But what was Steve Wozniak’s Cal experience really like? We at the Daily Clog sat down with the Wizard of Wozillia himself to find out.

The Daily Californian: Can you tell us a little bit about how you arrived at UC Berkeley? Why did you choose to transfer here for your junior year?

Steve Wozniak: My parents had me apply to the University of California because it was an awful lot less expensive. So I applied. Berkeley really was the school I would have wanted to go to, because it had a reputation for intellectual free-thinking. Civil liberties and the politics and economics of war were being challenged. Freedom of speech was being brought up as a subject. So I really admired Berkeley in that sense. I just wanted to be among great thinkers. So in my third year of college, I transferred into Berkeley.

DC: After your first year at UC Berkeley, you left and founded Apple with Steve Jobs. But you made sure to return to UC Berkeley to finish your degree. Why? Why does a college degree matter to you?

SW: I had done a lot outside of Cal that would have been equivalent to Master’s and PhD projects, but having a symbol to represent these accomplishments is very important. Also, just being able to tell your kids what college you went to is going to encourage them to go to college. And college is just the most fun four years of your life.

DC: Where, in your experience, is the best place for experiencing what it means to be a Golden Bear?

SW: Oh my gosh. The first place that comes to mind is the rallies before the Big Game. As part of Berkeley itself, Sather Gate stands out in my mind as the most prominent feature of the university.

DC: Sproul Plaza has always been a center of campus activity. Any memories, strange encounters or lessons that you learned there?

SW: I often saw musicians sitting down and playing the guitar. I was into that kind of folkish approach. Sometimes, I’d sit down and listen to them — and even skip class for it.

DC: Do you still like the same kind of music? What’s playing on your iTunes right now?

SW: [laughs] Usually something a little bit country. A little bit folk. Ariana Gillis is one of my favorites. Let’s see, I like The Airborne Toxic Event, Train, Counting Crows — oh my gosh — Counting Crows. Right out of Berkeley! I love them so much. We got to meet the guitarist and we go out with him and his girlfriend all the time.

DC: Do you have a favorite song from Counting Crows?

SW: “Round Here,” “Mr. Jones,” … actually, all their songs. They are just so incredible. I actually take most songs I like and go online, read the lyrics and think about them. This kind of thinking is what college is about and it means a lot to me. Music was a big part of my life in learning how to live.

DC: Cool. Other than music, Sproul is known for its demonstrations. Was this true when you were at Cal?

SW: We had sit-downs in those days. But there was one protest where marchers went to Bancroft and Shattuck and smashed every window. We had large demonstrations; the police would show up and start firing tear gas and everyone would run. The cops would be shooting rubber bullets, so the kids in the dorms would love to go looking for them. I kept hoping … to get a picture taken next to a tear gas canister spewing out smoke. But I never achieved that. I never found a rubber bullet either — but thank God I never got a hit by one. Although, one time I was at a payphone on Bancroft and Telegraph and all of a sudden cops pulled up in “blue minis.” They started shooting their guns; the crowd started running but I was trapped in the phone booth, waiting for an operator to get back to me. I was ducking down. The windows were already broken on that pay phone. I was so scared I was going to get hit. But I didn’t. They left me alone. [laughs]

DC: While living in Norton Hall, Unit 3, you describe phone phreaking. Can you tell us a bit more? What experience stands out?

SW: Wow. I discovered, the day before coming to school at Berkeley, this whole idea that you could put little tones into a phone and dial calls anywhere in the world. It was  a bug in the phone system. I was talented enough to build tone makers — I did this with Steve Jobs — and I was excited that we would be able to make a device that would make calls all over the world. We were honest enough to tell our parents what we were doing. They just said not to make any of the calls from their phones. So we would mostly do it from the dorm rooms.

I had read about phone phreaks that were great engineers. They would hook into payphone cables in Arizona and set up worldwide networks. They were smarter than phone company engineers and drove around with vans full of equipment. And oh my gosh, they were just like science fiction heroes — except they were real.

DC: Tell us about the Blue Box. We know it’s a device that you used to make international calls for free, but what did you do with it?

SW: It was never my idea to sell a Blue Box — just to make one to show off. But Steve Jobs said, “Why don’t we sell these to students?” He was always short on money. So we would set up demonstrations in dorms around campus. We would knock on doors until we found someone that looked cool … so, you know, they wouldn’t turn us in. Then we would set up an appointment to come back that night. Usually a group of about 12-20 people would be in the room. I would be the master of ceremonies. I’d tell stories about what phone phreaks have done and what they could do. I’d make a demonstration Blue Box call and we would wind up calling around the world. At every single demo, we sold a Blue Box.

