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.

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.

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...)

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)).

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).