Back when I was building an X11 / Unix front end for a VLSI system, I got interested in how it worked, what it was doing. It took netlists and generated GDSII which is a file format describing layers of polygonal shapes. Corresponding to doping, metallization, polysilicon deposition masks.
I found a hardware text and read it. In the back there was a description of the GDSII file format.
I saw that this other huge software was being used to review the GDSII output, and it was quite slow. So over a weekend I wrote a fast dedicated viewer. It because quite popular in the company, I was told.
This is why its important to be interested in what you're doing, you'll see opportunities to be extra useful.
19 November 2010
Looking for work, Fall 2010
Got laid off upon returning from vacation, 1 Sept. Getting back pay at least.
Then the client seems to be hiring my old position, but in talking to them they don't seem to have a clue that hiring the person who built the thing is probably a good idea. The ramp-up time will be substantial: 11 boards, 36 cables. Probably 100 C 'classes', 500KB of ARM7 code compiled. Two years of development (with other related projects, including PIC 16F programming, test fixtures, acceptance test procedure coding, documentation, etc.)
The project still has work to be done, I was being pushed to add features to hit milestones. The project was originally fixed bid but massively underestimated; perhaps the CEO who can code thought he could contribute more time than he could.
Business wise, its interesting to recognize classic problems. Expanding and moving to expensive space. Underestimating complexity. Fixed bid. Client had never built electronics of any kind, much less for FDA approval, much less with 5 CPUs in it.
Nine of ten startups fail.
It used to bug me more, getting laid off. I got laid off in '02 for the first time in my life, my employer IDT sold to Cisco and the Net bubble burst. At Cardiac Science, the company was acquired by Burdick and laid off most of the software staff on our project. (Amusingly, being a Washington state co, they had to publish a list of the laid-off folks' ages, from which I was able to figure out everyone's age. An obvious privacy violation forced by another state's law.) At Zetera, they ran out of Venture Capital and folded. And my most recent employer had payroll problems, as they did last year, when there was a period of nonpayment and then laying off everyone (then rehiring). They renegotiated the building and the major project (to include time and materials now). But now they have tax problems. Thank you, California.
Anyway, good engineers work on bleeding edge problems, and business entities solving them often fail.
I'm just looking for stability, a place to work on interesting problems, with smart people. Let others find the jobs, buffer the work and salaries, schmooz.
I should read some Dilbert, which I haven't in a while.
Then the client seems to be hiring my old position, but in talking to them they don't seem to have a clue that hiring the person who built the thing is probably a good idea. The ramp-up time will be substantial: 11 boards, 36 cables. Probably 100 C 'classes', 500KB of ARM7 code compiled. Two years of development (with other related projects, including PIC 16F programming, test fixtures, acceptance test procedure coding, documentation, etc.)
The project still has work to be done, I was being pushed to add features to hit milestones. The project was originally fixed bid but massively underestimated; perhaps the CEO who can code thought he could contribute more time than he could.
Business wise, its interesting to recognize classic problems. Expanding and moving to expensive space. Underestimating complexity. Fixed bid. Client had never built electronics of any kind, much less for FDA approval, much less with 5 CPUs in it.
Nine of ten startups fail.
It used to bug me more, getting laid off. I got laid off in '02 for the first time in my life, my employer IDT sold to Cisco and the Net bubble burst. At Cardiac Science, the company was acquired by Burdick and laid off most of the software staff on our project. (Amusingly, being a Washington state co, they had to publish a list of the laid-off folks' ages, from which I was able to figure out everyone's age. An obvious privacy violation forced by another state's law.) At Zetera, they ran out of Venture Capital and folded. And my most recent employer had payroll problems, as they did last year, when there was a period of nonpayment and then laying off everyone (then rehiring). They renegotiated the building and the major project (to include time and materials now). But now they have tax problems. Thank you, California.
Anyway, good engineers work on bleeding edge problems, and business entities solving them often fail.
