What is this?

Is this a crappy cellphone picture of a Southern Beirut neighborhood or perhaps the landing site of a Katyusha rocket in Haifa?

Nope, this is a much more mundane thing. There was a fire today in the mall that’s being constructed accross the street from work. The snapshot was taken from the sixth floor of the Truchard Design Center (a.k.a. MoPac C) using my crappy cellphone camera.

You can’t tell from the crappy cellphone photo, but the fire was actually quite big and there were about five or six fire trucks trying to put it out. I would say that between the time the fire started and the time they were done putting it out, about 45 minutes elapsed. Also gave me something to post about on this blog for my many, many faithful readers and couple of stalkers. Oh wow.

And so this ends today’s episode of: So, anything interesting?

R&D engineers from the Modular Instruments group take a look at the most interesting thing to happen at work since the last bat-attack.

So the product page for the thing I have been working on the last many months is finally up! (why do I get the feeling you are not as excited as I am?).

Meet the new NI-5406 and NI-5402 Function Generators. Marvel at the sight of these technological wonders.

And finally, check out the product and bookmark the page for the Signal Generators Group… you never know when you may need an arbitrary waveform generator, or something.

This morning, as I’m getting coffee and heating up some oatmeal at the Mopac C kitchenette, I notice the microwave tray and I could swear it was spinning in the opposite direction (I think) it usually spins! So I stop the microwave and start it again – and it spins in the usual direction. I stop it and start it, and again… reversed!!!

A colleague walks in and I ask him: did you know the tray in the microwave reverses its direction every time you start it? He didn’t know, so I proceed to show him. It wouldn’t do it! The microwave is playing tricks on my head and I don’t like it.

Please, I need someone to confirm that some microwaves can spin their tray in both directions!

[Update 3/15/2006] I’ve been trying and the thing will not rotate clockwise. Ok, maybe there is a chance that I was… mistaken.

[Update 3/22/2006] HAHA I KNEW IT!!!! The microwave rotated clockwise this morning. I guess I’m not insane after all!

The Rosetta Whiteboard

Originally uploaded by kirsch.

This whiteboard is hanging very close to my office. It used to be mostly blank (except for the RF Group title, which is the group behind this column) for a long time, until someone wrote "Hello" on it. It then quickly evolved as people added their language of choice to it, including some very clever entries such as Vulcan and C++ (but no Klingon!).

There are other not so clever entries… such as "Mexican" and "Real Mexican". I don’t know who the comedic genius that wrote those is (not me) but I have a pretty good idea of whom it may have been.

Adiós.

I just judged my first cooking contest ever. Some observations follow:

1. It was good.
2. Free food.
3. Lots of dishes (about 12 different things).
4. I thought I was strict, but then I saw how the other judges scored and I realized I’m not.
5. The more meat or sugar in your dish the highest the odds of you winning. "or" is the keyword here.
6. Americans don’t use nearly as much condiment as mexicans or israelis. Not a single dish inflicted pain in my tastebuds.
7. Gazpacho is not popular here. I think a lot of judges gave the gazpacho a low score thinking it was cold soup (wait a minute… that’s what it is!)
8. I would gladly participate as a judge in a cooking contest again. If you know of one or if you are planning on cooking and need somebody to judge it, let me know. And don’t worry (see number 4)

Two days ago, somehow, a bat sneaked into the sixth floor of the Truchard Design Center. How? I don’t know, the windows don’t even open. Anyway, Mike Jablin was able to snap a photo of the bat (hard, because it flies really fast).
Anyway, it was a fun 20 minutes of ducking a flying bat.

Credit for this invention goes to Mr. Robert Thurman. Using a can of Office Duster 3 (For precision cleaning of hard-to-reach areas on computers and electronics office equipment) and your arm pit, you can create fantastic fart noises. Excellent ice-breaker for those tough job interviews or meet-your-in-laws dinners. Cracks me up everytime. I have been experimenting creating different pitches by using your arm, leg and stomach (the flabbier, the deeper the sound)

Warning: Please note that shaking the can, holding it upside-down or overuse may cause frostbite. Keep away from eyes and out of reach of children.