Computers4Kids Graduation

When I was 13, a CPCUG mentor generously spent a weekend with me, helping me build my first PC. I think that one weekend changed the course of my life. If I hadn't built that machine, I probably wouldn't have gotten so interested in computers, I might not have gotten into TJHSST, and I might not even be here at UVa.

Well I hope I've been able to give back to someone else in the same way. For the last year, I've been mentoring a kid through Computers4Kids. C4K is an after-school program for underprivileged youth in the Charlottesville area.

After 36 hours of tutoring, Bakar graduated from the program :) He learned how to type, burn CDs, search the web, and even make a website. Now that he's graduated, C4K has given him his own personal computer to use at home.

It was an immensely rewarding experience, here are some pictures (click for full size):



Walking to the stage to get our diplomas :)



On stage.



It was also Bakar's birthday.



I gave him a soccer ball. He loves the sport, but didn't have one.



A shot of the whole graduating class.

Last day in SanFran (Monday)

Today isn't too interesting - just returning to Charlottesville:


11PM (Sunday Night): Plane leaves for Washington DC
7AM: We get in, grab my car and head to my place. At this point, I'm freaking out because I have a Tax Midterm at 11, and haven't yet started studying.

7:30AM: Get to my place, load Omar's car (he drives home so that I can studyf or the midterm).
10:30: Get into Charlottesville just in time for my 11AM Federal Tax Midterm (yikes)

Well, everything turned out OK. It was a fantastic weekend, and I ended up getting a 92 on the midterm, even though I hadn't slept the night before. I was expecting a C or D, so I'm still trying to figure out how that happened...

SanFran (Sunday)

Here's the third update for my mom :) -

Sunday morning I took Omar Bohsali with me to have coffee with Trevor Blackwell. Trevor cofounded Viaweb with Paul Graham, and they're also partners of YCombinator. He also recently founded a robotics startup, Anybots. We had a great discussion about the Anybots' business model and what the robotics industry will look like in 10 years.

After that, Omar and I went back to sleep until the afternoon.

At around 6, we all headed over to Adam's apartment in the YScraper. The YScraper is an apartment building in SF that houses a number of YCombinator startups, including Reddit, Justin.tv, and Xobni (Adam's). The place is mad expensive, but has a great view.

Adam knew a great burger place down the street, so we all grabbed dinner there. The burgers were delicious, as promised :) Afterwards, we caught the subway for our flight out of oakland.

San Francisco (Saturday)

On Saturday Omar, Ben, & Ryan woke up early and drove over to Stanford for the Startup School talks. I stayed out pretty late the night before (at the YC Dinner), and as a result missed the first few hours :(

Recordings of the talks are online here.

During the talks - Omar and I had a pretty stimulating talk with Mark Zuckerberg about the future of Facebook.

After the talks @ Startup School, we headed out to SHDH, a hackathon "un-conference" where a bunch of programmer-types geek out for the day. Check out the pictures on on flickr.

We ended up helping the organizers clean up after the event (at around 3 AM!). It was completely worth it, though, because at around 4AM we were able to grab dinner with David Weekly and Tom Harrison. David founded PBWiki, a very successful wiki host.

San Francisco (Finally!)

This is another update for my mom, who's been pestering me for a while about my weekend at Startup School :)

Startup School was a weekend "conference" that we attended in the San Francisco bay area. The event's sponsored by YCombinator, and pretty popular amongst the hacker/startup circles.

During the trip we wrote (and took photos) of our experiences. I've decided I'll post once daily for the next 4 days (Fri - Mon), discussing each day's events at Startup School. Here's what happened on Friday:

Friday
2AM: Leave Charlottesville, after getting no sleep. I pick up Omar, and drive home to Herndon to meet Ben. All three of us leave from my place to get to the airport by 4:30.

6AM: Plane leaves, we're off!


11AM (PST): After 8 hours of flying, we finally get in. Immediately search for free WIFI, and some plugs (withdrawal sucks). Find local Paneras. Yay.

Afternoon: We spend the afternoon getting settled with Ryan Park, an awesome dude who's going to let us crash at his place all weekend. (Thanks, Ryan!)

6PM: We head over to the Startup School reception, while Ryan grabs dinner with some other schoolers. At the reception we bumps into some cool people, including a bunch of the users from News.YC (which I'm pretty active on). It was fun to put faces to names. The highlight of the night, though, is Dexter - a humanoid robot from Anybots.

Here's a video of Dexter jumping - which as far as I know, is a first for any humanoid robot:

$breakfast=cold_pizza;

Well, My mom says that the only way she hears about my day is through my blog.

So Mom, I thought I'd take a picture of my breakfast, so that you no longer have to worry about whether I'm eating right. Now, you can be pretty sure that I'm not. :)

In my defense, that is a HUGE glass of nonfat skim milk. Must be at least 16 ounces.

My weekend in San Francisco

Well, my mom says the only way she can learn about my life is by reading my blog :) And, she's been pestering me for a while about my weekend at Startup School.

So here are some pictures of the trip on facebook: http://uva.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090389&page=2&l=09a5b&id=1511936

Playing around with Dashcode

Apple recently released Dashcode as beta software (download). Dashcode will be included in the next version of Mac OS X (See the preview).

It's a pretty cool little program, I used it to quickly whip together a news.ycombinator.com rss widget. For those you you who haven't heard of it, News.YC is about the only news website that I visit on a daily basis. The site has quickly become a popular source for startup-related news.

If you're interested in the widget, you can download it here: news.yc.zip.