Black Box

Imagine this:

You come to work one day, and your senior architect tells you to do a comparison and unit test of
every single PCI-E driver card on a particular platform to see if they 1).LED works 2). OS recognizes them, and displays correct information when you display the IO devices 3). they all do basic funcationality.

Ok, **sounds simple**, no problem, I get the big picture, and has the rough idea of where to start.
Ok, I am suppose to produce a matrix of these products, EXCEPT:

I have never dam worked with these new PEMs!! I have not seen one physically nor do I know HOW MANY types there are to begin with...

add salt to the injury is that several of them requires various driver updates, and WHERE am I suppose to get these driver patches and WHAT ARE THEY CALLED?!!!!


#@$#@^%$&^*^$*$(&( -- and you tell me that I am suppose to give an update on how much time I need to complete this task? I DON'T even know the scope of the task and how/who/where to get the resources, physical PEM components, and WHO TO ASK WHAT!

-- step 0, I couldn't even figure out how to insert the dam thing, except later some hardware guy who walked by showed me how to unlatch the lock first!! this is ridiculous, they should just assign it to someone who knows what's going on in the PEM area, at least in the little bit!

-- this is UNPRODUCTIVE for me and the project.

WC4 4/4

Finally over!

I am going to watch Ocean's 13 with some of my posse tonight at the new Cupertino AMC theatre. What gift other than a welcome back cake for my dear friend who's finally on summer break from her full-time job and part-time study?

There's also a big sale on one of the ingredients at the store, I was so excited I ended up buying a huge load of this stuff. Um.. yummy!

Anyways, this turns out to be the *absolute best* cake we've ever baked! How appropriate that it's for the finale! After letting it cool off overnight, I found out that the cake is so perfect that one step can be omitted completely. This let me do a quick 15 minute icing (pre-mixed in the fridge), and off I go.

I realized a terrible thing when I got there, that I *forgot* the cake at home, had to drive home again and pick it up. This gives me less than 2 hours to finish the whole deal. Manu did an excellent job with hers, and she was so bored just sitting around watching me fumble. I decided to go with an easy design, also many thanks to her that I didn't have to make my own colors at all.

End of the story, I am so glad that this phase is finally over, and I managed to impress my friends too! ^_^ (see pics).

"Affluenza"

I have fallen in love with Sramana Mitra's informative blog site. I met her during the height of dotcom time period when I first arrived in the Silicon Valley in late 1999. She has already started 2 companies and hosted countless talks for MITCNC at the time.

Lately I have been following her very insightful blog site at Sramanamitra.com

Especially these two related articles captured my interest: (If you'd like to discuss your opinion on these issues, feel free to either leave a comment below or send me an email)..
Affluenza
Gen Y Edutainment

Cheese Blintz with Blueberry Compote

I just found this great show which I am going to schedule on my Tivo: Bay Cafe. Apparently, KRON4 has all these local shows targeting the bay area, I really like them and am going to start exploring outside of my narrow Asian scope. =)

Cheese Blintz with Blueberry Compote

Adapted from Jesse Cool�s Breakfast in Bed, published by Harper Collins

Prepared by Joey Altman

Blintz Batter

4 eggs, beaten

� cup unbleached white flour

a big pinch of salt

1 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons of melted butter

For the filling

2� cups farmer�s cheese

1 egg yolk

� cup sugar

� teaspoon ground nutmeg

� teaspoon cinnamon

� teaspoon salt

� cup blue berries

butter or vegetable oil

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

sour cream for garnish (optional)

1. In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour and salt

2. Gradually whisk in the eggs and then the milk until smooth.

3. Stir in the melted butter.

4. Lightly oil a heavy, 8-inch crepe pan, and heat it over a medium heat.

5. Pour in about 3 tablespoons of batter, and tilt the pan to spread it evenly over the bottom. Cook the crepe until it�s brown on the bottom and no longer runny on the top (don�t flip it!) Remove it to a plate with a spatula.

6. Cook the rest of the batter, oiling the pan again each time and stacking the finished crepes on top of each other, cooked side up. You�ll have about twelve.

To make the filling

1. In a medium size bowl, mix together the cheese, yolk, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and berries.

To make compote

1. In a non-reactive sauce pan on medium heat cook the berries and the sugar together just until the sugar dissolve completely and the berries just start getting soft, approximately for 5 minutes.

To finish the blintzes

1. Place a crepe, browned side up, on a flat surface.

2. Place 2 generous tablespoons of filling in a fat line down the center.

3. Fold one side over the filling. Fold both ends in toward the center, and then roll the blintz the long way to seal.

4. Allow2 -3 blintzes per person. Freeze extra.

5. Heat a small amount of butter or vegetable oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.

6. Working in batches, place the blintzes in the pan, seam side up, and cook until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes, turn and brown on the other side, to 4 minutes longer. If they have been frozen, brown the blintzes over low heat, covered, and turn them more often.

7. Transfer the blintzes to a plate and top them with the blueberry compote and sour cream if you like and serve immediately.

BC 04-22

Chinese history timeline

History Timeline

NOTE: Clicking on the Chinese characters for each of the dynasty will bring up a list of the emperors (in Chinese) for each of the respective dynasty. However, not every dynasty will have a link. For those who has can read Chinese, I highly recommend Seke Wei's excellent Era and Timeline of Chinese History.

Dates	Dynasty
ca. 2000-1500 B.C.	Xia
1700-1027 B.C.	Shang
1027-771 B.C.	Western Zhou
770-221 B.C.	Eastern Zhou
	770-476 B.C. -- Spring and Autumn period
	475-221 B.C. -- Warring States period
221-207 B.C.	Qin
206 B.C.-A.D. 9	Western Han
A.D. 9-24	Xin (Wang Mang interregnum)
A.D. 25-220	Eastern Han
A.D. 220-280	Three Kingdoms
	220-265 -- Wei
	221-263 -- Shu
	229-280 -- Wu
A.D. 265-316	Western Jin
A.D. 317-420	Eastern Jin
A.D. 420-588	Southern and Northern Dynasties
	420-588	Southern Dynasties
		420-478 -- Song
		479-501 -- Qi
		502-556 -- Liang
		557-588 -- Chen
	386-588	Northern Dynasties
		386-533 -- Northern Wei
		534-549 -- Eastern Wei
		535-557 -- Western Wei
		550-577 -- Northern Qi
		557-588 -- Northern Zhou
A.D. 581-617	Sui
A.D. 618-907	Tang
A.D. 907-960	Five Dynasties
	907-923 -- Later Liang
	923-936 -- Later Tang
	936-946 -- Later Jin
	947-950 -- Later Han
	951-960 -- Later Zhou
A.D. 907-979	Ten Kingdoms
A.D. 960-1279	Song
	960-1127 -- Northern Song
	1127-1279 -- Southern Song
A.D. 916-1125	Liao
A.D. 1038-1227	Western Xia
A.D. 1115-1234	Jin
A.D. 1279-1368	Yuan
A.D. 1368-1644	Ming
A.D. 1644-1911	Qing
A.D. 1911-1949	Republic of China (in mainland China)
A.D. 1949-	Republic of China (in Taiwan)
A.D. 1949-	People's Republic of China

---

[ History of China ] [ Table of Contents ]