Fernando's Posts

Seattle Panoramics from near PacMed

2010-09-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

There are a couple of panoramics that I took from near the PacMed building in Seattle. The leftmost stadium is where the Mariners play. The stadium in the middle is Qwest field where the Seahawks and Sounders play. Finally, on the right is the city center. The tallest building is the photograph is the Columbia Center.

Kensington Metropark

2010-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

I haven't been to Kensington in the winter before. These are two panoramic images I created. The images have been slightly saturated to accentuate the difference between "vegetation" and snow.

Warranty Expired!

2010-02-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

Rolled 60,000km today. Happened while travelling eastbound on I-696 up around the 5 mile marker.

Cobalt

2009-11-24T03:13:00.000-08:00

November, 24th? Almost 51,000km.

2009-10-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

2009-10-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

Composite image of one of the hiking trails at Kensington Metropark.

Fountain Ninja

2009-08-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

This is perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen anyone do at a fountain. This guy came out of nowhere and decided to battle the water streams.

Messi and Henry

2009-08-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Got to see two legends of the game in person. The game was everything I'd expected and more. I'd predicted a 3-1 win, but it turned out to be a 4-0 game. I suppose I managed to guess the correct goal count, but not the right distibution. ;) Phenomenal soccer clearly demonstrating why this Barcelona squad is consistently the best in the world right now.

Grouse Grind

2009-08-04T10:07:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it, but it's already been almost two years since my friend Paul and I did the Grouse Grind.

Here's an article about it from the Globe and Mail.

Billy Dee Williams Smoothness Test

2009-07-30T17:44:00.001-07:00

Think you're smooth like my main man Billy Dee? Click here to find out. :)

French Press

2009-07-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

Thought this was a good article on how to brew a good cup of coffee using a french press.

One of the key points is that a good-quality grinder should be used that creates uniformly large particles. This is where, according to the article, blade grinders fall short since they can produce dust particles that pass through the filter.

2009-07-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Personally, I think this is a great photo. Then again, what do I know? :P

2009-07-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

View from the top of the sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.

2009-07-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Old Mission Point lighthouse.

2009-07-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

View from atop the hill where Two Lads Winery is located. The winery interior was very chic. Would make for a great bar. The wine? "meh"

2009-07-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Near the top of the dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.

2009-07-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

Leaping from the one of the sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in western Michigan.

Fireworks during the holidays

2009-05-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

This is a panoramic from taken from the top of El Panecillo in Quito. Guy on the right was shooting off some fireworks into the night sky. Sound like fun - only if you lik ebeing at over 9,000ft altitude. :)

Mackinaw Bridge

2009-05-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Panoramic of the Mackinaw Bridge.

2009-05-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Panoramic image I stitched together taken while walking down from the summit of Whistler.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009...

2009-05-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

Most fun I've had in as far as I could ever care to remember...

Chapter ended

2009-04-25T06:19:00.001-07:00

Another chapter in my life closed yesterday.

Research Results

2009-04-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

It has taken far too much time, but these preliminary results are what I have been working towards and waiting for:


 Naïve RX Naïve TX Adaptive RX Adaptive TX 
 Values    
10 17,400         59,832         15,544         51,172      86.38%
20 55,056         163,978         43,320        118,476      73.87%
30 77,352         242,409         58,640        159,287      68.15%
40 95,256         310,732         71,944        193,832      65.46%
50 117,696         394,060         87,424        229,700      61.97%
60 142,296         478,894         101,696        259,638      58.17%
70 165,912         566,920         114,800        288,819      55.08%
80 185,952         646,057         126,000        311,645      52.60%
90 208,800         734,079         136,376        332,609      49.74%

Test Suite

2009-03-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Generating the test suite to run for sensor network application. Finally, I'll be able to generate hard numbers for several topologies and gather some results.

Trek 4500

2009-03-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

I bought a new Trek 4500 mountain bike! This is my first real mountain bike. After poring over reviews and reading through the specs for several different models, I finally took the plunge.

It was only 3 degrees Celsius yesterday, but I still took it out on its maiden voyage.

15,000km

2009-03-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hit the 15,000km mark on Monday, March 16, 2009.

Computational Thinking

2009-03-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

Article that describes computational thinking and what computer science is.

Spoke too soon...

