Saket Vora

Last night, I went up to the City with the Nicks, Steve and Egle, and Sarah to see the Books, by far the most experimental musical artist I’ve seen. Nick has been following the Books for years now, and it turns out that he and Sarah were actually at the same concert in Philadelphia four years ago, and they didn’t even know each other back then.

The concert was part of the San Francisco Lively Arts nonprofit group, and they rent out space at the Noe Valley Ministry, a Presbyterian Church. We had dinner some blocks away in southern Noe Valley beforehand.

The opening act was actually an instrumental trio of piano, flute, and electric bass guitar. The bass guitar used an interesting effect like a sustain with reverb, reminding me actually of some sounds I’ve heard in Sigur Ros songs. The pianist had some interest “fusion” pieces, such as “ragtime and science fiction” or “bebop and dinosaurs”….yeah. Kinda neat though overall. Something different.

The Books show was an audio/visual presentation. They’ve put together these strange and varied video and picture montages and then play in front of it. One has a guitar, the other has an e-cello. I had never seen an e-cello before, so that was pretty neat.

I had zero plans for Black Friday. I awoke to see a text from my good friend Peyton, asking “are you still in the Bay Area?” I replied that I was still living near Stanford. I was delighted to discover that Peyton was actually in town — he and his friend Justin climbed El Capitan in Yosemite during Thanksgiving week, but finished a day early and were just chilling in the Bay Area.

Peyton and I were apartment mates during our senior year of college at NC State. He’s halfway through his 3rd year of medical school at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Justin, a fellow NC State alum as well, is a graduate student at Stanford in applied physics, but his advisor works at IBM Almaden research center here in the Bay Area, so Justin doesn’t really go near campus now. He’s working on vanadium oxide substrates for new forms of semiconductors (sorry Justin if I butchered that). Cool guy.

They picked me up en route to the City, and we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard Street, and enjoyed sourdough bread bowls at Fisherman’s Wharf, had a sundae at Ghiradelli square, and saw the seals during sunset at Pier 39. The weather stayed a bit dreary during the morning, but the sun broke in the afternoon and it turned into a great day.

It was so great to catch up with Peyton!

I got a great album recommendation by Sara, one of our group’s interns: It’s Blitz by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This came out in late March but didn’t really come onto my radar until now. The album has variety — rock with an intensity similar to Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm, but softer pieces where lead singer Karen O’s voice actually reminds me of Eisley. Some of the songs get your feet tapping, something I had experienced with Manners by Passion Pit.

‘Hysteric’ is one of my favorite songs off It’s Blitz.

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What have people been watching on the TV? There has been a several good shows lately, heavy on comedy in particular. There are the stalwarts The Daily Show and Colbert Report, 30 Rock, South Park. I still like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But some other shows that I’m following now: Lie to Me (gotta hand it to Tim Roth, plus great casting), Castle (Nathan Fillon!), Glee (though the last two episodes have almost been unwatchable), and just recently Modern Family (witty writing). Any good ones that I’ve been missing?

Had a truly lovely evening with Michael’s family and his family’s friends. Got to also meet Karla’s uncle and aunt who live in Los Altos out here beforehand too. Plenty of great food, plus almost same amount of delicious desserts. Michael and Karla’s butternut squash lasagna with basil cream sauce was a favorite and my apple pie seemed to go quite well too (Michael’s sister took a slice for breakfast tomorrow).

What world-aware, engaged, and interesting dinner company! What a wonderful evening.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, but most meaningful to me are my family and friends — both back home and out here in my new home-away-from-home. You all enrich my life more than any job, place, gadget, or gift could.

Thank you.

I’m spending this Thanksgiving out in California. The family will have to delay reunion plans until winter break; Sachi is visiting Sapana in Chicago and Mom and Dad are at home in NC.

My housemate Mike graciously invited Troy and I to the  Thanksgiving dinner that his family and their neighborhoods hold. I’m bringing along an apple pie — I spent last night getting a pie crust made from scratch, and this afternoon got the apple filling made; reducing down the natural juices of the apples to create a glaze. I experimented with a lattice like top for the pie, and here’s how it came out:

The glaze came out a bit splotchy, but overall I’m pretty pleased. The lattice top looks a lot better post-baking than pre-baking. Just need some vanilla ice cream and it’s heaven.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I can still see the moment in my mind where it all ended. It’s crystal clear. The risky throw over the middle, the white jersey grabbing it out of the air. The sudden silence of the crowd. My head in my hands.

