Lobsters, displacements and the Mavs

Haven't been blogging a lot recently.

Have done some travelling on business. Had been to Germany and Maine. Hate that long flight to Germany and unfortunately I might have to be there again in 3 weeks. Maine was much better. Had gone there for a demo and think did a pretty good job at it. Have been to maine twice in 3 months and personally I think its a very boring state. Only good thing about maine is the lobster. I go on a exclusive lobster diet when I am here. :) Dimillo's by the waterfront serves the best lazy lobster I have ever had.

Have you guys ever wondered what a cool job these guys with those floroscent stick who guide planes on the tarmac have. Its such an easy job... just poiniting those sticks... I think I would very much like doing that.

Past 1 month I have been creating an application which measures the x/y displacements of a receptor. The customer wanted it to have an accuracy of less than 25 microns. I have tried a lot of stuff and gave him elaborate application reports in word and excel... number crunching.. and all this was pretty frustrating. Using an imaging system as a measuring tool is so damn difficult... finally could give him data which deviates +/- 75 microns.. so when I flew to maine for that demo the customer sensed my frustration and explained why he needs such accurate placement of the receptor. The device they manufacture is called the 'absolute position controller' which gives feedback about the direction, speed and absolote position of a cars steering wheel. It contains a metallic plate with different sized holes and a led (transmitter) and a receptor. The light emitted by the led travels through the holes and are recieved by the receptor. The steering wheel is directly coupled to the metallic plate and depending on the speed and rotation of the metallic plate the receptor recieves a sine wave signal with different frequencies. And any x/y displacement of the receptor renders the device unusable. Very cool concept that...

Have always been a big NBA fan and spend most of my evenings watching the playoffs. I was extremely impressed by the Mavs this year. They have everything going for them. Some amazing shooters, great penetration and cool nerves. Yesterdays game 7 against the Spurs was quite a thriller. I hope the Mavs win the finals this time.