what a cheeky driver! also, a throwback from olden days:

that one was from Ithaca, just outside the farmer’s market.

… I couldn’t move myself to eat this banana after trying to sort out what this sticker meant. And no, I did not visit the website either.

Weird that it’s shifting affiliations so seamlessly, I thought to myself– I couldn’t help but wonder who decides when it’s going to be passed off. However, I assumed that a couple of professors at CalTech and Concordia knew each other, and they agreed on swapping the application back and forth depending on who has a PhD student willing to work on the project. Naturally, I chose the latest version, downloaded it, and started playing around with it. It’s a fairly complicated package, with files like the following cryptic mass being the only user interface for articulating what you want to the machine:


2 1 0 1 NDIM,IPS,IRS,ILP
1 1 NICP,(ICP(I),I=1 NICP)
50 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 NTST,NCOL,IAD,ISP,ISW,IPLT,NBC,NINT
100 0.0 0.15 0.0 100.0 NMX,RL0,RL1,A0,A1
100 10 2 8 5 3 0 NPR,MXBF,IID,ITMX,ITNW,NWTN,JAC
1e-06 1e-06 0.0001 EPSL,EPSU,EPSS
0.01 0.005 0.05 1 DS,DSMIN,DSMAX,IADS
1 NTHL,(/,I,THL(I)),I=1,NTHL)
10 0.0
0 NTHU,(/,I,THU(I)),I=1,NTHU)
0 NUZR,(/,I,PAR(I)),I=1,NUZR)


Each of those numbers defines either very important quantities in your system, or tells the computer precisely what you want from its output. However, I’m not too concerned about that– after all, these are my colleagues in applied mathematics we’re talking about here, not computer scientists with time to spend on designing GUIs. This is a serious piece of machinery! So, I hunkered down, read the 232-page manual from cover to cover, followed demos and made test systems. I became fairly proficient in navigating the labyrinth of FORTRAN files and got what I need out of AUTO. Or, so I thought.

Last week, I met with my advisor and described how my efforts with a similar tool (written for MATLAB) had been going for our system, a retarded functional differential equation that can’t be handled by AUTO. My advisor replied that, with AUTO, he had resolved some of the issues tangentially related to my system, and proceeded to show me his code. I was shocked when I noticed it was written in C, rather than FORTRAN.

“How old of a version of AUTO are you using?” I asked, to which he responded that it was the latest version. I scoffed and thought that couldn’t possibly be the case, but after speaking with my colleagues in TAM I soon realized I was using a version of the program that nobody else was familiar with.

Had I stumbled on a beta version? Where was this other program? I sleuthed google for a bit and came up with only this site. Oops, that’s not it– that’s just its old SourceForge page. Ahh, here it is. The official source directly from the author. No, wait, that’s old and there isn’t even an index to the directory. OH OH HERE IT IS! Hey, what’s it doing in the AUTO-07p (FORTRAN software) repository?

Open source scientific computing is on a different plane of evil from those functionally-unsupported packages out there, like XMMS. Having worked in an IT environment that was reasonably sane, I have come to expect and appreciate the process through which software evolves. Someone has an idea to solve a problem, and a scope is determined for what the first version will accomplish. A proof of concept is created– which soon turns into a beta (or several betas), and inevitably a product is finished and released. Feedback is built into a list of “bugs” and “feature requests,” and developers continue to maintain the software staying reasonably close to the initial framework and code base. Sometimes a major rewrite is necessary, e.g. when the organization is switching languages, but documentation holds the whole process together.

I’ll introduce to you a completely separate scenario. Imagine someone has an idea to solve a problem, and it seems to be about the size of a PhD thesis. This fellow happens to be a graduate student, so he sells the idea to his professor, and in 1976 a project is began to write the application– in FORTRAN. Being that he’s really only writing the application for his dissertation, the only easily-accessible and complete documentation is stored in hardcover bindings at his institution. The software is released to the wild, where some people zealously continue its development. Years later, C becomes a dominant language and another PhD student takes it upon herself to re-write the package. However, the development branch for the FORTRAN version lives on by folks who just can’t let go– it was killed, but just wouldn’t die. It’s zombieware in a new sense of the word. This same story goes for a host of other applications, like Macsyma/Maxima. At least they had the good sense to change the name of the package to signal the divergence.

