Hm, guess I wrote the last post thinking about a particular subset of the people who read this. Ubuntu is a linux distribution. It is basically Debian which is a very common linux distribution, but Ubuntu put it together in a way that makes it easy to use. All of the things that I said I did not have to do to install Ubuntu are things that I have had to do to install over versions of linux which is why it was so surprising how easy it is to install Ubuntu.
Oh and while I'm posting last night I was walking around The Montage Garden Area over looking Laguna beach - I'd put it in the running for the whoa! award for Orange County.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Ubuntu
Last night I installed Ubuntu on my brother's old PC (Friday nights don't get more exciting than that).
Well what do I think of Ubuntu - all I have to say is WTF mate!!!
All I had to do was put in the cd which booted up as a full install which figured out the optimal settings for my monitor and recognized my USB mouse and had a desktop icon called install which when you double clicked on it it installed. Only inputs it required were location, time, and user info (and looks like they copied apple or whoever apple copied by using sudo only rather than creating a root account). Then within a Family Guy episode it was done.
But where do I fill in horizontal and vertical monitor refresh rates? Where's the struggle to get USB working? Where's the 3 days of waiting while it bootstraps and recompiles everything based on my favorite optimization level (-os for those wondering)? What about configuring all of the network options by hand? No designing my partition table - how do I know that the swap drive is optimal according to some rule of thumb I picked up somewhere? And then once it was installed it wanted me to install programs using its nice, easily searchable graphical interface rather than running scripts or wearing out the enter key using dselect! What was I supposed to do with the rest of my Friday night?
Well luckily I did hit one obstacle - Ubuntu does not come with sshd (it has the client but not the server - probably not a bad choice for a default install) and it's graphical installer doesn't have it. Of course it turned out the solution was: sudo apt-get install ssh.
I haven't used it for long but I think they may have hit the point where anyone can easily perform the install.
Next week I'll have to switch back to Gentoo so I can feel like I accomplished something and get that extra millisecond of optimization.
Well what do I think of Ubuntu - all I have to say is WTF mate!!!
All I had to do was put in the cd which booted up as a full install which figured out the optimal settings for my monitor and recognized my USB mouse and had a desktop icon called install which when you double clicked on it it installed. Only inputs it required were location, time, and user info (and looks like they copied apple or whoever apple copied by using sudo only rather than creating a root account). Then within a Family Guy episode it was done.
But where do I fill in horizontal and vertical monitor refresh rates? Where's the struggle to get USB working? Where's the 3 days of waiting while it bootstraps and recompiles everything based on my favorite optimization level (-os for those wondering)? What about configuring all of the network options by hand? No designing my partition table - how do I know that the swap drive is optimal according to some rule of thumb I picked up somewhere? And then once it was installed it wanted me to install programs using its nice, easily searchable graphical interface rather than running scripts or wearing out the enter key using dselect! What was I supposed to do with the rest of my Friday night?
Well luckily I did hit one obstacle - Ubuntu does not come with sshd (it has the client but not the server - probably not a bad choice for a default install) and it's graphical installer doesn't have it. Of course it turned out the solution was: sudo apt-get install ssh.
I haven't used it for long but I think they may have hit the point where anyone can easily perform the install.
Next week I'll have to switch back to Gentoo so I can feel like I accomplished something and get that extra millisecond of optimization.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Computer Ads
For those who read slashdot - sorry this will be a repeat.
If you are looking to kill some time - how about some classic computer ads.
If you are looking to kill some time - how about some classic computer ads.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Just in case you were wondering
If you read the list of nobel prize winners then I'm sure there was one overwhelming question on your mind. The answer is - nope different guy - see the end of this article.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Immediate Supervisor
I had an interesting small company experience this week. On the day of tapeout the vendor we work with for layout made a small circuit change suggestion. It might have helped with a problem which we had already dealt with by eliminating the root cause and really I don't think it would have even helped. But it was the day of tapeout and so I figured I should check with someone to make sure they agreed. I did check with a coworker and she agreed but she is also just a couple years out of school. So normally I would check with the experienced analog engineer, but he was on vacation. Next thought was my boss - also on vacation (the chip had been delayed a few times so it wasn't so strange that they both had vacation scheduled then). Ok how about boss's boss - off on a business trip. And boss's boss's boss - also business trip. Then it struck me - for that one day my immediate supervisor was the CEO of the company! I paused for a bit before bothering him with this, but figured better to go ahead and ask.
Luckily the CEO is an electrical engineer and is very hands on so it was not too odd asking him about this and he knew what I was talking about, but still struck me as funny that I stopped by the office of the head of the company to ask if we should add a couple diodes or not.
Something struck me as I was writing this. If you look at it from the CEO's side - he's running the company, but at the same time still gets to be involved in low level engineering decisions - this may not sound like a good thing to some people reading this - but I think anyone who is an engineer understands what I am saying. To me one of the big detractors of going into management is not getting to do engineering anymore (yes I know you have a big impact by leading the engineers but you don't get to actually do the technical work). But maybe if the company is small enough then you could reach a reasonable level of management and still have enough exposure to the technical work to keep it interesting - not really sure seems I'm coming up with this as I write but just a thought (basically I am thinking out loud, but not out loud...)
