CC:, Susan Raam , Karun Sharma
Ah, finally! we are beginning to look at computer solutions to identifying and correcting problems in a more automated way than having ME (the unknowing virgen) try functions, one-by-one, guess syntax, etc., etc., etc. I applaud this type of thinking, and congratulate and encourage the individual who has originated it!
This was the type of solution I proposed in my question #4, days ago: at least give us the input statements, so that we can more intelligently guess what the software will accept, rather than the current MANY trials-and-MANY-errors, which gets us a LOT of attention here by MANY people at MANY levels, all with the same pleasant, interesting query: "You're LATE testing the Neolinear
Constraint APIs! WHEN WILL YOU BE DONE?!!!!! GIVE US A DATE!!!!"
Please, guys. There's obviously problems with the docs that could be solved fairly quickly: fix the busted syntax (test it ....! :^0 ), and then stick in examples. Circular definitions yield no information to the uninformed: "The execscript is the name of the execscript to use." Thanks! Now, what IS it? What does it look like? Where is it located? Does it have a NAME?
Please take a little of your precious time to drop a few pearls of your wisdom before the great unwashed masses who are eager to learn and to pay big buck$ to you .......
Thanks,
Hopefully,
Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Cuthbert [mailto:dacut@neolinear.com]
Sent: Fri 5/3/2002 7:37 AM
To: Phil K. Yoon
Cc: Thomas Sarno; xxxx@neolinear.com; Susan Raam; Karun Sharma
Subject: Re: ANSWER: pinfixedside
Hrm. These latest items all appear to be issues with the SKILL
parameter type templates on the creationProc lambda functions.
Unfortunately, it's rather easy to shift by one on them, and it appears
that I did just that.
I might try to catch a cycle or two of John Gianni's time to see if
there's a SKILL lint check that can be created to try to catch errors
like this.
Dave
I'm also rather annoyed with Cadence's product validation team. Finding bugs is good. Flaming the overworked developers about them is bad.
From: Thomas Sarno
To: Dave Cuthbert
CC:
Ah, finally! we are beginning to look at computer solutions to identifying and correcting problems in a more automated way than having ME (the unknowing virgen) try functions, one-by-one, guess syntax, etc., etc., etc. I applaud this type of thinking, and congratulate and encourage the individual who has originated it!
This was the type of solution I proposed in my question #4, days ago: at least give us the input statements, so that we can more intelligently guess what the software will accept, rather than the current MANY trials-and-MANY-errors, which gets us a LOT of attention here by MANY people at MANY levels, all with the same pleasant, interesting query: "You're LATE testing the Neolinear
Constraint APIs! WHEN WILL YOU BE DONE?!!!!! GIVE US A DATE!!!!"
Please, guys. There's obviously problems with the docs that could be solved fairly quickly: fix the busted syntax (test it ....! :^0 ), and then stick in examples. Circular definitions yield no information to the uninformed: "The execscript is the name of the execscript to use." Thanks! Now, what IS it? What does it look like? Where is it located? Does it have a NAME?
Please take a little of your precious time to drop a few pearls of your wisdom before the great unwashed masses who are eager to learn and to pay big buck$ to you .......
Thanks,
Hopefully,
Thomas
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Cuthbert [mailto:dacut@neolinear.com]
Sent: Fri 5/3/2002 7:37 AM
To: Phil K. Yoon
Cc: Thomas Sarno; xxxx@neolinear.com; Susan Raam; Karun Sharma
Subject: Re: ANSWER: pinfixedside
Hrm. These latest items all appear to be issues with the SKILL
parameter type templates on the creationProc lambda functions.
Unfortunately, it's rather easy to shift by one on them, and it appears
that I did just that.
I might try to catch a cycle or two of John Gianni's time to see if
there's a SKILL lint check that can be created to try to catch errors
like this.
Dave
Monday, May 6, 2002
Sunday, May 5, 2002
Trapped
Heh... well, I'm trapped tomorrow. The Pittsburgh Marathon causes road closures forming an island, and I live inside that island (near mile 14 on the map).