DC: Wow, it sounds like you could do some crazy stuff with the Blue Box. Did you pull any pranks with it?

SW: We called the Pope. I pretended to be Henry Kissinger with Richard Nixon at a summit meeting in Moscow. I said that I wanted to talk to the Pope. I reached the Bishop, who going to be the translator, an hour later — but he had called the real Henry Kissinger. So, I was busted. We didn’t have caller ID in those days.

DC: That’s awesome. Are there any other wild experiences you had because of your phone phreaking hobby?

SW: One day, we had a Blue Box to sell to somebody in the dorms. We stopped at a pizza parlor and demonstrated it to some people there. Then they came up to our car and robbed us of it at gun point. But they left their phone number so that we could call and tell them how to use it. They wanted to pay for it but just didn’t have the money.

DC: Wow, that’s intense.

SW: [laughs] We did a lot of incredible interesting things that people couldn’t believe.

DC: Looking back, what advice would you give graduating seniors?

SW: Don’t expect that right away — even though you’re smarter than someone else — you’re going to stand out and have better ideas and approaches. It takes a while to learn that.

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

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How? Well, the title of this post should give it away — by hugging! Yes, you can cuddle with your significant other, and that’s great for you, but if you’re among the student body’s single population or a resident animal lover, you might want to take a look at Pet Hugs at Berkeley!

On May 7 and 8 from noon 1 p.m. in front of Moffitt Library, Tony La Russa’s Animals Rescue Foundation will be bringing an assortment of adorable pooches for your hugging and petting pleasure. There’s some science behind this free stress relief — studies have shown contact with furry animals like dogs releases oxytocin, a hormone that promotes a feeling of happiness and contentment. And hey, if the person you’re into is a dog person, seeing you hugging some canine pals might help your chances.

For all you out there keeping track, events like these don’t just take place around finals week. In fact, the Tang Center brings the canines down to campus on the first Tuesday of the month throughout the year. They’ve doubled the number of dogs just for RRR week, so if you’re one of the many worried about finals and in need of some love and attention, make sure to stop by and get your fill of furry affection.

Image Source: dglassme under Creative Commons

Contact Kamin Kahrizi at kkahrizi@dailycal.org.

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1) Just to get this out of the way: The unibrow is gone! Yes, it no longer adorns the spot between his gorgeous eyes. The debate over how exactly it was removed remains unresolved. The top possibilities are duct tape and waxing, since plucking would have taken too long.

2) Despite its untimely death, the unibrow has a Twitter account. Read that sentence again to make sure you understand that. The tone and grammar of the tweets makes it unlikely that Dirks is behind it, but it’s still hilarious. And it’s just getting off the ground! Help out the ‘brow by adding to its two-follower count.

3) He has an acute sense of fashion. The tie he was wearing at his acceptance speech was customized. His wife got it for him in from of his favorite stores on Madison Avenue.

4) He believes in the power of public schools to make a university great, despite the fact that he’s spent extensive time at notable private universities such as Caltech and Columbia.

5) He wrote the books “The Hollow Crown,” ”Castes of Mind,” and “The Scandal of Empire.” (We think these would’ve been better names for the books in the Hunger Games series.) They focus on India and the role that the caste system, colonialism and imperialism had on the formation of the country.

6) His interest in South Asian anthropology was piqued by his Fulbright Scholar trip to India as a young boy, where he learned to speak Tamil, a regional language, and how to play the South Indian drum.

7) His relationship with his wife, Janaki Bakhle, began when Bakhle, an editor at the time, chased Dirks to review a manuscript for a piece in the University of Minnesota Press.

8) His spectacles do only serve as a function for reading, as he tends to peer at you above them ominously when engaging you in conversation. Perhaps the piercing spirit of the ‘brow lives on.

9) He and Jerry Brown have had a bit of an indirect spat, with Brown criticizing the pay raise Dirks is getting over Birgeneau: a margin of $50,000. Brown pointed out that this was not in the spirit of “servant leadership” and voted against it, although it eventually did pass.

10)  Though he now embodies the “stereotypical professor” look with the crazed hair and thick mustache, he did have long hair during his time at Wesleyan as an undergraduate. He also managed to rock a red bandanna.

