International Conference on Microelectronics - 2010 Cairo, Egypt

My first presentation in a conference. The paper was on calibration of VCO based ADCs, "H. Venkatram, R. Inti, U.-K. Moon, "Least Mean Square calibration method for VCO non-linearity". My colleague, Dr. Skyler Weaver, had written a paper on, " ENOB Calculation for ADCs with Input-Correlated Quantization Error Using a Sine-Wave Test". The session chair was, Prof. Mohamed Dessouky from Ain Shams University. Adel Sedra, author of Microelectronic Circuits and Walden C. Rhines, CEO of Mentor graphics attended my presentation.

Wiki-Page

After trying out Pmwiki and looking at Meta-Wiki, I have decided to go with meta-wiki for my website.

The reasons for choosing meta-wiki are,
1. It is cool.
2. It is the wikipedia engine.
3. Documentation and Support.
4. Login creation by default.
5. Web-install.
6. Talk page is also available as default.
I can easily add more reasons to choose meta-wiki. 
This is by far the easiest software installation over web. Check out  My Wiki-Page.

Food, Inc.

I watched Food, Inc. It has changed the way I look at the food or the food industry in North America. Watch Food, Inc, before you eat your next meal. It has helped me look beyond the curtain, drawn delibrately to hide what are the origins of the food that you eat.

Training Plan - LA Marathon 2011

This training plan follows 10% increase of the total mileage per week. Also, the long runs cannot be more than 50% of the total mileage from last week. The day before the long run is a rest-day. The day after the long-run is for cross-training. The longest run during the training period is 26 miles. I have added this after reading Jeff Galloway's book, "Marathon!". The running is restricted to three/four days per week. This increases the mileage consistently during the week-runs.

Legend for the table.
XT - Cross Training.
PT - Physical Training.
R   - Rest.
% Incr - % Increase of Long Run.

Pegasus-27

I got Nike - Pegasus yesterday. Thanks to Runners High shop at Long Beach, CA. They were very helpful in finding me the right shoe.  I have my center of gravity towards my left feet and I put more pressure on my left toe. My old shoes wear pattern was even. I had tried the nike lunar glide and zoom triax (stability shoes), before choosing pegasus. Pegasus is a neutral shoe without the arch support from nike. If I still have problems with the left toe, I plan to get the meta-torsal support for my shoe. My previous pair, nike-air, lasted for 462.81 miles. Its is being honorably retired for day-to-day activities.

LA Marathon

I am running LA-Marathon on Mar 20th, 2011. I am pretty excited about my first marathon. I am going to run 26 miles and 385 yards. My goal for this marathon is 9.5-10 min/mile, which translates to about 4 hrs 10 mins.

Countdown

Yosemite trip

In a few words, a must see place after Niagara falls, Grand canyon, and Oregon.

This is the most exciting trip that I have had in a while. Myself and Srinivasan traveled to Yosemite park. I had traveled to San Francisco from Irvine, visited Yosemite for day and back to Irvine.

Driving to Yosemite through Hwy-120 is, "the way", to reach the Yosemite valley. 1.5 hrs of the drive is through forest, mountain and wilderness.

I have added places that i have thoroughly enjoyed during the yosemite trip.


View West Coast Tour in a larger map

You are more than welcome to add more interesting locations to this map.

Runner's World - Quotes

The Runner's World magazine provides insight information on running. They also send daily quotes, once you sign up. Some of the best quotes that I have seen till date are

1. Just do the best with what you have, and you'll soon be doing it better - Gil Hodges.
2. I ran and ran every day, and I acquired a sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never, give up, no matter what else happened - Wilma Rudolph.
3. Even when you have gone as far as you can, and everything hurts, and you are staring at the specter of self-doubt, you can find a bit more strength deep inside you, if you look closely enough -Hal Higdon.
4. It is the runner in me who can make peace with her body and the passage of time - Kristin Armstrong.
5. Running creates a sense of balance in my life. It's a great feeling to just get out and lose myself in a run - Jill Biden.
6. You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone - Percy Cerutty.

Running gives me time to clear my head, relax, enjoy the surrounding and listen to your inner thoughts - Hariprasath

Personal Webpage

I have updated my personal webpage at www.eecs.oregonstate.edu/~venkatha
It contains everything from research to running.

How to fix IEEE bibliography Style in Mendeley

Mendeley is an awesome reference management software. I have been using it extensively to maintain references. It has a minor problem in bibliography style for IEEE format. It becomes annoying as soon as you export citations to word. I have tried to fix it and was successful to some extent. The default IEEE format available in mendeley is the following bibliography style.

[1] K. Superman, G. Batman, I. Green Lantern, and S. Spiderman, " Saving the world from evil guys," Super Galactic Journal, vol. 46, 2010, p. 620.

