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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
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Sunday, August 16th, 2009
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I finished building several tweet-a-watts power meters this weekend. I'm still working on the software to record the data, but here's a sample. I've turned off the y-axis units because I'm not 100% sure of my math. The relative differences should be correct. The x-axis is in UTC, so the numbers are 7 hours ahead.
Currently this is what each sensor is recording:
Sensor 1: The air conditioner.
Sensor 2: 2 linux computers.
Sensor 3: 1 windows computer
Sensor 4: 1 linux computer.
Sensor 5: Refrigerator.
I have one more sensor, but something is wrong with it and I haven't figured it out yet.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
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I decided to get updated business cards. They just arrived.
For reference, this is my old one.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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When I started at Google, I sat in Building 43. Before that, my team had recently moved to that part of the building. About eight months later, my team moved to building 40. Which building isn't important, just that we moved. At the time my teammates told me to expect a move every 6 months or so. There are various reasons groups get moved around. Sometimes they outgrow their currently allocated space, or sometimes their neighbors do. Other times it's because it makes sense for two groups to sit near each other. Switching teams will also cause a move for just you.
Anyway, since that move in 2006, my desk has stayed put, including a shuffle of seats my team did a year ago. Just one or two months shy of 3 years, this has been my desk.
That picture was taken the day I got back from a two week trip and the woot fairy had left me gifts while I was gone. Something you can't see in that picture and I wish you could is the take-a-number dispenser I have to scare people away.
Tuesday, the era of that desk ended and I had to pack up everything for a move.
This time the move was not as far. In fact, I moved less than 100 ft from my old location. A group nearby wants more continuous space, so they're getting our space and we're moving to the window spaces. I don't know where this picture was taken, but it reflects what our area looks like. I was in one of the center cubes, now I'm in one of the offices in the back. (courtesy of an image search for google office pictures.)
This is the view from my new desk.
  
We got to pick which seat we wanted and coincidentally the people I'm sharing with are the same people I've been sharing a cube with for over a year. We even sit in the same places relative to each other and have our desks arranged in the same pattern as before. Tonight I counted, there are three of us who share this office and, not counting laptops, there are 6 computers and 9 monitors.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Since I bought my Prius last February, I've been keeping all of my gas receipts and on each one I mark the mileage. I now have a bunch of stats that are likely only of interest to me.
Start time: 2009-02-09
End time: 2009-07-10
Duration: 516 days
Mile traveled: 18467
Fill ups: 43
Total gallons: 417.982
Total Money spent on gas: $1,364.82
Fuel cost per day: $2.65
Gallons per day: 0.81
Overall MPH: 1.49
Numerical Mean of weighted zipcodes of fill ups: 82881.954 (Northern Wyoming if it existed.)
Numerical Mean of unique zipcodes of fill ups: 76775.916 (West/Central Texas if it existed.)
Mean miles per day: 35
Mean miles between fill ups: 429.47
Max miles between fill ups: 550 [1]
Min miles between fill ups: 341 [2]
Mean days between fill ups: 12
Min days between fill ups: 5 hours [3]
Max days between fill ups: 46 days [4]
Mean per gallon paid: $3.27
Max per gallon paid: $4.559 [5]
Min per gallon paid: $1.799 [6]
Mean gallons per fill: 9.50
Max gallons per fill: 12.047 [7]
Min gallons per fill: 7.829 [8]
MPG, method one. (current mileage - previous mileage) / current gallons added
Mean miles per gallon: 44.25
Max miles per gallon: 49.52 [9]
Min miles per gallon: 38.43 [10]
MPG, method two. (current mileage - previous mileage) / previous gallons added
Mean miles per gallon: 44.48
Max miles per gallon: 53.9 [12]
Min miles per gallon: 34.4 [13]
MPG, method three. Total miles / total gallons.
44.26
Footnotes:
[1] This was the segment of the PIT -> SJC drive from a truck stop in Tennessee to Mesquite, TX on 2008-08-04.
