CUSat Testing and Debugging

This year, I decided to cut my winter break short by going back to campus 2 weeks early and helping out with the CUSat work (I was bored at home anyway). The work has consisted mainly of testing the flight code on the simulator(s) and debugging any quirks that appear (debugging can get quite frustrating). Here are some highlights of my CUSat winter break experience during the past 5 days:

• Pouring liquid nitrogen from a metal pail into a kitchen-sized plastic funnel because we forgot to refill the supply tank in the lab on time. I wasn't the guy who actually poured the liquid nitrogen, but apparently his gloves weren't very good at insulating. Don't worry, no one froze their fingers off (but came kinda close).
• Testing the GPS receivers on the rooftop of Thurston/Kimball Hall in a single-digit wind chill. We were outside for at least 3 hours, and my toes were not very happy about being outside for that long. The GPS test failed to work correctly due to then-unresolved (and hopefully now-resolved) software bugs, but being on the roof was pretty cool.
• Patrick Conrad's visit. He really knows what he is doing, and that is a very good thing. I have had the opportunity to meet both Kris and Patrick now.
  
• 1 free meal per day (starting today). I volunteered to place the food orders.

More to come later? Possibly. We'll see how things turn out over the next 7 days. The flight software gets loaded onto the satellite next Friday.

Greetings 2009

Farewell 2008. It was nice knowing you...not. It was not the best of years, for various reasons (but it could have been worse).

Happy new year.

Makeshift Movie Theaters

After living in the 'trols room with the right nut and the seabass for 12 days, final exams and final projects have officially ended for the Fall 2008 semester (and grades are being rolled out as I type). Occassionally there was a study break that involved a movie on the big screen in a classroom somewhere in the Engineering Quad. Personally, I have not seen a movie in all of the rooms discussed here, but here is a brief review from personal experiences and word-of-mouth of the available options in case you seek a similar study break:

• OLIN 155 - This is by far the best option. This lecture hall has a very large screen, a projector that doesn't flake out on you, and comfortable seats. The only drawback (and this is a significant drawback) is that the room is locked after 9:30 PM. Also, at the time of this writing, there is some construction (renovation) work in Olin Hall, so it can be rather noisy at times.
• THURSTON 205 - This room is a very good one. It's not a big lecture hall. The equipment (projector, seats, etc.) are all in good working condition. Nothing spectacular, but it works.
• OLIN 255 - This lecture hall has insane stadium seating. Insane meaning that this room alone looks like it takes up 2 floors due to the steep incline of the stadium seating. The equipment is in good working condition, but if I remember correctly some of the lights stay on in this room.
  
• UPSON B17 - The home-away-from-home for mechanical engineers like us. The projector turns off after 40 minutes of inactivity, which gets very annoying.
• KIMBALL B11 - Pretty much the same story as Upson B17. The projector goes off every once in a while, forcing you to get up and turn it back on.
• PHILLIPS 203/219 - The projectors here work well, but the drawback it that not all of the lights go off. Either that or we haven't figured out how to kill all the lights.
• PHILLIPS 101 - First you must find your way from the back of the room up to the front podium in the dark in order to turn on the lights in the room. After that you realize that the audio cable is frayed, so this room is no good for watching a movie on the big screen (unless it's a silent movie).
  

Good Morning, Elevator

Every morning as I head out to breakfast/class, I take the elevator down since I live on the 6th floor. Occassionally when I'm not feeling lazy I'll take the stairs down. There are 2 elevators in the building, and one is faster than the other. Obviously people want the fast elevator because the elevators aren't that fast to begin with (compared to, say, the Statler Hall elevators), and time spent in the elevator is kind of like sunk time because there's not much one can do in the elevator. The elevators are so slow in general that people manage to hold conversations on the posters in the elevator by writing on them.

Anyway, I've noticed that 99% of the time, the fast elevator comes up to the 6th floor to take me down in the morning, which is a good thing and makes me happy. I figure this is the case because in the morning, everyone goes from high floors down to the bottom floors to head out and begin their day. This means that in the morning hours, chances are both elevators are sitting on floors 1 and/or 2 (where the doors to the building are) unless someone pushes the elevator call button, in which case the elevator shimmies up and then goes back to chillin' on floor 1 or 2 after dropping the groggy student to the door floor. When both elevators start on the bottom 2 floors, the fast elevator always beats the slow elevator in traversing to the 6th floor. The fast elevator is that much faster than the slow elevator, but the slow elevator usually has elaborate handwritten conversations on the posters in them.

It Was Nice Knowing You, Subway's Chicken Pizziola

-- Last night the fire alarm in Cascadilla Hall went off again. This time, it went off at 3:30 AM, which was 2 hours after I went to bed. On top of that, it was wet and cold outside because it was raining a little.

-- Last weekend was APEX, which was a series of performances by popular Asian-American artists such as Randall Park, Hsu-nami, Magnetic North, and (of course) Wong Fu Productions. Since I volunteered to be a bouncer, I got a free show while I kicked out other people who wanted to steal a free show. It was a pretty good show, especially Wong Fu's short videos. Wong Fu visited Cornell 2 years ago, when I was a lowly freshman, and showed their first full-length movie. For some reason, whenever I see Wong Fu when they visit Cornell, I'm always inspired to make a short movie by myself.

-- I actually enjoy working the 5-hour Friday night shift at the Law School computer lab. Most people would opt not to work the Friday night because...hell, it's Friday night. However, I like Friday night because the computer lab is usually near empty (if not completely unoccupied), it forces me to at least do a little homework, and to tell the truth I usually never go out to crazy parties on Friday nights.

-- Apparently Subway's Chicken Pizziola promotion ends today. It was a pretty good sub for the price. From an Asian point of view, it's a very good deal because you get a lot of meat (chicken and pepperoni) for a $5 footlong sub. Basically it was a chicken pizza, with marinara sauce and tomatoes and whatever else you want on it.