If this isn’t enough for you, there’s a half-hour-long interview following his appointment as chancellor-designate that you can check out. And if you have any questions for the man, you have a chance to air them! The student forum takes place on May 2 at Anna Head Alumnae Hall.

Image source: Public Affairs, UC Berkeley

Contact Uday Mehta at umehta@dailycal.org or follow him on Twitter at @mehtakid.

The post Ten random facts about Chancellor-designate Nicholas Dirks appeared first on The Daily Californian.

1. His increasingly croaky voice has made it hard to give speeches. Though he is certainly eloquent in his words and impeccable in his demeanor, it would be undoubtedly difficult for anyone to command the attention and respect of thousands of 20-year-olds — unless that someone has the light-tempered voice of Morgan Freeman.

2. He’d like to move to a house that isn’t prone to being attacked. Back in 2009, a number of protesters made the upward trek to the University House and attempted to reenact a scene from Game of Thrones, laying siege to the house — albeit, for a matter of minutes — by attempting to torch it and break windows and lights. For whatever reason, the aggressors included students from UC Davis, and we’re sure that the Chancellor is excited to spend more time in his physics office — where he might have some particle accelerator beams to protect himself.

3. He is no longer rolling in green. No, not the usual type of green that’s associated with the Cal campus. Think state funding, of which he has lost over 58% over his tenure. Birgeneau referred to this massive drop as a “disinvestment by the state” in the UC system.

4. He’d like to enjoy his time at Berkeley without being questioned or interrupted. At the end of 2011, his speech to the ASUC senate was cut off by protesters in the crowd, to which Birgeneau responded with folded arms and a sarcastic smile. Following his handling of a series of protests, a petition that had garnered thousands of signatures was brought to the ASUC, calling for Birgeneau’s resignation. Thick skin and a favorable vote from Student Action kept him in power Why Chancellor Birgeneau is ready to step down — for a while, at least.

5. He was supposed to be liberated from his job five freaking months ago! The original plan was for him to step down at the end of the 2012 calendar year, something he announced close to his birthday. Instead of going through with his plan as a 70^th birthday present to himself, he extended his stay even further — a stay that was originally supposed to be seven years will now end at nine and a half.

It’s probably true that the tumult of Birgeneau’s life will decrease dramatically once he’s officially replaced as Cal’s Chancellor. But it won’t be gone completely — he may be a retired Chancellor, but he’ll still be a member of three departments on campus, a far cry from the lives of old men retiring from pristine positions like the papacy. But don’t expect him to stop making headlines: he claims he still has “one more truly significant… experiment to come” in his academic career.

Image source: The Daily Californian (left and right) & Andrew Ratto (center) under Creative Commons

Contact Uday at umehta@dailycal.org or follow him on Twitter at @mehtakid.

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You may not have noticed because of the concealing suits and loose-fitting t-shirts he wears, but this guy is buff. To what extent, you ask? Oh, just enough to win the state championships for powerlifting. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that he can’t be a nerd as well. The UCLA grad has been affiliated with Cal since the ’80s, serving as the chair of the ridiculously competitive computer science department and as a member of a Presidential Committee for Information Technology.

But enough about how smart he is, maybe you’d like to know more about the brawny side of professor Patterson. He was the top fundraiser for Bike MS — a biking charity event — for six consecutive years, which netted a cool $200,000 for victims of multiple sclerosis. In his latest powerlifting exploit, he totaled 620 pounds in three lifts, which was good enough to set the state record for men of his age and weight class.

He came to the competition assuming that he could simply do the bench press — apparently his forte — but he was required to participate in the squat and deadlift as well. The professor, who bears some resemblance to Charles Xavier of “X-Men” sans the wheelchair, took this in stride and completed every task put in front of him. In his recap of the RAW competition, he said that the motivation came from trying to “avoid public humiliation.” We’d say he managed to do that pretty darn well.

So the next time you consider flipping out on a professor because of some preconceived notion that he or she isn’t going to put you in your place, remember that this Professor X — yeah, he might as well be a superhero — can lift you and three of your friends and fling you out of the classroom.

Image source: Amplab UC Berkeley (left and middle) and dcnerd (right) under Creative Commons

Contact Uday at umehta@dailycal.org or follow him on Twitter at @mehtakid.

