[Kylan's Blog] Building Blocks Auction

Last night Building Blocks (where Kristen works) had a dinner and silent auction. Kristen and I went, and it was pretty fun. We ended up bidding on and winning a Cougar-themed grill set and a party platter from Quizno's. Both of those will come in handy for our wedding reception in Pullman this summer.

[Kylan's Blog] End-of-Semester Roundup

These are the tasks I have to complete before the end of the semester:

CptS 562 - Fault Tolerant Computing

• Pseudo-Clusters of Faults
• "Bit Packing"
• Graceful Performance Degradation (GPD)
• Non-Square Modules (adders and subtracters)
• Rotation of Non-Square Modules on Placement Failures
• Test Setup
• Test Execution
• Result Analysis
• Writeup
• References
• Demo
• Submission
  

EE 451 - Digital Communication Systems

• Concepts
• Implementation
• Debugging
• Analysis
• Writeup
• Study Homeworks
• Study Notes
• Study Past Exams
• Study Text Book
• Final Exam

TA EE 415 - Senior Design

• Grade Lab Books
• Call Scott for Grading Guidelines
  
• Grade Final Reports
  

[Kylan's Blog] Seussical the Musical

Last Saturday, Kristen and I saw Seussical the Musical at the Regional Theater of the Palouse (RTOP) in Pullman. One of Kristen's coworkers played the Cat in the Hat. It was a great show that was well directed, and the actors did a wonderful job.

I really liked the small, intimate atmosphere of the theater. It only seats about 85 people, and the front of the stage is literally inches from the first row of the audience. Since the theater is so small, though, a live orchestra is not possible. That's the only thing I would change, since a real band is always more fun.

RTOP will be presenting Fiddler on the Roof this September, and I'm definitely planning on getting tickets to that.

[Kylan's Blog] Carl Spackler

Bill Murray played a character named Carl Spackler in the 1980 movie Caddy Shack. One of my favorite movie characters of all time.

[Kylan's Blog] American Idol Predictions

1. David Cook
2. David Archuleta
3. Carly Smithson
4. Brooke White
5. Syesha Mercado
   
6. Jason Castro

[Kylan's Blog] Dr. William E. Johns

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a really interesting lecture by Dr. William E. Johns from the materials engineering department at WSU. He spoke about his experience in academics and in industry, and offered good anecdotal advice on how to be an engineer. To conclude his lecture, Dr. Johns presented his Rules of Life, which I've reproduced below:

1. If you get into a fight with a skunk, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, you lose. Pick your battles very carefully, CYA with paper. (Never write anything negative in a memo!)

2. Never test the depth of the water with both feet. Do your homework. Always leave yourself an out. An out can be an alternative project, a transfer guaranteed in hand--in writing, a large savings account, a winning lotto ticket, etc., anything to fall back on when the water turns out to be really deep, and ugly and swirling.

3. When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging. Know when to hold them, and know when to fold. It's OK and indeed wise, to back out of a bad project or endless argument in a timely manner. 

4. When the boss asks for "vigorous, open, candid discussion" on a particular topic, the boss is lying. That statement is a classic red flag. If your supervisor is worthy of the position, statements such as the one above need not be said, it should be the working policy of the group. If a weak or domineering boss says that, that person is only looking for agreement. SHUT UP. DON'T ARGUE. Trust me on this one. 

5. Good enough is good enough. As engineers, you will never get it perfect as "perfection" is not an achievable goal. There are many correct solutions to every engineering problem. Within the constraints of time, budget, other resources, you can fill a need and complete a task. At that point the job is done. Stop working on it. 

6. When you are in up to your ears, keep your mouth shut. More damage has been done by trying to argue and defend a position than probably any other factor. It doesn't matter that you were right or wrong, when the discussion morphs into an argument, logic is irrelevant. At that point it is not what you say, but your saying anything that might very well be held against you. (NMAOTKYMS) [Never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut]

7. Good--Fast--Cheap. Pick two. If it is good and fast, it won't be cheap. If it is cheap and good, it won't be fast. If it is fast and cheap, it won't be good. This has been an engineering maxim since year 1. The original space program was good and fast. It was not cheap. In the past bunch of years, the official publicly stated policy for NASA was Good-Fast-Cheap. We've lost two shuttles, 2 Mars probes, and had a major problem with deep space and outer planet probes and had to do a major repair on Hubble. Enough said. 

8. Responsibility without authority is fatal. Never accept responsibility for a project unless you have the parallel authority to influence the outcome. Alternately, when given a project make sure of exactly what authority you have and then make sure that your responsibility matches the authority. Make sure that everyone up and down the line knows who is responsible for what. CYA with paper.  

9. You cannot inspect quality into a product. Design and materials selection is the basis for a quality. Inspection simply insures that you've met design specs. A perfectly manufactured and assembled Yugo is still a Yugo, not a Porsche. This goes for all aspects of life. 

