For Immediate Release
SOURCE: Fury.com
KEVIN FOX TO JOIN CARNEGIE MELLON MHCI PROGRAM, LEAVE YAHOO! INC. BERKELEY, Calif (May 7, 2002) - Kevin Fox today announced plans to attend Carnegie Mellon University's Master of Human-Computer Interaction (MHCI) program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Via the 12-month program, Fox will have the opportunity to learn from the most acclaimed HCI faculty in the country, working alongside approximately 30 other students in a research-driven learning community. "It wasn't an easy decision to make," says Fox, founder of the popular web site, Fury.com. "I'm doing what I love right now. Working for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) for the past year has been a dream come true, and I wish I could fork my life into two processes following both paths. In the end, the opportunity to earn an HCI Masters degree at CMU was too enticing to pass up." In the past 12 months Kevin has designed the interactions for several Yahoo! properties, including Yahoo! GeoCities and Yahoo! Messenger. While attending the three-semester program, Fox expects to take a significant load of visual design courses to compliment the cognitive and computing-heavy curriculum. He hopes to leverage his industry experience at Yahoo!, Levi-Strauss, and Eleven, Inc. to get the most out of the diverse elective catalog, bolstering his web and PDA interaction design experience with desktop application design, visual design, needs analysis and usability assessment methodologies. Though he will be giving up his beautiful, spacious, two-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment in Berkeley, Fox is looking forward to Pittsburgh, where rents for a one-bedroom apartment average at $450 a month, and changing seasons precipitate changes in the weather. He will leverage the savings in rent to facilitate the acquisition of a winter wardrobe and assorted home furnishings. While fully supportive of his plans, some friends of the self-aclaimed 'internet rockstar' nevertheless expressed concern over the geographic implications of the initiative. "You know, it like, snows there in the Winter!" Kevin was informed by one friend at a recent social gathering. A coworker noted, "One East Coast Winter is just the right amount." Additionally, others have expressed concern over the 3500-mile swath of plains and mountains that separate the Carnegie Mellon campus from the San Francisco Bay area. Maintaining every intention of returning to the Bay Area upon the conclusion of the program in August of 2003, Fox will be storing many of his material possessions in the homes of area friends. A large quantity of books, summer clothes, antiquities and sentimental items will be interned in a storage facility to be procured from Public Storage (NYSE: PSA). The remaining essential items will be packed in to 'Mutant Enemy,' Fox's 1997 Honda Civic (NYSE: HMC), a vehicle whose 52,053 miles have never taken it more than three miles outside the state of California. To be well-settled prior to the program's mid-August kickoff, Fox will be driving Enemy along the seven-day journey in early August. While currently conducting a world-wide search for a suitable travelling companion, at the present time the running is limited to four individuals, all of whom seem unlikely prospects. The search continues. With a final date of employment at Yahoo! set for Thursday, June 13th, Fox plans to use the seven weeks between vocations to complete several personal online projects, including Randompixel, Underblog, Metacookie, and more. By doing so he hopes to succor favor with the readers of his web log, Fury.com, so that they may follow him on his journey through what may prove to be one of the most demanding human-computer interaction programs in the country. # # # An internet staple since 1995, Kevin Fox is his own registered trademark. Any attempt to copy, duplicate, or resell Kevin Fox would be, at the least, highly awkward. Yahoo! Inc., Carnegie Mellon University, Public Storage, Honda Civic, Mutant Enemy, and Kevin Fox are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. PR Contact: Kevin Fox Private Citizen Berkeley, CA hello@fury.com http://fury.com - 30 -