Maxwell Falls and Handywork

Having a 9-5 job certainly cuts down your available free time. However, I've rediscovered the glory of what it feels like to leave the workplace on a Friday afternoon. I had forgotten.

We'll start with my first weekend after a real Big Boy work week. I decided to make the most of it. Saturday morning began with a trip to the REI in downtown Denver. Now, I had been to an REI before in St. Louis and it made the list of top 5 stores to go to immediately. I love touring the aisles looking at how the engineers of these tents, backpacks, and all other gear ceaselessly manage to make things smaller, lighter, and more compact. It's quite impressive and, well, cool. I entered Denver's REI and was a kid at Disney World. I wanted to get to the hike I had planned so I didn't waste too much time around the store but I did manage to walk the entire first level (of 3) of the store and it alone was about 7 times the size of the St. Louis store. Had I not had an agenda I probably could have spent the entire day there. There was even a refrigerated room to test your sleeping bag in! This place was no joke!

Since I had the dog waiting in the car I purchased my new daypack (which is awesome) and the book,

Best Hikes with Dogs in Colorado (yep, a book specifically for that), and unfortunately had to leave. With my new gear ready to be tested I drove about an hour West of Denver to a place called Maxwell Falls, just outside Evergreen, CO. I picked Maxwell Falls based on the information I'd read about it being a good hike to take a dog on. After his first week of being home alone I figured I owed it to Frisbee. Now, online I had read that the Maxwell Falls hike allowed dogs off leash, however, the sign at the trail head said differently. In any case, all but one of the 20+ dogs I'd seen on the trail were off-leash and people seemed pretty understanding, if not supportive of this. So with my pooch assuming the exploratory lead we hiked, bouldered, and explored the Maxwell falls area and further to the cliffs above. For an hour's drive I can hardly do any complaining about the sites and general romp that I got outta the day trip. In fact, for a former resident of flat land, I saw it as pretty amazing.





After a solid 3 hour hike we made our way back home. Naturally, the dog had enough energy to want to keep playing, but I was beat. I swung by home depot on the way home to pick up some toggle bolts and some wall patch (for all the times I should have used toggle bolts) and had a couple beers accompany me in my most recent home improvement project, my LCD monitor arm.



Between the LCD arm and the doggy door I must say, I'm feeling alright about my handyman skills. With the Wi-Fi internet, Wireless keyboard/mouse combo, and floating 19 inch screen I'm pretty psyched about the space management in action for my desktop PC. The monitor arm is also a practice run for wall mounting the HDTV I hope to be purchasing in the next couple months.

After a productive weekend I returned for my second week of work. There's not too much to talk about as I'm still trying to get adjusted and understand just what is going on. Days have become pretty routine with waking up at 7 to walk the dog and get ready for work and then coming home at about 5:30 and going straight to the park to get the remaining pent up energy out of the animal. The reputation Frisbee has gained makes me laugh. The park at which I throw the disc with him has some lacrosse and soccer fields on it and after most practices he'll gather a small crowd that sticks around to watch him catch the disc. Last Friday he was approached by 4 little kids from the ages of about 2-4. Before I'd realized what was happening he'd managed to herd them all into a small group in the center of the field. Myself and the parents of the kids all found it pretty impressive.

This past weekend wasn't nearly as productive as the first, but nonetheless appreciated. With my first paycheck I purchased myself an Xbox 360 and spent some time on Xbox live with my brother in memphis playing Gears of War, holding us over for Halo 3, which drops in about… 2 hours now. Should be a good time.

-dp

My Big Boy Job

Today is my 8th day of work. And yes, the fact that this post comes 7 business days after my 1st day of work clues you in to how busy things have been. Big boy land is an exciting new world so here’s the rundown.