Interestingly, all three main bridges out of the city southbound will be closed or inaccessible from the north due to construction and the marathon. Note that the airport lies to the south. Hmm...
Interestingly, all three main bridges out of the city southbound will be closed or inaccessible from the north due to construction and the marathon. Note that the airport lies to the south. Hmm...
Thursday, May 2, 2002
Bleh. It is entirely too warm in my office. But that's what happens when you stick three guys and five machines into a tiny room with little ventilation.
I had a strange nightmare last night. Something about visiting my brother, whose apartment complex had an 11pm curfew enforced by small robots which patrolled around. They detected your presence using a microwave system which, when aimed at you, caused you to shake and get uncomfortably warm, even if you were inside the apartment.
His cat knocked over some cards on the floor, which set the enforcer bots off. A supervisor came by to make sure he didn't have any guests there, so I hid behind a door in the bedroom. He acted chummy, but I could tell it was forced. And rather than search the apartment himself, he set his two kids loose, looking under the bed, etc.
Very big-brother-ish. Very unnerving.
I had a strange nightmare last night. Something about visiting my brother, whose apartment complex had an 11pm curfew enforced by small robots which patrolled around. They detected your presence using a microwave system which, when aimed at you, caused you to shake and get uncomfortably warm, even if you were inside the apartment.
His cat knocked over some cards on the floor, which set the enforcer bots off. A supervisor came by to make sure he didn't have any guests there, so I hid behind a door in the bedroom. He acted chummy, but I could tell it was forced. And rather than search the apartment himself, he set his two kids loose, looking under the bed, etc.
Very big-brother-ish. Very unnerving.
Whoa... a three-way tie for first place in the NL West. And the Padres are only a game out. This has the potential for a rather interesting race this year.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/standings
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/standings
Wednesday, May 1, 2002
Oy... I'm extremely tired.
We had the meeting on how to have effective meetings today. It was actually significantly better than I had expected. However, I took unfair advantage of it: from now on, I'm refusing to attend meetings which don't have an agenda. This will either help keep the meetings short and succint, or keep me away from meetings. :-)
But I had to get to work extremely early for this, which meant cutting my sleep back. So I took a nap when I got home... and slept from 7pm to 10pm.
We had the meeting on how to have effective meetings today. It was actually significantly better than I had expected. However, I took unfair advantage of it: from now on, I'm refusing to attend meetings which don't have an agenda. This will either help keep the meetings short and succint, or keep me away from meetings. :-)
But I had to get to work extremely early for this, which meant cutting my sleep back. So I took a nap when I got home... and slept from 7pm to 10pm.
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Tam and I had our first premarital counseling session with my pastor last night. It was actually fun; we got to talk about all kinds of things related to the wedding.
I was caught completely off guard when asked which readings I wanted. I guess I had assumed that these were set by the church. So, our homework assignment for the next session is to figure out which readings we want (one Old Testament, one Psalm, one gospel, and one epistle; sorry, Hokie, no Revelations :-P).
I was caught completely off guard when asked which readings I wanted. I guess I had assumed that these were set by the church. So, our homework assignment for the next session is to figure out which readings we want (one Old Testament, one Psalm, one gospel, and one epistle; sorry, Hokie, no Revelations :-P).
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
Viewsonic sucks. MBNA rocks.
Hm. My credit card was declined for the first time today. Odd. I always pay it off every month, and have a ridiculous credit line (almost half my yearly salary... yeah, as if I would buy a car and put it on my card).
Anyway, I got on the phone. Turns out their fraud detector was tripped. Interesting. The automated system starts listing off the problematic charges. Ok, the first one is fine. Um... no, I don't recognise those other four attempted today *at all*. So I press no, and am connected to a human.
Turns out that all five are from Viewsonic (I placed an order with them yesterday). I told the rep that one of them is fine (dollar amount matches my order), but the other four (one charge and three authorisations) are wrong. She quickly removes all of them, reactivates my card, makes a note on Viewsonic's file, and tells me to contact Viewsonic.
