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read my profile sign my guestbook Name: Edward Country: United States State: Pennsylvania Gender: Male Interests: Running, talking, sports (playing/watching) Expertise: I'm a doctor, so I can cure all your ailments... Industry: Computers (Hardware) Message: message me Member Since: 10/6/2004

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Old lady and her Aquafina and the semicolon

A few days ago I was driving to my apt after dinner on a Sat night, when an old lady walked up to me right after I parked my car and asked me, "Can you help me carry water up to my apartment?"

This wasn't the first time the lady asked me to help her do this. About a year ago I helped her do the same thing. The first time around I didn't ask any questions and did the neighborly thing and helped her bring up her water. She said she had a bad back so carrying a case of water was too much for her. Afterwards, she asked whether I wanted to be tipped. I said no, figuring it's a nice gesture.

This time around it was 2 cases! And I was wondering why she needed so much water, and wouldn't a Brita filter suffice? So I asked. She said she had a Brita filter but sometimes the apt management would reset the water and the water for the whole day would be dirty and she would run out of water. As I'm carrying her 2 cases up to her apt on the 3rd floor, she asked me if I had any suggestions on other ways to get clean water. I told her, "Yes, why don't you get a second Brita filter? That way you won't need to buy 2 of these cases and find a way to get them to your apartment." She thinks for a minute... "That's a good idea! You're thinking smart. Must be because you're carrying those 2 cases now, and feel how heavy they are." I'm thinking... Ass (for the comment)...and wtf. I'm carrying these 2 cases from her car to her apt cuz she can't think to get a second brita filter. I should ask for a tip. But I won't. Nice gesture again.

Sometimes it's the simplest solutions that make an arduous problem go away. It's kinda like when you forget a semicolon after coding for awhile without compilation, and the compiler spits out a lame error message that doesn't say anything about the problem. Many wasted hours later, you find out it's a semicolon you're missing. That or some other nerd walks by and sees your frustration and looks at your code and points it out. Okay enuff nerd talk, back to work.

11:36 AM - 31 views - 2 eprops - 1 comment - email it

Saturday, May 24, 2008

It's been awhile... it's summer again. More time to blog.

Gosh I haven't blogged in such a long time. Xanga (like Friendster) is probably dead, but regardless I'll still throw my thoughts onto the site. It'll show my age and my undying dedication to a site that has past its prime.

This week I went to Santa Clara, CA to give a talk at Intel's Speech Summit 2008 on the 21st of May (Wed) as one of six external speakers. The following are the bios of the other speakers:

Nelson Morgan: Director of the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Prof Berkeley EECS, IEEE Fellow, PhD 1980
Yoon Kim: CEO Novauris Technologies, Co-founder of NeoSpeech, PhD EE Stanford,
Rob Chambers: Speech Program Manager with Microsoft that develops all speech recognition @msft
Jordan Cohen: Works at SRI. Former CTO of VoiceSignal (Sold to Nuance for $300 million!)
Mike Phillips: Vlingo co-founder & CTO. Former ScanSoft CTO (Bought Nuance, and renamed it Nuance) It's public on Nasdaq (NUAN). Nuff said.

Now... I'm not 5 months out from my PhD. How can I compared to these guys? I mean c'mon. I'm like a munchkin among adults. Talk about pressure. Not only are they so much more distinguished than me, I realized I forgot to bring my formal shoes in my bagpack. *Gulp* Doing things old school style... basketball shoes (like my days at Illinois when I would go to interviews with sneakers, and yes I would still land them).

The talk went extremely well. Intel seemed to like my work, and it was good getting to know some important people in the speech industry. It's a relief to know all those years in the lab, slaving away at a goal doesn't go unnoticed. It's also way cool when someone comes up to you, and is like, "Hey I read your paper on this stuff. Good work." I'm glad my research papers don't go into "the abyss" the way many resumes go when you do the online submission that companies want you to do.

Now, about the trip itself. About two weeks before the conference, I didn't buy my ticket yet and a friend, J @CMU (that was leaving Pittsburgh for good) mentioned that she'll also be around the same week in CA so I decided to red-eye the flight a few days before the conference so I could spend some time with her. Little did I know how much work it would be the day I had to fly out, since I was also attending graduation that same day...

