Well I think I'm done with class. I got my project compiling and working as of 11:30 pm. All that's left is to finish the report and I'll let my partners whip up the rest of the first draft (I already wrote a page or two of stuff).
For now I'm taking a break and fleeing ASAP from coding.
Jon
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Paper Down , more to go
As of 8:45pm last night my CS 838 final paper is done and handed in. It only took a marathon eight hours in the lab combining my half, my partner's half, and editing the whole thing. The report was around 16 pages of text and reading it straight though takes around 20 minutes (assuming you want to follow our work). Eight hours doesn't seem so bad considering we needed to meticulously go over every single sentence to edit it. Then we needed to mark everything up in LaTeX (this wasn't to bad), and import our figures.
After finishing the paper I tried to grab something to eat but Cousin's Subs closed about 20 minutes early last night. So I headed over to CAE to work for another three hours on my 556 project.
All I have left is a final today at 2:45 and that project which is due thursday.
After finishing the paper I tried to grab something to eat but Cousin's Subs closed about 20 minutes early last night. So I headed over to CAE to work for another three hours on my 556 project.
All I have left is a final today at 2:45 and that project which is due thursday.
Monday, December 19, 2005
You know you're a geek when...
I've been rather busy these last few days as I've been busy working on a final paper for cs838, and project for my CAD Tool Design class. Anyways, as I was working on my paper this morning I was staring out my window while thinking deeply about my paper.
While looking out my window, I noticed the branches on the tree outside my window didn't look smooth like on most trees but they had a horrible set of jaggies. My first thought was that the tree outside needed some anti-aliasing, but then I realized the screen in my window was causing the effect.
While looking out my window, I noticed the branches on the tree outside my window didn't look smooth like on most trees but they had a horrible set of jaggies. My first thought was that the tree outside needed some anti-aliasing, but then I realized the screen in my window was causing the effect.
Friday, December 16, 2005
School Over! Sort Of
Well yesterday class officially ended, and in celebration I hosted end of the year party/get together. We had about 15 people over for the party, and played pictionary. My team managed to come back from being almost and entire board behind for the win. After that most of the guests headed home, missing the desert I had made in the process. (French Silk Pie yummm.)
Those who hung around played some 5 player Halo with linked Xboxes. Of all the players Colin made imporved the most going from 0 kills his first game, to holding first for a short time during a later round. Halo wrapped up around 11:20 and we broke out the French Silk and an Apple Pie.
Finally, I wrapped up the day with the last Midnight Bowling league game of the semester. Our team was playing the team in first for the league win. To pull off the win we had to win both games and the series (total pinfall over two games) to get enough points to make first. Unfortuneatly for us we bowled a decent game while the other team bowled the game of their lives for the win. Since we were guaranteed to come in second at this point our bowling changed to try some creative throws. Bowling left handed, behind the back, between the legs, or kicking the ball didn't work out well for any of my teammates and our scores for the second game were rather poor. In any case we had a lot of fun during the last game of the year.
During the next week I have a paper to write, a programming project to work on, and a final to study for. Time to get back to my CS 838 paper.
Those who hung around played some 5 player Halo with linked Xboxes. Of all the players Colin made imporved the most going from 0 kills his first game, to holding first for a short time during a later round. Halo wrapped up around 11:20 and we broke out the French Silk and an Apple Pie.
Finally, I wrapped up the day with the last Midnight Bowling league game of the semester. Our team was playing the team in first for the league win. To pull off the win we had to win both games and the series (total pinfall over two games) to get enough points to make first. Unfortuneatly for us we bowled a decent game while the other team bowled the game of their lives for the win. Since we were guaranteed to come in second at this point our bowling changed to try some creative throws. Bowling left handed, behind the back, between the legs, or kicking the ball didn't work out well for any of my teammates and our scores for the second game were rather poor. In any case we had a lot of fun during the last game of the year.
During the next week I have a paper to write, a programming project to work on, and a final to study for. Time to get back to my CS 838 paper.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
I HATE SPAMBOTS
Well my blog was defaced by its first spambot about 5 minutes ago. Now I need to turn on that annoying word verification function for all posts. Half the time I don't get the stupid thing correct on my first try.
Also while doing some searches online I found a cool applet that lets you play around with Quantum Wells. Basically, it lets you plot the Schrödinger equation (this gives you the probablility of quantum tunneling among other things.)
Also while doing some searches online I found a cool applet that lets you play around with Quantum Wells. Basically, it lets you plot the Schrödinger equation (this gives you the probablility of quantum tunneling among other things.)
Super Stringtastic
Well I just got back a bit ago from a lecture by Dr. Brian Greene author of "The Elegant Universe" and "The Fabric of the Cosmos". He's one of the most well known Super String Theory proponents, and has a very good PBS special you can watch online here. For his talk he mostly covered some of the basics from his Nova special which includes General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics 101. (I prefer his explanation to the one I learned in a course on those topics as there was much less crazy math, Britney might be able to help you.)
Overall, it was an enjoyable talk and he did a great job. One thing I had forgotten was how small these strings are. The strings are around 10^-35 meters in size, this is a billion billion times smaller than an atom. He gave the following analogy to explain just how small this is:
"Expand an atom to the size of the Universe, a string would be about the size of a tree."
That's really small. He also mentioned in passing that his Nova special had a small error where an Atom the size of New York was compared to string the size of a tree. Apparently, he told Nova they were wrong but they didn't fix it. Not many people get to say Nova was wrong and actually be correct.
