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Update: Darn! Comments weren’t working while the discussion was hot! I got a huge spike of hits from this one too… feel free to comment now…
Or “Why The Video Phone Went the Way of the Dinosaur”

First, a little context. This morning, Facebook, the huge college-turned-global social networking site, released a new feature known as Feeds. Essentially, Feeds are a down-to-the-second record of everything you do on Facebook, whether it be adding a picture, adding a comment to someone’s profile, changing your profile, joining a group, even getting “in a relationship,” and Feeds are public for all of your friends to see. There’s even a “Master Feed” on everyone’s front page that shows you all of the news related to all of your friends’ accounts. That’s right, it shows you, all in one place, what everyone else did/is doing/wrote/thought about/uploaded/RSVP’d to/created/hooked up with/etc!

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I have now officially graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science!

The CS graduation was entertaining and not terribly long. Good speeches and lots of famous names; my name was read by David Patterson, who created RISC. Pretty cool I guess.

I’ll be around Berkeley for the next few years, hopefully working for YVOD and other “secret side projects,” and I’ll probably be at every football game taking pictures of the band… so no one’s going to miss me, I’m not going anywhere

It sure is great to be done. I think I’ll do something I haven’t done in months… play video games.

I have my last final of my undergraduate career today! It should be pretty easy, just a simple AI class. I need 50.1% on the final to pass the class

Then on Sunday I graduate… it hasn’t hit me yet.

Interesting fact: in the last four years, I’ve taken 348 pictures of the Campanile.

Go Bears.

I’m finally all set to finish my degree at UC Berkeley this semester. I’m just taking two classes (lucky me): CS188 (Artificial Intelligence) and Engineering 195 (a technical writing seminar—”Science, Technology, and Society”). And that’s it, I’ve got a degree after that!

Sort of scary, yes, but I’m getting used to the idea, and I’ve got opportunities lining up already. Some are more lucrative than others, some more fun and influential; we’ll see where they take me.

Bottom line: I’ve only got class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I have a car. That means 4-day weekends and nothing to do (sometimes), so more road trips and camping and taking pictures and other fun stuff… and yes, working on zenphoto and other projects.

This should be a good semester.

Also, new pictures from stuff are in the photo galleries. Have a look see.

Snow. My ski trip was full of it, and it was good.

I’m headed off to the Las Vegas bowl this evening (a 12 hour bus ride from Berkeley, mind you). Being 21 is finally going to be useful! Not that I plan on doing much gambling between band practice… we’re learning our whole show in Vegas. Should be interesting.

The game’s on the 22nd on ESPN at 5 PM Pacific Time if you want to watch. Should be a good one. Go Bears!!

Oh, and Happy Holidays everyone! I can already imagine the snow… and skiing… Ah! I can’t wait! Enjoy the season y’all

Update: Cal won decisively 35-28 in a pretty exciting game. Lots of pictures soon.

I’ve never really thought about graduating from college before. Seriously. The last time any kind of graduation crossed my mind was when I was handed my high school diploma.

Today, I saw an advisor about my status. I knew two things going in: that I was pretty much a senior, and that I was winging it and loving it. I’m not one to think about the end as much as the means; so much more time spent in the doing than the moment of being done.

So I found out I’m accidentally graduating on time. I say accidentally because I didn’t mean to—I never wanted to, actually. It just sort of crept up on me and bit me in the ass all of the sudden. Now I have to think about it, and damn I have a lot to think about. It’s the rest of my life I’m looking at—or, at least, I’m realizing that a little decision made now could affect things later on—not bad or good, just different, completely. So there’s a lot to think about.

Yeah, this is deep. I’ve been in a deep mood lately—turning 21, taking interesting classes, releasing zenphoto, supporting myself with my own money, graduating from Berkeley, and other things—a lot is changing.

I love it.

There we were aimed. And as we raced across
    Bright knots of rail
Past standing Pullmans, walls of blackened moss
Came close, and it was nearly done, this frail
Travelling coincidence; and what it held
stood ready to be loosed with all the power
That being changed can give. We slowed again,
And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower
Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.
   —Phillip Larkin

P.S.: Send job offers to trisweb at this domain.

Robert Birgeneau, the chancellor (who is a nice guy, by the way, as is his wife) of the University of California, Berkeley, has reversed the previous decision and granted Ignacio Chapela full tenure. Supposedly, Chapela was denied tenure because of his criticisms of the university’s ties to biotech company Novartis. Just a month ago, he sued the university for several things, and I reported on the press conference.

This is great news. Chapela’s rejection seemed to be completely invalid, and this new decision is certainly just. Congratulations to Chapela, all of his students, and the Chancellor for making the right decision.

My mom might kill me if she reads this, but it’s getting light outside, and I thought I would record that fact. Nothing like a near-all-nighter finishing a CS project.

By the way, if anyone needs a partially-disabled Python compiler for the x86 architecture, I’m your man.

(So now you know what I’ve been doing for the last two weeks…)

Also, if you have a chance, listen to Ben Folds’ new album “Songs for Silverman” (iTunes link). It’s excellent. Review coming soon.