Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Work.... What the feck do I do ...

Once in a while, somebody asks me : "What do you do for a living ?" ....

And they usually meant what do you in front of a computer, outside of tweeting and posting on Facebook....
Well my job does indeed consists of  spending loads of time in front of a computer screen.
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My work station in the Irish office.
But to do what, you should ask... well for the past almost 10 years, I have been a Physical Integration Engineer. Very pompous title indeed, but basically it's one of the fundamental part in chip design.

First a bit of generic background on how electronic chips are made ( http://www.intel.com/about/companyinfo/museum/exhibits/sandtocircuits/index.htm ) :




As for my part the physical integration - or layout -, it  does the translation of  the system description in some programming language into a graphic representation (the layout) which will be used to produce the chip in the factory. Or: Chip design involves migrating a design from the logical realm (front-end design) to the
physical realm (back-end design).

The microelectronic chip are made of tiny - and getting tinier as the years passes - transistors, laid out on a silicon sheet. The process used involve photolithograhy - very similar to the development on photographic films - and used masks. Which masks I am helping creating.

An inverter and it's layout equivalent
When I started I was doing Analog Layout, so the conversion progress was highly manual, as someone put it, drawing rectangles of different colors representing the different layers ( or mask ) which were going to create the transistors and connections. Somehow i always found that it had some artistic touch, and I have to say most of the good very experienced engineers I met in that field were crazy - to some extend.
The job can also lead to some Chip Art. Sadly i have no pictures of the doodles I may or may not have inserted in past chips.

Since I moved to Digital stuff, where actually some program do layout the rectangles for you, and you're controlling those programs ( or trying to ). The idea here is to automate as much as possible the layout process, and ensuring the timing and other rules are respected.
The basic knowledge how mask design, and what are the physical impacts is still needed, but the tasks there are more programming or at least scripts writing, not too offense the software people.



Further reading on chip art:
And on Physical Design:








Sunday, August 19, 2012

Busy day above the water - Kilkee

A busy Saturday in Kilkee, where i did dry cox fro our diving club.

View from the boat of the dive site ( Middle Rock ) , we used the Lought Dergh in the morning, after having stuck our in the sand by stubbornly trying to launch at low tide.
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middle rock
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George's head

All pics from a GoPro.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilkee, and the place was busy, in particularly because the great swim was organised that day. Anyway our plan was to go diving, with a very low tide at noon, we planned to launch our boat at 10AM.
We were all ready for the boat launch on the slip around 10, but we decided to purge on refill the hydraulic steering wheel of the boat first. This operation took a lot longer than the  10 minutes initially planned, and it resulted in a very slippy boat covered by oil. Off course by that time the water had almost reached it's lowest point in the pier, and we had to try launching the boat with a rope ; after 4 attempts, we managed to have the boat in the water and out of the trailer, only to find it beach on a sand bank in the middle of the pier.
There was no way we could drag the boat for 10 meters over the sand until it reaches enough depth.
So we threw an anchor ( so it would not drift on shore once the tide was rising ) and borrow our friend from lough Dergh boat to go diving.

We settle upon Middle Rock as a dive site, with 1 hour delay to the initial plan.
Sadly it was not the end of our misadventures. A threesome of divers had an equipment issue - one of the guy's regulator went on free flow and refused to give air, forcing the three of them to air sharing, and aborting the dive. It resulted in an uncontrolled ascent , sightly faster than recommended - well depending on which table had been used, the rate could have been bound safe - ah the good old navy tables ( 9 meters per minutes ).
Unfortunately for me as a cox, they surfaced in the worst possible site over middle rock, right where the waves are breaking on top of the rock. I collected the 3 boys, not without having to drag them with the boat out of the danger zone. One of them was feeling a bit unwell and was put under O2.
We then proceeded to recall the other divers, without any success, despite revving the engine and banging cylinder underwater.
After 10 minutes, they finally surfaced, and once everybody was on-board we headed to the pier. Once there we called the coast guard for advice, and soon the problematic party was rush to the Kilkee rescue center for examination and all 3 of them were put under O2. They were evacuated soon after to Galway by helicopter ( the helicopter came to Kilkee for another emergency, and it was decided to use it to transport all causalities ).
Once in Galway the boys were put in a re-compression chamber and put under observation before being released late, all safe and sound.