This past Saturday was the Big Game — Stanford vs Cal. It’s the one game of the year that the entire Stanford campus actually gears up for — ready for blood. And I mean it. A conversation from earlier that week:

nimur2008: well
nimur2008: the band just ritually killed the cal bear
nimur2008: so much gore
nimur2008: so much blood
Saket Vora: YES>
Saket Vora: is it on youtube?
nimur2008: not yet
nimur2008: give it a few minutes
nimur2008: it literally just happened minutes ago
Saket Vora: where
nimur2008: white plaza
Saket Vora: is the fountain red?
nimur2008: not yet
nimur2008: when the bear’s blood reaches it
nimur2008: it will be
nimur2008: he’s still gushing
Saket Vora: ….
Saket Vora: what do you mean
nimur2008: they took a bear
nimur2008: slammed it onto the claw
nimur2008: blood spurt
nimur2008: blood everywhere
nimur2008: tree and dollies dancing all over
nimur2008: it was anarchy
Saket Vora: so they got like a stuffed teddy bear and sewed a blood bag into t?
nimur2008: no a real bear
nimur2008: real blood
Saket Vora: hah right
nimur2008: I WAS THERE

Nader is referring of course, to when the Band impales a teddy bear onto the claw fountain in White Plaza, turning it into this:

There will be blood.

This was a resurrection year for Stanford football. We just defeated the #1 and #2 teams in the Pac-10 (and #8 and #9 nationally), including a record breaking demolition of USC away in LA. The 55 points we put on USC is the most they have ever allowed at home, and was their worst loss since 1966. Stanford went from having zero Top 25 votes to 14th in just two weeks. For the first time in nearly 8 years, we were the favored team going into the Big Game.

I got on campus early for some tailgating with friends from Apple. What a gorgeous day for football — perfect fall weather.

AT&T’s data plan promptly failed once. And everyone had iPhones at our tailgate, except Nader. Who refused to check scores for us.

Got into the stadium half an hour early and was surprised to see the Red Zone already full with students. Our group was up on the 2nd level, but none of us sat in our ticketed seats; we moved around as the real ticket holders arrived. But whatever. Everyone does it.

The Red Zone student section.

The Cal Band took the field first and was boring, but the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band took the field and all was right again. The entire drum section was decked out in full body stormtrooper attire. Awesome.

The game got underway and on the 2nd play from scrimmage, Heisman-worthy and the nation’s best running back Toby Gerhart broke free for a TD. It was soon 14-0 by Toby Gerhart again.

Then the breakdowns started coming. Our defense because extremely porous, with the Cal running backs picking up first downs from the line of scrimmage per carry. Cal quickly took the lead soon after halftime, and we were down by 10. Oh yeah, Tiger Woods was on hand to be inducted into the Stanford Hall of Fame, and was an honorary captain for the football team. Even the Cal fans were booing him. Come on!

The last 8 minutes of the game was pure agony. We got within a touchdown. Our play calling became totally passwhacky. On the next possession, we tried three passes (two of them long 40+ yard bombs) that all dropped incomplete. Then proceeded to go for it on 4th and 8 on our own 20-something yard line. Another incomplete pass. Cal got the ball, but our defense miraculously held. We would get the ball back with just under two minutes to play. Again, passwhacky. Toby Gerhart then gets a dump off from the QB and runs 40 yards up the sideline, through traffic, to the Cal 13. Whoa. 1:30 left in the, 1st and 10 on the Cal 13, down by a touchdown. First play, a pass in the flat outside, incomplete. And then it happens.

The pass over the middle. In heavy traffic. The interception. And Cal just knees the ball until 0:00, when the Cal fans rushed our field.

Sigh. Shellshocked. Speechless. The burning question: why on earth, when you have the best running back in the country on your team — who has already rushed for 136 yards and 4 touchdowns — do you not give him a chance to punch it in? In the Big Game? Game on the line? In his senior year?

I absolutely love what Coach Harbaugh has done for Stanford — he’s a terrific coach and I’m fully behind him. But boy do I wish we had some different playcalls on that last game.

