tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71318936284079522312024-02-20T16:02:22.211-08:00Post Gavin DisorderSir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-63351675871906008522013-03-11T13:49:00.001-07:002013-03-11T14:07:33.212-07:00Spring 2013 State of the UnionHello Peeps! :P<br />
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I am happy to report to y'all that I did make it through the thesis defense and that all went very well. It was originally supposed to be a 40 minute presentation, but I had 50-some slides and so it took me about 65 minutes to get through it. Since I have spent a few years on the research and analysis, I was hoping that I would get tons of probing questions, but alas, I could only garner 2 questions from the audience (Thanks Uriel)... <br />
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I am also very happy to report that I am officially done with my formal schooling! That is a weird thing to write and an even weirder thing to think through (if you are inside this bear's head), but I am getting used to the idea slowly.<br />
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On the topic of significant others, I cannot claim so much success. Perhaps the Lord is teaching me a lesson in patience at the moment... hard to say. I guess the only thing is to keep on keeping on. I have been wondering if I need to change my approach or point of view on things; that is a very hard thing to do since I don't know what to change it to. Even biblical models are all over the board. LOL, in any case, I can still find enjoyment in eating and drinking and pleasure in my work under the sun (I've been reading a lot of Ecclesiastes lately). <br />
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I was so happy to celebrate and be a part of my good friend John Miller's wedding last month; that was was nothing short of inspiring. It is always a refreshing drink to see friends and adopted family in the Petaluma area as well! :) John and Ruth (if y'all are reading this), may God grant you two peace and joy!<br />
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On a totally separate note, I have now stopped working for the family company (ENE) and have started out on my own by starting my own little engineering firm. I am hoping to be finalizing my situation and receiving some income soon, but I'll do my best to keep you all posted. I have to say, working on your own and starting a company with the intent to do that in the long-term is a very different sort of feeling. I started my business in late February and I have never felt as exposed and vulnerable as I do now. It is very strange. It doesn't feel dangerous per se, but there is a very lonely feeling to it (I don't think it has much to do with significant-other-type loneliness, but rather business team-type loneliness). With that in mind I can hardly wait to increase my team to a number larger than one, but all in good time. Presently, I just need to survive and figure out how to get ahead of the curve. :)<br />
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Hmm...<br />
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One other thing that happened is that my aunt Sharon went to be with the Lord about a month ago. That was sad news to everyone and she will definitely be missed, but I am glad that she doesn't have to deal with the pain of this world any more. :)<br />
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What else to talk about? My family is generally doing well, although my dad is still struggling in some areas. My sister Ashley had her baby "Ada" who is now 4-5 months old I think. She's definitely a cutie-pie. My seven other nieces and nephews never disappoint with their unique perspectives on different things happening around them. What treasures children are, right?<br />
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It wouldn't be right to post without some pics, so here are some good shots or things that have happened...<br />
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I need to diet more... look at the size of my head!! :)</div>
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the beautiful view off the porch of my parent's home</div>
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one of the revised drafts of my thesis work... that fish was like 170 pages! no joke! :)</div>
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my bro Garrett: how does he DO that?? (I don't know, but I can tell you what it smelled like... Death! LOL)</div>
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a beautiful sunrise one morning before I left for work in Orland.</div>
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my nephew Case... this one is a turkey!</div>
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Case's argument went he wants to be fed... lol</div>
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just a cool car in Chico that I keep forgetting to tell my bro about, haha</div>
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The monster pizza that me and the boom's had one night... this pizza was literally huge... there is no trick lens or effect going on here. :)</div>
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the Case machine is coming along. gonna get painted and in the field this year! yay!</div>
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gotta love brothers... they are playing with knives and putting each other "in jail" (Zackers and Joshy)</div>
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I have had the distinct honor of mentoring a few young men from Hamilton high... Christian and Adrian. Here was the whiteboard after a bit of lecture on electronics... man I love teaching!</div>
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Garrett and I set up Ryan's old room as our temporary office. Here is a rare pic of Garrett working on solidworks! haha!</div>
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there are few who can put the honey on the bread like I can... just one unique pieces of art that is completely edible. :P yum!</div>
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my little niece Sadie. I think... she is up to no good...</div>
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Jessa, Hanne, Joshy and Sadie over at the boom's house. This crew is trouble brewing!</div>
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Jessa and Hanne... what? do I smell bad?</div>
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ahhh.... little Ada... my mom is a good grandma I think...</div>
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papa Nate... there he is!</div>
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another good shot of Ada sitting up by herself on the couch with her mommy making her comfy :)</div>
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me and Zack hanging out. more bread art for my hungry public!</div>
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This is the "shock cylinder" for the Case machine. kinda cute, huh? 50,000 lbs of force for 4" of stroke! yeah baby!</div>
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the memories table at my aunt Sharon's memorial service. I am gonna miss you Sharon. :)</div>
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a breath-taking sunset at my parent's house. The Lord is the master artist and we are a bunch of phony copy-cats!!</div>
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The freak hail/snow that we had in Orland. that was weird.</div>
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another shot of the Case machine, this time with some of the brush-guards in place.</div>
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One of my closest friends John Miller, right after he and his bride Ruth were married. :D</div>
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jelly-filled? anyone?</div>
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okay-then... don't mind if I do! lol!</div>
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Bidwell park, 1 mile rec area. out for a walk with my dad.</div>
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doesn't Garrett look a bit like Luke Wilson?</div>
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hmm.... that boy can eat!</div>
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ahhhhh... back to our hero.... </div>
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Aight, y'all. there is a little roll-up of my current events and hopeful directions. I keep saying i'm gonna try to update this blog more often, but like Mark Twain once said: "I don't have time to write you a short letter, so will write you a long one..." Until the next long update...</div>
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Gavin-out.</div>
Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-25953736523714999062012-11-30T13:01:00.001-08:002012-11-30T13:01:21.193-08:00Thesis Defense Today!!Hey Peeps!<br />
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I promise to give a better update ASAP, but here's the announcment:<br />
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Zero Hour is 3 hours away!! at 4pm, today (Friday, 11/30) I wil be defending my thesis in OCNL 120. If there is any chance you can make it, come and listen to me drone for an hour or so... and then... let's party! LOL see map in figure 1.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinab8lPUHBcT1g6ZtRIkuV6cegACP5eUrAUjEWINJJ7Zc-iRIP_Mhl6K0VXIUSap_5JiX6ya4STq6BceIr0RAlC7YjI7DKsRLMCN4hW0vCYjozcLkZqsL8Ci2x5tNa4Y54GImBu9biGxs/s1600/Thesis+Defense+Map2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinab8lPUHBcT1g6ZtRIkuV6cegACP5eUrAUjEWINJJ7Zc-iRIP_Mhl6K0VXIUSap_5JiX6ya4STq6BceIr0RAlC7YjI7DKsRLMCN4hW0vCYjozcLkZqsL8Ci2x5tNa4Y54GImBu9biGxs/s640/Thesis+Defense+Map2.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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(figure 1: the map)<br />
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And... just as a tasty morsel to get you to come on such short notice, check this sweet, sweet figure out! Wanna know what it is? Gotta come!! (or just ask me later, that'll work too, haha)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGkmX2HElyDbu2v5GolsX9kO7ieCVbZ11st6BIgTsqhyphenhyphenwPtsFU1M-VZjxruh6FcjeNozSxw5zzkYUYRKfN2_7w8kOrgTBRsxBx6qQvaILGI8si8b7GAanRijm614nIbeKI3xmkfARxrRU/s1600/thesis+24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGkmX2HElyDbu2v5GolsX9kO7ieCVbZ11st6BIgTsqhyphenhyphenwPtsFU1M-VZjxruh6FcjeNozSxw5zzkYUYRKfN2_7w8kOrgTBRsxBx6qQvaILGI8si8b7GAanRijm614nIbeKI3xmkfARxrRU/s640/thesis+24.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Okay, that's it for now. See you on the other side! :D<br />
G-DOG OUT.Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-55037961509493664812012-04-04T23:07:00.000-07:002012-04-04T23:07:05.567-07:00The Number GamesThey say that you should always make your title last, after you've completed whatever it is you're gonna write. I, respectfully, disagree. I think you should write your title first and then you can know how to stay on track so your mind doesn't wander! ;) j/k.<br />
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Truly, I am playing number games (and no, this is not an allusion to the movie in theaters). I have completed something that now must be undone... I need to count down from 248 LBS to a reasonable weight. That is just WAY to heavy for me. I think my target will be in the 200-210 range, but I haven't been that weight since high school and I'm not quite sure what's healthy for me yet. At any rate, I know I can get below 220 and be feeling good, so that (at a minimum) is my target).<br />
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On the other side, I have begun something that must be completed. I began graduate school in Jan. 2009 and I need to button that sucker up. All that remains is for me to finish research on my thesis and actually write the paper. Funny thing, that I find it so much harder to find motivation now that I am really doing an academic exercise (the Army Research experiment is completed). Also, the lack of due dates is really wreaking havoc with my psyche.<br />
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speaking of psyche, have you read that book by C.S. Lewis, "Til we have faces" Psyche is the main female character. Great book. ;)<br />
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Anyhow, back to the topic of number games, I'm thinking that I'll make those two projects something that I can regularly report on here. I apologize if you (whoever you find yourself to be) do not care much for my academic and physical goals, but then of course you find yourself here at this blog by your own volition, so my sympathy for you is limited. :)<br />
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Right. I do promise to report on those two topics, but at least I can derive some motivation from the prospect of public humiliation or lack of progress in the public eye. <br />
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So, in other news about me, I've finally gotten the right license plates on my truck, which is one small step for a screwdriver and nerves of steel, but one giant leap for the legality of my ride! haha. <br />
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Hmmm.... what else can I update you on? I was dating a girl named Kristen (see previous post), now we are not dating anymore. Definitely not parting on bad terms, so that's a plus. A blog in many ways seems like an inappropriate place for an in depth discussion of this topic, so suffice it to say that I have a huge amount of respect for her and I hope in the future we can continue to be friends and encourage each other. <br />
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I'm excited that I'll be able to head-up an experimental olive harvesting endeavor this fall, which will be lots of fun (and lots of work too). I think there are significant benefits to the growers and to the custom harvesting companies if everything works out well. Maybe even some room in the market for some super-high-tech equipment... hint, hint. LOL.<br />
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So here are the numbers for today:<br />
<strong>Weight</strong>: 248 LBS<br />
<strong>Thesis</strong>: 1/6 (experiments completed, nonlinear modeling underway)<br />
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By way of explanation, I'm dividing the thesis into 6 sections, for simplicity's sake:<br />
1. data from a real process to control (The experiments)<br />
2. nonlinear modeling of the process (math modeling)<br />
3. control design 1<br />
4. control design 2<br />
5. control design 3<br />
6. write the paper<br />
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and I did make it to they gym (For the record) yesterday and ran for about 20 minutes. a good first start. I also resisted the temptation of having any treats at my parents (and that is no small feat; currently just "sitting around" in the kitchen is two pans of triple chocolate brownies, 3 pans of apple cake and 1 pan of white fudge!!) I had cereal, spaghetti and eggs/salsa today. one confession tho: I did forget this morning and I stopped by Java Detour on my way to work and got a hot chocolate and a chocolate bar. I didn't even think about it until I was driving away.... DOH! But tomorrow, I'll do better. If anyone care to weigh in on the topic, what is everyone's thoughts on hot chocolate as something that should/shouldn't be had during a diet? Anyone?<br />
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Lastly, I'll leave you with this: There is a green field as I look out the window of my truck passing by. I can decide to frame this field as vacant and lonely or I can frame it as lush and full of potential. I choose the latter.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrRa9Xx456ksZubzKen4REppxmINtZzqkWq1AdT37AdN6Wkk5EoKUYCeGOHzRwMNk95d6Xl_jRTuGBxp_Nj0rHvuoyU-RqERxkkb5WON2rldGc3Gq1sZqlxRd0BSh85hunNTmaegcfbc/s1600/WP_000360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrRa9Xx456ksZubzKen4REppxmINtZzqkWq1AdT37AdN6Wkk5EoKUYCeGOHzRwMNk95d6Xl_jRTuGBxp_Nj0rHvuoyU-RqERxkkb5WON2rldGc3Gq1sZqlxRd0BSh85hunNTmaegcfbc/s400/WP_000360.jpg" width="300" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttpFwjr-i2CzpQEnjU6zHGa-BRG7oKmwNxGjSHwr6U51pASTZbr-MbgUjcjU2FTpQq86CI6FRl94faoZAslYcZH6AvX-uWj9qVc5StWpUESC0V8S3paaKtWkPn8i2_yNIW_ffhIOAsSM/s1600/WP_000361.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttpFwjr-i2CzpQEnjU6zHGa-BRG7oKmwNxGjSHwr6U51pASTZbr-MbgUjcjU2FTpQq86CI6FRl94faoZAslYcZH6AvX-uWj9qVc5StWpUESC0V8S3paaKtWkPn8i2_yNIW_ffhIOAsSM/s400/WP_000361.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>That is all for now, peeps. Keep me posted and I'll keep you posted!<br />
Gavereno. email: <a href="mailto:gavin.nielsen@gmail.com">gavin.nielsen@gmail.com</a> if you want to get in contact with me.Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-14225134799054718042012-02-27T00:48:00.001-08:002012-02-27T00:51:13.228-08:00Still alive, just paddlin' alongHowdy peeps.<br />