After the lecture there was a Q/A period. He did a great job answering all the questions right on the spot, while keeping everything at level one could follow based entirely on the lecture he had just given. One person asked the dumbest question I've ever heard, he wanted to know "If Martians were to look at us with a giant telescope, they would see us moving about randomly like in quantum mechanics. Do you agree this is true?".
Dr. Greene's answer was basically "What???". I really want to know what went through Dr. Greene's mind when faced with this genius question. The worst part was this was the second from last question asked, we missed an opportunity to actually learn something useful rather than someone's dumb theory of quantum people movement.
Overall, it was an enjoyable talk and he did a great job. One thing I had forgotten was how small these strings are. The strings are around 10^-35 meters in size, this is a billion billion times smaller than an atom. He gave the following analogy to explain just how small this is:
"Expand an atom to the size of the Universe, a string would be about the size of a tree."
That's really small. He also mentioned in passing that his Nova special had a small error where an Atom the size of New York was compared to string the size of a tree. Apparently, he told Nova they were wrong but they didn't fix it. Not many people get to say Nova was wrong and actually be correct.
After the lecture there was a Q/A period. He did a great job answering all the questions right on the spot, while keeping everything at level one could follow based entirely on the lecture he had just given. One person asked the dumbest question I've ever heard, he wanted to know "If Martians were to look at us with a giant telescope, they would see us moving about randomly like in quantum mechanics. Do you agree this is true?".
Dr. Greene's answer was basically "What???". I really want to know what went through Dr. Greene's mind when faced with this genius question. The worst part was this was the second from last question asked, we missed an opportunity to actually learn something useful rather than someone's dumb theory of quantum people movement.
Good Start?
Well my day is off to a good start, in an effort to meet a project partner this morning I ended up leaving the house without shaving. Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal except I have a presentation tonight around 5:45pm, with no time between now (9am) and then to stop at home and shave (or even grab a razor). Looking unshaven is in now, right??
Despite the presentation I'm really looking forward to tonight. Instead of our regular Enlight meeting most of us are meeting down in the Union, in an attempt to get into a sold out lecture by Brian Greene Author of "The Elegant Universe". Right now there are no tickets left but they seat people without tickets about 10 minutes before the lecture starts, assuming there are open seats. If the seats are full they actually simulcast the presentation in another room so we should be set. Either way it should be an interesting talk (ok I hope it will but Dr. Greene is very interesting, and was one of the few guest who didn't look silly on the Colbert Report.)
Despite the presentation I'm really looking forward to tonight. Instead of our regular Enlight meeting most of us are meeting down in the Union, in an attempt to get into a sold out lecture by Brian Greene Author of "The Elegant Universe". Right now there are no tickets left but they seat people without tickets about 10 minutes before the lecture starts, assuming there are open seats. If the seats are full they actually simulcast the presentation in another room so we should be set. Either way it should be an interesting talk (ok I hope it will but Dr. Greene is very interesting, and was one of the few guest who didn't look silly on the Colbert Report.)
Saturday, December 10, 2005
CS GRE and Narnia
This morning I woke up at 7am to make it to the psychology building by 8:30 for the CS GRE. For those of you who don't know me well 8:30am is very, very early for me. In fact I haven't been up before 8:30 since May, except for today that is. In any case taking a test at 8:30 isn't my idea of a fun wakeup. Personally, I hate standardized tests despite my doing well on them, I think they are biased towards people who like to get up before the crack of dawn. It's not fair to those of us who achieve peak mental acuity around Noon.
Well after taking the over long (170 minute) test, I went home, grabbed some food, and then went to the 3:00pm showing of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I have to say the movie was enjoyable. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, as it was a bit slow in the middle (I almost fell asleep). Narnia was a good adaptation of the books and I don't have any complaints about them leaving stuff out. It's at least as good as the old PBS/Hallmark/BBC (I know it was on PBS) adaptation of the books. Overall, I'd say it is one of the better book to movie adaptations I've seen in a long time. Much better than Howl's Moving Castle (another children's book favorite of mine, don't get me started.)
Well after taking the over long (170 minute) test, I went home, grabbed some food, and then went to the 3:00pm showing of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I have to say the movie was enjoyable. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, as it was a bit slow in the middle (I almost fell asleep). Narnia was a good adaptation of the books and I don't have any complaints about them leaving stuff out. It's at least as good as the old PBS/Hallmark/BBC (I know it was on PBS) adaptation of the books. Overall, I'd say it is one of the better book to movie adaptations I've seen in a long time. Much better than Howl's Moving Castle (another children's book favorite of mine, don't get me started.)
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Fountain pictures
I've been working with a group to develop a control interface for the Engineering College's fountain for the last few years. Today I took a couple pictures of to show off the ice we've managed to generate on the north end (we are trying to make it into an ice sculpture.)
I also happened to be walking by it and night and snapped a shot since I thought it looked cool. My camera's batteries were basically dead so I only got one picture. Click on both for a closeup.
The fountain at night
I also happened to be walking by it and night and snapped a shot since I thought it looked cool. My camera's batteries were basically dead so I only got one picture. Click on both for a closeup.
The north end starting to ice up.
The fountain at nightPicture Update
As you can see I posted the only picture I have of myself on my computer. It's a couple of of years old but I mostly look the same (minus the facial hair). In any case as it's the only picture I have so it goes up.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A View To Kill (For)
A couple weeks back Dell had their 2405FPW on sale for 40% off so I picked one up. I've enjoyed computing and playing WoW on this wonderful screen which sports a 1920x1200 resolution. Even so I find I probably spend more computer time each day working on my 17" laptop then I do looking at my new 24" monitor. To give you an idea how big this thing is I've included a picture of this thing on my desk (click for a high res shot).