[2] This was 2009-02-16 through 2009-03-13. I don't remember anything specific during that time. It might have been when I realized my tires were under-inflated. I was also out of town during 2 weeks of this period.
[3] Part of the PIT -> SJC drive on 2008-08-05. This was also the only time I've ever run out of gas. It was just outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico. I coasted into the gas station. Based on some calculations I'm not going to post, this is also the fastest average speed.
[4] 2008-05-25 through 2008-07-11. I was in Pittsburgh at this time and my car was mostly parked. Those dates are also the only times I filled up during my stay in Pittsburgh.
[5] 2008-08-06 in Blythe, Ca. My first stop upon returning to California after spending the summer in Pittsburgh. Welcome home.
[6] 2008-12-05 in Campbell, Ca. This excludes the initial tank that came with the car which I record as $0.
[7] 2008-05-08. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Waynesville, MO -> Eaton, OH. I'm positive I over filled because the bladder in the tank spit gas back out at me.
[8] 2009-03-13. In Campbell. No good reason.
[9] 2008-05-06. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Flagstaff, Az -> Tucumcari, NM.
[10] 2008-05-08. Part of the SJC -> PIT drive. Waynesville, MO -> Eaton, OH [11]
[11] With the min and max so close together in days, I think there is something odd happening with the math, or maybe the Prius batteries were used a lot get the max, but I paid for it shortly after.
[12] 2009-03-13 through 2009-03-21. Might be right after I added air to my tires. See [2].
[13] 2008-08-06. Part of PIT -> SCJ. Blythe, Ca -> Lost Hill, Ca
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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The Empire State Building from my hotel:
My hotel from the Empire State Building:
(At least, I think.)
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I think my video card is trying to hurt itself. The cooling fan has melted and bent out of shape. Note: The fan blades should be flush with the surrounding bits.
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I didn't arrive at the faire until late, so the only thing I really did was attend the surface mount soldering workshop that I signed up for.
I turned this:
Into this:
 
Step by Step photos can be found in the album.
I also saw ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gf2e who I've only seen once or twice since 1994 when we lived on the same dorm floor.
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I found out that I've been promoted again. I'm not exactly sure when it becomes official or if it already has. I applied about a month ago and the committee met a week or so ago. I know it hasn't been announced internally.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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If you ever wondered what it would be like to sit in my passenger seat and stare straight ahead while I drove to work, all while listening to a They Might Be Giants song, this video is for you. Everyone else is permitted to watch it too.
See if you can find the 7 or 8 cities that I pass through. My effective speed in this video is ~462 mph.
I kind of gave up trying to get what I wanted to render, so the music ends about 8 seconds sooner than I'd like.
I also tried filming the 2 hour drive from San Jose to Sacramento, but the camera battery died after an hour and a half, and the software I'm using doesn't seem to like processing the 2gig video. This one is works out to be ~582mph.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCfY0t9eoPM
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, January 25th, 2009
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The robot uprising started today in 1979.
Here is my army. Click to see the full version.
When I was in Pittsburgh for the summer, I left this guy behind to guard my desk. I went to the security office to get him an official badge with his photo and the onsite store to find the smallest shirt I could. (It turns out even the baby onesy is still too big on him.)
Click for rest of the images. Red-eye reduction works against you when your eyes are supposed to be red.
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Saturday, December 20th, 2008
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My question about the certificate part of my degree was answered when this arrived a few weeks ago.
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Friday, November 21st, 2008
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I've been working at Google for 1KiloDay. (It's actually 1039 days as of today, so 1KDay was on Nov 6th.)
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Sunday, November 9th, 2008
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Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
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This happened.
Luckily, it was before I needed this.
Is it common to not print the major? It was Computer Science, with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems. Oddly, there was no actual certificate enclosed.
And here are my cars on street view Link.
The green on in the foreground was mine until late August when I donated it, and the black smudge in the back on the left is my Prius. Given that both cars are there, and I noticed this in August, that places the time of the picture between February 9th and May 5th.