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I hope this post finds you all well. why does it take me so long to post? Idunno. I did get a facebook account recently, so I'm posting a bit more there, but this blog is nice because I can post whatever and it doesn't necessarily broadcast it to all my facebook friends. Understand, it isn't that I don't want anyone there to read this, but sometimes facebook posts tend to demand the attention of one's friends, know what I mean? This blog, on the other hand, does not necessarily alert anyone when it is updated (unless of course you subscribed to the RSS or atom feeds). At any rate, for that reason, I feel like I can post more here somewhat more anonymously without subjecting everyone's eyes to my rantings. Of course, I'll prove myself wrong and post a link to the this on facebook, but somehow it just seems different. Go figure.<br />
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So where I have I been? I have been working with the family in Orland, CA. as a design engineer for ENE, Inc. lots of little projects going on there. Not as many large projects finishing, but I'm working towards things.<br />
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I did have some news to report in my personal life though. I am now dating a wonderful girl named Kristen! We have known each other for a while, but have recently reconnected. It is unfortunate that we live a little ways apart (she in Sacramento, I in Chico), but we make it work. Below is a good picture of us after my last birthday party... this was the day-after cleanup. Actually, come to think of it, we were both in pretty good moods considering that we were running low on sleep! ;)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Yp2ByInLuWobDxFA3oYByH3u1p0mkXMHj3iYDhh4YyY0qc6Kjo0jKM9wvCAOlGJ6GkSKJQUDqSlfcHk3SkCpfUOYMWXdWS3pZT9TbuEC5C1KCdZbctjBTOkU6WA_OVI-XCcdrrSl1po/s1600/IMG_0136.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Yp2ByInLuWobDxFA3oYByH3u1p0mkXMHj3iYDhh4YyY0qc6Kjo0jKM9wvCAOlGJ6GkSKJQUDqSlfcHk3SkCpfUOYMWXdWS3pZT9TbuEC5C1KCdZbctjBTOkU6WA_OVI-XCcdrrSl1po/s640/IMG_0136.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Anyhow, it has been great getting to know her these last few months (since November). I suppose this is neither here nor there, but if you haven't tried Mythos beer, you should really check it out; it's good stuff!<br />
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Speaking of parties (since I was talking about cleanup) I just celebrated my 32nd birthday on the 17th. Every once in a while I have a big theme party, and this year was just such a year. This time I had guests come as an international, historical noun, so I had lots of creatively dressed friends helping me celebrate. Kristen did a tremendous amount of planning and footwork beforehand and a whole bunch of cookin' the day of. I don't think she got enough praise for all of her hard work, so I think this is a good place to brag about what a great job she did. We had food from six different cultures and apetizers from three. Beer and other beverages spanning those same six cultures as well. It was great. The best part was that lots of people came and helped us celebrate, and they all seemed to have a fun time.<br />
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Another thing that has happened since I last posted: I bought a truck! yeah, baby!<br />
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It's a 2007 GMC Sierra 4x4. Man! It is so nice to be driving a truck again. Mind you, I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate the loaner vehicles from mom and dad this past stretch, but it feels good to finally have a vehicle that is closer to my personality. I'm really diggin' the crew cab too. Now it isn't a pain to invite more people to ride with me... ;) It should be noted that my original plan is still in effect: add lift, tires, wheels, sound, etc. But as is oft the case, things turned out to be a bit more expensive than I anticipated and I had a bit less cash than I was counting on originally. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with the purchase though.<br />
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Living situation-wise, I am back in Chico living with my brother and roommates. I had thought for a while that I would try living by myself. I haven't totally given up on the idea, but I still am thinking that I am a social enough person that I benefit from living with roommates, etc. So all that is working well.<br />
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I have completed the Army AFDD / NASA Ames stuff as far as my project duties, but I am still in the midst of authoring my portion of an American Helicopter Society Forum paper. That is kind of exciting, expecially since I've never been a co-author (or author) on anything published before.<br />
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My thesis is making very slow progress these days, but I intend to crank up the heat on that. I have to complete the modeling procedures to represent my plant, and then explore a few controller architectures. This should be straight-forward, but for some (strange) reason, I am trying to get re-motivated to work on it since i'm not getting paid to (funny how that works). Also, the fact that there is no deadline is really playing tricks on my psyche.<br />
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Hmmmm... what else can I update y'all on... I have spent a good deal of time thinking about mechanical harvesting equipment and the technology surrounding some potential ideas I've had for olive harvesting (in addition to other crops), that I think could knock the socks of people. I'll have to give some more details on that in another post.<br />
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I would appreciate prayer for my family, generally. We are all going through some tougher times and as at all times, need God's grace to persevere. Pray that He will give us all peace and endurance.<br />
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Personally, I face many upcoming decisions in a lot of areas of my life, and desperately need wisdom that is not of earthly origin. Please hold me up in prayer as well. <br />
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I'm not sure if this is really a good marketing tactic, but tune in soon to hear some more technical details and my latest schemings; I promise to thrill! ;) cya! BTW, if you wanna drop me a line, send it to <a href="mailto:gavin.nielsen@gmail.com">gavin.nielsen@gmail.com</a> I'd love to hear from you.Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-71508057383602435292011-09-24T00:41:00.000-07:002011-09-24T00:49:16.055-07:00Yeah baby! -> disturbance estimation looking good!Howdy, ya'll!<br />
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It seems like I only blog when I'm back at Ames Research Center, here in the Bay Area. I had to post something quick 'cause Scott (my cousin) is asleep and I can't tell him right now... =) Those of you that know me well, know that I have to get things out of my head and told to someone, partly so that I can stop thinking about it and go to bed, but of course part of it is for your own edificiation. "Yes," I reply, this does apply to everyone, control theory is general, thus generally applicable.<br />
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As a special bonus today, if you read slowly though my monologue and see all the pretty pictures, I will let you see the pictures at the end of some satelite stuff that cousin Scott showed me today.<br />
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Right. Well, here is the state of the union on the helicopter project: I have designed a new, truly high performance controller for the rotor. This new one uses a more advanced algorithm with an algorithm called receding horizon control or Model Predictive Control (MPC). Basically, it predicts what the flap will do some steps ahead (15 steps in my case) and then optimizes some "control" commands (5 steps in my case) to make the predicted response as close to what the setpoint reference (my desire) is asking it to do... In order to do this, it has an internal "sense" of how the model will react to its commands, and then it plans out the next 5 control steps. When the next control step comes, it does the whole optimization again and plans 5 more control steps ahead. <br />
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When you stop and think about it, this is much like we act every day. We have a plan of all the wonderful things that we are going to do today and how we will be very efficient with what we want to do. Then when life actually happens, we have to re-optimize our day as different things come up that make us change our plan. This controller is just a mathematical version of that.<br />
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Example: when you are driving a car, you look forward maybe 50 feet when you are moving slow, right? you don't plan out what you are going to do and then close your eyes and do it, you watch 50 in front of you, then you drive a little bit and you are still looking 50 feet ahead of you. This "receding horizon" is the essence of the controller, it optimizes inside a reasonble window of time into the future.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-bRVs8QBA8BIYbCOaHlS_MyBVMjAuiyAQbWLMLN-DwO2Dy7dhKPtOYuAlLDwPleoSa1uhO4GJ6meH5rujoTOmcT0QcNYEmCCm-Q28xbOT1-IoTW_g_Okp9GYozqJILIva17ejhKzecs/s1600/OL+step+response.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-bRVs8QBA8BIYbCOaHlS_MyBVMjAuiyAQbWLMLN-DwO2Dy7dhKPtOYuAlLDwPleoSa1uhO4GJ6meH5rujoTOmcT0QcNYEmCCm-Q28xbOT1-IoTW_g_Okp9GYozqJILIva17ejhKzecs/s640/OL+step+response.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Above is the "natural" response of my system. This means that when I suddenly tell it to go to the value of 1, this is how it reacts. My new controller interacts with this natural response and predicts what the system will do, so it can make it settle down quicker. See below</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaPhG2QFTuZufYDH_yB9blA0TXzO3fX9LKAdkAw5sJ9RD5aiQuC1iTlWDnR8Wb3QUm_YNekuxiC0ReqyJ2DT7KyJLJrpqBHbBoXiB6tbYQYAqpyuFMtwcLH6I1hxmNVqFoamOMWHJTkw/s1600/step+response+MPC.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaPhG2QFTuZufYDH_yB9blA0TXzO3fX9LKAdkAw5sJ9RD5aiQuC1iTlWDnR8Wb3QUm_YNekuxiC0ReqyJ2DT7KyJLJrpqBHbBoXiB6tbYQYAqpyuFMtwcLH6I1hxmNVqFoamOMWHJTkw/s640/step+response+MPC.gif" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>there are little "steps" in the model output and the command because this is how a computer see the world... in little steps that are contant between the times that it measure them/changes them.<br />
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Anyhow, this new type of controller has the advantage of taking my control bandwidth from something like 15 Hz to now more like 250 Hz. (not a bad improvement!). This means that if you ask the little flap to move back and forth 250 times per second, it can and will do what you ask.... fantastic!<br />
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The biggest problem at the moment is that while the control bandwdith is great (I only needed to make it to 89 Hz), I still have a low disturbance rejection bandwidth. disturbance rejection means that when I tell the flap to move to a particular spot and there is something else, external to the assembly that interferes (like aerodynamic forces in my case), how well does the controller deal with that, and at what frequencies will it stop responding. Up until this point the highest disturbance rejection bandwdith I've been able to achieve was in the 15 Hz neighborhood. I would really like the controller to be able to get up to 89 Hz disurbance rejection bandwidth to fulfill the purpose that my boss needs it for, so I've been working furiously to try and find a way to accomplish that.<br />
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Now, with that context, you can appreciate my accomplishments today (with the Lord's help). After much research and consideration, I came to the conclusion that much of the problem is seperating what part of the measured position was due to response of the model to my command and what part was due to external disturbances. This is a tricky thing though, because there is only one position signal that is being measured, so it is combined. What a wonderful world that we live in that we CAN actually seperate these signals!! I will not bore you with all the gory math details (unless you ask me of course), but I thought I'd show you some interesting results. Here is the situation: I want to control something at 75 Hz. Meanwhile, some external force is affecting the flap at 120 Hz and then, to really mess things up, gravity is suddenly reduced by 50%, which produces a sudden step in the measured output. In order to have the flap do as commanded, I have to seperate which parts of what I am measuring come from something that i told it to do (the 75 Hz) and everything else. Below is a picture of what this would look like.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzeVSI8EoYOMo6e_JlG0QRhdHXEwqfPUY0xTe6SoRtyw9cU38qXGfBtIietZUYqTuhae5y-1l1BXJ838-2zwSmYU7_dVfhD7vDTLU6vFyonNhyphenhyphen4Q-e7vWBxYtT9dsFgTtfZdokvjftBRM/s1600/2nd+order+playful+disturbance+estimation.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="463" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzeVSI8EoYOMo6e_JlG0QRhdHXEwqfPUY0xTe6SoRtyw9cU38qXGfBtIietZUYqTuhae5y-1l1BXJ838-2zwSmYU7_dVfhD7vDTLU6vFyonNhyphenhyphen4Q-e7vWBxYtT9dsFgTtfZdokvjftBRM/s640/2nd+order+playful+disturbance+estimation.gif" width="640" /></a></div> So this is the result of my work in the last few days. The blue is the real thing happening, the red dased line is the system's best guess or estimate about what is going on. Notice how the guesses are not very good in the beginning but once it locks in, it really a great job! Now that this portion has been somewhat addressed, I need to figure out what to do with this newly found information in the controller itself (this result is only a small part of the control system; it estimates what is going on that we can't measure directly). Ideally, the top should be the sum of the bottom two. <br />
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Thanks for hanging with me long enough to get through some cool stuff. <br />
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As promised, here is the super, top-secret satelite pictures that I took when I visited one of the labs that Scott was working in today. Some of the stuff in this picture is real flight hardware that will be in the final spacecraft.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0GzJZAPtv8Gqk5kZebMhjWap4UBq0eO_q485hLjsvnLJEhn1DAoGH0OCYXwrNEg-mVC78cjxugRzGZCt7XAvGpscuwMNiWnGlho5FGHpRa8wUXFoGOXdpxBdZKTuFApR6eN8U0S2J94/s1600/ladee+picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0GzJZAPtv8Gqk5kZebMhjWap4UBq0eO_q485hLjsvnLJEhn1DAoGH0OCYXwrNEg-mVC78cjxugRzGZCt7XAvGpscuwMNiWnGlho5FGHpRa8wUXFoGOXdpxBdZKTuFApR6eN8U0S2J94/s640/ladee+picture.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-91962740143722789032011-07-18T00:22:00.000-07:002011-07-18T00:22:20.437-07:00Objective SuccessfulI am proud to report that I and the many other people helping me were successful this evening in "closing the loop" of the controller here at Ames. This means that we can now issue a command to the assembly, say something like, "please oscillate at 35 Hz and at a magnitude of 1 degree." and it will do so, but you have to say please and ask in a nice voice. =)<br />
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This is a huge step forward for the team in general and for me personally. This evening marks the first time I have been involved with a closed-loop control project wherein we have gone through the formal experimental and modeling stages and closed-loop control design and had a reasonably high performance controller. While I didn't get to be involved as much as I would have liked to be in the controller (due to time), I was able to add a modifying controller (an "outer loop") that boosted one of the weaknesses of the inner controller, which was nice to be able to contribute.<br />
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One of my mentors, Hossein, and I spent this whole weekend working through the varioius implementation details including safety mechanisms, etc and we finally got the system breathing Sunday evening at about 9pm! whew! (the demonstration is taking place at 2pm on Monday...)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47L92z0XNKizYVgMDNm5imVShH5I5GLtjRdxOMnGLDTapopuADDhIJYmarTUhulDs8uX02XOuVtYnpNQFcdb20NXHxncY1B-_SyBctMVD4NaFb1PIpf6zgyBH37oHpd1i6ft5KZb1bxY/s1600/closed+loop+cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47L92z0XNKizYVgMDNm5imVShH5I5GLtjRdxOMnGLDTapopuADDhIJYmarTUhulDs8uX02XOuVtYnpNQFcdb20NXHxncY1B-_SyBctMVD4NaFb1PIpf6zgyBH37oHpd1i6ft5KZb1bxY/s640/closed+loop+cartoon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<br />
