Saturday
Leonard woke me up really early in the morning because he and Sumana were leaving for a trip. Amusingly enough, I decided to go back to San Francisco so Duncan could pick me up and take me to Foothill.
And that's exactly what I did, so I ended up at Mongomery and Market around 7:00 in the morning (the last time I was there that early on a weekend, Rick Moen still lived in the CoffeeNet!). I waited around for a while and bought a bagel, and then Duncan picked me up, with Simon, Duncan Jr., and Daniel in the car.
"Foothill" means the Foothill College Electronics Flea Market, a monthly tradition which I've heard about for years but which I'd never experienced in person. It's run in a parking lot at Foothill College in Los Altos. This thing is amazing! It starts before dawn and continues until sometime in the middle of the day. All kinds of vendors -- most of whom are just individuals -- show up and set up tables or carpets or junk piles in the parking lot. Then you walk around and talk to them and buy things.
There's a big ham radio focus to the event, but that's not all that you can find there. I bought a slide rule, a bunch of LEDs, a big 12-volt rechargeable battery (like an electric scooter battery or a an electric wheelchair battery), two 1-watt solar panels, and, last but not least, a traditional IBM PC keyboard! The keyboard is the big heavy type with the very loud keys which make a satisfying clickety-clack. I learned to touch-type on one of those keyboards, and I can still type faster on them than on any other kind of keyboard. Some people have also suggested that the strong springs will reduce wrist injuries. I know I really enjoy typing on a keyboard like that.
Of course, there were other neat things I didn't buy -- whole systems, component kits, oscilloscopes, lots of other test equipment. There was a PAL programmer -- if only I had some use for a PAL programmer!
Michelle does want to have an electric graduation cap, so we're going to work on that. I dug out my Engineer's Mini-Notebook set and looked up the 555 timer chip. I think I have a few of those sitting around, so maybe I can figure out how to produce a good clock pulse with a 555 and then drive a relay from that and make some LEDs flash.
Duncan gave me a ride back from Foothill to Berkeley, and we met up with Michelle and had lunch. It was still early in the day; I'd thought that Cristina's graduation was at noon, but I was wrong. Eventually we went to the ceremony, the Berkeley English Department graduation in the Greek Theater.
One of the speakers gave the following reason for studying English:
I became an English major because I love to read, yes: but I also wanted to get credit for it.
Now that's really sensible, unlike the claim of another speaker that recently scientists
have cloned the human genome.
I have a history of complaining about claims people make about the genome in speeches. One hint: the Human Genome Project is not the same as cloning or genetic engineering. My guess is that the speaker here meant that scientists have mapped the human genome.
Cristina and Christine were both graduaing, and they arranged it so they graduated one after another. Since their names are pronounced the same way, it was amusing to hear the cheers from our section: "Go Cristina! Go Christine!"
Some parties followed, and I went back to the City. I ran into two people from Cal Libertarians on my way home.
As usual, Berkeley was a very educational place.
Overheard on BART:
- "I listen to Pacifica Radio and I read the Bay Guardian, so I know what's really going on."
- "Nobody ever falls in love, it's all a media-based lie to sell movies, and to sell songs."
(If the second claim were true, it would give new meaning to the Dar Williams lyric "whoever thought of love is no friend of mine".)
