Cancún Trip: One week at the Mayan Palace Riviera Maya

I spent all of last week on vacation in Mexico and I have to say that it was one of the best trips I have ever had. The weather was great, not too hot but still way better then Utah, and I could not have asked for a better group to be with. We spent most of the time sitting next to a gynormous pool or eating at one of the restaurants at the resort. We also meet up with a friend that lived in the area and he took us out to Playa del Carmen for a night on the town. We had delicious Mojitos at a Cuban club called Bodeguita del Medio and ended up sitting about 5 feet away from the spectacular fire dancers at the Blue Parrot. For Halloween part of the group went into town to the famous Coco Bongo club while the rest of us mingled with the folks on the resort. Pretty much the only downside to the entire trip were the ginger-hungry mosquitos and the 3 par gold course from hell (275 yards on a par 3... WTF?)

I got back on Saturday, but today was my first day of work so it didn't really set in until then. I did however feel very refreshed and got all caught up on emails and voicemail and am ready to dive back into everyday life. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend going to Cancún or one of the resorts close by, as I will always remember these memories:

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A, B, C, D, E, F.... Google and the Technological Singularity

I had an interesting conversation last night with some friend in which I said the only futuristic event that I am certain of is The Technological Singularity. I am not sure when it will happen and it may or may not be in my lifetime, but today I saw an interesting TED talk by Kevin Kelly in which he discusses the 5000 day history of the web and tries to predict what will happen in the next 5000 days. By his rough calculations, the web currently is on the same order of complexity as the human brain. Since the web increases in power every year, a feat that we humans have yet to accomplish, this means that by 2040 the web will have more processing power than all of humankind (which sounds a bit like the singularity to me). He also talks about the previous different stages of the web, from linking computers to linking pages and now linking data, and how once everything is connected (via RFID, the net, or whatever) we will become just as dependent on the web as we have on other technologies such as the alphabet. While I do not agree with all of his predictions, it is a very fascinating view of what we may have in-store for the future.

Deferential Geo-whatamy?

There are many things in this world that I will probably never truly understand (women being one of them ;-) but I like to hear people who do understand or at least understand many orders of magnitude more than I do try and explain things in simple terms. Quantum Mechanics and particle physics are two of those things that I have little hope of ever really understanding, but ideas like String Theory and big toys like the Large Hadron Collider simply fascinate me. I ran into a great TED presentation by Garrett Lisi who is an adventure sports enthusiast (aka surf and snow bum) and is an up and comer in the world of theoretical physics. About a year ago Lisi released a paper called "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything," which uses a complex, multi-dimensional, differentiable manifold shape called the E₈ to try and unify all of the forces of physics. It presents yet another alternative to String Theory, which the LHC should help to prove or disprove, but until then you can watch the following great presentation to see how things might work:

My Christmas wish will come true this year!

While the Sin City 2 movie is not due out for another few years and the long awaited Watchmen movie is still 5 months away, it looks like Christmas will come, um, at Christmas this year when Frank Miller gives us all the gift of another cinematic masterpiece called The Spirit. I just saw the trailer this morning, and I am very excited.

And if that wasn't enough... Kevin Smith is making a porno on October 31st!

Here's another red-band preview for the movie, which is one you will probably never see at your local theater.

Obligatory South Park quote: "Spare some change?"

The aura of change is growing stronger every week: our politics are changing, our weather is changing, and even our financial markets have changed. My personal life is no different, so I though I would take this opportunity to list a few of the changes that I have made in the last few months:

Work smarter, not harder: 
I started using the time management software from RescueTime a few months ago and have found that it helps keep me from venturing too far off track during the work day. I had previously been using a small app built by the Software Jedi (my hero! I still use it for making my time cards), but it is buggy and lacks any real analysis features (still not bad for being built in one day). I was planning on building a bunch of macros and pivot tables in Excel for it when I ran across RescueTime, which is free for personal use and actively being developed. It keeps track of all the websites and applications you use on your computer and sends this data to their servers to let you tag each item as productive or not-productive. From all this tagging you get a bunch of pretty pictures saying how much time you spend working and how much you spend wasting reading web comics. They even have live widgets like the one that I added to the sidebar to spice up the blog.

Try new things: Part I
Chrome, the new Google browser has been the talk of the town lately, so I figured I would give it a try and see if it was all that it was cracked up to be. It started off a bit bumpy, as I ran into a Java plugin error right away, but after that it really did seem like it loads much faster and works better with Javascript laden sites like Gmail and Google Docs. There are still plenty of bugs to be worked out, but it is fun to work with a fresh new browser designed to maximize productivity. I’ll post another review after I spend more time with it, but for now try it out for your self or read the Google Chrome Comic to get a better idea what the buzz is all about. Did I mention it works with RescueTime too :-P

Try new things: Part II
Outside of work and web, I have also been making changes to my personal life. Having a Korean girlfriend means that I have been eating a lot of new foods and shopping at oriental markets too (a first). For example, tonight I had Yeul Ramyon - Hot Taste soup for dinner, which I had to admit was way better then the Oriental Top Ramen that I usually buy. I added some green peppers and one egg while cooking on the stove (another thing I would never do with regular Ramen), and I must say it was very delicious. I was a bit let down by the spiciness: it was hot enough to clear my sinus and leave that wonderful chili breath taste in your mouth, but it did not send me running to the fridge in tears for a glass of milk. I have two more Korean spicy ramen packages to try out, as well as ingredients for spring rolls, stir fry, and fried rice, so hopefully one of these days I will have the ulcer-inducing spicy hot meal that I have been craving (Anyone interested in a jalapeño chipotle chicken pizza?).