This is a funny cartoon kinda showing what closed-loop control is all about, a good reference for those reading this who have no idea what i'm talking about.<br />
<br />
Well, I'm gonna hit the hay. Happy trails partner!<br />
<br />
GavinoSir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-47516736332686034002011-07-12T23:11:00.000-07:002011-07-12T23:11:45.682-07:00one more turn in the bayHello everyone!<br />
<br />
So after 6 months of hard work at ENE and Army/NASA, I still do not have a finished product to show off, but progress is being made. I am now back at Ames Research Center in the Bay Area spending about a week to demonstrate some control algorithms for the helicopter blade flap that I've been working on. Pray that it goes well... if it does then we can continue on our project, otherwise, we will have to give up one of the more challenging tests, which would be a shame.<br />
<br />
On the ENE front, the Case machine is coming along nicely (the 6-wheel, fully independent suspension pruning machine). I have almost completely finished detailing the hydraulic system and my colleague Alex is nearly done with the mechanical design. I'm very excited about that. My current estimate is that we will be painting in 4 weeks, put on hydraulics in 5 weeks and be done in about 8 weeks, Lord willing. I'll definitely post some pictures of that bad boy soon.<br />
<br />
On a personal note, I'm still a bit socially constricted due to two (too) busy work schedules (sche-duels). But every once in a while I get to do something fun and blow off some steam. I had a wonderful afternoon this last sunday, getting to spend time with some friends I haven't seen in a while (just hangin' out and drinkin' smoothies) and then going to soak up some sun by the pool with family and friends... it was great. very relaxing.<br />
<br />
I still haven't found the truck i'm looking for yet. I hope to find it soon though. It's funny, I find the right make/model/year/mileage without the extras, or a find all the extras without the year/mileage... In case someone reading this (by chance) has my truck, here is what i'm looking for:<br />
<br />
chevy silverado<br />
crew-cab<br />
2004-newer<br />
less than 100k miles<br />
4" lift<br />
33x12.50 tires<br />
alloy wheels<br />
the longest short bed (I think it is 6.5')<br />
good paint, good body<br />
<br />
so if you have such a truck and are in the market to be rid of it, please drop me a note ( <a href="mailto:gavin.nielsen@gmail.com">gavin.nielsen@gmail.com</a> )<br />
<br />
------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
in other news, I'm also looking for a good place to live in the country where I can keep track of a nice big dog... again, if you have a place, I have some cash! =)<br />
<br />
------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
I guess last on the list is that other thing, which must not be named. I daren't say it out loud, for fear that its report may be heard. No, I must keep it secret, I must keep it safe. LOL. This is called dramatic bluffing. as far as this public address goes, I'm done. I hope to post some pics soon of the goings on here at Ames, but until then, Adieu! =)<br />
<br />
GavinSir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-64264148212665092802011-02-12T16:54:00.000-08:002011-02-12T16:54:46.752-08:00Some poetry from my pastHowdy sports fans!<br />
<br />
Today has been a housecleaning/room-cleaning day, and I have had great success! One benefit to going through things is that you tend to find all sorts of historical treasures (treasures by my measure at least), and today I wanted to share some with ya'll. I wrote this poem sometime around 1990, so I think I would have been about 10. <br />
<br />
Every Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter my family makes a massive amount of food. Do we need all this food? Probably not, but I guess it is tradition at this point. Somehow these mountains of food do finally get eaten, sometimes weeks down the road. LOL. One of my favorite memories was the competition (when we were younger) to try and steal fudge before dessert time, and this little poem is to that effect. I hope you enjoy it.<br />
<br />
A TASTE OF THE PAST<br />
<br />
Some I think of days gone by<br />
I think of me as a little guy.<br />
A man of questions, acquainted with thought.<br />
Thinking of the Christmas war, about the be fought.<br />
<br />
Our primary objective was the fudge to robe,<br />
But the restraining dilemma was big uncle bob!<br />
We'd round the corner, innocent as could be,<br />
But he knew our intentions and forced us to flee.<br />
<br />
Casey suggested a diversion and I was inclined.<br />
Off went bob, but twas in his arm reclined.<br />
As we watched him go we thought of our plan<br />
And watched with remorse as he dipped into the pan.<br />
<br />
It was my turn for an idea and my comrades held their breath<br />
Because my plans of daring usually ended with their death.<br />
To fail was not an option and to quit not a thought;<br />
Fudge was at large, and it wasn't the kind bought.<br />
<br />
My plan was perfect. It had no mistake.<br />
My plan was for Garrett, the fudge, to take.<br />
Garrett wanted to please me, on my every word did he dote,<br />
And he made, by far, the best scapegoat.<br />
<br />
We sent out "The Kid" with unprecendented anticipation<br />
For we knew that to succeed meant unparalleled sensation.<br />
Little "G" was sneaky; we had to admit<br />
But compared to uncle Bob, it was bit to bit.<br />
<br />
We were linked by walkie-talkies, a clever touch of min.<br />
But really just another tool toward the chocolate taste divine.<br />
Casey took the forward position and I took the rear,<br />
Because if we got caught, Bob'd have them by the ear!Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-65416772026492026822010-12-14T22:31:00.000-08:002010-12-14T22:31:14.610-08:00I am a blessed man! =)Howdy there peeps!<br />
<br />
Hmm... well, here I am with less than a week left in my southbay adventure. It has been a long ride, but a good one. reflecting a bit on what has happened since I moved to the southbay, I can't help but thank God for his blessing and provision throughout the year.<br />
<br />
I would like to believe that I am a brilliant individual. Truly I would. But the reality of the situation is that I feel more like a delivery boy. Okay, hopefully a delivery man, but you get the idea. What prompts such a random comment? I was thinking back on the problems that arose this year at work... definitely some tough ones! At each step of the way, I feel like the Lord inspired me with ideas to solve the problems as they arose. Kinda feels like that game ("wack-a-mole"?) where you bonk moles when they poke their head out of a board and you have to bonk them quick or you lose the game.<br />
<br />
Enough problems came up this year at work that I truly believe that without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the refueling and renewing of my mind, that I might be in mental shambles. I will not bore you with a list of all of the things, but suffice it to say the list makes me a little tired! =)<br />
<br />
Work aside, it has been a tremendous blessing to live with my cousin Scott. Beyond just getting to know that chap better, it has been fun goofing off with him. In some ways we are good for each other since we have some almost opposite tendencies, but then we have a lot in common as well, which makes it fun to talk (and sometimes complain) about work problems since the other can understand them a bit better.<br />
<br />
Then there is the whole housing thing... again, what a blessing! I got to live in a perfectly central, beautiful apartment complex in Sunnyvale that was very relaxing to come home to (and even had a jacuzzi and pool). For these last few months I have been blessed to live with Scott in his new home in Santa Clara where I have been the proud occupant of the master bedroom (Scott will soon rent it out, which is why he didn't want to move in there). <br />
<br />
I had the opportunity to get to know a girl from Santa Rosa (Elisa) which ended up not working out, but was still a learning/growing experience for me. I am often torn when I think back on relationship history-types of things, since all relationships that one invests in that do not work out do take their toll, but thinking back I can praise God that he is teaching me these things so that my future wife will hopefully be shielded from them. I guess you could say that I have a long way to go, but hopefully I can accelerate and make up that distance fast! =P Speedracer! lol<br />
<br />
Since I spent time going back and forth to Santa Rosa / Petaluma, I have had the chance to hang out and have some great talks with one of my closest friends (John). It is amazing to me that I can know someone for such a long period of time and still misunderstand them. It would not be appropriate for me to fully explain what I mean by that statement here, but let me just say that I am blessed with close friends who find me worthy enough to share part of their inner-selves with, and this encourages me beyond measure.<br />
<br />
On top of all these things (I sure am glad I didn't list the problems, I wouldn't have had room for this list of blessings!) I have felt much more at peace with my future and future directions, which I would definitely call a miracle in and of itself. For someone like me who is constantly over-analyzing everything and trying to optimize, feeling at peace with the unknown future and being content to see a few years in advance and settle on a path is no small feat! Yet, the Lord has seen fit to grant me this insight/direction. For that, I praise Him! <br />
<br />
I look back and wonder how else I would have come to the same conclusions without spending this time here... I have often wondered why I am here since I am somewhat isolated and I hate watching my family grow up from a distance. Don't get me wrong, I knew that I needed to be here to finish my formal education, but one can't help but wonder if there isn't another way when you feel lonely... But, the Lord has a plan and I am more and more willing to let Him lead and watch the beautiful things that result from letting the omniscient One have the reigns. How ludicrous that I think I can do better sometimes! =)<br />
<br />
Check back here on the blog soon for an update with some pictures. I promise to get some pics/videos of the people I've been working with and post 'em (with their permission, of course). Yet again, a great blessing that I need to praise God for... so many people do not enjoy the people they work with, yet I generally can't wait to get to work and interact with these people (and when I'm not excited to be at work, it is generally because I am tired).<br />
<br />
Okay, well that'll do for now, pig. I hope wherever this post finds you, you are doing well and the ways that you are currently being blessed will be revealed to you also. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)<br />
<br />
-GavSir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-47621402533234761252010-11-11T23:39:00.000-08:002010-11-12T10:05:33.948-08:00On why I love modelling...Howdy there sports fans! =)<br />
<br />
I am pleased to report that I have had some great success with a long-time project of mine. I have simulated a very rough approximation of a tree under forced oscillation! This is something that I have been pondering how to do for about 10 years... Boy, to write that down makes it seem, well, like a long time. First, a little backstory...<br />
<br />
A few years into college I began mathematically modeling the shaker head that ENE uses for harvesting prunes, pistachios, etc. After making a few assumptions and idealizations, tt was a relatively simple set of parametric equations, and served as a wonderful application and exercise of the concepts in calculus that I was learning at the time. Essentially, those equations parameterize the configuration of the shaker head and predict the output pattern. With a bit of doing (and a few major mistakes in derivation), I had a reasonable, closed-form approximation of how the shaker head would react to different weights, speeds and arm lengths. <br />
<br />
Below is a plot of the predicted output pattern for the configuration<br />
freq1=10 Hz, freq2=7.14 Hz, arm1=2.5 in, arm2=3.5 in, weight1=40 lbs, weight2=30 lbs.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ovF_LPWpd6V2PYufT-sMI62Ju0hZKM2RsZSgmGSdbWELLYD_kjW644SC9-lvflw3PhB0nPKRn81KeP9K_xsFbGnBjT3mP-vQIolU34_v6IdDrue7evbwNBpl2NOaeVJhsbOtiix99TA/s1600/Ideal+pattern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="506" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ovF_LPWpd6V2PYufT-sMI62Ju0hZKM2RsZSgmGSdbWELLYD_kjW644SC9-lvflw3PhB0nPKRn81KeP9K_xsFbGnBjT3mP-vQIolU34_v6IdDrue7evbwNBpl2NOaeVJhsbOtiix99TA/s640/Ideal+pattern.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>For a while, I was very enthralled by this set of equations and what they might mean for tuning and understanding harveting better, but I soon realized that the real problem was not what the shaker head was doing, but rather how the tree was responding to what the shaker head was doing. In short, it is necessary to understand the behavior of the shaker head, but only from the standpoint of guiding it into a behavior that is useful for successfully shaking a tree (e.g. getting fruit off, not damaing the tree, etc, etc.).<br />
<br />
Since the orginal equations were derived symbolically they are easy to calculate and easy to analyze, but I could not wrap my head around a good method to symbolically model a tree. As I progressed through my schooling and various work projects, I spent more and more time in numerical simulations (mostly Finite Element Analysis-type (FEA) and dynamical systems (for control system engineering). It has taken me a long time to realize that the answer to my problem could be approached in a numerical way, but even after I realized that, I wasn't sure the right software package to use to tackle the problem.<br />
<br />
**************** so much for the back-story... on to the present *****************<br />
<br />
Since while I'm here in Santa Clara, I decided that it was the right time to go to a workshop for a software package called COMSOL Multiphysics. They have an office in Palo Alto which is only a few minutes from work, so it all worked out beautifully. My cousin scott was nice enough to come along for moral support and may have just enjoyed himself a little along the way... =) As part of the workshop, we recieved a trial license for the software which is a great match for my brand-spankin' new computer... =)<br />
<br />
So that was this Tuesday, and for the past two nights I have spent a few hours trying to figure out how to model a tree and simulate it in a flexible way. This evening I finally had success and thought it would be fitting to share the results of my labor with you. Below is a very simple tree's response to the input of the shaker head (given the same configuration as listed above). Hopefully this video uploads correctly... it took a long time, so I'm not sure if everything got to the server ok...<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='640' height='480' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzrJ3D6w0u7pkYQH16pdT_U4NM_fu0wa-ZWySK2YOVL3v_fs-cyn7VKTD8F5RzvzGmeoHMQ9ecZECOmf_LD' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">That is pretty cool I think. The coolest part about this might be that the solve only took about 2 minutes! Granted, when I have a tree model that is sufficiently more complicated and takes into account more effects (Such as the damping due to leaves, etc.) that solve will take longer, but this was a simple example and it solved very quickly. <br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Another quick little video which breezes through the first 50 (or so) eigen-frequencies and eigen-mode shapes (the natural frequencies and vibration modes of the tree structure). I would slow this down a bit, but the slowest I could do was 1 frame per second, so just check out the frequencies listed in the upper portion of the screen to get a feel of the frequencies that are causing the shapes...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='640' height='480' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwVCPlnXZgNyXwCIO-x2c2aB4qiZ37-NPiLdm9xYNVTc-oqjvPdCsG2dKUkZaiG9-grNlwAZ8LfOvV4CA6Srg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">On top of that, I found the COMSOL environment to be very well thought out and even capable of some post processing tasks that didn't need to go over to MATLAB to handle... namely looking at the pattern input that caused this type of purturbation... I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "Hey Gav, hang on. Just a few paragraphs ago you said that you had closed-form equations that could predict the shaker heads position (and thus the pattern input to the tree)..." to which I respond, "Yes, that's true, but remember my qualification: "After making a few assumptions and idealizations..." The first assumption was that the shaker head was "free" and not being affected by anything else. That isn't quite true, because while the shaker head is big and powerful, it is still affected by the tree... remember, we can push on the tree, but the tree can push back! So, without futher ado, I give you thee updated pattern that my simulation yielded after taking into account the tree's "push" back on the shaker head...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8tDZoIrgPRjuA9gHQ1yyCc5K95TujbbuJJWABsi7rtzLBArKSsm-A80876QFu3efAEPHMsZdDfGlWYKwEbD8N0MXMsPgx1OvscuzwpAESaVyA-7eFgN1bNnXz5MDTjipDWgAHFDq7kk/s1600/Simulated+Output+Pattern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8tDZoIrgPRjuA9gHQ1yyCc5K95TujbbuJJWABsi7rtzLBArKSsm-A80876QFu3efAEPHMsZdDfGlWYKwEbD8N0MXMsPgx1OvscuzwpAESaVyA-7eFgN1bNnXz5MDTjipDWgAHFDq7kk/s640/Simulated+Output+Pattern.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are a few things that need be said here... first of all, you have to look closely to find that it does have many of the same characteristics of the idealized patter, but the idealizations might have been a bit too much from a rough accuracy standpoint. Note that I didn't include any mass for the shaker head, so this isn't as accurate as it could be. Also notice that the new pattern output is not as wide as it is tall... this I believe to be due to the trees asymmetrical response (which in turn is due to it's asymmetrical topology).. What we found here was that it was much easier to move the tree in and out vs. moving it left and right, which might make sense when you stop and look at where the branches are on this tree... =) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Man I love modelling!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">*********</div></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">On a more peronsal note, I am doing well and things are moving forward with my thesis. Slowly but surely. I will post again soon with more personal things, but I better get some sleep tonight!<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading! =)</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-50790831254701884172010-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:002010-10-24T19:26:04.592-07:00A title formerly known as "Yes, sort of..."******<br />
