Moving to dotmac

Hey, I am gradually going to try moving my blog over to my dotmac account. This way I can use iWeb to post easier and faster. I have a post there on way. The new site is

http://web.mac.com/dfeld/

I made stuff do stuff!

Picture 1
Originally uploaded by difusion11.

As a computer science major and U of M, and pretty much everywhere else, you only learn how to program for the normal, general use computer. And it makes sense that they teach this. But I've always wondered how to program physical things, such as robots or choreographed fountains or light shows etc...

Well, this year in my embedded control systems class I am finally learning how to program physical systems. An embedded system is anything with a processor in it besides a normal laptop/desktop type computer. Like a car, or a dish washer, or a vehicle on the Spiderman ride at Islands of Adventure. Without a hardware background, the lectures and more theoretical work has been challenging. But every wednesday we have a 4 hour lab in which we get to write a program to learn something about embedded systems.

We've made LEDs light up in response to some basic math, measured how fast a wheel is spinning, and done variations on those. Most recently, we created a force feedback system to simulate a spring resisting the turning of a wheel. In lab we have a wooden wheel connected by a chain to a motor. We read the position of the wheel, and the further someone turns the wheel, the harder the motor pushes in the opposite direction. So it really feels like a spring is holding it back. When the program isn't running the wheel turns freely, excepting friction. Force feedback is used in simulations (such as flight or surgery), as well as in Telerobotics.

I wanted to write this post a long time ago, but have yet to take a picture of our lab setting. This diagram of your basic spring system will have to do.

Fall 2006, as it were

Couple snipets from life as of late.

This is the HKN Donut stand, in front of the HKN office. I've spent 30 some hours of my life selling donuts and pizza from here. I wasn't much of a participant in the group in previous years, but it's grown on me. This semester I have had the 8am shift on thursdays, but I'm done now.



The engineerin career fair was a couple weeks ago. I've always felt kind of funny about it. Freshman year my impression of engineering was that your career's goal would be to make a better memo to your superior so you can move up. I knew to look past the values suggested by my engin 100 class however. I hated career fair and refused to participate my first two years on campus. If the recruiters came back the next day, the suits would be all be back to torn jeans, hoodies, and t-shirts. With all the suits milling about like ants, its like we can't wait to even get into the rat race:



Now, as a senior, I know the people going to the booths, and I know several of the recent grads at the booths recruiting. It's real people trying to take the next step in their lives. Many will apply anywhere, for any job, not caring what effect they really have in the world. But it's understandably scary to leave school, and this is not always the case. There are even a few companies that care.

I'm really fortunate that I found one of those companies, and only had to participate in the fair one time to find it. And it happens to be a company that recognizes that professionalism doesn't look like a suit. Professionalism is an attitude, and the behaviors that result from that attitude.


Last week Kirsty and I spent a couple hours of the wee morning waiting in this line to get tickets to one of the Royal Shakespeare company's performances here in Ann Arbor this semester. Alas, we were still 70 or 100 people away from getting them. The booty went to the intense people who were there with tents since the night before.