10. Career--Family--Major Hobbies: Pick two. Try as you may, you will not have time for all three. Heavy decisions. To attempt all three is to assure failure. 

11. Be patient. It may take thirty years, but sooner or later they'll listen to you, and in the meantime, keep kicking ass. -- Florynce R. Kennedy

[Kylan's Blog] Job Accepted

Today I formally accepted the position at SEL and signed all of the papers. My official start date is May 1.

[Kylan's Blog] President's Award

I found out today that I was selected as a winner of the 2008 WSU President's Award. There will be a dinner and reception on April 27 at 5:30PM in the Rec Center.

[Kylan's Blog] Birthday Weekend

This weekend I went home with Kristen and Jaron. We all took Friday off and left Pullman on Thursday night. This was a good weekend to go to Tacoma because my birthday was on Friday and ERC wanted to throw us a wedding shower.

The ride home was uneventful. The pass was clear, and the road crews had finished their avalanche repairs by the time we got there.

On Friday morning Kristen convinced me to open my presents in the morning. It was a good idea, because she surprised me with a Wii. I've been wanting one for quite some time, but didn't expect to get it as a gift. Needless to say, the rest of the morning and afternoon were spent swinging our arms about while staring at the television. Wii Sports came with the console, and Wii Play was bundled with the extra controller that was part of my present. Jaron and Christine pitched in to buy me Guitar Hero III for the Wii, and it should arrive in Pullman within a day or two. My parents gave me a box full of camping supplies, which will come in very handy this summer. The box included a table cloth covered with Cougar heads, a guidebook to Washington state parks, a cast iron skillet, a lamp that turns a Nalgene into a lantern, and more. I can't wait to try these things out with the rest of my gear.

For Saturday, Kristen and I went up to Kent to see Victoria and Karl. We had breakfast together, and it was enjoyable to catch up with them. The weather was amazing (in the high 70's), so we decided to go mini golfing after the meal. Then it was off to the mall, since Kristen had a gift card she needed to use. She was able to get some great clothes at pretty good deals. After eating dinner with my family, Kristen and I drove to Puyallup to hang out with Jake. With him, we went to The Rock (since he hadn't eaten dinner yet) and then back to his apartment. I brought along the Wii and we played a couple of the games together. Jake also pulled out a copy of the Lewis and Clark video we made in high school. It was really fun to reminisce about that project, especially since I haven't thought about it in a while.

On Sunday we all went to church. Afterward was the shower, which was attended by 60 or 70 people. It included a taco salad lunch, a couple of games, and words of wisdom from married couples. It was really nice of the church to put this on for us. Kristen and I appreciated it a lot. After that, Kristen, Jaron, and I drove back to Pullman, arriving there around 8PM.

[Kylan's Blog] Noisy Cars are Better?

Apparently, the US House of Representatives may soon consider a law setting minimum noise emission requirements for new automobiles. In my opinion, this would be a horrible idea. Sure, being able to hear a car might prevent a small number of pedestrian-automobile accidents from happening. But there has to be a better way. First of all, it's the driver's responsibility to watch for pedestrians. If they run into someone on the street, it's their fault. Pedestrians have the right-of-way. Second, our world has too much noise pollution as it is. Silencing modern cars would be a good thing, not a danger. Installing speakers in new cars just sounds ridiculous. This type of law would simply perpetuate a flaw (noisy engines) that can be solved by modern engineering.

[Kylan's Blog] New Job

Today I accepted an Associate Software Engineer position at SEL. I'll be working for Doug Arlt in research and development, writing code for new products.

[Kylan's Blog] DIVA Presentation

In a few minutes, I'll be giving a paper presentation in my fault tolerant computing class. It's on "DIVA: a reliable substrate for deep submicron microarchitecture design." (original paper) (my slides)

By the way, I've started saving my presentations as PDF files lately. I find them to be much more portable than PowerPoint files. Of course, this probably isn't an option if you like fancy swooping text and bells and whistles exploding everywhere.

[Kylan's Blog] NSF GRFP Results

During the fall semester this year, I applied for a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) award. I just got the results back yesterday. I wasn't one of the award recipients, but all of the participants were given a copy of the judges' comments (1) (2). This feedback is helpful, although it's interesting that these two responses actually contradict each other on a number of points. For example, one judge said that my "societal involvement explanation is weak" while the other commends me for "a specific plan for involving undergraduates in [my] research problem."

[Kylan's Blog] Switchfoot Bootlegs

I just discovered an excellent site called SwitchfootBootlegs.com. With permission from the band itself, this website hosts bootleg recordings of live performances by Switchfoot. The home page is nothing special, but I've subscribed to their podcast, which as A LOT of content. Right now I'm listening to a few tunes from the Switchfoot concert I attended in February of 2007. It's worth noting that this site can be very slow at times, and their server was down all of yesterday.