Welcome to the blog of Can Sar, a Stanford CS major. This blog is made up of my thoughts on Computer Science and the computer industry, as well as ever exciting tales from my life.

October 05, 2004

Stanford Predicts

I am proud to introduce Stanford Predicts: The 2004 Presidential Election, a project led by MS&E Professor Sam Chiu to track and predict the results of the 2004 Presidential Election. I am responsible for Communication Technologies and Web Development, and spent most of today working on this. Our project website has been online since today, and you can expect the first results some time towards the end of this week. The project is a group effort of around 15 students,...
Posted on October 5, 2004 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2004

Studying GRE Words

Studying for the GRE, especially studying words, can do weird things to people. This AIM conversation is a great example: Can Sar: thanks dude Can Sar: dude is an awesome word Can Sar: though cantankerous is too Eric Sun: true On a more serious note, the studying is working out well, and I'm learning an average of 20 words per day. I'm trying to finish a list of about 1300, so it should take around 3 months. This would be...
Posted on September 29, 2004 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2004

The Draw: Naranja

My draw group and I will be living in Naranja again, this year. So will 9 other people who lived in Naranja this year. And Max and Chris will be staffing next year, which makes for another 2 returning residents. 5 former Naranja residents who are living in West Lag, will also be living here. Second floor will be amazing, but first floor is looking out to be very quiet. Unfortunately, two staff members, who in my opinion have done...
Posted on May 23, 2004 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2004

Missed the Ex-Vice-Chancellor

Due to a conflict with my CS 240 midterm I was not able to attend today's talk by the Austrian Ex-Vice-Chancellor Erhard Busek at Stanford, even though I really wanted to go. Oh well, it is too late now. At least I got 2 problemsets done today, and can hopefully finish another 2 tomorrow in order to have all of Wednesday and Thursday afternoon to study for EE 108 B....
Posted on April 27, 2004 03:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 11, 2004

Stanford & Safari Books

Special thanks to Travis for telling me that all books from O'Reilly's Safari Online Bookstore are available for free to Stanford students. I will make abundant use of this opportuniy to read such excellent books as Peer to Peer....
Posted on April 11, 2004 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 07, 2004

Vote! And Vote for ISIS

Thursday and Friday will be among the most important days of this quarter. It is time to vote in ASSU elections, and it is time to vote for special fees funding for students groups. I am not very much interested in the politics of the ASSU or any of the senate races (though I will vote for Josh Shipp, because I know he is an excellent organizer and senator, but I am sure he would win easily without my vote)....
Posted on April 7, 2004 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 08, 2004

The Legend of Loro

The Stanford Magazine's recent article on inscrutable Stanford traditions, featured the following excerpt on Loro's dorm theme: [T]he theme has some relationship, however tenuous, to the name of the dorm. Not so for Loro House, which earned kudos last year for its out-of-nowhere theme, Sean Connery—yes, the actor. “What better rallying cry than screaming “Sean Connery” or “Free Scotland” [one of his tattoos]?” says senior Felicia Estrada. Indeed. We’ve come a long way since “Branner sucks.” Nothing can sum up...
Posted on March 8, 2004 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 02, 2004

It's a Beautiful Day

Today's weather at Stanford was the most beautiful in weeks. I am finally done with CS 161 homework, a class I have enjoyed a lot less than I would have hoped too. Fortunately my other classes have been amazing and have completely made up for everything. But walking around in the sun has made me remember that there are other things in life than classes. I am definitely looking forward to break, and the next few weeks will be an...
Posted on March 2, 2004 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 27, 2004

Blender Blogs

I have been awake for 36 hours and am absolutely ready to go to sleep. My total sleep amount is now at 7 hours for 90 hours. This means I would have to sleep 23 hours to make up for it, but 14-15 hours should be enough for now. Bob, Josh and I spent several hours working on blogs for the Blender student incubator. We are going to have a project site for each group, that combines a blog, a...
Posted on February 27, 2004 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 18, 2004

