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May 22, 2008
Scenarios 5,6,7,8,9,10 Good
Well I've made good progress. I think it is as ready to go as it can be without a significant additional effort (like months worth). Now I need to focus on making one additional training scenario, getting the first training scenario to work better and make changes to the experimental packet.
I've got non-expert participants lined up for Sunday/Monday. Unfortunately still no experts. Sigh. Just got to keep hoping someone/something comes through.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)
Where o where are my vounteers
At this point I have two people signed up as volunteers. Unfortunately, both of them are not experts. At this point, after many pleading emails I have 0 experts signed up. This is tragic. Sigh. I'm not sure what to do.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
Scenarils 3, 4 and most of 5 are done.
For some reason the code behind my code is choking on a what I think is a legitimate answer to Scenario 5's second problem...
Posted by kfeigh at 11:17 PM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2008
3 Days of Coding...
So I spent all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in a massive coding effort to get my stuff into shape for what will hopefully be my final experimental version debuting next week...
I've started a log now to check off each scenario's individual case once I've verified that I'm happy with how the system handles it. I've got 12 scenarios (with between 1-3 cases each). Right now I've managed to verify 2.
Keep posted for my progress. The number needs to read 12 by Friday...
Posted by kfeigh at 09:59 PM | Comments (2)
May 16, 2008
Traveler's Tales
I've been doing a lot of traveling lately which generally leads to all kinds of strange incidents. I thought I'd share some of my most recent travel stories for this post.
1) Plumbing
You would think that plumbing in a modern hotels would be a fairly straight forward affair. Not necessarily so. I once stayed in a hotel near JFK where the mechanism to divert the flow of water to the shower head and away from the spout was not your typical pull up or push in plunger, but instead a twist on the end of the spout going into the tub. I sat in there for a good 5 minutes before giving up. I was half way through washing my hair by kneeling in the tub when I finally figured it out. This most recent trip I spent about 3 minutes cursing the cold water gushing into the tub as I had the temperature control lever swung to full "hot" in the "up" position (the off position was straight down). Finally, once again giving up on getting any hot water, I decided to turn it off and call downstairs to see if the hot water was working or not, when I noticed the water began to get hot as I moved the lever into the "cold" position. Sigh. One more example of messed up plumbing.
2) Rental Cars
Cars are not standardized. In some ways this is a good thing, in other ways it is not. Some cars, like the PT cruiser, for example, should never be allowed to become rental cars. They are just too weird. I once was given a PT cruiser in Dallas TX and I almost killed myself because it did not have anti-lock breaks. To add embarrassment to the harrowing experience of skidding across an intersection in the middle of the night, I had to open the door to get a parking lot entry ticket because I could not figure out how to roll the windows down in a car with no map lights.
Radios are another way in which I wish cars were more similar. Most rental cars now come with satellite radio -- this is a great feature, if you know how to us it and take the time to set it up before you get into traffic. I assume that most people unfamiliar with satellite radio follow my lead and stay away from it -- this is the only way I can account for the lack of deaths associated with rental cars.
The most recent rental car I had gave me significant trouble with the radio. First it changed the radio light setting when I turned on my lights (it was a dim/rainy day, but not dark). This meant that I could not see the radio settings (I did not know at that time, what I had done to dim the radio). Then the radio couldn't find any radio stations. I'd push the seek button only for it to find nothing. Eventually by flipping every lever in the car I managed to turn the lights off and see the radio dial again to discover that the seek function would cause the radio to go around the dial continuously never finding anything until I pushed the seek button again. I guessed at this point that the lovely dodge I was in must have its antenna pushed in. So once I arrived at my hotel, I intended to pull the antenna out. But while I was stowing my GPS in the center console, I found out that in reality the problem was that the antenna was hiding in the center console. I screwed it back in place, and the radio worked fine from then on.
Posted by kfeigh at 10:01 AM | Comments (2)
May 13, 2008
Still in CT
I'm sitting here again with my feet up in my hotel room debugging code. So far things are working out OK. I get to the the plant at around 7:30, get things all set up for the day's run, the pilot arrives around 8, then the introductions and ground school begins. I don't have any part of this, so I input the data from the previous day, check my email, surf the web until lunch. We have sandwiches (the same kind every day), chips, an eclectic assortment of sodas, and cookies.
