So I apparently suck at updating this blog this summer. Rest assured that my infrequent updates do not signal that I am bored here. We have been doing lots of stuff.
Here are some parting words of wisdom from the Simpsons team:
planet readers, go to the original post to see the videos
I am currently sitting alone in my very cool office (called the “fish bowl”) which I share with 8 other interns. Local time is about 18:00 and there is two things I should be doing right now. The first thing is to work on a paper I have to get ready this week to send to my co-authors, the second is actually going home on my bike and cook some dinner. I keep postponing the latter since I can work a lot better from here, and with 34 degrees Celcius outside the half-hour bike ride home is gonna be quite warm. Well, at least the trafic stinks :). Instead of working on the latter, the paper that is, I am procrastinating by writing this post.
Things are going well here in New Jersey, I have started playing volleyball with some AT&T Research people and soccer with some of the other interns. Last friday we went to a bar in New York for a few beers, it was nice to be back on Manhatten, I even passed the Hotel I stayed at (The Manhatten Brodway Hotel) and ate the same at the same deli that Rune, Mette and I used heavily last summer. I now also have a facebook account, so if you know me, login to facebook (or create an account and _then_ login) and add me as your friend.
Today I visited the AT&T’s Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) in Bedminster, NJ with a bunch of other AT&T Research interns. That was a great experience, the GNOC is really quite big. Here is a picture and some reactions from some Digg users and here is a more detailed description of the center.
In other news, I am now one step closer to becoming an American. I now have a US phone number which I bought from T-mobile using the prepaid “To Go” service. The offer even included a phone.
I am now more or less settled here in Chatham,NJ where I am going to stay for the next two months doing an internship with AT&T Research. I am staying in a boarding house a few miles from the labs, here is a few pictures of the house and the street in front of it. My room is behind the right window on the second floor of the house as seen in the first picture.
Today, my mentor took me to a guy that had a lot of bikes, one of which I was able to borrow. Here is a picture of the bike:
I hope it is not too hot for biking :)
Update: I just returned from a one hour bike trip that took me to the AT&T Research campus and the train station in Madison. The bike seems to work more or less flawlessly, not bad for something found in the dumpster (literally).