This web page is just a place for me to post my thoughts and things that I have done (mostly in science or in computers and maybe even in my avid love for sonnet writing and reading for that matter) in recent times. This is just a fun page I decided to do over Christmas break, even though it does look kind of company-like. This is the first time I have updated this web space in a very long time--two years I do believe. Sorry if my pages take a long time to load up--they are designed with the broadband user in mind. I wish there was more broadband content available on the Internet today. You can sign my guestbook at the bottom of my page.
Some other things about me: I have a Compaq iPAQ PocketPC running the new Microsoft PocketPC 2002 OS. That was my main choice in buying the iPAQ--it could be upgraded using the flash ROM. Other than that, I would have probably gone with the Casio because of its built in compact flash support. I bought a NIC for the PocketPC so I can cruise around the Internet on my iPAQ from school--how l33t is that? There is some other perks about having the NIC at school, but I can't tell you because that would blow my cover. All I can say is it involves an AT&T research product. hehehehe. I also have ZIO Pocket Golf 2, and ZIO SimCity 2000 for PocketPC. Two must have games for any PocketPC user.
If you have not noticed yet I kind of have an obsession with SGI, formerly Silicon Graphics. I guess this obsession began way back in 5th grade when I saw my first SGI workstation, an Indy, and I immediately fell in love with their products. If you go to my room you will notice SGI bumper stickers, SGI posters (which I got for free because I tell SGI I plan on buying some of their products), SGI marketing videos, an SGI bag from their company store in Mountain View, and finally the SGI box which I got from Mississippi State University's supercomputing center. Here is the story to that one: the Physics Team and I were on a Physics competition trip to MSU and Dr. Burgess got us in to the supercomputer center at MSU after completing the written test. There were SGIs every ten feet in that building! They even had a RealityCenter! Only problem was there were tornados going through the area and the power was out. So the closest thing to a working SGI we came to was an O2 that was on some UPS, I guess, in the RealityCenter room. Since there was a tornado going through the area we had to go to the basement and what do you know we walk past the loading dock to the shelter room (which has a big safe door on it... they claim they do classified tests there, but they weren't working on any when we were there... rrrright) where they were unloading a whole ship full of SGI 1100 computers. Luke asked if we could take home the boxes and they said that was fine. I still can't believe Dr. Burgess let us take those boxes back on the bus. Too bad we couldn't get any boxes with an actual computer in them. Oh, well. We hope to go back to the supercomputer center at MSU again this year. Maybe we will see the RealityCenter in all of its glory!
Now I will tell you about my trek to Silicon Graphics' headquarters in Mountain View, California. It was my opportunity to go to California for the Intel International Science Fair in May of 2001. It was the most memorable week of my life. I got to meet people from all around the world and talked with them about the breakthroughs they have achieved in science. The first Monday I was in San Jose, I immediately got on the phone with SGI to see if I could get a tour. I was already in contact with the head of university relations at SGI. Unfortunately, she could not meet with me on Monday so I had to go to Stanford instead, which was pretty fun too. On Tuesday, instead of going to the beaches, I hopped on the light rail from our hotel. The light rail took about an hour to take us from the Gish station down to the Mountain View station. On the way we saw many high tech companies including Cisco Systems (Hi John Chambers!), and Lockheed Martin. I am pretty sure I even saw the air base where they shot the scenes in Pearl Harbor where they were practicing for the Dewlittle raids. Well, after we got off the light rail we had to walk five miles to their headquarters on Amphitheater Blvd. What I will do for SGI! We walked past their old headquarters on North Shoreline Blvd. It now has a for sale sign near it. On the way I also got to see Ariba, a B to B company close up shop in one of its satellite offices. We walked past right when some guy was taking the sign down. Finally when I got to the headquarters I went to Lobby 21 and waited for my tour guide. She gave me a grand tour of the place. She almost got me into the show room, but their were paying customers in there. Oh, well. I got to eat at the Ozone cafe which is rated the best company cafeteria in the Valley. You know where SGI is putting their money... in the cafe, putting green, work out room, volley ball area, and bocce court. Hopefully they will be able to turn that red into green soon. While I was waiting for the tour, they have an O2 in the lobby displaying the stock price and the weather; some employees started joking around about the stock price. The buildings lucky enough to be branded with the SGI logo are the most architecturally compelling buildings I have ever seen, at least for business. To view some of my pictures from that Tuesday go to my briefcase account or here.
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