Chrissy and Dave were kind enough to get me back home, but I headed back out with Troy to downtown PA for some dinner with Mike, Karla, Lauren (who went to USC), and Gregg (Mike’s friend from HS). After dinner Lauren invited us to her house to try some WAFFLE COOKIES. I write them in all caps because they are deserving of it.

This was shared on Google Reader just days ago by Kelly,  and now I got to try them! Absolutely delicious. At least it was a good night.

The past few weekends I’ve taken the hunt for an apartment up in the City more seriously. One Saturday I went up and just walked around the neighborhoods south of Market. As all major cities, SF has a lot of neighborhoods with unique personalities. Because the areas south of Market St (a main avenue cutting across the City) make the most sense for me commuting via the Apple shuttle (free Wi-Fi enabled coach service to and from Cupertino), I focused my attention there. You have the denser Mission District, with a panoply of good Mexican food, bars, and nightlife. As you walk west, you enter Mission Dolores by the pretty Dolores Park, and the vibe swings a little more upward, if not a little hipstery. Nice restaurants here. Continuing west of Dolores Park is the Castro District, and then the large neighborhood south of Castro is Noe Valley. After my initial scouting weekend, I felt most comfortable in Noe Valley, but Mission Dolores was nice too. What can I say? I’ve lived in the suburbs all my life.

This past Sunday, I scoured the Craigslist posting and lined up a dozen apartments to see. On the drive up 280-N, a good sign appeared:

The luck continued. The first apartment was owned by a Stanford alum. The second one of the day was a friendly fellow who works at Google (and later I discovered was on the Google PowerMeter team) who had a beautiful apartment. Then, I got a call from someone who said I could come by right now if I was free — turns out I was just two blocks away. Score! I had a free timeslot at 3pm and called up another place to schedule a viewing, and they said “Can you come at 3pm?” before I even said anything. I even had half an hour to enjoy the sun at Dolores Park. After a morning of drizzle, the sun finally broke and lit up the SF skyline.

Note: this is from an earlier visit but captures the same view. The iPhone’s camera doesn’t dynamic range well at all.

After killing some time in a coffee shop (otherwise quite nice but ruined by allowing that horrible Miley Cyrus song to be played), I saw the last place up on a hill on Noe St…an enormous three bedroom house that looked like a mansion compared to the other apartments I saw that day. Stunning though — huge entertaining friendly kitchen large deck, a real yard, big rooms. Too bad it’d come out to ~$2000 per month. Per person. Oh, and street parking if you can find it nearby. Another observation: I think it’s a requirement to own a dog if you live in Noe Valley. I must have seen over a hundred dogs being walked. Crazy.

I was dead tired by then, so I bailed on dinner and headed home. Michael and Karla arrived home with full shopping bags, and so for the next few hours while they made a butternut squash lasagna with fresh creamy pesto sauce, we enjoyed a long and meandering conversation that touched upon healthcare reform, the limits of capitalism, the psychology of difficult decisions, literature, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Michael’s trip overseas to Israel then India, the glorious thunderstorms Karla and I remember from Texas, Mike’s account of seeing a car get struck by lightning on a road trip with his dad, then onto an REU he did researching sprites (upper atmospheric lightning phenomenon only very recently discovered and pretty freaky) which actually tied back to my two weeks up in Alaska for the PARS summer school. There were other detours in there somewhere, but I’ve forgotten them already.

None of the apartments will work (the wonderful apartment of the Google guy was already taken that very night), but I have a better idea of what to expect now.

Many of my close friends, if not all, have a burning curiosity for the world that truly comes from within. Indeed, that is why I love being their friend. And I like to see such a trait in other people and stories. Radiolab brings a short but sweet (adorable!) story of a mother who observes her little boy’s insatiable curiosity and interest in flight. She tells Jad and Robert about how he started with arranging Tupperware into the shape of airplanes but then moved on to trying to connect the little motors in his other toys to a homemade propeller he fashioned. And then how he made a duct tape harness and tried with a short rock wall. And then how her little son climbed a tall tree with the intent of jumping out and achieving flight by spinning his propeller himself…and ended up scratched and tangled up in the branches.

The reason she told Jad and Robert about this was that in order to keep him still to treat his scrapes, she put on an episode of Radiolab on her iPod, the one about parasites. And he lay there…completely transfixed. And he understood everything he heard. Her little boy seems to listen well to these podcasts but doesn’t understand it when his mother tries to lecture him about consequences. So Jad and Robert record a lesson with her explaining how one should always think things through to the end. And then they put their wonderful Radiolab spin on it and elevate it to something entirely new.