So I give them a call. First, I'm on hold forever. Then the guy who answers is a tad rude, and clearly doesn't believe me. He also insists that the billing attempts were accurate and standard practice. Finally, he tells me that the item I had ordered isn't even in stock.
After some arguing, I gave up and left it at that. If they're going to make it that hard for me to spend my money, I'll just take it elsewhere.
Kudos, though, to the AI fraud detection system that MBNA has in place. It zapped all of the suspicious charges before they could reach my account, saving me much headache later on.
Anyway, I got on the phone. Turns out their fraud detector was tripped. Interesting. The automated system starts listing off the problematic charges. Ok, the first one is fine. Um... no, I don't recognise those other four attempted today *at all*. So I press no, and am connected to a human.
Turns out that all five are from Viewsonic (I placed an order with them yesterday). I told the rep that one of them is fine (dollar amount matches my order), but the other four (one charge and three authorisations) are wrong. She quickly removes all of them, reactivates my card, makes a note on Viewsonic's file, and tells me to contact Viewsonic.
So I give them a call. First, I'm on hold forever. Then the guy who answers is a tad rude, and clearly doesn't believe me. He also insists that the billing attempts were accurate and standard practice. Finally, he tells me that the item I had ordered isn't even in stock.
After some arguing, I gave up and left it at that. If they're going to make it that hard for me to spend my money, I'll just take it elsewhere.
Kudos, though, to the AI fraud detection system that MBNA has in place. It zapped all of the suspicious charges before they could reach my account, saving me much headache later on.
Ok. I could understand being fascinated by this for an hour if I were a medical doctor. But I'm not.
http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html
http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/webpath.html
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
Whee! I have a new workstation now. It's a Blade 100, so not as fast as my old Ultra 10, but, eh. At least it has SunOS 5.8 rather than 5.6, and it's running in 64-bit mode, which is nice.
But they gave me a Unix style keyboard instead of a PC style one. Arrgh! And the repeat rate is too slow (and only root can change it on a Sun... sigh). Ah, well. I'd use my PC-style Sun 5 keyboard, but Blades need a USB keyboard. Guess it's time to place an order with Sun...
But they gave me a Unix style keyboard instead of a PC style one. Arrgh! And the repeat rate is too slow (and only root can change it on a Sun... sigh). Ah, well. I'd use my PC-style Sun 5 keyboard, but Blades need a USB keyboard.
Sunday, April 7, 2002
So... it's getting to be that time of year again. The lease: to renew, or not to renew, that is the question.
First, the rent at my current place is probably going to skyrocket since property taxes took a huge jump. Staying at my current place will probably be out of the question.
Second, you can only get year-long leases in Pittsburgh. I'm not convinced that I can tolerate another full year here. I desperately want to head back to someplace west of the Rockies, preferably back to San Diego.
Third, the wedding is in October. And Tamara likes her job, and it's not one she can telecommute for. And she isn't terribly keen of going west of the Rockies.
So... I guess I'm stuck here. Now, as for finding another place to live... well, I'd like to stop throwing away money every month. But buying a place here? If the houses and neighborhoods weren't bad enough, the fact that it could collapse into an unmapped, abandoned mine at any moment and insurance won't cover a penny of it...
Oh, and I get to fly out for a friend's funeral on Friday. Yeah, I'm not in a terribly chipper mood.
First, the rent at my current place is probably going to skyrocket since property taxes took a huge jump. Staying at my current place will probably be out of the question.
Second, you can only get year-long leases in Pittsburgh. I'm not convinced that I can tolerate another full year here. I desperately want to head back to someplace west of the Rockies, preferably back to San Diego.
Third, the wedding is in October. And Tamara likes her job, and it's not one she can telecommute for. And she isn't terribly keen of going west of the Rockies.
So... I guess I'm stuck here. Now, as for finding another place to live... well, I'd like to stop throwing away money every month. But buying a place here? If the houses and neighborhoods weren't bad enough, the fact that it could collapse into an unmapped, abandoned mine at any moment and insurance won't cover a penny of it...
Oh, and I get to fly out for a friend's funeral on Friday. Yeah, I'm not in a terribly chipper mood.