Transparent Student Groups

Cross posted on the ISIS blog: I've been reading a lot about corporate blogging lately, and think that many of the issues raised there are very applicable to student groups. An increasing number of students is starting to question, what exactly groups are doing with their money. The recent special fees crisis just further illustrates this point. Getting members of student groups to blog might give students valuable insights into what those groups actually do. Right now it is almost...
Posted on February 18, 2004 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

February 17, 2004

Time Crunch at Stanford

The most difficult programming assignment I have ever had at Stanford is due this Sunday. I have a 7 page Archeology page paper due Friday. I need to do two problemsets, design 2 research projects, talk to Professors about the projects, and submit funding requests for those projects. I have a huge final Algorithms group project to start and finish. I need to apply for summer internships. Oh, and I have class every day. And this is one of the...
Posted on February 17, 2004 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 23, 2004

GreatDonation

Today is an opportunity for every Stanford student to do some good. I am talking about GreatDonation, a petition to use an additional three dollars of ASSU money and donate them to beneficial organizations that will help people in the third world. Every year, students will be able to vote on which organization to donate to, and as usual, individuals can request refunds for this money. Unfortunately, it will require more signatures for this petition to pass, so I ask...
Posted on January 23, 2004 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 25, 2003

A Blog for Every Law Student

It looks like the Law school is going to implement what ITSS and ISIS have been planning to do for quite some time: giving every entering student their own blog, according to Professor Lessig. Right now this is only planned for Law Stundents and it would be very interesting to see who will help the Law School with implementing this, and how simple it would be to use. Right now the Stanford blogging project is mostly worked on by Brad...
Posted on November 25, 2003 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 16, 2003

Spotlight on Naranja

I just had Spotlight and it was not particularly interesting. It was probably impossible to repeat last years success, but I feel like there was less of an interest in pure craziness among people, which was one of the best things about Loro. I also forgot to tell the stories about all the expressions we invented last year, and generally people didn't respond much to most of the things I was talking about. I do not feel like my talk...
Posted on November 16, 2003 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2003

ISIS Retreat

Friday and Saturday have been great. Tristan, Greg and I went to the ISIS retreat in Monterey. Just driving down there in a car with 5 people was an experience (we travelled with fellow ISIS members Phil and Kimberly). Our house was right at the sea and had an amazing view. Tristan and me immediately sat down by the bay window and started coding for CS 147. More people arrived soon and people started playing with Lego and PlayDo, talking...
Posted on November 15, 2003 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 06, 2003

The Clark Center

The Clark Center is the center of Stanford's Bio-X program that tries to bring together Engineers, Biologists and Doctors, and encourages innovative Biotechnology and Biomedicine research. I did not think that this program would pay off, after going to some lectures about Bio-X last year, because it seemed like nobody had any detailed idea of how this would actually work. Yesterday's visit to the Clark Center changed my mind. The building consists of three curvacious structures with walls of glass,...
Posted on November 6, 2003 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 29, 2003

How Many People Fit Inside MemAud?

Yesterday Flicks was more crowded than it had ever been before. They were showing the Matrix Reloaded, all freshmen went for the first time, and the Band was off alcohol probation. All these three things turned yesterday into the loudest and craziest Flicks that I had ever been to. There were some great jokes during the movie, and throwing newspapers was more fun than ever before, but the band quickly got very annoying. All the Loro people sat in the...
Posted on September 29, 2003 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 28, 2003

Loro 2002/2003 in 2 Lines

A two line answer to the question "How would you describe Loro in Two Lines?" Curt: "A lidless eye wreathed in flames." Eric Chase: "Yeah, except not!" Lorons, please comment....
Posted on July 28, 2003 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

April 25, 2003

The ProFros are loose!

I never went to my own admit weekend, so I was definitely looking forward to this year's. I was at first quit a bit dissapointed, because everything seemed so anticlimatic, but by now I know that admit weekend is a lot more fun for ProFro's than for anyone else. My personal impression of some of the ProFros is that they are quiet smart, though harder to get to know them than other students. It seems odd to not be the...
Posted on April 25, 2003 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)