IEEE Style manual suggests a different bibliography format.

Excerpt from 2009 Style Manual of IEEE on bibliography format :
Articles listed shall include the following information in the order shown:
a) Last name of author or authors and first name or initials, or name of organization
b) Title of article in quotation marks
c) Title of periodical in full and set in italics
d) Volume, number, and, if available, part
e) First and last pages of article
f) Date of issue.
This requires the bibliography to be in the following format.
[1] K. Superman, G. Batman, I. Green Lantern, and S. Spiderman, " Saving the world from evil guys," Super Galactic Journal, vol. 46, pp. 620, Apr. 2000.

If you are dependent on mendeley, you would want a fix for this bibliography style. I have a fix which displays bibliography in the correct format except for the month. This is better than previous version available in mendeley.

How to fix IEEE format.

Locate the "ieee.csl" file in the mendeley installation folder. It should be present in C:\Program Files\Mendeley Desktop\citationStyles\default, if you are using windows.

Line 124 to 128 will contain the following.


<date variable="issued" >
          <date-part name="month" form="short" suffix=". "/>
          <date-part name="year"/>
        </date>
        <text macro="page"/>


Replace the above lines with the following

 <text variable="page" prefix="pp. "/>
        <date variable="issued" >
          <date-part name="month" form="short" suffix=". "/>
          <date-part name="year"/>
        </date>

Few steps before wrapping up.
1. Change the title of the .csl file.
-The title can be found in the 5th line
2. Finally, change the update tag in line 23.
Mendeley does not recognize this as a new style, if you do not update this tag.
Save and Exit.
The new style should appear in the citation style in mendeley as IEEE_Fixed.
The citation will look like this
[1] K. Superman, G. Batman, I. Green Lantern, and S. Spiderman, " Saving the world from evil guys," Super Galactic Journal, vol. 46, pp. 620, 2000.

If you find a fix for displaying month correctly in the IEEE format, please let me know.

WhiteSalmonRafting

Things to Do

1. Rafting.

2. Kayaking.

3. Wind-Surfing.

4. Wind-Sailing.

5. Boat-Riding.

Affordable Place to Go

Wet Planet

I had a great time with their 1/2 day trip in White Salmon River. Class 3/2 rapids in White Salmon River with great ecosystem. The White Salmon river flows with evergreen forest on one side and desert vegetation on the other side. The river flows through a huge lava pipe that was created by Volcanic Mt. Adams. The rocks are volcanic basalt and the view is great. There are huge caves which were used for the lava flow by the Mt. Adams. Overall, its an amazing place to visit/camp/raft and hike.
View Oregon Tour in a larger map

Customizing Google Maps

View Oregon Tour in a larger map

Google Maps allows you to add photos and custom icons for your travel map. You can create customized maps from My Maps section. Also, You can customize the location photographs to display your pictures.

The icons in the map can also be changed according to your taste. I have added the following icons

Lighthouse
Caves
POI

You can add a route with several location pointers. I have also added a custom polygon overlay to indicate special point of interest.

I have embedded pictures of my visit in the icons. Instead of the public picture from google maps, your picture will be loaded. You can check this by clicking on the icons.

The google-icons can be found here

Mile 177.3 to Mile 179.3 - Florence, Oregon Coast

Places to visit .
1. Heceta head lighthouse
2. Sea Lion Caves
Things to do/See
I was excited to see the largest naturally formed sea caves. The elevator descends 208 feet to the largest stellar sea lions and california sea lions home. Apart from the sea lions, you get to see pigeon guillemot, Brandt's cormorant, common seagulls, tufted puffins and many more birds. This attraction is at mile 179.1 of the highway 101.


View Larger Map

Stellar Sea Lions

Guillemot and Cormorant

The Heceta head lighthouse was named after a eighteenth century Spanish captain Bruno de Hezeta. This lighthouse was constructed in 1894 and is still functional. It is located at mile 178.2 of highway 101. It is open from 11am to 5pm on weekends and 11am to 3pm on weekdays. You cannot miss this lighthouse in your trip to SeaLions Cave.

Heceta head lighthouse

You would have to hike 1/2 mile to the light-house from the parking lot. On the way , you can see the lighthouse keeper's house. I have heard that they serve as bread and breakfast. The scenic viewpoint from the lighthouse is a photographers dream come true. The water is bluish green. The plants cover the entire spectrum of green. The rocks cover black to brown. The sky colour ranges anywhere from blue to white. You can see what I mean in this picture below. It was taken with a 3 MP iPhone camera and looks brilliant.