5/18/08
9am: Woke up, started packing...
10am: Ate cereal, decided to skip sitting in on the main ceremony
11am: Arrived at school to check out Al Gore's speech
12:30pm: Department commencement ceremony
3pm: Department ceremony ends. Finished taking pictures with friends, ate alittle
3:30pm: Ran to return Doctor's hood, gown, and cap
4-5pm: Got my computer from the lab and drove home to squish everything into a bagpack
5-6:30pm: Planned CA trip in detail
6:30pm: Walked from Amberson to catch 28X
7:30pm: Arrive at PIT airport
7:35pm: Checked in at the kiosk, and found I had NO seat!
7:40pm: Airline attendent says the flight is booked solid in an OVERSOLD flight. I shmooze talk my way into getting a FIRST class ticket.
8:30pm: I board first! The first time ever.
8:40pm: I notice the guy next to me is reading the BARRON (investment news) so I figure he must be an investor of some sort. I make small talk to poke at his brain alittle. You never know what you can learn from different types of people...
8:40pm-1:13am: Talked with the guy sitting next to me. Turns out he's Jay Lustig, part OWNER of the Pittsburgh Pirates. At the end of the flight he offers me free dugout tickets, asks me to bring some friends along. Sweet...

5/19/08
1:13am-2:59am: Chilled at the Las Vegas airport where I had to layover. Watched people just throw their money away at the airport's slot machines.
2:59am-4:28am EST: Flew into San Jose Airport. Uber-tired...
1:30am PST: Picked up by S and back to his place.
1:50am-2:40am PST: Small talked with S about how things are going with him, and updated him with what I've been up to recently
2:50am PST: Finally got to sleep

The next morning I woke up at 6:45am to make use of all my time in CA. Picked up by J and her friend to get a rental car I reserved at SJC. I reserved a compact, but when I arrived... all they had was this...

Now it was only suppose to be me and J renting this car. Why do we even need a 4 seater, let alone a wagon!!! It looks like a soccer mom's car. When we enter the car...
J: "Do you smell that? This car smells funny. Turn on the A/C"
Me: "No, what does it smell like to you?"
J: "It smells like berries."
Me: "Hmmm... I don't smell anything..." *thinking to himself... maybe she's just smelling my burberry cologne*

After we left the airport, we stopped by a local Krispy Kreme to get breakfast, then onto 101N to Half Moon Bay. We arrive at the Friendly Acres Ranch and ride horses.

This is Sombrero and I. The horse is so pretty, but very temperamental. Probably didn't like my cologne or something. J's horse was named Sparky. Her horse looked older, but was nice to her. We went by the brushes, passed a ditch with muddy water, and rode on the beach. While the scene was pretty, I was scared off my butt that Sombrero was going to buck me off since he didn't seem to like me on his back.

After the ride, we set off to Pasta Moon. There we had their sausage pizza and mushroom pasta. Good stuff.

In the afternoon, we came back around 4pm and hit up the San Jose Sharks Ice Skating rink and skated for an hr. I fell twice, J fell once. Winter sports just isn't my thing... Afterwards, we parted ways...

In the evening, I went to eat dinner at Amarin's with T and S. T has taken up racing her Porsche in time trials, which is pretty cool. It's like real life Mario Kart! Afterwards we hit up a bubble tea shop, and we headed back cuz I was really really tired...

5/20/08
I just stayed at S's place prepping for the talk the next day. Ate leftover pizza for lunch and just chilled the whole day. At night we went to Falafels Drivin in San Jose with E, J, & company. Both times I've met the girls, they travel with a pack, like wolves... Actually, they proclaim themselves as cougars, or cougars in training (I guess that's what they were dressed up as for Bay to Breakers). We decided not to follow them to go to a baby shower afterwards, instead opting to go back and "prep for my talk the next day"... actually we just went back and played Guitar Hero 3.

Just cuz S will read this... I'll have to post this... Cuz he was OBSESSED with this picture...

The rest of the trip wasn't that interesting. Till the next trip. I'm thinking road trip... Philly->DC->NYC.... hmm...

9:12 PM - 16 views - add eprops - add comments - email it