stuff

seems like people don't like to read articles in english, there are so few comments...

anyways, things've been well these days. the human subjects approval for my thesis experiment has arrived, i can officially get the money and start my experiment now. but there are still some technical difficulties that need to be fixed.

machine shop work has been fun, though i cut myself a couple times besides cutting aluminum. our rock crusher is expected to exert 25000N force when a person weighs 60kg steps on it. and we think this will break the all time record of rock crusher projects, haha

i've finished the conceptual design of my knitting chair, looks pretty good in drawings. need to make a 3d model of it to see if it actually works. i have 6 weeks after spring break to actually fabricate the whole chair, hopefully it's enough time.

squash is really fun, tough tiring. can't get enough power on forehand shots, which really bothers me. should practice more.

Leader

Leadership is not rank, privileges, titles, or money. It is responsibility.

A Leader Has A Mission That Matters
A Leader Is A Big Thinker
A Leader Has High Ethics
A Leader Is A Change Master
A Leader Is Sensitive
A Leader Is A Risk Taker
A Leader Is A Decision Maker
A Leader Uses Power Wisely
A Leader Communicates Effectively
A Leader Is A Team Builder
A Leader Is Courageous
A Leader Is Committed

future

some more information about the job that i am applying in Motorola. the group is formerly known as Symbol Tech, which was recently acquired by Motorola. the position i am applying for is a position somewhere between industrial designer, industrial engineer and ergonomics researcher, which is exactly what i would like to do. and the fact that they came to me at the first place, and that they would like someone who can speak chinese, makes the chance of me getting hired much higher. so i'm really excited about it! but in the meantime, quite a bit nervous too! hope everything goes well.

"A bit about the group: we have two UI designers, two design researchers (including me), two ergonomists, and one market/innovation researcher. There is a fair amount of cross over, as I've designed a number of keyboards and conducted human factors studies and the UI designers and ergonomists have done design research. Our larger group is the former Symbol Technologies industrial design group that also includes industrial designers and a team of engineers working on advanced concepts. We are currently working through details of how we will work with the team that already existed at Motorola in our division. Motorola is divided into three divisions, Mobile Devices (cell-phones), Networks & Enterprise (us), & Connected Home (cable-boxes and similar home network/entertainment equipment). The ID group that already existed in the N&E division mostly did work designing walkie-talkie-type devices and police & fire communications equipment. They also did a few products that competed against us.

The main products that our group has worked on are mobile computers, bar-code scanners, and RFID equipment. Symbol also makes wireless (Wifi) equipment, but the design group has been less involved in its development. We might also start covering the walkie-talkies and police & fire equipment. The main things tying all of this together is that it is equipment used for people's jobs and allows these jobs to be done better through providing mobile access to communications, computing, and data capture. Our stuff gets used by a large number of industries, but the major settings include: stores, warehouses, factories, transportation hubs, hospitals, and in mobile field applications (think guys repairing telephone equipment or the guys delivering a package to your house and taking your signature)."

starwars

starwars is soooo cool! natalie portman is so pretty~~



may the FORCE be with you!

forza manchester united

manchester united and liverpool derby, THE most fierce and eye attracting english premiership derby, ended with a 91 minute goal, the only goal of the game, from john o'shea.

i got up at 7:30am to watch the exciting game, and my team didn't disappoint me!! but i have to admit, liverpool was the better side. bellamy caused a lot of trouble for our defense, vidic didn't really have the agility to do a great defense on him. and because we were the away team at anfield, sir alex furguson must think that he would be satisfied with a draw. our team played a little bit conservatively, leaving most of the court for liverpool to attack and trying to steal a winning goal by counter attack. van der sar was definitely the key to the clean sheet, his several brilliant world class saves made the reds leave the stadium empty-handed.

after rooney was forced to be substituted by o'shea and scholes was sent off for a furious fist swing, everyone thought that the game was going to end with a boring draw. but luck stood by us again today, at 1 minute into overtime, ronaldo's furious freekick went pass the wall and reina couldn't hold on to the ball, o'shea scored a close range shot which helped us bring home 3 points!

