Up a bit late; sorted through some papers and putzed on the computer.
Leftover lo mein from How Lee for lunch. It’s even good microwaved!
Went to a talent show at Emily’s church. Notable acts included: a man performing dance moves “inspired by” Michael Jackson, while not emulating him; an 87-year-old woman playing old Duke Ellington tunes on the piano, accompanied by the dancing man on stand-up bass, and a recreation of this Monty Python sketch featuring a four-year-old as the shop owner.
Went out with Greg, Ted, and Sara to see Source Code. Really quite impressed with this film. A worthy successor to Moon.
Still fighting with driver performance. Moving buffers around did not have the desired effect. Running low on options and time, as customer has a looming factory deadline. Have to look at DMA settings and see if some improvements can be made there.
Home then out to dinner. Tried the new How Lee. It was much more crowded than I ever saw it in its previous incarnation, which might be explained by the transformation of the food from “random greasy Chinese-ish food” to “only sort of greasy Chinese food that maybe had some thought and effort behind it”. Also some may have been there to view the men’s room artwork.
Returned to the Squirrel Cage (a.k.a. Squirrel Hill Cafe, a.k.a. the bar I frequented throughout my early-to-mid-20s) for the first time in a few years. It’s one of the few bars that still allows smoking, which is why I’d been gone so long. It’s still smoky, but the beer selection is still solid. Unfortunately for it there are now moreoptions with equal or better selections and no smoke. Maybe I’ll try again in a few years.
Work continued on the audio driver. Trying to hunt down the buffer allocation code to move a buffer into on-chip RAM but the Linux SoC audio code is made up of layers of indirection which complicate things like this.
Up early, to work. Glad to see the reduction in bus service didn’t create the Mad Max-esque landscape that was predicted.
Looks like I’m closing in on the audio driver performance issue. Have turned my attention fully to the DMA subsystem. Armed with some suggestions from the vendor I should have this thing nailed very soon.
Tasty sushi lunch at the Original Fish Market. Hadn’t been there before, but will definitely be going back.
Came home and actually sat down to listen to the Pens game for the first time in months. Sad that they had to lose to the Flyers but still amazed thankful at how well they’re doing despite Crosby and Malkin being gone and most of the team banged up like crazy. My chin is preparing for an epic playoff beard.
Worked from home. Nice after a long car ride to sit in a comfy chair with a cat and a laptop and get some work done.
Further progress with the audio driver. From reports on the scene I infer that while the issue hasn’t been eliminated it has been improved. More work to come.
Headed to the gym in the evening, motivated by the desire to maintain my ability to toss my nephew around (30 lbs. doesn’t sound like much until it’s toddler-shaped and moving).
Drank some of the beer that East End isn’t allowed to call Eye Opener Coffee Porter and watched some Arrested Development while I noodled around with some hobby projects.
The whole gang took little nephew to the end of Emily’s parents’ driveway where a neighbor has a goat pen. The goats were very friendly and attentive. Young goat and young boy seemed to get on rather well.
Long drive back to Pittsburgh. Stopped at Beef Jerky Unlimited in Dundee, MI to fill a rather lengthy order for myself and several co-workers.
For some reason by the time we got back to Pennsylvania we had started craving ice cream. We briefly searched around Cranberry for a shop but decided to head back to Squirrel Hill and find something there. The first open shop we saw was Tutti Frutti on Forbes Ave. Frozen yogurt rather than ice cream, but still quite tasty.
Lunch at Michigan Brewing Company. Tried their porter and nut brown ale, both of which were quite good and went well with the brewhouse burger. Could have done without Kid Rock staring at me through the whole meal but it was ultimately a very satisfying experience.
Met up with some college friends of my wife’s sister and her husband to watch some hockey and drink. There was more of the latter than the former. The festivities moved to a nearby restaurant where some members of the group managed to be obnoxious enough to clear out a few of the nearby tables. I apologized profusely to the waitress and tipped her a little extra.
Some more driver issue help from the chip vendor. Exploring potential issues further on up the stack. Lots of register value dumps being exchanged.
Lunch at DiBella’s again. Ordering process went more smoothly this time. Unsure if it’s me or the staff that has benefited from experience.
Left for Michigan after lunch to spend the weekend with my in-laws. Nephew is at the age where he’s getting too big to toss in the air but that’s the one thing he’s most interested in.
Made good progress with the audio driver. Overcame a serious hurdle involving the FIFO through a combination of helpful suggestions from the vendor and my own random bumping around in the code. Unfortunately this epiphany didn’t happen until around 9 PM. Even more unfortunately, fixing the FIFO did not solve the larger bug. Sent some driver code to the vendor along with some register dumps to get more eyes on the problem.
Had a surprisingly productive engineering meeting in which we ate pizza and had explained to us some of the machinations of the executive staff.
Came home to an exceptionally understanding wife. Took the garbage out and contemplated ways to show appreciation for said understanding.
