Well, saying that I’ve been quite busy lately is an understatement. I have 2 projects to finish up, 3 papers to write, a twenty minute presentation to give, and two exams to finish before I graduate in May. I’m almost done with the projects, but still have a ways to go on just about everything else.

Thought I’m not *too* worried about the papers and presentation, the exams are starting to stress me out. One is a three hour in-class exam that will be a quite challenging and the other is a take-home exam that will be very time-consuming. What sucks most about them is that I don’t have much time to study for either. I’ll have 3 or 4 days (if I’m lucky) for the first one then maybe another 3 to finish the second one.

I need to just get things done one by one in small steps… and to take a deep breath and tell myself that it will all be over soon… this reminds me of the following quote:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step
– Miyamoto Musashi.

On an up note, I was quite surprised today when I received the “Branch Out Award” from the Community Service Office for helping them out when I’m able. I’ll be sure to take a picture of it and put it up on my website eventually. Lauren was actually responsible for handing them out; knowing the CSO staff, she was picked intentionally to hand them out since they wanted to give one to me. It’s really cool to have been given an award that I had no clue I was going to get.

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I’ve been working on my resume a touch recently and finally modified it to work well online. Here’s my latest draft formatted to fit my website. (For a PDF version, click here and to verify my Adobe signatures download this)

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Two more weeks of class, one week for two finals, and then I’m done with my Masters Degree. The rapidly decreasing amount of time is more than just a little scary.

I still have 3 projects to work on, including: a 5-10 page paper with a presentation on SIMD multi-processing computer architectures, integrating a microprocessor with Matlab through RS232, and porting Motorola HC11 code to an HC12 to make a strong robotics platform. I’ve got lots to do, little time to do it in, and an ever-increasing urge to not do any work at all.

As far as the job-hunt goes, I’m still looking as of now. I had an interview two weeks ago today with a defense contractor for an embedded software programming position and am waiting to hear back from them. I’m a little nervous because I really like the position and potential with the company. Moving to Tucson would be a fun change in my life.

Not much else new…

Intel announced yesterday that they are releasing their multi-core processors before AMD made their announcement of a release. The first line of processors “made available” (I say that term loosely because it will be a while until the consumer market is able to touch them since the first run of the chips is going to Dell) will just be regular multi-cored processors and will be just like having two physical chips in your computer.

Actually, they won’t just be like having two physical chips, they really will be two chips built into the same package with the same (if not worse) heat problems that plague the P4 architecture. New hardware will be needed to run these chips, so don’t expect to keep your current computers if you are upgrading to these chips. The only advantage the Intel chips have over the AMDs is that they will be significantly less expensive (until the dual-core and hyperthreded chips become available) and they are backed by Dell

AMD, however, took a very different approach than Intel and integrated the chips onto a single silicon die and started the whole design from scratch to be backwards compatible with its previous generation of Opteron chips. Yes, that’s right, backwards compatible… meaning you won’t need to upgrade your hardware to take advantage of the new 64-bit processors (maybe just the BIOS). Another plus behind the AMD is that their CPUs will be backed by HP, SUN, and IBM; very stiff competition to the Dell-backed Intel processors.

The AMD chips will be shipping, as soon as April 21st, with multi-threading capabilities (from what I can tell, they have three active threads of execution at the same time between the two cores) on the chip along with extremely efficient transport busses designed to make data transport faster. Right off the bat, the AMDs have the advantage over the Intel chips.

I’m waiting for more data and white-papers to show up about both CPUs (the marketing-designed resources on their websites are not very helpful in giving more details about the inner-workings of the chips) before I make final judgment, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the dual-core hyperthreaded processors of Intel stand up to the triple-threaded threat of the AMDs. As for now, even with the Intel chips “coming out” before the AMDs, they AMD Opteron 64 are the clear winner based on specs alone.

According to BBC News and CNN News, Rudolph was finally charged and plead guilty for multiple bombings in the late 1990s in Georgia and Alabama. The bombings included the Olympics, a couple of abortion clinics, and a gay bar.

This story hits close to home for me, because, in 1998, I was hiking with Outward Bound in the section of North Carolina where he was reportedly hiding (confirmed now that he’s been caught and tried). When we first arrived to the area, a few hours outside of Ashville, police were conducting man hunts through the woods in an attempt to find him. After spending 16 days in that region, it’s easy to see why they never found him: it’s thickly forested and very easy to hide if you go far enough off of the trails.

The rumor was that Rudolph used the Appalachian Trial to get from Georgia to North Carolina to hide after he carried out each of his attacks. As part of his deal with the authorities, he’s not going to face the death penalty in return for four life sentences and revealing where his stash of explosives was hidden. I, for one, am glad they finally caught him and have tried him for his crimes.

Just in case the news sites clear their caches, Wikipedia has more on the history and current events surrounding Rudolph.