Daily Funnies

First from Abtruse Goose. I know I've thought about my dream house...grand vaulted ceilings, stone walls, fiber to the wall and personalized access via tamperproof RF badges....

Second from Brown Sharpie. I know that GWU is going to look like that on Monday of next week.

Finished

I'm finished with school. Finally.

Well, kinda finished. At least for a bit.

I have finished my last semester of my undergraduate engineering studies at GWU [1]. I came out of this spring semester with an butchered senior thesis project, but also with my second asic design. While my senior thesis was an fpga based SoC, doing encryption and communication; my asic is actually a microprocessor. It is a 8 bit CISC electric brain, using an acummulator based model. I have plans to take this to fabrication on the June MOSIS MEP run on AMI 0.5um process. Not only has this been implemented but simulated with a dsp system. My post fabrication verification plans including using an Fpga to emulate the block ram and handle the dac/adc parts.

The ASIC work is actually pretty exciting for me, since I don't do anything at all like this at my job. I'm really driving this myself with the support of a professor. I'm thinking about it as though I was working in the Eda industry, it's like free on the job style training. I even get to self pace my work since it's not for a course. I'll have the signoff for fab in late June, which will give me 2-3 months to have designed, implemented and tested the verification platform. One thing to keep in mind is that the processor was built using a RTL to GDSII flow, so it would not be difficult to implement the uP on an fpga too.

I have several busy evenings because of this project, but it will keep me sharp on my engineering skillset while I'm working an IT Support gig full time. I guess what it really is, in reality, is how much more free my brain is with the spectre of other coursework or senior design over my head.

It's a beautiful day. No more writing, time to play.

Seraph

[1] I still have a professional ethics philosophy course to finish. meh.

like everyone in my apartment building that still has original key cores

This is some high tech shiat

Minimal Security [/dev/random]

via Belgian Security Blognetwork on 12/15/08

Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/fboyd/2494909325/.

bioengineering

1. Why bother waiting for transplant organs when you can just grow your own* in less than a week?

* I realize the techniques and technology is in its infancy compared to what we would like to imagine, but this is an offshoot of crazy tissue engineering researach.  A functional bionengineered trachea is a first step - a good first step - towards high technology medical care that we envision in scifi books and movies.

2. Sometime bionengineering goes wrong.  You end up with a bionengineered freakish dictator on an alien world.  Throw in convicted prisoners, a kidnapping and quest for redemption and you've got a script.  Even better if you can wrap it into a space western...

iJesus tidbits

# 1. The iPhone brought touch screenes to the masses in an almost unprecedented way.  Its not the only phone with such capacities, even if the capaility is hidden.  The Android G1 also has touchscreen capabilities, but they're not readily available to developers.  Hopefully it will be used by developers.

# 2. Some people love their iPhones for so much more than a telephone.  I'll admit to being a Galcon addict.  But some people just want Atari throwbacks...

# for (i=3, i<aleph one; i++).  The iPhone Dev Team, the awesome group that brought a toolchain,  iUnlock, Anysim, assorted jailbreaks, Pwnage & BootNeuter , QuickPwn think they're 1 step away from a software unlock for the 3G iPhone.

Daily Comics

PVP Online - I read this like a cliched housewife watches trashy soap operas and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Ugly Hill - Why not just tell the kid to go play in the street?

Penny Arcade - Wrong question.....

American political musings

1. We all know that Proposition 8 passed in California.  Why people are trying to fight a amendment in the courts is amusing, since the courts can't void a vote by the people to change the state constitution.  The democratic process was followed, despite how people feel about the outcome, the courts are the wrong place to fight it.  People should be looking towards a future voting cycle when the state constitution can be amended again.

2. Ted Stevens, the man who brought us the Tubes has lost his senate seat.  What bothers me more, is that the convicted felon lost by only three thousand votes out of 315573 votes counted.

3. Most people have seen that Alberto Gonzalez and Richard Cheney have been indicted by a grand jury  in southern Texas, for alledged prisoner abuse and corruption in a prison system.  However, if this gets moved out of the state courts and into the federal court system, the defendents have an interesting twist to deal with.

"...the defendant must be prepared to argue that acts underlying the charges were performed pursuant to his federal authority."

China tidbits

1. Autocracy at risk

2. Instability will irritate this

3. Given 1. & general downturn in the global IC market, I don't see how 2009 will be the same as 2007.

io9 goodies

io9 brings a ton of goodies today

Hunter Prey - New Scifi movie that seems to have just wrapped up shooting. io9 has stills and an interview with the director. I'm looking forward to this film.

Unreal structures - Why take photographs of buildings when you can build buildings out of photographs?

Moon - More movie madness, this time on a distant moon. Its about what happens to you in space when you get cabin fever...

Concern about LHC style research

The Large Hadron Collider is down for repairs, at the tune of almost $26 million. While this is within the operating budget of CERN, the total cost of the device is expected to approach at least 6 billion USD, all of which is paid for by various nations and organizations. Given that we're moving towards a global depression (depending on who you read), what prospects do we have of such grandiose, multinational research projects in the coming decade if nation-states are primarily focusing towards sustaining themselves?

Update: io9 also wrote about this.