"Comrades! I am proud to sail with you on the maiden voyage of our motherland's most recent achievement. Once more, we play our dangerous game... a game of chess against the American navy... only now the game is different..."<br />
******<br />
<br />
Had I an orginal thought here I would have opened with it, but as things stand right now, I am very unoriginal. =P But I'm working on it. <br />
<br />
I find myself single once again. I suppose that is a strange thing to mention in a blog, but I feel like saying it, so there ya go. I suppose that as far as break-ups go, this one was as ideal as they come since both people felt at peace with the decision. Still, that sort of thing is never very much fun.<br />
<br />
Life is definitely different since my last post. I, my family and many other people were deeply saddened with the loss of a great friend, mentor, father, husband, etc. in Jose Luis E. I could go on and on because he was many things to many people, but suffice it to say that I am deeply in his debt and his absence will be felt most acutely.<br />
<br />
Here in Southbay, I am proud to say that I have made some decisions. My new plan is to work for the Army up through mid-December and then take two weeks off. Starting the beginning of January, I will be an ENE employee for most of the week and then for part of the week I will work on Army stuff. This will be a good balance because I can begin to help with the family business, but still finish the project for my master's thesis (on-blade control-surface closed-loop control on an experimental rotor). The tentative plan is to graduate in June 2011.<br />
<br />
As far as work on that goes, I am very happy to tell that I have made significant progress on several fronts there, and it becomes more exciting the further I go. Last week I completed my goal of adding specific functionality to the data system ("Dexter"), so that I can now see the frequency spectrum content updated in "GUI real-time" so that I know what is going on, and can see the frequency content (y'know, which frequencies are present in whatever I'm interested in...) Very cool stuff. =) I have also made significant headway on the automation required to make data acquisition and processing streamlined. The further I go in this development, the more I realize how much automation of mundane tasks really does speed you on your way to a result; often it is the only way to remain sane and get something done!<br />
<br />
I was also happy that my funding has now been approved all the way through June, so I can definitely count on that as a plan. (up until now, it was a tentative plan, but now that approvals have gone through, it is just a matter for me to sign a contract).<br />
<br />
hmmm.... what else can I tell you... Oh! I'm very excited that I will be getting a new laptop very soon. I had high hopes of getting an extremely high-end workstation (like $8k) but that purchase gave way to good council and soul searching. My new system will still be a powerful workstation, but a bit more mainstream and affordable for a bear of small means, such as myself. Yes, it is true, I have other needs that I could spend money on (perhaps most notably a truck...) but for my current purposes, a laptop is the most pressing need. I guess for the moment I'll just have to fend off the onslaught of women clamouring for my affection from behind the wheel of a minivan!! It's tough bein' a sexy soccer mom! lol.<br />
<br />
In all seriousness though, I am very excited to save (and spend eventually) for items that might fall in the classification being of more "grown up." As you've no doubt noticed, I have a penchant for electronics, software and books that is nigh unquenchable, but this old dog is still learning about what is important... Who know, maybe I'll buy myself a house sometime... but I will not need to invest in a security system, 'cause I can "kick the guns out of their hands!" =) <br />
<br />
I think that pretty well brings you up to date on my goings-on. This weekend has been pretty chill, so I have had some time to muse and reflect on things. Here are some of thoughts in a "formatted" version:<br />
<br />
-----------------<br />
"That I thought I thought"<br />
<br />
That I thought I thought, I thought I knew<br />
that I thought I knew, I built my house<br />
now I shiver in the rain, for my house is cold<br />
but my thoughts are known.<br />
<br />
To maintain the house, is on-going;<br />
never finished, never painted.<br />
Its walls are fluid and doors are swung easily,<br />
though they remain transparent, reflection is necessary.<br />
<br />
That I harden its foundations, I have before me.<br />
That I maintain its flowing walls, I have ever before me.<br />
But where are the walls affixed the floor?<br />
That that flows, meets the Rock.<br />
<br />
This problem eats at my mind, a meal without end.<br />
What when there is no food for feasting?<br />
My hope is ever the Rock, for He is ever constant.<br />
I can trust not the walls, nor the doors, for they move.<br />
<br />
Lord, that my mind works, You know.<br />
That I can help, You know.<br />
That I am in need, You know.<br />
That you are not finished with me, I know.<br />
<br />
-Gavin Nielsen<br />
<a href="mailto:gavin.nielsen@gmail.com">gavin.nielsen@gmail.com</a>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-21944685194333137182010-09-04T17:10:00.000-07:002010-09-04T17:10:10.465-07:00Quefrency, Lifters, New House and Fine DiningHowdy y'all!<br />
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So now I'm moved. Scott and I are settling into the new place and refactoring our organizational methods. Before I get into the house/food stuff, I wanted to tell you about something kinda cool that I learned today. Like anything worth learning, this tasty morsel requires just a tad bit of background...<br />
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Signal processing is the science/art of modifying or analyzing some sequence of values for useful purposes. An example might be checking the stock market value of some particular stock every day for a year, then taking those values and taking the moving average of every week of values as they come out to have a better "Feel" of that stock and then making some decision based on it. Here is a wikipedia article with a little more precise language if you'd like to explore (I would if I were you =) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_processing">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_processing</a><br />
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Some more interesting (to me) applications of signal processing are things like filtering an audio signal so that you can turn up the bass and really "bump" in your car or house... lol. At any rate, like any technical domain, there are plenty of cool terms and a few that are just made-up because whoever invented it had a good sense of humor. <br />
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For example, in signal processing we talk about the frequency spectrum (a range of frequencies we are interested in), we talk about low-pass filters who "allow" low frequencies through and "stop" higher frequenices (this really kind of a generalization a moving average, when you think about it).<br />
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So now to the funny part. I have been working on a rather challenging filter for a while now (I posted about it a while back), and I keep my nose to the grindstone trying to research and find the right solution to the problem. Since I had some time today, I was looking at something called the "Cepstrum" which is sort of an odd animal. its name originates from rearranging the word "spectrum," reversing the first four letters. I have to tell you the definition because even though it's abstract, it is kinda funny to say (copied from wikipedia):<br />
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"verbally: the power cepstrum (of a signal) is the squared magnitude of the Fourier transform of the logarithm of the squared magnitude of the Fourier transform of a signal"<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepstrum">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepstrum</a><br />
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lol. But wait! there's more! for only $19.99 you can hear the other terms associated with various cepstrum operations! (okay, fine. I'll give it to ya for free!)<br />
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Instead of talking about time, even though strictly speaking, the unit is time, but we went into the frequency domain and then back to the unit of time but not the time domain) so we are not in the frequency domain either, the independent variable of the cepstrum of a signal is called "Quefrency" (mangled version of frequency) of the signal. Further, whereas in the frequency domain one has filters, in the quefrency domain there are "Lifters" (mangled version of filters). Which is another whole pun in and of itself because you can use lifters to "lift" particular frequency components and their harmonics from a signal. <br />
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Let's say that you are recording audio signals and somebody is talking in the room next door.... very annoying. now you have someone else's voice that you didn't intend to have in your recording. You can use lifters to lift that voice out of the signal and kinda erase it. Or maybe you wanna know what the person was saying, then you could isolate it! Super cool. I am of course very new to the concept, but it is almost as if the cepstrum is like a second order frequency transform, allowing you to see the spectrum of the spectrum. Here is a cool pic of a spectrum and the cepstrum of that.<br />
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</div>So that was great find for the day. Thanks for reading though that bit of techy stuff, I hope you enjoyed it.<br />
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On another note, my girlfriend Elisa is now in Switzerland on vacation for about 10 days, but before she left she stopped by to see the new place (and maybe to see me too). Since I had recently failed at a dinner I intended to make, I thought I'd give it another shot and make dinner for both Scott and Elisa... and the result? Success baby! haha, it ended up being very good, in spite of my inexperience. I fixed penne chicken alfredo with black olives and artichoke hearts, with brocoli, cauliflower and carrots. 2% milk was also available as a beverage. See, see, see!<br />
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I suppose presentation leaves a little to be desired... all I had were sippy cups and plastic plates and silverware, but I think everyone enjoyed the meal. That makes me happy. So that you can see the house, I decided to give you a "flash" tour that wasn't too long. so I basically ran through the house with my camera. Here ya go.<br />
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And I guess that will conclude my remarks for this afternoon. I'll be sure to take some nice HD pictures when I get my room more organized and cleaned up. Until then, via con Dios, my friends!Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-72626940977095274602010-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:002010-08-22T23:05:38.252-07:00Dapper dudes, miss-bowled and flexible filteringHey there partner! =) Glad you took the time to head my direction... <br />
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This weekend was fun. Elisa came over on Saturday and we had some great talks. I had promised her a surprise activity, so she thought it was great when we finally arrived at Sunny Bowl in Mountain View to do a little bowling... here is Sunny Bowl...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQcFm-HfPfNhYUMJthJNqz0LCJep5QBo99UOHCKSo-SBUYwjgknGeQtxmnAZBuGqrBUurjIQ5kB_2LFJxQDtWhp-i85InBQBscP56-ztT7odxB2GX8ZJgwsERb-JAKu9CwZhB3daJ5WU/s1600/sunny+bowl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQcFm-HfPfNhYUMJthJNqz0LCJep5QBo99UOHCKSo-SBUYwjgknGeQtxmnAZBuGqrBUurjIQ5kB_2LFJxQDtWhp-i85InBQBscP56-ztT7odxB2GX8ZJgwsERb-JAKu9CwZhB3daJ5WU/s400/sunny+bowl.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Yes indeed, it really looks "Sunny" in there, but you should've seen the look on their faces when I walked toward the door and turned right around seeing that there was no way that they had a bowling alley "in the back!" =) I suppose I had the funnier/confused look on my face though. I should've done my homework a little better!! Well, we finally did find a place to go bowling (Palo Alto Bowl) and really enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully you get this quote, but I felt much more like "King of the Lanes" than "King of the Trolls" for this pic...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>I think I need to do more manual labor or something because we only bowled two games and my hands were a little sore from gripping the ball... No good! =(<br />