2009-02-06T14:56:00.001-08:00

We get this email today only moments after I left my office:

A bomb threat was received by Wayne State University this morning. Police officers were immediately dispatched to State Hall. The building was evacuated and Wayne State police officers performed a full sweep of the facility with bomb-sniffing dogs. The building will remain closed until further notice today, Friday, Feb. 6 2009. Wayne State University officials and the Police Department are continuing to monitor the situation.

Of course, another email arrived later in the day with the message:

WSU Police have completed a sweep of State Hall and no bomb was found. The building is open and classes are being held as scheduled.

Why can't they track whoever did this?

0.07 seconds execution time

2009-02-05T18:23:00.001-08:00

Dropped the execution time of the program that solves this problem to 0.07 seconds. Still, that ranks me lower than 1,000^th worldwide. Maybe I can shave off a few more milliseconds from my time?

Yes, I know... pointless, but it's personal now.

Bomb Threat

2009-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

Always good to get the following emails during the day:

Important message from Wayne State University:

A bomb threat was received by Wayne State University this morning. Police officers were immediately dispatched to Prentis Hall. The building was evacuated and Wayne State police officers performed a full sweep of the facility with bomb-sniffing dogs. The building will remain closed until further notice today, Jan. 28, 2009. Wayne State University officials and the Police Department are continuing to monitor the situation.

and later on...

Important message from Wayne State University:

WSU Police have completed a sweep of Prentis Hall and no bomb was found. The building is reopened and classes are being held as scheduled.

Reparing my Notebook

2009-01-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

For anyone with a DELL laptop that needs to restore their factory image stored on the RESTORE partition, but is missing the option to do so on their boot menu, here are the instructions I used.

oDesk

2009-01-17T10:27:00.001-08:00

Came across oDesk the other day. Used for freelance software development.

Evangelina Chauvin

2009-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

This was published some years ago days after my grandmother had passed away. Truly, an incredible woman. The original post can be found here.

La mujer y el hogar

Hace pocos días, el 3 de enero de 2005, dejó de existir la distinguida matrona señora doña Evangelina Falconí de Chauvín. Este doloroso acontecimiento nos trae a la memoria la inconmesurable labor educativa de esta sabia mujer, dedicada esposa y madre de familia.

Doña Evangelina, a más de dictar su cátedra en muchas instituciones educativas, fue la primera mujer que, adelantándose a los tiempos, como solamente los sabios y visionarios lo suelen hacer, se percató del inmenso poder que posee la televisión como medio idóneo para educar, informar e impartir cultura. Es así que, en las décadas de los setenta y ochenta, doña Evangelina mantuvo durante casi tres lustros su prestigioso programa televisivo denominado ‘La mujer y el hogar’, el mismo que, se constituyó en una verdadera “universidad del ama de casa”, porque con sobra de calidad y buen gusto cumplió con el objetivo primordial de educar y guiar a las madres de familia del Ecuador para un mejor desempeño de sus importantísimas, a la vez que indelegables funciones.

Doña Evangelina también fue la pionera de la divulgación de conocimientos médicos y de la provisión de bases sólidas para una verdadera cultura de la salud a través del ‘Segmento Médico de la Mujer y el Hogar’, en el cual participamos activamente varios médicos de diferentes especialidades.

Esta es solamente una minúscula reseña de la enorme actividad educativa realizada durante todos los días de la productiva vida de doña Evangelina Falconí de Chauvín, y es necesario que su nombre sea recordado con respeto y admiración permanentes por los ecuatorianos que nos nutrimos con las sabias enseñanzas de tan ilustre educadora.

Dr. Stalin Oviedo Garzón

Two more DVDs

2009-01-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

Blades of Glory has been added to the collection as well as a 3-pack of Chuck Norris movies. No, they won't be good. There's no debate over this. However, at $5 for the DVD, it's worth it to see some real martial arts cheese.

I've also been a big fan of Chuck Norris Facts over the years. I've cracked up at more than a few of them.

Lua

2009-01-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

Downloaded another programming language to check out. This time it's Lua, which is supposed to be a very fast scripting language that's used for AI development is several games.

I'm curious to see what the syntax is like.

Madeleines

2008-12-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

I baked some Madeleines today. The results are worth the effort, thanks to this recipe I found.