Good Deals
Well I have a couple of cool deals I've come across first is a computer from Monarch Computers. This computer is pretty decent for its $850 asking price but that's not the deal. It has a free copy of Halflife 2 and several other programs. Add Windows for $80 and get two free plan tickets from Microsoft! (I'm not kidding they have a free trip if you buy a PC, I think you can go to Hawaii.) If Hawaii is a valid destination like I believe based on the site buying that computer is a terrific deal.
Another cool deal to be found is Acclaim IP. That's right do to the bankruptcy of the gaming company you can buy publishing rights to many of their old games? Want Mortal Kombat I&II? The Bust a Move series? Or the classic Ecco the Dolphin? Then go make a bid on some of the great IP available at the previously mentioned site. (I would buy Mortal Kombat/Ecco except for that $5k initial bid thing.)
Another cool deal to be found is Acclaim IP. That's right do to the bankruptcy of the gaming company you can buy publishing rights to many of their old games? Want Mortal Kombat I&II? The Bust a Move series? Or the classic Ecco the Dolphin? Then go make a bid on some of the great IP available at the previously mentioned site. (I would buy Mortal Kombat/Ecco except for that $5k initial bid thing.)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Kendo in LaCrosse?
So its been awhile. I've been extremely busy since school started. I'm spending most of my time with schoolwork, and Kendo which basically limits my free time. I've even given up World of Warcraft as of last week as it was starting to have an adverse affect.
In any case I spent last weekend at a Kendo tournament held just north of LaCrosse, WI. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't score any points in my matches. I probably should have scored something in my first match against another Mudansha but wasn't able to get a clean hit in. I had one hit which a judge called as a hit but the main judged waved it off.
My second fight was against a 5-dan who is the Sensei at MSU (btw 5-dan is basically the Kendo equivalent to a 5th degree blackbelt). Knowing my chances were slim I tried a go for broke attack as Kiyota Sensei would put it. Unfortunately, this tactic failed as my Zanshin wasn't good enough. Upon turning around Fox Sensei struck a blow to my men (head) for the 1 point win. Next tournament I plan to last longer than 20 seconds against the other teams Sensei.
On Sunday morning it was my time to test for the rank if ikkyu (1-kyu). Ikkyu is the rank before shodan (1-dan) which is basically the first recognized rank in Kendo (the MWKF does have 2-6 kyu as lower ranks but typically these are only held by children). For the test I needed to demonstrate basic strikes (kote, men, do), do two three minute Ji-Geiko's, Kirikaeshi, and Katas 1-3. In the end I did well and passed. Now I need to get to work on my written essay as the last step of achieving my rank.
In any case I spent last weekend at a Kendo tournament held just north of LaCrosse, WI. It was a lot of fun, even though I didn't score any points in my matches. I probably should have scored something in my first match against another Mudansha but wasn't able to get a clean hit in. I had one hit which a judge called as a hit but the main judged waved it off.
My second fight was against a 5-dan who is the Sensei at MSU (btw 5-dan is basically the Kendo equivalent to a 5th degree blackbelt). Knowing my chances were slim I tried a go for broke attack as Kiyota Sensei would put it. Unfortunately, this tactic failed as my Zanshin wasn't good enough. Upon turning around Fox Sensei struck a blow to my men (head) for the 1 point win. Next tournament I plan to last longer than 20 seconds against the other teams Sensei.
On Sunday morning it was my time to test for the rank if ikkyu (1-kyu). Ikkyu is the rank before shodan (1-dan) which is basically the first recognized rank in Kendo (the MWKF does have 2-6 kyu as lower ranks but typically these are only held by children). For the test I needed to demonstrate basic strikes (kote, men, do), do two three minute Ji-Geiko's, Kirikaeshi, and Katas 1-3. In the end I did well and passed. Now I need to get to work on my written essay as the last step of achieving my rank.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Summer Over
Well the summer is basically over. I about 2 days I head back to school and start my graduate student career.
My summer Internship at NVIDIA is over. Finally I won't be spending 50-60 hours a week doing work. While it was interesting and all the hours ended up being killer :(. Anyways, I picked up some video cards for my family and got myself a 7800 GTX. I had to upgrade the rest of my computer to use this so I now have an Athlon 64 3000+ Nforce 4 system in my case.
Well that's it for now. I need to scan in some rebate offers on my computer equipment and get to packing for my trip to school. I'll post some more soon since school is back on.
My summer Internship at NVIDIA is over. Finally I won't be spending 50-60 hours a week doing work. While it was interesting and all the hours ended up being killer :(. Anyways, I picked up some video cards for my family and got myself a 7800 GTX. I had to upgrade the rest of my computer to use this so I now have an Athlon 64 3000+ Nforce 4 system in my case.
Well that's it for now. I need to scan in some rebate offers on my computer equipment and get to packing for my trip to school. I'll post some more soon since school is back on.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Comcast Sux
Well I'm in CA. I'm actually going on my second week but haven't had time to post. So far I don't have any official internet access except from work. Comcast was supposed to be out May 31st to install our digtal cable and cable modem, but of course that didn't happen. The guy showed up over two hours late and didn't get anything done. He basically said sorry can't find a signal someone will call you who can do work and setup a time to come out later.
So I wait. And wait. And wait...
