I love USB Display Adapters!

I love displays! I love looking at large numbers of pixels, relatively large pixels for my aging eyes.

When encountering the various fanboyisms of my friends and coworkers - gaming, netbooks - I have often felt somewhat embarassed, since I'm really not that much into games, not that much into PCs of clamshell formfactor. I am somewhat into tablet PCs and handhelds, but those are expensive enough that I cannot really exercise my enthusiasm.

But LCD displays have come down in price. And USB display adapters have made it feasible to attach many displays to my laptops - I still haven't bought a desktop system in more than 10 years.

Best of all, I can almost, *almost*, act as if my love of large display surfaces is work related. It sure does help to be able to look at really, really, wide spreadsheets (although really, really, wide spreadsheets are a bit of an abomination). It helps to be able to read papers, or patents, in PDF a full page at a time.

Yesterday and today I went a bit overboard. It's been a while building. Confronted with aforementioned really wide spreadsheets, I went and bought a second 1680x1050 monitor for use at work, matched to the company provided monitor. (After asking IT, who said that I could only have two monitors if they were smaller, 1400x1050. Which rather misses the point.)

Since I wanted to work at home in Hillsboro, as well as at work in Bellevue, I bought a second LCD monitor at home. But this was 1900x1200. Do you realize how much more you can see on a 1900x1200 monitor? Almost didn't need to stretch the spreadsheet across both monitors. Since I have no docking station, I used a Tritton SEE2 Xtreme USB display adapter. Which works fine, and which allowed me to have not just two, but three displays: the two 1900x1200 external monitors, and my laptops' LCD.

It's a slippery slope. Last week I almost went out and bought 2 more monitors for use at work. Instead, I decided to drive my two 1900x1200 monitors from Hillsboro to Bellevue, carefully wrapped in sleeping bags and clothes. So now, on my big Biomorph desk at work (another piece of personal equipment) I have 5 monitors: two 1900x1200 in landscape mode, and the two 1050x1680, in portrait mode. Plus the laptop LCD display.

I originally set these up with 2 different USB display adapters: the old Tritton SEE2 Xtreme, and a new Diamond USB Pro, bought last night on my way to Bellevue. This gave me 4 monitors, in combination with the two DVI ports on my Dell docking station. But there were issues: in particular, Windows restricted me to 16 bit color on one of the displays. Plus, I had forgotten an AC cable.

First trip back to Frye's: bought the power cable. And another Diamond USB Pro. Now all works... Except that the Tritton monitor keeps misbehaving, occasionally hanging. So I make another trip back to Frye's. Now I have 3 Diamond USB Pros, 2x1900x1200 + 2x1050x1680 + the laptop LCD. The laptop resolution is reduced, to 1200x800, but I can't really complain.

Let's see, that's 8.88 megapixels, if I have done my math correctly. Most of it driven by USB. Probably no good for video or games, but good enough to throw a lot of data up where I can look at it.

More! I want more! More slow pixels! If I could plug in e-paper displays all about my office, I would.

We're on the verge of LCDs and e-paper being cheap enough to replace the whiteboards that are ubiquitous in offices. Nice thing, this is a continuous acceptance curve: it's not so quantized as many other application areas are.

Eventually, we must get rid of refresh.

Travelling, with Power Supplies

Packing for a short trip - 2 days and nights on business, 2 back with my family in Portland, and then back to Bellevue.

A significant portion of my luggage is taken up by power supplies.

What I want to take: 2 power supplies, 1 for each of my laptop PCs, work and personal; 2 smaller power supplies, 1 for each of my phones, work and personal; 1 big supply for my CPAP medical device.

I have separate work/personal PCs/phones because I still have to go to great lengths to separate work stuff from personal stuff. I wish I only had one.

I'll eliminate one of the phone chargers, at the cost of not bing able to charge them simultaneously.

I love the idea of "universal" chargers like the iGo, so much so that I have two, and probably need to buy a third for my new devices. They aren't as universal as one might hope. Unless one adapter can plug in 2 PCs and 2 phones simultaneously, you have the "Gotta remember to swap chargers" problem. Many such universal chargers can charge a cell phone and a PC simultaneously.

I wish that I could also squeeze a power bar or squid into my carry-on.

Why IV? Dinosaurs!

My wife biffs me upside the head for taking so long (circa 5 years) to work up the nerve to leave Intel and join IV:

Boring cubicles  

versus

An office with dinosaurs from Jurassic Park

Changes

I have left Intel effective yesterday, and will join Quantum Intellectual Property services on Monday.

"My" Photograph

Many websites, in particular social networking sites, suggest that you provide a photograph.

Here's the one I use.

Why is this "My" Photograph?

Anecdote: a coworker, Matt Merton, sent an email postcard back from a trip to Italy with the bust of a Roman Emperor, asking "What computer architect does this remind you of?"



The likeness was remarkable. Curly hair, beard.



Since I have always been a fan of Roman history, in particular of the "good emperors" such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius, I decoded to adopt this as "My" Photograph, for use on websites, etc.



I may have lost Matt's original email, but the photograph credited below seems reasonable.



Unfortunately for me, the photograph was not of Marcus Aurelius or Hadrian, or even Trajan, but instead was of Antoninus Pius, about whom I know little.  The adjective "Pius" does not really apply to me.  But what little is known of this emperor makes him seem like a good guy, although some blame him for making Rome too comfortable, softening Rome up for the barbarian invasions that plagued his successors.

Source, Attribution, and Credits for "My" Photograph

This photograph is derived from the photograph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antoninus_Pius_BM_Sc1463.jpg

which contains the following licence information:

This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

In short: you are free to distribute and modify the file as long as you attribute its author(s) or licensor(s).