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Elisa was sure that she could beat me at this game... (we have an ongoing competition when we play games). As it turned out, I beat her the first game and she beat me in the 2nd. Just 'cause I'm so proud of our high scores, I thought I'd post the frames for everyone to see (this is for you James!).<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It was E-Train vs. G-Dog, and the battle was a fierce one! I even have the play-by-play for you with this next video, lol</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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So, we had a good time there. That was Saturday, on Sunday, I needed to accomplish some things for work, so I have been researching and designing a variable-frequency, variable-order filter to address that problem that I posted a few days ago. I think I have it conquered, but I wish I could simulate the thing... that always gives me more confidence. Here is the rough block diagram<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PLvie-3SNeJDZrIBvfWDAzPQectmcqJcMeZskMPraASn1Kuq7ZxD_niOf6T04d7Xea6jsSO84kInXBAlqPDz-7FaF9dE_NyWFyViAGq8jP_nwHwwvkCdl7s6bArpDRMMhe-4elOljBo/s1600/IMG_0311.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PLvie-3SNeJDZrIBvfWDAzPQectmcqJcMeZskMPraASn1Kuq7ZxD_niOf6T04d7Xea6jsSO84kInXBAlqPDz-7FaF9dE_NyWFyViAGq8jP_nwHwwvkCdl7s6bArpDRMMhe-4elOljBo/s640/IMG_0311.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It is kinda neat how variable frequency filters can be realized these days... the one I'm designing is based on something called "Switched-Capacitors" which emulate resistors.... kinda cool really. Even though it is an analog filter, it is actually discretely sampled; that is, even though I can put a very precise amount of water in my bucket, I'm still getting a fixed number of buckets every second... like everything, it is a tradeoff, but with a little pre-filtering, and at high speed "bucketing" (like 100 kHz) I can get very nice looking, accurate filtering done... way cool. =)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lastly on my update agenda is the fact that this is likely my last post from my current abode (in Sunnyvale). Cousin Scott closes escrow on his home tomorrow, so we'll be moving in this week! =) yay! so next time I should have some pictures of the new place. In a nostalgic bid to remember this little hat-hanger, I took one last pic of the bathroom... only because it had two mirrors and I could doubly reverse my reflection and show you the cool new CSUC pride I have!!! LOL, I'll miss something things about this place, but I sure wont miss the family below us that get in an argument at 11:30pm every evening.... anyhow, here is the new duds</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSEVWKeBC_9_o1h5rNr3D-m8dAJSl9WpwplPC7x194kyn9YEGCogt3oflwFGa3cEZM5t3mTBQp8_wDwX0Cc-pqXKLsyT0M9mT_DBNaDq75HgFJauh0k5Ee5bYr8XP3r597HR7d4RoQzE/s1600/IMG_0314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaSEVWKeBC_9_o1h5rNr3D-m8dAJSl9WpwplPC7x194kyn9YEGCogt3oflwFGa3cEZM5t3mTBQp8_wDwX0Cc-pqXKLsyT0M9mT_DBNaDq75HgFJauh0k5Ee5bYr8XP3r597HR7d4RoQzE/s640/IMG_0314.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">pretty snazzy, right? Even some nice baller Chico State shorts... Garrett, you're afraid of these shorts, aren't you? Well, you should be. personally, I'd give you one chance in three. More tea anyone?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Okay, well that's it for now... one last thought, tho: you should really drink more water, it's sooooo good for you!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnaOClhStf6j0qHuSE98T7ttllMqjbajdGyy87H3swnLBD5U6bbqRg63E1FDPe7Hilve3E-BU0zq4k4Iv98ci47LoaRtlj_kBubydP8dRzPKWfgSeI5b1PkmW0TK1IzIMBf1T43MSI1M/s1600/IMG_0300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAnaOClhStf6j0qHuSE98T7ttllMqjbajdGyy87H3swnLBD5U6bbqRg63E1FDPe7Hilve3E-BU0zq4k4Iv98ci47LoaRtlj_kBubydP8dRzPKWfgSeI5b1PkmW0TK1IzIMBf1T43MSI1M/s640/IMG_0300.JPG" width="520" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-34475875356672750212010-08-15T19:09:00.000-07:002010-08-15T19:11:21.942-07:00What's in a name (or a tree)?I think this might be a record for my blogging frequency! Only just yesterday I gave you a lengthy update and here I am back at it again... =) too much good stuff to say, I guess.<br />
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Since I decided to not work on work over the rest of the weekend, I decided that maybe I'd see if I could make some progress on tree modeling (another back-burner project that's been cookin' for awhile now). I have been reading about fractals and their recursive nature, and I was inspired that trees seem to show this same nature in the structure as well. Since it has long been a goal of mine to mathematically model a tree, a logical place to start is to generate the static structure or skeleton of a tree automatically (this takes forever to do by hand).<br />
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Today was my first shot at trying to actually implement some code to do this in MATLAB, but low and behold, it worked out alright. This is only a 2-dimensional version, but you'll get the idea. It can be easily extended into 3D. After some trial and tribulation, here is a tree to chew on... this tree has 3 branches per level and is 4 levels deep.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmazCyf6BEftP0O73o7xjK1jvuzbzrqmHB7f3rMMTGkegOmp79AYO8XDdEgxzrFOeraDKm1I5GL7ubL9NLy_-PRLUplt3pNcQ9_A3-d5iXQea5oDKv6neXbTv4eXKJ8cN5ozKseEyldA/s1600/tree1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicmazCyf6BEftP0O73o7xjK1jvuzbzrqmHB7f3rMMTGkegOmp79AYO8XDdEgxzrFOeraDKm1I5GL7ubL9NLy_-PRLUplt3pNcQ9_A3-d5iXQea5oDKv6neXbTv4eXKJ8cN5ozKseEyldA/s640/tree1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">by changing a couple of numbers, I can very quickly generate a new tree with very different structure...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQ_MGKQ7LHsnZjd5fHzyXhenR7VgOPwzJ4H1uW4xrRZkKmFp83F_xnUPYN2fawE16Js00js5guQDzL-hT6m-r2JFOJ_UAzjclk1G1axIlbq1BbpsYTNI3tThtsUVbrr6KNuG-P9b_n0Q/s1600/tree2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="418" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQ_MGKQ7LHsnZjd5fHzyXhenR7VgOPwzJ4H1uW4xrRZkKmFp83F_xnUPYN2fawE16Js00js5guQDzL-hT6m-r2JFOJ_UAzjclk1G1axIlbq1BbpsYTNI3tThtsUVbrr6KNuG-P9b_n0Q/s640/tree2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I am of course still working on the details, so these are only rough-draft trees, but it is exciting to get some visual results so quickly. Part of why these trees don't look familiar (Beyond the fact that they are perfectly generated and perfectly symmetrical) is that a real tree has gravity acting on it which pull weaker branches down and makes it look a little less upright. this algorithm is really generating trees that you might think of as having grown upside-down! of course, it would also help to have thicker lines for the bigger branches, etc. but all in good time.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Just a few more variables to throw in their for me to get pictures that will look more like the trees we are trying to model, but this is a good start for today.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I hope y'all have a great week! G-out</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-9109404793974427522010-08-14T18:05:00.000-07:002010-08-14T18:13:00.234-07:00On the state of "Gavin-a-roo" =)ey there, sports fans! I am right in the middle of a relaxing Saturday afternoon, so I thought that I'd post an update on how things are going around here...<br />
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Work is going well (though one of the other guys in the office remarked that he didn't see too much going "well," rather he saw it as "well, I've got more to do..."). I have to admit, though every project I've ever been involved with gets complicated for reasons that are outside of my control, this project has seemed like a can-of-worms at almost all turns. I guess that means that I'm learning a lot (which makes me happy), so this is how I replied to my pessimistic co-worker. =D<br />
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Hilary, I haven't yet gotten the approval I need from my supervisor to post the video, so hopefully that will happen next week. I'll "do it up special" so that it has more footage and better explanations than the other one too! lol, far be it from me to just "get'r'done". I guess I use a lot of quotes these days, but "it is what is!"<br />
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I can share some things from work. This last week, I was working on troubleshooting an amplifier and realized that the major problem was not with the amplifier at all (it was due to a component in my model that was doing exactly what i told it to do). I was thinking how funny that is that when things aren't going right, we sometimes don't look at ourselves as the culprit until there are no more "outside" places to point at. Kind of a get-the-spec-out-of-your-own-eye thing (or maybe a you-shouldn't-use-so-many-dashes-thing).<br />
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Anyway, after that round of toubleshooting, I had several conclusions. first that since my system operates at a fixed frequency (somewhere between 4000 and 8000 cycles/second) and the signals i'm generating can range up to rather high frequencies themselves (92 cycles/second under normal conditions and possibly up to 1000 cycles/second) this means that the number of "points" that my system is generating get kinda sparse in the output waveform. Here's an example. If I want to generate a nice clean waveform, I'll use a lot of points (500) along it so that is is approximately smooth.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyyKUMGC6IYZbehmGkJmGkz550yp90W29lSLmoDwWfNdtK3tOlElNS7jNeplIeXnhxo11yscCswnl_dne32IJS1cjGmgNe1VZ-wuiM41ajZZglFKl20B7wFKRXP1fw1K1CN3glI0y5yU/s1600/smooth500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyyKUMGC6IYZbehmGkJmGkz550yp90W29lSLmoDwWfNdtK3tOlElNS7jNeplIeXnhxo11yscCswnl_dne32IJS1cjGmgNe1VZ-wuiM41ajZZglFKl20B7wFKRXP1fw1K1CN3glI0y5yU/s640/smooth500.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">a plot like the one above would happen if we were using a 4000 cycles/second signal generator to generate an 8 cycles/second waveform (4000/8 = 500). But since my system is generating signals at a fixed rate (approximately 4000 cycles/sec), as we increase the waveform frequency, our points/cycle decreases. below is a plot of 100 points/cycle.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4z6tx2Ll932ATm5_FJ8R_fOh4czQRibzactO-bO1MoK0-QZLWuT45bkjEOscr76K_8xvtNZndraGJrWZIaYiW2wVj0GoRHedPK7L0BD5cF4iv96EsXQ9Xm3HDwRnLU1qpMQBcxj-yiA/s1600/smooth100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu4z6tx2Ll932ATm5_FJ8R_fOh4czQRibzactO-bO1MoK0-QZLWuT45bkjEOscr76K_8xvtNZndraGJrWZIaYiW2wVj0GoRHedPK7L0BD5cF4iv96EsXQ9Xm3HDwRnLU1qpMQBcxj-yiA/s640/smooth100.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Notice the "stair-step" like appearance. This is because we have fewer points, and in-between points the signal generator does not update it output value. If we push this further to 43 points/cycle (below) we see that the signal is looking less and less smooth.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEHBtUfitKoYuA_dkRO4Kuy4X0HqkXQLRwiXn3bv5CuOPJJvsmEEeBAi-Xr_Hhca9LlorALVoNd_H6jTaTbLD1095DPY-n3CNG7_xH6PEXEdoy33lNlKkJTgyJVIHXZ8aj7O9edMBTKE/s1600/smooth43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEHBtUfitKoYuA_dkRO4Kuy4X0HqkXQLRwiXn3bv5CuOPJJvsmEEeBAi-Xr_Hhca9LlorALVoNd_H6jTaTbLD1095DPY-n3CNG7_xH6PEXEdoy33lNlKkJTgyJVIHXZ8aj7O9edMBTKE/s640/smooth43.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This is the problem I am running into (one of them at least). Since my signal is not smooth at higher frequencies, I need to smooth it out after I generate it. This is done with what is called a "low-pass" filter (which means that it only lets the low frequencies pass through it and attenuates the higher frequencies). In the picture below I have made a cool Simulink model (part of MATLAB) which does two things: it generates exactly the same signal as my data system (my data system was prorammed using the same code), and then it simulates what effect a proposed analog low-pass filter would have on that generated signal.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDz75aCMqU-IbN_OXhU05yqb-XWRmHYibcogVg6QQjRcYgLs27bPiEkumHrlwGUywNdlr5MbsVnZK2V5DAyn5SewymTchGY2Zthyr7k5pKfpCv7NZD6poqJRG1rzWe8rTW0ZYYVZ9slw/s1600/Simulink+Model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDz75aCMqU-IbN_OXhU05yqb-XWRmHYibcogVg6QQjRcYgLs27bPiEkumHrlwGUywNdlr5MbsVnZK2V5DAyn5SewymTchGY2Zthyr7k5pKfpCv7NZD6poqJRG1rzWe8rTW0ZYYVZ9slw/s640/Simulink+Model.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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Here is the plot this model produced (below)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRFv7fuJkfa1tOET0qyuLO2S1jCR_RnR6rYjdhf02EBv4rJ226NGf3yM0SI6s9ZVtdJ15OTLswrBr0hzETXBM7zOZ5uPmNBMu4QvZFGwMEOxpYSZzdYknOVAbQ6ywgZ_NVMjfdBZBYtk/s1600/smoothAnalog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFRFv7fuJkfa1tOET0qyuLO2S1jCR_RnR6rYjdhf02EBv4rJ226NGf3yM0SI6s9ZVtdJ15OTLswrBr0hzETXBM7zOZ5uPmNBMu4QvZFGwMEOxpYSZzdYknOVAbQ6ywgZ_NVMjfdBZBYtk/s640/smoothAnalog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">See how nice and smooth the red is? very nice! =D So I've been playing a little with that today, trying to find a reasonble filter design to handle my needs (the output amplitudes are similar, as in this one, but also the phase shift can't be too much, notice how in this one the red output signal is shifted to the right...)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Yeah, so that's what I've been working on lately. There are some other cool things that I've been playing with, but I'll save 'em for later. In other news, I have been thinking a lot about a new truck! It has been awhile since I have really seriously considered buying a new vehicle, but things are at a points where it seems reasonble. I have been doing some research on it (that is what I do, I guess), and come up with the following spec that i'm looking for: 2007 chevy silverado extended cab, 1/2-ton, supersport, lifted with 35x12.50 tires and nice alloy wheels. With a little snooping around on the net, I found a picture of *almost* exactly what I'm looking for... :P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTmBBTjMX4U6zTv-jCZqy_bDsXuQnV385A-CvEJ8us0rj5Pi-BWLjx6H1_LjfQ5-GUNRIIRXdkP5dpRS0EwFyubDq8shckcSS6e6wg6me2f5ctRXivCUbSBf1XeFYczC-vNx7J6SBScxQ/s1600/2007,+silverado+ss+classic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="482" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTmBBTjMX4U6zTv-jCZqy_bDsXuQnV385A-CvEJ8us0rj5Pi-BWLjx6H1_LjfQ5-GUNRIIRXdkP5dpRS0EwFyubDq8shckcSS6e6wg6me2f5ctRXivCUbSBf1XeFYczC-vNx7J6SBScxQ/s640/2007,+silverado+ss+classic.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Wow, that's pretty, eh! So I've been pursuing that a little and watching some different ads to see if I come across anything interesting. It is so strange to actually have some money to think about these things, I'm really not used to having any money! :P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">On the topic of money, I've also been thinking about a killer workstation laptop. This isn't a popular idea with any of my advisors, but man, how sweet would it be! For those of you that are into the techy stuff, I'm thinking about a Lenovo W701, 2GHz, 16GB RAM, 256GB ss hard drive, 1TB secondary, 17" uwxga display (FHD, LED backlit), blu-ray burner onboard, Quadro 3800 video card with 1TB of memory. Pretty much maxing everything out the way I like it there. Of course, the major problem is that it is so stinkin' expensive. Ah well, for the moment, dreaming is free...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">On another front altogether, I have made some great strides in my eating habits this last week.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhQ12flvYaInnvjr8a2v-CaS94iCbdP4ZmYdJUfOchtsCcCRbjXktUIkW1wwGp-7YN5aJe9i_hNOB295L_pF_rmdiezOomM7otP6bxs6E_0SnhL08J76ExDcyLLCv_3aQUAW770Lh2Z0/s1600/IMG_0274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhQ12flvYaInnvjr8a2v-CaS94iCbdP4ZmYdJUfOchtsCcCRbjXktUIkW1wwGp-7YN5aJe9i_hNOB295L_pF_rmdiezOomM7otP6bxs6E_0SnhL08J76ExDcyLLCv_3aQUAW770Lh2Z0/s320/IMG_0274.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This here picture is a sandwich I made for myself at lunch. Now, mind you, making food is not all that difficult a task, so I'm not expecting a bouquet of roses, but for some reason I have something of a mental block about making my lunches, cooking at home, etc. this week I only eat out twice; both times because I needed something to eat for lunch and I didn't have time to make it the night before or the morning of. Other than that, this week has been completely "homemade." Yay!! ...and there was great rejoicing!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">There is often more going on that I can't blog about, but there is a similar phenomenon that there is more blogged about than you are interested in, so I think it balances itself out. I'm missing all you friends and family out there, but I'm trying to be content in my situation and take full advantage of it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Oh, one other thing. I almost forgot to tell you... I have changed a little! See if you can find the difference in these next too pictures (queue the music, "one of these pictures is not like the other")<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOr0a7GwrGmPP6tmpDEpeYRZB2yS3gr2UeVqJzfjGBA956g-uNDsnMILD1XJJAqLKxFNrLXE4QwMCnBQvjB0LolT98syi73OSJzTyXflTOJ0e2ObIR0jaHDiR2nLxel5-ACy_Gxz5Lk2I/s1600/IMG_0225.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOr0a7GwrGmPP6tmpDEpeYRZB2yS3gr2UeVqJzfjGBA956g-uNDsnMILD1XJJAqLKxFNrLXE4QwMCnBQvjB0LolT98syi73OSJzTyXflTOJ0e2ObIR0jaHDiR2nLxel5-ACy_Gxz5Lk2I/s320/IMG_0225.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbXg4VigQehxKKNKmrFu14F8_f4fkVjX1bM4_44rhh6XxYKDx7HMSXVzCWGytmO_hQhrnkpmFMIyNGbbNxCWZxmJcBoNzRuHYRjbTZAHWsgahhDQZiTbXSNljuGIGrYKL_KwNRf_liWA/s1600/IMG_0226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbXg4VigQehxKKNKmrFu14F8_f4fkVjX1bM4_44rhh6XxYKDx7HMSXVzCWGytmO_hQhrnkpmFMIyNGbbNxCWZxmJcBoNzRuHYRjbTZAHWsgahhDQZiTbXSNljuGIGrYKL_KwNRf_liWA/s320/IMG_0226.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And of course, my post wouldn't be complete without mentioning that I've been having a great time with my girlfriend Elisa. This pic was taken before we went out to eat a few weeks ago... it's funny, the stairs do a tolerable job of holding the camera, but I still can't get them to take it where I look as good as she does! Oh well, I guess I'll just keep workin' on my guns and hope for the best! =P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lz9t-ZMmgs6u0TCQlxYQMNDDpmaCC4uDIsrt90AFXRE_IkHQ1fc4wbcHLyUSarrTpLAO__1OO980W5nqFuymz1rKUuD7JVI8xpZOlera8L1FoI_2k63AU7HdRaWHBsGMpP1IqbkaX7I/s1600/IMG_0231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_lz9t-ZMmgs6u0TCQlxYQMNDDpmaCC4uDIsrt90AFXRE_IkHQ1fc4wbcHLyUSarrTpLAO__1OO980W5nqFuymz1rKUuD7JVI8xpZOlera8L1FoI_2k63AU7HdRaWHBsGMpP1IqbkaX7I/s320/IMG_0231.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Adieu!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-60068933777196880092010-07-08T08:42:00.000-07:002010-08-14T19:57:50.653-07:00As usual, after the disorder, the post...At the behest of my younger (and wiser) sister, I come to you again. It has indeed been quite a while since I've updated the old bloggy, but a fair amount has transpired since the last time, so an update I will post.<br />
