So I am the lead developer for the Open-Source project (hosted on sourceforge) called Aviones. It is the cumulative effort of many a grad student, and has fallen into my hands in a fairly random fashion. Oddly, I think my attachment to it will almost guarantee me acceptance as a grad student, because they need me to look after it, in a way.

So anyways, I got an email from a guy in New Zealand the other day. He was having some problems, so I helped him get the program running properly. In his second email he says:
----
thanks heaps, we're working our way through Brian L. Stevens and Frank L.
Lewis's "Aircraft Control and Simulation, 2nd Edition" book and enjoying
your implementation of the physics for an aircraft.
----

Wow, someone uses this thing besides us (the MAGICC and HCMI labs). I was sort of blown away that someone in New Zealand was using our software. Software that I have dug through, understood, changed, improved, and coded. And the 'we' suggest it's a class or something... just crazy... but somehow made me feel warm and fuzzy inside....


[This Entry]