Saturday, April 6, 2002
In memory of Paige Blankenburg
>I wanted to let you know that my sister, Paige, passed
>away early this morning at 1 A.M. after a valiant
>effort to save her life.
>
>My parents and I were able to be there and say
>good-bye to her. Paige looked beautiful and peaceful.
>I know that your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes
>were hard at work, and I could feel them with us.
Goodbye, Paige. You will be missed.
Friday, April 5, 2002
Hm. It came to my attention today that I'm working in the skunkworks.
But it's nothing evil, sinister, or bad. Just confidential. Well, ok. Maybe a hint of sinister, as it will force engineering out of their comfort zone. But it's for the better good! Honest!
I've had my nose buried way too deep in work the last two weeks. I desperately need to come up for air this weekend. Maybe remind Tamara that I'm still alive. :-)
But it's nothing evil, sinister, or bad. Just confidential. Well, ok. Maybe a hint of sinister, as it will force engineering out of their comfort zone. But it's for the better good! Honest!
I've had my nose buried way too deep in work the last two weeks. I desperately need to come up for air this weekend. Maybe remind Tamara that I'm still alive. :-)
Tuesday, April 2, 2002
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Sunday, March 24, 2002
@#)$(*@#$
Just did my taxes, which involved a major reorganisation of my desk and writing a check for almost $2,000 to the City of Arm Pit... er, Pittsburgh.
And now I can't find my securid token, so I can't log in to work.
Grr.
And now I can't find my securid token, so I can't log in to work.
Grr.
Saturday, March 23, 2002
Back alley geekdom
This site just has danger written all over it. Very seedy manufacturing operation in China.
And, yet, I can't stop browsing through it.
And, yet, I can't stop browsing through it.
Thursday, March 21, 2002
What the... ?
I swear it was in the 50's when I left this morning.
Now it's below freezing, and the snow is sticking to the ground. And it's supposed to get down to 14 tonight.
Now it's below freezing, and the snow is sticking to the ground. And it's supposed to get down to 14 tonight.
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Monday, March 18, 2002
Friday, March 15, 2002
Monday, March 11, 2002
Released Melbourne 0.1 last night. That was good. They're building NeoCell 3.1 with it now.
Melbourne would rock your world, if only it weren't something as unsexy as an API for annotating constraints onto an analog circuit. ;-)
But it's released, and the NeoCell team can go find something else to bitch about now.
Today will be a flick day at work. Meaning I will shoot a few hoops, browse the web, perhaps do some wedding planning, and toy with a new project I have some interest in.
Melbourne would rock your world, if only it weren't something as unsexy as an API for annotating constraints onto an analog circuit. ;-)
But it's released, and the NeoCell team can go find something else to bitch about now.
Today will be a flick day at work. Meaning I will shoot a few hoops, browse the web, perhaps do some wedding planning, and toy with a new project I have some interest in.
Thursday, March 7, 2002
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
Another DDJ entry...
Ok, this one disturbed me. From Ed Nisley's Embedded Corner:
Oof. I couldn't believe it when I read this. It feels like there's someone in my head, watching my thoughts-- I have that exact dream about 3-4 times per month. I'm never quite sure what course it is, but it's usually a Hum or some seminar course or E 10 (technical speaking), which I placed out of. It's never, oh, EE 14, EE 52, Ph 2, AMa 95, etc... those required, slap-you-upside-the-head, do-all-the-homework-and-study-your-butt-off-and-only-get-a-C courses.
Hm.
You wake in a cold, shaking sweat at a dark, early hour. Today is the final exam of a course that's required for graduation. You remember registering for the class and buying the books, but somehow you never attended the lectures or did the assignments. Suddenly, it's the end of the year and you won't graduate because you screwed up.
The fact that you've been out of school for, oh, a quarter-century or so has no effect on the intensity of The Dream. It's the same heart-stopping jolt every time.
Sound familiar? Every techie I've asked has experienced some version of The Dream. It rarely involves a major course, but the class is always required and inexplicably overlooked. Each person I asked seems relieved to discover that someone else has The Dream, too.