After two days I give up and call Comcast and get an appointment setup with someone on Thursday. By now I've started work so I can't be there for the installer. Luckily my Dad was in town until that Saturday so he stuck around. The guy managed to narrow the problem down to a disconnected cable in an apartment below me. He can't get a good signal for 'net though since its an old cable someone tacked. He said he would call back and setup a time to have people come out and rewire this.
And so I wait... And Wait... And Wait...
Eventually I call Comcast back, its now Monday 1 week after I was supposed to get cable. I manage to get a hold of someone who says the tech and manager is out and that I need to call back tomorrow.
So I call back tomorrow, the call center person finally gets a hold of the tech or supervisor and they schedule an all day appointment with my landlord for Wednesday. So Wed after a long day of work I head on home expecting my internet and cable to be setup. Boy was I wrong. I walk into a house with neither! So I immediately call Comcast (I'm sick of waiting and don't have time at work), I get a hold of someone who apolgizes for the problem (apparently he still sees the work order as incomplete), and promises me someone will be out the following morning to setup the cable.
I check in with my landlord around noon and find no one has shown up. So once again I give Comcast a call. The automated system mentions I had a service appointment scheduled for 8am the previous morning (the one no one showed up for). I finally get a hold of a person who denies I have any appointment setup at all. At this point I'm so fed up with playing games I ask for an appointment the same day or I will just cancel service. My exact words were along the lines of "Why won't you let me get your service? I'm trying to pay you guys money, do you want me to go somewhere else?" This manages to convice them to send someone out and they do.
Luckily I got out of work early to go to Kendo since the cable guy was still working at 6:00pm. Turns out he couldn't get it to work AND that they scheduled me for a premium internet install which costs $99 (I asked for self before, and the previous guy had that). Premium install means the guy runs a CD for you and royally screws up your computer. I refused to pay for the premium install if he does it since I didn't order it. The tech guy starts to unhook the stuff he did get installed since he doesn't have a self install kit and even if he did he can only do what the work order says. While he's unhooking the Digital Box I call the Comcast customer service center where it takes 10 minutes to explain the situation (the person thought I wanted them to extend their three month trial pricing offer). Finally, I get everything explained and the customer service rep waives the installation fee and has the tech finish the install. Well the tech finishes the install only to find the cable signal is weaker than ever the digital cable doesn't work, the modem STILL won't work, and now the basic cable is all fuzzy. The guy leaves me with the stuff and promises that his supervisor and him will take care of it tomorrow. (BTW this guy doesn't work for Comcast, more on that later).
The next day dawns. I'm so close to my final goal of cable TV and 'net. I have the receiver and modem but the signal is just bad. The previous evening I realized the tech took the install CD and the USB cable for the modem so I can't get online even if everything worked. Comcast requires you to go through some special server to actually get authenticated. I call the tech around 9:30am. Now the story has changed. Apparetly Comcast is not "responsible" for the wiring in the apartment and it will cost me or the apartment $170 to do the wiring. He can have his "crew" out to my apartment by the next day. I call my apartment manager and explain the information. Turns out this guy lied to me, and was just trying to make money by charging for a cable install on the side. The manager gets a hold of Comcast and schedules an apointment to have them come out and actually run the cable they were supposed to about a week ago (and didn't). Now I can only hope they show up, and don't leave because the apartment manager goes to the restroom. See the cable people don't know HOW TO CALL THE APARTMENT MANAGER WHEN I'M NOT HOME EVEN THOUGH THAT'S THE INSTRUCTION ON ALL THE WORK ORDERS!
Comcast needs to get their act together and maybe actually HIRE employees instead of "Independant Contractors". Then maybe they might have a consistend scheduling system. I don't really hold it against the installers since Comcast scheduling seems to give everyone some fucked up schedule with conflicting instructions. I'd go with another company but no one else is available since Cable companies are an monopoly.
So I wait. And wait. And wait...
After two days I give up and call Comcast and get an appointment setup with someone on Thursday. By now I've started work so I can't be there for the installer. Luckily my Dad was in town until that Saturday so he stuck around. The guy managed to narrow the problem down to a disconnected cable in an apartment below me. He can't get a good signal for 'net though since its an old cable someone tacked. He said he would call back and setup a time to have people come out and rewire this.
And so I wait... And Wait... And Wait...
Eventually I call Comcast back, its now Monday 1 week after I was supposed to get cable. I manage to get a hold of someone who says the tech and manager is out and that I need to call back tomorrow.
So I call back tomorrow, the call center person finally gets a hold of the tech or supervisor and they schedule an all day appointment with my landlord for Wednesday. So Wed after a long day of work I head on home expecting my internet and cable to be setup. Boy was I wrong. I walk into a house with neither! So I immediately call Comcast (I'm sick of waiting and don't have time at work), I get a hold of someone who apolgizes for the problem (apparently he still sees the work order as incomplete), and promises me someone will be out the following morning to setup the cable.
I check in with my landlord around noon and find no one has shown up. So once again I give Comcast a call. The automated system mentions I had a service appointment scheduled for 8am the previous morning (the one no one showed up for). I finally get a hold of a person who denies I have any appointment setup at all. At this point I'm so fed up with playing games I ask for an appointment the same day or I will just cancel service. My exact words were along the lines of "Why won't you let me get your service? I'm trying to pay you guys money, do you want me to go somewhere else?" This manages to convice them to send someone out and they do.
