Malweth’s Metablog

I’ve really broken into the books I’ve gotten to prepare for Grad school. I haven’t even been admitted yet, though I think I have a fairly good chance to get in the NUWC/URI COEUT Distributed Networking Systems program. I’m nearly finished a whitepaper titled “Resource Direction Protocol for use in Static Distributed Undersea Networks,” which hopefully falls in line with this program (it certainly fits into our research group’s ideas at work).

I will be attending an informational meeting and introduction session this upcoming Tuesday, so I’ll be finding out more about the program and how to apply. I’m more worried about passing it through budgeting at work - I know nothing about that process! I may also need to find two letters of reference, though that should be easy enough to do at work.

The books I’ve been working through on my own are: Forgotten Calculus by Barbara Lee, Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes (3rd ed.) by Athanasios Papoulis, and Differential Equations and Their Applications (4th ed.) by Martin Braun.

The Braun book I just purchased used from Amazon and it seems to be very good! I barely got it and have already worked through the first few sections. It’s interesting to relearn Differential Equations. I’m understanding them better than I ever did in college (I had a terrible Math prof). The Probability book is very hard - nobody seems to like it on Amazon, but I did pick up a study guide too… so hopefully it will be enough to understand most of it without too much effort. Forgotten Calculus is a bit too easy, but necessary because I don’t remember any of the integral / derivative tables. I think the reasoning behind it is most important, though… and I thankfully didn’t lose that.

I’m fairly surprised at how quickly I’m relearning the math, especially the stuff I didn’t understand well the first time around. I’m attributing it to my significantly improved study habits (thank you Game of Go)! The absolute hardest part about learning math on your own is that the books are written by Math PhD’s. I think it does help you learn it better, but it’s sometimes tough to see how they get from equation X to equation Y. I was pleased when it finally dawned on me that the 1st order differential method is based on the Product Rule! Once I realized it, it seemed obvious… but the author only needed to say “by the product rule” instead of assuming it was second nature. Still, combine figuring that out with solving the odd numbered problems (solutions in the back) and you come out of it with math strength.

Look for more info sometime next week! I’m really looking forward to the URI meeting and getting started on the application!!!

Family Life

With the whitepaper I’m writing (mostly on my own time) and the studying, my family is a bit more neglected. Finally finishing the paper will alleviate that somewhat, but I have to acknowledge them in some way! I do try to do this work after J has gone to sleep, but sometimes I need a bit more time than that. I have to assume that it’ll be this way for the next few years or more… hopefully it isn’t too much of a problem! It will be interesting to have a 2nd kid during school (we certainly will sometime in the next 3 years), but it shouldn’t be a problem. At worst I’ll miss a class because  of it… and be more tired from lack of sleep.

In any case, it’s the other reason I’m studying hard this summer. It will make actual classes that much easier for my family to handle.

I may be putting my efforts toward the CCIE on the back-burner. I’d really like to get the most prestidgious technical certification out there, but something else has come up. I think I may be falling into a more important and advantageous opportunity!

A new Masters program in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Ocean Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering is starting between URI & NUWC concentrating in Distributed Networking. I would choose either the Electrical or Computer Science track. This would require me to meet all the normal requirements for the program only substituting a few core classes/electives for the concentration. The problem is that I don’t know a differential equation from a doughy eclaire… it’s just been too long! I’ll also have problem with signal math if I end up taking DSPs.

So I ordered “Advanced Differential Equations for Dummies” and I’m breaking out my old signals book (by Leland B. Jackson, God of Signals and Transforms). I’ll also probably have to re-learn some trig and probability (always hated probability).

My other option is to learn basic computer programming from the { to the }. Yes I already know some, but my style is nil (since I only ever learned Pascal formally - and that was over 10 years ago). I just don’t know it well enough to get by. Relearning sounds easier than initially learning!

Well… it sounds like a fun summer so far! I wonder what else is in store…

This past weekend we went to the Edaville Railroad near Plymouth, MA. The place is fairly small - the drive being the small railroad that takes you around Cranberry bogs to see lots of Christmas lights (a sort of luminescent-topiary). It’s well worth taking the train after dark (I don’t see the draw during daylight nor year-round).

