4.28.2007
9:25pm

Compact fluorescent lights are usually environmentally friendly, but sometimes not. Here's one at our house that managed to snag a victim:

6:16pm

Youtube video of the day: What you know about math?

12:51am

Today (well yesterday technically) was a great day. It started earlier than I wanted it to, but we had to get our Senior Design powerpoint emailed to Stephanie by 8am so Rolando woke me up to do that. Ron was already over here to help Rolando load the IWIDS stuff onto Andrew's pickup truck. They headed off for campus and I got ready to go into work for a few hours. Nate, Ryan, and Ashley were going to a place called Ichabod's Dockside for lunch so I tagged along with them and had a very tasty mahi caesar wrap. After that I had just enough time back at work to read over my offer letter that arrived before heading over to campus for the Board of Trustees presentation. We did our little speech about the project and the other three groups talked about theirs. We got our official Senior Design grade from Dr. Grossman today and it is an A.

I went back to work for a couple hours and ran into Don in the hallway. He asked if I had gotten my letter yet and also if anyone had explained to me what I would be doing there if I accepted. Turns out I will not be working in the lab doing the same thing as the past 2 years. They want me to work as a sysadmin for multiple business areas instead of just focusing on the customer build lab. That means helping sales engineering, development, test, training, and integration as needed. I would be working under Felipe's guidance although he thinks I'm pretty self-sufficient as is; Don told me they originally wanted to bring in a level 3 sysadmin for that role but decided I would do a decent job of it with all my existing knowledge from working there. Pretty cool IMO. Felipe has been overburdened since one of the other admins quit so he's hoping I stay (which it looks like is going to be the case). I have unti May 2nd to give Harris Stratex an answer.

I had to run home and shower after work and change into my nicer clothes for the Florida Tech 50th anniversary Capitol Campaign Kickoff event. I was volunteering with some other Ambassadors tonight and we were greeting, answering questions, guiding people to tables, helping with gift distribution, etc. I got a really nice dinner for free, plus two meal cards for on-campus dining, plus a fancy glass wine bottle stopper with the Florida Tech logo etched into the middle. All of the attendees got one of those so they gave them to the volunteers as well. Dr. Patterson was at the event which was a surprise for me; I didn't realize he was back from sabbatical yet. After the dinner, Dr. Catanese gave out some gifts to a few of the school's biggest donors including Howard Lance (Harris CEO) and Ruth Funk (funded a lot of art stuff at FIT). Players in Harmony sang four a capella songs. In addition to the dinner there was a silent auction for a donated painting that ended up going for $2500 I believe. They had an ice sculpture of a panther there and the Clemente gymnasium was the most decorated I have ever seen it. The main purpose of this event was to state the fundraising goals for the 50th year anniversary (which happens to be $50 million) and they already have more than $29 million donated. It was hard to look around the room at the people attending and not think about how much money they have. I imagine the president and provost look around the room and see the same thing. Valet parking was provided for everyone visiting. Lots of new things are going to be coming to Florida Tech, not the least of which will be a new housing complex and dining facility. I missed the video highlighting their planned upgrades but one of the other Ambassadors saw it so I will try to get up to speed on that.

Ok I've blathered on enough. Tomorrow there will be studying, more apartment stuff, and a little bit of partying. Little bit.

4.27.2007
1:10am

All of my classes are done! The end of my undergraduate studies is nigh! Now I just need to survive next week...

Tonight was pretty late because I got together with Ron and Matt to work on some stuff for Controls Systems. We don't have a final exam but we do have the project to finish. Dr. Pearce told us today what grades we would need to make on the final exam to pass Communication Systems. As a bonus, the letter grade on the final exam can automatically upgrade your overall grade if it is better. The way things stand right now, if there is no curve on the final exam, I need a 46% to pass. If the curve ends up being the same as it has been for the past quizzes and midterm, I need about a 28% to pass. Sounds easy to accomplish but it's really not.

Letter from Harris Stratex arrives tomorrow, finally got the DHL tracking number today. The dinner for Chris and Melissa on Wednesday was great, 11 people attended IIRC. By the way, no dinner is complete without a Linux versus Windows debate.

4.24.2007
11:09pm

Ah, now this brings back fond memories. Clean with alcohol, blow, insert, cross fingers, power on, reset, power off, remove, repeat. I also got a kick out of this one because I'm doing some "apartment hunting" of my own right now.

Today we got back the last two tests for Fab Lab and I have a solid A in the class which means no final exam for me! I've also got an A right now in Control Systems so there is just the final project left to do this weekend. Just two exams for next week, Electrooptic and Communications. Speaking of Communications, the quiz today didn't go too well. Fortunately it didn't go too well for most of the people I know. We've still got one more class and review session for that on Thursday. Thursday is also the last Student Ambassador meeting of the semester so I have to go over some things with Joe tomorrow since he will be taking over as President. Friday is the board of trustees meeting and capital campaign kickoff so I'll probably be presenting the I.W.I.D.S. project with the rest of the team and then later that night I volunteered to help with the kickoff but we get free dinner out of it at least.

