Last Sunday, April, Brad, Rachael, and I went downtown to see the Seattle Art Museum’s new Olympic Sculpture Park. It was really crowded (being the Grand Opening weekend) but there were some neat sculptures. Here are some of the photos I took while I was there.

Different groups were performing all day long. When we arrived, Kaze Daiko was playing.

風だいこ Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:08:32 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F4 Exposure Time: 1/383.5 s ISO: 200 Flash: No Size: 2592x1944 Focal Length: 17 mm click to enlarge

I remember seeing this aluminium tree over the summer when the park was still under construction.

Split Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:20:44 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/527 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Eagle Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:28:09 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F3.2 Exposure Time: 1/161.2 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1050x1611 Focal Length: 10.6 mm click to enlarge

Eagle closeup Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:28:55 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/469.5 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2592x1944 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Wandering Rocks Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:31:24 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/101.5 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Stinger Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:33:05 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/248.7 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Stinger from a distance Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:45:53 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F4.9 Exposure Time: 1/57 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2592x1944 Focal Length: 23.4 mm click to enlarge

Seattle Cloud Cover Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:36:53 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/886.3 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2592x1944 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Seattle Cloud Cover Date/Time: 2007:01:21 15:38:46 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/341.7 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

At the beginning of last quarter, I announced that I’d post photos here frequently since the summer was over and back in Seattle. However, I found myself spending so much time on my courses and in the lab that when I got some free time, I didn’t really feel like taking the time to sort through photos and post them here. This quarter, I’m trying to be better about updating Ordered Pixels more frequently. Once again, though, my courses wasted no time in diving right in to big, relentless projects.

In my operating systems class, the first project consisted of adding a few counters and a system call to the Linux kernel. Our custom version of Linux counted the number of times each process forked and execed, and provided a means for user-level programs to access that information. About a week into the second project, we’re now implementing a user-level thread library. Working with operating systems is neat because it reveals that everything that it’s easy to just think of as “magic” isn’t really magic. Being aware that the system is constantly shifting different tasks in and out of the processor to make it appear that they’re all running concurrently is one thing; actually looking at and messing with the code that actually does it (and realizing that it’s actually fairly simple) is something else.

In embedded systems, we’ve wasted no time in diving into a moderately complicated microcontroller project. We’re using the ATmega16 right now, which is basically an entire low-powered computer on a single chip. Microcontrollers have a bunch of I/O pins that allow the programs they execute to interact with the physical world. The circuit we’re building this week interprets the pulse-width modulated signals from a two-axis accelerometer and uses them to control the color of an RGB LED. Tilting the accelerometer is like rolling a marble around the HSV color space, so as you tilt the board different directions, you get different colors. The next two labs will remove the accelerometer, but add a USB interface and a heart rate monitor. The microcontroller will read data from the heart monitor, which it will transmit over the USB port to a computer, which will interpret the data and send signals back over the USB telling the microcontroller to pulse the LED synchronized with the user’s pulse.

Despite being pretty busy, I have actually had a few opportunities to get out and take some pictures. I obviously haven’t been very good at getting them posted to Ordered Pixels, but I’m going to start working through the backlog. If you’re lucky, I might even get out this afternoon (it’s a beautiful day) and take some more. If you’re really lucky, you might actually see some of those pictures before the day is over.

For the week or two after I returned from Winter break, we had a bit of wintry weather. We didn’t get a lot of snow, but it stayed on the ground for a while.

Snowy Plants 1

Snowy Plants 2

Snowy Ferns

Snowy Plants 3

Snowy Plants 4

Sunset over the Snowy Quad Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:06:50 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/93.1 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2565x1909 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Snow-Dusted Trees Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:08:44 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F4.3 Exposure Time: 1/11.9 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 19.1 mm click to enlarge

Sunset over Gerberding Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:11:33 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/80.6 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2592x1944 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Sunset and Central Plaza Vents Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:13:01 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/156.6 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Reflections of Rainier Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:16:34 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F4.9 Exposure Time: 1/42.7 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 23.4 mm click to enlarge

Chemistry Building Reflections Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:17:42 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/71.8 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 1944x2592 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

Pink Lake Washington Date/Time: 2007:01:12 17:22:05 Camera: NIKON E5200 Aperture: F2.8 Exposure Time: 1/67.8 s ISO: 64 Flash: No Size: 2113x851 Focal Length: 7.8 mm click to enlarge

As I was sitting in class this morning, my phone started vibrating, indicating that I had received a text message:

SprintFreeMsg:
FREE unlimited
access to web
sites like CNN &
The Weather Channel
w/ a Vision plan!
Go to http://gospv.com
/ov4?m=

As if I don’t already get enough spam in my e-mail inbox, apparently my phone provider feels that I need to be notified of advertisements for services that I already have wherever I happen to be at the moment. I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish other than annoy me.