Luckily the CEO is an electrical engineer and is very hands on so it was not too odd asking him about this and he knew what I was talking about, but still struck me as funny that I stopped by the office of the head of the company to ask if we should add a couple diodes or not.
Something struck me as I was writing this. If you look at it from the CEO's side - he's running the company, but at the same time still gets to be involved in low level engineering decisions - this may not sound like a good thing to some people reading this - but I think anyone who is an engineer understands what I am saying. To me one of the big detractors of going into management is not getting to do engineering anymore (yes I know you have a big impact by leading the engineers but you don't get to actually do the technical work). But maybe if the company is small enough then you could reach a reasonable level of management and still have enough exposure to the technical work to keep it interesting - not really sure seems I'm coming up with this as I write but just a thought (basically I am thinking out loud, but not out loud...)
No god but God
I read No god but God because I thought it would be interesting to know something about Islam. Now that I've finished the book I'm glad to know what it had to say, but while reading the book I was reminded that I find the history of religions fairly boring. I'm not saying that Reza Aslan made it boring - I think that's just me. I am glad to finally know the difference between Shi'ite and Sunni (the first has a more modern and rational (I'm not making a value statement - that's Aslan's description) interpretation vs Sunnis have a more traditional interpretation of the Quran). I'm sure that I got this impression largely because of how Aslan presents the information, but I was surprised by how reasonable what the Quran says is and that most of the stuff that the West criticizes Islam for is stuff that has been added since and really contradicts the Quran and how Muhammad acted. As usual I will pick out a somewhat minor point that stuck out to me - the CIA sucks (and British Imperialism isn't so great either, but that is pretty common knowledge at this point). The book was talking about several of the groups that the CIA has backed which have turned out to be mistakes. Between this book and watching Syriana (oh and all the current issues) I'm thinking maybe the CIA isn't such a great organization.
Oh and by the way if you read the title of the blog out loud you're half way to being Muslim.
In other news - the chip I have been working on at Cameron Health taped out so that was exciting and while they have already expressed that we need to work hard to get the test plan setup in time things should be less hectic (or at least I should be a bit calmer since I have trouble getting excited about test (for those paying attention that last comment is ironic)).
Oh and by the way if you read the title of the blog out loud you're half way to being Muslim.
In other news - the chip I have been working on at Cameron Health taped out so that was exciting and while they have already expressed that we need to work hard to get the test plan setup in time things should be less hectic (or at least I should be a bit calmer since I have trouble getting excited about test (for those paying attention that last comment is ironic)).
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Complications, How Animals Have Sex, and The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
The book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science reminded me why I will never, ever be a surgeon. I've been working on not getting grossed out by stuff, but nothing like a first person description of cutting someone open and putting in a central line to put me back in my place. This is one of those books that having read it I question if I'd be better off not having read it. Not that it wasn't well written and very informative, just I like to think of doctors as infallible superhumans without lives of their own to distract them or a need to practice on real patients. One of the messages that I do not think Atul was necessarily going for but that I took from the book is: don't be obese. There is a whole section on gastric-bypass, but what struck me was how often he would mention the weight of a patient as a complicating factor in surgery (it also sounded like being too skinny and frail is also bad but I have less concerns about that one). There are some much more interesting and important points that he brings up but it's my blog so I'll concentrate on whatever silly little detail I want.
Well, I would guess that as my brother recently pointed out about fart jokes, you either find animal sex intrinsically funny or you don't. If you do then you gotta read How Animals Have Sex. Even if you just flip through it at a bookstore. It's a quick read, and while it could probably go all 129 pages just off pictures of animals having sex and the intrinsic humor, the book goes above and beyond and doesn't entirely rely on the idea of animals doing it to be funny. Plus after you read it you can have a picture book of animals having sex on your desk.
Ok, the book about animals having sex and this next one don't really count as books, but figured I'd write about them anyway. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint doesn't count because it is about 25 pages long. But it has caused me to try and avoid using powerpoint and write short technical memos using mathcad instead (to all the MITers who say why mathcad instead of matlab - try making a good looking report in matlab - go on - I dare you). To summarize this one: Powerpoint makes your presentations worse than if you just stood up and talked and slide style presentations are why the Challenger blew up. Ok, I exaggerated its message a little (but just a little).
Well, I would guess that as my brother recently pointed out about fart jokes, you either find animal sex intrinsically funny or you don't. If you do then you gotta read How Animals Have Sex. Even if you just flip through it at a bookstore. It's a quick read, and while it could probably go all 129 pages just off pictures of animals having sex and the intrinsic humor, the book goes above and beyond and doesn't entirely rely on the idea of animals doing it to be funny. Plus after you read it you can have a picture book of animals having sex on your desk.
Ok, the book about animals having sex and this next one don't really count as books, but figured I'd write about them anyway. The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint doesn't count because it is about 25 pages long. But it has caused me to try and avoid using powerpoint and write short technical memos using mathcad instead (to all the MITers who say why mathcad instead of matlab - try making a good looking report in matlab - go on - I dare you). To summarize this one: Powerpoint makes your presentations worse than if you just stood up and talked and slide style presentations are why the Challenger blew up. Ok, I exaggerated its message a little (but just a little).
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