Last night I tried to go to bed early so that I could wake up this morning around 6 and study for the Comm quiz. Going to bed early doesn't seem to work for me anymore, if it's before 1am my mind is usually way too active and I can't get to sleep. For example, last night my brain decided that it wanted to take a virtual 3D walkthrough of Wilmington, NC and see how much I remember from 4 years ago when I lived there.

4.23.2007
6:20pm

So there are a few interesting things that have happened in the past week. Rolando finally got the sports bike he wanted, a blue Yamaha that redlines at 15k and only weighs a little over 800 pounds. He's already pretty good at driving it although it's his first motorcycle. This past weekend, Ron and Jason had a big pre-graduation party that drew around 20 people. The 2-story beer funnel they constructed in the apartment probably had something to do with it. I don't drink beer but it was still fun to watch people. At the party, Chris and Melissa announced that they are getting married (secular) and there is a dinner Wednesday night to celebrate. Chris is planning to take the job in North Carolina so now they are trying to find somebody to rent the house they just bought a few months ago. Today at work I got my official phone call from HSX human resources with the job offer (which Charlie already told me about last week), and the paper copy should be coming this week.

I've started thinking about the move process already. I've narrowed down the apartment choices to a couple places if I end up going that route here in Melbourne. I've had a few people soliciting for roommates this summer but I don't know if I would want to do something temporary like that or just get my own apartment. Moving all the crap I've acquired since freshman year is not a trivial process, especially the aquariums. Still haven't got a great plan for those yet.

One of the guys on the JL tour with much better photography skills than mine posted a thorough photoblog here.

4.20.2007
9:45pm

Photos/videos are uploading now. The Gotham was unbelievable. 400 pounds of insane bass and only about $22 per pound ;)

My personal favorite line in the whole tour: "We don't sell to Best Buy."

4.18.2007
11:25pm

Ok, CDs are much more vulnerable than I thought. I have some discs only a few years old with perfect surfaces that have read errors! EAC has been really helpful though.

6:44pm

So, Florida Tech finally starts installing the security cameras on campus this week (planned long before the VT events), and it turns into the biggest argument on FitForum this year. 44 emails so far with people weighing in on privacy concerns and theft deterrents and constitutional rights and personal safety, etc. Scattered in-between are advertisements for textbooks and apartment rooms.

4.17.2007
11:36pm

You gotta be kidding me...

I was doing some searching today on the car I own (Kia Rio sedan 2001) and came across the most recent list of recall information. Sure enough, there was a recall back on June 22, 2005 on a "manufacturing flaw that could cause the wheels to crack under long term driving fatigue." That's exactly what happened to my front driver side wheel a while back and I paid to replace it. Should have done some googling first or talked to the Kia dealer. Well anyway, if any of the other three original wheels start having issues I'm going to get them replaced gratis. Or maybe just have them done anyway.

8:15pm

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero: the CD that has a different label after playing than it does beforehand. They used a color-changing material so that when the disc is cold, it's completely black except for the label "Year Zero" in white. After heating up the disc (which tends to happen if you use a conventional CD player or computer), the surface is white with all of the other black text that was hidden before. As it cools off it goes back to the normal black background. Do not attempt to heat up the CD in the microwave though. Trent Reznor is probably having himself a laugh thinking about how many kids would do that without thinking it through.

Oh, and it was a good sounding album too :)

4.16.2007
10:59pm

How about a bit of humor to take the edge off today's earlier events: Roomba breaks the law.

Tonight was beautiful and too nice to spend inside so I went for a walk. There was a mild breeze and a very clear moonless sky so all the stars were visible. All that interrupted the silence was the occasional car, the rustling leaves, and the crickets.

6:30pm

The death toll at Virginia Tech today is currently 33. This morning a gunman shot several people at 7:15am then took fire on a crowd at 9:15am in a separate building. Every news site in the US (and BBC, Sky News, etc) is running the story but here's a link to slashdot. My cousin Zack who goes to VT is ok, he was in a different residence building this morning. So far the names of the deceased students have not been released.

Although I dislike Fox News, they have put up a large number of reader submissions on their page.

Some video.

4.15.2007
8:54pm

South Park does their own version of "300" in the latest episode and it was hilarious. There's a new ep on tonight but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

Everything went well with the project presentations on Friday and Saturday. We got an award from the Florida Tech Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization, the 1st place "entrepreneurship potential" award. The members that were reviewing projects thought ours was the most marketable as a real product. We were really happy to receive it, but Rolando made out the best with a free trip to a conference in Chicago. He definitely earned it though, putting in the most hours of work and spending the most out-of-pocket money to get the project completed.

4.13.2007
3:17am

Yep, it was a late night. Had a bit of an emergency with another dead LCD but we borrowed a replacement. Matt and I made a 1am trip to Walgreens (thank you 24 hour operation) for digital photo printouts. Project is finished now, just needs to be transported and set up at Clemente tomorrow morning. Wake up alarm is set for 7am. Picking up polo shirts at 8:30am. At school by 9am. Physical set up by 10am, then last minute tweaking if needed. Done by 6pm. Back on Saturday in the morning for open house.