Try new things: Part III
In addition to eating new foods, I am starting to notice that we Americans are very overweight. It use to be that I could say I was not part of the problem, but my teenage metabolism has been gone for quite some time now and all those “extra curricular” activities in college have left me with a bit of pudge around the mid section. Since I am planning my next vacation at a Cancun resort with one of the largest pools in Latin America, I would say that means I need to start working out again; however since I have only been to the gym a few times in my lifetime I don’t thing “again” is the correct term. Instead I decided to utilize the equipment I already own (namely an exercise ball, some free weights, and a mountain bike) as well as adding some new tools like a jump rope and medicine ball. So far the bike and jump rope feel like they have the best chance of lasting long term. I can get in a half hour of jump rope every day and hope to bike at least 5 miles each week. My real goal is to bike from my house all the way up to Olympus Cove, which by my estimate is 4-5 miles away and 500-800 ft of elevation change. Luckily the ride back home is all downhill.

I will keep you up to date on these new endeavors, as well as any other new changes that I come across. That is unless I happen to win the lottery, in which case the only change I will be mentioning is my new job of not doing a damn thing :-J

Enjoy!

Please keep your arms and legs inside the Omnibus at all times

It has been over a month since I last posted, so I thought I would get back into the groove with a Omnibus Update. Things have been über busy this summer and I have not finished even half of the things that I wanted to, but such is life. The condo still does not have any pictures on the walls and I have not even used the porch yet, although I did finally get a nice TV stand on clearance at Shopko for $33! I don't actually have a TV, as I always use a projector, but at least now I have somewhere to store all my DVDs and the Wii. I still need to get some plants and various other thing, but overall it is coming together quite well and definitely feels like home.

Last month flew by at light speed, yet I somehow still managed to meet a girl (Jihyun, aka mamacita bonita, now my "official girlfriend"), present at the Flash Memory Conference in Santa Clara (Nailed it!), have an awesome vacation in San Fransisco (best picture ever :-), and get back into town just in time for a killer Big Wednesday (Luau themed bar crawl). In San Francisco we stayed at a really nice hotel called the Prescott right next to union square and had a lot of fun: we went to a comedy club, a dueling piano bar, the wax museum, and walked around the Pier. We were suppose to drive out to Napa Valley for a wine tour but ran out of time. It was a good vacation, but next time we need to schedule a couple more days to get everything in.

I went to a cousin's wedding in Oregon over labor day weekend, where I got to help serve Pinot Noir grape juice, setup and tear down all the tables and chairs, and even run to the hardware store to fix the backdrop. I am more than happy to help out though, as it helps avoid the inevitable question of "So when are you getting married?" (answer is 2012 :-) We still had fun too: I went bowling with my brothers, cousins, and nephew and went mountain biking down Mount Ashland (the same trail they use to do the Super D run). I did fairly well in bowling, but trying to keep up with my younger cousins made it clear that I am in no shape to be riding down the mountain on a bike. I told them to come to Utah sometime and I will teach them a thing or two on the snow.

That brings us up to September, where I have been busy testing a new software release and getting ready for the roll-out later this month. I am very glad that I do not have to go back to school this semester, as it leaves a bit more free time to hangout and have fun. September seems to be a popular month for birthdays, and we have a camping trip to Flaming Gorge planned for this weekend to celebrate at least 4 of them. Should be a lot of fun and a good break before work starts to pickup at the end of the month.

And lastly, this week the Large Hadron Collider came online, which is designed to try and find the Higgs boson particle among other things. So far it has yet to tear apart the known universe (a shame really), so in the spirit of advanced particle physics and tearing a new one, I will leave you with the video that recently won the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Big Bang Theory Related Video". Enjoy!

2008 Flash Memory Summit and a vacation to boot!

Like many people that I have talked to recently, I have found myself buried under a mountain of work that seems to have no end in sight. Every time I climb my way to the top of one peak, another pops up in its place and taunts me to keep going. This week is especially busy as I am trying to finish things up before going to the 2008 Flash Memory Summit in California, all while maintaining a blooming social life full of bowling, poker and various other late night excursions.

The conference starts next week at the Santa Clara Marriott and runs Tuesday through Thursday. The preview program lists many exciting keynote speakers from great companies such as Micron, Intel, Sandisk, Samsung and Dell, but I guarantee that the best presentation is going to be on Wednesday morning during "Tutorial 1B: Designing Flash-Based Products". That is when I will be presenting an overview of the Hardware Based Flash Memory Failure Characterization Platform that just might solve our current economic crisis and end world hunger! Ok... well maybe those are a bit ambitious goals, but if you are a product engineer and want to see how long flash memory will work under specific use patters or you just have a keen interest in the failure characteristics of NAND Flash then this is definitely going to rock your world.

The presentation is based on work that I helped complete as part of a team of 5 students from the University of Utah Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department for the 2007-2008 senior engineering clinic sponsored by the Micron Foundation. It was built using an FPGA and custom software and is fully open source, so if you are interested in Flash Memory check out the abstract and slides or visit the project website for more information. Needless to say I am very excited about going to my first technical conference and ecstatic about getting the opportunity to showcase the work we have done.

I am even more excited that I was able to talk our faculty advisor into extending the return trip so that I could squeeze in my first real vacation of the year. After the conference ends I will be heading to San Francisco to meet up with a group of friends that I somehow managed to talk in to flying out with me. We currently have plans to visit various tourist attractions, indulge ourselves in the great night life, and even get in a day or two of wine tasting, all while staying at one of the top 50 hotels in the country! I have been to San Fransisco before with family and enjoyed it very much, but this is shaping up to be a spectacular trip!