Movie Collection

2008-12-26T06:40:00.001-08:00

Slowly, but surely, my movie collection is growing. 246 titles to date. My friends would argue most of them are crap, but then again, I wasn't planning on sharing. :)

2008-12-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

This is what -14 degrees Celcius looks like at 4:20pm. This is not the same type of cold that you feel when you stand with the freezer door open. This is the type of cold that digs its way down to the bone.

Fall 2008 comes to a close

2008-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

This has been the most bizarre semester I've ever had. I've never had a drop rate quite so high in my entire teaching career. The material didn't change. My teaching style didn't change. It's going to require some investigation since I wasn't pleased at all.

On a side note, this winter break means I can devote more time to my research, learning some XNA, and becoming a proficient Blokus player.

2008-09-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Paul and I are in the lower left corner of this photograph. This is taken at Roosevelt Park in front of the hotel where the old central train station used to be. It's a crying shame this building has fallen into such a state of disrepair. It really is quite the landmark. You can't see the entire crowd in the photograph. It was announced that there were about 1,100 registered riders on this year's tour!

2008-09-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

This photograph was taken after the 2008 Tour de Troit. Basically, this is a 39 mile police-escorted ride through various Detroit neighbourhoods. Quite the experience. I owe a debt of gratitude to Perry for letting me use his Trek 4900. I would never have been able to finish even half the distance on my bike.

2008-09-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

This was some heated action as the LMP1 car overtook the Porsche (GT2 class). In the end, it wasn't much of a contest.

2008-09-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

Returned to watch the American LeMans series qualifying on the Friday before the Grand Prix. I can't believe the last time I went to see those cars race was back in June 1993! Talk about an eternity ago.

The LMP1 Audi in the photograph is whisper quiet as it races along the track - in stark contrast to the other cars whose engines you can hear at least a mile away.

2008-08-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Long live liberty!

2008-08-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, these are things we do when we're waiting around for the pictures to be taken. What's the lesson to be learned here? Never let the groomsmen get a hold of the bouquets.

2008-08-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Paul and Kasia near Adler Planetarium. This was quite a hot day. Perhaps the hottest day of the year in Chicago. At least, that's how it felt to the rest of us. :)

2008-07-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Photo taken underneath the mackinaw Bridge along the shores of Mackinaw City, Michigan.

2008-07-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

Photo of the Mackinaw Bridge taken from the shores of Mackinaw City, Michigan. I thought the people in the picture give the bridge a good sense of scale.

2008-07-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

Photo of the Mackinaw Bridge taken from the shores of Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Mersenne Twister

2008-03-19T08:37:00.001-07:00

The Mersenne Twister (MT) is a pseudorandom number generating algorithm developed by Makoto Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura in 1996/1997. Information on it can be found at:

http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html

Champion's League 2008 Draw

2008-03-14T10:08:00.001-07:00

Arsenal to face Liverpool

CBC Sports

Arsenal and Liverpool will meet in the quarter-finals of the Champions
League, after the English rivals were selected to play each other
during Friday's draw at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland

Spanish outfit Barcelona, tournament winners in 1992 and 2006, will
face Germany's Schalke, and London club Chelsea takes on Turkish side
Fenerbahce.

The other quarter-final pits reigning English champions Manchester
United against Italian outfit AS Roma in a rematch from last season's
quarter-finals. The two clubs also met twice in the first round of
this year's competition.

"I think it's challenging, interesting as well. It's a good
opportunity to be consistent against Liverpool because it's three very
important games for us," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, referring
to his team's match against Liverpool in the Premier League between
the two Champions League contests.

"It's amazing but not surprising because I have seen that many times."

UEFA also made the provisional semifinal draw Friday. The winner of
Arsenal and Liverpool meets Fenerbahce or Chelsea, and Schalke or
Barcelona faces Roma or Manchester United, which means at least one
English team will reach the final four.

Although Arsenal and Liverpool are big rivals in the English league,
the quarter-final will be their first-ever meeting in European
competition.

This year also marks the first time that four teams from the same
country have reached the quarter-finals.

The first legs of the quarter-finals will take place April 1-2 with
the second legs taking place April 8-9. The semifinals will take place
April 22-23 and April 29-30.

The final is slated for May 21 in Moscow.