Then I finally get to swing into action. I get to put the EEG cap, gel and electrodes on the pilot. Then I adjust the eye tracker and calibrate it. Then I sit in the back and push the start/stop data logging button. Yep, my life is exciting! The reality is pretty repetitive and boring, but the fact that I get to spend my days in a flight simulator collecting data -- that is cool. I'm even excited about the data analysis, boy I am a nerd.
The only frustration is that we are one pilot shy of getting enough data for the full design of experiments. We manage to finish usually by around 2pm every day, plenty of time to run a second subject. If only we could get a second pilot in on one day. If only we could use the simulator for two extra hours one day. All of these things seem rather small, surmountable problems. But no, it is not to be.
I'm here one more day, then it is back to MN with me for a weekend of marathon debugging.
Posted by kfeigh at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2008
Back in CT
I'm back in CT again. I'll be here until Thursday morning early when I catch an early flight back to MN on Thursday morning. I"m not sure what the weather is going to be like, but it doesn't really matter because I'll be spending all of my time in the simulator room which doesn't have any windows anyway. Right now I'm in my hotel room waiting for dinner to arrive.
Posted by kfeigh at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2008
More Loss
They say these things come in threes, so I'm kind of waiting with baited breath.
I learned this morning of the death of probably one of the most impressive people I have ever met. He was in my class of Marshall scholars. He was the kind of person who was inspiring. Within moments of meeting him he could make you feel completely at ease in the conversation. He was so humble that you would have to be told by someone else or ask him directly about his work and his life's passion to fully understand the talents he had and that he lived and continued to live a life very different from the one I led and continue to lead today. I cannot begin to explain how many languages Michael spoke, but English was only one among many. When I was frustrated and annoyed at the make up of my class of scholars as over privileged, name-dropping, but bright ivy leaguers who baffled me with the lack of direction and passion in their being, Michael was one of the few who stood out.
I remember sitting next to him once at a dinner and just listening to him tell stories. I was mostly quiet (which for those of you who know me is rare). I was happy to listen as he told stories about the places he had been and the people he had spoken with. I simply sat in rapt attention. I had nothing much to add. I believe he is where I learned about some of the Afghani tribal leaders who had had a western education and decided that they wanted none of this self-awareness in their own country. Education, they understood, would lead to the loss of total obedience and dependence of their people. To put it simply he was probably one of the best ambassadors our country could have had to the people he visited. He was the kind of person at 25 who would have made even the most senior war correspondent jealous.
His obituary can be found here. It reads more like an application for tenure than an obituary. I don't know how he died, I hope it wasn't under any kind of duress. I hope someone is assigned to escort his body home. He was the kind of person who completely exemplified the Marshall Plan, and I am grateful to have known him.
Posted by kfeigh at 07:42 AM | Comments (2)
Celebration
Last night Brian and I went out with some of my friends to celebrate Caroline's successful thesis defense. She is now, strangely enough, applying to med school. I hope she gets lots of use out of her new title as she goes through the process...
Posted by kfeigh at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2008
Loss
I am struck by the inconsistencies in my emotional response to the news of the deaths of tens of thousands of individuals half way around the world and the news of the death of a colleague. On one hand the deaths of the Burmese was sudden and unexpected at least to me. On the other hand my colleague had been ill with cancer for over a year and the diagnosis did not leave much room for hope. But as merely a colleague I was not privy to his fight, to the news of his personal struggle. As far as I could tell he lived his final months in the same way that he had lived his life prior to the news. Perhaps it was because I hadn't heard anything for the last 8 months of his life that I was quite happy to perpetuate the last image I had of him, happy enjoying his time at a conference looking the same as he always had, slightly over weight, ruddy faced with a thick set of white/gray hair. I learned of his death through a tribute written in my professional society's bulletin. Still the relative shock of it has stuck with me far more than the news that over 20 thousand people lost their lives senselessly in a very predictable hurricane.
Maybe it has struck me because he didn't make changes (that I was aware of) to his life. Despite what was almost a fatal diagnosis, he seemed not to change anything. Perhaps he was one of those lucky few of us that actually loved the way he lived his life, but I doubt it. Surely there were aspects that he enjoyed, but he was also clearly run ragged. So I mourn selfishly as someone who feels cheated that I did not get to know him better and selfishly as someone who feels guilty that I actually have my final memory of him. I wasn't worthy of his precious time, it should have been spent with someone who loved him more or in some more pleasurable pursuit.
Posted by kfeigh at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)