I considered myself quite prepared for my first day of work. I'd done a dress rehearsal - testing preparation time and traffic - the Friday beforehand and was more excited than nervous. I could give the play by play on unnecessary details that are only warranted, in my opinion, with 48 hours of the "first day experience" but now that a week has passed here’s the fast forwarded description: I walked in, had a seat in the lobby, got my badge made, went through an HR orientation presentation, met and went to lunch with my manager, returned and met my temporary manager and coworkers, started reading documentation about the project I am working on, went home. All went well, no hiccups, and a few really cool things.

I'm currently awaiting my security clearance so, for the time being, I am working on an unclassified project called MUOS. Due to it's unclassified nature I am able, however discouraged, from discussing details about it so I'll just stick with the general public description.

"The Mobile User Objective System is an array of satellites being developed for the United States Department of Defense to provide global SATCOM narrowband (64 kbit/s and below) connectivity for communications uses by the United States and allies.” [more from Wikipedia]

Even if I were encouraged to discuss details I think I'd do a pretty poor job of it as, now 8 days in, I am still weeks away from understanding the intricacies.

Here's what I know: The project is enormous. Seeing documentation and flowcharts and presentations and requirements and "The LMS interfaces with the CMCI producing the GC and GP data for OA," when I have no idea what LMS, CMCI, GC, GP, or OA are leaves me feeling overwhelmed in a big way. There is no group project in Comp Sci 415 that could even begin to prepare you for contributing to something like this. It's taken 3 years of work by 4 government contractors to produce what exists today... and the satellites still aren't launching until 2009! To further illustrate the scale, the primary contractor is Lockheed Martin who has subcontracted to General Dynamics who has subcontracted to Northrup Grumman (me/us). The degree of coordination and pages and pages of information this all requires is truly like nothing I've ever seen and almost incomprehensible.

So, for that last week I've been trying to play catch up on 3 years of work. It's not been easy. It's alot to take in. However, I know this much: the piece that my team is working on involves the geolocation process of the MUOS systems. 2 satellites get a signal at different times and, using this information and some surprisingly simple math, an accurate point of origin is determined over time.

I have yet to get into the real meat of the project, which I far from expect at this point, but in the coming weeks I hope to write some code that will eventually find itself orbiting earth. I find it pretty awesome to be able to say that.

As far as other work details go it's a pretty neat place. I feel very James Bond-ish entering the doors with my "proxi card" which illuminates a keypad with a random placement of 0-9 on which to type my PIN. People are pretty laid back which I found pleasantly surprising knowing that it's a company contracted by the government. Jeans and earrings are not uncommon. It also feels alot smaller than it is. When I was being shown around by my boss, everyone knew him and he didn't even work in the same building. I think the fact that they encourage people to switch projects as often as possible shuffles the deck of cards enough that everyone has been in the same hand at some point. It really changes the feel of things.

Some other points of interest:

• I was told to take my badge of at lunch because we don't advertise who we work for as we can be targets
• If I don't show up to work and I haven't notified anyone they call the police
• There's a black phone room, I'm not sure what it's for, but it sounds pretty cool
• The black phone room is not as cool as the red phone room next door

So far the actual work has ranged from boring to busy, nothing yet that really utilizes or excites me, but I know I have to be patient.

Here's the final big piece of news I didn't anticipate: I'm starting my Masters in January! After being hired I asked HR about education reimbursement and until 2 weeks ago their policy was that they would reimburse you for the lowest price per credit the state offered. This price was $405/credit hour at University of Colorado, a far cry from the $873/hr cost at nearby (and highly reputable) University of Denver. When I heard this I considered either going with the cheaper option or waiting some time before trying Denver. However, in an incredible stroke of luck I was granted a wish!

For the first time University of Denver is starting classes in January on Northrop Grumman’s campus for a MS in Computer Science Systems Engineering at the exact cost Northrop is willing to pay! (wow that’s a lot of prepositional phrases) Whoopee! Sign me up!

I’m really excited about the potential of having security clearance and my Masters in a few years. I really got lucky when this company found my resume on Monster.com!

