Misc thoughts

I've decided to move my e-mail to gmail. Observations:

• The use of labels vs. folders seems nice, but I miss the hierarchical nature of folders which I can't seem to obviously replicate in labels. In addition, if I create many labels, I don't see any way of putting more important labels higher up, making them easier to find.
• Moving my old mail over is painful; the only way I know of is to dump mail from a folder to my inbox, then label it after gmail slooowly sucks it in.

I'm mostly working from home. Hopefully, the use of svn, gmail, google sites and docs, and the Windows remote desktop + openVPN will make that fairly productive for me.

Since Vika also uses lots of google stuff, I do all my work in IE (ick) while she uses Firefox, so we can keep both accounts open at the same time.

Getting organized again

It's time to get organized and try to keep track of what I'm doing:

• Participate in group site redesign
  
• Write a summary for the group web pages plus an extended summary / mini-paper.
• Write a "how to read a paper" set of questions
• Finish the review paper
• Present / introduce twist theory
• PIC24 debug / improved comm support
  

Tuesday in hiding

I'm hiding this morning, doing research (or at least trying to). I modified the Windows bootloader last night to allow typing into the upper text box plus a command-line bootload then quit option. That should make Intro to Robotics much easier. I'd like to dramatically improve the speed, but that's a bigger project I probably don't have time for.

On the list for today: more tweaks of the inverse kinematics paper. Plus SECON registration.

MATLAB makes creating GUIs easy! And Google Docs is great.

Weekly meeting (5-Feb-2009)

Agenda

1. Durga: limiting case introduction. To be continued next meeting.
2. Next week: Dr. Jones will do some statics, showing some 2-D and 3-D derivations.
   

Dr. Jones

1. Admin
   1. Increase print quota. E-mail sent.
      
   2. Find funding to pay for CNC work for v2 of robot. Estimated cost: $250. Done.
      
   3. We have Maple 12, EndNote x2 CDs - install and return. Done.
      
2. Research topics
   1. Revise inverse kinematics paper -- currently editing
      
   2. Finish review paper -- on hold for now
      
   3. Finish limiting-case paper
   4. Begin work on NSF proposal

Weekly meeting (29-Jan-2009)

Agenda

1. Dr. Jones: Distribute photos/video from the going-away party. Oops -- forgot!
   
2. The workshop policies have been updated. Action: read the updated policy and complete the table by placing dates in cells indicating when you took the workshop. Durga, Ricky: done. Krishna: to do. Action: everyone will find dates for workshops and post the date on the policies page.
3. Durga: limiting case introduction. To be continued next meeting.
   

Dr. Jones

1. Admin
   1. Increase print quota. Print quota not increased. To do.
      
   2. Find funding to pay for CNC work for v2 of robot. Estimated cost: $250
   3. We have Maple 12, EndNote x2 CDs - install and return.
      
2. Research topics
   1. Revise inverse kinematics paper -- currently editing
      
   2. Finish review paper -- on hold for now
      
   3. Finish limiting-case paper
   4. Begin work on NSF proposal
3. Students
   1. Durga: Jacobian works well, but interval analysis fails on one term.
   2. Ricky: waiting to have v2 trunk cut; working on thesis presentation
      
   3. Krishna: looking at verification
   4. Buddy: working through Antman
      

Weekly meeting (22-Jan-2009)

Agenda

1. Dr. Jones: Distribute photos/video from the going-away party. Oops -- forgot!
   
2. Weekly meeting times: group at 2:00 PM every Thursday, starting the 22nd. Individual meetings: weekly on Thursday starting on the 15th. Durga: 3:00 PM; Buddy; 3:30 PM; Krishna: 4:00 PM.
   
3. The workshop policies have been updated. Action: read the updated policy and complete the table by placing dates in cells indicating when you took the workshop. Durga, Ricky: done. Krishna: to do. Action: everyone will find dates for workshops and post the date on the policies page.
4. Durga: limiting case introduction. To be continued next meeting.
   

Dr. Jones

1. Admin
   1. Give Buddy access to the robotics lab. E-mail sent requesting access; access now granted.
      
   2. Increase print quota. E-mail sent requesting 500 pages/month.
      
   3. Find funding to pay for CNC work for v2 of robot. Estimated cost: $250
   4. Get Maple reinstalled. Need to pick up CD to re-install.
      
2. Research topics
   1. Revise inverse kinematics paper -- currently editing
      
   2. Finish review paper -- on hold for now
      
   3. Finish limiting-case paper
   4. Begin work on NSF proposal
3. Students
   1. Durga: Jacobian works well, but interval analysis fails on one term.
   2. Ricky: waiting to have v2 trunk cut
   3. Krishna: looking at verification
   4. Buddy: working through Antman
      

Weekly meeting (13-Jan-2009)

Semester plan - implement

1. Implement statics and dynamics. Measure and verify. Work on real time.
2. Write up results. First a presentation, then a paper.
   

Agenda

1. Thanks for a great going-away party. I'll gather the video soon. Vika has a photo or two on her blog.
   
2. As decided earlier, the group will use a blog for all weekly reports. Policy update: put updates / action items on your blog the day of the meeting.
   
3. Durga: limiting case introduction. To be continued next meeting.
   
4. The workshop policies have been updated. Action: read the updated policy and complete the table by placing dates in cells indicating when you took the workshop. Durga, Ricky: done. Krishna: to do. Action: everyone will find dates for workshops and post the date on the policies page.
5. Establish weekly meeting times for all students. Verify that 10:00 AM on Tuesday as a group meeting time works.
6. Buddy: take Anthony's spot; re-format his PC.
   

Dr. Jones

1. Admin
   1. None yet.
      
2. Research topics
   1. Finish review paper -- making great progress.
      
   2. Finish limiting-case paper
   3. Begin work on NSF proposal
3. Students
   1. Durga: Jacobian works well, but interval analysis fails on one term.