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November 1, 2005

Intel weekend

So I guess I should write about my weekend trip to Intel in Folsom, CA before I forget all about it.
Thursday Claire dropped me off at the airport and I made it through security for the first time since 9/11 wihtout having to have my baggage searched. I guess I must have fit some profile that they were looking for up until recently. The guy did yell at me for putting my bag on top of my laptop in the bin though. I could have swore the directions said to take it out, then put all the other stuff on top of it.
Oh well so the flight to Chicago was pretty uneventful. I sat by this Indian guy that smelled like smoke and he wasn't talkative at all. I had the window seat though. The layover in Chicago wasn't bad... used the restroom and in 30 minutes was getting on the next plane.
The trip to Sacramento was longer and we got to watch Bewitched. I guess it was an OK movie... nothing uber-exciting to me and fits that genre of movies based off old TV show which I don't know if I really like. I sat next to some Black dude that smelled like leather... probably because he had some big leather coat on, which he eventually took off so our shoulders didn't have to rub any more. Again I had the window seat. Yay for window seats.
Now the first problem was that I had a cold during this trip. So my sinuses were all clogged up. The first flight wasn't bad keeping my ears normal, but this longer flight where we were up high longer plus I guess my decongestant wearing off lead to my left ear having tons of trouble repressurizing on the way down. Basically when we landed I don't think I got it barely repressurized and couldn't yawn because it was pushing on my ear so hard it was starting to hurt and I was panicking a bit. Eventually I managed to yawn or get the right muscles to move and things started to pressurize but not without some farting-like noises as the air made its way through my sinuses. Weird stuff... probably weirded out the guy next to me but oh well my ear pain went away and my hearing came back.
Got off the plane, got my luggage and headed out the door (which by the way was about 20 feet from the luggage thing... someone could easily walk in and take some luggage and run out). Got on the bus over to the car rental place and picked up my rental car (which was amazingly easy).
So with my trusty Ford Focus hatchback and maps I had printed at home I hit the California roads. So I got on I-5 south and looked for I-80 East. I found it and got on it, but the problem was I actually wanted to go through downtown and get on I-80 East Business Loop, not the actual I-80. So I ended up driving north of Sacramento the long way. Then when I got to the other side where I-80 crosses I-80 Business Loop (which I now wanted to take south) there wasn't a large sign that told me which exit to take. Instead was a sign that said I-80 Business Loop next exit, and the main signs were for some non-highway local street. Crazy stuff! So after turning around I headed down the right highway, found I-50 East, and made it to my hotel (which was also far from the street and the entrance was actually in the back of the building).
Now the hotel was awesome! I had a king-size bed with 6 pillows, a full-size meeting table with 4 executive chairs, a whiteboard, full kitchen, large bathroom, TV, and a PILLOW MENU! Yes I could order which kinds of pillows I would like and they would bring them to my room for me. The bed was so comfortable with a real down comforter. Plus right out my door was a Taco bell not more than 50 feet away, and also in the area was a movie theater, and across the street an outlet mall.
After getting settled in I got some Taco Bell, got online with the free high speed connection, and then got a shower and headed to bed.
Interview day I stopped by the Gap outlet and bought a black belt, because I lost mine from the last time I moved. Then I headed over to Intel which was just down the street. When I found the entrance there was a sign with a bunch of buildings listed and arrows pointing which way to go. My building was the first on the list with an arrow pointing straight up. The other building arrows were pointing either right (for the right turn) or a curved arrow to the left (for the road that went straight for 20 feet then turned left). Now the problem was there was no road that allowed me to go just straight ahead. I could turn right or go straight and veer to the left, but my building was straight. So of course I took the straight ahead road that curved to the left. The next sign didn't have my building on it anymore so I started to get confused and ended up turning around multiple times in the parking lot to find another sign with my building's name. Eventually I discovered that the arrow must have been pointing at the actual building, and not the direction I should take to get to the building. Apparently turning right would have got me to the parking lot much faster than my crazy trek through Intel-land.
After finally finding a parking spot far away (parking was very limited) I made it to the building. There were about 15-20 other college students there that were being interviewed that day. There was a ~2 hour info session/question and answer session/lunch before the actual interviews. Interviews were 1-5pm and were actually 4 separate interviews each an hour long and right after one another. My first interview dealt with overall hardware design and interfaces. I know a lot in general about all the interfaces, but my interviewer wanted to ask a lot of detailed questions about memory interfaces, so I'm not sure I impressed him. My second interview dealt with design verification, so it was mostly a programming type interview. Some of the stuff I just didn't remember, but I think I did OK in general. I was still a bit nervous at this time but I think I calmed down as I started doing better.
The third interview was digital design. This one was easy because that's what I know the best. I was able to make it through all his questions without any problem, and while some of them took awhile I did manage to get them all done.
The last interview was all about the gate-level design and design flow. There was some deriving of equations dealing with transistor power and also some theory about clock line delays and how to best distribute clocks throughout the chip. While I didn't know everything because it's not my major area of study, I think I did a good job and we had some fun deriving some of the problems together, because he admitted he actually hadn't solved some of them before.
When the last interview was over I was free to leave. I tried driving up to Lake Folsom, but the road I planned on taking was closed. It took about 45 minutes to get that far so I turned around and headed back to my hotel becuase Craft and Kristin were going to show up in awhile.
I got back to discover they hadn't left their place left, but that was OK because I got a chance to rest for awhile. When they showed up we headed over to Applebees across the street and we got some dinner. The waitress brought both me and Kristin the wrong food (we had ordered the same thing) but eventually we got what we ordered and it was nummy.
Then we went back to my place and just hung out till after midnight their time, which was after 3am Eastern. Yeah I was pretty tired after that. So I fell asleep quickly.
Got up the next morning, packed up and headed the right way back to the airport. The metal detector went off becuase I had some cough drops in my pocket. Yes cough drops... very sensitive scanner! Anyways I wasn't cavity checked or anything again which was nice. The trip back to Chicago was kind of fun because I got to sit next to a 2-year old girl and her mom. The girl was really talkative and told me all about her cousing and kitty and the toy ponys that she had with her. The movie that was on was called Rebound, yet another sports-oriented family movie where some guy ends up in a situation he doesn't think he'll like then it turns him and the team which previously sucked into good people. Heard that plot before? Yeah me neither.
Anyways after the plane landed I turned on my phone and was checking my messages and the little girl asked who I was talking to. I told her my friends and she says "Oh, you don't have any friends." Her mom was like don't say that! Then the girl goes "But aren't you a daddy?" Of course I'm not yet, but it was pretty funny.
So in Chicago I got my first real meal of the day, well if McDonalds counts as a real meal. Then the trip to Columbus was pretty uneventful. I spent nearly the whole time looking at the window at the lights to try to figure out where we were. We crossed over Lake Michigan a bit, then I guess headed down near Ft. Wayne then next thing I know we were in Columbus. I pointed out OSU Airport, roughly where my condo was, 33, 270, 315, 71, and Easton. We headed out the Gahanna way and came in from the East. On landing the plane made some horrible resonating sound from the brakes being applied. Time for some new brakes on that plane! Anyways I survived and it was an interesting trip.

A bit of an update: Tonight I received a phone call from someone at Intel in Arizona that wants to interview me. Apparently the person that called also remembers me from OSU - he was a TA in a class I took he said. So I may be flying out there next. Intel AZ and CA can fight over me!

Posted by Plocmstart at November 1, 2005 12:10 AM

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