Luckily I got out of work early to go to Kendo since the cable guy was still working at 6:00pm. Turns out he couldn't get it to work AND that they scheduled me for a premium internet install which costs $99 (I asked for self before, and the previous guy had that). Premium install means the guy runs a CD for you and royally screws up your computer. I refused to pay for the premium install if he does it since I didn't order it. The tech guy starts to unhook the stuff he did get installed since he doesn't have a self install kit and even if he did he can only do what the work order says. While he's unhooking the Digital Box I call the Comcast customer service center where it takes 10 minutes to explain the situation (the person thought I wanted them to extend their three month trial pricing offer). Finally, I get everything explained and the customer service rep waives the installation fee and has the tech finish the install. Well the tech finishes the install only to find the cable signal is weaker than ever the digital cable doesn't work, the modem STILL won't work, and now the basic cable is all fuzzy. The guy leaves me with the stuff and promises that his supervisor and him will take care of it tomorrow. (BTW this guy doesn't work for Comcast, more on that later).
The next day dawns. I'm so close to my final goal of cable TV and 'net. I have the receiver and modem but the signal is just bad. The previous evening I realized the tech took the install CD and the USB cable for the modem so I can't get online even if everything worked. Comcast requires you to go through some special server to actually get authenticated. I call the tech around 9:30am. Now the story has changed. Apparetly Comcast is not "responsible" for the wiring in the apartment and it will cost me or the apartment $170 to do the wiring. He can have his "crew" out to my apartment by the next day. I call my apartment manager and explain the information. Turns out this guy lied to me, and was just trying to make money by charging for a cable install on the side. The manager gets a hold of Comcast and schedules an apointment to have them come out and actually run the cable they were supposed to about a week ago (and didn't). Now I can only hope they show up, and don't leave because the apartment manager goes to the restroom. See the cable people don't know HOW TO CALL THE APARTMENT MANAGER WHEN I'M NOT HOME EVEN THOUGH THAT'S THE INSTRUCTION ON ALL THE WORK ORDERS!
Comcast needs to get their act together and maybe actually HIRE employees instead of "Independant Contractors". Then maybe they might have a consistend scheduling system. I don't really hold it against the installers since Comcast scheduling seems to give everyone some fucked up schedule with conflicting instructions. I'd go with another company but no one else is available since Cable companies are an monopoly.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Done
Well as of Tuesday I am done with my Undergraduate career. That's right I'm graduating with my BS. Of course I'm not done with school as I have a few years of grad school ahead of me.
I finally ended up choosing to stay here at UW for two reasons. First, its number 1 in the country for my specialty area Computer Architecture. Second, I got a good finaid package.
Well thats it for now I'm going to enjoy my freetime with a little WoW, and then pick up my room.
I finally ended up choosing to stay here at UW for two reasons. First, its number 1 in the country for my specialty area Computer Architecture. Second, I got a good finaid package.
Well thats it for now I'm going to enjoy my freetime with a little WoW, and then pick up my room.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
So Busy
Well it's the time of year when Engineering Students set up camp at the lab finishing up all their projects before the end of the semester. I spent all of Friday-Early Saturday morning in the computer lab. After a brief rest I then spent most of Saturday in the lab again.
Why?
Because we are having trouble integrating the Pretendo. It turns out the processor control was written in a way that will not synthesize properly on the FPGA. A couple of us with more Verilog experience pointed this out to the processor team and spent the rest of the time advising them on what to fix. We also found some problems in the processor and cache with paths that apparently looped around (it seems the compiler wasn't creating muxes or something). So we worked out some restructured code that will hopefully compile better.
To top everything off our timing sim showed that the cache wasn't making some memory timing contraints. The cache designer went back and will have it fixed by tonight. Hopefully everything will be together by Monday.
Why?
Because we are having trouble integrating the Pretendo. It turns out the processor control was written in a way that will not synthesize properly on the FPGA. A couple of us with more Verilog experience pointed this out to the processor team and spent the rest of the time advising them on what to fix. We also found some problems in the processor and cache with paths that apparently looped around (it seems the compiler wasn't creating muxes or something). So we worked out some restructured code that will hopefully compile better.
To top everything off our timing sim showed that the cache wasn't making some memory timing contraints. The cache designer went back and will have it fixed by tonight. Hopefully everything will be together by Monday.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Pretendo Update
As of Monday the MPU (video part) of my groups game console appears to be working! We have transparent sprites and everything! (after some scaling the thing back slightly)
Once our processor guys get done we can play some pong! W00t!
Once our processor guys get done we can play some pong! W00t!
Friday, April 08, 2005
Friday night beatdown
There is nothing like 2 hours of people hitting on you with sticks to make you feel alive. Or just feel a ton of bruises and blisters. Is there a difference?
You may ask yourself "Why am I letting people hit me with sticks?". One word. Kendo. For those of you who don't know, Kendo is the Japanese Martial Art of Swordfighting. Its the technique the Samurai used while wielding their Katana's (and other swords or even naginatas). In modern Kendo (which I am participating in) we use a bamboo sword called a Shinai to practice attacks. This involves you hitting someone and them hitting you back for a couple hours. You don't go totally unprotected you do have a set of Bogu (armor) to absorb some of the damage but misses (people hitting your non-armored areas) are very common.
Of course that doesn't really answer why. The main reason is it allows one to develop discipline and concentration, as a Kendo practitioner tries to develop mushin. It's also a fun couple hours and gets you some exercise :).