I'm just looking for stability, a place to work on interesting problems, with smart people. Let others find the jobs, buffer the work and salaries, schmooz.
I should read some Dilbert, which I haven't in a while.
17 February 2010
11 February 2010
einstein, fifth grade
Kid in 5th grade, asked what einstein sez about matter and energy.
What he says is, they're like ice and water, the same thing, with
some constant involved. For m=e/c^2 (what Al published, not the
bs e=mc2) the constant is the speed of light squared. It has to
do with the elasticity of the aether, which doesn't exist.
What he says is, they're like ice and water, the same thing, with
some constant involved. For m=e/c^2 (what Al published, not the
bs e=mc2) the constant is the speed of light squared. It has to
do with the elasticity of the aether, which doesn't exist.
09 February 2010
frame shift
The grandkid of the VP Eng at work is an intern at work.
He said "grandpa" when referring to the VP.
That was a weird frame shift. Like when you see a dog
being operated on: looks like grocery meat; and grandma;
and its a biomed test.
No dogs recently, but pigs. More like people, although more
expensive than dogs, I think. Dogs were for cardiac work
in LA; pigs for my current work.
When we put our 18 year old cat down last year, I was impressed
by the speed of the vacancy of the eyes after injection. My
dad noticed same on his dog euthanasia. For the pigs, its
a pink injection into the ear, and the animal is already
anesthetized. Cat inject was shoulder I think, dog was between
toes, heroin style.
Not a bad way to go. Much prettier than the HST pistol plan.
He said "grandpa" when referring to the VP.
That was a weird frame shift. Like when you see a dog
being operated on: looks like grocery meat; and grandma;
and its a biomed test.
No dogs recently, but pigs. More like people, although more
expensive than dogs, I think. Dogs were for cardiac work
in LA; pigs for my current work.
When we put our 18 year old cat down last year, I was impressed
by the speed of the vacancy of the eyes after injection. My
dad noticed same on his dog euthanasia. For the pigs, its
a pink injection into the ear, and the animal is already
anesthetized. Cat inject was shoulder I think, dog was between
toes, heroin style.
Not a bad way to go. Much prettier than the HST pistol plan.
06 February 2010
21st century rains
My kid controlled a webcam watching a stream via a netbook.
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/webcams/modjeska/webcam-oper.html?
Wow.
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/webcams/modjeska/webcam-oper.html?
Wow.
12 January 2010
Engineering fun
So we get a new-manufacture, new-layout circuit board
with nominally the exact same behavior and topology.
turns out, after two days of debug, that the board I have
has a bad relay. I was wondering why the calib routine
didn't work. Spent at least a day with the VP of engineering
debugging; he kept saying, lets try it on the test fixture.
All the new boards were good; but mine had a bad relay, which
had escaped the ATP for the boards.
Classic. I had to debug by realizing I was seeing open
circuit resistance (shows as 1800 ohms) when I should have
seen 100.0. I was at one point seeing the resistance of the
attached external resistor. That revealed a bug where the
receptacle for the external resistor was switched in.
But with that fixed, I still saw open. Intead of 100.
Eventually i convinced myself it was open, instead of 100,
and the analog guys found a bad relay (one of 25).
with nominally the exact same behavior and topology.
turns out, after two days of debug, that the board I have
has a bad relay. I was wondering why the calib routine
didn't work. Spent at least a day with the VP of engineering
debugging; he kept saying, lets try it on the test fixture.
All the new boards were good; but mine had a bad relay, which
had escaped the ATP for the boards.
Classic. I had to debug by realizing I was seeing open
circuit resistance (shows as 1800 ohms) when I should have
seen 100.0. I was at one point seeing the resistance of the
attached external resistor. That revealed a bug where the
receptacle for the external resistor was switched in.
But with that fixed, I still saw open. Intead of 100.
Eventually i convinced myself it was open, instead of 100,
and the analog guys found a bad relay (one of 25).
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