Liberal arts majors have nightmares, but generally not The Dream. There's something different about an engineering eduation or, perhaps, about the people who become engineers. They know, deep down inside, with absolute certainty, that failure is their fault, that the universe isn't forgiving, that it's their responsibility to Get Things Right.
Oof. I couldn't believe it when I read this. It feels like there's someone in my head, watching my thoughts-- I have that exact dream about 3-4 times per month. I'm never quite sure what course it is, but it's usually a Hum or some seminar course or E 10 (technical speaking), which I placed out of. It's never, oh, EE 14, EE 52, Ph 2, AMa 95, etc... those required, slap-you-upside-the-head, do-all-the-homework-and-study-your-butt-off-and-only-get-a-C courses.
Hm.
Monday, March 4, 2002
Ah, Mike Swaine
I always enjoy reading his columns; this month's "Swaine's Flames" hits the mark perfectly:
I met a girl who sang the blues
and I asked her for some HP news,
but she just smiled and gently coughed.
I went down to the gadget store
where I'd bought oscilloscopes before,
but the man there said they'd spun that business off.
And in the boardroom the children screamed,
directors cried, and Carly schemed,
but not a word would they say--
about the old HP Way.
And the two men I admired most,
their fabled legacy is toast,
their business on a downhill coast,
the day that HP died.
Thursday, February 28, 2002
I miss...
Well, a lot of things.
I've been having a lot of dreams about Australia lately. I must live there, someday, hopefully soon. It's hard to describe, really. Just that, on my visit last year, I felt right at home.
I miss late night chats with Caltech friends on the rooftops of random buildings. I miss eating at The Pantry in downtown L.A. at 4 am. And singing, with Donna playing the piano. And all the other intense wackiness of that atmosphere.
I also miss having my own electronics bench. And having access to the EE stockroom, 24/7.
I'm longing for wide open spaces. Pittsburgh, aside from being miserable and dreary, is much more closed-in than it needs to be.
That's all for now.
I've been having a lot of dreams about Australia lately. I must live there, someday, hopefully soon. It's hard to describe, really. Just that, on my visit last year, I felt right at home.
I miss late night chats with Caltech friends on the rooftops of random buildings. I miss eating at The Pantry in downtown L.A. at 4 am. And singing, with Donna playing the piano. And all the other intense wackiness of that atmosphere.
I also miss having my own electronics bench. And having access to the EE stockroom, 24/7.
I'm longing for wide open spaces. Pittsburgh, aside from being miserable and dreary, is much more closed-in than it needs to be.
That's all for now.
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
I didn't really read this, did I?
E-mail I got in response to a question I posed about the design of our core software...
We're hoping the user does screw up to ensure the correctness of our software?
. I'm just reaffirming that our NeoCell team can't design its way out of a paper bag.
Dave Cuthbert wrote:
> I'm not sure what neoCellRefreshSchematicInfo does. Are you caching the
> results from _lxElaborateSchematic? (This isn't a good idea, despite
> its slowness...)
Yes, it caches the results from _lxElaborateSchematic.
Each example function calls neoCellRefreshSchematicInfo
at the beginning hoping that a user does not modify the
schematic while the function is being executed. ( which
isn't so bad I think. because most functions can be
finished in a few seconds at tops )
We're hoping the user does screw up to ensure the correctness of our software?
Monday, February 25, 2002
Well, got out of that meeting without it being held.
To recap: I interviewed someone on Friday for a position in my group (which currently consists of two people, myself and my manager -- we're looking to expand). Had the basics of the knowledge we were looking for, but in-depth was less certain. He also lacked some of the basic programming knowledge we generally expect, sending up a few red flags.
On the other hand, he seemed fairly bright and adaptable, and was generally a nice guy.
Since he was interviewing for my group, my opinion weighed a bit more than others. Generally, I have a pretty good idea of whether someone is a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. In this case, I was quite uncertain.
I don't like having so much influence on someone's future without being more certain. I especially dislike telling nice people no.
In the end, enough people gave him a thumbs-down to make the meeting unnecessary.