-dp

Apple's Apology

So, here's what I've meant to do with this blog, write my opinion on nerd stuff. And what better (and more widespread) nerdiness exists than iPhone buzz, or on a broader scope, Apple announcements.

Yesterday, as all of internet knows, Steve Jobs revamped and introduced the iPod and its various children, brothers, cousins, what have you. Yet, unlike previous apple announcements, everyone did not leave Jobs' keynote address all fuzzy inside. In fact, some people left pissed. With good reason? I happen to think so.



First we've got Fatty Magee, the Nano. It's ugly. No really, it is. And surprisingly so, especially for a company that's oftentimes the epitome of trendy and sleek like Apple. The first nano was cute. Fatty Magee is not. Yes, it now has video and some pretty impressive battery life but I have a hard time believing that anybody was waiting for the day when they could watch 5 hours of video on a 2 inch screen. iPod nanos (and mini's) have traditionally been for the casual music listener wanting to toss on some tunes during a jog, not having a music library large enough to be disappointed with a 4 Gig device. With the emphasis shifted to video, I think Apple's lost its focus for this class of iPod.



Next we've got the iPod classic which I find to be the most under appreciated announcement of the keynote. For those with moderate to enormous music and/or video libraries, you can pay $50 more than a 8 gig nano and get 10 times the capacity at 80 gigs. The $250 price tag puts an iPod, a real iPod, not a slimmed down copy, in the hands of the budgeting audiophile for the first time.



Then there's the iPod touch. It's cool. Really cool. And also REALLY expected. It's what 90% of people wanted when the iPhone was announced - everything but the phone function itself. Yet, the amount of customers I believe it loses based on storage size alone is astonishing. Yes, it's thin indeed, but that's because it can barely hold the Bon Jovi discography. But make no mistake, people are going to be going crazy over it. WiFi enabled, multitouch, and widescreen video are serious, serious kudos to this device... but going from a 30 gig iPod video to an 8 Gig iPod touch, the 30 gig replacement as far as Apple's line is concerned, and having to cut your library into a fourth... seems like kinda a bummer to me. That being said I'd gladly take one off someone's hands if they don't want it.



Finally, there's the announcement that made several tens of thousands of people a little nauseous - a price drop of $200 for the iPhone. Congrats, suckers, 1/3rd of what you paid for an iPhone got you a whole 70 days of look-what-I-have-that-you-don't pleasure. That's $2.85 a day. Now, are you to be blamed? Not entirely. How were you to know that Apple would make you queasy in such a fashion? A $200 price drop in 2 months is unheard of! Price drops at this level of gadgets generally occur when the technology for a device becomes easier and cheaper to produce. Technology evolves quickly, but not 2 months quickly. A 33% price drop this soon shows you how massively Apple was overcharging its loyalists who waited in line at launch day. They could have charged whatever they wanted and the fanboys would have bought it. Now Apple is paying the price in the form of angry emails from those who have a tattoo of the rainbow macintosh on their ass. There's some fixing to be done.

Some say, "Tough noogies, that's what you get for being a gizmo fanatic". Jobs himself even hinted at that idea in his apology letter. You'll always pay more at launch than you will if you wait... but this much more? This soon? As an iPod video owner I STILL FEEL QUEASY when comparing the $400 I spent for 60 gigs vs. the new iPod classic at $250 for 80 gigs... and I got my iPod 2 years ago! I have to justify it as "C'est la vie" and get over it. But 2 months? I'd certainly feel wronged myself and I sympathize with those who forked out $600 because of their love for the fruits of Apple.

Thus, we have Mr. Jobs write us a letter apologizing and trying to make amends in the form of a coupon for $100 we can use to buy MORE APPLE STUFF. Whoopee. For a $100 I can get an iPod shuffle or - oh, wait, that's all you can get for $100 from Apple. Yet, this move is being praised as a maneuver that shows Apple's true colors and focus on customer satisfaction. I disagree. They did the very least they could to prevent inciting a riot. If they really wanted to show how much they cared they'd offer a $100 refund, and they wouldn't have done it as an after thought brought on by outrage.