With nothing left to do, except checking by phone on the lads progress, we decided to go on with the afternoon dive. By that time our boat was afloat ( finally ), thanks to the rising tides, and a group of 7 divers headed again for middle rock, and once again I served as dry cox.
Once again we did not escape incident, but it was more minor, one of our diver had its high pressure hose blow up on the boat, and as a result did not enter the water - which was as well as i had an helpful hand for what follow, as one of the pair aborted the dive early due to high PPO2 reading on a rebreather.
Anyway after all that stress, everybody was brought back safe and sound on the shore, for those who did dive, they had a lovely one - well that's what they said despite the puking on the boat afterwards.

And that was all for the day, best thing was to head to the pub, have some food, and welcome back the boys from their escape to Galway.

Some key lessons from this:

  • Direct system horn, which was very helpful to signal and call for help, without the lads blowing it, i would have reacted much later.
  • Dry cox: it has the advantage to speed up the dives, avoiding for people waiting on the boat ( in case of 2 sticks ) while over are diving - either before or after their own dives. But in case of emergency, the cox is busy driving the boat, and cannot take care of the diver at the same time. I would highly recommend to have 2 people on the boat at all times.
  • Recall: there is a need to find a proper recall procedure for diver underwater, revving the engine did not work - but maybe I was to gentle with that - banging piece of metal underwater did not work either ( which i thought would ).
  • The importance of working mean of communication with land ( either VHF or cell phone )




Friday, August 17, 2012

25 Things To Do Before You Turn 25

I stumbled a while back on that list from : http://misseducation.tumblr.com/ ; and at 36 I still thinks that's a good list and advice, though I may not agree with all, they certainly make you thinking.


25 Things To Do Before You Turn 25

1. Make peace with your parents. Whether you finally recognize that they actually have your best interests in mind or you forgive them for being flawed human beings, you can’t happily enter adulthood with that familial brand of resentment.
2. Kiss someone you think is out of your league; kiss models and med students and entrepreneurs with part-time lives in Dubai and don’t worry about if they’re going to call you afterward.
3. Minimize your passivity.
4. Work a service job to gain some understanding of how tipping works, how to keep your cool around assholes, how a few kind words can change someone’s day.
5. Recognize freedom as a 5:30 a.m. trip to the diner with a bunch of strangers you’ve just met.
6. Try not to beat yourself up over having obtained a ‘useless’ Bachelor’s Degree. Debt is hell, and things didn’t pan out quite like you expected, but you did get to go to college, and having a degree isn’t the worst thing in the world to have. We will figure this mess out, I think, probably; the point is you’re not worth less just because there hasn’t been an immediate pay off for going to school. Be patient, work with what you have, and remember that a lot of us are in this together.
7. If you’re employed in any capacity, open a savings account. You never know when you might be unemployed or in desperate need of getting away for a few days. Even $10 a week is $520 more a year than you would’ve had otherwise.
8. Make a habit of going outside, enjoying the light, relearning your friends, forgetting the internet.
9. Go on a 4-day, brunch-fueled bender.
10. Start a relationship with your crush by telling them that you want them. Directly. Like, look them in the face and say it to them. Say, I want you. I want to be with you.
11. Learn to say ‘no’ — to yourself. Don’t keep wearing high heels if you hate them; don’t keep smoking if you’re disgusted by the way you smell the morning after; stop wasting entire days on your couch if you’re going to complain about missing the sun.
12. Take time to revisit the places that made you who you are: the apartment you grew up in, your middle school, your hometown. These places may or may not be here forever; you definitely won’t be.
13. Find a hobby that makes being alone feel lovely and empowering and like something to look forward to.
14. Think you know yourself until you meet someone better than you.
15. Forget who you are, what your priorities are, and how a person should be.
16. Identify your fears and instead of letting them dictate your every move, find and talk to people who have overcome them. Don’t settle for experiencing .000002% of what the world has to offer because you’re afraid of getting on a plane.
17. Make a habit of cleaning up and letting go. Just because it fit at one point doesn’t mean you need to keep it forever — whether ‘it’ is your favorite pair of pants or your ex.
18. Stop hating yourself.
19. Go out and watch that movie, read that book, listen to that band you already lied about watching, reading, listening to.
20. Take advantage of health insurance while you have it.
21. Make a habit of telling people how you feel, whether it means writing a gushing fan-girl email to someone whose work you love or telling your boss why you deserve a raise.
22. Date someone who says, “I love you” first.
23. Leave the country under the premise of “finding yourself.” This will be unsuccessful. Places do not change people. Instead, do a lot of solo drinking, read a lot of books, have sex in dirty hostels, and come home when you start to miss it.
24. Suck it up and buy a Macbook Pro.
25. Quit that job that’s making you miserable, end the relationship that makes you act like a lunatic, lose the friend whose sole purpose in life is making you feel like you’re perpetually on the verge of vomiting. You’re young, you’re resilient, there are other jobs and relationships and friends if you’re patient and open.