The food stands were expensive, but very high quality (I had a chocolate apple). This was probably my best picture from the outing. (95mm 1/160s @ f/8 ISO 200). The Depth of Field (DoF) was better in the chocolate apple picture (linked above) (50mm 1/200s @ f/3.5 ISO 200) but this one had better pattern and depth (endless-looking-ness).

The lights were also interesting subjects:

The castle (50mm 1/100s @ f/1.8 ISO 400) was my favorite lights shot. The goal here was to capture these using a 50mm prime (f/1.8) on a moving train! These were at ISO 400, but more was required to get the pure black background and more pinpointed lights. Keeping the standard EV of -0.3 or -0.7 results in a longer exposure (easier to blur) and too-bright lights which bled too much, also making a fuzzy visage. The ones that came out well were all at EV -1.7 (Aperture Priority mode).

The one thing I did like was the diffusion effect caused by the train. A warm train in < 50 degree weather means foggy windows! This allowed the lights to bleed somewhat, but in a more organic (not over-bright) way. This picture had the perfect amount... (where I shot through the windows made a big difference)!

Finally, one interesting effect I had: A longer exposure that had a tree passing by (50mm 1/3s @ f/1.8 ISO 400 EV -0.3):

Merry Christmas!

Meghan & Dan’s wedding went perfectly this weekend! The rain held off until we were on the road home Sunday, and the day of the wedding was sunny! My flickr has all the images from the rehearsal dinner up, but I’m still working on the wedding photos.

Weddings are very hard to photograph well. The reception site was beautiful, but when you have a canopied deck looking out over a sunny harbor, the people are quite dark (or the water is over exposed). Once the sun goes down, there’s no light left for photos! It was even worse inside - the dance floor had no lights, so it was all flash photography (I hate built-in flash)… Of course this had no bearing on the actual event!! Aside from my photography everything went beautifully!

Another photo-trouble was the moon. It was certainly big enough to fit into some pictures… but a 50mm (or slightly more or less) focal length makes the moon (giant to our eyes) look tiny. It’s very hard to get far enough away for 200mm to get the whole view:

My best picture of the church:

I’m going to start up a new Tamayo (Rhode Island Branch) family newsblog page! I’ve tried this in the past with limited success, but this time it should work significantly easier. Everything’s contained on my own site, and it’s (relatively) easy to reach from
Home and Work!

The latest news is my (to be shipped Monday) camera that’s coming (so expect some excellent pictures of Julian). The old-camera pictures are still very good:

Julian really loves the bath - though it’s not easy… it’s especially great on a hot evening (like tonight). This picture is actually from a few days ago, but he has tons of fun with it There’s some parts fuzzed out because of the scary internet people (you know who you are…)

This weekend we were supposed to have a house showing, but the person who was coming to look at it decided not to come in before he even got out of the car! Apparently (as we heard from our realtor) he has a business that involves trucks and doesn’t think the side street we live on is wide enough. Our realtor also thinks he did the same thing to the house he went to see before ours because they were running very early from their 11am appointment. Everyone was pretty pissed and thought the guy should have gone to visit places before he scheduled the showing if a neighborhood street is something he wasn’t interested in! In fact, if he wants to live on a main road I bet he could get a better deal than the houses he’s looking at!

Tomorrow is my Go tournament! I don’t feel at all prepared for it (I’ve been spending too much time researching cameras and too little time studying). I’m car pooling with a couple other players to Sommerville, MA, the home of the Massachusetts Go Association. Wish me luck… the summer tournament usually has fewer players (usually 30-40 during the school season) so I may stand a chance! Last summer I got 3rd place! We’ve also been meeting at Starbuck’s in Garden City, Cranston, RI every Monday night… it looks as though we may actually be able to turn this into a real club (albeit a smallish one ;). Pictures from the last meeting:

I’ll be posting again after the tournament (probably in the “Go” section of this Meta-Blog) if you’re interested in how things turned out!