Of course the big presentation day would have to fall on Friday the 13th.

4.12.2007
1:38am

One day to go... we had another work session tonight until around 12:30. Tomorrow night will be another long one I believe. The good news is that we have a decent amount of time for set up on Friday morning and the judging doesn't start until noon. It ends at 4:30 and then they have awards given out for the best projects. Tear down won't be until Saturday afternoon, because the Open House is on Saturday and all the visiting students and parents get to see the senior design projects. I'm not going to work at all on Friday so I have to try to finish up my hours for the week tomorrow.

4.11.2007
1:29am

Can 3-D movies save cinema?

Yesterday our replacement chlorine sensor for the project arrived and Rolando spent some time testing it out and trying to get some meaningful readings. Today we got it working and made a trip to Wal-Mart for some paint and other decorative supplies. The stand assembly is black now instead of bare wood and it looks much better. We've got some sparkly blue letters to spell out I.W.I.D.S. and GGHY (Gicka Gillow Herrera Yourek). Matt brought a label maker from GE so now we have nice labels for all voltage lines / switches / sensor sockets / microchips. We have a rubber duck and motorized fish to occupy the 10gal aquarium, although Rolando wasn't a big fan of those two items. I ordered four polo shirts yesterday so we will all be in matching blue IWIDS shirts. As Matt said today, even if our project happens to not work 100% properly on Friday, at least we will have a nice looking set up. Tomorrow is some more touch-up painting, letter application, board mounting, and probably code review. Also searching for some place that sells the astroturf-esque carpet.

I decided to google a few of my teachers from NCSSM tonight... found out that my English teacher Dr. Nanney from 11th grade is now working at the Georgetown University campus in Qatar (adjacent to Saudi Arabia). Ms. Skidmore who taught WRRD is working at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dr. Morrison and Dr. Alston are still at NCSSM, along with the much despised president Dr. Boarman. Recent scrutiny of free tuition at UNC system schools for NCSSM graduates. Letter to the editor. More.

4.07.2007
1:29pm

The white van speaker scam is still alive... except in my case yesterday it was a white Mustang instead. As I was leaving the super Wal-Mart parking lot, somebody driving around asked if I wanted to buy a great home theater system for my house. Told him I already had one and he drove away, but I wondered after leaving if anybody there at Wal-Mart was actually going to fall for the con.

Yesterday we had a trip to Universal CityWalk for the annual Student Ambassador dinner. The plan was originally to go to Margaritaville as is customary, but we ended up going to Bubba Gump Shrimp instead because the wait at Margaritaville was around 2.5 hours for a group of 10. I find it hard to believe that a restaurant was created with the Forrest Gump theme, but hey somebody decided to do it and it's a very popular place. The drink menu is attached to a ping-pong paddle and they have two license plates at every table so that you can tell the server whether you need help or not. One says "Run Forrest, Run" and the other says "Stop Forrest, Stop". They had some good seafood, but in the true southern style almost everything comes deep fried. My entree was called the "Bucket of Boat Trash", which consists of jumbo shrimp, mahi mahi, and lobster tails. When we were walking around CityWalk waiting for the table to be avaialable, we saw the Islands of Adventure lighthouse and wondered if anybody actually walks up the wrap-around stairs that have no railing.

4.04.2007
11:06pm

"Adrian" visits Quiznos in Chicago. Adrian isn't your typical restaurant-goer.

4.03.2007
8:42pm

A sliver of hope...

Today we were supposed to have part 1 of 2 of the Fab Lab final test. However, we did not end up having said test. Dr. Kostanich was teaching a review session for Communications during the time our exam would have occupied (for a different class altogther), but Dr. Earles apparently got the inside scoop on our despicable grades and decided we needed to focus more on Communications instead of her class. Nothing against Dr. Pearce but Dr. Kostanich has been teaching the class in the past and he knows what parts to focus on. The review sessions are going to continue for the rest of the semester every Tuesday and Thursday.

There's going to be another Communications quiz on Thursday. So guess what I'm studying tonight! The Fab Lab test portion that we missed today will also be on Thursday. Friday we have a test in Electrooptic Devices. Next week there's a test in Control Systems. Next week is the Senior Design showcase.

And yet after all this *!@# is over with in a couple weeks I get to do something fun. April 20th I'm taking a day trip down to Pembroke Pines to meet up with some guys from AVSForum for a tour of the JL Audio factory! We'll get to see how they manufacture their products, get some in-house demonstrations, have lunch, chat with a few engineers, and hopefully get some good pictures. Unfortunately I can't afford anything they sell so I won't be coming home with any new subwoofers :)

4.01.2007
1:40am

I don't use Facebook very much, but I have to credit the site admins with having a good sense of humor. In my newsfeed for today was this little gem:

Two of your oxen drowned when you tried to ford the river. 4:46pm

Ah, good old Oregon Trail. Lots of April Fool's stories are sure to pop up today, but The Pirate Bay had the first one I've read so far. Woot decided to put up a $1,000,001 bag-of-crap for today (normally $1).