Headnut.org

I’m waiting for class to begin at SJSU with two MacBook Pros (an older model and a unibody) within reach.  No lollipops yet, and it’s a little too dreary for rainbows.  I’m just hoping.

Only 5 months to go until the end of the MBA/MSE program.  I think it works out to three more classes: BUS 284, CMPE 295B, and something else.  (I know the first two because I’m currently registered for them!  The rest will fall into place at the right time.)  BUS 284 sounds promising on paper — product development!  From skimming the text, it looks like a summary course that ties concepts from various individual classes together.

Is that synonymous with “lots of work?”

Pictures from our travels this Christmas/New Years/etc. are finally posted.  Some of the highlights include:

In mid-December, I filed my second patent. For some (basic) background, the electric grid is comprised of three (3) power sources that are 120° out of phase. The standard wall outlet, in contrast, only uses one (1) of those power sources. If more power is being drawn on one of the phases than the other two, an unbalanced condition exists which results in overall efficiency loss.

The solution described in my patent takes advantage of individual outlet monitoring to profile the microscope fluctuations in the power grid, and then analyze those fluctuations to determine their effect on the macroscopic efficiency loss to the power grid as a whole.  The algorithm can find the optimum phase assignment for the microscopic loads that would result in the best efficiency for the entire grid.

Enter the second half of the patent filing.  To switch each outlet to the optimum phase assignment, a special outlet must be used that can toggle among phase pairings.  Three such outlet designs are discussed in the patent — 120V Wye, 208V Delta, and 120/208V combination.

Using a back of the envelope estimate, there exists a 7-10% efficiency that can be immediately gained in the power grid if such a system were used in widespread manufacturing and data center applications.  It would greatly enhance the additional benefits of using alternate energy sources like solar or wind, allowing these to be most effectively used.

After an incredible journey, Kate has been offered a job by McKinsey and Company at the Palo Alto/SF offices! The details still need to be worked out, but the verbal offer is so elating. It’s been an incredible journey to get to this point, and I’m very proud of all her hard work.

As I was reading CNN today, I came across an article that described a Muslim council in Malaysia which banned the practice of Yoga as “inappropriate” as it can “destroy the faith of a Muslim.” The reasoning given is that Yoga was developed through a blending of several spiritual beliefs, namely Hinduism; yet today, it is more commonly practiced as an exercise regime with no spiritual connections. What astonishes me is how the people who make up these councils get into power — how do such close-minded people get to that point?!

Kate and I successfully passed our CPR Pro/AED recertification on Saturday. We’re good for another 2 years of compressing chests and rescue breathing!

Our friends Chris and Katie — yes, same names as us — organized a little Oktoberfest celebration last night at Teske’s, a German restaurant here in San Jose. It’s always a fun celebration, enhanced by the litres of beer and good friends.

As we were eating our dinner, the table behind us started getting up in a ruckus. An elderly lady at the table was having problems breathing. Someone from the restaurant had already called 911, and the paramedics were on their way; but I offered to help make sure the lady was stabilized until they arrived. She was diabetic and had a history of strokes and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). Her husband said he gave her 10mg of slow acting insulin earlier that afternoon, and she had been eating dinner prior to this episode. She was AOx1, oriented only to her name. She did not have any weakness in her hands or feet, and was able to smile properly; though her speech was a little soft and slow.

Without having a blood sugar reading, there was no good way to tell if it was a TIA or diabetic reaction. The fire department took a reading once they arrived, but I didn’t hear the results. I wish her the best recovery either way.

After it was all over, it’s amazing how sobering an incident like this can be after a litre of beer.

Awhile back, I created a product for Cyber Switching called the Enterprise Management Console. Shortly after the first beta version was released, I developed a module for it called “Virtual PDU.” Virtual PDU takes one or more outlets from one or more power strips, and combines them into a single logical interface. This makes control and monitoring in some situations MUCH simpler. (For more details, read Patent 12/177,881.)

I’m happy to announce that I can finally talk about it. The paperwork was filed last month, and we’re beginning to ship versions of the EMC that has this patent-pending technology in it.

There’s another patent that I’m working on right now, can’t talk about it yet, but I’ll post some details after it is filed.

From CNN.com:

To quote one of my favorite childhood radio figures, “You know what makes me mad? You know what makes me so dang mad I just want to throw my Bible at Buddhists during prayer time?” Hardy published a secular calendar, collected money published by the government of the United States of America, and exercised his Constitutional right to free speech. And now this fancy, underwear-struting pansy is saying his own chosen religion is banning his right to free speech. Seems to me that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are part of the same Amendment … both secular guarantees by our government, not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“Wake up America!” Making a choice means owning up to the consequences of that choice. If you choose a religion that has restrictions — and yes they all do — then don’t be too surprised when a holy man slaps you for doing something against holy doctrine. What really ticks me off about Hardy’s argument is his blatant confusion of a government-recognized freedom of speech with his obligations to his chosen religion.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, Hardy.

For the PHP junkies out there who use an RPM-based system, I’m pleased to announce the release of PHP 5.2.6 in RPM format! This is a great milestone for PHP since most of the distributions are stuck on PHP 5.1.6.

I’ve setup a yum repository on Headnut.org: yum.headnut.org.

Please send all test results to squirrel -at- headnut -dot- org. Include the name, version, and platform (i386, x64, etc.) for your distribution.

After a long time with the old theme of the website, I have finally started the migration over to a new, more modern theme. The changes include both superficial look-and-feel of the site as well as a more modular backend that takes advantage of the new Zend Framework. There is still much work to be done, but I am happy to be starting down this road!