October 31, 2003
October 28, 2003
Alligator Antics
The Independent Florida Alligator is always up to something. Last friday, they published a cartoon which angered a bunch. The following monday, they printed a half dozen of the outraged resonses (check out the cartoon). Today they published an editor's non-apology (I apologize, but I stand by my decision), more letters, and a "we are deeply saddened" joint statement signed by both Gators for Israel and NAKBA '48.
This proves the old adage that the friend of my enemy's brother is the enemy of my enemy's friend.
October 27, 2003
Fini, part two
Apparently last week (10/21 through 10/24) was the official pick-up-your-tickets window for Gator Growl. According to the nice man on the other side of the glass, I didn't totally screw myself by not picking up my tickets. There will, he says, be anothe opportunity next week. Yay!
That news cheered me up this morning, so when I sat down to simulate the counter I threw together last night, not getting the good results was like rain on a happy parade. Fortunately, I was able to track down the crossed wires and make the fix--a trivial change to the layout.
Here is what you've all been clamouring for:
That's the whole chip. If you zoom into that nasty mess on the left side, you'd see the spiking, reduced K2:
Here are the details of the saturating counter, in the lower right. Notice the sneaky and low-grade chip art:
There you go.
October 26, 2003
Fini, part one
I'm going home to sleep now--tomorrow I will put up a picture of the chip in all its glory. I've even added output buffers to the counter to deal with the pad parasitics, something I almost forgot about.
The counter gets done
Bwahaha.... behold my tight layout skillset in action. In sexy, sexy action:
That's the complete counter bitslice, verified via LVS. I may yet be done before midnight.. in my dreams! The left half of the circuit is a toggle flip-flop, except for two output buffers on the extreme left edge. Under the vertical light blue metal3 strips in the center I've hidden two muxes, and everything on the right side controls the saturation and toggle behavior. Did I mention my sexy, sexy skillset yet?
Live from... progress update
The mixed-signal reduced K2 circuit is wired up, and I've been hacking on the counter bitslice for maybe an hour. It's too big to run in one pair of nactive and pactive rows, so I've gone back to the core--a resetable D-flip-flop--to redesign with two rows of logic. Maybe I won't be here all night after all. I can see myself being done with this just after midnight.
Live from NEB 444
St. Patrick's is the Catholic rendition of Word of Life, the charistmatic church my family attended for a couple years during high school. They play songs I know, put the music up on the back wall with an old school projector, and there's a band--in this case a guitar, piano, tamborine, and set of bongo drums. The sanctuary is a converted gymnasium; it's just like home.
Now I'm wiring up the reduced K2 set to the padframe. If that goes smoothly, I'll throw together my counter with plenty of time for sparing.
Live from Gainesville
Today's going to be an exciting one. In a few minutes I'm headed off to visit St. Patrick's again, this time for real. Afterwards I'm going to chug a gallon of coffee and lock myself in NEB 444. We have until Monday C.O.B. to finish our chips, and I discovered yesterday that my saturating counter isn't, ahem, even started. Expect moderate to heavy blogging today as I keep you posted on my exciting progress!
October 19, 2003
Lockheed @ Silicon Valley
I unpacked my suitcase halfway at my parents' place in Jacksonville, then realized I was bringing the suitcase with me to Gainesville, and promptly stopped the unpacking. So there it sits, on my bed, half unpacked.
Scatter-brained notes:
I leave for DFW from JAX Friday morning, joined by the University of Florida Gator cheerleaders; they are on their way to the Arkansas game, which we will win on Saturday. Near the end of the flight, one of them launches a paper airplane throuh the cabin, to the amusement of all.
...
"Thank you for choosing American Airlines, a member of the One World Alliance."
That's an eye-opener. The "please wait until the vehicle comes to a full and complete stop before gathering all personal belonging" message from our flight crew ends with this little bit. What is this One-World Alliance, and who are they, anyhow? I ponder the ominous answer for a moment, before being distracted by the excellent people watching.
"Hello. I'm just calling to apologize for my little psychotic episode last night."
An attractive lady leaning against a pillar was talking into a microphone hanging from her ear. Airports are great for people-watching. I spend the entire layover people-watching. Except for the time I spent eating.
...