You may ask yourself "Why am I letting people hit me with sticks?". One word. Kendo. For those of you who don't know, Kendo is the Japanese Martial Art of Swordfighting. Its the technique the Samurai used while wielding their Katana's (and other swords or even naginatas). In modern Kendo (which I am participating in) we use a bamboo sword called a Shinai to practice attacks. This involves you hitting someone and them hitting you back for a couple hours. You don't go totally unprotected you do have a set of Bogu (armor) to absorb some of the damage but misses (people hitting your non-armored areas) are very common.
Of course that doesn't really answer why. The main reason is it allows one to develop discipline and concentration, as a Kendo practitioner tries to develop mushin. It's also a fun couple hours and gets you some exercise :).
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Bowling Results
Well the results are in for bowling tonight (well I think they are we'll see). We won the first two games with the first one having a margin of over 60 points. Of course we lost the last game by about 10pins which sucks. In any case we should have points for our two wins and for the series. Not bad considering we played the #1 team this week.
Well I should get to bed as class waits for no one.
Well I should get to bed as class waits for no one.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Emulation!
I've managed to finish the video/gui part of the emulator the Pretendo project! That's right you can look at beatiful background colors on screen! (I still need to do line doubling :( but that's another problem)
Now I just need to get the cpu emulator incorporated and I'll be done with SOME of my schoolwork!
Now I just need to get the cpu emulator incorporated and I'll be done with SOME of my schoolwork!
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Been Awhile
Well its been awhile since I updated this thing. Nothing like being incredible busy with no free time :(.
My classes are hitting the stage where you spend all your free time working on projects. Of course all my classes are this way so it really sucks. In 554 we got the display working on our game console so now you can look at background tiles/images. We also coded up sprite support so we should be able to have moving objects as well! YEAH!
Well working on 554 is about all I've been up to lately so this is one boring update. I'll hopefully have more to talk about later.
My classes are hitting the stage where you spend all your free time working on projects. Of course all my classes are this way so it really sucks. In 554 we got the display working on our game console so now you can look at background tiles/images. We also coded up sprite support so we should be able to have moving objects as well! YEAH!
Well working on 554 is about all I've been up to lately so this is one boring update. I'll hopefully have more to talk about later.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Bowling Win!
We won all three games of bowling this week. Of course the team we bowled against weren't around so we just had to beat our averages. I did very well this time and got a 154 one game. Giving me the highest game for the night!
I also discovered that we get free popcorn on league bowling nights!
I also discovered that we get free popcorn on league bowling nights!
Friday, March 11, 2005
Stanford-NVIDIA
Well I got some good news today. I made it into the Stanford EE MS/PhD program! Part I of the hard part is over. I haven't received any information on Financial aid as of yet so we'll see if I can actually afford to GO to Stanford.
At least here I will have some sort of financial support to allow me to continue school. On top of that I need to decide EE vs. CS if I decide to stay at Wisconsin. Decisions, Decisions.
My other good news is I managed to interview well and will be able to spend the summer in the bay area working on ASICs at NVIDIA! I've been hoping to work for a graphics card manufacturer since I started university and now I have my chance. YEAH!
At least here I will have some sort of financial support to allow me to continue school. On top of that I need to decide EE vs. CS if I decide to stay at Wisconsin. Decisions, Decisions.
My other good news is I managed to interview well and will be able to spend the summer in the bay area working on ASICs at NVIDIA! I've been hoping to work for a graphics card manufacturer since I started university and now I have my chance. YEAH!
Bowling
Well we found out once again that we lost at bowling last week. The problem is we were UP by 100+ pins on all 3 games. Apparently the other team pre-bowled (what the hell is this?) and scored some of the best games of their lives. So once again we lose because of some strange scoring technicality that wasn't in the rules (that we saw).
This last week we did manage to win 2 of the games but we have no idea if we "really" one them as they had a sub and an absent bowler. Once again they may magically make up a 200 pin deficit for the win once all the magic pin counting is done. (We also lost one game in which two of us really sucked I got like 79 and the other guy got 84).
This last week we did manage to win 2 of the games but we have no idea if we "really" one them as they had a sub and an absent bowler. Once again they may magically make up a 200 pin deficit for the win once all the magic pin counting is done. (We also lost one game in which two of us really sucked I got like 79 and the other guy got 84).
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
When we Win we lose
Well, it turns out in bowling even when my team wins we lose. What does he mean you ask? Well it turns out that even though the scores at the end of our games two Tuesdays ago were wins they decided to give the team some extra pins after the game so we would lose. How many pins? More than 30 at least. It appears no matter what we do we cannot win.
We won all of one game last Tuesday (well maybe two). I bowled alright for all three games but the other team once again bowled the games of their lives. Also doesn't help the whole damn team we bowled against wasn't there (well 1 person was) so they PICK UP RANDOM PEOPLE! That's right we lost to a team of people that didn't know eachother. This seems cheap as they must have found a team of decent bowlers for us to go up against. This really isn't fair as the team already had a handicap boost on us. On top of that at least one of their bowler CROSSED THE FOUL LINE EVERY SINGLE TIME HE BOWLED. But do they turn on the foul lines? NOOO. So here we have someone fouling just about every time he bowls and he still gets a good score 'cause they won't turn on the damn detectors. This really isn't fair stupid cheaters. Next thing I know we'll be playing people with "pin hacks" and "aim bots".