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Back a while now (Sometime in late Feb, early April) I started dating a girl from Santa Rosa...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AIM75pZYiBP0Ogg9gzf1kveYnWu-3_7_ECot9tF4ZotGowPaQTckgD3rIdxukHCc3FwBLj7-zeE1igGkE94uALU2TQOSColz7TmvERVxT_pPhmBp3WvpCvNr8sJuMcmZU439caSaOes/s1600/IMG_1554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0AIM75pZYiBP0Ogg9gzf1kveYnWu-3_7_ECot9tF4ZotGowPaQTckgD3rIdxukHCc3FwBLj7-zeE1igGkE94uALU2TQOSColz7TmvERVxT_pPhmBp3WvpCvNr8sJuMcmZU439caSaOes/s400/IMG_1554.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Her name is Elisa, and I kinda like her (just a little bit though) =)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We both like exercising, and sometimes we help each other out...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQ_9OqkayT97Rg8rlRYan0uOjqucMW-9RtzuLqWexlqY1ejegz_4wO8wADM_6ZnoNGt4Kq6eccR2bhXcB3DwogPeUQgmG4vPS5kQpXfCLitlwhNgcloffqueijE0yxakJnHKGlLVAEYw/s1600/Elisa+weekends+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQ_9OqkayT97Rg8rlRYan0uOjqucMW-9RtzuLqWexlqY1ejegz_4wO8wADM_6ZnoNGt4Kq6eccR2bhXcB3DwogPeUQgmG4vPS5kQpXfCLitlwhNgcloffqueijE0yxakJnHKGlLVAEYw/s400/Elisa+weekends+003.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lol. Sorry, I had to post this one. It's funny cause if I claim to be strong, then I'm implying she's heavy (which she isn't), but if I claim she's light, then I have no claim to strenth (and who would want to claim that!!)... hahaha. What a fun way to workout! =)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Strength and weight aside, we have a great time together. This last weekend, (July 4th weekend) I had the pleasure of spending 4 days with Elisa and her family at their place in Tahoe, which was lots of fun. Unfortunately, I completely forgot my camera, so I don't have any pics of the trip to post... = ( fortunately, there were other cameras there, so hopefully I'll be able to get my paws on those later, but for the moment, they are memories that are only in my head. We spent some time floating around on rafts near the dock, took some bike rides around the area and even got some reading done (fractals, baby! I really should get some fiction books though).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At work, I am steadily moving closer to finishing my thesis. I have moved past the theory and have been elbow deep in bench testing various circuit and hardware. Here are some pics of the various tests that I've been workin' on...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">(I need to check and make sure the picture can be posted)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This pic (above) is my test setup of an isolation circuit that I designed... and it works! =) that's always a good thing, don't you think? This little darling let's you connect with something that is "floating" 1500V above or below where you are, and not damage either side... kinda cool actually. And it accomplishes all this magic optically (Light Emitting Diodes to send the signal (LEDs) and Photo-Detector Diodes to recieve it (PDDs)).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This next circuit is my most current setup. It is kinda gettin' crowded on the bench, eh? ;) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">(I need to check and make sure the picture can be posted)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This setup is allowing me to pump some power through resistors (located on the shiny heatsink in the middle) and some capacitors (inside the black box, so they don't blow up in my face). The rack on the left is a set of instrumentaiton amplifiers, and the setup on the right is the power supplies, the power amplifier, and my isolation circuit in the shiny aluminum case. This test was to find out how "well-behaved" the power supplies and amplifier really are.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I designed the cooling setup (sort of) and simulated it to make sure that I had sufficient cooling capacity for my situation. That makes some pretty pictures, so I'll show you one. This is actually using muffin fans instead of a squirel cage fan like you see in the pic above, but the same idea.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir_MCVZEnlAQzOYxvXXD5fVZ5vw2V1uLdsK9zcDq_ZcFn3GZ0pZ1bfNy3Fh9_CSs-aJV5h4dupFAk2s6SYoweLgpJaOOpDr73w9ZNQxJbjiLdK9ai5E-iL2HfKuavcN72tGIy9YKsDnWc/s1600/400w2x100w2-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="492" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir_MCVZEnlAQzOYxvXXD5fVZ5vw2V1uLdsK9zcDq_ZcFn3GZ0pZ1bfNy3Fh9_CSs-aJV5h4dupFAk2s6SYoweLgpJaOOpDr73w9ZNQxJbjiLdK9ai5E-iL2HfKuavcN72tGIy9YKsDnWc/s640/400w2x100w2-4.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I am now nearly ready to start on the "real" data of the atual actuators and do some real experimental work. I am hoping it goes well, and definitely hoping it goes quickly, but either way, I'm sure I'll learn a lot.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So.... Who cares, right? what's "really" going on in my life besides girlfirend and work. To be honest those two things take an inordinate amount of time. Not time that I begrudge, but still... lots of time. In related news, I did upgrade to a new phone. I got one of 'em fancy phones, the Motorola "Droid." That has been fun, downloading all sorts of silly little apps like a "soundboard" of quotes from Zoolander or Charlie the Unicorn. Also, more serious apps like the Star Trek soundboard. Now, whenever some emails or texts me, I am greeted with a cool little computer beep followed by Spock saying, "Captain, incoming message." lol. gotta love Star Trek, right? Then there are the somewhat useless but fun to show off apps like Google Goggles which are very handy for identifying things that you already know that they are (it can read bar codes and occasionally gets a painting right). I'm not meaning to sound negative at all. There are some really useful apps, like the map app, which uses GPS and can get me whereever I need to go and the browser app which lets me surf the web and figure stuff out without my computer. Yeah, gadgets are good.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Garrett, you will be happy to learn that i have not increased my bench lately, but I have started do dumbell press (inclined and standard) and liftin' some hefty bells. That's what reall worker-outers call 'em... Bells. =) Didja see what I did there? I left off the "dumb," cause, well it doesn't sound as cool. Right.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Nate, you will be happy to know that I have now gone on a 22 mile bike trip (Tahoe to Squaw Valley and back). Man, you really don't realize which muslces are gonna be sore! But I wasn't feelin' too bad afterward, I definitely needed a little break though! :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Mom, I'm trying to eat healthier, and I think to a large extent I am succeeding. I have gotten completely burnt out on Arby's... so that kinda helps in a wierd way. =)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ash, thanks for the reminder to keep this little beauty up to date. I fully intend to, but sometimes I don't accomplish my intentions. =) thanks for the update on you blog as well, I read it and it was very nice</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Just a quick aside, I had vanilla pudding tonight for dinner. I usually skip dinner, so it was just a fun treat. Don't worry, 2% milk, and sugar free pudding, so I can maintain my feminine figure. lol.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Hm..... What else to say... I guess that's pretty good for now. As always, I will try to be more consistent with my blog updates. There are times (as everyone knows) that my life just doesn't seem all that interesting to the outside world from my perspective, but I'll give you a boring post now and again, just to make sure you've had your "Gavin Fix" for the period. ;)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">With that, I bid you adieu. Family and friends, I love and miss you guys. When I left, I was but a cabin boy; when I return, I will be a cabin man.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Yours very truly,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Gavin</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">P.s. just for fun... a little video that I captured on my camera. Don't show it to the police... hahaha I was bored (back in March sometime) and was playing with the video options on my phone. This little drive is where I often go to grab groceries, chinese, pizza and movies. (not all at the same time usually though). I really am a safe driver, I swear! lol</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxNZA3iPcB7SvHf2ZE9hYadEvYqSgI6cwu9rjMwmdCgmtgIbrqoTHVjViSgSjaREc9zWkUUmOTp3vhJG_z40A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">P.p.s. these videos take forever to upload!</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-16202782831802823672010-03-06T11:27:00.000-08:002010-03-06T11:33:53.593-08:00A few fun pics and work update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Howdy.</div><br />
Last weekend I had some visitors since Leanne's b-day party happened in S.F. On account of that, Garrett stayed with me here at my place while they stayed in a hotel in the city. Now, seeing as I now have a shiny new camera, I had to "test out" some new features and when better than when my little bro is in bed??! :P<br />
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First, I'll give you glimpse of the tired crew that came to my pad soooo late... (past Scott's bed time)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xbox6IFzs5eb14P7qBXKzUyu7zHMwys4wqfJdKU0brzoxPgxNvAvgwDV03xKfj2JoWvF0IVc0ug8JoO4__Nlij1AIwOPexo1GW9RKMcFyTdPwxXnnOPWWvkNNuHG_YnSvgzP3cZLhnw/s1600-h/2nd+night+with+camera+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_xbox6IFzs5eb14P7qBXKzUyu7zHMwys4wqfJdKU0brzoxPgxNvAvgwDV03xKfj2JoWvF0IVc0ug8JoO4__Nlij1AIwOPexo1GW9RKMcFyTdPwxXnnOPWWvkNNuHG_YnSvgzP3cZLhnw/s320/2nd+night+with+camera+002.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When all the ladies left, Garrett and I talked for a bit (between the pounding of our noisy neighbors.... we weren't being loud, but the apartment has relatively thin walls). The we slept, and the next morning, wonder of wonders, I was up and moving before little bro. Now, I'm warning you, these are very rare pictures of a sleeping Garrett in the wild, so don't just go giving these out to anyone... :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkH9W_cZtUmxCQvulWH-0o5qswdPyjxP4CpoTQqFSdfNm0zNF_q2VQ5RGplzhQZOUszgorYXcJ06xNItDQSA5-JDVd4ojooCQJ8bA2CpTMlJgTOyYhkUZ0jgiMQQ65BQyqK7anDHBR87E/s1600-h/2nd+night+with+camera+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkH9W_cZtUmxCQvulWH-0o5qswdPyjxP4CpoTQqFSdfNm0zNF_q2VQ5RGplzhQZOUszgorYXcJ06xNItDQSA5-JDVd4ojooCQJ8bA2CpTMlJgTOyYhkUZ0jgiMQQ65BQyqK7anDHBR87E/s320/2nd+night+with+camera+005.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Much to my surprise, Garrett had been coated with a shiny new coat of paint during the night. The bandits who did this didn't do a real good job though (see how they just shot him from the top?)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBr_lHBhyphenhyphenx0BtW22KzGABzZ_46VIfboPe5A1Pwi75nA4cOEgjbhOrE7cbS0ORsVcAkx6VuFIDdAc_fWK-PCgt7twZVLtp9vD2Tyimv85dJDPSxCRTLsOThTIGiRU9xArbTe-1Ui1f8kQ/s1600-h/2nd+night+with+camera+009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsBr_lHBhyphenhyphenx0BtW22KzGABzZ_46VIfboPe5A1Pwi75nA4cOEgjbhOrE7cbS0ORsVcAkx6VuFIDdAc_fWK-PCgt7twZVLtp9vD2Tyimv85dJDPSxCRTLsOThTIGiRU9xArbTe-1Ui1f8kQ/s320/2nd+night+with+camera+009.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">At first the little dog was a little scared to be in a photo shoot so early. Here you can see his inner feeling amplified by my new camera. Everyone is "yella" sometimes...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDeOj19GUbRY-RSFBMcYlOVmn4grY2o7KPbB4D0s1cfiOZ3nuICuT1CtcVGuI4KhTgRit9e2WpeUS5fi4keRW2zdY8CpGF1-MntJ3wMMkYJWwpEZtgVC8yGZ9WtgfPtWZG_SxWxMzeWg/s1600-h/2nd+night+with+camera+010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDeOj19GUbRY-RSFBMcYlOVmn4grY2o7KPbB4D0s1cfiOZ3nuICuT1CtcVGuI4KhTgRit9e2WpeUS5fi4keRW2zdY8CpGF1-MntJ3wMMkYJWwpEZtgVC8yGZ9WtgfPtWZG_SxWxMzeWg/s320/2nd+night+with+camera+010.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">That shade of fear quickly evolved into a darker shade of emotion: embarrasement. I told him that he should not be so embarrassed and pretend I'm not here. So he went about the normal morning task of eating yogurt in bed. Between you and me... I think he was still a little embarrassed... the camera doesn't lie.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuUVmOrYfnr2zRjpbvCPdnJlLKmxl-uvNXLFKL63hRJjAlOZ6L7SCwZlKqFQzJLdRYB44t-7VPPJVKTyIALkX6ZAKs2EnCrx7RYaDiLYhoAQTZ_dwcUE5Vsy_xxmCTJhmQN4uwT8Dy0M/s1600-h/2nd+night+with+camera+011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHuUVmOrYfnr2zRjpbvCPdnJlLKmxl-uvNXLFKL63hRJjAlOZ6L7SCwZlKqFQzJLdRYB44t-7VPPJVKTyIALkX6ZAKs2EnCrx7RYaDiLYhoAQTZ_dwcUE5Vsy_xxmCTJhmQN4uwT8Dy0M/s320/2nd+night+with+camera+011.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Finally, after much persuasion and practice, he shed his fears and embarrassment to be the Garrett i know: the Garrett who is larger than life and whos lively color outshines the surroundings he's placed in..... I don't know what to say about that expression though. Quite frankly, it's a little disturbing, but gotta love the bro!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So that's it for the wacky morning pics, but I thought I would share kind of an interesting pic from work. I have been "hunting" for the right model of the phenomenon happening in the dynamic system that I am modeling. Late this week, I saw my first glimpse of that model in kind of a neat way. This pic below is a rendering of a possible surface that represents the hysteresis (or "lagging behind") of my system compared to the input. Kind of neat looking surface I thought. Who knew I'd be constructing landscapes while I was here?!?!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3qEaV2WzZw-uHg2ELY5__ftCjPpgdl8trme6A_sWMfg4KWZADL-UZqmyDqa3kZmTRyhGJp74mXKuWpAdAtNOcnn1cafbioE21w8L6z1iKbUNbu1H5-LCujGxusWsR2DRkynigA55zpA/s1600-h/P-surf,+n-16,+k-136,+copper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3qEaV2WzZw-uHg2ELY5__ftCjPpgdl8trme6A_sWMfg4KWZADL-UZqmyDqa3kZmTRyhGJp74mXKuWpAdAtNOcnn1cafbioE21w8L6z1iKbUNbu1H5-LCujGxusWsR2DRkynigA55zpA/s320/P-surf,+n-16,+k-136,+copper.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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This is kind of neat thing.. .to visualize something that you've only seen in your mind's eye and on academic papers.... I wont go into detail regarding what everything represents, 'cause that would probably be a little boring, but for those of you who have read some of the things I've written, the "left-to-right" dimension is "alpha", the "front-to-back" dimension is "beta", thus the triangular section of beta vs. alpha is the Preisach plane. The height of the surface represents the gain of a particular hysteron in the plane.<br />
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Okie-dokie, I guess that's just about enough math stuff. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and catch up on what's happening in my life. ;)<br />
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Laterz->GavSir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-55564942491009923852010-02-26T20:49:00.000-08:002010-02-26T21:05:24.265-08:00New Camera!!! Hoo-rah!What a lovely Friday this is! Well, in order to motivate myself to blog a bit more often, I decided that I need a better tool for describing my life... a shiny new camera! For those of you who are curious about the specs, it is a canon SD3500 "point and shoot" type of camera (14MP, 5x optical zoom, IS, 720P movie mode).<br />