so we have a 9-point lead and only 9 games left. beating chelsea at stamford bridge would be the best way to win the premiership. forza manchester united, we are the champions!

wet shoes

have you ever have this experience, that you are walking on a rainy day, rain drops on your umbrella, the ground is wet, water running under you and by your side. all of a sudden, you find that your toes are feeling cold! so you look down, and find the heads of your sneaker all wet!

so this is an example of common design problems that everyone of us must have experienced. from the human walking motion, a flick at the head of our foot towards upright will happen when we are moving our foot in front of us, before stepping down. so if there is water under our shoes, inertia of the water makes it keep going up and land on the heads of our shoes.

no one wants to walk around in a pair of wet shoes all day long, so even though this is a tiny problem, it is annoying! a simple solution to the problem might be adding some grain at the front of the sneaker so that when water goes up along the heads of our shoes due to inertia, there is resistance making it stop before it reaches to the top of our shoes. also, add a small part of water proof material at the head top of our shoes.

let's walk with a pair of DRY shoes!

nervous

Subject: RE: Resume
From: "Marshall, Graham", graham.marshall@motorola.com
Date: Thu, March 1, 2007 9:18 am
To: "Vincent, Xin Wang"

Xin, thank you for your resume. We are interested in setting up interviews for early March. I will be in touch soon.

Thank-you
Graham

squash

just bought a squash racquet online, head liquid metal 140g, about 80 bucks, feeling great! i have been taking a squash class this semester, fell in love with the game.first of all, it's an indoor game, which makes it can be played even it's snowing crazy outside like the winter here in ithaca. second of all, it's a relatively small court and since i'm old, it's easier to run around a smaller court. and third, hitting the ball really hard, or i should say, smashing the ball is really fun and feels really good.

though our instructors (one freshman and one sophomore, who is also called vincent, whose last name is also wang, who also comes from guangzhou... talk about coincident!) told us that if we played tennis or racquetball before, we should definitely forget all about them because squash is a very different game from them, which involves very different swings and game strategies, i still found my experience with tennis is helpful to my game, cause at least i can hit the ball alright! so even though my swings are too big, which can be fairly dangerous to my opponent, i think i'm quite good at the game as a beginner who only played the sports for less than 10 hours. xixi =P

oh, forgot to mention, alan, my thesis adviser, also plays squash, and a couple of my friends play it too, so it would be really fun to play with them and hang out. you know, socializing is always important.

deadline

so deadline is a weird word. what is a deadline exactly? is it a line, by which if you pass, then you will die? nooot exactly!

instead of a visible, physical line, deadline usually is a time, by which if you pass, then severe consequences will happen. so as a time stamp, deadline usually serves as a mechanism for people, lazy people like me, to organize their work, and get them work done.

the argument states as follows: like the thesis grant proposal i submitted today, it was right before the deadline (4pm this afternoon). i was editing and printing, running around to get signatures, and so on and so forth, all sorts of things that i could have done a couple weeks ago. however, because i had other deadlines back then, so the priority for this deadline just dropped down. also, i wouldn't have done all these even if i don't have other deadlines because i would think that there is still time and i need some time for myself to relax and sleep. hence, deadlines organize my work.

how do deadlines help to get work done? because severe consequences would happen if i should miss a deadline. i'll be still using the proposal example to illustrate this point. if i don't get the proposal done by the deadline, i will have no money for my experiment, which is needed for my thesis. therefore, i won't have a thesis and i shall not be able to graduate this year, which would make my plan of getting out of ithaca and get a job this year vanished. therefore, i have to get the proposal in before the deadline. and that, is how the deadline helps me to get work done.

ok, enough crazy talk today, should rest... in peace

luck

So possibly, I could get a job that found me. I hope, I hope I still have some luck left in my luck bank. This is where I really need it!

I'm back

Deserted here for a long time. I've decided to write this blog in English. Yeah, might be childish words, but I am trying.