Every time I see Leyan Lo do this, I’m in awe.

Me, Michael Schroepfer, John Lilly, Adam Nash

There is a very specific group of Stanford computer science grads who aggregate at Adam / Carolyn Nash events. All of them are off doing incredible things here in The Valley—it always boggles my mind to see everyone in one place.

I’d love to post more pictures here, but it was a baby birthday party, and about 75 of my 78 picture selects have pictures of people’s kids. Look on Facebook for more party photos. ;)

Geoff and Livia at Chez Panisse

Geoff and Livia took us out to Chez Panisse tonight to celebrate the events of the last week. We went to the restaurant downstairs, which was wonderful, as expected. Highly recommended!

Incredible dessert at Chez Panisse: Cognac and bittersweet chocolate ice cream meringue tartlet

Jack’s happy brush is sad!

Every year, I get a lovely holiday card from Catherine and Jaxie Gowen, who live in Geneva, Switzerland. Catherine spices up a group photo we take each year with glitter and stickers; this year, it was based on a photo of us after dinner at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Thank you for the wonderful card!

I have a new ring on my finger! Elopements rule.

Jack Nuttall plays at the wheel

I’m not really excited about the image quality that comes from camera phones these days, but I do enjoy having a camera with me at all times!

3D image of Peter with flames at his ground-breaking celebration (anaglyph red/cyan glasses required). You can also check out the universal L-R-L version, which looks much better (if you know how to view them)

The Fuji gives a good 3D effect that looks great on its rear lenticular 3D LCD, but when viewed at a normal size, image quality is horrible. This image above was taken at ISO 200, and is still really crunchy (and has low dynamic range). All I can guess is that it was too expensive to put two high quality cameras lenses, sensors, and processors into one camera body.

Still, it’s fun.

It can be hard to shop for Zandra (Antoni’s thoughtful birthday gift)

Happy birthday, Zandra!

Karel the Robot keychain gift at CS198 reunion

On August 13, 2010, Professor Eric Roberts and Mehran Sahami, Associate Chair of the Department of Computer Science, sent the Stanford CS198 alumn list an email inviting them to a reunion of undergratuate section leaders, TAs and program coordinators — the first such reunion in 40 years of teaching introductory CS106 classes.

From: Eric Roberts, Mehran Sahami
Date: August 13, 2010 2:11:46 AM PDT
To: cs198-alums
Subject: CS198 reunion, September 23, 5:00-7:00pm

Hello CS 198-ers!

For the last 40 years, the CS106 classes have introduced many generations of Stanford students to the wonders of computer science. For more than two decades, the CS198 program has been a critical part of that introduction, as undergraduate section leaders guide each new generation through both the challenges and joys of programming. By being part of that program, you have helped thousands of students master those mysteries and, in a very real way, enable Silicon Valley to create all of what modern technology has made possible.

On Thursday, September 23 from 5:00-7:00pm, we will host a reunion of CS198 section leaders, TAs, and program coordinators throughout the history of the program. This event will give everyone an opportunity to catch up on what we’ve all been doing and, in particular, for you to see what’s up with Stanford’s Computer Science program these days. We’ve got an exciting new curriculum that is generating a lot of excitement, both at Stanford and elsewhere. And the CS106 students continue to amaze us with their enthusiasm, creativity, and talent. The contest entries and special projects just get better and better.

Please join us for a reception on the lawn of the Gates Building on the Stanford campus. If you can come — and we hope you can — please RSVP by September 16 to Nikkie Salgado

so that we can know how many of you are coming. And please spread the word so we will have a good showing of people who don’t often get back to campus!

– Eric Roberts, Professor
Mehran Sahami, Associate Chair
Department of Computer Science

P.S. For those of you who haven’t been on campus in recent years, the Engineering side of campus has changed a lot. A map of the Gates building is available [here]

Much of my Stanford computer science experience was shaped by being a section leader for the CS106 classes, and virtually every friend who graduated CS at Stanford was a part of the program. I absolutely had to go (luckily, I was scheduled to be in the country).

The reunion turned out to be a pretty big deal. Section leaders flew in from various parts of the country (I hadn’t seen Munira Rahemtulla, Bryan Rollins or Andy Maag in many years), and the resulting group was a Who’s Who of technology leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond. Even Schrep managed to make it, despite having to deal with an outage at Facebook.

As I looked around — amazed, really — I wondered how many people in the group had transitioned away from software-related jobs (aside from me, that is). It looked like no one (else) had, and I sort of felt out of place.

CS198 alumns who were at Apple in 1997 (Photo: Semira Rahemtulla)

Can anyone spot the outlier in the above photo?

(above) Apple 1997 reunion: Mike Hanson (Principal Labs Engineer, Mozilla), Mike Schroepfer (VP Engineering, Facebook), Adam Nash (VP Search, Platform & Mobile Product @ LinkedIn), Scott Kleper (Co-Founder @ Context Optional), John Lilly (CEO, Mozilla; Venture Partner, Greylock Partners), Jeremy Henrickson (VP Product Development, Guidewire Software), Eric Cheng (photographer, publisher).

Getting everyone together for the above photo was inspired by the tattered existence of this old photo from Apple’s Advanced Technology Group (ATG) in 1997:

Apple ATG photo from 1997, including me, Klep, Lilly, Nash, and Hanson

We fondly remember being told that ATG was being axed at the end of the summer and spent much of it playing Starfox 64. At the reunion, we found out that Schrep, who was in the QuickDraw group, was told a similar thing. If only we had know during that summer — we could have used another Starfox player.

In any case, it was really, really nice to get to see so many familiar faces after such a long time. Mehran and Eric should organize another reunion before another 40 years passes!

I sometimes do this on flights

After having driven past the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos countless times over the years, I decided to take Pam there for an early celebration of her upcoming birthday. Pam has an airplane fetish and was pretty excited to go.. Even more exciting: Laurel, Antoni, Dave and Charles met us there and surprised Pam as we walked in.

Antoni has had enough of Pam

All of us had a great time checking out the historical pieces they have on display and playing in the nose section of an old British Airways 747-100. There are signs in the 747 telling parents that cockpits are not play areas for children; luckily, there were no signs targeting adults. ;)

How fast can you get kicked off of a plane?

If you’re in the Bay Area, I highly recommend a visit to Hiller Aviation Museum. It’s larger inside than it looks from outside, and kept us entertained for nearly 2 hours.

All photos: