August 22, 2009

Back from San Diego

Posted by Scott at 08:56 PM

I'm back from a week at the Qualcomm main San Diego campus. I have a new role I'm transitioning into and this trip was intended to help jump start that process. Many complex hardware designs out there have a simulation model written in C or C++ to emulate the high level behavior of the design. This allows the software writers to get started early before the actual chips are back from fabrication. It also defines a "reference behavior" that the hardware designers must comply with as they move towards design implementation. Regardless of how the implementation is architected, the final results must match the simulation model's behavior.

As I've joked about before, the easiest job in the world must be to be a San Diego weatherman. Most mornings on the Qualcomm campus start out cool and overcast. Somewhere in the late morning the grey skies clear and it gets anywhere between 75 and 85 degrees. From what I can tell, the residents seem to like the consistency whereas I prefer a change of seasons.

While I was there I met several members of the local graphics team and briefly met two engineers from our Finland team who were also visiting that week. Currently the Concord office space is oversubscribed, so the San Diego offices seemed generous and spacious by comparison.

Mornings there my Concord co-worker and I just had continental breakfasts at the hotel. Lunches were usually at the many ethnic restaurants nearby. Our dinners were all over the place. One night we went to Trophy's Sports Grill, one night at a Persian restaurant, another to an In 'N Out Burgers, another at Karl Strauss Brewing Company. Since In 'N Out Burgers is a favorite of Michelle, I picked her up a commemorative t-shirt.

My flights were each non-stops to/from Boston Logan and San Diego on JetBlue. While JetBlue does not have anything besides coach, I did upgrade both times to an exit row to get the extra leg room. If one is going to spend five or six hours continuously in a plane, I don't want to risk getting my knees crushed by the passenger in front of me.

I also leveraged a service I've grown to love: the Boston Express coach busses. Unlike shuttles I've used in the past (which are 15 passenger vans), these are full coach busses that have only two stops in Nashua (exits 6 & 8) and two stops in Boston (the airport and the train station). To go to the airport is a relative bargain, $26 round trip. Smooth travel, comfortable air conditioning, WiFi on the bus, and no intermediate stops.

About the only thing I was kicking myself over was that I forgot the little $2 adaptor that lets me plug my standard sized headphones into my cell phone's smaller headphone jack. I went through the effort to make sure my phone had three audiobooks in it prior to the trip and I never got to listen to them. And I didn't want to spend $40 to buy another set of overpriced earbuds at the airport.

Michelle and the kids picked up zombie me (I took a red eye flight home) around 10am this morning. After I unpacked I took the family for lunch at the Milford Cafe on the Oval. After lunch I took a nap to try and get past the fatigue. From there we head over to St. Patricks to catch the 3pm confession. After dinner I took the family for ice cream at Haywards.

While I was away, our family grew a little bit. On Friday Michelle and the kids stopped by the Nashua Humane Society to look at the cats. This time they finally had the exact cat Michelle and the girls have been wanting for a long time: a cream colored, seal point smokey kitten with blue eyes. He's somewhat like a medium hair equivalent to a short hair Siamese. Perhaps instead of being Siamese or Himalayan, he may be mostly Birman. While the Humane Society called him Sam, Claire came up with the name "Snickers" which everyone thought was very appropriate. Look for pictures of him in the next photo album.

A part of me is glad she found this cat on Friday. Sunday is Michelle's birthday. A new kitten to love is a wonderful thing for her to enjoy. Right now the cat is spending most of its time in isolation so that Jingle and Belle can gradually get used to it. I wonder how long it'll take for them to accept each other.

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