And now, if you will excuse me, I have to go figure out just how divergent these two applications are– and potentially re-learn all of the subroutines for AUTO in C (also known as AUTO2000, whereas the newest AUTO is named AUTO-07p. What iterative naming scheme?).

however, voting on the UA referendum is still underway– so if you haven’t voted yet, please cast your ballot on this topic. Please visit my elections information page if you want to know more.

The short answer: because this position provides an effectual opportunity for student interests to be represented, and my experiences and leadership style are germane and pertinent to the role.

The long answer: involves some background.

My first opinions of student government.
I was introduced to student government at UC Berkeley and saw it (to my disdain) as a huge popularity contest. That is after all what got you elected: how many folks you knew, and how you could mobilize them to support your candidacy. When I arrived at Cornell, I expected nothing different. However, I did have a lot of experience in IT security and knew my way around a campus environment, so I decided to stay aware of campus IT issues by enlisting in the SA’s committee to CIT.

Why I got involved with the GPSA.
After the T&AM department folded later that year, I wondered if there was anything we in T&AM could have done. My questions led me to the GPSA. It was set up to be a no-politics body– no public elections required to get involved, the executives serve to direct the work and are of similar “rank” to voting members; it’s just a bunch of graduate students that wanted to stand up for students.

When a number of issues that interested me became the business of the GPSA, I got involved in the debates. Later, a voting seat was vacated, and I was torn between my drive to stay involved and my distrust of campus positions that require elections. Regardless, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and have enjoyed the position.

Why I’m running.
I believe I speak the same language of college experiences as many students at Cornell. My influence on the GPSA has been colored by my business-grounded background, which has helped me sometimes (in strategic planning and translating goals to action items), but has hurt me too (when jockeying for votes, primarily). Thankfully, the Board of Trustees operates by consensus and not by razor-thin voting margins.

I take my responsibilities on the GPSA seriously, but I also recognize that a majority of campus politics do not affect students. Life would go on if student governments didn’t meet for a month, or a semester. Nevertheless, governance groups provide a chance to make a difference. I have cherished the opportunities to be a positive force for students and to speak out on issues that can change peoples’ experiences on campus for the better, both here and at UC Berkeley.

The Result.
At the end of the forum, I approached the writer from the Daily Sun and she mentioned that there doesn’t seem to be too much a difference between the two candidates. That’s somewhat true– we both see academic excellence as a priority; we both view the proposed budget changes with guarded skepticism; we see the Trustee’s role as an advocate’s rather than an activist’s. I could see how some would see the two of us as similar.

My Response.
Maybe it’s just my being at this campaigning thing for a little too long, but I do feel we are in fact very different candidates with differentiated leadership styles. I will speak for myself: I have chartable legislative successes, both as a committee member and as chair. I also have experience turning strategy into action and know the punctuated differences between the two. The content of my experience is very distinct and (I feel) well suited for a position on the Board of Trustees, especially the business-driven environment of my work at UC Berkeley. The topics to which I’ve devoted my time here at Cornell as a GPSA member are few in number and have wide impact, and I try to find common ground with a decisionmaking body in order to push business forward. I choose the topics for which I advocate deliberately.

I urge those who guard their votes diligently to ask members of the GPSA for their thoughts, or to look in the minutes of GPSA meetings and at the committee work (R.11, R.13 are where I had direct impact; R.17 is also important) that’s been done this year. Just talking to one or both of us is a great way to get started, and my door and mailbox are always open. However, I’m aware that’s asking a lot from the average Cornell student, who’s already overburdened with exams this time of the semester.

About the Article.
The Daily Sun article was well written and I think captured many of my own personal viewpoints and the different experiences the two candidates have (ack, I just referred to myself in 3rd person). However, since the fence issue is delicate, I would encourage the motivated reader to hear my full position, posted here.

Overall, it was nice that five of the eight audience members were my personal friends– but that generated a bit of anxiety too since I realized my friends don’t often see me on the chopping block like this. Nevertheless, talking about student government, my plans as trustee and my personal beliefs is practically a pastime– just ask my colleagues. All I needed was the fruity beverage, cocktail umbrella and sunglasses and I would have been ready to talk for a lot longer than 90 seconds per question.