Next meeting (10 am): Angry-ish manager does not like our imposing of a deadline (Rodney, my manager, has decided that I need a firm date by which my work with this other group will be completed, so they can't keep tacking on requirements and getting my labour for free). At the moment, I'm hoping to duck it. We'll see.
To recap: I interviewed someone on Friday for a position in my group (which currently consists of two people, myself and my manager -- we're looking to expand). Had the basics of the knowledge we were looking for, but in-depth was less certain. He also lacked some of the basic programming knowledge we generally expect, sending up a few red flags.
On the other hand, he seemed fairly bright and adaptable, and was generally a nice guy.
Since he was interviewing for my group, my opinion weighed a bit more than others. Generally, I have a pretty good idea of whether someone is a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. In this case, I was quite uncertain.
I don't like having so much influence on someone's future without being more certain. I especially dislike telling nice people no.
In the end, enough people gave him a thumbs-down to make the meeting unnecessary.
Next meeting (10 am): Angry-ish manager does not like our imposing of a deadline (Rodney, my manager, has decided that I need a firm date by which my work with this other group will be completed, so they can't keep tacking on requirements and getting my labour for free). At the moment, I'm hoping to duck it. We'll see.
Friday, February 22, 2002
Ahh... Friday...
Did one of those four hours of sleep things last night. Which is luxurious for you college folk, yes, but I'm an old man, see...
Summary of the last 24 hours:
7 pm - 4 am: alternate between researching scripting languages, watching the women's figure skating finals, and writing slides for my talk.
4.30 am - 8.30 am: sleep.
8.30 am - 9.15 am: get ready for and commute to work.
9.15 am - 10 am: solve a number of build issues (seems like a number of people's systems decided to barf at the same instant).
10 am - 11 am: beat laptop and projector into submission.
11 am - 12 noon: interview someone.
12 noon - 1 pm: give successful talk (with projector going on the fritz midway through).
1 pm - 2 pm: more build issues.
2 pm - 2.30 pm: post talk on web site.
Hectic. But I survived, and it actually went fairly well. Yay me. :-) It's just good to know that I still have what it takes to do a kickass job even when sleep-deprived and under a lot of pressure. Every now and then, the ol' self-esteem likes a boost like that.
Summary of the last 24 hours:
7 pm - 4 am: alternate between researching scripting languages, watching the women's figure skating finals, and writing slides for my talk.
4.30 am - 8.30 am: sleep.
8.30 am - 9.15 am: get ready for and commute to work.
9.15 am - 10 am: solve a number of build issues (seems like a number of people's systems decided to barf at the same instant).
10 am - 11 am: beat laptop and projector into submission.
11 am - 12 noon: interview someone.
12 noon - 1 pm: give successful talk (with projector going on the fritz midway through).
1 pm - 2 pm: more build issues.
2 pm - 2.30 pm: post talk on web site.
Hectic. But I survived, and it actually went fairly well. Yay me. :-) It's just good to know that I still have what it takes to do a kickass job even when sleep-deprived and under a lot of pressure. Every now and then, the ol' self-esteem likes a boost like that.
Monday, February 18, 2002
I couldn't resist...
I Am A: Lawful Neutral Elf Ranger Mage
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral characters believe in the triumph of law and order above all else. It does not matter whether the leader is for good or evil; the leader will be followed, because the order they provide is the most important thing.
Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.
Secondary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.
Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy of NeppyMan!
I Am A: Lawful Neutral Elf Ranger Mage
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral characters believe in the triumph of law and order above all else. It does not matter whether the leader is for good or evil; the leader will be followed, because the order they provide is the most important thing.
Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.
Secondary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.
Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy of NeppyMan!
Advance Australia Fair!
Yay! Our second gold medal, won by Alisa Camplin in aerials! Good on ya, Alisa!
(Ok, I'm not really Australian... but that doesn't mean I can't celebrate, dammit.)
(Ok, I'm not really Australian... but that doesn't mean I can't celebrate, dammit.)
