Thursday, August 28, 2003
Reach out for the stars ...
Okay finally I've found something slightly interesting to report. I found out about this project called Deep Impact by NASA and it is basically about a spacecraft that is to collide into a Comet in a few year's time. So do I hear you saying "So what!?"
Well I dont know what they have in mind, but they are collecting names that will be put on a CD inside of the spaceship that will head for the comet. Quite frankly I dont see the big point of doing that, but in any case if you'd like to make the list just go to
Deep Impact
You can put up that stupid certificate they send you on your cubicle wall like I have.:-)
Okay finally I've found something slightly interesting to report. I found out about this project called Deep Impact by NASA and it is basically about a spacecraft that is to collide into a Comet in a few year's time. So do I hear you saying "So what!?"
Well I dont know what they have in mind, but they are collecting names that will be put on a CD inside of the spaceship that will head for the comet. Quite frankly I dont see the big point of doing that, but in any case if you'd like to make the list just go to
Deep Impact
You can put up that stupid certificate they send you on your cubicle wall like I have.:-)
Saket, 9:58 AM
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Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Change of location...
Important change in my life, I have moved to Louisville, KY for the next 4-5 months
as I am working on a co-op with GE here. Louisville is said to be the 15th largest city
in the US, but of course I have no way to tell. Generally one's life is such that one just
goes down a particular road... I mean when I was in school all I had to know was the
short way to school. In UW you just had to go down University Avenue to get anywhere.
Now in GE its this long stretch of road from Park Laureate to Appliance Park. The
surprising and sad part is that there is no means of urban transportation around
these parts and I have to rely on forming a car pool with some friends to get anywhere.
The roads here are such that they also remove any possibility of going by cycle as well.
The landscape is what someone called typical Midwest and everything is at best two storeys
high all the way from home to here. Its a big change from Madison...my home away from
home. Gonna miss it over the next few months now.
Important change in my life, I have moved to Louisville, KY for the next 4-5 months
as I am working on a co-op with GE here. Louisville is said to be the 15th largest city
in the US, but of course I have no way to tell. Generally one's life is such that one just
goes down a particular road... I mean when I was in school all I had to know was the
short way to school. In UW you just had to go down University Avenue to get anywhere.
Now in GE its this long stretch of road from Park Laureate to Appliance Park. The
surprising and sad part is that there is no means of urban transportation around
these parts and I have to rely on forming a car pool with some friends to get anywhere.
The roads here are such that they also remove any possibility of going by cycle as well.
The landscape is what someone called typical Midwest and everything is at best two storeys
high all the way from home to here. Its a big change from Madison...my home away from
home. Gonna miss it over the next few months now.
Saket, 2:16 PM
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Friday, August 01, 2003
Unique America
In UW we have this service called Safe Ride, which is a free cab ride 8 times a month.
The truth is Madison is one of the safest cities in the whole of America but they
still have this service. Now I usually get talking to the cabbies on my rides and it
is the one unique perspective on America that I get here. I mean oridinarily you
spend time with fellow Indians all the time and even the fleeting conversations with
other Americans happen to be about coursework and jobs.
Cabbies however are really friendly most of the times and show you a different side of
America. Madison cab drivers are probably among the most educated cabbies I know,
and I have regularly had drivers who have been to college in Iowa and UW itself.
(Do I see myself driving a cab in the future?? ;-)) Usually they seem like a happy lot,
and interests which are rare among even the middle class in India are things cabbies do.
I met one guy who used to play golf every weekend and then there was another cabbie
who spoke French and had been to Montreal the last 3 holidays.
Last nite however, I met a really unhappy cabbie with a very uniquely American problem.
After the customary "howz it goin?!", he told me how he is having financial problems in his
family and how he has 5 kids to take care of... 2 he has with his ex-wife, 2 are his fiance`'s
kids from a previous relationship and one which the two of them had together. I heard his
sad story and as fate would have it tonite I didnt have a single dollar in my pocket to tip the
guy. I mean this is the greatest irony of life, on almost every cab ride before I had tipped
the cabbie and they didnt seem to need the money more or less, but just when you find
someone who needs the money a lot, you dont have change on you!! Life is strange.
In UW we have this service called Safe Ride, which is a free cab ride 8 times a month.
The truth is Madison is one of the safest cities in the whole of America but they
still have this service. Now I usually get talking to the cabbies on my rides and it
is the one unique perspective on America that I get here. I mean oridinarily you
spend time with fellow Indians all the time and even the fleeting conversations with
other Americans happen to be about coursework and jobs.
Cabbies however are really friendly most of the times and show you a different side of
America. Madison cab drivers are probably among the most educated cabbies I know,
and I have regularly had drivers who have been to college in Iowa and UW itself.
(Do I see myself driving a cab in the future?? ;-)) Usually they seem like a happy lot,
and interests which are rare among even the middle class in India are things cabbies do.
I met one guy who used to play golf every weekend and then there was another cabbie
who spoke French and had been to Montreal the last 3 holidays.
Last nite however, I met a really unhappy cabbie with a very uniquely American problem.
After the customary "howz it goin?!", he told me how he is having financial problems in his
family and how he has 5 kids to take care of... 2 he has with his ex-wife, 2 are his fiance`'s
kids from a previous relationship and one which the two of them had together. I heard his
sad story and as fate would have it tonite I didnt have a single dollar in my pocket to tip the
guy. I mean this is the greatest irony of life, on almost every cab ride before I had tipped
the cabbie and they didnt seem to need the money more or less, but just when you find
someone who needs the money a lot, you dont have change on you!! Life is strange.
Saket, 10:18 AM
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What the videos show
Okay the results from my last post. No one asked me to write them here but I'll do it
all the same. Well okay so what happens to the processors. P3 just stops working
(EEs = they just turn off the clock). P4 slow down the application but still works and
both Intel Processors survive the test.(EE's = they just insert NOPs
into the program to reduce the power dissipation and hence keep the temperature
constant).
The AMD processors, burn and melt reaching temperatures like 400 degree celcius. Now
here is the really interesting part... why doesnt AMD use some of this technology too?
The problem is that Intel engineers thought of all these ideas very early on and hold
the patents for all these techniques. So now if AMD has to slow down its processor with
increase in temperature it has to pay Intel royalty. This info is courtesy Professor Jan
Rabaey from UC Berkeley (who I think is one of the greatest geniuses of our time).
Someday I am going to write an article about him too.
Okay the results from my last post. No one asked me to write them here but I'll do it
all the same. Well okay so what happens to the processors. P3 just stops working
(EEs = they just turn off the clock). P4 slow down the application but still works and
both Intel Processors survive the test.(EE's = they just insert NOPs
into the program to reduce the power dissipation and hence keep the temperature
constant).
The AMD processors, burn and melt reaching temperatures like 400 degree celcius. Now
here is the really interesting part... why doesnt AMD use some of this technology too?
The problem is that Intel engineers thought of all these ideas very early on and hold
the patents for all these techniques. So now if AMD has to slow down its processor with
increase in temperature it has to pay Intel royalty. This info is courtesy Professor Jan
Rabaey from UC Berkeley (who I think is one of the greatest geniuses of our time).
Someday I am going to write an article about him too.
Saket, 10:02 AM
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