18 May 2007 - 0:00Wii Has Arrived!

It’s been a few days since starting at Mozilla, and I’ve looked through various RFCs to find the related work and analyze the structure for writing my own for the project. I’ve been making good progress and posting my findings on the Mozilla newsgroups such as mozilla.dev.apps.firefox [groups.google.com].

I’m still matching up aliases to names and names to faces (and trying to figure out if I should call people by their IRC aliases or their names), but people have been good in introducing themselves – helping me to make the connections between them and the features they’ve worked on for Mozilla/Firefox/Gecko.

So as a little present to them for the summer, I’ve set up my Nintendo Wii with controllers and games on the first floor of building K. (As a reminder for myself, so that I don’t forget by the end of the summer: 4 controllers + 1 nunchuk, Wii Sports, Trauma Center, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Wii Play, Super Monkey Ball.) And I just happen to conveniently move out of building K to building S this same day, so I won’t get distracted to play some games during the day. 😉

Toys ‘R Us Wii advertisement

First large-scale Wii ad – Times Square, NY

No Comments | Tags: Mozilla, Nintendo, Summer of Code, Wii

15 May 2007 - 0:00Begin Mozilla Summer of Fun

After a day of traveling from Urbana-Champaign, I’m back home in the Bay Area. One day I have my cap ‘n gown, and the next day I’m at Mozilla Headquarters to begin working on my project for Google’s Summer of Code (SoC) [code.google.com].

I applied for the Link Fingerprints [gerv.net] project with Mozilla back in early April amidst the craziness of thesis writing and full-time/internship interviews. And in the end, I finished the thesis and will continue with my advisor for the Ph.D. program while turning down the other industry position offers to have fun at Mozilla for the summer.

I’m not sure how they picked me out of the 6000+ SoC applicants (was it the big Firefox poster my roommate and I put up a few years back?), but I’m glad that I can meet some Mozilla people that I’ve worked with through the internet. I’ve also had some previous experience with the Mozilla code, but that’s only in bits and pieces with minor changes to Firefox and writing some browser extensions.

Firefox poster in Siebel

Spreading Firefox in Siebel – October 2004

There was some slight confusion early on because Mozilla never had a SoC participant on-site before, and I’m not officially an intern, so I get to be the guinea pig. But soon I got my first Firefox related t-shirt (to add to my stash of Firefox goodies) and was able to settle down and dive into the huge Mozilla codebase with the help of other interns and full-time employees.

First Firefox t-shirt

Gift from Mozilla for starting SoC

Time to begin coding and writing RFCs; and hopefully I’ll finish the project before the summer is over. 🙂

No Comments | Tags: Mozilla, Summer of Code

14 May 2007 - 0:00Graduation – May 13, 2007

It’s been just under 4 years since high school graduation, and it’s already time to officially end the undergraduate program by getting my B.S. degree in Computer Science. Things have gone by especially fast this last semester with all the work in gathering data and writing the M.S. thesis – one of the opportunities provided by the combined M.S./B.S. program in C.S. There’s always stuff happening like moving into the house off-campus 2 years back and starting Teaching Assistantships 3 semesters ago, so being very busy seems to make time go by much faster.

Ed getting the diploma

Shaking hands with the Engineering Dean

But graduating doesn’t seem to change too much – I’ll be back at UIUC for the Ph.D. program in Computer Science for Fall 2007. Well, one difference is that I’ll need to take several classes each semester again and not just one like last semester, but learning is fun and I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more trips to Siebel Center for classes and research.

Ed at Siebel Center

Entrance to Siebel Center for Computer Science

On a side note to potential Master’s students, your gown gets extra wings on both sides and a “hood” that comes with an extra tail at the bottom. These are the rewards for your extra effort (and $12 more for the rental fee). Note: I don’t think the wings and tail will help you fly. 😉

Master’s outfit from behind

Additional fancy stuff for Master’s graduates

No Comments | Tags: Graduation, UIUC

13 May 2007 - 0:00Hello World!

Today is June 2nd 2007, and as with many new products, this blog has been delayed. But with some magical programming powers, I have gone back in time to post from almost a month ago. 🙂

The next several posts will also be bending the space-time continuum until time catches up (i.e., I finish posting what’s been happening since graduation). So without furthur ado, a “Hello World!” from Ed (from 3 weeks ago).

Ed at Bryce Canyon

Visit to Bryce Canyon National Park – August 2006

No Comments | Tags: Uncategorized