There was a smile on my face for the whole segment. Jad says:

..there is something about this story that just gets to the whole point of why we do this. Here you’ve got this kid who is obviously in a lot of pain, and he just sits still and listens to a story on parasites?

What we’re trying to do here is to tell stories that move you, or keep you still in this case, but stories that draw you in, and make you think differently about the world, even if just a little bit.

I’m so happy this exists. It makes me feel like a kid again with a whole world waiting to be explored.

What a glorious day! Woke up early and over coffee whipped up a five avocado bowl of guacamole while watching part of the Georgia Tech vs Duke game with Troy. By 11am, I was over at Stanford picking up Nader, Amit, and Catherine (my TA for EE 414) and we headed over to a John’s house in Sunnyvale for some grilling and game-watching: Stanford at USC. John is a friend of Rong’s (an EPM down the hall from me) whom I met at Tony’s housewarming party a few weekends ago. By the time the game started, there was a dozen of us there, including several colleagues from work.

This was going to be a huge game for Stanford, coming off a huge upset win over #8 Oregon. Winning this game would not only knock out #9 USC’s BCS hopes, but would put the rest of the football world on notice: Stanford is real and you better watch out! And what a game! Our whole team clicking — Heisman-deserving running back Toby Gerhart dropped 175+ yards and 3 touchdowns on USC, while our defense came up with 3 interceptions, all which ended up in touchdowns. Redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck outplayed the freshman USC quarterback. The result, a 55-21 demolition,  was the most points ever allowed by USC at home. The last time anyone had gotten close to do this to USC was Notre Dame putting up 51 points…in 1966. In the last 49 games at home, USC has lost twice. Both to Stanford. And this was USC’s homecoming game.With 91,000 fans in attendance. Glorious. Hail, Stanford, Hail.

Chrissy broke out her Stanford cupcakes and immediately after our cornerback Richard Sherman picked off USC’s QB in the 4th quarter for a touchdown. Go Cardinal!

After savoring the victory, I dropped off my friends back at Stanford, perused the shopping mall a bit, then headed back home to watching some more football with Troy. Saturdays = college football!

At night, I had my experience of Settlers of Catan, a game I heard a lot about from friends back home. The Nicks were hosting a game night, and for the next several hours Bill, Sarah, Alex, Cindy, and I were engrossed in our game while the Nicks and others played other board games.

While some delicious homemade chocolate bourbon pecan pie (heavy on the bourbon…) was enjoyed, a lack of isopropyl alcohol stymied the wielding of Alex’s flaming throwing knives, but that’ll be for another night (some months ago, the Nicks and Alex launched some flaming projectiles with their trebuchet, captured to great effect with long-exposure photography). It also looks like the group will be headed up to see the Books play in San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend.

And to top it off, I got an email late at night saying that my $25 Kiva loan has been fully repaid, so I lent it out again to another worthy entrepreneur; this time in the Philippines. Nice!

There has been some semblance of routine now in my life. Get to work between 9:30am and 10am, leave work around 9pm. On weekends I run errands, see friends, or head into the City. But this isn’t really doing much for physical activity. At least while on Stanford I was biking/walking several miles a day going around campus, and I don’t have a lot of convenient running paths around me like I did on campus either.

In an attempt to get healthier and fitter — and being inspired by Melih’s public-personal challenges — I’m going to set some goals for myself over these winter months and provide monthly updates here on my progress. While losing some more pounds would be well received (my aggressive target would be 168lbs, down from my current 180lbs), I’m really trying to aim for overall improved fitness. I’m also cognizant of the plateauing of my ultimate frisbee performance, especially after this summer. While I think my ultimate “I.Q.” has improved, I put my team at a disadvantage because I’m not able to execute what I know needs to be done. I need to become faster to jump on potential interceptions or blocked passes, and I need more endurance so I can stick with my man for the whole play.

