Zack Mahdavi's Blog

So at 9:20 AM on Monday, my journey to India begins.  I am going the Atlantic route this time, which is a change from the usual (and long) Pacific route.

29May – Monday @ 9:20 AM
Dallas/Fort Worth – LaGuardia Airport in New York (3 hours 20 minutes)

29May – Monday @ 6:45 PM
JFK Airport in New York – London (7 hours 10 minutes)

30May – Tuesday @ 2:05 PM
London – Bangalore (9 hours 55 minutes)

So only 3 stops this time! That’s way better than the Pacific route.  It will also be my first time in Europe.. can’t wait to catch the British accents in the airport.

I’ll update regularly with my trip status while I’m in India.  Adios!

Graduation was on May 20, 2006, and I had a blast!  The evening ceremony was absolutely amazing.  I took several pictures from my seat, so take a look.

I still have 4 more years of school to go (med school), but for those of you will be working, good luck with this new chapter of your life!  I wish you all the best.

Yes, it’s true.  I took my last exam today, which means I will never have to walk into the dreary Painter CS lab ever again!

I’m trying to create an album of pics related to everything I do and have done in Austin.  The camera being used for this project is my Nikon D50 (great camera!).

Here’s a few of the pics.  View the entire album.

Ahh Sony… what happened to the good old days?

Today, Sony announced details regarding its upcoming game console, the Playstation 3. They claim its super powerful, it’s full of cool technology, and it has a Blu-Ray drive. My question is, does anyone actually care? I think Sony has lost its direction. It needs to be focusing on the games, not the features.

Sony announced the prices as well…

$499 (with 20GB hard drive)
$599 (with 60GB hard drive)

I’d rather buy a computer for that price… that price point is just ridiculous.

My prediction: the Playstation 3 will fail. Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii will succeed.

Can the media be so stupid a second time in a row? After the media totally bombed after inviting Jon Stewart to Crossfire, you would think they would finally take comedians seriously?

No, the media can be just as dumb as some of the news they report. About a week ago, the White House Correspondents Dinner was held; it’s an annual tradition where the press and the president get together. The point is for the press to make fun of the president.

Of course, no one in the press really makes fun of the president. The associated press this year invited Stephen Colbert (from The Colbert Report… absolutely hilarious show) to talk about the president. Well, that’s what Stephen did, and it was absolutely hilarious. Guess who didn’t laugh? The president and the audience!

Maybe the press will finally take Colbert and Stewart seriously… if not, I’m going to really look forward to many more of these incidents!

Watch Video

So after days of editing, rewriting, and redoing results (about a 100 times), the thesis is finally over. A copy has been emailed to my advisor (Tandy Warnow), and printed versions have been given to my committee. What does this mean? It’s all done. No more thinking about research for a while.

Now, I can play more XBox, right?

Final Thesis [PDF]