The Final Countdown

Communication

I just finished the final paper for my Embedded Systems Architecture class. I'm pretty proud of it, so I figured I'd post it up here. It is titled Communication and goes over a basic Information Theory primer then in that context it discusses error detection/correction algorithms and line coding schemes. I tried to simplify the topics a fair amount to make it more widely accessible, so please give it a read and let me know what you think.
Thanks!

City Center Fountain

I just wanted to share this video (even if it is a bit late ;). This is the "finished product" of the Lumia project that I worked on at WET.



This video is from Andres who was the team leader of the project. I designed most of the stationary nozzles that you see as well as the spherical shrouds covering them.

This filming was a test show (as you can tell by the guys in hardhats walking through frame, haha), I still haven't seen the finished product. Hopefully, sometime this Summer I'll get over there.

The Ramen Girl

I just watched The Ramen Girl on Netflix and it was incredible. I've always been a sucker for the Eastern/Kung Fu philosophy, but this brings it into the present day with a romantic, comedic twist. It was a wonderfully uplifting story about a girl out of place in Japan with nothing but her blind faith in an overly harsh sensei and the will to learn the spirit of ramen. Her trials in finding a new meaning in life filled me with a new sense of purpose and ardor.
On the surface it could be construed as the same old new-lease-on-life story, but underneath it contained a new energy and richness that buoyed it above the usual fare of Hollywood feel-goodery. I particularly enjoyed the transitions from emotionally zen scenes, which brought a not-unhappy teary-ness to my eyes, to uplifting, almost hilarious and comedic scenes of growth and achievement.
Overall, I thought it was very worthwhile; an enjoyable movie even though it housed a few cheesy moments and more than a few side-line characters.

Tattoo

So I've finalized my next tattoo and decided that it will actually be the first part of a four part series. The theme is the four tenets by which I want to live my life:
Stay balanced,
Give love,
Pursue knowledge,
And above all,
Have passion.

The current tattoo (above) represents knowledge. It uses the RS-232 (i.e. serial) protocol to write 'knowledge' using ASCII encoding (the 8N1 means each byte has 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit in case you're curious). It's going on my left shoulder (just above my bicep). Eventually I will get tattoos representing balance and love and the final one will be a representation of passion which will tie all three together.