I was also thinking how I have been doing on this list, so here it is :
1. Done, not before I was 25 though.
2. Done, and I see no reason not to continue.
3. Still work in progress, but improving.
4. Done that, as a teenager, working in a supermarket.
5. Done, a couple of times when I was in Grenoble, a bit less in Ireland. Again I should not stop doing it.
6. Did not apply to me, as I got a job just off my degree, even before I graduated.
7. Done, still doing it.
8. Yes doing it every-time I can, but still thinking I could go more outside, surf tonight anyone ?
9. Nope, had few heavy drinking sessions and realize binge is not for me, there's much more interesting things to do.
10. Done once, She did not reciprocate... that happens. But yeah that's a good thing, never regret, I definitely do it again, should the opportunity arise.
11. Done, but still some progress at times. But definitely improving every day on that one.
12. Done, and doing it every-time the opportunity arise.
13. Yes, have a couple from the Lego building - no kidding, to photography... thinking of taking up knitting too.
14. I am meeting a lot of people a lot better than me, every day. Actually it encourages me to improve myself.
15. That's a good one, i probably never done it completely, never completely forgot who i was. I did and still do redefines my priorities at times. And I certainly have no strong opinion how somebody should be, but I do know how I'd want to act.
16. Still working on some of my fears, but definitely did loads o progress on that.
17. Done.
18. Done, long time ago.
19. Need to do more of that, but yes.
20. Done.
21. Still have work to do on that one.
22. Oups
23. Done.
24. Done.
25. Done.

Not bad I think, don't think i had all that by 25 ... but it's a long road.

Bodyboarding under the rain

Last night we headed up to Spanish Point ( Co Clare )  for a surf session, well for me it was body-boarding, as i think I have given up any up of standing up on a surfboard ...  maybe I should try the long board...
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Flat calm at the moment .....
Good waves, not big and quite regular, through very steep at times. The water was warm enough, but we had to support drizzles of rain...
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On the water during sunset
That was also a good opportunity to test out my new toy, a Gopro camera.
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Spanish Point view from the water
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Post surf, pre dinner.....
After that it was time for Dinner, and a delicious pan fried monk-fish in Milton Malbay, before going back to Limerick.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Tieranniesaur Tier-repetita and Dolans Summer Party

For the third time this year, I had the pleasure to see Tieranniesaur live, this time in Dolans for the Summer Party. A great event with a gret line up from the Windings, to Girl Band .. basically a 5 euro well spent.

The sun and an almost clear blue sky even invited himslef for the party before the darkness.


There was also a presentation of an interesting compilation:
Strange Passion - Explorations in Irish Post Punk, DIY and Electronic music 1980-83:
 http://www.nialler9.com/album-week-strange-passion-explorations-irish-post-punk-diy-electronic-music-198083/


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Tieranniesaur ready to take the main stage in the warehouse
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Tieranniesaur

Another band I've seen recently in Bourkes was Girl Band (Update now renames Gilla Band):

Upstairs: Girl Band



Upstairs I also discovered Melodica Deathship, you can listen there here: http://mdsdub13.bandcamp.com/

The night line up, feel free to check them out:


  • Warehouse Stage (Curated by Out On A Limb Records):
    Crayonsmith // Dead Red Light // Elk // The Jimmy Cake // Jogging // So Cow // Ten Past Seven // Tieranniesaur//
  • Upstairs Stage (Curated by windings)
    Dott // Girl Band // The Great Balloon Race // Land Lovers // Magic Pockets // Melodica Deathship // MynameisjOhn // Percolator // windings
  • Bar (Curated by A Love Supreme): DJs, Acoustic Sets, Collaborations.



Brickmania

Lego Smurf castle ??   Eva.... massive build Swimming in bricks ?