We won all of one game last Tuesday (well maybe two). I bowled alright for all three games but the other team once again bowled the games of their lives. Also doesn't help the whole damn team we bowled against wasn't there (well 1 person was) so they PICK UP RANDOM PEOPLE! That's right we lost to a team of people that didn't know eachother. This seems cheap as they must have found a team of decent bowlers for us to go up against. This really isn't fair as the team already had a handicap boost on us. On top of that at least one of their bowler CROSSED THE FOUL LINE EVERY SINGLE TIME HE BOWLED. But do they turn on the foul lines? NOOO. So here we have someone fouling just about every time he bowls and he still gets a good score 'cause they won't turn on the damn detectors. This really isn't fair stupid cheaters. Next thing I know we'll be playing people with "pin hacks" and "aim bots".
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Babylon 5
Well my study goals for today have been shattered. Instead of getting anything productive done, (well some stuff but not much), I spent most of the day watching season 1 of Babylon 5 as a neighbor happens to have the DVD set. This is seriously impacting my ability to get any work done. I need help learning how to study...
Friday, February 18, 2005
Friday Again!
Well it's Friday which means another week has come and gone. Did I finish any of my goals for this week? You bet I didn't!
Last Tuesday our bowling team did well, we beat the other team in all 3 games giving us the series. Soon we will no longer be 3rd from worst team in the league (we really messed up the time before). Of course we only won because I bowled so crappy the time before, so my average was < 100 (99). That gave me a wonderful handicap of 90 pins and when combined with everyone else's handicap our teams hadicaps they all added up to more than 100 pins in the first frame!
Aren't we lucky? Still, we won one of the games by more than 150 pins so the handicaps didn't give us all the wins, only two of them. If I could have only consistently bowled a 133 instead of getting that 85 and the 120. The double gutterballs following a strike didn't help my score either.
My plans for this weekend are pretty simple. Do homework, work, and play some WoW, in that order. Of course I'll end up playing WoW and not doing the other things. I need to learn to prioritize or something, anyone have any advice?
Last Tuesday our bowling team did well, we beat the other team in all 3 games giving us the series. Soon we will no longer be 3rd from worst team in the league (we really messed up the time before). Of course we only won because I bowled so crappy the time before, so my average was < 100 (99). That gave me a wonderful handicap of 90 pins and when combined with everyone else's handicap our teams hadicaps they all added up to more than 100 pins in the first frame!
Aren't we lucky? Still, we won one of the games by more than 150 pins so the handicaps didn't give us all the wins, only two of them. If I could have only consistently bowled a 133 instead of getting that 85 and the 120. The double gutterballs following a strike didn't help my score either.
My plans for this weekend are pretty simple. Do homework, work, and play some WoW, in that order. Of course I'll end up playing WoW and not doing the other things. I need to learn to prioritize or something, anyone have any advice?
Monday, February 14, 2005
Internships and the Summer
Well I'm busy as ever. My mission was to update my blog every other day. So far that's failing.
Well today I heard from NVIDIA about the possibility of a Hardware Design ASIC Internship position. I still need to interview for the position but I'm really, really excited as I finally have a chance to show that my Computer Engineering isn't all software.
In other news in my lab group we have decided to develop a video game console. Since it was my idea I ended up as defacto-team lead (basically no one wanted the job.) I also had to agree to write a game for it as no one wants to do software. Now we need to figure out VGA and how we are going to make a somewhat accelerated graphics setup. We've got the ISA specced out for our CPU which we plan to model after the standard pipe-lined RISC system.
Tomorrow have a long day but at least it doesn't start until 1pm. Algorithms, Kendo, 752 discussion, Enlight, and Bowling all await me on my tuesday evenings. If I'm lucky I'll be back by Midnight.
Well today I heard from NVIDIA about the possibility of a Hardware Design ASIC Internship position. I still need to interview for the position but I'm really, really excited as I finally have a chance to show that my Computer Engineering isn't all software.
In other news in my lab group we have decided to develop a video game console. Since it was my idea I ended up as defacto-team lead (basically no one wanted the job.) I also had to agree to write a game for it as no one wants to do software. Now we need to figure out VGA and how we are going to make a somewhat accelerated graphics setup. We've got the ISA specced out for our CPU which we plan to model after the standard pipe-lined RISC system.
Tomorrow have a long day but at least it doesn't start until 1pm. Algorithms, Kendo, 752 discussion, Enlight, and Bowling all await me on my tuesday evenings. If I'm lucky I'll be back by Midnight.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Bowling and Tests
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I'm currently in a bowling league that meets Tuesday evenings. So far my team isn't doing so well. Last Tuesday we played a team who's handicaps gave them about 40 pins on our team at the start of the game. Know what? They whooped us by about 100 pins twice and in the last game beat us by 3! They didn't really deserve to have such high handicaps considering how well they bowled, of course they may have just bowled the game of their life. Doesn't help I sucked it up and didn't make it over 100 in 3 games. Gah, after one of the HIGHEST games the Tuesday before this sucks for me. At least my handicap will go up!
In other news I have my first midterm today at 1pm. This midterm is in my Algorithms class where so far we have learned NOTHING! That's right a test when we have had 1 of like 6 classes canceled and of those 5 we had class for only half the time for 3 of them. On top of that we don't really do much of anything in class. So I don't think they really have much to test us on. At least the test is open book.
In other news I have my first midterm today at 1pm. This midterm is in my Algorithms class where so far we have learned NOTHING! That's right a test when we have had 1 of like 6 classes canceled and of those 5 we had class for only half the time for 3 of them. On top of that we don't really do much of anything in class. So I don't think they really have much to test us on. At least the test is open book.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
A Wet Rainy Day
Well I've been keeping busy here in Madison. It was beautiful outside yesterday, it got up to crazy 43 degrees. Since it was so nice I went down to the "Kites on Ice Festival" hosted out on the lake by Memorial Union. On the way all the melting snow turned lakeshore path into a mud hole. To get around this I walked over to the Union entirely on the ice of lake Mendota. Out on the lake it was warm and you had a great view of all the kites. Some of the kites were pretty cool looking but I got there to late for any of the activities (like make a kite). Plus due to the warmth the lake was melting so there was about 4 inches of water on top of the ice. Boy did my feet get cold and wet!
