Update

[dracodraconis]

As of Friday I had submitted my thesis draft. I now await word of when the defence will take place, probably end of September. Meanwhile, I am alternating between studying for said defence (I want to have all the formulas on hand mentally, and need a refresher of the details of some previous attempts to do what I'm doing). I'm also working on how to fast-track results of my research by breaking it into "least publishable units". This means getting easy, preliminary results out the door ASAP with more advanced methods being implemented later as "improvements" on the methods. Since I'm mostly breaking new ground with this stuff anyway, this approach doesn't present a problem. The goals are:
- presentation for defence end of September with early results
- presentation to NRC in mid to late October with more advanced results
- complete simulations collecting data by mid-to end- November
- presentation to NRC in early to mid-February with advanced results
- thesis ready to defend by early March
- complete all degree requirements by April 1

This means working long hours for the winter and tying up multiple computers (one at NRC and two at Carleton), but means that I get done before the end of Winter semester, after which I can return to some sort of 9-to-5 routine.

In other news, today I called to have the landline cancelled, so as of the 20th, our home phone number will no longer work. We will still be getting Internet from Bell (the DSL works fine, despite the noisy phone line. )

[Edit: By thesis draft I meant thesis proposal.]

Comments

[ztrooper.livejournal.com]

mostly off topic.. have you dealt with or heard anything about the laser products from www.wickedlasers.com?

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Nope, but as an interesting side note to this we have a system that uses three coloured lasers to extract colour information while making range measurements. For example, the company you mentioned sells red, green and blue lasers. Combine them into a single beam, bounce it off the surface, measure the power loss in each colour component, and as a result you not only have the range information but the true surface colour. The system is used by XYZRGB (a spinoff company here in Ottawa) to scan models for things like virtual models for movies (among other applications).

[ztrooper.livejournal.com]

Several people have posted some information about making a 'white' laser beam using all three colors. There are some neat images of the system in the forums.

That's a pretty cool use of the combined lasers. 8) I just knew you'd have something interesting to add to the discussion. 8)

[joyeuse60.livejournal.com]

Looks like a lot of work!!! On the other hand it will feel great to have ot all completed adn to get on with other parts of your life... take care of yourself thoguh. This schedule could leave you pretty worn out