hmm....just realize that i am an engineer, so how can an engineer's blog be without any technical content! :p

so...let's try something technical for a change!

when i started with alcatel, i thought i was only responsible for the electromagnetic aspect of things. but really soon i found out that the department that i work in is responsible for the backbone network design as well -- hardcore communication network stuff! slowly i'm learning more about switches, routers, and hubs, and how we're using a layer-2 switch in a redundant fibre ring configuration for the data communication, blah blah blah....

but the most interesting thing of all is that this layer-2 switch started out as a simple network with no gateway nor separate subnets. but two weeks ago we made a huge system change to implement 'security devices' in the system, which are the gateways (20+ gateways in the network!)in the network, that runs on a pentium chip with openbsd os to encapsulate telegrams.

tomorrow i'll have to program these 'security devices' in unix environment for use in a system integration test that involves using smartbit to simulate train traffic, and sa/ap radios connected to the custom-made roaming simulator in the dcs lab!

so what have i learn about electromagnetism from this job? first of all, i learn A LOT about wireless lan, specifically ieee 802.11. our system uses fhss rather than the oh-so-popular dsss for the primary reason of immunity to radio interference! we make use of an off-the-shelf product for highspeed roaming, though we werent too successful in the beginning and had to request substantial technical support from the radio manufacturer! :p.

please do let me know if anyone's able to understand more than 50% of the content! anyhow, gotta sleep now, or else i'll end up arriving at work at 10am again~ heh :p
- posted by awylee @ 23:49

 
once again i'm home from yet another business trip. this time was a 3.5 week long stay and now the combine duration of me in las vegas is almost four months.

i miss my gf terribly, havent seen her for over a month, and havent talk on phone with her much the past few days as well. i would have driven to waterloo this morning after i got off the flight if it wasnt for the terrible headache that i had lastnight while waiting for my flight. it made me feel even worse after she told me that she has to drive to ancaster to deliver her computer to her brother after she finish her teachings for the day. i could have been in waterloo today and then bring the computer to ancaster on my way back to toronto at night such that she didnt have to make the trip that late while still being sick >.<.

got a chrysler sebring this time. i was hoping to get the 2004 ford malibu though. despite that, sebring is a very nice car to drive, good steering and very quiet.

today's dayoff is very much needed. i would not really call it a "day" off though because i got off the flight at around 8.15am and then went home to sleep until 2.30pm. if i count today as half-day off, then that would make 2 full-days off in the past 4 weeks. after i got up, i went to buy a 15" lcd monitor. after much negotiation, i got the 4 year additional warranty for free! :p (damn! i thought only girls negotiate to get better deal off purchases). at night, i helped uncle in moving a 52" tv from his friend's place to our place. a very big task indeed. my uncle mobilized many people in the move. at last, the tv was successfully moved into uncle's basement (my living quarter) at around 10.30pm!

anyhow, i just uploaded the pictures i took from mount charleston. very disappointed by the trip though. i was expecting much better view than just a spot that overlooks the mojave desert. on top of that, the pictures didnt come well because there's no enough contrast between the contours in the desert....
- posted by awylee @ 23:45

 
wow...it's been a month since i last blogged! :p

anyways, as you may have guessed, i'm in the city of sin again.

i'm super excited about tomorrow for my mom will be coming to visit me from vancouver and will be staying here until sunday night. hopefully i'll be able to get one dayoff during my mom's stay.

things have been pretty good for me. during last week's testing, i was able to reduce the radio communication failure for my system from once every 20-30 minutes, to 3 times in 5 hours. but we're still aiming for perfection though. new radio firmware came in today and hopefully i can get train time tomorrow to test the software. if all goes well, then this might be my final trip to las vegas for a long time!!!

eventhough the progress was a bit slow, Mary and i started to read Revelation together in early february and now we're almost done reading/discussing the book. it's a pretty good experience to share what we read; however, the unfortunate thing is that we picked such a hard book to read. next book on the list --- something easier to read and share, maybe one of the Pauline letters.
- posted by awylee @ 13:25