Listen, if I go into Best Buy and buy a TV and 2 weeks later it goes on sale and I come back with my receipt I get the FULL difference back. Some places even allow up to 30 days. Why should Apple be any different? 60 days and 1/2 of the difference in the form of a coupon? This is not a gift from the benevolent Steve Jobs, this is Apple's duty. When you're paying for an Apple product you are paying that extra money over comparable items for customer "care". Not providing this most meager of attempts to keep their fans, let alone customers, happy would have been shameful.

Yes, this was a bit of a rant. And it's not that I have something against Apple because that's not the case at all. I think Apple is doing more things right than any other computer producing company at this point. I'm an Apple, iPod, and iPhone supporter! However, I'm bothered by their fan base. Everything Apple does is not the best thing there ever was and exempt from objective evaluation. Steve Jobs is not to be toted as the best CEO that has existed because he's trying to keep his customers on his side. It's his job. This should be expected of him.

Keep on loving Apple, just don't forget to cash in on your alloted customer satisfaction.

-dp

A New Colorado Resident

Hello from Denver, CO. After an exhausting drive from Memphis to St. Louis to pick up the dog and the girlfriend, proceeding to Kansas City for the night, and then driving another 10 hours the next day, we arrived at my new home in Denver last Friday. I love it here! With a few minor hiccups everything has been going picture perfect.

Friday night consisted of the first of many runs to Target (the 2nd busiest target in the nation is just 2 miles away!) and Saturday was the epic task - the doggy door. After some tense and frustrating moments the pet peurto was successfully installed and I went to bed that night with some new power tools.

There was a 2-21 day window in which my moving van was to show up. Sunday I lucked out in a big way and had my stuff delivered on the shorter end of that spectrum at just 4 days and the move in began. With my new fangled drill and lovely girlfriend I got everything assembled in record time and the house began to look like home.

Tuesday rolled around and I got my first big boy house gift... digital cable and high speed internet. Since then I've been lounging around, taking the pup for walks, exploring some of the many parks around my area, and all around getting familiar with my new home. So far I've been able to keep myself busy but I am more than ready to start work on Monday... I'm not very good at being bored.

Here's a few pics:




On the anecdote side of things I had the pleasure of meeting a Senior Fellow of Lockheed Martin. My girlfriend's parents were moving her younger brother into University of Denver on the same weekend I arrived here and we joined them for dinner along with their family friends, including this Senior Fellow. He was introduced to me as an algorithm writer which immediately impressed me as I know that writing algorithms for a living requires a mental capacity that I will surely never be capable of achieving. However, as dinner went on it became apparent that he was involved in much more than writing algorithms.

Throughout the meal he spoke only when necessary and was a man of few words without being curt. Oftentimes his sparse amount of details were necessary as what he was speaking of regarded classified information. Yet, the more he spoke the clearer picture I got of him. His wife mentioned his being on the hit list of a Russian spy (whose name I should recall but can't) and it became more and more apparent that he'd been involved with and/or created some pretty important things in his line of work. I asked what kind of clearance he had and his response was along the lines of "the kind of clearance you need clearance to know about". He made mention of his multiple polygraph tests and the numerous agencies that he's collaborated with, some that he alluded to the public not knowing the existence of.

Toward the end of our conversation he asked what I'd be doing at Northrop Grumman. I responded that I'd be a software engineer in Mission Systems. He got a grin on his face and I followed up asking if he knew what I'd be doing. He said that he'd been involved with Mission Systems and when asked if he thought I would like it he responded saying I'd be "pleasantly surprised and delighted with what I'd be doing".

Needless to say this only added to my building excitement and anticipation for what I'll be working on at Northrop Grumman.

-dp