I’m as far from a fitness expert as you can get, but I’m looking at these four metrics:

1. “40 yard” dash — or rather, the time to complete a sprint down an ultimate field, or to chase a runner going deep.
2. 2km erg session — inspired by my rowing friends (Greg, Donny, and Ben), this is the time it takes to complete 2km on an ergometer, which is used to train for rowing. It’s a drill that requires constant focus because of the sequence of events you must do to execute a proper stroke, and works your arms, traps, and legs.
3. 5km run — pretty standard fare, 3.1 miles. The only related benchmark I can offer: in my senior year of undergrad, we had to do a 3 mile run and the best time I clocked in was 24.5 minutes.
4. # of Pushups in 1 minute — figure I should work in an upper body strength metric somewhere. not entirely sure about this one, but I’ll keep it for now.

The idea is to get a starting datapoint for each of these metrics now then re-do them every 30 days until next summer rolls around. The Apple gym is just across the parking lot from my building, so I’ll start using it and work out three times a week before heading home. This is going to get harder if I really do end up moving up to San Francisco in January, but it’ll just mean I’ll have to be more diligent with my time — squeeze in workouts by taking an earlier shuttle in the morning or during lunch. Let’s see how this goes for now…updates to come.

Thanks to Greg and Ben for the rowing info.

It was a long but good week. Scheduled my first meeting for a preliminary review of something I’m working on, so there were a couple of late late nights because I wanted to do a good job for it. It went well, though I got some flak for scheduling it during a beer bash. Sorry guys!

Learned another lesson in the importance of peer review. With Joseph tending to more important things on paternity leave, Brian has re-emphasized frequent peer-review among our team. Me and a colleague were working all this week on something, and we thought we had it wrapped up. But before sealing it up, we did a peer review and the perspectives of the other team members revealed a more optimal solution. It wasn’t so much that our theory was flawed, but that previous experiences had shifted the risk assessments of our peers to different levels. Peer review early and often!

The other thing that I’m appreciating now is a new lens on analog circuits that I’m learning more about, especially from the analog team. In school, you first start off learning simple things like circuit networks with resistors, capacitors, inductors (RLC circuits) which leads to some linear systems stuff. Then you throw in operational amplifiers, and typically analyze them in their steady state. Even in more focused analog circuits courses with multiple transistors, you have two “lens” onto a circuit: large signal and small signal. In the large signal view, you focus on making sure the circuit is “biased” in the right mode of operation. After this condition is set, you then dive into the small signal view and assume the amplification properties are practically linear.

However, while this can be useful for integrated circuit design, but it doesn’t tell the whole story; especially at the level that we use components. I’m learning a new way of looking at these components, in which you observe the state of all the components at incremental time steps with respect to specific inputs. It’s this kind of approach that best helps me understand why a particular component is placed at a particular point….something that isn’t always intuitively obvious on a first look.

It’s just one of the many ways that “real-world engineering” can differ quite a bit from what we learn in the classroom.

This past Friday was Larry Heyl’s last day at Apple. Larry’s one of the veteran engineers in our group. I never had the chance of working closely with Larry, but it was clear the stature he had in our team. He, Doug, and Wendell were our brain trust — three engineers who were at the forefront when the modern day Silicon Valley was being born in the labs of the original semiconductor companies. Between the three of them, they brought over 100 years of design experience to our small team.

I’m fuzzy on the dates, but I think Larry started at Apple very early, in the early 1980s. He was part of the first Mac team and I think he worked on a wide variety of projects. He was part of the iPod team when it first started, bringing expertise in audio electronics in particular. To celebrate, Dan organized a group outing to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It was my first time visiting, and I couldn’t think of a better visit. The other young members of our group just followed Larry, Doug, and Wendell around and listened to their stories. It’s amazing, they still knew the designs of the artifacts in the museum, knew the people who made them, and heck — even built some of the computers on display.

Larry points to the original Mac laptop he worked on.

Before we left, we got to see Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2. Babbage built the first mechanical computers, and the Computer History Museum is fortunate to have one of two working replicas ever built in the world. It’s a stunning work. The scale is hard to see, but this is as tall as I am.

Back in Cupertino, we had a small party at BJ’s to toast Larry. There, Doug unveiled one of the most stunning plaques I’ve ever seen. We were all wondering what Doug was up to — getting our pictures and signatures the past week, and mysteriously going around rounding up old iPods. Everyone in the room was amazed by it…

Larry worked on every single iPod the team put out.

That’s how the iPod Hardware Engineering Team sends off one of its own. Be well and enjoy your retirement, Larry!