Today it was also warm but I spent the entire day indoors. I went to Kendo club from 4-7pm during the "superbowl". There were all of two students there so we got a semi-private lesson. I mostly worked on my swings, men, kote, do, and even skee, but I also started to learn part of a kata! Now I'm about a week or so past the rest of the class. On Tuesday they will be handing out Bogu (armor) in class and we will soon be hitting each other!
Of course I finished up my day with a bit of WoW and did quick run on Blackfathom Deeps. I managed to get my rod of the sleepwalker, so next time we go "for Gnomeregan!"
Today it was also warm but I spent the entire day indoors. I went to Kendo club from 4-7pm during the "superbowl". There were all of two students there so we got a semi-private lesson. I mostly worked on my swings, men, kote, do, and even skee, but I also started to learn part of a kata! Now I'm about a week or so past the rest of the class. On Tuesday they will be handing out Bogu (armor) in class and we will soon be hitting each other!
Of course I finished up my day with a bit of WoW and did quick run on Blackfathom Deeps. I managed to get my rod of the sleepwalker, so next time we go "for Gnomeregan!"
Saturday, January 29, 2005
To grad school or work?
It has been awhile since my last post but I've been busy with school. School combined with work seem to be eating up all my time.
Anyways I received a letter yesterday informing me that I've been admitted to the UW-Graduate School. Of course this isn't my first choice (Stanford) but at least I now know graduate school is at least a choice. They haven't told me anything of financial aid and the date for finding that out is April 1st. I can't afford another few years of school so if I don't get a Fellowship, or a TA or RA position work is the way to go. Not only that I got a job offer from VMware that is VERY, VERY, tempting. Well I sort of got one they called and told me about it but I haven't received a piece of paper with the info yet. No need for me to decide yet.
Anyways I received a letter yesterday informing me that I've been admitted to the UW-Graduate School. Of course this isn't my first choice (Stanford) but at least I now know graduate school is at least a choice. They haven't told me anything of financial aid and the date for finding that out is April 1st. I can't afford another few years of school so if I don't get a Fellowship, or a TA or RA position work is the way to go. Not only that I got a job offer from VMware that is VERY, VERY, tempting. Well I sort of got one they called and told me about it but I haven't received a piece of paper with the info yet. No need for me to decide yet.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Back at School
WoW (pun intended). Long time no posts. Thanks to World of Warcraft I haven't made any posts or done much else for about a month. This game is just that good.
Anyways, I'm back in Madison and School has begun! I just got done with my first day of classes. Its sort of strange to have my day centered around a few scattered times in where I sit and listen to people lecture. Of course not all my classes are like pure lecture. I'm taking a PE class, Kendo this semester that is 30 minutes of lecture and 1 1/2 of running around hitting things with sticks. (Ok I'm exaggerating there is a lot more to it than just hitting stuff with sticks.)
Anyways, I'm back in Madison and School has begun! I just got done with my first day of classes. Its sort of strange to have my day centered around a few scattered times in where I sit and listen to people lecture. Of course not all my classes are like pure lecture. I'm taking a PE class, Kendo this semester that is 30 minutes of lecture and 1 1/2 of running around hitting things with sticks. (Ok I'm exaggerating there is a lot more to it than just hitting stuff with sticks.)
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
World of Warcraft
My younger brother gave my World of Warcraft Collectors Edition for Christmas, and I have to say this is the BEST game I've ever played. I'm afraid my life (outside of the computer) will soon be over as I want to play this game 24x7 (excluding sleep, and mealtimes :)). Once again Blizzard has somehow managed to release a great game into an overcrowded genre filled with mediocore to crappy games (EQ, DAOC, AC2 here's looking at you).
Instead of a boring level grind I find my self walking around the world and doing the quests, and yes many of these just involve killing things. There is just something different that makes this game fun to play, something that other MMORPG's have missed. I'm not the only one with this opinion as this game sold more copies than any other PC game on its first day. Additionally this game is OUT OF STOCK at just about every retailer of computer games in the Twin Cities area. Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, EB Games, Gamestop, Target and even Walmart don't have this game in stock. Considering you pay $15 a month to play this after 30 days I can't believe it sold out! The collectors edition sold out in about the first week, I only got one because a friend of my brother was working before christmas returns and grabbed it for him.
Well I need to get back to Azeroth so if you happen to be on Perenolde drop a line to the great mage Jthon.
Instead of a boring level grind I find my self walking around the world and doing the quests, and yes many of these just involve killing things. There is just something different that makes this game fun to play, something that other MMORPG's have missed. I'm not the only one with this opinion as this game sold more copies than any other PC game on its first day. Additionally this game is OUT OF STOCK at just about every retailer of computer games in the Twin Cities area. Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, EB Games, Gamestop, Target and even Walmart don't have this game in stock. Considering you pay $15 a month to play this after 30 days I can't believe it sold out! The collectors edition sold out in about the first week, I only got one because a friend of my brother was working before christmas returns and grabbed it for him.
Well I need to get back to Azeroth so if you happen to be on Perenolde drop a line to the great mage Jthon.
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