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UC Santa Cruz ― our “hippie” affiliate to the south ― outdid Cal in pot-aphilia this 4/20. Police officers confiscated a 2.5 pound joint from UCSC students. It leaves us asking: Why did this happen in Santa Cruz and not Berkeley? Why did Santa Cruz become the winningest UC at hosting 4/20? How did one police officer become the “pied piper” ― as one YouTuber commented ― of Santa Cruz students as he marched off with the enormous bundle?

Maybe it was because at Cal, we’re already stressed out about upcoming finals, while Santa Cruz can chill out until June. Maybe it was because Cal Day brought kid-friendly “Oski Land” to Memorial Glade during Saturday morning and afternoon. Maybe everyone in Berkeley’s not as enthusiastic about weed as we thought (doubt that). Whatever it was, 4/20 this year wasn’t quite as “interesting” at Cal as we hear it has been in previous years. Sure, we heard everyone cheered and smoked a bit at 4:20 p.m., but if you walked by any later than that, all you saw was a huge group of students enjoying the Antlers concert.

We’re definitely not saying that everyone in Berkeley should have rolled up a joint — especially a 2.5-pounder — on Saturday. There are plenty of people at Cal who aren’t into that, of course. But 4/20 seemed like a big deal for Berkeley, and it looks like another UC might have outdone us. We’ll get ‘em next year.

Contact Jessica Rogness at jrogness@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jessarogness

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If you didn’t catch all of that medical terminology, don’t worry the Clog is here to summarize. The release of this new antimalarial pill is not only a dream come true for Keasling, but it is also attempting to prevent the half a million deaths caused by malaria each year. The most interesting thing about this drug is that it’s synthetic. We’re not sure how it works exactly, but it sounds like they created something out of nothing. To make is even cooler, this is one of the biggest triumphs in the field of synthetic biology, and it was discovered at our school.

Keasling himself gives credit to Cal for helping in this discovery. “This wouldn’t have happened without lots of incredible support from the UC Berkeley campus,” Keasling said. “Some really dedicated people put their careers on the line for it.”

We know it’s hard to remember why we’re torturing ourselves with higher education sometimes, especially with finals and midterms jumping at us every few days. So use this as inspiration of what you can accomplish after graduation. With the information you learn in these next few years, you may be saving thousands of lives in the future. So don’t give up just yet — only three more weeks to go this semester. Your hard work will pay off in the end!

Contact Kristen McFadden at kmcfadden@dailycal.org.

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If it isn’t obvious already, the Clog loves sniffing out and trying new places with promising goodies, and once Honeyberry appeared on our foodie radar we strode forth to do our duty.

So off the Clog went. Past Smart Alec’s. Past Pappy’s. Past the maybe-homeless dude who was flaunting a sign that said, “Too honest to steal, too ugly to prostitute” in front of Daiso Japan. Crossed the street and swooped into the cafe that had a banner screaming “GRAND OPENING!” to enter a tiny world of lavender walls, pictures of oversized fruit and text, four flavors of froyo on one side and a bulging menu that caused us to question the entrepreneurial wisdom behind Honeyberry.

Let us share with you the list of things that Honeyberry offers:

• Some pastries called roti buns: plain, chocolate butter or yogurt chip cream cheese flavors.
• “Dessert” section with banana split sundae, affogato and tiramisu.
• “Milk tea” section with flavors including original, thai, honeydew, chai, green tea, taro and coffee.
• “Smoothie” section with strawberry, mango and lots more.
• “Hot coffee” section: too long of a list, but the basics like Americanos and lattes.
• “Iced & Blended” coffee section: straightforward.
• “Snow cups” section: milky, honeydew … you get the picture.
• Gelato: pretty much everything you can think of.
• Frozen yogurt: no point in telling the flavors, our point is proven.

We won’t be at all surprised if you didn’t even read through the actual list but instead counted the bullet points (9). Isn’t the current business trend to focus on one or two things, make a simple menu — because obviously people hate making such difficult decisions, like, “O.M.G. coconut or mango?” — and then sell the crap out of it? Look at C.R.E.A.M., The Melt or In-N-Out. All three of them like providing limited options and people love it because they secretly don’t need to have so many options. However, Honeyberry might just steal the hearts of customers who adore having an extensive list of choices, only time will tell …

But enough about the rant on Honeyberry’s relevance and on to what we thought about their food and drinks. Well, not really because we’re all poor college students and don’t have wallets matching the spectrum of Honeyberry’s options. So we went with two roti buns, chocolate butter and yogurt chip cream cheese, and chai and green tea boba. Ate and sipped as we sat, amused with the aforementioned guy’s cardboard sign and shamelessly fattening up.