On the second leg of my flight out, a cowboy sits in front of me. Well, he had leather shoes and a Timberland cowboy hat, but he was also wearing a tee-shirt with what might have been Hindi. He was on the phone with his friend as much as is legal on American Airlines, and had the strange habit of not just left hand through his hair--which isn't really strange--but of playing with his eyebrow.
Someday maybe I can be that cool. (no sarcasm)
...
Downtown Mountain View is a great place for eating. I walk up and down the strip a couple of times, observe that Sue's Indian Cuisine has the thickest crowd, and request a table for one. Lamb curry: hot, fast, and yummy--the best meal I've had in a very long time.
...
Ten or more managers. Fifteen green kids. A full day of interviews. The first manager introduced himself, asked about the spike-detection project, and opened up a whiteboard to my happy delight. That interview--and most of the rest--went very well. Afterwards they bussed us over to a couple labs, where they touted some unclassified spiffyness. I impressed myself with the ability to ask pertinant questions questions and show of my lab's research into high dynamic-range CMOS imaging (>100dB!).
After the fiend-trip, we were brought back to the recuiting center, and several among us were dragged off for an additional interview. I was upset; my plans to organize a spontaneous group trip into San Fransisco had been disrupted. By the time I was out, all but a couple kids had vanished. Not all had been lost: a local Chris from UCLA agreed to join me.
Chris and I walk around Haight Ashbury in full interview gettup: coat, tie, shebang. We stand out like halloween freaks. Savor the irony. Savor the yummy carribean food of Cha Cha Cha. All in all, a good time was had. Then I tried to take 101 South out of SF. Fortunately the stop and go didn't cost more than half an hour--the causal accident wasn't very far up the on-ramp. I was home and in bed around midnight, giving me a good 2 or 3 hours of sleep before I would have to get up to catch my plane.
...
I look out the window as we back away from the DFW terminal to see a lone, tagged suitcase abandoned on the field of pavement. An empty baggage-mover drives by.
...
The carry-on squirms. I can make out a form obscured by breathable mesh. I sense... cuteness. Later, a lady walks over and releases a 9 month pug, who happily licks her face, and the hands of nearby children.
...
I meet up with the Gator cheer squad again in DFW. So tempted to blog from the internet terminals, but I've fogotten my movable type password.
...
In conclusion, San Fransisco restaurants rock.
Other cities are for people who hate food.
I hope Lockheed pays good.
October 14, 2003
Byebye!
I was running to fetch a network cable and USB zip disk so that the weekly ECE seminar could go on as scheduled. That running jarred loose my left big toenail, which as been black since my last section hike a few months ago. I dumped the toenail into a trash can along with pistachio shells from second lunch, figuring that old dead toenails don't make for a good keepsake.
After three big stubs on one day, you're so angry at yourself that the pain doesn't really register. Next time I go hiking, I'm just going to smash my toes with a hammer before I leave and get it over with. Or maybe have them surgically removed.
October 11, 2003
The Power of Cheese
One of my roomates liked to ask, "Can God create a rock so large that he cannot lift it?" If He pointed to a five pound cheese wheel and said "I will not lift this," then he would not ever lift it, could not ever lift it.
This is my first post under a catagory. In fact, I created the Religion catagory specifically for this post. Is it just me or does is smell like foreshadow in here?
Eye Contact
There is a joke about engineers, that you can spot the social ones because they will stare at your feet instead of their own. I thought it was funny because it was true, but then I found out that it was true.
Mainly thanks to Evan I discovered eye contact in an Orlando Steak & Shake late one night. I've since been surprised to find that almost everyone will meet my gaze at least briefly, and a few are willing to make prolonged contact. What a strange new method to connect with other humans--I used to think of myself as so liguisticly abstracted.
October 9, 2003
Leaving Gainesville
After 8 years you—and by you I mean me—would think I'd be ready to get out, grow up, live off a real income, and settle down. The crew that I hung with on Weaver 3 and East 1 has split for work or marriage or law school or parts unknown. The people I came out with stay up too late for me—turns out I'm a seriously morning person. So why now more than ever do I want to stay?
"…that's the reason that I gotta get outa here. I'm so alone. Doncha know that I gotta get outa here."
I don't really want to stay; you know. I want to get stuck in a Mobius strip where time becomes a loop, reliving a select handful of moments till the end of time, holding onto my happiness in the shape of a life preserver. Of course it doesn't work that way.