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I am very impressed with this little camera. Sure, it isn't near as fast as my Rebel, but I can't fit the rebel in my pocket either! :) on top of that, this camera has a very cool feature: the back of the thing has no buttons... only a 3.5" touchscreen! wow... i was gambling with this one to see if i'd like it. So far, I'm very impressed. I had assumed that the low light performance would be marginal, but as you'll see from these first shots, it doesn't do too badly at all (our whole house is low light 'cause we're too cheap to buy more lights). This is a typical evening in our newly-chair-populated living room. Cousin Scott is relaxing in one of the all-American lounge chairs. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1O_N1C3QSUjR1Q9e1IgiLWKD1SOvEV_1aKk0MzoUoU4VkEWE2hOmTTFmm9jyij6HZvqlOjcIK3xNbtbRyxrglYZlqAbIoii1LAUqfqk34tmhKACXzXeg4wV9MWpbarzWJwJpvu3XDdhE/s1600-h/First+Night+With+Camera+002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1O_N1C3QSUjR1Q9e1IgiLWKD1SOvEV_1aKk0MzoUoU4VkEWE2hOmTTFmm9jyij6HZvqlOjcIK3xNbtbRyxrglYZlqAbIoii1LAUqfqk34tmhKACXzXeg4wV9MWpbarzWJwJpvu3XDdhE/s320/First+Night+With+Camera+002.JPG" /></a></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And here is our kitchen. This shot is looking the other way in the house. See? we now have a table! What a huge difference that makes! My room is down at the end of the hall... Scott's room is halfway down the hall, then up the stairs on the left.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcWMBTKhATzmv6LB8jb_uDh_-BJnkRaROVgsxNQ9lPQwUsGJh7FC713YWR3CUrkNQNjnNdis0iHmi3_PrER6ImxvAw5U0Cw8AH_ajGuH7CVQrro-hu24eK8BQuqhKUv0gjkNrbilBUrs/s1600-h/First+Night+With+Camera+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcWMBTKhATzmv6LB8jb_uDh_-BJnkRaROVgsxNQ9lPQwUsGJh7FC713YWR3CUrkNQNjnNdis0iHmi3_PrER6ImxvAw5U0Cw8AH_ajGuH7CVQrro-hu24eK8BQuqhKUv0gjkNrbilBUrs/s320/First+Night+With+Camera+003.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So, if you go all the way down the hall and poke your head into my room, this is what you'll find. Lot's of whiteboards and lots of books! The window actually looks out on a rather nice scene, but since it is now dark, you really can't appreciate it in a picture tonight.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3cXOC494wxJKztC96Xek6aexizPa1SwysNVuYC6Y9XnHo5Xzcf6GwebAvrnPLhND7GFgTOfNF14p9yGXBuhLFxiYjOIEBUsNum4hJQNXXA-Baf8gDSm8hjcW387FqWDKYZwiZ4k7LU0/s1600-h/First+Night+With+Camera+004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3cXOC494wxJKztC96Xek6aexizPa1SwysNVuYC6Y9XnHo5Xzcf6GwebAvrnPLhND7GFgTOfNF14p9yGXBuhLFxiYjOIEBUsNum4hJQNXXA-Baf8gDSm8hjcW387FqWDKYZwiZ4k7LU0/s320/First+Night+With+Camera+004.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Finally, we have a great shot at the spaniard himself, Scott-E. The man is getting ready to go to bed. We were going to go to the movies tonight, but I flaked out. This week has been crazy busy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DKPCNbwUyNtH9B93x9XlIMuwPNuXzzC54Y7x1e_E_IWplRTcTmMMxZQtosRxAelBLShZ9T6qH4G936Ib9Z7xMmDzjOcl1if2r03Cl9z9XuGIvPr531cHPtv7Zk0bcqdai1kbUHtwmBk/s1600-h/First+Night+With+Camera+005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DKPCNbwUyNtH9B93x9XlIMuwPNuXzzC54Y7x1e_E_IWplRTcTmMMxZQtosRxAelBLShZ9T6qH4G936Ib9Z7xMmDzjOcl1if2r03Cl9z9XuGIvPr531cHPtv7Zk0bcqdai1kbUHtwmBk/s320/First+Night+With+Camera+005.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So I guess that's it for the pics. I shot a funny video with Scott too, but I don't have a quick way to get that onto the blog right now since it's in HiDef. As far as other updates go, I'm officially registered for graduation (Thank you Mom!!!) and my grad clearance form should now pass muster as I added a one-unit course to fulfill the 30 units necessary for graduation... I'm gonna work on a DSP algorithm to do object tracking, which should be a lot of fun. Maybe I can post some of the cool tracking footage on here so you guys can get a glimpse of "the light." And, just in case there was any doubt, when I say "the light" I mean the fun business of DSP and digitial signal analysis... gotta luv 'em! :P</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok. Well I think we're back up to speed. Oh, btw, my thesis is going well and I now have 8 weeks to turn it in. It should be noted at this point that I have 0 pages written. Time to start crankin' i think! Take care. Gavin out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">***** Late Breaking Update ******</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I did find a quick way to get the video up here... the built in windows video editor... and now without further ado, I give you scottE!! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-----</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">okay, well that ended up being a dud. for some reason the upload video button has disappeared from my little WYSIWYG toolbar here in the editor. what a bummer. I'm sure I'll figure it out later. Have a good night, peeps. --Gav</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-79799773647727610962010-01-25T22:58:00.000-08:002010-01-25T23:03:03.282-08:00Southbay state of the unionHowdy y'all. I think my blog is the only place that I have a twang and a southern drawl, but I'm reachin' for country when I'm living in the city! I promised a few weeks ago to post some pictures of the new place, and I would like to say that I've made progress toward that, but alas I have not. My phone (which doesn't take particularly good pictures anyway) is not working quite right, so I am without device here in silicon valley. The ironies never end, do they.<br />
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I suppose on the bright side, if I were to post pictures, you would just be looking at bare walls, sparse living room, and a generally spartan, bachelor existence anyhow. But all that is about to change (queue the mysterious music for dramatic foreshadowing). I am in the processing of reinventing Gavin. This old dog is gonna learn some new tricks, and break some old habits in the process.<br />
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For example, those of you that know me pretty well, know that I was a huge proponent of mac'n'cheese in my former bachelor ways... but not anymore. I BOUGHT LETTUCE. Why is lettuce so important you ask? Because lettuce symbolizes the type of food that you buy at the store that really only works with moderately healthy to very healthy meals. Lettuce is something that is very perishable, which means I'm not just planning to eat it, I'm planning to eat it soon (no, I haven't eaten it yet, but I would have had it with my sandwich on Sunday had it been in my posession). So, in summary there, I've have taken the lettuce step. I big step for Gavin-kind.<br />
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I am seriously considering buying a slick little point-and-shoot camera to capture some of the fun things goin on around here. I wish I would have had it earlier tonight: Scott and i took a little drive down Washington st. to a basketball court there. We shot around and played horse, it was fun. (I won, muwahahahahah). But it was cool of him to let me play coach a little bit and help him with his shooting form. Once a coach, always a coach I guess. I was actually very impressed with the court: it has really good lighting, not bad backboards and rims for a playgound-style court, and the court is nicely surfaced/leveled for playing. It's not half-bad! :P<br />
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In my workplace, I've been trying to finish a security/background check set of paperwork. What a pain that is. I think i finally finished everything today. Those things scare me, when the have plastered reminders all over the forms how they can sue you for $10k or send you to prison for 5 years if you get something wrong. I did my best, hopefully I don't have to go to prison... In some ways it's kinda fun: I had to call up a lot of the people I used to work with/for. It's kinda cool to hear how they're doing, I was glad to hear that one place in particular was happy with a database i setup for them 8 years ago or so. Cool peeps.<br />
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On the workout front, I got myself in gear and got a membership to Gold's Gym. It's very inexpensive here (like $15/mo) and the facilities are pretty good. I'm trying to go early in the morning, so that helps me go to bed earlier too. Wow, it's already 10:50pm... I gotta get there at 6am... I'm gonna "do the math" in my head here and say that I should probably stop writing and get some sleep.<br />
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I hope that all of my loyal readership are doing well (wow -> that sounds so impersonal, eh?) I mean the people that care about me enough to read my text-only blog about my adventures here. I love you guys. But all good things must come to an end (I don't really know why there), so I'll keep my date with mr sandman. He keeps wanting to go steady, I keep telling him that I have to get up... our relationship is a work-in-progress. Oh yeah! really quick! I don't know if I've mentioned this here or not (i think not). I was talking to Scott and he asked me if I was a night owl (since it does seem to be my tendency to go to bed late and it does not seem to be my tendency to wake up early when I don't have to)... I told him that it's not that I'm a night owl, I like the morning and the evening, it's just that I am transition challenged! Think about it!! I think that may be the difference between "night owls" and "early birds", the early people have less inertia to transition to the new state while the late people always lag behind and it takes time for them to transition into the new state. (yeah, I'm gonna publish this theory in my thesis for sure).<br />
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Well, without further ado, I bid you all good night! Gavin is leaving this waking world, in favor of it's nocturnal reflection...Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-73427216057243388362010-01-04T22:50:00.000-08:002010-01-04T22:50:19.015-08:00Back at NASA! --> Round two. Fight!Howdy there! Well, I'm back in Mountain View, CA at NASA/Ames center working on finishing my thesis. Hopefully it will be a quality piece of work. I am signed up through May, but the lease on my apartment goes through the middle of July... after that, I don't know quite where I'll be.<br />
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So, what do you say? Am I now the city slicker? I don't think of myself that way, but in the last few days I've been pondering what that means... there is something to be said for having all kinds of consumer items at your fingertips! Then again, at the moment it seems like people are stacked in here so tight they may not be able to enjoy the "perks". <br />
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I had really hoped to post some pictures of my first few days in Mountain View, so without further ado...<br />
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here is a great shot of the Best Western that housed me for the first two nights. very exciting. (!)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpF-BVyMq5q6umCaoUPvMGVwU1IVqiusxVJi-zmMZcT_iEOiNpWxApGhb68gvfpY7Y22AstB3AndRQYFvXq9twjbDPg-eDzp96UCO_aEex6pVsf-Av_YKAofnym15lqoyhLfgktbB3aEs/s1600-h/New+Picture+(1).bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpF-BVyMq5q6umCaoUPvMGVwU1IVqiusxVJi-zmMZcT_iEOiNpWxApGhb68gvfpY7Y22AstB3AndRQYFvXq9twjbDPg-eDzp96UCO_aEex6pVsf-Av_YKAofnym15lqoyhLfgktbB3aEs/s320/New+Picture+(1).bmp" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And next we have the super comfy, Comfort Inn. This is where I'll be staying for the next 2 days. (!?)<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgc7m7wABD0CnJl1g6u4XHMerM2Wwg6hHREKDixfQECGE6ciBzVgYEjPHhf8xhJeUnWDN3gwCUFZ9K_W0vGBK_7Z8GQrLR8sckZYMXj7IaL2ZUmiISWGA8vk6dqm8ub3-wgNBBNGm5tCY/s1600-h/New+Picture.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgc7m7wABD0CnJl1g6u4XHMerM2Wwg6hHREKDixfQECGE6ciBzVgYEjPHhf8xhJeUnWDN3gwCUFZ9K_W0vGBK_7Z8GQrLR8sckZYMXj7IaL2ZUmiISWGA8vk6dqm8ub3-wgNBBNGm5tCY/s320/New+Picture.bmp" /></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Gavin, why are you such a complainer?!" "But wait," I interject, "there's more!" As it turns out, I cannot charge my phone because of a mixup with the adapters I brought. I have been trying to buy a new one for the last two days, and as yet have been unsuccessful. But today was close, I came only 5 minutes after VZW closed. (!)<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Firstly, you might think I'm whining right now. But no, I am relating the simple frustrations of a few days in the city. My first day at work went really well (actually, one might not have known I was gone, my desk was just like I left it) and it felt like routine before I even got to my office. I don't know if that is a good thing or not, but that is what it is. Dad, you will be happy to know that I wore that ENE hoody today, and got several comments on it... (they were positive) ;)<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My apartment will be ready to go in a few days, so I really can't complain too much, and I am blessed to have found a great place. The rent is higher than Chico, but it's not bad for Mountain View. I'll post some pics of the new place when I get over there on Wednesday. In the meantime, know that I am well, tired, pondering and inconsolable. (Smiling most of the time, but I miss my family)... Hey Garrett, is this what Hawaii felt like?<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Missing all you guys... =) Any ideas for what I ought to do this weekend? Maybe sleep would be good, but how can you sleep on the weekends?!?!?!?! No, we must party! (okay, at least go have some fun).<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">-City Slicker out<br />
</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-49054076452925778422009-11-17T13:11:00.000-08:002009-11-17T14:06:38.106-08:00sickness, thoughts, classes<div>Howdy there.<br /><br />Well, to cut to the chase, I am now sick with bronchitis. That is a bummer. On the upshot, it does give me a lot of time to think, which is unussual these days. So how can I update you on my current status? My room is now surrounding my bed, (about 20" on all sides) now that I've gotten all the electronics/computers from NASA to continue my thesis research, my laptop has no more (storage) room, so I'm considering re-formatting and starting over (Windows 7, hopefully), and my schedule goes from booked to rediculous. All in all, I think I'm doing well. I just need to keep my head up for about 4 more weeks to get through.<br /><br />Every semester, I am struck by the psychology of classwork and finishing projects. Every semester I am very excited to sign up for x number of new classes (cool class names a must) and always arrive the first day with eager anticipation of what I will learn and be able to do when I finish. Then, about 1/3 of the way though, I get distracted by something that get's me a little behind or off track. at about 2/3 to 3/4 I become very aware of this and buckle down again, and by the end I keep my grades up (hopefully). Every semester this pattern shows itself, but to varying degrees of distraction and recourse. Thankfully, I seem to be getting better at it (distracted less, recourse more), but the pattern is still there. Very strange.<br /><br />I guess I could tell you about some of the cool things I'm learning in class these days... c'mon, I know you're wondering! ;) Very well, I shall tell you then. In my electro-mechanical conversion class, I've been learning about electric motors... we've finished synchronous AC machines and DC machines, and now we're working on Induction machines... very cool stuff. Did you know that an induction motor first induces the current flowing in the rotor (the inside, turning part) and then provides the magnetic field that interacts with that current to produce a torque? The coolest part is, the magnetic field that induces the current is the very same one that the current interacts with to produce the torque! outstanding!<br /><br />In my High Frequency Design Techniques class, we have been learning about clock distribution on (of course) high frequency designs... clock signals are the on and off signals that all of the other chips need to see to know when to process and when to stop, kinda like the drummer guy on the row ships, so that everyone stays synchronized. Anyway, when you try to distribute this signal at very high frequencies, the time it takes the signal to get to it's destination can be quite varied, because the speed of light is finite. think about it like if you wanted 5 cities to shoot fireworks at the same time, but you had to send out runners to tell them when to go and they would shoot the fireworks just when the runner arrived. Now make the cities various distances apart... if you had to arrange the "drop off" schedule for those runners so they arrived at almost exactly the same time, you now know the challange of clock distribution... ;) yay!