View from lighthouse

Mile 0 to Mile 6.5 - Oregon Coast - Oregon Coast Visitors Association

Mile 0 to Mile 6.5 - Oregon Coast - Oregon Coast Visitors Association

Digital Photography 101 - Portraits with Landscapes in Bright Light

Scenario : Background is lit with bright sun-light. Your subject is in the dark. You have used a large focal length(small f number) to capture the person in front and a small shutter speed to capture the background with enough details. ISO is set to lowest possible to avoid any whitewash. The result of such a scenario is shown below. The picture was taken with the following settings in a Canon SX 10 IS. F-Number -2.7, Shutter speed - 1/1600, ISO - 100.                                       

The subject is in the dark, while you have captured the background with enough details. How you do capture the subject and background with enough details and without any whitewash ?.

This is the subject of my post.

The answer to the above scenario is to use a flash in bright-light. Flash in bright light may sound counter-intuitive for the first time. This needs some explanation to understand.

By setting your shutter speed(exposure time) to a very small values(1/1600), you have saved the background from whitewash. At the same time you have reduced the amount of light from the near subject significantly. Thus, the picture shows the subject in the dark. By using flash with the same settings as above, you can capture both the subject and background as shown below

It is clear from the picture that the subject and background are well-lit. The trick is the use of flash to shed more light to the objects nearby and still capture enough details from the background without a whitewash.

Remember to turn on your flash when you have landscapes+portrait picture to capture both the landscape and the portrait without a whitewash.

Mile 0 to Mile 6.5 - Oregon Coast

Places to visit.
1. Eagle Sanctuary - A must see site in winter.
Twilight Eagle Sanctuary
2. Astoria Column - magnificent view of Astoria.
Astoria Column
3. Astoria-Megler Bridge
Astoria-Megler Bridge
4. Fort Stevens
Fort Stevens State Park

Things to Do/See
Twilight Eagle Sanctuary
Astoria, Warrenton, Fort Stevens.
There are several viewpoints along columbia highway 30 leading from Longview beach to Astoria. The drive is very scenic with mountains on one side and columbia river on the other.

Astoria Column offers a brilliant view of Astoria-Megler Bridge and Astoria City. The column itself is around 200 feet tall and has winding stairs to the top. It feels like you are climbing to the heaven itself.

Astoria Column
Columbia Boat at Maritime Museum

You can get into Astoria Valley Trolley at Maritime Museum stop. It travels the entire coast of Astoria and the trolley conductor has a interesting narration of the city.

Astoria Riverfront Trolley

Astoria-Megler Bridge

Travel west of Astoria to reach Fort Stevens State Park which was a defense port during civil and world wars. You can see the hiding rifle batteries, ship wreck from 1906, historic museum, viewpoints of the river, sea and the columbia bar.

Peter Iredale Ship Wreck from 1906

Para-Sailing at Fort Stevens beach

Oregon Coast Mile 0 to Mile 363.1

The U.S Route 101 links Asotria at Mile 0 to Crissey Field at Mile 363. Starting this week, I plan to explore Oregon Coast mile by mile. I am using Oregon Coast mile by mile guide and Oregon Coastal Access Guide by Kenn Oberrecht by Oregon State University Press for my references.

Songs that go beyond goosebumps and emotions

Some of the songs i found using pandora. I have added youtube links. Many of them are from natalie macmaster, vanessa mae, bond, mark esham, tempest.
David's Jig , Natalie Macmaster
- Catharsis, Natalie macmaster(i find her fiddling amazing, my all time favorites)
- Volcanic Jig, Natalie macmaster
- Emerald's Tiger - Vanessa Mae(i like many of her songs too)
- Raga's Dance Vanessa Mae(composed by A.R.R)
- Cotton Eye Joe (Vanessa Mae)
- Palladio Escala
- Celestial Soda Pop, Ray lynch
- Seargent's Early Dream
- Feugo , Bond ( this is another band of violin, viola, cello which i like)
- icarus , mythos
- rays of love, mehdi
- between the shadows, loreena mckennitt.
- OCtober sky , Mark esham
- Flowers of Red hill, Tempest
- Last of the wilds, Nightwish.
- Pachelbel meets U2(Canon in D by U2 John Schmidt)

My First Car - Honda Civic

I bought a Honda Civic -DX 5 Speed Manual. The gear change sounds great and the car gives amazing fuel efficiency.

Running, Grad School, Music and Life

I could see the similarities between the things that is re-shaping me. One could replace the word "winning" in the quote with running, grad school, music and life. It would conveys the same meaning. The words of this runner crystallized what i had in my analogue mind. The quote from Runner's world as follows

Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.


- Amby Burfoot, The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life

A Wish List - Music Pieces to Play

Canon in D - Pachelbel
Requiem for Dream - Clint Mansell
October Sky - Mark Isham
David's Jig - Natalie MacMaster
Swades - A. R. Rahman
Viva-La-Vida - Coldplay
Toss the Feathers - Corrs
Raga's Dance - Vanessa Mae
Devil's Trill - Vanessa Mae