It was cool that we were allowed to choose the various jellies and pearls we so desired to plop into our cups before an employee made and poured the milk teas, but we thought the green tea was extremely sweet and not necessarily in a good way. Chai was, well, chai-like and spicy but likewise rather sugary. The mysterious roti buns were of a different and happier story, however. Lightly crispy, soft, chewy and very buttery, these buns were delicious. The chocolate butter basically has chocolate chips sprinkled on top and then a buttery center. The cream cheese has cream cheese in the center and yogurt chips on top. We think these would probably taste divine with great coffee… They sell by half a dozen and dozens as well. Excellent for the next conference or meeting, maybe?

Sorry that we can’t give the scoop on the froyo, coffee or smoothies. We think you might already have enough options with Yogurtland, Caffe Strada or Jamba Juice.

Overall, the Clog thinks Honeyberry is decently cute and rather bold with its menu that incites the inner fatass in all of us. Those roti buns are sexy, but we’re not feeling the boba. Perhaps the other things hold more potential? Who knows, but try it for yourselves and let us know what you think.

Contact Eunice Choi at echoi@dailycal.org.

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She was scheduled to return to her normal schooling pace just a couple days after the incident, possibly a miracle sparked by the use of Taylor Swift songs during her ride to the hospital, with songs like “Red” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” probably among the mix. Apparently this news has reached the pop princess — oh let’s face it, she’s not country anymore — who has decided to send Nadine a mystery package. Following Swift’s spiteful rebuke to Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s love-life joke at the Golden Globes, Swift appears to be avoiding “her special place in hell” by helping out a girl in need. Hopefully Nadine will let Taylor finish giving her the gift before fainting in excitement, as the former reportedly has no idea as to the contents of the latter’s gift.

As in such trying moments, the young one delivered a great philosophical outlook on life — presumably while she was still on drugs from the surgery. Some quotable tidbits — which Nadine went through as fast as Swift goes through boyfriends — included “it’s like a dream,” “it’s weird because it usually never happens” and “I don’t know if they were aiming for me or the whale.” The culprit, who may well be a cold-blooded assassin a la Hawkeye as well as an accidental shooter — albeit one with a lack of deadeye aim — has not been discovered yet.

The Internet community also came together under the hashtag #braveNadine, which is how Nadine’s favorite singer learned of the incident. In the aftermath, the rest of us can only hope that Nadine is a little “Better Than Revenge.”

Image source: brotherlywalks (left) Eva Rinaldi (middle), & Tim (right) under Creative Commons

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What led to this drastic decision?

“Budget cuts,” an anonymous admissions director admitted. “We’ve received so many angry calls from the parents of rejected applicants, but we can only tell them that it’s not our fault. How could they even begin to think that we have anything to do with this? Blame the California budget instead. It’s not like we have any lobbyists in Sacramento fighting for our interests.”

Many hopes of prospective members of the Class of 2017 were puzzled by this news, and some succumbed to picking their backup school UCLA, in which many of the rejected applicants got accepted. One rejected student says, “I was just so surprised that everyone was getting into UCLA and not Berkeley. And then getting into Cambridge. And Stanford. And Harvard. I just knew something was up.”

An academic counselor has advice for the rejected students: “Don’t fret over this rejection,” she said. “Just know that you probably would have gotten in if we weren’t on the verge of being broke. It’s the thought that counts, right?”

How will this decision affect the lone student, if she decides to attend at all? Administrators say that this Class of 2017 (of one) will surely be a superstar. “They’ll get to brag about this to all their friends and those 49,999 other applicants,” says an administrator who wishes to remain anonymous. “And what a resume booster, am I right? This kid is going to have quite a future ahead of them.”

Administrators hope that this experiment will save the school enough money during the year so that they can go back to accepting the normal number of applicants for the Class of 2018, but if this plan doesn’t work its course of action in a year, they have no hesitations to continuing the policy for as long as they can. They remark, “Who doesn’t like a cozy university?”

Learn more about the 2017 admissions decisions and policies here.

What do you think? Oh, and the Clog staff would like to say “Happy April Fools’ Day!” to all those reading this!

Contact Hailey Simpson at hsimpson@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter at @hailey117.

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