<br /><br />In my chaotic dynamics class, we have been learning about bifurcation. bifurcation is how a system changes its characteristics qualitatively when parameters in the system pass certain points. my prof had a good example: if a class is composed of one student, he could teach that student in his office. more than a few students would force him to teach the class in a classroom. if the class grew beyond 30 or so, he would have to find a lecture hall, if the class grew beyond 400 or so, he might have to record the lectures or broadcast them live... see how the class changes at certain points because of the number of students (28 to 29 was the same, but 30 to 31 changed dramatically in a qualitative sense)... this is leading up to why mathematical catastrophes happen and some other cool things (like hysteresis and chaos). Needless to say, I'm enjoying myself there. Below is an animation of a vector field undergoing bifurcation (Hopf).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9rJKQwzO9ZLn_8CwXYEmEY6kBfuxyt-P_bQzQMO84pD_qLO25d8gSOltFem7pKFBp3UujCZroN2ZKAXh78znfGEwgT7rADbNdPSIOqbpu5jiIEIPGPd9hLLONMaklvLsIJvr1bRpLgI/s1600/Hopf-bif.gif"><img style="WIDTH: 383px; HEIGHT: 283px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405197069846765410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl9rJKQwzO9ZLn_8CwXYEmEY6kBfuxyt-P_bQzQMO84pD_qLO25d8gSOltFem7pKFBp3UujCZroN2ZKAXh78znfGEwgT7rADbNdPSIOqbpu5jiIEIPGPd9hLLONMaklvLsIJvr1bRpLgI/s400/Hopf-bif.gif" /></a></div><div> </div><div>My networking class is okay, but not very exciting. it is nice to see how the internet operates and what is happening "under the covers" but to be honest, it is a bit boring.<br /><br />Lastly, I have an electromagnetic compatibility course which is all about design devices to "play nice" with each other. That is, the electric fields and magnetic fields they produce should be regulated and contained. Otherwise, wierd things can happen... for example, did you know that in an industrial setting, where many high power electric motors are operating, there may be cases where the motors are actually inducing high currents in the steel beam structures of the building because their magnetic fields are "reaching out" and pulling/pushing the currents back and forth? interesting, huh? in the same way, electronic devices can affect other electronic devices by inducing current that are unintended and making those devices fail to work... wouldn't that stink if the brand new playstation 3 you got caused the new 65" LED TV to stop working because they were electromagnetically incompatible? ;) exactly. so that is a very challenging class, and I definitely see the challenge there.<br /><br />Okay, well thanks for reading this far. If you're not bored yet, maybe you should get into elec/computer engineering! fun stuff dude! I think I should probably stop here, but thanks for listening. Until next time gadget...</div>Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-19040998223074084032009-11-04T00:21:00.000-08:002009-11-04T00:36:05.693-08:00On why the world is flatHello there, noble patrons!<br /><br />How do I know you're noble? 'cause you are reading this blog, of course! ;) Actually, I am interested to know who reads this thing... I hope everyone feels free to leave a comment -> free of charge! "Talk to me goose..."<br /><br />Why is the world flat, you ask? I answer: because that is the only way I can wrap my head around it. Think about it, if the world were round, then we'd have people in far off distant lands that are standing at 90 degrees and even 180 degrees oriented to us! That's crazy talk! I think a more logical explanation is that we are live on a nice flat plane that allows us to teleport to different regions directly depending on which edge of the map we happen to be... of course, then we'd have to believe in teleporting, but then that seems easier to swallow then this round world nonsense anyway...<br /><br />Okay, enough of that. I am doing well these days and really trying to stay alive and finish my classwork. I was very happy to recieve my first paycheck for working on my thesis, so that was really great. It's wonderful to be paid for working on fun projects! Speaking of which, I have so much to do in that arena, it's crazy. Not round world crazy, but still. Very strange to be thinking that this is the last round of classes that I can take. I think they'll kick me out if I try to come back again! :P<br /><br />I hope y'all are having a great day/night/whenever you read this, cause I am very encouraged. I am encouraged for strange reasons; today when i went on my little run, I ran into a couple that was walking along the road. The girl asked if I was jogging (I was currently waiting at the light), and when I answered in the affirmative, she said that it looked like I was doing a good job (I was sweating). That in and of itself it not a very significant comment, but the idea goes a long way on its own power! ;) It made me happy! The human psyche is amazing.<br /><br />Well that's all for now, sportsfans. Tune in soon for the next episode.Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-34898207066644089512009-10-27T02:11:00.000-07:002009-10-27T02:18:45.961-07:00A poetic muse2:08am – the muse.<br /><br />Of misery and happiness, on encouragement and grief<br />Through mischief and adventure, when light itself grows a shadow<br />This is how I am.<br /><br />Sadness follows the happy as rainclouds follow bright balloons<br />That when the laughter has subsided the cold shower can begin.<br />Of this flood? Think it only a bath.<br /><br />Profess your ying and yang, tell me the balance is to be kept.<br />Light were not but for the darkness in contrast, says you.<br />Confused, says I.<br /><br />The world in its intricacies and delicacies, it variation and pattern;<br />Would be a mirror to the structure that is beneath?<br />Yet, I speak without knowledge.<br /><br />But spoke it right he, that simple is truer often;<br />The page with less written oft affords the clearer view.<br />See I this, over and over.<br /><br />How to argue with him that sees true unreal but believes false reality?<br />His tongue is sharp, what blood his mouth contains!<br />He is content with his thought, without his life.<br /><br />Blessing after blessing is granted, though no deserved deed.<br />A plan thwarted with goodness is failed though it succeed.<br />Rhyming wasn’t the plan.<br /><br />Does the plan mean ill? Its end to darken? To who is it owned?<br />Yet there beauty is found, and smiles that shatter scolding.<br />Her eyes that pierce.<br /><br />Why that I strain to miss yet aim to succeed? Can I unravel?<br />Constant effort to dodge paired with significant work to conquer…<br />Strange bedfellows all.<br /><br />Finally know that conclusion dances laughing round my head,<br />Teasing my senses and staying near reach.<br />Only to be told.<br /><br />*********************<br />by way of explanation, don't take anything too literally or figuratively. I enjoy writing about thoughts in my mind, but this is only a stream of consciousness... nothing actually fully digested. take it for what it is, a window into my mind.... ;)Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-84021441605956047912009-10-12T22:33:00.000-07:002009-10-13T00:15:03.293-07:00My musingsHello friends!<br /><br />sorry about that... my bro was messin' with me. :P a new, REAL post to follow shortly.Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7131893628407952231.post-38137626950417972462009-09-30T00:50:00.000-07:002009-09-30T02:02:18.636-07:00Cabins, Software and LifeI think I said I'd update every week last time... that didn't work too well, did it. Hm. Well, against all odds and of course against my better judgement, I've decided that my blog needed an update even if it just so happens to be 1am. So, without further ado, here is a snapshot of what's goin' on in my life and some fun pics as well.<br /><br />This pic is of my friend and co-worker Robert sitting inside of one of the shakers... we had great success with the latest "Precision-controlled shaker head", and I must say, that man deserves most of the credit! What a great showing! This week we will see how the shaker head does on some olive trees for the official demo, but things are lookin' up!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEido2Ru5wvaib7lDY0gVI-E50euK8YOA-HOOOlCfUIG-r2g4On-7BZBPhmPTxEmvDNaLGb-lV4mDxOMplUSoZpstOvncagEAM4pItEb3BV_Kno9viwmJLiH_cS7d_Fzs8OkONuT_KESbds/s1600-h/023.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167642629722194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEido2Ru5wvaib7lDY0gVI-E50euK8YOA-HOOOlCfUIG-r2g4On-7BZBPhmPTxEmvDNaLGb-lV4mDxOMplUSoZpstOvncagEAM4pItEb3BV_Kno9viwmJLiH_cS7d_Fzs8OkONuT_KESbds/s400/023.jpg" /></a><br />I had the opportunity to contribute to the project by modeling the electro-hydraulic/mechanical system in MATLAB and designing/implementing one of the amplifiers, which was really fun. The first, real multi-domain modeling I've done that was for a practical purpose. The amplifier was a voltage-controlled current amplifier (for those of you who care) and had tunable gains dead-band compensation built-in.<br /><br />This next pic is of Ash and Nate's two cats. I am definitely a dog person, but it was a pleasure spending a few hours with these two characters! This was the only shot that really captured the drama that they were acting out, but they moved way to fast for my little camera phone to see the action, weaving in and out of the chairs! ;)<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmBEsG5OKNzRfxWxX8HfwasJfeA7XWpg8vndtqqs1hyphenhyphen6cluQY2SdfDGDp5pBiXku5nnraI71htMKDZAnmT-CXTV4OgBM36mt0vKFmYsPWUVuUjJzGmo9baI57jMpB7gwslvt9NGn-9kg/s1600-h/022.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167635255715746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxmBEsG5OKNzRfxWxX8HfwasJfeA7XWpg8vndtqqs1hyphenhyphen6cluQY2SdfDGDp5pBiXku5nnraI71htMKDZAnmT-CXTV4OgBM36mt0vKFmYsPWUVuUjJzGmo9baI57jMpB7gwslvt9NGn-9kg/s400/022.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This is a pic of Garrett and Stephen (my brotha and my roommate) on our little 4x4 trek on Lassen a few weeks ago. That was really fun, and (looking down, toeing in my right foot) the first time I've been 4x4ing with the crew. Definitely a great time with guys.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bTVyTCz5roP7IbMVga14BmEkl_Hie4xj8e5219OEGoWjb-wSaKtVpZBw4xgrFnmfhGM4F0AFCM5L1Bs4jTSD-taEeZJwDsFojQsP-pPFnZJgYUweX3MZnZ1hTYZB5JRZNqvw_HHQHR0/s1600-h/020.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 300px; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167263596566418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9bTVyTCz5roP7IbMVga14BmEkl_Hie4xj8e5219OEGoWjb-wSaKtVpZBw4xgrFnmfhGM4F0AFCM5L1Bs4jTSD-taEeZJwDsFojQsP-pPFnZJgYUweX3MZnZ1hTYZB5JRZNqvw_HHQHR0/s400/020.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Garrett and his Jeep. This picture captures their relationship well...<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIfhb7xH3f-Lz7jK9LsyMeHTRZxQX_piKwpmNKJig4CNI-85PDeJLUu2THzjY-pFlnn2_l7VDeYXFwK-MxMv34fiHHNNNG3VSrf44LL9rZ8O7LyTGiuGHH3rHyX-WA-6qpoHRH82prnc/s1600-h/017.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167256939307762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsIfhb7xH3f-Lz7jK9LsyMeHTRZxQX_piKwpmNKJig4CNI-85PDeJLUu2THzjY-pFlnn2_l7VDeYXFwK-MxMv34fiHHNNNG3VSrf44LL9rZ8O7LyTGiuGHH3rHyX-WA-6qpoHRH82prnc/s400/017.jpg" /></a><br /><br />The cabin that we are working on bringin up to snuff up in Mill Creek. I can't say that I loved the sleeping arrangement, but I think I must be spoiled on my super-comfortable bed here in Chico.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8SWhf3Ct3spAtjEFsvkaYVSfuiyw-tZym4e2I8f45XBt4CFXxzB4kYQW4vr-00BIDtTNqaf969XYbhW05eaTt3JvFoO8V7xPKDTFM2liLU7VU4OdqwsKUjWxXGanJxiwz-0DioNj_dJg/s1600-h/016.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167248026695522" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8SWhf3Ct3spAtjEFsvkaYVSfuiyw-tZym4e2I8f45XBt4CFXxzB4kYQW4vr-00BIDtTNqaf969XYbhW05eaTt3JvFoO8V7xPKDTFM2liLU7VU4OdqwsKUjWxXGanJxiwz-0DioNj_dJg/s400/016.jpg" /></a><br /><br />This pic is my mom and dad and brother inside the cabin. They hauled up a dryer so that we can stay for more extended periods here. Very relaxing place, that cabin. I defnitely am planning on spending some time there.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZwSCDI2DsQlQuihp2oBcGdzxTVVhMMvwM7I6E9qCd3oTJLmzSu1RodKk7PMo7baE4_MPdkX_LVOvbdg4UP7fq73uuW3rqE2rBOFMtwFd4iyLMCHuXJVQX9ue-yLQhHCzY20jN3-HpIA/s1600-h/015.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167235915898466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ZwSCDI2DsQlQuihp2oBcGdzxTVVhMMvwM7I6E9qCd3oTJLmzSu1RodKk7PMo7baE4_MPdkX_LVOvbdg4UP7fq73uuW3rqE2rBOFMtwFd4iyLMCHuXJVQX9ue-yLQhHCzY20jN3-HpIA/s400/015.jpg" /></a><br /><br />Garrett, me, Dad and Mom in front of the Mill Creek Resort Store. This is right before dinner, so we are all excited to get some shakes/malts inside. Stephen was with us too, but he was taking the picture. (Thank you, sir).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEintd1JPYDNT-mPVLi8qUXh-N_qSOGjkd7K0qJz7kdEX-VSHIQOkeTAaMPfbYyhtsOm-qGC_PhyphenhyphenI0CYt8hQi9hsZDyl1sG7L8zfUqjXuQSytPLr7gU81ZdSq6N3Sc_mVtT4FyrMVledksw/s1600-h/013.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 400px; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387167228728761074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEintd1JPYDNT-mPVLi8qUXh-N_qSOGjkd7K0qJz7kdEX-VSHIQOkeTAaMPfbYyhtsOm-qGC_PhyphenhyphenI0CYt8hQi9hsZDyl1sG7L8zfUqjXuQSytPLr7gU81ZdSq6N3Sc_mVtT4FyrMVledksw/s400/013.jpg" /></a><br /><br />I guess that wraps up the pics, but there are a few other portions of my life that I can tell you about here. I'll be brief, because your time is valuable and my sleep is necessary...<br /><br />Work:<br />I am currently juggling two jobs: ENE, where I am doing various electrical/computer/mechanical engineering tasks and helping with other things in those veins, and the Navy Research Group at school, where I am trying to wrap my head around the intricacies of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If all goes as planned, I will be essentially stopping both of those jobs and starting to spend all my gainful employment on thesis-related tasks for NASA/Army, which I am looking forward to.<br /><br />School: At school, I am taking too many classes, but in a strange twist, have had very little homework for the first 5 weeks of the semester. This semester I have 4 classes for credit and 1 class for audit. I am taking Networking, Electro-mechanical Conversion, High Frequency Design Techniques, and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC). I'm auditing a math class called Intro to Chaotic, Dynamical Systems, which is really interesting, but I'm glad that I am not being graded there... I like the challenge, but grading can sometimes interfere with the sheer enjoyment of the subject matter. I'm happy that these classes have the content that they do, but I wish I had more time to delve into them and work on some project related to them so that I could really absorb the material fully.<br /><br />Play:<br />I have been trying to work out by running and lifting weights and have finally (as of these last 10 days or so) been successful. Not enough basketball, but I am working on shedding a few pounds to get back to where I can really enjoy the running there. Not a crazy amount of movies, but a few good ones (notably, "Fist full of dollars" with Clint Eastwood).<br /><br />Thought:<br />Why is it I can't dance... I have been thinking about this because I went to an Indian dance festival recently and had a really good time hanging out and dancing. Now, just to be clear, I am aware of the fact that I can't dance well, but there was some video shot by others so I could actually observe myself... wow... I am terrible! :( But, I keep telling myself, "you just need to practice"... Idunno, still pondering that one.<br /><br />Tech:<br />I have known about a program called COMSOL for a while, but have not thought about it's "place" in the world of simulation until recently when I was thinking through the relationship that MATLAB and Solidworks have to each other. I have posted before about the wonderful symbol tool that Mathematica can be, and the wonderful simulation tool that MATLAB can be. This summer I learned what a great platform it is for code generation and also for rapid prototyping. Solidworks has long been my favorite environment for generating 3D geometry and such for mechanical engineering problems, and it just keeps getting better, but it lacks the multi-domain, coupled PDE (partial differential equation) solving abilities that COMSOL can provide. MATLAB with Simulink allows multi-domain solving with a very nice block diagram editor, but cannot really deal with the 3D geometry, collisions, and especially the PDE side of things (As I understand it, Simulink is concerned with ODEs). Anyway, COMSOL find a place right in between these two packages and is useful for interfacing with both of them bi-directionally. I have no idea how much this costs, but it would be great to get a copy to play with.<br /><br />Well, I guess I better call it a day. Maybe if I posted more often, these posts wouldn't get so long! Oh well, I hope that YOU have a great day!Sir Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16304241947444742975noreply@blogger.com2