Tom Sciortino - About Me

(aka, the boring junk.)

As an engineer, I've been forced to look at the world slightly differently. When I ride a swing, I think to myself "the reason I can't stay even with the 4 year old next to me is because the equation that dictates that the period of a pendulum depends only on the length of it and not on the weight on the end is an approximation which holds true only for small angles of swinging." Not to say that I'm dull... After I finish contemplating that, I usually jump off at the proper 45 degree take-off angle to get maximum flight and distance. :)

I love playing with electronic stuff; Flashing lights and beeping sounds will entertain me for hours. I suppose that's why I'm an Electrical Engineer, though it's not been as fun as I thought it would be. Sigh... such is the price to pay for those who want to make more flashing lights for the world. But lately, it's gotten interesting. Who knows... maybe I'll make the next furbee. I can see it now... "The Furbee 2: the toy so advanced that it makes your child obsolete!" Pretty soon, we will be buying children for our toys to play with.

Legos are the best! My dream is to design Lego sets. EE is just a stepping stone. I do not intend to run PSPICE simulations for a living. You may see examples of my work on my Lego page. Ideally, I'd be making space fighters for children to build and enjoy, just as I did when I was a child. (Okay, yes, I still do...)

My computers:

"Monolith" - the Windows box
Monolith is my gaming, A/V processing, and general purpose computer. Named after the object of the same name from 2001: A Space Oddyssey, nobody quite knows just what Monolith's true purpose is, though it's clear that mankind as a whole makes transcendant leaps in his presence. Also, more often than not, you can find a half-crazed monkey screaming at him.

CPU Athlon XP 2800+ (2083 MHz)
Mobo Abit NF7-M (nVidia nForce2 chipset)
RAM 512 MB PC2700 (ddr 333)
Case Antec TX640B, 400W
Video GeForce4 MX (64 MB)
Audio on-board AC97 5.1
Ethernet on-board 100 Mbps
Drive Western Digital 120 GB
Drive Lite-On DVD
Drive Pioneer DVD-RW 16x
OS WinXP

"Marie" - the Linux box
Marie is my quiet little workhorse server, usually patched together from the best spare parts my house has to offer. Her sole purpose in life is only to serve up ftp and webpages for me and a few friends. But she does it well and I like to think she makes use of bandwidth that would otherwise go completely wasted. Marie is not just a geek naming his computer after a girl, but only the truly enlightened will know just why that name was chosen.

AMD K6-2 300 MHz
FIC VA 503+ Mother Board
384 megs 100 MHz SDRAM
Diamond Stealth 64 Video Card (2 megs)
Creative SB AWE64 Sound Card
USR 56k modem
Cheap POS Ethernet card
15 GB hard drive
Running Debian/GNU Linux

Other Thoughts

I love music. Music is magic. It's one of God's completely amazing yet completely unexplainable gifts to us. Just why is it that a major 7 chord can send a shiver down your spine if properly placed? I study harmonics and sine waves for a living and I can tell you why you have to lower the 3rd of a chord 14 cents in order to get the maximum resonance, but I can't explain the magic behind the major 7 chord. Or the sharp 4th of the Lydian scale. Jazz is awesome. It's melodic composition on the fly. Mathematically, it's seeing what chord is aproaching and choosing notes that fit the respective scale you're in. No, no... it's not that at all. It's magic! I play Sax, Clarinet, Flute, and Recorder. I enjoy them all, however, the recorder is the easiest to put together and carry around, so it gets a few extra points. Yes, recorder is that little 12 inch plastic tube made by yamaha that you learned how to play "Hot Cross Buns" on back in 4th grade. They cost about 8 dollars and are one of the finest musical investment anyone can make. They should not be underestimated and in the hands of someone over age 9, can actually sound quite beautiful.