Journal - Week 10

::: Day 1 - Monday 08/08/05 :::

 Today I worked on my project and the day went well. In the morning I tested out the entire application again. I ran the server on one computer, and on the other I scanned 5 RFID tags and send the data to the server. Then using a method that Vinod wrote, we transferred a datagram packet from the server PC to the Linux PDA. And it all worked flawlessly.

In the morning I received a call from Prof. Gao. She wanted to know if I'd be free for lunch with her, Natalie, and Natalie's mentor. We went to the Monkey's Bar in Amherst for some food (was not very good though).

In the afternoon, I played more with the RFID part of the application. I wanted to make two options: one - writing and reading the tags, and other just reading them. I had some difficulties creating that because there were a few thing to take into account. At the end I got it working. I also made some modifications so that all info messages are displayed in a text area on the GUI instead of on the command prompt.

Most of today was very nice in that things worked and I made progress. One thing that frustrated me but then made me laugh was a problem with the RFID reader. I was running my application fine and then suddenly it stopped working. I debugged for almost an hour when I realized a wire on the RF reader had fallen off and the reader was not connected to the PC anymore. Once that was fixed, things went more smoothly.

::: Day 2 - Tuesday 08/09/05 :::

Alllright, today was the second to last day for me on the job. Exciting... :-)

Most of the day I worked on documentation and cleaning up some small things in the final application. Prof. Gao came for a demo, which went quite disastrously. When I tried showing her the full run of my application, it did not even compile; it turned out I had added an extra file to the folder and the class was trying to access some non-existing variables. Well, anyhow, I figured this out, and called Prof. Gao back in the lab (she was outside talking to someone). When she came back the second time everything was going fine until Bluetooth crashed. Ha Ha Ha! So she never saw the whole thing running. She wasn't mad or anything because she knew the thing would work if it wasn't for these constant Bluetooth troubles.

Prof. Gao suggested that I organize all my documentation into a web site, so I spent the rest of the afternoon working on that.

Tomorrow is my last day at the job and I need to finally finish with all the docs and reports and put them together.

At night, Natalie took me for a sweeeeeet sushi treat at Osaka restaurant in NoHo. We had a little celebration for the end of my internship. Too bad I won't be here to celebrate her's but I think she will be just happy to go home. I am too. Home in less than 4 days. Woo Hoo.

::: Day 3 - Wednesday - 08/10/05  :::

My last real work day - it was good. I finished up the project website (check it out here), went to talk to Prof. Gao for a while, cleaned up my desk, etc. I also had to clean up the computer and organize all the tens of folders and files I had made over the past 10 weeks. What a mess!

After the day was over I had to come back to my room and start packing. I am leaving tomorrow morning so everything needs to be done tonight. I had more problems with Housing Services and other UMASS office and now I am now seriously thinking about writing an official complaint. They deserve it.

But I don't want to leave this journal on a bad note because I really did enjoy my work this summer. I am very very happy with the way this internship developed and with the work I did. I think I can truly say I am proud of myself.

::: Day 4 - Thursday - 08/11/05 :::

Today is my last day at UMASS. I take the Peter Pan Bus to Boston and tomorrow I fly to Europe.

It's been a good summer!

::: Week 1 ::: Week 2 ::: Week 3 ::: Week 4 ::: Week 5 ::: 

::: Week 6 ::: Week 7 ::: Week 8 ::: Week 9 ::: Week 10 :::

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Maria Kazandjieva - makazand@mtholyoke.edu - last update: 08/10/05