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| 17/1/02: "We control designers are among the most under-appreciated engineers in the world." - Prof. D'Andrea (Cornell) I can't agree more on that one. The world don't seem to know how many things around them works due to good control system. Can't really blame them cuz it's the "invisible" part of any machine. I mean when you see a car you see the chassis, the wheels, the engine, etc. Hardly anyone knows about the ECU (electronic control unit) codes that control the spark plug firing, the fuel injection timing, the ABS, and what-not! And that's just as important as the engine itself! This is true even among non-control engineers. In my submersible team there're computer science guys who thought they could come up with a control from a totally computer science perspective. I was like, "Hey! Snap out of your virtual world and take a look at the real world!" When I tell people my area is control, they've no idea what it is. When they ask me what I do, I tell them things like control algorithm for ABS, autopilot, hard disk servomotor, etc. Then they say these are for computer engineers, and I was like normal computer engineers can't do that cuz they don't know enough about how the real world interacts. *Sigh*! These days whenever someone asks me what area I'm in, I just say robotics. Yeah, you know Transformer, more than it meets the eyes!?!? |
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| 18/1/02: Me: What's up with the zipper in this pair of jeans? Why's it on the side and not in the front? Friend (a girl): Yeah it's on side. What's the big deal about that? Me: They only have it on girls' jeans or something? I never see them when I shop for jeans. Oh wait I get it! Cuz girls can't pee standing up like us guys, so they're allowed put the zipper on the side of their jeans!! I think that's from my sophomore year in Cornell. A girl managed to make me help her pack her stuffs by a mixture of force and tricks. Anyway I came across one of her jeans, and this thought came into my head. Sounds quite childish, yet it is kind of true, isn't it? I know many types of clothings (especially for girls) contain stuffs that only serve to make the wearer look cool. But I'm sure there're parts of the design that serve practical purposes, including the disposal of bodily fluids! Well, those of you who know me well enough shouldn't be that surprised by the above. Style/fashion is one of the least of my concerns. On the plus side, I save tons of cash on clothing, cash I can spend of more useful stuffs like Maxim. On the downside, I dress so poorly you'll probably mistaken me as a bum begging for quarters in the streets. Actually that wasn't so bad. I can always use free quarters. Hmmm ... |
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| 19/1/02: Concorde passenger: I flew in your plane before. I was so disppointed! I didn't feel a thing when we went supersonic!! Concorde designer: You got any idea how many hours we've spent designing this plane such that you feel EXACTLY nothing when it goes supersonic?? Read that in "Air International". It's an aeronautic magazine I've been reading since high school. Pretty expensive to get when I moved to the States since it's shipped from England, but I still subscribe. American aeronautic magazines are just too pro-American. Come to think of it I heard from my ex-housemate that Maxim also originates from England, they sell an American version here (kind of like oversea Playboys). Anyway, I thought that was quite interesting. You spend all these efforts "perfecting" something, and no one appreciates it. Probably applicable to this crappy homepage too, not that I spend a lot of time of it. Even more applicable to my scratches! And THOSE could be time consuming. Still a good idea to have them here simply as a personal record. |