On 15 July 2015 I worked a twelve-hour day at Intel, Corporation. No one expected me to do this; especially my management because on 15 June 2015 they informed me that I met a formula– I was to be laid off. There was a lot of emotional and intellectual confusion about this unhappy event. While…
What My 17-year-old Self has to Say to my 57-year-old Self
“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet”- Emily Dickinson In high school I read lots of Emily Dickinson’s writings. Her letters counter the reclusive poet image that many have of her. The richness of language and exuberant expression inspired my teenage soul as much as my regular attendance of Catholic…
Discovering PERL
As Rick Buskens and I ventured back from eating ice cream on N Craig St street I shared my thesis topic and the simulation challenge it presented. To explore the topic of analog fault modeling I needed to simulate 1000’s of circuits. For every operational op-amp I would be inserting shorts modeled as a 1-ohm…
Advice to a Freshman College Student
These are a few of the thoughts I recently shared with my nephew Brian. He graduated from high school at the end of May 2018 and begins university at the end of August 2018. Dear Brian, We like to think of graduations as a major milestone in our lives. I have come to think of…
Sorting Glass
Snipping off the thin ring of metal. Brown, Green, Clear? Underhand toss with a high enough arc to clear the upper rim of the bin. In the 1970’s recycling was a Do-It-Yourself affair. No curbside pickup, no co-mingling. You drove to the dump and sorted it yourself. While not a regular family outing some Saturdays…
Creating Your Own Work- 1973 Oil Shock and Silicon for Space
When you’re working for a big company, like Union Carbide, they will have a big project of interest. The management has certain goals they want you to achieve- –very specific business goals. They’ll assign you the engineers you might need. You have a defined budget you have to keep within. You begin work on the…
Becoming an Engineer Who Can Write
Editor’s note: It takes risk to move to a new country where you don’t speak the language. Yet, Hiroshi Morihara comes from a family that had a history of risk taking. Risk taking is essential for innovation. He eventually taught technical writing to engineering students as an adjunct professor. My mother told me in high…
Dealing with Bits Flipped- From the Weak Write Test Mode Saga
In Circuits and Systems I, Prof Emad informed the class that sign matters. A student requesting to receive partial credit on an exam question because she only got the sign wrong would receive no mercy. “What’s the difference between + 5 Volts and – 5 Volts?” Prof Emad pointedly stated, “10 Volts.” Ever since Ben…
Lessons from My History Teacher- Mr Hines
As part of my Gratitude Project I wrote the following letter to Mr Robert E Hines which I share with his permission. It’s dated 2 June 2018. Dear Bob; Great teachers teach beyond than their subject matter. They impart life lessons to their students. Students may be deaf to this other lessons because they were…
The Long Path to 20 Bytes of Firmware
When I began my approach for a By-Pass Lock screen solution, I knew that the USB/PCI Express Bridge chip I was using had the capability to enable DMA attacks. But I wasn’t sure how to configure it properly. In the end 20 Bytes of firmware did it. But getting to the 20 bytes of firmware…