Thursday's always a scramble to wrap up the 236 assignment into something resembling a coherent set of solutions. Usually if I haven't solved a problem by now, this means rewriting the question to look like an answer. This comes on the heels of an already lengthy 2hr 236 lecture, so there normally isn't much time left for poor 'ol research. Yesterday was typical; I probably got in a solid 30 minutes actual work on the project.
I'm starting to think that my problems with SPGD have to do with coupling between the control commands. I'm going to try using modal commands next but that will require a decent "modal" poke matrix. Today I fashioned a basic system ID script to do that, and I'm now investigating if I can use the norm of the projection of the wavefront as an objective function, instead of the norm of the wavefront itself. This should be fine since its what I'm using in the PI controller. Next week I'll try actually implementing SPGD with this poke matrix.
Also, to the person behind me in 236: honestly is it that hard to slap on some deodorant in the morning? Seriously, if you can afford those fancy Jesus sandals to go with your black dress socks, surely you can spare some change for a speed stick or something. The room is small and cramped, and we're in there for 2 hours. Think of the children man!
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Capitulation
Today's Wednesday, so that means I spent little time researching and a lot of time scrambling to make something resembling progress on my 236 hw. I've been in the game long enough to know though, that for a class this hard "progress" really means surfing the web and occasionally staring at the page until capitulation.
Capitulation is when I've procrastinated to such an extent that the score doesn't matter any more. The goal becomes writing down something in between what a monkey would crap onto the page, and a semi-coherent, horribly trivial, but almost certainly incorrect answer. This happens because it just isn't worth spending 10 hours struggling to get the last 50% of the answer when the assignment as a whole is only worth 2% of my grade. And the value of the grade itself is marginal at best.
Hopefully I'll find the time tomorrow to f around with more SPGD experiments and get something working with a 180 DAC bias. I haven't quite gotten to the point of research capitulation just yet.
Capitulation is when I've procrastinated to such an extent that the score doesn't matter any more. The goal becomes writing down something in between what a monkey would crap onto the page, and a semi-coherent, horribly trivial, but almost certainly incorrect answer. This happens because it just isn't worth spending 10 hours struggling to get the last 50% of the answer when the assignment as a whole is only worth 2% of my grade. And the value of the grade itself is marginal at best.
Hopefully I'll find the time tomorrow to f around with more SPGD experiments and get something working with a 180 DAC bias. I haven't quite gotten to the point of research capitulation just yet.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
What the hell is this?
Congratulations. You've found my blog.
These pages chronicle my mystical journey through the world of graduate engineering research. I don't really intend for this to be read by anyone at all since its going to be larded up with arcane acronyms, abbreviations, incomplete sentences, and nonsensical technical bullshit that I've made up. The plan is for a lot of stupid ideas, and a lot of personal bitching. Mainly, I started this blog because:
1. Some day I'm going to have to write all this down again without all the technical nomenclature, such as "asshat," that I intend to use liberally here. Such a compilation, a dissertation, is essentially just an extra long blog post formatted for the 18th century. Hopefully cataloging the rubbish coming out of my head will make that easier when the time comes.
2. I try to avoid complaining out loud in public like the crazy guy who stands ranting in the middle of campus every morning, and my roommates have heard it all already and have problems of their own. So might as well moan anonymously to posterity and the internet at large.
3. At the end of the day I'm usually not sure what I've done, if anything, other than refresh engadget and autoblog. Having to put together out a little summary each night helps me organize the organic chaos of research and lets me focus on what to do next.
4. Picking up where I left off on a Monday morning is difficult when I've had some kind of a crazy weekend. Rare in grad school I know, but they happen occasionally.
I look forward to the day when, bitter and defeated, I can look back at this waste of cyberspace and chuckle at how silly, childish, naive, and quaintly optimistic I was.
These pages chronicle my mystical journey through the world of graduate engineering research. I don't really intend for this to be read by anyone at all since its going to be larded up with arcane acronyms, abbreviations, incomplete sentences, and nonsensical technical bullshit that I've made up. The plan is for a lot of stupid ideas, and a lot of personal bitching. Mainly, I started this blog because:
1. Some day I'm going to have to write all this down again without all the technical nomenclature, such as "asshat," that I intend to use liberally here. Such a compilation, a dissertation, is essentially just an extra long blog post formatted for the 18th century. Hopefully cataloging the rubbish coming out of my head will make that easier when the time comes.
2. I try to avoid complaining out loud in public like the crazy guy who stands ranting in the middle of campus every morning, and my roommates have heard it all already and have problems of their own. So might as well moan anonymously to posterity and the internet at large.
3. At the end of the day I'm usually not sure what I've done, if anything, other than refresh engadget and autoblog. Having to put together out a little summary each night helps me organize the organic chaos of research and lets me focus on what to do next.
4. Picking up where I left off on a Monday morning is difficult when I've had some kind of a crazy weekend. Rare in grad school I know, but they happen occasionally.
I look forward to the day when, bitter and defeated, I can look back at this waste of cyberspace and chuckle at how silly, childish, naive, and quaintly optimistic I was.
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