i met a 15 billion-dollar man

microsoft flew me up to seattle/redmond, washington for interviews. i haven't heard anything yet from google :-/

• i met steve ballmer, microsoft's ceo, who has a net worth of 15 billion. the 1st pic wasn't too good, as ballmer's head was downward. i told him, 'ah, you look evil!' he laughed so we took another. microsoft asked me for the 2nd pic for their blog, which gets 1 million views a month!
• in the lobby, and in my hotel's elevator, i also coincidentally ran into a fellow UCLA friend who was my TA last quarter. turns out, we were both interviewing the exact same day!
• in the hotel, i ran into a kid who i worked w/ at google in santa monica, ca last summer! turns out, we were both interviewing the exact same day!
• my 3 interviews (1+ hr each) went okay. the questions are outlined below
• i went on a tour of seattle the next day, and i met up w/ a good florida tech friend, "c biscuit."

interview 1:

• write code to implement an append() function for a Vector data structure
• write code to solve this problem: you are given an n x n matrix where each index corresponds to a given letter that is unknown to you until you chose to visit that index/spot. (like the board game Boggle.) so, when you visit a spot, you are presented with a letter. you are also given a dictionary of words. your goal is to spell these dictionary words by wisely visiting spots, while minimizing the number of incorrect moves and wasted visits. specifically, devise an algorithm that traverses all of the correct paths, and that does so with minimal space and time complexity. explain your algorithm's space and time complexity (Big-O notation).
• write code that represents how a text editor loads a file. what data structures would you use to store the ascii text? how would you devise your data structures for the case when the user needs to be able to (1) go to any line he desires and (2) insert a letter at any place in the file. what's the time complexity?

interview 2 (occurred during lunch and then afterwards):

• how would you design code for a system/database that stores license plates? what type of functionality would you allow? what data is associated with your classes? who would use this, and how does that affect your design decisions?
• write code that allows one to quickly (faster than linear time, but without using a HashMap) find any given license plate and obtain the corresponding info that is associated with it. we assume that each license plate is merely a 6-digit, natural number. write code for a special binary search that take its guesses based on the # that you are looking for with respect to the range in which it is looking. when would this outperform and under perform regular binary search?
  

interview 3 (w/ some higher-up manager type person):

• we talked about my past work for 30 minutes, then discussed how i present technical material in a dumbed-down, succinct manner
  
• write code to convert any integer (positive or negative) to a String without using any built-in functions provided by your language of choice.
  

UCLA is the best

okay, so my 1st quarter at UCLA was pretty exhausting in the sense of maintaining a healthy balance; i worked out daily, got 7-8 hrs of sleep a night, went out many weekends, commuted via bus, which all ultimately left me to about 1 hr of studying per day. and, there were personal things that drained me, such as my credit card being stolen, car broken into, and family stuff. somehow, i still got a 4.0. go figure.

well, i've fallen in love w/ UCLA. there are so many things that make me proud to be here, from the:

• the academic rigor
• abundance of smart people (avg gpa of entering class is 4.3 (out of 4))
• my program's faculty is ranked 10th in nation
• check out our nationally-ranked programs
  
• multi-dimensionality:
• people with real humanity majors, such as art and journalism.. and they're VERY good at it
• real sports teams--we've won more NCAA championships than anyone
• resources:
• 10th biggest library system in the nation
• 3 floors dedicated just to computer science, not just 1/2 of a small floor like at FIT
• just walk around campus... you'll see what i mean

and mainly, the thing that made me comfortable being here is finally getting some financial assistance. they told me it was nearly impossible to get funding as a master's student. well, i came here, forced my way in, and by my 2nd quarter, i'm a half TA for AI. tuition isn't fully covered, but i'm on my way.

oh, this quarter is very taxing, so, just as a head's up. i might have to drop a class. don't expect a 4.0 from me. i'm happy to be here. this is where i want to be. i can't imagine a better school in the world. it's in LA, man. i'm glad i didn't choose columbia or brown, definitely.

ucla bruinwalk - "[bleep] the war!"

bruinwalk is a happenin' part of campus. there's always tons of spammers (ppl who pass out fliers, promoting their organization )... if you think about it, they are actually similar to homeless people: they ask for your attention, try to persuade you for your help, and they won't take no for an answer.

iraqi war protest starting:


honoring a moment of silence, then mentioning some names of young fallen soldiers. (sorry for the bass):

"tha block is hot"

ok, lil wayne was horrible back then. anyway, i found it odd that there have recently been fires near both of my homes:

• southern cali
• norcross, georgia, within 2 miles from my house (the lumber yard caught on fire)
  

someone's obviously tryin' to burn me.

ucla != florida tech

i had my 1st ucla exam today. it was an undergrad midterm, and i haven't had a quiz or anything yet, so i had no idea what to expect. also, there has been almost no class interaction in the class so far, so i didn't know how good the students were either. well, we were allowed to make a 1 full page cheat sheet. i wrote small and comprehensively summarized the 300 pages we've covered, along w/ the 300 slides. it ended up doing me no good at all! the test required you to apply what you know to modify, critique, or come up with new ideas. it was 2 full hours and was all theory, requiring thinking outside-the-box. when i left the exam, it definitely seemed understandable why UCLA's cs program outranks harvard, columbia, yale, etc on the lil u.s. news report rankings. those lil undergrads are good. at FIT, i prolly would have gotten a high A. here, i just hope i passed. seriously.

on my way to the gym, i saw some break dancers monkey'ing around. so i recorded them at their worst, non-eventful moment. i thought the shaky-cam approach would make it appear more realistic. jk, sorry about the shaking.

okay, some actual dancing here:

2pac - changes

my cali license finally arrived in the mail. so, after 5 months of being in cali, i've slowly acquired a california bank account, driver's license, bills, residency, college enrollment, job, and car. yay, i am finally an official california resident.

man, i just realized how much i've changed since i was 16 (not just physically).

below is my license picture from 2000 when i was 16 (the 2005 exam date was not an exam; it was merely license renewal, and they keep the same picture). laugh it up:

ucla classes

okay, due to popular demand (aka brian), i will mention (1) my ucla classes and (2) the student body:

(1) i am taking 4 courses:

• CS246 (web information management):

we learn about the most novel and monumental ideas of the web by reading the academic papers that started everything. for example, we read some by the the creators of google the 1st week. each week we are assigned 3-4 papers to read and write reviews on them. we get to pick any cool project we want to do. past projects have produced papers that were later read in the course. it's like a recycling program.

• CS118 (fundamentals of networking):

the internet was invented at ucla back in ~1970. so, they are pretty good at networking. this is just a course i have to take to fulfill my breadth requirement for my master's.

• CS495 (teaching assistant seminar):

at florida tech, this course wasn't even a course; it was a 3-day-long session of what not to do in the classroom. here, it's amazingly thorough. we meet 2 hrs 2 times a week and really learn about all the minute subtleties that go into teaching well. we each have to do a simulating teaching lesson to the class, and they even video record current TA's and critique them...

• CS201 (computer science seminar):

we hear (2) 2 hour lectures a week from smart ppl. last week, we heard a great talk from douglas comer (he has been a prominent member of founding the internet and its direction for the last 40 yrs).

(2) the student body seems clearly divided:

• undergrads:

everyone is white or asian and is from cali. about 70% of all undergrads are really pretty white girls.

• grad students:

everyone is from taiwan or is named chris tanner.