Arcoarena

This is a very petty thing but…

Guys, don’t put the ‘Default Setup’ button otherwise known as the ‘Let’s put everything (e.g. thresholds, labels, triggers any other changable thing) back to the factory default without asking if that’s what you really want’ button next to the ‘Clear Display’ button, one which I use a fair amount.

I’m off home now, mainly because I can’t be bothered setting the scope up again. Damn you Agilent.

I have one more thing to say.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Or rather, non-lab based fun. I’ve now got a new Agilent scope to play with and the best thing about it is that it has VNC so I can remotely log in to the scope and use it like that, along with telnet-ing into the board I’m testing I can now do some of my testing from the comfort of my own desk away from all those noisy fans (that the spinning kind not the groupie kind…they have to wait at the entrance).

This is of course all pointless as the response over VNC is sluggish to say the least so I’ll have to return to the lab to nurse my board which is now sprouting wires everywhere and has so many probes attached it looks like it’s in intensive care.

Well I’m sat in labs (not as painful as the 1st and 2nd year labs of elec eng. it’s surprisingly enjoyable actually). I’ve got a shiny new ’scope (one of these).
I am also surrounded by fans. Because the drives get hot, they need fans. The fans are designed to work in thier cases so we need more fans to compensate for the fact I’m testing them outside of the case.
Also, Johannes is testing a file server with some of the most whiny fans in the world, it sounds as if it’s about to take off.

Much like Mike I too am looking to the future. I’ve finished my course (I find out the class of my degree on Friday and it had better be a 2:1 or I’ll cry - I’m probably not joking there). Not that the class of my degree affects anything other than my pride. In September (the 6th at 9am to be precise) I start my new job at Xyratex in Havant, I’ve got that whatever my degree turns out to be. At some point before that I’m moving to Portsmouth/Southsea with Andrea (and my god aren’t flats expensive to rent down south, talk about North/South divide - you can buy a 3 bedroom semi in my village for 130K).

In between now and moving to Southsea I’ve still got loads to do. I’m hopefully helping out with the Guildford festival thanks to Surrey Union Crew and then I shall be attending about a week of MT Soc tour. I am then heading off on holiday. It’s all booked now so I’m taking flights from Heathrow (via Amsterdam - KLM do cheap flights) to Shanghia. The tour takes us round what appears to be the big things to see (the terracotta warriors and all that kind of stuff). We end up in Beijing and fly back again via Amsterdam. Should be cool. Following that I have about a week to find a flat before my Cousin’s wedding. I’m sure it’s not meant to be quite so busy. Added to which all of this is disguising the fact I’m actually moving out of my parents home for good in around 7 weeks time.

Based on my moving out status I’m currently unpacking from University (it was very odd to leave London for the last time - I shall visit but never live there again). As I’m unpacking I’m also chucking the random junk I left behind at home out. Anyone want a very old set of rock boots (I’m shoe size 10), or some old Linux Distro CDs (go on Gary you know you do)…?

All this thinking is making me nostalgic so I shall go now before I get too soppy (and start professing my undying love for everyone I ever knew). This is all in marked contrast to the reports I hear from my old school which appears to be going down the pan (I blame the new Head Teacher - well head-somthing anyway).

I’ve got a job!!!!!!!!

They’ve offered me the place so assuming I can fill in all the forms on time (which shouldn’t be too hard) I’ll be heading off to Portsmouth in September.

Cool!

Well I think my second interview at Xyratex went well. I can actually see myself working there too so that’s a good thing. I have to wait and see when I get a call. Mike has just been through the same thing by the sounds of it. He got the job.

Well, I got a phone call today at around 10am (what kind of a time to call students is that? admittedly I was by the union minibuses as Gary and I were about to depart to pick up some truss from Outback Rigging for the Medics Fashion show, but that’s by the by). Having had my one and only interview they have decided they can’t decide.
The good news is that they can’t decide between one other guy and myself. A contention ratio of 2:1 isn’t bad chances. I have to go back for a second interview and I just need to convince them I would really like the job. So far I’ve lacked experience in system design - barring the stuff I did at GCSE and in Sixth form most of the things I’ve done have been software based. I’ll have to go and give it my best shot.

Well again it’s been a while so time for another exceptionally long post (maybe).