Sunday, February 17, 2002
Thursday, February 14, 2002
Almost all mistakes are correctable. Some corrections take time, others cost money. Mine cost $430 today.
(Blew up my processor last night due to mishandling while transferring it back and forth between motherboards. Bought two processors from CompUSA (ugh) so that I don't repeat my mistake. Paid too much, but they're the only ones in the area who carry stuff like that and aren't fly-by-night. Why don't we have Fry's here?)
(Oh, and for the curious: I blew up a Duron 850; replacements are a Duron 1200 and Athlon 1800XP).
(Blew up my processor last night due to mishandling while transferring it back and forth between motherboards. Bought two processors from CompUSA (ugh) so that I don't repeat my mistake. Paid too much, but they're the only ones in the area who carry stuff like that and aren't fly-by-night. Why don't we have Fry's here?)
(Oh, and for the curious: I blew up a Duron 850; replacements are a Duron 1200 and Athlon 1800XP).
Friday, February 8, 2002
For some reason, the thought popped into my head this morning: "Hmm... it might be a good idea to go back to grad school and get that PhD." This happened shortly after I woke up, and hasn't dissipated from my mind yet.
Am I going to be bothered by this until I either die or get that ", Ph.D." appended to my name? Why do I care? I shouldn't, and I keep saying I don't... but deep down, there's something in me that does.
I actually do have a few good ideas for a thesis, and, if I had Rob as my advisor, I'd probably get done with it in 2-3 years (I've already gotten an M.S., so a lot of the basic stuff has been taken care of). And I could continue to get a paycheck from Neolinear while doing so...
Anyway... Tamara's going skiing today. She wanted me to come, but... oy, do I dislike the activity. Something about the idea of throwing myself from the top of a hill with large sticks strapped to my feet that turn in every direction except the one I want them to be in, where the object is to attain some deadly speed... eaugh. And don't get me started about the ski lifts. The height is fine... it's the whole getting off bit that I have problems with.
Am I going to be bothered by this until I either die or get that ", Ph.D." appended to my name? Why do I care? I shouldn't, and I keep saying I don't... but deep down, there's something in me that does.
I actually do have a few good ideas for a thesis, and, if I had Rob as my advisor, I'd probably get done with it in 2-3 years (I've already gotten an M.S., so a lot of the basic stuff has been taken care of). And I could continue to get a paycheck from Neolinear while doing so...
Anyway... Tamara's going skiing today. She wanted me to come, but... oy, do I dislike the activity. Something about the idea of throwing myself from the top of a hill with large sticks strapped to my feet that turn in every direction except the one I want them to be in, where the object is to attain some deadly speed... eaugh. And don't get me started about the ski lifts. The height is fine... it's the whole getting off bit that I have problems with.
Friday, February 1, 2002
Oh, and we're getting some freaky weather here. It started off around 60F today, and is now down to 42F. Intense winds (I'm watching some birds having trouble coping right now). Sunny earlier, but now it's completely overcast.
Even more odd: the fierce winter storm that plowed through the Midwest and is now hitting New England missed us completely.
Even more odd: the fierce winter storm that plowed through the Midwest and is now hitting New England missed us completely.
Oy.
Today's Friday. I haven't written a line of code this week. Combined with the end of last week, that amounts to [thinks] 8 consecutive days of zero useful productivity.
Oh, I did generate work. Lots of pages of stuff that I was required to do, actually. Just nothing useful in my mind.
Ah, well, lesson learned. Avoid interacting with the NeoCell team at all costs. You will be Dilberted if you do so.
OTOH, I have been writing code for some of my other hobby-projects. I also have something in mind for Carn... heh heh :-)
Today's Friday. I haven't written a line of code this week. Combined with the end of last week, that amounts to [thinks] 8 consecutive days of zero useful productivity.
Oh, I did generate work. Lots of pages of stuff that I was required to do, actually. Just nothing useful in my mind.
Ah, well, lesson learned. Avoid interacting with the NeoCell team at all costs. You will be Dilberted if you do so.
OTOH, I have been writing code for some of my other hobby-projects. I also have something in mind for Carn... heh heh :-)
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