That white box on the side walk is something that belongs to AT&T. I'm fairly sure it's part of U-verse, their entry into the broadband market. My driveway was blocked on and off in January while Constructicons were digging that trench that goes down the street. It has it's a unique street address. I keep meaning to send it a letter welcoming it to the neighborhood. Does Miss Manners place a statute of limitations on doing that?
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, August 7th, 2008
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
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I realized that I haven't posted since I got to Pittsburgh. This is week 7 of the 12 week summer session, so I'm past the half-way mark.
When I arrived in Pittsburgh there were 4 classes I needed to complete in order to graduate. Public Speaking, Implications of Computer Technology, Indo-European Folktales, and Classical Mythology. Except for the computer science class, I didn't need to do these exact classes. If scheduling limitations required, I could have taken alternative courses that met certain general education requirements. I'm sticking with the classes listed because I've taken each of them at least once before.
I took the folktale class in 2005 as a self-paced external studies class. I finished all of the work in that year and emailed the professor to remind him to give me a grade. I didn't hear back from him then, and eventually I lost access to check my records. So, I had that course on my schedule at the beginning of the summer just in case. I did finally track him down and he submitted the paperwork needed to give me a grade. I'm fortunate that the grade was based solely on 3 exams and those exams were proctored on a computer in the testing office. Despite having an odd filing system, they still had copies of the test. The guy working there claims to remember my face, but not my name. I got a B+. The class wasn't scheduled to start until this week, so I had plenty of time to drop the class without penalty. Someday they will issue a refund check. Since I'm paying out of state tuition, it's a significant amount.
I first started taking Public Speaking in the Spring of 2003. I didn't pass it the first time because I didn't finish all of the assignments on time. I enrolled again as a self-paced course and had an incomplete for years. I even tried to fly back to Pittsburgh after I moved in 2006 to attend the infrequently held classes, but it never worked out. This class was held the first 6 weeks of the summer. Even if my work sucked, I still turned in everything and attended all of the classes. I'm waiting for my grade to show up officially, but it looks like I'm getting an A- in the class.
The schedule for the Public Speaking and Classical Mythology meshed together perfectly. They're the same time and days, just one was the first 6 weeks and the other was the second 6. My history with Classical Mythology dates back to the Summer of 2004. This was another self-paced class. I was making steady progress and I think I only had one more thing to do when I left for California. Since that wasn't the only thing I needed to do in order to graduate, it didn't get much attention. Similar to the folktale class, I enrolled in the course this summer to hold a seat. Given how long it was, and I knew she was having health problems back then, I didn't think I would be able to do something similar to the folktales class. It turns out she passed away over a year ago. Class started last Monday. The new professor sent out a reading list a week before the first class. He also doesn't seem very focused when he teaches. He also doesn't seem to understand that taking a 5 minute break means he should stop teaching.
Finally, we come to Social Implications of Computing Technology or as it's called within the department, 'the writing class'. I think the only reason this course exists and people take it is because of a university requirement that every student take a writing intensive course within their major. There are currently two, but the added a writing component to an existing course the term after I took it, so that one isn't an option for me. This class is my arch-rival second only to the Sun. I've enrolled in the class 5 times, including this time. Usually I withdraw midsemster when I realize that I'm so far behind that I can't catch up in finite time. This class is the full 12 weeks, so it isn't as rushed as one of the 6-week courses. I have two difficulties with the class. First, most of the papers require us to argue a position. For example, "Argue that "computer" or "on-line" ethics will indeed become one with "off-line" ethics or argue that they are and will remain two distinct entities." I'm not a strongly opinionated person. The other problem I have is getting into a writing mood. This is partly a corollary to the first point. How do I stretch out 'I don't care.' to be 2 pages? When I do write, I think I'm a fairly dense writer, and like Carlin (RIP), I don't do transitional material. There are 5 more weeks of that class and somehow I will get a non-failing grade.
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If anyone was wondering what happened to Yakov Smirnoff, wonder no more. I found he's doing 1 or 2 shows a day Branson, Missouri. The city where I stayed last night.
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