Firstly I’ve had an interview at Xyratex. They seemed interested. They asked me stuff like ‘if you got the job when would you be able to start?’ etc. There was a technical content to the interview, much like at the last interview (whose name I’d not going to mention as my site gets a scary number of hits from people searching for them). This one went better as it was a bit more hands on - i.e. they gave me a circuit board pointed to a component and pointed to a component as said ‘what’s that for?’. They also showed me some circuit diagrams and asked me to answer some questions which I mostly got right. They’re one concern was that most of my activities have been software and VHDL rather than hardware systems design so I think I’ll be able to use that as an excuse if I don’t get the job. The people in the interview seemed quite nice and friendly it’s quite a small place (compared to someone like Shell say) so the HR doesn’t seem to interfere with normal work too much. The office seemed quite nice and they’ve got some good lab facilities as all the prototypes are made on site. It also seems that if they need a piece of equipment (or a training course) they get it and don’t have to bodge it like at some other companies. Havant (where they are based) seems quite a lot like Workington, just down south. It’s close to Portsmouth though so it shouldn’t be too bad. We’ll have to see. Apparently they’re making they’re choices next week so I should hear quite soon.

Also in other news:
I went to see the medic’s do their own version of Alice In Wonderland - I might have to read the book sometime..

I also did a Band night (or two to be more specific) in dBs. We got the Pearl out and played with their lights. I hope it looked ok when MTV filmed it. Gary and Ant took pictures which are here and here respectivly. - More later hopefully.

Oh and while I think about it they want to interview me, which I suspect doesn’t mean much as they must interview loads of people. It looks quite cool though - biiiiiggg power systems.

Today was…erm….different. Turning up in college in a suit, then off to Euston, hop aboard a Virgin train. The board said it was going to be one of the new pendolino things which would’ve been cool; no need to mention that it wasn’t. I don’t even believe they exist, you see them but I don’t think they actually carry people ever. Mr Branson must be trying to keep them clean and nice by not letting anyone on them.

Then getting off half an hour later at Milton Keynes Central (but not not central of much). The station was really small, even Carlisle station is more impressive and that’s saying something. Now I know in theory that it’s a new town but it really hits you when you step out of the station. The road up the centre of what appears to be the main bit of the city lines up exactly with the doors to the station and it’s really wide. All the buildings are low too. It’s quite a surreal experience since I’m used to either London or home in Cumbria which is mainly composed of cows and trees and stuff (and hills, big hills; something else missing from Milton Keynes, you can’t even climb a hight set of stairs). The map outside the station (of the “where to go next variety”) even obviously the town/city/whatever out as post 1950s town planning craziness.

Enough of the weirdness that is Milton Keynes (except to say I very much suspect that it is very unfairly maligned much of the time). A Taxi (arranged by HM Government Communications Centre or HMGCC for short) picked me up and took me out into the country to Hanslope Park where HMGCC is based. Several receptions, and security gates later (including a pass and handing my mobile phone in) I was sat waiting for my interview. For those who haven’t worked in anywhere with more security than CCTV it might be quite strange, large fences with barbed wire, security gates and swipe card entry to everywhere. It was much like working at Sellafield but nicer building and they’re slightly more security paranoid. The coolest bit is the big satellite dish they’ve got outside the main building. I don’t know if it does anything useful but it looks good; I half suspect it’s there to make the place look important more than anything but that could just be me being cynical.

As for the interview; it was an interview. 3 people in a room asking me questions for 1 hour and a half. This was a preliminary interview. If they are interested they will invite me back (I’ll know in 7-10 days) for a more formal interview, then beyond that would be security clearance. Anyway, the interview went ok, not amazingly, but not badly either. I was a bit vague in some areas of the technical questions and it took me a bit too long to work a few stupidly basic things out. I guess it depends what they want really. I’ll be surprised if they want to interview me again though.

One weird thing was, because of the high level of security clearance they require, at some point (if they want to employ me) I will have to take a drugs test. I had to sign a form today saying that from this point on I will not take any illegal substances, including cannabis. Big deal, I could’ve back dated it for them if they wanted.

So, end of interview, back to reception, through all the security again and then taxi back to the Station. I planned to wander round a bit but got bored and jumped on a train home. One last (vaguely) interesting thing today though. As I was stood at the station a train came by (one of the new Virgin ones funnily enough) at close to full speed. It’s actually quite impressive the speed they pass by at when they are right next to you. Quite cool really.