Picture shot by Marie-Lan Nguyen (user:Jastrow) and released under the license(s) stated above. You are free to use it for any purpose as long as you credit me and follow the terms of the license.

Example:  © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

I am using images, such as JPG, GIF, or the like, of this photograph as "me" on various sites, for reasons explained here.



Unfortunately, it is occasionally hard to attach the attribution and credit to the image where used.  For example, many sites only allow images, JPG or GIF, to be attached, with nowhere to put credits. I would like to associate a link or flyover with the image, however, unfortunately, many sites do not allow this - or else I do not know how to do so.  I made some attempt to embed the credits within the photograph, but by photo editing skills are not so good.



I am therefore creating this page describing `"My" Photograph', and providing the attribution and credit here. I will try to link to this page, or to the page http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcxddbtr_22f8pwcsd4 which describes other social networking data, and which links to this page, in an effort to provide full credit.



Note that I attempted to contact the photographer using the email address provided, to no avail.

Making lemonade with my Toshiba M400 Tablet PC

I have blogged in the past about my Toshiba M400 Tablet PC. I so much loved my older Toshiba 3505 Tablet PC, but the M400 is just plain and simply a lemon. It has sat unused for the almost two years since I bought it, because it was simply too loud to be used at home.

Not just my PC, but apparently the whole M400 model line. Googling finds many people with my complaint: fan too loud, hangs. One fellow even went so far as to void his warranty by installing an on/off switch for the fan.

Several sites discussed how the fan noise was a bigger issue in Japan than in the United States. Apparently the Japanese are less tolerant of unnecessary noise than are Americans. Yet another thing I have in common with Japan.

Having a bit of free time, I decided to try to make a go of it again. Reinstalled from scratch. Tried using various utilities to tune CPU performance and fan speed: RM Clock, Notebook Hardware Control, and, most usefully, SpeedFan. However, although the latter accomplished some tunings, they were insufficient to make it tolerable.

"When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade..."

The M400 is too loud to use at home. However, we have a cottage near the ocean, filled with the roar of the surf. The M400 is, barely, tolerable here. The M400 is louder than the surf, especially when it goes into what I call "Hyper Fan" mode; but it may be okay to leave the computer at the cottage. Heaven knows I am getting no other good use out of it.

Annoyingly, the M400 is the first machine I bought a multi year warranty for. Expires next year. If there was any hope of it being fixed. But past attempts were vain.

"Website" Root

Andy Glew @ Google Docs

This is Andy Glew's "website" at Google Docs.

Resume

Its main purpose is to hold my curriculum vita - a very verbose approximation to my resume, approximately 11 pages. Also a much shorter resume, approximately 1 page.

This site was updated Dec 27, 2008. As of this date the most up-to-date versions of my resume and CV may be found on Google Docs:

• C.V.: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcxddbtr_4hkp7tmp8
  
• Resume: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcxddbtr_5c3xnpxdk
  
• Claims to Fame: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcxddbtr_7m7km35f8

Other Stuff

• MLP Yes! ILP No!
  
  
  
  • presentation I gave at ASPLOS 98 WACI session
    
  • preserved for more than 10 years by the session organizer at http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~kubitron/asplos98/final.html,
    
    
    
    • specifically http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~kubitron/asplos98/slides/andrew_glew.pdf
    
    
  • a copy kept on Google docs: http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.cb345d6b-c4ac-40c6-9e71-bf5d4d18af55
    
    
    
    • it is unclear if Google docs allows anyone to read this -i.e. it is unclear if one can "publish" to the world an uploaded presentation
    
    

• Multistar: 
• The Story Behind Multistar: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZqTWL2s3LcQZGN4ZGRidHJfNDBjemJ0cnRmMg&hl=en
• Multistar PDF (2004): http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5qTWL2s3LcQZDIyZDVmN2EtYjY4MC00YjU2LWE4ZGMtYzk2MmU4M2U2NDQ5&hl=en

• Berkeley ParLab talk on Coherent Threading: (2009)
• Coherent Threading
  Coherent Vector Lane Threading (SIMT, DIMT, NIMT)
  Microarchitectures Intermediate Between SISD and MIMD, Scalar and SIMD parallel vector
  
• http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5qTWL2s3LcQNGE3NWI4NzQtNTBhNS00YjgyLTljZGMtNTA0YjJmMGIzNDEw&hl=en

AutoHotKey scripts: http://www.autohotkey.net/~glew/

Lots of posts on comp.arch.  Many excerpted for USEnet Nuggets in CAN, Computer Architecture News.

History of Andy Glew Websites

This Google Docs "site" replaces an earlier Geocities website: http://www.geocities.com/andrew_f_glew.

It's
rather sad: Google Docs has a better editor, but Yahoo GeoCities allows
me to have more meaningful URLs. Google Docs cannot really be said to
be a website at all, since the URLs are gobbledygook.

You may find other, stale, websites for Andy Glew
scattered around the web, often at schools I attended where my old web
pages live, but where I can no longer log on. E.g. UWisc. These stale
pages may have some useful data not represented here, since intervening
websites such as Geocities were more restrictive, in disk space and
convenience, than a university website, but the resumes are out of
date.

Similarly, Andy used to work at Intel MRL, where
there was Andy's MRL bio. MRL's web site was never actually editable by
Andy, only by the MRL webmaster.

For an example of a web based system that is easier to maintain, look at Ward Cunningham's wiki, e.g. Andy's wiki home page.

My LinkedIn pages provide some information, but are limited in size and, hence, detail.

See my social networking doc page for information about my presence on various social networking tools. In particular, see the "My" Photograph page for credits for the photograph I use on many such pages.