Into the Void

I accepted an offer from a firm in NYC so I’ll be moving there as soon as early September. I’m definitely excited about this… a change in locale was long overdue! Next time any of you visit The NYC, don’t forget to look me up!

UPDATE (Oct-01-2006)

I moved! Check it out…
http://www.etherice.com/rmx/rmx.php?x=my_nyc

I found it fascinating that reclusive math genius Dr. Grigori Perelman solved the Poincaré Conjecture, one of the 7 Millennium Prize problems. The proof was actually published by Dr. Perelman in 2003, but it took the rest of the world 3 years to figure out it was right. What makes this now-verified accomplishment so amazing is that it was an open problem for over 100 years, receiving attention from many brilliant minds without yielding a proof until 2003. Currently, it is the only Millennium Prize problem to be solved. It also seems likely that Perelman will not claim the $1 Million prize.

The proof offered by Dr. Perelman is so complex that a good percentage of Math PhD’s cannot comprehend it. I won’t pretend to understand it either… Perelman is a true genius like Einstein, Gauss, and DaVinci. It’s sad that athletes and movie stars are the heroes of most people… we should all appreciate his hard work and hope that he continues to do great things for this world.

Read the whole story here.

I’ll be in NYC this Sunday through Tuesday interviewing with several companies, including some of the top investment banks on Wall Street. From what I understand, each interview will last between 4-5 hours and consist of several interviews and a programming test or two. Sounds like fun right?… I think I can handle it.

UPDATE (Aug-10-2006)

The NYC trip was exhausting and I only slept about 4 hours total, but it was well worth it! The interviews went well and I expect to receive an offer from at least one of the companies. One of the meetings I had lasted over 6 hours and consisted of like 8 interviews that were probably 95% technical. The others I had also lasted several hours, but were not quite as technical.

This was my second trip to NYC, and everything was exactly how I remember. I didn’t plan on sight-seeing at all, but I did accidentally stumble onto Times Square once, and one of the companies I interviewed with (in Jersey City) had an incredible view of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. NYC is an exciting place to be… it’s just hard to believe that I could be living there soon.

Thanks to the recent explosive growth of Social Networking Sites (SNS’s) such as MySpace and Facebook, it seems like high school reunions are quickly becoming a thing of the past. All of my friends (who went to several different high schools) say there is no official reunion for their class due to “lack of interest” or something along those lines.  With everything the Internet has to offer, who really needs to meet in person anymore, right?…

The problem is that for graduates of big classes (> 200 students, or in my case about 450) it can be difficult and time-consuming to find a significant number of ex-classmates. One reason for this is that the profiles are scattered across different SNS’s (such as MySpace and Facebook), and another is that most people do not provide information about which high school they attended. So last week I decided to address this problem by creating a virtual reunion Website for my High School class. I parked it at http://www.etherice.com/oakpark/.

The first thing you’ll notice is that I added lots of memorabilia to draw in ex-classmates, including scans of the yearbook and class photo. The second thing you’ll notice is that I don’t ask for any information from the user EXCEPT for their SNS URLs. I could have asked everyone to post pictures, bios, interests, hobbies, etc…. but everyone has done that already, and as a computer science guy I hate redundancy!… so people post their URLs and that’s it… that way everyone can just update their SNS profiles and not have to worry about replicating those changes somewhere else.  (Plus, it really simplifies the system!)

The site has been up for a few days and over 30 classmates have already signed up… not bad. I expect for that number to reach about 50 in the next month. My goal is to locate half the class (over 200), but that’s probably a little optimistic. We’ll see how this experiment turns out.

Of all countries, I never expected North Korea to be so enthusiastic about The United States’ Independence Day.  Yesterday, July 4th, N. Korea harmlessly fired six mid-range missiles into the ocean, hundreds of miles offshore.  Clearly this was not an act of war, which means it must have been a display of fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July.  So on behalf of my country, I would like to thank North Korea for its insane, yet thoughtful display of patriotism to the United States.

My college career is over. That’s right… after four years of projects and finals, I’m finally done. I met a lot of interesting people at MU. The two closest friends I had there were my roommate for 3 years, Nick, and my friend since freshman year, Chris. I’m sure I’ll stay in touch with both of them for many years to come. I also made some friends that I may or may not keep in touch with. Bryce, David, and even Rachel, it was nice knowing you. We had some good times, and I wish you all the best of luck.

For the next month, I plan to finish some projects I had to put on hold my final semester. I also want to document some of the things I did in college and compile an online resume of my coolest projects. Overall, redesigning and adding fresh content to my Website is priority #1. Then I plan to find a job somewhere on the east coast or southwest. Places that interest me are NYC, North Carolina, Texas, and Colorado. Missouri is great too, it’s just that I’m tired of living here and it’s time to move on.

Last night it became clear… The story was about me against them, and how I won because I had nothing to lose.

I resisted for almost a year, but given the recent explosive popularity of MySpace, and to a much lesser extent, Facebook, I have decided to create accounts for both.  I mainly use my Facebook account to link to my Website and MySpace profile.

I must admit I’ve enjoyed using MySpace to stay in touch with old friends and connect with some new ones.  I login a few times per week and keep my friends list pruned down to people I actually know.  That doesn’t mean I won’t add you if you send an invite… I’m just saying I don’t treat MySpace as a popularity contest like many users seem to.  I also find it interesting how seriously many people take their “Top 8″… like their list is a current event or something.  Haha.  My only realy complaint about MySpace is that it’s owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.  Why couldn’t he have bought Facebook instead?!!

In case you missed the article, my team won the best project award last semester in CS4380, DBMS I.  Our reward for winning was having dinner and beer with the professor at the Flat Branch Bar and Grill (of course, we are all 21+).  I must say I had a very good time.

I wasn’t sure what drink to order, so I just had what Dr. Shyu had.  While we waited on our food we talked and watched Mizzou play KSU in basketball (the game had just started when we got there).  It turns out Dr. Shyu is quite the basketball fan, and his competitive spirit definitely showed.

All in all it was a great experience and a very fun evening.  I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Shyu, as do all the students and Engineering faculty at MU.  I hope that someday I will have a chance to sit down and talk with him again.

24 is a show on Fox about an FBI-like agency called CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) that defends the nation against terrorists with the help of renegade agent Jack Bauer.  I started watching 24 in its third season.  I was instantly hooked in by the non-stop action and technology theme of the show.  24 is now in its fifth season, and I watch it every week as soon as it’s done recording.  Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) makes the show truly exciting, but all the characters keep you engaged with twists and turns around each corner.  The terrorist bosses are always very sinister and captivating as well.
 
Probably the best thing I have to say about the show is that it seems more like a movie production than television.  Everything in it is very polished.  If you haven’t seen it yet you’re missing out.  For me, it’s the only thing good about Monday.

For one fleeting moment everything was perfect, everything was right… and then as soon as I tried to latch on to that instant it was gone. If I could go back I would have done things differently. I would have embraced all the good times. I would have been more honest. I would have been there when she needed me.

As if it wasn’t enough killing the competition last year in CS4330 with a multi-threaded Weiqi gaming network… I just found out that my team in CS4380, Database Management Systems I, has won this semester’s best project award. It feels good to win again, especially since I was the project manager this time. I also had fun working with my friends Nick and Bryce. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Dr. Shyu, my team looks forward to having some beers with you at Flat Branch.